A Father’s Betrayal

Wendy woke up on the helicopter as it flew through the night in blackness. No lights could be seen and the blades were muffled so that it could fly over someone on the ground a thousand feet below and no sound would be heard by the man on the ground. Something was pressed hard against her left buttock, but Wendy stayed quiet until she knew where she was. She could hear the faint noise of the helicopter and make out the green screen at the front of the helicopter. She soon realized the thing pressing sharply into her buttock was the end of the mounted machinegun’s bullets belt. Wendy tried to inch away, but when she did she felt the butt of a rifle smash down on the middle of her right hand almost causing her to pass out from pain.

“You move again, and I’ll break every finger on your right hand, Wabba.” The soldier spat out the name Wabba as if it were a foul word he had to get out of his mouth in a hurry. Wendy never moved for the next hour as she listened to the talk among the soldiers. Getting up the courage she finally spoke to no one in particular.

“Where are you taking me?” He didn’t break every finger, but she thought he had when the rifle butt again smashed into her hand. This time she did pass out for a few seconds. When she came to, she heard one soldier laughing and saying something about her not lasting too long with old slice and dice. A sliver of pain and fear crawled down her spine at the mention of a name she knew all too well from years of living among the people and hearing the stories of him and Rasafeh Prison.