No Matter What

The next day came rather quickly, to my disliking, and once lunch rolled around I was nervous as fuck about what we were doing. Hell, we were all nervous. Jimmy was shaking like a leaf, and Zack was stuttering so bad he could barely form a sentence. Matt hardly said anything; he just glanced around very nervously every few seconds.

“A-are we r-r-” Zack couldn’t get the words out, and Matt just nodded.

“Yes. We need to. I can’t take this any longer.” Jimmy spoke quickly. We all sat in silence for a while; just waiting for the signal, which we had no clue what it was. Suddenly, after a good ten minutes, it started.

“No! It was mine, you dumbass!” Someone yelled from across the room, and a chair flew over our table.

“This is it.” Matt said, and another chair flew through the air, and just like that, the whole room was sent into frenzied anger, people screaming, chairs and things flying, guards being taken down left and right. It was almost like a repeat of what happened not too long ago.

“Let’s go!” Jimmy yelled, and we all got up and started making our way to the other side of the room, avoiding fists here and there, and dodging bodies as they fell in our path. I ducked just in time to miss a chair leg as it was swung at someone, and I glanced at Zacky as he threw a punch into a guy’s face that tried to tackle him before we pushed on. I found the table, knocked sideways to conceal the grate.

“Here!” I yelled at Matt, hoping he could hear me over everything else, and he did, looking over at me, along with Jimmy and Zacky. They ran over, pushing through the crowd and once they got over to where I was, we all got down and crawled under the table.

“You go first.” Jimmy said, and I nodded. Matt moved the grate, and I hesitated a moment, thinking of what I was about to do. I was breaking out of prison. It sounded really badass, but it was scary as hell. I was also leaving Madison. I didn’t want to, but I needed to get out of here.

“Brian, you okay?” Matt asked, resting a hand on my back, and I nodded.

“I’m fine.” I said, and dropped down into the hole, falling into complete darkness as I landed on my feet in at least half a foot of sewer water. I got out from under the hole just in time before Jimmy fell, and Zacky came in on top of him. Luckily Jimmy didn’t fall, he just stumbled.

“Oh god it smells like fucking sewage down here.” Jimmy complained, and Matt dropped down, narrowly avoiding Jimmy and Zacky.

“We’re in a sewer, what did you expect, the smell of flowers and cookie dough?” Zacky asked as he jumped off of Jimmy’s back.

“We gotta move.” Matt said, reaching up and pulling the grate back over the hole.

“Wait, which way do we go?” I asked, looking around at the three tunnels.

“We have to just wing it.” Zacky said with a sigh.

“As long as we get out of here I don’t care which way we go.” Jimmy said, and began walking in the brightest tunnel. I looked at Zacky and Matt and they shrugged.

“We’ll get out of here no matter which way we go.” Matt said, and I nodded as we followed Jimmy. We caught up with him and walked beside him.

“Hey, do you guys think the stories about those new electric traps down here are true?” Zacky asked, and suddenly Jimmy and I froze slightly.

“Electricity and water? Are you fucking serious?” Jimmy asked and I began going through options in my head. I could chance it and go on, and just hope they were myth, I could go back into the prison, or I could go on and possibly die a painful death.

“Don’t say that kind of stuff now, everyone knows that the prison is too cheap to even fathom something like that.” Matt said, punching Zacky lightly in the arm.

“I don’t know about this anymore.” Jimmy said and I nodded.

“Yea, I mean…I’d rather die in a cell than down here where no one can find me, waiting for the sewer rats to eat my insides.” I said and Zacky then began looking around.

“S-sewer rats? Fucking rats?” Zacky said, panic in his voice.

“Okay, everyone stop! There are no sewer rats, there are no electrical traps, and we are not going back.” Matt said, and I thought about this for a second. Matt was a pretty trustworthy guy, in my eyes, he probably knew what he was talking about, or he was just wanting to get us to stop flipping out so he could begin using us as shields against the electric traps and sewer rats. When one of us finally dies, he’ll just be like, ‘Oh shit, there goes Brian. Well, he would want us to continue on since we’ve gone this far.’ And we’d be in hesitant agreement.

