The Shadow of Arms by Hwang Sok-Yong

and despair. The screaming went on and on. It only stopped when the girl gasped for breath. Then it turned into crying in agony. When Misova came out of the hut he was buttoning up his pants. He said the girl was very clean and not bad at all.
    Interrogator: Who was next?
    Clark: Misova gestured at me to go next so I went in.
    Interrogator: You didn’t draw lots?
    Ericsson: While we were cleaning, they decided their turns.
    Clark: The truth is, we went by order of rank.
    Interrogator: How was the girl doing?
    Clark: She was naked on the table.
    Interrogator: Was that all?
    Clark: Her hands were tied behind her and there was a lot of bleeding. She was extremely clean and calm.
    Ericsson: Raphael watched what Clark was doing through a hole in the wall.
    Interrogator: What did Clark do to the girl?
    Raphael: Because she kept screaming from the pain, he did it with a hunting knife pressed to her throat.
    Interrogator: What kind of knife?
    Clark: The handle was wrapped with tape and the blade about ten inches long. A wounded buddy gave it to me.
    Manuel: Raphael and I, against our will, did it in turn with Misova and Clark watching us. The girl was still moaning in pain but by then she was really weak.
    Ericsson: They kept going in and out of the hut, kept it up for an hour and a half. So that any enemies nearby wouldn’t spot us, we all went into the hut and that was when I saw her. She was curled up in a corner, tied up and naked. She looked at each of us in turn, crying. Her eyes were so big. Then she was untied and dressed.
    Interrogator: Who did that?
    Misova: I did.
    Interrogator: According to your file, you once took target practice on civilians while out on reconnaissance. Why?
    Misova: I felt like it.
    Interrogator: You also did that to the girl because you felt like it? What did you do after that?
    Misova: I ate.
    Interrogator: Did you feed the girl?
    Misova: Since her coughing was getting worse, she didn’t get any food.
    Ericsson: While they were eating they compared the Vietnamese girl with other women they’d had. They also tried to remember exactly how long it had been since they’d last tasted a woman.
    Interrogator: Was there an operation that day?
    Misova: I told Ericsson to watch the girl and the ammo and we headed up to the highlands to patrol the opposite valley. There were three Vietnamese walking along the river. They were not in uniform but I figured they were Viet Cong. We all fired at once. We missed the targets, so we radioed platoon headquarters, asking for artillery support. Immediately there was shelling.
    Interrogator: Private Ericsson, you were left alone with the girl?
    Ericsson: I didn’t know how to deal with her. Her crying broke my heart. By then I’d been with her all day, but there was nothing I could do for her. As I watched trembling in terror—she was so tiny—I even thought of shooting the four who raped her. I was furious. I made up my mind that if I ever got out of there alive, I’d make them pay for what they’d done. When I went inside, the girl must’ve thought I’d come to rape her too because she burst into tears and curled up in a ball in the corner. She looked worn out and she got worse and worse. I thought she must’ve been hurt badly. But she was wearing black so I couldn’t see where she was hurt. I offered her some beef stew and crackers and water. The girl took the food and ate. It was the first thing she’d eaten since we’d taken her. It was the afternoon by then. She ate standing up, but several times stopped eating and moaned. She never took her eyes off me while eating. I guess she was trying to figure out what sort of game I was playing. After she finished, she said something in Vietnamese. She could have been thanking me. I said in English that I didn’t understand her. I wanted to tell her how sorry I was for what happened.
    Interrogator: The idea of rescuing her didn’t occur to