Hopeless

It was three days until Cherish came back.

Or well, it seemed like it was. Nobody really knew how to measure time here anymore. Or we did but just stopped. What was the point? You would only make yourself more depressed, knowing how long you wasted your life here.

But they day she came back, it was weird. She wasn't the shy Cherish I saw when I first met her, or the extremely brave (or stupid, I have yet to decide) Cherish when she was talking to the guard. She was just....quiet. Like something eeire had happened. I figured they probably put her in maximum security, just to scare her a little bit, and she had a hard time taking it in.

Intense looked at her as the gaurd opened the door. She gave him and irritated look in return as she walked in and laid down on a cot in the corner of the room. Now, usually, I took the cot in the corner of the room. I mean, it was isolated enough, so nobody would bother me, but the fact that she stole my cot wasn't my main problem at the moment.

"What do you think happened to her?" River whispered in my ear, sitting down next to me.

"I don't know."

I saw that he had a handful of nails and twine in his hand. I stared at hm, a gape. It was hard enough to get your hands on anything in the place without getting caught, and usually it was just resources that people wanted. Extra water, food, maybe a couple more pillows to lay their head on. But, twine and nails? Those were practically impossible. If a gaurd were to see them, I don't think River would ever come out of maximum security.

"Where did you get those from?!" I whisper screamed.

" Shh. I don't know. Just found them." He replied, calm as ever.

"Then get rid of them. Do you know what they'll do to you?"

He gave a soft chuckle. It was strange. Personally, I didn't see anything funny.

" They can't do much worse to me then they've already done. What can the harm of a few nails and twine do? I won't be stupid enough to use it against them." He twiddled the nails between his index, thumb, and middle finger.

"So, what do you plan to do with them?" I asked.

" I don't know. Maybe build something." He stopped for a minute and looked at me, " You know, I didn't think you would be so afraid and scared."

I looked at him, shocked. He only knew me for a few days. To be honest, he didn't really know me. He only knew my name, or rather, the fake name I gave him.

"Scared? Afraid? Are you sure you aren't confusing me with the princess over there?" I shrugged toward Cherish, where she was sitting on her cot.

"Yeah, sure. She may have came off scared, and she could've done better with the bodies, but did you see the way she stood up to those gaurds? No one ever does that, just like no one keeps any nails and twine around, because we're so scared." He gathered his twine and nails in his hand, covering them up, "You need to learn how to judge people better."

He got up and went back to his cot, leaving me to process what he said. I was brave to. I mean, I survived this long in this place. That had to mean some thing didn't it? And what does he mean about judging people?

I was fusturasted now, and wanted nothing more then to get out of this cell and walk around to clear my head. I got up and walked over to the bars, and looked out across the horizon. I heard that people actually escaped from this placed, and lived on the outside. No bars, no gaurds, they were free to do what they wanted...

Or maybe they weren't.

Maybe they still had to live in the same fear we did, because if they were ever caught they would be thrown into maximum security. Maybe, they got all got out and died, because they didn't have resources to keep themselves alive.

"Yo, Scarface. can you open the door?" I heard Intense say.

I snapped back into reality and noticed a gaurd looking at me, nothing but annoyance and disgust in his eyes.

"Are you going to eat, or do you prefer to starve?" The gaurd snapped.

I opened the door and immediatly, we went into the normal lunch routine. Your probably surprised. Yes, they fed us lunch. Remember, their motive wasn't to kill us right away, we had to lose hope first.

Remember that. That's important.

They tied our hands behind our backs, and moved us into the long chow line. The food they fed us here was always something that couldn't be identified, and smelled horrible. Once your lunch was served on a tray, you had 10 minutes to eat whatever it was on your tray, dump it, then go to get tied up and escorted back to your cell. There was no talking. Anyone who was caught talking to anyone other than a gaurd was put into maximum security no questions asked. You did get the privlige to eat with other people that didn't belong to your cell, but it wasn't that big of a benefit thanks to the no talking rule.

I got my tray and sat down next to a boy with brown curly hair. I looked at the big lump of slop. I could make out some green and red specks, which I guess must've been some type of food or vegetable. With every lunch, you got a slice of bread and a glass of water. I broke off a piece of bread, piled some slop onto it, and put it in my mouth. The bread helped dull the taste, not that there was much. It wasn't that the food tasted it horrible, it just didn't taste like anything at all. I mean, you knew it was bad when the water had more flavor.

I ate at a moderate pace as I looked around the chow hall. It was dead silent of course, but it was a good place to clear your head. I took note of some people that weren't here anymore. The boy with the red hair, the girl with the light skin and frekles, the older man, who might of died of old age.

It was weird, knowing that people were dying. I honestly don't know how to explain it. I guess after awhile you just got over the feeling.

I looked around at my cell mates. Intense, was sitting with a group of girls, who couldn't stop starring at him and his muscles. River was sitting at the end of a table, alone. I wondered if he had managed to hid those nails, seeing as a group of guards perform cell checks while were out here.

Last was Cherish. She was a few seats up from me. I was about to look away, when I saw her fingers twitch. I've never noticed her have any type of twitch before, so I kept watching. Sure enough, she did it again, her eyes focused on the boy that sat across from her. I switched my focus on him, and sure enough, his fingers twitched too. After another twitch from him, both him and Cherish put their hands under the table.

Once their hands came back up (the transaction only lasted for a second) they went back to eating like normal.

My mind raced thinking why they were acting like this. Thousands of possibilities were popping up into my head all at once. It didn't matter though. I knew something was going on here...

And I wanted in.