WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:04.519 This single day added on to my sentencement the difference 2 00:00:04.519 --> 00:00:08.599 between a normal jail and the unending nightmare of pen 3 00:00:08.679 --> 00:00:12.640 being a prison. I was supposed to get three hundred 4 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:17.920 and sixty four days, that was the deal, but the 5 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:20.920 judge didn't like my attitude that of the hell that meant, 6 00:00:21.320 --> 00:00:25.800 so he made it three hundred and sixty five boom. 7 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:30.960 One year was the minimum for prison. My lawyer made 8 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:32.840 a stink and a half, but it didn't do any good. 9 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:36.200 That's my fault. In fact, he's the one who's going 10 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:38.679 to release this statement to the press or leak it 11 00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:42.759 online if the Guardian Corrections Group GCG tries to get 12 00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:46.119 an injunction on us. People have to know what happened 13 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:52.799 pen being a prison. I'm gonna put it right out 14 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:57.119 there and tell you that it was haunted. I think 15 00:00:57.159 --> 00:01:00.840 I'm joking nuts lying, but you have no iye, Haunted 16 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:03.640 prisons aren't anything like you imagine those places that advertise 17 00:01:03.719 --> 00:01:06.959 themselves and give people tours. Those are a sick joke 18 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:11.400 compared to the real thing. It got so bad that 19 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:15.280 you can actually look up GCG's official filing for Chapter eleven. 20 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.040 That shit put them out of business in their very 21 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:21.760 first prison, and right there on the briefs using an 22 00:01:21.799 --> 00:01:25.359 early statute from North Dakota law from eighteen fifty seven 23 00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:29.480 to file an insurance claim. It says site of penbin 24 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:34.079 a prison confirmed by Governor's office and two notary publics 25 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:38.760 witnessing in person to be afflicted by the supernatural such 26 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:44.840 that continued business is impossible. It wasn't the first time 27 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:47.599 the prison was closed for that reason, either, but leeches 28 00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:50.239 keep buying it and reopening it, hoping to make a 29 00:01:50.280 --> 00:01:55.760 buck off the common man. And I was shoved into 30 00:01:55.760 --> 00:02:02.280 that hell hole without knowing the history even a single bit. Now, 31 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:04.439 don't get me wrong. The building itself wasn't so bad, 32 00:02:04.519 --> 00:02:08.520 especially for something straight out of eighteen fifty three. It 33 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:12.400 was a big stone cube that was squat heavy, cramped, 34 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:16.120 but way less sealed off than modern prison. We could 35 00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:18.800 see a lot of the cells around us. There's only 36 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:22.080 one main hallway per floor. We were close enough for 37 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:26.560 passing things between the bars. I have some real human interaction, 38 00:02:27.319 --> 00:02:31.240 and it could have been worse. There were five floors 39 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:35.319 capacity for five hundred prisoners. When I first got there, 40 00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:38.319 I had a bunch of cell mates. I heard there 41 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:44.240 were two thousand guys locked up. I believed it that 42 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:49.039 soon changed. I didn't talk to anyone for the first 43 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:52.599 three weeks. I never been to a real prison before. 44 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:54.919 I was messed up over it. I didn't want to 45 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:57.520 accept that I would be in that place, stuck with 46 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:01.680 three other guys in myself, for an entire year. The 47 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:04.879 whole prison seemed full of feral men. Bottom floor would 48 00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:07.800 start screaming and hollering and panicking in the middle of 49 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:11.439 the night. We were on the top floor, but we 50 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:15.240 could hear their screams echoing through that open old layout, 51 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:19.000 like they were right there with us. I just thought 52 00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:21.479 the prisoners and the bottom floor were all nuts until 53 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:23.520 the guards weren't there to wake us up. The first 54 00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:29.159 day of my fourth week, Now, when I woke up 55 00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:31.599 in my little corner without some asshole guard banging on 56 00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:34.639 the bars of our cell, I finally finally had to talk. 57 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:37.840 I asked one of my cellmates, Dante, what was going on, 58 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:41.759 and I'll never forget the fear in his voice. So 59 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:44.639 he said something that should have made us all incredibly happy. 