Elias walked over towards Nayan and leaned towards him and gripped his hand on his shoulder, the same way Nayan had done so to Elias when he needed support, he was intrigued why Nayan didn't want to leave this place that had been his prison for so many months.

"And why can't we leave this place?" asked Elias.

Nayan took a moment to find his breath and tried to continue, but Elias never gave him that chance.

"Come to think of it...why haven't you left this place? There's something you're not telling me, I know I was slightly inebriated earlier but even I noticed there are no locks on the doors, hardly any guards and no weapons whatsoever and then you say there is a supplies ship that comes every now and then with no pilot, which you could always jump on and get home or anyway on the planet so why are you still here?

"Nayan, listen, the vines strike from beneath the ground and now they're climbing the walls, we make it to the hangar and that bides us some time; get everybody in the ship and it's job done, you said it yourself we can't stay here!"

The crowd were beginning to side with Elias now, n.o.body wanted to be left there with the vines but the body language of Nayan told a different story.

"Why won't you leave this prison, Nayan?" Elias pressed and Nayan turned away from the window. "TELL ME!"

Elias never liked shouting, he always left the disciplining of Gemma for his sister, he used to joke about it saying, *I know you're right, Kay but there's no point in Gemma growing up and hating both of us...just you!'

Reminiscing over it was time to get to the truth, which Nayan was obviously keeping from him.

"We're all on the list" was Nayan's reply.

"What list? What are you talking about?"

Nayan made a slashing motion with his right index finger across his throat.

"We can run, we can hide from the vines...but we cannot leave Olympia, as soon as we do we'll be dead men walking. They'll find you."

"Who will find me? I'm starting to get really confused now, Nayan."

"There are guardians here, monsters left over from the game shows are scatted throughout the grounds and they will kill you if you leave Gommerstall."

Elias tried hard to hide his derision and just smiled weakly. "So what you're saying is that around this prison are monsters shipped from the now defunct game shows which are now watching us and keeping us here, as well as killer vines and if we step outside they will hunt us down and kill us, is that right?"

"That is true," Nayan said.

Elias's eyebrows shot up and he lost his excited glow. "Don't feed me your rubbish, Nayan, this is beyond a joke now."

He crossed his hands in a state of denial and looked at Jago and his new *brothers'.

"Did you know about this? Did anyone else know this?"

Most hands went up accompanied by a few mumblings to the contrary. "So none of you guys tried to escape because of giant creatures supposedly guarding these grounds?"

He then glared at Jago. "Is there any reason you decided to keep this information from me?"

Jago answered back, disappointed with himself. "I only found out the truth since I came here, I thought I knew all about the inner workings of Big Man and his Network when we were back in prison under his studios."

Jago's voice turned more defensive. "But I'm sorry my friend, I found out this news when you were in stasis, what could I do? Pull you out of deep sleep for that? Only people with extreme sleep disorders should be pulled out of hyper sleep and you weren't one of them...it's not all about you, Elias...there is much more at stake here and it's time to look at the bigger picture. We're all prisoners here, most of us wrongly imprisoned by Big Man but we're dealing with it...we all have to deal with it.

"People were happy here, they could read books, plays, sing and dance, because we're teachers and here we could be the people we couldn't be back home thanks to TV. That's all changed now and our prison...our home...our utopia is under threat, so one thing at a time, and at the moment it's getting away from the vines."

He then kept the same tone in his voice for Nayan and lifted his sleeve to rub his arm revealing an old tattoo.

"We'll deal with the monsters later, and wait for the ship, but we are not hiding...I've been hiding for months but I'm not hiding anymore. This was my home and it's under threat...so now I'm with Elias on this one, when we cross the bridge to get to Section 3a...ship comes and then we leave and to h.e.l.l with the consequences, it's a shame to leave this peaceful place but I'm getting out of here and back to Olympia."

He spoke to the prisoners with his voice still raised. "When the ship comes we will change its flight course to Olympia and any other city you came from or wish to go to...and then you'll be on your own."

The old man ran ruled with his voice dictation to the other prisoners who listened intently, before it was always Nayan who made them stand to attention, but here the older figure of Jago was holding his own.

"Anybody want to stay here and battle the vines is free to do so, but the rest of you grab your stuff and let's go, we leave immediately."

Nayan was shocked at Jago's sudden insistence to leave but nodded thoughtfully at his friend and then glanced at Elias who had an *I told you so' grin on his face and Nayan's returned half-smile slowly grew.

"Ok...everyone get your stuff, we're getting out of here."

