Once they were in the hallway, two more guards showed up, and one of them placed her wrists in cuffs. Coraset stared at the floor, never making eye contact. She never wanted them to see her emotions or read her expressions, and she didn’t want to look in their faces.
Coraset was taken to her cell, and she was released of her restraints. She noticed their normal practice of escorting a prisoner had changed a bit. Usually she had to be completely in the cell with the doors closed, and then she had to stick her arms through the rectangular slot to have the cuffs removed from the outside. Coraset wondered why the change in procedure, and soon her silent question was answered.
The guard commanded in a dry tone, “Get your things. You’re leaving.”
Coraset was looking into the clear blue eyes of the guard that gave her the order. She didn’t know what to think. She opened her mouth to speak, but thought again remembering where she was. She turned and stared at the room. She didn’t have any personals, just underclothing. The room was bare of pictures just like the first day she arrived. No drawings, no letters, and nothing to remind her of a family she once loved. The bed was made, folded in precise military style. A slit of light shined across the small space illuminating dust particles as they swirled in midair. Her clean underclothes, which consisted of five pairs of underwear, bras, and socks, were folded on top of a foot locker. She placed her clothing in a blue bag that was wedged underneath her undergarments. Coraset took one last look at the room.
She turned around waiting for the guard’s instructions, noticing he was the only one left at her cell. He walked out the door, and Coraset followed. She was thinking maybe she was being taken to the general population, but that couldn’t be right. The Warden made it perfectly clear that wasn’t going to ever happen.
Coraset and the guard arrived at a door with the name ‘Warden Devon Cobb’ in big block letters. Inside was a small office that was as bland as the walls of Coraset’s cell. A brunette with a solemn look sat behind a desk typing at a computer. She didn’t look up as they crossed the room to another wooden door.
The guard knocked and waited patiently for permission to enter. Warden Cobb finally sounded from inside, and they entered into a room that was decorated with expensive upholstered furniture, clay sculptures, books, and oil paintings. He stood at a wide window that was as long as the wall it was in, and he was viewing the barren landscape of Death Valley that stretched for miles.
Coraset was on edge as she waited for him to speak. She looked back slightly at the guard, sensing he was staring at her.
Warden Cobb cleared his throat and said without turning, “I remember the day you arrived. You were unconscious and restrained from your head to your ankles. You also came with a set of rules. I thought that was quite strange. No prisoner in here comes with a set of rules.” The aged man turned to glance at Coraset before sitting. His glossy brown eyes met hers. He didn’t smile or show any other kind of emotion.
He opened a file and lifted a white sheet of paper, covering his face up to his eyes. He read the words aloud, “You have been accused and convicted of the murder of a Barat Police Lieutenant, and you murdered two Mojave Prison guards. I’ve had inmates executed for stealing bread from the chow line, and here you are still alive after killing three people. Exactly who are you?”
She didn’t answer his question.
Warden Cobb exhaled loudly as he tossed the paper in the garbage bin under his desk. He announced coldly, “You have been officially released from the Mojave Prison on this day, June 12, 2027, approved and signed by levels beyond…me.”
Coraset wondered if she heard him correctly. Released? Was it true? A small smirk appeared at the corners of her mouth.
Warden Cobb started typing on his computer. He was purging all of Coraset’s prison records. He stood once finished and said with conserved anger, “You better hope this is your last visit. Because if you do return, I will personally see to it that your first day back is your last day breathing. No one on this earth, including your high Federation connections, will be able to save you.”
Coraset didn’t react to his threat. She gave him a dry, uninterested look.
He turned back to the window and said, “You are allowed to make one phone call before the bus leaves. It only stops in Baker.”
Coraset heard the door open, and she turned and walked out. The guard escorted Coraset to an office labeled ‘out-processing’ all the way at the end of the hallway. A man behind a desk slid a box to her. Inside were her cell phone, point card, ID card, and the clothes she was arrested in. The cell phone was dead, and she figured the 400,000 points on the point card were gone. She didn’t bother to ask.
A brown bus drove up outside. It was spitting out black smoke and making a horrid racket. Coraset didn’t like the fact she had to ride in that thing, but if she was going to get away from the Mojave Prison, it would have to do.
The guard pointed out, “There is a terminal if you want to make a phone call.”
Coraset looked across the room and saw a computer screen with a phone attached to it. She thought about making a phone call to her stepfather, but she quickly decided against it. She knew of someone that drove through Baker every morning, and she’d catch a ride with him.
Coraset took the box under her arm and started for the door. The annoying buzz sounded overhead indicating the door was unlocked, and she swung it open. She rounded the front of the bus and boarded the musty, run down vehicle. The door slid closed, and the bus chugged down the football length dirt driveway to the first gate. It slid open slowly like it was fighting itself. The armed guards from the towers watched as the bus went through both entrances. Their attention never left the gates until they were completely closed and secured.
The bus made an abrupt right turn, which alarmed Coraset. She knew he was supposed to be turning left towards Baker. She stood and hit the metal wall that separated her from the driver, and she yelled for him to turn around. He never responded, and the bus kept barreling down the road, creating a cloud of dirt and dust behind it. Coraset sat back down dreading where she might end up.
CHAPTER TWO
The desert sun baked the inside of the bus. Coraset unbuttoned the two top buttons on her polyester orange jumpsuit. She fanned her face with the box top she was given back at the prison, but she still sweated profusely. Twenty minutes into the trip, she put down all the windows. The wind carried the outside heat and dust into the bus making the ride even worse.
The ride seemed to go on for an ungodly amount of time, and she was growing impatient fast. Just as Coraset was about to hit the metal divider to get the driver’s attention, the bus passed by a man walking in the same direction the bus was going. The walker was completely covered. He wore a leather cap that covered the entire back part of his head. His coat collar was up, and his hands were covered with dusty brown leather gloves. Coraset wondered why someone would be wearing winter clothes in the middle of the desert. She had a bad feeling. She hadn’t seen an abandoned vehicle or any other signs that humans lived out in the desert since they left the prison. Coraset moved to the other side of the bus to stay out of sight of the walker.
The bus pulled off the road, and the walker kept coming. He didn’t look up into the passenger area of the bus, but he stopped when he got to the driver. They began talking to one another. Their conversation was mumbled, almost like they were whispering.
Then Coraset heard someone else approaching from the side of the bus she was on. He was looking up through blue goggles into the bus. She slid to the floor as silently as she could.
Without warning two gunshots went off. The bus jerked forward and it picked up speed. Coraset kept her head down. The bus started fishtailing, and then it flipped thunderously onto the driver’s side. The bus slid through the hard dirt and rock until it slowly came to a stop.
After taking a moment to just breathe and to make sure she was still alive, Coraset got back on her feet. She was standing on the broken windows and walls on the driver’s side. She went over to the back emergency exit and kicked at the red handle until the door fell off the hinges. Coraset stepped out and backed away from the bus, amazed that she made it through the accident. She turned and saw the trail of wreckage, and the walker, who was spread eagle beside the road a few yards back.
Coraset looked on either side of the bus, but she didn’t see the goggle guy. She wondered where he went.
