The Prison Break (Short Story)

[Yuvira]

So, on an impulse, I decided to write up a short story
based on The Prison Break in Monaco. Judge it or
praise it if you want. If it's bad, I'd rather not continue
it, but if pwople like it then I'll consider continuing
the story. So, without further ado, here it is.

THE PRISON BREAK

It was cold and stormy at the Monaco jail.
Outside, the wind howled, and the rain beat the dirt
into wet mud. Inside the prison, the roof leaked, the
lights flickered, and there were rats. The four of
us huddled in our individual cells, cold and
shivering.
They call me the Lookout. I have a natural
ability when it comes to identifying and placing
sounds. I'm proud to say that I'm one of the most
important members of our crew. But there we were:
locked up, wet, and hungry. My old friend, who we
called the Locksmith, was in the cell across from me.
The Pickpocket and his monkey were next to the
Locksmith, and the psychopath we called the Cleaner
was in the cell next to mine.
You see, all of our names are kept a secret, even
from each other. Not knowing the others' names comes
in handy in a variety of situations. The only one
of us with a 'name' was Hector, the Pickpocket's
monkey. His monkey was incredibly well trained, and
had a thing for stealing wallets. To this day, I have no
idea how he got the monkey into the jail with him.
"They shipping you guys off tomorrow?" I
asked, knowing full well the answer.
"Oui," replied the Pickpocket. "I am to be
deported, and they will throw Hector in a zoo." Then,
the Locksmith surprised me.
"Relax chief, I can get us outta here." Now, the
Locksmith had never actually been in the trade he's
named for. Instead, he had played cards at a casino,
using a variety of tricks to cheat his way into winning. He
had merely learned a lot about his 'craft' from his father,
who'd been a locksmith for years.
He took a bit of wire from under his prison
clothes, fiddled with it a bit, and then stuck it into
his door's lock and twisted. Amazingly, the door popped
free. He quickly ran to each of our cells and unlocked
them, and we started to leave.
"Why didn't you do this earlier?" I asked
quietly.
"I wanted to make sure it was absolutely
necessary," he replied.
It was strange. There wasn't a single
guard on our floor. The only exception was a white-
shirt sitting off in a separate room, typing out an e-mail
to someone or other. As we ran down the hall, we
saw a stairwell leading to the next floor, but a quick
check revealed a surprising number of people.
"What are we going to do?" whispered the
Locksmith. I thought for a moment, then looked up
at them.
"You remember that one guy? The one who dug
the tunnel?" I asked. The man had been thrown in
a few weeks ago for who knows what, but had
smashed his way out with a sledgehammer. God knows
how he got THAT into the prison.
"I don't think they've blocked off his hole
yet," I continued, "and I heard that the tunnel leads
up into some abandoned subway line or something."
We agreed to check it out.
Together, with the monkey trailing behind us,
we entered the next cell block over, and in the last
cell, we saw the tunnel. I noticed some of the other
prisoners as we passed the other cells. They all
looked miserable, and hardly payed us any mind as we
ran past, as if this were a normal occurance. They
did, however, give us these looks, like we were
abandoning them. Leaving them behind to face their
problems and fears alone. I felt sad that we were leaving
these poor, broken people behind, but there was no
way we could take them with us. Besides, like us,
they were in prison for a reason, whatever that reason
was.
Once we went through the dirty passage
sledgehammer-man had dug, we discovered a wooden
ladder leading up to the passage above. The ladder
seemed oddly out of place, as if it were there to
guide us out of that place. We exchanged looks,
then one by one climbed up into the passage above.
We ran down the tunnel and found a service
ladder leading into a duct, and this is where
another of my skills was incredibly useful. I'm
very quick and agile, and I'm able to get into
crawl spaces and ducts much faster than any of the
others. I climbed up first then helped the others
into the duct, and we crawled along it until we
found another ladder on what we assumed was the
other side of the wall. There, we found a stairwell
leading up to a hatch in the ceiling
We moved in silence. The Locksmith went
up first and pushed open the hatch. The wind and
rain immediately started blowing into the small
room. We climbed out quickly, and once we were up,
we slowly began edging along the side of the building.
This prison wasn't you're average prison. In fact,
it looked like something straight out of a movie.
It was made of old, red brick, and sat atop a large
cliff. The recreational yard bordered the cliff's
edge, with only a metal fence to stop anyone from
hurtling over the edge.
Another crawlspace, and we were in some
kind of office, where I stopped everyone. I heard
something.
"There's a guard patrolling the yard just
outside, and I believe there's another one in the
main building next door." I surprised even myself
with my abilities from time to time. Either way,
the guard outside was just patrolling circles around
a few trees, and we easily snuck around him and
into the main building next door. Just through
the next few rooms was a parking lot where they
kept, amongst other confiscated vehicles, the van
we had used for so long.
That green van had been our escape
vehicle for many years before we were caught and
thrown into jail. Now, mind you, all of our jobs
before then were just petty thieving activities.
We had killed one or two people before, but we
had quickly realised that murder usually just
got you a one way ticket to jail. We'd been sent
here two weeks ago after killing a man (accidentally,
of course) who'd owed us a lot of money.
Anyways, the keys for our van had
been lost many years prior, so the doors were
always unlocked, and a quick hotwiring always
got the van started in no time.
With freedom on our minds, we snuck
through the next three rooms, and discovered the
other guard with his back to us, sitting at a
desk. The Cleaner ran over and, before any of
us realized he'd even moved, knocked the guy
out cold. The guard immediately slumped to the
floor with an audible 'thump.'
Perhaps I should tell you what background
the Cleaner comes from. You see, he has this
mental condition. His mind moves so slowly that
he doesn't feel pain, and is numb to most
emotions. Despite this, he moves relatively quickly,
and can knock a man out in the blink of an eye.
I heard somewhere that he has a brother who
is the exact opposite, his mind moving so quickly
that his body has a hard time keeping up. He's
practically broken, and has difficulty communicating
with others.
Either way, with the second the guard was down,
we all bolted for the door. That was when I
noticed the metal pad on the ground, just in front
of the exit. Before I could yell out a warning,
the Locksmith had stepped on it, setting off every
alarm in the building.
With sirens blaring in our ears, we ran
out the door and into the parking lot. The van...
wasn't there. We looked around, dumbfounded. We
were sure we'd seen it parked just outside, on
visiting day, when one of our 'contacts' had come to
visit and share condolences... and then had simply left
us there to die, the bugger.
We ran, scared, sirens in the distance.
Funny that there were so few police in the prison
itself that they actually needed to bring them in
from elsewhere. That's when I saw it. Off in the
far corner, under the cool shade of a tree, barely
visible in the dark. The van.
I pointed to it, and we all started running
towards it. Soon, we had reached or goal. The
Locksmith hopped into the driver's seat and
hotwired the van. I climbed in thorugh the
passenger side while the Cleaner and Pickpocket
(with his monkey of course), jumped into the back.
A few minutes later, we were long gone from
the prison... and back on the streets of Monaco.

