Paintshark (27 page)

“And now you’re ready.”

Nayan flicked a switch on the wall and the outside was illuminated by spotlights beaming light from the ground upwards and what showed up from the lights started the mass hysteria. Men ran from the window with their stomachs dropping and panic ensured, they banged on the window with terror and disbelief at the sight what met them.

Gigantic vines had emerged from the ground and were wrapped around the support stilts of Section 2 of Gommerstall Prison, in this new light the inmates could see the vines pulsating as they crawled higher and higher up to the support sanctions, the window of the corresponding building where the prisoners watched this disgusting sight was swarmed in a forestry of thorns and vines, despairing moans were coming from the inmates, their only crimes being teachers…no one had ever seen such a sight before in their lives, not even the primary school teachers.

Nayan knew he would have trouble settling the group down and he was spot on. Elias was one of the last men to make his way to the front of the crowd and look out the window.

The sight that met him didn’t cause quite the panic inside as it did most of the others, if anything it made him mildly irritated but then this could be the breakthrough he needed to leave this place and get back home, he waited patiently for a gap in the questions being hurled at Nayan, and then he pounced.

“So how long have we got before they come over here?”

Nayan looked over the sea of men as he recognised most of the voices in the room, this one in particular sounded less irritated from when he last heard it. “Mr Glaucas, how nice of you to drop in.”

Elias was the only one in the room who could manage a smile. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Nayan continued. “We think the vines attached themselves to the building shortly after the attack on the three prisoners…I mean brothers. All of the inmates from that prison are now in either Section One or Three, as you can imagine conditions will be cramped but we ask you to bear with us and be patient while we think of a solution to get us out of here.”

Elias’s ears pricked up. “So we are leaving then?” Nayan swallowed hard and wiped his brow. “I don’t know how but I think that is the only option, we’re sitting ducks if we just sit here.”

Most of the people in here had been in Big Man’s dungeon and were in stasis also, and were woken up either a few days or hours before Elias, and then there were some who were let out quite early like Jago who had been free from stasis for five months.

Both Jago and Nayan were like councillors whilst Dandridge resided permanently at Gommerstall now that Big Man had shut down his mansion prison, Jago still carried his bag over his shoulder.

Bevin was new like Elias and was eager to ask questions to impress the teacher. “How are we doing that then, sir?”

“What we intend to do is cross over from Section 1 through 1a, 2, 2a and through 3 over to 3a, Section 2 may have vines around the perimeter but we should be able to walk straight through the buildings without any trouble, then when we get to section 3a.”

He paused and peered out of the window again, looking as hundreds of snake-like vines wriggled below his gaze wrapped around the old tower of Section 2, he returned to his little speech.

“When we get to section 3a which is further away from these two, we’ll figure something out; we can regroup and start to think again.”

Elias wasn’t totally convinced. “I understand hiding out in Section 3, really I do, but what happens when those things get bored or hungry and come over to that site? I mean aren’t there any guns here we could use?”

Nayan shook his head grimly. “We used to have guns here, in fact we still do but we ran out of ammo ages ago and being none of the brothers were playing up we didn’t request anymore from the supplies ship.”

Elias craned his head over to Nayan and swallowed hard, he cursed himself for not asking this question sooner. “You have a supply ship? Well why didn’t you say so before? I thought you grew your own food and stitched up your clothes, nobody mentioned a supply ship!”

Ideas started to trickle through Elias’s head now. “And now you mention it, about ships and stuff…how do the prisoners get brought here? It must be some big transport ship or something…why can’t we use that?”

Some prisoners who forgot about the dire consequences if they ever tried to escape showed support for Elias, as Nayan grew mildly irritated.

“The supply ship comes every three months and we’re not sure when we’re expecting some more inmates.”

He turned to Dandridge with his eyebrows high for the answer, which duly came. “The next prisoner transport from the cities of Bodden, Rotth and Olympia is due in two months’ time; the next supply ship is here next week.”

Elias was full of questions. “These cities? Are they all teachers being put here?”

