Chapter 40 Chapter 39

Lloyd knelt down.Sometimes humming two little songs, sometimes grinning silly.He often forgets the tune he hummed just now. At this time, he loses the smile on his face, and then weeps for a moment, and then forgets that he is crying and continues humming.He was humming a song called "A Trip to Campton."In addition to humming and weeping, the sound of "duda, duda" was interspersed.There was a deathly silence throughout the prison, save for his grunts and sobs, occasional "beeps," and the slight scraping of the foot of the bed as he tried to dismantle it.He tried to turn Trask's body around so he could reach his legs.Waiter, please give me some more slaw and a leg.

Lloyd looked like he'd gone through a quick diet.The prison uniform hangs like a loose sail.The last meal served in the prison was a lunch nine days ago.Lloyd was skinny, and the skin on his face exposed every hollow and protrusion of his skull.His eyes were still bright and gleaming, but his teeth had protruded from his lips.The hair fell out in piles, and there was a strange mottled color on the head.Looks like crazy. "Toot, toot," he hummed in a low voice while unloading the foot of the bed.Sometimes he doesn't know why he bothers to dismantle that filthy thing.But in an instant he tasted the pain of real hunger.The feeling of hunger is actually your appetite being overwhelmed.

"Ride around all night... ride around all day, duh..." The foot of the bed hooked on the calf of Trask's trousers.Lloyd pulled him over easily.Lloyd hung his head, sobbing like a child.Behind him, desolately, hung the skeleton of a rat he had killed in Trask's cell on June 29, five days earlier.The rat's long red tail was still attached to the bones.Lloyd tried to devour the tail several times, but it was too hard.Almost all the water in the toilet was gone, despite his best efforts to store it.The cell smelled of urine, and he had to keep urinating in the corridor in order to prevent the water source from being polluted.He no longer needs to poop (which is completely understandable due to the drastic decline in diet).

He ate up his store of food too quickly.Now it's finally getting a taste of the pain.He had thought someone would come.He couldn't believe no one would come. The idea that he didn't want to eat Trask was simply too horrible.Just last night he had managed to catch a cockroach with a slipper and eat it raw; he could feel it jumping wildly about in his mouth as he snapped it in half with his teeth.In fact, the taste is good, much more delicious than rat meat.Really, he didn't want Trask.He doesn't want to be a cannibal like a rat.He had to drag Trask over, just in case, just in case.He had heard of people who could survive for long periods of time on water without food.

"Although the water is running out, I don't want to think about it yet, just don't want to think about it now, just don't want to think about it right now." He didn't want to die, he didn't want to starve.He was full of anger.This anger had been rising in his heart three days ago, and this feeling was increasing day by day along with the growing hunger.He imagined that if his long-dead pet rabbit could think, it would hate him as much. (Now he sleeps a lot, and in his dreams he is always haunted by a rabbit, its body eaten, its fur spread out on the ground, maggots wriggling in its eyes, and the worst thing is those bloody claws, every time When he wakes, he looks apprehensively at his own fingers).Lloyd's rage was all focused on a simple concept in the imagination.This concept is that key.

He is now locked in a cell.It used to look like he should be locked up.He's one of those bad guys.Not really a badass.Polk is the real bad guy.What he did would have been nothing if it hadn't been for Polk.However, he also bears some responsibility.And Georgia George in Vegas and those 3 guys from the "White Continent" - he was involved in that too, and he figured he was punished.He thought he should be arrested, but not for such a long time.No one wants to do this kind of thing, but when they have you completely in their hands, even if they give you a gun, you have to swallow it.As he told his lawyers, he was only 20 percent to blame for this "tri-state massacre."Not the electric chair, God!Never sit.It's just horrible.

But they have the key, which is the most crucial thing.They can lock you up and do whatever they want. During the past three days, Lloyd had begun to grasp dimly the symbolism of "the key," its talismanic power.If you play by the rules, the key is rewarded to you.Conversely, if you don't play by the rules, you'll be locked in forever.The key is no different from the "Prison in Jail" card in "Power Chess".You don't want to get away with it and amass $200.Possession of a key confers certain privileges.They can take away 10 years of your life, or 20 years, or 40 years.They can hire someone like Mathers to hit you.They can even end your life with the electric chair.

But just because they have the key doesn't give them the right to leave and leave you in a cell to starve to death.That doesn't mean they have the right to force you to eat dead rats, or even dry sackcloth from mattresses.It doesn't mean that they can push you to the point where you just want to eat the dead man in the neighboring cell (if you can reach that person, it is possible - duh, duh). There are some things you just can't do.You have the key, that's all you can do, and it's impossible to go too far.They left him here to die a miserable death when they could have let him out.No matter what the documents said, he was not a murderer, not the kind of person who wanted to kill anyone he saw.Until he met Polk, the worst he could do was a trifle.

