Page 84 of Blue Arrow Island
Vance weeps. He’s on his knees, his forehead on the ground. “Please. Cast me out. Just don’t do this.”
Shaking his head, Marcus looks at Nova and Niran. They each grab an arm and drag him over to the hole, dumping him inside it.
I’m taken back to the hole Virginia put me in, my skin crawling as the sense of total helplessness returns. I have to take a few deep breaths and remind myself I’m not going in there. Vance brought this on himself.
Ellison squeezes my hand as Vance screams, begging someone to intervene. Marcus walks over to the edge and looks down at him. Then he lifts his chin and speaks to the group.
“Tonight, Nova and I found Vance guilty of disrespecting a camp member and lying. I have no doubt this is the right call. Justice here is swift and brutal because it has to be.”
The faces I can see in the faint glow of the flashlights are all resigned. There are both men and women, some of them glancing over at me and Ellison.
“Nova?” Marcus says.
“I agree with this decision.” She says it without hesitation.
Marcus looks down at Vance. “You get one more chance to be honest with me.”
One more chance? Was this all just a game to scare him? I look over at Ellison, who stares straight ahead.
“Thank you,” Vance sobs. “Marcus, thank you. I’ll never let you down again. I was wrong. She made me mad and I was trying to get back at her. I’ll never?—”
Marcus switches the safety off on his gun, pointing it at Vance.
“No!” Vance cries. “You said I had a chance to be honest and I was!”
Marcus narrows his eyes, his face impassive as he says, “In this case, honesty earns you a bullet before we bury you.”
The shot rings out and I jump. Ellison releases my hand and puts an arm around my shoulders.
“I’m okay,” I whisper, both to her and to myself.
Marcus tucks the gun into the waistband of his shorts, turning around.
“This is what happens when power is abused here.”
No one breathes. It’s eerily silent until the trill of a monkey sounds in the jungle. Marcus looks at Nova and says, “Finish it.”
Then his gaze locks onto me, the sorrow I saw in his expression back in my room replaced with stern authority.
“Let’s go.”
26
I’ve been pinned down in some tight situations. Outnumbered and outgunned. But pressure builds diamonds. When the going gets tough, keep your head. Never give up. As long as your heart’s still beating, there’s hope.
–Excerpt from an interview with Ben Hollis for a book authored by Margie Gillis
I’m practically jogging to keep up with Marcus as he storms through the darkened camp, the ring of the gunshot still playing over in my mind.
I expected it to happen—why else would they dig a grave? As I watched them shovel earth from the ground and heard Vance beg for his life, I went back and forth over whether I thought he deserved to die.
I’m still not sure, but I know I feel safer knowing he won’t be waiting around any corners for me.
“Hey,” I say from a few steps behind Marcus. “You said we’d talk.”
He casts a quick glance at me, his brow furrowed. “You want to talk now?”
“I’ve had questions since I woke up on the boat that brought me here, so yeah. Now would be good.”
