Chain Gang All Stars

“There are some things I need to explain.”

Ain’t that seven kinds of true.

“I need you to confirm that you understand the nature of the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment program, which will henceforth be denoted ‘CAPE,’ that it is an extension of your thirty-six-year sentence for the murder of Keyan Thurber and in no way grants you clemency for your crimes against Keyan Thurber.[*] However, through your participation in the CAPE program you may earn your exoneration and be released into the public, but that is unlikely. To do so, you must successfully participate in the CAPE program for a period of three years, starting from the moment you sign the document I’m about to read to you. You have your own copy, so you can read along with me as I go through the terms aloud. Are you able to read?”

He speaks like a machine, says the names so easily. It hurts. It don’t make me less a monster to say so. And me knowing that don’t make me less one either. It hurts still.

It’s three white men in this office space. I can turn my head and see myself in a mirror in the room. Every mirror a door. In this one I see my face, the dark skin, eyes brown, bright. Hair wild black on my head and across my jaw. I need a shave. A good shave is a kind of love. Love I have not felt for some time.

Man talking is a representative of the program, wearing a government-looking tie. Man on my side of the table is Dan, called director of personnel here at New Auburn. It burns the skin to be back here. A place that held me silent. A place I was a slave.

I’m signing these papers no matter what kind of death they speak.

Or rather, where I was enslaved. Just ’cause you enslaved don’t make you a slave. You can’t ever be that.

Dan, the director, slave master extraordinaire. Dan I didn’t see much of on the inside, and when I did see him, he say it’s good I don’t see him much.

First meeting with Dan he asked me a question. I looked at my wrists. Surgery fresh, but the blue shined through the stitches. Dan had said, “You can nod yes or shake your head no to what I say.” Then he talked at me. I said, “My name—” and the electricity shocked me to the floor. I wept there for some time. Dan said, “Please return to your seat, Mr. Young.”

That was the beginning of my time at Auburn.

Across from Dan now is another man with black hair combed back and a tie the color of a goldfish. To start, he told me his name was Sawyer. “I’ll be like your agent,” he said. “I’m your new CO too. We’re gonna have a good time, brother.” He smiled and tried not to look at the bandaged stump coming out of my shoulder.

We in Dan’s office. A tight room with blank walls and an old-style television flat against the blank. It’s hotter than it needs to be. We in Dan’s office, but it don’t feel like it’s his right now.

“He can read,” Dan says, looking over at me, then at both the men across from us before he continues. “We practice the silence protocol as a re-experimental behavior initiative, and we maintain it at all times while on—”

“We know it’s quiet in here. Just like we know it smells like shit,” Sawyer says, then he looks at me. Winks at me. I’m with you, pal, I hear him think, even though he must know I see the guillotine in him. “I’d like my client to be able to speak. This is kinda important, Dan. We heard him speak a little bit ago when he was hospitalized, so why insist now?”

“Here on facility we enforce the policy strictly. In the infirmary we allow disengagement for obvious reasons.” The reason being everybody screams when they hurt. Can’t have screaming and electricity for more screaming. Man in here broke his leg, almost fried his brain from screaming so much. Sometimes you can cry if you do it quiet enough and the shock don’t pick it up. We all get good at crying quiet in New Auburn.

Government Man speaks: “Again, we already have the preliminary confirmation, but I need Mr. Young to be able to speak for himself. It is the precedent moving forward, Officer Rottermith, that incoming CAPE participants must show compliance via signatory and verbal confirmation unless physically incapable. And if you’d like to have a standing opportunity to have your population opt into the program, as other facilities do, this will be the standard.”

And I’m almost sad to see Dan lose his collar on me. I can see how much it hurts him to have to hear my voice, to hear me use my voice, even to use it to choose death. There’s always more wicked if you dig deep enough. “It’s part of—”

“This is not a negotiable issue. Your company president agreed to this a long time ago. Please disengage Mr. Young’s SILENCE.”