So he was angry, and this anger drove him to live—or at least try to live.For a while, it seemed like this anger and determination to live were of no use to him, because everyone who had the "key" had died of the flu.He couldn't find revenge on them.Later, his hunger gradually increased, and he knew that the flu would not kill these people.It would only kill a frustrated man like him; it would only kill Mathers, but not the damn guy who hired Mathers, because that guy had the key.The flu doesn't kill the warden and the wardens - obviously the guard who called the wardens sick is a damn liar.It would never kill a parole officer, a county judge, or a CIA officer, either.Influenza will never reach those who have "keys".It didn't dare, but Lloyd was going to mess with them.If he could get out of here alive, he'd show them the color.

The bed leg caught Trask's trousers again. "Come here," whispered Lloyd, "come here, come here... Ladies of Campton singing this song, all... blah blah blah blah."Trask's body slid slowly and with difficulty along the cell floor.Not even a fisherman was so cautious when fishing for tuna, with twists and turns.Trask's pants were torn, and Lloyd could finally get through the fence and grab his feet...if he wanted to. "It's all right," he whispered to Trask.He touched Trask's leg.He strokes it. "Don't be nervous, I won't eat you, old friend, I don't want to."

He didn't even feel like he was drooling. Lloyd heard a movement in the afterglow of the setting sun, and at first the sound was so distant and unfamiliar (metal on metal clang) that he thought he must be dreaming.This state of waking and sleeping was familiar to him now.In the past he would cross that line without knowing it. But then there were human voices again, and he quickly climbed onto the bed, his eyes set off bigger and brighter by his hungry and thin face.The sound came down the corridor and then down the stairs to the foyer, which was the link between the interview room and the central prison area, where Lloyd was. "Hi!—Hi! Is anyone here?". But strangely, Lloyd's first thought was not to answer, maybe he would walk away. "Is there anyone in the house? Once, or twice? ... Well, here I am, I just left this damn place, Phoenix, and I haven't had time to dust off my shoes." Hearing this, Lloyd suddenly perked up.He jumped out of bed, fucked his legs, and banged frantically on the fence; the clatter of metal became more and more rapid, and his fists were clenched so hard that his knuckles were about to shatter. "Don't!" he screamed, "Don't! Don't go! Please don't go!". The voice was getting closer and closer, coming from the stairs between the management and this floor! "We're going to eat you up, we love you--oh! Somebody seems to be starving." Then there was a languid laugh. Lloyd threw the bed legs to the floor and clutched the cell bars with both hands.At this moment he could hear footsteps in some shadowy place above, walking regularly along the hall leading to the cell.Lloyd wanted to cry tears of relief, after all, he was rescued - but instead of joy, he felt fear.The growing sense of dread made him wish he could still remain silent.Still keep silent?Oh my god!And what could be worse than starvation? Hunger reminded him of Trask.Trask lay sprawled in the gray afterglow of the setting sun, a leg already stretched stiffly into Lloyd's cell, the calf of which was visibly missing a piece and bleeding, and Tooth marks.Lloyd knew whose teeth it was.But he only vaguely remembered eating Trask's meat for lunch.Still, he was filled with strong feelings of disgust, guilt, and fear.He rushed to the bars and pushed Trask's leg back into his own cell.Then looking over his shoulder again, sure he couldn't see the speaker yet, he reached over, the iron bars pressing against his face, and he pulled Trask's trouser legs down, trying to cover what he had done. There was no need to worry, of course, because the barred door on the top of the cell was still shut, and there was no electricity, and the buttons didn't work.The person who rescued him had to go back and find the key, he had to... Lloyd grunted when the motor that opened the gate whined again.The silence of the cell made the sound of the generator louder, and with a click, the sound stopped and the door flew open. Then rhythmic footsteps sounded on the corridor leading to the cell. After Trask was settled, Lloyd returned to his cell.Now he doesn't want to go back a step.He stared intently at the ground outside, and the first thing he saw was a pair of dusty cowboy boots, with the toes showing and the heels frayed, and the first thought that crossed his mind was that Polk had a pair like that. shoes. The boots stopped in front of his cell. He slowly raised his eyes to see a pair of faded jeans curled up over his boots.A belt with a brass buckle (a pair of coaxial circles on top of the brass buckle, with various star-shaped patterns inside) is tied around the waist, and a button is decorated on each of the two breast pockets of the denim jacket. Buttons - one is a cute smiling face and the other