Читать книгу The Fixer - John Stewart - Страница 7

Chapter 2

Death in the Yard

Thirty days had gone by, and Mark had spent them all in a tiny cell in solitary. The guard came to take him back to general population.

Mark stood in the back of the cell. “Just leave me here, it’s better.”

The guard took one step in the cell and held out cuffs. “Let’s go, Mark.”

“I’ll stay, Pete.”

Pete stepped back and pulled the radio on his shoulder next to his mouth. “Gonna need backup in solitary, cell four.”

He stepped back in the cell. “Mark, don’t make this bad for you.”

Four guards stepped up behind Pete in riot gear.

Mark took a deep breath and turned his stance to a fighting stance he had learned in karate class. “Let’s do this.”

The Taser probes hit Mark in the chest, and he was out. He woke to four guards dragging him in full chains into the warden’s office. Slobber was draining from his mouth, and his chest felt like an elephant had stepped on it.

Mark looked up at the warden. “Warden. How’s your day going?”

The warden pulled a napkin from his desk drawer and handed it to a guard. “Help Mr. Farmer there. Seems to have a drooling problem. My day is going considerably better than yours, I would say.”

“Yeah, well, good for you. What do I have to do to go back to solitary?”

“I have good news and bad. Which would you like first?”

“The good, I guess.”

“Good news is, I’m transferring you to Florida. A new start for you so maybe you won’t have as many enemies.”

“And the bad?”

“It’s not for another week. Did you read the book I gave you?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Assimilate, Mr. Farmer. It will make life easier for you. Take him to his cell.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah. Why is that?”

“Because the next guy in that yard out there that touches me will be dead before he hits the ground. I’m already doing life for murder. What do I care if it’s a few more. Maybe I’ll fix the problems you have out there.”

The warden straightened crossing his arms over his chest. “I guess you want to spend the rest of your life in prison and never get parole. You kill anybody in that yard, it’s murder, not self-defense since you just told me that’s what you plan to do.”

Mark started to turn. “Take me to my cell. I’m done here.”

“Don’t kill anybody in my yard.”

Mark shuffled toward the door in the chains. “Get some body bags ready, Warden.”

Mark went through the door and it closed behind him. The warden turned to look at his head guard. “Keep that fucking guy in his cell this week. No yard time at all. He goes to eat and then back to his cell.”

“Yes, sir. You sure you don’t want me to just put him back in solitary? That’s what he wants.”

“Fuck what he wants. I’m not gonna be told by a prisoner how to run my prison.”

“Yes, sir, I understand.”

“Get me my father’s book back too when you get him settled.”

“Will do, sir.”

The warden turned back to the window as the head guard left his office. “I hate that guy.”

Mark got to his cell, and Kyle was sitting on his bunk. Mark looked over, and he was reading the warden’s book. “Is that yours?”

Kyle closed the book and tossed it on Mark’s bed. “Sorry, dude. They dropped it by here a little while ago. Who gave you that?”

The guard behind Mark stepped past Mark and picked up the book. “The warden gave it to him to read, and he wants it back.”

Mark rubbed his wrist where the cuffs had been. Kyle had cards from various people. Books on his shelf and some sketches he was doing on the desk. Mark looked at his area, and he had nothing. No pictures of family. No letters and no books. He had been in prison for months now and had not made one attempt to fit into this new life. Honestly, he hadn’t planned on staying. He would find a way to break out or he would be dead. One way or the other, he knew this was not going to last for him.

He lay down on the bottom bunk and stared at the bottom of the bed above. He reached up and between the steel and the mattress, he pulled the shiv out that he took off the guy a month ago. He slid it in his sock.

Two skinheads appeared at the cell door. One a skinny little runt guy missing several teeth from the meth he had done prior to prison and the other a taller, wider guy. Bald and tattooed head to toe.

“We been waitin’ for ya, bitch,” the bigger guy said.

Mark let his gaze drift from the bigger guy to the smaller. The smaller guy blew him a kiss and mouthed, “Bitch.”

Mark came off his bed razor fast. The two men jumped and moved away from the cell door. He stepped out of the cell onto the mezzanine balcony and leaned on the rail overlooking the cellblock. The two skinheads had moved down the cellblock and went down the stairs to the lower level. The skinny little guy walking behind the bigger guy. Mark watched them as they walked across the room. The bigger guy never looked up at him. He kept his focus dead ahead. Trying to look as menacing as possible. The little rat behind him kept looking up, shooting Mark a bird multiple times as they crossed the room.

Kyle came out and leaned on the rail. “You know those guys are going to kill you, right?”

Mark nodded. “Yeah, I know. They’re gonna try. You gonna watch my back?”

