Puppet Master

Part 1 Prisoners of speech

Chapter one
                                    Prisoners of speech

    Bullets flew through the trees splinters from shattered wounded trees. The splinters hit me as I tried to escape running through the forest. A dozen soldiers chased me through the thick trees. I was scared, jumping over logs and dodging bullets. A bullet struck my right calf. I slid into the dirt hard in agony holding my wounded leg bleeding badly. 

  The men that were chasing me were on me at once. One kicked me onto my front another stomped on my leg making me howl in pain. Their long black or dark green uniforms hit me as they crowded around me. They strapped cuffs tightly onto my wrists behind my back. I struggled against them a boot slammed back into my wound, the butt of a rifle came down on the back of my head shortly after that.

   The rumble of a heavy truck woke me up. My head burned dried blood on the back of my neck, wet blood down my leg. I tried to open my eyes but was unable too, a cloth band was tried tightly over my eyes. The truck turned sharply and I fell off the bench I'd been propped up on. Someone roughly grabbed my collar and forced me back onto the bench, my leg hurt so bad I couldn't move it. My hands were still cuffed behind my back. The truck stopped harshly with a screech. Doors opened and I was shoved out of the truck roughly and fell to the dirt. My leg burned bleeding worse through the weak bandage. I was picked up by my arms and dragged through the loose stony dirt. The farther they dragged me the more I could hear, I heard a train's engine rumble and people's voices some yelling others crying. I was propped up by two men and the blindfold was taken away. The bright sunlight blinded me as well as how tight the blindfold was, my vision started to clear. 

   About a hundred men were corralled around by soldiers in black, heads covered with black cloth covering their face and neck. My breath was ripped away from me when I got a good look at the long black train smoke coming from above the engine. A tall man got up on an old stump his face wasn't covered but was wearing the same black uniform. I could hardly see the man. The thin forest fell silent as the man pulled a letter out of his long coat, he opened it and my soul shattered. 
  "You all are sentenced to twenty years in the north camp for crimes and rebellion against the state!" The man shouted holding the letter open in front of him. I lost any ability to stand I had left. The soldiers at my sides that had been keeping me still stood me back up. My jaw fell open and I breathed hard and irregularly. Nobody made it past a few years in the camps! Tears fell down my face and to the dry ground. Some men broke free and tried to run into the trees but were quickly shot down by the soldiers. I turned away as the last man fell. "I dare anyone else to try!" The man yelled spinning on the stump. The soldier on my right kicked my wounded leg forcing me to support myself standing. Other soldiers started forcing men into the cars of the train. I was pulled closer to the train before they put me in the car, they switched my cuffs to my front and tossed me in carelessly. I kicked myself to the side with my one good leg as more men were shoved in.

   The last man was thrown in and the massive wooden door was pulled closed and locked. They put far too many people in the cattle car the only light came from cracks and holes in the wooden walls. After they got all of their prisoners stacked away in the cars the trains horn blared and we started moving north. The man sitting next to me broke down completely covering his face. 
  "What did you do and what did they take from you?" I whispered leaning closer to him.
  "They took everything from me, my family, my life. I stole food we were starving." He gulped not looking at me. I leaned back into my cramped spot and watched the back of the man in front of me, men were weeping constantly like the man to my left. Hours upon hours later the sun had set and we never stopped, many still sobbed. I was in a daze if I was lucky I would die quickly. The next day we made two stops and gathered more men onto the train but we were not given anything, no water, no food. I hadn't eaten the day before, I was starving to the point of pain. Night fell and most of the men around me slept with so many crammed into the car it wasn't as cold as it could be. I watched the cracks in the wood at the flashes of stars coming through trees and blackness. I pulled my long coat around me to keep any heat.