2016-08-19 - spike - Trapped 7

Author: spike
Title: Trapped 7
Date: 19 August 2016

A week has passed since he watched Barker being flogged. He'd not been idle. HIs sister had got rid of the parents for a week and he'd used that time. The dialogue explains what he's achieved though so no need to do a blow by blow and the non-camp bits of the plot aren't really relevant here;

I'll do another time jump at the end of this one to the next visit another week later.

*****
“Hello Greg”

“You still going up there today?”

“Yeah, just bought a couple of bunches of bananas and some apples to divvy up between my brothers, I’ll be heading up there soon.”

“Can I come? I know there’s a risk, but I want to see it for myself. If there’s any trouble, you can just let go of me before they get a chance to taser me.”

“I wouldn’t worry about risk, unless the risk was Lingwu going into berserker mode when he sees me.” Yi-erwu laughed. “But you’ll be a bit lost, I’ll be speaking a lot in Chinese there so he can’t understand what’s being said.”

“There is that and Barker never was one for restraining his temper.”

“That might’ve changed by now, if his first flogging was anything to go by. But if you DO come, you have to promise me right now not to say a word to Barker that might hint about any escape or rescue plans, you’re just there to gloat. OK?”

“Gloating at Barker… I like that, definitely, you’re on!”

“OK, you know the pub at the far end of Greenfield?”

“The Clarence?”

“Yeah, if we get on different buses, I’ll meet you there, oh, and don’t call him Barker, his name is Lingwusiyisan, or Lingwu. That’s all I’m going to call him, you do too.”

“OK, is there a reason for that?”

“Well, I told you it was only when I accepted my name I gained the strength to survive didn’t I? Calling him Barker might be a backward step for him. He has to accept it and move on. Oh, and call me Yi-erwu, not Mike. Cos I have accepted my name and there it matters.”

“OK, I’ll see you up there then.”

Yi-erwu was at the bus stop now, he looked at the timetable and nodded. It was due in about twenty-five minutes, that might give Greg time to catch it too.

He opened the tupperwear box and began peeling and cutting the apples into slices. Better to do that here than get a knife out there, too much of a possible threat if Lingwu got hold of it, he’d leave the knife on the ground before travelling.

Before he knew it the bus had arrived, he closed his box full of apple slices and got on. He looked around, no sign, so he went to the top deck.

“Mike! Back here”

“Ah, good, you made it then.”

“Still find it hard to believe there’s a Chinese prison camp up in Greenfield, wonder why they put it there.”

“Can think of a few reasons, it’s in a valley so was probably shielded from the worst of the nukes over Manchester. I imagine some of the guards took over the houses in the village, then there’s the water, plenty of that under a reservoir, plenty of sheep too.” he grinned.

“They’re Chinese, not Welsh!”

“Ooo, you racist” Yi-erwu laughed, “I meant for food or wool you filthy minded little git. I think the suits are made of wool, certainly warm enough.”

The conversation died, both just watching the world go by as the bus travelled up through Lees, Grotton and then turned around a precipitous curve they’d always screamed at as little kids because it looked like they were about to go over a cliff. Greenfield was a small village and the bus arrived at the stop by the Clarence in no time.

“Right, this way…” Yi-erwu began strollling down the tree lined country road.

“So, what time are you expecting them to be there?”

“Difficult to say, could be any time between now and midnight really, it depends on the mood of the guards and if Lingwu’s temper’s anything to go by, they might be kept working late and then taken for a flogging before being returned to the cell.”

“And if we miss the last bus?”

“We walk, simple as that, you can kip in my room if you like tonight.”

“Problem with that is, you and your new found freedom… You keep forgetting about school”

“Don’t look at me, you’re the one who wanted to come! Anyway, this is where I dropped him off… The perimeter of the camp is right about here. Gates over there. Still a bit of a walk before we get to the hut though.”

“How on earth did you get the lay of the land?”

“Simple, first of all, I’d seen it from above on the truck delivering us to peat digging. And of course, when I took the slaves I could reach with my chain to see some sunlight, I studied all the landmarks to pinpoint exactly where my bed was”.

They continued to walk for a while until Yi-erwu took a sudden left turn off the road, walked another hundred feet and stopped.

“This is it. I’ll just take a look, wait here.” He looked around and vanished.

