Paintshark (28 page)

“Most of our brothers in stasis are in Section 3, the ones in our section are all awake now and are recovering in the hospital ward, I almost forgot.”

The same hammer of relocation hit Elias on the back of the head too.

“FELCEY!” I almost forgot Felcey! We have to get to the ward and bring him.”

“And one other my friend, someone who I almost forgot…let’s go.”

The two turned around and headed back from the exit leading to the bridge looking through the giant window and at the spotlights from the ground illuminating the vines on their section and the men rocking the chain-linked bridge leading from theirs to the vine-free prison buildings ahead.

There was a noise just barely audible to the people behind the thick window looking, they could just about make out a sound like rough hands being rubbed together quickly and it was getting louder.

In the darkness a shape was moving quickly from the ground, whatever it had smashed through some of the spotlights and was turning others on their side and as the light turned, the men on the bridge looked down and saw what was heading towards them. That was when twenty prisoners on a chain-linked fence screamed as one as the giant vine tore through the bridge and sent the men plummeting to their deaths below. The vine managed to snatch two men from the drop but their fates were sealed anyway as their brains usually were the starters for the vines’ meal.

The bridge joined the fallen prisoners on the ground below as their friends and cellmates looked on in horror from the inside, banging again against the window united in grief and frustration.

The commotion bought the others who went to pack racing back into the assembly hall. Cellmates, Faris and Aubrey, returned with huge suitcases, eager to get a move on with the journey; they were soon bought to a halt when they saw the terror in the eyes of their comrades and Elias with his head in his hands. Faris dropped his case and eased himself between the more muscular men who stood at the front of the window banging hard with oversized fists, and saw the space where the bridge had been and now two giant vines were flailing around trying to attach themselves to anything around.

Faris turned around and rolled his eyes, he fought hard to conceal his fright as he saw Aubrey also pushing his way past the other prisoners; he sighed long and hard as Aubrey surveyed what was happening outside.

“You couldn’t make it up, could you?”

Nightfall came and went…the vines didn’t. Nayan sat with Elias and a handful of senior prisoners in the assembly hall; they were studying a layout map of their section of the prison, the prisoners were growing restless as they looked outside. It was daylight now and the severity of their situation and the carnage of last night’s attack were all too plain to see.

Elias pointed out something to Nayan on the map and the councillor shook his head and pointed somewhere else to which Elias squinted his eyes and nodded. Jago was conversing with Faris in the corner. “It’s my birthday next week; I think it’s the day before the supply ship lands.”

Faris chuckled. “I’m surprised you’re not sick of birthdays, Jago, I mean how many have you had now, a thousand?”

The old man laughed and gave Faris a playful punch on the arm, he smiled back. Faris had missed the old man’s laughter and it was refreshing to hear in these dark times.

“That bag looks heavy, old man, sure you don’t want a hand?” Faris asked.

“Thank you, my friend, but I’m fine thank you.”

Elias looked over his shoulder when he heard Jago laugh and he too smiled to himself when he saw both him and Faris having a chuckle as he also knew the stress the old man was under, as they all were.

Nayan pulled him back to business at hand and asked for his opinion.

“What do you think then, my friend? Is it worth a try?”

Elias looked intensely at the map for the last time and nodded. “So if we get to Section 3, who’s the warden there?”

“There aren’t many of my brothers in Section 3 so the warden keeps to himself, you may know him actually, he used to work for Big Man, and he’s called Apollo.”

Elias shivered when he heard that name.

“He’s here! Apollo is here?”

“Yes, but nobody hardly see’s him, when Big Man shut down his underground prison from his mansion he sent Apollo and Dandridge to Gommerstall, Dandridge is a good man for a warden but Apollo is pure evil.”

Elias nodded and thought back on his own near demise being dragged around the Big Man’s stadium. Nayan went on, “Reports say he’s losing his mind over there, he thought he was a valued member of Big Man’s staff but as he was tossed asunder to this place in the middle of nowhere, something snapped.”

Elias played with his teeth with his tongue, flicking it out like a bored snake.

“And what’s your story, Nayan? How did you end up here?”

