C: Courtstone

Courtstone . . . a fictional place in South Dakota, a place in the middle of nowhere, a place where rebels are sent to be sentenced to a life of misery . . . so long as they still live.

The place Courtstone is one I made up, very similar in name (though I didn't intend it) to a town in a very Twilight Zone influenced story I began several years ago and which I haven't worked on since. I set Courtstone in South Dakota because I didn't want there to be much around it. It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, though it is a massive place.

What is it? In the words of Anne Rubin: “Courtstone was in the middle of nowhere, as most things in that part of the country are. And there, in the middle of nowhere, construction was beginning. Ground was being broken over miles upon miles of the land. There was no sign telling what it was, but we were entirely certain it was not a grocery store or a shopping mall. We hung around the area, mixed in with the local children, Brian and Edmund picking up every little detail, I remembering everything I saw or heard, Henry trying in vain to make sense of it all. I suppose it might have been just any construction site, though few are so vast, but there was such an air of evil that hung about it. I often clung to Brian’s hand in terror, glad for a big brother who was willing to protect me, praying that he would be able . . . . The construction site at Courtstone was to become a concentration camp. All who were likely to cause trouble were to be put into it so that the President could gain complete control of everything . . . including people’s minds."

Yes, Courtstone is a concentration camp, quite a terrible one, and the setting of the climax of The Experiment. It is a central point in The Experiment, but I can't say much about what goes on there for fear of giving away spoilers. Just about another month, and you can find out everything there is to know about the concentration camp at Courtstone.