“Man!” Dignan hit his head up against the concrete wall of his new cell repeatedly, “What could I have done better? I couldn’t just let her kill him!” For once, he had a cell to himself and for that he was glad. He wasn’t sure if he could take another strange cellmate like his past two. “Shut up! Some of us are trying to get some sleep!” One of the criminals from a distant cell yelled out. Dignan quieted down and turned and slumped down into his bunk like a scolded child, his back resting against the wall.

Vicki wasn’t strange, he corrected himself, she was just immature. She looked at everything like it was still the 1930’s. Dignan knew he felt mad at himself for making that stupid choice of protecting Cowley. Or did he? He really didn’t know what to feel at the moment. Everything was hitting him at once. Anger, sadness, frustration, love… why couldn’t he just do things right?

It seemed like he never could become what others expected of him. And even though Mr. Henry, a criminal that was around his neighborhood, cheated them out by stealing all of Bob’s possessions, Dignan still felt himself looking up to him. In fact he wondered at the moment, what would Mr. Henry have done? If anything, he wouldn’t have done what I did. Dignan went into a deeper thought of thinking how he could improve his criminal abilities. And through the silence, it came to him, hitting him like a ton of bricks.

Of course! He praised himself, why didn’t I think of that sooner? He smiled. Just wait Vicki, I’ll show you who can be a good criminal…we will escape tomorrow. I’ll make sure of it…

The sun slowly rose over the gentle hills that Wasco State Penitentiary rested on. It was a cold morning and as one of the guards stepped into his office at the outside front gates his breath snaked out like fog. And when Dignan woke up that morning, he knew he had a mission and would need to stick to it. So, as he planed, he calmly went to breakfast and back to his cell to rest.

He sat there in his cell for a while, just silently staring at the floor collecting his thoughts. Ok, to get out of her cell Vicki pretended to be sick… Could he do that? But just as Dignan began to wonder he heard the click clacking of the A block officer’s boots hitting the tile floor as he began to walk forward. Dignan’s mind began racing for ideas as he heard the policeman nearing his cell. He jumped up to the bars and felt the excitement rush through his veins as it usually did when he planned something big like this. Wetting his lips Dignan looked down the hall at the approaching officer.

“Hey!” He looked around making sure no other officers were near, “Tubby! Yeah, I’m talking to you!” Some of the other cell members sighed at his attempt to ruffle the policeman’s feathers. The officer was heavy, and many convicts joked about being able to knock him out even if he walked straight in the middle of the hall. The policeman gave him a dirty look, “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about those donuts and coffee that’s expanding your midsection, my friend.”-Dignan paused as he chuckled at the joke, that was a slick one -“Now really what you need to do-”

Before he could finish his taunt the officer was in front of his cell and bashed his baton against the bars and unfortunately, across Dignan’s fingers. “Ahh!” He softly yelled. “Shut up you punk,” The policeman told him. Dignan scooted away from the front of his cell and held his hurting hand painfully. “Ow, God!” He carried on, “What are you, some kind of sicko? God! I think you broke my fingers, man!” The officer twitched his thick mustache out of irritation. “Quit your whining!” He told him.

“No really! Look!” Dignan held out his hand and stuck up his middle finger. The officer squinted with anger but despite the rude gesture, Dignan’s fingers were red and looked swollen. The officer sighed and brought out his keys to unlock the cell. “Whoa, you’ve got that thing hidden under all that flab!” Dignan smiled. The officer faked a chuckle then grew serious, “Don’t push it boy! I’m already being nice enough to take you to the First Aid nurse.” But as the policeman began to open the cell door, Dignan reeled back and punched him in the face, knocking him out. He shook his hand feeling the pain shoot through it again, “Ow!” With than, he dragged the officer up onto his cot and stripped him of his uniform. Then changing clothes, Dignan covered the unconscious man with his blanket and headed out of his cell, the hollers and whoops of criminals cheering him on as he began the first step to his escape.

Dignan hurriedly turned the corner down a hall that would lead him to the registration office. And as he entered, an elderly security guard looked up from his post in his rolling chair from behind the registration desk. “Oh hello there,” he said in a rather raspy voice, “You must be Mr. Hott, right? Mr. Drew Hott?” Dignan paused for a moment and adjusted to his new name. He smiled, “Yep, that’s me. Drew Hott.” The security guard gave a toothy grin of dentures, “Then step up right here and fill out your registration form.” Dignan hid his fear as he followed the elderly man’s orders and wrote down lies.

