The wrong side of the bars

Chapter 1 Home

"Strip" a women shouts, Maria stares at the ground, tears filling her eyes, "NOW" shouts the same women, Maria jumps, she looks around at all the other women standing in a line taking off there citizen clothing and beginning to slide into there yellow tracksuits, Maria looks at the guard. "Are you deaf?" Says the guard in a cold tone, Maria looks up at the guard, she shakes her head slightly, "Then do as I ask, Now" the guard replies, I shake my head tears begin to stream down my face. Without any warning the guard slaps Maria hard across the face, her face begins to burn, she holds her cheek with one hand and slowly begins taking off her bright blue dress. She lifts the strands and pulls them off her shoulder, they fall to the floor leaving her in just her bra and underwear, "and the rest" the guard says warningly, Maria looks at the other 10 girls who are already in there yellow tracksuits looking her up and down, very slowly Maria takes off her bra. More tears fall, the other women begin almost laughing. "Oh for god sake" the guard yells, Maria takes of her underwear quickly feeling more humiliated then she has ever felt before and quickly begins putting the yellow tracksuits on. She zips the tracksuits up and is ordered to stand in the line with the others, "now, your about to enter unit 3, all kinds of inmates, from baby killers, robbers and some of the worst homicides in the country, they will take advantage of you, to them you are like delivery boxes, they will ask you to bring in contraband and will threaten you. I don't care what they threaten you with, you must report them, you will be sent to a protection unit, but if you are caught with there contraband, you will have years added to your sentence" the women says walking up down the room. Maria is standing very awkwardly in the line, shaking with fear, "most of you have been here before, for the few of you who haven't, you won't know how things work" the women says continuing to walk up and down the room. "Maria Winter, you are about to serve 8 months for robbery, more of a reason to stay out of trouble, and do as I said earlier" the guard says stopping at me. I nod, "you know what they do to rats?" Asks one of the other women, a short women with a shaved head, maybe in her early thirties. "Shut it Mason" replies the guard, people are addressed by there last names in Dallahas prison, the guard goes to the other side of the room where there are 10 plastic trays with toiletries and special items that you could bring with you. The trays have all our names on them, the guard calls us one by one to collect our tray, once she calls my name I shakily make my way to my tray, I pick it up and go back to the line. After everyone else retrieves there trays the guard whispers something into her walkie talkie and a big door at the front of the room opens with a buzz and click. Another guard comes to the door and walks to the end of the line while the other guard stands at the front. Within a few seconds we are marching through the door and into a hallway, the hallway has a hard concrete floor with black tiled walls on both side, we walk down the hallway until there's a turn, we turn and a big iron gate is in front of us. The guard at the front says something else into her walkie talkie and the gate begins sliding open with multiple clanks and clicks until it's wide open. Through the iron gate is a big cell block, with yellow small railings for the second level and for the stairs that are in the middle of the cell block. At least 50 cells are on the bottom level which go all around the block, and maybe another 30 on the top level, the cells have massive black doors with a number written in yellow in the middle. I look around, "the other inmates are in there cells for the moment, at 12:30 you will be released into the open cell block and the rest of the compound, the only place you guys should be going is the yard and the cafeteria for lunch, work duty is also open but you will be assigned for work tomorrow" the guard says as we walk down the middle of the block. We stop in the middle and both the guards turn to face us. "Oh and the showers" says the guard again, the other guard holds up there clip board. "Mallory Mason, your cell is number 70, top level" says the guard, the guard is a tall male who is very handsome with dark brown hair, he has a tough look about him. The women who got called begins walking up the stairs to find her cell, "Allie Novak, cell number 12, ground level" the guard says, Novak has bleach blonde hair that hangs just below her shoulders, she struts past me and winks, then sets off to her cell, Maria's eyes follow her down to her cell. Her cell buzzes open, "Tere Ferreiro, cell number 20, ground level" the guard says again. "Maria Winter, cell number 16, ground level" the man says glancing up at Maria, Maria nods and still shaking begins walking through the cell block until She reach cell 16, her heart begins pounding, She take a deep breathe has the cell suddenly buzzes and opens. 3 women are sitting on bunks, they look up at her, "hello" says one of the women sitting up on the top bunk which is pushed to the side of the cell. She nod at her and tries not to fall over as she walks to the only unoccupied bed below an older women. "Hello sweetheart" says the old women, her voice is very frail and soft, Maria wonders how she can end up in a place like this, "h- hello" Maria says, her voice is choked up and lost from crying. She clears it and sits down on the bed, the women on the top of the other bunk jumps down and reaches her hand out for Maria to shake, she shakes it, "Nikiesha, niki for short" she says, she looks nothing older then 18, "that one there is Hayley, call her curly though" Nikiesha says pointing to the other women on the bottom bunk who seems half asleep. The nickname curls suits her due to the amount of curls she has, she half smiles, "she's baked" says Nikiesha laughing, Maria tries to fake a laugh but it just comes out extremely awkward. "Then that one is Mum, we call her mum because she's basically the closest thing to a mum we have in here" Nikiesha says pointing to the old lady, Maria smiles and nods, "I'm basically a therapist at this point" The old lady says laughing, Nikiesha laughs as well. "My real name is Maralyn" says the old lady