by Tammy Walsh
I would wait for the guards to turn up and let them escort me back to the Prize Pool. I would be safe there.
Lily always took good care of her girls, even if she did come across as an ice queen sometimes.
I tugged on a pair of Egara’s shorts and tucked the shirt into them. I completed my disastrous appearance with a cap.
I checked myself in the mirror. This just might work.
There was a loud boom from somewhere in the prison and I spun toward the door.
That flimsy door was all that was keeping me from harm right now.
That damn door.
It wouldn’t open until seven in the morning.
I moved to the wall beside the door and pressed my back to it. I had nothing to do now but wait.
The shouts and screams turned frantic outside. I clasped my hands over my ears to prevent the worst of it. Along with the rising and falling klaxon it had all the hallmarks of anarchy.
It was while my mind was moving along those tracks that the cell door opened, making the yelling louder than ever, and a figure stepped into the room.
I screamed.
The door slid shut and the figure turned to me. So much for pretending to be a battle-hardened prisoner, I thought. If anyone heard my girlish scream, they would see through my disguise immediately.
Egara lowered his hood and leaned his bed-pole against the wall and crook of the bedframe. I couldn’t help but notice it was now smothered in blood.
“W-What’s going on?” I said.
“It’s a riot,” Egara said. “It’s a riot and the entire prison has gone to hell.”
Egara
The moment I heard that klaxon go off, my immediate thought was, “It’s finally happened.”
A riot.
I heard the rushed elevated and excited tone of the inmates who never made that noise unless it was a special occasion—often when they were being served their favorite meal.
I had to climb off the delicious morsel I had lying naked under me and go check if my suspicions were correct. It was hard to leave such a beauty but I couldn’t miss out on this opportunity if it was what I thought it was.
A damn riot!
And if it was…
I would only get one shot to exploit it.
I edged into the long hallway. The prisoners ran to and fro like ants after their nest had been upended. They scurried for somewhere safe where they wouldn’t get squashed or destroyed.
And they would get squashed or destroyed. Either by fellow inmates or the guards that would come barreling through.
What surprised me was they didn’t have a look of fear on their faces. They were excited and looking forward to causing havoc and mayhem.
One inmate shit on the floor and used it to paint his masterpiece on the wall.
Another prisoner danced a funky jig in the center of the crossroad that filtered into adjacent halls. I wasn’t sure what the purpose of it was, though it seemed to please him no end.
I came across the first unconscious and battered body on the floor and peeled down the hallway leading right, back toward the canteen.
Another pair of prisoners confronted a lone inmate, who had either crossed them in the past or belonged to the wrong gang. Or both. I could have believed either reason.
When I heard the shock rifle blasts, I knew for certain this wasn’t a regular Tuesday afternoon affair caused by a lack of toilet paper.
This was a full-scale riot.
This was serious and it was deep.
And I couldn’t have been more excited.
The guards would come down on the offenders like a ton of bricks. A good thing I had no intention of being anywhere near them when it happened.
A shiver of excitement danced along my spine.
The time had come…
Finally!
I turned around to head back down the hallway to my cell and came face to face with a pair of miscreants called the Afzit twins.
Some criminals were locked away in here because of poor circumstances or bad luck. Not so with the Afzit twins.
They enjoyed what they did and you could bet your bottom credit if you were their intended target it wasn’t going to be something you would walk away from. Not with all your limbs in their correct place anyway.
The elder Afzit picked the pocket of the first fallen prisoner I came across earlier and plucked something from his pocket. The younger Afzit looked over at me as if I might grass on them to the guards.
I had a nasty habit of never backing down and it had occasionally—okay, often—gotten me in trouble over the years. I would never usually back down in front of scum like the Afzit twins but I was in a rush and, with any luck, after today, I wouldn’t have to set my eye on their grotesque appearance again.
I raised my hands and was about to say, “I didn’t see anything,” but the twins were known for picking up on meanings that had never been there in the first place. So, I said nothing, lowered my eyes, and edged around them to head back to my cell.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Afzit the younger said.
“Yeah, where do you think you’re going?” Afzit the elder said, wiping an arm under his snotty nose.
To think a beauty the likes of Agatha could have ended up in the possession of disgusting assholes like this… It boggled the mind.
A good thing they weren’t allowed to fight in pairs in the pit. That was the only time they were truly dangerous.
Like now.
“Nowhere,” I said.
I raised my eyes to peer between them. That was where the danger existed. The small spaces where their blades could flash from at a moment’s notice.
“You look like you’re heading off to tell the guards about what you saw,” Afzit the younger said. “Don’t he, Afzit?”
“Yeah. He does a bit.”
They were half my size but what they lacked in stature and strength they made up for in speed, cruelty, and pure viciousness.
Afzit the younger made to sneak behind me but I blocked him. The elder took the opportunity to do the same on my other side.
