Dyker's Island Ch. 01-08

"Umm... I'm Glad?" Responded Rachel meekly.

"Yeah... Now ahh... She's getting what she deserves..." Elaborated the anxious Cate.

Simone shook her head. She clearly wasn't impressed.

"You snitched on a bitch, and then you brag about being glad that you put them inside? Bitch, you two are pieces of work. Real gutter trash."

Cate and Rachel stammered and panted. A chill ran down each of their spines.

"Ah...No...Sorry...Mommy...We didn't... Mean..."

Zelda interrupted them, waving her spork around like she was a conductor. Slop fell from the implement and landed in Rachel's thick curly hair.

"Glad? You should be scared, that bitch will try to get back at you now."

Cate gasped in terror.

"She wouldn't get back at us!" She exclaimed nervously, mostly to reassure herself.

Simone giggled like she was in on a secret that the girls weren't.

"What makes you so sure of that, bitch?"

Rachel and Cate thought for a moment. They knew Stephanie. At least, they thought they did. Surely, she would be nothing but the biggest bitch of the lot of them. Just a little gothic dolly for the mean girls to toss around for fish sticks. She couldn't be so vengeful to seek retribution... Could she?

They didn't answer.

The women had already planted the seed in their minds. They didn't know if it was true. They didn't care either. They just wanted to make a couple of uptight middle class snitches squirm.

They leant over and patted the girls on the head like they were pets.

"You better stick close to us then, bitches." Whispered Zelda, a sadistic grin spread across both cheeks. "So we can protect you."

Each one pecked both of the girls on their foreheads, then went back to eating their "meal".

Simone turned to Zelda on the bed.

"Word is that Mabel's going to try to take Voslova off her throne." She said in between mouthfuls.

Simone scoffed and shook her head. She spoke with her mouth full. Again.

"Na. We ain't gonna let that happen. It ain't gonna be another white bitch with that crown."

Zelda smiled. She pointed her spork towards Lotti.

"It should be you."

Simone grumbled.

"It should be, but it ain't."

She put her plate down. The thought of Mabel Reilly made her stomach churn.

The woman was dating boys young enough to be her son when she was free. Simone couldn't stand that cougar shit.

"We're gonna swipe that throne before she can get it. Fuckin' immigrant bitch."

Zelda nodded. She knew what she had to do.

"I'll put the word out then, boss."

7

The briefing room was a bustle of chatter and gossip. None of it speculation about the Governor's visit. The staff preferred not to think about that while they had the chance. It would only mean more work for the rest of them. Most of the key members didn't vote Republican anyway, for one reason or another. And almost all of them were sick and tired of seeing the governor on TV with her shrill voice, flaunting her tits in the television cameras every time she got the chance.

Mercy wasn't looking forward to seeing The Warden. She sipped on her coffee in a feeble attempt to calm her nerves. The caffeine would only make her worse. Red joked away with Officer Holloway. They were both as bent and crooked as each other. She watched them closely as they gorged on donuts and sipped stale coffee.

Mercy might have fraternized with the inmates from time to time, but she knew that the pair were actually enabling them. She wanted to put a stop to it. The Guard had no way of knowing exactly how high the corruption in the prison went.

Doctor Charlotte Winter sat at the conference table, clutching her clipboard to her chest and anxiously chewing her pen. The blonde and mature Doctor Winter was no fan of the Warden either. Or the Governor. She experienced first hand the reality of Zara Haylin's prison policies. Six years ago, Charlotte herself had been condemned here. To the very same prison she was now the Head Doctor at.

She had just a little bit too much to drink, and went down a very dark street late at night a little bit too fast. Ironically, the reason Charlotte didn't stop when she watched the man roll over the top of her car, was because she was terrified of going to prison. Luckily, the victim survived the hit and run, but he couldn't ever walk again. The collusion had confined him to a wheelchair.

At her trial, Charlotte agreed to plead guilty. In return, she got to keep her medical license and a lighter sentence of four years. But she had to spend them at Dyker's Island. After she did her grueling, hard time at this lesbian hell, she found employment prospects existed for a ex-convict. Even one with a medical degree.

