Short Stories

Twenty-nine hours

N/A: This story was a challenge that I did where there were certain words and objects that needed to be used. I had to use a certain word or object/numbers a certain amount of times(Example: firewood x5). Some things in the story were put in to see if I could make a story out of it. Hope you enjoy how I incorporated it.

Twenty-nine long hours and counting.

The jail cells of riverside county remain untouched by any innocent soul. Over one hundred cells, Seventy-six of them filled by a person someone would call a monster. The prison was made for those sentenced for life. Not one of those inmates were supposed to see the light of day.

It’s been twenty-nine hours since the guards abandoned them to rot.

Twenty-nine hours since the lights and water turned off.

Twenty-nine unpredictable hours, not one cellmate knowing what was happening.

Cellmate 7429 stayed quiet unlike the others who were banging against the metal and screaming profanities against each other. 7429 sat on his hard as a rock mattress, with his last small pencil in his left hand. He drew on the notebook that a guard gave him for good behavior a few weeks ago. His thoughts captured him, not letting him back to reality. The yelling was blocked out as he continued to draw his childhood treehouse, sticks littering all around it. His hand moved in swift movement across the page, taking in each detail.

Cellmate 7430 continued to try his final idea as to get out of the cell. His face pressed hard against the cold metal, his right arm reaching out of the cell trying to grab onto the dead guard a few feet away. His red fingertips brushed against the fabric of the guards uniform. Using the little leverage he had, 7430 managed to get a hold of the guard. With a sigh of exhaustion, he eagerly searches for the cell door keys. The feeling of odd shaped metal, causes him to sit up straight, quickly putting the key into the keyhole. The cell door opens with a creak, the racket of other cellmates makes it easy to get out without notice.  Bending down to take a look at the guard, 7430 wraps his hand around the pencil that had been lodged into the guard’s neck. The sticky substance drips onto the concrete before 7430 wipes it on his pants. Standing up, he steps over the body not giving it a second glance. With his cell close to the exit, it will make it easy to get his brother and leave without the others noticing. Every man for themself.

Thankfully the brothers had their cells next to one another. 7430 quickly unlocked 7429’s cell, before tossing the pencil that 7430 had found onto the bed. Gaining 7429’s attention, he looks up to see his brother and then back down to the pencil. No communication was needed for 7430 to know who’s pencil it was. 7429 got up from the bed, carrying his notebook and two pencils with him. 

Making sure that the cellmates were distracted, the brothers made a quick stride towards the door. It opened with ease, the previous guards forgetting to lock them when they had run out. The halls of the prison were dim, with the emergency lights on every other corner, a new body was found, blood dripping down their chins. 

The front exit needed a pin code instead as well as a key. Rummaging through the dead bodies, 7429 found a new set of keys to go through, while 7430 found a baton stick. Without patience, 7430 took the baton stick to the keypad, hitting it repeatedly. Sparks flew out, wires dangling on the edge.

With no one to work on the security, it meant all extra reinforcements were down, making their escape easy. The outside electric fence had its shields down, the throw of a stick from 7429, confirmed that. The two climbed the fence, carefully going over the barbed wire. They go down the other side of the fence, jumping the last few feet.

7430 and 7429 looked around them, for the last six years, concrete walls and metal bars were all they saw. They imagined the outside to be beautiful and full of color, this was nothing that they would have expected. Trees were burned and old, clouds mixed with smoke, colors in the sky and grass were dull. 5 big sticks from fallen trees lay in front of them.

Looking over the edge of the cliff, buildings were torn apart. Bodies could be seen spread out across the streets. Splatters of red, painted the environment around them. 

Damn,Who knew… maybe staying to rot in a cell would’ve been the better choice.

Twenty-nine hours…. What the hell happened?!?