Dan blinks, then without looking to his left, to me, he pulls a small black screen out of the desk. He presses and slides his finger, presses and slides his finger again. The lines on my wrist go green.

“Thank you,” Government Man says. “So again, I’d like you to read along as I go through the CAPE rules and conditions with you, Mr. Young. Can you confirm that you can read?”

I look at Dan, see how sad he is. Sawyer is smiling at Government Man and Government Man is bored. A bored executioner. A white shirt and black tie. His face seems squeezed of life.

“You can speak now, Hendrix,” he says. “Are you able to read?”

“He can read,” Dan says.

“We’re talking to champ here,” Sawyer says.

“We need you to confirm you are able to follow and comprehend what we are saying. And we need you to confirm that you are doing this without coercion.”

One thing I give ’em, I think as I begin to laugh, they take pain and make it something brand-new every chance. They got every flavor and they keep making more.

Government Man frowns. Sawyer laughs with me, ’cause that’s the kinda man he is. Haha.

“Are you able to—” And I can’t stand him asking me again. I’ll double over on the floor. It’s surprising I can do it still. We don’t laugh in New Auburn and still the spirit is right there waiting for this moment here.

“I can read,” I say, laughing still.

“Thank you,” Government Man says, back to blank slate. Sawyer nods. Dan, I can feel, would have preferred never to hear my voice. Like my sound will stain his walls with something he can’t scrub out.

“I’ll continue.” Government Man so sewn into his language, but all it means is murder. It tries to paint all that nothing over death. He is nothing too. That’s the only way he could. A shell, a cipher for a thing so great he’d be destroyed looking in the mirror if he weren’t already dead on the inside. Like me.

I ask myself, Can I even hate a man like this?

“Please listen carefully and if you have any questions, please ask them after I’ve gone through all of the terms.”

Of course I can.

“You, one Hendrix Young, by signing this document confirm and acknowledge that you have elected to forgo the remaining tenure of twenty-four years and thirty-nine days of a total twenty-nine years at New Auburn Re-experimental Facility to participate in the CAPE program, a hyper-athletic hard action-sports entertainment platform formed primarily by the association of the Corrections Corporation of North America, which will henceforth be denoted as CCNA, and GEOD and understand that Chain-Gang Unlimited and all its subsidiary series are part of the CAPE program and as such are in line with many Program-Initiated and Conducted Corporal Punishment models.”

They paint the walls with words. They build walls with their words.

“As a participant in the program you agree to the following irreversible conditions:

“As a Link, the catchall name for participants in the Chain-Gang Unlimited branch of the CAPE program, you will travel with associate Links as part of the Sing-Auburn-Attica-Sing Chain, formally known as the Sing-Attica-Sing Chain. This Chain consists of inmates from the Attica Correctional Facility, Attica, New York; Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Ossining, New York; and the New Auburn Re-experimental Facility, Auburn, New York, all of which are owned by the GEOD correction corporation, or operated for the purposes of CAPE programming by GEOD. The Chain will also consist of Links who have been reassigned or ‘traded’ to the Chain, as is sometimes deemed logistically or financially necessary and beneficial. The CAPE program retains the utmost right to reassign any Link, so long as the directors of the Chains can reach an agreement.

“As a member of Sing-Auburn-Attica-Sing it will be your primary duty to defend yourself at all times and absolutely no liability for your person will fall to the CAPE program, any of the business affiliates of the program, or the government of the United States of America.

“As a Link you agree to have any and all aspects of your life recorded for public/private view, and consent to have your likeness used as a marketing tool at the discretion of the CAPE program from the moment of signing, in perpetuity.

“By signing the document herein, you agree to forfeit your right to any and all possessions, except those earned through successful participation in the CAPE program and outlined, in part, in this document.

“By signing this document, you forfeit any and all rights not formally distinguished and outlined by the CAPE program.

