The Serpent Queen

December 19 | Part One

John Kreese watched his students follow after Tory seconds after her and after he had dismissed them all. Hearing glimpses of their exit conversation on how to attack the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs. He was proud of them making an immediate battle plan to win against the enemies.

He thought back to the time where and when he became the man he was today and where he learned to be so cutthroat and ruthless.

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In North Vietnam in 1969, huddled together in a holding pen made out of thick and sturdy bamboo trunks, the captured American soldiers stared out through the slat keeping them caged him. They were terrified, ragged, dirty, and quite thin from malnourishment.

Kreese could see several fire torches around the thatched huts in the middle of the jungle clearing they were captive in. Lots of Vietnamese soldiers were scattered across the camp. Two armed enemy soldiers came towards the chained and padlocked bamboo cage. The American stood up as the door was unlocked.

The enemy scanned over the Americans and selected two of them from the ranks in their native language, cocking their guns as they did. "Bạn và bạn. Hiện nay!"

The young soldiers knew that they were speaking to them and wanted them out of the cage so they complied. The two selected stood up with their hands up in surrender and slowly exited the cage. To make matters worse, other Vietnamese soldiers shoved them out of it as well.

The door was chained and padlocked again, Kreese kept a clam and steely expression on his face. He wouldn't let them break him. Next to him sat his friend, Twig.

The poor young man was very unsettled they the events that took place and their current situation, "It's my fault, Johnny. Jesus Christ, they're gonna kill us all--"

Through gritted teeth, he hissed, "Shut up!" Young Terry immediately shut his mouth. The two friends turned their heads to watch as the Vietnamese guards marched their own comrades towards a large open fit with a narrow and flimsy wooden bridge. Kreese added more empathetically, "Get your shit together. The only thing you need to worry about now is survival. You've got plenty left to live for. We all do. Focus on that. Besides, it's not your fault we're in here. It's mine."

Their two fellow American prisoners of war were forced up the wooden bridge, facing each other. Guards crowded around the pit yelling and firing of rounds into the air. The soldiers reluctantly began fighting with forced hand to hand combat, giving their enemies a good show. The caged soldiers couldn't bear to watch the fight happening.

"You got one thing right, Kreese--" Captain Turner said, sitting alone with his back against the slats. "It is your fault we're in here. But you're wrong about the rest." He spoke about Silver next. "He won't survive this."

Young Kreese and Silver turned to look at him. He pleaded with the man, "Captain Turner, come on, you're the ranking officer-"

He continued callously, "Look around, Kreese. There are no ranks any more. Not here. It's every man for himself."

A loud grunt of pain could be heard from the pit fight, drawing the prisoner's attentions. They saw the two combatants fight with pure desperation, grappling and clawing to stay on the bridge. One of them swung at the other, he missed and the other kicked him off the the bridge. The American soldier screamed as he tumbled into the pit below.

The Vietnamese guards cheered and shot more rounds into the air wasting them. They walked the victorious, but visibly shaken prisoner back to the cage. The other men watched silently as he was let back in and slumped over into a corner, with a haunted look in his eyes.