60 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:51.800 The guards are gone. Man. The prisoners were talking quietly 61 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:55.759 between the cells, loudly between the floors through various whispers 62 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:59.800 and shouts. The most we could figure out was that 63 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.319 something on the first floor it made them all quit 64 00:04:02.439 --> 00:04:06.479 in protest. Sure it must have been the crazy screaming 65 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:10.439 like that during the night, right, except none of us 66 00:04:10.520 --> 00:04:15.120 could get any word from the bottom floor. It was 67 00:04:15.159 --> 00:04:18.680 dead silent down there. Guys on the second floor called 68 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:21.639 out for hours as someone was down there. They said 69 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:25.399 they could hear shuffling footsteps walking around it random every 70 00:04:25.399 --> 00:04:28.480 so often, but whoever it was, they never said a 71 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:33.639 single word. That was the first time Dante mentioned the 72 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:39.399 crazy stories from the first floor. He muttered that he 73 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:42.319 hoped none of that was true. When I asked about it, 74 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:46.319 he just shook his head. Nothing, man, nothing, None of 75 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:53.040 it ever made sense. Now, we were a little worried 76 00:04:53.079 --> 00:04:55.000 as the day wore on and nobody came to let 77 00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:57.879 us out for breakfast, and nobody came to let us 78 00:04:57.879 --> 00:05:01.360 out for lunch, and we usually got to spend outside 79 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:05.519 in the yard. Came and it went. You began getting restless, 80 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:08.079 you know, and the cells to our left. Dante's friend 81 00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:10.519 Will began telling guys to pass the word. We should 82 00:05:10.519 --> 00:05:12.600 all calm down and start sharing any food that we 83 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:18.199 had hold away. I remember asking Dante's Is it really 84 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:22.720 that bad? Why they've denied us meals and yard time 85 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:26.120 for a day or two before? He told me. But 86 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:28.839 the other two guys in ourselves didn't look convinced. One 87 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:32.519 of them said, but not like this. They made damn 88 00:05:32.600 --> 00:05:36.199 sure we knew what we did. They never just up 89 00:05:36.199 --> 00:05:40.519 and left. Someone hands in us pieces of crusty old 90 00:05:40.519 --> 00:05:45.319 bread through the bars. It's much appreciated. The new guards 91 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:47.160 that didn't show up for work for another full day. 92 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:50.839 We got plenty of yard time that day from the 93 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:55.079 new guys, but they seemed more confused than us. We 94 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:58.199 all watched from a distance as Will asked a guard 95 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:02.480 about what happened. I don't know. GCG was paying a 96 00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:07.160 premium for fast hires, so I just signed up. What 97 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:10.040 about the prisoners on the first floor, We'll ask. We 98 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:12.920 could still hear them shuffling around down there. We looked 99 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:14.920 on the way out into the yard, but we couldn't 100 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:20.800 see anyone. Mm. The guard frowned. Nobody in there. They 101 00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:26.240 all got transferred, transferred The hell does that mean? It 102 00:06:26.279 --> 00:06:30.160 means DOCR took him back, returned to state custody since 103 00:06:30.199 --> 00:06:34.160 the company couldn't handle him. That made sense I mean, 104 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:36.800 if the floor had been full of nut jobs, then 105 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:40.519 North Dakota's first local private prison company hardly had the 106 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:44.519 experience to handle them. But these new guys didn't even 107 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:47.639 have the skills to handle us. But they were half 108 00:06:47.639 --> 00:06:50.160 as many guards as before. They didn't know the routines 109 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:53.199 or who the dangerous ones were among us, and as 110 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:57.120 a result, they were distant, scared, forceful. I mean all 111 00:06:57.160 --> 00:07:00.399 except one guy, Kellen. Kellen wasn't the first guard to 112 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:03.160 treat us like human beings, but then he was the 113 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:06.639 only one around. Traded jokes while in the yard, never 114 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:09.560 hit us, looked us in the eyes when he talked. 