Chapter 113: At the prison_escape plan

"Brother Neil," the whisper was almost inaudible, "What are you going to do if it starts snowing again tomorrow, like the weather forecast said?" Asked a young man in his early twenties as he leaned down from the upper bunk and looked at the man who was stretched out on the bed below his, staring at the ceiling. "Brother Neil, did you hear me or are you daydreaming again?" he added in a louder whisper to get his attention.

Though at first Neil had warned him to stop calling him brother, Kai would never listen and continued to call him that until Neil no longer cared anymore.

Neil finally pulled his mind from the endless thoughts of his plans to escape and the risks associated with it, he slowly turned his head and looked at the twenty one year old boy above his bed who shared his cell in the Novaria military mental prison.

"What did you say?" Neil asked, his voice detached with any emotions.

Kai sighed and repeated himself, "I said, about your plans tomorrow. What if the weather doesn’t act in your favor, do you have a plan B?"

Neil had been looking forward to his escape plan tomorrow for months now. It was something he and Liam, who had been helping him from outside had talked about when he came to visit him last week. And the reason Kai knew about it was because the boy was from a very influential family with the connections to some Mafia world in Novaria. He had volunteered to help Neil by asking his elder brother to make connections for his escape.

Kai was the last born of his family, and he was doted on by his parents, which had lead the boy into becoming a gangster and had ended up in prison for his crimes. Neil had paid Kai’s elder brother a fortune to pave the way once he made his escape tomorrow.

He had done it on Kai’s assurance that his elder brother would do anything as long as a huge amount of money was concerned. Kai had told him that, "Worry not, my brother would go against the devil as long as you have money. He will use my father’s connection to help your plans."

But Neil had no actual way of knowing for a few more hours if the money he had instructed Liam to transfer into the man’s bank account was actually buying him his freedom at the moment.

"I’ll handle it," he replied flatly to the boy’s earlier question about his plan B if the weather didn’t turn out in his favor then closed back his eyes.

Kai pursed his lips and stuck his head lower downwards to peek at Neil, "Well, when you ’handle it,’ don’t forget you owe me twenty dollars. Last year we made a bet on that game night and you lost. Remember?"

"Hmm. I’ll pay you after I get out of this hellhole." In case anyone was listening, Neil added, "Someday in the future."

With a boyish grin, Kai leaned back on his bed, and took out the magazine he had been given earlier in the day by his elder brother who had come to visit him. He crossed his feet at the ankles, and lapsed into silence as he read the magazine with deep interest.

Meanwhile, Neil on the other hand was in deep thought. Twenty damn dollars ... Neil thought grimly, remembering when he used to hand out fifty-dollar tips to messengers and waiters as casually as if it was play money.

But In this hellhole where he had spent the last five years, men killed each other for a dollar. Twenty dollars could buy anything that was available here, like cigarettes, and magazines that helps the men pleasure themselves and prevent them from any act of perversion.

Those were just a few of the little "luxuries" that money could buy in this place. Normally Neil tried never to think of the way he had once lived, because it made this cell with a sink, a toilet, and two cots along with a desk even more unbearable, but now that he was resolved to escape or die trying, he wanted to remember his life.

The memory would reinforce his resolve to make the break, no matter the cost or the risk. He wanted to remember the rage he felt the first day when the cell door clanged shut and the next day, when a gang of thugs surrounded him in the prison yard, taunting, "C’mon, General Wayner, show us how you got those badges in the military."

"We heard you never deserved them and it was your uncle who made it possible for you. Tsk, what a loser you are! Ha ha ha ha!!"

Neil saw red when he heard them laugh at his face. It was pure, blind, irrational fury that had sent him plowing into the biggest of the group, fury and an unformed wish to end his life there and then, as quickly as possible, but not until he had inflicted pain on his tormentor. And he inflicted plenty that day. He would have killed them if he weren’t stopped.

By the time the fight was stopped, Neil had three broken ribs and a bruised face, but two of his opponents looked a hell of a lot worse than he did. One could barely even move from the ground.

His triumph landed him in the punishment room for a week, where he was electrified with machines and forced to drink some filthy pills that messed with his system for days. But no one fooled with him again after that. Word spread that he was a maniac, and even the worst of the goons began to worship him. He was, after all, a convicted murderer, not an ordinary petty felon. That also won him a certain amount of respect with men bowing at his feet in the prison.

Every single morning, some doctors would come to check on them along with soldiers following behind them. Since they believed him to be mentally unstable, he was forced to take some pills, and when he misbehaved, it would lead to him being electrified. It had taken him three years to wise up and realize that the easiest path was to do as he was told and act like a gentleman, which also meant behaving himself and playing the game like a good little soldier. Any prisoner with good behavior, would be granted the privilege to get to step out of the prison yard every once a month.

And he had done just that, he had even come to like some of the cons, but he had never, in all these years, known peace. How could he know peace when he was locked in here and the person responsible for his crimes was moving freely outside?

Peace could only come with acceptance of his fate, and not once during his long imprisonment, not even for a moment, had he been able to do what convicts were advised to do. He could not accept his confinement and simply put in his time here. He had learned to play the game and pretend that he had "adjusted," but the truth was just the opposite.

