Break Out
The building’s bell rings out at 8a.m for our morning medication but I am already awake.
I wait for the hatch in the door to open and for my medicine to come through for me to swallow like I do every day; but today I’m not going to. The hatch opens; the small paper cup placed on a tray is pushed into my room with some water. The hatch will then slam shut.
I go over to the tray. Using my fingers as chop sticks, I pluck the tablet out of its paper container and down the water. Leaving the empty paper cup on the tray, I also put the plastic cup back onto the tray and I go back to my bed and close my eyes for a few more hours.
After what feels like only a few minutes later, I get up off the bed and go out of my open door to walk down the corridor and into the lounge area where many men sit around reading newspapers, watching television and drinking tea or coffee.
Some are on their own in wheelchairs and others sit huddled together, their seats arranged in a circle.
I go to a group who includes people that I generally speak to; most of them have been talking about escaping for the two years I have been here.
“Frank, Burny, Giles.” I say as I nod to each of the three middle-aged men.
“Ryan.” Frank says.
Burny and Giles also turn around and mumble my name.
I lean over and pull a chair over into the group.
“How are you lot doing?” I ask them. Burny and Giles stare at me with their mouths gaping, Frank replies,
“We’re good. What ya wanting?” He says, folding his arms.
I sit down; place my elbows on my knees and lean in to study their weathered faces.
Frank’s head is freshly shaved and his clean-shaven face highlights his deeply sunken scars.
I then look at Burny; he’s slumped in his chair, his neck shrivelled behind his chin with age-spots on his face and bald head.
Finally I look to Giles who is similar to Burny, but not as fat.
I then turn back to Frank and whisper: “Frank how many times have we spoken about getting out of here?”
“Loads of times, but it ain’t gonna happen, there’s too much security in this place.”
“We’ve had many plans, you’ve got contacts on the outside and in here, I have a contact that could help and there are people in here who would help us get out of here.”
“We can’t do it.” Giles interrupts me.
“We ain’t gonna do it Milligan, we can’t do it.” Frank says abruptly.
“We can. Listen you guys, we spoke about an escape before. Have you heard the weather warnings? It’s started snowing out there. There’s a heavy storm brewing; we can do it then. We can break out and get away in the snow storm. There will be a lack of communication and no phone signal for them to call for backup and we can get away in the storm and all go our separate ways.”
Giles and Burny laugh out loud but Frank glares at me.
“How the fuck would we get out?” Frank snarls.
“We’d have to look at our options.” I say.
“So you’ve come here to say we’ll escape but you have no plan?”
“I do have plans; I’ve developed one from our last plans.”
“What plans?”
“We spoke about escaping from the yard in the storage building.”
“Going through the shitter ain’t gonna work.”
“We don’t have to go through the sewers, we just need a building where we can go through a fire escape or cut through a wall.”
Frank shakes his head. “Cut through a wall? Fuck me mate; what drugs are you on?”
“If we get one of the gardening team, they will have equipment we can use. One of the cleaners will find us a room where we can work to get out. We need to ask around, we can get out, I know it.”
“I’ll make a call today for help on the outside. Ain’t promisin’ anythin’ but I’ll see what can be done.”
“Okay good. What do you want me to do?”
“Just meet me here tomorrow. I’m gonna talk to someone to see who can help out. We’re gonna get out.”
“When?” I ask.
“Dunno.” Frank says as he gets up and walks away. “See ya tomorra,” he says.
I stand up to go and make a call to Sandra.
I go into an open area along the corridor which has five phones attached to the wall. There’s a guard standing alongside the phones and all the phones are occupied.
“All right Milligan?”
“Hello Dave, can I make a call?”
“You’ve never made a call in here before Milli but sure you can.”
“Thanks.” I say and Dave steps aside to let me past. I have to wait a few minutes before one of the phones becomes available.
I pull out the note Sandra gave to me. I look to my right and see Frank speaking on the phone, staring at me.
I poke Sandra’s mobile number into the phone and listen to the buzzing of the ringtone. After five rings, I hear a soft voice on the phone: “Hello.”
My eyes water and my throat gets tight, making it difficult to speak. I’ve not made a call or heard a soft voice on the phone for years now.
“Is that you Ryan?” She whispers into my ear.
“Yes.” I snivel.
“Hello darling.” She says.
“Sandy I’ve got news for you; it’s going to happen real soon, in the next few days hopefully.” I whisper to her, turning my back to Frank.
Frank slams his phone down and leaves the room.
“Oh right okay. Are you sure about this?” Sandra says.
“Yeah, I need to do it, don’t I? I shouldn’t be here.”
“No you shouldn’t, but this could be the wrong way to go about it Ryan, I just don’t want you getting caught and be punished even more.”
“I’ve got to do this Sandy; I’ve got to get out.”
“Do you need my help?”
“I have an idea but it would mean potentially pissing off the other blokes.”
“What is it?”
