The next day, Gil lied helplessly in bed as he stared at the metal impenetrable wall at the other side of his bed.

He didn't feel emotional like he felt the other day, but he definitely had an overwhelming urge to get out of Energia Tower. He placed his bleak hand on the metal wall, as he closed his eyes. Just how was it possible to ever get out?

Gil, like Vince and many other prisoners were going to skip their mandatory tasks but the guards went to every cell and strangely forced the prisoners to work. The ones that refused, disappeared. Gil's shift was twelve hours long, four hours longer than it usually was. He just got back from the brutality, only about an hour ago. He had to assemble firearms, warbots, tanks, and other peculiar equipment. The breaks were also shortened considerbly. It was so bizarre to do so much in one day; why did AquaLux require them to make so much equipment for war? It was all a mystery that rattled Gil with uneasiness.

He placed his heavy pillow on top of his head, as he weighed his options. He was debating about what he could do in such a hopeless situation. Living in Energia Tower forever sounded like a living nightmare, escaping was basically impossible, and putting faith in Barney's ability to prove his innocence was impractical. Living in Energia Tower throughout his days would be a lot safer than an escape attempt. The security in the tower was phenomenal, but hypothetically, if he managed to secure an exit, he'd likely be executed if he were caught. So then the choice was simple, stay in Energia Tower, working like a slave, or escape to either live in peace or die trying. Which one of these choices was more appealing?

Gil looked at the enormous holoscreen clock on the top of the room and slowly rose to his feet. It was eight in the evening, he had a bonus tasks scheduled that he was going to attend if the warden didn't drop the bombshell of potentially staying there forever. Perhaps doing the bonus tasks would help him think about his next move. If he was really crazy enough for an escape attempt, it'd be nice to see if any weaknesses in security existed.

He rose to his sore feet and walked towards the unlocked sturdy door to get out (doors were only locked during curfew). He eyed a small pack of crackers who was given from before and then put it in his pocket. If he got hungry, they could help a lot.

"Gonna do my bonus task to clear my mind," Gil said to Vince, who was moping in his head.

"Alright, good luck man," said Vince with despair latched to his voice.

Gil opened the cold door and walked towards the storage closet on the floor right above him. That was where he was told to go for the bonus task. His instructions were to simply mop all of the floors over night, he wouldn't have to go back inside his cell for curfew, but the police presence on him would probably increase.

Gil opened the storage closet door and was astonished when he saw Darcy in there already.

"Oh, hey Gil. What are you doing here?" Darcy oddly flinched.

"Well, I figured I complete a bonus task for some 'fresh air.' How about you?" he asked.

"I can relate," Darcy said with her usual stultified countenance. "I'm here because I'm usually always one of the people who mops the floors at night."

"Wow, you do mandatory shifts, make chili, and mop floors!? I'm surprised you're not tired!" Gil said.

"Well it's like you said, doing bonus tasks helps you get 'fresh air.'" said Darcy.

"Hm, I guess. It's strange that you don't ever want to leave here, though you're doing bonus tasks," said Gil suspiciously.

"Yeah... I guess it is strange," said Darcy as she turned away from Gil to continue putting soapy water into a large yellow container. "You know how to mop right?"

"Of course!" remarked Gil. "Are we seriously mopping every floor here!?"

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Not every floor, just about half," answered Darcy. "

"It'd usually be more than two people mopping, but after the announcement, not many people want to do bonus tasks. I'ts why I was so shocked to see you," said Darcy as she dragged the heavy.

"I'm still blown away by the announcement. Chloe was really excited to get out earlier. How's she holding up?" asked Gil as he picked up a huge mop with a metal handle.

"Not too good," Darcy said sternly as she began to drain the water on the mop. "She's been crying in our cell all day. Do you feel bad for her?" she asked strongly with crystalized eyes.

Gil looked back into her ghostly eyes without flinching. "I do feel bad. My question is, do you feel bad for her?"

