CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Skylar


THE ANNOUNCEMENT BLARES from the speakers all across the camp. Everyone is to stop what they are doing and make their way to the yard in the middle of the camp. I try to ask Waverly what is going on, but she doesn’t speak to me. She just walks and keeps her eyes fixed on the ground.

The entire camp gathers as the sun bakes us overhead. There is a man in the middle of the yard with several guards surrounding him, beating him with their rifles, kicking him in the ribs. Blood drips from the man’s head and he keeps his eyes closed as he shrinks into the fetal position.

One of the guards brings a rope and tosses it over one of the branches of the tree. He secures the rope to the branch, then they pull the man up from his spot on the ground. They put the noose around his neck and tighten it.

As they pull the man off the ground, his feet kicking underneath him, Warden Black appears, walking next to the tree with his hands behind his back.

“This,” he yells, “is the new punishment for trying to escape. If there is even a suggestion, if there is even the tiniest bit of evidence that one of you is trying to escape, you will hang next to this man.” He looks up, the prisoner’s face turning blue, his legs kicking a little less violently. “Stick to the new mantra: If you are trying to escape, you’re suicidal!”

With that, Warden Black walks away, leaving the prisoners to watch as the man stops moving. The guards place a sign on the branch above his head. The words read: tried to escape.