Chapter 12

            The punch sent Tom flying across the circle to land at the edge of the crowd.  The guards and inmates around him cheered.  He put a hand to his face, feeling no blood—at least not yet.  He would probably have a nice shiner for a couple of days.

            The cheering of the crowd told him that Proudfoot was coming to get him.  Tom lay prone a few heartbeats and then rolled over.  He kicked blindly with his right leg.  He got lucky in that his foot connected with Proudfoot's left knee.  The much larger boy howled in pain, collapsing onto his good knee. 

            Tom pressed his advantage to land another kick against the side of Proudfoot's head.  The Indian boy fell onto his side.  The crowd roared its approval, some banging their lunch trays on the side of tables to make even more noise.  Getting uneasily to his feet, Tom stood over Proudfoot.  He would have just as soon gone back to his cell, but the guards wouldn't let you leave until one combatant was down for the count.

            Tom kicked the fallen Indian in the midsection, following this with a couple more sharp kicks.  To his surprise, Proudfoot turned onto his side to catch Tom's foot in mid-kick.  With a flick of his thick wrists, Proudfoot sent Tom crashing back to the floor.  "You're going to pay for that," Proudfoot said as he stood up, looming over Tom like a mountain.

            "I bet I am," Tom grumbled.  He stood up, backing up a few steps until he was backed against the crowd.  A few helpful inmates pushed him back towards Proudfoot.  Using a move out of pro wrestling, Proudfoot clotheslined Tom.  He doubled over, gasping for breath even as the big Indian moved in to lay a punch to the back of Tom's neck.

            With a cry of pain, Tom fell to the floor again.  This time he was determined not to get up.  The crowd had gotten its money's worth for the day.  He didn't have a choice in the matter, though, when Proudfoot picked him off the floor as easily as a pillow. 

            The big Indian tossed Tom into the crowd with a shout of triumph.  The inmates helpfully stepped aside to let Tom land on his face.  "Remind me to file a grievance," Tom mumbled.

            When he looked up, he knew he must be hallucinating because he saw his brother standing over him.  Strangely enough, Will was wearing Tidwell's clothes.  "Let's get you out of here," Will said.

            "Whatever you say," Tom said.  Then he closed his eyes.

#

            The crowd didn't react right away.  They might have thought Tom's disappearance was part of the act or maybe they thought Will was taking him away for medical treatment.  By the time Will got to the cafeteria doors, though, the guards had begun to react.  One of them found a button that caused alarms to ring out across Stratford.

            Will ignored these, focusing on his brother.  What had been going on in this place?  From the look of it, the guards had staged some kind of gladiatorial contest between inmates.  How many of these had Tom gone through during the last four years?

            One thing Will knew for certain was Tom would not spend another night in Stratford.  He was getting his brother out of here, to safety.  Or he supposed relative safety if they really were going to the Bloc of Planetary States and it really was being overrun by the Black Ships.  At least Tom would be safe for a little while.  If they got out of here, Will reminded himself.

            He dragged Tom along the floor, back towards his cell.  The alarms continued to ring and Will could hear voices shouting.  It wouldn't be long before the guards found them.  He dropped Tom to the ground, seeing no choice but to slap him hard across the face.  "Wake up!" he shouted into Tom's face.  "Come on!  We've got to get out of here."

            Tom's eyes fluttered open.  "Will?  What are you doing here?"

            "I'm getting you out of here.  Can you walk?"

            "Yeah, sure."  With Will's help, Tom lurched up to his feet.  He leaned against Will for support as they ran towards his cell.  "What about Mom and Dad?  Are they in on it?"

            "No, it's just Jessie and I."

            "Jessie?  She's here?"

            "She's next door, waiting with the car."  Will heard a shout and then looked up to see guards pointing at him.  Others were coming towards them from the cafeteria with pepper spray canisters at the ready.

            Before the guards could converge on them, a cry went up.  Inmates swarmed from the cafeteria, some of them running free for the first time in years.  Will saw the big Indian kid pick up one of the guards and throw him as easily as he had thrown Tom.  Another guard tried to pepper spray him, but the Indian only grunted at this and continued to fight, as did the rest of the inmates.  A full-blown riot had broken out.

            Now that the guards had something better to do, Will and Tom easily made it back to his cell.  The black kid remained unconscious on the top bunk with Ricky watching him.  "What's going on here?" Tom asked.  He stared first at his cellmate, then at Ricky, and then at the hole in the floor.  "How did you do that?"

            "Never mind that now.  We've got to go."  Will held out his arm so that Ricky could climb up to his shoulder.  Tom shook his head, but didn't say anything.  "Just go down the hole and start crawling."

            "To where?"

            "Just go!"

            With a slight shrug, Tom dropped into the hole.  Will came down after him.  In his panic he ignored the smell and the rats, focusing only on the spot of daylight growing larger before his eyes.  Their escape was nearly thwarted when Tom became stuck in the sewer pipe, but a sharp push from Will freed him.  They rolled out into the daylight.

            Will didn't give Tom any time to savor the freedom, grabbing his brother's arm to lead him towards the Wendy's where Jessie waited for them with the car.  But when they got there, Will let out a groan of panic.  The car was gone!

#

            Jessie had come to Avon to free Tom from Stratford and now she was probably going to end up in a place like it herself.  Looking in her mirror, she silently prodded the old Chevette to move faster.  The compact car's speedometer didn't move any higher, frozen at seventy miles per hour. 

            Behind her, two police cars remained fixed to her tail, their lights flashing.  She had run straight for the Chevette and floored the accelerator even before she got her door closed.  In the process of escaping she would have sideswiped the cop if he hadn't had the good sense to jump out of her way.  From there she drove in a frenzied haze until she somehow ended up on the highway heading east. 

            "Can't you lose these meatbags?" Heather asked from the passenger's seat.

            "I'm doing the best I can.  They didn't exactly cover this in driver's ed."

            The white cat snarled at this.  "How do you open the window?"

            "You have to roll it down."  Jessie rolled down her window to demonstrate.  To her surprise, Heather jumped into her lap and then sprang onto the edge of the window.  "What are you doing?"

            "Just drive," Heather snapped.  She moved one paw to touch something on her belt.  A compartment opened to reveal three ball-shaped objects.  Two of these balls sprang out of the belt, red lights flashing along their sides.

            Despite only being the size of a jacks ball, the objects let out a tidal wave of blue light when they exploded.  Jessie watched in the rearview mirror as both cars skidded to a stop, spinning ninety degrees into each other.  The lights on both cars went dead. 

            "You could have killed them."

            Heather crawled back into the car.  Her fabric face showed no sign of remorse.  "We have a mission to perform.  Those meatbags were in our way."

            "That doesn't mean you could kill them."

            "Those were only electronic disruptors.  They're nonlethal to organic life."

            "Oh.  But still—"  Jessie didn't know how to complete that sentence.  She was relieved to see that her creation wasn't quite as bloodthirsty as she might have thought.  Now the problem became that they had to get back to Avon and find Will—and Tom.

            She stomped on the Chevette's brakes to bring it to a stop.  Then she guided the little car across the median to head back into town.  She didn't have to go all the way, though, as she spotted two young men running along the side of the road.  Getting closer, she recognized Will and his brother.

            She pulled the Chevette onto the shoulder of the highway.  The Denton brothers trotted to catch up to her.  "Need a ride?" she asked as nonchalantly as possible, her heart racing.

            "We thought you'd left us," Will said.

            "I'd never do that," she said, looking back in her mirror at Tom.