At the headquarters, the soldiers were all brought in, tired and weary and relatively smaller in number, minus those who had died along the way. The remaining soldiers were subjected to different cells with two big and burly guards standing inside, waiting for them. When the troops were thrown in, the burly bodyguards beat them up and subjected them to inhumane forms of torture such as electrocution, burning, mutilation and the like.

            Stephen had already endured so much under the bodyguard assigned in his cell. He was electrocuted, beaten to a bloody pulp, had his head submerged into water for a long period of time. Stephen’s wounds had been doused with vinegar to make them hurt even more. The handsome and strong soldier was now weak and rugged. He begged for his life and as much as he wanted to live, he did not want to surrender to the Northern forces.

            I am going to fight for my life. For my freedom. he told himself while painstakingly tending to his numerous wounds that were just too painful to bear. But what was more painful was witnessing that in the cells across his, soldiers were dying. Men whom he came to know as brave and strong, sturdy as oaks were now slowly starting to wane and bow down like bamboos in the wind.

            “ALRIGHT MEN! WE HAVE AN EXECUTION TO CARRY OUT!” called out on supervisor. TOP turned his head and smirked evilly, a sign of accomplishment.

            “Bring the prisoner in, then!” TOP said. He knew who it was and was greatly excited for Stephen to see who it was.

            “LET ME GO! PLEASE! I HAVE DONE NO WRONG!!!!” Stephen instantly recognized the voice that was coming from afar and jumped out of his wits. He dashed to the rails of his cell and looked out to see if it was who he thought it was.

            “PLEASE! HAVE MERCY!!!!” It was Bom, being brought in. She was clothed this time, clad in a dirty white nightgown. Stephen rushed forth but could not do anything to save his love.

            “No. No...please no...” he begged silently, looking at TOP who felt like he was on top of the world with his cruel intentions.

            “This young lady, I believe is the girlfriend of one soldier.” TOP started. Stephen clutched the steel rods even tighter, his sweaty palms sliding down them in hopelessness.

            “No. Please! Kill me instead!” he cried. He saw how Bom was struggling to break free from Daesung and Seung ri’s grasps.

            “Bring her to Jones’ cell.” Seung Ri and Daesung followed TOP’s orders and dragged the young lady in front of Stephen’s cell. The two cohorts threw her forward and as Stephen caught her hands, he clutched them tightly and kissed them. He held her tightly and never wanted to let her go.

            “What did they do to you? Why are you here?!” he asked, tears threatening to fall from his eyes. It pained his heart to see Bom in great anguish and Bom felt the same way.

            “I have something to tell you. And it will cost me my life.” Bom cried. Her tears were unstoppable as she too clutched Stephen’s hands tightly.

            “What?”

            “This is all my fault. Everything is my fault.”

            “What are you talking about?!” Stephen reached out and her hair to calm her down. Even in this moment of great trial, Bom was still beautiful. Her naturally red lips shook in fear.

            “Stephen,” Bom was about to speak. Stephen nervously anticipated what she was about to admit to him.

            “What is it? Tell me!” he cried, shaking her. He now let his tears freely fall from his eyes.

            “I am a spy of the North.”  she confessed. Stephen released her hands in shock. He abruptly stopped crying.  Bom fell to the floor and began to cry silently.

            “What?”

            “I have been tasked by Northern forces to get close to you to sell your secrets to their military.”

            “How could you?” was all he could manage.

            “I’m sorry. I hope you forgive me.” Bom cried. She opted not to reach for him anymore, feeling remorseful for what she had done. “But you shouldn’t feel bad. They will execute me in a while.”

            “You-“ Stephen cried instead of finishing what he was supposed to say. Bom no longer wished to hear his words. She knew how angry he was with her.

            “You don’t have to speak. You don’t have to forgive me. I just want to let you know that in the time we spent together, I have learned to love you and to forget about what my real purpose was. I grew to love you regardless of what I do and where I’m from because you were the same.”

            “Bom-“

            “I don’t expect you to forgive me, but at least at my dying hour let me say this.” Bom confessed. Seung ri and Daesung looked at her and as she felt them doing so, she stood up on her own and followed them to the execution room.

            Stephen was in great disbelief. He was shocked to learn that the reason he and Bom were really close and nearly lovers was because she had a purpose. What was even stranger was that Stephen fell for it.

            She was the first woman I ever loved. The first woman that ever meant anything to me and she turned out to be a traitor, too. I guess I am just everybody’s fool. Everyone I meet is a traitor. Stephen spent his painful hours in the cell, contemplating on his failures in intense physical anguish.