“I was wondering if you could leave me a car outside the institution, there’s a dirt road that runs down the side of where it will happen, if you leave the car parked out by the big cleaners and storage room on the east side, I can escape and drive away.”
“I’m not sure if you know this but there is a heavy snow storm coming in soon so driving would be pretty hard.”
“Can you do that for me?”
“I just don’t…”
“Please Sandy?” I ask but the phone stays silent. “Sandy please.”
“I’ll try and get a hold of Simon’s car. Use his car and then you can use his sat nav to get back to Mulberry Lane.”
“That would be perfect Sandy, thank you.”
“That’s okay. Be careful who you piss off though.”
“I will. I’ve got to go. I’ll call you tomorrow when I know more.”
“Please be careful Ryan.”
“I will, thank you speak soon.”
“Bye, see you soon.” Sandy says as I pull the phone away from my ear.
I walk out of the corridor back to my room. I have nothing else to do but sleep. I think of freedom, I think of returning to Mulberry Lane and the house. I imagine looking in through the window to see Tanya and the kids sitting around the table with Andrew Myers. I imagine myself walking in to the house when the kids go to bed and I imagine killing Andrew Myers.
The next day, after a night of tossing and turning, the temperature has dropped. I can see my breath. Every time I look out the window it’s grey outside. I can’t tell where the snow ends and where the fog begins. The snow has settled but there’s another blizzard coming. The news reports ‘snow conditions’ and ‘snow news’ throughout the day.
I sit on an armchair waiting for Frank to walk in. I’m in here alone, except for a man named Goyle. I don’t know his real name and I don’t know his problem but he is clearly not all there. He leans forward. His weedy arms grip onto his bony ankles whilst his saliva drips from his bottom lip and chin onto his clothing.
Uncomfortable watching the guy, I look away and think about the tablets I’ve been taking. I have gone two days without taking any medication and I feel no different whatsoever. This must mean something surely?
Frank comes in and nods to me.
“Ya’right?”
“Yes, you?”
“Not bad. I’ve spoke to some people and they wanna do it.”
“Good, who’s in?”
“My mate Diego has been here since he was eighteen and now he’s twen’ eight, he has access to all the shit: gardening, cleaning, mail, cooking everythin’. He has ages to go till he gets out so he can help. He doesn’t want to escape, he wants to help. “
“Okay.”
“There’s Freddy, he’s an old geezer, he’s the same as Diego, he wants to help. He’ll cause a fight to distract the docs for us to get out.”
“So how are we going to get out?”
“Pretty simple to be honest, today they’ll loosen the cleaners and storage building’s thin metal wall so we can cut it open tomorrow to get out.”
“Who’s they?”
“My men on the outside, they’ll be waiting for me to get out and then they’ll drive away.”
“What about the rest of us?”
“We all fight for ourselves outside so we don’t get caught.”
“Right okay then.”
“You’ll know when we’re doing it tomorra, when the alarm goes off for back up, that’s when the brawl happens. Loads of us will try escaping but only us lot will get out in the cleaners and storage building. We all meet there once the brawl starts here; got that?”
“Yeah I suppose.”
“Good, see ya’ tomorra’.” Frank says as he pats me on the back and leaves me to go and sit on another chair in another part of the room.
I look to the television screen which is still reporting on the blizzards across England. I then look over to the staring and dribbling man. I don’t know what else to do, so I go back to my room.
In my room I stare at the writing on the wall. I pick up a pencil and write ‘Liam Graynnil’ on the wall. I then write the letters in the name and then spell out Ryan Milligan crossing out the letters.
As I stare at the two names, I draw a line through Liam Graynnil and circle Ryan Milligan.
I stand on my bed and draw a quick sketch of the house and then draw two lines below it. On the left line I write Andrew Myers’ Will, leaving the house to Tanya Milligan who then left it to the estate agents to sell it for her, selling it to me. I move over to the right line and write my name, leaving everything I own to my wife, now ex-wife.
She got the money, divorced me and now lives with Andrew Myers and the kids.
I move along the wall and write the names of the group. I list them one below each other.
Don – Dead
Shola – Dead
Simon Cann
Andrew Myers
I stare at the names; these are the four men in the book. These are the men involved in setting me up.
I can’t believe Simon would do it, he pretended to be my friend, he pretended to care. I gave him my story to read. No wonder he wanted it, he wanted to destroy my story and swap it with the Liam Graynnil version.
When I first moved in, Simon was the first person I met, he made sure to be friendly with me and he knew I had no one else so he knew I’d accept his friendship.
I punch the wall in anger. How stupid was I? I shouldn’t have fallen for it.
When I had killed Shola, those two men who set his house on fire must have been Simon and Andrew because Don and Shola were both dead, leaving two of them to finish the job. The four men were working together; they had plotted against me along with Tanya.
The five of them were planning to drive me nuts. They did all of those things, they followed me, they did things inside my house, they moved the children’s toys around. They did everything and the only way I can prove this is to get Tanya and Andrew to admit it.
