But here I am, fucking running into the prison with a pregnant woman after having destroyed both the cameras.
The prison is going into full alert and I already know what’s happening.
The sharpshooters are gearing up and scanning the prison yard for anyone who's making a run for it. Local police a
re being alerted and are setting up road barricades on all major roads that lead from the prison. Helicopters are being launched that are scanning the complex from above.
Everyone is looking for people who are trying to leave the prison.
And Kerri and I are running headlong further inside of it.
See, I may have never gone to fucking school as much as I should have, but that doesn’t mean I don't know how to think. And ever since Spider handed me the note, I’ve been trying to wonder what Grinder’s angle has been. I thought about it quite a lot, and I think I finally figured it out.
But it's too soon to tell you what I figured out because right now we’re running past the cells and I swear it’s like all Hell has been unleashed. The prison’s going into lockdown but because the guards are all heading toward the Visitor’s Reception area, there’s a power vacuum in D Block.
Ancient beef between two inmates? They’re sorting it out now. Someone owe someone else money? It’s time to collect. Someone having a bad day? Time to last out. A collective wail of frustration at being locked up, despair at the circumstances that put them behind bars, and anger toward the world is being unleashed.
Tables are being overturned in common areas and chairs thrown against the walls. Most of the cameras have been destroyed, torn from the cages that protect them on the ceilings.
A few times I take Kerri and we hide in nooks, shadows, or behind doors as roving bands of prisoners walk by. Some people pass us by but they’re not paying us any mind. But I’m no fool. These men have been trapped here, some for years. All that testosterone and nowhere to put it too. And Kerri is fucking gorgeous. The last thing I need is for us to get delayed because I’m shooting some people who’re trying to get too close to us.
For her part, Kerri is keeping up with me. She realizes the danger of the situation. But believe it or not, we’re safer here than had we gone the other way—toward the Visitor’s Entrance. Eventually the guards are gonna start coming this way, when they figure out that I came inside. But right now they don’t think I could be that stupid. What’s the point in trying to escape from jail if you’re gonna head into it more?
But I know something they don’t. Something I think Grinder knows and it’s important I get there ahead of him.
I round the corner and head toward the Administrative Block that sits next to D Block. As I expected, it's mostly deserted. Standard operating procedure for times like this is to evacuate all non-guard personnel.
I see two guards lying on the floor. They were doing normal guard duty, standing sentry and protecting the Administrative Block from the prisoners and must have been overpowered. I see them, beaten and bloody, lying there. Their guns are gone, as are their handcuffs, nightsticks, shoes, socks, pants, and shirts.
Kerri slows down, and stops to check on both.
She glances at me.
“Are they alive?” I ask.
She nods. “They’re hurt but they’ll be okay,” she says.
“Then we have to go,” I tell her.
“We can’t just leave them here,” she says, shocked.
I shrug. It’s either them or us.
“There’s nothing these men have to offer,” I say, and even I know I’m lying. Kerri looks at me. It’s obvious to me she will do whatever I tell her to.
And at that moment I realize that it’s time I live up to the big talk I’ve been giving myself and about how much I love Kerri because she makes me be a better man.
It’s time I become that better man.
Fuck.
“Take the gun,” I say to her and walk up to her. She takes the gun as I pick up each man and put him on my shoulder. They must weigh at least 200 pounds each, but that’s what all the pull ups and push ups in jail were for, I guess. “We’ll take them to the Alcove.”
The Alcove is going to be on our way to the Deputy Warden’s office, anyways.
That’s right. We’re headed right into the heart of the jail.
Five minutes later, I dump the bodies in a corner of the Alcove. My shoulders and arms are killing me from the load, but I feel the unfamiliar thrill and anticipation of adrenaline rush through me from the walk over here.