CORINNE

On the day that China invaded the United States Corinne had kissed her husband goodbye in the morning, and had gone to work as usual after dropping her infant son off at the babysitter along the way.

The news was announced over the public address system in the office building where she worked that morning. Everyone was stunned by the sudden unexpected invasion, but news reports stressed that the invaders had no chance of succeeding.

Later in the afternoon, news reports indicated that the invaders had captured and were occupying some communities near the shore where they landed, which wasn't too far from where Corinne worked. Following these reports, the company closed the office and let everyone off early.

On her way out of the building, Corinne met Paul who was a co-worker of hers whom she was friends with and occasionally met for lunch in the company cafeteria. "What do you think of all this," Corinne asked Paul?

"I can't believe it," replied Paul, "why would China want to attack the United States for? But I think it'll all be over by tomorrow. Just be careful going home, Corinne."

"You too, Paul. Bye, bye."

Corinne was fond of Paul, in a friendly way. She knew he was attracted to her, in more than a friendly way, and he was trying hard not to let it show. But she could still tell. She knew that she would never cheat on her husband, so she continued their friendship.

A few blocks after leaving the office, Corinne came to a roadblock. Several Chinese soldiers were standing around a truck waving assault rifles at all the cars they had stopped, including hers. They ordered her out of her car in a language she didn't understand and into the back of the truck. In the truck many people were bound by wrists and ankles with leather straps. Once in the truck herself, more Chinese soldiers strapped her wrists and ankles together. They continued filling the truck with people until they were piled on top of each other several bodies deep.

The truck then drove off. It drove only a short distance, but the ride was very uncomfortable lying on a hard plank floor with several other people on top of her as the truck bounced and jostled them all.

They were then all pulled out of the truck by their bonds, allowed to fall off the back of the truck and onto the ground. Like the others, she was dragged into a building. Inside the building, a large group of people, men and women, were huddled together completely naked, guarded by more Chinese soldiers. One of the soldiers cut her straps off with his bayonet, nicking her flesh at the time, and motioned her to stand. She stood, and then the solder made a motion as though tearing his uniform off.

Not catching his meaning immediately, the soldier poked his bayonet into her sweater almost stabbing her, and pulled it down leaving a long tear in it. He made the motion once again. Finally catching his meaning, she removed her clothing. She also noticed that all the others from the truck were undergoing the same routine.

She removed her sweater, her blouse, and her pants, but she stopped when she got down to her bra and panties. The soldier looked at her quick, then slashed his bayonet down her chest between her breasts slicing her bra where the cups connect and leaving a vertical cut in her chest between her breasts. He then glanced down at her hips, and she immediately pulled her panties off as fast as she could.

The soldiers then motioned for her to join the huddled crowd, which she did. The cut in her chest wasn't very deep, neither was the cut in her wrist, and the bleeding stopped after several minutes.

A few minutes later, a forklift drove in carrying a number of 55-gallon drums with quarter sized holes punched all around the upper and lower edges. When she saw next horrified her. The tops of the drums were being wrenched off with crowbars, and the people were being ordered to get into the drums -- tall people alone, and short people in twos -- men together, women together, and men and women together -- and also apparently people who, until now did not know each other. Usually the person would enter the drum without much fuss, but occasionally a person would step into his drum and immediately jump out again screaming. When this happened, the soldiers would grab him and throw the person, whether man or woman, back into the drum and hammer the lid on. Very often, the person's continued screams could be heard muffled through the holes in the drum.

Like some of the others, Corinne began crying thinking she was about to die shortly. She didn't want to die, not now, so young with a husband and family. And she didn't want to die in whatever horrible manner they had planned for them all in these drums. Images of the drums being dumped in a river, or being buried in a landfill, or being burned in an incinerator raged through her mind.

More and more empty drums were brought in, while the full drums were taken out. Her turn eventually came, being nearly 6' tall, she was put in her drum alone. When they hammered the lid back on the drum, the noise inside was deafening and left her hears ringing so loud it drowned out the noise of the forklift taking her drum, and others back outside.

The forklift set her drum down in an open area with all the other drums of people. Her ears were still ringing, but she could hear sobbing and outright crying coming from some of the other drums, from both men and women. She could also hear people vomiting in some of the other drums, and occasionally someone would scream until they passed out.

After it seemed that everybody was in a drum, all the activity in the area ceased. By this time it was late at night and was getting chilly. The steel of the drum was extremely cold against her body and she was shivering feverishly. The inside of the drum smelled mildly of rubbing alcohol, but she got whiff of various foul chemical odors whenever she stuck her nose out of one of those holes near one of the other adjacent drums. She didn't attempt to speak to anybody else.

