(South Wing - Second hallway)
     

Oscar was startled by the noise emitted by the walls. The screeching sound and the sudden burst of light—not from the fluorescent above them confused his tired mind. He glanced around, and there, to the side of Rodney, a metal slowly rose to reveal a window.
     
"Sheldon," his comrades couldn’t help but scream, "The building is open."
     
Oscar smiled and a single tear dropped from his left eye. He moved towards the window and motioned to push the simple frame that stood between him and his freedom. But as the man took a step forward, a hand suddenly grabbed the collar of his jail uniform and pulled him back.
     
Oscar fell on his bum, he looked up and saw Sheldon staring down at him.
     
"We can't let you leave," the man said to him, there was an undertone in the way Sheldon delivered those words and Oscar knew exactly what it was—Move and die— he had seen that look in a man's eye, heard that warning on a man's tone, hundreds of times before. He smiled to himself, of course, they will never allow me to leave, he thought wearily.
     
Oscar remained seated on the floor and pulled his legs close to his chest. He looked up at Sheldon and pleaded, "I dreamed of this for decades now, please let me take that leap."
     
It was Rodney who suddenly answered, "No, that's not for us to decide. We can tell the warden of your deeds and I'm certain, they can cut a few years from your sentence."
     
The man on the floor shook his head and murmured, "I'm sorry," after he pushed himself up, then threw Rodney a right hook, which immediately rendered the man unconscious. Kelvin was a few meters behind them, so Sheldon was left alone to decide Oscar's fate.
 
He was stunned by the sudden change in the man's demeanor, so he took a step back. He aimed his gun at Oscar and begged him to reconsider.
     
The old prisoner gave a tired and lonely smile when he said, "Take the shot."
     
Sheldon shook his head and lowered his gun, then questioned, "What about your promise?"
     
Oscar knew exactly what the man meant, so he pulled out the necklace 247 had given him during their time inside Marreta prison and threw it toward Sheldon. "Give this to your mother, I'm confident she will remember who 247 was. With that, the old prisoner, using his elbow, broke the window's glass frame and jumped outside.
     
"How can you be certain?" Sheldon yelled before the man could run.
     
Oscar glanced back and screamed, "She will, I can feel it."
                                                                    ***

(West Wing - Third floor)
     

Rashid smiled when the window, lined with iron bars suddenly came into view. He looked down at the woman on the bed and whispered, "I think the gods are in our favor."
                                                                  ***

(West Wing)
     

Mark, despite the shock of not finding Melinda's body where he left it, immediately moved to grab the gun on the floor.
     
Rudolf was too busy smirking and glaring at the warden, he failed to see the oncoming bullet aimed at his head.
     
A single shot, that was all it took—and Rudolf's body fell on the floor.
     
Warden Protacio, despite his acceptance of death, released a heavy sigh and mumbled, "This is not how I expected things to end."
     
Mark's adrenaline was still on a high, so he failed to hear the sound emitted by the radio, which was laying on the floor near the warden's desk. It was when Protacio yelled, “take that radio and get someone here!" that he finally notice it.
     
He immediately spun on his heels, picked up the radio microphone, and said, "Hello?"
     
The person in the other line answered with the word," Sheldon! "
                                                                  ***

(Two kilometers from the prison building)
      

"Sheldon answer me! " yelled Nathaniel.
      
"This is not Sheldon, my name is Mark and we need help," the man on the other line answered.
     
Nathaniel was about to ask where Sheldon was when the blaring of the police siren and the presence of a helicopter flying above them disrupted the conversation.
     
"Help is on its way!" Nathaniel screamed amidst the sound permeating from the backup they have been waiting for.
                                                                   ***

(East Wing-ground floor)
     

Marshal commanded his men to spread out and find his brother, leaving a snide remark which meant, kill anything that moves.
     
They ran around the prison building, owning every hallway, which left the air with the scent of sweat, blood, and gunpowder.
     
They yelled, cursed, and threatened, even the unsuspecting walls—spitting on them like the vile thugs that they were.
     
