Now that Kallisto had gotten the group started, all the other women were falling over one another to ask Agent Jones more questions. This was my chance and I needed to seize it. They would come to take us back inside at any moment now.
There was an idea floating around in my head, but I wouldn’t know if it would work until I tried it. Taking a couple of steps backwards at a time, and making sure no one noticed, I backed all the way up to the bushes. Then I turned, bent down, and while pretending to touch the little flowers that were growing on this particular bush, I dropped the paper underneath it.
Next, I used my foot to slide the paper all the way to the back of the bush, close to the men’s side of the fence. If he could get close enough undetected, he’d be able to put his fingers through the chain link and grab the note. That is, if he knew it was there and was willing to do it.
I looked up in that moment and came face to face with the long-haired man. Again, he was watching me. He definitely saw where I had put it. Now the real question would be whether or not he went for it.
“Sanchez!” I heard the guard shouting my name from across the yard. That was NOT Jones. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Oh,” I said, standing and turning around. “I was just smelling this little flower here.”
“I don’t care what you were doing. Get your ass in line!” He shook his head at me and pointed to where the rest of my group was starting to line up to go back inside. “This is not sniff the roses time, woman. Get over here.”
“Yes, of course,” I said, jogging back over to the rest of my group. I didn’t dare look back at the men’s side again, but I knew the man saw what I had done.
Would he rat me out or help me out? Time would tell.
Chapter Four
I fell in line behind the other women from my cell block and as they led us back inside, the guard who had yelled my name hit me in the back with his baton. I flinched, but said nothing, feeling the sting go up and down my body. I was determined not to let him see he had affected me. They just seemed to feed off our misery.
Agent Jones didn’t come back inside with us. I believe they had him move directly to the other cell block next to us, and these were accessible from the outside. Each block had an entry door that allowed access to just that row of cells. It reminded me of an elementary school I went to when I was little. Rather than walk through big hallways and corridors from one classroom to the other, we actually walked outside and to another door.
From what I had picked up on, there were at least four other cell blocks here, on the women’s side alone. That’s what Kallisto had told me when I first got here and so far, it seemed like she was right. We were Block C and I heard a Block D being mentioned by the guards before. Most likely, they were all full like ours.
The guards bustled in and out a few times a day, but they kept us locked up at least 23 hours a day, so there was not a lot they needed to do to “tend” to us. I imagine that meant they could keep a lot of inmates in here without needing a lot of staff. I was still trying to calculate how many guards they had here at any given time. This was important info if I wanted to try to break out (and I was definitely planning to break out!).
We knew there were more women in here. We could hear them and occasionally see them, if someone was being brought in or out, but we never had the chance to interact with them. There was no telling how many more people they had locked up in here. I wasn’t even able to gauge how big the place was from my positioning inside. There were just big, tall, grey walls that seemed to never end.
Once we were all back inside our cells, they fed us our evening slop and then left. When she was certain there were no more guards anywhere around, Kallisto got my attention from across the hallway.
“Psst! You do what you needed out there?”
“Yes, thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Yeah well… forget about it, especially if you get caught.”
I laughed at her honesty, but I knew she meant every bit of it. When it came to it, Kallisto would have my back. She was a protector by nature, and we’d formed a strong friendship, all those hours spent right across from one another. But she was not one to go looking for trouble.
Turning back to my cell, the strong odor from outside wafted in again. Ugh… whatever that was, it smelled like death. I sat in meditation for a while and tried to ignore that pungent odor wafting through my nostrils.
Meditation kept me sane, and it also helped clear my mind before I went back to planning mode. What kind of planning? How to get out of here.
It didn’t take magical abilities to know that they were up to no good here. They had violated the law with the manner in which they kidnapped us and locked us away. They were violating the law by keeping us captive and also by sedating us with these implants in our arms – and make no mistake about it, it was a form of sedation. I’d studied cases like this back at the Bureau.
After the Great War, the law was very clear about how paranormals should and shouldn’t be treated, including while in legal custody. If a paranormal was being charged with a crime, they were not allowed to violate their citizen rights in any way while detaining them and waiting for trial.
Paranormals were also promised and fair trial in a court of law. We were required to live by the law of the land, and follow the same laws as the humans, but they couldn’t torture us, remove our abilities, or drug or sedate us in any way, unless it was proven we posed a direct, immediate threat to the life of someone else.
Those cases were very rare and even then, the most humane choice was magical shackles that would bind the paranormal without harming them, until I trial could take place.
Everything about this was wrong, wrong, wrong!
I knew we were dealing with people who operated outside of the law, but I didn’t know who or why they were doing this. It was starting to look very much like someone with a bone to pick with paranormals, but that was all I knew right now.
