The New and Enlightened Zeke After the brief sojourn into the far reaches of his subconscious mind, aided by Brother Bart's newly created Sativa strain called the Touch of God, Zeke felt fantastic. Even though the conditions in the Valley were oftentimes unforgiving, he was now able to look at it in a positive light. It also sharpened his resolve and laser-focused his goal to escape his predicament. However, the Sons of Lapu-Lapu, whom he thought were integral to his plan, were untrustworthy since they were high all the time. They also tended to reply in incomprehensible rhetoric when asked even the simplest questions. A simple: "How are you?" directed to one of the Sons resulted in a philosophical soliloquy about the meaning of life. No matter, he thought. I can do this alone. New Arrivals While Zeke was setting up his escape plan into motion, new convicts arrived in Beta Quadrant. They were dropped off by a cargo helicopter in a large wooden crate in the middle of the barren
Putting the Plan into Action Jorge's ultimate goal came to fruition as his request was finally granted by the higher-ups in transferring to the Philippine Colony. He had amassed millions from numerous blackmailing schemes and corrupt governmental practices and bullied his way to get what he wanted. His plans were coming together, but there was still something he needed to do: to get his half-sister to the gypsy commune that he had promised to come back to. She had not left his thoughts since the last day he saw her when they hugged and kissed and made a promise to come back for her. Now he was rich and powerful enough to take her away from the clutches of the commune and live a better life with him. He can finally go back and show his mother what a big shot he had become and castigate her for all the harmful things she had done to him. ### Jorge had a hard time tracking down the gypsy commune. They were an itinerant flock, and the longest period they stayed in one area was six m
Stevie Hires Jennifer for a JobIt had been almost six months since the last time Jennifer finished a hit job. She needed to work soon since she was running out of money. She had belatedly found out that women needed a lot of clothes and accessories to maintain their beauty, and some of them didn't come cheap.She was waiting on Stevie, who had told her earlier there was a new job that required her special set of skills. She had gotten a tidbit of the job the other night in Waste, but he was too drunk to convey it. He had told her to get together again later today in their usual meeting place to discuss its entire breadth.The meeting place was in a secluded eatery near Banana Hammock Avenue, formerly Taft Avenue of Old Manila. It was a one-time school canteen of De La Salle University, once a prestigious school in the Colony, now closed forever. It was a broken-down establishment that served the cheapest grub an ordinary resident of Neo Manila
Who Is He? Chief Church took pride in that he was always one step ahead of anyone else. It was a natural talent honed from his strict upbringing by his parents, who were religious zealots. As a child, religion, particularly Catholicism, was forced into Chief Church's young mind, who barely even understood its concepts. He was taught how to pray the Rosary by his mother, who had a penchant for whipping him with a belt if he made a mistake in one of their marathon praying sessions. He was taught all the intricate rituals and soon grew to love it. His father was an old-fashioned Southern gentleman who espoused antiquated beliefs that had no place in the present, like racism and white supremacy. All of these made an impression and instilled in young Mathias' consciousness, thus warping his sensibilities. He became exceedingly self-righteous and used this heady mix of knowledge to become successful in his station in life. All of these were especially useful in his work as the Chief of
Significant Progress Zeke and Trevor had made substantial progress in digging the escape tunnel from their makeshift hut towards the outside prison walls. Due to the arid environment of the island, the soil offered little resistance, and they were able to dig with relative ease. They made sure to install wooden planks on the inner sides of the hole at particular points where pressure was the weakest. They had to be strong enough to hinder potential cave-ins. They were too busy in their excavation and forgot to watch their backs from curious parties who could potentially blow their escape plan wide open. One was Andy, the proverbial prison snitch, who was more of a nuisance than a direct threat. The worse thing he did was to make weird faces as he stared at them whenever they encounter each other. The other was prison guard Sgt. Bruce Wang, who had a scope and a long-range rifle, and unbeknown to them was watching from afar. Andy still updated him on the various occurrences in the
Bad News The Secretary glanced at his watch: it was ten minutes to six in the evening, almost time for the local evening news to begin on TV. Stevie had texted earlier to watch a segment about the supposed assassination of a particular thorn on their sides: Chief of Staff Matthias Church, their boss. Secretary La Selva was anxious and also excited. He was fully expecting success in the assassination plot that Stevie had concocted and will finally get to breathe a sigh of relief. He switched the TV on, clicked to the local news channel, and waited with bated breath. He was anticipating it to be the top story since the Chief was boss among bosses in the Colony, and any news concerning him was always treated as a big deal. But the first news segment was about the inflation crisis affecting the Mother Country and its colonies. It talked about an increase in crime, widespread poverty, and food shortage but no mention of anyone assassinated. Hmm, that's weird. Maybe it will come up on