115 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:12.519 He went and found some paperwork to confirmed the crazies 116 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:15.399 had actually been transferred, but took three months to get 117 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:18.040 that info out of GCG, and by the time he 118 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:20.319 told us he'd heard back, we sort of forgotten the 119 00:07:20.360 --> 00:07:25.680 whole thing. Two nights later, maybe two hours passed lights out, 120 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:30.160 the guys on the second floor began screaming. Dante leaped up, 121 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:32.519 fell on one of our cell mates by accident, before 122 00:07:32.519 --> 00:07:36.839 shouting shit, shit must be a fire. I think. Guys 123 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:39.480 in our robe began banging on the bars, shouting for 124 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:43.720 the guards but the uniforms charged past and headed downstairs 125 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:46.360 without talking to us, and he gave them shouting orders 126 00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:49.920 down below, and then yelling and confusion. The prisoner's screams 127 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:52.519 were clearer coming from the second and it sounded like 128 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:55.800 they were terrified of something in particular, and they wanted help. 129 00:07:56.759 --> 00:07:59.959 That sounds of gates being slammed. The people running reached 130 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:06.079 us after about ten minutes of shouting, and then who 131 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:11.439 was silent. We sat in the dark, waiting and listening 132 00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:19.439 until morning, and when the new shift came, they were 133 00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:22.560 surprised and confused, and Kellen came by to ask what 134 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:25.519 had happened. We told him what we knew. He'd shown 135 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:29.639 up and found open gates at empty second floor. There 136 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:32.320 was no indication what had happened, but he promised to 137 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:35.360 check with corporate and figure out if the absent prisoners 138 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:38.799 had all been rapidly transferred. Again. A Dante gripped the 139 00:08:38.840 --> 00:08:41.080 bars and made sure Kellen was looking at him. Please 140 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:43.960 find out what the hell is walking around down there night? 141 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:49.639 Kellen blinked at that, I mean on day's shift, so 142 00:08:49.639 --> 00:08:52.000 I don't know what I could do. What do you 143 00:08:52.039 --> 00:08:56.840 mean prisoners are gone? Then they told him fiercely but quietly. 144 00:08:57.360 --> 00:08:59.039 But the guys on the third floor said they still 145 00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:02.600 hear someone, maybe two or three, someone's shuffling their feet 146 00:09:02.600 --> 00:09:06.320 every hour or so till morning. I mean, I guess 147 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:09.240 I can go look right now. Dante reached through the 148 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:11.799 bars and grabbed his uniform, something which usually got us 149 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:15.919 a beating. Hear me, do not go in there by yourself. 150 00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:20.120 Stay in the stairwell as someone is with you. Kellen 151 00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:24.679 nodded fearfully. It looked like he finally understood how spooked 152 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:30.720 we all were. He waved another guard off and Dante 153 00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:36.240 let go, but nothing more came for a whole season. 154 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:40.399 The night shift had quit and more guards got hired 155 00:09:40.440 --> 00:09:44.000 at an even higher pay. Callen, in another uniform, scoped 156 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:48.919 out the first two floors, but they found nothing. Dantes 157 00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:50.799 thought it was because they were looking during the day, 158 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:53.360 but he wasn't about to ask our only friend to 159 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:59.480 risk himself. It was maybe three months later. Yeah, I 160 00:09:59.559 --> 00:10:03.080 was halfway through my sentence. I had taken up drawing, 161 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:04.960 so I had a pen and paper when we woke 162 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:06.919 up in the middle of the night to everyone on 163 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:10.879 the third floor screaming in absolute panic. By this time 164 00:10:10.919 --> 00:10:13.200 we were less scared during the event itself. We'll offered 165 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:16.279 a guard racing past five hundred bucks from his commissary 166 00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:18.600 account if the man could come back and tell him 167 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:22.039 what was going on. Dante listened intently, trying to hear 168 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:25.240 individual screams from the third floor over everyone else's shouts 169 00:10:25.559 --> 00:10:28.399 and confusion, and I wrote down any words he thought 170 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:36.799 he heard, and I wrote down, was Jesus Christ killing him? 171 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:46.519 God let us out coming this way. We weren't scared 172 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:49.279 when it was happening because we'd lived through it twice before, 173 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:53.360 but this time the long term fear was much deeper. 