CHAPTER 53
"I really don't know what to say to you, gentlemen." Pope shouted, strutting the hallways of cells later that night. "I try to give you the benefit of the doubt, I try to treat you with respect. You can't even respect yourselves. So, there's going to be a 48-hour lockdown. No mess. No showers. No visitation. And I strongly suggest that you all learn to get along. Otherwise, the next time, it's going to be a week. And the time after that, it's going to be a month. Think about that."
Finn sat in his cell, still horrified about the events earlier that day. Although he didn't kill that man, people thought he did and worse, T-Bag thought he did it.
"I know you're there." T-Bag's drawl called out into the darkness. "Just want you to know I'm coming for you! You got nowhere to run! You're trapped in that little hole of yours! Trapped like a pig I'm going to slaughter!"
Finn ignored him though. He was too busy using his bolt to loosen the screws of their bathroom that was connected to the wall. Phase 1 of the escape plan, complete…
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Over the course of the next few weeks, Finn completed every single part of his plan without fail. He used the bolt to remove the urinal out of the wall of his cell and create a way out. He then spent a week or so exploring the sewer tunnels to create a path into Burrows' cell, and a path into the infirmary. He had SO, SO many close calls with the guards - Guard Bellick seemed to have it out for him for some reason - not to mention T-Bag who was out for his blood. T-Bag had sent some of his loyal men to try and corner Finn in the yard but Finn had managed to fight them off so far. He knew that eventually, he would be overpowered, not to mention the fact that Burrows was being executed in a mere week. The escape had to go down that day. Finn had everything mapped out: routes, timings, everything. He just needed one thing: a diversion so he could escape. Little did he know that he would get just that, but it would be downfall of his whole escape…
"Don't be a baby, T-Bag. It ain't that hot." A guard spat at T-Bag, who was complaining about the lack of A.C for the thousandth time as the whole cell block watched on.
"Not that hot? NOT THAT HOT?! When this guy woke up this morning, he was white!" T-Bag shouted, pointing at one of the black inmates. The one thing that united the white and black inmates was the horrendous conditions they were forced to live in. The guard started looking slightly uneasy as the prisoners made a circle around him and T-Bag but he forced himself to keep his cool.
"You want to cool off? Here!" The guard shouted, tossing his drink in T-Bag's face. "STEP BACK! ALL OF YOU!" The guard yelled as the inmates advanced.
"We'll step back when we get some wind blowing in here." T-Bag responded.
"All right! THAT'S IT! LOCKDOWN! EVERYONE, BACK IN YOUR CELLS!" The guards shouted. The prisoners all reluctantly got back into the cells and Finn smiled… now was the perfect opportunity for his escape. He hung a white sheet, covering his cell from view. He knew this way, he wouldn't be disturbed by other prisoners because they would assume he was masturbating (that's the only time prisoners tended to put up the sheet) and he opened the urinal, revealing his sewage tunnel. Down on the ground floor, T-Bag and a bunch of his lackeys advanced on the guards, refusing to listen to them. The inmates all shouted in approval. The guards quickly dived out of the cellblock and locked the doors but it wouldn't be long before the numerous prisoners broke them down.
"What the hell's going on in here!" Bellick shouted as he entered the guards' room just outside the boisterous cellblock.
"Some of these inmates became belligerent and they refused to rack in." The guard replied.
"You locked it down with the inmates still out of their cells?" Bellick snapped.
"Figured we could handle twenty out-of-control inmates easier than 300."
Bellick looked at the doors of the cellblock, where a bunch of both black and white inmates were trying to break through. He wasn't so sure. He watched as the inmates charged at the door like battering rams and his eyes widened in alarm as the doors loosened on their hinges. They needed to do something. NOW!
"Let's get to my office." He said to the guards. They nodded and swiftly followed him out of the cell block. As they made it to his office, safely away from the cell block, they watched on the CCTV footage as the inmates burst out of the cell block and began ransacking the guards' room. T-Bag made it over to the guards' console and he clicked a few buttons, unlocking every cell door. The inmates all burst out, burning everything they could find. As T-Bag walked around the Guards' room, rallying the excited inmates, he stepped on something with a CRUNCH! He looked down to see a ring of the guards' keys to the whole prison. When everyone saw what it was, they cheered and screamed in excitement. T-Bag waved it to the CCTV cameras that Bellick and the guards were watching. Bellick's eyes widened. He spoke into his radio.
"This is Bellick. Our wing has been breached. I want A-Wing evacuated and shut down. All access to B-Wing is cut off now. Inmates in the Cell Block have compromised lockdown and breached A-Wing through the guard station. A-Wing is shutting down!"
Every guard in the prison heard that message, including the one guard in the infirmary, the message loud enough for all of the prisoners in the medical wing to hear. They all cheered.
"Oh, it is popping off up in gen pop!" One of the inmates shouted. They all started getting riled up in glee.
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Meanwhile, Lincoln was being escorted out of his cell by one of the guards, who needed to transfer the prisoner to a more secure location before responding to the riot. Lincoln heard about the riots and he was immediately scared for Finn, not only because Finn was his way out of prison, but because he genuinely cared about Finn. Finn and him were both in the same boat - in prison for crimes they didn't commit - so they had a 'trust me and I'll trust you' relationship. They were even… friends.
"Hey, what's going on?" Lincoln asked the guard.
"Like I said 5 minutes ago, it's a minor disturbance." The guard said. Lincoln scowled at him.