Jennifer's New Job Jennifer had found new employment as a hotel maid in an ultra-exclusive five-star hotel called Olympus. Stevie had pulled some strings and gotten her this stint. She had been working for three weeks. At first, she wasn't used to doing manual maidservant work since she had grown up blessed with affluent privileges. However, she was a quick learner and mastered the job immediately. Olympus Hotel was the location where the Higher Echelons and other top Colony brass came together and have meetings. They would also bring their families, and once the business was over, use its amenities for relaxation and pleasure. The hotel has everything enjoyable on its premises, which included a shopping mall, movie houses, a swimming pool, a bar and dance hall, and a few restaurants. They usually resided and remained in the penthouse and had everything brought up to them. There was only one way in and out through an elevator using biometric thumbprint authentication, which was en
Going Up the North Tower While Trevor and Brother Jomar were taking care of the other essentials to facilitate the escape, Zeke was preparing himself for the difficult task he was about to do: infiltrate the Valley's defenses, go up to one of the towers, and operate the GPS on the smartphone. The goal was to look for exact directions to navigate the boat to the closest inhabited island where they could find their way home. Brother Jomar had said that the only way for a prisoner to go up on one of the towers was in a circumstance that a particular convict had died, got injured, or became sick. It meant they had to feign an injury or sickness of some kind to be brought to the prison infirmary located at the north tower. The best scenario was to be sent up due to a medical ailment. Pretending to get an injury might be risky, and get shot in the process if it was discovered as fake all along. It had to be regarded as a real condition to merit acceptance from the infirmary staff. By sh
The Outcome Zeke and Mary Rose were able to escape with just a few scrapes on their bodies, while the others weren't so lucky. The bombs went off as planned and killed everyone on the penthouse floor including the remaining Higher Echelons that had escaped Jennifer's initial shooting spree. The floors below were relatively unaffected, and the presidential suite was left intact. Later, when a formal investigation was made of the apparent "terrorist attack," the investigators found Trevor's dead body, which had ten stab wounds. Bob the concierge was still alive and sent to a hospital. However, Chief Church had disappeared, and no one was able to find him. He had vanished like magic. The Valley remained a prison island but was not made secret anymore and opened to public knowledge. Rampant abductions and missing persons that were going on in the Colony came to a complete halt. Zeke went back to the province and tried to help his parents with their land problems but was no match agai
Bob vs. Jennifer It was Saturday night. Bob the concierge knew that everything was going to be hectic. The Higher Echelons and their families had always set one weekend a month to check-in at the Olympus Hotel. They were supposed to start coming in that day, and he was nervously waiting for them. He always didn't have a good experience dealing with the Higher Echelons and their families. Most of them were extremely difficult and demanding and used to having their way. Slight inconveniences usually resulted in public meltdowns, with him forever at the receiving end. Everything had to be in tiptop shape, and he also made sure the staff was doing their duties. He had to scold a few of them for dereliction and carelessness since whenever something bad happened during his shift, the blame was always aimed at him. But thankfully, nothing inauspicious had happened yet, and everything was operating like clockwork. The incident with the pink smoke that occurred a few days before was blam
The Point Man Zeke and Trevor arrived at the docks of Manila Bay in exuberance. They had successfully escaped the Valley and had traveled the wide waterways to finally get to Neo Manila. Their only remaining possession was the duffel bag full of money, which they had to give to someone that would meet them on the harbor. There was indeed someone standing not far from them, and at first glance, they assumed a female due to the womanly gait, but upon closer inspection, it was a man. It was their point man. He introduced himself to them: "Hello, my name is Esteban. You can call me Stevie." Hello Stevie. My name is Zeke, and this is Trevor." "You've spoken with Brother Jomar and Bart?" "Yes, they've helped us escape the Valley. We owe them our lives." "You have something for me?" "Hold on. How do we know you're the person we're supposed to meet?" "I understand. Look at this," said Stevie and showed a small tattoo of a native Filipino dagger (kampilan) on his wrist, the sign of a t