I raised my metal pole.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” I said.
“Wouldn’t what?” Afzit the elder said, at my side now.
If he got swept any further behind me, they could attack me from both sides. Then my job at self-defense would be infinitely harder.
Once they were done with me, they would go to my cell and…
I didn’t want to think about what might happen to the little human lady waiting there, trapped alone.
I stepped back until I came to the crossroad that led to the hall where my cell was located. I couldn’t let them follow me back. I couldn’t let them corner me. I’d end up trapped in my room with no way to escape.
“I don’t have time for this,” I growled.
I calmed myself with breathing exercises, knowing I was less likely to get out of this situation if I gave in to my desire to smash these creeps into bloody, pulpy oblivion.
“He looks nervous,” Afzit the elder said. “Don’t you agree, Afzit?”
“I do, Afzit.”
“Look guys, I don’t want any trouble,” I said.
“I think it’s a little too late for that, don’t you?” Afzit the younger said.
He removed the shiv from his pocket and spun it in the air, moving so fast it was a blur.
Slow and dimwitted they might be but their bodies operated on another plane. They were lightning fast.
I reached into my pocket and dug out a handful of credits. They were part of the winnings I got for the earlier fight. They would usually need to last me until my next victorious fight for necessary luxuries but I needed to survive that long first.
“We’re not interested in your money!” Afzit the elder said.
Afzit the younger pulled up short.
“We’re not?” he said quizzically. “Then why are we doing this?”
“It’s to lower his defenses, you half
-wit!” Afzit the elder snapped.
“Oh.”
His ugly fat lips curled into an atrocious snarl. Drool seeped from the scarred corner of his mouth.
Over his shoulder, the dancer continued to perform his merry jig to no audience.
“Hey!” I said to the dancer. “Here’s a tip!”
I tossed the coins to the floor. The more adventurous ones rolled, making their escape.
“Well, thank ye!” the dancer said, dropping to the floor to hastily gather up the coins.
The twin’s eyes bulged at the sight of their quarry being scooped up by the mad dancer.
I took the opportunity firmly by both hands.
I swung my length of bed iron around and found Afzit the younger’s gleaming dome. Then I spun around and, knowing the second brother would expect the same to happen to him, I angled the pole down and struck the back of his knee and swept his leg out from under him. I moved with the momentum and brought the pole around.
I thought his head would have lowered due to taking out his knee but that hadn’t turned out to be the case.
Instead, I found his arm. It absorbed the entire blow and knocked him off balance. He hissed through his teeth and pulled his knife arm back.
I blocked it with the pole, then snapped the end of the bludgeon to one side, smacking his cheek. With him dazed, I raised the pole high over my head. Doing so left me open to attack but it would also be the final blow I needed to send him sprawling to the floor.
It worked. The twin struck the floor hard, his blade escaping his hand and skittering across the concrete.
I turned to face the other brother but he was still out cold.
I backed away from the scene, leaving the brothers unconscious.
I hope they stay that way.
I ran to my cell. It opened automatically and I stepped inside. I almost leaped out of my skin at Agatha’s scream.
“W-What’s going on?” she said.
“It’s a riot,” I said. “It’s a riot and the entire prison has gone to hell.”
I didn’t stop moving. I dropped to my knees in front of my bed and reached for the plastic box underneath. I pulled it out and, relieved to find nothing had happened to my beloved device, scooped it up in one hand and moved for the door.
I grabbed the bloodied iron pole in my other hand and made to leave.
Then I caught Agatha’s eye.
The poor thing was terrified. I pushed her from my mind and made to step outside.
I had a much better chance if I went alone. No one to slow me down. No one to get in the way.
But I hesitated.
What would happen to Agatha if I left her here? There was no doubt in my mind.
She would be fucked to within an inch of her life—and that was if she was lucky.
She wasn’t my responsibility. She was a Prize and a fate not much better than the aforementioned awaited her at the end of her long servitude in this place.
And yet, I still didn’t step through that doorway.
There was something special about her, wasn’t there?
The reason I’d chosen her before, the reason I chose any of the Prizes in the past, was due entirely for the accessories they wore. I needed them for the device I clutched in my hand.
Now it was complete. I needed an opportunity to use it and I had it in the form of the riot taking place right now.
The window would not be open forever.
Who knew when I would get a chance like this again?
Try never, the cynical voice in the back of my mind said. Leave her here. She’s a grown woman. She can take care of herself.
But I couldn’t do that.
I couldn’t leave her because after I chose her—no matter the reason—she was now my responsibility. She wouldn’t have been in my room otherwise. She would be in someone else’s or at the Prize Pool.
Would her fate be any better in those places? I didn’t know.
I doubted it.
Not that it mattered. She was here.
And she was a historian. I couldn’t let anything happen to her.