Marshal instructed his brother to wait for his men in the East Wing, so he took six of his companions and headed for the east, expecting to see his brother awaiting his arrival.
                                                                    ***
     
Sheldon immediately noticed the shift in the atmosphere, he felt a chill and a foreboding feel which came to existence, when the voices of screaming and cursing men, filled the prison building.
     
He set out to hide, but the immediate remembrance of his companions pushed the aged guard out of the small enclosure he had chosen to hide in. His first move was to carry and cover Rodney inside his chosen spot—the man was still unconscious after Oscar's punch. Just when he finished closing the door to the small room, Kelvin appeared. Sheldon urged the young guard to hide too.
     
He left both men inside the small room and headed for Kennedy in the infirmary.
                                                                    ***

(Infirmary)
     

Kennedy heard the voices and his heartbeat took a momentum that caused his knees to weaken, and his entire body to shiver. He heard footsteps coming towards the infirmary. Despite having a window beside him, and a dangling escape route to save his life, he couldn’t bring himself to abandon the two injured men on the bed. He had done everything he could to save their lives, it was the first time, after a long time, that he felt the ecstasy of his once chosen profession.
     
He wouldn’t abandon them. In his eyes, they were his patients. He would stand beside the injured guards, not as a prisoner but as a medical practitioner. His eyes suddenly felt teary, if only he had made the right choices back then. If only he had chosen to tell his parents the truth and begged them for the money he needed for that woman's abortion, or had never gotten her pregnant, to begin with, things in his life could have taken a better turn.
     
"I think a person is inside!" Kennedy heard someone yell.
     
He closed his eyes, and held the gun in his left tightly, while his right fumbled with a scalpel.
     
Bring it on, the young convict thought. In an instant, the door to the infirmary burst open, and three muscled men—each with a gun—stood in front of him.
     
Their eyes lingered inside the room before they fell on Kennedy.
     
One of them grinned and pointed his gun toward him.
     
The young prisoner docked when the first bullet was fired, he leaped to the side of a medicine cabinet, then rolled over to the desk near it. The desk was high and it hid his form completely.
     
"Come out little mouse, stop hiding, play with us!" the three gangsters yelled. Kennedy felt his entire body shake then deduced that that day was the day he would lose his life. Instead of fighting them further, he placed the gun and the scalpel on the floor then pulled out from his pocket—the rosary his mother had given him on the day of his sentencing, then prayed for his soul.
     
"Well, I guess this is goodbye young one," he heard a man say. Everything to Kennedy in that moment felt vivid, even the way he heard things was played with so much clarity. He took one huge gulp of air before he heard the firing of a gun.
     
It took a few seconds before he realized that he was alive—no bullet came in contact with him.
     
When he opened his eyes, two men in black overalls with the word SWAT printed on their chest greeted him. At that moment, he had never been so thankful to see a law enforcer.
                                                                      ***
     
Marshal and his men fell one after the other when a bunch of SWAT teams appeared in front of them. They never stood a chance.
     
Though they tried to battle it out, they were finally outnumbered and brought down, as multiple bullets took shelter in their bodies.
                                                                    ***
      
Forty minutes after the SWAT team's arrival. The bodies of guards, prisoners, police, and gangsters alike, were taken out of the prison building.
      
Warden Protacio watched with a broken heart as some of the tenured guards lay dead on the damp ground. Small rivulets of rain began to fall from the sky, along with the silent tears of the surviving guards for their fallen companions.
     
Beside Protacio stood Mark and Sheldon, both with sullen expressions.
     
Sheldon was rescued by the SWAT team when he was apprehended by Marshal's men on his way to the infirmary.
     
Everything felt unbelievable for the surviving guards. But what truly sent Mark on edge was when he saw Melinda's body being carried out of the prison's main door.
      
He immediately ran towards the two men who were carrying Melinda on a stretcher. He almost fell to his knees when he saw the woman's eye open and stared at him.
     
Melinda smiled and whispered, "Yeah asshole, I'm alive."
     
Following their wake were two guards who were desperately struggling to subdue a man who was attempting to get to Melinda's side.
     
Mark walked up to the gangster and asked him to shut up, but he immediately felt like cold water was hosed down on him, when Melinda amidst her weakened state yelled, "Leave him alone, he is a far better man than you ever were."
     
