Rats: Shai's Story

Evaluation Day

"Stop it or you go up now," he told her sternly.

Ren had seen the girls face before and assumed that this wasn't her first evaluation day. She knew what to be scared of and that made it worse.

The tears still trickled down the girl's face, but her sobs had stopped. Ren kept her gaze straight. She knew it was just her imagination, but she could feel the cold metal of the gun against her back. She wanted to turn around and check to see if an Officer was there. Anything can be used as an excuse to hang you on Evaluation Day and she didn't want to die because she turned her neck.

"Normally, we go down the line and test you out one by one. I thought since that all of you have files now, we could make this a little more fun," Mitch told them. That evil grin stayed on his face the entire time. He had a scanner in his hands. "Let's have Joseph Richmond start us off."

A man about ten years older than Todd stepped forward. An Officer came up behind him and pushed him down to the ground. He was kneeling down on the ground and the Officer stood behind him with his arms crossed.

"Push-ups," the Officer said forcefully. "Now!"

Joseph stretched out his body across the ground and pushing his weight up off the ground over and over.

"Lacy Finter." Mitch shouted out the next name.

Ren couldn't see the timid little girl at the end of the line step forward. Another Officer had pushed her down to the ground and gave her the same command. Being so young made her body even more fragile than most of the Rats. She managed to push her weight up a few times before hitting the ground with an umph.

"We've got one here," the Officer told Mitch.

"Bring her up there," Mitch said pointing back to the platform.

A scream was let out from down the line. Ren assumed that it would be the little girl's mother or sister. She was even young enough that it could just be some random Rat who had grown closer to her because of her innocence.

The Officer grabbed the little girl's arm and picked her up off the ground. Ren could hear the girl start to scream as the man dragged her towards the platform. She didn't know if the little girl knew what was about to happen to her.

The Officer behind Joseph kicked his leg and told him to get up off the ground. He stumbled to get back up onto his feet and ran back into the line brushing the dirt off of his uniform. The relief washed over him.

Ren couldn't hear the next name that was called out. She was too focused on the little girl that was now on stage. Ren could see a woman to her left step forward and drop to the ground. The only sound that became audible to her was the scream from the woman down the line. She was screaming the little girl's name over and over.

The Officer handed the little girl off to a bigger Officer standing on stage. He quickly threw a black cloth bag over her head and then wrapped a noose around her neck. She was so small that the Officer needed to tighten the knot in the rope.

The woman's scream was quickly cut off and Ren couldn't help herself from looking over to the side. A woman far down the line was lying crumpled on the ground with a crimson pool beginning to surround her head. More Rats were now on the ground proving their strength to the Officers.

A loud crack filled the air and Ren didn't want to turn her head to see the little girl. The floor of the stage would have given away with that noise, leaving the girl to hang to her death. Ren still couldn't hear. She saw Officers screaming at Rats, some lifting them off the ground and dragging them towards the stage. The lucky ones got kicked and ran back to the line.