Risen To The Top

CHAPTER 6

Thin rays of the Moonlight streaked into the tiny cell ,showing a visible part of the aged cracked face infront of Alex.

The face looked ancient under the light of the moon, even though the cell was dark,Alex could still make out the image of the rest of the body.

He slowly walked to the corner of the cell, opposite the man.

The floor was moist from the lack of fresh air and sunlight, Alex held in a sigh of relief as he sat down on the floor.

He could make out the man's face, turning to stare at him.

The man looked at him with a crooked expression.

"I've not had a cellmate in two years." The man croaked, his voice was hoarse and weak.

"Why are you here?" The man continued.

Alex was too stunned to speak, the man's voice didn't fit the face.

He looked like he was around seventy years old but he sounded younger and like someone that had once lived sophisticatedly.

" Marshall." The man continued.

Alex knew marshall, he was one of the nicest wardens if not the nicest.

"He usually has a little chat with me everyday, especially whenever he comes to drop a meal."

He told me about you and your involvement with the Connery family." The old man grunted.

"I can't believe those psychos are still walking the face of the Earth!" He continued, he looked hurt and angry.

"what do you mean?" Alex asked innocently, he hadn't for once thought of the Connery family's hand in this.

all he had been thinking about was Sarah.

The old man looked at him dumfoundedly.

"I'm Laury, Laury Jackman." The man croaked, Alex could hear the hatred in his voice, he wondered what the Connery family had done to him.

" I'm Ale…." 

"I know that." The man cut him off.

"countless of Innocent lives have been wasted! all because of their unaccounted misuse of power!" The man continued.

"Families have been seperated! companies have been burned to the ground! lives have been ruined! by those greedy bloodsuckers and yet they walk freely!" The man vibrated angrily.

Alex quickly stood up, reaching out to pat the man.

"Don't!" the man bellowed, casting Alex's hand aside angrily.

"you won't understand what it feels like."

"you won't understand what it feels like watching your own daughter grow up while you're rotting inside a cell."

you won't understand what it feels like! how it feels to see your own daughter growing up without a family! growing up without a father in her life!"

"you won't understand the pain of losing your family and everything you worked for!"

"The pain of watching your own son, go cold in your own arms."

"The pain of  everybody seeing you as a mad psychopath!"

"The pain of living the last years of your life in an underground cell in the worst prison in the state!"

"I haven't seen the light of day for fifteen years!"

"I haven't seen my daughter for fifteen years!"

"whenever she comes to visit me…Marshall always helps to pass messages along!"

Alex was stunned as he watched the man's body shake with obvious anger and resentment, he could feel the hate seething from the man.

"How did you end up here? what happened?" Alex asked, the cell became quiet as the man edged his shoulders, he looked defeated, Alex wasn't expecting any reply from the man.

"L.J." The man said silently

"You must have heard of L.J company? they were once a subsidiary of Concorp, the Connery Family company."

"I was once In charge of L.J" The man continued, detectable sadness in his voice.

"I was neutral on working with Concorp, all I cared about was providing for my family and watching my children grow, I didn't care about what the company did."

"Till I found out what Concorp was using the softwares we produced for them to do."

"They were weaponizing the softwares and selling it to government militaries and terrorists."

"I didn't like the idea and I approached the Connery family about their actions." He stopped as he started another racket of dry cough.

Alex looked at the man again, you could tell he had been through alot.

"We had a big fallout and the fight lasted for months. I didn't want anything to do with Concorp again but L.J was still a weak company."

"So I decided to chase power, but I chased it the wrong way."

"After years of working with Concorp, we finally had enough power to move out on our own, so we went forward with it, Concorp wasn't pleased about the fact that we were leaving, Concorp was the face of the company and L.J was the brains and the body, they didn't want us to go because we were going to take a lot of their best workers with us."

"The Connery family promised us heaven and Earth but I didn't want anything to do with such heartless people."

"We finally left and we started L.J."

"Concorp couldn't get over the loss and the company's stock started to plummet."

"Concorp was weakened but the Connery family wasn't."

"It all took a brutal turn after L.J got a chance to have a legal contract to build nuclear weapons controlled by softwares. The idea of the weapons was to be used as a defense weapon against nations who tried to attack our country."

"Concorp were on the contract too, they wanted the contract but we were a good opponent, we fought hard and legally."

"Not until My son was kidnapped."

"The Connery Family took the fight into something else."

"My wife and son were killed."

"I watched them die with my own eyes, I watched them tear down L.J"

"And when the government got in on the fight, I was sent to jail."

"All the illegal weaponized software that Concorp had been producing had my company's name on it, so I took the fall."

"I lost everything, my family, company, name, everything!"

"Here I am now."

"The only thing keeping me alive is my daughter."

"She's survived every single thing the Connery family and Concorp threw at her."

"She's building L.J from scratch."

"She's building it with blood, sweat, and tears."

"I know I failed her, I didn't set a good example for her, but I feel proud to know that I gave birth to a tiger, a fighter."

"Thinking of her keeps me awake every night."

"It keeps me alive." a crooked smile spread across his lips, igniting some kind of fire in his eyes.

"Waiting for the day that she'll bring The Connery family to their knees, the day that she'll bring Concorp down and right all the wrongs." He coughed again as his eyes shone, it was full of hope, undying hope.

The man looked over at Alex.

"Only hope and  drive can get you out of here alive," he continued.

The man rolled over to sleep and after some minutes Alex could hear him snore silently.

Alex reflected on his own life.

He remembered Sarah, he wondered if she still thought of him.

He knew he couldn't spend his life behind bars.

He had to get out, he had to do something he hadn't been doing all his life.

 he had to live.

He shut his eyes, drifting off to sleep, not bothered by the biting cold or the insects that crawled all over his body.