[A month ago. 11days after the arrest.]
Zella sweep the corners of the room, wondering if there was a paper the prisoners had left when they transferred cells. Jaina was helping her, too.
Zella checked at the bunker beds, even inside the metals, but nothing was there.
She wiped the sweat out of her forehead, pretended to do some exercise when an officer shone a light to their holding cell.
Zella slumped back on the lower bunker, failed on the first day.
She's tired of finding enough time to break out of the penitentiary. Jaina leaned on the wall by the bunker too, wiping the sweat out of her forehead.
She asked, "One day before the verdict, mate. We have to be faster. Death penalty in this country was as fast as the bolt of lightning. Before you even realize, you're dead already."
Jaina drank from her flask. Zella didn't need to smell it because it doesn't have one.
It's pure water, but who knows? She has been here for only 11 days.
Zella turned to the edges of the room, sulking, giving up for the day.
"We couldn't find anything but dirt and dust. I wanted to find something, but the clues never showed up. A lot of prisoners broke out in this penitentiary state, and I don't know how. Maybe it's in another cell?"
Zella was trying too hard. She couldn't afford to be dead in the unjust, police officer's hands.
Zella wanted to prick those blind eyes so that it'll wake up. Probably they got paid to do that.
Jaina turned to her, agreeing with her statement. "It must be. We don't know. Every cell has a ventilator. We don't know exactly what was up there. Something of a dead-end, maybe."
"But what if we end up finding a clue inside this small cell?"
"Then you're lucky, Zella. You can come across the Calvorite after deactivating that Tempus Moneda. Cross the other borders and be a fugitive. It's better to run away than to stay here being accused with baseless evidence." Jaina threw the flask at her side, grabbed her book, and rested it on her lap.
Zella propped her elbows in her knees, hissing, and puffing her cheeks.
Her sweat tasted metal now. It's too salty. She realized she had taken a shower 10 days ago. That sucks.
"Plus, you need to go to shower, Zella. You stink." Jaina laughed. Zella joined in.
…
[A month ago. 12 days after the arrest.]
Jaina and Zella arranged a plan before they even find the clue.
Zella rushed to eat her lunch, ignoring those cruel stares from the gangs inside the prison.
It was too bad she's not raising a fist to fight with them.
She will just stay beside Jaina, a crook, nerd and a bestselling author of her debut book which lead her to the prison.
Jaina enjoyed the milk she sipped through a small cup. "Mango flavor does save everything."
Zella nodded, sharing a fair judgment about the Mango Wednesdays they all have. She carried out what she formed out earlier. "Do you want to take turns, Jaina?"
"Take turns in what?" She dipped her omelet to a mustard sauce.
"Going out to that ventilator at night, you can cover for me, I can cover for you." Jaina raised her eyebrows. She paid attention to what Zella had said, and Jaina considered the idea.
It was something she never expected to carry out.
As a woman who was born to a commoner family, she never had the brains to arrange a plan out of a tight situation.
Jaina, who all had the brains to understand the tiniest thing, nodded in everything Zella had laid out. No one would understand their plan as long as they don't pay attention to their conversation.
"That sounded a good plan at first sight, Zella, but it has downsides you know. You have to consider a lot of alarms in place. The Telamur wouldn't tolerate that kind of action to their murder-convicted prisoners, especially to those gone to the prison because of rebelling through the use of media, traditional books or posting cryptic articles."
"Jaina, everyone here has committed a mistake Yunis had shut off so that no one will be able to rebel against her. Me, I don't have anything to do with that. My family was the rebels, not me. Hell, I'm just a simple fast food server. I just go to work every day to retrieve that addition to my Tempus Moneda, and to provide at home, too."
Zella finished off her omelet, chewed on it, as Jaina stared at her hopeless face.
"Then a hardworking woman like me ended up here. I don't know what mistake I have done in the past life that I have to suffer like this. My past self must have cursed the next lives she'll going to spend on. It's too cruel." Zella shook her head.
Jaina sighed, knowing her sentiments, and understood her more than anyone. Zella remembered the side dish her mother prepared for her.
"Now I remember it… I don't have a family and a home to come back into." Zella's tone cracked. It hit her that she never wanted to look into it.
Zella sighed, gulping the contents of her water bottle down, and clicked her tongue.
Jaina stared at her face, her eyes were too sad to even start with. She didn't respond after that remark.
…
Night fell.
Jaina went asleep that fast, and Zella didn't want to even shut her eyes.
Besides, she's not drowsy anymore. Jaina snored, but it didn't annoy Zella.
It served as background music in her ears. She rested her head against her arms, stared at the wooden plank serving as Jaina's bed rest.
For all the prisoners that went to sleep at night, does half of the population inside the penitentiary state fell asleep peacefully?
"I guess not," Zella mumbled. She slammed the baseball at the wall, just a light throw, but a strange crack came off from the stone.
Zella repeated it again. She threw it again, and the wall hissed.
The rocks came off, dusting the side of her beddings, and Zella stared at it. She swallowed, repeated it again, but this time, with her hand.
The rocks come off suddenly, and she gasped. Zella covered her mouth, the rocks scattered at her side. Just right in time, the officer's flashlight shone inside their cell and she hid inside the blankets.
Staring at the hole in the wall, she doesn't know how to mend it.
Zella bit her bottom lip, waiting for the officer to go away, and he did. She breathed a sigh of relief, hissing, and her heart pounded louder.
Zella peeked in through the hole, but she couldn't see anything.
"Might as well sleep for the night," she decided.
…
[A month ago. 13 days after the arrest.]
"A hole inside the cell, on what purpose it can be?" Zella have done knotting the other ends of the blanket through the railings.
She turned at Jaina, who was inspecting the hole. Jaina opened up a flashlight, shone it through the hole, and inspect the inner circle.
"Nothing's inside, Zella. This must be a fault in the process of drying the cement."
"It should have come off before I came here. That meant…" Zella turned to the hole, narrowing her eyes, getting suspicious. Zella sighed. "It's still fresh, Jaina."
Jaina clasped the edges of the hole, tried to hitch it, thought the wall will come off, but the hole stayed intact.
Zella retrieved the flashlight from the bed, shone it inside the hole.
She had to have a keen eye, but it's impossible to do it. Zella leaned on the wall, checking the darkness inside, but something caught her eye.
Zella turned to Jaina, who was closing the lid of her flask, and observed it.
Zella swallowed, inserting two fingers. Good thing the hole was little enough for her fingers to retrieve the paper inside.
Zella rotated her fingers, grunting, and hissed. "It's too tight to go in. Try it, Jaina," she hushed.
She held the flashlight towards her colleague.
Zella watched as Jaina inserted it, squirming in her position, and huff an air as she got the paper.
She parted her lips slightly, gasping, "I got it, Zella!"
She was about to retrieve the paper inside when someone banged the railings with a stick.
The police officer called out, ordering them to remove the blanket from the railings.
Zella motioned for Jaina as she covered for her. Jaina squealed, clasped the paper in her chest, and hid at the corner, slipping the folded paper inside her pockets.
Zella removed the blanket, explaining, "We just had to change clothes. It's too sweaty in here. Thank you for reminding us to remove the blanket."
The officer observed her from head to toe.
Jaina faced the cell's gate, too. The officer went away without saying anything.
Zella breathed a sigh of relief, turning to Jaina.
"Did you get it?"
Jaina held up the dusty and yellowish paper in her palm.