Stuck in the Middle (Ep. 8) "Locked Up"
29 Sep 2021Isabella Adair-Levine
Previous Ep.6 (Edit: Continued from Ep. 6. Previous Ep is Ep. 7)
Isabella laid in the bottom bunk of her cell staring aimlessly at the top of it thinking about Violet and if she contacted James. She half regretted her decision knowing James would get his way to her one way or another regardless of protest from Violet. If he did that, it would only complicate matters further here. She needed other friends who weren't in a love-type relationship. Damn. Her thoughts shifted. Now she was thinking about him and how much she missed him. His touch and warming embrace. She could use that right about now as she was freezing from how cold it was in her cell. They stripped her down of her suit and gave her tattered light pants and a plain white T-shirt. All of which didn't fit her slender frame. The icing on the cake was most likely that she was more than 20 feet underground on a cold little hard rock and they gave her clothing that did everything opposite of keeping warmth. Assholes.
3 loud metallic knocks came from her cell door that nearly made her jump out of her bunk and slam her head. She looked towards her cell door and through it saw one of the guards holding a tray of food. Finally, a meal to satisfy her ravenous stomach. She was starving.
"Stand up, face away from the cell and keep your feet and hands apart. Do it now."
She slowly got up and did what the man said, facing away from him and spreading her feet and hands apart. She heard the cell door open with a hiss with a metallic clank as footsteps got closer. She instinctively turned her head to look but he snapped at her.
"Face forward!"
She quickly faced forward again and the guard moved in even closer behind her. Now she was beginning to feel a level of discomfort at how close he got now. He stopped not even a foot behind her and she heard nothing but the vents rattle ever so slightly as they pump air throughout the underground cellblock. It felt like she'd been standing there for an eternity now. Waiting for him to do...something. The discomfort was just building and building. She had to turn her head and look and so she did.
"I said face the god damn wall!"
"You touch me and I'll break your wrist."
She fired back quickly.
"Oh, really? You look pretty...small. Don't think you'd do much damage compared to what I'd do to you."
She could just sense his shit-eating snarky smile. It made her angry.
"Piss off."
He chuckled and then she heard the metal tray hit the hard steel floor with a sudden crash.
"Oops. I'm so sorry."
More footsteps approached the cell. Another guard, she confirmed from the sound of it. Great. More harassment.
"Daniel, enough of this shit. Leave her alone and get out of her cell."
She closed her eyes and listened as the guard, known as Daniel, slowly stepped away. The doors closed and she exhaled a sigh of relief. She turned and looked at the tray on the ground. The brownish-orange colored paste was spilled on the floor but she didn't care. It was food. So she scooped up what she could and put it back on the tray to eat before walking back to her bunk and sitting with the tray on her lap eating the dark orange paste that was in front of her. The paste was cold. Of course, it was cold. Oh well, she thought. Isabella was too hungry to care about temperature or texture and so she continued to pile the dark orange paste in her mouth with her plastic spoon. She was so hungry and focused on eating she didn't notice that Daniel guy was watching her through the cell window. Once she noticed she flipped him the finger to which he only smiled.
"Dick"
She said quietly as she finished off the remainder of her food. She placed the tray on the ground and crawled back into her bunk where she wrapped her arms around herself. God, it was cold.
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Isabella woke in sudden shock to the sounds of alarms and flashing lights. A pair of guards outside her cell motioned to each other shouting orders and 3 left leaving only one, Daniel, behind in the cellblock. Isabella climbed out of her bunk and carefully approached the door trying to look out the window gaps of her cell door to see what was going on. It wasn't easy to see but she had a half view of the main entrance doors. Her first assumption was possibly James. It'd been several hours now and so there was plenty of time for him to show up and shoot his way to her. That was something she really hoped wasn't the case.
Her worry about an unnecessary shoot-out passed for a moment seeing Daniel pacing around like an anxious dog awaiting its owner. He occasionally took a glance out the main entrance but would soon begin pacing again. He got close to her cell and Isabella tapped on the door successfully getting his attention.
"Hey! What is that? What's happening?"
He looked at her and a smile grew across his face.
"Nothing serious, sweetheart. Just a fire that was started in one of the supply rooms."
Isabella immediately thought about Violet and if she was the one who started that. Her facial expression spoke volumes because Daniel took notice.
"You scared of a little fire? You need comforting to help you get through this? Hmmm?"
There was that disgusting smile again. If this door wasn't here....
"No. I just…"
She saw movement in the corner of her eyes and looked. Violet! Holy shit. A million questions and concerns flooded her mind. Her eyes widened and Daniel went to turn to investigate her sudden interest shift.
