Chapter 14
Finally, the day had arrived. It was gloomy outside, and there was talk of rain. And it was time to escape.
During the brief time that the prisoners got outside, Zim met up with his new friends to do a final rundown of the plan. None of them spoke; they conversed silently using the sign language they had learned from Tree. It was second nature to them all now.
'Zim, you and I will be in our cell,' Shard said. 'But I've obtained one of the keys, and because of our good behavior, we got one of the nicer cells with the bars in the front, so it'll be easy enough to reach through and unlock our door. While we're doing this, Sarl will be excusing herself from her anger management class to use the restroom, and meet up with Ruf, who will be waiting near the hallway that leads to the shipping bay. His excuse?' She looked at him expectantly.
'I am waiting to be met for an interview regarding working in that area,' he replied. 'I already have my clearance paper. Thanks, Zim, for getting that.'
'I'm quite excellent at hacking,' he replied with a smug grin.
'Yes, Zim is great, now shut up,' Sarl said, somehow managing to seem threatening with just her hands.
Shard continued with her plan. 'Ruf's paper will allow him to stay in position, and there won't be time for Sarl to get caught, because by then, Tree would have entered the camera room and handed the guard the orders requesting him to see his supervisor immediately, and once the guard leaves, slip in and turn off the cameras. And pull some wiring out just in case. And then come meet with us as quickly as possible in the shipping area. Ruf and Sarl, as soon as you see those cameras lower, run. The rest of us will meet with you. And on the run, we'll all be pulling out our tracking chips.'
There was an uneasy shuffle at that, but everyone knew it had to be done, so no one complained.
'What about the tracking devices in our suits?' Zim asked.
'Oh, that's easy. They're located on the side, right here.' Shard pointed. 'It's a random spot, just tear out this whole area and you'll get rid of it. Yes, we'll do that and throw them down before boarding the ship that Ruf and Sarl will have secured for us. Now, who all has their weapons?'
Everyone held up their makeshift weapons, which were the sharpest objects they could find. Shard had gone with her namesake; a chunk of glass out of a mirror in one of the prison's bathrooms, which had been honed to a fine point by scraping it against the stone wall. Its base was wrapped in fabric so she could hold it tightly without getting cut.
Ruf displayed a screwdriver, which also had its tip sharpened.
Tree nervously held up a metal paper clip that had been unfolded, and Zim had a pair of scissors he had snatched from the warden's desk during a meeting. He had snapped them in half and given the other blade to Sarl, but she had declined, passing them on to some other inmate in return for...
"Is that a freakin' hunting knife?" Ruf demanded out loud, as Sarl produced a giant knife from inside her shirt.
"Ssh," she hissed, smacking him with the handle of it. In signs, she said, 'Yes, idiot. You aren't the only one around here who knows how to get things.'
'Who would trade that for a scissor though?'
'Some other idiot. Apparently he had a bunch of these, he was practically giving them away.' She slid it back into her shirt, and then took the scissor blade out of a pocket, giving it to Tree. 'This will work way better than that little paperclip.'
He accepted it gratefully, signing thanks and pocketing it.
'It was already stolen property, I just stole it back,' she said with a shrug, when the others gave her bemused looks.
'Use your weapons to defend yourself if necessary, but their main use is removing our tracking chips,' Shard explained. 'Will anyone here have an issue with that? Raise your hand.'
Tree lifted his immediately, and Zim kinda did.
'Fantastic, Sarl, cut out Zim's later. And Ruf, do Tree's.'
'Can do,' Ruf replied, and Sarl gave a sadistic smile, showing her sharp teeth.
'Once we are untrackable, here comes the really fun part. We get on that ship, likely with guards hot on our tail. Zim takes the controls and leaves them in the dust, but they'll likely be jumping in their own ships. So we gun it, we go as fast as we can out of there. Zim, you do know where Felicif is from here?'
'Yes, but we're going to Earth.'
'Not yet. We're going to get to neutral territory and earn back our freedom, and get clothes and supplies. Then Earth.'
He kicked the ground, but replied, 'All right, but it will be a very quick stop over.'
