Episode 2

6/17/1983

The commandant directed Rin into the nearby guardhouse, no more than a small cabin with one window. As he closed the door behind her, he ordered the three other soldiers to return to duty. Apparently, he liked privacy for this sort of thing.

Inside the cabin the commandant said nothing, but gruffly motioned Rin toward a chair. She tensed but complied, awaiting the inevitable. He retrieved an unmarked bottle of spirit and placed it on the table, pulling out the cork with his teeth. Was this his version of seduction? Rin almost laughed. The single glass he produced made clear there would be no seduction. As he was about to pour, the man thought better of it and took a swig from the bottle. Then he began to unbuckle his pants.

Well, so much for foreplay. Rin sighed. The man was well-endowed, but still flaccid. She felt insulted, but remembered what she must look and smell like by now. Come to think of it, the guy had to be desperate. Or maybe standards were lower in this part of the world. She still was annoyed that the mere sight of her hadn't made him hard. Maybe she wasn't his first of the day? How flattering. Rin stood and removed her pants and shirt, neatly placing her folded clothes on the seat behind her. Surely, this would do the trick. She watched the slow progress of the man's erection through narrowed eyes, an amused smirk on her face.

The commandant apparently took this as a comment on his manhood and turned red. Without warning he backhanded her fiercely. Rin reached over and sniffed the bottle, then put her clothes back on and reclaimed her seat. The man staggered to his feet, clutching his head where it had smacked into the wall.

His fist flew at her face, but slid off without making contact. He lost balance, his head awkwardly landing in Rin's lap. She casually brushed him off, and he rolled onto the floor. This wouldn't do. If he kept it up, her clothing would be damaged. Rin stood and kicked him in the face. A crack heralded a fountain of blood and two lost teeth. The man managed to grab her shoe, but his fingers slid off as she stepped back.

Rin walked toward the door, but the cocking of a pistol stopped her. She turned slowly, hands in the air, as the man staggered to his feet, gun trained on her. He located a pair of handcuffs in his pants and tossed them toward her. Rin put them on with an air of resignation.

With a triumphantly cruel grimace, the man lunged forward, and pistol-whipped her face. The gun slid off and Rin caught it, tossing aside the broken handcuffs with her other hand. She kneed the man in the groin and he began to vomit blood.

Looking down, she saw that her knee had landed slightly above his genitals. It probably had ruptured his lower intestine. Realizing the danger, she quickly jammed her fist into the man's mouth, shattering what remained of his teeth. This would muffle any sounds while he convulsed in agony. Rin eyed her watch impatiently. "Hurry it up, would you," she whispered.

Once all movement had stopped, Rin wiped her hand on the man's discarded shirt. Too late, she realized this was foolish. Well, there were three more uniforms outside, and the commandant wasn't her size anyway. She waited a few moments, but none of the soldiers had been drawn by the commotion. Apparently, a little ruckus was usual in this cabin.

Rin picked up the commandant's pistol, checking its magazine. It would do. She walked out the door, and gently closed it behind her. Holding the gun behind her back, she stood in front of the cabin, smiling. In her experience, soldiers had no idea how to react to that. If she ran or screamed or attacked, they would respond predictably. But what were they to do when a woman just stood there, smiling?

The first one to notice her quickly approached, shouting something and gesturing at Rin and the door. From what she could tell, he was demanding entry. She continued to smile and gently put her index finger on his lips. She had seen this in a movie once.

The kid seemed puzzled, and lowered his weapon. He probably figured that the commandant had ordered her to service them all, now that he was done. By then, the second and third soldiers had joined him. Rin stood smiling at them, and beckoned the first to kiss her. As he bent forward, she fired into his belly. The second went down with a single shot to the head a moment later. He hadn't even managed to draw his gun.

Rin felt nothing but contempt for those two. Anyone who pretended to be a warrior did not deserve to live. Only the third, the shortest, succeeded in getting off a shot before Rin brought him to the ground. It wouldn't do to ruin his uniform. As he fired round after round into her, she slowly crushed his neck with her foot.

As far as deaths went, it wasn't a bad one, she supposed. The last thing he would experience was a beautiful woman smiling down on him. That and the excruciating agony of having his windpipe cave in upon itself. Rin genuinely felt sorry for the boy. By all rights, his first shot would have punctured her lower-left stomach. Not great aim, but it would have done the trick. He deserved to win, to live. But when was life fair?

Once the gurgling had died down, Rin began to disrobe the boy. He wasn't nearly as well-endowed as his boss. Somehow that made her even sadder, as if she had killed a harmless puppy. She hoped the boy at least had had his first before dying.

There was no joy in any of this for her. If she thought it would have sufficed, Rin simply would have let the commandant have his way with her. Then all four still would be alive. But she was in a rush, and the commandant clearly had no intention of letting her go once he'd had his fun.

He probably would have let the boys have a go, and then killed her. Or he could have been the type of prick who wouldn't even give them his leftovers. They probably still were virgins. Regardless, she'd have had to kill them all anyway, and be set back half an hour for her trouble.

Why hadn't the fool just accepted a bribe? She felt bad for the boy. He didn't have any say in this; he just was furniture. On the other hand, it probably was better that he died before getting a chance with her. The only thing worse than dying a virgin would be dying having failed to please his only woman. And what hope did a mere boy have of that?

Rin dragged the three bodies behind the cabin before wondering why she hadn't just deposited them inside. In fact, moving the bodies probably hadn't been necessary at all. The checkpoint consisted of nothing more than a soldier manually diverting traffic onto a small detour loop, past the guardhouse and back to the main road. The cabin itself was well out of sight, and there wasn't much traffic to begin with. Rin had seen few vehicles other than buses, and those ran infrequently.

She put on the third soldier's uniform and was in the process of buttoning up the dead boy's shirt when she heard a sound from the front of the cabin. Picking up a nearby pistol, Rin quietly made her way around. As she reached the front, a loud exclamation issued from the rear. The newcomer must have circled the cabin the other way and discovered the bodies.

It felt like some sort of slapstick comedy. If she returned to the back, would the fellow go the other way? Maybe their paths never were meant to intersect. She doubted fate intended to be so kind to him. With a sigh, Rin circled the cabin. A fourth soldier was standing over his fallen comrades. She wondered if he had been off relieving himself.

She felt foolish. Of course there was another soldier. They had to leave someone on the main road. Rin had assumed all the soldiers followed the bus back, but no reasonable checkpoint would operate that way.

Still, something didn't add up. At least five minutes had passed since the first shot was fired. Why did it take him so long to respond? Was he a coward waiting for the assailant to leave? Maybe he just wasn't very good at his job. He certainly didn't seem alert. She was standing right behind him. Rin once again felt contempt.

She leveled her gun and was about to shoot the boy in the back of the head when he dropped into a squat and fired three times into her stomach without turning.