Scars And Stories

Chapter 18

Patrick woke up with a start to an alarm going off. The lights in the prison illuminated the corridors in a red color. The guards were running down the corridors, rushing past the cells toward the entrance of the prison.

Patrick stayed in bed as the other inmates stood behind the bars of their prison cells. He smiled to himself as he realized he was finally going to leave this prison, but he couldn't help the thoughts in his head reminding him of the possibility that the Blue Birds could be defeated by the Syndicate.

The loud noise of the guards' boots hitting the floor subsided and was replaced by the voices of the prisoners, all of them commenting about what just happened.

A few gunshots coming from further in the prison echoed through the corridors, causing everyone to stop talking.

Patrick's head shot up as the loud noises persisted. The bad feeling he had about this changed the look on his face to fear. He stood up and walked to the bars, looking to his right, where all the noise was coming from. However, he couldn't see anything.

The sound of footsteps coming from his left drew his attention. He quickly turned his head to see a few people walking down the corridor with masks on their faces and their hoods pulled up, peering into every cells they passed.

"He's here," One of them said as he pointed at Patrick.

Even though the dirty blond had already seen these masks in one of his dreams, he was still unsure if they were here to help him or not. He backed away from the bars as they approach him.

One of them stopped in front of the cell and pulled out keys from his hoodie's pocket. He found the right key and took it out of the key ring, giving it to his friend. "Free the others," He commanded before turning back to Patrick and opening his cell. He stepped in as Patrick stood there, frozen in place and staring at the man in front of him. "It's time to leave now."

Patrick smiled and hugged the man. "Thank you," He muttered against the chest of the taller man.

The man pulled out of the embrace. "Come on, we have to go." He turned around and stepped into the corridor with Patrick. Joe, Isaac, Ben and Dave were just getting out of their cells.

"I'm Ryan, by the way," The man with the mask said as he put his backpack on the ground and knelt down in front of it, "And here's Alex and Jack." The two other men waved. He opened the bag and pulled out five masks like his and gave them to the five inmates. "Put these on." They did as ordered.

Ryan stood up and put his bag on his back. He placed his hand on Patrick's shoulder and started walking away. "You guys come with me," He told the five men and turned around to his friend, "And you, free the others; come to the van when you're done." The men nodded and started to open the other cells in the corridor.

Ryan led the guys to one of the watchtowers of the prison. Two bodies of guards laid on the ground; pieces of glass covered the floor in front of one of the broken windows. Ryan put his head out the window and looked down, making sure the rope was still there. He turned back to the five men and nodded toward the rope. "This way," He said, waiting for the five of them to be outside before going down as well.

He looked up and saw Alex standing at the top of the tower, his arm around Jack, helping him up as he was leaning on him. "Jack got shot in the leg," He shouted.

"Oh God, no," Ryan muttered under his breath, his eyes wide.

"You got this?" Alex asked Jack as he looked him in his eyes behind the mask, holding his shoulders.

Jack winced in pain and nodded. Alex let go of him and let him go down. As Jack was just a few feet above the ground, he let go of the rope and fell to the ground as he tried to land on his feet. He groaned in pain and slowly lifted himself up.

"Are you okay?" Ryan asked as he helped him up. The black haired man nodded slowly as he breathed heavily.

Gunshots kept echoing throughout the prison. "Can we go now?" Joe asked, drawing everyone's attention.

Ryan nodded and started leading the way, holding Jack up with Alex's help. The men made their way to the van parked next to the road, not too far from the prison. Ryan and Alex got in the front, while the rest of them piled in the back.

Alex's phone rung and he picked up, putting it on speaker. "Hey, we're done here," The caller announced.

"Alright, come to the headquarters then. We got the guys; we're on our way," He responded.

"Great. But uh, we...lost some guys," He announced, a sad tone his voice.

Alex looked at Ryan, his mouth slightly agape. Ryan bit down on his lower lip and hit the steering wheel in frustration. "Oh uh, a-alright," Alex stammered, "Um, stay safe, guys. Make sure you're not being followed." And with that, he hung up.