Some time later, she heard airplane engines start up and come closer. It was too dark to see out the holes, but the plane was very close. The forklifts returned and began removing of the drums. Her drum was eventually moved again and, looking out the holes saw that all the drums, including hers, were being loaded into the plane. Once in the plane, it was too dark to see anything through the holes. Then the drums were packed tightly against each other. Odors of ammonia and formaldehyde were especially strong nearby.

Later that night, the plane took off. The flight lasted seemingly forever. Corinne had no idea how long the flight was; it was certainly more than many hours, but probably less than a couple of days. She thought that she had dozed off a few times during the flight but wasn't sure. By the time it landed, she was so hungry that the sound of her constantly growling stomach echoed within the drum, and she was so thirsty that she had tried to lick the rubbing alcohol off the inside walls of the drum. Fortunately for her, it was only a trace odor that remained. By then, also, she was sitting in a puddle of cold urine and excrement.

The drums were unloaded from the plane and left there. At this new location, though it was night, it was brutally hot. She feared what it would be like when the sun rose and shown down on the drum the next morning.

However, she never found out. They next loaded the drums into a covered truck and drove from the airport. They drove, it seemed, for several hours over extremely bumpy and hilly roads. The drums were unloaded and brought inside into another storage area. Her drum was quickly buried in the middle of the pile, so she couldn't tell what was happening most of the time.

Corinne awoke in fright as a forklift lifted her drum. She was carried out into a sunny courtyard where the temperature in the drum seemed to instantly jump by fifty degrees as soon as it came into sunlight. The forklift set her down and drove away, leaving her baking in the sun. Her sweat began to pour off her body like raindrops in a heavy rain.

But within a few minutes, a couple of men came over and pried the lid off the drum. They pulled Corinne out of the drum and dropped her limp body on the ground, then walked away. A minute later, she felt the comforting touch of a friendly hand. Two other women, also naked, had lifted her head and were fanning her face. When Corinne opened her eyes, they smiled compassionately at her and carried her into the shade against a bare gray wall.

"Hi, I'm Kathy," one said.

"And I'm Toby," the other said.

Corinne replied faintly, "I'm Corinne. What happened?"

"We don't know," Kathy answered. "The last thing I heard is that we were invaded by China, then a bunch of Chinese soldiers stormed into our office and took us away, and, well, you know the rest."

"What's going to happen to us?" Corinne asked.

"I don't know," Kathy answered again. "Toby and I were put in a drum together, and had to help ourselves out before we roasted to death after they took the cover off. Nobody knows anything."

"I'm so thirsty..."

A group of soldiers suddenly appeared and grabbed the three women and escorted them away in silence. Each of them was taken into the bare concrete building that surrounded the courtyard. Then in a different direction, Corinne was led up some stairs down long a corridor, around a corner, down a shorter corridor, then into a tiny cell.

The soldiers threw her into the cell so hard she rebounded against the far wall and collapsed. The cell was about 6' by 8' with a 5' ceiling. A 3' by 6' straw mat lay on the floor, and there was a bare iron pipe sticking out of one corner of the floor, apparently the "toilet". It wasn't brutally hot, but it was too warm for comfort. There was also a tiny window in the far wall that overlooked that courtyard. From the window, she could see down into the courtyard. There being nothing else to do, she watched the activity below.

Out in the courtyard, a number of naked people milled about, both men and women, all white-skinned Americans. Every few minutes, some Chinese soldiers would bring another drum out in the middle of the courtyard, leave it there, then pick some of the Americans out of the group and lead them back inside. Them some other Chinese men would saunter over to the drum with crowbars, remove the lid, and drag the occupant out onto the ground and walk away. Then, one or more of the Americans would go over to the person and help him into the shade. Sometimes the person just released would come to, and join the aid effort, and sometimes would remain in a daze. It was also not uncommon for a person to be removed from a drum dead, often with nasty blisters over their bodies.

While watching this activity, Corinne suddenly doubled over in pain. She had become used to the constant growling of her stomach, but she hadn't eaten or drank anything in several days. And the discomfort in her stomach had turned to pain.

She slowly crawled over to the mat and lay down. Eventually she dozed off.

PAUL

When Paul was removed from his drum, he, too, was dragged away and locked in a cell by himself.

After several days of starvation, a soldier came into his cell and led him to a small room containing a half dozen other Americans. They were all fed large bowls of rice, some fruits and vegetables, and a large glass of water. No one said a word to each other as they all wolfed their food down.

