Mistaken Identity Chapter I D
This is the final part of Chapter I, hooray!
Chapter I D
The Distraction
Continued from Chapter I C
Reed Callahan was being pulled through the riot by the arm by a man he barely knew. It was like he’d walked into a scene from Grand Theft Auto or Halo. Guys were duking it out everywhere. The mess-hall had been crazy and all he’d been doing was trying to hide. The man who’d found him under one of the bolted down tables hadn’t threatened him, but had told him that they were “getting out of here”. That had been enough for Reed. No one had been brave or stupid enough to mess with Trevino. The man had a reputation that was above reproach. Reed had heard that the Mexican Mafia, one of the most powerful forces in Ely, feared him. You didn’t tell someone like that no and live. Reed wanted to live, he really really wanted to live.
“Where are we going?!” Reed had to scream because the hallways were full of noise: the alarms going off, the grunts, growls and grumbles of packs of men fighting, and the rush of water hitting concrete. The sprinklers were going and had drenched everything. The concrete floors were shower-slick and prison-issued shoes didn’t have much in the way of grip. He was in a constant state of almost falling over his own feet.
“You’ll know when we get there.”
It suddenly dawned on him, Trevino wasn’t talking about getting out of the wing or even the prison building, he was talking about escaping. Well that was just in-freaking-sane.
“You mean, are you talking about escaping?! That’s a felony!” The minute it spilled out of his mouth he knew exactly how stupid it sounded.
Trevino stopped dead in his tracks, one leg planted on each side of a man whose throat had been sliced. He glared at Reed, his black eyes sharp, sober and serious. “You have debts, and if you follow me they will be erased or you can stay here and end up-“He looked down at the dead man that he was all but standing on, “like him.”
Reed didn’t have a choice, he had to go on.
The path to the exercise yard was surprisingly empty compared to the main corridors and the cafeteria. It was over, the worst was over. Reed let out a breathe and the big man felt a little better about everything. Then they stepped outside.
It was Hell, it had to be Hell. He stood in the doorway and watched a helicopter, a real live helicopter, crash into the ground and one of the guard towers. The explosion was bright orange and yellow and the heat it threw off hit his body like a shockwave. Metal chunks flew all across the yard and one man was unfortunate enough to be caught in the chopper’s large spinning blades. He was torn apart and the blood hit the crumbling concrete and block that was a quickly disintegrating guard tower with a loud splatter. There were screams and moans and the air smelled of gasoline and what had to be burning flesh.
He was going to throw up.
“Oh God, there were people in there, there were people!”
If Trevino heard him, he didn’t seem to care.
Convicts ran towards the fence and for a second Reed thought that they were going to help whoever was trapped in the chopper wreckage. They hit the fence in force and it fell in a clatter that Reed only barely heard over the violent fire.
“We go.”
Some men, only a few, were running strait into the desert, others were headed towards the parking lots to steal cars, and Reed heard one man screaming about the bus. They were actually escaping. Escaping from prison, it was just like a movie. He was in a movie, a real life movie. Oh God.
He didn’t belong here! He looked around, and tried to stop the panic attack he could feel coming on. The part of the fence closest to the asphalt parking lot was still standing, mostly. Trevino slid through torn section and looked at Reed. He was much heavier then Trevino and eyed the gap warily. Trevino said nothing, he just glared. Reed understood why the Mexican Mafia feared the man, he was terrifying. He turned sideways and started to push himself through the chain link fence’s gap. The metal cut his arms and tore at his body and legs through the orange fabric of his jumpsuit. He was shocked that he fit through the gap at all, he wasn’t exactly a lightweight. Not that he had time to celebrate the achievement since he was escaping from prison and all. The worst had to be over, though, they were in the parking lot, after all.
One of the other guys who had slipped through the gap in the fence looked over at him with a big smile on his face. “It’s just like TV, huh Fatty?”
Reed smiled a little. Fatty was practically a compliment compared to most of the names that he’d been called lately. “Yeah, I guess it is.”
The other man, wasn’t his name something like John or Jack something that definitely started with a J, laughed as they jogged towards the full parking lot. “Next stop Vegas, Fatty. I’m gonna hit a liquor store, grab a whore and buy some ice and spend the next year drinkin’, smokin’, and fu-“
John or Jack or Josh’s chest exploded in a spray of red. It hit the side of Reed’s face with a spray of gore. His ears buzzed with white noise and he wiped the blood off his cheek with his fingers. It was warm, thick, and on his hands. He should have been horrified, but he felt incredibly numb. He had another man’s blood on him. He had a dead man’s blood on his face.
“Get down!”
The voice, Trevino’s, snapped him out of his momentary shock. Reed dropped to his knees and covered his head and neck with his arms like he’ practiced so very many times in grammar school. Gunshots, he could hear them again, echoed through the parking lot. What was worse? He could hear bullets hitting metal and pavement. No, they weren’t hitting, they cut through steel and concrete like it was nothing.
