The word around the prison yard these days was that a break was in the offing.
The guard, Alicia didn't always put a great deal of stock in this because it seemed that rumors of this kind
were a staple topic of conversation among the inmates here at the Casa.
Neither had anyone else taken the rumor seriously apparently because now,
Alicia found herself to be quite alone as she patrolled the ground at the perimeter of the correctional center.
And so it came as somewhat of a rude awakening to the lone prison guard
when the sound of a shot came suddenly from just outside the prison compound
and a heavy slug struck her and drove deep into her chest.
The guard's body bucked under the bullet's impact ...
Blood spilled from her mouth as a torn lung filled with blood ...
Then her remaining strength failed her and she fell back to where she would rise no more.
"Damn that guard! We'd a'gotten away clean if it weren't for her pokin' her nose around just then!"
"Yuh want a metal or a chest tuh pin it on? C'mon! Nev' mind her! Le's get the Hell outta here!"
"Wait a minute! We ain't all here! Where's Marla?"
"If she don't get'er ass out here fast she's gonna be dead meat!
That shot is gonna bring the other guards down on us in a hurry!"
"Oh, wait! There she is!"
"Christo! Sumbuddy's gotta bead on 'er!"
"C'mon, Marla! Run!"
"Oh, God! Marla didn't make it!"
"Hang on! We're outta here!"
The truck roared away from the limited security correctional center.
This was not a spur-of-the-moment break ...
Each of the women were armed with a gun of some description ...
Procured during the occasions when each of them received visitors who contrived to bring them in from the outside ...
They had been provided with this truck which had been left parked outside the compound during the evening ...
The women were on their own in making the break otherwise of course ...
And they had done well ...
Except for that one guard!
Now one of their number lay dead on the ground in the yard of the prison compound and a siren was howling in their wake ...
"Man! Didja hear the smack that bullet made when it hit ol' Marla in 'er juggs?"
"Yeah? Well if you had a pair like Marla was carryin' around ...
a slug would make a fair-sized thump when they plug you!"
"Please! I'd rather not talk about it!"
"We'll be lucky if we don't all get plugged at the rate we're goin'!"
"Can't cha get any more out of this thing, Maria?"
"Not and hold it between the fence posts, I can't!
Besides! I got the pedal to the metal on the straight-aways as it is!"
"Do you think we'll make it to the redezvous, Maria?"
"I sure hope so! But it won't be a walk in the park even when we do get there!"
"Not if these prison guards are on our ass, it won't!"
"Do you think our guys will even be there?"
"They sure had better be!"
"Look! There they are!"
"Right on time!"
"A damn good thing they are, too!"
"Hey! Where ya goin'!"
"I gotta see if Bubba is here!"
"Hey wait a minute!"
"Holy shit!"
"Those aren't our guys!"
Babs! Get down! Fast!"
The next sound the women in the truck heard was the sound of lead striking the side of the truck
as the bullets tore through the unfortunate Babs ...
Maria tromped the accelerator to the floor and the truck careened away
with what were supposed to be the girls male confederates looking after them.
"They're gettin' away!"
"I got us one of 'em at least!"
"Yeah! Too bad too!"
"What? For the broad? Ya gotta be kiddin'!"
"Not the babe, ya dipstick! The truck! I think ya musta knicked the paint!"
"Yeah? Well I done worse'n that!"
"Oh, yeah? What?"
"I put a slug through the radiator while they were gettin' away!"
"Hot damn! That means we'll catch up with 'em in no time!"
"Yeah! Awright!"
"Too bad about Poncho's truck though!"
"Yeah! Too bad!"
"Hey! Maria! Up ahead! There's my guy!"
"What do yuh think he's gonna do for us alone, Sissy?"
"He'll help us hold those bastards behind us off til the others arrive!"
"You're askin' one helluvalot of one man, Sissy! I think we'd best keep going!"
"Well - let me out, at least!"
"Okay, Sissy! But I'm tellin' yuh ... Make tracks outta here!"
The girl Sissy bailed quickly out of the truck which didn't so much as come
to a complete stop before Maria put her foot to the floorboard and roared away.
"Aren't cha gonna stand by, Maria?"
"For what?"
"Tuh back Sissy up!"
"Tuh see what's gonna happen!"
"I already know what's gonna happen, ladies - and that's why we're motorin'!"
"Tom! We gotta get outta here an' fast!"
"Too late for that now, Sissy!"
"Where'n Hell are the others!?"
"Too risky for 'em, I guess!"
"What?!"
"They chickened out!"
"Then I guess it's you an' me, babe!"
"Look like we get tuh see what Hell is gonna look like!"
"Aieee!" "Unngh!"
"Tom! I'm hit! Tom? Are you okay?! Tom! Answer me!"
"Here's yer answer, bitch!"
Sissy grimaced in agony as another slug ripped through her slender body.
Yet still Sissy hung on - clinging to her final moments of life on earth.
Until at last she could hang on no more ... It was as though she saw a great chasm open before her ...
And it was then that she lost her balance she toppled forward into the dark pit that enveloped her.
"Maria! What's the matter?!"
"The motor's overheating! Those SOB's musta hit the radiator!"
"What're we gonna do now?!"
"We're gonna hafta hole up in that guard shack outside the Warden's Quarters!"
"What if there's sumbuddy in there?"
"We gotta hole up somewhere!
An' beggars can't be choosy!
An' I'm flat outta ideas!
Got any suggestions?
If yuh do, then spit 'em out now!"
