Breaking Out

After meditating on the ground for an hour, John heard the panel at the bottom of the door slide open. A paper plate was sent through, assumedly because they didn’t want him pocketing another tray, that had cold chunks of unidentifiable meat on undercooked rice, a slice of bread, a bit of margarine, and a paper cup of water.

John ate the bread and butter before pocketing the plate with the rice. I have no idea how I’ll use that to my strategic advantage, assuming I even make it out of here, but it’s better than an empty inventory.

Maybe if I splash the water on a guard just right, the current from his baton will go right back to him… oh what am I saying. There’s no way that would work. Especially not with such little water. With that in mind, John decided to drink the water instead. He noticed the guard hadn’t closed the hatch after giving him his food, and got on his stomach to peek through it.

He found that the hallway was being patrolled by a single guard in sight, possibly more he couldn’t see. Good thing I never turned the light on, he’d definitely see me if it was, and turning it off would only draw attention to the opening.

Sliding forward, John noticed that the space was big enough to fit his head through if he wanted to but nowhere near big enough for his shoulders. I wonder what happened to Abigail after I surrendered. She was taking on twice as many guards as I was and she wasn’t even using her powers to get rid of her collar. John dwelled on these thoughts as he backed away from the opening and into the wall. He slid down to a sitting position and leaned against the wall as his mind raced with escape plans, each more impossible than the last.

I can’t give up. Not just yet. I’ve still got a few hours, John thought as he stopped Meditating. A few more hours had come and gone; apparently they had skipped giving him dinner. He waited a while to try and make sure there were less guards and more people sleeping, but according to his quest screen, he only had about four hours left. Alright, let’s see if Gamer’s Body will even let me do this.

He inched across the floor on his back, sticking his head out of the opening when he saw the guard pass his cell. The dim hallway lights had turned off about an hour ago, and the guard outside his cell had started carrying a lantern-type light on his belt.

I wish I had paid more attention to those viral escape artist videos, John thought as he tried to jerk his over-extended hand as best he could to dislocate his shoulder. The pain blossoming in his left shoulder spoke to his success as he managed to squeeze it through the space with him. After that, getting the right out didn’t require such a painful tactic. At least I only had to do it to my left, John reasoned as he crept away from the light source (and guard) moving to the right of his cell. Creeping along the hallway, he noticed that the last door before a staircase had a light on that could be seen underneath the closed panel. John opened it and peeked in.

A faceful of fire greeted him as Abigail burst through her opening and clutched John by the neck pinning him against the wall and ready to strike… and dropped him when she realized who she was holding. “Nice to see you too,” John wheezed when he hit the ground. “So you surrendered too?”

“That’s right. I actually expected your plan to fail, that’s why I didn’t remove my collar when I was fighting those guards. My plan was to ambush the guard who brought me dinner, hoping to wait until some were asleep, but this works too,” Abigail whispered cheerily, noticing John’s sagging shoulder. “Here, let me help you with that. I do that all the time when I get really into a fight. Had to learn how to fix it before I could just use my flames to.”

“What do you-” John began but had to stifle an unexpected cry of pain as she popped his shoulder back into its socket.

As they began moving, she explained, “it probably won’t be back at one hundred percent right away, but it’s better than nothing.” She said the last part as she turned to him with a warm smile. “Oo-kay. I’ve never been to where this leads up to. Have you seen this before?” Abigail asked once they came upon a doorless entryway that had bars on either side of its opening.

He didn’t notice the corridor on the other side, but he did notice what was beyond the open door at the end, “That’s an administrative hallway! I bet it’s abandoned at this time of night.”

Together, they crept toward the carpeted corridor that was all in all much nicer than the other locations in the prison. Wow, it’s even air conditioned.

The guard changed, and an unseen patroller noticed the door to the administrative wing was open. Not programmed to investigate such a small detail, the door was closed and locked behind them as they moved further in. John jumped as he heard the door shut, but confirmed to Abigail with a silent thumbs-up that everything seemed to be alright as they walked past the warden’s office.

“Hold on, let’s go in there and see if we can find anything to use,” John whispered, trying the door, which had a small window on it that was covered by off-white shades. To his surprise, it was unlocked. He made it into the room which had sparse furnishings, and closed and locked the door behind them. A desk surrounded by two chairs on the door’s side and one much nicer one opposite, a few tables lining the walls which were mostly empty, and a glass wall across from the entrance which overlooked…

“That’s it! This is our way out!” John whispered excitedly, noticing that the glass window overlooked the forest outside of the prison. Apparently, they were pressed up against the back wall. There were patrols all across the outside, but he felt confident that he and Abigail could jump past them from such a height. “Can you melt the glass without drawing too much attention to us?”

“I can try… I’m not that great at controlling the intensity of my heat. Watch the door.” Abigail moved toward the window, the surface of her right hand turning into flame. It swirled before somehow solidifying across her hand, almost as though it was a second skin. John felt the heat increase in the room and upon looking back noticed hairline fractures that spanned the course of her body, each glowing a deep orange.

“We were supposed to identify eight guards that were real, but I could only say three for certain, and probably the warden. There was also a prisoner on my side that was real, but I don’t know if he’d count. What about you?” John asked, moving closer to the door to alleviate some of the heat. Even so, the room was quickly growing uncomfortable.

“I’ve got about three or four too. If we share descriptions, then we can both pass,” Abigail responded, successfully melting a hole through the thick glass. She worked on widening it as she turned the surface of her other hand into the same type of flames, applying it to the window in circles, one hand working from inside, the other out.
“Our instructor would know that we didn’t find them on our own, but… she didn’t say we had to. If we’re going to be a part of a big organization, teamwork is going to be emphasized heavily, so maybe it works out better that way,” John pondered aloud, though quickly quieted down when he saw a silhouette move through the hallway outside.

He backed away from the door and toward the heat as he whispered, “There’s someone out there.”

“Do you think they noticed the light through the window or something?” Abigail asked, not giving up on melting through the window.

“I doubt it,” John whispered back. “They’d have barged in here if they had.” Still, he crouch-walked over to the desk Abigail was standing on and slowly rifled through the drawers, coming out with a 9mm handgun.

The weight of it was immediately reassuring, and ejecting the magazine revealed that it was full. He looked up and noticed that Abigail had formed a hole in the window wall large enough to stand in. “It’s done, let’s get out of here.”

The **** of her jump rattled the furniture and sent her flying through the forest, far further than John could hope to jump. He followed her with his eyes until she disappeared, presumably exiting the barrier. The sound she had made alerted whoever was outside, who began to fumble with the door. He stood in the gap she had made and prepared to leap. He didn’t notice that the moment she had left it and it had stopped melting, the glass had slowly started to reseal itself.

He leapt forward, and his foot caught on a portion of the glass that was reforming. Instead of landing in the forest outside the prison, he tumbled to the concrete roof below as the warden’s door burst open, revealing a newly reformed window and, aside from quickly dissipating heat across the room, no sign that either of them had been there.

Orienting himself in the air, John hit the roof footfirst, bending his knees to try to absorb some of the impact. Thankfully, the two-story fall had caused nothing more than some minor pain. Waiting for the inevitable change in guard felt like ages, even though it was only an hour or so. When he noticed that the patroller had been gone for a minute longer than normal, he leapt across the perimeter fence and into the forest. After that, it was comparatively lovely stroll through a cool forest to the edge of the barrier and victory!