"Wait! Daniel! Heyy. You wanna know something?"
He stopped and looked back at Isabella.
"What is it, little lady? What do you want?"
He said leaning a hand against her cell door.
"I think I...I want you. Yeah, I know, I know. I was thinking about you while I was resting here and you know….I kinda like bad men."
He burst into laughter for a good long 10 seconds as Isabella eyed Violet giving her a nod as she snuck inside. Daniels laughs eventually slowly faded but he continued to chuckle with that same sinister smile as before.
"You? You like bad men, huh? That some kink of yours?"
Isabella put on a fake smile and stepped closer to the door looking deep into his eyes through the slightly tinted window.
"I'm a different type of girl with different types of interests. I find those green eyes of yours very attractive. How about you uhhh...open this door and I'll show you how much I really like you?"
She felt sick saying something like that but she needed to draw his attention. Seemed like trying to seduce a creep like this guy wasn't too difficult because he opened the door like a moron and stepped inside. Isabella glanced at Violet who snuck up slowly. She made a quick eye gesture towards Daniel's waist belt where there was a shock baton on his hip. She needed Violet to move a little faster because this was becoming overly uncomfortable.
"You know the drill. Turn around, feet apart."
She smiled and turned facing away with her feet apart. Her smile quickly faded and turned to a grimace as she felt his hands start on her lower waist. Disgusting. Violet needed to do something now.
"Damn. You got real fine- ghuah!"
He yelped in pain and that's when Isabella knew that Violet was successful. She spun around and was partly shocked to see that he'd not gone fully down but instead swung a backhand that struck Violet in the face sending her back. Enraged, Isabella kicked his leg in that forced him to a knee. He tried to twist and throw an awkward left-hand punch but she sidestepped it and grabbed hold of his wrist twisting it backward. She then aggressively pushed herself forward on the twisted wrist until there was an audible snap followed by a shrieking man in pain.
"Agghh god! You little bitch!"
She grabbed the shock baton that was now on the floor and activated it.
"I told you if you touched me I'd break your wrist."
She delivered a blow into his neck with the end of the baton that caused him to immediately lose consciousness.
"Holy shit, Isabella."
She turned to Violet and saw her standing there holding the side of her face. Like a worried mother, Isabella approached to check her.
"Are you okay!?"
Violet pushed her hands away and ran to the door. The alarms and lights stopped. The emergency was over.
"Come on! We need to go, they'll be coming back!"
Isabella put up her finger and quickly moved to the far end of the cellblock where she came across a locker.
"3476."
She said out loud punching in the numbers. She pushed the checkmark on the pad and it lit up green opening for her. She remembered the code from watching when they threw her stuff inside the locker.
"Isabella, come on!"
She grabbed the parts of her suit and ran the best she could back to Violet. The suit was far heavier than it looked so she ran awkwardly.
"Take the boots from me as well as the helmet. Gauntlets are inside. I can't carry it all, please."
She sighed and grabbed both the boots and the helmet.
"Come on, down this corridor, and to our left is another connecting corridor. There's a storage room we can lay low in. We can stay there for a bit."
Violet led the way by the horribly lit corridor. They made it to the connection and turned left just as they heard voices from the main corridor they just turned off. That was the security guards returning.
"Come on! Let's go, Isabella!"
Violet said in a whisper. She held her suit legs and torso closer to her chest and tried to move faster but quietly. The voices and footsteps from the corridor they just left from got louder as they approached the split. Violet was first to make it to the door and frantically waved Isabella forward. She opened the door and the two girls entered, closing it behind them. Both exhaled a breath of relief.
"Holy crap that was too close."
Isabella nodded, placing her suit on the ground. Immediately she began stripping her clothes till she was just in undergarments.
"Wow. Right now?"
Violet remarked with a smirk across her face. It looked as if she was jumping out of her skin to get rid of something in her clothing.
"Glad you find this amusing but you have no idea how uncomfortable these clothes are, young woman. My suit keeps me warm with temperature regulation once it's on me and activated."
She said as she quickly began fitting parts of her Maverick Suit onto herself. She finished and looked at Violet for a second before stepping in and giving her a big hug.
"You just saved my ass. Thank you. But you didn't listen to a word I said but thank you anyway."
Isabella smiled and let go, looking at her.
"That's exactly the thing I'd do. Not listen to rules I'm told. I'm just glad it worked out."
Violet smiled at that but her smile faded. Isabella noticed and her smile faded too and became concerned.
"What's wrong? We got out."
"I know but look."
Violet pointed at a television screen at the far end of the storage room. Isabella looked, seeing her own face on it.
"You're literally the most popular and probably hated person in this system right now, Bella."
