I placed my hands, wrists together and slid one thumb under my palm. If I could just get my thumb out from under the tie… A growing feeling of panic rose within me as seconds slipped by. At last I slipped the loop over my thumb and my hand was free.

Handcuffs bound my ankle to the weight that kept me on the bottom. I felt the growing desperations as my breath began to give out. I took the zip tie and felt for the end. I grabbed the cuffs and slid the end of the zip tie into the mechanism. If I could depress the mechanism just enough to free the latches…

Success! I tore open the cuffs.

With a look about me before I pushed off the bottom for the surface I saw that I was not alone. Dozens of concrete blocks, similar to the one I had just freed myself from lay scattered about the bottom. Many still bore their victims remains.

My lungs bursting I pushed off and up to the surface.

I don’t know what was brighter, the lights in my head, or the lights of Baghdad around me, as my head broke the surface.