Imprisoned (17 page)

I watched the five games that were going on simultaneously. It was two wins out of three, so the first round for some teams lasted nearly ten minutes, but it didn’t take long before the first group had completed its first round. Our team, along with nine other teams, was called up to play next.

“Remember,” Billy said to us as we walked to our assigned position. “We need to move fast to grab the balls when they blow the whistle. Then we need to work together to get the other team out. So me and Alyx will work together to get out the people across from us and the rest of you work together to take out the people across from you, starting on the right and working your way down. That way they won’t be able to catch the ball.”

I nodded, hoping I understood his strategy. Obviously they’d played together before, but this was all new to me.

We stood where the Enforcers told us to and I looked at the five people standing across from us. They didn’t look very tough and I hoped that meant we had a good chance to win this round. I watched as Enforcers set six red balls on the ground exactly between us. When I looked at the referee, who lifted the whistle to his mouth, I felt my heart lurch. What if I messed up and ruined it for our whole team? Would they hate me? Would I be banished from the group?

The whistle blew and I shot forward, along with the nine others in our match. I reached for one of the balls, but someone on the other team grabbed it first. Rushing backwards, but making sure to stay within bounds, I frantically glanced at my teammates and saw they had managed to grab four of the balls.

Suddenly balls started going back and forth. One flew right towards me. It must have been instinct that made me catch it, because I didn’t really consider myself very athletic.

“Throw it, Morgan!” Piper shouted next to me.

I heaved the ball towards the person on the far right of the opposing team at the same time Cassidy threw her ball. Our teamwork paid off because we hit the boy and he was out.

Yes
, I wanted to yell, elated. My joy was short-lived as a ball struck me unexpectedly and
I
was out.
Crap!
I stepped out of bounds and watched as we took out two more members of the opposing team. Then Cassidy was hit and she came over next to me. Secretly, I was glad I wasn’t the only one on our team who’d been hit.

The whistle blew. The three minute match was over and we’d won. We played two more matches and lost the second—I got taken out again, but so did Billy and Alyx. In the third match I managed to stay in and we ended up winning. Overall, in round one, our team had won.

We went back to our place to watch the last ten teams finish off round one. When it was our turn to play in round two, we played a different team. It was tougher, but we managed to win two of the three matches.

“We’re going to make things a little more interesting for the final round,” Dr. Tasco said. “We will extend the play time to four minutes and you will now use basketballs.”

“Oh no,” Piper moaned.

“What?” I asked, not understanding the significance.

“Have you ever held a basketball, Morgan?” Cassidy asked.

“Of course.”

“Don’t you think they’re just a
bit
heavier than the dodgeball?”

Suddenly I understood why Piper had sounded upset. If I got hit with a basketball, it would hurt. A lot.

“We will begin with the losing teams,” Tasco intoned. “Who, by the way, are already down two points. But, to help them out, this round will be worth two points. Whoever wins their round will gain back the two points they’ve lost.” He smiled in the fake-creepy way that so many of the workers at Camp Willowmoss had. “However, the losers will lose an additional two points, putting them four points down.” He looked at all the teams. “Let us begin.”

The first teams lined up and the Enforcers set six basketballs in a line, exactly between each of the opposing teams. The whistle blew and the team members raced forward. Balls flew through the air. I could tell when a kid had been hit just by listening. Before, they would shout “ahhh” in disappointment, now there were sounds of people having the wind knocked out of them. As I watched the matches and saw kids double-over after being hit, it seemed the minutes dragged by.

Finally the first group of teams finished their matches and walked off the field. The ones who had lost had a strong look of defeat about them, but even the winners looked beat.

The next set of teams had lost round one, but won round two, so their skill—or luck—was a little better than the last group. Once their match began, I noticed that many of them seemed to throw the ball harder than they had before. When one girl was struck in the head, she dropped to the ground and began to cry. Her team members yelled at her to get out of the way and she crawled off the field.

