Chapter 1

The Sworn Rivals

CHAPTER 1 The deafening sound of the prison siren was heard at 12:15 pm. It was time for meals at the dining area and in no time the dining area was filled with almost all the animals in their yellow prison attires. Only a few grey attires could be spotted at the entrances and exits of the dining area; the officers. Some prisoners began taking their seats to wait out on the long queue at the serving area. The majority kept standing, some laughing and chatting with other inmates. A few arm wrestled to while away the time and others played cards. The noise and chatter only grew louder as more prisoners walked into the dining area. They were seemingly much more populated to take out the few officers that stood at the entrances but none of them would try assaulting an officer. The reason being that each prisoner had a platinum wrist band that had “taming” properties. When activated the wristband inflicted intense pain to the entire body of the prisoner. On one occasion, a prisoner called Dex described the feeling as ‘being fried on the inside’. These wristbands served as a deterrent against bad behavior in the penitentiary. Forks and spoons clattered, some of the prisoners had been served and they began eating. The rest were getting their servings. A loud thud was heard from across the room. “Woaahhhh, ugh!” groaned one of the prisoners who had been thrown onto one of the tables. The sound of the impact of his back on the table seized the attention of the prisoners. “It’s Spank the monkey and his boys, the meerkats!” whispered one guy to the rest of the guys at his table. Another said, “I got into trouble with one of the meerkats, boy oh boy, I don’t wanna do that ever again.” At this point, the dining area which was a very large space had grown so silent. All the prisoners looked in the direction of Spank the monkey. Two of the meerkats preceded him to clear the way for him or beat up anyone who attempted to talk to him as he passed. Two other meerkats walked behind him to guard his back. Spank exchanged looks with the prisoners as he walked past them. The expression of subtle fear was clear on the faces of most of them. Spank sighed and moved to the serving area. “The usual, please. Same for these boys.” he ordered as if in an eatery, pointing at his guard boys in a very complacent manner. The cook nodded repeatedly and tried to avoid eye contact with Spank. It was evident that he had had some kind of encounter with him. He shakily handed over 4 trays to the meerkats and handed Spank’s to him after. Spank squinted at the cook with his intimidating eyes and smiled mildly. He walked away to his reserved table in the dining area. Normally, every prisoner gets served the same meal with no special offers but Spank the Monkey and a few other wealthy prisoners were exceptions owing to the fact that they bribed the officers from time to time. It was rumored that Spank could pay his ways of prison any second. The only reason he had not done that was public opinion. He only wanted to appear ‘justice-served’ to the public, not that he even really cared about the opinion of the public. The more important reason why he didn’t mind staying in the penitentiary was to hunt goofballs and determine their worth before rolling out carefully planned schemes with the aim of controlling the stocks of the dark market outside of prison. The goofball hunt in the penitentiary was a big thing but only a few inmates were aware of it. Spank sent out the meerkats every time he gained knowledge about the sighting of a goofball. The other few prisoners who knew about the goofballs were also in on the avid hunt. Only a tip off to an officer was enough to get information on who had a goofball and where they could be found. Spank laughed hysterically as he ate at the table. “We’ve made so much progress and we’re getting so much closer to our goal…well, my goal. Hehe!” He leaned in over the table and signaled the meerkats to draw closer. “I got some new info from our officer today and it looks like we are in luck boys. I’ll be sending you to retrieve the blue goofballs he spotted. I’ve got the details of the inmate in possession of it. You’d have to do that this dawn, during cleaning duty, got it?” “Got it!” replied the meerkats. “It’s almost too easy down here you know…except that we have to deal with ‘him’ every now and then. He’s the only obstacle right now.” Spank added. ‘Him’ here was Spank’s sworn rival, Choke D chicken. Choke was a muscular, tall chicken who was definitely not a tolerant inmate. For an intolerant inmate he was rather quiet most of the time. He loved solitude and consequently never appeared at the dining area but always got served a large portion of the meals. His physique was intimidating enough to scare inmates away even if he didn’t end up beating them to pulp for doing or saying something wrong in the cells. As a result of this, Choke D chicken stayed in a cell with no inmate. His gang was made up of 5 nerdy beavers that functioned as his eyes and ears in the penitentiary. They followed Choke everywhere when they were not in their cells. In his cell, Choke sat on his bed with his legs crossed in a ‘yoga meditation position’ with a pencil and a notepad in his feathered palms. He was busy tracing what looked like a map through the red dotted points in the notepad. Apparently these were the graphic spots at which the beavers recovered some goofballs. The goal was to predict the next hotspot for goofballs. He was also always on the lookout for Spank and his boys to make sure they didn’t get in his way. “I’ll eliminate Spank when the time’s right - that thorn in my flesh!” Choke expressed in his deep voice gazing at his notepad. A few minutes later he finished up with his sketch and closed the notepad, placed it on his desk and lay straight on his bed interlocking his fingers behind his head. “After I get these goofballs I can finally be there for her, even as I am here.” END OF CHAPTER 1