The Overcomer, Stranger Things

Enslaved

The train slowed and then ground to a halt with the deafening screech of the brakes. It was Wednesday morning, June 18, 1986. Since Monday the prisoners had been stuck in a closed-up boxcar, crowded together in darkness, filth, and hunger. This is Gwen's third week of being imprisoned at the Kamchatka work camp. She hated it.

The food tasted and looked like gruel, the boarding was barbaric and confining, the clothes were scratchy and uncomfortable, and don't even get her started on the other prisoners. They made the girls Gwen had to deal with at school look like Elmo. Her fellow inmates were rude, nasty, disrespectful, and downright unpleasant. They seemed to make a joy out of shaming her and mocking her in front of anyone that would stop to listen, and most people would. And they always, always steal her bread.

The girl was getting skinnier and skinnier by the day. After getting out of the two-week quarantine that apparently was necessary for new prisoners to make sure they weren't diseased, Gwen had been placed in a hut with the other workers. It was awful, and she would choose solitude over them any day. Alexei was the only person at camp that had been kind to her and they seemed to grow closer the longer they were trapped here together. The scientist reminded her of Dustin and Barb. He was dorky, funny, smart, and practically just a big man-baby.

Now the prisoners huddled together as they waited for the locked doors of the car to be opened. Gwen had to hold in her groan as she was squished in between two foul-smelling men. Some of the prisoners had expressed the opinion that nothing good could come from traveling in a freight train, something that normally transported livestock. Gwen thought that perhaps the animals had gotten better conditions than them, human beings, and if this was the journey- what did that say about the place they were arriving at?

When Gwen got in the car, the first thing she noticed was that there were no steps, so she had to take a run and go to get up there. Because there was no way one of her companions was going to help her. The second thing she noticed was a lot more shocking and revolting. The car was filthy and stinky from the cattle that had been transported before them. The floor was wet and dirty, it appeared someone had tried to wash it with a hose but they ran out of time. As a result, the floor was covered with a sticky paste of mud and filth. The third thing she noticed was that the car had no seats, so everyone had to stand, pressed against each other. The fourth thing she noticed was that there was no eating or drinking allowed in the car, not that it mattered, they didn't have anything.

And the last thing she discovered, the worst news of all, was that the car had no bathrooms. Imagine being stuck in a cattle car with 80 middle-aged men and no place to relieve yourself, while also being the only girl. Yeah, not fun. "Excuse me," Gwen called out when she realized she couldn't hold it in any longer, "does anyone have a blanket?"

"What is the crazy American doing?" one of the big Russian men laughed at her, causing the girl to give him a glare as someone else took pity on her, giving the girl a blanket. Somehow, without a hammer or nails, Gwen managed to hang up a blanket in the corner of the rail car to create a private toilet stall. The other prisoners were left dumbstruck.

"How did the small American do that?"

"She's so tiny, how did she even reach up that high?"

"Smart American!"

There was one problem though. What to do with the bucket that was rapidly filling up and overflowing? "The bucket needs to be emptied outside," one of the Russians said. And that is how Gwen ended up on the big man's shoulders, trying to dump the bucket of waste outside. However, as the train rushed on, her attempts failed, again and again, causing her to lose her momentarily street cred with the Russians.

"Stupid American!"

"I'm covered in poop!"

"I think I'm going to be sick," the last comment, caused Gwen's eyes to widen as she jumped away from the man that had just barfed all over the floor. The girl was slightly relieved when the prisoner's wrath turned to him instead of her.