“Me? It’s a long, boring story.”

“Well, we do have a week,” Elias smiled.

“Ok, well I was Head of Security for Big Man, It was a good job, pay was nice…I saw things I shouldn’t have seen, done things I shouldn’t have done, but like I said the money kept me going.

“I was spending more and more time at work and neglecting my wife and kids.

One morning I came back home from a night shift…and found a note from my wife, she’d taken the kids and left me, so when that happened I turned to drink…big time, I was a mess, because I missed them so much. Big Man wanted me to go out and capture some children who had unbelievably gained some special powers somehow, he wanted them to fight in his game shows.”

Elias leaned in. “THEY WERE MY STUDENTS, WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?”

“Nothing, I would never hurt children, I am a father too you know?”

“So what happened?” Elias said.

“Well Big Man got somebody else to hunt down those kids, I don’t know who, but I left, packed up my stuff and was about to leave when I watched a young girl on the television screen fighting against a ‘Leviathan squid’. She was left for dead in the lake so I went to the studio where’s it was filmed and rescued her, we both tried to escape, but Big Man sees everything and we were re-captured, and you know what Kimberley did in the arena, right?”

Elias nodded.

“But what happened to her? I mean I can see you’re here but what did they do to her? WHERE IS SHE?”

Nayan calmed him down. “She’s here, they put her in stasis. Well the girl stayed with us for a few months but it was plain to see that something happened to her in the water as she is deathly afraid of it and her power is changing, she’s having trouble controlling it, if she’s not careful she’ll end up a walking time bomb. She didn’t have much company here, as even though this is a mixed prison, there aren’t many women here so she served the rest of her time in stasis and came out of it shortly before you, she’s suffering from some sleeping problems due to the old stasis pod she was in so she’s recuperating in hospital, I made her a promise to look after her and I aim to keep it. She’s my friend and I will get her out of here.”

Elias shook his head. “So Kimberley’s here and I’ve seen Felcey…what about Cassandra?”

“I don’t know who she is…I haven’t seen her.”

Elias looked to the ceiling and then around at the prisoners, well if she’s here I’m going to find her, they’re my students and I will see them all of them again. Listen, we have to get out of this place, you up for the plan?”

Nayan’s grin returned. “Yeah, let’s go for it.”

Nayan bought the group to attention as they all turned at looked on questioningly at their councillor

“We may have a solution to our problem; these prisons were modified from the old mining complexes

Years ago, well according to these maps there are a number of passage ways connecting Section 2 to Sections 3 and 3a, we should be able to use them and reach the hangar and the supply ship.”

A big bald strapping prisoner stepped forward, his arms covered in tattoos; his name was Welch.

“I haven’t seen these passageways, as far as I know the only way to Section 3 is across the bridge, which got destroyed last night or on the ground which is a no-no because of the vines so, where are they?”

Taking a deep breath, Nayan answered him. “They’re underground, the passages are underground.”

What followed next was shouting and swearing from the prisoners, especially from Welch who clearly wanted to antagonise Nayan and criticise his idea.

“There’s no way I’m going underground with those ‘things’ down there waiting for us…we’ll be like sitting ducks.”

Nayan wasn’t in the mood for this. “You have a better idea?” He asked again to the group. “Anybody?” No reply came. “Just as I thought.”

Welch wanted more answers. “Do you know how we’re going to kill those things? We don’t have any guns, remember? What do you want us to do…put forty bags of weedkiller on the next order on the supply ship?”

Nayan clicked his head to the left and then to the right, grimacing. “I don’t know anything, I just want keep my head down, lay low and get my brothers out of here safely.”

Faris was next, asking one question with enough sincerity in his voice that Nayan had to take him seriously.

“So when are we leaving?”

Nayan looked over with tired and weary eyes, which were slowly losing their spark.

“A week today, so grab who you can and pack what you need, those vines have destroyed the bridge and are edging ever closer to us so this will be the longest week in your lives. We don’t want to fight them but we will if they stand in the way for our escape and whoever or whatever lies in wait for us beyond these walls…” He turned to Elias with his sparkle back in his eyes. “We will take them on and we will win…this prison break has begun.”