[Yuvira]

Huh. Guess Steam doesn't care about indents

[ChevyNoel]

Originally posted by RaceFreak10:

Huh. Guess Steam doesn't care about indents

The code tags preserve spaces...

	...if you absolutely must have them.

[Dr. Madcat]

Nice story! I'd like to see more!

[TangyTangy]

hella rad stuff!!

[Joseph]

Great story! Maybe make a sequel to this? It really thrilled me, even though most people here have completed that level, you changed it and made a few kinks and added suspense, best short story I have ever read!

[DetectiveLizard]

Bravo. Good story, noticed 1 or 2 grammar errors but that is nothing to worry about. I love how you chose the Lookout's point of view. I only play as the Cleaner and Gentleman and I think there is only a point of view for the Locksmith and Pickpocket in the game unless I am wrong? Still great stuff and I hope to see a part 2 or maybe another part of the story with a different character's perspective. :)

[Blast]

Originally posted by The Cleaner:

Great story! Maybe make a sequel to this? It really thrilled me, even though most people here have completed that level, you changed it and made a few kinks and added suspense, best short story I have ever read!

Not to take anything away from the OP, who did a great job...
but you need to read more stories..

[Yuvira]

This is actually my first attempt at writing a story, so no offense taken. I'll probably update the story at some point to fix any grammatical errors (I only gave it a once-over initially). As for sequels, I hope to write the stories from different perspectives, and hopefully improve my writing. Thanks for liking this story! :D

[Yuvira]

Finally got around to updating the story. Should be free of spelling and grammar errors now I think I'm going to continue this series, too, so there's that. Hope everyone enjoyed this story :)