The nation’s enemy‘Following the assassination of Minister Chuck Hawthorne, the police have been able to track down and arrest the five gunmen responsible for the evil act’, the TV reporter announced on the evening news. ‘The deceased minister for the defence was killed on the third day of February during a press conference in Reckdette and that’s ironic considering the purpose of the conference was to discuss the rising insecurity of lives across the nation. According to autopsy reports, he had been shot twice in his head while giving his speech and had died immediately. The five killers who were confirmed guilty yesterday at the state’s high court have been locked up, following the adjournment of the court case till next week –’.General Sawer returned the remote control to the side stool and picked up his coffee cup from which the raw, undiluted smell of non-flavoured coffee could be perceived across the whole room. He took a sip from it and dropped it as he walked over to his wor
Welcome to Boorbunk: The ArenaThe prison guard was present now, loitering around the hallway with his lead block dragging on the ground behind him, staring grisly at the inmates locked up in their different tiny cell rooms. Just like the rest of the prison guards, they have overtime developed pleasure in watching fear written on the faces of the prisoners; a masochistic affair. He glanced over to the cell numbered ninety that housed one of the men who had recently been held there for the death of the country’s minister of defence. The next four cells in a row contained the rest of the four killers, all looking scared and seemed to be losing their minds, just as he liked it. They had only been here for one week and were not yet adapted to the horror that the crazy hellish place had in store for them. They had only experienced the miserable game of The Death Toast once and were still coping with the shock, looking forward to what evil this place held beyond the iron bars.It was block
The Humour SectAbout ten hours after the horrifying-to-stare-at prison warden was around, the long-awaited sound of the whistle was heard throughout the ward and then every other thing followed. The dim lights of the old wall bulbs came around…one…two… and then it was on; the doors were automatically made open and then suddenly the lost voice and restlessness of the inmates was back. Each of them rushed out of their little cells, unlocking them from their entrapment – both the physical, entirely dark, tiny confinement hole and even the more disturbing hole of the mentally-twisting trauma they were facing alone, pinching them. And now, there were out and free from their claustrophobic thoughts, for at least the next few minutes.Dale remained there just outside his own cell watching miserably as the others ran out. His eyes glassy with tears and his mouth agape. With only days there, he had discovered that this wasn’t a place where you come to serve a life sentence, it was a place whe
The slant crossThe last words of Peter kept coming back to the brain of Dale and it was shouting out in his head now that they were here in a hall; a different hall, a wider hall with about a thousand people dressed in the same orange prison uniform that he was wearing and even more guards dressed in tough soldier uniform and with a full panoply like people working in a gas chamber. All the prisoners were part of long rows and columns from the back of the room down to the middle of the room, well spaced-out and as organised as queues could get. There was entire decorum in the hall, no single sound in the room from anyone; all the prisoners placed their hands behind them and faced their front, not daring to look at the terrifying armed guardsmen with powerfully automated rifles facing them at the opposite walls that bordered the room. There were twelve officers in the front of the room staring at them with undecipherable dangerous eyeballs. Dale looked beyond the men who were about to
Not a place for smilesIt was already seven weeks that The Humour Sect had spent in there and had experienced the freedom of another prisoner from another ward. They were the most popular people in the ward, the most interesting, the most beloved.Everyone had a reason to laugh, everyone had a reason to forget every other worry.‘You guys are really rare, you know. We usually don’t get people like you in here. You all don’t deserve to be here.’, Peter said.‘Thank you’, Michael replied.‘Hey, you know you’d never told us how you got in here. What did you do? ‘, Pierson said.‘Wo. That’s quite a story’, Peter said. ‘I was just like you. Young, trying to find a way to survive in this country, hoping for a bright future. I got out of Tifftam college where I studied Genetics, then I got a job in the high school I had gone to, teaching Biology and then four years into it, I got arrested’, he said. ‘The men told me that me that my details matched that of a certain bank robber with the same
The only whistle they heard the next day was that of their awakening. There would be no need for any other orders. They rushed up to their diner, making full use of their opportunity, laughing on top of their voices. They were all talking to Tristan who had told them some jokes the night before and now that the day had been declared free, he was sure to tell them more. It seemed like the first impression of Tristan was lasting longer. Although it was completely approved by every member of The Humour Sect that Pierson was quite the funnier of the two; in the Boorbunk bay, the laugh was louder for Tristan’s puns.Now, they were all in the diner sitting as they usually did. Dale, Pierson and Michael on the same row with Barry and Tristan facing them and then Peter, and there were a lot of more people sitting around with The Humour Sect.They were still murmurings everywhere when Tristan spoke. ‘Hey, everybody!’. Silence. ‘Take a look at your food, it looks good right?’. Everyone murmured
The coastline of the Boorbunk Bay shared a direct border with United States of America and so extradition for the redeemed prisoners was very direct. The Boorbunk bay was at the tail end of the entire Dexter Islands and was surrounded by a powerfully built barricade to prevent the rest of the world from having a glimpse at it from even in the highest of towers and to prevent those within to see the daylight outside of it. The latter was rather unnecessary because each ward of the prisoners was heavily fenced already with huge tall walls. Looking at the entire structure from above, each ward was like a single different world on its own, demarcated and entirely sequestered by the walls. Each one with about a hundred prisoners, dealing with themselves and locked within with no noise or pandemonium in the outside world.But there was and the seven People states were completely tearing apart. They were called the People states because they contained the ordinary hoi polloi; mere masses. Th
He was seeing it again and this time with enough clarity which was only a plus to the nightmare. It was as if he was standing in a distance watching his helpless twelve-year old self. The man were circling around him in the centre of the road, with guns in hand, only one had an hammer in hand. Everything had rushed him all at once as he was sleeping now, like a spear in his head.He was shaking, struggling to come out of it but his eyes were still close. He was vibrating and so was the metal he was lying on with his teeth out, groaning mildly, willing to burst out.The men circling, the cold touch of the man on his head, the inky-black of the hammer’s head brimming in the moonlight. Everything rushed in at once yet again another really merciless pierce. His hands were clinging hard on his wrapper and he was shaking even more, the ever-increasing sound of the steel bed said it all.The man had put off his mask… gave him the scariest smile he had ever been hit with in his life…positione