Hi! My brother convinced me to get an instagram. I'm secretly a thousand years old so, social media scares me, but if it will help get my name out there, then I guess I am up for it. My username is writtenbyodelya feel free to check it out. You can see a pic of my new puppy!
Anyways onto today's challenge! The words are: Cucumber, Inject, Maximum, and Demand.
Time: 30-45 minutes.
3, 2, 1, Go:
"What's wrong with him?" I asked as I walked down the rows of beds. A man sat hunched over trying to fit a whole cumber into his mouth. His eyes met mine and his face turned sour.
"That's Paco," My "guide" said. "Pay him no mind. They gave him some performance drug, but it back fired.
I nodded, but said nothing. Paco growled when a couple inmates tried to steal one of his cucumbers.
"This is where you'll be sleeping," My attention turned to the bed in front of me. It looked like the other thirteen in the room. White sheets that were so thin you could see the striped mattress underneath it... And the stains,
"Thanks," I said dropping my spare uniform onto the bed. I turned my attention to the man beside me, "What was your name again?"
"My mom calls me Aaron, but everyone else calls me Newt." He said sticking out his hand.
"Tim," I said shaking his hand. It was cold and clammy. The nickname suddenly made sense. I made sure to wipe my hands against my work pants only after Newt left.
***
E2201 PLEASE REPORT TO ROOM 3A
The message repeated three times in every earbud, eye piece, and info bracelet. Within seconds my quiet lunch was disturbed by the eyes of everyone in my cell block. It was bad enough my next punishment was broadcasted to everyone, but the fact that I was sent to the third floor after only a week of incarceration made me an even bigger target to get my ass kicked.
I stood up and tried to leave as soon as possible, leaving everything on my food tray at the table, except for an apple.
"Hey!" A voice from behind me shouted. I didn't turn around. "Hey, new guy, I'm talkin' to you."
My path was blocked as two men standing by the lunch room exit walked toward me. I took a bite out of my apple and turned around to face my tormentor. He was short, bald, and muscular.
"You're new here, so let me fill you in." He said lifting his chin up curtly. "Me and my crew run this block and you've been staying here rent free for about a week now. I think it's time you start paying your dues."
His buddies started to curl and crack their fists. I wanted to roll my eyes, but opted to take another bite of my apple instead.
"Look," I said cutting him off. "I don't want any trouble, I just want to get today's punishments over with and go to bed. Is that to much to ask for?"
"What I want to know is how someone like you, got clearance to floor three." He squinted his beady brown eyes to look more intimidating, but he was so short it was almost comical. "Is that too much to ask for?"
"Yes," I said turning away from him. One of his "crew" grabbed me by the hem of my shirt. He looked all too excited for his fist to meet my face. "I'm only going to ask nicely once. Please put me down."
The man holding me just grunted. His lips curled menacingly, as if he already knew the outcome if-when a fight was going to break out. My patience was waning.
"That's not how this works, my friend." The crew leader said in a mocking tone.
"Sure it does," I said. My head turned to the second crew member guarding the exit. I tossed him my half eaten apple and grinned. "Catch."
Three minutes later, four crew members lay unconscious on the lunchroom floor, including the "head honcho" himself, the maximum security bots where called and the whole building was on lock down. One bot pushed my head to the ground while two others secured my hands and feet.
E2201 PLEASE CALM DOWN
The bots repeated themselves over and over again as if there was a malfunction with their hardware. When the threat was over and everyone in the lunch room was taken to their respective rooms and the bots took me to the third floor.
"Damn it Frank!" I shouted when I entered the room. It looked like any other punishment facility. Grey tiles wrapped the floors and walls, bright lights occasionally flickered from lack of power in the facility, and a white chair with wires attached to it was placed in the center of the room. The only exception this time, was a man in a black suit in tie laying casually in the chair. "Are you trying to blow my cover?!"
"I'm sorry," Frank said sitting up, "The warden said Tony's gang was getting too powerful. He demanded we do something about it. It was a small favor, I knew you could handle it."
Frank grinned and I rolled my eyes, "What ever, you owe me."
"Sure, what do you want." Frank said getting out of the chair so I could sit in it.
"A cucumber," I said as Frank put electrodes on my head.
"Done," Frank said curtly. "May I ask why?"
"I haven't eaten lunch, I'm hungry." I lied, but Frank bought it. He pulled out a syringe from his pocket, took off the safety cap, and tapped it a couple times for good measure.
"This might pinch a bit,"
"Just do it, I'm not four." I said, but still clenched my jaw when he injected my veins with syrum.
Twenty minutes later my memories of the last week had been copied and sent to the organization, at least the parts I wanted them to know. Frank handed me a cucumber and I made my way back to my cell.
I knew the minute I reached my bed, I would be put in lock down for the rest of the night and if I tried to leave, my info bracelet would shock me and notify the security bots.
I tossed the cucumber to Paco and watched his eyes gleam with excitement as he harbored over it. They are drugging him for a reason and I intend to find out why.
"Thanks Max," He said taking a bite out of it. I nodded and kept walking to my bed. My bracelet beeped reminding me I was being reprimanded.
"Looks like you got yourself a new friend and a new nickname." Newt said from his bed.
"New nickname?" I tilted my head. "Tim is pretty short as it is."
"They are calling you Max for Maximum Security, because you knocked out four gang members and two security bots. What they should be calling you is dead meat." Newt laughed.
*~*~*~*
Alright so I may have taken more than the time limit, but I started having fun with this one. I think the cucumber bit, is a little quirky, but I think it sort of adds to the story dimension. Hope you guys enjoyed. Fun Fact: Pennies made after 1982 are made with 97.5% zinc. The U.S. produces 13 billion pennies annually.
(FF Source: https://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/penny-facts.aspx)
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