“Well that was a lot quicker than five minutes to warm up.” Greg muttered.

Yi-erwu drifted down the corridor again, halting at the safe distance, locking on to a passing guard he again switched to normal and followed him for a couple of minutes, then he returned to his bed and had a look in the cell. As expected, no sign of them yet. He decided to go and pick Greg up.

“BOO!”

Greg recoiled in shock and tripped over a hidden branch. “Don’t do that!”

“Think of it as revenge for your little attention the other morning” Yi-erwu smirked. “They’re not back yet, but then, didn’t expect them to be. We’ll probably have to wait until dark, but hop up. We might as well wait for them closer so I can tell when they arrive.”

Greg never tired of the way the trees twisted when he was carried, it was an amazing sight.

About an hour later, Yi-erwu had put him down again. “You know the rules now, keep hold. I’m just keeping an eye on the cell now, when they appear and the guards have gone, I’ll drift us in, I think I’ve got enough mass to be able to overcome yours, but crouch down, don’t want the bastards at the back of the room seeing you.”

“I thought everyone in your cell were brothers.”

“Oh, they are technically, but the ones at the back were the ones who gave us 60 lashes a few months ago. Ex-guards, wouldn’t trust them as far as I could spit ’em. Actually they gave us more, those nine are the ones who refused to stop after 3 calls to halt from the commandant. He doesn’t like being disobeyed, this” he touched his collar,”was their punishment. Though I am tempted to put the old slave suit on one visit, appear in front of them and yell work you useless layabouts before vanishing again. That’d give them the frights of their lives.” he couldn’t help but snigger at the idea. “They’re why we have to crouch or await lights out before appearing.”

“How long do they get between returning and lights out normally?”

“Varies, all up to the guards after all, sometimes they’ve not even got a chance to climb into their bunks after the door slams, sometimes it’s a couple of hours. Tonight, we’ll just crouch as soon as we appear, then we can speak to Lingjiu and Lingwu in whispers of course, no loud English.”

“Odd that”

“What?”

“Lingjiu your best friend, Lingwu your worst enemy.”

“As Lingjiu said when I complained about my name, luck of the draw. At least it wasn’t Liusi. That is a valid name by the way.”

“Ha, if only he’d got that one!”

They continued to chat as the minutes turned into hours. It had been dark for what seemed an age when Yi-erwu saw the first of the slaves enter, the guards unhooked each from the gang and attached them to the loop on the floor, finally, Lingjiu and Lingwu entered, both looking exhausted. He noted that the backs of most of the gang was on the mend but Lingwu’s had a few nasty fresh welts on it

“Ah, the joys of hard work under the whip. At least they’ve not been strung up today, but Lingwu’s had a few lashes, looking at him he has been working hard though”

“They’re back then? When do we go?”

“Just a minute, the guards haven’t left yet” Yi-erwu watched as the last chain was locked and the guard left the room slamming the door behind him.

“Now, hop up”, Yi-erwu knelt down and held his arms out. “Going to drift in, slowly, and down here. The lights are still on.”

The landscape changed from a bright half moon illuminating the countryside to utter blackness in less than a second, then a few brief flashes as lights turned on and off again inside the cell before they were kneeling face to face with Lingwu.

“Happy day before leapday, Lingwu, enjoying yourself yet? Nice new welts on your back I see, but at least it means you’ve started putting your back into it.”

“You! What the fuck did you do to me? Where am I?”

“I lured you into a fairly simple trap, right up to where the perimeter fence is in fact. And then tasered you with this.” Yi-erwu “Same thing that trapped me here for six months after running away from you. I thought I explained all that”

Greg’s voice was heard off camera.“Ouch, that back looks Nasty, Lingwu, I’d get that seen to if I were you.”

“You little shit, when I get out of here I’m going to rip your liver out.”

“I don’t quite think you’ve got it yet Lingwu.”

“Stop calling me that, my name is Gary Barker.”

“No, your name until the day you die is that, Lingwusiyisan, just as mine is Yi-erwusiyisan, brother! And the sooner you accept that and see these men here as family, see them as in need of you just as much as you need them and get over your gormless selfish thieving coward of a self, the sooner you’ll learn to survive here.”

“I’m only telling you one more time, you put me here, you get me out!”

