Chapter 28

 Ready to jump back into the past again?

 Twenty years have passed since Sam's murder, and Katherine (now going by Kate)
Barlow has returned to Green Lake. The town is "a ghost town on a ghost lake" (28.1),
and Kate is living in an abandoned cabin on the edge of the old lakebed. She still thinks
of Sam – hey, true love is tough to get over.

 One morning, Trout Walker and his wife show up. Trout's wife Linda is a freckle-faced
woman with dirty, scraggly red hair.

 Trout and Linda have a rifle, and they threaten Kate, demanding that she show them
where she's buried the loot from all her robberies.

 Strong-willed Kate refuses, telling them that they can dig for "the next hundred years"
(28.25) and they'll never find it.

 In response, Trout and Linda drag Kate outside. They tie her legs together and make her
walk around the hot, dried-out lake barefoot, hitting her on the back of the legs with a
shovel. (This is what we at Shmoop call torture.)

 Never wavering, she still refuses to tell them where she's buried the loot.

 At that moment, a yellow-spotted lizard suddenly leaps toward them. It lands on Kate,
biting her on the ankle. Knowing she is about to die, Kate tells Trout and his wife to start
digging. And then, well, she dies laughing.

Chapter 29
 We are back in Stanley's story now and also in Part 2 of the novel ("The Last Hole").

 Stanley and the other boys are – you guessed it! – out on the lake digging. There is a
storm off in the distance, and the boys joke about the chance of rain coming their way.
Rain at Camp Green Lake? Yeah, right.

 But wait, this is cool: during a lightning flash, Stanley thinks he sees a strange rock
formation on one of the mountain peaks way off in the distance. It looks like a giant fist
giving a thumbs-up. (We told you it was cool.)
  Stanley thinks about his great-grandfather telling people that he found refuge on God's
thumb. No one ever knew what he meant.

Chapter 30
 Finally a reason to celebrate: it's Zigzag's birthday.

 In honor of the occasion (not really), Stanley tries to figure out how long he's been at
Camp Green Lake. Zero, in another display of crazy math power, instantly says it's been
forty-six days.

 Later, as he digs his hole, Stanley thinks about how much he's changed since he came to
the camp. For one thing, he's stronger and much better at digging. Oh, and luckily, Mr.
Sir is giving him water again, too.

 Zero is still helping him out with his hole-digging in exchange for reading lessons, as
they had agreed. But the whole situation makes Stanley awkward, and the other boys are
getting pretty angry about it. They tease Stanley big time, saying that he's doing Zero a
favor by letting him dig his hole, and mockingly asking if he'll let them dig his hole, too.

 Mr. Pendanski comes by with the water truck, and X-Ray makes Stanley go to the front
of the line for water and lunch: you know, since "[h]e's better than all of us" (30.36).
Ugh, bullying.

 After they get their lunches, Zigzag continues to harass Stanley, saying he'll trade his
cookie for a chance to dig Stanley's hole. Stanley pushes the cookie away, and in a not-
so-equal response, Zigzag pushes Stanley.

 X-Ray is watching and says that Stanley should be able to take care of himself, since he's
bigger than Zigzag. Stanley is relieved to see Mr. Pendanski approaching, but it turns out
Mr. P's attitude is the same as X-Ray's: he says that Stanley should go ahead and hit
Zigzag back.

 "Teach the bully a lesson," he says (30.68).

 Hmmm.
 Stanley tries, but he really doesn't have the heart to fight. Zigzag, on the other hand,
seems eager to fight Stanley: he jumps on top of him, slamming him to the ground and
punching him over and over… and over again.

 This is when things escalate. Zero joins in and attacks Zigzag, pulling him off of Stanley
and starting to choke him. Just when things look really dire, Armpit pulls Zero away from
Zigzag and Mr. Pendanski fires his pistol into the air to signal for help.

 Whew.

 When the other counselors and the Warden arrive, Mr. Pendanski tells them that "[t]here
was a riot" (30.85). X-Ray, on the other hand, tries to downplay what happened, saying
that Zigzag was just short-tempered because of the heat.

 But Zigzag won't back up X-ray's story. Instead, he tells the truth: he was angry because
Zero has been digging Stanley's holes for him.

 Uh oh.

 Stanley explains: Zero is digging for him because he's teaching Zero to read and write.

 The Warden asks Zero to tell them something he's learned. At first Zero doesn't respond,
but after Mr. Pendanski basically calls him stupid, he tells them some of the letters and
sounds he knows.

 The Warden quizzes him on a few things, most of which he gets right. But when he
makes a wrong guess about a letter that he hasn't learned yet, all of the counselors laugh
at him. Man, this kid can't catch a break.

 The Warden says that from now on, Stanley has to dig his own stinkin' hole: it's all about
learning a lesson. Oh, and no more reading lessons for Zero.

 Then, in a moment of triumphant defiance, Zero announces: "I'm not digging another
hole" (30.128).

 No one really buys it. Mr. Pendanski tells Stanley that "Zero's too stupid to learn to read"
(30.133), and he hands Zero a shovel so he can get back to digging.

 Zero takes the shovel and – eek! – hits Mr. P across the face, knocking him unconscious.
He says that he hates digging holes, and he runs away across the lake.
 Wow.

 The search is on for Zero. The Warden tells the counselors to take turns guarding the
camp's water sources: he'll have to come back for water and that's when they'll catch him.

 When he returns, she says, she is going to have to paint her nails again.

 Gulp.