“I’m sorry, Sir, but… my sister and I… well… she has a medical condition, and… we need to be together… I mean… where we work… it’s really important—”
“You’ll do the work you’re assigned to,” he grunted and looked back down at his document, shaking his head like he couldn’t believe the audacity of some prisoners.
“But—”
“But nothing,” he cut me off, looking up at me again with furious eyes. “You’ll do the work you’re assigned to! Is that clear?”
“Sir… it’s just—”
The man stood up so abruptly his worn-down wooden chair screech against the floor and almost fell over. I now had his complete attention, but that was not a good thing.
“Do… we have… a problem… here?” he squeezed through his tightly clenched teeth as he leaned over and put both hands firmly on his desk.
“No… no, Sir,” I rushed to say, “but please… it’s just… my sister won’t make it in the fields… because of her medical condition… it’s her heart… could we… could we at least switch places?”
“YOU’LL DO THE WORK YOU’RE ASSIGNED TO!” The tiny man screamed in a voice so disproportionate to his body that we jumped and by reflex stumbled several steps backward.
I was in a complete panic. The situation was becoming dangerous fast… but this can’t be the end… I have to save Nari!
“We’ll give you… we’ll give you… rice,” I panted in desperation. “Please, w-we have… rice… we can give you some… just, please…”
The man glared at us without blinking, then sat back down on his chair and crossed his hands in front of him on the desk.
“Four portions.”
It took me a few seconds to comprehend what he had said, but then I immediately said, “Thank you, Sir! Thank you… we’ll bring it right away… thank you so much!”
“Be back in ten minutes, or the deal is off,” he muttered and looked back down at his document.
We sprinted out of his office, almost colliding with a secretary, who shrieked and dropped the folder and stack of papers she was carrying. “Sorry,” I mumbled as we were already halfway out the door.
Once outside, I stopped Nari.
“I’m faster,” I said. “I’ll run… you stay here.”
“Thank you, Areum.” She was visibly relieved she didn’t have to state the obvious herself.
I ran through the warm July evening air so fast my whole body was on the verge of catching fire. Panting frantically for air, I zigzagged along the main road, evading the groups of prisoners and guards I encountered. The guards looked at me with surprised expressions, but I was gone before they had time to react. Suddenly, Lucky appeared before me, and I almost knocked him over as he tried to intercept me and touch my hair. He mumbled something after me, but I didn’t care what it was. It was like I was running through a tunnel, and the only thing on the other end were four portions of rice.
Our house was empty and dark. I found a small empty bag among our belongings, lifted the floorboards in the corner, and quickly filled it with rice. I hid it under my clothes and then spurted back to Nari, who was coming to pieces in front of the Oversight building. By the time I reached her, I was panting so heavily I couldn’t talk, so I just signaled with my hands that I had the rice and rushed inside without slowing down. Luckily there were no secretaries in my way this time.
Back in the room, I handed the rice over to the tiny, bald man, and then put my hands on my knees and tried to catch my breath.
“Okay, then,” he said. He was back to not looking at us. “I have changed your assignments. You are now both in the cornfields. You’ll get your uniforms in the office next door. Now leave… I’m busy.”
“What?” I shrieked while still gasping for air. “No… that’s not right… we were supposed to be in the sewing factory… both of us.”
“We don’t need that many people in the sewing factory… but in the fields we do,” Lieutenant Ko muttered, and before I could say anything else, he again joined his hands on top of his desk and looked at us. His eyes were no longer furious. Instead, there was almost a hint of a smile. It was terrifying.
“Miss Kim… the change has been made, so I suggest you accept it… gratefully. And if you don’t leave my office in the next three seconds, I will personally drag you down to the Center of Truth, and you will spend your last days dreaming of working in the cornfields… one… two…”
“Yes, Sir, thank you, Sir… we’ll leave right away, Sir,” we panicked out of the room just as we heard him say, “three”.
