The Prison Project [-Editing-]

20: Trey

He begins to tap around the edge of the hole.

“Feel around for a button of some sort,” Howie says.

“Why?”

“I don’t know, just do it!”

I put up my hands in defense and start to feel around the hole. I move around it on my knees. I feel a click beneath my hands when I reach the other side and a bright light suddenly fills the hole.

Howie and I look down and take in the view. The hole goes down about fifteen feet, and the bottom is made of glass. Below the glass, there is the beginning of a horizontal tunnel.

“How do we get to the tunnel?” Howie asks in awe.

“Uhh…” I reply, completely at a loss for words. I honestly don’t know what to do. I look down to where I felt the click. Sure enough, I have pressed a button of some sort. And right next to it is another button. I press it, and the glass shifts upward. A tube rises above the ground, and a door slides open. Howie and I look at each other, and without a second thought, pile inside. The door shuts once more, and the tube returns down through the hole. The door opens once more, and we are facing a tunnel made of white walls, just like the hole.

Howie and I start to move forward. The tunnel goes on for ages. I start to think that Howie and I have entered a never-ending passageway, but we finally come upon a circular room. Another door is located just ahead. Howie looks at me, his eyes wide.

“Something about this place gives me the creeps,” he whispers.

“Me too…”

“But I think we’ve found it…”

“Yeah…I do too…”

“Onward?”

“Yeah. Onward.”

We continue to move forward, almost tip-toeing from fear that someone will find us. Howie and I examine the room. The ceilings are high and bare, just like the walls. The white never ends. I’m going to go crazy from this, I think nervously to myself.

I pass through the door when I realize that Howie isn’t with me anymore. I turn around and see him looking up at the ceiling, eyes squinted.

“Howie,” I whisper, “come on!”

Howie turns and follows after me. But he doesn’t make it through the door.

A siren goes off and the lights in the chamber turn red. A glass panel slams down in the doorway, blocking Howie from the exit.

“HOWIE!” I call.

“Trey!” he calls back, banging on the glass. “Open it!”

“I don’t know how!”

“Find a button or something, just get me out!”

I whirl around and look for something, anything that might save Howie. But I find nothing. A voice comes over the intercom, saying something about the punishment of intruders, but I don’t focus on it. I look back into the chamber behind Howie and notice that steel panels are rolling down the walls. Howie looks around frantically, then turns back to me and says, “Go.”

“What? No, I’m gonna get you out of there!”

“No, Trey, just go! Get Scott and Linley and Marisol, go save them! Go!”

“Howie-”

“GO!”

I want to argue, but I know that it’s no use. I purse my lips and nod, sadly watching as he waves goodbye, and then turns around to meet his fate. But I know I can’t stay. I turn on my heel and sprint down the hall. I finally find some more hallways that seem a little more human. But at the same time, they don’t. It appears to be a giant test lab.