PROJECT BlueBolt - BOOK II - THE GULAG JOURNAL: BOOK II - The Gulag Journal by Huffman Marshall

Author:Huffman, Marshall [Huffman, Marshall]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2014-01-18T16:00:00+00:00

We continue to work on the new barracks section. Nothing exciting has happened. No one from our barracks died today that I am aware of. Even the guards seemed just a bit less aggressive. We got the ground as smooth as you are going to get it in these conditions using only shovels and picks.

They started the footers but instead of using concrete they brought in 12 x 12 timbers. It didn’t seem like the best way to build a large structure but no one asked my opinion. I was just glad I wouldn’t be living in it when the time came. Most of the day was spent trying to get everything square and level. It was a tremendous amount of physical labor but the work force commander was pretty happy by the time we were finished for the day.

It was great to only have to work our normal shift of eight hours. We even got food tonight. It was like being on a vacation except for the shitty conditions, one meal a day, and having to do physical labor for eight hours. Maybe vacation isn’t exactly the right word to use. No one even complained when we had to clean the barracks tonight. I think everyone felt we had dodged a bullet, literally. 642 is an absolute saint in my book.

***

I have started coughing almost nonstop. My head feels like it is splitting and my throat is red and sore. I feel like death warmed over. Of course the temperature had to drop overnight and the sky looks like it’s going to drop another load of snow on us. That’s just great.

We worked again on the building. I’ll have to give them credit, they had a unique way of going about getting the outer walls up. My job was to make sure everything was square and level. The walls were built in eight foot sections. Once a section was raised, it was bolted to the previous section and so on. The building was twelve sections long or ninety-six feet long and it was sixty-four feet wide.

I guess tomorrow we will find out how we are going to hold the whole thing together without it collapsing. I had dizzy spells several times during the day and by the end of the shift I was burning up with fever. It was becoming difficult to swallow and when I went into one of my coughing fits I felt like my throat was being ripped out.

I don’t think the temperature ever got above zero today and we had a five mile wind to add to the misery. We did have two more people die today of natural causes, if you can call it that. One guy suddenly dropped to his knees, fell over on his side and that was it. He was dead. I don’t know what happened to the other man.

***

Day 45 Journal Entry

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