Between the Bars - Chapter 10
Title: Between the Bars - Chapter 10/?
Author: electric_wish
Category: AU
Characters/Pairing: Zac Efron/Shia LaBeouf, Taylor Lautner, Milo Ventimiglia, Adrian Grenier, Chase Crawford, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, with Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney (Implied Zac Efron/Vanessa Hudgens)
Rating: R (this chapter)
Warnings: Language, slight M/M Slash, Strong Violence
Disclaimer: This never, ever happened. It's fiction!
Summary: When a young man, Zac Efron, is sent to prison for a crime he says he didn't commit, his life will never be the same again.
Chapter 10
Jared Padalecki tapped his baton against his thigh while supervising the prisoners returning to their cells. He was beginning to get a little fed up with his job here at Blackriver State Penitentiary. It was always the same mundane work every day - watch prisoners, confiscate something, bully the new guys... He was sick of it.
He sighed. Why couldn’t something exciting or out of the ordinary happen? The most interesting event to happen lately was the arrival of Milo Ventimiglia, the mysterious crime lord. Milo had been quiet, though. Padalecki was disappointed that the criminal hadn’t kicked off a fight - a riot, even.
Now that all of the prisoners were back in their cells after dinner in the mess hall, the cell doors electronically slid shut. Jared and the other guards in the cell bay began patrolling the walkways and ensuring that everyone was present and correct - and that no one was coughing up blood. Maybe I could see about a transfer, Padalecki thought to himself, glancing into the cells and seeing looks of disdain glare back at him. There might be an opening somewhere else, could even start working closer to the Warden like that guy Ackles. He was so lost in his thoughts that he almost walked straight passed the empty cell.
The prison guard stood outside the cell, dumbstruck. Before he could report this into his radio, however, a shout went up from another guard on a lower level. “There’s one missing!” came the shout from the guard. Suddenly the cell bay was an explosion of noise as all the prisoners began shouting and cheering. Padalecki rolled his eyes and made his way down to the lower level to check the cell manifest to see who the missing culprits were. He wasn’t disappointed. Shia LaBeouf and Zachary Efron. Padalecki grinned, delighted that it wasn’t two random names that he hadn’t heard before. All of a sudden Jared had the fire and passion back for his job - he had a pair of scumbags to track down somewhere in the building, and he was damn well sure that he was going to find them.
Two other guards approached him and the manifest before exchanging worried looks. One of them looked terrified. “We’ve got a problem here, Padalecki. There are two prisoners missing-”
“Yes, I know. Efron and LaBeouf. I was just about to radio it in so we could track them down.” Jared said urgently, eager to start his search.
“Them too?” The guard said, stunned. Jared blinked, confused. “There are two more missing... Taylor Lautner and, well, Milo Ventimiglia.”
Jared took his baton from his hip and started towards the cells. “Finally!” he shouted over his shoulder to the other guards. “A bit of excitement around here.”
~~~
Zac Efron bit his lip, the nerves starting to get to him. It wasn’t going to take long before the guards figured out that they were missing and once that happened they would naturally start looking them in the mess hall, the last place they were seen. Zac peered out through the keyhole of the kitchen door and saw that the mess hall was still empty. They hadn’t raised the alarm yet. Here in the kitchen, Milo had already turned on all of the ovens and stoves to full heat, while Taylor was attempting to pick the lock of a door that should lead them outside, and to the rendezvous point.
In his pocket, Zac was unconsciously stroking the knife that he had bought from Chase a week before - the knife that he had intended to use on Taylor but didn’t, due to a change of heart. That didn’t change the fact that he still would use it if Taylor - or Milo - tried anything during the course of the escape. Too much depended on tonight to let someone like Taylor screw it up for all of them. Zac was already irritated that Shia had left him with the two of them, but it was all a part of the plan.
“Got it!” Taylor whispered to them as the lock clicked open. He opened the door and poked his head around the corner. “This should lead us straight to where Shia told us to meet him.” He said. “Shall we go?”
Zac was about to berate him but Milo got there first. “No we won’t go, you fool.” Milo said. “You know the plan, now shut up and wait.” Taylor went quiet, but not without giving Milo a threatening look. Zac gripped the knife in his pocket and waited for Taylor to try something, but he didn’t. Zac relaxed a little.
“What you got there?” Milo muttered, nodding to Zac’s pocket. Zac shook his head and returned to his job, watching for any activity in the mess hall. The three of them fell silent as they waited for Shia’s signal.
~~~
For what he hoped would be for the last time, Shia was escorted to the Warden’s office by prison officer Jensen Ackles. Once they got there, Ackles allowed him to enter alone. Shia had been here enough times for Ackles to know that the Warden was only going to tell him to leave them be. Shia watched the guard turn and walk down the corridor and back to his post before he closed the door to the Warden’s office.
The Warden threw Shia a spiteful look as he approached the desk. “What is it this time, my little undercover mole? Come to throw me out of my office yet again so that you can have another meeting with your FBI friends?” Warden DiCaprio’s attitude towards Shia’s secret role in the prison hadn’t improved at all, but Shia knew that it was all going to be over soon.