It was with a heavy heart and wounded pride that led her to work for the very same prison that had made her life a living hell for four long years. But the idealistic Doctor Winter couldn't perceive of doing anything else than curing the sick and healing the wounded. At least here, she knew that she could do that.

Given her own understanding of life at Dyker's Island, Charlotte is able to use this perspective to treat and accommodate her patients more accurately. That made the job worth it at the end of the day. She just wished there was someone like her, when she was locked up.

But the Warden still scared her, six years on. Even though they were on the other side of the bars now. The woman was a predator. Charlotte knew this first hand. She shivered with the thought that any day now, Esther Willis would make her disappear in an attempt to silence her.

Or worse, send her right back here to live out the rest of her days.

The prison's head psychiatrist, Doctor Eva Windrow, was sitting next to her at the long rectangular desk. Her artificially coloured bright red hair and matching spectacles certainly made her stand out in the sea of faces. She tapped her clipboard with a pen. Not out of nerves, but out of boredom. Doctor Windrow didn't share the same sympathy for the inmates that her medical colleague did.

She didn't come here to make the prisoners better. She came here to study them. Doctor Eva Windrow wasn't just a celebrated lecturer and an expert in her field of criminal psychiatry.

She was a superstar. But the woman was no healer - She was a pop psychologist.

The kind you might find on trashy daytime "news" shows or writing columns for even trashier tabloid magazine sites.

Windrow got where she was by treating her patients like subjects, or specimens. Here, she found an environment where that was encouraged. The relatively new transfer had come here the study the phenomena of "Gate Gays"; Straight women who live as lesbians in prison.

It interested her, but it also enticed her. She always wanted a "hands on look" at the phenomenon in person.

Otherwise, she just found something a little invigorating about studying the minds of very, very bad girls. And boys too, for that matter. Windrow was the type who binged crime documentaries in her youth and had posters of Ted Bundy and the Manson Girls on her bedroom wall.

Killers and criminals made her wetter than anything else on the planet. No matter the gender.

The case of Ashley Simpson particularly interested her. It was Windrow that had diagnosed her with Hucken's Syndrome, the rare paraphilia the woman apparently possessed. A controlled environment with her subject over a long time period would be the way to study the "condition" up close.

She had only worked here for a week. She didn't really know much about how the Warden operated. Eva sighed and turned to Dr. Charlotte, who was sucking on the back of her pen.

"Is the Warden always this late to her own meetings?"

Charlotte snapped out of her flashback to her days as a guest of the government.

"Huh? Sorry? Ah... What was that?" Stammered the good doctor.

"The Warden?" Repeated Eva impatiently. "Is she always this late?"

Charlotte gathered her speech and train of thought.

"Oh, the Warden? Yes. She's always this late."

Eva groaned and crossed her arms.

"Great." She sighed. "I've got a zoom call with Vice Magazine first thing in the morning."

Charlotte knew she wouldn't get along with the amoral clout miner who had since replaced her good friend. She hoped Doctor Dania's promotion to Wayward Asylum was going well for her, but she missed their little 'liaisons' in the broom closet. Charlotte was gay, even before she went to prison. The cute girls she got to see naked everyday was a little bonus that she didn't mind at all.

In the room were also the two resident prison investigators. Detective Elizabeth Levi and Detective Arya Banerjee. Elizabeth was a hard nosed cop who resented being reduced to investigating girls with bags of ice up their butts. Regardless, she still took her job with the utmost devotion. She and Mercy were friends, even though they didn't agree politically.

The dark haired Detective Levi thought that Mercy was a good cop. She didn't care what was between her legs. Mercy respected her for that. Their respect for each other went far beyond the fact that they were both Jewish.

Arya was an older Indian woman who was done up in a suit and shoes that were way above a cop's pay. She looked like a Bollywood starlet. Levi knew she was crooked, but her false sense of loyalty forbade her from making a move against another cop. The two of them sipped coffee with their feet up on the desk next to a pile of stale donut boxes.

