Second Harvest

"No more sir, please kill me. Just kill me and be done with it!"

The soldier wore sergeant stripes on his shirt and thrust his hips between the woman's legs, slapping her repeatedly. Roy stepped into the room, near the two people, and then the woman's eyes met Roy's. She turned her face to Roy and spoke in French, but he did not understand her words.

"Oh my God, sir, please save me, please help me!" she cried. The sergeant's hand went over her mouth.

When the sergeant faced Roy, he wore a threatening expression. Instantly a revolver appeared, and he stuck the barrel into Roy's nose. Looking down the pistol, Roy could see a bullet waiting in each cylinder.

"Look here stupid, this ain't none of your business. Now get the hell out."

Roy started to say something, but then the man pulled the hammer back with a distinctive click. Roy watched the cylinder roll over in slow motion. The soldier's expression shifted into a rage as Roy slowly walked backward toward the door. Pausing, Roy glanced down and found himself entranced because the woman was completely naked with welts and bruises covering her stomach and chest. Her face was bloody, and her lips were bleeding. She cried the same message again.

"My God, do something, please, sir help me, please!"

When the sergeant fired his revolver, the bullet whizzed just past Roy's head. Instinctively he flinched. Roy quickly moved toward the door and exited. As he walked out of the room, he could hear the woman pleading for help in French. It was not necessary to comprehend her language, it was clear she was in trouble.

As he looked over his shoulder, Roy saw the sergeant strike several blows to the woman's face. Each time she screamed for help; the soldier would hit again. After each blow, he would then thrust his body into her flesh pumping like a wild animal. A chill ran down Roy's spine, and he shivered.

Between the screaming, the hitting, and thrusting, somehow the sergeant forgot about Roy. Churning brain cells to dust, Roy tried to decide the correct course of action. It did not take him long because Roy crossed from the doorway to the bed in three giant steps. Raising Roy's rifle above his head with two hands, the sergeant never saw it coming. When Roy swung his rifle butt at the soldier's head, he delivered it with such full force that it knocked the soldier off the bed. At the point of impact, Roy heard a loud crack and the sergeant's expression shifted in split seconds from shock to pain, and then he closed his eyes and fell limp to the floor.