One of the Black Boots…

(from Todd Riemer’s Inferno – Chapter III, p. 16-17)

…the drunken man, fired his handgun through a prisoner’s skull. The man’s body fell like a stone to the ground, toppling the rest of the men bound by the chain. The metal ring around my neck tightened. A slight trickle of blood rolled down it. I watched the guard manically cut the man from the chain gang with his knife. He was no better than a butcher. He dismembered the prisoner as though he were an animal.

Jus’ remember who’s in charge here.  He ran alongside the chain and hopped into one of the trucks ahead of us laughing to himself.  The other Black Boots greeted him with victorious cries.  Jus’ remember we’re watchin’ you bastar’s, he shouted back at us.

We struggled back onto our feet and continued the hellish march.