Aaron hummed to himself as he worked, masking the sound of his escape. Hidden beneath a thin grey bed sheet, he chipped away at the wall using a plastic spoon. With each scrape against the wall, small almost microscopic pieces of concrete were knocked to the floor, painting the cold linoleum floor tiles in a mosaic of dust.

A dim fluorescent hall light illuminated his cell, hiding the evidence of his escape in the long shadow of his bed. Of course, if a guard were to search his cell, his plans would be foiled, but he wasn't overly concerned. It was human nature to be lazy. If he didn’t give them a reason to be suspicious, he doubted they would muster the effort.

He couldn’t fault the guards for their complacent behavior; not a single inmate had managed to escape from Alcatraz Federal Prison in its 70 years of existence. It wasn’t for a lack of trying. Hundreds of masterful criminals had tried to escape, but they had all failed. The odds were truly stacked against Aaron.

However, he didn’t mind - he liked a bit of a challenge. His spoon snagged on a jagged piece of concrete, interrupting his rhythm. Careful not to make any large movements, his muscles strained as he applied pressure to the offending piece of stone. With a slight popping sound, a small pebble, barely the size of a mouse’s eye clattered to the floor.

A wave of adrenaline surged through his system - the impact was louder than he had expected. He laid in bed, perfectly still, giving the impression that he was asleep. Despite the cocktail of fight or flight chemicals wreaking havoc on his body, the seductive call of sleep crept up on him, demanding that he rest.

However, he knew he could not heed its call. He couldn’t afford to waste time; he had to escape as soon as possible. Every second he wasted in here was a second that bastard Madeof still drew breath. He couldn’t afford to be lazy, not when his father’s killer was still at large.

After ten minutes of waiting, he opened his eyes and resumed his work. Grain by grain, he widened the hole in the wall. His progress was slow, but he wasn’t concerned. Soon, he’d come into possession of a tool to speed up his progress. Besides, digging a hole wasn’t the only avenue of escape he was working on. It was merely the first step in his plan.

"Kid, the sun is rising,” Tony said with a thick Italian accent. Even though he couldn't see the old man's face clearly in the dim room, he could tell Tony was smiling. He enjoyed making up code words to fool the guards a little bit too much.

“Thanks,” Aaron said as he hid the plastic spoon within the wall. Carefully, he unfurled a play-boy magazine page painted to perfectly match the color and texture of the wall. He stuck it onto the wall using double-sided tape, perfectly covering the hole. From a distance, it was identical to the concrete.

Dan, a shrewd man who had once been the world’s most prolific cocaine dealer, had made it for him. Without his help, the operation would be a lot harder to pull off.

Now that he was older and a little bit more mature he could appreciate the usefulness of teamwork. In his youth, its intricacies were lost on him. It was one of the reasons he was stuck in this dump.

A large helping of government corruption was also a factor, but that wasn’t important. No one would believe him while he was locked up in here.

Disregarding his dark thoughts, he stuffed the concrete debris into his shoe. Not long after he finished, the distinct sound of boots slapping against the ground rang out. Tony had been right, like always.

The guard slammed on the metal bars of a cell across the hall, taking pleasure in ruining the captives' rest. “Inmates, wake up. If you’re not lined up on the wall in two minutes, you’re not getting breakfast.” The guard stood tall, looking entirely too proud of himself. His shirt lifted slightly as he puffed his chest out, revealing a small package of cigarettes hidden in his pocket. Definitely against the rules, but he doubted anyone would call the guard out on it.

“The eagle has spotted the ravioli; I’m going in,” Tony whispered. Aaron fought the urge to sigh; the old man’s senses were still sharp, that's why he was the lookout, but sometimes he wished Tony would miss a detail or two. Now wasn't the time to make a scene.

“No, don’t put in the food yet; the oven is too hot,” Aaron said, begrudgingly speaking in code.

Tony silently contemplated his words for a moment. “That’s a good point!”

Happy the matter had been resolved, Aaron stretched as he got out of bed, doing his best to look sleepy. He adjusted his glasses then moved slowly as he stepped out of the cell; into the bland gray hallway. The less reason he gave for anyone to notice him the better.

“Hell of a wake-up call today. It’s always the new guards who feel the need to act like jackasses. I thought they stopped assigning rookies to Alcatraz?” Tony said at the top of his lungs, practically yelling.

Aaron winced as the guard whipped around in anger, brandishing a sleek black baton. “Watch your mouth old man. I’ll have you sent to solitary confinement if you keep up that attitude!” Other, more experienced guards fingered their guns ready to shoot should Tony cause any trouble.