The teachers roared their approval and began to run out of the a.s.sembly hall, some went back to get some belongings from their cells whilst others ran straight for the exit and connecting door to the steel bridge which led from their section to Sections 3 and 3a. The men braved the sandstorms that swirled around them and climbed the steps leading to the bridge.

Nayan reached for Elias who wasn't sure of what possessions he had with him after waking up from his stasis.

"There's no going back now, Mr Glaucas, are you sure you're ready for this?"

Elias smiled absently. "The worst case scenario is that we die escaping or we die trapped like rats in this place, we owe it to everybody we love to get out of here and see them again and I will get back to Olympia to see my daughter."

Nayan bowed his head. "Your courage shames me, my friend."

"It's not courage...it's love."

The councillor pressed his hand firmly on his new friend's shoulder.

"Then I would love to help you get back to your daughter."

Elias patted Nayan's hand with his own. "Don't you want to get back to your own family?"

Nayan took out his mobile phone from his pocket and held it close to his chest. "I will see my family soon."

As the two went to follow the rest of the prisoners out of the hall, a thought hit Elias. "What about the other prisoners in stasis?"

Nayan stopped dead in his tracks. "d.a.m.n!"

He spoke in a hushed tone but the words flew from his mouth at a tremendous speed, for once Nayan appeared nervous.

"Most of our brothers in stasis are in Section 3, the ones in our section are all awake now and are recovering in the hospital ward, I almost forgot."

The same hammer of relocation hit Elias on the back of the head too.

"FELCEY!" I almost forgot Felcey! We have to get to the ward and bring him."

"And one other my friend, someone who I almost forgot...let's go."

The two turned around and headed back from the exit leading to the bridge looking through the giant window and at the spotlights from the ground illuminating the vines on their section and the men rocking the chain-linked bridge leading from theirs to the vine-free prison buildings ahead.

There was a noise just barely audible to the people behind the thick window looking, they could just about make out a sound like rough hands being rubbed together quickly and it was getting louder.

In the darkness a shape was moving quickly from the ground, whatever it had smashed through some of the spotlights and was turning others on their side and as the light turned, the men on the bridge looked down and saw what was heading towards them. That was when twenty prisoners on a chain-linked fence screamed as one as the giant vine tore through the bridge and sent the men plummeting to their deaths below. The vine managed to s.n.a.t.c.h two men from the drop but their fates were sealed anyway as their brains usually were the starters for the vines' meal.

The bridge joined the fallen prisoners on the ground below as their friends and cellmates looked on in horror from the inside, banging again against the window united in grief and frustration.

The commotion bought the others who went to pack racing back into the a.s.sembly hall. Cellmates, Faris and Aubrey, returned with huge suitcases, eager to get a move on with the journey; they were soon bought to a halt when they saw the terror in the eyes of their comrades and Elias with his head in his hands. Faris dropped his case and eased himself between the more muscular men who stood at the front of the window banging hard with oversized fists, and saw the s.p.a.ce where the bridge had been and now two giant vines were flailing around trying to attach themselves to anything around.

Faris turned around and rolled his eyes, he fought hard to conceal his fright as he saw Aubrey also pushing his way past the other prisoners; he sighed long and hard as Aubrey surveyed what was happening outside.

"You couldn't make it up, could you?"

Nightfall came and went...the vines didn't. Nayan sat with Elias and a handful of senior prisoners in the a.s.sembly hall; they were studying a layout map of their section of the prison, the prisoners were growing restless as they looked outside. It was daylight now and the severity of their situation and the carnage of last night's attack were all too plain to see.

Elias pointed out something to Nayan on the map and the councillor shook his head and pointed somewhere else to which Elias squinted his eyes and nodded. Jago was conversing with Faris in the corner. "It's my birthday next week; I think it's the day before the supply ship lands."

Faris chuckled. "I'm surprised you're not sick of birthdays, Jago, I mean how many have you had now, a thousand?"

The old man laughed and gave Faris a playful punch on the arm, he smiled back. Faris had missed the old man's laughter and it was refreshing to hear in these dark times.

"That bag looks heavy, old man, sure you don't want a hand?" Faris asked.

"Thank you, my friend, but I'm fine thank you."

Elias looked over his shoulder when he heard Jago laugh and he too smiled to himself when he saw both him and Faris having a chuckle as he also knew the stress the old man was under, as they all were.

Nayan pulled him back to business at hand and asked for his opinion.

"What do you think then, my friend? Is it worth a try?"