“This taser, the one that trapped me here is still doing its thing, it’s irreversible, no matter where I take you, you will always be drawn back to this world, this is your home world now, this is it for you. And unlike me, there is no chance of escape because you, can’t do this!” Yi-erwu thrust his arm forward, it truncated above the elbow.

“I may never be free of this place myself. I was zapped by that taser too, this is my home world now too, if I ever fall asleep anywhere unprotected, I will drift back here just as you would, and seeing this tattoo and this metal work, with no chains and outside the camp would be kill first, don’t bother asking questions later. Escaped slaves are executed. And I’m sure Lingjiu has already told you about the incredible shrinking collar? Without their adjustments, it will eventually choke you, mine is already getting a little tight and I’ve only been gone a week. And no, even with modern earth technology I haven’t found a safe way to remove them yet!

Face it, you put me through seven years of hell with your bullying. I’ve merely put you though a lifetime of hell in return. IF you don’t see me again after say, next week, the collar’s probably killed me and then no-one will know where you are. Apart from Greg here, and there’s nothing he can do about it.”

“Please!”

“Look, allow me to demostrate. I decided to bring a little treat for the slaves today. They haven’t tasted anything but the food here in their entire lives. So, I brought some apple and banana. Here, have a piece.”

Yi-erwu took a piece of apple from his box and handed it to Lingwu.

“Now, eat up before it...” the slice vanished, “oh dear, too late, never mind”

“Where the hell did it go?”

“It drifted back to its plane of origin. Our earth, not this one where the nukes destroyed the world in 1982 and the Chinese took over. Now observe.”

Yi-erwu placed his tupperware box on the floor in front of Lingwu, opened it, placed the bananas on top and zapped the lot with the taser before they could drift.

“Before the zap, it drifted home. After the zap, it’s here to stay, nothing can reverse that, I’ve tried. Do you think I like sleeping in a ditch I had to dig to stop myself from drifting? Do you?”

The hope faded from Lingwu’s eyes.

“Oh, I can get you out of this camp, I can take you to a different place where the cold isn’t cold and the stars shine. I could do it right now, if you like.”

“Yes!”

“Keep your voice down until you can speak Chinese! Well get out of bed then!”

“I’m naked!”

“I know, something wrong with that? Out”

Grudgingly Lingwu climbed out of bed, Yi-erwu swept Greg and Lingwu up and carried them down into the pristine valley under a moonlit sky.

“Now, what happens if I try to take you further?”

“I don’t know.”

Yi-erwu grabbed his chain and gave it a tug. “You’re still chained to the ring on the floor idiot, that is point one. And this… is point two. I let go of you and where do you end up?”

Yi-erwu put Lingwu down, He vanished. Then the scenery shifted, the lights flickered and they were back in the cell again.

“Got it now? You are here, this is your home and your life. Now until the day you die, there is no escape in this world because the Chinese control every continent, there is no escape to other worlds because your chain tethers you here and even if you became free of it the instant you lost contact with me you would drift back here. Now lie on your stomach and I’ll see to those wounds.”

Lingwu did as he was told.

Yi-erwu grabbed the first aid box from beneath the bed and opened it.

“That’s a shame, they switched back to the slave kit. Oh well.”. He took out some cotton wool and the bottle of brown liquid and began cleaning the wounds on Lingwu’s back.

“How could you do this to me!?”

“After the hell you put me through over the years? And the hell I suffered here? I found it incredibly easy. You want to beat me? Tough, I’ve outgrown you now, nothing you could do or say can frighten me after spending half a year here. I’ve grown up, I’ve toughened up, I’m stronger, fitter and I laid Mike Reynolds to rest after the first month here. I highly recommend you do the same. Forget Barker, he was not worth the air he breathed. You are Lingwusiyisan now and the sooner you accept that and forget about who you were the sooner you’ll accept the life. You may even learn to enjoy it.”

“But I want to go home! Now! They must be worried sick, I’ve been gone a week!”

Greg’s voice again. “There’s been nothing in the news, no missing person reports like when Mike vanished. You spend so much time running away and playing hookey no-one’s noticed you’re gone yet.”

Yi-erwu grimaced, “My mum still thinks I’m dead. I’m not putting her through what she went through before. I’m staying dead. That’s six months. My life has taken a different path now and believe it or not, I like the person I’ve become thanks to this place. Here’s a challenge for you.”

