It was about 5 pm. It has been a few hours since Casper had come from lunch.
He was in the middle of his cell doing push-ups. His face was covered in bruises, and he had some blood on his gray shirt.
Some hours after the scene he made in the canteen, some Ridires entered his cell to teach him a lesson. They did not beat him so badly, but it was still a painful and humiliating experience.
Nonetheless, everything would be worth it in the future. Casper bore being spanked with this in mind.
Although his body was all achy, he still had found the energy to start to work out after some hours of recovering. He could not push too hard his arm, nor his ankle, but even the smallest thing he could do would pay off.
The situation he was in now needed careful planning and patience, improving and building what he had in mind bit by bit. That was the way he always did things back then, and every time he forgot to be cautious, he ended up having big troubles, like now.
"This time I will do things right." He thought, doing his last push-up, sweat dripping from his face.
With a last effort, he finished the movement. He was not the least tired. Usually, he would do the triple of what he did, but there was nothing he could do himself to improve it, instead of obeying his limits and trying to not worse his wounds.
Casper stood up from the ground and went to the sink to wash his face and hands.
Until now, Anton did not say a single thing. His eyes were darting around as per usual, but most of the time he would cast vacant glances towards Casper.
"If you want to say something, I am hearing, Anton." He stated, suddenly.
He thought he would be able to get Anton by surprise, but he was the surprised one when the old man just replied calmly:
"Why did you do these kinds of things?"
Casper could guess that he was thinking about that matter all this while. And, as he was the cunning type, Anton probably was trying to sort out things by himself. He also did not believe in Casper 100%, so he wanted to know the truth, before questioning him about it.
It was not a so practical way to know about someone's honesty and will to cooperate, but it worked very well when someone could apply this.
"Why? I thought you would figure it out by yourself."
"And Anton did it. But Anton did not get something that he wants to know."
"Understood. Well, I did it mostly because I want to increase the fear that the prisoners around here have about me. It will be easier to gain respect if I do it this way.
"But I have a second reason, and that's what you probably did not get. I also want to expose entirely the advantage I have here for not having a mask. This way I can discover why they put me in this prison even if it's not prepared for an anomaly like me, what they are planning to do to prevent me to start something stupid."
"That's why you stayed for longer in the canteen, you wanted to overhear what they had to say."
Casper finished washing his face, feeling more refreshed.
"Yeah. I didn't know why they would be so reckless to the point of letting me without a mask and any restrictions inside here. But now I know they aren't willing to let me like this. Soon or later I will have my mask as well."
Anton thought that it was strange that Casper was not so concerned about that matter. At any time he could lose the only huge advantage that he had inside Halden, and the only thing that could make him escape from there; why would he be so carefree about it?
"Anton think that you are pretty calm."
"Hehe, yeah… It doesn't matter. This issue is just more motivation for me to do it in the most efficient way I can."
Anton raised one brow and crossed his arms.
"Do you intend to escape before they can put a lock on you?"
"Yes. I just need to discover how long it will take."
"In this case, don't worry. They have a lot to do before they can make something like this for you. Since, you know, there are a lot of procedures they need to do."
Casper nodded for him, satisfied with that response. It meant that he had, at least, a few days to make it happen.
Before he and Anton could say something more, the alarm sounded again.
It was time for "outdoor" activities.
…
Anton leaded Casper to the courtyard they would spend their time through those 45 minutes of "outdoor" activities.
Casper again made sure to take note of the corridors they passed for, willing to draw everything on the map when they come back to their cell.
"Hey, Anton, and if someone doesn't want to go to the courtyard, how they proceed?" Casper had an idea of how things would go if that was the case, however, he could not expect too much of that system they had in the prison, so he asked anyway.
"We have no choice instead of going there. By the way, if someone is unwilling to go somewhere other than their tight cells, there is something strange with it for sure… Why the question?"
Casper decreased the pace bit by bit, letting the other prisoners walk ahead of them in the corridor, then started to whisper for Anton.
"For a part of the plan, I will need to be out of our cell. Seeing the schedule and the route we need to take to the courtyard, the most flexible part to do it is now, or the outdoor activities in the morning.
"Why is that?"
"Because the way to the courtyard is longer than to the canteen. That is, we pass through more corridors when we are going there, which means that we can have quick access to rooms that are crucial to our escape."
Anton heard all of that attentively while looking in front, never letting his agitated eyes meet Casper once. The Ridires were spotting them again, but since they were not seeming to be talking about nothing suspicious they kept just following.
"So… What type of rooms are we talking about exactly?" He said, barely moving his lips.
"The room where they control the security cameras and cells."
Anton nodded with his head, still looking around. The warriors were cautious about Casper like never before. It was no wonder, since he had not a mask, and just some time ago they witnessed how frightening that man could be.
"Anton will be going ahead of you. The warriors can't relate to Anton and you as friends. Anton and Casper need to act like just two strangers that unfortunately live in the same place." He explained, giving a brief look to him.
Then, Anton walked away, while Casper remained silent behind all that crowd and paying attention to his surroundings all the time.
After some while walking they finally arrived at the courtyard.
That place was an enormous room. Just as big as other courtyards from prisons in Casper's world.
The difference was that there were not so many options of entertainment that were familiar to Casper. As it seemed, the people from District 42 had their own ways to have fun. Mostly, it was fighting or training. Cultivation of plants and herbs was a good hobby for them as well. And the majority of people also liked robotics and mechanics, and it was curious how these things turned to be hobbies as well.
In that courtyard made of concrete, there were just some places with scrap metal and other leftovers from equipment that were now broken.
Analyzing the items there, Casper noticed that there were parts that could assemble a gun. With some effort, and a huge possibility of everything go bad, one could do a considerably strong fire gun with that.
Other parts of the courtyard were the training grounds, in which people were practicing a fighting style that remembered Casper from wrestling.
Besides the leisure and craft areas, Casper realized that there are too many people in that courtyard, and not just the ones who were in that corridor he was.
Most likely, the prisoners of the entire prison were there.
Casper spotted Anton somewhere in the courtyard and walked towards him.
"Ah, hey, Casper. Come here, Anton need to show something to you."
"Sure. What's this?" Casper stopped beside the old man, looking around.
"Can you see that man sitting on the benches in that corner of the yard?" Casper nodded to him in agreement.
It was a man typically with the same clothes as them. He had pitch-black hair, that was a bit longer than Casper's, and way messier as well.
He was surrounded by some strange-looking people, but he was not chatting with anybody. He was, in fact, isolating himself.
"What's with him?" Casper turned to Anton again.
"If we want to do what we plan to do, we must have that guy as an ally."