Tony rolled his eyes. “I’d gladly take a trip down to solitary to get away from your loudmouth.” The inmates lined against the wall laughed like hyenas as the young guard struggled to come up with a response. The guard’s face reddened as he gripped his baton with a painful intensity, turning his knuckles white. He had no response.

God damn it, this wasn’t part of the plan. Aaron pushed himself off the wall and slowly walked towards the guard with his hands up.

“Let’s not do anything rash here; there’s no need to get mad. The old man didn’t mean what he said - it’s just his way of being friendly,” Aaron said as he stepped halfway in front of Tony, blocking the wall-mounted camera’s view of the old man.

The guard stomped forward, shoving Aaron out of the way. He stopped at most a couple inches away from Tony’s smiling face. “I’m the one in charge here. I can do whatever I want to you and get away with it. No one cares about criminal scum like you!” The crowd rustled as the confrontation drew more attention.

Tony leaned forward, his hands disappearing in a burst of speed for a moment. Hidden by the angry guard's body, he slipped something out of the guard's pocket, unseen by the crowd and cameras.

“That’s no way to talk to your elders,” Tony said, still perfectly calm.

The guard raised his baton. Before he could strike, the warden walked behind the guard and grabbed his wrist. “Jose, what do you think you’re doing? That’s not how a representative of the government should act.” The various medals on the warden's clean pressed military suit jingled as he spoke.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The guard stumbled backward in shock, his face quickly paling. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

The warden ran his hand through his gray hair in frustration. “I don’t know what I expected, report back to the sergeant - you clearly need more training.” The warden turned around to face Tony. “And you,” he sighed. “Stop harassing the new guards, one of these days it's going to backfire. You're not the man you used to be.”

"You’re right, I’m not,” Tony said, his hand hidden behind his back.

The warden slapped his hands together. “That’s enough entertainment for one day; go to the mess hall. I don’t want any more incidents, or I'm canceling your time in the yard.” The prisoners groaned but obediently walked in a single file line to the cafeteria. Prison was shockingly similar to elementary school in some ways.

Aaron walked down the cold hallway behind Tony. “I thought you weren’t going to try to steal it,” he whispered into his ear, careful not to be overheard.

Tony chuckled, then covertly showed him a single cigarette hidden within his hand. “I forgot. Besides, rookies are easy to manipulate: if you push at their insecurities, they’ll always get angry. There was no chance of anything going wrong” He paused. “Nice work blocking the camera by the way.

Aaron shook his head. “You almost gave me a heart attack, that guard almost bashed your head in. Tell me before you do something like that again.”

“Maybe, I’m old; it could slip my mind.” Aaron sighed; dealing with Tony was like dealing with a child - he was entirely too immature for his age. In the two months that they had been cellmates, he had quickly learned to go along with Tony's inane ploys. If only to stop the old man from doing anything too crazy.

They filtered into the dining hall and grabbed their food without much fanfare. Careful to avoid the more easily aggravated inmates, Aaron sat down at a small green table in the back corner of the room.

He fiddled with a fresh plastic spoon, taking it out of its wrapper. He missed using metal utensils. For obvious reasons, they were not served to the prisoners. Even still, the dining hall was a dangerous place. In the hands of hardened criminals, small bits of plastic were plenty lethal.

The table shook as a small blond girl took a seat next to him. She was unnaturally pale, possessing a skin tone that was only achievable by those who hadn’t seen the sun in months. Aaron opened his mouth to speak but was stopped by Tony. “Watch what you say to her, kid. The last guy who bothered her had his hand broken.”

Aaron hummed and tried his best to look surprised. Tony’s warning had been unnecessary; he had already looked into the girl's background. Her dangerous nature was the reason he had decided to sit at this table in the first place. She was on the list of people he wanted to recruit to help him escape.

“You know I can hear you, right?” the girl said, her foot bouncing nervously under the table.

“I know,” Tony said as he shoved a spoon full of eggs into his mouth.

After that awkward exchange, the table fell silent. Aaron contented himself with devouring his Raisin Bran cereal. It was easily his favorite breakfast food. He was aware that this opinion made him sound like a psychopath, but he didn’t care. Its fruity goodness was too good for him to ever stop eating it.

Across the table, the small girl carefully poured boxed milk into a bowl. Then with religious intensity, she poured a carton of Raisin Bran cereal into it.

Aaron smiled as he noted their similar preferences. “You like Raisin Bran as well?” he asked.