Faris was back with his banter and pointed to a large teacher called Houghton who sat with a doughnut in his hand.

“What are we going to do about food? Will we have enough with after Houghton has finished stuffing his face?”

Houghton wheezed his reply. “That’s not fair, Faris, You take that back right now.”

Faris scratched behind his ear and sighed. “I’m sorry, man, it just came out, haven’t you ever had something just slip out your mouth?” He pulled a face as Houghton stuffed the rest of the doughnut in his mouth. “I guess not,” Faris said.

With their confidence renewed the men gave a cheer and went to see out the week that would define them as the exodus slowly took shape.

Felcey tossed and turned in his bed, the pain that cruised through his body usually kept him up most nights, but there was something else on his mind this time.

Kimberley was awake. Kimberley, the girl he’d left to die in Big Man’s arena, he hadn’t seen her since she had come out of stasis and he wanted to keep it that way. Felcey thought Kimberley wouldn’t be on his ward and she wouldn’t be able to hear him sobbing with the pain of the beetles in his body, the sobs quickly turned to screams.

The ward was big, bigger than Felcey thought it was and another patient had heard his cries, it was a young girl who had problems sleeping herself, dealing with her own demons, she had gained superpowers which seemed an eternity ago, in that time she had defeated the Leviathan Squid, the horrific Chimera and also bought down the gigantic stadium of Big man, she had trouble remembering some things but those images stuck deep in her mind and also how Felcey, her friend, had left her to die in the arena.

Her eyes poked up from beneath her covers; feeling strange and exhausted, she hastily pulled the covers up over her head but still the screaming continued.

Kimberley had heard enough and eased herself out of bed and walked over, her long nightgown was too big for her and her toes could barely be seen but the cold hospital floor made them curl.

She pulled up a chair from a nearby bed and as she sat down began to nudge Felcey, he turned and saw the girl’s face, it was as if he’d seen a ghost and recoiled in shock, he turned his head to the other side of the bed.

“KIMBERLEY, I thought you were…”

“Dead?”

“No, I mean, I knew about, the stadium and what you did but I thought–”

His voice trailed off as his head sunk back into the pillows, the girl nudged him and spoke in a voice he had not heard from her before, it growled with anger speaking through gritted teeth.

“You left me for dead, Felcey, you left me to die in that hell hole…HAVE YOU ANY IDEA WHAT I’VE BEEN THROUGH?”

“I know and I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have left you.”

“SO WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME? YOU WERE MY FRIEND.”

Felcey twisted round to face her but avoided eye contact. “I left because…”

Kimberley leapt on his bed straddling him, her left hand begun to pulse and she held the light to his face. “ANSWER ME!”

“BECAUSE I LOVE YOU.”

Kimberley’s glow started to fade as did her anger. “What did you say?”

Felcey sighed. “I said I love you, I always have.”

Kimberley opened her mouth to reply and did after a little cough. “I didn’t know”

Felcey shifted his body over to his side. “Why would you? You’re the popular girl, the prom queen…everybody knows your name, everybody wants to be you… where as me? People look at me like something they’ve trodden in.”

“Don’t say that,” Kimberley said, mesmerised by his face.

“It’s TRUE, I’m a nobody, a nerd, have you any idea what it’s like to go to bed and wake up with somebody you really care for on your mind, knowing that their not on yours? Checking your phone and nobody has texted you, but knowing that the first person they’ve texted…the first person they’ve talked to isn’t you? Knowing that they’re talking and laughing with somebody else? They’re on your mind throughout the day…but they don’t even know you exist. Have you any idea what that feels like? Making plans, going on holiday? It kills knowing that, I see you around school with Denton and I think, why can’t I be him? Why can’t I be the one to make her happy?”

Kimberley wiped a tear. “But Denton’s dead.”

“I DON’T CARE IF HE’S DEAD, if it’s not him it would be with somebody else, anybody but me.”

“Why do you say that? Why are you saying that?”

Felcey zoomed in on her. “So would you? Would you go out with me?