Glossary

Blacksuits


"Blacksuits" are the guards of the Furnace. They are merciless creatures that have extreme strength and agility. When a prisoner is taken by the Wheezers (defined below), the prisoner is mutated into a Blacksuit. Alex has a quarrel with the Blacksuits, especially one he named "Moleface", for killing his best friend and framing him of murder. "In the shadows behind the office door, right in front of me, was an enormous figure. A man whose black suit blended perfectly with the walls, but whose two glinting eyes and vast, sinister grin shone out of the darkness like those of a shark in the cold, dead water of the ocean."

Wheezers/Gasmasks

"Wheezers" or "Gasmasks"are tall, shuddering figures. They are dressed in dirty overcoats with a belt running over their shoulder and down around their waist. These belts contain dirty, rusted syringes. Covering their face, is a World War 2 like gas mask. When a Blood Watch is called, these Wheezers go to a cell and mark it with an 'X' with what seems to be crude oil. After this, one of the cell mates are taken and injected with one of the dirty rusted syringes. This injection turns the prisoner into a Blacksuit.

Hard Labour

"Hard Labour" is a daily job in the Furnace. The only jobs mentioned in the book are: "greaseup", "slopwork", "chipping" and "bleaching".

          Greaseup means cleaning duties such as cleaning cells or toilets.
          Slopwork means making food, but it can't be called cooking because the food is so bad.
          Chipping is mining. Usually this means making new rooms in the Furnace. Donavan                                              says that "it took three years to mine out the room for the showers."
          Bleaching is doing laundry for the Furnace inmates.

The Furnace Penitentiary

"The Furnace Penitentiary" is a maximum security prison for young offenders. Prisoners remain here for life. When Alex Sawyer is framed for a murder he did not commit, he is sent to the Furnace for life.

Skulls

One of the gangs in the Furnace from the Summer of Slaughter. They wear bandana's with skulls painted on them. Their leader is Kevin Arnold whose relentless and merciless rule has the inmates of the Furnace exhausted and scared. One day, when Gary Owens, a psychopathic killer, takes control of the Skulls, life gets a lot harder in the Furnace.