Old Newgate Prison
By
Kenneth Dube
“I’m not staying in here for very long if
I can help it,” said the newly arrived prisoner, his clothes ragged and
dirty. He was a man of at least 30
years. He wore loose, black pants with
an orange band of similar clothe around its top border. His soiled shirt, once white, lay open
towards the top, its borders slightly ruffled.
“Are any of you with me?”
Everyone was quiet, except an old ruffian
in the corner. The years had aged him
quickly, like a wet rag left to dry in the elements over many months. He moved over to him slowly, laughing
eerily. Upon stopping at a breath’s
distance he said, “You’re in a bit of a hurry for someone who just got here.
“Look around ya. These poor souls had the same idea you did at
one point of their miserable lives. They
came around eventually to the hellish truth.
You will too.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“No one has ever escaped and lived to tell
about it,” he said while looking him in the eye with a stare so deep the other
had to look away. Noticing this he said,
“Don’t mean to scare ya, it’s just a bit of reality
here. I’m Jacob, the old man of this
place.”
“Jacob.
I’m Tanner. What brought you to
this paradise to inherit such a prestigious title?” he asked.
“I don’t much like politicians. Especially those that earn their living
licking the king’s boots and stealing from the honest folk of the colony, so I
took what was mine,” Jacob said. “What’s
your sin?”
“You can say I stole more than the
possessions of those same people,” Tanner answered with a little humor.
“I miss a little fight in another’s soul,”
said Jacob. “The
others? They are dead. Their bodies live but their souls died long
ago. It will be interesting to converse with
ya until yours dies like the rest.”
“Oh.
Are you the murderer souls?” Tanner asked sarcastically.
“No.
These stone walls around us are the guilty ones,” Jacob answered. “There is no life beyond them for us.”
“Why have these walls spared you?” Tanner
asked. “What makes you different from
the rest?”
“I do not know,” he answered while staring
at the wall in front, his focus somewhere else.
“Perhaps I have been mad innkeeper so that one with flesh and soul may
watch over the rest and watch for newcomers such as you.”
“How
long have you been here?” asked Tanner.
“About twenty years,” he answered.
“How many attempts have there been to
escape?” he asked.
“At first there were a few,” Jacob said,
“but not anymore. The prisoners quickly
learned from others’ mistakes. I make
sure any newcomers are warned too, so that history does not repeat itself. I guess that is also why I have been spared.”
“I don’t understand,” said Tanner
puzzled. “Why should escapes not be
tried because others failed? Their
mistakes should be learned from, so that none are made in future attempts. The chances of succeeding should be greater.”
Ya really don’t
understand,” said Jacob with a hidden wisdom behind his eyes. “This is not any jail. It was built on sacred ground. A lost Indian tribe used to be buried
here. Their name is unknown since the
only remains of their culture were the grave markings and the worm food in the
ground.
“This spot was chosen for the prison and
the graves were dug up and reburied two feet under water in a swamp at the
bottom of the slope. The guards have
told stories of the swamp being dead now and haunted by the Indian tribe.
“They seek revenge upon the white
man. The prison grounds are their
world. The guards claim they have lost a
few men out there. They will not patrol
around the swamp unless there has been an escape. Even then, it must be daytime.
“The only way out of here is past that
swamp. Most that have tried were never
heard from again. One that made it,
about 17 years ago, was found by the guards sitting terrified in the middle of
a clump of trees. When they brought him
back, it was clear that he had lost all his wits. Apparently he had been spared because he was
half Indian. He sat huddled in a corner
and never moved. He starved himself
until he was dead two weeks later. A
horrified expression had molded on his face like stone.
“There are powers out there that no one
understands,” he continued. “They are
respected, that’s all. It’s an unwritten
law here.”
When the old man finished, Tanner moved
over to the other side of the cell to think.
After a few seconds he shook his head and started to laugh. He turned around and looked at Jacob and
laughed. He approached him and grabbed
him by the shirt, pulling his face near his own; the laughter replaced by
anger.
“Look old man,” Tanner said, “if you want
to believe in ghost stories to help pass the time, that’s your business. But don’t expect me to play along with your
game. I’m getting out of here, ghosts or
no ghosts. Either you can help me to
avoid past mistakes or you can join your dead friends over there.”
The trees outside screamed in the
wind. The old man stood still and
stared. Tanner wasn’t sure whether that
was a yes or no.
“Okay,” Jacob finally said. “There is a way.”
