Prison Break

Vic stared at the clock hanging outside his cell. It was seven past four, which meant he had fifty-three minutes to get to the parking garage, but more importantly, his delivery was already over an hour late. He’d only been incarcerated for a week, but he knew what time the mail would arrive.

His head snapped up as the hallway door shut with a clang. Vic lifted himself off his cot and looked out from his bars as a heavyset guard pushed a creaking mail cart down the corridor, stopping at every cell with a recipient. The guard handed over a stack of letters, then stepped in front of Vic’s door.

“Adonis,” the guard called.

Vic gave the man a wordless nod, then accepted the package. As the guard went on to finish his rounds, Vic lumbered back to his cot. He sat down on the stiff mattress and inspected his gift. On the outside, there wasn’t anything special about the box. It was about a foot square, and its white wrapping had been torn, then crudely taped back together after the guards had inspected it. Vic ripped off the remaining paper, then opened the box and smiled. His cake had arrived.

Now reduced to a pile of crumbs, his cake had been a basic chocolate desert taken from the nearest bakery. Vic was sure it would have tasted fine, but it was about as special as the paper it was wrapped in.

“They do that to make sure no one is sneaking anything in,” his cellmate said, looking down from the top bunk. “Gotta tear it up in case there’s a file in it. It’s a shame though, must have been a pretty cake.”

Vic chuckled. “Funny you mention that,” Vic replied, “reminds me of a story.”

Jace raised an eyebrow. “I’m all ears.”

Vic ran his fingers along the inside of the box, careful to avoid the mess of crumbs and clumps of icing. “Back when the Berlin wall was still up, a man would take a fifty-pound bag of rice, get on his bicycle, and ride from West to East Germany. He did it every day and rode back every night. Eventually, the Germans got suspicious, they knew he had to be smuggling something, so they stopped him. They’d shift through his bag of rice, but they never found anything. It goes on like that for years, but he never gets caught. You know what he was smuggling?” Vic paused. “Bicycles.”

Jace frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“What do you mean?”

The cellmate shrugged. “Think about it. How is he selling bikes if he’s riding home on one?”

Vic looked up from the cake. “Maybe he’s taking old bikes home.”

Jace scoffed. “Not much of a profit margin. Besides, where’s he going to put all those old bikes?”

Vic waved his hands. “Doesn’t matter. The important thing is that the rice was a distraction.”

Vic’s face lit up as his fingers met a loose corner of the box. He ripped the waxy cover away to expose a set of thin metal objects. He pulled the lock picks away from the cardboard and lifted them for his cellmate to see.

“And this, my friend, is our bicycle.”

Jace grinned, then leapt down from the bunk. “Let’s get a move on, Comrade.”

Vic lifted a finger. “Not so fast. I need something from you first.”

The smile on Jace’s face faltered as Vic continued.

“I need to make it to solitary, and I need someone that knows this place well enough to get me there without being caught. If you want to get out of here, you’ll have to be the one to do that.”

“Solitary is at the other end of the compound; we’ll need a pass to get there anyway. The garage is just a few buildings over. Let’s just make a run for it,” Jace argued.

Vic folded his arms. “Do you really think someone like me would get put here just for a DUI?”

Jace shrugged. “Al Capone got put away for tax evasion.”

Vic sighed. “I’m here to get my brother out. The booze was just a cover. Now, solitary.”

Jace mulled it over, finally submitting. “Alright, fine. I can take you to the hole, but it won’t do you any good without a keycard.”

Vic smiled smugly to himself as he worked the picks back and forth through the keyhole. Getting out of the cellblock wouldn’t be hard. It was poorly guarded, and once they were out in the courtyard, they could blend in with the ocean of orange jumpsuits. After that, it would get tricky. Vic wished he had more time to plan, but after tomorrow his brother would be transferred to a maximum-security prison, and he’d have to worry about more than a couple of lazy guards.

The lock gave, and Vic forced the door open. He ushered Jace through, then hustled to the hallway exit. Behind that door would be a single guard watching the entrance. If they timed it right, Vic and Jace could incapacitate the guard, run into the main building, and trickle out with whatever block of convicts were being released from the cafeteria to the courtyard.

Between the cellblock and the main hall was a small room used to check individual prisoners before letting them in or out. While it wasn’t a deterrent, it was an added obstacle that Vic would need to work around.

Vic stopped at the door and looked at the handle. Unlike his cell, the door couldn’t be opened with a key. Vic needed a code to open it, but luckily, the buttons were worn down enough from decades of use to give him an idea. He typed in a four-digit code and waited.

Vic took a breath to steady his nerves, then pushed the door open and lunged at the guard standing behind it. In just a moment, Vic held a sharpened bit of metal to his throat. The guard struggled with him, but Vic held firm and pushed a hair further with the shiv, just enough for a thin stream of red to trickle from the cut.