In my mind, I made a slight alteration to the course I needed to take. It wouldn’t take more than a handful of minutes to return her to the Prize Pool. Then she would be their problem, not mine.
I shifted the bloodied pole from my hand and into the other holding the device. I extended my free hand to her.
“Come with me,” I said. “I’ll return you to the Prize Pool.”
The look of apprehension and fear on her face was palpable. She didn’t look convinced.
She peered at my extended hand and then up into my face. She never flinched like the others at my appearance. That surprised me about her from the start.
Her courage.
Not everyone could look a Vulcarian in the eye and not flinch.
Yes, she was special all right. I wouldn’t see her harmed.
She took me by the hand and let me pull her to her feet.
“Stay close,” I said. “Your costume might confuse some of the inmates, but unfortunately, not all of them are blind.”
The hallways grew worse the deeper we moved into the prison. More foot traffic, more inmates, more guards coming under attack.
It wouldn’t be long before the warden sent reinforcements to lock our prison down.
In fact, I was counting on it.
I didn’t glance back to check on Agatha until we reached a section where the view was clear on every side and I could risk taking my eyes off the hallways around us for a moment.
Most of the violence was happening between gangs. Turf wars. Many inmates were caught between the competing rivals through no fault of their own.
The journey to the Prize Pool was not a short distance. It meant traversing the open corridors that reminded me more of a rat run than anything else. Other prisoners ran for cover from one hallway to the next. They might have been in a warzone.
I peered around the corner to ascertain what caused them to suddenly bolt in the opposite direction. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was. The prisoners acted like sheep. When one bolted, they all did.
I took us down another hallway and was immediately accosted by a flock of harried prisoners carrying homemade weapons. They waved them threateningly over their heads.
I backed up and pressed Agatha to the wall behind me, my body acting as her shield.
I was relieved when the prisoners turned their attention on escaping and not attacking. They buffeted me as they rushed past. They knocked me off my feet and cajoled me until I lost my footing, almost getting swept along the manmade river.
I shoved them back but they had already dislodged Agatha from the wall. Her face was screwed up in a mask of fear.
I rushed to meet her. I grabbed her by the arm and thrust her into the thin crevice of the doorway of a prison cell. I turned to face her and braced the wall with my elbows and straightened my back, forming a bridge over Agatha’s body so she wouldn’t be swept aside by the rising tide of angry prisoners.
Agatha stared at the prisoners as they rushed past us. They were not gentle as they shoved and elbowed me in an attempt to pass the obstruction I was in their eyes. They almost knocked me off balance a dozen times but I grit my teeth and focused on keeping my feet.
If I should fall, there would be no chance for me to get up again. I would be crushed beneath their marching boots and there would be no hope.
Agatha wore a mask of utter terror.
“I shouldn’t have left your room,” she muttered. “I never should have left your room.”
“Hey,” I said, grunting as I took another sharp elbow to my back. “Look at me.”
She did. The harsh battering I received faded to nothing as I peered into her deep-set and loving eyes.
She looked up at me, the same way she had earlier that night when we made love. She never took her eyes from mine. Likely she didn’t want to lose the connection we shared either. With me hunched over her, her l
ips were less than an inch from mine.
We were locked away inside this cocoon of safety together and the rest of the world might not have existed at all.
She placed a hand on my cheek and closed her eyes. I did too. Suddenly, I was transported to a distant place where we were no longer in the midst of a crushing crowd of frightened and panicked prisoners on a cold and distant alien moon.
We were back in my cell. It was just the two of us and I could do what I wanted with her. And she could do the same with me. Once more, we could ascend that incredible rise to the promised land on the other side. It was a long trek but one we could make if we worked together.
She raised her mouth to mine and pressed them gently but firmly to my lips. She gently sucked my bottom lip, taking it between her own and massaging it with her tongue. Her body was warm and inviting beneath me, and pressed against her so close, she must have felt the bulge in my pants.
I had no idea how long it took for the rampaging mob to pass, but eventually they did, and once they had, I was too firmly locked on her lips to notice.
Agatha leaned back and checked over my shoulder. The prisoners were no longer there and she smiled up at me.
“I think they’re gone,” she said.
“Are they?” I said.
She was right, of course. I no longer felt their buffeting elbows and sharp knees that threatened to sweep my legs out from under me.
I straightened up and pulled back, feeling a little at a loss for having to lose this moment with Agatha. The backs of the massing crowd were just down the hall from us, still marching away.
I took Agatha by the hand and turned toward the hallway the mob had vacated.
Bodies lay strewn about the place like discarded food packets. They were crushed underfoot, demolished and turned to mush.
Agatha didn’t flinch at the sight of them. I guess she’d seen a pulverized body or two during her time at the prison.
We moved down the hall and found no sign of what had terrified the prisoners. For a moment, I thought it might be the warden’s newly arrived guards but there was no sign of them or anything that might have caused the impromptu stampede.