Volume 1: Japanese Storm Chapter 24: Leaping Madhouse (5)

  “…July 23, 1983, the weather was fine! I couldn’t escape and resisting was futile. Even if I had been a marine, without keys, I still wouldn’t have been able to escape this human prison. Rather than blindly resist, it’s better to wait patiently for an opportunity. The training I received taught me that! So, I started to gradually get used to the environment here. I began trying to interact with each patient. Chief Baghdad, Scarface Hubert, Axeman Zola, and Gutted Edward... these were the people surrounding me! They were just like me, all wearing handcuffs and shackles! We lived in a zone, yes, a zone without tomorrow. Ms. Nabariya told me that I was being held in the Steinheil mental hospital’s mentally ill criminal ward! The execution area where Nazi Hitler carried out his executions! Charged with first-degree murder!...”

  “They don’t treat us like humans at all! No, not at all! We eat pig food and sleep in damp cells! There are many rats here, and when it rains, the area becomes a flood zone, and the rats that hide in the sewers crawl everywhere on the walls! But the cannibal Alfred is happy! Watching him eat those live rats makes my stomach churn! Today, Baghdad strangled a guard's neck until he almost broke it, then the guards rushed over and beat him unconscious with batons! He wasn't thrown into solitary confinement like usual! He was dragged away! Yes, dragged away! An hour later, he was sent back! His eyes were white, his whole body convulsing! Foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog! Edward told me that Baghdad had been given electric shock treatment... electrodes attached to the temples, 10,000 volts! Everyone has received this punishment! If you do something wrong or if the guards don’t like you, they can give you electric shocks anytime. This is hell, not heaven…”

  “……Zola was dragged away because he smashed the glass of the nurse's station! The shards flew into Mrs. Nabalia's face and cut a deep gash on her cheek! I heard Zola's maniacal laughter! What a terrifying guy! Then Mrs. Nabalia sounded the alarm! Several guards rushed in! Poor Zola, beaten to a pulp! And then he vanished! Until a month later, right behind the church! He reappeared. But this wasn't the Zola I knew! No! His face had lost its usual sparkle! He would never make funny faces at people again! His eyes were rolled up, his mouth was always half-open, and drool dripped from his lips! Now he looked like an old man! What on earth happened?! When I tried to greet him by poking my head out, Mrs. Nabalia roughly interrupted me! Then she walked over and gave Zola a brutal kick, as if dragging a dog away! After that, I never saw Zola again! Some say he was transferred to Area A, where they treat mild illnesses... but who knows what really happened?...”

  “……Hubert liked to gamble, but unfortunately his skills were really not good? He always lost! Our bets were bread, the only day of the month that we got bread, and it was black! So every time he lost to Edward, Scar would run into the bathroom and then there would be banging sounds coming from inside! And he never learned his lesson! Today, he not only lost the bread but also the last pack of cigarettes he had on him! Mrs. Nabulalia, I want my cigarettes, I want my cigarettes! He jumped up angrily, pointing at the cigarettes placed in the cabinet in the nurse's station! But Mrs. Nabulalia just shouted loudly through the glass for him to sit down and didn't take out the cigarettes from the cabinet! Those were the patients' cigarettes! Every month their families sent them over for them to smoke! Those are my cigarettes! I have the right to get them! Hubert shouted loudly, and then he started banging his head against the glass! After Zola's crazy incident, the nurse station's glass was thickened! Hubert kept banging his head against the glass, constantly banging, and the glass slowly cracked open, piercing his forehead, blood began to slide down the glass... I grabbed Hubert's arm, trying to pull him away, but unfortunately, he grasped the nurse's desk tightly and threw me to the ground! To stop him from continuing to bang his head against the glass, I rushed to the door of the nurse station and kicked it open! Damn, kicking an iron door really hurts! Mrs. Nabulalia was screaming like a pig being slaughtered, but I didn't care about her, I just smashed the cabinet's glass and grabbed a handful of cigarettes! Just give him the cigarettes and he'll shut up! Mrs. Nabulalia! I roared at her! As a result, both Hubert and I were dragged out by the guards. We met Dr. Adolf Breiten in the treatment room, I tried to explain, but it was no use! They pressed me down on the table, tied my body with leather straps, and stuffed a foul-smelling rubber gag into my mouth! I didn't know what they wanted to do to me, when two wet cotton balls were stuck to my temples, I realized, but it was too late! The electric current coursed through my body in an instant, my breathing became urgent, my body began to convulse, my consciousness began to blur, this is hell, this is hell, I want out, I must get out...”

  “…Here, we have no human rights! We are like caged animals! Even visits are monitored! Once you say something you shouldn’t, the punishment will be severe! I keep thinking, should I resist or stay silent? But I still can't find an answer. Hubert learned his lesson after several electric shocks from Mrs. Nabalia. He stopped gambling and smoking, started exercising non-stop! On November 11th, 1984, when we were outside at the sentry post breathing fresh air, Hubert pulled Baghdad to the edge of the muddy wall, then climbed onto Baghdad's strong body, grabbing the muddy wall to climb up. But as he reached the top and tried to cross the iron fence, he got stuck and kept ***, his body started sparking! I suddenly realized that those fences were electrified with high voltage! I screamed at the guards to turn off the power, I screamed for them to turn it off! But everyone knew Hubert was a goner! He died like that on the wall…”