Oh, Haymitch would be surprised just who would send their children off to be slaughtered. A hundred children, every year, at that. But that was neither here nor there in this world. For a while, it mattered in Ray's dreams. The next ticket was bought, by a kid called Larson who smiled at them as they passed. He was sitting. "I'll catch up in a minute," he assured them as his number was called with a warning. "A guy can't walk all the time, can he fellas?" But his warnings kept coming, until the final one, and then he was begging before the shot came.
"93 bottles of beer on the wall," McVries mumbled. Up ahead, there was a garbled scream, and another shot. McVries bet it was Barkovitch, but no such luck since Barkovitch came proudly up beside them, then passed them. All he needed to do just then was flip them a double bird. They fell into silence and never saw the boy who was shot after Larson. As they made their way up a steep grade, Ray dumped the rest of his canteen on the top of his head. I christen thee Raymond Davis Garraty. Pax vobiscum. (In the waking world, Ray walked and dumped a bottle of water over his head. ) Ray called for another canteen, then quickly dismissed the soldier who brought it to him. "You get paid to shoot me, not look at me," he told him.
As Stebbins came up to talk, Ray listened as the tall, lanky bastard recalled seeing the end of a Long Walk, how the remaining boys barely moved and their shoes and feet-god, their feet, or what was left of them, were bloody purple, unrecognizable masses. Their shoes were torn to shreds. Ray thought he was going to be sick. The last thing he heard was "Told you you didn't want to know."
He felt himself wobble and instinctively moved forward before he could buy himself a warning. His legs were sore, but he was okay. He could make it. The realization didn't dawn on him yet, not even when he saw the man. To Ray, he just looked like someone from the crowd of onlookers, those masochists who lined the streets to watch teenage boys die. They wanted the boys to die, that was the thing. They said how tragic, how awful, but that was what they came for, to see it, and they left disappointed if it didn't happen in front of their eyes. "Dick," Ray called after him.