“What’s that?”

“Beat me”

Lingwu made a fist and prepared to throw a punch.

“Seriously, after I caught your last one so easily? Besides, you don’t have the reach with that chain. I mean, beat me at this. Prove you’re better than me by being the best in camp, best slave, best worker, best friend to these men. I miss them every day because they are my brothers. So. Beat me at what I became exceedingly good at here.”

“And what was that?”

“Work. Ask Lingjiu if you don’t believe me. And for fuck’s sake follow his advice. I saw your performance on the first day, forty lashes. I had twenty. You know why you had forty? Because you didn’t follow his advice. You kicked and screamed and turned the air blue. Imagine kicking that guard in the bollocks was the last straw. Lingjiu is your mentor. He can also be your best friend and brother. I’m going to talk to him now, I’ve told you everything I wanted to, do it or don’t, entirely up to you. But remember this, if you are a crap worker they will kill you.”

Yi-erwu finished with his ministrations, put the first aid kit away, switched to Chinese and stood up by the bedpost to shield himself from the bastards at the end.

* * * * *
AS Yi-erwu began speaking at length to his brother in the top bunk, Greg remained with Lingwu,

He was trying to eavesdrop. He looked confused.

“What the hell are they saying? Can’t understand a word of it”

“You’ve been here a week and you don’t even know how to recognise what Chinese sounds like? God I knew you were dumb but that’s just taking the piss!”

“Now listen you” Lingwu grabbed Greg by the collar.

“Oh please. You’re all alone now, no little posse to back you up, OK, you might be able to give me a black eye. But how do you think Yi-erwu will like that? He and I are the only people who know where you are.”

Lingwu collapsed back on his pillow in defeat, then let out a yelp and shifted back onto his side again facing Greg.

“You have got to get me out of here. I can’t take much more of this!”

“Well I never thought I’d see that.”

“What?”

“The great and mighty Barker, terror of Kenmoor. Admitting that the wimpy freak Mike Reynolds is better than him.”

“You take that back!”

“Why, you’ve just proved it’s true. waaa, my back hurts, waa waaa I don’t like hard labour, waaa waaa. Cry me a river. Have you actually looked at him? Now, that man standing there chatting to his best friend in fluent Chinese? Chinese it only took six months for him to learn? You know what one of the first things he did when he got back was?”

“What?”

“He found another world were they weren’t very advanced and got a job lugging hundredweights of coal onto barges. And he likes it, he even plans to live there eventually. He said he finds peace in the work, he got that here. Look at those...Just a sec.”

Greg tugged on Yi-erwu’s trousers.

“What is it?”

“Show him your muscles.”

“What?”

“I said show him your big bulky body you big idiot”

Yi-erwu sighed, removing his jacket, waistcoat, shirt and vest and crouched down beside Greg again.

“Why?”

“Just look at him, Lingwu. Is that the same little wimp you’ve been terrorising for the past 8 years?”

Lingwu looked this time. Properly. His eyes widened. “Fuck me he’s bigger than I am”

“Exactly, didn’t get like that from sitting on the sofa watching TV did he? He said to you, he became the best worker on the camp. He found peace in the work and pushed himself so far beyond his limits to help the other men in this cell he’s turned into fucking Vin Diesel. Now. Do you admit you’re inferior to him? Cos there’s only one way for you to prove you’re not and that’s to beat him like he said. Beat him at the only thing you have going for you now, work.”

Yi-erwu did a full three sixty noting the look on Lingwu’s face at the sight of his back.

“How many?”

“Total or maximum in one go?”

“Maximum.”

“63, then those fuckers in the far end got stopped by the commandant. I imagine Linjiu’s told you about that. Did he tell you how many times I screamed during those 60? How many whimpers?”

“No, how many?”

“One whimper, on 62 and that was only because I let my resolve drop when I saw it was ending. Something else to think about then isn’t it? And where did I find the strength? My name is Yi-erwusiyisan and my brothers need me.”

The lights went out. “Right Greg, time to get up… it’s tasty treat time, I can introduce you in person to them all this time.”