174 00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:56.159 Now we knew for sure that it was going to 175 00:10:56.200 --> 00:10:59.000 happen again, and any prisoners that had the means began 176 00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:02.240 loyering up and doing everything they could to transfer to 177 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:05.879 other prisons, even if it meant worse conditions. The problem 178 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:10.200 was the North Dakota prison system was already overflowing, which 179 00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:12.879 is the whole reason GCG got started in the first place. 180 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:15.519 So every guy that got out meant it was just 181 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:19.080 that much harder for the rest of us. Both of 182 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:23.159 our cell mates transferred, giving us space. That was nice, 183 00:11:23.320 --> 00:11:28.080 but it was a small consolation. Apparently, word had started 184 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:31.039 to spread on the outside. In GCG's solution, instead of 185 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:35.879 paying the guards even more, was to stop having a 186 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:40.120 night shift altogether, except for just one poor guy. The 187 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:42.799 callan was a bit miffed he hadn't gotten raised out 188 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:45.399 of the whole thing, but he was starting to believe 189 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:48.320 us that something was going on. By then, he'd been 190 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:51.240 around a while, he knew that we weren't bullshitters, and 191 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:53.559 too many other prisoners had told him that they heard 192 00:11:53.600 --> 00:11:56.679 someone walking around the first, second, and third floors at 193 00:11:56.759 --> 00:12:01.200 random during the night, just a few steps, sometimes as 194 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:05.279 many as twenty. But it only happened every so often, 195 00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:07.600 and only once had it been long enough that you 196 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:13.440 thought it had stopped for good. One guy in the 197 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:15.440 fourth floor said that he'd heard a full run from 198 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:17.679 one end of the third floor hallway to the other, 199 00:12:17.759 --> 00:12:20.559 clear enough he'd expected a guard to come charging up 200 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:27.000 the stairwell, but nobody. Nobody appeared. He slid his wrists, 201 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:29.960 got transferred out on medical leave the next day, So 202 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:36.759 I mean we took him seriously. All that was enough 203 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:39.240 to get Kellen to start doing some research on the outside. 204 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:42.320 Came to us in the seventh month of my sentence 205 00:12:42.360 --> 00:12:45.720 with a pale face beside us. The bars will ask 206 00:12:45.759 --> 00:12:50.759 what's the word? A calend seemed grim. A lot of 207 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:53.960 bullshit out there, but this place is mentioned a lot. 208 00:12:54.919 --> 00:12:57.080 It's been closed before, but I keep getting a stone 209 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:00.519 wall when I ask for the historical documents. Thing is, 210 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:04.279 I don't think the prison it solves the problem yet 211 00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:12.279 this He pulled out a notepad for reference. Two Canadian priests, 212 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:17.679 father Norbert Prevencre and Severn de Molin, visited Pembina in 213 00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:21.159 eighteen eighteen. For it was even an official township. And 214 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:23.360 I was back when the Hudson Bays Company was big 215 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:27.039 around these parts. That's how long ago it was. Well, 216 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:29.759 Pembina was the biggest town in North Dakota then, so 217 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:34.440 trading post was full. The priest chose to sleep outside 218 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:39.120 by where the Pembina River meets the Red River. Folktale 219 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:41.759 has it that a vision of a rotting woman came 220 00:13:41.799 --> 00:13:46.720 in the night stole Prevencer's life. Two men bartered with 221 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:51.480 her to split the remaining life between them, consigning both 222 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:54.600 to live only thirty five more years instead of the 223 00:13:54.639 --> 00:13:58.519 seventy sever had left. The sever got an extra month 224 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:01.399 and twenty days as a guar from his friend for 225 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:05.240 his sacrifice. He paused as if he might guess the 226 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:11.000 obvious outcome, and they both died thirty five years later. 