A Prisoner Of War

Chapter Two : Prison

When I regain consciousness, my head feels like someone had gotten inside and was repeatedly bunging me with a hammer. I press my fingers to my temples and blink several times, as if that would help relieve the pain.

"It's just bad for a while, you know. It'll just get better. And it would also help if you stopped blinking like an idiot."

I look around, shocked by the sudden voice (and also the large amount of sass in the last sentence). My eyes rest on a figure sitting against the cold white wall of the prison. It's a girl around my age, except maybe perhaps a couple of years older. She's wearing a black jacket, Her short black hair up in a ponytail, from which wisps of hair keep escaping and falling towards her face. She's sending me a wary glance with cobalt - blue eyes. Finally, she has to open that big mouth of hers.

"Not staring like a goldfish would also help. I'm Alexandra. Call me Alex."

I finally decide, after much deduction and logical reasoning, that I should also introduce myself to save whatever little is left of my dignity.

"I'm Jacqueline Forester."

She nods, then closes her eyes and leans against the wall. I take advantage of the silence to take in my surroundings.

I am in a tiny cell, made with a sort of white titanium-like substance which won't budge at all. (Believe me- I just tried and injured my knuckles).I'm not sure how to escape from here. No stones to wither away, no hard brick to blast a hole through, no mud floor to dig. At the very top of the room, near the ceiling, is a small ventilation opening from which I have a lovely view of brown mud walls, a distance away. Note the sarcasm.

We must be underground, I think. After scrutinizing the ventilation, I examine the door. Made of the same white metal. Suddenly, the door bangs open and a couple of soldiers stomp in, and throw another girl into the cell. They then slam the door shut. I look at the girl and my eyes widen in recognition.

"Prudence!" I yell and quickly scramble over to where she is.( If you can't remember who she is, she is- was my neighbour.)

She's still knocked out, and she has a bruised elbow and scraped knuckles, but other than that, there's no real damage. Alex had jolted awake when the soldiers opened the door, and now she's also examining Prudence. She slips a hand into the pocket of her jacket, and pulls out a tube of what looks like ointment. She applies a thin layer of the transparent jelly onto Prudence's knuckles and elbow.

"It'll be fine by morning." She declares.

My curiosity is almost to the point of killing the cat. I was stripped of my possessions when I was arrested, so how did Alex have that medicine?

__

Prudence finally wakes up, and immediately begins sobbing once she realizes that she's a prisoner and not in her home. I pat her back awkwardly, not knowing what to do as Alex looks at us with a bored expression.

When Prudence finally stops sobbing, I give her some time to recover herself before I state the obvious.

"We need to escape."

Alex lifts her head. "Are you crazy, kid? These walls"-she taps the one she's currently leaning against - "are like titanium. Impossible to break through."

The door opens again and this time it's another soldier. Except he's a boy around our age. He glances at all of us, then quickly keeps a bowl of bread and water on the floor and shuts the door.

"That's Hunter." Alex states."He's around my age, fifteen. Also a soldier."

I am shocked."How do you know all this?"

"Long story. Don't ask." Alex says firmly, clearly signalling the end of our conversation.

__

Over the next few days, I try to familiarise myself with the prison. I discover a thin, barely visible crack along the wall, proving that the wall isn't really that titanium-like. Every time Hunter opens the door to give us the dry bread, I try to catch a glimpse of the corridors, trying to formulate a plan to escape.

From what I can gather, there is a long corridor outside which leads to the various cells. The soldiers use a lift, apparently, to come down here and then go back to the surface. The ventilation duct runs alongside the corridor, and air is provided to various cells via distribution through vents, like the one in our cell. 

All of a sudden, the door opens and Hunter is standing there, with two other guards.

" Jacqueline Forester?" he announces." The General has asked for you."

_

End of Chapter Two.

Ta - da!

So that's chapter Two for you. I'm sorry I haven't updated early, though. It's always that whenever I finally decide to write something, the universe seems to be against me. Also, I have exams coming up pretty soon, and that is self-explanatory. I'll try to get chapter three on here as soon as possible, I promise.

~T.J.