“What, you timing people now?”
Jenkins stepped up to him. “You want a shower tonight?”
Jack gritted his teeth, nodded and brushed past him. Minutes from now he wouldn’t care. The door had to remain open but fortunately the passage into the washroom area was around a corner. Although the washroom functioned it wasn’t in the best state. Mold and grime caked the walls, and when faucets would turn on, iron-tinted water would spurt out. There were three cream-colored wash basins and a large mirror that extended from one side to the other above them. To his right were three showers without curtains. They didn’t want anyone trying to hang themselves. Jack tossed his wash bag down and looked at the tiling on the floor of the third shower. Sure enough, Mack was right. There was a slight difference in color in the grout compared to the rest. Acting fast, he turned on the other two showers and took out the heavy spring that was sharp at either end. He cast a glance towards the door and began scraping away. The grout around the white tiles came away easily and within less than two minutes he pulled up one tile after the next. Beneath that was a piece of plywood just as Mack had said. He glanced at his watch, eight minutes left. He knew Jenkins would come in on the dot so he had to move fast. Wanting to make sure he covered up the sound of him kicking out the board, he turned on the third shower. It would soak him but he had no choice. He couldn’t risk Jenkins hearing. Stepping under the water he slammed his boot into the board twice before it dropped into the darkness. Hurrying to his wash bag he pulled out a small flashlight Mack had given him and began his descent. Soaked by rushing water he quickly lowered himself while holding the flashlight between his teeth.
Sure enough, it was cramped. The dingy passage full of cobwebs couldn’t have been more than five feet high. Mack was a short ass unlike him. He had to bend, squeeze and slide along the oily, grime-covered pipes that snaked beneath the floor. It smelled rank like the inside of a garage that hadn’t been cleaned. Jack shone the flashlight on his watch. He had five minutes. He even heard Jenkins shout above him.
Moving fast he kept going until he saw a grill that led into a room where they did hydrotherapy. Everything was exactly as Mack said. Stay left. Stay left, he thought. The passage snaked around. He heard rats scurrying beneath the pipes. He didn’t even want to imagine what kind of venomous snakes or spiders could be in there. Jack pressed on until the passage opened into a large space where he was finally able to stand. The sound of water dripping dominated. It seemed to surround him. Dark rusty pipes, big, medium and small, fissured off into the darkness in every direction. A quick shine of the light and he saw the ladder. The grate that had once covered the opening into the sewage pipe was still resting against the wall.
Right then he heard the sound of a screaming alarm.
One glance at his watch and he knew his time was up.
Not wasting a second, Jack climbed and entered the huge pipe, his feet sloshing beneath six inches of God knows what. The smell was atrocious. He placed his hands against the slimy sides of the interior and hurried, the flashlight’s light bounced off the walls creating shadows. He figured it would be a straight shot out but when he reached a T-junction he looked to his left and right. Mack hadn’t mentioned which way from there. Going by what he said about sticking to the left he hurried, hoping he’d see the outside soon. By now the whole facility would be on alert. Patients would be driven back into their rooms, hospital cops would be circulating the grounds, others would be inside C unit with some following him.
The fear of not getting out drove him on.
His heart pounded in his chest as he rushed forward and turned again only to find himself up against a locked grate. “No. No. Come on!” He shook it hard, seeing nothing but more pipe beyond it. Had he taken a wrong turn? Was he meant to go right?
Racing back the way he came, this time he went right at the T junction. By this point he could hear the staff. “He must have entered here.”
Jack hurried along the pipe, convinced this was it.
Sure enough, he saw light, a glimmer on the surface of the water as he got closer to another turn. As soon as he rounded that one, he once again found himself up against a grate. Jack shook it and reached through and grabbed the lock. He stood back and kicked the grate. “Come on, you bastard!” Nothing. It was no good. The chains were too thick.
“Going somewhere, Mr. Winchester?”
He spun around to find Jenkins, Porter and three security guards.
“Now don’t make this hard,” the hospital cops said as they inched towards him, batons out and one of them packing a Taser. Jack balled his fists. If he was going down, he would go out swinging.
“Just as I thought,” Jenkins said. “Get him.”
They rushed forward and Jack kicked the first one in the gut, knocking him back into the guy behind him. Porter rushed around the side, and Jack fired a right hook to his jaw knocking him clean out. Leaping over the downed hospital cops, Jack barreled towards Jenkins and another guard as he raised a Taser and fired. The prongs hit Jack and his eyes went back in his skull and he dropped, though this time only one had properly fixed into him. He tugged it out and got up again but the guard behind him fired again and that one latched. A pulse of around 50,000 volts shot through him and