I turned away from her tear-streaked face and looked at the row of Enforcers who were watching. None of them seem disturbed by what was happening. My gaze settled on Hansen. He was vigorously chewing gum, a wide grin on his face as he watched the misery of the kids who were playing.

When the whistle blew, ending the match, I felt a shiver of fear race up my spine. It was our turn.

I glanced at Piper, whose face had paled, then glanced at Billy.

“Stay sharp, Morgan,” he said, an encouraging smile on his face.

I nodded and walked with my team to our position. The other team lined up across from us. I looked at the faces of the opposing team and my eyes locked on Beth, who grinned at me. Was our deal still in play, or since she’d seen me eat the power bars at lunch, would she consider it null and void? I had no idea.

A pair of Enforcers walked over with the basketballs and as they set each one down, my heart rate rocketed higher and higher. They stepped back and the whistle blew. I hesitated before moving and lost my chance to grab a ball. Backing up quickly, my eyes shifted from side to side as I tried to stay aware of everything that was happening.

“Morgan!” Alyx called out. In the split second that I had looked to my left, Beth had taken aim at me and thrown the ball. I dropped to the ground and heard the ball
whoosh
past my shoulder. I didn’t have time to notice where it went after that because someone else on her team threw another ball at me. I saw it in time and actually caught it.

Jumping up, I threw the ball as hard as I could toward the boy across from me. He caught it easily, then threw it back at me. Since I’d just caught it, I felt confident I could catch this one as well, but he had thrown it right at my stomach. I did catch it, but only because when it hit me in the gut, my instinct was to wrap my arms around my stomach, which kept the ball in my arms.

“Throw it, Morgan! Throw it!” I wasn’t sure who was yelling because I was so focused on trying to get my breath back after getting the wind knocked out of me. I looked up and saw Beth laughing at me. Anger welled up inside me and using all my strength—which admittedly wasn’t much—hurled the ball in Beth’s direction. To my utter shock, I actually hit her and she was out.

She scowled at me and left the field, but I knew better than to spend more than a split second on my victory as there were still four people trying to hit the five of us. Having one of their team members eliminated seemed to enrage the rest of Beth’s team and the two of them that held balls threw them at me at the same time. As the balls flew towards me, I avoided being hit by one of them, but couldn’t avoid the other, and I was out.

Panting, I walked off the field and watched the rest of the match. The other team took out Alyx just before the whistle blew and the game was over. We’d lost.

We lined up for the next match and I glanced at Beth, who glared at me. The Enforcers set the basketballs between us and the whistle blew. I shot forward, determined to grab a ball, but Beth got there a fraction of a second before me.

“You’re going down,” she muttered.

I jumped back and prepared for her throw. A second later it came. Prepared this time, I caught it, my arms stinging as the rough surface rolled across my skin. Focused on my task, I barely registered Cassidy’s shout of pain next to me. Instead, I hurled my ball at the boy standing next to Beth.

“Watch out, Cam,” she yelled, but it was too late and he was out.

Feeling good, I watched as Beth picked up the ball that had taken out her teammate, but then a different ball hit me in the arm and I stepped out and went to stand next to Cassidy. She was rubbing her head and had tears in her eyes. We watched the rest of the match and a few seconds later Piper was hit in the stomach and she collapsed to the ground, but lumbered over to us.

“Are you okay?” Cassidy asked.

“I’ll be fine,” she wheezed.

A moment later it was over and we’d lost, but at least we didn’t have to play a third match. Our team huddled together.

“Hey, at least we won the first two,” Alyx said. “We didn’t gain points, but we didn’t lose any either.”

“Whatever,” Cassidy said. “It still sucks.”

When Dr. Tasco announced that we were moving on to tug-of-war, I was relieved. Until Piper said, “Great. I wonder what they have under those boards.”

I looked at the sheets of plywood that I’d noticed earlier. Before, I’d thought they were lying around randomly, but now I noticed there were four boards laid out in such a way as to accommodate four teams at once.

“Probably just a puddle of mud,” Billy said.

