Gil took the yellow bucket and carried it down one level to the forty-ninth floor through the elevator alongside Darcy. Two security guards also placed themselves in the tiny elevator with them. Gil was perflexed by the size difference in that elevator compared to the elevator he took daily to the basement level for his mandatory tasks. Perhaps it was a maintenance elevator that prisoners weren't usually allowed to take; it's small frame intrigued him.

Gil and Darcy exited the elevator and stuck to the same routine they had during the previous floor. All they had to do was mop the floors in the circular hallway until they met again; tedious but still completely manageable. They wet the mops in soapy and proceeded to their task.

As Gil mopped that floor, he noticed the layout was exactly the same as the floor above. When he got to the security room, he basically saw the same site. A security guard watching the screen of every part of the entire floor. When Gil made eye contact with that security guard, he waved. Unfortunately, that security did not wave back like the previous one did.

After several minutes of vicious mopping, Gil finally found himself making his way back to Darcy. Gil smirked when they saw each other again; he was insanely shocked to see her smirk back at him, as he assumed she wasn't capable of making another facial expression. It was pleasant to see her not wearing her usual blank expression.

They re-entered the maintenance elevator, before changing the water in the bucket. On the forty-eighth floor, the routine was the same. Same layouts, number of cells, number of guards, and same security room. Who knew that Energia Tower was structured so repetitively. It was ironic compared to the repetitive nature of complete boring daily tasks.

After they finished the fortieth floor, Gil turned to Darcy to ask her questions about break time.

"Do we get a break? My feet are killing me," said Gil.

"Not really, we usually just keep mopping until all of the floors are clean," answered Darcy.

"Aw man," frowned Gil. "I'll at least ask. The least they can say is no!"

"Hey, can we get a break! We've been scrubbing away for about two hours!" Gil complained loudly to the nearest security guard.

"A break!? Why do you need a break for!?" the guard answered rudely.

"There's only two scrubbing the hallways tonight, as most people refused to complete this bonus task. Maybe with ten bodies we need a break, but we need to refuel. If we keep going at this pace, we'll surely die before we get to the twentieth floor," explained Gil.

"Eh, fine. Follow me to the cafeteria," said the guard.

"Nice work Gil," said Darcy to Gil.

He was hoping to see her smile again when she said that, but she didn't. He was simply greeted by ice cold eyes.

The guard escorted the prisoners to the cafeteria. They were the only two prisoners seated in the entire room, all they had with them were water bottles. Two security guards were by the doors of the room, eyeing them like hungry eagles.

"Don't rest too hard, you freaks got a lot of work to do!" one of the guards shouted.

At that moment, it was like the tip of an iceberg fell in Gil's mind. He was sick of the guards, sick of the cells, sick of the labor shifts, and sick of the boring cafeteria he was in. He still considered himself innocent as well; the fact that an innocent man like him had been forced to suffer in those conditions was baffling.

He looked at the ceiling of the the colossal cafeteria. Could I really escape out of here?

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He looked at Darcy and debated with himself if he should tell her his crazy plan or not, but he chose not to. It'd probably be better not to tell her at all, so he thought of another topic of conversation.

"Never knew I could hate mopping so much. And you do this every night?" Gil asked after taking a huge gulp of water.

"Yeah, but you get used to it," said Darcy. "It feels good to have a break though."

"How does the break make you feel?" asked Gil, in an attempt to analyze her answer.

"What are you talking about? I already said it made me feel good," teased Darcy, commenting on the awkwardness.

"No, I mean like how does it make you feel emotionally? Like does it make you happy, sad, angry, or do you feel nothing at all?" Gil asked again after laughing.

"Oh... well it makes me happy," said Darcy, her answer coming after brief silence. "How about you?"

"...Happy," said Gil as he drank more of his ice cold drink.

"By the way Darcy," began Gil. "I've been very curious about this for awhile now. Since I've been here, I've only seen about five women, you, Chloe, Gretchen, and a couple of guards. I guess I wanted to ask is where are the female prisoners?"

"Well, they keep us separately for obvious reasons. There are a lot of us here, and we're suffering like you guys are. We're jailed in floors thirty-three through fifty and the guys and jailed in floors two through thirty-two, with this cafeteria being on floor thirty-one," said Darcy.

"But I never see you guys during the basement shifts?" Gil asked.

"The basement is huge, I believe they set us apart there too," said Darcy.

"If they're so concerned about separating genders, why are we together now then?" Gil asked once again.

"I don't know Gil, I don't know everything," Darcy lightly laughed.

"Sorry," chuckled Gil. "It just seems like they should have just built separate men and women prisons."

"You're probably right."

Gil watched the security guards talk with each other rather loudly. They didn't say how long their break would be, Gil was hoping they'd let them off the hook entirely.

"I was hoping they had something to eat here, but it seems like they don't. I didn't eat dinner because I was completing another bonus task. I'll try to hold out until the morning," said Darcy.

"Well, it wouldn't be great if you faint or anything, so here you go," Gil said while taking a small pack of crackers out of his pocket.

"Thanks," smiled Darcy. "What will you eat? Didn't you take these for yourself?"

"Uh... You can have it," Gil said quickly turning away from her, captivated by her surprised smile. "Besides, I ate dinner, I think you need it more."

"Thanks again."

Gil listened to the sound of the cracker package opening, as he looked at the talkative guards again. He felt bad that Darcy hadn't eaten a lot. He felt it was strange to work overtime, and then complete two bonus tasks right after.

"Do you always do a lot of bonus tasks?" asked Gil while glancing back at Darcy.

"Yes, I do them daily. Like I said, it helps take your mind off things," explained Darcy.

"Yet, you want to be here forever?"

"Yes, I do," said Darcy.

"Take care of yourself Darcy. I don't know you too well, but it sounds like you're working too hard," sighed Gil.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," Darcy said without a hint of aggression. "I've worked harder before."

"You say that, but I... I don't know you too well, but I feel kinda bad for you. I don't know why you work so hard, maybe it's connected to why you don't want to tell me your conviction. Perhaps you've done something really bad to stay here so long, or maybe you've been framed like I have. Just take it easy," said Gil.

He suspected to see anger in her eyes, as people often grow furious when it came to things like that, but when he stared into her eyes, he saw... nothing. Not a hint of anger nor a hint of sadness.

"Thanks Gil. Really thanks," she said with emotionless eyes.

"Eh, no problem. Sorry if I intruded on your life too much. After all, we're still basically strangers."

"No worries."

Gil stared at the guards again, still engaged in a conversation. He hoped they wouldn't hear what he had to say next, but then again, part of him could care less if they did.

"I've met a lot of cool people since I've been here. I fear for all of them because I want them all to get out of here. I'm terrfied that AquaLux will find a way to keep them here for as long as possible... I've been thinking of escaping here. I don't think anything in this world is impenetrable. Could you us? Better yet, come with us?"

Gil couldn't believe he spilled out his thoughts to her. Had he really set his mind completely on escaping?

He watched as his words made Darcy drop the crackers on the floor in disbelief. Perhaps that was the only proper reaction he saw her make.

Escaping was very unlikely, yet there he was talking like he had it all planned out. He hadn't told Vince or Jorge anything about his new plans, why'd he make it sound like he had an entire crew helping him?

He stared at the clueless guards once more, one of them stared at Gil with intensity before turning around to the other guards.

Perhaps it'd be best not to get any of his friends involved, or perhaps they'd

thank him heavily if he did. One thing was for certain now though... he'd find a way to burst out of Energia Tower.