'You're the driver, so you make it fast. You know all the little tricks, you were an Invader. A soldier. Space is your domain. You will get us to safety.'
He nodded. 'Yes, of course. But the guards will be shooting at us. Someone will have to man the turrets and return fire.'
Ruf held up his hand. 'I'll do it. I'm a pretty decent shot, I think. I don't know, they don't exactly let us near guns in this place.'
'I don't care, as long as someone is shooting back at them.'
Shard clapped her hands together. 'Wonderful. We'll get to Felicif, register ourselves as refugees, and then head to Earth. By the time we get back, they'll be ready for us and will help us get settled in there. We'll be free. Is everyone clear on the plan?'
Everyone nodded.
'Great. After lunch, we do it.'
The mood in the prison was subdued even during lunch, and afterward, the inmates were rather quiet as they were taken back to their cells. Bad weather had that effect on everyone. The wind was really picking up outside too, and could be heard in the cafeteria, and in the cells closer to the outside walls.
Shard and Zim spent a few minutes sitting on their respective beds, as everyone would likely be doing if not scheduled for some kind of class. They kept a close eye on the camera outside their room, however. It would point downward when Tree turned the system off, and then they would make their escape.
It was hard for Shard not to fiddle with the key in her pocket, but she managed. She didn't want to be caught this early. Not when there was still a chance of getting out.
They didn't talk, not even in sign language; each cell had its own camera, and someone could record it and decode their discussion.
As the time got nearer to when they estimated Tree will deactivate the cameras, Shard got up to go casually look through the bars. The nearest guard was currently leaning against a rail up on the second floor, facing away from them as he read something on a tablet. Most likely playing a game.
They could sneak out without him noticing, perhaps, but Shard didn't want to take the chance. She tried to call him over.
"What do you want, prisoner?" he yelled from the second floor.
"I am so thirsty, could you go get me a bottle of water?" she called. "Please? I'm like... dehydrated in here."
"Too bad."
"It'd be so nice of you, and you can do some walking instead of just standing around. Come on." She had gotten quite good at whining, and he sighed and walked down the stairs. "I'll just grab you something from the lounge vending machine, you better appreciate this."
"Oh, I will," she said happily.
He shook his head as he left the room, in the opposite direction of where they would be running.
Her timing was perfect. As he was leaving, the cameras suddenly all pointed down. Shard whipped out the key and reached through the bars. She had to twist her arm into a weird angle, but she managed to get it into the slot. There was a click, and the door opened.
She and Zim ran out as fast as they could, heading for the shipping area. It was on the other side of the facility, and they passed plenty of guards, but with the speed they had built up, they managed to slip past most of them while they were still startled.
The ones that did manage to grab them, they would quickly shank them in any exposed skin they could find, just until they were released, and continue on. There was an alarm going off now, and a system message warning everyone that the main monitoring system was down. No doubt there would be other escape attempts besides their own today.
At one point, Shard used her glass to cut a hole out of both sides of her shirt, and she tossed the fabric aside. Then she gouged the glass into her arm, tugging upward, face tense with pain. Just as tears began to roll down her cheeks, she flicked the glass up, and it came out, with a tiny computer chip on the end of it.
She threw it off, and tore a scrap of fabric off her sleeve to wrap around the crook of her elbow, stemming the blood flow.
"Your turn," she whispered to Zim.
He grimaced, but copied her. First he got rid of the pieces of his uniform that could contain the secondary tracking device, and then rolled up his sleeve so his arm was exposed. He knew exactly where the chip was; he's felt it in there before. It wasn't too deep... but he knew this was going to hurt. He dug out the half of the scissors, holding it tightly and taking in a deep breath. He kept looking forward as he stabbed it down, slicing it through the skin. He clenched his teeth to keep from groaning, already feeling blood pour out. Wiggling the blade, he managed to find the chip and get underneath it, and then pull up.
Bit by bit, he forced it up toward the surface of his skin. The pain intensified, but he had been conditioned long ago to tolerate pain. He just stayed focused on his running, trying to breathe evenly, and gave a final push. The chip popped out, and he gasped softly, staring at his arm as it bled.
