Lockstep 1/5
Title: Lockstep - Chapter 1
Author: nywcgirl
Artist: citrinesunset
Characters/Pairings: Neal, Peter, Elizabeth, other White collar characters.
Rating: hurt/comfort
Word Count: ~ 9300
Spoilers: Spoilers on pilot
Warnings: None
Author's Note: I want to thank citrinesunset, who was generous with her precious time to beta this story and to make the wonderful art for this story. I do not own any of the WC characters and all mistakes and typos are mine.
Summary: This story is a historic AU for the WC pilot. Neal is convicted to a chain gang and escapes; Peter is the agent on the case.
Auburn Prison, Saturday morning, August 20th 1934, 4.30 a.m.
The sound of hundreds of men waking up and baton sticks hitting the prison bars wake Neal.
He feels bad, weak, and when he looks at his ankles and wrists, he sees that his shackle sores got worse overnight. He is in shackles twenty-four hours a day and the iron grinds against his skin and rubs it raw. The sores are infected, which is not a surprise, as hygiene is basically nonexistent in this prison and medical attention is only given in life threatening cases. If this is not taken care of, it will become gangrenous, which Neal assumes can be considered a life-threatening problem. Neal knows that much about medicine, but there is nothing he can do about it right now, so he hauls himself out of bed and waits next to the cell door to be let out by a guard.
Once the doors are opened, Neal shuffles out of his cell and waits for the guards to call out to form a line to go to breakfast. As it is Saturday today, they will hopefully get a slice of bacon and some bread and coffee, a treat compared to the oatmeal they get on weekdays. Breakfast is eaten in total silence; this is taught very soon when you enter Auburn prison. You only speak when spoken to, Neal learned the hard way. They are in luck, although not bacon, they get a piece of cheese with their bread.
After breakfast, Neal follows his fellow inmates to the courtyard of the prison, where they will prepare for a fifteen-hour day of penal labor.
He is part of an eighteen-man chain gang, and the only Caucasian in the group. In the beginning, the other inmates, all much bigger than Neal, had made fun of the skinny white kid, but by now, he is accepted as one of their own. Their gang has three overseers. Bobby is OK, but Charles and Norman are sick bastards that enjoy a good whipping.
The ankle shackles (round shackles around each ankle, joined by a chain) are joined to a second chain, about three feet long. All together, the hobble weighs twenty pounds. Neal is a slim-built guy and the weight of the hobble wears him down. Even after more than three years of hard labor, he is still not used to it.
He locks his arms under the arms of the fellow inmate in front of him. Clarence has his face turned to the right, so Neal turns to the left. This is mandatory to prevent communication between the inmates. This rule is not common in chain gangs, but Charles and Norman thought this was a good way to show who is in charge of the men in their care. Their overseers chain all the hobbles together and they are good to go.
When Norman calls out that they are leaving, the convicts step off in unison, each raising their right foot high and shuffling with the left. This convict shuffle has to be done for a couple of miles until they get to the road they are working on. Bobby walks in front of the gang and Norman and Charles walk behind them, all three armed with a Winchester 1907. Today, Norman has to walk also, as his horse threw a shoe yesterday and they have to wait for a blacksmith that promised to come today. Normally, the chain gangs are overseen by one guard on horseback. It is a security measure as it is almost impossible to outrun an armed guard on horseback.
It is only 8 a.m. and it is already hot, the sun already heating up the road. It doesn´t help that their prison uniforms are made from wool.
When they arrive at the workplace, Norman unfastens the chain that connects the individual hobbles. Neal lets go of the inmate in front of him, gets the sledgehammer and starts working.
Around 10 a.m., Neal calls out ´Wiping it off.´ He doesn´t get a response, so he doesn´t stop and continues working. An hour later he tries again and Bobby calls back ´Wipe it off´, so Neal stops for a moment and wipes the sweat off his face and neck. It also gives him a moment to stretch. But he also knows better than to pause too long, because only two days ago, he got a whipping because the guards thought he had done the least work that day. He can still feel the welts on his buttocks. Luckily, those are not infected and are healing well.
Lunch again is eaten in silence, in the searing sun. Luckily, they all wear straw hats. Otherwise, they would have perished a long time ago. They get sandwiches with a bit of jelly and a cup of water.
Neal is thinking and knows this is the day he needs to escape. He can´t wait any longer. Norman is not on horseback, but the blacksmith will probably fix the horseshoe today, so tomorrow Norman will be back on the horse, which will decrease his chances of getting away on foot. He can never outrun a horse to the forest, but has a chance when they are all on foot. The road they are working on is now closest to the forest. If he waits longer, he will have to run further to get to the cover of the trees. He makes up his mind: today is the day.
After lunch, there is a brief moment where he can ask a fellow inmate to free him by bending his shackles into an elliptical form. Neal puts his feet next to a rock and the prisoner swings the sledgehammer against Neal´s ankle. One miss and he will be permanently crippled, but Neal is desperate and takes his chance.
But it works and Neal has to remain calm not to step out of the shackles and make a run for it. He knows that if he leaves now, his fellow inmate will be killed for helping him escape, so he waits until some inmates are allowed to take a piss and then steps out of his shackles. The guards are pre-occupied with the other prisoners and don´t immediately catch on. Neal takes off like a bat out of hell. Even in his weakened state, the adrenaline gives him the strength to run as fast as he can.
As the guards have no access to a horse, they aim their guns at Neal instead of giving pursuit. Norman runs back to the truck, the one that brought their tools, that is parked a bit further, to warn the warden.
