“I heard it was suggested to them that instead of employing young men of the right age, who they would have to train and pay salaries, this was a cheaper option”, Zel narrated.
“Kids living in fishing communities or near water bodies need no training of any sort to swim” martins chipped in almost immediately.
” they were told about poor families in such communities who were willing to give away their children for small sums of money”, Zel added.
“Most of these were single parent families, where husbands had deserted wives and children”.
“You’re spot on with that “, Zel agreed.
“I actually walked in on my mother counting such a stash of money, i hadn’t heard of the term trafficking back then. However, even as kids, we were aware that most our friends were mysteriously disappearing from the community” martins told Zel. “I therefore knew something was about to happen when i discovered that my mother had received such a ‘gift”
“And the sad thing is that it’s not only this company that that’s involved in this wicked activity. There are loads of other companies taking advantage of families in these poor communities” Zel said.
“You probably, or maybe not. It depends on whether I…, we end up in the other dormitory, none of the lads l’ve met here is from our community,” martins told him, his eyes scanned the dark room to see if anyone had stirred up.
“Who do you keep referring to as we?” martins asked.
“I’m talking about Philip and myself, I probably would have been fine on my own, but because of Philip’s conditions, I always worry about being away from him in strange surrounding.”
“That must be very difficult for you ,” martins acknowledge, “He may not be able to hear instructions being given or even call out to someone for help in an emergency.”
“Anyway, let’s wait and see what happens at the sorting ceremony tomorrow. I guess then, I will know what to do.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Zell agreed.” No need worrying over nothing yet.”
“I meant to ask you earlier…, ” Martins paused, ” why are you at the slot at this times of the night? ”
“There have been some changes in security in the past month due to the recent escape attempts, and I like to keep up to the date with these security arrangements, ” Zell replied.
“Are you trying to escape? ” Martins asked unexpectedly, though he couldn’t see Zell’s face in the dark , he could sense his question had shaken him.
” You try and get yourself back in here and then I’ll give you an answer,” he finally replied.
After half-an- hour of chit-chatting about what they could see through the slot, the boys both groped their way back to their bunk beds.
The handlers for the new boys ho joined zell’s dormitory came for them fifteen minutes after breakfast, the boys all left the dormitory in a single file, the air smelt fresh and wonderfully clean.
It was nothing like the polluted environment back in theit home due to the burning piles of rubbish scattered all over, the view in the yard was amazing .
The grass stretched rich and green in all directions they hadn’t seen this section of complex when their bus had driven in, It was also nothing like what martins had seen through the slot the night before.
The steep hillsides which couldn’t be seen in the dark now stood tall and grand before them, they formed an excellent barrier between where the lake ended, and the world beyond.
Even if you swam to the base of the hills surrounding the water body, it would be almost impossible to climb up the sides of the hills and out of the complex, the sides of the rock face were uneven and almost vertical, it was then that he noticed what Philip had stated earlier.
The lake was man-made, you could see the places where machines had cut into the rock, leaving huge stripes, as If a giant cat had clawed at the rock face.
The Engineers had created a design which not only kept it in the water but also prevented anyone from trying to escape by climbing.