I’d already taken a step forward, and stopped in confusion.
The mean-faced guard bellowed the name again: “Robin Wellfleet!”
My roommates woke up quickly and completely, as prisoners do. Robin was already standing, blinking in the dim fluorescent light.
“Here,” she said.
“Time to go!” one guard said roughly, and rapped his billy club against our rusty bars. Robin stepped forward and was immediately grabbed, her hands twisted behind her back.
“What’s going on?” I demanded. “Why are you taking her?”
Ignoring me, the guards yanked Robin out into the hall just as the prison-wide comm system crackled into ear-shredding life.
“Prisoners! Report to the ring!” Strepp boomed.
“Oh, shit,” Vijay breathed, his brown eyes full of dread.
“What?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
The guards dragged Robin down the hallway, her bare feet scraping the cold concrete floor. She looked back at me again and mouthed, Be strong.
“Prisoners!” the comm system blared again. “Report to the ring!”
“Oh, my God,” I said, as I followed Diego and Merry out into the hallway. “Is this another fight? Jesus! They’re going to make us watch a fight in the middle of the freaking night? What is wrong with them?”
They didn’t answer me, just followed the stream of prisoners who were being released one room at a time.
Vijay bumped my shoulder. I was startled to see tears forming in his eyes. “It’s not a fight,” he said, his voice breaking. “It’s an execution.”
36
THE OTHER PRISONERS LOOKED SLEEPY and disgruntled as we streamed down the hallway and into the clammy stairwell. Myself, I was almost hysterical, grabbing my roommates’ arms, chattering questions, praying for someone to tell me that it was just a fight after all.
“What do you mean, execution?” I asked Diego. “They wouldn’t—they took Robin for something else, right? This doesn’t have anything to do with her, right?”
Diego met my eyes for a second and shook his head. “You know we’re all on death row,” he said.
“Okay, but not Robin, right?” I pleaded. “Not Robin?” In the short time I’d been in the crazy house, Robin had saved my life over and over—telling me what to expect, how to survive. There were kids at home I’d known my whole life, but in just a couple days Robin had become a real friend—and everything I needed to survive.
I couldn’t be about to watch her die. I just couldn’t.
In front of me, Merry was openly crying. Kids were whispering about another kid—a boy named Tomás. Inside I was frozen, every bit of life draining away. What would I do without Robin? For years I hadn’t needed anyone. I’d made do without my ma. I’d made do without my pa. I’d always had Careful Cassie, but tried not to depend on her: who knew how long she would be around?
But in here, in this hellish nightmare, I’d let my guard down. I’d desperately needed help. I’d needed a friend. Robin had stepped up. She’d risked her own safety to help me.
She couldn’t die. Not now.
Numbly I followed the others into the big auditorium where Tim had beaten me to a pulp. The raised ring was still there, but this time there were two gurneys parked on the canvas surface, and two monitoring machines, like the kind they had Pa hooked up to at Healthcare United.
Strepp was standing in the ring, wearing—get this—a white medical coat. Like she was a doctor. Didn’t doctors promise to do no harm?
Our prison block sat in one section of wooden bleachers. I felt like I was going to be sick. I clung so tightly to Vijay’s hand that he pulled it away and shook his fingers to get the feeling back. But the four of us—Diego, Vijay, Merry, and me—Robin’s roommates and friends, sat together, pale-faced and with tears streaming down our cheeks.
Guards pulled Robin up into the ring. On the other side, two guards pushed a boy toward the gurney. He was small, young, and clearly terrified. Robin’s dark skin was ashen. I saw her scanning the bleachers, looking for our section. I jumped up and yelled, “We’re here!” only to have Diego and Merry grab my jumpsuit and slam me back onto the bleachers.
“Shut up!” Diego hissed. “Do you want to get us all tased?”
Guards were patrolling the aisles, Tasers out. I’d been so freaked I hadn’t noticed them. Now I huddled down between my friends, my fist pressed to my lips so I wouldn’t get them in trouble, too.