“Okay just…don’t use us as shields.” I said, and began walking forward again, hearing them all pause for a moment before following. There was a splash from nearby, followed by a squeak, and Zacky stopped.

“W-what was that?” He asked shakily and Matt chuckled darkly.

“The sewer rats.” Matt began walking ahead of Zacky as he just froze in place. “Hope you’re not wearing loose pants.”

*^*^*^*^*^*^*
We walked for hours, making lefts and rights, and turning around a few times and changing direction. Every time there was the buzz of a fly, Jimmy would begin flipping out thinking it was the mythical electric traps, and every time there was any noise other than our footsteps, Zacky would freak out thinking it was the legendary huge sewer rats. Once, Zacky jumped into Matt’s arms, which in any case was priceless. What made the sewer rat fiasco even better was the fact that there were mice in the sewer, varying in size. Once, one brushed by Matt’s leg, and he took off faster than I had ever seen him run before, screaming that the rats were real, and going to eat us all, which sent Zacky running with him, nearly having a panic attack as well. It was priceless. I just continued to think about what we were doing. I mean, I guess this was a good thing for us. We weren’t bad people, or at least, I think we aren’t. I wasn’t exactly sure why Zacky, Jimmy, and Matt were in here, but they seemed like decent people to me. Also, this was good in another way that it gave me no choice but to cut the relationship off that I had started with Madison. She deserved better than me. I loved her, I really did, but I wasn’t the right guy for her. I was a convict, in a prison, and she was just an innocent girl, an employee in the jail.

“Look! I found a grate that doesn’t lead into a main part of town!” Jimmy declared, and we all stopped and turned back.

“Really?” I questioned and he nodded.

“He’s right, the last grate was a while back and it was right in front of-”

“I don’t care about the fucking details, just get me out of here before I vomit from the smell.” Zacky said, cutting Matt off. Zacky reached up the short distance and shoved the grate out of the way before hoisting himself up.

“Is it clear?” Jimmy asked and he looked back down at us and nodded.

“Yea, it’s an alley, there’s no one around.” He said, giving us the okay, and I reached up next, pulling myself out of the hole, and Zacky helped me to my feet. We helped Matt out, and then Jimmy. It was pitch black out, and there wasn’t a single light on in what seemed like the whole town. We must’ve been walking for longer than I thought.

“So, where to now?” Matt asked, looking around at the small alley we had emerged in. It was really just an empty place between two brick buildings with a chain-link fence at one end, and a few trash bags scattered here and there.

“Oh my god, I know exactly where we are.” Zacky said, and we all looked at him.

“Where?” I asked and he smiled.

“We’re just a block away from one of my friends’ houses.” Zacky said and we continued to look expectantly at him.

“You want to lead the way?” Jimmy asked and Zacky nodded.

“Right.” He said, and looked both ways out the mouth of the alley.

“Make a run for it?” Jimmy guessed.

“Oh, sure, we’ll run like crazed maniacs down the street in our prison attire, because walking won’t be suspicious enough.” Zacky said, and Jimmy gave an annoyed sigh.

“Just a suggestion.”

“Stop it. We’re walking. Keep in the shadows, avoid dogs, and hurry and get there without running. We’ll be fine.” Matt said and we nodded. We walked out of the alley, acting as nonchalant as four guys that had just escaped prison and walked through miles of sewage could. We stayed on the dark side of the street that wasn’t touched by the few street lamps there were, and silently walked, praying we wouldn’t be seen until finally Zacky stopped.

“This is his place.” He said, and motioned for us to follow as he walked around to the carport. He walked in and up to a side door, knocking a few times.

“This guy isn’t a heavy sleeper, is he?” I asked and Zacky shook his head.

