Chapter 31

“No.” I said.

“Sing!” The Warden said as she pressed the gun harder into my skull.

“Don’t listen to her!” Zigzag blabbered. “Don’t eve-” He was then firmly shaken to silence by Pendanski. I pressed my lips together and hugged myself to stop shaking. The Warden sighed and motioned at Mr. Sir. In that moment I looked up at Squid who was kneeling in the grip of the creepy  cowboy. His eyes were pleading.They seemed to say I’m sorry. I looked back puzzled; all I wanted was for him to like me again. It wasn’t his fault for anything. I tried to give him a look back but Mr. Sir shoved him towards The Warden. I noticed that Pendanski then passed Zigzag to Mr. Sir. Then the two councilors pulled out their guns. The Warden lifted hers off my head and clicked it at Squid. He shuddered under the barrel. Pendanski had his pointed at Charlie and Mr. Sir had his at Zigzag who was going paler and paler by the second. Charlie tried not to burst out into tears. Squid was biting his lip and had his eyes shut tight. His breath came out in short sharp bursts.

“No! What are you do-“ I squirmed and tried to get to Squid and my best friends. I was thrown back.

“Sing. Or watch them die.” The Warden hissed. The guns of Mr. Sir and Pendanski reloaded, making Zigzag and Charlie flinch. I felt I was going to be sick, but I swallowed it down, closed my eyes and started with a wavered note.

“You used to call me your angel” I started trying to make it as quite as possible.

“Speak up!” The Warden shrieked. I sung at speaking level, trying not to look up at the evil and scared faces.

“S-said I was sent straight down from heaven

You'd hold me close in your arms

I know you're in a better place

But I wish that I could see your face

I know you're where you need to be

Even though it's not here with me

They stole my love from me I can only say

That they will all pay

My treasure, which all you seek

Could be right beneath your feet

For what touched my lips, my love you took

And for his sake, my fortune you will look

Generation after generation, sons after sons

0-7-3-2-4-1”

I wavered those cursed numbers real slow not knowing what would happen next. As soon as I got to two, Zigzag cried out trying to cover up my voice. I think his paranoia kicked in at that moment. That’s when it happened. It was a blur of noise. My singing, Zigzag shouting, The Warden screaming for Mr. Sir to shut him up. That’s when the gunshot rang through the air. A horrible noise. Zigzag fell silent his mouth hung open in an O shape. Mr. Sir held the smoking gun in his hands. Pendanski shuddered in shock and blinked wildly.

“You fucking retarded idiot!” The Warden gasped at him taking steps away whilst dragging a resistant Squid with her.

“Shit, it’s a reaction! I’m sorry!” He threw his hands in the air looking crazy and worried. The gun was in his hands. Pendanski almost reached for Zigzag, letting go of Charlie. It all seemed to go in slow motion. Charlie was wailing and ripping herself free from Pendanski and pushing him to the ground. Squid’s eyes were open wide, frozen in place. I pulled myself up and crawled to Zigzag’s pale body. He looked down and noticed that his white top was now red; it was pouring from his clutched shoulder. His eyes scrunched up in pain as he grabbed the cloth around the wound and fell back to the ground. He didn’t seem to be moving. Charlie was there before me, grabbing him and holding him in her arms. I couldn’t really tell if he was breathing or not. Then I saw him shudder and shake as if he had been electrified. He cried out in pain as I tried to help. I pushed down on the wound with my hands. He gulped as another shudder went through his body. Charlie was pale and shaking and patting down his hair as she rocked back and forth. My hands turned the rusty red color. My hearing was blurred but I could make out the conversation above us. Stanley and Zero were yelling from inside the hole. Pendanski was freaking out.

“What’re we going to do now?” he blurted, panic struck. I felt someone behind me, holding my arms and then helping me with Zigzag by putting his hands on mine. Squid.

“Man it’s gonna be okay Zig…” He said next to me. I glanced and saw that he was looking more serious than ever before. Squid suddenly turned to the councilors and spat, “We need help! Now!”

“Whoa….I-I-I can’t feel m-m-my shoulder…” Zigzag whispered. Charlie wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging his head in an awkward but cute way.

“Shhh…It’s gonna be okay…I hope…you’re going to be fine…we’re going to get help.” She moaned looking up at Pendanski. Her face went scarlet with rage. “Well what now!” She hissed.

“Yeah!” I hissed as well. I didn’t know what to say. This was way scarier than any situation I’ve been in my life.