She nodded quickly, her white-rimmed glasses shook precariously, almost falling off. “It’s my favorite; my sister used to buy it for me,” she said with a smile. She went back to eating, practically inhaling her cereal.

“I’m happy to finally meet a fellow cereal connoisseur.” he drummed his fingers on the table. “Do you happen to also like pineapple on pizza?”

She stopped eating for a moment to respond. “It’s the best; it really brings out the flavor. I don’t know why people don’t like it.” Tony’s eyes bulged dramatically at the sacrilegious words they were speaking.

“I know right, people wouldn’t know good food if it hit them in the face. By the way, I’m Aaron. It’s nice to meet you,” he said, then slid his hand across the table.

She grabbed his arm with both hands and shook it limply. ”My name is Jessica, my friends call me Jess, and the CIA calls me Java,” she blurted out quickly.

“Java, like the coding language?”

She nodded. “Ya, they gave me that name when I hacked into the Federal Reserve,” she said plainly as if it wasn’t a big deal. To her, it probably wasn’t.

“Nice,” Tony stated.

Her crimes made Aaron’s pale in comparison. Honestly, most of the inmates here made his achievements, or lack thereof, look unimpressive. It made sense; only the most dangerous prisoners got sent to Alcatraz - with the exception of Aaron. He liked to think he wasn’t very dangerous.

Dan, the man who had built the wall cover sat down at the table, interrupting their conversation. “My guys are working on building the boat; it’ll be ready in a few weeks. How are we going to get past the camera system? If they see us dragging it off the island, they’ll call up a helicopter and snatch us out of the water,” Dan whispered into his ear.

Aaron nodded and thought for a moment. Everything Dan had said was true. Breaking out wouldn’t be easy if the camera systems were enabled. The natural fog surrounding the island the prison was built on would provide them some cover, but a large boat wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.

Luckily, he had already found a solution. It had taken a couple tries, but eventually, he lucked into running into Jessica in the dining hall.

Aaron smiled. “Jess, you’re a hacker, right? Completely hypothetically, how hard would it be for you to shut down the prison’s cameras?”

“I’d need a computer, but I could probably do it in a couple of minutes.” Aaron shared a look with Dan.

“Kid, you got a gift for this organization stuff. You should have become McDonald’s manager. The job would have been perfect for you,” Tony said.

“If I had the chance, I would have,” he replied plainly.

Before he could say anything more, time froze, and reality turned to liquid. A spike of panic shot through him as he found himself unable to move. Like streams of water, color seeped out of his surroundings and floated into the air, painting the room and its inhabitants in black and white. The streams converged in the center of the room, forming a rainbow-colored vibrating ball, the only source of color left.

Waves of power rippled off the ball through the air, stripping the room of its detail. The table became blurry as its edges faded to non-existence. All around the room, a similar phenomenon took place.

Soon, the waves had dissolved all the imamate objects in the room, leaving the prisoners in an infinite void of darkness. In this strange place, the rules of reality were twisted. Concepts such as scent and sound became physical. Aaron’s mind strained from the new level of detail. The simple act of taking a breath was almost overwhelming.

Together with the other inmates, he stood upon an unending plane of darkness, his movement restored to him. A drop of black blood leaked out of his nose - the pressure from simply existing in this strange place was immense. Around him, the inmates looked around in shock, desperately searching for a way to escape.

Before they could find their salvation, a pale serpent of titanic proportions slithered out of the darkness. Its movements were obscured by a strange layer of what appeared to be radio static. The beast opened its jaw, and Aaron felt something deep within him crack, irrevocably changed.

One by one, the prisoners turned to ash. Their remains were sucked into the serpents gaping maw, leaving him alone in the void of darkness. He looked down in horror and watched as his monochrome hand slowly turned to ash. A primal pain encompassed his being, demanding that he give in. However, no matter how great the pain grew, something within him refused to give up. Tooth and nail, he fought the disintegration, slightly slowing it.

He was so focused on his task that he didn’t notice the passage of time till he found himself floating alone in the void as a disembodied head.

A million sourceless voices began chanting as the otherworldly snake ate itself, erasing itself from existence. All Aaron could do was watch in amazement. The chanting grew in speed and intensity; strange words in foreign languages slammed into him like a hammer, making his vision spin.

Just as he felt like he would lose his mind, a golden bell marred with countless scratches appeared in the center of the unending darkness. The bell rang a discordant note that didn't have an end nor a beginning, returning him to the cafeteria and restoring the world to normal.

*Ding*

Welcome to the system.