[BACK AT CAMP]

            Turns out not all the soldiers were imprisoned and tortured. There were still some soldiers left at camp who did not go to battle that day and those soldiers were the very last hope that the army detained had of surviving and actually winning the war.

            “Men, they have been detained. They have been captured at the border.” said a South Korean soldier who was allied with the Americans. This soldier was none other than one of the youngest generals in the army: Choi Siwon. Siwon was coordinating with his fellow soldiers on a strategy to bust their imprisoned comrades out of the enemy’s compound.

            “They are detained at the border. We have to figure out a way to get in there.”

            “We have to use evasive action. We have to act quick if we want to see them still alive.” Siwon said.

            “They have been incapacitated. Tortured beyond belief and stripped off their weapons. I have no idea how they’re going to fight back.”

            “We provide for them.” Siwon replied. “That shouldn’t be so hard.”

            “Alright. We plan then.”  The soldiers continuously devised a plan on how to bust their comrades out of prison and finish the war once and for all, to achieve the freedom that they deserved. Grabbing their weapons, readying their jeeps and trucks, the remaining brave ones made their way to the compound of the enemy.

[BACK AT THE HEADQUARTERS]

            At the headquarters, the soldiers were all to be executed for refusing to surrender. After hours of torture, most of them were just as good as dead as some had already died, their bodies giving up to the intense torture they were subjected to.

            “ALRIGHT!” TOP said out loud. “TODAY, YOUR EXECUTION BEGINS.”  TOP brought with him a group of assassins that would be responsible for ending the lives of the detained soldiers. The brave men who dedicated their lives fighting for Korea found themselves dying not in the way they expected to.

            “MEN, YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.” TOP commanded. The assassins he hired broke into the cells and dragged the soldiers out one by one. Despite their resistance, the assassins still got their way and brutally shot most of them. While others tried to fight, most ended up dead.

            When it was Stephen’s cell that was raided, he knew he had to smarten up and be alert. He readied his body for the action he was going to be in. When the guards seized him, he threw fists and punches their way, fighting back despite his torture injuries. However, he was weakened beyond belief that he found himself collapsing every time.

            “STEPHEN!” came a sweet voice from behind. It was Bom! She had not yet been executed and was actually able to make an escape from her captors. She came charging at the assassin with a gun that she smuggled from Seung ri and shot him at the back of the head, killing him. The other assassin saw her and pushed her away. Stephen caught her in his arms.

            “What are you doing here?” Stephen asked her, cradling her light body in his arms. Bom pushed him away and tried to fight the assassins using the gun that befell in her hands. Stephen admired her bravery. She willingly gave up her connections to the North in order to be able to aid him.

            “Bom! Behind you!” Bom spun around and in an instant, was shot in the heart by Seung ri. Blood came out of and stained her white nightgown. Stephen watched her knees bend and caught her as she fell to the ground. Bom was convulsing and was on the brink of dying.

            “They didn’t need to execute you. I could do it myself.” Seung ri said. Bom was gasping for breath in Stephen’s arms and as Stephen cared and cradled her, she grabbed his collar and pulled him close.

            “I love you, Stephen. Don’t you forget...” Bom uttered these final words and drew her last breath. Stephen’s eyes were red and filled with tears. Sadness flooded his heart but the emotion that reigned in him above all was the feeling of anger and hatred towards TOP and his cohorts. Fueled by this anger, Stephen got up and beat Seung ri up, using all the adrenaline, strength, and anger he had kept inside of him for so long. He screamed expletives at Seung ri and even took the gun he used to shoot Bom and shot him pointblank in the head, killing him instantly. Never had they seen Stephen this angry.

[MEANWHILE]

            Choi Siwon and his troops were about to enter the Northern border. At first, the guards at the border questioned their presence.

            “What are you here for?” they sternly asked. Without saying a word, Siwon stuck his gun out the window and shot the guard dead. Their truck penetrated the border and drove their way into the torture compound.

            Inside the compound, a massacre was going on. Soldiers were getting killed and trying to fight back and just when the American forces thought they were losing, in came their other comrades who did not take part in the war.

            “COME ON MEN, MOVE IT! MOVE IT!” Siwon ushered all of them inside. Angry, armed, and hungry for freedom, they let bullets rain, aiding their American comrades and together, they ended an army of brutal, inhumane soldiers.