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

 

How Many?

 

He smelled the perfume before looking up at the fuzzy figure before him.  Why was there a woman here?  He inhaled the scent and looked at the extended hand in a daze.

 

“How many fingers am I holding up?”  A woman’s voice asked.  Kyle looked back down at his hands in his lap and a guard nudged him with a baton.  He looked back up at the woman’s hand.  He squinted and tried to focus.

 

“Four.”  He said.  When he heard her sigh, he knew it was the wrong answer.

 

“They really beat the shit out of you.”  She said in a resigned tone.

 

He winced as he felt the alcohol swab on the cut on his face.  He tried to jerk back but was nudged harder with the baton.

 

“You’re going to need stitches.”  She said.  “This is going to sting like a bitch.”

 

He felt the syringe and the burn as she injected the local anesthetic.  A few minutes later she began stitching up the cut.

 

“I need some ice packs.”  She said.

 

“Who, me?”  The guard asked.

 

“Yes you.”  She replied.  “They’re in the freezer in the other room.”

 

“I can’t leave him here alone with you!”  The guard exclaimed.

 

“He’s not going anywhere!”  She yelled.  “My patient needs proper care, now go get those damn ice packs!”  Kyle heard the guard leave.  He began to contemplate an escape.  He was alone with a woman, a small woman and the guard was gone.

 

The doctor began to place steri-strips on the cuts on his face.  At one point she stopped and leaned close to him.  She spoke, her mouth inches from his ear.  He inhaled her perfume.

 

“They won’t leave you alone now.  The other prisoners have seen you down and they are going to keep after you.  You need to go out there and really fuck someone up so they’ll let you be.”  She said.

 

She moved back and he stared at her fuzzy visage with surprise.  “I know how these things are, John.”  She said as she applied another strip.  “You can keep fighting them and they’ll eventually kill you.  Or, you can change it all now.”

 

Kyle nodded and slightly tugged his cuffed hands.  He grabbed his left thumb and before he could dislocate it the guard returned.  The guard handed the doctor the ice packs.  She took one and placed it against the swollen bruise on the back of his head.

 

She made quick work of the rest and Kyle was taken to an infirmary holding cell.  Louie stood outside the cell.

 

“Beautiful isn’t she?”  Louie asked as Kyle sat on his bunk holding the ice pack to his head.  Kyle looked up at the guard.

 

“I didn’t notice.”  He replied.  Louie raised his eyebrows in surprise.

 

“I was sure that after two years in this place that you’d appreciate seeing a woman.”  Louie replied.

 

Kyle lay on the bunk and ignored the rest of what the guard had to say.  Louie obviously held this woman in high regard for whatever reasons.

 

He hadn’t really seen her.  His vision was still blurred from his concussion.  He’d taken quite a severe beating but had certainly avoided a much worse fate.

 

The first woman he’d seen in two years and he hadn’t seen her at all.  Not that it mattered.  That was something he would never have in this life, unless he escaped.  He closed his eyes and remembered the scent of her perfume.  It had also been Annie’s.

 

He glanced about the small cell.  The infirmary was located in the old cell house.  He’d heard stories from some of the prisoners who’d been housed here before the new cell houses were built.  Compared to the new ones, this cell house was inferior, and many escapes had been performed.

 

His best opportunity would be from the infirmary.  The doctors were complacent and the guard station was understaffed.  He closed his eyes to force sleep to come.  When his concussion was gone and his mind was clear, he would be able to make his plan.

To Be Continued…

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