Fear strongly presented itself in each of the girl's thoughts, hearts and bodies as they held onto each other awaiting their fate. The Women stole glances at each other hoping that this wouldn't end in another tragedy, when the explosion blasted through the room the women were pushed back a bit. Their faces painted with fright, they held tightly as they could. After the explosive, the SWAT team came bursting in causing chaos.
The women panicked, they all scattered away screaming in surrender as darkness swept through the bunker. "On The Floor!" A member of authority would yell over the women, "Come here!" A SWAT member roughly slammed Blanca towards the ground. Groaning in pain she tried to kick the man in the leg, which she soon found out was a terrible idea when he kicked her in the stomach.
Gloria, Taystee, Red and after stripping Freida from the belt, they left calmly. Nicky, Suzanne and Cindy on the other hand was blinded by the chaos and had fallen away from the crowd, Nicky tried to crawl away but a guard seen her and grabbed her by her clothes and brought her to her feet, and not forgetting to add a harsher grab on her arms than necessary.
Once the girls split, Piper lost touch of Alex, the blonde tried scanning around the dark room with no luck of seeing her fiance anywhere. "Alex!" She yelled worriedly, a guard grabbed her by her shoulder pulling her toward him. Piper tried to fight back, "Alex?!" She yelled again while pushing herself away from the guard but failing when he pulled her by her hair onto the floor where he cuffed her and dragged her out the pool.
As each of the girls were being brought out, the pool began to clear up. But the guards didn't realize they had left two behind, Suzanne and Cindy hid away in some clutter. Knowing Suzanne's mental state right now Cindy knew nothing would go well if she had left Suzanne to have been taken by those men. Cindy grew a soft spot for Suzanne after giving her the wrong mediation and nearly having a heart attack when she wouldn't wake up.
It felt like hours that Cindy and Suzanne waited, but in reality only a few minutes had passed. "Okay, Suzanne follow me… I have a plan." Cindy crawled from her spot with Suzanne close behind, before she could stand on her feet she heard a few voices coming back.
"Pick up your side man!" A male's voice yelled in aggravation. Cindy immediately pushed Suzanne back inside their hiding spot and pulling many things back in front of them, Cindy's heart began to race miles as Suzanne's emotions were all jumbling up.
"Okay leave him like this." The man said, "we need to make it seem like he was facing off with them." He added. The men all dropped something that fell with a quiet thump, Cindy held Suzanne closer. "Alright, we need to have a discussion." He started.
"I'm so sorry." A smaller guard whimpered, his eyes stayed locked on the ground and his shoulders slouched. The other man sighed, "Look. All we need is a story, one that saves our asses." The men all shared looks.
"So, we met up with him in the halls right? He came with us to storm." The guard began, "It was dark and mayhem in here and he tried to get ahold of one of the ladies." The man paused, "where's the belt?" He asked his partners, one guy took it from the table and handed it over to the talking guard. "Holy shit there's a gun." One of the other men announced, the guard who shows leadership of the others smiled and threw his hands up.
"Luck's on our sides." He chuckled, "so here it is." He paused again. "Someone's shooting, maybe that old lady or one of the black ones." Cindy rolled her eyes at that, Of course they'd find a way to blame a black folk, Cindy thought. "And big guy here tries to play hero and tackles one of them to disarm them." He continues, "so while they're wrestling, another crazy bitch comes and distracts him from the main mission." The guard eyed each of his men, "and shots fired. He's down." The guard takes the gun from his colleague.
"B-but I shot him with a pepper bullet, not a bullet- bullet." The smaller guard replied. Cindy pushed Suzanne's hands over her ears so that she couldn't hear anything else, heaven knows how hard it is to explain most things to the girl.
Then several bullets shot straight at Piscatella. Suzanne's whimpered quietly pushing her hands harder against her ear, Cindy flinched at the sound of that gun. "Those crazy rioting bitches and murdering cunts killed one of ours in cold blood." He stated, Cindy flicked him off with a silent 'fuck you'. "Our story ends with us being innocent, and that's good enough for me." The other men in the room nodded with a few mumbled words Cindy couldn't make out.
