Disclaimer: I do not own Holes, and if I did, it would be nowhere as amazing as Louis Sachar's is.
Author's Note: Okay, so I haven't posted a chapter in forever, and all of you who like this story probably hate me, but please bear with this, I've had a lot of mental protest of the plot of this story. I shall not waste thine precious time buy rambling on and on with my unnecessary opinions, so, I present to you, Chapter 6!
Chapter 6Not many campers slept the rest of the night. When the recorded trumpet sounded, they all rose slowly, eyes blood shot from stress and exhaustion.
The counselors seemed to act as though nothing had happened. They yelled just as much, they complained even more, and nothing satisfied them. Mr. Sir was just as grumpy, and Dr. Pendanski was just as lame. All seemed normal at Camp Green Lake to the naked eye, but the campers knew better, especially D-tent.
They all gathered around the "library" to collect their shovels. Zigzag, who had slipped to the end of the line, grabbed his shovel and realized there was an extra. For a while, he stood there, waiting for the small, black-haired figure to walk past him quietly, but she didn't come. He turned around, and seen he was the only one in line. Mr. Sir shut the doors and the snap of the lock brought Zigzag back.
All air in the atmosphere seemed to burn and disappear under the blazing sun. None of the D-tent boys said anything to each other, but dug slowly, savoring each shovel of dirt they parted from the ground. Even Zero took his sweet time. None of them wanted to return to their blood stained tent. No one wanted to confront their fellow tent-mates. Their only choice was to let the hours crawl by them, to let time turn circles around their minds.
Zigzag tried to dig even slower than the rest. His thoughts kept running from the present and back to the past, back the previous night. Her scream played over and over, as he watched again, helplessly pleading with her to stay alive. Every time he seen her blood splattered body, his heart dropped further and further. She was now miles away, lying in some hospital bed, hopefully alive.
Through out the day, the scene played through his head, and some new, soft voice whispered grim predictions.
" She won't make it." The voice whispered. "She's probably already dead."
Each time the voice came back; it was louder, slowly growing to almost a roar. He thought the tears he had been holding prisoner would finally escape, but then he suddenly heard someone behind him start sobbing.
He, along with the other campers, turned to see Caveman curled into a ball at the bottom of his hole, shaking as he cried into his knees, his shovel lay abandoned on the ground. One by one, they turned away from him, leaving him to his own depression. Shortly, Pendanski came with the water truck and tried to usher Caveman from his hole. Caveman, conscious of being discovered, shrugged Pendanski away, wiped his face, and went back to digging. Pendanski looked cautiously from camper to camper, then filled their canteens, and drove off.
The first one to finish his hole was, surprisingly, Caveman. The second he was done, he jumped out of his hole, and walked away, not before he hawked a wad of spit into his hole. D-tenters finished one by one, until Zigzag was the only one left.
In time, he finished, and he walked back to camp, leaving his hole saliva free. He walked in a dream like state, looking past camp. His thoughts lingered back to her. She was running through a maze of alleys, screaming his name. He watched as she struggled, her face damp with tears and her eyes wide with fear.
Quickly, he shook his head, chasing away his old dream.
He returned to the tent to find all the guys of D-tent sitting around in a circle, Pendanski sitting with them, nearest to the door. When Zigzag walked in, all looked at him except for Pendanski, who kept his back toward the opening.
"Take a seat, Ricky." He finally said when Zigzag entered his line of sight. Cautiously, he sat on the cot farthest from Pendanski, and scanned the tired and weary faces of his tent mates.
"Now that we're all present, I thought we should take this time we have together to discuss what has recently happened." The doctor said slowly, and when no one interrupted or spoke, he continued. "We all went through a lot in a little bit of time, and I'm sure some of you have questions or comments." No one spoke still. "Anyone like to volunteer to speak first?"
Shyly, Caveman raised his hand halfway up and took a deep breath.
"Yes Stanley?" Pendanski said calmly, and Caveman let his arm fall to his side as he exhaled.
"Why was she even here in the first place?" he asked, the words coming out individually and broken.
"She was involved in a New York shooting. The police caught her along with many others involved. But, as she is a minor, under the Federal Law she couldn't be sent to jail. The authorities thought that the best, most isolated correctional center was here. The Warden agreed to let her in, under special conditions. Anything else you boys want to know?"
This time, it was Squid that raised his hand. He gulped when Pendanski called on him to speak, and he paused for a moment, and then stammered the question.
"W-who is Zac-ck?" he asked, but, this time, it was Pendanski that looked confused.
"What do you mean, Alan?" Squid turned a little pale and muttered something about being sick, and he got up and ran out of the tent, followed by the sound of him retching up his dinner. Since Squid could no longer answer the question, Armpit chimed in.
"Last night," he started and the attention was drawn on him. " She was saying stuff about some guy named Zack."
"What kind of stuff was she saying, Theodore?"
"She kept saying how much she loved him, and how she was going to be with him." Armpit finished, looked down to the ground.
"I don't know anything about her past, but he might have been one of the one's dead in the shooting." Before Pendanski could say anything else, Zigzag spoke up.
"Is she alive?"
Everyone froze; even the air seemed to stop. Squid froze in the doorway, his hand in mid-wipe of his mouth. Zigzag only looked at Pendanski, wondering and fearing what the answer might be. Pendanski, breaking the era of motionless time, took a deep breath and sat back in his chair.
"We don't know." He said truthfully, a sorrowful look on his face. "The last we heard from the hospital was this morning, and that she was unconscious. They've wrapped up her arm and stitched it," He paused, and Squid could be heard running from the tent again. "But they can only wait for her to regain consciousness."
Silence filled the air, spreading like a plague. The boys all had one thought flowing through their minds, and Pendanski seemed to read it off their faces.
"I don't think she'll be returning." He then stood, and was about to leave the tent when the Warden practically ran into the tent, closely followed by Mr. Sir.
"There you are!" she cried, and then her eyes fell on the boys sitting around in a circle, all looking down to the floor. The Warden cleared her throat, but they did not look up.
"Boys, I've got some good news about your little friend." She smiled, a hard thing to come by for the Warden. This caused all of the D-tent boys to look up, all except for Zigzag.
"What?" asked Magnet, excited.
"She's awake."
A/N: Okay, so this chapter was short, but I had to shorten it or else it might have went on forever, plus, this way, there will be more chapter to look forward to, since I'm splitting up the long chapter I was going to write all together. Hope you loved it, and hopefully the next chapter will be up soon. Happy Easter to everyone, this is what the Easter Bunny gives to you from me. Please reveiw and the support of your reveiws may inspire me to write the next chapter soon. Thanks again for reading.