is a dead pig with the words "How does your pork taste?" At the same time, Lloyd's eyes also reluctantly caught Flagg's blackened face, and Flagg let out a sharp "shhhh".The monotonous voice echoed in the lifeless cell. Lloyd screamed, fell to his knees, and burst into tears. "All right!" Flagg reassured him. "Hey, all right, everything is all right." Lloyd sobbed: "Can you let me out? Please let me out. I don't imagine my bunny. I don't want to end my life like that. It's so unfair. If it wasn't for Polk, I'm a big deal I won't commit any of them, it's just a shitty little problem, sir, please let me out, I can do anything for you." "Poor fellow. You look like you're advertising a summer holiday in Dachau." Despite the sympathy in Flagg's words, Lloyd dared not lift his eyes above his visitor's knees.It would kill him if he looked into his face again, it was the face of a devil. "Please," Lloyd muttered under his breath, "please let me out, I'm starving." "How long have you been kept here, my friend?" "I don't know," Lloyd said, wiping away tears with bony fingers, "it's been a long time anyway." "Why aren't you dead yet?" "I know what's going to happen to me." Lloyd picked up the last few rags he loved. "I saved food so I didn't die." "Have you ever eaten meat from the man in the adjacent cell?" "What?" hoarse Lloyd. "What? God! What do you take me for? Sir, sir, please..." "His left leg looks a little thinner than his right. That's the only reason I'm asking you." "I don't know anything about it," Lloyd whispered.He was trembling with fear. "What's with that rat? How does it taste?" Lloyd put his hands to his face and said nothing. "What's your name?" Lloyd tried to speak, but only whimpered. "What's your name, soldier?" Lloyd's mind was a mess.When the lawyer told him that he might end up in the electric chair, he was terrified, but it couldn't compare to the fear he feels now.He had never been so frightened in his life. "It was all Pork's idea!" he screamed. "Pork should be here, not me, Lloyd!" "Look at me, Lloyd." "No." Lloyd whispered.His eyes rolled around. "Why don't you look at me?" "because……" "Go on." "Because I don't think you're really trying to save me," Lloyd whispered. "If you're real, you're the devil." "Look at me, Lloyd." There was no way, Lloyd raised his eyes, and his eyes shifted to the dark, grinning face behind the iron fence.His right hand was raised to the side of his right eye, holding something in his hand. Seeing this, he felt hot and cold all over.Like a black stone, as black as pitch and black carbon.There was a red spot in the middle of the stone, and it looked to Lloyd like a horrible eye, bloodshot and half-closed, staring at him.Flagg twirled between his fingers, the red spot in the black stone like a key.Flagg began switching keys from one hand to the other, like a magician doing a trick. "Now you must be one of those people who appreciate the value of a key," said the visitor.The black stone suddenly disappeared from his clenched fist and reappeared in the other hand, which began its tricks again. "I'm sure you're one of those people, because keys are for opening doors. What's more important in life than opening doors, Lloyd?" "Sir, I'm starving to death..." "You are indeed starving to death," said the visitor.The concern and worry on his face was so exaggerated that it could be said to be extremely absurd. "God, rats aren't human food at all! Hey, do you know what I had for lunch? I had a nice roast beef sandwich on Vienna bread, some onions, and lots of Goods' Spicy molasses bread. Sounds good?" Lloyd nodded, tears streaming from his too-bright eyes. "Lunch came with some home fried potato chips and chocolate milk, followed by sweets - man, am I torturing you? Someone should have smacked me a few times, and they should. I'm sorry. I'll be right away Let you out, and then we'll go find something to eat, shall we?" Lloyd was so dumbfounded that he didn't know how to nod his head.For a moment he thought the man with the key must be a demon, or even more likely a hallucination, and that hallucination would last until Lloyd's final death, as he flickered with the strange black stone while talking about God, Jesus, and Gulden's spicy mustard bread.The difference is that the sympathy on his face looks so real now, he does sound a little bit blaming himself.The black stone disappeared from his fist again.When the fist opened, Lloyd's curious and urgent eyes saw a flat silver key with an ornate handle in the stranger's palm. "My dear God!" Lloyd exclaimed hoarsely. "Do you like this trick?" the figure in the dark asked happily. "I learned this trick from the baby girl at the massage parlor in Secaucus, New Jersey. Secaucus, the largest hog farm in the world." Town of." He bent down and inserted the key into the lock of Lloyd's cell door.But strangely, as far as he can remember (which is not in good shape now), the cells had no lock slots, and all the doors opened and closed electrically.But he had no doubt that the silver key would come in handy. As he rattled the lock, Flagg stopped, looked at