227 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:16.440 I knew pembin A Prison had a horrible problem, but 228 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:20.879 that didn't mean I had to believe everything. So let 229 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:25.159 me guess a month and twenty days apart. Kellen nodded. 230 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:29.480 Dante snorted, it's true, dude. Kellen insisted. The dates of 231 00:14:29.559 --> 00:14:32.559 death are right there on Wikipedia. But get this, thirty 232 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:36.120 five years after eighteen eighteen made their death year eighteen 233 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:38.200 fifty three, the year the prison was built, and the 234 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:42.759 place they camped that night by the meeting of the rivers. 235 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:45.440 I didn't know what it meant, but I was beginning 236 00:14:45.480 --> 00:14:47.879 to feel very uneasy. I'm guessing it's right here, isn't it. 237 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:52.639 He was dead serious. I think there's some shit here, 238 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:56.320 ancient shit, I asked a guy I know. He's got 239 00:14:56.360 --> 00:14:59.320 Chippewa relatives over at Turtle Mountain. They know the history 240 00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:01.320 of the Red River better than anyone else. He said. 241 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:04.840 His uncle told him to never sleep at the meeting 242 00:15:04.840 --> 00:15:07.799 of the Red River and the Pembina River. He said, 243 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:12.559 something lives here under the ground. It awakens with the 244 00:15:12.679 --> 00:15:15.960 changing of the seasons. We were silent for a beat 245 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:21.720 after that. I mean, it was folktale nonsense, but it 246 00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:26.320 was as good a theory as any. Whatever it was, 247 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:28.519 it was going to come back, and it wasn't friendly. 248 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:31.480 Will talked to Kellen for another few minutes, but Dante 249 00:15:31.559 --> 00:15:36.399 was silent. After he was gone, I asked him, that's wrong. 250 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:40.279 He sat on one of the now unused bunks and 251 00:15:40.279 --> 00:15:43.919 told me, and I got another five years in here. 252 00:15:44.759 --> 00:15:47.799 You had no money for a lawyer. Your sentence will 253 00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:52.279 be up before it reaches us, and then then I'll 254 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:58.879 be here alone, will it. There's no way to be 255 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:01.799 sure it'll be back in two months for the fourth floor, 256 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:04.240 and three months after that for us. I could get 257 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:06.840 out a week before, A day too late. Doesn't seem 258 00:16:06.879 --> 00:16:11.080 to be exact. He just looked at the floor. What 259 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:16.480 I mean is I do hope. I do hope that 260 00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:26.480 you get out before it comes. Oh. I wasn't sure 261 00:16:26.519 --> 00:16:29.039 what else to say after that, so I just sat 262 00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:34.919 in my corner like I always did. It wasn't too 263 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:37.840 much after that that we heard GCG was going under. 264 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:41.000 The mad rush for transfers had pissed off the state 265 00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:44.080 and lost the company a vital contract for a second 266 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:48.480 location and investors had pulled out something like that. The 267 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:52.679 number of guards was cut and slashed, and Kellen took 268 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:54.639 a pay hit stay on as the only guard in 269 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:58.799 the day shift. There's only two prisoners left on the 270 00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:02.519 fourth floor, the twenty of us remaining. As the general 271 00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:05.759 week we expected it to happen approached, I feel like 272 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:07.599 I should stay just to see what the hell is 273 00:17:07.640 --> 00:17:10.599 going to go down there. Former guards I asked about 274 00:17:10.599 --> 00:17:12.799 it are all terrified as hell or refused to talk. 275 00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:16.039 Some got violent, and just because I asked, it's cool, 276 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:19.359 Well told him you got a kid at home. They'll 277 00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:22.119 be here for it. The twenty of us left on 278 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:27.920 the fifth floor sat in ourselves once night fell, praying, listening. 