These Prison Walls (An Arrow: Season 7 Fanfiction)

Chapter 3: Slabside Prison

Five months after the events of Season 6...

William and Felicity ran through the forest. William stumbled and fell to the ground, and Felicity pulled him up. 

'William, run!' 

'I can't run anymore!' 

'Yes, you can. Get up. Get up.' Just then Ricardo Diaz walked through the bushes. 'Oliver, help!' she screamed.

'Oliver can't help you,' he replied with a sickening smile. 

'Run now! Now!' Felicity said, shoving William in the direction of the forest. He sprinted off. 

'You're brave,' he said, lifting his gun and shooting Felicity in the stomach, sending her to the ground. She gasped and groaned, as Ricardo Diaz stepped up to her. 'Oliver Queen and his sister took everything from me. Now I'm gonna enjoy taking everything from them.' He raised his gun and shot Felicity in the head. 

Oliver Queen awoke with a start in his prison cell. The guard tapped his baton against the prison cell door. 

'Morning, 4587,' the guard said. 'Beautiful day.' 

The hours passed by, and the prisoners were in the yard, exercising or chatting freely to other prisoners, while Oliver was doing pull ups on the bars. He jumped down, and looked around, as a prisoner walked up to him. 

'You - you're the Green Arrow,' the shorter man said. Oliver turned to him. 

'Wrong guy.' 

'But I saw you on TV. The beard threw me off a little bit, but it's definitely you. I'm a big fan. "You have failed this city".' 

'Okay, I'm not that person anymore, all right?' The shorter man looked nervously over at the bigger prisoners who were casually playing a game of cards. 

'Look, I'll join whatever gang you're in. I don't care what I have to do. I just - I need your protection.' 

'I'm not in a gang.' 

'Then let me be your uh, sidekick or your lookout or something. Please. Just, I - how am I supposed to survive in here?' 

'I don't know. Leave me alone.' He walked around the shorter man and away, towards the lunch hall. 

He was sitting in the cell after the fight in the lunch hall. Footsteps echoed as the guard came to his cell. 

'4587, you pull that crap again from yesterday; I'm gonna make an example out of you. Understood, inmate?' Oliver, without looking at him, replied, 

'Yes, sir.' He jangled the handcuffs in front of him, making him look up. 

'You got a visitor.' 

Oliver was walked into the visitation ward, and the guard took his cuffs off. 

'You know the drill,' the guard said, then walked away. Oliver took a seat at the bench to see Diggle sitting across from him. 

'You've looked better,' John remarked. 

'I've looked worse. How are William and Felicity?' 

'Still safe and sound in witness protection. I've upped surveillance to 24/7 since we spoke last week.' 

'How is Evelyn?' 

'Still serving her stint in Iron Heights. She's restless, looks worse than you. She says she doesn't sleep. I'm seeing her this afternoon.' Oliver nodded. 

'Tell her I say hi, okay?' 

'I will, Oliver.' 

'Has the FBI made any progress?' 

'No. No. Nothing. Watson says she won't stop looking, and neither will I. But Oliver, it's been five months, man. Five months. Maybe we need to think about the possibility that Diaz is off the grid for good.' 

'I can't believe that.'

'I know this must be so frustrating - losing all sense of agency like this. Being out of control, I know, is not yours or Evelyn's strong suit.' 

'I'm focusing on what I can control.'

'What's that?' 

'Keep my head down. Maybe shorten my sentence.' 

'That's smart. I think that's a good play. But I worry about the toll that's going to take on you, Oliver. I worry about you and Evelyn.' 

'Cuts heal, John.' 

'Not physically, bro. Keeping passive, not fighting back. Never been who you were.' 

'I've always done what I had to do. Right now... this is what I have to do.' John nodded slowly. 

'Don't lose yourself in here, Oliver.' 

'I'll be okay.'