Sorry, I know I said I was going to update on Saturday, but then some stuff came up unexpected. And then I never have any time to write on Sundays, so I'm updating today. Still, a four day wait is nothing; so no complaining. Right, well, onto chapter two:
Four days later and I was off to visit Ember. Jim dropped by the temple and drove me over to the prison facility. It was very weird seeing him again and being in the same car together. For a while I felt my inner anger start to fire up again, but I suppressed it. It wasn't his fault…it wasn't his fault…
We left at five in the morning but the ride was six hours long so we got there at eleven. And Jim was driving pretty fast; I wondered how long the trip should really take. At least the drive was pleasant; Jim didn't try to be polite and make small talk. He just ignored me, which I preferred.
"This is it." Jim said as we pulled into a small parking lot. "I'll go in with you." I nodded silently and looked up at the prison. It was a big square building, with few, very small windows and peeling off-white paint. There were also security cameras everywhere. Great…I just loved being watched.
We got out of the car and I surveyed the rest of the area. I noticed two search light towers and several other police officers at different positions. We approached two of the guards standing by a door.
"Authorizations, please." The left guard commanded. He was a surly looking dude.
Jim nodded and showed his badge to the guy.
"Lieutenant Cadicci; coming to see number 496 again?" The guard asked.
"Yep." I assumed Ember was 496.
"And who's this?" The guard on the right asked. He wasn't as big as the left one but he had a very scary, intimidating face.
"Pendrosa, Raimundo; he's coming to see 496, too." Jim answered for me. "I trust him."
"Hmm…I don't know…looks suspicious." Right guard replies. Please…he's one to talk.
"I'm sure it's fine. Nothing ole Jim can't handle anyway, eh? All right," Left guard says as he pulls out a walkie talkie. "Send 'em in."
A loud buzzing noise makes me jump as Jim pushes the door open. We're in a long, white and yellow hall way. The air conditioning is up way to much and there are guards everywhere. I see a metal detector up ahead.
Jim and I are patted down, passed through detectors and all other sorts of security tests before we reach a desk with a large woman sitting at it. She's painting her nails and reading a magazine at the same time. As it goes with out saying the magazine had polish all over it from her trying to multitask without paying attention to her hands. She had a deep, throaty voice but seems friendly. She gets me a visitor's pass and other papers and welcomed Jim hello.
"Hey kid," She calls as we're about to be buzzed in through double doors. "Wait! 496, right? Mary Leigh Smith? Yeah…that's the one. 496, kid, she's…she doesn't like visitors. You be careful kid." She presses a button and we hear the buzz again as two more security guys let us through.
"Please…Ember will be happy to see me." I say cockily as we push open the doors. "Why does everyone call her 496?"
"There are over two thousand teenagers and children at this facility. Names become less important." Jim answers as I get my first look at the prison, or at least some of it. We're in a pretty small room with a long row of phones. People are sitting at the phones, some crying. There's a glass between the crying people and a bunch of teens and children in orange jumpsuits. I'd seen the situation before on T.V., but that was just TV. This was real. And some of the kids looked even younger than I was.
"So do I just wait at a phone and wait for them to bring Ember?" I ask and Jim starts laughing hysterically.
"Ah…that's a good one, Rai."
"I'm serious." I said, annoyed that he was laughing. This may have all been fun and games for him but this was hard moment for me.
"Oh…Ember isn't trusted enough to come to the phones. She doesn't have that privilege. No, we're going straight to her cell…her special cell. Right…through here." We stopped at another pair of double doors as we got buzzed in again. Now I had my real first look at the prison.
The room stretched farther than I could see into a long rectangle. Like the rest of the building, it was bright white with many cameras and a police officer at every cell. The cells were your typical metal bars but there were dozens of them. The room was set up so that I could see the floor above us. It too had row after row of cells. This room was much hotter and stuffier. I guessed that the inmates didn't get air conditioning.
"The prison is divided into boys and girls. Above us are the boys. But this is just one floor." Jim explained. I looked around. Everywhere kids and teenagers were screaming and yelling incoherently. And to think that this was just one floor…
"This is depressing." I remark.
"Tell me about it." Jim says glumly. "These kids are just throwing away their lives…" We pass a cell and a girl screams loudly and reaches out through the bars. She has extremely long, curly brown hair and big blue eyes.
"It was the peacocks! They made me do it!" She screams at us. I get a little closer to Jim. "It was all their entire fault! I'm innocent! You can't keep me here!" She swipes her hands trying to grab at Jim.
"No hands through bars!" The guard by her cell snaps and she pulls her hands in.
"They made me do it! Get the peacocks! It's their fault! Arrest them! Arrest the peacocks!" She starts screaming she's innocent again as we finally pass.
"What's her problem?" I ask. "Why is she here?"