There had to be more clues around here, which was another reason I wanted to get in touch with the men on the other side. They had eyes and ears in places that I didn’t. I knew the man with the long hair was watching and taking it all in, just like me. If I could speak to him and learn what he knows, it might offer a clue to where we were, and how to get out.
***
The next day, when we got our time back out in the yard, I immediately looked for the long-haired man, but no one was outside. After checking to be sure no guards were looking, I went over to the bush where I had left my note and bent down like I was tying my shoe.
Running my hand all along the back of the bush, I felt for the paper. There was nothing. Someone had gotten it, and I could only hope it was him. Had it been one of the guards, I suspect I would have beaten for it already, so odds were in my favor on this one.
Suddenly from behind me, I heard angry screams.
“Don’t touch me!”
“Don’t tell me what to do, you crazy witch!”
Standing up quickly and turning, I saw a scuffle with some of the women from my block.
Oh no. I thought to myself. This was the last thing we needed. The guards would come out here, weapons brandished, and we might all get punished for their chaos, or even worse, lose the ability to come out here.
If that happened, I’d never find out if the man with the long hair replied to me. As the two women escalated their fight, I wondered why no guards had come out yet. I began to run over to where a crowd was forming around the fighting women. Everyone from our block was either involved, cheering them on, or looking on in horror.
As they rolled on the ground, punching and grunting and kicking, it dawned on me. This is what they wanted. If we acted like animals, they could justify treating us like animals. And it didn’t make it right, but it did make it true. I needed to get the other women to realize this and to stop having a go at one another.
Something bigger was going on here and I needed to find a way out. I n
eeded to make them realize that.
“Hey, hey, hey!” I yelled, running straight to the middle of the fight. “Stop it, ladies, Stop it!”
I knew I was taking a risk here. The guards could come out at any second and blame me for fighting. Or, I might get punched in the face by one of these brawlers. Still, it was a chance I was willing to take.
“She started it!” The tall redhead yelled, pointing a long finger at the other women who had blood dripping down her chin.
“What? I didn’t -“
“Enough!” I held a hand up to each of the women motioning for them to stop. “I am not your enemy. She is not your enemy! We need to remember who the real enemy is – the ones who put us in here! As long as we keep going at each other, we are waiting time and precious energy that could be spent on getting out of this situation.”
“Get out? You think we’re gonna get out of here?”
“Maybe if we stop fighting and start working together,” I replied.
Cheers erupted from the women gathered around us. A part of me worried that this would agitate the guards, but at this point, it was worth the risk. If they weren’t going to break up a bloody brawl, I had to hope they wouldn’t break up this little meeting, either.
“What do you propose we do about it then?” A voice came from the huddle. It was one of the women I had not spoken to very much. I didn’t even know her name.
“I think we need to make them pay. But first, we need to find out who the hell they are.”
“Yes!” the women cheered and the two who had been fighting seemed to have forgotten their beef. Kallisto raised her eyebrows at me but said nothing.
I strained around the group of women before me to see if the men were coming out to the rec yard yet. Still nothing… either way, I’d have to move forward with my plan. The longer we were in here, the more the women would start to go at one another.
***
“Sanchez!” One of the most hateful guards called my name down the corridor. His name tag read Barker, which seemed a perfect name since he was always barking orders at someone. This time, it was me.
“Yes?” I said, looking up from the bucket and holding the mop handle in my hands. I had been selected for cleaning duty today. What an honor… sarcasm aside, it was nice to get out of my cell now and then and move around more. Even if it was mopping this disgusting hallway in very low lighting, I’d take it.
“Hurry up and finish that hall. We got orders to send you to B Block, too.”
“Yes, sir.” I replied, putting my head down and looking busy. The truth was this could be just what I had been waiting for. I’d never been on any other cell block before and now they were going to take me to mop B. This was my opportunity to do some deeper level surveillance on this place.
While mopping, I took in all the sights and sounds that I could, which wasn’t a lot here in a tiny, musty hallway. There was one lightbulb and it flickered so much, I feared it would be the next to go and I’d be standing here an old mop in the dark.
The corners of the walls had cobwebs in them and occasionally, I felt one float across my face or head. I brushed them away, otherwise unfazed. Spiders didn’t bother me, but I knew these spiders had long moved on anyway. Not even creepy crawlies wanted to hang around this dump for too long.
Cleaning the hallway was giving me more time to assess the situation and the location, but I had to avoid letting the guards catch on to what I was doing. Lucky for me, they were engrossed in some sort of gossip anyway. This building seemed old. It was definitely not recently built for this purpose. Maybe it used to be a different prison and they were repurposing the building.
There was a moldy, mildew smell in the entire corridor and the walls seemed to have salt damage. I could pick up the faint smell of the sea, especially as the mop water soaked the cement flooring. Maybe we were close to the ocean. It seemed like it. If only I could get more information…
I tuned in to the sounds around me, which was not much. A bang from a door closing elsewhere was about it. And then I realized the two guards were still having a conversation at the other end of the hall, where Barker had called to me before. They seemed totally engrossed in the conversation and were not paying attention to what I was doing at all.
