PR150N

Chapter 6

It started off like any other social began; The robotic voice counting down my lunch - a chicken and sweetcorn sandwich, pineapple juice and an apple - followed by the whizzing of the tabletop when it took my plate away. Solomon had given me the nod at breakfast this morning so I knew I was going to meet with him again for social today.

"Social time. One hour begins now." The robotic voice called before the alarm sounded. We all got up without a word and began to walk off to the places we were eagerly awaiting. Sol was only a couple of people ahead of me in the line, and I watched as he scanned himself through the door. He turned back quickly and moved his eyebrows up and down as the door closed again. Finally it was my turn, and I scanned my hand and face and went through the door to the corridor. It was louder than normal, but people weren't spread about like they normally were. My gut twisted in anxiety as I rushed towards the noise, knowing it wasn't going to be anything good.
I walked up to Sol's room and held my hand up to the scanner, yet I hesitated to put it onto the machine. There was something about this loud encounter that I felt I had to check out before I could see Sol. I don't think my mind would have been able to rest if I hadn't at least tried to help whatever was happening. I took one last look at the door to Sol's room before I marched off in the direction of the ruckus. The noise was getting louder, the cheers were more animated, the crowd seemed to get bigger. This would only be one thing, a fight. My feet sped up before my brain had a chance to think of a reason to keep out of the mess and before I knew it I was at the edge of a large crowd, a scuffle going on in the centre.

"What the hell is going on here?" I asked a prisoner next to me. Luckily for me they were someone friendly enough to actually answer me.

"Not sure what started it, but Toby is fighting a couple of guys." My eyes widened in fear at Toby's name. My heart pumped heavily in my chest whilst a wave of nausea hit me. I prayed he was okay. Toby was always one to speak before he thought and quite a few times it had landed him in trouble, whether it was with a woman or a man. This time I hoped that the damage wasn't as bad as it had been before.

"Thanks. Excuse me." I quickly pushed my way  closer to the centre of the circle towards the fight. I elbowed and shoved past burly men and angry women until I finally, and embarrassingly, projected myself right into the centre of the fight. For a moment, the two people who were fighting Toby stopped, their eyebrows furrowing as they tried to work out what I was doing there.

"Thank fuck you're here Lex." Toby breathed. He was on his knees, blood mixed with spit dripping from his split lip and swollen mouth. One eye was closed up from the force of a hit and was already turning purple. He looked like he'd lost a fight to a professional boxer.

"The fuck are you doing here?" A similarly worded question came from the guys in front of me, yet theirs was spat with such venom I knew they weren't happy to see me. I turned my attention to the guys in front of me and held my hands out in surrender.

"Look, whatever this is, it can be solved another way. We're all going to end up shocked, or in isolation if this carries on." The first of the two men glared at me with hatred in his eyes.

"Move out of the way and let me finish this before the ten minutes is up." He growled at me, his hands balled into fists at his side. His body language was enough to tell me I should have moved out of the way but, as always, when it came to Solomon or any of the gang, I would risk my life for them.

"I can't do that, I'm afraid." I shook my head as I moved myself to stand in front of Toby, praying that the clock would countdown quickly enough that the ten minutes would have been up, the room would have been scanned and the warning alarm would have gone off to disperse the crowd. The second guy put his hand on the first guy's shoulder and got his attention for a second. They spoke quietly, but I could make out a few words as the crowd cheered and jeered at the fight.

"Maybe... listen to her... not worth it..." The second guy said. First guy shook his head.

"She promised... can't mess it up." He mumbled back, again only allowing me to hear select words. I kept my eyes on their lips, desperate to work out what caused this. For a moment the first guy turned to face the second, his back to us while they talked. I took this moment to grab Toby and pulled him to his feet, putting his arm around my shoulders to help him balance. His legs were like jelly and his body was barely able to keep itself up, he was weighing me down more than I wished to admit. The two men turned back to face us and with the evil smirk that grew on the first guys face, I knew we were in for a bad ride.

"Ah shit." I mumbled to myself as the first guy bunched his hands into fists again and threw himself at us. I pushed Toby into the crowd as I stepped up to the guy, my guard up to try to save me from the heavy hitting blows.

"This isn't your fight." He spat, stepping right to try to get to Toby. I stepped left and blocked him.

"There isn't a fight to be had." I replied, trying desperately to buy us time. Once this was done, I would have a short time frame to drag Toby back to Sol's room for us to try and sort this out. Until then, I needed to make sure neither of us died.

"Step aside, I'm only asking nicely once more." This time he stepped to the left, I stepped right to block him again. I could tell I was agitating him, his lips shrunk into a tight frown as he shook his head. "Alright, don't say I didn't warn you." If my timings were good, the scan would happen soon. I needed to play it up for the cameras. I held my hands out in front of me as if I was trying to stop him.

"Please, we don't need to fight." I put my palms together as if I was praying. "We can sort this out another way." Once again, I held my hands out in innocence.

"Shut up and deal with it, you wanna get involved, then you handle it." The cameras above us began to move, scanning the room as the cameras and computers worked out if there were any changes. I smirked at the guy, making him hesitate as I quietly whispered so that only he could hear me.

"Fuck you." I winked at him, just to irritate him more. He flung his arm back and threw a punch at me. The punch connected, sending me stumbling back into the crowd just as the alarm sounded and the two guys began to get shocked. "Toby, let's go." I mumbled as I forced myself to my feet, grabbing Toby once again and pulling him up. I yanked his arm across my shoulders again and began to drag him out of the dispersing crowd. The alarm was ringing loudly and warning everyone that they had one minute to get to a cell otherwise they risked getting shocked. I could only hope that taking Toby and I to Sol's room was enough to save us.

"Christ Lex. I owe you." Toby huffed as he limped, his weight shifting onto me as he struggled to walk. How I sometimes wished I was strong enough to carry these guys away from bad situations.

"You're pretty beat up Toby." I replied, once again taking in his face. "What did you do to those guys?" We stopped outside Sol's room and I held Toby's hand up to scan it, moving so that he was in line with the camera. I then scanned my hand and face and waited for Sol to let us in. The door opened and to both Toby and I's surprise, Sol was at the door waiting to help us.

"What the fuck happened?" He barked as he grabbed Toby's other arm. "Raj, Ty... come and help Toby. Eddy, tell the boss I need to speak to him." Within a flash, the guys were surrounding us and Toby was taken over to the seating area where the guys began to clean his wounds. It felt like time slowed down for a second as I watched everyone working on Toby to sort him out. Meanwhile I stood where I was feeling numb and a little nauseous. Sol moved in front of me and placed a hand on my arm. "Lex? You okay?" My hearing sounded like I was in a bubble, I felt clammy and sick.

"I- I don't think so..." I muttered as my vision went blurry and before I knew what I was doing, I blacked out.