The Black Box Disease

Es-cah-pay

Kassidy and I were stationed at the only set of doors exiting this floor. Snoring echoed down the hallway, and again I wondered how boxers don't find this place with all the racket the trainees make. I think I hear the floor vibrating. On a positive note, maybe that can be our cover to sneak by Dylan and Sean. Kassidy looks at me, and I nod in response. It's time.

It's 11:53, almost midnight. Other than the obnoxious snoring, the halls were quiet. The plan: sneak past Dylan and Sean, and get the boys. Just thinking of Dylan makes my bruises ache. I was still pretty sore, but the splotches on my face have healed to just light bruises. "Are you ready?" Kassidy whispers. "No, why are you whispering?" I whisper back. "We're the only ones awake." I'm getting cold feet just waiting here, what are the odds of a small group of people escaping a whole camp of trained fighters? Probably as much likely as a single person holding off a horde of boxers. "Let's go" I say, " before I decide not to"."okay" Kassidy whispered.

There aren't any windows in this building, except for the ones on the stairway door. That means Dylan and Sean could see us, if they are looking at the stairs. The heavy metal doors squeal softly as I pull them open, and we step into the stale air of the stairway. Our footsteps sound impossibly loud in my ears, but maybe that's just my heartbeat. As we round the corner of the stairs Kassidy motions for me to start crawling. We are almost past the second floor landing when I hear someone walking behind those doors. I stand up and stick tight up against the wall. If someone only looks out those windows, then there's no way they could see, but if Dylan or Sean pokes their head out, it's game over.

After a couple minutes, which felt like years, the footsteps clack back down hallway in a quick staccato. Kassidy glances at me, and we shimmy down the other set of stairs. She takes one side of the doors and I take the other. Shea and James will have the advantage here, but we have to keep them from firing any shots and waking everyone up. I slowly open the door, a light creak came from the door, I shuttered and stopped moving. Waiting for them to hear it. Waiting for them to find us. Shoot us. Wake everyone up. Ethan and my friends finding our lifeless bodies. I hear something and look up from my thoughts and see Kassidy crawling through the doors. I follow her, scared and anxious.

We get in the prisoners hall. Kassidy sees James marching down the hallway and immediately gets behind him, and pulls him into a choke hold. Shea isn't down this hallway, which means she's probably making her rounds at each of the prisoner's cells. I motion to Kassidy that I'm gonna check each of the hallways, and she props up the now unconscious James in the stairwell. She nods at me and we walk down opposite ways. I peek around the next corner and see Shea marching towards me. Uh oh.. I look around for any sort of thing to knock her out with. Clack clack clack clack. I can hear her steel tipped boots coming down the hallway. Red didn't trust me with a gun, so all I have is a pocketknife. I'm sure he thinks that was a great joke. But I'm not aiming to kill Shea, she's not the one who forced me to stay here. I guess I'll take after Kassidy and choke her out.

I heard the clack of her shoes stop, and I peek around the corner. She's stopped in front of one of the cells. I can hear the prisoner groaning, and Shea is shaking the bars. "Get up." She said roughly. The prisoner slowly lifted his head, and in a split second he launched himself towards her. Her scream echoed down the hallway,and then she turned toward me, foaming at the mouth. Oh no. No...no... no.... nonono. I hope Red's prepared for a boxer breakout.

I ran towards the boxer and Shea, not caring if anyone saw me. All of a sudden, alarms were sounding and I knew it was because of me. I ignored the alarms, and pulled out my pocketknife. I stabbed the boxer in the head. Then, I turned to Shea. It was too late, she was already changing. I grabbed the gun off her belt, and aimed the gun at her head. I pulled the trigger, my eyes closed. The sound of the gun radiated in the halls, louder then the alarm. If the alarm didn't give me away, this sure did. But, while I was thinking where to run a group of trainees entered the room. "Watch out!" I say, as a boxer bites one of them.

I didn't even look over my shoulders as I was running through the halls. I was trying to find Kassidy, so we could get everyone and get out. I heard the guns going off behind me, but I kept running. "Stop." Trainees yelled behind me. Then I heard a walkee. "Red, come in. Boxer outbreak in prisoner block, and Crystal Woods is not in her station." I didn't stop to talk. The trainee speaks again. "I found her. She's in the boys hallway." I was running through the hallways, when I saw Ethan. "Crystal stop!" I hear someone behind me shout. I turn around, only to see Red. He looked at me in fury and our eyes locked in momentary battle of wills. His eyes widened in horror and surprise and then he toppled under the weight of the growing boxer hoard.

I started at the group of boxers headed towards me. This is it. "Crystal, run!" Ethan shouts as he bangs on his cell. I stood frozen, staring death right in the face. My feet glued to the floor, unwilling to move. I look around for an exit, all the while hearing Red's screams as the boxers tear him apart. Then I see it, an open cell. I run in and close the gate. I sit down slowly, staring at the boxers. Fear overwhelmed me, and I could barely hear Ethan yelling my name over the Boxer's snarls.