This was my chance to eavesdrop and hope they said something useful. I quickly started working my way in their direction, as naturally as possible, mopping my way down the hall, closer to where they stood and talked.
As I continued to mop the hallway, I didn’t let on to them that I could hear. Straining my ears to hear better, I picked up some of what they were saying.
“Yeah well, after what happened to them little girls, the President issued the order.”
“I know, and that was awful man, but…”
“But what?” Barker asked with a sharp tone.
“Well, don’t it seem a little unfair to lock ‘em all up just cuz of what a few of ‘em did?”
“Unfair!” He cackled as he said the word. “You don’t mean to tell me you are soft for these animals, are you?”
“W-well, no, of course not,” the other guard stuttered.
“Good!” Barker yelled back. “Cause if you were, we might have to throw you in there with them.”
And then he laughed and laughed, a deep belly laugh. That laugh sent a chill up my spine. I wasn’t sure what had happened out there, but whatever it was, it sounded serious. And whatever it was, it had caused them to turn on us. He said the President had issued an order… what kind of order?
The President was the only one who could roll back the protections that had been put in place for us after the Great War. I had to find out more!
“Sanchez!” Barker called to me from down the hall. “Quit screwing around and get this floor done.”
“Uh, yes, sir.”
I focused on my mopping, putting my back into it. I didn’t need them to get pissed at me and decide to send me back to my cell. I really wanted to get over to the other cell block and do some recon. Not to mention, more time with them means I might overhear more useful chatter.
I swiped the worn mophead over the rest of the floor as quickly as I could and made my way down the hall and just a couple of feet away from the guards as they stood, still talking, Barker leaning against the wall.
“You finally done, Sanchez?” he asked as I made my way closer to them both.
“Yes, sir. All done. What do you need me to do next?”
He cleared his throat, looked me up and down a bit longer than I was comfortable with and finally said, “Good work. Get your bucket and let’s go.”
I did as he said, kept my head down, and following them over to the next cell block to mop there as well. That hallway looked exactly the same as ours. In fact, there was virtually no difference from one hall to the other. I didn’t even see any signs pointing out which was which. If the guards hadn’t of brought me here, I may have found myself lost.
As I mopped up and down B Block, I passed the corridor that led to the cells and I could hear female voices talking. It was difficult to make anything out. From the sound of it, they were all speaking in quiet, murmured voices. I didn’t blame them. We did the same over in our cell block. The last thing anyone wanted was spying guards to hear something you said and take it the wrong way.
So, I kept my own head down and I did my job, but I tried so hard to hear anything that might be going on in that cell block. None of the women ever looked my way and the hallways were so narrow, they couldn’t see out to where I was anyway.
I thought maybe I could catch a TV in the hallway or at a guard station or anything that would tune me in to the outside world, so that I might get a better idea of what was going on out there and why we were in there, but there was nothing.
We were completely secluded. We were cut off from everything – so much so, that it felt like we had traveled back in time. No TVs, no computers, no smartphones… I didn’t see any signs of technology whatsoever, except the thing embedded i
n my arm that kept my powers from working.
I really needed to figure out what was going on at this place…
Chapter Five
“Look little, miss, if you think you’re the first person to think about busting out of this place, you’re crazy. That ain’t no new idea!” Kallisto flicked something off her shoulder. Her voice was lower this time, rare for her, but she didn’t want the guards to overhear.
I knew she was right, but I wasn’t ready to just give up my freedom so easily. “I figured as much, but what if we all put our heads and our powers together? Surely we could get out of here.”
“Pfft! Nice fantasy but how are we going to use our powers with this in the way,” she pointed to the implant in her forearm. We’d all been given one of these when we were put in here. They blocked us from being able to use our supernatural powers. They rendered us as weak as normal humans, and that meant we were at the mercy of these guards.
A nymph like Kallisto would have been able to break that gate right off her cell and let herself free if she didn’t have that implant in her. I could do the same with my magic, but that implant was blocking it. I looked down at my arm, wondering just what was in these things, that cancelled out our abilities.
“What if there was a way to get those out?”
“What if flying monkeys came over and dropped us keys to our cell locks?”
She was hilariously cynical at times. Okay, most of the time… but right now I needed her to focus.
“Look, we distracted that Jones guy the to do what I needed to do. We make a great team!”
“Yeah,” she muttered. “He’s new, overwhelmed, and not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. You think we could pull that off with the real guards? They’d be on to me in a heartbeat. In fact, they wouldn’t give me the slightest bit of attention in the first place. I’m not the type they like to look at or listen to.”
Breakout Page 4