I noticed he was looking at me. I wasn’t sure if he really believed what he said or if he was trying to reassure me. I glanced at the others, but they didn’t look like they believed him.

“We want to make this competition as fair as possible, so all the boys line up over here,” Dr. Tasco said, pointing to one side of the field. “And the girls over there. We will choose a mix of seven boys and girls for each team.”

Billy walked away from us and joined the boys. The four of us stayed together, hoping they’d keep us on the same team. A few minutes later they had us organized into teams and I was on the same team as Cassidy, but Alyx and Piper were assigned to another team. Our team consisted of Cassidy, me, two other girls, and three boys. Josh from my kitchen crew, was one of them.

“Hey, Morgan,” he said.

“Hi.”

With seven people per team, there were twenty-two teams, although four teams were short a person. No one seemed to say anything about the unfairness of it, but those teams looked worried and I was glad I wasn’t on one of them.

The Enforcers laid out four long, thick ropes, but they were nowhere near the sheets of plywood. Instead they were in the same area where we’d had the dodgeball games. They called up eight teams at a time so that there were four games of tug-of-war going on at once. Each pair of teams played to see who could win two of the three pulls.

When the first group went, I watched carefully, trying to figure out if there was anything special they needed to do, but it was all brute strength and who could pull the other team over the line first.

When it was our turn our team got in a single-file line: boy, girl, girl, boy, girl, girl, boy. I was the third from the front. The opposing team had four boys and three girls, but I was hopeful we could win. The other team lined up next to the opposite length of rope.

“Get ready,” an Enforcer yelled.

We picked up the rope and held it taut.

The Enforcer blew a whistle and we began pulling. At first there was no movement at all, but then we were tugged forward just a little bit. The boys on our team yelled to pull harder and I pulled as hard as I could. My hands burned on the rope, but I kept pulling. Then we gave a final heave and pulled our opponents over the line.

Exhilarated to have won, we jumped up and down and shouted. After a thirty second rest it was time for the next match. After some back and forth, the other team won.

“Come on,” Josh said. “We’ve got to win the next one. Two out of three, come on.”

A minute later we were pulling the rope again. It was obvious that the other team wanted to win as much as we did. We tugged and pulled but in the end, they were a little stronger than us and we lost. Feeling deflated to be in the loser’s group, we walked to the sidelines to watch the last group of teams have their match.

In round two we were among the first groups to compete. This time we were more evenly matched as the other team had four girls and three boys like we did. We won two of the three pulls, making us the winner.

“Yes!” Cassidy said, high-fiving me.

At the end of round two, Dr. Tasco spoke into the microphone. “Wasn’t that fun?”

I nodded—it actually had been pretty fun—but when I looked at my teammates, they weren’t nodding. In fact, their faces showed wariness.

“As you know, we like to spice up our Saturday Challenge,” Tasco said, a big smile on his face.

I thought about them changing the dodgeballs for basketballs and wondered how he would “spice up” this game. Several Enforcers were moving the ropes we’d been using over to where the sheets of plywood were laid out and I had a strong sense of foreboding.

“We have two types of motivations to win this next round.” Tasco looked over to a large basket that an Enforcer set on a table. “First, the winners will receive their mail for the last week.”

A murmur went through the crowd and I felt my heart leap as I imagined being handed a stack of letters from Mom. I’d wondered why she hadn’t written to me. I thought maybe she was mad at me for being so stupid about the cookies, but maybe she actually
had
written to me and they’d just withheld the letters.

“The losers will have to wait a while longer to receive their letters. And,” a large grin split his face. “The losers will have a little surprise when they’re pulled across the line.” He nodded toward the Enforcers who stood next to the sheets of plywood and the men lifted, then moved, the sheets to the sidelines.

From where I stood I couldn’t see what had been underneath, but I heard a girl shriek and alarm bells rang in my head.

“I want each and every one of you to be motivated,” Tasco said. “So please take a moment to peek at what’s inside.”