Walking

Silently the man stood up, making his way through the opened gate and into the midst of the waiting guards.  His wrists were quickly shackled, and with an armed escort on either side, he started down the hall.  Those whom he had spoken with in the past few weeks watched silently through the bars of their own encasements as another person was lead away, down the hall, to the reinforced steel door (seeming more appropriate for a submarine) at the far end of the passage.  It was wheeled open, hinges squeaking noisily to allow the trio to step through, then being closed behind them.

There was no way to know what to expect past this point; none of them ever knew what happened next.  Oh certainly, they had a basic idea, but the turns to be taken, the stairs to be climbed…none of it was known.  There was no one to tell the story, since no one ever came back from this walk.  Maybe it was best that way.  It made each walk unique.  No, more than that…it made each walk important.  New and significant for each individual who was guided along this path.  Never routine.  Never, ever routine.

This man was a rarity.  His eyes were up and alert, and his step was steady.  No trace of fear or nervousness crossed his face; though guided by his escorts, he seemed to be moving with purpose.  As if to spite his captors, he walked down the corridors as though he were doing so of his own free will.  And maybe he was; had he known that his actions would lead up to this moment?  Had he resigned himself to this the moment he did what he did?  Or even before?  It was difficult to say.  And soon enough, it would be impossible.

Silently, they continued on with their morbid march, neither rushing nor lagging.  The guards offered no conversation, and there were no passerbys, no announcements, no bulletins in sight or sound to be had.  The entire compound seemed to be holding a moment of silence for the man in the middle.  Up a particularly long flight of stairs, they entered another hallway, another door at the far end.  Its foreboding presence signaled that to be the end of their journey.

They continued on, slowing just a little bit, none of them exchanging any glances but decelerating all the same.  Was the man growing frightened now?  Or maybe it was the guards, their own humanity calling out to them, making them hesitant to lead another person to that door.  But they did not stop.  No one stopped in this hallway.  The door at the end opened inward to the room beyond it, ensuring that they would have no reason to stop.  As they approached, they could see a small group of people, sitting in a few rows of chairs, facing opposite them.

And the solitary chair, settled firmly on the stage in front of those people.  Dead center from the view in the hallway, lined up perfectly with the man who’d been brought here.  The chair he was walking to.  The only one with leather straps.  How…special.