klaxon
\ KLAK-suhn \ , noun;
1. a loud electric horn, formerly used on automobiles, trucks, etc., and now often used as a warning signal.
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Frank had no idea how he had gotten into his current
predicament. One moment he was simply
doing his job and checking a prisoner’s cell for contraband, and the next, that
same prisoner had his arms pinned and a crude but effective shiv pressed
against his neck.
The loud
wail of the prison alarm rang out in his ears, alerting any guards that weren’t
already there to the escape attempt as the other prisoners that were still
locked up yelled and jeered at him. His
captor held him fast with the small blade firmly pressed against his skin as
they faced Frank’s coworkers. Each of
them had a small handgun pointed at the prisoner, but Frank was held in the
way, preventing any of them from shooting.
“Calm
down, Miller, just let the man go and nothing has to happen.” The warden said in a voice loud enough to be
heard over the sirens.
“Yeah, right. How’s about you all get out of the way and
maybe I won’t stick this chump.” Miller
said. He pressed the shiv a little
deeper into Frank’s neck. He could feel
a drop of blood leaking out. He held his
breath, scared that inhaling would force the blade in deeper.
“You
know we can’t do that. Look, how about
we cut a deal. You let Mr. Harper go,
and I’ll see that you get some additional privileges.” The warden said. He said it as calmly as the situation
allowed, but Frank swore he heard the nervousness in his voice. This situation was just as knew to him as it
was to Frank.
“Why
would I do that? I’d rather just take
this guy and leave. That sounds a lot
better to me.”
“I don’t
know. We can make things pretty nice for
you.” The warden said.
“Nah, I
think I’d rather just leave.” Miller
said. “Now, if you boys don’t mind, I
think I’m pretty much done talking.”
Frank
felt Miller start to walk and had little choice but to follow along. The large prisoner led him back, away from
the wall of guards and towards the nearest unprotected exit. Frank tried to move as much as he could to
give him coworkers a clean shot at the escapee, but he knew it wasn’t going to
work. None of them were sharpshooters,
and if any of them tried to take a shot he was likely to end up dead, either
from friendly fire or from Miller after a shot missed. Still, he felt like he had to do something. But the noise from the still blaring alarms
and the shiv against his throat made it hard to think.
Miller
led Frank out of the cell block and eventually to the courtyard. The sirens weren’t as loud there, so Frank’s
mind was able to work a bit better there.
He went over his options.
Breaking free or overpowering the much larger man was out of the
questions, as was trying to be less than cooperative. So, the only thing he had left was to try and
talk with his captor and convince him that escaping was a bad idea.
“You
know this is a bad idea, right?” He
said.
“Shut
up.” Miller said bluntly.
“No
really. I mean, sure you can run now,
but what happens after that?”
“Simple. I keep on running till you don’t chase me
anymore.”
“You
think that’s really going to work? I
mean, even if you leave this jurisdiction, you’ll just be entering
another. More cops will chase you and
put you in jail again. It’ll never end
and you know it.”
“I’ll
just head south of the boarder then.”
“Oh
yeah, great plan. Except for the fact
that we’re nowhere near the border. Road
Island isn’t exactly a great place to get to Mexico from. You’ll never get on a plain because security
will get you. And even if you hitch all
the way, it’s still thousands of miles and weeks of travel time to get caught
in. You’ll never make it anywhere you
can really live without the risk of getting caught. Look, we haven’t left the prison yet. If you let me go now, you can still get off
without much trouble. So, what do you
say?”
Miller
didn’t say anything for a moment. But he
didn’t stop moving either. Frank began
to get more and more nervous as they approached the tall chain link fence that
surrounded the prison grounds.
“Now,
how exactly are you going to get past the fence?” Frank asked.
“You can’t climb over, not with all the razor wire on top of it. At least, not with me. And you can’t get rid of me, since then all
the other guards will get you. You can’t
go through it either, since you don’t have any wire cutters or anything like
that. Neither do I, if you were thinking
of taking a pair off me. So, what are
you going to do?”
“I got
something set up.” Miller said.
As they
got to the fence, Miller forced Frank to kneel with him. The large man moved a rock that was set up
next to it. It was covering a hole just
big enough for a person to squeeze through.
“If you
had something like this, why not just get out during the night?” Frank asked.
“I got
my reasons. Now get in there.”
Miller
shoved Frank roughly into the hole. It
was a tight fit, but not very long, and it only took him a few seconds to get
to the other side of the fence. A few
seconds after he was out, he felt Miller’s rough hands restrain him and the
shiv again at his throat. Miller forced
Frank to resume walking, roughly turning him around to face the prison fence
and the guards that were amassing there, waiting for their chance.
“Now then,
you asked me why I need you.” Miller
asked when they were several hundred yards away from the prison.
“Uh huh?”
“I need
you to send a message.”
“What
kind of message?”
“I need
to you to let them know what’ll happen to them if they chase me.”
“Which
is?”
Miller
didn’t answer with words. Instead, his
answer came when he felt the blade of the shiv piercing his throat and sliding
through his veins and arteries. He felt
his body run cold, and Miller release his grip on him. As his vision faded, he saw Miller turn and
run.
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Yeah, I got nothing to say right now. Sorry.
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