Once outside the building, I could finally catch my breath. Nari and I looked at each other, sharing the same thought.
At least we will be together… even if means working until we drop in the fields under the burning sun.
“I will work hard,” I told her. “I promise… we’ll fill your quota together… I will keep you safe.”
“Thank you, Areum,” she said, her eyes moist. “I’m so sorry to require so much from you… again… you have already done so much for me…”
“Don’t worry about it,” I patted her back. “I guess it’s just part of being a big sister.”
Then, completely catching me off guard, Nari threw herself into my arms and squeezed me so hard it almost hurt.
Before going home, we remembered about the prisoner uniforms we had to collect and cautiously dared back inside to the office next door. When we emerged with our new attire in hand, we couldn’t help but laugh in despair. Both of them were several sizes too large and had holes large enough to fit my head.
“Maybe mom can fix them,” Nari said.
“I promise to the Great General… these clothes will never touch my body,” I emitted another burst of laughter.
It felt strangely liberating to laugh, but as we walked home, the laughter gradually faded.
By the time we reached the Village of the Strayed, it was nothing more than a distant memory.
And left in my chest was nothing but despair.
CHAPTER 9
The next morning, with the first rays of the morning sun barely making their way over the mountain ridge in the distance, Nari and I walked with heavy steps to the guardhouse by the fields to report for duty. The laughable uniforms we had gotten the day before remained unworn in the house. Sun Hee had promised to work her magic on them, despite me telling her not to bother. We observed all the dirty hunched prisoners slaving away in the fields - all wearing equally horrid uniforms - and I shivered as I imagined myself as one of them.
“I’m glad you’re with me,” Nari said. “Thank you for what you did yesterday… it means the world to me.”
“You’re my baby sister,” I forced a smile at her.
I remembered all the things I had done for her over the years. I had done it because our parents had told me to. This time, I was doing it because I wanted to.
I knocked on the door to the guardhouse where I had been fortunate enough to find Chul on my third day here. The day he saved me from the inquisitive guard who put his hand on my shoulder and then helped me to see General Roh. What a relief I had felt seeing him that day. Now, the intensity of my anxiety grew with every second we had to wait for an answer from inside.
What if Chul is there? Will I be able to control myself if I have him within my reach? Or will I surrender to my urge and rip his face off at first sight?
“Enter!” a shrill voice pierced through the door.
I sighed with relief. Though high-pitched, it didn’t sound as feminine as Chul’s voice did.
Inside the room, there was a young man behind a desk. He was slender with a sharp jaw and an annoyed expression on his face. On a chair to the right sat a man around the same age who looked bored and was playing with a pack of cigarettes.
“Yes?” said the man with the sharp jaw.
“Er… Kim Areum and Kim Nari reporting for duty,” I struggled to disguise the tremble in my voice. I handed him the document from the Work Assignment O
fficer. “Today is our fifteenth birthday.”
I felt silly for half-expecting him to say happy birthday. Instead, the man only stared at us, his annoyed expression unaltered, and then looked down and eyed through the document.
“Twins?” he asked suspiciously.
“Yes,” I answered, hoping we wouldn’t have to go into the whole story of why we looked so different.
Luckily, the man showed no interest in hearing the story either.
“Take them to Private Gang,” he told the bored man on the chair and unceremoniously went back to his papers on the desk.
My heart sank to my stomach.
Chul… why did it have to be Chul…?
“Um,” the man grunted as he stood up from his chair and put the pack of cigarettes in his chest pocket.
I glanced at Nari. She looked flustered but not nearly as much as I felt.
We went back out into the sun, which was already burning strong from its position over the mountain ridge. I wished with all my heart Chul would only show us to the field we would work in and then we would be done with him… forever. My premonition, however, told me that wouldn’t be the case.
