Chapter 7: The Cage

Sleep escaped me part way through the day and I found myself laying wide awake with thoughts of despair and gloomy hopes of escape and revenge. What would I do if I had gotten out? Where to begin taking down the Van Graffs? What ever happened to Raze after his shady get away at the Silver?

Inner dialogue was interrupted by muffled voices in the distance and I was instantly curious. No way that any of the other prisoners could have energy after the night filled with work and fighting. I got up and wandered out of the opened cell. Far to my left, a dim light emanated from the last cell, casting ominous shadows and bar lines along the hallway. Against my instinct, I made my way toward the candle light and voices.

"We don't have anywhere near enough explosives to even begin discussing a break out," Cooke was explaining. "In the mean time, we need to focus on our main purpose here."

"Oh yeah, and what's our purpose here, fearless leader?" Eddie sounded defiant.

"The only reason we let ourselves be caught and locked up here is because it's the perfect mixing pot of individuals for recruitment." Cooke began to sound more conspiratorial than ever. "No one in here is repping any particular gang at the moment. Colors; patches? None of that means shit while we're all cooped up together like this. We are, like it or not, one and the same. So long as it's prisoners against guards, we stand united with one common enemy."

"The NCR…" Eddie sounded like he was starting to understand.

"Which is exactly the foundation of this entire revolution." Cooke might have been smiling as he spoke the words. "Phase One means we need as many prisoners on our side before anything is set into motion. We educate them on the agenda; rile them up good and get it in their heads that the NCR needs to be taken down. We'll start with getting them to hate the guards so much that anyone wearing an NCR uniform outside these fences will be included as the enemy."

"Right, okay. Then what?" Eddie was coaxing the entire scheme out the mastermind as much as he could.

"We bide our time. Once the men are in agreement, we'll need larger forces on the outside." I edged closer to the bars of the cell as the voices got lower and harder to hear. Cooke continued to explain the finer details. "I'll send out ambassadors to the smaller gangs in the area. Someone will need to go speak on our behalf; spread the word, collect resources and recruits. Once we have a large enough alliance we-"

Glass crunched under my boot as I chanced a step closer. In an instant, all five men in the cell surrounded me. Eddie and Scrambler had me by the arms and Dawes was shining the lamp light in my eyes. Someone had me in a firm chokehold before I took several punches to the ribs. Gasping for air and gritting my teeth, I struggled against my captors in futility.

"We got rats in the walls, boss!" Scrambler hooted.

"How much of that did you hear just now?" Cooke asked. He stood calm, hands crossed in front of his waist. He was almost welcoming. I tried to answer, but all I could manage was a cough, which produced a string of spittle that made its way down my chin. Cooke cocked his head to the side and made a mockery of a sad face, with his eyebrows scrunched and bottom lip protruded. He cupped a hand to his ear and turned as if to try and hear a little better. "What's that? I couldn't hear you with that mean old bastard choking you to death."

"Khaa-" more coughing as the arm around my neck tightened. Cooked looked up over my shoulder to the man behind me and gave the slightest of nods. Finally, I was able to breathe. Gasping in air as repeated the word, I began to feel my knees buckle. "Khans."

"Khans?" Cooke asked. "The Mighty Khans were wiped out."

"No, they weren't." I was still gasping. "I met a few in the wastes. When we were being delivered here."

"See, now, why don't I believe you?" Cooke smiled as he asked. "If you met up with any Khans the NCR escorts would have shot on sight."

"We escaped the escorts for a while. When we were in the desert, we met a few members of the Khans; teamed up." The three men holding me made it difficult to concentrate on speaking. I knew these men would kill me to keep their meeting a secret. I had to give them something to keep myself from dying on my first day in prison. "I saved one of them during a shoot out."

Cooke was mildly interested. He cajoled me to continue me story. "And?"

"The Khans have a code that when someone saves them, that person can ask for any favor. The Khan I saved was a high ranking member and now he owes me a Life Debt."

"Like I said, the Khans were wiped out." I had to explain some more.

"Not all of them. The ones that survived the NCR assault all moved to another place in the desert; somewhere north of Goodsprings." Cooke was satisfied with that and gave his goons another nod before they released me. I groped at my throat as I regained my breath and fell to my knees. Cooke turned with his hands clasped behind his back and nose in the air. He took a few steps away as he began to ponder the ordeal.

"So what do you propose to do with this life debt of yours that I might let you walk away with what you know about us?" Cooke asked.

"You need resources." I replied as I glanced up at his back. "I can ask for an alliance at best; weapons at the least." Silence followed. I held my breath as Cooke contemplated.

"Suppose I agree to this demented idea of yours, what assurance do I have that you won't blow the whistle on my plans?" Cooke asked. I had no real answer but I had to come up with something.

"You don't." I said. "But it's like you said: we have a common enemy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"Hmm." He clucked on his teeth as he rolled the idea around in his head. "Okay!"

"Okay?" Eddie asked in objection.