279 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:39.680 On Monday night, nothing happened. The two guys below occasionally 280 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:44.240 shouted up to us that everything was clear. On Tuesday night, 281 00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:50.480 nothing happened. The strain was growing, though, and we could 282 00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:54.759 sometimes hear them breathing rapidly down there. Could only imagine 283 00:17:54.759 --> 00:18:00.519 the adrenaline rushing through them every minute. Until Dawnay night, 284 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:09.279 nothing happened. Yet something had changed in the air. The 285 00:18:09.319 --> 00:18:13.039 prison was much quieter now than two thousand men had 286 00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:16.279 become twenty two. I thought I could feel a subtle 287 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:19.200 sort of heartbeat in the air, pounding against reality, like 288 00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:23.920 it was a thin sheet of paper. It's just your imagination, 289 00:18:24.759 --> 00:18:28.440 Dante whispered. None of us were willing to speak louder 290 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:35.519 than that. On Thursday night, that heartbeat became a feeling 291 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:41.680 of footsteps approaching from a great distance. Guys, Bill shouted 292 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:46.839 from a cell You good down there? Still here, one 293 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:51.599 responded from down below, But I could feel it at 294 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:58.279 the door. It's knocking. The hell's that supposed to mean? What? 295 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:08.039 The man below and respond? Friday night? That was the night. 296 00:19:08.039 --> 00:19:11.759 It would happen all day. The two guys on fourth 297 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:15.319 pulled and clanged on their bars, begging to be let out. 298 00:19:16.119 --> 00:19:19.279 Kellen was torn. After two hours of listening to that pleading, 299 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:21.720 he came up with an idea and transferred both of 300 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:26.279 them up to our floor. If nobody's on four, he said, happily, 301 00:19:26.839 --> 00:19:30.359 then we'll all be safe, right, not loud, We agreed, 302 00:19:31.079 --> 00:19:36.200 but you're kidding ourselves. When the night guard showed up, 303 00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:38.799 he freaked out, took the two men back down. He said, 304 00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:41.880 out loud, what we were all thinking. If nobody's on 305 00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:45.319 floor four. They'll just come right up to five and 306 00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:51.400 get us all. How was Kellen thinking? I had to 307 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:59.599 listen for hours sobbing that evening. It was the hardest 308 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:02.920 trial of life. I wanted to call out to the 309 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:04.720 night guard. I wanted to ask him to get those 310 00:20:04.759 --> 00:20:07.680 men out of there, but if I did, I knew 311 00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:13.039 whatever was coming would find all of us instead. The 312 00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:15.720 moment it happened was like a cold hand on my shoulder. 313 00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:20.680 What's going on down there, Dante shouted. The man who 314 00:20:20.759 --> 00:20:25.680 was not sobbing called back. It's changing, Will demanded, what's happening? 315 00:20:25.720 --> 00:20:30.599 Tell us when it's read. What's red? Will yelled insistently, 316 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:34.680 goddamn it, what's red? Who stared down the hallway at 317 00:20:34.680 --> 00:20:38.319 the night guard, who stood listening with fear. The screaming 318 00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:43.000 began a few seconds later, this time only one floor above. 319 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:48.240 We could clearly hear their every word. The sobbing prisoners shrieked, there, 320 00:20:48.599 --> 00:20:52.240 it's there. The man who'd been communicating with us began 321 00:20:52.319 --> 00:21:02.480 incoherently raging with fear against his bars. Then strangely, he stopped. 322 00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:06.759 The twenty of us clung to our bars, unable to help, 323 00:21:06.839 --> 00:21:09.279 unable to flee. Many of us, cried, but we were 324 00:21:10.200 --> 00:21:15.200 otherwise silent, for the yell would be to drown out 325 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:18.960 the last words of the men below. But they were 326 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:24.279 eerily quiet. For nearly two hours, we waited and strained silence, 327 00:21:24.279 --> 00:21:27.680 as random footsteps traversed the fourth floor every so often. 328 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:31.119 What was happening? For the first time, the victims of 329 00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:33.880 whatever was going on down below had chosen to be 330 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:37.119 quiet instead of yelling for help. Why would that make 331 00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:42.519 things different? At long last, the sobbing man broke the silence. 332 00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:46.640 Oh my god, it's coming your way. Shut up, it'll 333 00:21:46.680 --> 00:21:50.200 see you distracted. Hit your bars. The sound of clanging 334 00:21:50.279 --> 00:21:53.599 echoed up the stairwell. The sobbing man said, with terror, 335 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:59.119 it knows, it knows, Jesus Christ, do something. We were 336 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:02.400 no longer silent, echoed that sentiment, louder and repeating to 337 00:22:02.440 --> 00:22:08.440 the guard do something. He just stood there, literally quaking 338 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:11.880 in his boots. Will screamed at him, Snap out of it. 339 00:22:12.039 --> 00:22:14.119 The other guards and prisoners got away. You can too, 340 00:22:14.279 --> 00:22:16.279 Whatever it is, he won't follow you if you let 341 00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:20.079 them out and leave, I shouted, They're gonna die down there. 