"Let's get out of here, remind me to get Andy Styvver on this case." The guard threw the gun to the side, "let's get the fuck out of here and hope the other two were found." And there the men went, after they left Cindy let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in. Cindy held tightly onto Suzanne for a few more minutes before deciding to leave, she tapped Suzanne three times to get her attention.
"What that man said… I don't remember it." Suzanne muttered. Cindy crawled from underneath the clutter yet again before getting Suzanne on her feet, "that's because it didn't happen." Cindy replied, she held her hands on her waist trying to figure out what's next.
"Then why'd he say it?" Suzanne asked anxiously, she held her hands close to her face. Cindy wasn't in the mood to tell Suzanne some fairytale to make her happy because sometimes, the girl needs to be told the truth, but then again Suzanne doesn't react to the truth.
"People make up stories so they don't get into trouble." Taystee responded, she watched Suzanne look around the pool area, the poor girl was scared. "Suzanne." Cindy called out, Suzanne nervously looked up to Cindy. "We need a story too."
"I don't understand." Suzanne scratched her head, Cindy slowly started walking toward the exit. Reaching out to Suzanne's hand Cindy led her through the familiar halls of the prison.
"We were never down there." Cindy peeked over a corner to see nobody, she led Suzanne's inside a closet.
"But we were?!" Suzanne's hands gripped into Cindy's arms, she started shaking like crazy.
"No. We were never down there Suzanne do you hear me?" Cindy held Suzanne's face, bringing it closer to hers. "We were in this closet the whole time." She told Suzanne in a serious tone, Suzanne slowly nodded. "We were scared when those guys came in with the guns and we hid in here until things got quiet." Cindy let go of Suzanne's face to peek out of the closet, "that's what you'll tell the cops okay?" Suzanne nodded again slowly.
Cindy's previous plan was to sneak anywhere secluded like this closet, and tell the guards that's where they were the whole time. Her plan remained the same but now instead of just thinking about her story she had to think about the guard's story. She crawled up next to Suzanne who had just laid down quietly, "when they come and get us do not say a word." Cindy whispered.
It didn't take long for two Guards to come stumbling in front of the closet doors, "we found them." One says, Cindy groggily sat up with Suzanne following her lead. "How come you two didn't surrender?" The other asked, Cindy glanced over to Suzanne who had already been looking at her. Cindy shrugged adding a few random hand signals, Suzanne quickly picked up on what she was doing and added a few of her own.
"Oh shit, they're deaf." One of the men bent down and outstretched his arm toward Suzanne. "Hello! We're going to transport you with the other inmates!" He yelled, Cindy and Suzanne stood up reluctantly, the girls shared a smile while they were being cuffed.
They were then brought to a bus with the other women that were in the pool, all their faces pained or scared. Cindy's eyes immediately found Taystee, she was looking depressingly out the window. She wanted to tell them all about what she overheard, but now definitely wasn't the time.
"Did you see Alex?" Piper asked Cindy, Cindy just shook her head 'no' while following Suzanne who sat behind Piper and Freida. "Wait there should be one more inmate!" Piper blurted out with a trembling voice, none of the other inmates said anything, they were way too exhausted or hurt from being roughed up by the guards to speak.
"Everyone who's on this bus belongs on this bus." A guard croaked out, as the bus doors closed Piper leaned back in her seat, defeatedly. Taystee looked over once at Piper before staring back at the window, Taystee felt like the most defeated one of them all.
Red broke the silence by whispering something to Gloria and Nicky and they slowly passed around the message. Cindy was busying repeating the story to Suzanne so she wouldn't mess up, things were going fine until Piper turned around with the message that Red passed around.
"What we tell the police is that we were held captive by Piscatella and-" before Piper could finish her sentence, Suzanne shook her head quickly dismissing what the blonde was saying.