The truth was that every morning, when his eyes opened, the inner battle began again and it continued to rage until he finally fell asleep. He had to get out of here before it drove him insane and made him into the monster they called him.

Neil’s plan was solid. Every once in a month, the higher ranked military, who made sure to visit the military prison, would be given the chance to take one of the good behaved prisoners out to assist them with some things in the city.

However, this time it was Neil’s turn to get the chance to step out. And unfortunately for him, it was Jason Wallace who would be coming tommorow to take him and Kai out for one day out; which would be his first and last day to see the outside world. And Neil wanted to take the opportunity to escape.

He had waited for this opportunity, and tomorrow was his first and last opportunity. Everything he needed to make good his escape had been arranged for him. Neil’s jaw clenched. By this time tomorrow, he would already be free. Or dead. Now, he had to wait for tomorrow’s outcome to know his fate, and he didn’t know how he was going to bear the suspense.

Closing his eyes, he went over the plan again. It was filled with pitfalls, but Kai was trustworthy, so he had help on the inside. Everything on the outside was supposedly taken care of by Kai’s elder brother and Liam, who had arranged money, transportation, and a new identity for him to leave the city for awhile until the search for him had settled then he would hunt down the bastard responsible for putting him here.

At this point, what worried him the most were the things he couldn’t accurately predict or allow for, like the weather and the location of possible roadblocks. Even with his careful planning, there were a thousand tiny things that could happen and cause a domino effect that could result in the collapse of his entire scheme. The risk was enormous, but it didn’t matter. Not really. He only had two choices: to stay in this hellhole and let it destroy what was left of his mind or escape and risk the probability of being shot down when they tried to capture him.

As far as he was concerned, being killed was infinitely preferable to rotting in here. Even if he made good his escape, he knew they’d never stop hunting for him.

For the rest of his life_probably his very short life_he’d never be able to relax or stop looking over his shoulder, no matter what part of the world he made it to.

It was worth it. Anything was worth it.

"Holy crap!" Kai’s exuberant shout jolted Neil from his preoccupation with his escape plans. "She’s getting married!" He waved the magazine he had been reading in front of Neil and when Neil merely turned his head and gave him a blank look, he said it louder.

"Brother Neil, didn’t you hear me, she’s getting married!"

"Who’s getting married?" Neil asked dryly, "I don’t think whoever is getting married on that magazine is any of my concern, Kai. I_"

"My crush. The woman we saw on the television of the lunch room last year, the one I fell in love with at first sight. What’s her name again...Ahh, I remember! Mia Harrison!" He exclaimed as he jumped down his bed and put his hands on his hips. "I remember your reaction to her face on television, I know you also believe that she’s beautiful and fun. You had stared at her like you have never seen a woman on television before. I am so..."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, KAI!!" Neil angrily yelled as he didn’t want to hear anything about Mia Harrison’s life and how great she was doing while he couldn’t be out there to witness any of it. Earlier today, he had been listening to a podcast about her when he heard the person talk about Mia and what she said about regretting ever knowing him. He didn’t want the words to get to him, but it had surprisingly struck a nerve.

He was more than happy that the girl was doing just fine, but he hated his current situation so much he didn’t want to know about her personal life anymore than he wanted to know his fate once he got out of here.

Neil watched Kai’s face fall and instantly regretted his outburst. Despite Kai’s having been charged with an attempted murder at his first month of being a soldier, there was something endearingly childlike about the skinny little spoiled brat. Like Neil, he had been picked for good behavior, but his sentence was up in a month.

Kia was arrogant as hell, always ready for a fight, but he was intensely loyal to Neil, who he had looked up to as a teenager. When Kai was brought here, he had adopted him like an elder brother. Neil had thought he wanted to be left alone, and he made it clear to the boy by making himself scarce and pointedly ignoring him. But it was a futile effort.

The harder he tried to shut him out, the more persistently he tried to make him talk. His family would come to visit him, and they would bring him a lot of goodies, and he would never forget to share them with Neil. Before Neil realized it, he had taken the boy as the little brother he never had and put him under his care in the prison, where he made it clear to the rest not to lay a hand on him.

However, for the first time in years, he had raised his voice at the boy, observing the heartbroken expression in his blue eyes. In an attempt to retract his last hurtful outburst, Neil uttered with sincere remorsefulness in his tone, "Don’t always trust what you read in magazines and news, they are often inaccurate. Your crush is not getting married to anyone," he reassured, however deep down, he was also assuring himself.

"Exactly!" Kai replied, nodding in agreement, his jovial demeanor returning. "Those reporters sometimes fabricate stories. Once I’m out of here in a month, I’ll find her and propose to her on my knees!"

***

Dear readers, starting from this Chapter, things are about to get more interesting. It’s time for you to read between the lines and piece together the clues. It’s been five years in the novel, and months since I wrote the previous last two Chapters before this one, (since I pill them down and gave myself months break before writing this one and the others to come) and the characters may have changed. I didn’t write all the Chapters at once; there are months between them, allowing me to improve my writing. Brace yourselves, the story is about to get more intense. Thank you for joining me on this journey and I hope you stick with me to the end to witness a love story like never before.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read