“No, he probably just got off work.” Zacky answered.

“Where does he work?” Jimmy asked.

“He’s a bartender at this place in town. He works from ten in the morning to ten at night, and,” He paused to knock again, harder this time. “Mrs. Kellis across the street goes to bed at about ten thirty, and turns all of her lights off, and since they’re off, it’s at least ten thirty if not l-”

“Zacky, what fuck are you doing here?” We all looked back at the door as a guy came out, he had black and blonde hair and was kind of short. He rubbed his eyes, and opened the door. “Dude, you’re supposed to be locked up and- wait…what the hell’s going on?”

“Johnny, this is Brian, Matt and Jimmy. We came up with a plan and broke out of prison and since you were closest to the sewer grate we just climbed out of a few minutes ago, we need to stay here for a while.” Zacky said quickly and Johnny nodded slowly.

“Okay.” He said, stretching out the word and sounding slightly unsure.

“You’re okay with harboring away four fugitives?” I asked and Johnny nodded.

“Sure, why not.” He said and I looked at Jimmy and so did Matt.

“Looks like you have some competition in the insanity category.” Matt smiled.

“No way, I bet he hasn’t escaped from a prison.” Jimmy said and I just shook my head.

“Well…come on in. There are three bathrooms, one on the second floor, one on the first, and one in the basement, and I will leave clothes outside of the first floor and second floor bathroom because making another trip down stairs will just be too much and I’m so tired I may trip.”

“Seems organized.” Matt muttered and I nodded.

“Seems suspicious.” I whispered.

“Creepy, is actually the word I’ve heard before. Creepy and short.” Johnny said with a yawn.

“Creepy and short totally works.” Zacky said, nodding lightly. He couldn’t have been more right.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
^*Johnny’s POV*^
I was so tired. I had to work a double shift, which meant I was at that damn bar for twenty four hours, with only a two hour break in the middle. I didn’t know what in the hell I was doing, but Zacky was a good friend, and he broke out of prison and needed a place to stay. The others seemed pretty okay too, not the type of guys that would most probably slit my throat in my sleep and rob me blind, but I was so exhausted I had no clue what was going on. I just hoped my sister was still asleep. After everyone got showers and got rid of that god awful smell that had been following them around, they all went down to the basement.

“You guys can crash down here. I uh…I have a sister, but she works from seven to seven, so during the day when I’m at work it should be safe to go and grab something to eat or something. Let’s see…” I trailed off, my mind not wanting to function properly. “Bathroom’s over there, the lock’s kind of off on the door, so there’s a chain lock. Two couches, one person per couch unless two of you are together. There are three or four air mattresses in that storage closet over there.” I pointed to the closet in the corner, then turned back to them. “The TV stays on most of the time unless the main power’s out, because something happened to the power on it…” I couldn’t think of anything else. “I’m fucking tired. I’ll probably have more to say tomorrow, but for now, just don’t let my sister find you guys, or anyone else for that matter, got it?” I asked and they nodded.

“Thanks for doing this.” Zacky said and I nodded.

“No problem, I kind of feel like I owe you one for not at least trying to bail you out if that was possible.” I said and yawned.

“You better go to bed before you pass out.” One of them…I think his name was Brian, suggested and I nodded.

“Good idea. I’ll be back down here before I go to work.” I said, and with that I turned and walked back up the stairs, taking them slowly in fear that I’d fall. I shut the door and then walked up another set of stairs. I peeked into my sister’s bedroom, making sure she had made it home and was asleep, and luckily she was. So she didn’t get killed on the job today. Which was good. I didn’t like her working in that place. I really didn’t. Even if she was protected with guards, it wasn’t a safe place for a girl to work. But hell, she’s my little sister that refuses to live with our deranged, over-protective parents, so…I have to support her. Though, I wish she’d just find a good guy that would sweep her off her feet and treat her right. But she won’t find someone like that while working in a prison.