From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [375]
They were lined up in a column of twos and marched down to the gym. The guards were spaced along the walls with their riotguns at port arms. More guards lined the walls of the gym. Apparently, every guard on the place had been called out tonight. The column from Number Two was marched into the gym and distributed around three of the walls with the guards in back of them.
Blues Berry stood against one of the side walls in his GI shorts under the lights, still trying to grin with a mouth that was too swollen to do more than twist. He was barely recognizable. His broken nose had swollen and was still running blood in a stream. Blood was also flowing out of his mouth, whenever he coughed. His eyes were practically closed. Blows from the grub hoe handles had torn the upper half of both ears loose from his head. Blood from his nose and mouth, and the ears which were not bleeding much, had spotted his chest and the white drawers.
“He’s dead,” somebody whispered behind Prew with finality.
Fatso and two other guards, Turnipseed and Angelo Maggio’s old friend Brownie, all looking exhausted, stood near him. Major Thompson, wearing his sidearms, stood off by himself near the corner.
“We want to show you men what happens to men who think they can run the Army,” he said crisply. “Sergeant,” he nodded.
“Turn around,” S/Sgt Judson said. “Put your nose and toes against the wall.”
“You better kill me, Fatso,” Berry whispered. “You better do a good job. If you dont, I’ll kill you. If I ever get out of here, I’ll kill you.”
S/Sgt Judson stepped up and drove his knee up into Berry’s testicles. Berry screamed.
“Turn around,” S/Sgt Judson said. “Put your nose and toes against the wall.”
Berry turned around and put his nose and toes to the wall. “You son of a bitch,” he whispered, “you fathog son of a bitch. You better kill me. If you dont, I’ll kill you. You better kill me.” It was as if it was the one solitary idea he had left and he had fixed his mind on it to keep something with him. He said it over and over.
“Did you break Murdock’s arm for him, Berry?” S/Sgt Judson said.
Berry went on whispering his passion to himself.
“Berry, can you hear me?” S/Sgt Judson said. “Did you break Murdock’s arm?”
“I can hear you,” Berry whispered. “You better kill me, Fatso, thats all. If you dont, I’ll kill you. You better kill me.”
“Brown,” Fatso said. He nodded at Berry. “Take him.”
Cpl Brown stepped into position like a man stepping into the batter’s box at the plate and swung his grub hoe handle with both hands into the small of Berry’s back. Berry screamed. Then he coughed, and some more blood splashed down from his mouth.
There are two kinds of grub hoe handles, curved ones and straight ones. The straight ones are longer and heavier than the curved ones. A pick handle is longer and heavier than any ax handle, and a grub hoe handle is longer and heavier than a pick handle. A straight grub hoe handle is about four inches longer than a pick handle and around a pound heavier in weight and can be recognized by the double hump at the head end. The steel head of a grub hoe, which is like the mattock half of a pick-mattock with the pick half left off the other end, fits between these two humps on the handle and makes the grub hoe a fine tool for clearing brushy root-matted ground.
“Did you break Murdock’s arm?” Fatso said.
“Fuck you,” Berry whispered. “You better kill me. If you dont, I’ll kill you. You better kill me.”
They kept them there fifteen minutes. Then they marched them back between the lines of guards to the barrack and turned off the lights. The occasional screams from the gym did not stop however, and there was not much sleep. But in the morning they were got up at 4:45 just the same.
At chow they learned that at one-thirty Blues Berry, unable to urinate and with his ears knocked half loose from his head, had been taken up to the prison ward of the Station Hospital for treatment of a fall from the back of a truck.
He died the next day about noon, “from massive cerebral hemorrhage and internal injuries,” the report was