With that, the guard turned and typed some things on the computer and out of the printer came his license. The old man stuck it in a clear nametag and handed it to “Drew” to pin on his shirt. “There you go son.” He said. But, just as “Drew” turned and began to walk out the door, a window popped up on the security guard’s computer. “Hold on there,” The man told him raising a hand to stop him. “Drew” tightly closed his eyes and prayed a silent prayer, oh please God, let Vicki’s plan work!

The security guard smiled, “Your first day on the job and you already have a mission. A girl by the name of Victoria Gillis needs to get to another one of her trials and you’re going to be her escort. She’s on the third floor here and is in cell 113. Got it?”

“Yeah I think so. But if I get lost I’ll just ask another one of my fellow friends in blue for directions.”

The old man laughed. “You’re a good kid, Drew. Hope no criminals try to kill you on the job.”

Dignan gave a weak smile; he didn’t really like lying to the nice security guard. “Hey, you too!” He replied and then walked out and headed toward the elevator.

“Drew” waited patiently as the elevator rose up a floor. He smiled. It almost felt like dejá vù. And then, the doors opened, and down the lonely hall there stood the familiar door with the writing: C block. He excitedly jogged to the entrance to the block and paused as he rested his hand on the knob letting out a sigh of anticipation. This is it, the thing we’ve been waiting for. The “Big getaway”…

He opened the door and smiled feeling the sober atmosphere in the block. It was strange this time when he entered though, he no longer felt held back or worried about messing things up. He felt free, free to walk wherever and do whatever; he could feel it rush through his fingertips, despite the pain in them. Unknowingly, Cowley walked out of his office blowing the rising steam away from his coffee cup. He looked over and nearly dropped his coffee seeing the sudden officer on his block. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” He asked.

“I’m the new kid on the block.”-“Drew” smiled at the unnoticed quip-“And I’ve come to take Gillis to her trials.”

Cowley slowly set down his coffee cup onto his desk while eyeing “Drew”. He cautiously stepped toward him, “You look strangely familiar…” Cowley then peered at his nametag… and recognized the photo. He gasped and looked at the new officer, “You’re no officer! You’re-”

Dignan quickly punched Cowley before he could finish his sentence. He paused for a moment, taking in the glory of finally getting to hurt the officer. Then grabbed the keys and headed over to Vicki’s cell. She excitedly rushed up to the bars, “Dignan! I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see you!”

He smiled unlocking the door, “I couldn’t let my ol’ buddy Nelson down now could I?”

“No, I guess you couldn’t. But… you came back for me. You could’ve left by yourself just as easy, I know I would’ve. Why?”

As he opened the barred door they embraced and Dignan surprisingly kissed her. “Because, I’m in love.”

She gave the warmest smile her face would allow as they began to walk towards the door. A though came to her mind as she looked down at Dignan’s holsters and noticed they were empty. She looked at him, “We’re going to be needing some weaponry don’t cha think?”

Dignan looked at her worriedly, and as if he had agreed she walked over to the unconscious Cowley and slowly reached for his gun. He saw her wince as she raised it out of the holster and her hands shake as she fought her urge for madness. And then randomly the thought of the movie “Alice in Wonderland” popped in his head and he could hear the Cheshire cat saying in its mysterious voice, “We’re all mad here.” And as strange as it seems, that was the truth about Wasco State Penitentiary.

Vicki looked at him with distressing eyes and he quickly hurried over to assist her in her fight. Taking the gun away from her he placed it into one of his empty holsters. Vicki smiled at herself once the stress was over. “Did you see that? I fought it!” She beamed, “I fought it and I won!” Dignan smiled also.

“Yes you did. Maybe you’ll break the habit!”

“Let’s hope!”

With that, Dignan took out his handcuffs and gently locked them on Vicki’s wrists. “You ready?” He asked. “More than ever!” She replied. But right before they opened the door, Dignan looked back hoping to savor the memories of the old C block. And then he noticed Steel; the large black man rested in the back of his cell almost as if he wanted to disappear from the action. Dignan walked over to him with Vicki following. He remembered Steel’s depression from Christmas and weakly asked him, “Steel, would you like to escape with us? You can get back to your family and see your kids.”