The head of security was there too. Commander Justine Preston. An amazonian, short haired tomboy kitted up in body armor and a black cap that read "S.W.A.T.". She held her body with a right angled stride and a twitchy trigger finger. Her hand was always ready to go for her 1911, which was holstered tightly around her right leg. She and Red were squadmates back in the Marine Corps. Commander Preston chewed donuts and washed them down with cheap coffee like the rest of the cops in the place.

Superintendent Clarice Strauss entered the room and carefully closed the door behind her. Her leather cane was tucked under her arm. She just liked to have it with her. Even though the prudish woman rarely used it, she loved the power it represented. Clarice crossed her arms and addressed the others.

"Okay, the Warden's on her way! I saw her walking down the hall. So you guys better clean up this mess and pipe down, or life won't be worth living for anyone in this room!"

Warden Esther expected everyone to treat her like a queen. She expected them to grovel at her feet in her presence. Everything had to be spotless. Everything in her prison had to be perfect.

It had to be a well oiled machine. She couldn't have it breaking down.

The staff members scrambled to clean up the boxes of donuts and cardboard cups of coffee. Red spat out her gum, but she just stuck it under the table. Holloway spied her but it only made her laugh. Mercy watched the scurrying with a smile on her face. It wasn't her mess. She wasn't going to clean it up. Eva thought it was funny too. Charlotte just wanted it to be done already.

Warden Esther entered the room with folders of documents under her arm. Everyone stood up from their seats like they were in the presence of a dictator. Maybe, they were.

"You can sit." Ordered the Warden like an Empress from the days of yore.

She closed the door behind her and marched to her seat. Esther sat with the rest of the staff and put the files on the desk. Then she linked her hands and placed them down infront of her. She seemed happy. Mercy and Charlotte both thought that was strange.

They had never seen her smile before.

Her secretary, Diana Maine, stood behind her like the handmaiden of a queen from an ancient land. She was dressed in a cute police uniform that seemed a little too big and loose fitting for her.

"Now, I'm sure Superintendent Strauss has informed you all about the governor's visit in two weeks?"

"Yes, ma'am." Responded the group in unison.

"Well, I intend to make this brief since I know that some of you are eager to return home."

That was an understatement. The shift change was two hours ago. Most of the staff have been left twiddling their thumbs since then.

The Warden licked her fingers and flicked through the files in the folder.

"I've drafted up these lists of things that need doing to prepare for her arrival, as well as run sheets for how I want the event to operate."

Most of the staff rolled their eyes. The Warden would probably give everybody a script and a role to play too. Everything would have to be theatrical, no doubt. That was how The Governor always wanted it, so that was how she wanted it.

Esther passed the sheets of paper to her secretary.

"Could you be an angel and pass these out for me, dear?"

Diana's eyes glowed at the prospect of serving her, even in the smallest way.

"Oh yes ma'am, of course!"

She eagerly took the files and began combing the room, handing out two to everyone present.

"Oh bless your heart, Officer Maine." Replied Esther with a flirtatious smile.

The complement made the tiny desk Sergeant blush. She adored any praise that came from her Warden. The truth was she saw Esther in much the same way that Esther saw the governor. It was a love triangle that was destined to end in disaster for all involved. And possibly, many who weren't. Each staff member peered at the papers as they reached their table.

Detective Levi read the list with scrutiny. She and her partner shook their heads and looked at each other.

"You want us to perform daily cell searches!?" Exclaimed Elizabeth, her jaw agape. "How is that possible?"

The Warden waved off her concerns.

"Not all the cells. Just the ones containing the inmates specified. And only until after the Governor has visited."

The Detectives looked at each other and scoffed.

"But, we'll have to pull double shifts." Responded Arya.

She wasn't known to be a lover of hard work. That's why she was here. It was something of a disciplinary detail. Not for her corruption. More for her ineptitude and rampant cutting of corners.

The Warden groaned with frustration. Everyone froze with terror. Except Eva. She saw it more as an interesting example of human behavior. She observed it like an experiment. Everything was so clinical with her. 'I'll have to write this down later.' She thought to herself.

Esther snapped like a prep-school brat.

"Well, you're just going to have to do that then, Detective Banerjee." She replied in a bitchy tone.

