Orphan © 2000

By George William Sweeney

The orphanage was a set of barracks in middle of nowhere. It was in Siberia, truly surrounded by nothing. There were no trees, just flat expanse.

The place could on first glance easily be mistaken for a Gulag. All but one of the buildings looked very run down and drafty. That one building was where the person in charge lived.

This was were Russia's orphans went to grow up.

Here is where he grew up; brought here after his parents were taken to work in the mines for being traitors to the people. Their neighbors had denounced them publicly for their greed, of planting a garden, and thinking themselves better.

Here is where Zmeya learned of life, while fighting in the circle. This was the entertainment for the orphanage as well as their recreation. The boys were required to learn how to fight. Sometimes they were forced to fight to the death. This was their way of getting rid of the weak. The bodies were thrown into a pit in a run down building set off from the others. This pit was full of hungry rats.

Zmeya had done well for himself in the circle. For this he got better food and was allowed to run more freely around the grounds, even close to the girl's part of the compound. This is where he met Svetlana.

At first he would only watch her as she was outside for her exercise. When she had noticed him they began to talk and become friends. But this was short lived. She was starting to mature physically and was taken on a fieldtrip one day never to return. There was talk that the girls, and some boys, were taken to entertain some general and his friends.

Zmeya also caught someone's eye. His fighting skills did not go unnoticed or rewarded. A general came and invited him to be trained to serve Mother Russia. He promised that he would be able to eat well.

He did eat well. He also had good cloths to wear, unlike the rags he had at the orphanage.

He spent his days in physical combat training, learning the chemistry of explosives, survival and most importantly the doctrines of Marx and Linin. He was told that the people in charge of the orphanage were examples of capitalism. They exploited the children for their own personal profit. They even sold the children to whomever had enough money. He was reminded of the orphanage every day to kindle in him the hate for capitalism and the imperialistic countries that practiced it, such as the U.S.A.

He excelled in all of his training, most especially in hand to hand combat. So did he excel he was transferred to a base near the boarder with China where he was given very special training in the art of killing.

When he was fourteen he was ready. This was an unusual age for a KGB agent, but the Snake was particularly unusual. He could take on their best trained men with ease. He would make an excellent tool of the Party.

His first job was an assignment to travel to Cuba. He would go with a more experience agent to discover and eliminate a subversive group stealing food from the people.

They traveled to a place from which they could see the American base that had been illegally taken from the Free Cuban people. The Americans were attempting to subvert the Cuban people so that they could exploit them as they have done their own. Snake was there to find the person or persons working with the Americans and eliminate them in order to protect the people.

These people looked hungry to Snake (that is what Zmeya meant) just like the orphans he grew up with. The agent with him told him that these people were lazy, they wanted the state to feed them without their working to support the state. They did not have enough food because the Americans were stealing it from them.

They concealed themselves outside the party granary to wait for the American puppets to attempt to steal the peoples grain. The granary was full to overflowing.

In the middle of the night with the aid of night scopes they could see the thieves attempting to break in. They had no hope for escape as they were surrounded by Cuban troops and beaten to the ground.

The KGB interrogation was very thorough. It took hours to extract confessions from the criminals to there assisting the Americans. Snake's knuckles had become sore from persuading the confession out of them.

The next day, after Snake and the other agent had plenty of sleep they had the families of the men they caught gathered together in the middle of the village. They also called all the villagers to witness how thieves and traitors were dealt with.

The homes of traitor's families were searched. They found an American quarter. Here was the absolute proof they were looking for of their allegiance to the Imperialist.

The traitors were stripped of their clothing and they gave a voluntary donation of blood. At least they would give something to the community.

The other agent took out his pistol and had the men knell down. One by one he put his pistol to the back of their heads and with ease pulled the trigger, giving a spray of skull, blood and brain. The screams and wails of their families were almost deafening.

The boy of one of the criminals was about Snakes age. He ran and attacked the agent. But Snake responded quickly breaking his leg as he had been trained. The boy would be dealt with latter.

A couple of the villagers ran off into the jungle during the scuffle. The agent sent Snake and a few of the soldiers to catch them.

It was a couple of boys that had run. Snake noticed someone else also in the jungle that was also running from them. He followed this person through cactus trees and underbrush. Finally the person stopped and Snake could see his face. It was an American, about his age. Snake was taken back and immobile by the sight of this person's face.

This moment of narrowed attention was almost fatal. As he stared into the face of this other person, caught up as if by recognition, he was hit from behind.

Snake was unconscious for a couple of days. When he came to he was in the Naval Hospital at the Russian Sub Base in Santiago. He was told that the boys that had escaped had been caught and sent with the families of the traitors to be rehabilitated.

Snake asked if one of the boys that had been apprehended had reddish hair, like his, but none had.

The blow to his head had left him with a ten-centimeter gash in the back of his skull. He was flown back to Russia as soon as he was able to travel again.

He was given a couple weeks leave to rest from his injury. He had nowhere to go, no one to visit, except for one place, one person. From the time Svetlana was taken away he had imagined of one day taking vengeance on the pig in charge of the orphanage.

He went to the orphanage at night and walked in the last couple of miles so he would not be noticed. With his training it was not at all difficult to get into his house and find the way to his bedroom.

Snake stood in darkness for several minutes watching this pig while remembering the children he had taken to the pit and the children he had sold.

Snake grabbed the pig by the throat and dragged him out of the bed. Holding him in a paralyzing grip on the throat he told him that he would kill him if he did not do exactly as he was told.

Snake guided him to the pit. The pig pleaded for his life, just as many of the children certainly had. He even fell to his knees to beg. But there was no mercy in Snake's heart. Didn't this pig call him Snake because he was cold and without feeling?

With a kick he knocked him into the pit. He thought of Svetlana and the others that suffered as he listened to his screams as the hungry rats found his flesh to their liking.