"I do," said Darcy as she put the mop on the floor. "How about you mop left and I mop right. Since this building is a circle, we'll eventually meet back here by the bucket. Don't think we'll need another bucket."

"Sounds good, I'll see you there!"

Gil began to mop the floor with gusto, erasing the endless footprints in the process. He never imagined that Energia Tower was a circle, what an awesome discovery. As he continued mopping, he browsed over the scenary. He glanced at the sturdy metal walls on the inside of the hall. If he were to actually escape, would he only need to find a way to break that wall all the way to the bottom? Then again, the several guards standing at their posts in the hallway wouldn't make that easy. The hall had several doors in it, each door was metal and contained a cell. Each door seemed to be roughly six feet from eachtother; it appeared at least one guard was guarding about two doors each. If there were about twenty cells on that floor, then there was about ten guards in total. It'd be impossible to break that wall and slip to the bottom of the floor, not only that but it'd be impossible to break the wall and jump down it anyway. If he found a way to break the inner metal wall without any of the ten guards noticing, he would fall to his death if he jumped to the bottom, or he'd just fall to the next floor below. Such a hassle escaping seemed to be.

Perhaps there was another way. If each cell contained two prisoners, that would mean there'd be forty prisoners in total per floor. Forty bodies is way more than ten guards! If he could find a way to free all of the prisoners, they would not be able to contain the outburst with only ten guards! Then again, they probably had some sort of weapons that would either stun or kill them all.

He came across a large glass door in the inner wall, it almost seemed out of place. He looked through the door and saw that it was a security room that had several holoscreens viewing different sections of the floor. He could see many stationed guards on the cameras, as well as Darcy mopping. The room seemed to only have footage of every section of the floor. Thank God they didn't have cameras in the cell's, or perhaps they did someplace else. He couldn't see any cameras at all, however holoscreen cams were extremely hard to spot.

He saw one guard in the security room, he made eye contact with the guard when the guard l looked up. Gil waved at the guard, and shockingly, the guard waved back. Gil almost chuckled as he continued mopping, he definitely didn't expect the guard to wave back.

Gil briefly stopped mopping after analyzing his galloping thoughts. Just what was he doing? He hadn't even decided if he was going to launch an escape attempt or not. Why was he burdening himself with such ambitious thoughts? If he did plan an escape and planned it with his friends, he could have all of them executed. They would all possibly be released in less than ten years, unless AquaLux planned something else horrible. It would be unfair to them to have them risk their entire lives for his own selfish reasons. If he was going to escape, it'd have to be in a way that didn't put anyone's life in danger but his own - as he didn't care if he lived or died. He kept mopping as he tried to tell himself to stop thinking of ways to escape the tower.

At the end of the circle, he finally saw Darcy in his peripheral. He saw that a guard was talking to her, with a sinister smile on his face. He walked closer to see what was happening.

"You missed a spot," the guard laughed as he stomped his messy boot print on a spot Darcy just mopped.

Darcy turned the mop back over and mopped over the spot.

"Now over here!" the guard said while making another huge dirty footprint. "I'll let the warden know you don't want to clean if you don't clean it!"

Darcy complied with an unchanged expression and wiped the footprints away once again.

"What are you doing!" Gil yelled at the guard. "Can't you see she's suffered enough? She's already a prisoner in this hellhole, what more will having her wipe your footprints do!?"

The guard looked at Gil with fear, yet also with anger. "They don't pay me enough for this job," he said as he briefly walked away.

"You okay?" Gil asked Darcy.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Guards here are always rude to us, so I'm used to it. Why did you defend me?" Darcy asked while aiming her sights on Gil.

"Well, it was the right thing to do. That guy was a jerk," said Gil.

"I see," Darcy said plainly. "How did it make you feel to defend me?"

Gil knew the purpose of Darcy's weird questions. "It felt good. How did it feel to be defended by me?"

"...It felt good too," she said before putting the mop back

into the yellow bucket.

"Ready for the next floor?" Darcy asked.

"Let's do it!"