"Okay." Cooke repeated. He glanced around at his men as he spoke. He waved a hand at me dismissively as he continued "We need recruits so we'll start with this one. If there's a chance to start sooner than later, we'll take it. But if you even think about double crossing me on this-"

He leaned down on one knee and brought my chin up so we were face to face. His expression turned grim and dark with death in his eyes as he made his final statement.

"I'll rip out your intestines and hang you with them in your cell."

We returned to our cells and attempted to rest for the remainder of the day, however, sleep was the last thing on my mind. I regretted getting out of my bed.

Guards arrived to get us up a full hour before the night shift would begin again and we were left to our own devices in the yard. There was no separation between any of the blocks, so high level offenders were mixed in with everyone else. A lot of prisoners found their way to the basketball courts and others busied themselves around games of dice, dominoes, or chess at the picnic benches. I myself couldn't decide how to spend the down time. In the end, I opted to join Meyers at a picnic bench near the administration building.

The former sheriff sat alone, in quiet contemplation, staring out at the busy yard and at the same time not seeing anything. I was at a loss for words, struggling to grasp for anything to talk about. Glancing up lazily at the large faded words that labeled the building behind us, I attempted to strike up a conversation.

"Meyers." I greeted him and he responded back with a simple nod without even looking in my direction. I felt unsure about myself as I continued on in my attempt at casual small talk. "What are you doing way over here by the administration building?"

I waited in awkward silence. He appeared to be contemplating a reply, maybe he was deep in thoughts about gun fights, beers, or maybe his favorite escort service for all I knew.

"The building reminds me who I am," the older man finally answered. I exhaled deeply, not realizing I had been holding my breath as I waited for an answer. Meyers added "Reminds me what I used to be, I mean. You know, position of power and all that?"

It made sense. He once ran the entire law system in a small town somewhere. What was the name of the place?

"Sitting here keeps me sane I guess. I think it keeps me in line as much as I can. This way, I don't fall in step with the rest of the animals in this place. A cage like this can drive a man to the edge of insanity. Like those guys in particular."

He was pointing to a pair of dark skinned men across the yard, among the card players and gamblers. They appeared to be in distress as they paced back and forth and fidgeted with their shirts and collars. One man cursed the sky as the other began to shout.

"I can't take it in here. I can't stand this heat!" the taller of the two screamed to no one in particular. In the corner of my eye, I noted Colonel Phoenix stepping out of the administration building with her lackey in tow. She was concentrated on the same ranting men that we were observing.

"Pack of smokes says he makes a run." Meyers bet.

"He won't run. There's nowhere to go," I answered, fully aware of the boss lady by our bench now. She stood with her hands crossed at the small of her back. The three of us watched in earnest. The second man grabbed screaming one and shook him to his senses, if only for a moment. A second later the pair was in a full sprint for the nearest fence.

Up in the closest tower, a guard leaned over the rail with his rifle drawn. On the ground below, a second guard fell to a knee with his weapon concentrated on the runaways as well. Neither NCR men wasted a bullet as the convicts began the impossible scale up the chain link fences.

The sound of clicking caught my attention to my left and I turned in time to see the Colonel flipping the cap open on what looked like a pen at first glance. The cap tipped back and i saw the bright red button beneath it before it dawned on me. Her thumb rested eagerly on the trigger as she began twitching her long feminine fingers across the screen of her Pip-boy.

The digital read out displayed a list of numbers and faces as she scrolled to find the proper files to what she was looking for. Without turning to her intern, she demanded to know which two prisoners she was currently about to execute. The young guard peered through binoculars before responding with the correct IDs.

"Prisoners 1488 and 1490, ma'am." Satisfied with the information, Phoenix punched in the correspondence and relaxed. She appeared to be toying with the would-be escapees, as if to offer false hope of freedom. I thought I saw the phantom of a smirk playing at the corner of her mouth as she watched the men scale the fence.

Within seconds, both prisoners were up and over the top, wasting no time climbing down the other side. One after the other, they dropped the thirty feet down to the desert floor. The second man fell to his back, reeling in pain and clasping an ankle which probably broke on landing. His partner bent to pick him up before they turned to make a dash up the hill side.

Every prisoner in the yard was in a riot. Most of the men chanted and roared, cheering on the escapees, others watched silently. Halfway to the hill top, the man with the injured foot dropped to his knees, clutching at his collar. He screamed for help once before his head suddenly turned to a bright red mist of blood and brain matter.

The percussion of prisoner shouts halted instantly as the sound of the collar explosive echoed off the surrounding hills. One second the air was filled with noise and chaos then it was shut down by the pop of the device around the man's neck. The remaining convict released his grip on the dead man's body and stumbled away. He wiped away the blood splatter from his face and began to scream. An instant later, he was a headless fountain of gore standing on the hill. His lifeless body stood comically for a moment before dropping to its knees and keeling over in a pool of blood. Almost immediately, the desert sand began to suck up the red as it baked under the evening sun.

"That's how I deal with uncooperative prisoners," Phoenix spoke at my side. I turned to look as she stared completely devoid of emotion at the corpses outside the fences. I tried to swallow a lump in my throat as she turned to smile at me. "Remember it."