After she said those words to Mark, Rashid, who was busy fighting with the police stopped, and smiled at the woman. Melinda smiled back and said, "I'll visit you when I get better."   
Upon her last sentence, Melinda once again lost consciousness. She was immediately taken inside a waiting ambulance and was rushed to the hospital, along with Harold and the other injured guards.
                                                                      ***
     
Nathaniel stood with the Senator while the warden spoke with him. They gave their gratitude for his immediate action and promised to speak with him further after everything returns to normal.
     
After a few minutes, Nathaniel finally made eye contact with Sheldon. The man had seen Nathaniel earlier but did not make a move to approach him. Nathaniel did not take the man's action to heart. He knew Sheldon had his ways. The man was a hard nut to crack.
     
"Sheldon, we have to get back to San Ignacio. Maria needs you. Are you even aware of your mother's condition?" Nathaniel asked, keeping his voice low and anger controlled.
     
The old marine suddenly frowned, he expected Sheldon to give a snide remark or walk away—but he bobbed his head and said, "Take me there immediately."
     
Despite his surprise, Nathaniel grinned and answered "Alright."
    
     
The Senator who had been standing beside Nathaniel that whole time, felt like he was intruding on something personal, so he bid Nathaniel goodbye and went to shake Sheldon's hand, but before the Senator could take the man's outstretched arm, he noticed something familiar hanging on the man's neck.
     
It was a necklace that he thought was reminiscent of a witch's finger. He had seen one like that many years ago, and it belonged to the man that changed his life for the better.
     
He must have been staring at it for quite some time because it caught the attention of the wearer.
      
"What is it, sir?" Sheldon asked.
     
The Senator shook his head and replied, "Oh it's nothing, that necklace reminded me of someone, where did you buy it from?"
      
"This?" Sheldon asked whilst raising the pendant of the necklace that Oscar had given him.
      
The Senator chuckled then mumbled, "Yeah."
     
"It's not mine, it belonged to Lucious Dualti."
     
The Senator unexpectedly lost his balance, he stumbled over nothing and instantly grabbed Sheldon's shoulder then begged the man to repeat what he had said.
     
Sheldon, confused and utterly surprised by the senator’s demeanor replied, "Lucious Dualti, he was a prisoner here."
Just when the Senator attempted to prod further, The warden came up to them and explained, "Lucious Dualti, was a prisoner of San Fernando Correctional since the day it was opened."
     
Senator Maximillian Gorte fell to his knees, shocking the warden and everyone around them.
     
Nathaniel immediately got to his knees too and attempted to pull the man up while asking, "Senator, is there a problem, do you know the man? "
     
"Where is he, I thought he died from the fire of Marreta Prison." The Senator screamed—still with his form slumped on the ground.
     
Hesitantly, the warden answered, "He died yesterday morning."
     
Senator Maximillian felt his heart sink. He thought he could finally speak with Lucious again.
     
"He left a bunch of Letters though," the warden added.
     
After a few minutes of silence, the Senator slowly rose to his feet and glanced at Sheldon.
     
"How did you get this?" he questioned.
     
Sheldon sighed, ran a hand over his hair, and answered, "It's a long story. First, I have to get his letters to my mother."
      
Nathaniel, Maximillian, and the warden collectively gave Sheldon a questioning look.
     
"These letters are for my mother," he whispered, as an answer to their silent query.
      
"Maria Ventura is your mother?" the warden asked, surprise evident in his tone.
      
Maximillian once again lost his balance and yelled "Where is your mother? Take me to her."
     
Despite the confusion the senator woke inside of him, Sheldon bobbed his head and didn’t bother to question why Maximillian wanted to see his mother.
                                                                    ***
      
The warden was lucky not to have suffered any broken bones. He had deep wounds but refused to be hospitalized. He had his reasons. Sheldon too received medical attention. The man suffered a few deep wounds like the warden, but he too refused to be hospitalized.
     
After three hours, the sky has turned darker and gloomier. A small number of raindrops still fell from the horizon, but according to Nathaniel, it was safe to drive back to San Ignacio.
     
When everyone was ready, the warden proposed using a helicopter, but it was immediately rejected, by both Nathaniel and Maximillian. According to them, flying made them sick.