Nathaniel's gaze swivelled inside the hospital room while a TV played quietly in a corner. He raised its volume a bit, in an attempt to distract his wife from the continued worrying she displayed over her mother's deterioration.

Maria remained motionless and unresponsive despite Valerie's and the doctor's best efforts. Again, he wanted his wife to calm down, give her hope, and assure her that everything would turn out for the better, but he knew his words at that moment would result in empty promises. Maria would not survive. How could he say those words to his wife? The mother whom she had adored so much. The mother who had spent her life as a slave for her children.

"Hon, would you like to go home? Take the kids with you, I will stay with your mother," Nathaniel whispered as he leaned his head onto the back of his wife's shoulder.

Valerie turned to face him, eyes filled with tears. "I wanted Sheldon here."

Nathaniel understood the worry written on his wife's face. Valerie's younger brother was loved dearly by their mother. Maria would be heartbroken - if she still had the conscious ability to do so - if Sheldon failed to visit before her demise.

"San Fernando is about six hours away. I will leave at daybreak," he assured his wife, mimicking the exact promise he had made hours ago.

Valerie shook her head. "I don't think she has a lot of time left."

At that moment, destiny reassured her words as Maria's heart monitor gave another dangerous beep. Nathaniel took it upon himself to push the panic button when his wife suddenly froze and then began to cry again.

In the corner of the room, a low grumble was heard. The sound from the monitor had jolted the sleeping kids into awareness. Their hazy eyes stared back at their grandfather and grandmother, full of confusion.

"Is Gigi-grandma dying?" the five-year-old asked. His question turned Valerie's cry into an ear-splitting wail. Nathaniel immediately wrapped his arms around his wife's shaking body. "I will leave right now. I'll make sure to bring your brother home before sundown tomorrow."

Valerie gave her husband a forced smile and bobbed her head. She stared at him lovingly. How could she have married such a man? Her mother had always told her that she must choose her future partner wisely. Her mother repeated the words daily as if she feared Valerie would end up meeting a jerk. So Valerie hadn't only chosen wisely. She had found the best.

Before Nathaniel left the hospital, he once again asked his wife if it was alright to leave her alone with the kids. She assured him that it was. However, Nathaniel couldn't keep worrying so the marine gave his brother a call and asked him to accompany his wife. It was almost two in the morning, and his brother was probably asleep, but Nathaniel knew his wife needed company. So he persevered despite failing to have his call picked up after several attempts. Finally, on his fourth call, his brother answered. The voice on the other line sounded sleepy and tired. Luckily for Nathaniel, it didn't take any heavy convincing on his part for his brother to agree to accompany Valerie and the kids at the hospital.

Nathaniel knew he was inconveniencing his brother because the man was busy with his own life. However, he and Valerie's children who worked as archaeologists, were stationed in another country, so he and his wife had no choice but to watch over their grandkids. They loved having them anyway.

Nathaniel had always ensured that he wouldn't dump his problems on another, but the situation they found themselves in required a helping hand.

He could only thank the heavens that his brother was an understanding man. Many would cringe at the thought of watching over kids nowadays.

Thirty minutes after the promise he made to his wife, his brother arrived at the hospital and Nathaniel finally jumped on his car and made his way to meet Sheldon.

***

San Fernando Correctional (North Wing)

"Take us with you, or we'll make sure none of you gets out of here!" the inmate inside cell ninety-five screamed.

The two Convicts who spent years planning their escape turned toward the man. One of them took out a bottle from his pocket, a bottle provided by the guard they managed to bribe. He slowly walked towards cell ninety-five, leisurely opened the small bottle he held, and then signalled for the criminal behind bars to approach him.

The convict smiled, thinking he finally found a way to escape his twenty-year sentence. The man with the bottle grinned when the unsuspecting prisoner positioned himself an inch away from the iron bars. Without warning, the convict, standing from the outside, poured the contents of his bottle over the metal bars. It only took a few minutes before it gave way and melted, giving enough room for the inmate inside to crawl out.

Prisoner ninety-five released a chuckle when he found himself free from the confines of his cell, but his joy was short-lived. The laughter he emitted was immediately replaced with horror and a disrupted cry after a knife was mercilessly sheathed from behind his neck. The silver metal pierced through his cervical vertebrae, breaking his thorax until it found release amidst muscles and tissues to the front of his neck. Blood and small pieces of skin from the dead inmate's neck fell and pooled on the prison floor. Immediately, some of the remaining prisoners moved to the corner of their cells, but a large number of them began to wail and scream for the guard whom they knew to be positioned above their iron confinement.

The two convicts who stood beside the fallen prisoner glared at those who created a ruckus. One of them walked up towards an inmate who kept screaming, "Guard, guard!" intent on silencing him, but his deed was cut short when a bullet was shot from above. The convict managed to dock the bullet, missing him only by an inch.

A few more bullets were fired until surprisingly, a guard's body fell from the top. The confused convicts inside their cell watched in terror as they realized that it was another guard who shot his comrade down.

"Didn't I tell you to be careful?" the guard asked, directing his question to the convict who was crouched down on the floor with a wide grin on his face, eyes shining, filled with malicious intent.

"Oscar! We have to get out now!" one of the two escapees screamed.

The man named Oscar pulled himself up from the floor, then fired the guard a curious look before saying, "That shot would have alerted the other guards; it's best to keep your riffle close." The guard, a middle-aged man named Farlow, smiled at the convict and answered, "I even sleep with this thing on my chest," whilst raising his riffle upfront, to make a statement.

"Whatever," Oscar answered.

"I have to ask, though, would those old sticks be able to keep up?" the other escapee, a man by the name of Rudolf, asked.

Oscar snickered as he shook his head. He was perhaps an old man, but he never missed a single day without proper exercise. He hadn't any intention of dying inside the prison walls. He had been a prisoner for nearly forty-three years. He needed to get out. He couldn't believe his sentence of ten years was extended to life imprisonment because of a simple brawl. Well, it did result in the death of a few guards, but hey, it wasn't like it was all his doing. Those guards should have known their place! A riot is a riot! Who told them to stand in the way?

As the men mused, a loud clacking sound took the three by surprise. It was the vagabond guard who first turned to see where the sound came from. His eyes instantly widened by the surprise of seeing their warden staring at him from behind the main wall.

The wall, as they called it, was also made of thick iron bars, but those bars were far thicker than the ones used for the inmate's cells.

***

The sound of an alarm suddenly echoed throughout San Fernando Correctional, waking all the sleeping guards in the process.

Mark and Harold were the first to stumble out of their makeshift bed, while Sheldon, Johnny, and another guard named Raffy followed suit.

The newly risen guards barely had their minds fully awakened, before all of them took out their batons and guns, running towards the south wing, where they foolishly thought the alarm came from.