Strictland Academy by Breanna Hayse, Carolyn Faulkner Page B

LeClair
answered, "People disappear from this place.   Ones that we know have not been claimed
by an observer.   It is about
survival, and the more you can convince them that you will play the game their
way, the better chance you have to live."
    "But
what happens to the ones who aren't taken away?   How long do you stay here?"
    "I've
been here five years," LeClair said.   "I was originally sent in for assault and battery.   The reason I got to come here is because
I am big and strong, and their goal is to make me into an attendant. ”
    “ Do
you actually like it here?   Do you
like doing this shit to us? Molly demanded.
    “ I
do what I must to survive. ” LeClair shrugged. “ I
get extra food and clothing, which is more than I would have had at the prison.   My future is already decided."
    "The
women who work in the cafeteria or go out to exchange laundry are all prior
inmates here, too.   They have no
chance on ever getting a job after being sentenced to this place, and are too
old to be of interest to an observer.   They stay quiet because Strictland provides a means for them to
survive."
    "Keep
them enslaved, you mean."
    "Call
it what you want.   It assures those
women remain loyal.   The
administrators depend on fear to keep this place running smoothly and to hide
their tracks.   If you haven't
learned already, you don't have to do anything particularly wrong to earn all
the thrashings you receive.   The
sole purpose is to keep you terrified and compliant.   No one has ever had the balls to try to
stop them, and no one ever will."
    "Do
you ever adjust to it?   Does it ever
stop hurting so badly?" Molly asked, shifting her body.
    "No.   You just learn to grit your teeth and
take it the way they want you to.   Make enough noise to let them know you feel it, but not so much that
they suspect you are resisting their so-called lesson.   I'm sure your ass learned that the hard
way so far."
    “ Show
us your bum!"   One girl tugged
her arm.
    "I
really don't want to," Molly cringed.   "Besides, it ’ s
too dark in here."
      "We get a stream of light through a crack
of the outside door.   Show us."
    To
encourage her, several of the girls crept over to the locked door and lifted
the backs of their nightgowns to display their bruises.   Several murmurs resounded from around
the room.   Reluctantly, Molly
followed suit and slowly lifted the hem of her gown.   She heard nothing but stunned silence
for a long moment, and then whistles of apparent admiration.
    “ Wow,
I can't believe you can still walk.   They lit into you with a vengeance, didn't they?" one girl said,
gently touching the inflamed area.
    “ Several
times, ” Molly answered,
ruefully, as she straightened and let her gown fall about her ankles.   "I can't think that April's butt is
any prettier, though."
    “ April?"
    “ Compton, ” Molly corrected
herself.
    “ The
one who peed herself in front of Attendant Hazel?"
    “ Yes,
one of the other ... attendants took a real dislike to her. ”
    “ Attendant
Angela?" came several knowing suggestions.
    “ Yeah.   She said that Compton was trouble, but
she never did anything wrong."
    A
small, shy girl who bunked near April spoke quietly and with an almost-eerie
calm, as if she had personal experience of the situation she was speaking
about.   "I'm Evie.   She always does that.   She picks the smallest of us and makes
their life even more of a hell than it already is here.   Her punishments are only part of what
she does.   She lays claim to them
and tries to block the observers from showing interest.   I haven ’ t been picked up
because she claimed I was infected with herpes."
    “ Is
being sold to one of those men any better than being here? ” Molly asked, glancing
up at the dark room.
    “ We
ask ourselves that question on a daily basis.   None of us have come up with an answer
yet. ”
    Molly
looked around in the shadows, able to detect the nodding of several heads.   Fear