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CHAPTER 33 34 35 36 Epilogue
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CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Thanksgiving was the day the group of inmates planned to make a break if the stars aligned themselves perfectly. Eighteen prisoners, serving life sentences each, figured he would not be the one gunned down. Six of them were dead wrong.
One of the guards, on the way home the previous evening, stopped to get a cup of coffee. The instant lottery ticket gave him thirty thousand dollars and excuses to take the next week off and celebrate his good luck.
The wife of another officer begged her husband to call in sick. She promised him“ Anything” if he would just take this one day for her. Her family agreed to come to their home for the holiday and she desperately needed his help.
A neighbor’ s craw fish boil Wednesday night left another guard hugging the toilet bowl. He claimed a touch of food poisoning. The spicy food may have caused him to drink a few more beers than he should have. Either way it left the prison short handed and the guards that did show up were not exactly happy to be there with the rest of the country celebrating with family and friends.
Babysitting a bunch of criminals was far from the ideal way to spend any day much less Thanksgiving. The new warden’ s pre-shift speech included the fact they should all be happy they had jobs. Not exactly an uplifting meeting. He should have stopped after saying he understood no one was thrilled to be here since he left for home right after the briefing.
Six prisoners were wounded, captured and went to the infirmary. Six went to the morgue. The news reported the six fugitives that got away from Huntsville State Prison were armed and dangerous. A single service revolver and a prison van were missing. The fourth largest city in America was an hour and a half away. The van was a serious liability. Only one of the men fit into the uniform they had stolen from the body of a dead officer. The guard had been shot in the back of the head wearing undershorts and his own handcuffs.
Rodney programmed the GPS in his vehicle with Eddie’ s address. He planned to stop by first thing in morning to see if there was anything they needed. He stopped to put gas in his big SUV. The personalized license plate caught the leader of the escapee’ s eye.
Normally a small guard leading a large prisoner across a parking lot would have set off an alarm inside Rodney. But his mind was adrift in wondering what to say to Eddie and his family. Rodney was in the process of praying for help in finding the words to console a grieving family when the guard stuck a gun in his ribs. The huge man in prison garb helped usher Rodney to the van. The doors swung open and Rodney started to fight. The last bullet in the gun brought the fight to a quick ending. He was stuffed into the prison van. His pockets were picked and his clothing fit one of the men.
They were not sure where they were headed next until they started the Escalade. The GPS told them they were expected for leftovers. The garage door was up on the nice home in the quiet neighborhood. They grabbed a couple of baseball bats and some tools to open the door to the house on the way through the dark garage. One of the men noticed a purse on the ping-pong table. The keys inside negated the need to break the lock. The garage door was lowered as they entered the house. The step squeaked and Eddie was wide awake. Tanya reached for her purse to grab her phone and dial 911. Her purse was missing and she remembered where it had been left. Eddie was staring into the drawer at a box of bullets when the bedroom door burst open. Three large men moved quickly. Two of the men grabbed Eddie and wrestled him to the floor.
Tanya was no match for the man who slapped her with an open paw and left her dazed. Nicole was escorted into her parents room kicking and fighting. Her mouth had been wrapped with duct tape. Eddie was being tied with an orange extension cord. The man with the gun placed it against Eddie’ s head and looked into Nicole’ s eyes and drew back the hammer.“ Stop it,” he threatened. Tears rolled down her face and over the silver tape as she stopped fighting.