First thing was first. They needed to hide the guard. They needed to tie him up somewhere. Soon, he'd wake up and sound the alarms. Maddie didn't need that.
Joseph checked the hall they'd been trying to go down this whole time. He gave a thumbs up--coast was clear. Maddie lifted the guard a few inches off the ground by his armpits. Joseph came to her side and they pulled the guard into the next hall.
Now, they were completely exposed. Outside the shadows. Dragging an unconscious guard across the floor.
The hall was about thirty-five to forty-feet long. The linoleum floor was quite conducive to dragging a guard. Better than carpet, anyway. Maddie didn't even notice the cold, drafty hallway as she was drenched in sweat. Her hair fell past her eyes, tangled and messy.
Halfway down the hall, fear crept into Maddie's mind. Guards could come around each corner and box them in. She started pulling faster, taking smaller and faster steps. Once they got to the end of the hall, Maddie pulled up. She arched her back to get rid of the temporary knots.
Then she peeked into the next corridor. No one. Nothing but two doors on the far end. Fifty feet away. One of the doors was on the right wall. The other door was on the wall that would otherwise be a dead end in the narrow hall.
Maddie checked behind them. Still clear.
She scanned the ceiling for cameras. None.
Which didn't make sense for a high security prison, but whatever. The last three days, as Maddie had planned this escape, she did call into question the security measures of this supposedly high-security prison. There were no cameras. Not any that she could see. There were no trip laser lines, no heat sensors, nothing you'd expect. There were ten guards on night duty inside the prison. Boots on the ground, as they're called. All the staff were out, near as she could tell.
Outside the prison, she'd learned from looking out their foot-by-foot barred window that a single-jeep patrol circled the facility. It passed their window every seven minutes. She'd also learned that there were two guards standing in front of the entrance doors. Stoic sentries with laser guns and every other weapon that could make Maddie's world one of pain and fear.
Maddie and Joseph were only twenty feet from the desired door. For the first time, Maddie felt a little bit of hope. Even with the unconscious guard in the mix, the plan was working.
One step at a time...
"Joseph," Maddie whispered, "I need you to keep an eye on the previous hall. If a guard enters, snap twice."
Joseph nodded and went.
Maddie watched him go. By the time he got to the end of the hall, they were fifty-feet separated. Maddie didn't like being that far apart. She waited. He gave a thumbs up.
Good. Maddie took off her shoe and pulled a long wooden splinter out. It was reasonably thick. A makeshift lock-pick. The prison people were dumb enough to put a wooden chair in their cell. Maddie had painstakingly, cutting her fingers many times, got this decent-sized splinter from the back of the chair.
She'd used it to pick the lock on their prison cell door. She also found it interesting that the prison still used old-fashioned locking doors. All other prisons had laser locks opened only by combinations. They weren't impossible to break, using the proper equipment, but they were much harder than a simple lock.
Maddie approached the door on the back wall. Old fashioned locking mechanism. Again, she wondered why, but didn't question it too much, because it was aiding their escape.
Carefully placing the filed end of the splinter into the lock, Maddie went to work. Small noises were unavoidable as she rattled the door handle, tinkered with the splinter.
A good two minutes passed when she got the first tumbler in place. She suspected there were three more to go. Maddie bit her lip as she focused.
Snap, snap.
Faint snaps. But they were tantamount to loud alarms in Maddie's mind. She looked down the hall. Joseph was looking at her with that face. Someone was coming.
Maddie waved Joseph toward her. He started for her. His footsteps were making a little too much noise for her comfort.
She had three tumblers to go, and probably less than a minute before the guard came around the corner and caught them. Working the splinter into the lock, she listened carefully.
"It's the slow guard," Joseph whispered, coming near.
Maddie figured as much. But even the slow guard would only permit them an extra thirty-seconds. Trying to get the second tumbler was really, really hard. Or maybe it was just the fact that the next minute was absolutely crucial to their escape. Or their failed escape if they didn't get through this door in time.
Maddie was counting in her head. Her estimation was probably close to correct. If they had a minute and a half, they only had forty-five seconds left. Joseph was by Maddie's side, looking up at her. Worry on his face.
Maddie wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. Then continued making quick work of the lock. She got the second tumbler. Two more to go. At least she hoped there were only two more. She didn't actually know that for sure.
Twenty-seconds left.
Maddie gave up, pulled out the splinter. There was no way she'd be able to get in the door in twenty-seconds. Instead, she slid to her knees beside the unconscious guard and searched his belt for something to use against the guard that would inevitably round the corner any second now.
Laser. Too loud. Plus, Maddie had no desire to kill a perfectly innocent guard. Tear gas. Possibly. Still, the guard might start yelling or something. Keys. No, they would--
Keys!
The guard had a ream of keys on his belt.
With renewed hope, Maddie plucked the ring of keys from the man's belt. She started sifting through them, finding one that she figured would fit the lock. She narrowed the fifty keys down to three possible keys.
The guard in the next hall started whistling. He sounded so close!
Maddie jammed key number one into the lock. No dice. Key number two. It fit! She twisted. The lock twisted.
Clank.
The unmistakable sound of a door unlocking. Beautiful. Maddie opened the door quietly and Joseph held it. Then Maddie grabbed the guard by the hand and dragged him inside.
The whistling had turned to humming. Maddie glanced to see the approaching guard's shadow. He was turning the corner.
Maddie closed the door, swiftly and quietly.
Had he seen?
Leaning against the door, Maddie listened carefully for half-a-minute. The guard was still humming. They were safe.
Maddie waited a good two minutes before switching on the light to the room. It was an office. Desk, chair, bookshelves with hard drives on it, computers. Exactly the room she wanted. The warden's.
"Joseph, turn on the computer," Maddie said.
The unconscious guard snorted and lifted his head. His eyes flitted open.
"Hey," he yelled, seeing Maddie.