"Minor disturbance? My best friend's in gen pop. Give it to me straight." Lincoln snapped. The guard sighed.
"Some clowns breached cell block, but they won't get anywhere. We always have locked doors on either end. There's nothing to worry about."
The two of them kept walking and soon, the shouts of inmates got closer and closer until Lincoln saw T-Bag and a couple of his gang's members see them. T-Bag grinned wildly.
"I'll be damned." He giggled. "A rookie C.O., and it ain't even Christmas."
The guard stood slightly behind Lincoln, secretly terrified. He knew full-well that he was probably going to die that day. Lincoln turned to the guard.
"Take my cuffs off." He growled.
"What? I can't do that." The guard stammered.
"Look, if you want to stay alive, TAKE OFF THE DAMN CUFFS!" Lincoln shouted. Stumbling, the guard quickly removed the handcuffs and then Lincoln turned back to T-Bag.
"Get out of here, T-Bag." He said to him.
"Oh, I see. You found him first. Finders, keepers, huh?" T-Bag smirked. "You know, I respect that. I do. But, uh… I think we can work something out."
"What you got?" Lincoln asked.
"Oh, I can make your last few weeks on Earth quite, quite enjoyable. Get you some Demerol, some X… You know, make you forget about that big, bad chair."
"No deal." Lincoln growled in reply.
"You've got to learn the art of negotiating." T-Bag remarked. "Lesson one: bargaining position. Yours just changed. No blood needs to spill, Sink."
"Walk away." Lincoln murmured.
"We both know that ain't gonna happen." T-Bag laughed.
"Yeah? We'll see about that…"
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In the infirmary, Dr. Tancredi walked into the storage room to grab some medicine and the guard in the medical wing spoke into his walkie talkie.
"This is Rizzo. Does anyone need back up? Ov…"
The guard never finished his sentence. One of the inmates in the wing, hyped up by the riots in A-Wing, lunged at him, pulling him into a vicious choke hold and squeezing until no more air got into his lungs. Moments later, Dr. Tancredi walked back into the medical bay and she almost tripped over something. When she looked down to see what it was, her heart ran cold. It was the limp, lifeless body of the guard! She looked up in panic to see one of the prisoners towering over her.
"What's up, Doc." He smirked. Dr. Tancredi screamed and sprinted into the storage room, locking the door behind her. She shoved her desk into the path of the day in an attempt to barricade it.
"Come on, Doc! Let us in! You know you want to!" One of the gleeful inmates shouted.
"You don't want to do this." Dr. Tancredi cried. She knew what was about to happen. They were going to rape her and kill her, in no particular order. The prisoners ignored her and started bashing against the window of the room. Dr. Tancredi's phone wasn't working either: the prisoners in the A-Wing had disabled it in the guards' station. Dr. Tancredi was completely trapped, and it wouldn't be long before the prisoners smashed through the window. She was helpless.
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"You ever see one of them safari shows where a bunch of cheetahs all just jump up on an antelope." T-Bag asked as him and his men prowled towards Lincoln. "Guess which one you are?"
Lincoln didn't respond with words - he responded with his fists. He started beating up the gang, throwing an endless array of kicks and punches at the inmates. However, just as Lincoln thought he was winning the fight, he was finally pinned to the wall by the gang. T-Bag stood over his body.
"Sorry, Sink. Wish it didn't have to be this way." T-Bag said, before stabbing a shiv into Lincoln's stomach and leaving him there, drowning in a pool of his own blood.
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Meanwhile, in the field at the entrance of the prison, dozens of extra security members had arrived and were suiting up, preparing to enter the prison. The guards had set up a temporary camp there as they prepared their strategy of entrance. In addition, Henry Pope had also just arrived.
"If I can get DIRT in there with some of the newer firepower that state's issued…" Bellick started but Pope cut him off.
"Oh, yeah, so we can end the riot today and start the funerals tomorrow?" He scoffed.
"I can contain this, sir." Bellick said.
"Warden, I got a call for you." A guard said, suddenly running up to them with a phone in his hands.
"Not now." Pope snapped.
"I think you should take this, boss. It's the governor." He explained. Pope nodded and took the phone, putting it to his ear.
"Governor." Pope said into the phone.
"Where's my daughter!" The governor shouted.
"Not to worry, sir, she's fine. She's in Sick Bay in B-Wing." Pope replied. "It's a completely different part of the facility. It's, uh, totally locked off from the disturbance."
"Disturbance? That's what you're calling a riot nowadays?! Can any of these animals get to her?"
"Sir, it's impossible for anyone from A Wing to get into Sick Bay. The guard there assures us that everything is fine. We have everything under control, Governor."
"For your sake, you better hope you do." The governor snapped before slamming the phone down.
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Dr. Tancredi, the governor's daughter, trembled in her office as the inmates threw anything they could find at the window, creating more and more cracks in it. She knew it wasn't going to hold much longer but there was nothing she could do.
"I'm going to dance with you, Doc!" One of the inmates shouted, smiling creepily at her. "We're going to dance till the sun comes up!"
"Come on, Doc! Come on!" Another shouted. "Open the door! Open the door!"
At this point, the Doctor was looking for anything around the room that she could possibly use as a weapon. Nothing. She ended up picking up a hole punch and gripped it in her hands. She knew though, deep down, she was screwed. They had smashed the small window in the office and were now sticking their arms in, fumbling for the lock. She was done for…