Immediately afterward, they were all led out into the courtyard and into another room full of sacks of concrete mix and wheelbarrows. They were ordered to each take a wheelbarrow and empty two of the sacks into it. Paul was miserable, he hated being hot, and he hated sweating. By the time he had his wheelbarrow loaded, there was a puddle of sweat on the floor where he stood. At least he was wearing no clothing to be sticking to him. They were then led out through the courtyard, pushing their wheelbarrows, out through the main entrance gate and along a dirt road. After about a mile, they came to a large construction site, apparently a dam, or hydroelectric plant, or something.

They were then each, in turn, ordered to dump their loads into a wooden form. But when Paul's turn came up, he dumped his wheelbarrow on the ground saying, "This isn't fair! I never did anything to hurt you people! You have no right to do this to me! I want to go home!"

One of the soldiers lashed out at Paul with a bullwhip. Paul cried out and fell to the ground. Two of the soldiers approached him and pointed their bayonets at him and waited. A few moments later, another soldier appeared with some rope. They tied the rope to his ankles, and then gave the other end to the other Americans. The soldiers ordered them to return to the compound, dragging Paul behind them.

Paul screamed in agony the first half of the mile, but by the second half, he was too numb and exhausted even to whimper.

CORINNE

Corinne woke some time later. It was dark outside the window and the room had actually become cold. The mat was too stiff to wrap around it around her self like a blanket so she lay there shivering feverishly. Again she dozed off.

When she woke again, light was streaming in through the window and it was beginning to get warm in her cell again. She thought of calling out to someone in an adjacent cell, but she was so incredibly hungry that she literally didn't have the strength of will to so, and her throat was so painfully dry that to make any sound at all was torture.

The scene in the courtyard continued like the day before, but Corinne didn't have the stamina to watch for more than a moment. She returned to lie back down on her mat.

Several days went by and Corinne was resigned that she was probably going to die either of dehydration or starvation. But then, one afternoon, a soldier entered her cell and placed a bowl of rice and a tin cup of water by the door and left. It took all her energy to crawl over to the door to get to it. She had to eat the rice with her fingers, but it sure felt good to eat and cut into her thirst.

This gave her a little energy to stand and walk over to the window again. By now, it seems they had unloaded all the drums and the courtyard was empty. She watched for several more minutes for any sign of activity, but there was none. So she sat down with her back to the wall under the window and stared at the door for a while. Then, she heard activity outside. When she stood to look, she saw two armed Chinese soldiers leading a string of naked American men, each pushing a wheelbarrow full of sand through the courtyard and out through the main entrance gate.

Looking closely at one of the Americans, she couldn't believe it, one of them was Paul from work. The way the sweat glistened made him look like one of those hunks on a TV ad for one of those exercise places. But, oh, forget such thoughts now. After they were all out of sight, no further activity occurred below.

Some time later, Corinne was getting hungry and thirsty again. But no more food was forthcoming. But she heard more activity out in the courtyard. Looking out the window, she saw that the men who left with the wheelbarrows were returning. Only thins time, instead of pushing wheelbarrows, they were dragging something with a rope. Oh no! she thought They were dragging Paul by his ankles! What happened? she wondered. Oh, poor Paul! They all disappeared into a doorway before, and no more activity occurred the rest of the day.

Once again, several days went by before anything else happened. The empty bowl and cup had disappeared during the following night. One afternoon, a soldier opened the door to her cell and pointed a muzzle at her. She screamed and was immediately doused with cold water. She managed to drink some of it, but her shower was over too soon. The guard left and slammed the door shut.

More days went by. One again, Corinne was in incredible pain from hunger and thirst. She could see on her body that she had lost a lot of pounds in the week and a half since she's been here. Her ribs were plainly visible.

The day she saw a cockroach scurrying across the floor, her response was virtually involuntary. Consciously, she was pleading with her body not to do it, but her body seemed to act with a mind of it's own. She pounced and grabbed it, and immediately swallowed it.

Precisely seven days after her first bowl of rice and water, a soldier brought her another. This time, she almost passed out from exertion crawling over to them. While eating, she thought she heard something.

"Pssst."

Corinne looked around, "is someone there?"

"Yeah," whispered a female voice, "I'm Diane, in the next cell. Who are you?"

"I'm Corinne, they just fed me. But next week, I don't think I'm going to have the strength to crawl over to my food!"

"Oh Corinne! Are you alone?"

"Yes."

"Look, here's what you have to do. You have to get a roommate. My roommate is asleep right now, but we've managed to keep ourselves alive and reasonably healthy."

"How? They give you more food?"

