Yurius's Great Escape

      Yurius looked up at the judge. “Two years?” he gulped.

      A group of Chias that had been standing off to the side walked over and led him out of the room.

      “No... NO!” he exclaimed as they led him off. “I WAS SUPPOSED TO WIN! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” He saw the Grarrl, Gelert, and Nimmo who had caused his conviction standing to his left, smirking. Yurius shook his fist at them one last time before the heavy doors closed shut, sealing the Kyrii’s fate.

     ***

      Yurius sat in his cell, his face buried in his hands. He looked up and stared at the pen on the floor, which had been sent to him as a joke. He’d been in the holding cells for a week, but for Yurius it felt like a month. He got up and paced back and forth.

      Yurius wanted freedom. He thought about it every second of every minute of every day. He craved it, wished for it. But escape was not yet on his mind. After all, nobody had ever escaped from the DON holding cells before.

      “But there must be a way!” he said to himself.

      “A way to do what, Penny?” said a Chia in the hallway. The Chia was Herbert, the officer in charge of Yurius’ hallway. Herbert liked to clang his nightstick along the prisoner’s cells and made nicknames for everyone. He liked to pick on Yurius, or ‘Penny’ the most. In fact, to Yurius it seemed that the only time he wasn’t picking on him was when he went on patrol.

      “Well, for one thing, a way to get you to stop bothering me,” Yurius sneered, pocketing the pen. The last thing he needed was for Herbert to make fun of him for that.

      “Yeah, whatever, Penny,” Herbert said with a laugh and a sarcastic tone. “You get your neomail now.”

      “My- What?”

      “NEOMAIL. After a week in the holding cells you get one neomail. Come on, I don’t have all day.” He unlocked the door, which was operated by a system of magnets.

      Herbert led Yurius down the hall. They passed many cells when another officer appeared. Herbert instructed him to wait while he went to talk to the officer. As soon as he left, Yurius was grabbed by the shirt by the prisoner in the cell next to him and pulled so close to the prisoner’s face he could smell his breath.

      It was a wild-eyed blue Krawk who Yurius recognized. The other day, he had not been hungry and had given his meal to the Krawk, who he earlier overheard saying he was disappointed at the amount of food given to him. The Krawk looked around and, seeing Herbert and the other officer occupied, turned to face Yurius.

      “Listen, buddy,” he said, his eyes wide and wary, “I haven’t forgotten what you did for me before and I’m gonna give you a tip. I wasted my neomail, but I do know the neomail address of a guy who can get you out of here. You got anything to write with?”

      “N- yes!” Yurius said with surprise. He had almost forgotten that he had taken the pen. The Krawk told him the address and Yurius wrote it beneath his sleeve. Just then Herbert came over and told him to get a move on. As he led Yurius away, the Krawk flashed him a smile and winked as he gave him the thumbs up. Yurius returned the motion with a smile.

      Herbert led him around for a bit more before they came to a metal door with a large latch on it. Yurius was led inside and took a moment to observe the room.

      It was a grey room with no windows and one steel door. At the opposite end of the room was a neomail generator.

      “You have five minutes to send a neomail to anyone you feel like,” Herbert said, obviously bored. “Heck, send it to Sloth for all I care. Just remember; five minutes.”

      Herbert left the room and closed the door. Yurius heard it lock and went over to the neomail generator and, first typing the address in the appropriate boxes, sent his letter.

     Dear sir,

     I am in confinement and very much wish to leave.

     Could you please consider maybe breaking me out?

     I would be very much obliged.

      He thought about it for a moment, and added another line.

     I am willing to pay 115,000 Neopoints.

     Yurius

      He hit send and smiled as Herbert walked in. “All right, buddy, time to go. I have to go on patrol.”

      Yurius got up and, smiling, followed Herbert back to his cell. Herbert let him in and locked it before walking away whistling. As soon as he was gone, Yurius threw his arms up and gave a yell of triumph.

     ***

      Yurius sat on the bench playing with the pen. He wondered when his rescue would come, and how he would be contacted. It had been two days since he had sent the neomail.

      He noticed Herbert walking down the hallway. He chuckled to himself, remembering how he had sent the neomail right under the lazy buffoon’s nose. Herbert walked up to the cell.