One Down, Two to Go Chief Church watched as Secretary La Selva became unconscious and limp after being injected in the neck. The two black-clad men then carried him outside to an awaiting van, with the Chief following closely behind. "Remember: DO NOT bring him to the airport but to Olympus Hotel at the penthouse floor. There's a service elevator you can take at the back of the hotel. Someone will be waiting for you outside," the Chief said. Both men nodded and carelessly threw Secretary La Selva inside the van, then drove off. The Chief got in another awaiting vehicle. As the car was driving away from Waste, he took out his phone and started dialing. He was trying to contact an associate, which was one of the Higher Echelons. The phone rang only once, and someone immediately answered on the other line. The Chief said: "It's me again. Were you able to find two people for the ritual? They have to be a mother and son." "Yes Chief, I've got them. You'll be happy to know they're pe
Laying Low Secretary La Selva went back to his office in Waste. He had gone out feeling energized but had returned with a sense of impending doom. His inquiry about Stevie's so-called death due to mugging wasn't cut-and-dried. He felt it was leading to something bigger and more sinister, of which he did not know yet. But one thing he knew for sure: Stevie wasn't who he said he was. He had only thought of him as an effeminate and lowly assistant, incapable of trickery and subterfuge. And clearly, he wasn't. He now acknowledged that Stevie could do bigger things, and he only wished he had treated him more kindly. Secretary La Selva felt he had fewer choices remaining to take. He didn't want to go home to his wife and son for fear of getting them involved. There was the option of going to Chief Church to tell him of Stevie's botched-up plan to assassinate him and his unwitting involvement. However, it meant his tenure as Secretary of Waste Management, and the corresponding enterprise
Working and Waiting Jennifer had become used to working as a maid in Olympus hotel. She surprisingly discovered she enjoyed doing her duties, which mostly had to do with cleaning. She discovered it had similar aspects in her day job as an assassin for hire where "cleanup" was crucial for success. She had known that Chief Church and the Higher Echelons were due for a meeting the coming week but didn't know the exact date and time. She kept her eyes and ears open for any news from anyone of her co-workers. She had seen Tony the bellhop around. He didn't recognize her when they passed each other since she toned down her overall appearance and dressed conservatively. Her maid uniform had helped in making her look unremarkable and ordinary. Most of the new information about incoming hotel guests came from the concierge and was saved on file in the lobby computer. She needed to access it and planned for a way to acquire it. The concierge was a smallish and bespectacled man named Bob, w
The Sons' Secret Agenda From all the things the Sons of Lapu-Lapu gave to Zeke and Trevor in helping to escape the Valley, money was the most important, which served a dual purpose. The Sons' marijuana processing and distribution business had given them power and controlling influence within the prison system. Their partnership with the Valley administration had been mutually beneficial. In exchange for giving them a percentage of the profits, they had the freedom to operate in relative peace. Any type of wrongdoing a Son may have done was glossed over and swept under the rug. They used the Valley's system for delivering goods in and out of the island to send out sacks of dried marijuana leaves to members on the outside. Once out, the leaves were processed further into accessible amounts and sold to buyers in the Colony. The Sons had amassed huge profits using this system, which was essential in their status in the Valley. However, the money served another purpose only they knew:
The Master Plan for the Master-Race Among the three of them in the family, Chief Church knew he was the less powerful one in the craft of the black arts. His wife Ellie had taught him basic enchantments that were useful in advancing their positions in the Colony, which were mostly mind-control spells. The more elaborate ones needed an expert hand and intimate knowledge about witchcraft, which Ellie had in spades. However, the Chief knew that Mary Rose had raw but unpolished talent and was becoming more powerful and potentially stronger than Ellie. He needed them to put his plan to full effect, a plan that necessitated someone with expert knowledge and someone with a powerful spell-casting ability. His grand plan was to create a Utopia: a perfect state filled with perfect-looking and obedient people, with him as their leader. It was the same plan that his idol Adolph Hitler had, as outlined in his favorite book: "Mein Kampf." All the druggers and people in the lower castes would
The Escape Night arrived, and it was time. Zeke checked and double-checked the necessities to facilitate their escape from the Valley, and everything was accounted for. He had asked for a small compass from Brother Jomar to calculate the information from the GPS and navigate their way to the nearest island. He patted it in his pants pocket. The only thing left was to steel their nerves and follow through. They needed to make two trips each to bring everything in the tunnel towards the awaiting boat at the harbor. They divided everything in two and tied numerous bags and gallons of gas together to make for easier delivery. Zeke went into the tunnel first. He tied the stuff to each other with one end on his right foot, went down on all fours, and slowly crawled and dragged along. It took longer than usual to move in the tunnel and lug the load. As he arrived at the other end, he was out of breath. He popped his head out to check if the coast was clear, and it was. He carried all the