Chapter 14: Camps

September 2, 2053

Time...? Night.

Dear Diary,

I'm surprised you survived under all that rubble. You're a tough little diary, you know that?

It's been five days since Braun and I escaped from the underground base. We met up with a couple of others that escaped...but I've yet to see any familiar faces. From what I heard, most of our comrades were captured by Zombie troops. I fear...

No. I can't be afraid. I'm sure the guys are alright. They have to be.

They have to be.

Braun and I are traveling with two other fugitives. Neither speak Engish, so I hardly ever talk to them. Speaking of Braun...

I'll never be able to burn those images out of my head. They're forever scarred into my mind. I nearly fainted during the amputation, but Braun was calm and calculated. He didn't seem to be in any pain throughout the entire process. Then again, his foot had been crushed completely and I was able to find some pretty strong anesthesia for the procedure. Braun is seriously amazing, but he's also a total mystery. I...I can't stop thinking about the things he said about the Zombie troops. I'm curious about his past, but I'm afraid to ask. Maybe I'll "nonchalantly" bring it up later.

Right now we've temporarily set up a small base in some forest. The Black Forest, I believe Braun called it. Lately it's been getting kind of chilly...but autumn in Germany is a beautiful time...

~~

"...Still keepin' secrets, Miss?" Braun smiles just as I close my diary shut. His unnatural stained glass eyes glow in the dark like a cat's. It's a cold night, but we can't afford getting caught with building a fire. "No one will trust you, if you keep doin' that." He gestures to the other two resistance members sleeping soundly.

"Oh?" I ask, rolling my eyes, but slightly worrying. Braun teases a lot, but there's always some truth to his words. 

"Yeah." He smiles, pulling his jacket closer as a gust of wind blows by. I glance at his leg then to the area where his foot would be if it hadn't been for me. "But I can help if you'd like."

"If you're suggesting I let you read my diary..." I begin, clutching the small journal close to my chest. He shrugs and I pause for a moment to think. "...I'll let you read it...if you tell me about your past." The smile on his face instantly disappears and for a second I think he's going to forget about my diary and go back to sleep.

"...I was born in downtown New York, in the darkest and most miserable part." Braun began quietly, to my surprise. I realize Braun does a lot of surprising things. "At the age of six, I was kidnapped and spent most of my childhood on a modern day pirate ship. But I wasn't alone...this was around the time I met Leon. The pirates we lived with were pretty messed up. Killing and pillaging as they pleased like any other pirate crew, but these guys were different. They usually stayed in once place, building some kind of settlement and forcing the natives to become slaves. Most pirates are just in it for the killing and pillaging. Well, because we stayed in one place for a long time, I learned quite a few different languages. Years passed and Leon and I decided it was about time we left the ship. But it didn't go as planned...at the time, we were near Japan and if you did your research, you'd know Japan was the first country to get hit by Zaroff's ZS poison. Our ship was far enough from the missile that Leon and I weren't really affected, but most of the pirates were older and became infected. We barely made it out alive." I stared at him in utter shock, waiting for him to continue, but he didn't. 

"That's half of my story." Bruan smiled and held a hand out to me. "Now I get half your diary."

Hesitantly, I passed the worn out journal over to him. As he began flipping through the pages, I couldn't help but feel nervous at how he didn't react to anything. Just like during the amputation, his face was calm and calculated.

"Well," He sighs, closing the diary shut. "That was boring. Where's the action? All ya talked about was the weather and school. Sorry about the divorce and yer mom though..." I shook my head.

"It's fine." I smiled. "Besides...there are more important things going on now. A-anyways! The rest of your story, if you will?" Braun grinned then continued. 

"So, Leon and I escape the ship, barely. We took an emergency raft and paddled ourselves ta South Korea. We were safe...for the time being. That's when we saw the broadcast by that Zaroff guy. Leon decided right then and there that he would take him down and I agreed. Oh, this was long after he'd taken a bullet for me. Anyways, time passes and here we are in this battle with some Zombie troops when we start losin'. Badly. A couple were able to escape, like Leon, but...I was captured. When you're captured...they take you to these places called 'camps'." Braun pauses for a moment and I can feel my heart beating nervously. "Do you want the full details or the sugar-coated details?"

"...F...full..." I began hesitantly. 

"Don't throw up." Bruan continues. He tells me that he's one of the 1 in 10,000 that's immune to the effects of ZS. He tells me how once you're captured, they either turn you into zombies or a Zombie troop. And if you're immune to ZF and you don't want to become a Zombie troop...they torture you until your will breaks.

"I remember this guy..." Bruan says in a whisper, almost inaudible. "They...they tortured him to death. He was just like me, immune but unwilling to become a Zombie. Say...Ruri...have you ever head of a form of torture called 'slow slicing'?" I shook my head no. 

"Slow slicing, the lingering death, death by a thousand cuts...there are a couple names for what they did to this guy. Since you wanted the full details, I'll give them to you. I was there to watch the whole thing, forced to. First they tied him to a pole so he couldn't escape. Then they started with his arms...slowly, slowly slicing off layers of skin here and there. They kept whittling away until no skin hung from his arms. Then they went to his legs and continued the process. Then his stomach. And everywhere there was skin. But they never let him just...die. After he had hardly any skin left, they chopped off his limbs. One by one. And finally...finally...they cut off his head and ended his misery." Braun suddenly stops and closes his eyes tightly. "...It's an old Chinese torture. I was scared. More than scared. I was about to piss myself and become a Zombie. But suddenly Leon came in with 200 guys behind him...Saved my again. Now, slow slicing isn't the only thing they did to guys there. They starved some to death, some they fed to zombies, electical chair, lynching....you name it."

I was speechless. Suddenly I wished for the sugar-coated details. Then I thought about Axel and Lexa...Lucy, Leon, and....Haine. What if they'd been caught? What if...what if... I saw Axel and Lexa, starving to death in a quiet and dark cell. I thought of Lucy with a rope around her neck, hanging off of the side of a building with her neck snapped. Leon, slowly roasting to death in an electrical chair. And Haine... undergoing the lingering death. Tears suddenly began to pour at the such gruesome and horrific thoughts. I felt sick and frightened and my hands began shaking uncontrollably.

"H-hey, it's okay." Bruan began worriedly as he gently put a comforting arm around my shoulder. "Don't cry. I'm no good with crying girls, remember?...They'll be okay. Our commrades are tough, remember? D___, haha. I should've given you the sugar-coated details. Sorry. I'm so sorry."

I don't remember when I stopped crying that night. If I stopped crying. I don't remember if we talked anymore after that. All I know is that the next morning, Bruan was still there beside me. A comforting arm around my shoulder to shield me from the cold night.

Gaaaah...long chapter. Sorry. But I really wanted to talk about Bruan's past. My chapters are just getting longer and longer, huh? Sorry. The next few will be shorter, promise. :)

Thanks for reading!!!!!!  ♥ I know I say that after, like, ever chapter, but I mean it every time. :)

Thank you. ^^