Excerpt: Prison

Chapter 3

The guard left and the ramp closed to the transport ship. Nathan took a deep breath as he felt a moment of panic at being cut off from the real world.

“Welcome,” an electronic woman greeted. “You have been deemed unsafe and therefore are being removed from society…”

Nathan tuned the woman out. He knew that he would be given a job and he must, under all circumstances, do his job to the best of his abilities. If he does not do his job, he will be killed. He also knew that he should not attack other inmates—well, at least kill them. He could beat him all he wanted apparently. He could not rush the food transport or those guns will mow him down. Part of him wondered if that really deterred some of those up in Prison or if there were those that did rush in just to get out of there.

“…Enjoy your stay.”

“Shut up, lady,” one of the men in the back spat. “She sounds way to happy.”

“She is happy,” the man next to Nathan said. “She got paid.”

Nathan turned to look at him. He had tattoo’s on his arms and his black hair was cut short, almost a buzz cut. He had a five o’clock shadow that looked like it had been there for years. His arms were the size of telephone polls and his girth was twice as wide as Nathan. The man looked like his could swallow Nathan whole. Nathan decided he should try to make friends with him, if to anything deter others from eating him.

“Nathan Black.”

The huge man turned to look at Nathan. The man sized him up and must have thought Nathan not much of a threat. Well, who could? Nathan was just over five-feet with red hair and freckles. He probably weighed no more than a hundred and twenty pounds. He looked more like a mature teenager than a man in his late twenties.

“Jasper Huggins,” the big guy replied. “Nice to meet you.”

“Andy Sparks,” the man directly behind Nathan said while the guy behind Jasper said his name was George Mason.

Jasper was quiet a second and then spoke. “What did you do, little guy?”

Nathan shrugged his shoulders and looked away from Jasper. “Absolutely nothing.”

Jasper laughed. “You can be honest with us.”

“We all did nasty stuff,” George said. “As long as you aren’t a rapist, your fine with us.”

“Dead if you’re a rapist,” Andy agreed.

“I am being honest. I didn’t do anything,” Nathan said quietly.

The transport ship became quiet again.

“You mean, your innocent?” Andy asked.

Nathan merely nodded and rested his head on the backrest of his seat. He closed his eyes and swallowed. He could feel Jasper’s eyes on him.

“You really are innocent,” he murmured. Jasper turned away from Nathan. “You aren’t going to survive up there.”

Nathan agreed. “There’s no way that I can.”

Andy chuckled. “We’ll watch out for you, little guy.”

“Thanks, but I think that you all will have enough trouble as it is.”

“Don’t worry about us,” George said. “Criminal’s have a code, even if it has changed over the years. We set limits and they wont cross them.”

“This isn’t the same,” Jasper rumbled. “There probably isn’t a code up there at all. And if there is one it is probably so flimsy that we wont even be able to recognize it. We are better off thinking that there isn’t one.”

Nathan turned to Jasper and saw that the man was looking at him. He knew that he had unofficial found a friend in the last place that people think of finding friends. “Stay near me, little guy. I wont let them swallow you.”

Nathan smiled. “Thanks.”

The transport ship suddenly gave out a grinding noise and the four men on the vehicle held their breath. Maybe it was going to crash. The ship let lose another groan and then seemed to sigh. A huge clang rang out and everything became still and quiet.

“You have reached Prison,” the woman answered the unspoken question. The clasps that held their arms and feet to their chairs came undone and they were free to move. “The doors will open within a few moments. Searching for tasks…”

The woman stopped speaking and the four sat still and waited. They all hoped that they would not be stuck with crummy jobs but knew better than to hope otherwise.

“George Mason, your task is hallway clean up on deck eight section twelve. Andrew Sparks, your task is cook on deck eight.”

Andrew and George looked at each other and seemed relived that they did not have garbage duty and that they were on the same level.

“Jasper Huggins your task is night guard on deck eight section thirteen. Nathan Black your task is chief engineer of Prison.”

Nathan was shocked but the other three men were more so. “Engineer?” they all asked. “Chief engineer?”

“What are you really good at math or something?” George asked.

Nathan’s eyes were wide. How on earth did they know that he was an engineer? “Well, yeah. I can add any numbers in my head.”

“You were an engineer?” Andy asked.

“Yeah, I had a nice job for about three years as an engineer.”

The doors opened and they were given the view of a long metal hallway. It looked cold and dark. There were iridescent lights that were attached to the ceiling that gave off a slightly bluish glow.

“Enter Prison. Do your task. Survive,” the computer said. “Once you step off the ship the doors will close and the ship will leave you. You are alone.”

The four men had no choice but to walk off the ship and into the heartless hall. Once they were off the door of the transport ship closed and they could hear its engine hum as it left them. They were stuck. They were in Prison.