Tettlow whimpered, "It's my birthday, I can't, don't let them get me."

Leedon's voice was more angry than desperate. "THEN CLIMB! DON'T LOOK DOWN, DON'T LOOK DOWN, CLIMB AS FAST AS YOU CAN!"

Tettlow didn't look back, he just climbed behind Leedon on the ladder opposite him, getting the hang of climbing with one hand faster than he'd thought, if he'd had looked back he would have seen the platform full of vines snaking their way across and heading to the rock face where the two men made desperate their escape, both of them were almost at the top and it was Leedon who felt the temptation to look behind him and wished with all his heart he hadn't. The Vines were scaling the rocks, twisting and turning past and over ever jagged edge of the cliff, he didn't have far to climb and now his voice was desperate has he looked over to his remaining companion. "WE'RE ALMOST THERE, TETTLOW."

The skeletally thin body of Tettlow responded by clutching his cake tighter, making some sponge fall on to the pursuing plants. A tremor of relief shuddered through Leedon's body as he hauled himself over the top of the half-platform, rolling himself over to the other ladder he waited for his friend to play catch-up, cursing him for still having the cake in his arms, finally he grabbed the remaining arm as Tettlow's head had pa.s.sed the penultimate rung of the ladder and hauled him to safety and looked him in the eyes to calm him down.

"Look at me, Tettlow." Tettlow looked behind him. "Look at me!" He did this time, head shivering. "We're going to have to make a break for it now, ok?" The birthday boy nodded. "Ok on three...now!!"

The two men sprinted to the entrance doors and Tettlow realised that he had found climbing with a cake in one hand easier than running with a cake in one hand, as he tripped and fell but managing to turn at the last moment so as not to damage his cake, the cake still in its baking tin fell to the ground and to Tettlow's horror began to roll away to the side of him. Leedon heard a despairing groan and looked behind and saw the slim figure of Tettlow chasing after his cake whilst the vines bore down on him, with focused ferocity Leedon screamed at him. "LEAVE IT! LET IT GO!"

But his shouts were wasted on the determined chef as now he criss-crossed his legs and gave chase to Tettlow, who was bending down to collect the cake, seamlessly oblivious to the onslaught of killer vines behind him, standing up he felt a sudden sharp tug on his right arm.

"Time to go now." It was Leedon, pulling at his sleeve and this time Tettlow listened to him, with the cake safely back in hand he followed Leedon to the entrance doors to the block and for the first time he could actually hear the sounds of the slithering vines on his tail.

"LET US IN!" shouted Tettlow which was the first time he'd shown any encouragement for escape which briefly impressed Leedon, they both banged on the huge reinforced doors expecting the prisoner on door duty to open it.

Relief hit them hard when they could just about hear a voice behind the door and the faints sounds of scratching as the bolts were being pulled back, bent over double, and panting heavily, Leedon gave a huge smile to his friend, but Tettlow didn't smile back, he just stared at Leedon who twitched a bit as if someone had just p.r.i.c.ked him with a fine needle. He didn't move from that spot, just trembled slightly as the unseen vine slithered up his leg, around his waist and began to squeeze.

Leedon's nose began to bleed and he even had time to wipe it before the realisation of his imminent demise kicked in, he smiled whilst shivering to Tettlow who had sunk to the ground with his back against the wall, clutching his cake and shaking with fear.

"Hap pi bur day," were the final words that came from Leedon's mouth, as the huge door finally was opened and Tettlow fell in, all the prisoner guard at the door saw was Leedon being put to death by the vines, but he didn't scream, not once, the others did so for him.

Elias sat in the canteen alone, it was quite late at night but the remaining member of the catering staff on duty had fixed him something to eat before he left the kitchen, it had been a while since Elias had eaten using utensils, twelve months apparently.

The wooden cup at the side of the plate contained some sort of home-made alcohol, another treat from the chef.

He had been staring at the food on his plate for so long that it had gone cold and that was when he decided to eat, slowly at first and then shovelling in the remnants and mopping up the gravy with what pa.s.sed for bread in these parts, he hadn't even noticed Nayan sidle up next to him as he finished.

"I'll give the cook your compliments," he chuckled.

Elias took a deep breath but Nayan spoke quickly again. "Couldn't sleep? It takes some getting used to on your first few weeks."

Elias answered with ice in his voice. "I don't want to *get used' to it."

He turned to Nayan but not looking in his eyes, the floor did for now. "You forget, I have been here longer than a few weeks...one year I've been here, seems like only yesterday."

