The New and Enlightened Zeke After the brief sojourn into the far reaches of his subconscious mind, aided by Brother Bart's newly created Sativa strain called the Touch of God, Zeke felt fantastic. Even though the conditions in the Valley were oftentimes unforgiving, he was now able to look at it in a positive light. It also sharpened his resolve and laser-focused his goal to escape his predicament. However, the Sons of Lapu-Lapu, whom he thought were integral to his plan, were untrustworthy since they were high all the time. They also tended to reply in incomprehensible rhetoric when asked even the simplest questions. A simple: "How are you?" directed to one of the Sons resulted in a philosophical soliloquy about the meaning of life. No matter, he thought. I can do this alone. New Arrivals While Zeke was setting up his escape plan into motion, new convicts arrived in Beta Quadrant. They were dropped off by a cargo helicopter in a large wooden crate in the middle of the barren
Putting the Plan into Action Jorge's ultimate goal came to fruition as his request was finally granted by the higher-ups in transferring to the Philippine Colony. He had amassed millions from numerous blackmailing schemes and corrupt governmental practices and bullied his way to get what he wanted. His plans were coming together, but there was still something he needed to do: to get his half-sister to the gypsy commune that he had promised to come back to. She had not left his thoughts since the last day he saw her when they hugged and kissed and made a promise to come back for her. Now he was rich and powerful enough to take her away from the clutches of the commune and live a better life with him. He can finally go back and show his mother what a big shot he had become and castigate her for all the harmful things she had done to him. ### Jorge had a hard time tracking down the gypsy commune. They were an itinerant flock, and the longest period they stayed in one area was six m
Stevie Hires Jennifer for a JobIt had been almost six months since the last time Jennifer finished a hit job. She needed to work soon since she was running out of money. She had belatedly found out that women needed a lot of clothes and accessories to maintain their beauty, and some of them didn't come cheap.She was waiting on Stevie, who had told her earlier there was a new job that required her special set of skills. She had gotten a tidbit of the job the other night in Waste, but he was too drunk to convey it. He had told her to get together again later today in their usual meeting place to discuss its entire breadth.The meeting place was in a secluded eatery near Banana Hammock Avenue, formerly Taft Avenue of Old Manila. It was a one-time school canteen of De La Salle University, once a prestigious school in the Colony, now closed forever. It was a broken-down establishment that served the cheapest grub an ordinary resident of Neo Manila
Who Is He? Chief Church took pride in that he was always one step ahead of anyone else. It was a natural talent honed from his strict upbringing by his parents, who were religious zealots. As a child, religion, particularly Catholicism, was forced into Chief Church's young mind, who barely even understood its concepts. He was taught how to pray the Rosary by his mother, who had a penchant for whipping him with a belt if he made a mistake in one of their marathon praying sessions. He was taught all the intricate rituals and soon grew to love it. His father was an old-fashioned Southern gentleman who espoused antiquated beliefs that had no place in the present, like racism and white supremacy. All of these made an impression and instilled in young Mathias' consciousness, thus warping his sensibilities. He became exceedingly self-righteous and used this heady mix of knowledge to become successful in his station in life. All of these were especially useful in his work as the Chief of
Significant Progress Zeke and Trevor had made substantial progress in digging the escape tunnel from their makeshift hut towards the outside prison walls. Due to the arid environment of the island, the soil offered little resistance, and they were able to dig with relative ease. They made sure to install wooden planks on the inner sides of the hole at particular points where pressure was the weakest. They had to be strong enough to hinder potential cave-ins. They were too busy in their excavation and forgot to watch their backs from curious parties who could potentially blow their escape plan wide open. One was Andy, the proverbial prison snitch, who was more of a nuisance than a direct threat. The worse thing he did was to make weird faces as he stared at them whenever they encounter each other. The other was prison guard Sgt. Bruce Wang, who had a scope and a long-range rifle, and unbeknown to them was watching from afar. Andy still updated him on the various occurrences in the
Bad News The Secretary glanced at his watch: it was ten minutes to six in the evening, almost time for the local evening news to begin on TV. Stevie had texted earlier to watch a segment about the supposed assassination of a particular thorn on their sides: Chief of Staff Matthias Church, their boss. Secretary La Selva was anxious and also excited. He was fully expecting success in the assassination plot that Stevie had concocted and will finally get to breathe a sigh of relief. He switched the TV on, clicked to the local news channel, and waited with bated breath. He was anticipating it to be the top story since the Chief was boss among bosses in the Colony, and any news concerning him was always treated as a big deal. But the first news segment was about the inflation crisis affecting the Mother Country and its colonies. It talked about an increase in crime, widespread poverty, and food shortage but no mention of anyone assassinated. Hmm, that's weird. Maybe it will come up on
Jennifer's New Job Jennifer had found new employment as a hotel maid in an ultra-exclusive five-star hotel called Olympus. Stevie had pulled some strings and gotten her this stint. She had been working for three weeks. At first, she wasn't used to doing manual maidservant work since she had grown up blessed with affluent privileges. However, she was a quick learner and mastered the job immediately. Olympus Hotel was the location where the Higher Echelons and other top Colony brass came together and have meetings. They would also bring their families, and once the business was over, use its amenities for relaxation and pleasure. The hotel has everything enjoyable on its premises, which included a shopping mall, movie houses, a swimming pool, a bar and dance hall, and a few restaurants. They usually resided and remained in the penthouse and had everything brought up to them. There was only one way in and out through an elevator using biometric thumbprint authentication, which was en
Going Up the North Tower While Trevor and Brother Jomar were taking care of the other essentials to facilitate the escape, Zeke was preparing himself for the difficult task he was about to do: infiltrate the Valley's defenses, go up to one of the towers, and operate the GPS on the smartphone. The goal was to look for exact directions to navigate the boat to the closest inhabited island where they could find their way home. Brother Jomar had said that the only way for a prisoner to go up on one of the towers was in a circumstance that a particular convict had died, got injured, or became sick. It meant they had to feign an injury or sickness of some kind to be brought to the prison infirmary located at the north tower. The best scenario was to be sent up due to a medical ailment. Pretending to get an injury might be risky, and get shot in the process if it was discovered as fake all along. It had to be regarded as a real condition to merit acceptance from the infirmary staff. By sh