Chapter 7: Phase I

“Hello sir, I have seen a few prisoners working in your kitchen for some incentives, and I would like to do the same,” I said with utmost politeness in my tone.

The cafeteria was crowded as prisoners streamed in for breakfast. A big man with a white chef uniform was in front of me. I took a peek behind him to see most of the people working in the kitchen were actually prisoners. This prison is heavily underfunded. I gazed at his face, the face of a seasoned chef who probably had worked here for most of his life.

“Any cooking experience prior to coming to this shit hole?” He said quietly, but his voice was frightening to the ears.

“I lived at home, so I cooked every day,” I answered him.

“What’s your name?”

“Arthur Thester.”

“Your job is to cook the food. By cooking, I mean watching the ingredients so they don’t burn too much and become inedible. The food here is already hardly edible, I don’t want to make them any worse. For every day you work here, that’s one day off your sentence. Now, get to the pans.”

I walked quickly into the kitchen that was haunted by mold and filth. The smell was no better than they looked, scents of old fish and rotten vegetables. Coincidentally, Alexei and Paul were in the breakfast line when I walked in. They nodded at me to encourage me in the hope that I will succeed. Someone bumped into me as I walked to the back. Another prisoner, he gave me a murderous glance that said “I will kill you” but quickly walked away to mind his own business. I didn’t notice how crowded the kitchen was for such a small space. I squeezed myself into the back, away from the open area. There were five other prisoners here, flipping the pans that were dripping with rust as they cooked whatever the abomination that was on the pans. The stoves were outdated, these were the stoves that they used a hundred years ago. No magic, no Spirit, just a gas stove. I stopped walking at one of the empty stoves, none of the prisoner cooks seem to care about a new guy. The hardcore bald chef walked right next to me. He pointed out what I needed to do and what was expected of me, nothing too complicated, so I complied.

Thirty minutes later, breakfast was about to be over. I looked around the filth-filled room and located the uncleaned knives on one of the counters. I will grab that before I walk out. The kitchen only needed people an hour before a meal, so I would have had some free time to deliver the knife to Alexei or Paul. Problem was, we had to check with the chef before we walked out of that kitchen. He would be standing at the door, inspecting us to see if we had stolen anything. I thought and thought, but I just couldn’t think of a plausible method. I looked at the knives again, to see if there were anything small enough for me to sneak out but would still be able to use for a pseudo-surgery. The smallest knife there was as big as the palm of my hand, it would certainly be good enough to use as a surgical scalpel, but I wasn’t sure that I could sneak that one out. A thought came into my mind as a smile came into my face. If I did this, it would be so easy to sneak it out without anyone knowing. However, I certainly couldn’t sneak it out now, but I had to wait until lunch. I needed Alexei and Paul to know about this plan, that was the reason for the delay.

Breakfast finally ended, and the prisoners in the kitchen hastily ran out of the kitchen. Of course, the chef inspected everyone before they walked out, and everyone was clean. I walked around the prison, attempting to locate Paul and Alexei. They weren’t in the cell, so I checked out the prison yard. Sweat was streaming down Paul’s tanned skin as he lifted some weights, preparing for the escape. Alexei was only watching him, his face droopy as if it was taking everything he had to not fall asleep. I approached them, and when Alexei saw me, he was as happy as a dog seeing its owner. He rushed over to me as Paul stopped his workout session. The disappointment was visible on their face as I shook my head, signaling that I didn’t get the knife.

“I have a plan, I’m going to need you guys,” I said to them.

“Is this related to us getting out of here?” Paul said in a whisper. I looked over to the guards in the yard, perhaps that wasn’t the best place we should be having this discussion.

We all walked back to our cell and sat down on our beds. There were barely any guards at all around the cells.

“So, I’m going to need you guys to be the third in line for the lunch,” I said.

Alexei seemed to already understand what I was going for, but Paul still had a puzzled look on his face.

“I’m going to try and put a knife in your food. Don’t eat it.” I explained to Paul. Paul opened his mouth, mouthing a big “Oh” and nodded. “You guys have any luck finding more people?” I asked.