He went back to picking at his plate, and took a long swig from the cup. "And you know what a lousy day yesterday was."

Nayan put a comforting hand on Elias's shoulder, but Elias failed to register the gesture.

"I am leaving this prison, Nayan, and you're not going to stop me."

Nayan pulled his hand away and Elias looked him in the eyes for the first time and noticed the scars on Nayan's face. It was a handsome face and the scars didn't really change that, but it seemed that his eyes had borne witness to too much death and despair, whether it was in the prison or in his past life as a security guard for Big Man. It made Elias wonder, and the sound of Nayan's voice bought him out of his thinking.

"I am not here to stop you, Elias, I am not pointing out that you cannot leave this prison, I'm saying that you may not want to leave this prison."

Elias's body tensed as Nayan continued. "The vines will put pay to that, look around you, most of these people are teachers who were persecuted for doing the job they love, they've had their schools taken away from them, their jobs stripped and for what? Just to provide fodder for some gratuitous violent game show? So now they've been thrown into a prison miles away from all the reality TV nonsense, here, they can read, write, sing, write poetry, write music, act on the stage, dance in our theatres, be the people they trained to be, be the people they wanted to be, this is their utopia, here they can breathe. Why would they leave? There's nothing back there for them now, try to escape and get attacked by killer vines, or stay here in a new paradise? They would rather study the arts than succ.u.mb to a violent and needless death from the vines that fill the earth below."

Elias wasn't in the slightest bit interested. "Then every teacher here is a coward?"

Nayan began to raise his voice. "It seems all you care about is yourself and your own problems, Mr Glaucas, this is a prison with cellmates...friends who are in the same situation as you, who think like you, doing everyday things."

Elias snapped. "STANDING UP TO A BULLY AND NOT BEING LIKE EVERYONE ELSE PUT ME HERE AND MAY HAVE GOT SOME OF MY STUDENTS KILLED...nothing scares me anymore, I'm not afraid...I just want to see my daughter."

Nayan whispered, "We all have something that scares us; a man without fear is a ghost, Elias, is that how you want to end up?"

"I died one year ago, Nayan, so you save your speeches for someone who cares, I don't want to hear it."

Nayan got up to leave. "I'm sorry you feel this way, Elias, maybe you'll feel differently in the morning...you must have faith."

Elias finished what was in his cup and slammed it hard on to the table. "What's the point of having faith if you're too afraid to use it?"

As Nayan walked through the corridors back to his quarters, an out of breath Faris ran into him and for once the relieved and out of sorts comedian was serious.

"I think we have a problem," was all he said and that was enough to make Nayan follow.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Crisis at Gommerstall Elias opened his eyes and looked around; he was tired of having to remember where he was every time he woke up but this time came quicker than the last, although a slice of panic flashed through him as he thought he may have had been asleep again for another ten years and he didn't recognise this room he was in. He leapt out of bed and his head buzzed with the effects of a hangover and he wore his prison outfit and not his hospital robes, something didn't add up and beginning with a stumble through a door, Elias turned it in to a run.

Most of the prisoners on Section One were gathered in one of the a.s.sembly halls; there was a huge window looking out to the other prison sections separated by giant sized stilts.

There wasn't much to see as it was still dark outside and the a.s.sembly hall was flooded with artificial light.

Nayan, Jago and the prison officer, Dandridge, in close company looked out of the window and were pointing at spots outside while the other prisoners were mumbling between themselves, the mumbling increased as Elias entered the room. Just by chance Dandridge turned around and noticed him and tapped Nayan on the shoulder with his eyes locked on Elias.

The teacher walked through the a.s.sembly room of prisoners, some he recognised from his stay at the Network's pleasure and he gave a nod to them, his eyes focused on an empty cake tin on a table with what seemed to be bits of chocolate scattered around it, on the same table sat Faris, Aubrey and the young man, Bevin.

Elias was truly glad to see them, he was upset the last time he saw his ex-cellmates in the hospital ward when they came to visit and he wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings even though he knew his new form of incarceration had nothing to do with them, but he wanted to show willing.

Elias intended to walk straight up to Nayan to see what the fuss was, but thought it was a little to rude to waltz right up to this *leader' when he hardly knew the man, so he pulled up a chair and sat opposite Aubrey who greeted him warmly but after all these years was still unimpressed with most of the company he now kept.

"I say, look at all these ruffians, it's an absolute shower!"