“Not this time, Warden.” Shia said. Everything seemed to be going according to plan so far, as much as Shia could tell - the Warden didn’t seem panicked, so he mustn’t know about the escaped prisoners yet. Shia knew that the next step of the plan would take a little bit of persuading. Despite the fact that Shia was undercover, the Warden was never going to let the other three prisoners go without putting up a fight.
“Well, what is it then?” DiCaprio murmured, rustling a few papers on his desk. “I’m a very busy man; I don’t have time to play your stupid games.”
“I need you to speak over the intercom and tell all of your guards to rush to the mess hall and kitchen because of a huge fire. You need them all to help put it out. You got that?” Shia said, unable to stop a smirk from spreading across his face. The Warden looked up from the forms and files on his desk and stared at Shia, trying to decipher if he was telling the truth or not.
“What the hell is this, LaBeouf? Is this some sort of sick joke?” The Warden spat. “What the hell do you want?”
Shia realised he had to change his tack and, after a quick look over the Warden’s desk, he knew instantly what he had to do. Before DiCaprio knew what was happening, Shia had picked up the letter-opener from his desk and was pressing it threateningly against his neck. “Listen to me,” Shia growled, leaning in close to DiCaprio’s ear so that he knew that he meant every word he said. “We’re breaking out of here. And you’re going to help us do it.”
“You- You’re insane!” The Warden gasped, the letter opener’s pointed tip pressing against the soft skin of his neck. “You’re supposed to be working for the FBI and - and look at what you’re doing!” Shia pressed the tip a little harder against his neck.
“Maybe I’m a double-agent. Maybe I’m not. But you’re going to do exactly what I say or you’ll find yourself a bloody mess on the floor, got it?” The Warden nodded very slightly. “Now, talk into the intercom and tell them to do what I told you.”
Hesitating only a little, Warden DiCaprio reached out and pressed a button on his phone handset. A light flashed red before he began to speak. “Attention all guards. Your assistance is required in the kitchen and- and mess hall areas, where a fire has broken out. All of you must help put this out immediately. I repeat, all of you.” He looked up at Shia. “Please hurry.” He pressed the button again and the light switched off.
“Good job, Warden.” Shia said. With a violent twist of his elbow, Shia knocked DiCaprio unconscious and the man slumped out of his chair and onto the floor. Sighing, Shia looked down at him. He felt sorry for him - it wasn’t the Warden’s fault that it had to happen this way, but it was important that he maintain his cover. Shia grabbed the phone and dialled the number that Clooney had given him. After only two rings he picked up.
“LaBeouf.” Clooney said. “Is it almost time?”
“Yes. Give us ten minutes and then switch off the searchlights.” Shia told him, preparing to run. “I’m assuming you’ve got that car ready for us too?”
“Of course. It’ll be about eight hundred metres west of the main gate. Now hurry. Good luck, kid.” Clooney hung up and Shia set off at a run out of the Warden’s office, leaving the Warden in an unconscious heap on the floor. He didn’t meet any guards on his way to the rendezvous point.
~~~
Before the Warden’s orders had been issued, Jared Padalecki was busy interrogating the two people that he knew were friendly with both Zac and Shia. Jared’s baton was coming in very handy tonight. Whack!
“Where are they?!” Padalecki shouted as Adrian clutched his knee and howled in pain. Chase was meanwhile being held down by two other guards while he screamed at Jared to stop torturing his cellie.
“I don’t know! We don’t know anything!” Adrian whimpered, tears stinging his eyes while he endured the beatings. Another swing of the baton - this time against Adrian’s hand - had him yelling out in pain once more, even as the same question was repeated over and over.
Padalecki raised his baton again, about to bring it down on Adrian’s head this time, until a cry came from Chase in the corner of the cell. “Wait! Wait, we...”
“You got something to say, spit it out!” Jared yelled.
“I don’t know where they are, but... But the four of them have been talking a lot the last two days. In the yard and... And in their cells.” Chase shook his head. “I think they were planning something together, but I don’t know what or where they are. But it must be something big, cause -”
Then the Warden’s voice interrupted them over the intercom, informing them all of a fire. Jared looked to the other two prison officers. “The kitchen.” Padalecki said. “We’ve got those bastards now.” They set off for the mess hall; leaving Adrian battered and bruised while Chase sobbed at his side. Jared didn’t know what he was thinking - he loved this job.
~~~
When the Warden’s voice echoed from the intercom across the prison building, Zac and Milo exchanged a quick glance before setting to work. Shia’s plan had worked, then. Zac, Milo, and Taylor all grabbed cloths and materials from around the kitchen and threw them over the stoves and into the ovens. They instantly set alight and already the flames were starting to spread. The three men made their way out of the back door which Taylor had unlocked, even as the prison guards’ voices could be heard from the mess hall behind them, the kitchen surrounded by flames.
~~~
Shia stepped out from the shadows the moment he heard them approaching. The three of them weren’t being as quiet as he had hoped but Shia guessed that right now all of Blackriver was more concerned with the prison about to go up in flames than a few runaways.