“No, however, we do have some candidates that we think we could trust,” Paul answered

“Oh? Who are they?” I asked another question.

Paul ran down a list of names, but I was more interested in what they could do. A failed scientist, an officer who went to jail for something he didn’t do, a swindler who got caught, etc… As Paul was going over the list, we heard a knock on the wall. Alexei got up from his bed and assumed a defensive gesture. A slim blonde man with terror in his eyes Crap, was he listening to everything we were saying?

“H-hi, I heard you guys were talking about…an escape?” He lowered his voice down to a whisper when he said the word ‘escape’.

“I don’t know what you heard buddy, but if you tell anyone about it, especially guards, you won’t see the sunlight tomorrow,” Paul said as he put his hands on the man’s shirt.

This idiot! He just confirmed that we were talking about an escape, or else he wouldn’t get this violent. The guy let out a small squeak as Paul almost picked him up from the floor. Wait, I have seen this guy before, I thought to myself. I recognized him as the man I bumped into in the kitchen. Strange, he didn’t exactly give off a cowardly, timid vibe as he did at that jail cell, but a murderous, angry vibe instead. I ran to Paul and tapped him on the shoulder, trying to tell him to put the guy down. Paul gave me a confused look, but he put him down nonetheless. I took another good look at him, his orange prison uniform was drenched with sweat, his mouth panting like a hog. Did he run here?

“Who are you?”

He opened his mouth slowly while staring at Paul.

“E-Ethan, Ethan Avison, nice to meet you guys,” He smiled, but that smile slowly died away as he noticed that we didn’t do the same. “I- I know you, you are Arthur Thester, the new guy in the kitchen!”

I didn’t react to that statement. Who the hell says ‘nice to meet you’ in this situation. Out of the corner of my eyes, Alexei was reaching for my pillow, reaching for the gun in it. I cleared my throat and forced a smile on my face.

“Ethan, right, let's just say we were talking about an escape plan. What do you want with us?” I asked him slowly. I didn’t want another body but depending on his answer, he might be in the morgue by tonight.

“I-if it is fine with you guys, could I join you guys?” He said in such a low voice I could barely hear him. “I-I can help you, for sure! I heard your conversation, I could help you get that knife!”

Now that certainly picked my interest. My smile wasn’t a forced one anymore, but a sincere smile, and a smile full of greed.

“And how are you going to help us?” I asked.

“I work at the front, where they give food trays to the prisoners. Even if you successfully sneaked a knife into the food. There was no guarantee that the tray will be given to the right person, they are given out randomly, and what if another prisoner found the knife, that would be a disaster! But I could get it to you guys because I would know what tray it is, if you let me work with you of course.”

That was all I needed to hear. This guy was intimidated out of his mind by Paul and us, I didn’t think he would tell anyone. Besides, what choice did I have? With him, the chances of succeeding were almost a hundred percent. However, I couldn’t trust him enough. I nodded at the pillow, Alexei took the hint and brought out the pistol. Paul went outside to make sure nobody came near us. The new guy was intimidated enough that he had his back to the wall as soon as he saw it.

“You say anything, this gun is going to lose a bullet in its chamber.” He nodded repeatedly and strolled right out of there without fail.

I kinda felt guilty for what I did, threatening him like that. Most likely, he just wanted to help, and if I wanted to end discrimination, I shouldn’t do it with just fear, but also with respect, at least to the lower scorers that is. But it was too early into the game to actually know if he was an ally or just someone that would rat us out. Anyways, I decided that I should prepare for the kitchen during lunchtime.

The eerie ringing of the bell signified lunch, and once again, the ocean of orange uniforms flooded into the lines. I peeked over the front counter to try and spot where Alexei and Paul were. They must have been at the very back because I could not see them from where I was standing. Ethan was at the front counter, he lowered his voice as he put his head near my ear.