“Well we’ve got those numbers; 073214. Such a simple code.” The Warden looked dazed but was smiling. In all this chaos she was smiling? I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to stand up and rip her head off right there and then. She shook her head and the smile disappeared. “He’s not dead…luckily.” She icily said the last word. I knew she thought that it was better off without him, the thought made my insides do a flip. “We’ll have to take them back to camp. They’ve done their job.” She turned to us and crouched down so I could see her crazy face. “If you lot speak a word about this, you know what will happen. One peep and y’all be in a hole buried and gone from existence. Just like Stanley and Zero will be in a couple of minutes.” She traced the gun along my cheekbones as she crowed coldly like a witch. I tried my hardest not to shudder. Then, Squid reached out his hand and pushed the gun away and scooted in front of me, which made her laugh harder. “Aw, young love…how sweet.” She stood up again and knocked Squid back with a pointy booted foot. He fell on top of me. I quickly tried to get up out of the way, but he was holding my hand. So we lay there quietly waiting for what The Warden’s next instructions were. She went right up to Pendanski and prodded him stiffly in the chest. “Take those four back to their tent. Make sure that they all keep quiet. Tomorrow get the other councilors and round ‘em up into the Mess Hall. Tell them that if they don’t make a peep or talk to these guys they won’t have to dig any more holes. Got it?”  She turned around and went back to the hole where Stanley and Zero were in.

“What’s the punishment if they do talk?” Pendanski asked, a grin spreading across his face. What an evil motherfucker.

“Let them use their imagination.” The Warden said without turning around. “Mr. Sir?”

“Yeah?” Mr. Sir was trying to hide in the shadows.

“Take these four back to camp. Patch Zigzag up, will you?”

“Uh, um…okay.” He walked over to us and grabbed Squid by the arm again lifting him upwards. “Come on then you…” Squid’s hand was dragged away from mine. I looked at Charlie then to Zigzag. She was ferociously chewing her lip, her hands shaking. Zig had passed out. I felt surprisingly calm.

“Charlie we’ve got to get him up, we need to take him back. He’ll be safe there I promise.” I said to her. All of a sudden she turned completely composed and strong.

“Okay.” She got up and slowly wrapped her arms around Zigzag’s back and heaved him up on his feet. I helped. He was cold, pasty and paler than usual. We held him up by his arms on our shoulders and thumped our way towards Mr. Sir and Squid trying not to let the dead wait slip. The journey seemed to take forever. At points Zigzag woke up and limped a bit before going out cold again. Camp Green Lake was lucky that we didn’t leave a trail of blood behind us since the wound had stopped bleeding and it was plastered to Charlie and me’s tops. As we got back to tent the sky was turning a pale blue color, it was quite pretty in a way. The west was still that dark midnight color whilst the horizon in the east was almost a shade of pure clear sapphire.  If I weren’t in this situation I would have actually enjoyed the sunrise.  I squinted and saw Mr. Sir shove Squid into D-Tent. Charlie and I made a quick run or more like a quick hobble over to the entrance. As we burst inside I saw the confused blinking eyes of our tent mates. Mr. Sir must have woken them up by turning on the bright light.

“Hey, what’s up-” X-Ray started but then he saw Zigzag. We must have looked terrible because Armpit almost screamed when he turned to us. But he then reached down and covered Twitch’s mouth before he decided to open his eyes. When he did it seemed as if one huge twitch rolled down his body and he was breathing real fast.

“No talking or else.” Armpit said to him and cracked the knuckles of one of his fists. Charlie and I carefully lowered Zigzag onto his cot and then stretched our shoulders. Mr. Sir chucked a roll of gauze at us. Squid caught it and sat next to me.

“Deal with him…” He said, walking out of the tent. Then everyone rushed over to Zig who had woken up and tried to sit up. He winced and almost cried out as he did so and collapsed back down gasping. Charlie sat by his head spilling out the choked sobs. I sighed and sat by his waist, next to Squid. The rest of the boys spilled questions. Questions of ‘What’s going’ on” and ‘What the hell happened’ and ‘Shit, someone help Zigzag!’

“Here let me do it.” X-Ray said, hovering over the wound. “Okay, we need something to get that bullet out and some alcohol. Anyone have any alcohol? No? Mag run and go sneak into the Mess Hall, you’re good at getting into things.” He turned to Squid. “Hand me that.” Squid tossed the gauze over. Right that second Magnet entered with a green bottle.

“Vodka.” He smiled though he grimaced at the blood covering my, Charlie’s and Zigzag’s clothes.

“Perfect.” X-Ray said, unraveling the roll. That’s when Charlie started panicking.

“Shit! We can’t do this! He’s going to die! I-I can’t let him die! He’s going to die X-Ray! Ah! No, no, no! We need a real doctor!” She carried on at the same things.

“There is no doctor.” Zigzag said, surprising us all.

“But, still!” Charlie continued, “Oh my god he’s going to get weaker and weaker and then he’s-” That’s when something really gross (in my opinion) happened. Zigzag with all that pain coursing through him leaned up onto one elbow and looked right at Charlie with his crazy, wide but calm eyes.

“I’ll be fine.” He huffed, and then leaned ever so close to her face. Before you know it they were on each other’s lips. Charlie looked frightened at first but then calmed down. I looked at them and blushed. Well this isn’t awkward.  Then I felt a hand on my leg. I looked up and Squid was there.

“You’re forgiven by the way.” He whispered in my ear. I decided to start up with apologies.

“What I did to you was-“ I said.  He silenced me in a long and passionate kiss. Cheesy eh?

“Oh, great…can you please do that somewhere else? I’m trying to work.” X-Ray moaned.