Wednesday, November 21,2018–Day 324. The Captive Pilot series concludes. "They had awakened her early in the morning and told her she would be executed that day. After a quick, but brutal rape, they dragged her from the dingy cell and let her from the compound. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she imagined what awaited her.
Perhaps it would be mercifully quick–being forced to her knees, hearing a round being chambered, feeling the cold metal on the back of her head–a micro sound and then blackness and nothing more.
Perhaps a firing squad...she was a warrior, after all. Tied to a post...blindfolded...naked for all to see. ‘Be brave’ she told herself, ignoring the stream of piss running down her thigh. ‘It will be over quickly..." But would it? She suddenly imagined that they would not shoot to kill but would instead shoot to maim–missing critical organs....hot lead ripping through her body and then a lingering death as she bled out. They walked on...
Perhaps the knife... Perhaps beheading...She shuddered in terror as she imagined feeling the razor-sharp knife on the delicate flesh of her neck. The initial pain would beless than she exptected but then she imagined her warm blood gushing...flowing down her chest... Would they hold her severed head up to the crowd? Would she still be conscious enough to see them and her body twitching in a growing pool of blood?
She walked on. A few passers-by stopped to watch the terrified, naked pilot stumble onwards.... Perhaps the rope awaited. Perhaps they would just tie the rope around her neck, drape it over a branch and pull her upwards as she frantically kicked seeking the ground now far beneath her feet. She knew that it wouldn’t be a long drop–that would end it much too soon. She knew for sure that it would be a short drop and she would kick and twist for all to see as the rope cut into her throat and her face turned a redish blue as she struggled for a final breath that would never come....
Her terror mounted as she walked on...Perhaps the flame.... With terror, she thought of being tied to a stake. She thought of the crowd watching as the dried branches were piled around her naked flesh. Then the smoke and the heat–the crackling sounds of the fire as the tongues of fire grew closer and closer to her body...a frantic struggle and then pain...unimaginable agony as her body was consumed by the flames.
As terrifying as these scenarios were, she was unprepared for what actually awaited her. A wooden cross! She began to scream once she realized what was in store for her. She’d attended parochial schools growing up and, in chapel each day, she had tried to image the horror of being nailed to a cross. She had always been surprised at the slight gush of wetness she felt between her thighs each time she considered the matter. Now it was her turn... Now, after a fierce struggle, she found herself nailed to the cross, she quickly realized that she’d had no way of really knowing what it would feel like...and it was a million times worse than she ever could have imagined. And then the cruel realization that the agaony wouldn’t end until her death and that her death wouldn’t come anytime soon. The other methods of execution were quick–crucifixion was anything but quick. And so she suffered–the hours passing slowly...the pain building. On the next day, after a night of torment, she heard the unmistakable sound a jet roaring overhead. It was coming in at treetop level. She knew they were looking for her. The jet roared overhead for an instant and then was gone, and with it any hope of rescue. In utter despair, she prayed for death and, after another day of torment, it would, at last, come.
The rescue pilot that had flown over her recalled seeing a glint of light below, but he was travelling much too face to know what it was. It was only after the recon-photos were examined in greater detail that he realized what had cause that glint of light. It was the reflection of light off of a pair of dog-tags around her neck. They soon returned to the site, but it was, of course, too late. Her naked lifeless body still hung from the cross. They bombed it to prevent the scavenging animals and birds from despoiling her remains further..."
