The numbers in the middle can have one of 2 meanings. Either they can be the amount of boxes that someone will advance if they knock you out of the dead zone or they can mean how many turns you lose while in the dead zone.

In our neighborhood we didn’t put the numbers in the middle at all but just had the player lose 3 turns if he or she got stuck in the middle. I’m sure the moderator of the forum (“Masta Blasta”) would frown at such a basic approach, however, it worked for us.

You might even combine the two (you lose 3 or so turns unless someone knocks you out – and then they get advance x boxes).