“Easy, Tony,” Vic said calmly, “ I don’t want to hurt you. Besides, is thirteen-fifty really worth this much trouble?”

Tony looked up at Vic, his eyes wide, and shook his head.

“Adda boy,” Vic replied. He turned to Jace. “Take his cuffs and the baton. Does he have a gun?”

Jase took off the man’s utility belt. “They don’t give most guards guns in case one of us takes it from them.”

Vic shrugged, then took the handcuffs from Jace and locked Tony to the door handle. Jace stood by the opposite door, waiting for the crowd of convicts to leave the cafeteria, then waved Vic over as the next rotation made its way to the courtyard.

Vic sighed. “I’m really sorry about this, Tony,” he said, before striking the man with his own baton.

Tony slumped against the door, and Vic and Jace slipped out into the hallway, garnering a few odd looks from the passing criminals. Jace kept pace with his cellmate and leaned in close.

“We can get to solitary from the courtyard, but there’ll be a lot of guards watching out for that. How do you want to get past them?”

Vic smirked. “Just follow me to the bathroom.”

Jace leaned back, but he was already committed to the plan, so he followed suit.

They entered the bathroom, and Vic walked into the largest stall, stood on the toilet, and lifted a ceiling tile. He stuck his arm inside and felt around for a moment, then grabbed a pair of tote bags with “Privet Pest Control” printed on the side.

Vic handed a bag to Jace, who looked inside. “Uniforms and, what is this, bug spray?”

Vic rolled his eyes. “The jail hires contractors to do cleaning and maintenance for stuff the prisoners can’t do. Today they’re having a few guys spray for bugs, and they’re leaving in twenty-four minutes. I paid a kid a couple grand to leave the extra uniforms and spray here so we can take their truck. They even give the contractors a guest pass to get into the buildings, so it won’t be a problem if we use Tony’s.”

Jace nodded. “Clever, I’m impressed.”

Vic snorted. “Now put it on. We’re on the clock.”

“Wait, what happens when the guards ask about how we got in here?” Jace asked.

Vic thought about the question. There’d be no avoiding the guards at this point.

“We say we were spraying the perimeter, and someone let us in to take a leak. If no one knows we’re missing, these uniforms should be enough to convince those guys to believe us.”

Jace tilted his head. “And if that doesn’t work?”

Vic shrugged. “We try to take out the guy at the fence and make a run for it.”

Jace put on the uniform, but he was starting to wonder if Vic’s plan was as clever as he thought.

The pair stopped at the door, and Vic looked Jace in the eye. “As soon as we step out of here, we walk over to the exit gate and ask the guard to let us out. I have some paperwork but no IDs, so if they get suspicious, it’s over.”

Jace let out a breath. This plan wasn’t nearly as clever as he thought. He followed Vic outside, and they marched over to the guard at the gate, Vic in the lead. The guard was surprised to see them but didn’t seem to notice anything unusual.

“Can you let us out?” Vic asked.

The guard stepped forward to get a closer look. “Who let you two in?” he asked.

Vic shrugged. “One of you guys in uniform, I didn’t take a name.”

The guard let his hand slip to his radio, and Jace’s breath caught in his throat. “You guys are supposed to use the bathroom in the cafeteria.”

Vic pulled out his fake paperwork. “We didn’t want to go that far. We need to be out of here in twenty minutes, so we asked if they could let us use that one. Besides, if there’s a problem, one of your guys gave us permission anyway.”

The guard glanced at Vic’s papers, then shrugged. “Not my problem,” he muttered, unlocking the fence and letting them through.

The pair walked past cell blocks and buildings, waving as they passed guards and spraying the occasional ant hill until they stopped at the solitary cell block. Vic swiped Tony’s card into a reader, then walked inside.

An officer looked up from behind a desk. “You guys already came through.”

Vic shook his head. “No, Rex did, and he sent us back to caulk some holes for roaches,” he said, lifting a small tube.

The officer shrugged, then went back to his paper. Jace and Vic walked down the hall until Vic motioned for them to stop. He pulled a set of keys taken from Tony’s belt and tried two or three before finally unlocking the metal door. Inside sat a man with a striking resemblance to Vic.

The larger man smiled, then stood and clasped his arms around Vic’s shoulders. “You’re late, little brother,” he said.

Vic grinned. “Sorry, Roman, but we got it sorted out.”

Vic passed his brother the tote bag, and soon the trio was dressed in identical uniforms. Jace started for the door, then stopped. “Wait, won’t they notice there’s three of us now?”

Vic sighed. “Yeah, they probably will.”

Jace stepped back, but before he could move, Roman’s massive arms were around his waist, and he was thrown into the empty cell. He landed roughly but turned in time to see Vic shutting the cell door.

“Sorry, Comrade, but there’s only room on this bike for two.”