Chapter Text
It was another normal day, or about as normal as you could get when you’re marching to your death. Then again, Garraty was glad he was alive even if that meant he could still feel his body, his young body crumble in on itself.
The spring breeze was nice, it wasn’t cold, it was a warm breeze, it was just a breeze. But then the pure serenity of it all was ruined when Olson decided to speak up. “Hey guys, do you want to hear a little fact about one of the first long walks?” Olson asked eagerly.
“If it’s another random one, like Oh in the first walk, the walkers got to stop every 10 hours, I’ll pass, thank you very much” Baker said plainly. To Garraty it seemed Baker was in a mood that day, he didn’t know why. But the even bigger question was did he wanna know why?
“But come on guys! It’s a good one! A scary one even!” Olson said that as if it wasn’t already morbid enough that they were walking on this death march. Baker murmured to Garraty so Olson couldn’t hear, “If he says one more morbid fact, his jelly legs will be his last concern.” Garraty couldn’t tell if his face was shocked or smirking, truly there was nothing to smirk about on the walk, but yet here he was smirking or not smirking.
Garraty could tell Olson was trying to distract himself from the pain in his legs. He wanted to help, he really did but he couldn’t find the energy to do so. He also wondered what the fact was, he hadn’t heard much about the first Long Walks, particularly because no one talked about them. He heard that they were either violent or just downright boring, but even that was from other kids talking about what their grandparents had said.
Over the next few hours, the fact that Olson had suggested to tell the group plagued Garraty’s mind. It was as if the fact whether it was simple or not, or scary had plagued Garraty's rather bored mind. So after Garraty mustered up the courage to go up to the ailing Olson, he said “Hey Olson. What was the fact you wanted to tell everyone?”. Olson perked up like a dog who just heard its name called. “So! The fact was…I think on the first or second Long Walk a girl on it, I forget what her name was just straight up disappeared.”