“Holy crap-” He looked up momentarily, “they’re shooting at us!”
Trevino was just ahead of him, crawling on his belly like a soldier. That, Reed realized, was a far better strategy then simply ducking and covering. It was what they did in movies, after all. Watching it and doing it, Reed found, were two different things. Especially, he groaned, if you were three hundred pounds. Everything was easier for skinny people. It wasn’t easy, but he pulled himself with his arms and scooted with his legs. He was moving at a snail’s pace across the bubbling hot asphalt of the pitted and cracked parking lot, but he was moving.
After what seemed like hours, the gunshots tapered off and became more erratic and spaced out. Maybe they had run out of bullets, or given up, or both. He didn’t care why, he was just happy to get off of his belly.
“Well now we know what bacon feels like, but I never actually wanted to know. You know what’s half funny, it’s like when we were kids and they would flash-fry an egg on the sidewa-“
Trevino stared at him, sweat pouting down his face. “If you say one more word I will cut your tongue out.” That was when Reed noticed that the other man was bleeding.
“You’re shot!”
Trevino glared at him, “One more fucking word.”
Reed closed his mouth so quickly his teeth clicked together with a snap.
Trevino opened the door of a blue car and eased into the driver’s seat.
Reed’s eyes went wide, it was visiting day, and they couldn’t just steal someone’s car! There were women and kids inside. He glanced at Trevino, but decided that his words would fall on deaf ears, and then he would get his tongue cut out. He really liked his tongue. He stayed quiet and got into the passenger side seat.
Trevino started the car with the keys that someone had left in the switch.
Who would be dumb enough to leave their car unlocked with the keys in it in a prison parking lot? It was the craziest thing he’d ever heard of. Then Reed looked back, as they were driving away from the compound at sixty miles an hour, and saw the devastation. The wall was in ruins, a pillar of black smoke stood out against the beige building and the blue sky. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the craziest thing he’d seen.
Cold air poured out of the vents and Reed instantly perked up, “Hey, air-conditioning, sweet!”
Beside him, Trevino rolled his eyes, and wished he had picked someone else as an accomplice. Especially since he’d been shot. He continued to bite down on the inside of his cheek, unwilling to show weakness. He would have to find a doctor as soon as he could. The bullet was still in his side and blood was pouring from the wound.
It was not the worst injury he’d ever had, but it was nothing to ignore.
“Do you think I could listen to the radio?”
If he survived this, he was going to make sure the idiot beside him did not.
Chapter I D
The Distraction
Continued from Chapter I C
Reed Callahan was being pulled through the riot by the arm by a man he barely knew. It was like he’d walked into a scene from Grand Theft Auto or Halo. Guys were duking it out everywhere. The mess-hall had been crazy and all he’d been doing was trying to hide. The man who’d found him under one of the bolted down tables hadn’t threatened him, but had told him that they were “getting out of here”. That had been enough for Reed. No one had been brave or stupid enough to mess with Trevino. The man had a reputation that was above reproach. Reed had heard that the Mexican Mafia, one of the most powerful forces in Ely, feared him. You didn’t tell someone like that no and live. Reed wanted to live, he really really wanted to live.
“Where are we going?!” Reed had to scream because the hallways were full of noise: the alarms going off, the grunts, growls and grumbles of packs of men fighting, and the rush of water hitting concrete. The sprinklers were going and had drenched everything. The concrete floors were shower-slick and prison-issued shoes didn’t have much in the way of grip. He was in a constant state of almost falling over his own feet.
“You’ll know when we get there.”
It suddenly dawned on him, Trevino wasn’t talking about getting out of the wing or even the prison building, he was talking about escaping. Well that was just in-freaking-sane.
“You mean, are you talking about escaping?! That’s a felony!” The minute it spilled out of his mouth he knew exactly how stupid it sounded.
Trevino stopped dead in his tracks, one leg planted on each side of a man whose throat had been sliced. He glared at Reed, his black eyes sharp, sober and serious. “You have debts, and if you follow me they will be erased or you can stay here and end up-“He looked down at the dead man that he was all but standing on, “like him.”
Reed didn’t have a choice, he had to go on.
The path to the exercise yard was surprisingly empty compared to the main corridors and the cafeteria. It was over, the worst was over. Reed let out a breathe and the big man felt a little better about everything. Then they stepped outside.
It was Hell, it had to be Hell. He stood in the doorway and watched a helicopter, a real live helicopter, crash into the ground and one of the guard towers. The explosion was bright orange and yellow and the heat it threw off hit his body like a shockwave. Metal chunks flew all across the yard and one man was unfortunate enough to be caught in the chopper’s large spinning blades. He was torn apart and the blood hit the crumbling concrete and block that was a quickly disintegrating guard tower with a loud splatter. There were screams and moans and the air smelled of gasoline and what had to be burning flesh.
He was going to throw up.