"No!? No that didn't happen!" Suzanne's voice raised, "he, we killed…" Suzanne trailed on, "No we weren't there! No! No! No! You weren't there!" Suzanne screamed, Cindy failed to calm her down and the bus driver groaned.
"Alright! One to a seat, move it!" the guard who sat up front yelled, Cindy stood up quickly to sit behind Suzanne as the others shuffled among the bus.
"Suzanne no, don't listen to her. Just remember what I told you." Cindy whispered.
"But it wasn't true!" Suzanne whimpered.
"What that guy said down there wasn't true either okay? But guess what?! He's going to tell the cops that… Me and you are not getting pulled into that trouble." Cindy looked over at the other inmates, "they have their story and we have ours." Suzanne turned to look at Cindy, her eyes watery.
"I wanna go home." Suzanne sniffed.
"Me too." Cindy replied.
...
"So, where were you?"
The man in the nice suit asked. He tapped his pencil against the table feeling irritated, he was getting impatient with how slow things have been going in Suzanne's interrogation, one minute she'd answer a question then the next she's on about nonsense that has nothing to do with her situation.
"I…" Suzanne's eyes travelled the small room in panic, her thoughts were mixing up with what story she was supposed to tell him, she scratched the back of her neck while fidgeting. "I don't know!" She yelled, the man sighed then glanced toward Suzanne's Lawyer who frowned at him.
"It's a simple question Ms. Warren, cut the act and answer me!" He commanded with a loud stern voice. Suzanne stared at him in silence, her lawyer cut in before she could say anything else.
"This isn't some act, my client is obviously not capable for questions right now, she needs medication to help her think straight." Suzanne looked over to her lawyer, he was an older white man who spoke very calmly. Suzanne nodded toward him though, as to agree with what he was saying.
"So are you saying she belongs in psych?" The interrogator asked, his eyes on the lawyer but would take a glisp of Suzanne who was looking at the wall mumbling something to herself.
"No, she doesn't do well in isolation." Suzanne's Lawyer sat up straight, resting his arms on the small table.
"Nobody does well in isolation." The interrogator snickered.
"What I'm saying is, Suzanne needs her medication or she won't be able to give you the answers you need." Suzanne's Lawyer reached his arm to touch her back, Suzanne was still looking the opposite way from him.
"Okay mommy." Suzanne mumbled, she turned to her lawyer and back to the interrogator. "I was with Cindy… In the closet." Suzanne blinked an uncomfortable amount of times, the interrogator raised an eyebrow.
"The whole time?" He asked.
"Uh." She paused, "no. Yes?! I don't remember! There's too much to remember! And too much to not remember! There's too many stories!" Suzanne yelled, "if you don't look both ways before crossing the street you'll be hit Suzanne!" Suzanne slapped her face three times, "if we don't find the Cheshire cat we won't know what road to go on!" Suzanne exclaimed.
The interrogator turned off the recorder that sat in front of him and Suzanne, then glared at her, "are you fucking kidding me?" He asked rudely.
"That's a swear." Suzanne pointed up her index finger, rocking slightly in her seat.
"I'm being the nice guy here and talking to her first but she's truly wasting my time." The interrogator sighed, he wrote down something on his clipboard.
"Like I said, all she needs is her medication and to be released to Gen Pop." The lawyer says.
"Fine." The interrogator flipped over a few pages, "you can go now." He rolled his eyes and Suzanne stood up to bow.
"Good day sir." She said then left the room to be cuffed, and instead of being taken back to Ad-Seg she was brought down to Psych, she didn't enjoy Psych. She watched the inmates who wore blue stand in a long time, she wasn't in line but instead with a woman who kept asking her so many questions. Suzanne's thoughts were cut off when she heard music being played, she bobbed her head quickly with a big smile resting on her lips.
"Suzanne!"