We walked past fifty or so gray field workers who worked hunched over with their blank, sweaty faces showing they were only there in body, not in spirit. Many of them had the familiar dark rash around their necks and eyes. I had seen it on many of the Strayed. I heard it was some kind of disease, but I couldn’t remember its name. I think it started with pell… something. Either way, the look of it scared me. The people in the field didn’t look back at us. Now that Nari and I had short and dirty hair and our worn-out clothes were just as muddy as theirs, you could hardly tell us apart from the rest… which of course had been our intention. We had become invisible.
I bet Sun Hee is pleased with her work…
I was still struggling with accepting my new reality and letting go of my previous life - as well as the rightful future life that was brutally ripped away from underneath my feet - but I did feel much safer like this, and a small part of me was grateful to Sun Hee. The new uniforms, however, stayed folded in a pile next to our quilts. I hadn’t stooped that low yet, and I hope I never would.
Our guide lit a cigarette and walked at a slow and relaxed pace in the direction of the river. Before long, we saw Chul standing by the watermill. It looked like he was waiting for us. I followed the rotation of the large waterwheel attached to the other side of the building. Its gentle splashing used to relax and comfort me. I associated it with the relief that the long excruciating day finally had come to an end and that I could quench my thirst and wash away the stench with fresh cold river water. Now, it only reminded me of the horror of that night. My heart clenched in my chest as I saw Chul’s scrawny figure where he stood, anxiously watching us approaching from under the visor of his green Private’s cap.
If Nari only had been stronger…
Suddenly, I remembered the tall girl from the other day. Hana - the former leader of the Dragons.
No… Nari didn’t have to be stronger! Hana was there… she could have easily saved her! But instead, she just watched it happen!
In an instant, my hatred for Chul expanded to include Hana as well… and then also Chang Min… and Colonel Wan… and the Demon of Yodok himself who refused to set me free. And most of all - Young Il, my father by blood. I despised them all. But it didn’t stop there. My untethered hatred now extended to every single person in this hell on earth that was responsible for the tragedy that our lives had become. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and pressed those feelings deep down inside me.
Keep it together, Areum! Now is not the time…
“Got two new workers for you,” our bored guide told Chul as he lit a new cigarette on the old one.
He looked at Chul’s uncomfortable expression. He followed his eyes to Nari, who was looking down at the ground. Suddenly, a smirk appeared on his face.
“Right,” he chuckled. “I guess I’d better leave you lovebirds alone.”
He turned around and left, continuing to laugh to himself.
My focus was back on Chul, and now it wasn’t only my heart clenching in my chest but also my fists clenching in my pocket. My arms were trembling, but I was fully determined the fists would stay there. I took another deep breath and exhaled slowly.
The three of us stood in silence for a while, trying to avoid looking each other in the eyes.
“Look,” Chul finally said after a big sigh, “there is no excuse for what I did—”
“No, there isn’t,” I spat. “And now you look… we’re here to work, so just put us to work… we’re already beaten… you don’t need to torture us more than you already have.”
Chul’s face took on a darker shade of red.
“I… I just wanted you to understand that… it’s not an excuse, of course, but… I really didn’t have any choice… you know… if I wouldn’t have done it, General Roh would have killed me—”
“Well, my heart is bleeding for you,” I scoffed and crossed my arms in front of my chest.
Chul sighed.
“I… I’m not asking you to feel sorry for me… I… I just want you to understand that I’m trapped here… against my will… like an animal… just like you.”
“Bullshit!” I almost yelled. “You’re a guard. We’re your prisoners… don’t pretend like it’s the same. You can go around and beat up or rape whomever you like whenever you like… and… and you’re even praised for it… look, now everybody loves you,” I scoffed again. “But for us… if we as much as look at a guard the wrong way, we’re dragged down and tortured in Colonel Wan’s dungeons and then make a final stop at Cemetery Hill.”
I had to use every ounce of control in order not to raise my voice and to keep my still clenched fist in my pocket.
Chul let out a final deep sigh. His face was distraught and scarlet red.
