Young Writers Society

It was cold, to say the least. The air conditioner was turned on to full blast and he was left there, tied to a chair, half-naked and freezing. They had dunked him into a tub full of ice cold water a few hours ago – they had figured that maybe, this treatment would finally make him give them the information that they had wanted. Unfortunately, they underestimated this man’s bravado.

“He hasn’t been moving around much. Do you think he’s…?”

A man in a khaki military suit twisted his chair to the side. “Lieutenant Colonel, he may be dead. We’ve been keeping him for days on end.”

“Nonsense.”

From the back, another person emerged. He wasn’t like the others – his eyes were stone-cold and his lips were fixed in what looked like a permanent scowl. The way he walked towards them was of authority, his back straight and stance firm. He bent down to study the subject on the monitor. A nerve-wracking smile formed on his lips. Everyone else in the room felt their hair stand on end.

“A lowly dog as he could hide anywhere, even if the area’s hot as hell. If he could handle that, he could handle the cold.” His eyes were transfixed even more on the screen. “Don’t be fooled by someone such as him.”

“If I may suggest, sir, why don’t we go inside and check if we could force him to talk this time around? He’s already been beaten up. This is probably the last thing he could handle.”

The Lieutenant Colonel straightened his posture and crossed his arms. “If you all are going soft, then why don’t I do just that? I don’t think I want to handle any more whines from any of you.”

He turned around and made his way to the door leading to the freezing room. As he placed his hand on the handle, he gazed at his men. “Well, which one of you is coming with me?”

The men looked at one another. One look at their faces and you could already tell that they wanted someone else to go with their superior. Somehow, most likely because of pressure, the newcomer stood up and followed their higher-up into the other room. Once they were sure they couldn’t be heard, everyone else sighed of relief.

“I couldn’t believe we’d be in the devil’s team. He’s young and surely highly capable, but the way he handles his underlings is downright terrifying.” One of them said as he checked the monitor. “Twenty nine years old and already a high ranking officer. His skills are absolutely amazing but I still think some work of politics helped him rise in ranks.”

“Well, whatever the case, we’re stuck with him through this whole operation. We might as well live it down as best we can.”

“Agreed.”

They all turned their attention to the monitors.

Those bastards were too scared to even follow me. I really have to get them to my side.

The Lieutenant Colonel smirked as he stood in front of the half-naked man. He really wasn’t moving, but the Lieutenant knew better.

“So, when are you giving up?”

Both he and the newcomer could hear laughter coming from the tied fellow. It was low at first, but then grew increasingly maniacal. This wasn’t to the officer’s liking.

“What’s so funny?”

“All of you.” The man replied, raising his head to look at the officer in the eye. “You think all this torture will beat my spirit. Well, too bad. You could kill me but I still won’t give any of you any information regarding the group.”

This piqued the interest of the Lieutenant. Something behind his eyes seemed to glow in delight. “You’re sure of what you just said?”

“You think you could make me take back my words?” The man grinned. “Try your hardest so that the drop in your pride would hurt you even more, Lieutenant Colonel Victor Dravis.”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Victor said as he touched the man’s face. “I plan to. I don’t think I’d fail either, just so you know.”

Victor’s smile turned to a grimace. “Private! Untie him from the chair and bind his hands behind him. Use the pulley’s rope.”

“Sir, yes sir!”

The underling proceeded to do as he was bid. Moments later, the man was standing up with his hands behind him. He looked above. He noted the pulley.

“Let’s see if this doesn’t get you speaking, rebel.” Victor chuckled. “Hoist him!”

The private began to turn the handle. Slowly but surely, the rebel was being lifted from the floor, arms first. Eventually, they hear one pop, then another. Through this time, the man was screaming in pain but even then, Victor’s smile only grew wider.

“So, tell us where your cohorts are. If you do, I promise we’ll let you down.”

The rebel didn’t stir. He was only hanging there, not moving.

“Did he lose his breath?” The private asked, a little guilty of the act he just did. “Is he dead?”

Victor moved closer to the rebel to gaze at his face. Once he did though, something wet landed on his face. The rebel was smiling – he had just spit on the Lieutenant Colonel.

“Why you – “ Victor’s face was full of anger. “Drop and raise him! NOW!”

Having no power over the decisions made in the operation, the private followed orders. On and on he did it, following Victor’s orders of “Again. Again. Again!”

Finally, after doing it so many times, Victor felt like he won. “Are you still alive, you lowlife? Have you had enough?” Victor’s eyes widened. “Just beg for your life and I will give it!”

“Not… in a million years… will I plead to you.” The rebel struggled to say. “No one of us will ever, EVER, plead to you!”

“What did you say…?”

“If I have to lay down my life for our cause, so be it. I was prepared from the start!” The rebel yelled. “Just remember, Victor, that the rebellion will overthrow the tyranny which you so try to protect like a madman. We will restore freedom to our beloved country, even if there are men like you who try to stop us!”

In a final act of rage and likely a lapse of judgement, Victor Dravis found himself pulling out his gun and shooting the rebel right between the jawlines. The bullet made its way out through the cranium and blood was dripping on to Victor’s face, adding even more red to the face of the infuriated man.

“Shit… I lost my composure.” Victor murmured. He saw the private tremble in horror.

“Clean this up.”

Without saying anything more nor looking back, Victor made his way out of the room to where the rest of his men were. Even there, he could see the look of terror on their faces.

“What are you all looking at?!”

Like a child who lost a toy, Victor exited the room and entered the corridor. Stomping his feet as he walked, Victor tried to remove the blood off his face with his uniform sleeve but unfortunately, only made it worse as it smudged.

No one makes a fool out of me… That was the first failure I ever had in my whole military career. I will hunt all of them down. I WILL HUNT ALL OF THOSE REBELS DOWN!

Mark my words… I will save the state from those bastards. I WILL BRING JUSTICE.

Just then, another officer went out of the conference room which was a few feet ahead from where Victor was.

“Oh, Victor – “ The officer stared at the blood on Victor, but decided not to pry about it. He knew when the man was in the mood to talk about it or not. “The meeting will begin shortly.”

“The meeting…?” Victor squinted his eyes.

“About the console the company asked if we were willing to bring into the country… your platoon is in charge of guarding it, remember?”

“Oh, right.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, it slipped out of my mind. I will be there shortly. Let me just… clean this off.”

The two officers nodded and saluted one another. As he walked away to go find the bathroom, Victor’s lips curved into a smile once more.

I won’t fail. I won’t.