Disclaimer:  I do not own any of these characters and am just playing around with them.

First Attempt

Tuesday afternoon, months after he was released from solitary, Kyle stood in front of a machine in the plate shop.  He had been amusing himself for a few weeks, cleverly working expletives into the plate codes.  None of the guards could trace the plates back to the inmate who had made them, and Kyle secretly hoped his plates would end up on someone’s vehicle.

He watched the guards pass once more before he leveled a piece of metal in a lathe and watched it take off as the spindle propelled it from the machine.  The metal piece came within inches of hitting Harry Wright, a heavy set and foul tempered bank robber who whirled about to glare at Kyle.  Kyle grinned and stifled a laugh.

“You think that was funny you fuckin’ nut job?”  He growled.  He came running at Kyle and Kyle took a dive, and allowed the man to get hold of him.

Harry grabbed Kyle by the throat and punched him in the face.  He allowed the man a few more hits before the guards reached them.  Kyle threw a punch over Harry’s shoulder that connected with one of the guards.  In retribution, he was cracked over the head with a baton and the lights went out.

Sometime later he slowly opened his eyes.  He looked about groggily and realized he was where he’d intended to be.  The infirmary.  He looked at the bars and saw the orderly look at him and motion toward someone outside of his field of view.

The doctor who’d treated him previously appeared with a guard.  The guard opened the cell door and she entered and the guard followed.  She sat in a chair across from him and pulled it closer to the bunk.

“If we keep meeting like this, then people will talk.”  She deadpanned as she pulled on a pair of latex gloves.  The guard moved his hand to the baton handle and kept his gaze fixed on Kyle.

She pulled a small penlight from her coat and opened his right eyelid with her left hand and shone the light into it.  She did the same with his left eye.  She sighed as she put the light away and looked back at him.

“Well you’re not going to die, this time.”  She said evenly.  “Keep these antics up though and someone’s going to end up sending you off to a potter’s field.”

“I’ll end up there either way.”  He replied.  She raised her eyebrows and nodded.

“Yeah, I suppose you will.”  She said.

When evening came, the artificial lights in the observation cells flickered off and Kyle made his move.  He crouched onto his knees on the floor and when the orderly came walking past he stuck his finger in his throat and made himself vomit and then threw himself against the floor and began to convulse.

The orderly stared frozen in shock for a few moments before he turned to the guard station and called out.

“Hey!  Hey!  I think we have a seizure in 112!”  He shouted and then pulled out his keys and threw open the door to the observation cell.  He rushed inside and crouched beside Kyle who then sat up and grabbed the orderly.  He threw the man into the wall and knocked him out before grabbing the man’s keys and baton.

When the guard arrived he swung the baton and knocked the wind out of the man.  As the guard doubled over Kyle cracked the baton across the back of the guard’s head and then grabbed his keys.  He left the cell and slammed the door shut.

He headed to the other observation cells and freed the others who began to run for the door.  Just before the first one reached it, the doctor walked into the corridor from the other end and shouted.  All heads whirled about to see the woman as she hit the alarm button on the wall and shouted to the guards behind her who ran down the corridor after the prisoners.

Kyle left the second guard lying on the floor before he joined the others running for the other door.  Once he reached it and was about to step through into the hallway he heard a scream from behind him.  He stopped as if caught by a wall and turned to look back.

One of the prisoners had grabbed the doctor and threw her into the wall.  She cried out and then screamed as the man drove a shiv into her side.  He stabbed her several times before leaving her bleeding on the floor.

Kyle watched the doctor lying on the floor as she pressed a hand against one of her bleeding wounds.  He stepped back into the infirmary as the prisoner wiped off the knife and carelessly tossed it aside as he began to run toward Kyle, and the doorway leading out.

The voices whispered in the back of his head, I decide who lives or dies.  The boy he was stood over the slab with the drowning victim lying on it.

“What is the cause of death, doctor?”  Raines asked him as he hovered behind him.

Kyle walked back into the infirmary and over toward the bleeding woman.  She stared at him, wild eyed and terrified.

“No!  Stay away from me!”  She shouted.  Kyle grabbed gauze from the cart and knelt at her side.

“It’s okay, I’m a doctor.”  He said quietly.  A look of horror washed over her face.

“The hell you are!”  She shouted and tried to push him away.  He held some of the gauze against the worst of her wounds and applied pressure to stop the bleeding.

The doctor relented and laid her head on the floor.  One of the guards rushed up on them and grabbed Kyle.

“Get away from her!”  He cried and shoved Kyle back, hard.  Kyle caught himself and broke his fall and turned back to the guard who knelt over the doctor.

“Scott, let him help me, you don’t know what the hell you’re doing!”  The doctor gasped and tried to sit up to look at Kyle while grabbing for the gauze to hold it against her side.

The guard looked between the doctor and Kyle and moved away nodding to Kyle.  Kyle got back into place and applied pressure against her wound again.  He told the guard what to give him and worked to stop the bleeding as the woman on the floor began to lose consciousness.

When the other guards arrived the guard called Scott held them back from the prisoner who tended to the doctor until the paramedics arrived.

“You’d better hope she doesn’t die.”  Scott said to him as the woman’s eyes closed.  It was the single thought that would occupy Kyle’s mind for weeks after.

To Be Continued…

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melvansickle@earthlink.net