“So far so good,” Taylor said, panting for breath after their run. Zac gave Shia a secret smile of encouragement and then they were off again, all four of them heading for the gate. They stopped at the prison walls, the gate in the distance and the yard flooded with bright light from the searchlights.
“I thought you said the searchlights were going to be switched off,” came the growl from Milo. Shia told him to wait, that his ‘contact’ was reliable, but he couldn’t rid himself of the nagging doubt at the back of his mind that maybe, just maybe, Clooney wasn’t going to be able to go this. After a further two minutes waiting in silence, apart from the unmistakable piercing noise of the prison’s fire alarm, Milo started to get even more restless. “Screw this. I’m going to make a break for it.”
“No wait!” Shia exclaimed. Milo threw him a look that screamed ‘you don’t tell me what to do’, but Shia persisted. “Look, he’s a little late but -”
“But nothing. Every second we spend standing here is another second closer to getting caught. I’m going.” Milo finished and was just about to step into the light before the path in front of him turned pitch black. The searchlights were disabled.
Together the four of them headed for the gate, all of them scanning the walls in case a few guards remained in place with sniper rifles. If there were, Shia hoped that they couldn’t see the four prisoners darting towards freedom. At the gate they paused to catch their breath. Taylor went to open it, but discovered that it had been chained closed.
“What the hell is this?” Taylor said, frustrated. “We just can’t catch a break, can we? Now what do we do?” On closer inspection, Shia could see that Taylor was right. There was no way for them to get out through the gate without some form of saw or similar tools. They were running out of time.
Zac looked up and shrugged. “We could climb over. It’s not that high up, and we could use the bars as footholds.”
“Oh yeah? And what about the barbed wire, genius?” Taylor quipped. Shia followed his line of sight and noted that the top of the gate had barbed wire coiled all around it. That was going to seriously hurt. As would a drop - the gate was at least fifteen foot high, not that Shia doubted his climbing abilities. But that barbed wire...
“Hang on,” Shia said as an idea hit him. He immediately stripped off his shirt and undershirt while the other three looked on, baffled. He held the clothing out in front of him and pointed upwards. “These might protect us from the barbed wire. Here, give me yours too and I’ll head up there to test it out.”
It didn’t take long before Shia started to scale the gate, four grey prison shirts under his arm while three shirtless and cold prisoners stared up at him in anticipation, glancing behind them at regular intervals to make sure that they hadn’t been caught yet. Close to the top Shia nearly lost his footing, but reached up and grabbed the top of the gate to save himself from falling - but not without snagging his hand on some barbed wire first. Shia hissed in pain but threw the shirts onto the wire to cover it before swinging his legs over the top of the gate. The clothing didn’t provide complete protection - one of the barbs nicked his thigh and calf through the material- but it saved him from much worse injuries. Shia began descending the other side, telling the others that it was safe as he did so.
Zac was already on his way up when Shia’s feet touched the ground. He’d done it. Shia turned around and took in the view of the free world; a view unhindered by metal bars or wired fences. Looking to his right he could even make out the shape of their getaway car a little way up the road from the prison. He just hoped that Milo could remember where the nearest safe house was. A moment later Zac joined him on the other side of the gate and embraced him, their shirtless bodies pressed together, and whispered “thank you” into his ear. They broke apart as Taylor yelled: “Oh shit!”
Despite the darkness, Shia could see more than a dozen prison officers racing out of the prison, flashlights shining and yells of “stop right there!” following them from many metres away. It was in that moment that Zac noticed how light his pockets were. He looked up from his empty pockets to the opposite side of the gate only to see his knife in the hands of Milo Ventimiglia. As Taylor made to scramble up the gate, he was stopped dead in his tracks as Milo thrust the knife into his back, then stabbed him once more in the chest.
“No!” Zac screamed, before vomiting at the sight. Shia was motionless, frozen from the horrible, unthinkable act that he had just witnessed. Milo, however, climbed up the gate, unflinching at what he had done, as if it were an everyday occurrence for him. Perhaps it was, Shia thought. Milo dropped to the ground beside them and smacked Shia on the shoulder, snapping him out of his shocked state.
“Come on. Where’s the car?” Milo asked causally. Shia absentmindedly turned and pointed and Milo set off at a run, calling over his shoulder for them to follow him.
“Come on, Zac. We have to get out of here.” Shia said, grasping Zac by the bare shoulders and starting to pull him away - the guards getting ever closer to them. Gunshots were fired, but they were blindly firing into the dark.
“But- but Taylor- we can’t leave him.” Zac spluttered. His eyes wouldn’t leave Taylor’s fallen body, his eyes and mouth wide open in surprise. Shia continued to lead Zac away, doing his best to hurry him towards the getaway car.
When the prisoner officers finally reached the gate, they couldn’t immediately follow them. A call was placed for an ambulance. Another guard radioed back to a now conscious Warden to update him on the situation. Only Jared Padalecki seemed to have the desire to start the manhunt without delay. And all the while three escaped convicts disappeared into the night, their fates even more uncertain now than they ever were.
~~~