"Throw that down and bandage your arm," Shard reminded him.
He nodded and scraped the chip off the scissor, making sure he stepped on it. After pocketing the blade, he used a sleeve to bandage his arm, and then wiped the sweat off his brow.
"You're looking pale," she commented. "Hurts, doesn't it?"
"A lot."
"And that's why they implant them. Not a lot of people would mutilate themselves... not even criminals."
"Better I do it than Sarl, though," he replied.
"Oh, I bet she's going to be disappointed."
They passed the camera monitoring room and stopped to briefly look inside. Tree wasn't in there, so they figured he had gone on to meet with Ruf and Sarl. They kept going.
They heard shouting behind them, and turned to look. About half of the prison's guards were right behind them, guns and electric rods out, and they quickened their pace.
Zim nearly tripped when a low-power laser cut into his shoulder, and he shouted out in pain, but managed to keep going. Shard stumbled and gasped too; she had been hit in the neck by a glancing blow that left a burn. The two started to weave back and forth across the hall, hoping that would throw off their pursuers' aims, but these guards were highly trained. They were hit several more times, but the guns were not meant to kill, only to slow down. So through pure strength of will, they fought the pain and kept running.
They began to see unconscious guards on the floor; Sarl and Ruf's handiwork. In fact, many appeared to have been cut with a large knife, in the faces and in areas where the armor wasn't quite as thick. Some could be dead, but they didn't have time to check.
When they reached the shipping bay, they saw that Sarl was waiting in front of the blast doors, which could be closed in the event of an emergency. She beckoned to them, and the doors began to close. They put on a final burst of speed and leaped through, the thick doors slamming shut behind them.
"Come on, get in the ship," she ordered. She had several new cuts and bruises on her, and her uniform was torn in several places. Behind her, Ruf was tussling with the remaining guard in the room. He was also bloodied up, with a particularly large cut over his eye, but that wasn't stopping him. He managed to slam his elbow into the other irken's face, and she collapsed, unconscious.
"That's the last of them, come on, Tree is already inside!" he called. "Did both of you get your tracking chips out?"
"Yes, we're good," Zim replied, showing his arm. Shard showed hers.
"Damn, I was looking forward to stabbing you," Sarl commented. "Oh well, I'm sure I'll get another chance. Get on that ship, both of you."
They ran onto it, and Zim got in the pilot's seat. He made sure all the ship's hatches were closed and secure, and then turned it on. It was far different from anything he's flown before, but at least the various switches and buttons were labeled. It only took him moments to figure out everything, but in the meantime, he was trusting his instinct, getting it off the ground. He didn't wait for the outer doors to open; he slammed his hand down on the accelerator, and the ship launched through them, easily smashing them apart. There will be minor hull damage, but it wouldn't be significant.
"Ruf, sit here," he commanded, pointing to a chair near his. The other sat down, and he pointed to the various controls. "This screen shows you your targets. Click this to scroll through them. This shows you their angle relative to us. And this is which way the current turret is facing, but you may need to switch to a different one. This is a cargo ship so it doesn't have many weapons, but it has some. We'll likely be followed from behind, so here, use this one." He clicked to it. "This is your fire, this sends a command for the automatic reload... am I going too fast?"
"No, I think I got it," he said, putting his hands carefully over the controls.
"Excellent." Zim flew the ship up through the atmosphere, not letting up on the accelerator at all. It shuddered in protest, but it made it through. He glanced around to get his bearings from the stars, and then turned, shooting off toward the tiny speck of light that he knew was Felicif's star. "No time to relax now, but are there any casualties?"
Everyone shook their heads, and Shard said, "Well, Tree wants me to inform you that his arm really hurts, and is there any medicine?"
"Check the med bay, every ship has one, no matter how small. There might be some pain relievers in there."
"This thing isn't that big. Come on Tree, let's go look around."
Tree and Shard left the bridge, and the others began to examine the various computers in the room. The more they knew about the ship, the better off they'll be when a conflict occurred. And considering that they had just stolen a ship and fled a high security prison, there would definitely be conflict.