coming down from the bunk, and giving Maria a big hug, Maria can't help but to feel a bit uncomfortable but forces herself to hug back. "You smell nice" says Maralyn, Maria smiles, "thank you" Maria says, Maralyn sits down beside Maria, "what did you do?" Says Hayley (curls), "um, well I- I mean I'm not supposed to be here" Maria replies, "yeah yeah that's what everyone says" Hayley says, this rubs Maria the wrong way but she ignores it. "Well I'll give you a rundown of the rules" says Nikiesha, "don't touch anybodies stuff, don't snitch, don't borrow things, shower everyday, it gets rank in this prison" says Nikiesha looking around. "Oh and the most important of all, stay away from Analia, she basically runs the place but she's evil" Nikiesha says with a stern look. "Part from that, enjoy your stay" she says, Maria nods and Maralyn goes to say something but gets cut off by the sound of 100 doors being opened and 120 inmates coming out laughing, yelling, whispering, everything. "What do I do now?" Maria asks, "well lunch is going to get called in a sec so if your hungry you can eat, or go to the showers" Nikiesha says leaving. Maria sits still on her bed for a few minutes as Hayley leaves, Maralyn grabs Maria's hand, "I remember when it was my first day, as scared as a deer caught in the flashlights, but you'll get through it" She says giving her hand a little kiss. "Yeah" Maria says, but deep down can hardly hold down the terror she is feeling, "your better to get up, face the others because it'll come eventually and you don't want them to think your scared" Maralyn says, Maria nods slowly, "ok" She says. Maria slowly gets up the cellblock is full with women, all in the bright yellow tracksuits and a few here and there in black, which is for high security inmates, Maria walks slowly into the open cellblock, nobody seems to be paying attention to her, but in her mind everyone is looking at her. Maria thinks about going to the cafeteria, then she spots Allie Novak, Maria almost walks over to her but decides to stay to herself. Maria notices the way she's walking is very shaky and awkward so forces herself to walk properly and confidently, Maria isn't used to crowds, she hardly even went to school and when she did she was at the back of the class with her head in a desk. "Well, well, well" says someone from behind Maria, Maria turns around, a very big women with light brown hair is stood with 3 other rather large women, "what do we have here" repeats the same women, the women has a strong Russian accent, Maria almost thinks it might be Analia, "what?" Maria asks, "whats your name?" Asks the same women, "Maria, Maria winter, and you?" Maria asks trying to sound confident. "Well my names Zemula, but you'll be calling me daddy pretty soon" she says laughing, the 3 other women laugh with her, "what's that supposed mean?" Maria asks, "your beautiful" says one of the 3 women, I say nothing. "Wanna come for a shower?" Asks the main women, they all laugh, "nobody is going to be there for the next half an hour" the woman says, "fuck off" Maria says. "It's hot when a girl fights back" the women replies back, the other 3 nod in agreement, I turn around and begin walking when suddenly someone grabs my hair and pulls me back, "what the fuck" I say as I struggle to get out of there grip, "you don't walk, unless I tell you to" says the women who has me. She throws me into someone who quickly wraps there arm around my neck restraining me, I struggle as much as I can but they are strong. "Chuck her in the cell" the main women says, I am taken a few cells down from mine and thrown into a cell. I scream as loud as I can but they cover my mouth with there hand, they throw me into a bed, "your pale as a ghost, but in the end we are all pink where it counts" says the main women forcing me down as she climbs on top of me. 2 of the others laugh and encourage the main women while the last one of the 3 stands guard outside the cell. The women on top of me begins to try and unzip my tracksuit but I manage to knee her off me, I go to stand when one of the women pulls out a knife, adrenaline pumps through my veins as I try and grab the knife but ends with me just being thrown back onto the bed, the women who I kneed tries to get on top of me but I manage to kick her in the chest, she falls back. At first she just seems to have fallen into one of the others, but suddenly everyone begins yelling, then the women falls to the ground, leaving the other women who I kicked her into holding a bloody knife, her hands shaking. "You killed, YOU KILLED HER" screams the girl with the knife, she looks like she's going to pass out, I stare down on the women's body, "you bitch" screams the women, she slashes me in the arm with a knife, I scream in pain, the women who was guarding comes into the cell, "what the fuck" she screams, I manage to dodge another slash from the knife, I run towards the door smashing through the other women and running into the cellblock screaming, everyone turns to look at what's happening. The girl with the knife follows me out and tries to hit me with it but I only just manage to get out of the way. Suddenly 2 guards grab us, "she fucking killed Zemula" screams the women as she's handcuffed, I as well am handcuffed, "I DIDNT DO ANYTHING IT WAS HER" I scream but the guard drags me through the block, I struggle and struggle but I'm no match. I get taken through the hallways until we reach another unit labeled "isolation". "What you can't put me there" I scream, "watch me" says the guard as he opens the door revealing another room with 5 cells along the wall, the first thing I notice is the cold, then he opens the cell door, all concrete, no bed, hardly a toilet and no windows, I scream and scream but he throws me into the cell without even uncuffing me. I stay on the ground screaming for them to let me out, but no answer, after a while my voice gives out and all I can make out is very croaky. I lay on the extremely cold, dark floor crying, hardly even able to process what just happened, I have hardly been in the cell for 2 hours, then it hits me. This is my home now, and since what just happened, if I get charged, 8 months could quickly turn into 10 years.

(Also sorry the point of view keeps changing from I to Maria, I'm going to stick with first person point of view instead of third person)