Sam and Colby: The Penitentiary

76

"Baby, wake up," Colby said, kissing my cheek.

"Mm," I groaned.

"Nessa, you lazy fuck. Get up," said Jake.

"Asshole," I chuckled. I sat up and stretched for a moment before climbing to my feet.

"We need to move further into the mountains. Put some distance between us and the jail," said Ray.

"Yeah, of course," I nodded. I grabbed the bag Colby and I had used as a pillow before brushing some stray pine needles off my clothes. "Let's head out."

We walked all day. All day. We were all exhausted by the time it was dark again and Ray said we needed to set up camp for the night.

And then we did the same thing all the next day. As the sun descended behind the mountains, I knew that this time was what mattered the most. Ray would fall asleep, but we wouldn't. We'd sneak away to somewhere we could hide and hopefully we'd be able to watch him get caught before waking back up in our own time.

We all settled into our spots, making it look like we had the past two nights we'd slept out here. We waited for about three hours before I sat up. I looked over at Colby who also sat up next to me.

"It's time," I whispered. Colby nodded in response and we slowly got up, trying to minimize the sounds of leaves crunching under us. I woke up Jake and Corey while Colby got Sam and we all hiked for about a quarter mile before finding a small inlet in the mountain. A cave.

It was relatively shallow for a cave, only going back about ten feet. But if we all huddled in the back and didn't make any noise, guards wouldn't see us. Unless they shined a light in here.

We waited for what felt like hours until we heard faint shouting in the distance, followed by light trotting footsteps. And then barking. The dogs had found Ray.

"Over here!" I heard a man yell.

"They found him!" another man yelled. A hoard of footsteps got closer. And then legs began to run past the opening of our hiding spot.

I held my breath as they all ran past and shrank back against Colby. The guards all had lights on and were shining them all around. I thought we were in the clear until the final guard ran by.

"Ray's the only one over here," a man called out from afar. "Where are the other five?"

"Who fucking cares? We got Ray. He's the primary target. And he's fucking alive!" yelled a man.

"Hey, I've got a cave over here!" yelled the guard in front of our spot. The opening of the cave was small, so all we could see was up to the man's waist. But his voice sounded familiar.

"Well check it out, Porter! Then get your ass over here. We're cuffing him!" yelled one of the men.

It was officer Porter standing right outside of the cave. I heard the click of a heavy duty industrial flashlight and then light flooded my vision.

"Hey! They're—,"

"Please," I begged. "Please. Don't. I'm a good person. You know that. I spent my free time reading that book to Theo. I helped Mandi in the kitchen and gave you good, safe food. I didn't cause problems and neither did any of them. Please."

I knew Porter had a soft side. And a particular soft spot for Theo. I just prayed he was on our side. He clenched his jaw.

"Porter, you find something?" a man yelled.

"No. Never mind," Porter said, staring into my eyes. "There's nothing here. Let's get back to Ray."

"Thank you," I whispered. Porter grunted before turning and running over to where Ray was.

We all listened in agonizing silence to Ray's shouting and the guards telling him to shut up.

"Where are the others?" asked a man.

"They were right fucking here! Those two timing bastards! I knew something was up with them!" yelled Ray.

"Save it for your cellmate, Ray," snapped Porter. "We're taking you back and you're not making it out this time."

We listened as a dragging sound followed. They were pulling Ray back toward the prison, him not making it easy for them.

Ray had been caught. And we'd lived to see it happen.

My vision faded once again. This time we would wake back up in the present. We had to.

-----------------------

I opened my eyes once more to see the same cell that I'd been trapped in.

"Are you fucking KIDDING me?" I screamed. I tore my blanket off of me to see the same uniform on me, our cell door shut. I threw myself out of bed to see Sam waking up from my screaming.

"Did we do it? We did it, right?" Sam asked, hopping out of bed.

"We're in our cell again," I said quietly. Fuck. I didn't have the energy to do this again.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" asked Sam.

"That's what I said," I muttered. "God, I fucking give up. I give up. I can't do this again. It's too much. I can't go through this and pretend like I haven't been here before. I can't take shit from the guards and work another day in that fucking mailroom or go out into that yard one more time."

"I can't do this either," said Sam. He turned around and walked to the back of the cell and punched the brick wall.

"Dude, easy," I said.

"Shit," he said, shaking out his hand. "I'm sorry. I just... I can't do this again."

"Wait, Sam, the camera! It's on the bed! It must have fallen out of your clothes! We can at least record it this time! All of it!" I exclaimed.

"No way," Sam said. He went over to his bunk and grabbed the camera, then pulled all of the tapes out of his clothes. "Well, at least we have something going for us this time around."

"Yeah. But jesus fuck, we've really got to do this all over again. Sam, I don't know if I can. No, I can't. I can't do this again," I sighed, falling back down onto my bed.