PRESENT

“Everyone, get out!”

“Where are we going” I insistently inquired.

Single filed he led us up a ladder in a narrow pipeline. We exited the channel and fumbled our way through an old dark cell block then we arrived at the pipeline.

“Almost there,” Norman shushes from up top, “be quiet.” Some moments later he paused and then opened a latch then slip the metal cover to the slide before climbing out, then us three followed suit.

“The shower…?” Todd gave out.

Do these channels connect to every section of the prison?

“Yes,” Norman responds in a hushed tone, “Now listen up. I have to go cover up the mess you left in the shipment room before we are found out.”

“What does it matter?” Jason irritably retorts, “This shits about to explode anyway, and we’re getting out of here, right?”

“Yes, we are.” Norman assured, “However, you can’t just walk out of here, at least, not yet.”

He removes his swipe card and flips it over indication a barcode, “I have a plan, but we have to act fast.”

“Get to the point.” Jason urged.

“We Guards have swipe cards with our U.I’s features replicated in the barcode; you can each use one to mask your own U.I. But in order to leave the prison, we have to go through the exit chamber, so you require three individual swipe cards.”

“Well, how the hell do you propose we do that?” Jason scoffs, “And even if we did manage to pull that off, we can’t just walk out through the front door. The exit chambers have highly sophisticated face identification software. It would rat us out in a heartbeat.”

“A distraction,” I interjected, “We need to run a distraction, a big one.”

“Exactly,” Norman nods, “It has to be big enough to remove most of the guards from their post. I will smuggle you as far as I can, then once the jig is up, you take out the remaining guards. By the time they realize what’s happening, it should be too late.”

“That’s cutting it a bit close, don’t you think?” Todd criticizes, screwing his face in disapproval, “I mean, we are relying heavily on luck and good timing, and what about the swipe cards?”

“There’s no other choice.” He responds, “It’s already almost 7:00 pm, the bomb will go off tonight at midnight. Do you really want to risk being around when it does?”

“That’s right… there’s a bomb.” I reflected.

The three paused, sequentially turned with raised brows to look at each other, then back at me.

“Dude, have you been listening to anything that’s been said?” Todd exasperated, “Of course there’s a fucking bomb, and you already know that.”

I looked up in disgust, “Yes, there’s a bomb- that you brought here!” I vied, “Do you know what else?” I stepped up closer on them, “There are also thousands of innocent people here.”

“Innocent?” Jason contends, “Genius- look around you. This is a prison. No one is innocent.”

“So that means they all deserve to die and we don’t?”

“Fuck them?” He scoffs.

I turned to look at Norman for a response but his eyes shifted in return. He sighed then placed a hand on my shoulder, “This isn’t our doing.” He assured me.

Sweeping his hand from my shoulder to show my contempt, I said: “Yes, it is.”

“We can’t save everyone even if we wanted to. There is no time.”

I dropped my head in discernment. I didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. My heart ached.

“You’re right,” I complied, “But if I’m going, I am taking him with.”