Elias looked intensely at the map for the last time and nodded. "So if we get to Section 3, who's the warden there?"

"There aren't many of my brothers in Section 3 so the warden keeps to himself, you may know him actually, he used to work for Big Man, and he's called Apollo."

Elias shivered when he heard that name.

"He's here! Apollo is here?"

"Yes, but n.o.body hardly see's him, when Big Man shut down his underground prison from his mansion he sent Apollo and Dandridge to Gommerstall, Dandridge is a good man for a warden but Apollo is pure evil."

Elias nodded and thought back on his own near demise being dragged around the Big Man's stadium. Nayan went on, "Reports say he's losing his mind over there, he thought he was a valued member of Big Man's staff but as he was tossed asunder to this place in the middle of nowhere, something snapped."

Elias played with his teeth with his tongue, flicking it out like a bored snake.

"And what's your story, Nayan? How did you end up here?"

"Me? It's a long, boring story."

"Well, we do have a week," Elias smiled.

"Ok, well I was Head of Security for Big Man, It was a good job, pay was nice...I saw things I shouldn't have seen, done things I shouldn't have done, but like I said the money kept me going.

"I was spending more and more time at work and neglecting my wife and kids.

One morning I came back home from a night shift...and found a note from my wife, she'd taken the kids and left me, so when that happened I turned to drink...big time, I was a mess, because I missed them so much. Big Man wanted me to go out and capture some children who had unbelievably gained some special powers somehow, he wanted them to fight in his game shows."

Elias leaned in. "THEY WERE MY STUDENTS, WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?"

"Nothing, I would never hurt children, I am a father too you know?"

"So what happened?" Elias said.

"Well Big Man got somebody else to hunt down those kids, I don't know who, but I left, packed up my stuff and was about to leave when I watched a young girl on the television screen fighting against a *Leviathan squid'. She was left for dead in the lake so I went to the studio where's it was filmed and rescued her, we both tried to escape, but Big Man sees everything and we were re-captured, and you know what Kimberley did in the arena, right?"

Elias nodded.

"But what happened to her? I mean I can see you're here but what did they do to her? WHERE IS SHE?"

Nayan calmed him down. "She's here, they put her in stasis. Well the girl stayed with us for a few months but it was plain to see that something happened to her in the water as she is deathly afraid of it and her power is changing, she's having trouble controlling it, if she's not careful she'll end up a walking time bomb. She didn't have much company here, as even though this is a mixed prison, there aren't many women here so she served the rest of her time in stasis and came out of it shortly before you, she's suffering from some sleeping problems due to the old stasis pod she was in so she's recuperating in hospital, I made her a promise to look after her and I aim to keep it. She's my friend and I will get her out of here."

Elias shook his head. "So Kimberley's here and I've seen Felcey...what about Ca.s.sandra?"

"I don't know who she is...I haven't seen her."

Elias looked to the ceiling and then around at the prisoners, well if she's here I'm going to find her, they're my students and I will see them all of them again. Listen, we have to get out of this place, you up for the plan?"

Nayan's grin returned. "Yeah, let's go for it."

Nayan bought the group to attention as they all turned at looked on questioningly at their councillor "We may have a solution to our problem; these prisons were modified from the old mining complexes Years ago, well according to these maps there are a number of pa.s.sage ways connecting Section 2 to Sections 3 and 3a, we should be able to use them and reach the hangar and the supply ship."

A big bald strapping prisoner stepped forward, his arms covered in tattoos; his name was Welch.

"I haven't seen these pa.s.sageways, as far as I know the only way to Section 3 is across the bridge, which got destroyed last night or on the ground which is a no-no because of the vines so, where are they?"

Taking a deep breath, Nayan answered him. "They're underground, the pa.s.sages are underground."

What followed next was shouting and swearing from the prisoners, especially from Welch who clearly wanted to antagonise Nayan and criticise his idea.

"There's no way I'm going underground with those *things' down there waiting for us...we'll be like sitting ducks."

Nayan wasn't in the mood for this. "You have a better idea?" He asked again to the group. "Anybody?" No reply came. "Just as I thought."

Welch wanted more answers. "Do you know how we're going to kill those things? We don't have any guns, remember? What do you want us to do...put forty bags of weedkiller on the next order on the supply ship?"

Nayan clicked his head to the left and then to the right, grimacing. "I don't know anything, I just want keep my head down, lay low and get my brothers out of here safely."

Faris was next, asking one question with enough sincerity in his voice that Nayan had to take him seriously.

"So when are we leaving?"