Rattling Snakes Cage 2 Ch. 07

Looking up at Patrick the young man shouted, "Go....get going.....run." and Patrick looked down at the fallen Nash and Ritchie who still lay on the ground and then up at Jerry who beckoned him, "Hurry up Patrick, lets go."

Climbing up to the top of the wall, Patrick felt Jerry's arms grab him and help him up and over onto the metal boom and the two men shimmied down to meet Davy at the bottom who stood holding the two bikes ready.

*

Some of the men in the crowd had turned around at Nash's screams and witnessed what had happened, and about eight of the men made for the wall, fighting each other to climb the rope first and escape themselves.

As Manning kicked Hartwell in his bollocks with a vicious kick, the bully screamed out in pain and grabbed his balls, and the victorious Manning did an uppercut to his opponents chin, knocking the man senseless.

*

Ritchie got up off the ground, his nose streaming blood and joined the mad scramble up the rope ladder just as a couple of the screws noticed what was happening and rushed over towards the escaping men, stopping when they found Nash's lifeless body surrounded by a pool of blood and the young man standing quietly over him, the weapon still in his raised hand, a look of blank flatness in his brown eyes.

Screws took hold of him, as others started to try to pull escaping men down from the wall.

As more men noticed the scene behind them at the wall, more men started for the rope, until there seemed a steady flow of escaping men pushing past the screws and making their way up and over into the South London surrounding area, some running across the green grass space dividing the prison from the main Trinity Road, some running towards the River Thames in the near distance and others making their way towards the many residential roads around the back of the prison, weaving amongst the cars moving slowly in the heavy traffic, the look of total shock on the drivers faces. Many of the commuters reached up and internally locked their car doors, picking up their mobiles and phoned the police to report what they were seeing.

*

Patrick sat on the back of one of the bikes, Jerry guiding it, weaving in and out of the long line of traffic, Davy riding on the other one in front of them, leading the way. The wind whipped at his hair, and he looked down at his leg, the stain of Nash's blood drying on the blue fabric of his trouser. When it got too difficult to weave between the cars Davy guided the bike up onto the pavement, moving it along, and then back onto the road further up, Jerry following, as they made good time towards the rendezvous place where Danny and the van were parked in a quiet side street.

*

The Prison officials and the Police were going crazy. Inside the Prison it took a good half an hour to round up and get the cons back inside, pull the last of the men off the rope ladder as they were trying to escape, secure the scene of Nash's demise and take the young lad up to solitary where he was stripped of his blood soaked clothes, and placed awaiting the police and forensics.

A count of the prisoners had to be done, and it was found that at least sixteen men had escaped that day, and a list of names was passed onto the police.

The news wires were buzzing with the mass escape from one of England's most famous prisons, and reporters were starting to write the copy that would make the TV news and papers, including the fact that approximately thirty years before the famous Ronnie Biggs, one of the Great Train Robbers had escaped from the same prison in nearly the same way.

Police helicopters took off from Battersea Heliport and were buzzing in the air looking for a sighting of the escaping men, and police cars, sirens blaring pushed their way through the heavy traffic following possible sightings reported in.

South London was in chaos.

*

Turning into the side street the three men on the bikes saw the van, its back open and Danny standing there holding onto the door ready to slam it shut as soon as they were inside.

Pulling up behind the van they got off the bikes, picked them up, threw them in and climbed in after them. The doors slammed shut and Danny climbed into the front and started it up, pulling out onto the road and the small queue at the end of the road waiting to pull into the heavy traffic and the way down towards Brighton in the South.

Giving Jerry and Davy a hug, Patrick told them, "You guys are the best....." and then, "Right let's go rescue Rachel and kill that bastard Snake."

The exclamation left Davy's mouth, "What?.....what the fuck is he talking about?"

Patrick looked at Jerry, "You didn't tell them......?"

Jerry shook his head, "Not exactly."

Davy looked from Patrick to Jerry, "Not exactly what?"

"Well it's like this....." and as the van trundled slowly forward Patrick and Jerry explained the slight change of plan to the stunned man.