Elias's weak smile broadened as he rubbed his face and listened to Aubrey's upper cla.s.s rant, he eventually found a gap and spoke.

"So what did I miss?"

"The toilet I think," said Faris, mockingly holding his nose, Elias kept up with the smiling as he reached over and examined the cake tin. "Whose is this?"

Bevin eagerly answered as if he was still at school and Mr Glaucas was testing him on an end of term question. "Apparently word is that a few guys from Section Two went out earlier tonight toa"

Nayan cleared his throat ceremoniously and everybody stopped talking, even Bevin begrudgingly stopped, annoyed as he wanted desperately to tell his tale. Elias on the other hand was amazed at the respect Nayan had from his fellow prisoners.

"Listen, my brothers, I'm not going to lie to you and pretend that everything is alright...I've got too much respect for you than that, the truth of the matter is everything isn't alright, we have a monumental problem and I don't know what we can do about it. Three prisoners..." he corrected himself, "Three brothers from Section Two went out late last night after the curfew and only one returned, the other two were attacked and killed."

The room went from steady silence in to a chorus of chatter, Nayan waited for a while before continuing. "They were killed, we think on the upper-half platform on Section Two."

As most of the room were still talking amongst themselves, Elias asked a question, "Killed by what?"

Nayan began to pace for a while and then stopped dead in his tracks. "They were killed by vines."

Shouting gripped the room as prisoners sprung to their feet and for the first time hurled abuse at Nayan.

"YOU HAD BETTER CUT THE c.r.a.p, NAYAN," some yelled.

"WE DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT STUFF," said another.

Both Dandridge and Nayan could understand their anger and subsequent terror, for years the prisoners of Gommerstall, no matter what kind of Incarceration their prison life was to be, whether they were being frozen in stasis or serving their sentence naturally they all knew if that they stayed of the ground and kept themselves in the stilted prisons, than they would be safe, safe from the creeping horrors that lived under the ground which had a thing for human flesh.

The vines could not scale the walls and that was what everybody thought would keep them safe from harm, but it seems those days were well and truly over.

Dandridge pulled Nayan aside and whispered to him. "Is there a chance that Tettlow is lying to us?"

Nayan shook his head firmly. "Tettlow isn't a murderer; he doesn't have the attention span to kill anybody and besides," his voice grew to include the other inmates, "I have something to show you, could you please all gather around the window, my brothers, I have something to show you, I didn't want to show you earlier as I didn't want to freak you out."

He turned back round to Dandridge. "And that includes you too, my friend, I didn't turn on the outside spotlights under Section Two until everybody was here and ready."

The big man paused as little inmates strained behind tall ones as everybody was vying for s.p.a.ces to see what the big fuss was about. Nayan waved to a prisoner on the door to the a.s.sembly hall with what seemed to be pre-meditated instructions, the inmate shot off down a corridor as the most of the inmates never even noticed he'd gone, a few moments pa.s.sed as the runner came back into the room and bowed his head to Nayan, whatever the instructions were for the task, they had been completed "And now you're ready."

Nayan flicked a switch on the wall and the outside was illuminated by spotlights beaming light from the ground upwards and what showed up from the lights started the ma.s.s hysteria. Men ran from the window with their stomachs dropping and panic ensured, they banged on the window with terror and disbelief at the sight what met them.

Gigantic vines had emerged from the ground and were wrapped around the support stilts of Section 2 of Gommerstall Prison, in this new light the inmates could see the vines pulsating as they crawled higher and higher up to the support sanctions, the window of the corresponding building where the prisoners watched this disgusting sight was swarmed in a forestry of thorns and vines, despairing moans were coming from the inmates, their only crimes being teachers...no one had ever seen such a sight before in their lives, not even the primary school teachers.

Nayan knew he would have trouble settling the group down and he was spot on. Elias was one of the last men to make his way to the front of the crowd and look out the window.

The sight that met him didn't cause quite the panic inside as it did most of the others, if anything it made him mildly irritated but then this could be the breakthrough he needed to leave this place and get back home, he waited patiently for a gap in the questions being hurled at Nayan, and then he pounced.

"So how long have we got before they come over here?"

Nayan looked over the sea of men as he recognised most of the voices in the room, this one in particular sounded less irritated from when he last heard it. "Mr Glaucas, how nice of you to drop in."