The black man looked at them wearily and got up walking toward them. “Sorry, buddy. When I leave this place, I wanna be clean so I don’t have the cops breathing down my back.”-He held out his hand and Dignan shook it-“Good-bye Blondie, and good luck.”-He then turned to Vicki and patted her on the shoulder-“Take care Nelson, and don’t get into too much trouble alright?”

Vicki smiled and Dignan could’ve sworn she was about to cry, “See ya, Steel. Let’s don’t let this be the last time we meet.”

“Yeah,” Dignan agreed, “I’ll see ya buddy.”

And after their good-byes they began to walk out the door heading closer to freedom, when Dignan remembered one last thing. “Let’s get lucky.” He told her and they entered the elevator.

Dignan and Vicki stepped through yet another gate as they headed to the outside of Wasco. It was almost nerve racking to have this much freedom; almost every officer gave him a funny look as he passed them. Please don’t let them recognize me, he thought to himself over and over. The last security guard he had to get past glared at “Drew” confusingly as he scanned his license into the computer. It worked luckily as the guard handed it back to Dignan shrugging. “Are you new or something?” He asked.

Dignan nodded.

“Really…I just can’t help but find you strangely familiar.”

Dignan bit his lip trying to think of an excuse. Suddenly Vicki began twisting to break free of her handcuffs, “Let go of me!” Dignan quickly understood the gesture and tightened his hands on her. “Well, I better get going before she gets too restless. See ya!” He called out as he began to rush towards the closest police car. The guard watched him walk away and stick the criminal into the back of the car.

It all seemed so strange to him, a beginning officer taking such a big task like that. It just didn’t seem right. He turned back to the computer and gave a closer look at the license. His eyebrows furrowed as he leaned closer to the screen. “No,” he told himself incredulously, “I can’t be…” The guard typed some things on the keyboard and a window popped up. He stared harder at the license then back to the mug shot he pulled up. “It is!” He exclaimed looking back out his window at the speeding car leaving their jail, “Dignan Chase. Wow Vicki, you’ve really pulled something this time.” He quickly grabbed his comm. unit and spoke into it his discovery.

Vicki glanced back through the back window of the police car. She smiled, “Good, no sign of the coppers.” Looking back at Dignan she fidgeted, “Can I move up front now? There’s absolutely no foot room back here.” Dignan shrugged, “Can you?”

“Sure.” She brought her hands up and pushed away the window that separated them and pushed her way forward. Dignan looked over at her confusingly, “What about the-”

“The handcuffs? They’re in the back seat.”

“But-How’d you-?”

She just smiled. “It’s a talent.”

The sound of sirens suddenly blared out as they drove down the road. “Oh crap,” Dignan muttered looking into the rear-view mirror. Vicki turned around, “Oh crap is right.” A policeman stuck his head out the window of his car with a megaphone, “Gillis, I want you to pull over that car right now!” Vicki frowned and quickly snatched the gun from Dignan’s holster. She rolled down her own window and brought her head out, “How can I when I’m not even driving?” she then fired two rounds at the distant car, smashing their front windshield.

The policemen swerved for a moment but regained control on the car. “This isn’t good,” She said looking over at Dignan.

“Got any ideas?”

“One.”

“That’ll work.”

There was a muffled sound that shot out in their planning; Vicki quickly pushed Dignan’s head forward. The sound of glass shattering was heard and when he looked up, there was a nice broken circle from a bullet. He looked over at her, “Thanks.” She smiled, “You’re welcome. Now there’ll be a bridge up here soon, and when we get near it we’ll need to jump out of the car and slide down this ditch that’s next to it.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Another shot zoomed past then. “What’re they trying to do? Kill us?”

Dignan shrugged. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”

Vicki stuck her head back out the window and fired another shot at the car. And another, and yet another. Dignan quickly pulled her back in, “Get a hold of yourself. I don’t want you going crazy on me.”

She rolled her eyes and quickly looked at their surroundings, “Ok, ok. Here it is. Are you ready?”

Dignan leaned back and grabbed the handcuffs and clipped one to the wheel and another to his door. “I guess.”

She leaned out the window further this time and shot better aim at the other police car. The car swerved yet again, and this time it wasn’t going to be a quick recovery. She was sure she hit the driver. Looking back at Dignan she smiled, “This is where we get off.”

With that she opened the door and jumped out, her body tumbling down the ditch-like hill from gravity. Dignan worriedly looked down at the ground as he scooted over to the open door. He wetted his lips and, saying a quick prayer, jumped out.