2
Two children walked down the entrance of a
path where a voice box said, “Old Newgate Prison ecological safari. No littering, loitering, vandalism, or drugs
and alcohol permitted. Enjoy your visit.”
“This is dumb,” said the 11-year-old
boy. “We’re not going to get anything
out of this anyway.”
“We have to transmit a report on it, so we
have to do it anyway,” the 12-year-old girl said.
“I still say it’s dumb,” he answered back.
The trail took them down a steep
decline. As the trail bent to the right,
they came upon a large tree with a rusted sign saying “No Hunting” and a
plastic sign underneath which Sandy read.
“Animals were once hunted for sport,” she
read slowly.
“What animals?” Jason asked
sarcastically. “We’re surrounded by
city. Unless, they
mean cats and dogs.”
“That’s silly<“ said
They continued walking the trail. Soon they reached a section of plastic boards
that went over mud. Bird songs chirped
from above them out of plastic boxes.
Jason whistled mockingly along with the recorded sounds.
“Shut up,” said
“So!
There are boards over it, plastic face,” he said taunting her.
“What if I lose my balance and fall into
it,” she said. “Why didn’t they just get
rid of the mud or have a little sample off to the side
with a voice box. It looks so yucky.”
“Really, like it’s so ugly and smelly,”
Jason said making a face.
“I hope they don’t expect us to put up
with that stuff all the way through,”
Jason picked up a pebble and threw it at a
box making the bird noises. It
ricocheted off, adding another mark on its surface. The two laughed and continued to walk. Jason made faces behind her periodically.
3
The
prisoners were led out into the court yard.
Stone walls, twice the size of an average man, surrounded them. The floor was made of sections of slate. Guards walked the tops of the walls and stone
buildings. Tanner walked randomly
about. Jacob lit tobacco which he had
obtained from a guard, next to the corner of the wall that connected to the
guard’s building. Tanner chose a group
of men standing silently and headed for them.
Jacob waited and then headed to the same spot.
“Ya saw it,”
Jacob said looking at another prisoner.
“Yeah,” responded Tanner doing the same.
“There is a loose slab near the wall,”
said Jacob. “It is marked by a border of
dirt around its left edge. The dirt
under it is soft, since it’s been refilled a few times. Ya’ll find rocks mixed in to make the going
hard, but it penetrable. It shouldn’t
take ya more than three hours to make it to the other
side of the wall. The stiff ground
around it will guide ya.”
“How do I do it without being noticed?”
Tanner inquired. “There are too many
guards to be able to time myself between them.”
“At night they don’t guard the courtyard,”
Jacob said. “I can distract a guard on
his rounds. We can take him out and yar on yar own from there.”
“I appreciate this, old man,” Tanner
said. “I owe you one.”
“Ya owe me
nothing” said Jacob. “I don’t collect on
debts from a dead man.”
“Oh, don’t be too sure of yourself,” said
Tanner. j “I think you’ve been around the others for
too long. You’d be surprised what a
little willpower will do.”
“Why are those words so familiar,” said
Jacob staring at something not there.
Then looking at Tanner deeply he said, “Ya
don’t know what ya’r facing. Ya’r willpower will
be no match against what awaits ya. It’s just the way things are here.”
Tanner laughed and walked away.
“Just keep up your end of the stick,” he
said.
The trees outside the walls creaked in the
wind. Jacob looked out at them in
fear. “Nightmares reoccur in other’s
dreams. When ya
wake the dead, ya damn yourself to sleep the ages.”
4
As Sandy and Jason approached a swamp on
the left, so did the gnats. They danced
about their heads and attacked randomly.
“Ew!” exclaimed
“Let’s go back,” said Jason while swatting
at them ineffectively.
“We’re already halfway,” said
“I knew we should have copied someone
else’s report instead of coming here,” said Jason. “Now we’ve got these mutant monsters with
wings after us.”
“You would think that they would have
killed them all,”
A voice box activated as they approached
it, towards the center edge of the swamp.
“This
is a swamp,” it said. “Ecosystems once sprouted from environments
like this. It can support a wide variety
of wildlife...”
“Like bugs,” Jason added.
“...unfortunately,
today it is basically non-supportive and can only serve as a model to learn
from. The species it once supported
were...”
“Look at all the mud and muck,” said
“Bugs!” said Jason
“They deserve to live in a place like
this,”
Jason found a good-sized rock and lifted
it awkwardly. He tottered over to the
edge of the water and ran away as he flung it in. Water and mud splashed up and caught him on
his white socks.