Author: nywcgirl
Artist: citrinesunset
Characters/Pairings: Neal, Peter, Elizabeth, other White collar characters.
Rating: hurt/comfort
Word Count: ~ 9300
Spoilers: Spoilers on pilot
Warnings: None
Author's Note: I want to thank citrinesunset, who was generous with her precious time to beta this story and to make the wonderful art for this story. I do not own any of the WC characters and all mistakes and typos are mine.
Summary: This story is a historic AU for the WC pilot. Neal is convicted to a chain gang and escapes; Peter is the agent on the case.
Auburn Prison, Saturday morning, August 20th 1934, 4.30 a.m.
The sound of hundreds of men waking up and baton sticks hitting the prison bars wake Neal.
He feels bad, weak, and when he looks at his ankles and wrists, he sees that his shackle sores got worse overnight. He is in shackles twenty-four hours a day and the iron grinds against his skin and rubs it raw. The sores are infected, which is not a surprise, as hygiene is basically nonexistent in this prison and medical attention is only given in life threatening cases. If this is not taken care of, it will become gangrenous, which Neal assumes can be considered a life-threatening problem. Neal knows that much about medicine, but there is nothing he can do about it right now, so he hauls himself out of bed and waits next to the cell door to be let out by a guard.
Once the doors are opened, Neal shuffles out of his cell and waits for the guards to call out to form a line to go to breakfast. As it is Saturday today, they will hopefully get a slice of bacon and some bread and coffee, a treat compared to the oatmeal they get on weekdays. Breakfast is eaten in total silence; this is taught very soon when you enter Auburn prison. You only speak when spoken to, Neal learned the hard way. They are in luck, although not bacon, they get a piece of cheese with their bread.
After breakfast, Neal follows his fellow inmates to the courtyard of the prison, where they will prepare for a fifteen-hour day of penal labor.
He is part of an eighteen-man chain gang, and the only Caucasian in the group. In the beginning, the other inmates, all much bigger than Neal, had made fun of the skinny white kid, but by now, he is accepted as one of their own. Their gang has three overseers. Bobby is OK, but Charles and Norman are sick bastards that enjoy a good whipping.
The ankle shackles (round shackles around each ankle, joined by a chain) are joined to a second chain, about three feet long. All together, the hobble weighs twenty pounds. Neal is a slim-built guy and the weight of the hobble wears him down. Even after more than three years of hard labor, he is still not used to it.
He locks his arms under the arms of the fellow inmate in front of him. Clarence has his face turned to the right, so Neal turns to the left. This is mandatory to prevent communication between the inmates. This rule is not common in chain gangs, but Charles and Norman thought this was a good way to show who is in charge of the men in their care. Their overseers chain all the hobbles together and they are good to go.
When Norman calls out that they are leaving, the convicts step off in unison, each raising their right foot high and shuffling with the left. This convict shuffle has to be done for a couple of miles until they get to the road they are working on. Bobby walks in front of the gang and Norman and Charles walk behind them, all three armed with a Winchester 1907. Today, Norman has to walk also, as his horse threw a shoe yesterday and they have to wait for a blacksmith that promised to come today. Normally, the chain gangs are overseen by one guard on horseback. It is a security measure as it is almost impossible to outrun an armed guard on horseback.
It is only 8 a.m. and it is already hot, the sun already heating up the road. It doesn´t help that their prison uniforms are made from wool.
When they arrive at the workplace, Norman unfastens the chain that connects the individual hobbles. Neal lets go of the inmate in front of him, gets the sledgehammer and starts working.
Around 10 a.m., Neal calls out ´Wiping it off.´ He doesn´t get a response, so he doesn´t stop and continues working. An hour later he tries again and Bobby calls back ´Wipe it off´, so Neal stops for a moment and wipes the sweat off his face and neck. It also gives him a moment to stretch. But he also knows better than to pause too long, because only two days ago, he got a whipping because the guards thought he had done the least work that day. He can still feel the welts on his buttocks. Luckily, those are not infected and are healing well.
Lunch again is eaten in silence, in the searing sun. Luckily, they all wear straw hats. Otherwise, they would have perished a long time ago. They get sandwiches with a bit of jelly and a cup of water.
Neal is thinking and knows this is the day he needs to escape. He can´t wait any longer. Norman is not on horseback, but the blacksmith will probably fix the horseshoe today, so tomorrow Norman will be back on the horse, which will decrease his chances of getting away on foot. He can never outrun a horse to the forest, but has a chance when they are all on foot. The road they are working on is now closest to the forest. If he waits longer, he will have to run further to get to the cover of the trees. He makes up his mind: today is the day.
After lunch, there is a brief moment where he can ask a fellow inmate to free him by bending his shackles into an elliptical form. Neal puts his feet next to a rock and the prisoner swings the sledgehammer against Neal´s ankle. One miss and he will be permanently crippled, but Neal is desperate and takes his chance.
But it works and Neal has to remain calm not to step out of the shackles and make a run for it. He knows that if he leaves now, his fellow inmate will be killed for helping him escape, so he waits until some inmates are allowed to take a piss and then steps out of his shackles. The guards are pre-occupied with the other prisoners and don´t immediately catch on. Neal takes off like a bat out of hell. Even in his weakened state, the adrenaline gives him the strength to run as fast as he can.
As the guards have no access to a horse, they aim their guns at Neal instead of giving pursuit. Norman runs back to the truck, the one that brought their tools, that is parked a bit further, to warn the warden.