Lloyd, and grinned sheepishly, and Lloyd felt another pang of disappointment.It's just a joke. "Did I introduce myself? My name is Flagg. Nice to meet you." "Me too," Lloyd said hoarsely. "I think, before I open the cell door, we're going to get some supper over and let's talk to each other, Lloyd." "Of course." Lloyd yelled hoarsely. "Lloyd, I'm going to make you my best companion, Lloyd, I'm going to put you with St. Peter. When I open the door, I'm going to hand over the key to your disposal. Really A good deal, right?" "Yes." Lloyd whispered, feeling scared again.It was pitch black.Only the black silhouette of Flagg's body could be seen, but his eyes could still see clearly.His eyes were as sharp as those of a lynx, one eye fixed on the left side of the fence containing the lock box, and the other eye stayed on the right side of the fence containing the lock box.Lloyd felt the fear, mixed with other indescribable feelings: a divine ecstasy, a relief, a relief of being chosen, a triumph over all hardships, and something. The feeling of harvest. "You really want to find whoever kept you here, don't you?" "Of course my friend," said Lloyd, momentarily forgetting all fear, consumed by a feeling of extreme hunger and rage. "It's not just those guys, it's everybody who's done that," Flagg said. "It's another type of guy, isn't it? People like that are just a bunch of rubbish. Because they're so high up, they don't think people like you have the right to live." "Exactly," Lloyd said.Extreme hunger has transformed into another type of feeling, like a black stone into a silver key.The man expressed all the complexities Lloyd felt in just a few words.He didn't just want to deal with the janitor (what, doesn't this smart filthy guy have the key? What the hell? filthy guy.), but the man wasn't the janitor at all.Of course, the guard had the key, but he didn't make it, someone else gave it to him.Lloyd guessed it was the warden, but he didn't make it either.Lloyd wanted to find a designer and a forger.They won't catch the flu, and he sure has a deal with them.Yes, a good deal for sure. "Do you know what the Bible says about that kind of people?" Flagg asked kindly, "The Bible says that those who are noble should be lowered, those who are proud should be humbled, and those who are arrogant should be humbled." Undercut them. You know what the Bible says about people like you, Lloyd? It says that the meek go to heaven because they will inherit the world. The Bible also says that people who go to heaven after death go to heaven Spiritually poor because they will see God." Lloyd couldn't help nodding.Nodding and crying.For a moment Flagg's head seemed to have a radiant halo, so intense that Lloyd's eyes seemed to be burned to ashes if he looked more often.Then the halo disappeared again—if there was one, it must have been a hallucination, because Lloyd still hadn't lost his night vision. "You don't look very bright now," Flagg said, "but you're first-rate, and I feel you can be faithful, and you and I, Lloyd, have a long way to go. Now it's time for us Good times. We can start from scratch, now it's your word." "What words?" "The two of us join forces, you and me. Don't deny me. Don't sleep on guard. There will be others soon (they're going west now.) But for now, just the two of us. If you promise me , I'll give you the key." "I...promise you," Lloyd said, his voice quivering oddly as if suspended in midair.He listened to the tremor, and with his head on one side, he could almost see the four words glowing dimly, like the aurora reflected in the eyes of a dead man. He forgot the word as the lock's tumbler turned in the lockbox.After a while, the lock box landed at Flagg's feet, and a few wisps of smoke wafted from the keyhole. "Lloyd, you are free, come out." Lloyd couldn't believe it, and Lloyd touched the iron bars hesitantly, as if they were going to burn him; they did seem a little hot, too.But when he pushed the bar open, the door slid back easily and silently.He looked at his saviour, with eyes burning like a fiery fire.Now he seems to have something in his hand.is the key. "This is yours now, Lloyd." "mine?" Flagg took his hand and let him hold the key in it.Lloyd felt the key move in his hand, felt it change.He let out a hoarse cry and spread his fingers.The key was gone, leaving only a black stone with a red spot in the middle.He held the stone high and looked at it over and over.The red blotches look one moment a key, another a skull, another a bloodstained half-closed eye. "Mine," Lloyd answered himself.He closed his hands helplessly, gripping the stone tightly. "Shall we get some supper?" Flagg asked. "We're going a long way tonight." "Dinner," said Lloyd, "all right." "There's just so much we have to do," Flagg said cheerfully, "and we're going to move very quickly." Together they walked up the stairs, past the dead bodies in the cells.Lloyd stumbled in the dark, and Flagg grabbed his elbow and helped him to his feet.Lloyd turned and looked at Flagg's smiling face with more than gratitude.Looking at Flagg with a feeling of love.