(PEOPLE ARE FORCED TO COMMIT CRIMES) DOCTOR ROYCE

Yie’s eyes flashed open to the sight of light vanishing from his prison cell and the cell bars mysteriously open. If it was lights out, the lights would have gone off but the cell bars would have remained shut, he reasoned. But it was rather the contrary, which could mean only one thing.                                                          He rose from his bed immediately to see light in other prison cells. It most definitely wasn’t a power outage nor was it a plan to break him out of prison. It was his execution, he realized as he gazed into the dark night of his cell.                                                                                

Silently, he made for the tiny knife he had somehow smuggled in his possession. He knew a day like this would come; Yie clasped the metal in his palm concealing it. As he sat calmly, his mind raced far to deep ends calculating how long it will take for them to get to his cell and his next line of action. Approximately 15 seconds he thought seeing as they needed to blend in and make everything appear normal. But the assassins won’t expect him to be prepared, would they?                                                                                                                                  

Yie made for the wall closest to the bars immediately, hiding himself under its cover. Then as expected, footsteps trooped into the cell almost the very moment he had reached for the wall. With a well aimed swing at the air, he launched the knife for a strike at the intruder.                    

The intruder somehow having foreseen the move caught Yie’s hand in mid air. The two forces moved to struggle with each other without an idea what the other person looked like. Yie’s assailant somehow managed to become the victor as he was able to jam Yie’s head to the bunk bed.                                                                                                                                                       

The other 3 who followed, rushed at Yie spontaneously, with their feet and hands raining on the defeated fellow.                                                                                                              

Yie not willing to give up; struggled to reach his knife once more only to be beaten to it by the lead assailant. Before he could make another move for the weapon, the man stuck his into his back.                                                                                                                                                 

At first when it struck, he felt nothing aside his back going numb. Then the minute after, the agony registered in his brain like a fish out of water. It was a knife, Yie realized before sprawling to the floor.                                                                                                                        

The lead assailant took the knife out of his back once more then without a single warning, stuck it again, this time into his shoulder. Yie fell back a third time but unlike the previous times, with a scream.                 

When it rained, the scream had no effect, but minutes following it, saw the interruption of power in other cells, bringing a total darkness to the prison block. The lights out confused not only Yie’s assailants but Yie himself. It didn’t take time for the prisoners to get riled up as moments following it, they launched protests from within the confines of their cells.                              

Yie took the luxury of the disturbance and confusion to grab his crooked knife and stick it into the legs of the lead assailant. He withdrew it instantly then did the same to the rest. That was approximately 5 minutes head start to walk out of his cell to do something that doesn’t lead to him ending up dead, he thought as he staggered off the reach of his assailants.                                  

In their scuffle with agony, all four aimed their hands at Yie, hoping to drag him back and finish the job. But Yie more tolerant of pain than they were, succeeded in avoiding them.              

With staggered steps, Yie proved the victor as he made it out of his cell alive. But the fight wasn’t over; not in the slightest. If anything but the least, the four assailants were all too pissed with their prey as they got over their pain. In unison, they made for Yie in the cover of the dark.                                                                                                                                                   

Yie knew with every passing second he was slowing, and it wouldn’t be long till they caught him and finished the job, or better still he bled to death. He hated it but he thought of no other way of survival but subduing his ego and calling for help.                                                               

“Help…” he grunted amongst the uproar, “Help…” he mumbled again before finally sprawling to the floor. He had bled too much to continue yelling for help.                                                

As his breath slowed, the lights came on, flashing right at his eyes. Yie in his subconscious saw two men gather in front of him; two guards in their sky blue uniform staring at the blood that stained Yie’s white.                    

“They found him,” Frank barged in saying; his throat almost jumping out of his mouth only to run back on sighting Doctor Royce.                                                                                                                      

“Found who?” the woman asked, skeptic though interested as she stared from her seat.                   

“Bilal…” Frank quipped, pausing to catch his breath again. “We got report some guard in Atwater tried to kill him” he informed gaining composure albeit with the look of concern wearing him out. “It’s them…it’s Alqaeda. They know the Feds and C.I.A have him and he’s going to cut a deal” he revealed before moving closer to the woman. “They don’t want that. They may have failed, but they’ll strike again” he added.                                                                               

Doctor Royce having little time to digest all the man had blabbered about, sat still focusing on the thin air and later the movements of Frank’s eyes. There, she saw his fears. They were nothing to be scared of, she thought inside her.                                                                              

“We need to have him moved to another facility now and start project Horus” Frank advised; his fears, his guide.                                                                                                                                   

“Has he agreed to the program?” Doctor Royce chirped in before he could go on.                        

Frank’s eyes wavering around at the question, found no easier response aside ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ hard to give. “He is stubborn” he finally let out much to the humour of Royce.                             

The doctor stared on from her desk for minutes before sighing. She thought of a response to give but found none. Only one ran into her thoughts at the last minute. “Then we have to give him time” she eventually said.                                                                                                          

“What about Boyle?” Frank dropped.