Suzanne jumped when she heard her mother's voice, her mother was in the corner of the room with her arms crossed."You need to pay attention, you don't want these people to think you're crazy." Suzanne nodded quickly and turned her attention to the woman again.
The woman just stared at her in confusion, she observed Suzanne stare off at the other inmates then to the wall nodding and mumbling. But nonetheless she wrote down a few things and stood up. Once she stood she told Suzanne, "now, I'm going to give you a shot okay?" Suzanne whined. She hated getting shots, but then her mother called her name again.
"Suzanne don't worry, it's going to be over soon." She smiled encouragingly at her daughter, Suzanne took in deep breaths and let out a small cry. Afterwards she rubbed her bandaged arm, she looked up to her mother for guidance.
"I'm proud of you Suzanne."
"Can i go home now?" Suzanne asked.
her mother just nodded quietly, "of course Suzanne."
Suzanne gave her a half smile.
...
While Suzanne was busy dealing with her hallucinations of her mother, the other inmates had their own emotions to deal with. When they arrived to max, some of the isolation cells were filled with familiar faces. And being in a facility that doesn't care about space, the girls were thrown in cells with the other girls who were already there. After a vicious beatdown, Taystee was thrown in a cell with Janae. Janae was on the bed staring at the ceiling until Taystee practically limped in the cell, Janae ended up giving Taystee the bed and settling on the floor after seeing some of Taystee's bruises.
Gloria was paired with Ouiji, probably not the best idea but Ouiji has actually been quiet, beside one nasty glare she hasn't done anything to Gloria. Blanca was with Ramona, Cindy was with Abdullah as Piper, Maria, Red and Nicky were alone.
Daya was also there when they arrived, but she was laying in bed moaning in pain. It was no secret that Daya was getting a tough treatment from the COs after Humps died, but even Daya didn't think it'd be this bad. But through all this pain she doesn't regret it, she seen what she did as something that just happened and there's nothing anyone can do to change what, so instead of being regretful she just accepted it.
Cindy on the other hand couldn't just accept what she heard from those men. She couldn't sleep knowing what those men were planning to do to them. She thought, if word gets out that another CO was killed, the COs here would be ten times worse on them than the old ones were at Litchfield. But being in prison prevented you from doing a lot of things, one being communication. She couldn't just tell everybody what happened, she needed to stick to her story but her fear for the future was growing thick. She was right across from Janae and Taystee but she wasn't sure of how to tell them about Piscatella.
Abdullah being Cindy's little roommate has been oddly quiet, not that Cindy and Abdullah were all buddy-buddy like how Taystee and Poussey were, but without the talking all you could feel in this cell was tension.
The other inmates remained silent, there was nothing to say but even without their words you could just feel the depressing atmosphere surrounding each girl's cell. Nicky being the ex-junkie made her wish she had one last high before coming back to max, this place just really brings a person down and they haven't been released to Gen Pop yet. She not only mourn for the lost of drugs but she missed Lorna. Nicky knew that Lorna would never be hers fully, she knew that no matter how much she loved her, Lorna was incapable of loving her the same way.
Red was staying strong as usual. She had no idea where her half her prison family was but was glad that Nicky had came back to the pool, she needed Nicky more than Nicky realizes. Red would pace around her cell for a few minutes wondering when they'd get out of the cells, she watched the other girls hoping that their story would match up. Red would be lying if she said she wasn't missing Litchfield, she was practically one of the big dogs there and Max is no place for old scared women. But Red was also confident that she, Nicky and Piper would surpass this, they're the only family she has now.
Maria was grateful that she wasn't put with Ouija or Ramona knowing how word gets around fast in prison, she released the guards and she was anxious for the consequences. What she did was selfish, that she should've let Gloria take the light to lead the guards away from the dark but she has learned that sometimes you need to be selfish to lookout for yourself. She never really was a part of a little prison family like Red was, she just hung around the Latinas and that was that, she knew those girls would never be her family.