“As a Link you will be assigned a numeric economic value. This value is quantified in points colloquially known as ‘Blood Points,’ which are earned through successful participation in the program. These Blood Points will allow you to purchase goods such as food, weapons, certain levels of medical care, armor, and clothes, among other amenities. Outside sponsors may also support your participation. Blood Points may only be used to attain new weapons or armor after a Link has had one successful BattleGround appearance.

“Upon signing this document, you will be awarded fifteen Blood Points. The value of each Blood Point is one one-thousandth of one cent.

“All Links begin at rank one-R, or Rookie. Upon three successful BattleGround bouts Links rise to the level of Survivor.

“The current sequence of rankings is as follows: Rookie, Survivor, Cusp, Reaper, Harsh Reaper, Colossal, Grand Colossal. You will receive a more complete listing of what opportunities, armor, and amenities are available via Blood Points to each ranking level as new regulations are released every season.”

I listen to him talk his way up this ladder they’ve made. All the rungs, the different names you might earn as you become a death dealer. All the currency I might earn by killing the best of ’em.

“Do you follow thus far?”

I look at him straight and nod.

“Is that a confirmation?” Government Man asks.

“Yes,” I say.

He continues.

“Once assigned the personhood Link, you, one Hendrix Young, agree to spend the entirety of your tenure bound by ArcTech equipment. You also agree that any attempt to flee the custody of the program will result in an immediate termination via injection, detonation, electrocution, or any other method deemed suitable.

“In agreeing to participate in the CAPE program’s Chain-Gang Unlimited programming, you are also agreeing to participation in the standard Marches, each of indeterminate time (though usually spanning four to sixteen days). During said Marches, Links will be bound to a remote Prison Anchorage at all times. Any attempt to flee will result in forcible persuasion or termination.

“Each March session’s end will be immediately followed by a stay in a ‘Hub City,’ where Links will participate in civic community activities to enrich and support host communities. Any failure to comply with those activities will result in immediate termination.

“During Hub City stays, which will last no more than four days, Links will live in assigned dormitory spaces, which can be upgraded via Blood Points.

“Following Hub City sessions, Links will be escorted via CAPE program transport to a stadium site for BattleGround bouts, which will have been determined during March sessions and communicated to Links via electronic message. Advance information regarding BattleGround bouts can also be purchased via Blood Points.

“During BattleGround bouts Links must defend themselves at all times. A Link can be deemed a winner only if all opponents have been terminated. As of the current season of Chain-Gang Unlimited, Links cannot be assigned a Link from their own Chain as their BattleGround opponent.

“Failure to defend oneself and failure to attempt to terminate the opposing Link/Links will result in immediate termination for all parties.”

He goes on and on. It’s impossible to follow everything he says and at the same time it’s obvious: All he saying over and over is, You already dead.

“Do you understand?”

“I do,” I say. Another kind of altar.

“Now, having understood these irreversible terms and conditions, do you, Hendrix Young, agree to enroll in the CAPE program?”

I look at Dan. I can see it’s still hurting him. I look at Government Man, trying to feel nothing and succeeding in that. I can see Sawyer, licking his teeth.

“Yes,” I say.

Sawyer hands me a pen.

“Awesome. Now that the boring stuff is over, let’s go get you ready for this. You spin for your weapon tomorrow. And you’ll get your marks and some basic threads.”

I look at the men and my one wrist. I’m here with them because to love a voice is a painful thing. And now that I’ve traded my arm to get it back, my whole inside knows I can’t return to the silence, ’less I throw myself against the saw again, more precisely.

I sign.

* A man murdered. Shot right down. When you shooting a problem you see the problem, not the life they lived, not their happiness and sadness. Most of the time you shoot hot in rage, is what Hendrix Young imagined. When he killed Keyan Thurber, he was perfectly aware the man was a person capable of great feeling, great love. That was the problem. They call it cold blood. But when the trigger pulled, it all heat. Chest fire.