Elias was the only one in the room who could manage a smile. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

Nayan continued. "We think the vines attached themselves to the building shortly after the attack on the three prisoners...I mean brothers. All of the inmates from that prison are now in either Section One or Three, as you can imagine conditions will be cramped but we ask you to bear with us and be patient while we think of a solution to get us out of here."

Elias's ears p.r.i.c.ked up. "So we are leaving then?" Nayan swallowed hard and wiped his brow. "I don't know how but I think that is the only option, we're sitting ducks if we just sit here."

Most of the people in here had been in Big Man's dungeon and were in stasis also, and were woken up either a few days or hours before Elias, and then there were some who were let out quite early like Jago who had been free from stasis for five months.

Both Jago and Nayan were like councillors whilst Dandridge resided permanently at Gommerstall now that Big Man had shut down his mansion prison, Jago still carried his bag over his shoulder.

Bevin was new like Elias and was eager to ask questions to impress the teacher. "How are we doing that then, sir?"

"What we intend to do is cross over from Section 1 through 1a, 2, 2a and through 3 over to 3a, Section 2 may have vines around the perimeter but we should be able to walk straight through the buildings without any trouble, then when we get to section 3a."

He paused and peered out of the window again, looking as hundreds of snake-like vines wriggled below his gaze wrapped around the old tower of Section 2, he returned to his little speech.

"When we get to section 3a which is further away from these two, we'll figure something out; we can regroup and start to think again."

Elias wasn't totally convinced. "I understand hiding out in Section 3, really I do, but what happens when those things get bored or hungry and come over to that site? I mean aren't there any guns here we could use?"

Nayan shook his head grimly. "We used to have guns here, in fact we still do but we ran out of ammo ages ago and being none of the brothers were playing up we didn't request anymore from the supplies ship."

Elias craned his head over to Nayan and swallowed hard, he cursed himself for not asking this question sooner. "You have a supply ship? Well why didn't you say so before? I thought you grew your own food and st.i.tched up your clothes, n.o.body mentioned a supply ship!"

Ideas started to trickle through Elias's head now. "And now you mention it, about ships and stuff...how do the prisoners get brought here? It must be some big transport ship or something...why can't we use that?"

Some prisoners who forgot about the dire consequences if they ever tried to escape showed support for Elias, as Nayan grew mildly irritated.

"The supply ship comes every three months and we're not sure when we're expecting some more inmates."

He turned to Dandridge with his eyebrows high for the answer, which duly came. "The next prisoner transport from the cities of Bodden, Rotth and Olympia is due in two months' time; the next supply ship is here next week."

Elias was full of questions. "These cities? Are they all teachers being put here?"

Nayan picked at his lip as he slowly nodded. "So why is he still after teachers? I was told his studios were destroyed...why is he still hunting us down?"

Nayan swallowed hard. "Big Man hates teachers, his first love was a primary school teacher and they got married and had some children. But then she had an affair with another primary school teacher and left him and he doesn't know who this new guy is...so every primary school teacher IS targeted, every school. He could have killed us long ago, but is keeping us alive for some reason, the games are dead, he has another agenda now."

Elias waved his hand. "And surely the pilots will fly us out of here if they see the dire situation we're in, they wouldn't leave us to die down here surely? I mean I know you guys want to finish your term but we have to escape from this place and any human being will see that."

Nayan had to say something. "There are no pilots in the supply ships; they are flown here on autopilot on a pre-set course, they land and are unloaded by us in the secure enclosure of the hangar where the vines cannot get in."

"Wait" Elias cut in again.

"So at any time, you could have made your way over to the Hangar, change the settings for the autopilot or better yet find a pilot to fly the craft for you...and yet you've never contemplated escaping from this place?"

"It's not as easy as that, besides, these people are teachers not pilots," came the solemn reply from Nayan.

Dandridge and the others couldn't share the joy that was fluttering in Elias's stomach, his hopes of seeing his daughter were further buoyed by this news; he was chuckling now when he gave his idea up to the group.

"Well it's simple then, all we have to do is get across to section 3a anda" He halted himself in mid-flow to ask a simple question. "That is where the supply ship hangar is, isn't it?"

Nayan nodded and Elias continued using his hands again to help him explain with enthusiasm, which is exactly what he did when he was a teacher.

"So we make it across to the supply hangar, crash out there for a week and then when the next supply ship comes we jump aboard and we're home, can the ship hold as many people as this though?"

Nayan had listened with intent to Elias's idea and now answered. "We can make it to the supply hangar, and we can stay there until we can think of something else to do, but we cannot leave Gommerstall just yet."