“Oh” Yi-erwu crouched down by Lingwu again “I’ve not abandoned them. They might be here for the rest of their lives and I might be free now, at least until this chokes me to death in a couple of weeks. But while I live I swore I’d never let them down. They have eaten nothing but foul tasting grey gloop for all or most of their lives, I’ve got something for them to experience. But none for you.”

“Why not? Come on it’s only a piece of apple!”

“You are marked for life as my brother now, that tattoo, those manacles. Siyisan has a deep meaning for me. But like those fuckers at the back of the room all huddled up and keeping to themselves, you haven’t earned the name yet. I’ll get regular reports from Lingjiu. When he sees you putting every ounce of effort you’ve got into it, like I was starting to after a week, I’ll start to include you in the treats. They’re not getting any either, the cunts. Come on, Greg.”

They walked across to the opposite bunk.

“Greg, meet Baqi and Qijiu.”.

They chatted in Chinese with Yi-erwu translating and he handed each a slice of apple. Their eyes opened wide the moment they bit into their slices.

“What is that?”

“Apple” he said in English, then switched back, “if you think that’s good… wait until you taste” he paused, then said “bananas” in English again. “Got a couple of bunches of them too, for everyone. Enjoy. Got to get ‘round the rest.”

They continued their rounds, the older ones speaking in English, the younger ones in Chinese.

Once each had had a slice of apple, the process was repeated with a slice of banana. The reactions were, as expected, more extreme. Some were so overwhelmed by the flavour that they wept, never having tasted anything good before.

Finally, they returned to the first bunk.

Yi-erwu switched to Chinese again and spoke to Lingjiu.

After a minute of conversation, Lingjiu burst out laughing.

Then the lights flickered, the moon appeared and the trees began to twist and morph as the camera view drifted back home. Then Eric appeared out of nowhere.They began the long walk home, it was getting late.

“What did you say to him just before we left that made him laugh so much? It was like a different person.”

“I’ve said that to him before. I told him about that appearing in front of the ex-guards prank.

Then he said if I did, he’d tell everyone else to pretend they hadn’t seen anything.”

“Oh god, I’d love to see that!”

“Well, it wouldn’t work with you hanging onto my sleeve. Did you record any of the talk with Barker?”

“I’ll show you later” Greg took his phone out and hit “stop”.

“Suppose you’d better phone your mum, tell her you’re staying at a friends but you’ll be home in time to put your uniform on. It’ll be midnight before we get back to mine.”

“Shit, hadn’t thought of that.” He checked his phone to see three missed calls, “No signal in the other world.”

“Hello mum… Yeah, I missed the last bus… Don’t worry, I can catch the bus back in the morning, get there in time to change… I’m kipping at a mates, yes, Justin… There was no signal for a while, I only just got the missed calls, No…. It’s not working right now… Yeah. Just a sec”

“She wants to speak to Justin’s dad. You sound different enough now she’s unlikely recognise you. I told her your house is in a blackspot and your landline is out of commission right now”

“OK. I’ll give it a shot.”

“Hello?”

“Ah, is that Mr Edwards?”

“Speaking”

“Just making sure it’s alright for Gregory to stay with Justin tonight on a school night?”

“Yes, everything’s fine, I’ll make sure he’s out of the house for six thirty so he can get the bus back down to you.”

“That’s a relief, thank you”

“Goodnight” Yi-erwu hung up.

“I’ll come down with you early tomorrow. I’ve got work.” he grinned.

They walked in silence for a while, both lost in their own thoughts. Greg was beginning to understand Yi-erwu after meeting his brothers in person, they did deserve a better life.

*****
Right,another week passes, Yi-erwu's been very busy. He's located a shop he can buy a battery, he's located the ideal village to move all those men, a ruin, one that can be rebuilt, he can loosen the restraints and he can alter the home world of a person by zapping them with one of those tasers, as long as the taser is powered by a battery from the world in question.

*****

Yi-erwu began his preparations. He was back up at his other ditch below Dovestones.

He stripped and put on his slave miner suit. He still liked it in spite of what it represented.

Then he began making the bacon sandwiches. He cut them in half and put ketchup on one half, leaving the other free, wanting his brothers to experience a bit of variety.

He put the tasers in the ditch along with his bag and other clothes and allowed himself to drift to the threshold of the nuked worlds.

He didn’t have long to wait. Five minutes after his arrival the guards opened the door, the slaves filed in, chains attached to rings and they were gone.

