Catherine

Coal blackened the sorrow of her face and etched the hard reality of her actions and regrets onto her body. All over, Catherine felt her joints buckle and strain under the strenuous weight of her UN-issued IBA and plate carrier. Catherine felt her bone twist from the socket, tearing from her flesh like succulent meat off the end of a roasted hog. Catherine yearned for the comforts of her home, to be reunited with her dearest brother and free of the drill instructor's boot. The thought of Manuel tingled her innards and warmed her heart; for it was dearest Manuel's sake that she don the disguise of a boy and take his place.

Catherine could not bear to watch her younger brother get swept up in the conscription drives, but understood, full well, the consequences which bequeathed her if her facade fell through. While the boys were sent off to war, the girls were thown in the factories and labor camps to mass-produce equipment and ammunition for the war effort, shipped off to the farms to squeeze out every last inch of milk for soldier rations, sent to the laboratories, chests strewn bare, to test the effects of bioweapons on supple skin, or shipped off to the front lines to serve as runners, spies, or live target practice for the troops to relieve stress through sadistic catharsis. Catherine understood the consequences of getting caught, but chose to bite down on her gambit. Nothing was too sacred a bull to sacrifice for her dearest Manuel.

Catherine collapsed mid-march, the gravity of her situation too much for the young girl to bear. Like a house of cards, Catherine was flattened beneath her combat pack and IBA, the wind and dignity knocked out of her as she faded in and out of consciousness, face sinking deeper in the mud as the yells and cries of her drill instructor ferried her off into the land of Morpheus. When Catherine awoke, she found herself tied to a surgical table, clothes removed and surrounded by foreign objects and sharp instruments. Manuevering her warm flesh over the ice-coolness of her steel bed, Catherine tried in vain to loosen her bonds without landing in the deathtrap of scalpels and pliers, but had no luck out of a few scrapes and cuts and having played the part of the fool for the past few minutes. Catherine understood the full weight of her predicament, but refused to accept her fate. Catherine continued to struggle until her will gave in, and her body followed suit.