      “Alright, Penny, outside time.” He shut down the magnet in Yurius’ door and motioned for him to follow. Yurius did so. Every morning, the prisoners were let out to mill around the compound, which was protected by a strong fence to prevent escape. Yurius usually just sat in one corner and thought about his pending freedom. But now, he was starting to wonder if help would come at all.

      As he was sitting, a brown Mynci in an overcoat walked over to the fence from the free side and leaned on it. He was looking at the sky for a while before tipping up his hat and saying, “You Yurius?”

      “Excuse me?” said the startled skunk Kyrii

      “Name’s Joe,” the Mynci said. “Got myself a neomail ‘bout the troubles of some guy named Yurius. You Yurius?”

      Yurius’ heart thudded in his chest. His rescue at last! “Yes, that’s me!”

      “Fantastic,” the Mynci said, his tone sarcastic. “So you tired of bein’ a jailpteri and youse wanna break out? Well, I can help you out in that department.”

      “Well- That’s- Okay!” Yurius stuttered. “How?”

      “Well, here’s how it goes down,” Joe said, yawning. He’d been breaking people out all his life and he was starting to get bored at it. “I’ll create a distraction and send all the officers to one side of the building. Then, from the other side of the building, I’ll manually shut down the magnetic door locks in your hallways. That’s when I’ll scurry down to the Bazaar and set up a fruit cart.

      “You, after I open the doors, are going to get out of the place and head down to the bazaar. You can find my cart by starting at the trading card place, walking along that road, making a left at the fork, and continuing on to this big tree with a sign on it, where you turn right. Then you hide in the fruit and I get you on a boat to Krawk Island. Got that?”

      Yurius was overwhelmed. “No, I’m rather afraid I didn’t catch that.”

      Joe sighed. “Okay, I have a piece of paper. Got anything to write with?”

      Yurius handed him the pen. Joe scribbled an outline of the plan on the paper and handed it to Yurius. Yurius stuffed the note in his pocket.

      “And one last thing,” Joe said. “I will collect my payment after you arrive on the island. 115,000 neopoints is fine.” He tipped his hat again and walked away.

      After another twenty minutes, the prisoners were rounded up and sent back to their cells. Herbert heckled Yurius for another hour before the Chia went on patrol. Yurius was falling asleep when he heard a loud voice speaking on a megaphone.

      “Attention, officers,” the voice exclaimed, “there is a possible breach in sector B. All officers to sector B.”

      Yurius smiled. He recognized Joe’s voice right away. A few minutes later, he heard an audible snap and the door slid open. He was free! He tucked the instructions into his pocket and slipped it into his pocket.

      He walked quietly through the hallways, down the corridors and through the halls until he reached the compound and tiptoed outside. It was raining. He climbed over the fence and, dropping to the ground, he ran as quickly as possible towards Neopia Central.

      When he finally reached Neopia Central, he was soaked. Nevertheless, he jumped for joy. He pulled out the instructions to see what to do next... and gasped.

      All the ink on the paper had run in the rain! His escape was ruined! “Stay calm,” he mumbled. “You can remember. I go to the... the Plaza... no, that’s not...”

      He walked into a large crowd and was looking around, panicking, when he bumped into a surly looking Elephante and his glasses fell off. The Elephante grunted at him and walked away.

      “Ah! My glasses!” Yurius cried, scrambling around for them. He could barely see. He quickly decided he had no time to look for glasses and frantically searched the crowd for anything that resembled a fruit cart with his blurred vision. Panicking, he deciphered that he had to ask someone for directions. He walked up to a Chia.

      “Excuse me, sir, but have you seen a fruit cart around here?”

     ***

     Two days later, Yurius sat in his cell and sighed. Herbert was talking to another officer in the hallway.

      “So I was just on patrol,” the Chia said with a smirk, “when he comes up and asks me for directions! His glasses got knocked off in a crowd and he didn’t even know who I was! Naturally, I brought him in right away.”

      Yurius grimaced and shut his eyes tight. Herbert walked over to his cell.

      “Listen, buddy, after what happened I’m not calling you Penny anymore,” the Chia said.

      Yurius looked up. “Really?”

      “Yeah. Well, time to go on patrol. See you later, Specs.”

      And he walked the rest of the hall laughing.

The End