“I can’t actually believe such a wonderful place could be involved in the illegal activities I’ve heard about,” martins signed to Philip.
“Dude, we just got here yesterday evening, how could you have heard anything between then and this morning?” Philip replied, looking at martins curiously.
“Well, while you snored away through the night, I was making friends.” Martins giggled.
“Stop pulling my legs,” Philip signed, “That dorm was so dark I couldn’t see my feet as I lay in the bed, how could you have been making friends when you don’t even know who sleeps where?”
Martins told Philip about the chat he had with Zell, Once again he was glad he had bothered to properly learn sign language, the two boys signalled in silence as some of the other lads looked at them curiously.
The boys had now reached the assembly area, behind them were the administration block, the processing factory and other buildings, philip and martins stopped signaling.
To their utter surprise, kneeling before them were the two boys who had broken out the day before o of the instructors was saying something but martins could barely hear him as he tried to figure out how the lads had been caught, they had had such a big lead before the dogs had been brought out.
He realised he was missing out on the talk being given by the instructors as his mind kept wandering, the two men hadn’t bothered to introduce themselves so martins named them Shorty, and Clunky.
The former because he was very short and the later because he had a voice that sounded like kettles being clunked together.
“… and this is what happens to anyone who tries to cheat us of our money by trying to break out,” Shorty said, pointing to the two boys, “… We paid good money to get you jobs in this place and the best way to appreciate that is to try and run away? Most of your friends that you have left back in the villages do not have any job to go to and aren’t even lucky to even get a proper meal sometimes. Over here, we give you three meals a day with clothing and accommodation.” Clunky added angrily.
Martins looked again at the captured lads, What they had not considered in their escape plan were the sniffer dogs on the premises, due to the improvement in the security.
They knelt in the grass in front of the other boys, their hands cuffed behind their back and their necks in a wooden yoke, the devices prevented them from turning their heads in any direction.
The boys didn’t look like they had been ill-treated but they looked tired and weak, somehow he could still see some fire in their eyes, these guys would try again if they found the opportunity to.
Martins was baffled, what could be so terrible here that could make these lads risk everything to escape?
“These guys will be put in the hole for three days and after three days, you will all gather to witness what the hole does to people like this…,” Clunky said.
He signalled to the security guard to take the lads away, the yoke was unlocked and the boys were led away, hands still cuffed.
“Newcomers, we will explain to you what this place is, why you hate here, and what is expected of you,” Shorty stated, “Those of you who obey the rules will have no problems being here, while those of you who don’t will wish you had never been born. Always remember that even your parents did not want you.”
All shorty and Clunky have is information they thought the boys needed to know, it wasn’t much different from what Zell had told martins the night before, so his mind kept wandering as he tried to find a weak spot in the layout.