It was Viella's fifth day in the Jamarl Plains prison pit.
She bent over the emaciated prisoner lying in the hospital bed and wrapped the cuff around his extremely thin arm—it was so thin there was almost too much of an overlap, but she managed to position the cuff and pump it up while positioning the bell-end of the stethoscope. She finished taking his blood pressure, wrote down the findings on a chart, and set it on a table at the end of his bed.
JoJo's hanging in there, she thought. He just might make it.
Her first day in this hell hole she had learned the "program”—everything she needed to know to conform to the rules in order to stay alive. They got her up at six thirty, a half hour before sunrise. At that time she performed all her morning necessities, and then she was marched out of the women's cellblock and on to the pavement in the prisoner's courtyard. Circles, about two and a half feet in diameter, were painted on the hard black surface—all in neat little rows of thirty and extending ten deep. In each circle was a number starting with 1 in the first circle and ending with 300 in the last.
Earlier, in the women's cellblock, the matron had informed Viella that her number was "102." The warden liked to keep things neat and orderly, so each new prisoner was given the largest remaining number at the end of the already established number of prisoners. "Your number will most likely change every week," said the Matron. "Whenever a prisoner dies, you move down a number."
As she stepped into the circle with the "102" painted in the center of it she noticed that Em, the man or android who had saved her life, was standing next to her on "103."
The guard began taking roll. He shouted out the names in order, sometimes giving special instructions to the man or woman whose name he called. He finally got to Ben Hillar who was on Viella's left in circle "101."
Ben raised his hand and said, "Here."
The guard told him he would be a loader, whatever that meant, until further notice. "Viella Tybo," he called.
"Here," she said and raised her hand.
"You will be assigned to the prison hospital until otherwise notified." He paused then yelled out, "Em . . . ." He looked at the sheet again as if puzzled and then again he called out, "Em."
Em looked straight ahead and remained silent, lost in a world beyond.
"Em," called the guard again.
But there was no answer, as Em remained silent.
And suddenly the man who had been cracking the whip, the largest man Viella had ever seen, even larger than Everette the mountain man, with anger sweeping over his face, started through the ranks of prisoners. A sea of human flesh parted before him hurrying to get out of his way as he raised his whip into the air.
Viella quickly grabbed Em's left arm with both of her hands and pushed Em's hand into the air while at the same time yelling, "here."
The guard looked down the ranks and then said, "It's okay, Og." He had been informed of Em's silence. And Og turned around and walked back as the prisoners filed back into their circles.