“Ew, stay away
from me,” she said. “You’ve got shit on
you. You stink! You stink!”
Jason chased her down the path,
threatening to smear it on her face. The
clearing of the woods to the right revealed a large shopping plaza. The afternoon sun sparkled off the bubbled
car windows.
5
Tanner waited impatiently in the cell,
listening for footsteps that he began to think might never come. Jacob sat and stared blankly, like all the
rest. A fly buzzed through the barred
window and rested on Jacob’s cheek. He
did not twitch.
Tanner’s head jerked as footsteps
approached from the hall. He looked at
Jacob who still did not stir. As the
guard made his way to the front of the cell, Jacob called up to him.
“Corporal, ya
have any tobaccy,” he said.
“Old man, you’ve got to slow down and
appreciate the taste of it,” he responded.
“It’s not like drinking morning tea.”
“Heh,
heh. Oh
I appreciate the stuff alright,” Jacob said.
“It’s the only pleasure granted me here.
I just have more time to smoke than ya. Spare the old man some tobaccy,
huh. I’ll whistle ya
a song yar grandmother would be proud of.”
“Alright old man,” the corporal said as he
pulled out a small cloth pouch and stood next to the bars. “This was imported from the old country, so
savor it.”
Jacob got up and walked over to the
bars. As the corporal handed him the
tobacco through the bars, Jacob went to grab it, but instead pulled the
corporal’s arm into the cell and twisted his neck. Tanner went over to him while he took the
ring of keys from the corporal’s belt, and the bag of tobacco. Tanner unlocked the door and walked out. Jacob handed him the partially empty pouch.
“I took as much tobaccy
as I need. Ya
keep the rest. Whoever gets caught with
it is marked for murder. Seeing as we
won’t see ya again, ya don’t
have to worry about it.”
Tanner accepted it.
“It ain’t really
the good stuff, anyhow,” he continued.
“When ya dig clear past the wall, head for the
woods. Ya’ll find a path a ways in. It will take ya to yar destination.”
“Thanks for everything,” Tanner said,
patting him on the shoulder.
“There’s no need to thank me,” Jacob
said. “Now get out, before they realize
he’s missing.”
Tanner nodded and headed down the
hall. He came upon a locked gate. He tried each key until one worked. He heard voices coming from a hall to the
right and knew to go out the wooden door on his left. He cracked it slightly at first, just in case
a guard happened to be in the courtyard.
The coast was clear. He ran
through the darkness and upon reaching the corner of the courtyard, groped for
the loose slab of rock.
With all of his might, he lifted one end
of it and slid it to the side. Out of
his shirt, he pulled a metal bowl that he had stolen from supper. As he dug with it, he found the dirt was
loose, just as the old man had said. Any
rocks he encountered, he pulled out by hand.
Within a few hours, he broke through to
the other side of the wall. He kneeled
at the end of the tunnel, breathing hard.
Sweat had converted to mud over his whole body. His arms and hands felt like they had been
worked clean off.
All was silent except for a steady breeze
blowing through the newly leaved branches in the trees all around him. After resting for about a half-hour, he got
up and walked to where the trail was said to be. Further down to the right he noticed a hole
in some thicket. Upon reaching it, he
found that dried-out bushes and thicket had meshed together, leaving a
perfectly round, man-sized hole in the middle.
Through it he could only see a few feet of dirt path in the
darkness. He proceeded through it and
followed the path as it bent downwards and to the left.
A sudden sound caused him to look up into
the branch-filled sky. A large group of
birds swarmed on a tree above him and flew away. When he looked back down the path, he saw a
figure in the distance. It disappeared
as he focused. A tree took it place.
“Shadows,” he said in disgust.
The path eventually winded right as it
continued downhill. Again the figure
appeared. It looked as if trees and
shadows had merged to create the image of an Indian. As he moved towards it, the angles of the
trees shifted and again the Indian disappeared.
A chill ran through him and he shook it off.
Soon he approached the edge of a
swamp. The path simply disappeared into
a black pool and continued again past it.
Tanner looked around and then lugged a small fallen birch and threw it
across the black wasteland. Tanner
tested it with his foot and then walked across.
As
he regained the path, he heard a sucking sound behind him. He turned and saw the tree disappear into the
muck. It was something else that really
startled him, however. The path he had
just come from had vanished. Trees stood
where he once walked. His mind raced, as
all he could do was go forward.
As Tanner continued on, cautiously, a
black cloud emerged from the left side.
