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Here we go, first fight of the day I can hear trouble a few blocks down Soled This kind of thing used to shock et used to it pretty quick It&039;s par for the course in this place You can&039;t go for anything longer than a couple of hours here without

Jesus Christ! Bewsey just scared the hell out of ht he was still asleep Shit, he just sat bolt upright looking like he&039;s just seen a ghost or had his parole turned down or so&039;s not right with hiht, Bewsey?&039; I ask

Bewsey doesn&039;t answer He&039;s just sitting there, looking at me with this du to rub at the side of his neck, like he&039;s strained it or soain Being in this place has made ht make the to think that he&039;s either trying to trickcloser or he&039;s about to have a full blown panic attack Either way I&039;ht out of the way

&039;I can&039;t&039; he starts to say as he rubs at the side of his neck again He&039;s looking into space but then his eyes dart up to look aboveto cli, half-falling down Now he&039;s doubled-up with pain and he&039;s coughing and wheezing like he can&039;t catch his breath He&039;s dragged hi up blood What the hell is going on here? Nosey&039;s up on his feet and he&039;s grabbing and scratching at his neck too

&039;What is it?&039; I ask but he can&039;t even heararound I can tell that this is for real The cell is suddenly filled with their hoarse, grating coughing and rasping screa to both of theh to make me Wait, Bewsey can&039;t breathe Bloody hell, the poor bastard can&039;t get any oxygen He&039;s up on his feet and he&039;s trying to take in air but it looks like his throat is blocked I have to do soet up again but then collapses back onto the mattress His body starts to shake and he tries toand coughing behindfrolance back over round and sainst the wall

Bewsey is convulsing now and it&039;s taking all th to keep him down on the bed There&039;s panic in his eyes They&039;re as wide as fucking saucers and they&039;re staring straight atto him is my fault There&039;s blood on his lips Shit, there&039;s a dribble of blood trickling down his cheek fro now Bad sign Fuck, he&039;s grabbed hold ofit so bloody hard I think he&039;s going to break it More blood now Fucking hell He arches his back and then crashes down onto the bed

I just stand and look at hi for a pulse

He&039;s dead Jesus Christ, he&039;s dead

I stare at Bewsey&039;s body for so long that I al on the floor of the cell behindthat he&039;s dead too Like Bewsey there&039;s blood trickling fro out from a deep cut on his head

And now I realise that I can&039;t hear anyone else

The whole bloody prison block has suddenly gone quiet It&039;s silent I&039;ve never known it like this before I&039;m scared Jesus Christ I&039;to look down the corridor and across the landing I can&039;t see anyone &039;There are men dead in here Help! Please, so like a bloody baby now I don&039;t knohat to do This cell is on the middle floor I can see the botto I can see one of the officers sprawled over the last few steps I don&039;t knohether he fell or whether what killed Salh I can see that he&039;s dead

For almost half an hour Flynn stood in the corner of the cell in shock He pushed hiet as far away as possible from the two bodies incarcerated there with hian to subside and his brain was able to function with enough clarity to start trying to make sense of the situation What had happened to the two men who shared this cell? Why had the rest of the prison also fallen silent? Why did he seem to be the only one left alive?

A fewhelped him to arrive at the cruellest realisation of all He dropped to the ground and began to sob uncontrollably He was trapped Much as he was used to being locked in this s space for endless hours on end, he realised now that, for the first time, there really was no way out There would be no exercise or work sessions today There would be nosessions If it was true and he really was the only one left here, then there was no-one left alive to let him out of his cell

As the day wore on and no-one caan to accept that, without warning or explanation, the term of his prison sentence had been dramatically extended to life No parole, no early release, life Paradoxically, he also knew that without food or water, this life sentence would ultith of tiinally decreed he serve

All he could do was sit and wait

BRIGID CULTHORPE

Brigid Culthorpe yawned, rubbed her eyes and squinted at the spraypaint-covered sign at the end of the street, hoping to make out the name of the road they had just turned into

&039;It&039;s like a bloody rumbled to her partner, PC Marco Glover &039;Don&039;t kno you can tell one road frorunted and nodded as he slowed the patrol car down and coaxed it gently over a speed buet used to it,&039; he said &039;Believe me, you&039;ll spend plenty of tis on this beat&039;

&039;Get much trouble down here?&039;

&039;Virtually all the trouble we get starts down here,&039; the grey-haired policehed wearily &039;Every town has an estate like this It&039;s a duround It&039;s where the scum and the unfortunate end up, and the scu on those folks who can&039;t look after themselves And even if the trouble doesn&039;t start here, wherever it kicks off it&039;s usually people from round here who start it&039;

&039;Nice,&039; Culthorpe muttered as the car clattered over another bump

&039;Not really,&039; Glover o, Acacia RoadSounds okay but&039;

&039;but it isn&039;t,&039; Culthorpe interrupted, finishing her colleague&039;s sentence for hith of the desolate street Ten or twenty years ago this ht Today, however, it was anything but decent Unchecked weeds sprouted wildly between the cracks in the paverown and unruly front lawns had spilled over the remains of collapsed walls and fences The battered wrecks of old, half-stripped down cars sat useless outside equally dilapidated houses Uncollected and overflowing black sacks of rubbish had been du for a council collection that would probably never co scene Culthorpe&039;s throat was dry Not long out of training, an uneasy mixture of nerves, adrenaline and trepidation filled her stomach

&039;Which number was it?&039; Glover asked as he walked around the back of the car to stand next to her

&039;Forty-six,&039; she replied &039;Co down the road Culthorpe followed, checking the nus as she walked They passed number four (which, as it was between numbers twenty-two and twenty-six, was most likely actually nuht, forty, forty-two, forty-four and then they were there Number forty-six The number had been daubed on the wall in off-white emulsion paint next to the boarded-upin the front door Froue piece of furniture in the ron The front bedroorey curtains blew out in the early enius to work out what had happened

&039;What gets ate (the bottoround) and began to walk up the path, &039;is the fact that these people are even awake at this time You know, s and they don&039;t open their eyes before mid-afternoon Bloody hell, these people shouldn&039;t even be awake yet, never ht o&039;clock in the bloody &039;

&039;Probably still up froested

&039;You&039;re probably right,&039; Glover agreed &039;Bloody dirty bastards More bloody trouble than they&039;re worth&039;

Culthorpe smiled to herself Glover was a far more experienced officer than she was, but even after just a couple of days working with hiot closer to an incident and became more nervous, she&039;d noticed, he started to swear She, on the other hand, becaerous situations approached It was the idea of conflict that she didn&039;t like Once she was actually there in theabout it she could handle herself as well as the next man In fact, she could usually handle herself better than the next man

&039;What&039;s this bastard&039;s nari they now stood outside