“You’re right,” he said and looked down at the ground. “I… I—”
“That’s enough,” Nari snapped in a low but firm voice. “Both of you, just stop… okay? What’s done is done… we can’t do anything to change it now… so just stop!”
“I agree,” I glared into Chul’s eyes with pure unadulterated hatred. “There is no need to waste words on what is done… just show us where to work and then get out of our sight!”
“Areum!” Nari gasped.
“O-of course,” Chul stuttered. His sad eyes lingered on Nari for a moment. “Come with me… it’s in here.”
To my surprise, he didn’t walk over to the cornfields. Instead, he opened the door to the watermill, and Nari and I followed him inside, exchanging wondering looks.
When the door closed behind us, at first I couldn’t see anything in the darkness. My other senses were, however, not so fortunate. There was an ear-splitting ruckus that seemed to come from all directions. It pounded painfully against my sensitive eardrums. The air was filled with the bitter odor of our daily corn ration - only multiplied a thousandfold - and mixed with the stench of sweat. It stung my nose and even found its way into my mouth, where it attacked my palates. A wave of nausea swept over me.
Luckily, it didn’t take too long before my vision started returning to me. We were standing in a large room. Right next to me was a ladder leading up to some wooden boards laid out above us. There were several long planks laying on the ground, and in an opening on the opposite side, I could see the waterwheel slowly rotating, following the gentle flow of the river. Apart from some cracks in the walls, that was the only place where some weak rays of light found their way in from the outside.
Why couldn’t they have put in some windows?
The soft splashing of the waterwheel I used to listen to on the outside was here replaced by the deafening hammering, slamming, and squealing of the indoor machinery. Its menacing cogwheels - from tiny ones to ones that were bigger than me - rotated to power a huge grinder in the middle of the room. Next to it was a giant man. He must have been more than a hea
d taller than Chang Min, completely bald, and with enormous shoulders and arms, and he was pouring sacks of something brown, that I couldn’t make out what it was, into the grinder. The giant threw us a glance and looked away with what looked like a scoff.
“I know this doesn’t make up for what I did,” Chul yelled, straining his high-pitched feminine voice to be heard over the deafening noise. “But this is the easiest job you can have within the agricultural section… hopefully, it will make your lives somewhat easier.”
Make up for what he did? Is this in his sick brain some form of apology?
Chul took a few steps further into the room and stopped in front of an open barrel.
“In the fall, after the rice is harvested, the grinder is occupied with peeling the rice grains, but in this season you only have to work with corn. So… the corn will be delivered here from the fields. You have to peel off leaves and all the green parts, these guys will then grind it and make it ready to be distributed to all the prisoners. You grind it together with the cob, and they also put some tree bark in it to make it more filling… but don’t worry, it’s perfectly healthy,” he added when he saw our reaction.
So that’s the brown thing he’s pouring into the grinder… that explains the color and vile aftertaste of the corn rations we get!
The giant finished pouring in the bag of tree bark and came over to us, throwing the now empty bag disdainfully on the ground in front of Chul. His brute face made it clear we were not in for a warm welcome.
“Good morning, Ki Ha,” Chul greeted him, bending his head backward to be able to see his face.
Ki Ha didn’t answer the greeting. Instead, from the looks of it, he got ready to start a verbal assault on Chul. But at that very moment, there was a head-splitting clank from the waterwheel and the whole machinery came to a halt after a long excruciating squeal. The whole building shook like it was at the epicenter of an earthquake.
“CRAP!” the giant grunted with a deep rugged voice that perfectly fit his appearance and rushed over to the opening where the waterwheel now stood still. He reached into the water with his bare hand, pulled a couple of times, and fell to his back with a large tree branch in his hands, his head only inches from being crushed by the intersection of two large cogwheels. The whole machinery came to life in an instant with another loud - but this time less painful - squeal, and the floor again trembled like from an earthquake.
The Weeping Masses: A Young Adult Dystopian Survival Saga (Juche - Part 3) Page 8