Rock and Hard Place Four
Letter from Prisoner 34438:
No one
will probably find this. I don’t know why I’m even writing it but…I don’t know
what else to do. I shouldn’t be here. It was a petty charge but I didn’t get a
slap on the wrist like most. I guess that’s everyone’s story, huh? Now I’m
here, West Georgia Correctional, some call it Hell, but now….now it really is
Hell.
I don’t
exactly how it started but some inmates who were on a work detail came in with
some bullshit story of someone biting one of them. Two were taken to the
infirmary for treatment while Josh, my cell mate, told me the story of some
woman with strange eyes who bit him on the hand and Carlos on the face. Carlos
was in treatment, Josh waited in the cell. That was when all hell started
breaking loose.
I heard
screams and gunshots from down the hall. People ran, inmates and guards, I
didn’t know from what. Soon the alarm sounded. Normally it would sound for a
riot and prisoners were instructed to hit the ground, but not this time.
Everybody who was outside their cells ran in all directions. Somewhere in the
crowd there were moans. I saw Carlos through my cell bars. His face was ripped
half off, he was shot in the chest but he was still upright. He was still
walking.
People
were eating people. What the hell? I felt a little safer in my cell but I was
cut off. A guard hurried past and I yelled to him, please let me out. Let us
out. He looked at me, worry on his face, terror in his eyes and a gun in his
hands.
“I don’t
have the key.” He calmly told me. Then he raised his weapon to my head. No! I
yelled, but he never fired. Carlos and other inmates took him down. They ripped
his arm off and chewed his face. I’ll never forget his screams and the sound of
wet flesh being torn. Makes my stomach turn just thinking about it.
I was
trapped. I watched as they finished devouring him. Most had wondered off while
Carlos was trying to reach me through the bars. That was not Carlos, his eyes
were different. Behind him I saw a group of inmates band together, they were
fighting off the others. A guard with a shot gun was leading them, but leading
them where.
“Please,”
I yelled to them, “Please don’t leave us.” Bastards, they left us there. They
left us. After a while, the fallen guard began to move. Then he sat up, he was
missing an arm and an eye but he got to his feet and shuffled away. Fuck, it’s
the bites. Carlos was bit, the guard was bit, and Josh…was bit.
I looked
at him, sitting there worried on the cot. Not only was I trapped, I was trapped
with one of them. Josh had never given me problems before, in fact, he’s one of
the few inmates I called friend in here but now…?
I waited
until he fell asleep after a long day of watching people being eaten from
behind locked bars. I took him by surprise and threw him to the ground; I
rammed my booted foot on his head over and over until only bits and pieces
remained. I unleashed my anger on him, anger for being here, anger for being
left here. No one deserves that. Not even a criminal.
It’s
been 3 weeks since that day. All my water from the toilet is gone, I haven’t
had any food for 4 days, and the smell of decomposing flesh is pungent. My
vision blurs and my stomach has become distended. I’m going to die here. No one
is going to save me. That first day I prayed to whatever God that would listen,
to please take me now. But I was left in hell and I fear that when I finally do
die, the real Hell will begin.
I just
wanted someone to know I was here. I existed. I may not have made all the right
choices in life but at least I made them. Prisoner 34438, Cell Block C, petty
thief, fatherless son, avid sneaker collector, and a man who made mistakes but
didn’t get a second chance. I was here.
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