342 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:23.319 Dante threw his shoe and the impact Finally snapped the 343 00:22:23.359 --> 00:22:25.079 man out of his terror. The guard ran to the 344 00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:27.440 stairwell and descended. The first thing we heard him say 345 00:22:27.559 --> 00:22:32.000 was a taken aback, merry Mother Christ. The sobbing man 346 00:22:32.039 --> 00:22:35.319 again over here, for God's sake, let us out. The 347 00:22:35.400 --> 00:22:37.759 other prisoner wasn't talking for some reason, but we could 348 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:44.079 hear his gasping terror. But that too went quiet. Then 349 00:22:44.119 --> 00:22:46.039 we heard a buzzer, and all the gates on four 350 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:53.240 slammed loudly open. The sounds of panting, running and someone 351 00:22:53.359 --> 00:23:00.640 dragging something followed. The prison went silent, just like that, 352 00:23:04.039 --> 00:23:10.680 Just like that, we were alone again. The formerly crowded 353 00:23:10.680 --> 00:23:15.480 prison now felt terrifyingly large and empty, with only twenty 354 00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:19.440 of us and no guards. That night, the unmistakable sound 355 00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:24.000 of footsteps echoed from down below. I counted time as 356 00:23:24.039 --> 00:23:27.160 best I could. Forty five minutes then someone took three 357 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:30.160 steps out of a cell and into the hallway. An 358 00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:32.880 hour and six minutes, someone ran ten steps along the 359 00:23:32.920 --> 00:23:38.640 hallway and stopped abruptly. Twenty eight minutes, the footsteps approached 360 00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:42.599 the stairwell, but then turned into a cell and went silent. 361 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:50.319 The thing was, whoever it was, sounded barefoot, and the 362 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:53.720 starting and stopping of locations didn't match where they ended 363 00:23:53.880 --> 00:24:01.759 was often nowhere near where they began again. Later. By 364 00:24:01.799 --> 00:24:06.279 the time dawn came, we were scared into motionless, terrified silence. 365 00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:11.279 Took Kellen's arrival for us to begin stirring again with 366 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:14.359 GCG and bankruptcy court. We no longer had a night 367 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:17.079 guard at all. If it came for us, there'd be 368 00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:19.359 nobody to let us out of ourselves. Like everyone else, 369 00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:29.359 we hardly talked, we hardly ate. Each passing day. It 370 00:24:29.400 --> 00:24:31.720 was a grain of sand falling from an hour glass 371 00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:37.559 marking our executions. Our fellows began confessing to crimes they 372 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:40.720 hadn't even committed, just to get transferred to supermacs out 373 00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:46.599 of state, the only option left of that and the 374 00:24:46.599 --> 00:24:51.599 suicide attempts. One by one, Kellen escorted or dragged guys 375 00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:56.119 out of our floor. Twenty became fifteen, and then ten. 376 00:24:57.359 --> 00:25:00.480 Then it was just me and Dante, with Will still 377 00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:03.640 in the cell to our left, the three of us 378 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:12.759 and Kellen, four men waiting for doom. We sat playing 379 00:25:12.759 --> 00:25:15.920 card games in the weeks leading up to it. It 380 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:18.079 would be one full year for me in that place, 381 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:21.480 but I could swear i'd spent a lifetime in that cell. 382 00:25:22.279 --> 00:25:26.240 I couldn't think. I couldn't remember life before, couldn't imagine 383 00:25:26.279 --> 00:25:30.559 surviving after. Every day I prayed for a transfer to 384 00:25:30.559 --> 00:25:33.440 come in. But North Dakota had gotten sick of our shit, 385 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:37.759 and the judges had stopped hearing cases from Pembine in prison. 386 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:42.480 They didn't know there was only three of us left. 387 00:25:44.519 --> 00:25:50.279 Nobody knew. We contacted the media, we phoned the governor's office. 388 00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:54.960 We made a ruckus. And that was worse than nobody knowing, 389 00:25:55.799 --> 00:26:05.799 because it turned out nobody cared. There was nobody higher 390 00:26:05.880 --> 00:26:10.160 up at GCG following the situation. Kellen couldn't get anybody 391 00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:14.920 on the phone. Payroll meaning just his paycheck was being 392 00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:18.680 handled by a third party disbursement company, couldn't answer questions 393 00:26:18.680 --> 00:26:28.799 about ongoing proceedings. The week approached. On Monday night, nothing happened. 394 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:34.279 We were like statues in ourselves alone, waiting for a 395 00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:38.559 sign of the executionist approach. When dawn came, we sighed, 396 00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:44.119 We began moving again. Dante asked you get out Friday. 397 00:26:44.839 --> 00:26:48.799 I nodded. If things went like before, I'd be released 398 00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:52.240 the day of. As long as I left before sundown, 399 00:26:52.279 --> 00:27:01.960 I'd be all right. On Tuesday night, nothing happened. Two 400 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:06.680 for two. It's one more, one more day. I sat 401 00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:11.319