Kyle stared at the floor and scratched at his neck. “Ah, man, you know I ain’t no fighter like you. These guys get pissed at me, and it’s a bad day in the shower. You know what I mean?”

Mark slapped him on the shoulder. “Yeah, man. I know what you mean. Besides, when I get done with them, they’ll probably kill you just because you’re my cellmate. It’s all good.”

Kyle walked back in the cell. “Great!”

Mark looked up, and directly across from where he stood was the head guard. Mark pointed at the two men and then dragged his thumb across his neck.

The guard nodded yes and turned to walk away, never looking back at Mark.

Mark laughed out loud. “Fuck me. He wants me to deal with those guys.”

As he walked back in the cell, Kyle was looking to see who he was talking to. “Who were you talking to out there?”

“God!”

“Did he answer you?”

“Yeah, he said, ‘Sorry I can’t help you.’”

The next day they went to breakfast. Mark sat in the same place he always did. Against the wall in a corner. That way, whatever was coming at him came from in front of him and not behind. Twice the Nazi guys circled near, but the guards were too close, and they couldn’t get in quick enough.

Both times Mark was ready and had the shiv just under his leg so he could get to it fast. The time between breakfast and lunch was spent in the cellblock, and Mark stayed on the balcony the entire time. Again, he didn’t want to be cornered. He figured it would go down either at lunch or in the yard after.

At twelve thirty, the bell rang for them to go to lunch. Most of the cellblock had exited into the main hall going to the lunchroom. He was about twenty guys deep in line to go through the door. Kyle was behind him in line.

Three guys came from nowhere it seemed and hit Mark from both sides. They hit Kyle as well, and he went down immediately. Mark got the first guy that hit him by the throat. The second guy hit him in the ribs hard with a body blow.

As Mark went down, he pulled the guy by the throat into the curl of his arm and snatched his head violently as he went down. He heard the bones crack and knew that he was finished. Unfortunately, with both hands tied up, he hit the ground hard flat on his back with a guy power driving into his ribs. It hurt, and he knew this was going to go really wrong if he stayed on the floor with two guys.

Mark let go of the broken-neck guy when they hit the floor. He was done. The guy breaking his ribs on the other hand was now getting on top of him. This was the tattoo guy from earlier that called him a bitch. The third guy now having dispatched Kyle was coming to help. Mark grabbed the guy by the throat with both hands. He began to push in with both thumbs directly on the guy’s voice box. Mark pressed as hard as he could. He could feel the guy’s throat begin to cave, and the guy quit swinging and grabbed both of Mark’s wrist.

Mark pressed harder and felt cartilage break. The guy’s grip loosened, and Mark gave one last hard squeeze. He quickly let go and drove the heel of his hand hard into the guy’s nose. Just as he did that, he looked left and saw the size 10 shoe hit him in the face. Two swift quicks and he was beginning to feel dizzy as he got to his feet. His eye was beginning to swell shut.

As he got up, he pulled the shiv from his sock. The guy that kicked him took a step back. The other guy hit him in the back as hard as he could. Mark lunged at the guy in front of him, sticking the knife between two of his knuckles as he stumbled forward.

The fight had caused such a commotion that the doorway into the cellblock bottlenecked, and no guards were getting through. The one guard that was bringing up the rear of the group was being held by two Nazi guys. Mark saw there was no help coming as he stumbled forward from the last hit to his back. He used the momentum of his forward motion and ran forward around the table bolted to the floor. He took deep breaths, trying to shake the hits to his head.

The alarm was going off, but the guards had to go all the way around the cellblock to get in. Most of them were in the main hall to keep things calm during the lunch transition. Mark either stood his ground and fought, or he would die right here. Mark looked at his attackers. One was down and not moving, broken-neck guy. Another was on the floor, hands at his throat and blood gushing from his nose. He was almost dead and no longer a threat. The third guy was screaming with a shiv stuck a good three inches into his knuckle on his right hand. Pretty much out of it at this point. The fourth guy was a problem. Mark’s head was still fuzzy from the two kicks to the face. He now couldn’t see out of one eye, and he could taste blood.

He knew that in just a matter of minutes, some of the skinhead buddies would step out of the crowd now at the door. The guard was not getting free and being beaten pretty badly. Mark had to end this last guy quick.

He now locked eyes with the man. He was big. His arms looked like tree trunks attached to a pure muscle body. This wasn’t going to be pretty. He had lost the shiv, so that was no help, and could only see with one eye. Mark decided to go mental with the fight.

He stood up straight and spit a wad of blood on the floor. “What are you waiting on, asshole? Come on over here and get some.”

