Varin sat silently for a moment, then asked:
"Are there any weak points in your chains? Any chunks missing or pieces made brittle by rust? Look at the hinges. Is there any part that you might be able to break yourself? Look at every link."
Taking a few minutes to closely examine every inch of his chains, Dagen signed as he failed to find any useful flaws in his bonds.
'Damn it! There's nothing more than tiny scratches. There's no way I could break this with nothing!'
In a dejected tone Dagen said:
"There's no weak point in these shackles… I can't break them."
Looking down at his own shackles Varin said:
"Yeah… it was worth a shot. I didn't put too much faith in that possibility anyway. I've examined and reexamined mine every time they've reeled me in and let me down, and still, nothing of use."
"Is there any debris, loose stone, or pieces of wall that you can reach? Something that you might be able to make use of? Something you could throw?"
Getting a bit frustrated Dagen answered:
"Of course not! If there was something useful in here I would have tried using it already! Do you think I've just been sitting in here without thinking of any possible way of escape!?"
Annoyed with his neighbors new tone and with a tad bit of desperation seeping into his voice, Varin exclaimed:
"Well look again God damn it!"
Looking around with a frustrated grunt, Dagen once again found himself not seeing much of anything that could even begin to be described as useful. Nothing but tiny bits of gravel no bigger than a pea. Leaning back against the wall, Dagens head felt like it was going to explode with frustration. Closing his eyes and rubbing his furled brow, he found himself feeling an irregularity in the wall behind him.
'huh?'
Swiveling around, his eyes widened as they came upon a triangular crack in the wall, about a foot off the ground. Rubbing his hand over it, the middle portion wiggled ever so slightly.
'No fucking way!?'
Looking over to Varin, a little embarrassed Dagen admitted:
"Okay… I found a triangular crack in the wall behind me, it moved a little when I ran my hand over it. The center is about as big as my palm. It might take me a while to remove it, if I can. But what would we do with it?"
The smallest spark of Hope found its way into Varins eyes.
"Please hurry, you have until the doctor comes back for the next round of our injections… it might be too late after that."
"How's your throw?"
Dagen looked at Varin with a confused expression.
'My throw? If I throw it that's it, no getting it back. What would I even throw it at?'
"I played softball for a while, why?"
Varin took a second to steel himself before proceeding.
"This'll be risky but… hear me out. I want you to throw the piece of wall as hard as you can at the doctor's head when he comes into my cell. Wait until he's standing right in front of me to give me the injection, but do me a favor and hit him before he administers it. He wears glasses, I need them, or anything that might fall off of him that may be used to unlock these shackles. He generally comes to me first so you might even get out of your 2nd round of injections in the process. I can't think of another way to get what I need."
Shocked at this sheer recklessness of the "plan" Dagen asked:
"You do understand that I would have to somehow throw it perfectly through 2 sets of bars right?"
Varin looked at him and grinned.
"Haven't you noticed? They leave the door open while they're inside so you'll only have to make it through 1 set of bars if you throw it right. Try not to miss, alright?"
Baffled by Varins 'matter-of-fact' tone Dagen couldn't help but raise his voice.
"Are you crazy!? Even when I hit him, what if nothing falls off of him!? What if the guards remove whatever falls before leaving!? What if they inject you and it's supposed to change you this time!? Or if I can't even wedge the piece of wall out? Then what!?"
Desperate and frustrated, Varin gritted his teeth and said:
"Hey man if you have a better idea I'm all ears. Cause this is what I got. And that's just to give us a chance. A chance to get out of our cells. Even if we accomplish that we still have to make it to the exit in one piece."
"And I'm telling you now… I am NOT dying in this hellhole."
'… Damnit! Is there really no other way?'
As much as Dagen hated the uncertainty of this plan, he had to admit that he didn't have anything better in mind. And without a plan of his own, Dagen couldn't truly reject this idea… for it was the only one they had. After all, Varin has been thinking of a way to escape for just about 3 weeks straight and this is the only achievable plan he's managed to come up with. So for now, he was going to follow it.
"Alright."