Nayan picked at his lip as he slowly nodded. “So why is he still after teachers? I was told his studios were destroyed…why is he still hunting us down?”

Nayan swallowed hard. “Big Man hates teachers, his first love was a primary school teacher and they got married and had some children. But then she had an affair with another primary school teacher and left him and he doesn’t know who this new guy is…so every primary school teacher IS targeted, every school. He could have killed us long ago, but is keeping us alive for some reason, the games are dead, he has another agenda now.”

Elias waved his hand. “And surely the pilots will fly us out of here if they see the dire situation we’re in, they wouldn’t leave us to die down here surely? I mean I know you guys want to finish your term but we have to escape from this place and any human being will see that.”

Nayan had to say something. “There are no pilots in the supply ships; they are flown here on autopilot on a pre-set course, they land and are unloaded by us in the secure enclosure of the hangar where the vines cannot get in.”

“Wait” Elias cut in again.

“So at any time, you could have made your way over to the Hangar, change the settings for the autopilot or better yet find a pilot to fly the craft for you…and yet you’ve never contemplated escaping from this place?”

“It’s not as easy as that, besides, these people are teachers not pilots,” came the solemn reply from Nayan.

Dandridge and the others couldn’t share the joy that was fluttering in Elias’s stomach, his hopes of seeing his daughter were further buoyed by this news; he was chuckling now when he gave his idea up to the group.

“Well it’s simple then, all we have to do is get across to section 3a and–” He halted himself in mid-flow to ask a simple question. “That is where the supply ship hangar is, isn’t it?”

Nayan nodded and Elias continued using his hands again to help him explain with enthusiasm, which is exactly what he did when he was a teacher.

“So we make it across to the supply hangar, crash out there for a week and then when the next supply ship comes we jump aboard and we’re home, can the ship hold as many people as this though?”

Nayan had listened with intent to Elias’s idea and now answered. “We can make it to the supply hangar, and we can stay there until we can think of something else to do, but we cannot leave Gommerstall just yet.”

Elias walked over towards Nayan and leaned towards him and gripped his hand on his shoulder, the same way Nayan had done so to Elias when he needed support, he was intrigued why Nayan didn’t want to leave this place that had been his prison for so many months.

“And why can’t we leave this place?” asked Elias.

Nayan took a moment to find his breath and tried to continue, but Elias never gave him that chance.

“Come to think of it…why haven’t you left this place? There’s something you’re not telling me, I know I was slightly inebriated earlier but even I noticed there are no locks on the doors, hardly any guards and no weapons whatsoever and then you say there is a supplies ship that comes every now and then with no pilot, which you could always jump on and get home or anyway on the planet so why are you still here?

“Nayan, listen, the vines strike from beneath the ground and now they’re climbing the walls, we make it to the hangar and that bides us some time; get everybody in the ship and it’s job done, you said it yourself we can’t stay here!”

The crowd were beginning to side with Elias now, nobody wanted to be left there with the vines but the body language of Nayan told a different story.

“Why won’t you leave this prison, Nayan?” Elias pressed and Nayan turned away from the window. “TELL ME!”

Elias never liked shouting, he always left the disciplining of Gemma for his sister, he used to joke about it saying, ‘I know you’re right, Kay but there’s no point in Gemma growing up and hating both of us…just you!’

Reminiscing over it was time to get to the truth, which Nayan was obviously keeping from him.

“We’re all on the list” was Nayan’s reply.

“What list? What are you talking about?”

Nayan made a slashing motion with his right index finger across his throat.

“We can run, we can hide from the vines…but we cannot leave Olympia, as soon as we do we’ll be dead men walking. They’ll find you.”

“Who will find me? I’m starting to get really confused now, Nayan.”

“There are guardians here, monsters left over from the game shows are scatted throughout the grounds and they will kill you if you leave Gommerstall.”

Elias tried hard to hide his derision and just smiled weakly. “So what you’re saying is that around this prison are monsters shipped from the now defunct game shows which are now watching us and keeping us here, as well as killer vines and if we step outside they will hunt us down and kill us, is that right?”