It moved and changed form as it floated closer to him. When it came upon him, he started swatting as
he realized it was a group of mosquitoes.
He ran in an effort to escape their thirst for blood, but was
unsuccessful. When he came upon a deep
portion of the swamp, the swarm disappeared.
There weren’t any insects anywhere, not even on the water. A strong, nauseating smell of decay entered
his nostrils. He covered his bite-marked
face with his hands to filter the smell.
As he gagged, he noticed the swamp starting to bubble. Its velocity increased, so that it looked as
if the black water was at a high boil.
Skeletons rose out of the bubbly surface until they stood on the shallow
bottom. One stood before him with a
tomahawk. Tanner ducked as it swung at
him. He answered with an elbow to its
spine. As it fell into the water, some
of its ribs ricocheted. Other skeletons
began to pull spears and axes out of the water.
Tanner ran away, down the path.
Upon looking back, he saw that some were
running after him. He picked up his pace
with no intention of allowing them to catch up.
A rattling of bones seemed to be getting closer. He turned around again and saw a group of
skeletons holing spears, while riding on the skeletons of horses. He had to think quickly. They were gaining on him and would overtake
him soon. On going around another bend,
he jumped into some thick brush. He held
his breath as the skeletons made their way through the turn. They sped past him and continued down the
trail. When the sound of their hoofs
faded away, he reentered the path and started walking.
‘I don’t like this,’ he thought. ‘The trail seems to be heading back towards
the prison. How can this be? Jacob said others had escaped and never
returned. If he lied, I will kill him!’
He looked to the sides of the trail to see
where he could break off and go in the direction he saw fit. The forest was too thick with young
trees. There were some small breaks, but
they led nowhere. They stopped within a
few yards by more trees.
Tanner halted and walked back to where the
bend was. Upon rounding it and coming
out the other end, the trail stopped.
Trees and swamp filled-in where he had once walked. As he realized with fright that something
unnatural was occurring, the wind started up and chilled his sweat. The trees rustled and howled around him in
the wind.
‘This cant’ be,’
he thought.
He ran back up the trail, stumbling off of
it here and there. The brush that he
fell into cut him like razors, shredding his clothes and dampening them with
watered-down blood.
A terrifying sound echoed back into his
brain. he
didn’t recognize what it was at first, and then knew. The skeletons were coming back down the
path. He stopped before a large tree,
his mind reeling. Running had become
futile. The path seemed to go nowhere
and death, or whatever it was, was closing in on him.
He looked up at the disfigured branches
above him. They were long, extensions
of many swollen sections growing end on end.
He thought about climbing into the branches. He would have a better advantage up
there. He studied the trunk and to his
horror found it to be too wide and tall to climb, as it produced no
foot-holds. It was wider than 10 men
bunched together. Abandoning this one,
Tanner searched the other parts of the path for a climbable tree. Further back, on the opposite side, was a
smaller tree. It had a bulge out of its
trunk, as if something was inside.
A rattling came from all parts of the
forest. The skeletons became visible
just down the path, but there was something else. He looked around him and saw all of the
branches shaking. The smaller tree he
had been studying earlier shook in its entirety and then began to move towards
him. Other large trees did the same.
“No! This can’t be!”
The shaking noise became loud behind
him. He turned around and gave himself
to the stalking nightmare.
“Aaaah!” His voice echoed through the forest in
harmony with the howling wind.
Jacob lowered himself from the barred
window overlooking the forest and sat down in a clump, his eyes revealing both
fright and delight.
6
Sandy and Jason crossed over another board
that covered an area of swamp and stopped at another ecological site.
“This
is an example of wild dogwood,” came a voice from
the box on a stand. “Notice the...”
They just walked past it, giving it little
notice.
“This is boring,” said Jason. “Let’s just get out of here.”
“Iiih, that’s
ugly,” said Jason. “It looks like
something out of ‘Mutation Man’ cartoons.”
“It’s deformed,” said
A voice box activated as they walked by
it, “Notice the man-like shape protruding
on the trunk. The chances of nature
producing such a flaw are astronomical.
It’s just one of many...”
Sandy and Jason hurried towards the
reunification of the path, uninterested in any of the other sites on the way.
“Who cares about a bunch of trees,” Jason
said as they walked back up towards the parking lot.
A light breeze stirred the branches of the
large tree. A butterfly fluttered around
its trunk and landed on the part of the deformity that looked like an arm
crossed over another above a head. After
collecting enough sunlight in its solar cells, it fluttered off.