Liz scoffed at her partner.

"Nice goin', Banerjee. Real smooth."

The Warden shot a pointed finger at the detective and a glance that looked like it could cut her.

"You better can it too, Levi." The biggoted woman uttered the woman's semitic last name as if it made her sick. "Or I'll add all of Unit B to that list."

Commander Preston sighed at the Warden's ridiculous list of demands that she clearly painstakingly took hours typing out.

"If you want this much security, I'm going to have to call some girls in on their day off work. They won't like that." She said idly.

The Warden focused her burning glare on her next.

"They're just going to have to live with it, Commander."

Esther pronounced Justine's rank with complete condescension. To her, it was a meaningless title since she had to do whatever The Warden ordered anyway. The Commander groaned.

"Why can't you just get more of the contractors for that day?"

Amazonian mercenaries patrolled the jungle and coast of the island. The SWAT team were mostly reserved for the grounds of the prison itself and riot response.

"Because I want lines of patriotic American girls in cute blue uniforms standing in formation to welcome the Governor." Replied the Warden with an entitled smile on her snide face. "But don't worry, I'll be doubling down on the mercenary patrols too."

Doctor Winter put up her hand slowly.

"Umm... Excuse me, Warden... Um... Ma'am?" Squeaked the Doctor meekly.

Esther groaned with irritation. As far as she was concerned, Charlotte Winter was still a degenerate criminal. The little ingrate should be grateful that she was merciful enough to allow her to work here and still pretend like she was a real doctor.

"What is it, Winter?" Growled Esther.

She still spoke to her like she was an inmate. She refused to use her title.

"Well... It says here that you want examinations done on all the inmates, and I have no problem with that but I was wondering..."

"What's the issue then?" Spat the Warden again in her preppy entitled tone.

"I just wanted to know what you wanted me to do with the inmates afterwards, that's all."

Esther sighed.

"Any inmates who have deliberating health issues should be sent to a prison hospital for treatment until after the Governors visit."

Charlotte raised her eyebrows. It seemed strangely charitable of her.

"Umm.. Why?" She replied in disbelief.

The Warden scoffed.

"So we don't look bad in front of the Governor, Winter. We can get more funding that way."

Of course. Charlotte should have known there was an ulterior motive. She knew that the cold bitch who tormented her so horribly for four years wouldn't do something like that out of the kindness of her heart. But at least, for once, the prisoners might get something out of it.

"Alright, ma'am. Whatever you say, ma'am."

Often, Charlotte forgot she wasn't an inmate anymore. But then again, so did Esther.

Mercy looked over the list unenthusiastically. The Warden's demands were unreasonable, but not impossible. However, as she read the runsheet for the Governor's visit, she noticed that her name didn't seem to come up in it.

"Warden." She asked. "I'm looking over this run sheet for the visit, and I'm not sure exactly what you want me to do during it."

Esther feigned the sweetly demanor she often took up when she wanted to avoid a discrimination lawsuit.

"Oh, I must have forgot to put it in the document." She said insincerely. "But ah... I don't want you there. You can have that day off, Wisbeski."

Her faux sweet tone didn't mask the hate in her voice. Mercy clenched her fists so tight she almost ripped the paper. She crossed her arms and challenged the Warden. She was the only one in the faculty brave enough to ever do it.

"Oh really? And I wonder why that might be?" Replied Mercy angrily.

The rest of the room went dead silent. The Warden brushed off the implication she was making.

"Well, you're on probation, Wisbeski. That's why."

Her thinly veiled answer didn't satisfy Mercy. She wouldn't stand for this kind of prejudice.

"Really?" Scoffed the transgirl. "So it wouldn't have anything to do with what's between my legs?"

Red whispered cruelly and hatefully to Commander Preston.

"It might have something to do with it, yeah."

Mercy didn't hear them, but their poor attempts to hide their immature giggling gave them away.

She turned her accusing glare at the pair of them.

"You two, stay the fuck out of it!"

Esther gave out a muted cruel chuckle and peered at Mercy with a judgmental stare.

"Come on, Wisbeski. We all know how the Governor feels about... You people."