He noted that Lingwu looked exhausted and his back showed no signs of reopened wounds from the lash.

He waited for the ex-guards to congregate in their usual circle at the other end of the room, still keeping their distance from their betters and when they were all seated, he positioned himself in their midst. Then he got the tape, attached his chains, put on his mining helmet, noted the position of each one of them paying particular attention to the one who’d wanted him flogged, shifted views so he could get out instantly and drifted in.

The moment he arrived he swung around in a circle like a top, screaming at the top of his lungs “GONGZUO, NI LAN BUYAO LIAN, GONGZUO”

Then he leant straight in to his main target, screamed as loudly as he could manage, took a step and vanished.

He rushed back to his usual spot and drifted back, kneeling beside Lingwu to watch the ensuing chaos.

Two of the slaves made a bolt for the door, totally forgetting they were still chained to their ring on the floor, tripped and fell flat on their faces, one ran to the window screaming and started trying to wrench the bars from their mounting, two curled up into a ball and wept. The rest sat there, stunned into silence, a small pool of urine began to spread around his would-be accuser.

His brothers had been cued that this may happen and reacted accordingly, several shouting in Chinese.

“What the fuck is wrong with them?”

“Shut up you idiots!”

“Is this some kind of Chinese ritual I’ve never seen before?

“What the hell are you screaming about?”

“Shit, they’ve gone insane!”

One of the stunned slaves managed to recover enough to hear what they were saying. “Didn’t you see that?”

“See what? There was nothing to see, you just started going mental all of a sudden.”

“It was Yi-erwusiyisan! Standing not 2 feet away from me, screaming “Work you lazy fuckers!” then he was gone!”

“Woooo, spooky ghost stories… Woooooooo. Pull the other one, it’s got chains on. Yi-erwu’s 2 weeks dead. Let him rest in peace, keep him out of your delusions! You’re not even worthy to name him.”

Lingwu looked around, staring him in the face and screamed with laughter. “What the hell did you yell at them?”

Yi-erwu couldn’t help himself and joined in. “Work you lazy fuckers, work”

“Thanks… I haven’t laughed since I got here. Thanks...”

In the bunk above Lingjiu was gasping for breath. He looked over the edge of his bed. “Fuck, oh fuck, better than Lingling, oh my… Made my week.”

Yi-erwu stood and began talking in Chinese to Lingjiu. “So, how’s he doing.”

“Since you’re little talk, bloody well, he’s not taken a single lash all week”

“Fuck me, I was expecting him to be getting flogged on a daily basis.”

“He’s really putting his back into it, I overheard some of what you said, it certainly seems to have had an impact.”

Yi-erwu nodded in satisfaction. “Back in a second.”

He walked back to his ditch, grabbed the bag of bacon sandwiches, put them down on the ground by where the bed would be and tasered them before dropping the taser back into the ditch. Then drifted back himself, crouching by Lingwu again.

“I see you’ve been making progress. Working hard, not a single lash. I’m impressed. Unlike them, I think that deserves a reward.” He handed Lingwu a sandwich and held one up for Lingjiu too. “Half with ketchup, half without, want my brothers to have the full bacon experience.” he grinned.

“Bacon?” he unwrapped it, he inhaled, he sank onto the bed just inhaling the aroma before finally pulling half out and sinking his teeth into it. “Oh my god… Oh god that’s so good.”

“Yeah, I get a similar experience every time I try something new after six months of wallpaper paste.”

“I get what you said last week now, losing myself in the work does give me a sense of peace. Certainly takes my mind off things anyway. I’m sorry.”

Yi-erwu was taken aback. “I never thought I’d hear that from you.”

“I loved the fear, the power I had over people, but now...”

“Now you know what it feels like from the other end?”

“Something like that. If you hadn’t said what you said I probably would’ve been flogged every day.”

“How’s the Chinese going?”

“I know the commands, numbers and work words. Don’t know how you do it, though.”

“Keep listening, pay attention, Lingjiu managed to teach me in six months with the help of everyone else. In a month or so you’ll start picking out bits of their chit-chat, you’ll start picking up more as you go along. Eventually you’ll be able to chip in a little, they’ll correct your pronunciation or tone of voice, then it’s just up and up.”