When I get out, I will make them confess and I will be proven innocent. The thought of freedom is warming. I feel my tensed muscles relax all over my body sending a shiver down my spine. I lay my head on the pillow. I think of ideas to get evidence of my innocence; there are many ways to do this but I need to be careful. First of all, I need to get to Mulberry Lane undetected. If I’m seen, the police will find me no matter what the weather is like.
One thing I need to find out is who was the one who decided to target me and why did Shola, Simon and Don help?
I think for a moment, why would Tanya do this to me? Surely she must be the one to begin all of this, all of these lies to make me seem unstable.
It has to end. It will end tomorrow.
One quick call to Sandy: “Tomorrow.” Is all I say and then hang up and it’s sorted.
When I open my eyes it is the next morning, early morning. It’s dark out and still snowing. I turn to stare at my wall, the wall of truth. I think I’ve cracked the secrets and motives of Tanya and Andrew. It was all about money, I was the target, I don’t know why, but I do know Simon, Shola and Don were chosen to help and probably offered money too.
They played on my mind, I don’t know the details but I know they were in my house; they did things to the house whilst I slept or was out. The fox cam videos, I was not in any of the footage, you could not see my face so how was that possible evidence against me?
Everything circulates in my mind, I know most of the details but now I need the evidence. I have many options, but which path to take to get the evidence?
Now all there is for me to do is to be patient and wait for the alarm to go off. After that, there won’t be much time before all the doors are locked down and I won’t reach the cleaners and storage building.
I lie in bed staring at my ceiling and wall alternately for five hours. The time is coming, the medication and water has come through the door hatch, for a third time in a row I don’t take it.
I leave my door open, waiting for the alarm to sound. I poke my head out and look both ways. The lights flicker, the light outside is dull.
I step back into my room and stare at the wall. All my pencil markings begin to make sense in front of me, my mind is working. I’m set to get the evidence and prove my innocence or take my revenge but either way, I’ll make Andrew and Tanya pay.
I stare at the crossed out letters, I stare at the phrases and ‘Liam Graynnil’. As I concentrate, a piercing alarm rings. Glass smashes and people shout. I step out into the corridor. A man bursts into the corridor and barges one of the nurses onto the floor. He spits in her face and tells her to stay down or he’ll rape her. She tries to reason with him, she gets to her feet so he punches her in the face. I can’t worry about this now, I need to get out. This is the time.
At the end of the corridor, there’s a locked door. A male doctor runs up to the door with a bunch of keys. He puts the key into the hole and unlocks it. As I sprint up to him, Frank grabs the man and throws him into the wall. The doctor turns to grab him but Frank punches him in the stomach and throws the doctor into the wall again. I get there just as he’s kicking him in the head.
“Let’s go Milligan.” Frank turns and shouts to me.
I run behind him, on guard against anybody who tries to stop us. We run through endless corridors. I have ever been allowed to come down here; this corridor is only for the workers and the visitors.
We come to a right turn and Frank runs down towards double doors. If my reckoning is right, it leads to a yard. Frank charges towards the doors and kicks one of them open. Flakes of snow flurry into the corridor. Frank barges his way out into the yard followed by me. I stand outside and I lose my breath. I feel like a computer restarting; the air tastes fresh, I watch as my breath fades into the air.
I look up and watch the flakes float down.
I follow two sets of footprints; Frank’s and somebody else’s, up to the storage building. I see Frank standing next to a Mexican; he must be Diego. I nod to him. We do not need introductions. I see the gap in the wall, someone else has already escaped, most likely Freddy who was working with Frank to make all this possible.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Diego says in a mixed Mexican and south London accent.
As he says it, we hear the crunching of the snow outside, there are guards approaching the building. Diego slips out through the gap in the wall. I’m next but as I kneel down to duck through, I hear the shouts of the security.
“Stay where you are!”
I look back to Frank; he nods to me and mouths: ‘get out’ as he pulls out a knife.
I duck through the hole and run along the road. Diego is gone.
I look for the car Sandra would have left for me.
I can’t see the car for the blizzard. I look behind and see Frank emerging from the hole. He runs in the opposite direction.
I spot a lump of snow on the side of the road. It can only be a car.
The first thing to do is search for the keys. I kneel down and look underneath the car. As I look across beneath the car, I see the keys behind the tyres on the opposite side behind the back wheel. I scramble round the other side to get them. Then I reach the mound of snow and knock it onto the floor around the car. Only when the windows and lights are clear do I get into the car and turn the engine on. As the engine starts, I turn the heat onto full. I put the car into second gear and lifting the clutch slowly, the car begins to roll forward. I see the sat nav and a black jacket on the passenger seat. I pick the sat nav up and press ‘go home’ on the screen. It calculates the route and says it will only take thirty minutes. But in this weather, more like an hour.
I begin the journey back to Mulberry Lane. It’s only when I’m on my way to safety that I realise I’m shivering.