Tommy's Plan

Tommy Whitfield's POV

The first blast made Tommy jump off his jail cell bed. He pressed his face against the small window and tried to see what was happening outside.

"Danny, wake up!" Tommy whispered loudly to the cell next to his. "Something's wrong out there!"

Danny Santos rolled over on his thin cot. "What are you talking about?"

Another gunshot echoed through the night, closer this time. Then another. And another.

"Someone's shooting!" Tommy said, his heart beating fast. "This isn't normal police business."

Danny sat up quickly and listened. More shots came from different places, like there was a battle happening all around the jail.

"Maybe Jake and Maya found the evidence," Danny said hopefully. "Maybe they're coming to save us."

But Tommy had a bad feeling in his stomach. The shooting sounded too crazy, too dangerous. This wasn't an escape - this was a war.

Suddenly, all the lights went out.

The jail was completely dark except for tiny emergency lights that barely glowed red in the halls. Tommy couldn't see anything outside his window anymore.

"Danny, you still there?" Tommy called out nervously.

"Yeah, I'm here. What's happening?"

That's when Tommy heard the weirdest sound - a soft clicking noise from his cell door.

He reached out in the darkness and pushed on the door.

It swung open.

"Danny!" Tommy whispered excitedly. "My cell door just opened!"

"Mine too!" Danny's voice came from the darkness. "How is that possible?"

Tommy stepped carefully into the hallway. The jail felt empty and scary without any guards around. Where was Deputy Williams, who usually sat at the front desk? Where were all the other officers?

"This has to be a trap," Tommy said, even though his heart wanted to think they could escape.

"Or someone's helping us," Danny answered, appearing next to him in the dim red light.

They moved slowly down the hallway toward the front of the jail. Tommy expected guards to jump out at any second, but everything was quiet except for the sounds still happening outside.

That's when Tommy saw it - a white piece of paper taped to the front door.

He grabbed it and tried to read it in the emergency lights.

"Tommy and Danny," the note said in handwriting he didn't recognize. "You're in terrible danger. Marcus Webb plans to kill you both tonight to keep you quiet. Go to Millbrook High School and wait in the gym. Someone will meet you there who can keep you safe. Don't trust any police cops - half of them work for Webb. Run now before his men come for you."

Tommy's hands shook as he read the note again. "Someone knows we're innocent, Danny. Someone's trying to help us."

"But who? And how did they get into the jail to open our doors?"

Before Tommy could answer, they heard a car engine getting closer. Headlights swept across the jail windows.

"We need to go now," Tommy said, putting the note in his pocket.

They pushed open the front door and stepped into the cool night air. The gunshots seemed to be coming from downtown, near the courts. Tommy could see bright lights and smoke in that direction.

"The school's only six blocks away," Danny said. "We can cut through the park."

They started running, staying off the main streets and keeping to darkness. Tommy had never been so scared in his life, but he also felt hope for the first time in weeks. Maybe they really could escape this nightmare.

As they ran past the park, Tommy heard Danny breathing hard behind him.

"You okay?" Tommy asked, slowing down.

"Just scared," Danny revealed. "What if this is a trick? What if we're running into another trap?"

Tommy understood Danny's fear. They'd been tricked and misled so many times. But staying in jail meant certain death if Marcus Webb really was coming for them.

"We don't have a choice," Tommy said. "We have to trust someone sometime."

They kept running, past houses where all the lights were on and people were looking out their windows at the chaos downtown. Tommy wanted to bang on doors and ask for help, but the note said not to trust anyone.

Finally, they reached Millbrook High School. The building was dark and empty, which made sense since it was almost midnight on a school night.

"How do we get in?" Danny asked, trying the front doors. They were locked.

Tommy remembered something from his playing days. "The gym has a side door that doesn't lock right. Coach always told us not to use it, but everyone knew about it."

They ran around to the side of the building and found the door. Tommy pulled hard, and it opened with a loud creak.

The gym was completely dark inside. Their footsteps rang as they walked across the basketball court.

"Hello?" Tommy called out softly. "Is anyone here?"

No answer.

They sat down on the benches and waited. Tommy kept checking his phone, but there was no service. The bangs from downtown were getting louder, like the fighting was spreading.

"Tommy," Danny said quietly, "what if no one comes? What if we're just sitting here waiting to get caught?"

Before Tommy could answer, he heard something that made his blood turn to ice.

An explosion.

A huge, earth-shaking blast that lit up the night sky behind them.

Tommy and Danny ran to the gym windows and looked toward town. Where the jail had been, there was now a huge fireball rising into the sky.

"Oh my God," Tommy whispered. "The jail just exploded."

Danny grabbed his arm. "We would have been in there. Someone just tried to kill us by blowing up the jail."

Tommy realized with horror that if they hadn't fled, they would be dead right now. Someone had definitely tried to kill them, just like the note warned.

But as they watched the fire burning where the jail used to be, Tommy heard new sounds that made his heart stop.

Car engines. Coming fast toward the school.

Multiple cars, moving with their lights off.

"They know where we are," Tommy said, fear rising in his voice.

Danny looked around the gym frantically. "There's nowhere to hide in here!"

The car engines were getting closer. Tommy could see dark forms moving toward the school building.

"The note," Danny whispered. "What if the person who wrote the note is the one hunting us? What if they sent us here so we'd be trapped?"

Tommy felt sick as he realized Danny might be right. They'd been led to the perfect place for an attack - a big, empty building with no way out.

The cars stopped outside. Tommy heard doors slamming and people talking in low, urgent tones.

"This way," someone called out. "They're definitely in the gym."

Tommy and Danny looked at each other in fear. They had maybe thirty seconds before armed guys would come through that door.

But as Tommy looked around desperately for an escape route, he saw something that changed everything.

A figure stepped out of the darkness at the far end of the gym.

Someone who had been waiting there the whole time.

Someone Tommy recognized but never expected to see.

"Hello, boys," the figure said quietly. "We need to talk."

And Tommy realized that everything he thought he knew about this night was about to change again.