The officer in the passenger’s seat quickly leaned over and grabbed the steering wheel trying to gain control considering that the driver had been shot in the neck. He reached out for the comm. unit and called for back up. Sadly he scooted his dead buddy over to where he was sitting and moved himself into the driver’s seat. He licked his lips and squinted to try and see the car he was trailing through the broken glass.

He didn’t have to search very long though; in about a minute he saw a sudden burst of flames. The car had exploded. He brought his police car to a halt. Slowly he stepped out and stared at the flaming car that had run into one of the bridge’s walls. Most likely the impact was so great that it caused the car to overheat and explode. He sighed. That was it. It’s over.

The wailing of sirens came up behind him and as he turned around four police cars slammed on their breaks and his fellow officers stepped out. Some running over to his police car and the rest running over to the heap of burning metal. One officer though, walked up next to him. “Did you see what happened?” The man asked.

“Yes sir, the car made an impact with the wall and burst into flames.”

The policeman grunted a sound of disappointment. “Were-were the criminals in the car when it happened?”

The officer who trailed the criminals stared deeply into the flames. “I doubt it sir.”-He gave a small chuckle and looked over at the higher-ranking man-“Gillis is too smart to die like that.”

Dignan felt a sharp twig scratch his cheek as they tumbled down the hill. Their momentum hadn’t quite slowed down yet and they were still moving with great force. Vicki quickly dug her heels into the ground bringing her to a quick stop. Dignan tried to do the same thing himself but found himself ramming straight into his partner in crime. She pushed him off and stood up examining their surroundings. An explosion sounded off and she smiled. “Was that our car?” Dignan asked incredulously.

She nodded silently.

“Wow. Do you think they think we’re dead?”

“No,” she told him, “but it’ll work good enough to stall them.”

Dignan sighed, “So what’s next?”

“There’s a quiet shopping center near here. We can get a ride from there.”

She then began to walk off in that direction, Dignan watching her in confusion. “What do you mean ‘get a ride from there’? What are we gonna do? Walk up to them in our prison uniforms and smile and say, ‘hey there, we’ve just escaped from Wasco and was wondering if you could drive us to a safe place?’”

Vicki rolled her eyes and continued walking. Dignan looked around their area pausing, then running off to catch up with Vicki.

Vicki peered through the window of a red viper. Inspecting the interior and probability of hotwiring it, she looked over at Dignan and nodded. “Nice car,” He told her. She smiled. “I don’t believe it’s right to hotwire a car that’s no good. There’s not really a point in it. I mean, you know it’s going to break down sooner or later right?”

Dignan’s eyes shifted to the ground, “Yeah, I guess.” Vicki laughed as she walked over to the hood. “You’ve really had some bad experiences haven’t you?” Dignan slightly nodded. She then pried the front of the car open and peered down into it. Reaching her hands into the car she began to work like a doctor might on a patient. Moving a wire there, twisting something here, she stood back and wiped her brow. Going back in she made one adjustment and had the battery started and the car purring like a cat. She punched in a code on the driver’s side of the car and luckily got it correct.

“Wow. You’re like a master or something.” Dignan smiled getting in.

“Ah well, that was Big George’s first job as a criminal. It’s kind of like in my blood.”

Dignan smiled running his hand across the dashboard. He chuckled and looked over at her, “We really did it. We escaped from Wasco!” Vicki chuckled also as she pulled out of the parking lot. “Yes we did.”-She let her excitement overcome her and she let out a whoop-“We really did!” Beaming Vicki pulled into the street that lead to the interstate. “Gosh, I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed, “I can’t believe that one of my plans actually worked!! We need a celebration!”

Dignan nodded, “I can’t wait to see the look on Anthony’s and Bob’s faces. They’re not going to believe it!”

She glanced over at him and laughed, “Do you think they’d like to join us?”

Dignan confusingly looked over at her.

“Yeah, we’re a team Dignan. I’m not going to go and ditch a perfectly good assistant. And we need a gang.”

“You’d actually ask someone like me, Bob, and Anthony to join your gang?”

“Sure.” She smiled at him. “How could I not? I mean, after all, we can’t forget what happened back at Wasco.”

Dignan knew that she meant their confessions and returned the smile. They were finally out of that horrible jail and on their way to a beautiful future of successful robberies. Of course we can’t forget, he told himself looking out the window at the passing cars, on the run from Johnny Law, ain’t no trip to Cleveland.




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