“WILL YOU JUST LET ME SPEAK?” Jegg shouted loudly (we were lucky we were far away), throwing his hands in the air, Jee falling off his back, his wooden stool falling down. 2
Seela stopped leaning on her chair.3
“Why didn’t you just ask?” She smiled happily.4
__________________________________________________________________5
I watched as my eagles soared in the mid-day sun. Hauling another rock across the dirty ground, sweat ran down my face. It was okay, but I wasn’t used to it. I glared at Jegg. He poked his tongue out. He was fine. Seela was alright, like me. Hunter, Jay, Jegg and Helm were taking it easy. When Seela and I had hauled three rocks across to the builders, they had pulled double. The hot day didn’t make it better for me. I glanced at the Chief. He was wearing thick clothes, and was slowly taking something off during the day. First, the hat. Then, the jacket. Then, the ridiculous medal he wore all the time. What was next? His pants? I grinned on the inside. No one except Jegg knew me.6
We were given an hour’s break before we continued. All six of us were gathered. Helm started.7
“Are we meeting today?” He asked.8
“Donno,” Said Seela, shrugging. “Depends what happens tonight.”9
“Well, what ever it is, we better get it over and done with.” Jegg lazily cried, leaning back on his wooden stool.10
“Maybe we should meet tomorrow night?” Seela said.11
“Why?” Seela, Jegg and I said in union.12
“Well, for instance, most of us have had harder jobs than us and aren’t going to pay attention on who’s going to be sent on a mission,” Jay replied. She has a point.13
“But—”14
“Yeah I know that you want to meet ‘cause this blasted camp is so boring.” Seela sighed.15
“Yeah but—”16
“I know that work was easy today but think of the others,” Seela continued to tweak with her new weapon.17
“Yeah I know—”18
“I know that—”19
“WILL YOU JUST LET ME SPEAK?” Jegg shouted loudly (we were lucky we were far away), throwing his hands in the air, Jee falling off his back, his wooden stool falling down. 20
Seela stopped leaning on her chair.21
“Why didn’t you just ask?” She smiled happily.22
After our break they set us to work again.23
By evening we trudged back to the ‘dining hall’ which was really a set of long, wooden tables outside near the taps & toilets. We had been working all day, and that meant we missed lunch – not that they fed us well anyway.24
We were present by a strip of bacon and a quarter of an egg. Keeping the nasty insults I wanted to scream at the guards to myself, I ate silently, Jegg giving Jee some of his food. In return the monkey gave him three bananas. He gave one to me, and whispered to Jee. Probably giving it to Helm or Seela. 25
Looking up from my ‘dinner’ I glanced at the Notice board. Great, torture all week. All of us call it torture - but the sign said ‘Helping the King’. We will always loathe the King. Damn
said we killed people. And he’s killing us off one by one. I wonder how many people will be left before I die?26One of my eagles came to me. The nearest guard took a step away. If we had any ‘pests’ then at first, they would try to take them away. So far, my eagles have attacked three guards. Jee has tricked six guards into locking themselves in a cell. So they let us keep these ‘pests’. They don’t get fed everyday like us. They have to hunt for a meal three times a week before they are giving a bowl of dog food. They don’t eat it anyway. 27
Someone was shouting. I looked up. A skinny man with glasses (I think his name was George, who was a criminal mastermind at hacking into files) was throwing a fit. The guards were laughing at him. Suddenly, he lunged and nearly smacked one of the guards across the face. Helm had stood between them and had tightly grabbed his hand. Helm glared at him, his brows raised. He let George go. George muttered apologies and went back to his table, sulking.28
I think the other day his friend got beaten up.29
Or was it?30
I can’t remember. 31
But man, that guy is going to get demoted. Helm won’t be happy. 32
At all. He’s demoted people without hesitation. You see, everyone starts with a role. A basic one. If you’re good then he’ll promote you; and vice-versa. If you’ve been demoted twice and you get demoted a third time then it’s bye-bye to you and you’re told to get lost. That hardly happened. Except for a few times. I think they died ‘cause they bashed up guards. George might not be so lucky. That’s why people are so good. No one wants to get kicked out of C.L. C.L is the place where you have friends. If you get kicked out, then you’re going to live terribly before you die. No one will welcome you, only some will talk to you. And that’ll be phrases like, “Nice one, jerk.” Or, “Happy that you got kicked?” Jegg does that sometimes. I bet he would do it all the time if I wasn’t there. Idiot, that guy. And I mean it.33
It was night-time. Since it’s torture week, we get night torture as well. And it’s horrible. We have to bury our friends, set up the hanger, and fetch all kinds of death things for the Death Cite. It’s different each time. We all think the same thing what ever is in our hands: Someone is going to die in this. It’s not really physical damage, more mental. We carry all these things thinking about ways people are going to die and on the Death Day it’s set up differently. That
king is smart. For once. 34People were scattered in minutes to do their jobs. Sometimes they were carrying some rocks, or maybe some whips.35
I don’t want to think about it.36
I was set to carry bucket loads of water. I have no idea why. Grabbing a bucket (which was extremely small,) I walked over to the well (Which was far away) and walked back to the pool area.37
I carried some water in a bucket after my sixth load. This was tiresome. My mind was already running with ideas of which one of us if going to die next? Will they be chained to the bottom and will never be able to get out? I tipped the water into the pool. 38
At 10pm the Chief called (which that annoying whistle). We all gathered ‘round, our faces dirty from the day’s work and they colour drained from our faces from tonight.39
“Today,” The Chief happily cried. “One of you is going to be drawn in a wheel.” Meaning that whoever gets pulled out gets a little present. Death. Thing is, no one knows who it is. They pull it in front of us and then call one of us in secret. I cursed over and over in my head. A box was held by one of the guards and shaken vigorously. The Chief pulled one out. He read it, smiling as ever. Before he could put it away, a gust of wind blew by his back. The piece of paper flew out of his stubby fingers and landed into mine. I slowly opened the note. Everyone around me was trying to find it. If my face could’ve gone paler, then it did. I cleared my voice and tried to speak.40
“The person wh-who’s going to die next, is S-Seela.” 41
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