Chapter 8

The Time Has Come

CHAPTER 8 [A few days later…] It was night fall and majority of the prisoners were fast asleep in their cells. A few officers occasionally walked past the corridor to make sure there was nothing unusual going on in the cells. Edwin and Keith had left for the dark market via their burrow to do what Choke D Chicken had ordered them to do. Claymore stayed to make sure the officers didn’t realize that his fellow inmates were not in their cell. Around the same time there was a figure in a pitch black cloak wandering in the shadows outside. This figure walked confidently on the dark compound of the penitentiary but looked around every few seconds to make sure he was not spotted by anyone. After a while the figure arrived at the entrance of the ‘bathroom’. After swiping an exclusive access card at the entrance, he got in and the door automatically shut firmly behind them. “Lights on” he said shortly after entering the room. He took off the cloak and hanged it on a hook that stuck out of one tile beside the door. It was clear that this individual was the resident the beavers were referring to, only that they had no idea who he was. Actually no one knew who he was. The peach tinted light bulbs embedded into the ceiling of the room gradually lit up to brighten up the room, revealing the face of the resident. This resident was Skye, the warden. He walked around in the room with content having ran the penitentiary for weeks now. Cridon, the superior warden disclosed to him a few days back that he was pretty amazed at how well Skye’s measures had deterred a lot of the prisoners from indulging in the illegal activities they used to practice under Ken’s administration. For this reason Skye felt so accomplished. He skipped across the room and flung his body parts around in an attempt to dance but unfortunately, he was no good a dancer. He now settled in front of the tile with the hollow corner and pulled it forward. He walked to the chained glass prism that contained the Golden sock. Skye reached into the pocket of his pants for the key to the lock on the chain, he opened it and looked into it, staring at the glistening Golden Sock. “What exactly are you and what do you do?” Skye asked as if the Golden sock were a person. “I guess I’d have to find out myself. Skye and his officers eventually found out about the goofball trade overtime and caught a number of the inmates hiding goofballs during an impromptu inspection that was held. He had most of the culprits tortured and queried about their knowledge of the goofballs and any other treasure before they were eliminated but none had even heard of the Golden sock, except for one. That culprit however didn’t know much about the sock only that it granted enhanced abilities to whoever was in possession of it. Skye normally referred to the Golden sock as ‘any other treasure’ in query because he didn’t trust his own officers to some extent. The idea of putting on the Golden sock as an experiment to see what was going to happen was not something Skye wanted to do since he was new to this entirely different reality in the TPC that had to deal with goofballs. The irony here was that there were inmates; Spank the Monkey and Choke D Chicken inclusive, who would give anything for the golden sock because they were fully aware of the qualities it possessed. Skye continued to investigate silently day after day. The next day during lunch time Finn sneaked around to Spank’s keeper, the officer, to present his wristband for the lumi-lime process. Spank had already started pushing this agenda because he realized that waiting till the sports break was not going to be ideal, considering the possibility that the lumi-lime process may or may not completely work on the platinum wristbands. This was however a very unlikely situation as lumi-lime was a tried and true elixir. Finn met up with the keeper at an isolated corner in the penitentiary. “You’re ready?” asked the keeper. “Definitely! Let’s just get this over with.” Finn replied. The keeper pulled out a vile of the liquid from his breast pocket and opened it. He gently released two drops of it onto a portion of Finn’s wristband. A few seconds later a simmering sound accompanied with an effervescence was observed from the point where the drops were released. To their surprise the wristband began turning gold. It spread until the entire band had turned gold and when Finn saw this he was a bit concerned. “Wouldn’t everyone notice that I tampered with the wristband…it’s golden now whereas everyone else’s is platinum!” Finn said to the keeper, quite disturbed. “Relax Finn. Just take a look at your band” replied the keeper. Finn reluctantly looked at the wristband and was quick to roll his eyes when he didn’t realize the second reaction at first glance. He was about talk back at the keeper with a pointed finger when he realized that the wristband was turning back to platinum. “It’s actually turning back!” Finn exclaimed. “I told you so. Now all we have to do is try if the wristband is now completely harmless” said the keeper while he lifted his left wrist and positioned his right palm over his watch, ready to activate the band. Finn nodded in agreement and shut his eyes so hard, ready to feel the worst pain ever. The keeper hit his watch firmly and activated the wristband. Finn didn’t feel thing! The lumilime process worked! “It worked…it worked!” Finn expressed in excitement. “I gotta let Spank know that we are absolutely ready!” Finn gave the keeper a fist bump and left for the canteen. He informed Spank the Monkey and the rest of the gang. Spank smiled at the sound of the good news and instructed the rest of the gang on when and where they were going to meet up with the keeper to have their wristbands disabled. “The time has come, boys! Time to execute!” Spank said to the meerkats with a sinister facial expression. He was ready to make his final move. END OF CHAPTER 8