The guy was bouncing foot to foot like a boxer. He stopped and assessed his buddies. He then looked back at Mark.

Marked smiled with blood-soaked teeth. “I’ll make it easy for you.” And he turned his back to the guy. He knew the guy would go for it. Mark had already done the math in his head. It was two big steps, and the guy would hit him square in the back to take him to the floor. Mark closed his eyes and listened. Tuning out the screaming inmates. The radio chatter and the guard screaming. He focused on the slap of the guy’s shoe hitting concrete.

One slap, the guy began to raise his arms to grab him as he hit him in the back. Two slaps of shoe to concrete, he was now lowering his shoulder for the impact. Mark ducked down as fast and low as he could. The guy still hit him, but most of his upper body where the strength was, was blowing right over Mark’s head. The guy’s arms closed just over Mark’s head, expecting a body to be there to grab.

As Mark felt the guy’s legs hit his back, he pushed off the ground with everything he had left. The guy somersaulted over and hit the wall literally upside down. Mark took one step forward and kicked the guy square in the face. He folded up like a pile of dirty clothes.

Mark turned to the two guys holding the guard. They looked at him and pulled the guy up by his hair. “We’ll kill him if you come closer.”

Mark smiled again and kept coming. “What the fuck do I care what you do to him. I’m gonna kill both of you no matter what.”

They dropped the guard and looked at each other. The bigger of the two spoke up. “You can’t take us both.”

Mark never blinked. “You wanna bet?”

Mark didn’t see the elbow coming when it hit him. It was on the side with the swollen eye. The lights went out immediately.

The guy that hit him still had the shiv sticking out of his hand. He pulled it out with a scream as he stepped over Mark lying on the floor unconscious.

Just as he was about to drive the shiv into Mark’s throat, the wave of guards hit the guy hard. Mark remained unconscious and was taken to the infirmary.

Mark woke in a hospital bed with no memory of what happened. The warden came in shortly after he woke, with the doctor that did the initial exam. His broken ribs were wrapped and the cuts on his face sewn up.

The doctor looked at the warden and stepped aside. “He needs to rest right now. He has at least two broken ribs and multiple contusions. Most certainly a concussion since the last thing he remembers is the lunch bell ringing.”

The warden smiled at the doctor. “Got it. Can you give us a minute?”

The doctor closed his chart and stuck it in the pocket at the end of the bed. “Sure.”

The warden pulled the chair over and sat down next to Mark. Mark looked at him. “How can I help you, Warden. I appreciate you coming to see me in the hospital. I would love to tell you what happened, but I have no idea. Apparently, some guys jumped me in the lunch line.”

The warden smiled. “Don’t worry. You’ll see the entire video of the men you killed after being told absolutely not to engage these guys. The two charges of voluntary manslaughter each carry a ten- to twenty-year sentence. Oh, and there was the shiv you produced from your sock stabbing another inmate in the hand. Who, by the way, will lose the use of those fingers permanently. Still waiting to see what exactly we will charge you with for that.”

Mark put his free hand behind his head. “Sounds like self-defense to me.”

“You were told to stay out of these fights. You were told to get along. One day out of solitary and you kill two guys and badly injure another. I can’t wait to get you out of my prison.”

“Don’t worry, Warden, somebody will kill me eventually. They obviously got to me today and I got lucky. The odds are, one of these times I’ll lose. You obviously can’t control the inmates in this place.”

The warden stood furiously. “You transfer in a week. You will remain in solitary until that happens. Your trial for these other two murders will happen in Florida. I’m done with you causing chaos in my prison.”

Mark smiled. “Maybe you should read your dad’s book again. He talks about separating gangs from time to time to break up the power struggles on the prison yard.”

The warden walked away and slammed the prison door behind him. Mark looked over at the head guard still standing there.

“What do you want? You knew this shit was gonna happen. You nodded at me across the cell knowing those two assholes came to my cell door to threaten me. Your nod was telling me that you weren’t going to do a damn thing to stop it. In fact, you wanted it, didn’t you?”

The guard stuck out his hand to shake hands. Mark looked at his hand and took it with the cuffed hand and shook it.

“Thanks for saving my guard in there. You may not remember it, but they probably would have killed him if you hadn’t stepped towards them. Sorry my guys didn’t get in there before you got hit so hard. Hope you heal up quick.”

“No problem, I guess. I don’t remember that at all.”

“He’s pretty grateful. He will probably come by and see you. Try to be nice to the guy, he thought he was a dead man.”

Mark held up his hand to shake again. “Did I kill the guy you wanted?”

The guard took his hand and shook it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He turned and walked out of the hospital. Mark closed his eyes and slept. It was the second day in there that he got a new visitor.