“Oh God, there were people in there, there were people!”
If Trevino heard him, he didn’t seem to care.
Convicts ran towards the fence and for a second Reed thought that they were going to help whoever was trapped in the chopper wreckage. They hit the fence in force and it fell in a clatter that Reed only barely heard over the violent fire.
“We go.”
Some men, only a few, were running strait into the desert, others were headed towards the parking lots to steal cars, and Reed heard one man screaming about the bus. They were actually escaping. Escaping from prison, it was just like a movie. He was in a movie, a real life movie. Oh God.
He didn’t belong here! He looked around, and tried to stop the panic attack he could feel coming on. The part of the fence closest to the asphalt parking lot was still standing, mostly. Trevino slid through torn section and looked at Reed. He was much heavier then Trevino and eyed the gap warily. Trevino said nothing, he just glared. Reed understood why the Mexican Mafia feared the man, he was terrifying. He turned sideways and started to push himself through the chain link fence’s gap. The metal cut his arms and tore at his body and legs through the orange fabric of his jumpsuit. He was shocked that he fit through the gap at all, he wasn’t exactly a lightweight. Not that he had time to celebrate the achievement since he was escaping from prison and all. The worst had to be over, though, they were in the parking lot, after all.
One of the other guys who had slipped through the gap in the fence looked over at him with a big smile on his face. “It’s just like TV, huh Fatty?”
Reed smiled a little. Fatty was practically a compliment compared to most of the names that he’d been called lately. “Yeah, I guess it is.”
The other man, wasn’t his name something like John or Jack something that definitely started with a J, laughed as they jogged towards the full parking lot. “Next stop Vegas, Fatty. I’m gonna hit a liquor store, grab a whore and buy some ice and spend the next year drinkin’, smokin’, and fu-“
John or Jack or Josh’s chest exploded in a spray of red. It hit the side of Reed’s face with a spray of gore. His ears buzzed with white noise and he wiped the blood off his cheek with his fingers. It was warm, thick, and on his hands. He should have been horrified, but he felt incredibly numb. He had another man’s blood on him. He had a dead man’s blood on his face.
“Get down!”
The voice, Trevino’s, snapped him out of his momentary shock. Reed dropped to his knees and covered his head and neck with his arms like he’ practiced so very many times in grammar school. Gunshots, he could hear them again, echoed through the parking lot. What was worse? He could hear bullets hitting metal and pavement. No, they weren’t hitting, they cut through steel and concrete like it was nothing.
“Holy crap-” He looked up momentarily, “they’re shooting at us!”
Trevino was just ahead of him, crawling on his belly like a soldier. That, Reed realized, was a far better strategy then simply ducking and covering. It was what they did in movies, after all. Watching it and doing it, Reed found, were two different things. Especially, he groaned, if you were three hundred pounds. Everything was easier for skinny people. It wasn’t easy, but he pulled himself with his arms and scooted with his legs. He was moving at a snail’s pace across the bubbling hot asphalt of the pitted and cracked parking lot, but he was moving.
After what seemed like hours, the gunshots tapered off and became more erratic and spaced out. Maybe they had run out of bullets, or given up, or both. He didn’t care why, he was just happy to get off of his belly.
“Well now we know what bacon feels like, but I never actually wanted to know. You know what’s half funny, it’s like when we were kids and they would flash-fry an egg on the sidewa-“
Trevino stared at him, sweat pouting down his face. “If you say one more word I will cut your tongue out.” That was when Reed noticed that the other man was bleeding.
“You’re shot!”
Trevino glared at him, “One more fucking word.”
Reed closed his mouth so quickly his teeth clicked together with a snap.
Trevino opened the door of a blue car and eased into the driver’s seat.
Reed’s eyes went wide, it was visiting day, and they couldn’t just steal someone’s car! There were women and kids inside. He glanced at Trevino, but decided that his words would fall on deaf ears, and then he would get his tongue cut out. He really liked his tongue. He stayed quiet and got into the passenger side seat.
Trevino started the car with the keys that someone had left in the switch.
Who would be dumb enough to leave their car unlocked with the keys in it in a prison parking lot? It was the craziest thing he’d ever heard of. Then Reed looked back, as they were driving away from the compound at sixty miles an hour, and saw the devastation. The wall was in ruins, a pillar of black smoke stood out against the beige building and the blue sky. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the craziest thing he’d seen.
Cold air poured out of the vents and Reed instantly perked up, “Hey, air-conditioning, sweet!”
Beside him, Trevino rolled his eyes, and wished he had picked someone else as an accomplice. Especially since he’d been shot. He continued to bite down on the inside of his cheek, unwilling to show weakness. He would have to find a doctor as soon as he could. The bullet was still in his side and blood was pouring from the wound.
It was not the worst injury he’d ever had, but it was nothing to ignore.
“Do you think I could listen to the radio?”
If he survived this, he was going to make sure the idiot beside him did not.