But Maria felt pride in herself she hadn't ever felt before when the prison began to crowd with hundreds of inmates. She finally had her people, she had a little group to actually belong to and it made her feel good. But in the end she knew it all went to her head, she regrets not keeping out of that drama with the white girls. She regretted letting those women get to her to a point where she was this bad gang girl that doesn't think about the consequences of her actions.
"Dayanara?"
Piper stood on her bed, tipping her toes to the little vent above the bed. She heard Daya groaning and moaning for the past few minutes now and she was getting concerned. Piper didn't feel bad about how they practically gave her away in the riot, because it's worth saving the many than just saving one.
"Y-yeah…?" Daya croaked.
"Are you okay?" Piper asked, but she knew the answer to that.
"Not at all." Daya sighed.
"You haven't seen Alex have you?" Piper asked with a hopeful tone.
"What are you?" Daya coughed, "a broken record?" She coughed harshly a few times before continuing. "I don't know where your girlfriend is okay?" Her voice softened, "just be glad she isn't here."
"Why? Is there a reason why some of us are in here?" Piper leaned against the wall, waiting for a reply.
"Most likely." Daya replied weakly. "You should worry about what you'll say to the cops." Daya struggled to sit herself up from the bed.
"But I didn't do anything." Piper said.
"You took our Cheetos then recorded burning them." Daya chuckled.
"Right.." Piper slid down the wall till she was criss cross on her bed.
Piper was one of the more put-together inmates after the riot, part from missing Alex like crazy she was doing well. But the more she thinks about Alex the more worried she is about what happened to her fiance. The two surely had their issues and are positively non-compatible with one another but that doesn't stops Piper's heart from loving the dark haired woman.
...
"Hey Hellman, bring out Hayes, Abdullah, Aziza, Contrares." CO Ginger yelled, she sat at a small table that was put in the middle of the cells, she wanted to observe all the newbies.
"All these new Cookies, I'm very excited for Fantasy Inmate now with all the new players." CO Alvarez replied, he sat beside Ginger looking around at the inmates.
"Heh. Should've seen Berlin earlier, I so wanted attempted suicide points." Ginger stood up to greet the new inmates.
Freida had a fear of coming back to Max, she didn't exactly leave Max being a saint. Well, she didn't come to max being a saint either. Point is, Freida knew when she was put on that bus that she needed a plan to get herself out of this, Freida's mind shut down to only one thing. To not see Carol Denning. She was willing to try anything to keep herself out of any situation that involved that woman, the first night back in Max Freida cut her wrists in hoping to land herself in psych, or have more time in the Ad-Seg cell.
"Why are you standing? There's no way I can let you take them, Fantasy Inmate is coming close and I know how you like to cheat." Alvarez also stood up from his seat.
"Oh come on, don't worry I won't hold out on you. I'll get all the juicy details." She winked. "And I Don't cheat, I just know how to spot 'em." She added.
"Fine." Alvarez replied carelessly. He sat back down in his chair as the inmates started to stand in line, Ouija and Ramona spotted Maria. Once Maria shared eye contact with the two they both placed their finger and slowly slide it across their neck. Maria only looked away from the two, in Maria's mind those two would never understand why she did what she did.
"Make sure to call your lawyers because we all know your gonna need all the help you can get." Ginger shouted, she pulled out a Mini notepad as she led the girls toward the phone area.
Janae watched the girls disappear from her sight, she leaned forward on the glass that revealed the parts of the prison. Janae turned around, she stared at Taystee who had her back facing Janae.
"Hey, T." Janae called out.
Taystee groggily turned over, to meet Janae's eyes. "Yeah?"
"Do you think P would be proud of us?" Janae asked, her voice filled with vulnerability.
Taystee slowly sat herself up, thinking about that question. Taystee may have been the face of this entire riot but Janae has backed Taystee up and encouraged Taystee to speak about their problems of the prison, the two weren't as close as Taystee and Poussey was, but they could get there.