“I’m actually starting to like these guys. That stunt you pulled tonight though, oh god, where did you get that? It was brilliant!”

“Planning that since I escaped.”

Yi-erwu peered across the room and listened as they began chattering amongst themselves. He laughed.

“What is it?”

“They’ve mostly calmed down now, but the tall one thinks he’s having a stroke. He’s convinced he smells… I’ve never heard that word before but it sounds a bit like bacon. Peigen. Have to remember that.”

Lingwu burst out laughing again.

Yi-erwu stood up to see bliss on his brother’s face. “Good isn’t it? New word too. Peigen.”

“Words can’t describe… ahhhhh...”

“Bloody hell though, he’s made a change for the better. Working hard, even having a civilised conversation with him.”

“He’s been like that all week since your talk, he’s started talking with his brothers, he’s responding to his name. Eagerly, no pulled faces or “Stop calling me that’s”. I think he’s begun to accept his new life.”

He knelt down again.

“From what Lingjui says, you’ve crossed the boundary. You’ll survive here now, I was afraid when I sent you, you might not, so when I put you here I did my best to make sure I got you put in my old bunk. Wrote a letter to the commandant, “undisciplined, unable to speak chinese, needs a good teacher, recommend Lingjiusiyisan” etc. I trust Lingjiu with my life. So I trusted him with yours.”

Lingwu looked across at him. “I understand why you did it now, I meant it when I said I was sorry. I’m almost ready to forgive you too.”

“Have you given up on your old name now? That was the biggest change for me, once I laid Mike Reynolds to rest and accepted who I was everything got much easier. I gained strength from everyone in this room. That lot at the back didn’t get put in here until the second month.”

“Didn’t seem much point in keeping it and you’re right, it has changed me. Can’t describe it, but when I was him, I was a shit, I admit it. Loved it in fact, but I see now that would’ve only led to a life in and out of prison. Now I’m in prison for life anyway...”

Yi-erwu held his hand out. “Shake”

“What?”

“I never thought I’d say this to you, but, welcome brother. I said last week you’re marked forever as Siyisan but you’d have to earn it. I think you have. Shake.”

Lingwu’s eyes widened, his expression softened, he reached over and clutched Yi-erwu’s hand tightly. “I am Lingwusiyisan, thanks, brother. And I never thought I’d say that to you either. But by god you’ve changed. Far more than I have.”

“I’m not too sure. The challenge still stands.” Yi-erwu grinned. “Beat me, be the best on this camp. You’ve come so far, probably farther than I had after two weeks. Keep it up.”

“I will, don’t you worry.”

Yi-erwu stood up to talk to Lingjiu again switching back to Chinese.

“What’s the matter?”

“What? Nothing why?”

“You’ve got tears in your eyes.”

“He’s made the final step. He’s accepted his name. I’ve made it too, I’ve just accepted him as my brother. He’s actually apologised and almost forgiven me for what I did to him. He’s going to be fine now, I think.”

“I’ve seen that in him too. I think I’ve even seen a pleased smile on the commandant’s face when we’ve been walking past. He’s not quite up to your standard at this stage yet, but he’s getting there.”

“I’m going to invite him to join us when the time is right. I scouted out a string of villages about forty miles south of here this weekend. All buildings bar a few warehouses are empty shells, no sign of human habitation in decades, at least six coal mines and a stockpile we can sell. A canal that needs clearing but once it is, that’s our way onto the transport network. Fields for animals and crops, woodland for raw materials and 2 hours walk from 4 large towns. I couldn’t’ve dreamed of a better place to move to.”

“You have put the work in, how did you find it?”

“With a little help from my friends. Would’ve never found it on my own, but I’ve got a couple of history buffs and they love that kinda thing, researching lost villages and stuff.”

The lights went out.

“Right, going to distribute the rest of the sandwiches. Then I’ll be off. Still have work to do.”

He went around his brothers, talking, laughing, giving them another taste of what freedom had to offer. Then he returned to Lingwu.

“I’ll be going now, may be a while. Greg told you about that other world, the place I’ve been loading barges. I’m planning on living there, permanently eventually. If I can get these things off before they kill me. You can see they’re starting to get tighter.”

“Good luck, brother.”

“You too, keep up the good work.”

They shook hands again and he was gone.