Life Behind Bars

Chapter Sixteen: For Better or Worse

__When everyone was outside, Scourge found a dark corner space to hide in from everyone else. He sat down and was shocked by how cold the grass there was. He brought his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them as he looked over at the fence where flying mobiles were moving all over. He remembered how when he first came to this prison he would always think of ways of getting out of here, but it would appear now that he had lost all hope of getting out of prison, no matter how he so badly wanted to get back to Mobius where Fiona would be. He still wondered what Fiona was doing with Sonic after hearing from Zamy a while back and remembered how Cal suggested that Fiona was gathering a gang to break him out. Yeah right. Why would she? 
__He backed himself up in his corner when he heard people running in his direction. When he braced himself in case it was Smalls or Jeffrey's gang, he was relieved when it was Al and Cal. He laid his legs out in front of him and crossed his arms as he sighed. So the worms are back eh? He didn't move or say anything when they went to sit down next to him.
__"Hey there, Scourge!" Al greeted in excitement, his smile growing big.
__"Were you lonely without us?" Cal had asked.
__"No, I wasn't really," Scourge replied. "I had Jeffrey and his gang with me."
__"So we heard," Al nodded. "It must have been horrible."
__"Horrible for Croix you mean?" Scourge smirked as he rested his quills on the wall.
__"It must have," Cal agreed. He shifted his legs as he looked at Scourge's left arm. "We uh...also heard about your arm."
__"Yeah, everyone knows now." Scourge placed his left arm over his chest as he watched some of the prisoners playing basket ball. He then remembered how just a few days ago some red echidna with blue eyes used him as a basketball and dunked him in the basketball hoop. "Just because I can curl up into a ball doesn't make me one!" He had told him, but that only made things worse for him and he ended up stuck in the hoop. If anything, being used as a basketball was worse than everyone finding out about his about his cuts.
__"Say uh, Scourge?" Cal started prodding Scourge's shoulder to get his attention. "If you don't mind could we check your arm?"
__"What?" Scourge glared at Cal, which made him shrink back a bit.
__"Cal!" Al started pulling on Cal's ear and began scolding him. "I told you not to ask such weird things!"
__"Ow! Stop it, Al!" Cal managed to get Al to let go of his ear as started rubbing it. "I just wanted to make sure he was all right. No need to be so snippy."
__Scourge just rolled his eyes and turned his body away from them, now just staring at the brick wall on his right side. I can never catch a break from these worms. He let out a soft sigh as he closed his eyes and tried to listen to the vehicles' engines coming and going.
__"Just leave him be!" Al sneered at Cal. "He was already humiliated in front of the entire prison."
__"I'm just trying to help!" Cal retorted. "That's better than what you're doing!"
__"I'm being respectful!" Al growled.
__"Shut up! Both of you!" Scourge snapped as he glared at them. "You're giving me a headache!" He felt his left eye twitching as Al and Cal both shrank back from his angery stare.
__"S-sorry about that, Scourge." Al stuttered as he tried to brush off his clothes.
__"Yeah, Yeah," Scourge snorted. He then looked as all the Zone Cops were shooing everyone back inside. He titled his head and narrowed one eye. "What are they doing?"
__"It's looks like we're starting lunch early," Cal remarked.
__One of the cops came over in their direction and pointed their baton to the door. "Get on back inside you three. We're speeding up the process for today."
__"Oh really? Why's that?" Scourge asked sarcastically.
__"We're just loosing three Zone Cops so that our other three are ready to come back from vacation."
__Scourge didn't bother listening to the cop and went back inside with Al and Cal close behind him. It would seem that Cal was right and that they were having lunch early. After Scourge, Al, and Cal got their lunch, they went to their usual table and started eating. While they ate, Scourge noticed that a lot of the Zone Cops were lining up in the halls. What's going on again?
__"It's such a shame," Scourge perked his ears as Zobotnik was walking with Znively, Zonic, Zespio, and Zector behind him. He sounded disappointed, but he wore a happy smile. "It's always better when you three are here."
__Zonic had his arms crossed as he tried to keep himself from being too close to the warden. "Although we just love being here," He responded sarcastically. "You know we have to get back to our real job: bringing in new prisoners and going on patrols and missions."
__"It's about time those other three cops are coming back from vacation," Zector remarked. "This place is starting to stink."
__"Either way, it's our pleasure to help out." Zespio said respectfully.
__"Our other cops should be coming in tomorrow morning, sir." Znively said as he was going through his papers.
__"Good," The warden replied. He suddenly looked over at Scourge. "Remember to notify them of our new prisoner."
__Scourge quietly growled and looked away from the warden. So Zonic and the other two don't really work here. He was actually relieved that they were leaving. He didn't feel safe around Zonic ever since he confronted him about cutting himself. He thought that now he might actually catch a break from all this drama for a short while. But he then realized that Zonic, though being such a pain, was actually the one helping him out in this prison. What would happen from now on with him gone?