Zigzag laid awake, staring at the ceiling as the muffled sobs continued.
Squid was crying tonight. Every night.
A lot of nights, if no one could get to sleep before they began, many of the guys would stay up all night as they tried to block out the sounds of Squid's cries. But nothing they did could drown it out. They wanted to go over to him. Every night, each one - especially Zigzag- wanted to go over and comfort him. Tell him everything would be okay. No one truly knew what he would cry about, but one thing was for certain: if Squid knew that they heard him each night, that they were only pretending to be asleep, all his pride would vanish. And, if anything, pride was all Squid had left. So each night, the fake sleeping (except on Armpit's cot, where loud snores would erupt each night) continued, as did the lies. The guys felt horrible, of course. They wanted to be there for Squid, but there was nothing they could do without crushing the 16 year old even further. Each morning, the guys would wake up, only mere hours after Squid's cries had died down to slow, deep breaths of sleep. By the morning, the guys pretended like nothing happened.
If only it had stayed that way.
It was a morning like any other. Zigzag awoke to the sound of the large alarm filling up the entire camp like wildfire. He got up slowly, stretching his arms over his head, and throwing a pillow at Squid, who was still half-asleep. He stumbled out of bed, and spoke to the boy, who had no reaction to the flying pillow.
"C'mon, Squid, buddy, wake up!" In response, the brunette boy's pillow was thrown at the blonde. But he proceeded to awaken enough to drag himself out of bed and pull on his jumpsuit. Zigzag just smiled at the boy as he pulled on his own orange jumpsuit and followed the rest of D-Tent out of the tent, making the trek for their shovels, and the site of their hole-digging.
~~~~B~~~~B~~~~B~~~~B~~~~B~~~~B~~~~B~~~~B~~~~B~~~~B~~~~B~~~~
It was mid-day now, and the boys were all in full-conversation mode.
"Man, no clouds out today, either," Armpit stated, taking a quick sip out of his canteen.
"You know there ain't gonna be no more clouds, 'Pit, there never are," X-Ray said, busy digging away at his hole. "You really ought to steal more sunflower seeds, Magnet."
"Yeah, right, and get caught this time?" Magnet laughed and shook his head. "You're loco."
The rest of D-Tent laughed, when suddenly, in the distance, they spotted the familiar dust cloud of an approaching truck. But that was odd, they just had gotten water 15 minutes ago. Why was the truck coming back? Zigzag shook his head, confused.
"Shit, did any of you guys do somethin'?" He asked. He couldn't help but feel like something was off. Then again, he had acute paranoia, pretty much everything seemed off in one way or another.
The rest of the guys shook their heads, and all but X-Ray and Zero quit digging. Even those two joined the others in peering up at the approaching truck.
"Naw, no one did nothin', Zig. Who the hell is that?" The brunette asked himself more than anyone, his toothpick swinging around his mouth. It was either Mr. Sir or Mom, and it also could've been the warden. But Zigzag doubted the latter. The Warden only came out for the big stuff, and nothing had happened.
The truck finally came to a halt in front of the boys, and Mr. Sir stepped out. His usual grimace covered his face, and his reptilian-like eye scanned the D-Tent boys.
"Did I tell you Girl Scouts to quit diggin'?" He shouted.
"No, Mr. Sir," The boys stated, as they reluctantly resumed their digging, awaiting what was about to come.
"Alan - Squid," he sneered. "C'mere, boy."
Everyone stopped for a moment to look up at the boy, this time, Zero and X-Ray included. Squid just lowered his eyebrows, and looked around, confused.
"Uh... okay."
He jumped up out of his hole, and rubbed his hands together nervously as he approached Mr. Sir. Zigzag peered at the boy as he approached the rough-faced man. Mr. Sir took his arm roughly and made it so that the pair were no longer facing the boys, who all began to dig once again. However, Zigzag kept a close eye and ear out. He could hear Mr. Sir whispering sharply. Suddenly, Squid tensed up, and when Squid turned sideways to stare at Mr. Sir, Zigzag saw something in his eye that he - nor anyone - had ever seen in the teenager's eyes:
Fear.