Back in her cell, Gina got to work. She took off her
shoelaces and began to pick the lock. After several hours, she heard a click. One of the braces fell off. Yes! she thought. She immediately got to work on the other brace. After both braces were off Gina told herself that the fact that her braces were off did not really mean much when the door was locked. She wondered what to do with the cuffs. She had to think very fast. But then, she sat down on the bed and fitted the shackles just so one part of the clasp touched the other, so it looked like they were on her feet, and she sat down on her bed.
Soon, she got her chance. It was time to go to the mess hall for dinner. The guard opened her cell dote. Gina ran like the wind, even though she had no idea where to run. The guard came after her without a word. She told herself she would find a place to hide, no matter how long she looked. She ran out to the prison yard. Just then, the guard shot at her, and a bullet landed in her right elbow. She kept on running.
She jumped into a dumpster and hid there. She told herself she would die before she was captured. She was bleeding profusely. She managed to find an empty trash bag in the dumpster itself. Talk about luck! She told herself. I need to see Mandy NOW!
Then, she felt herself being lifted out. She thought she was free, but then she felt herself on the ground. A sanitation worker opened the bag. "What are you trying to do? Escape? I'm taking you back to jail!"
Gina said nothing. The sanitation worker grabbed her by the wrist. Gina squirmed and tried to break free, but could not. Soon, she was back in the prison hospital, being treated for her wound. "You're lucky the guard managed to shoot you!" The surgeon told her.
"Lucky?" Gina asked.
"Yes. If you had managed to escape, and you were caught, you would have been sentenced to the whipping post. I'm going to make a case that, since that guard managed to shoot you, you have suffered enough already!"
The doctor plead her case and the prison guards agreed. She would only get two lashes instead of the usual five.
The lashes were administered two days later, and she was again back in the doctor's office, where she was given a special treatment to stop the bleeding. "Why whip me if you'll have to work on me because of the wounds?" She asked the surgeon, her voice trembling.
"It gives me something to do," the doctor said, and Gina shut her mouth after that. It did not make any sense to her at all. The only thing that did make sense to her was the probability that Angus Sage was mentally ill.
When Gina's lawyer came to see her, Gina told the man she would plea-bargain.