Empty Gold

Prologue: Catch Me If You Can

"Open cell sixteen."

River's ears perked and her head swung at the sound of the buzzer; the latch from her prison door clicked. With an arched brow, the woman silently questioned why she was being summoned as she slowly rose to her feet. Daryl, the guard, walked into her room; cuffs in hand. An irritated sigh blew from River's lips as she held out her wrists, not bothering to fight with him. She knew if she fought, he and the accompanying guard would electrocute her with the wand they kept at their sides and haul her body to wherever they were supposed to transport her.

Daryl gripped River's forearm tightly, leading her out of her assigned room. The accompanying guard followed closely behind, as ordered, to ensure the transport was successful. River had anticipated this. In fact, she expected Daryl to be the one to retrieve her.

"Are you sure about this?" River whispered, her hands cuffed behind her back as Daryl escorted her back to her room. The gray corridor exuded the same dreary feeling everyone in the building felt. While the prisoners all hated their home for obvious reasons, the workers hated it because they could feel the resentment festering within the halls.

Why work for Global-1? Easy. The money.

That's why Daryl took the offered job as he had student debt to pay and an apartment to keep. And while he was previously working as a cop, Global-1 offered significantly more compensation for his employment.

He was thankful for the opportunity, but he quickly found out why Global-1 paid as much as they did. A week into his job, Daryl also got the strange feeling - once you're in, there's only one way out.

River and the guards rounded a corner, walking at a brisk pace toward the bank of elevators in silence. The only sound echoing through the corridor was the shuffling of their feet in almost unison. It was in these moments when River realized just how much she hated silence. It always put her on edge. So much so that when the loud 'ding' from the arrival of the elevator rang, the woman slightly jumped.

"Get in, freak."

River glared at the other guard before taking the few steps into the box. If she wanted to, she could kill him. It would have been easy enough for her. Just one touch of her fingers, and she could turn off all the electrical synapses in his body. But she had one goal in mind and nothing was going to stop her from reaching it.

"Do you want to be free, or not?" Daryl whispered back, keeping his face away from the cameras to ensure no one could read his lips.

River said nothing. Of course she wanted to be free; everyone here wanted to be free. It didn't matter that River didn't have much knowledge of the outside world besides what she read in the library. At a certain point devouring literary adventures after informative publications wasn't enough to satiate her quest for knowledge.

"Of course I want to get out, but if you get caught, they'll kill you," she reminded him, keeping her voice low. Over the time Daryl had been assigned as her handler, River had grown close to the man. According to him, her mother used to babysit him and was his mother's best friend. Daryl vividly remembered River's mother giving him ice cream, reading him stories and even letting him feel her baby bump. He was only six years old.

River's gaze fell upon the buttons. Daryl pressed a floor number before mumbling a curse for hitting the wrong one before pressing the right one. Or at least, what floor they expected her on.