“That is true,” Nayan said.

Elias’s eyebrows shot up and he lost his excited glow. “Don’t feed me your rubbish, Nayan, this is beyond a joke now.”

He crossed his hands in a state of denial and looked at Jago and his new ‘brothers’.

“Did you know about this? Did anyone else know this?”

Most hands went up accompanied by a few mumblings to the contrary. “So none of you guys tried to escape because of giant creatures supposedly guarding these grounds?”

He then glared at Jago. “Is there any reason you decided to keep this information from me?”

Jago answered back, disappointed with himself. “I only found out the truth since I came here, I thought I knew all about the inner workings of Big Man and his Network when we were back in prison under his studios.”

Jago’s voice turned more defensive. “But I’m sorry my friend, I found out this news when you were in stasis, what could I do? Pull you out of deep sleep for that? Only people with extreme sleep disorders should be pulled out of hyper sleep and you weren’t one of them…it’s not all about you, Elias…there is much more at stake here and it’s time to look at the bigger picture. We’re all prisoners here, most of us wrongly imprisoned by Big Man but we’re dealing with it…we all have to deal with it.

“People were happy here, they could read books, plays, sing and dance, because we’re teachers and here we could be the people we couldn’t be back home thanks to TV. That’s all changed now and our prison…our home…our utopia is under threat, so one thing at a time, and at the moment it’s getting away from the vines.”

He then kept the same tone in his voice for Nayan and lifted his sleeve to rub his arm revealing an old tattoo.

“We’ll deal with the monsters later, and wait for the ship, but we are not hiding…I’ve been hiding for months but I’m not hiding anymore. This was my home and it’s under threat…so now I’m with Elias on this one, when we cross the bridge to get to Section 3a…ship comes and then we leave and to hell with the consequences, it’s a shame to leave this peaceful place but I’m getting out of here and back to Olympia.”

He spoke to the prisoners with his voice still raised. “When the ship comes we will change its flight course to Olympia and any other city you came from or wish to go to…and then you’ll be on your own.”

The old man ran ruled with his voice dictation to the other prisoners who listened intently, before it was always Nayan who made them stand to attention, but here the older figure of Jago was holding his own.

“Anybody want to stay here and battle the vines is free to do so, but the rest of you grab your stuff and let’s go, we leave immediately.”

Nayan was shocked at Jago’s sudden insistence to leave but nodded thoughtfully at his friend and then glanced at Elias who had an ‘I told you so’ grin on his face and Nayan’s returned half-smile slowly grew.

“Ok…everyone get your stuff, we’re getting out of here.”

The teachers roared their approval and began to run out of the assembly hall, some went back to get some belongings from their cells whilst others ran straight for the exit and connecting door to the steel bridge which led from their section to Sections 3 and 3a. The men braved the sandstorms that swirled around them and climbed the steps leading to the bridge.

Nayan reached for Elias who wasn’t sure of what possessions he had with him after waking up from his stasis.

“There’s no going back now, Mr Glaucas, are you sure you’re ready for this?”

Elias smiled absently. “The worst case scenario is that we die escaping or we die trapped like rats in this place, we owe it to everybody we love to get out of here and see them again and I will get back to Olympia to see my daughter.”

Nayan bowed his head. “Your courage shames me, my friend.”

“It’s not courage…it’s love.”

The councillor pressed his hand firmly on his new friend’s shoulder.

“Then I would love to help you get back to your daughter.”

Elias patted Nayan’s hand with his own. “Don’t you want to get back to your own family?”

Nayan took out his mobile phone from his pocket and held it close to his chest. “I will see my family soon.”

As the two went to follow the rest of the prisoners out of the hall, a thought hit Elias. “What about the other prisoners in stasis?”

Nayan stopped dead in his tracks. “DAMN!”

He spoke in a hushed tone but the words flew from his mouth at a tremendous speed, for once Nayan appeared nervous.