Trapped : The Island of Torment

Chapter 27 : Bit Of Family History

Bruce held Isabella's hand in his, as Candice's husband Philip emerged from the tent that he shared with his wife. He was shocked by what he saw, as Isabella was impaled in the shoulder by an arrow. "What happened?" he asked. 

"We can explain later." Candice said. "But we need to disinfect and treat Isabella's wound." 

"Ok." Philip said. "What do you need?"

"Take the gun we found, and obtain the gunpowder inside one of the bullets, then get a fire burning, hurry!" Candice said. Philip went to work immediately, following what Candice had told him to do. 

"You'll have to take them off." Bruce whispered in Isabella's ear, referring to her shirt. Isabella nodded, but was hesitant, as she knew that people would have seen her scars. "I'm here for you, don't worry." 

"I'll need a belt." Isabella said. "A leather belt." 

"Hang on." Bruce said, motioning for Candice to take over. He soon returned, carrying a leather belt in his hand. "Here." he said, handing her the belt. 

"Fire's ready." Philip said. Isabella soon let go of her hand which was held against her wound and unbuttons her shirt. Taking in a deep breath Isabella motioned for Bruce to remove the arrow, which he did. She only removed the sleeve where her wound was and Candice came forward, holding the bullet and a lit twig. 

"Ready?" she asked. Isabella nodded and bit onto the leather belt as Candice poured the gunpowder on the wound and set it on fire. Smoke rose as Isabella clung to her husband's hand while biting hard on the belt because of the pain. Bruce held on to Isabella, as he watched his wife go through the pain of having her wound cauterized. A while later Isabella's grip began to loosen and she stopped biting on the belt. She breathes heavily as Candice watches on with bated breath. Candice was anxious as it was her first time disinfecting wounds without proper anaesthetic, and was fearful that it might backfire. 

Bruce ripped a strip of fabric from Isabella's already-tattered jacket and tied it around her wound as a tourniquet. With her wound now disinfected Isabella buttons back up her shirt, unaware that Dick and Barbara had been observing the encounter. Nyssa had told Oliver and Kate that Isabella was injured and unable to head out to hunt, so the trio set off to finish the job. "Was that...?" Barbara whispered, noting the scar on Isabella's abdomen. 

"Bruce told me that Isabella was injured while taking down Selina." Dick said. "But she pulled through, hence the scars."

"Bruce wasn't there for her?"

"That's where we screwed up our relationship with Isabella." Dick said. "Selina lied to us that Isabella inflicted the wound herself." 

"That is incredibly stupid for people like Isabella." Barbara said. "But seeing how Bruce treated Isabella now... I felt incredibly stupid myself." 

"They were together for more than ten years, while it took us for one party to wreck the trust she had in us and distrusted her for three years." Dick said. 

"She had just lost her biological father when we what we did reached her." Barbara said. "She had a miscarriage, Luke told us." 

"If we were to be in her shoes... I understand why she had wanted to distance herself from us."

"She had decided to leave the Batfamily." Barbara said. "Like what you said just now, I understand her departure." 

Away from the couple Bruce had his gaze focused on his injured wife as Isabella began to recover at a slow and steady pace, despite the crude method of disinfection. "How are you feeling?" Bruce asked.

"I'll be okay." Isabella said. Bruce smiled as he gave her a peck on her forehead, but deep down, he was worried. He'll need further tests to see if Candice's method of disinfecting her cousin's wound might work but for now he can only wait. "Sorry to have dragged you guys down." she said. Bruce shook his head however, disagreeing with her. 

"You might say that. But our great-grandfather would have disagreed with you." Candice said. "He was shot by a Japanese archer in Japan you know." 

"First in the family to be wounded by a longbow arrow." she smiled. "I know that war story." 

"I haven't." Philip said. "And neither does Bruce, I guess." 

"I know little except that he is a good investor, good father and a Korean War veteran." Bruce said. 

"We share the same assumption." Candice said. "Until grandfather allowed us to go through his journals and his campaign medals which he kept locked in a box in the attic of the family home."

"Through his journals we soon discovered that he was plucked out from work in the canning factory and placed into the US Army." Isabella said. "And... he was assigned to the Military Police Corps."

"And was sent to Japan, during the Occupation period." Candice said. "Which he is not happy, in his words." The trio returned with their hunt for the day and flasks of fresh water. 

"How's your wound Sayalfir?" Nyssa asked. 

"Just had it disinfected and bandaged." Bruce replied on Isabella's behalf. Nyssa nodded and went to handle their captured prey, throwing a cold glance at Dick and Barbara behind Bruce's back. "It's best that you don't do anything until we can get a doctor to look into the wound." he said. Isabella nodded and sat up slowly, with Bruce helping her. "Since they're handling the food, why don't we continue down your great-grandfather's memory lane?" he asked. 

"Isabella was way more engrossed in reading our great-grandfather's journals, since it was a mixture of both English and Korean." Candice said. "Now, I can speak English, but I'm afraid I'm not as fluent as Isabella is, as she grew up between two cultures after all." 

"It was an insight into the life in Occupied Japan as an Allied soldier, a member of the military police." Isabella said, taking over, after giving her cousin an eye-roll that is. "He had mixed feelings, because the country was the reason that he had to flee South Korea, and now to be standing on the soil of the land of the people who oppressed our home country... it is not hard to understand his point of view." 

"So military service was in the family since your great-grandfather became a member of the Military Police Corps." Bruce said. 

"When you're a man during this time... do you have a choice?" Isabella asked. "He couldn't say no when the draft notice arrived at the doorstep of grandfather's childhood home."

"Men are still conscripted into the South Korean military until this day." Philip said. 

"He came across General Douglas MacArthur." Isabella said. "The general was amazed that despite being a Korean by birth, he was able to speak Japanese. The general asked him to be his interpreter in Japan and Korea."