"I didn't get her the justice she deserved." Taystee's eyes began to tear up, "I had one thing to do for her and i failed." She sniffed, she quickly swiped the single tear that rolled down her face. Taystee felt like a complete failure, she wanted nothing more but to put CO Bailey behind bars, for which he deserved to be in placed. "I lost a battle I knew I couldn't win." Taystee added, her heart felt so heavy. "But I was selfish and in return we got this. Something that ain't Justice." Taystee let her head hang, her chin dug into her chest.
"You weren't selfish T." Janae walked over to the bed, sitting right beside her. "You fought hard for our girl. You showed those bitches we meant business and if P ain't proud of that then I am." Janae gave Taystee a half smile.
"But in the end they still won." Taystee said.
"You're right, they won." Janae agreed. "But you didn't lose without a fight, you held your ground and not many people can say the same." Janae cup Taystee's face in her hand, "you tried everything you could. P would appreciate it, don't be harsh on yourself." Janae lifted Taystee's head to see a few tears were falling down her cheek.
"I miss her so much." Taystee opened her arms out for Janae.
Janae immediately pulled herself closer to Taystee, holding her close, rocking her steadily.
"Me too." Janae hugged Taystee closer.
...
Once the girls came back from calling their people, the other inmates were called. Gloria sat on this little board the Guard gave her to sleep on, it was way too hard to actually sleep on but it wasn't like Gloria was sleeping anyway. Gloria still hadn't been called for the phones yet and waited impatiently by the door. Everytime Gloria would glance at Ouija the girl was already staring back.
Sighing, Gloria turned to look at Ouija almost intimidatingly. "What?" She threw her hands up.
"We need to talk." Ouija answered.
"About?" Gloria crossed her arms.
"Ruiz."
Gloria raised an eyebrow, "what for?"
"Don't pretend that bitch's innocent." Ouija spat out.
"None of us are innocent, but trust me you're not the only one that's angry at her." Gloria and Maria never really were close, they just stayed around each other part from being in the Spanish Harlem. Gloria can admit that she never truly trusted Maria especially after Maria found her little group of Dominicans and her drama with the white girls. But Gloria fell into a pit named vulnerability and needed reassurance at the wrong time, but since then Gloria has learned to never let herself open up to another inmate.
"Well I'm going to tell you now, you better make sure you know whose side your on." Ouija walked over toward Gloria, her eyes shooting sharp daggers at her.
"And what sides are there?" Gloria stood taller than Ouija, giving her the most intimidating face she could muster.
"Our people, or her." Ouija replied.
"So she's not our people anymore?" Gloria chuckled while shaking her head slightly.
"Our people don't suck up to those pigs and let them out the pastor." Ouija stood close enough to the point hers and Gloria's body rubbed against one another. Gloria could admit this girl certainly had some fight in her. "But I'm sure you learned your lesson, we did go easy on you Chica." Ouija whispered. "So you stay out of our way, and we'll stay out of yours."
Gloria stared into Ouija's piercing gaze, "fine. Consider me invisible."
Ouija's mood changed almost instantly, she sent a toothy smile at Gloria. "Nice." Ouija turned her back to the bed. "Hope your son wasn't too disappointed, maybe next time Mama shouldn't make promises she can't keep." She sat on the bed with a smug expression, Gloria clenched her jaw.
Gloria flinched when a CO banged on their cell door with cuffs, it was her turn for the phones and the first thing she'll do she next is check up on Benny. After getting cuffed the CO opened the door and took Gloria by the arm. They didn't have to take more than five steps for Gloria to see Maria in the next cell. Gloria stopped walking and a scowl immediately forming on her face, she waited until Maria looked up at her to shake her head.
Maria seemed remorseful by the look on her face, but when Gloria looks at her she sees the same person who encouraged her to do right by her family then steal that opportunity away. They only held a gaze for a few seconds then Maria looked away, biting her lip. Gloria shook her head again before following the guard to the phones with one thing spinning in her head.
Revenge.