"No. They actually give you the same amount of food for the two of us to share..."

"Then how am I better off with a roommate?"

"Listen! This is going to sound disgusting, but you have to recycle your water."

"What? What do you mean?"

"You can't do it alone, but with two of you, you can drink from each other..."

"No! You don't mean..."

"Yeah, that's what I mean. You have to if you don't want to die of dehydration."

"But I can't do that!"

"You must if you want to live! Look, I know it's gross, it took a lot of convincing to get MY roommate to do it with me. But it's necessary if you want to survive. I know of many people who have already died of dehydration. They take me out whenever they need medical help. I know of several people with roommates who have both died of dehydration because one or the other roommate refused to do it."

"Well, this is purely academic because I don't have a roommate and they're not going to give me one because I ask."

"They might. The woman in the next cell on the other side of me asked for a roommate, and they gave her one -- a guy."

"They put a guy in with a woman?"

"She asked for a guy, and they gave her a guy. At least that makes it, well... more palatable... depending on your perspective... We had no choice, we're both women, and they didn't let us change. We're not gay; we do it to survive. But you might have a choice. Maybe you'd feel more comfortable doing it with another woman than with a strange guy, but it's up to you. At least ask or you're going to die!"

PAUL

Paul had been in his cell for nearly a week after his ordeal at the construction site. They hadn't bothered him since then, and they haven't even fed him. He was slowly starving to death, and his mouth was so dry from thirst it was painful.

While lying there, a soldier opened his cell and dragged him out. The soldier brought him into a brightly-lit room with a number of other American men in it. They were all ordered to line up along the wall with a bright light glaring at them all. He could see a couple of people sitting on the dark far end of the room.

Several moments went by and nothing happened, he heard some talking among those people at the other end of the room, and then the soldiers began to lead the other men out of the room. When Paul started to walk out too, one of the soldiers said to him in a thick Chinese accent, "You stay!" Oh no! Paul thought. This is it! The firing squad! Well, at least it's the end of this misery!

Another soldier walked over to Paul and began to lead him over to the other end of the room. Paul bucked and kicked at the soldier, and started to run. But another soldier grabbed him and pressed a small gadget against his chest. He thought he heard a woman scream as his body was tortured by a painful tingling sensation just as he fell to the ground.

The world blacked out. When he came to, he was groggy and everything was blurry. Someone was holding his head. He looked up, and there were several faces staring down at him but his eyes were so teary and he was feeling so feverish that he couldn't make out any details. Someone was talking in a soothing voice, but he couldn't make out what.

After a moment, a name started to echo through his head. Corinne. Corinne? Oh, the pain! Corinne. Who's Corinne? Corinne. Oh, I knew an Corinne from work. Oh, please make me be dead and out of this misery! Corinne. Corinne. Yeah, she was nice. Too bad she was married, I liked her. But why am I thinking of her now?

Suddenly, he felt himself pulled up and propped up against the wall again. Some people were talking. Someone was talking to him. Someone slapped him. "Hey you!"

"Wha..." was all Paul could say.

"This woman, she want you for bedmate. No?"

Wha? I must be completely out of it, thought Paul. "Yeah, sure."

"Open eyes. Don't you want see body first?"

He tried to look, and he thought he could make out the shape of a nude woman standing there facing him, but everything was still a spinning blur. "Uh, huh," was all he could say.

Someone pushed him hard and he fell forward into something soft and fell down on top of it. When he hit the ground, he heard a high pitched scream right in his ear, and summarily passed out.

CORINNE

When the guard next appeared to give Corinne her weekly shower, Corinne asked him if she could be given a roommate. The guard merely grunted and left. But a few hours later, another soldier opened her door and led down the hallway into a large interrogation room.

This was the most luxury she had in weeks -- to sit on a old wooden bench on the dark end of a long decrepit room. Floodlights lit the other end of the room glaring onto the far wall. Soldiers escorted a small group of naked men into the room and ordered them to line up against the wall.

"Which one?" barked the soldier standing next to her. Corinne looked at them and gasped when she saw that Paul was among them. She didn't recognize any of the others. "Him!"

"Which one?" the soldier barked again

"That one," she replied, pointing to Paul.

"This one?"

"No! The one next to him! Yes. Him!"

The soldiers then began to usher the other men out of the room. She saw Paul start to follow, but one of the soldiers said to him, "you stay!"

What happened next happened so suddenly. A soldier started leading Paul toward her, but he kicked out at the soldier. The soldier struck him with some kind of electric shocker sending him to the floor in pain. Corinne screamed out at this, "No! Paul!"