Checkmate!

    Checkmate sees an attempt to escape, en masse, because No.6 is not alone in this latest attempt. He has gathered about him a number of reliable men. Its No.6 who calls the shots because he's been told a way of distinguishing between the blacks and the whites, or rather between Prisoners and Guardians. All was going well, the Rook-No.58 had constructed a radio transmitter from stolen electrical componants and transistors. A mayday call had been sent, and while the Rook was off-shore transmitting a distress signal, No.6 and the rest of his men overpowered the searchlight crew in the tower, then marched on the Green Dome where they tied No.2 up to stop him from taking action against them. But then the distress signal stops, somethings gone wrong!
   No.6 dashes off to find out what's wrong. He finds the raft and radio transmitter, but of the Rook there is no sign. Then he hears the horn of a ship or boat in the darkness, he sees a light, No.6 has to make a choice, go back to the Green Dome and let the ship or boat go sailing past, to set sail on the raft, and go after the ship or boat? Sadly for him, No.6 makes the wrong choice. The boat is the MS Polotska, a motor cruiser belonging to the Village. Had No.6 not been so desperate to escape the Village, and gone back to the Green Dome, he would have stopped the Rook and the rest of his men from releasing No.2, and perhaps still have stood a chance to get away.
   At the time, watching No.6 desert his confederates, seemed like a selfish act. But desperate men do desperate things, and it was a hard learned lesson for No.6. That there is no-one in the Village upon which he can depend, trust and rely upon, save for himself!
BCNU