“I will tell you when they are here with a signal. The signal shall be…”

“HEY, why are you here! Get to the back!” The chef dragged me to the back of the kitchen before we could agree on a signal. I mouthed to Ethan ‘improvise’ as I got yanked to the back.

I waited for the chef to be gone before carrying on with grabbing a knife. He was less than a chef, more like a supervisor put here to make sure we didn’t cause any trouble. He was built more like a soldier than a chef, with a broad shoulder and a big back. He soon walked to the front, and I took that chance. I grabbed the small knife, making sure to stay natural so that no one suspected me if they saw me, after all, what is a cook without his knife? I quickly returned to my corner of the stove. Instead of the usual ingredients, I put the knife into the bread. I put the bread onto the tray and wait for the signal. Hopefully, I would be able to recognize the signal from Ethan. The way this kitchen work is that the front will call the back whenever they needed a tray of food, so all I had to do then, was wait for Ethan’s call.

After a while with no calling, anxiety started growing in me. I wondered if it was the suffocating air inside this hole of a kitchen that was causing me to sweat or the feat that Ethan had already given the signal and I was too stupid to figure it out.

“Next tray please, make it sharp!” Ethan called out.

Well, that was easy, that had to be the signal! There wasn’t a way in the world for that not to be the signal. I grabbed the tray and put it on the counter between the front and the back for Ethan to take. Ethan took it and I could hear Alexei say ‘Thank you very much’ in his usual psychopathic tone. Well now, that was done, a heavy air inside me left my body. Everything after was easy, it was just business as usual.

At the end of the lunch, I prepared to leave the horrific kitchen. There was one tray left on the table, so I grabbed one to eat as my lunch. The blood stopped flowing into my face as I realized that the tray I was grabbing was heavier than normal. Did I give the wrong tray? I opened up the bread and facepalmed myself when I saw the knife in it. I gave the wrong tray! Lunch was over, so now I had to either do this again at night or attempt to sneak it out right now. If I waited until dinner, I would have had to wait, and I did not want to spend any more time in this prison than I had to, so I decided to sneak it out now. The prisoners in the kitchen were allowed to bring food out, and I didn’t see the chef inspecting them, so maybe I could just stroll out of there with a knife. When I resolved to sneak it out, I was the last one in the kitchen. Paul, Alexei, and Ethan must be freaking out right now, and I needed to bring the knife to them. The chef noticed me taking a long time in the back and decided to come to me.

“What are you doing here? Lunch is over, get the hell out.” He said, almost threatening.

“I was just making some lunch for myself, I saw the other cooks do it.”

“What is that?” He pointed to my tray of food.

“My lunch?” I answered as calmly as I could.

“Well, the others don’t have a 0% as their Importance Score.” He smiled mischievously as those words came out of his mouth.

Curse the Importance Scale.

“Does my Importance Score mean that I don’t need food to survive?” I asked him irritably, getting angry myself. He just laughed and yanked the bread out of the tray.

“Lemme show you what you get for that kinda score.”

He took a big bite at the bread. I knew exactly what was going to happen, but my pride stopped me from warning him. In fact, why would I warn him? He was the same as the others, always boasting about their Scores and looking down on others that weren’t as fortunate as them. He let out a scream as the knife cut his tongue. Thank goodness people were already gone from the cafeteria, and we were in the back, so no one should have heard his yell. He lunged toward me, blood streaming out of his mouth, as he and I came into a wrestle. He was twice my size, probably an ex-soldier, and with his Spirit, I was brought to submission rather quickly. He held his hands on my neck, slowly suffocating me.

“DIE!” He kept on repeating it.

The lights slowly faded away as the oxygen failed to reach my brain. Strange, even when facing death, I never regretted a thing. I was disappointed at myself for being impatient rather than careful, I should have waited until dinner time. Before I could physically pass out, I heard a metal sound smashing something. His hands loosened around my neck as I gasped for air. I looked up to my savior, and even though everything was mostly blurry, I realized that it was Ethan. He was holding a… piece of bread?

“Still doubting me?” Ethan said with the same murderous eyes that I saw the first time I encountered him.