Jedd Goldman's Short Story Blitz!

Chapter 4: The Red Eyed Lion

"Ready for this," Vince asked Gil as they walked towards the enormous elevator to start their task.

"I'm ready!" exclaimed Gil.

With a hundred thousand points, there was absolutely no point in Gil working, as it would take a hundred thousand days to be released from Energia Tower. All he could do was put his faith into Barney's words... He hadn't heard from him yet though.

There was also the threat of being executed. He had to work at least once in thirty days to keep himself from being executed. He wouldn't have to work to save his life until the twenty-ninth day.

Gil and Vince finally entered the elevator to start their shift with a plethora of other prisoners - whose eyes were of course all locked on Gil.

"The first task you do is always the most complicated, but once you get used to it it's not so bad," said Vince as the elevator began to descend to a place without sunlight.

"I'm probably going to do the 'bare minimum' but let's see what happens," joked Gil.

"That's the spirit!" chuckled Vince.

"Uh... Vince. Did that guy really commit mass murder?" a concerned prisoner asked.

Vince turned his head towards the prisoner. "Well he's in Energia Tower so what do you think!" he said with an attitude.

"Actually, I'm -." Vince quickly pulled Gil away before he could finish his sentence.

"What do you think you're doing!?" asked Vince.

"What do you mean?" Gil said as confusion became printed on his face.

"Don't you know how this stuff works! This is a prison! The only reason why nobody here is giving you a hard time is because they think you committed mass murder. If you correct them, you could easily become a target. Not everyone would be as nice as me, some people here are pure evil to the core," explained Vince with deep concern.

"I appreciate the concern Vince, but it's fine. I want to be authentic, lying about something I haven't done is something I just can't do. If the prisoners beat me up, it's fine... I don't mind," said Gil. "Also I'll probably launch them to a table like I did you," he laughed.

"Whatever, do what you want!" groaned Vince.

Gil walked back towards the prisoner who asked Vince the question.

"Hey, I'm Gil. No I didn't commit mass murder, I was framed," said Gil.

"Wow, that's interesting," the prisoner said.

The elevator stopped and finally opened.  Gil was greeted by a gigantic factory that almost had a red tint to it. The humid air made it a little difficult to breathe, just how many people could have fainted there?

"We'll probably be assigned different stations," said Vince. "If somebody gives you a hard time let me know."

"Will do."

***

It turned out Vince was correct, they were assigned different tasks that day by the prison guards in charge of the facility. The task Gil was assigned was so ridiculously easy that he was almost shell shocked.

All he had to do was move the crane-like component of a giant machine to rip off heads of enormous war robots. The robots were on a slow moving conveyor belt, very simple task. He controlled the crane with a controller above the conveyor belt. He was told that the heads were to be removed because they were replacing them with an updated version.