Hearing no further discussion on the matter, Maria jacked the wheel around on her steaming vehicle and slanted off on a side road.
"Hope this girl can make it before the motor seizes up!"
They did - but only just barely - and when the engine shuddered to a halt,
Maria knew that she would never be able to start it again.
"Uh-oh! Here's our welcoming committee!"
"It's one of the prison guards!"
"Well, we can't say we didn't expect it!"
"Don't stand on ceremony! Smoke'er sumbuddy!"
"Bullseye! Got'er! Right through the brisket!"
"Damn it! Ya didn't nail 'er down good enough!"
"Lucinda! Where the Hell are you going?!"
"I got 'er good, I'm tellin' ya!"
Lucinda had hit the guard well enough but the woman was gut-shot rather than chest-shot as Lucinda had supposed.
This being the case, the dying guard was able to get off a shot in her own behalf ...
And so it was to be Lucinda herself who was to take a slug through the breast ...
And it was with a quiet satisfaction that the dying guard watched as the girl who had shot her fell down and lay dead ...
Even if it was only a matter of moments before she collapsed to die of her own wound.
"Maria! Is that who I think it is?"
"That's the Warden!"
"What the Hell is she doing out here!"
"Well it's her hacienda we're visiting, isn't it?"
"But what's more important ... What does that damn fool think he's doing?!"
"My God!"
"Why, he's just drilled the Warden!"
"Do any of the guys in this possee know what they're doing?!"
"Ask 'em if they care? The Warden looks as good going down as any of us do!"
"Even better, if y'ask me!"
"Who's this chick?"
"I dunno! She was here when we got here!
"I don't like the looks of this!"
"What're yuh talkin' about?
Here we all are ...
Gettin' killed right an' left - and you're worried about a dead babe we don't even know?"
"I think this whole thing was a setup from the very first!"
"What?! A setup!"
"The breakout! The whole thing was to cover up a murder!"
"Yeah ... Could be ... but ... Maria! Get down!"
"That was a nice piece of shooting, Angie! And thanks!"
"It ain't only us jail birds who know how tuh take a bullet in the chest, is it Maria!"
"No, indeed! That police woman knows how to arch with the best of 'em, doesn't she, Angie?"
"Maria! Down! Behind you! There's another!"
Maria hit the deck but the shooter had already taken aim ...
And so it was Angie rather than Maria who was in his direct line of fire ...
The impact of taking a slug in the gut threw the youngster back against the wall ...
Though dying on her feet, Angie summons her remaining strength in an attempt to get in a shot on her own account ...
But a second shot from the outside comes through the shattered window ...
And a second slug takes its toll ...
Despite her indomindable spirit, Angie feels herself to be fading fast ...
"Run, Maria! Run!"
"I'll hold 'em off as long as I ...!"
"Guuunuggh!"
"Hold 'em ... as long as ...
"I ... Can!"
Maria took her cue from the dying Angie and dashed for the door of the guard shack.
Just how good she thought her chances might be outside no one will ever know ...
But my best guess is that she didn't want to be shot down like a rat in a trap ...
Maria stepped out for her final showdown ...
posturing with her empty gun held in as threatening a manner as she could muster.
"The gun, Maria!
You may as well toss it aside!
You know as well as I do that it is empty!"
"Why, Poncho! You ol' sidewinder!
Fancy meetin' you here! How do yuh know my gun is empty?"
"Because that's the Warden's gun and I loaded it myself!
Two bullets!
One the Warden used to put through the skull of a discarded paramour ...
"While the second, your jail-bird in there somehow managed to put into the chest of my Lucretia laying over there ..."
"I'm sorry about your lady-friend, Pancho!
But don't cha wanna lemme go after all?"
"I am most curious to know why you should think that I would want to do a thing like that, Maria?"
"Well, Pancho! That way, yuh see, I could put another gang together
an' we get tuh do the whole shootin' match again!
But otherwise yuh see ... I uh ..." Maria trickled off lamely.
"On the face of it, that might not be such a bad idea, Maria!"
"But that was my truck you broads got all shot ta shit!"
"So eat hot justice, yuh connivin' cunt!"
"So, Senor! How are we to explain all of this? Eh?"
"Does it really require an explanation after all, Pancho?"
"Si! You know how those Americanos insist on sticking their noses into everything!"
"Well, I suppose that we could lay the entire escape plan as being an insidious plot
that the Warden came up with to cover the murder of her lover ..."
"The Americanos are all sentimental fools who will believe almost anything, Senor ...
But even they will not believe that!"
"Or we could say that we broke up one of the narcotic cartels that was operating out of the Women's Penitentiary ..."
"Drugs are old news these days, Senor!"
"Well then, Pancho! I may take it that you have some suggestion?"
"We could perhaps pass the women off as members of a cell of terrorists?"
"The concept has promise, Pancho!"
"Gracias, Senor!"
"But I think it best we leave that scenario until more CASH is involved!"
"The men are inspecting the bodies of the dead women, Senor!"
"Ah, yes, Pancho! There are those among us who are most enthusiastic
in showing their last respects to the ladies, are there not?"
"Perhaps we should examine Maria more closely, Senor?
I mean to be certain that she is dead of course!"
"Another time perhaps, Pancho!
I can see even at this distance that her bosom heaves no longer!"
"So what is there left for us to do this day, Senor?"
"What do you say that we drop by the CnB Cantina?"
"Si, Senor! I understand that Teri is giving out Green Stamps with tequila!"