"Lets see…" Jim looks back at a white plaque with black numbers by her cell door. "Number 828…oh, I remember her case. She was at a zoo when all of sudden she just snapped. She had smuggled in a knife some how. Injured three animals and caused a stampede. Resisted arrest. They had to shoot her with a stun gun, I believe. 46 witness to the whole thing. At least twenty of them testified."
"And…the peacocks made her do it?"
"That's what she said in court. Thing it, the incident happened at the lion and monkeys cages. The peacocks were a good few yards away from her when it happened. But she claims that they were egging her on, and that their bright colors were teasing her."
"So she's crazy." I state.
"Yes, pretty much."
"Then why isn't she in an institute?"
"She is. This is the mental ward. They attended daily therapy classes in the basement. They're too violent to go to a normal rehabilitation center. You know…Ember should probably be in this ward. But they placed her cell on the top floor..." His words disturbed me.
"And why should Ember be in the mental ward?" I asked, panicked.
"No!" A loud yell cut through the air. "You can't put me back there! I didn't do nothing wrong! I ain't guilty of anything! They all said yes, they did! They's all lying! They said yes! Those stupid whores they just wanted me in trouble! I didn't force them into anythin'!" I looked up at the next floor. A boy, maybe around seventeen, was being forced into a cell by three guards.
"I bet you can figure out what he did." Jim says as the boys screams start to die down.
"He…uh…raped someone?" I ask.
"Five women reported him. One of which wasn't actually a women at all, but his three year old cousin."
"That's horrible." I gasp looking away from the scene. "Is that the…rapist hall?"
"No…that's the…uh…Actually, I forget what ward that is. Ah, we're here." I look ahead to see an elevator with a guard standing by it.
"We're here to see 496." Jim says to the guard showing his badge at the same time.
"I thought 496 wasn't suppose to have visitors anymore?" The guard replies, confused.
"She's not. Rai, show him your papers." Jim commands. I show the guard my visitor pass and the permits that the woman gave me before.
"All right, permission to use the elevator granted." The guard moved to the side.
"My key broke." Jim tells the guard. "May I have the override?"
"Jim…" The guard sighs. "You know I have to go through all those stupid procedures now."
"Sorry…"
The guard has to get all of our identification and has to check us again for things we shouldn't have. It takes another fifteen minutes.
"All right, here." He says and hand over what looks like a white credit card.
"Thanks." Jim swipes the card through a machine and hands it back to the guard. The doors slide open to the elevator and we step inside. Jim hits floor six.
"You're in for one hell of a treat, boy." The guard says as the doors close.
"What's floor six?" I ask peering at camera.
"A new hall. It used to be just a five story building. Ember is on floor six…floor six is coed, and it's for…even more dangerous people. Five is also for very dangerous, disturbed teens. The one's that acted on their free will, not the crazy ones. Six was constructed specifically for Ember a year ago when she first entered Chine, before she was caught, of course, and before she went back to the Americas, but there are three other kids on the hall as well. It's too big for just one person."
"So what did the other kids on the hall do?" I asked nervously.
"One is a serial killer…don't know about the other two." I gulped and looked up. The elevator was on floor four and just reached five. It was a very slow ride.
"I'd kill them again if I could!" I heard a muffled yell from outside and then hysterical laughter. Suddenly this didn't seem very safe.
"So what exactly is the difference between five and six?" I ask.
"The four teens on six need special arrangements to keep them here and away from people. The teens on five are just as bad but not as…dangerous…aggressive…whatever you want to call them. Oh, we're here." The elevator slides open.
It's another white hall, but it branches off at all of the corners. I guess each prisoner had their own corner. At the end of the hall an entire SWAT team stood waiting.
"They're there just in case there's an emergency of some sort." Jim sees me eying them.
"That sounds great…" I notice more cops at each corner. "Are the other teens here…are they…are they on death row to?"
"I don't know…don't think about it, Raimundo."
I continue down the hall but Jim pulls me aside to the bottom left corner. I look up and see a sign that reads:
Number 4-9-6
Warning!
Extremely Dangerous!
Do not enter
unprotected
"Reminds me of the 'don't feed the bears' signs…"I laugh nervously.
Jim nods, unenthusiastically. "You ready to see her?"
A female screams loudly in the distance. I wonder if it's her.
"Yes…" I proceed down the hall for the long awaited meeting.
This chapter was originally going to include Ember, but I realized it was getting VERY long. But I think it's better this way. Now there can be an entire chapter of Ember goodness. And then maybe a new face…By the way, this story is completely fictional. I have no idea what a prison looks like on the inside, or whether not children can be executed. They probably can't, but I don't know for sure. Anyway, the point I'm making is I don't really know that much about the legal system, so I apologize if it's unrealistic. It's just a story, after all. Well…Review please! It's rude to read things without reviewing!