I sighed, reaching up to push on it gently, testing it for flexibility. It barely moved. “It’s not working,” I said.

“Push harder, Bryn, and stop being a baby,” commanded Peter.

I looked down to catch him frowning at me. I pouted but went back to the pushing. I used a bit more force, and the wire bounced a little. I climbed up a couple more inches and pushed again, this time getting it to move several inches.

I took a deep breath. “Okay, fine. I’m gonna lean on this thing with my body and just … I don’t know … slide over the top. When I break my neck on the other side, you’re all gonna feel really bad you made me do this.”

“Okay, good idea,” said Peter. “Good luck.”

I shook my head at their complete lack of concern for my person. My conscience tried to prompt me that maybe it was their undying faith in my abilities to get stuff done that made them so unconcerned, but I ignored it. I was in full-on pity party mode and I refused to come out of it. At least for now.

I took another step up and then another, leaning way out so my upper body wouldn’t yet touch the blanket. I needed to make sure enough of my torso would make contact with it, so it could actually push the wire all the way down.

“What do you want me to do?” asked Jamal from behind me.

“Come up here next to me. I need to get farther up, but I have nothing to hold onto.”

Jamal climbed up next to me, jiggling the fence.

“Slow down, spaz! I’m barely hanging on up here!” I yelled.

“Sorry, geez. I’m here now. What do you want me to do next?”

“I’m going to take another step up, but I need you to push on my back as hard as you can, because I will have nothing to hold onto. If you let go or don’t push me hard enough, I’m going to fall right off this fence and squash Peter like an annoying, irritating bug.”

“Okay, then what?”

“Then when I say go, push me hard so I can lie over the top of the blanket. Got it?”

“I think so.”

I looked over at him, “Don’t think! Know!”

“Okay, okay, geez. I know, alright? Just climb, girl.” He put his hand on the middle of my back.

“Higher,” I demanded.

His hand slid up.

“Good. Now push,” I said, taking a step up. I used the force he was providing to lean back more, getting myself up enough that about half of my body was now angled out over the wire, dangling above my friends below.

“Arrrrggghh!” growled Jamal. “I can’t … do this … for much … longer!”

“Push me hard, now!” I yelled, throwing my hands up in the air, praying that the blanket was thick enough to keep the razors from cutting my boobs open.

He pushed me forward and I used my ab muscles to help with the momentum. I flew forward, my chest and upper stomach area making contact with the blanket. I could feel the hard pieces of wire pressing into me from underneath, as the weight of my body smashed it down, flattening it to the top of the gate.

I was dangling now, mostly over the wire with my upper body, and my legs still on the side where everyone but Jenny was standing.

“Okay,” I said, my voice strained from the exertion of balancing on my ab muscles. “Now what?”

“Go over!” yelled Peter, desperation in his voice.

“I can’t!” I yelled back. “I’m stuck here.”

“Okay, Bryn, do not get mad at me,” said Winky, grabbing onto the fence and putting her foot on it.

“What are you doing?” I grunted. “Get off! You’re jiggling the fence!”

“Jamal, get down,” she ordered.

I could see her determined face from my upside down position. “Jamal, don’t you dare leave me up here,” I groaned out.

“Sorry, Bryn. Gotta go,” he said before jumping down. The fence shook, making me panic as I imagined feeling jagged razor shards digging into my flesh.

Winky started to climb.

“I’m gonna friggin’ kill you when I get down from here, Winky, you bag of dicks.”

She laughed as she climbed. “Bag of dicks? That’s creative.”

“I learned it from you, you crazy … argh!”

“Shush. I need to climb on your back for a second.”

“What?!” I yelled. “No! No, absolutely not. Don’t you dare … Winky!”

She grabbed the back of my pants and pulled herself up next to me. The wire bent down more and I felt it in my stomach again, harder this time.

“God, Winky, I’m gonna die up here. The razor is cutting into my artery.”

“No, it’s not. You’ll be fine. I’m almost over.”

She scrambled up onto my back, sliding down towards my head long enough to lean over and grab the fence on the other side, below my face.

I was pressed into the blanket now, and I could smell it - it was musty and old. The pressure of Winky on my back, the odor filling my nostrils, and my general state of panic made me want to barf. “Get off!” I yelled into the blanket.

“Here I go!” she yelled. “Wish me luck!”

Her body slid a few inches, she kicked her legs over, and then suddenly her weight was gone. It disappeared in an instant, and I had time to lift my head and see her legs going over me in a semi-circle, being pulled to the earth by gravity at a much higher rate of speed than she had probably expected.

I craned my neck to get a better view of what she had done. Her hands were holding onto the fence like some kind of Olympian on the uneven bars. Her legs crashed down against the fence as her body completed its back flip over me.

Her back bounced off the fence, and the shockingly hard jarring was too much for her to manage. Her hands were jerked away and her upper body flew forward, sending her face-first into the pavement. The sound of her body slapping onto the concrete was sickening.

No one moved a muscle for a few seconds. Winky just laid there.

“Winky!” I yelled, struggling to get off the wire. “Winky! Are you okay?”

She moaned.

“Somebody get me over this thing! Push my legs!”

“No, Bryn! You’ll do a face-plant too!” said Peter.

Bodo grabbed my feet, attempting to pull me back down on their side, but I kicked him away.

“No! Get away! I’m going over. Winky needs me.”

She moaned again and turned her head to the side. Her voice came out kind of slurred. “Damn, dad hurt.”

“Well you’re a friggin’ idiot for doing it,” I said, struggling to pull myself over the wire, trying to grab the fence on the other side, below where I was hanging. My face was burning hot and I could feel the pulse in my neck because I’d been hanging upside down for too long. It hurt like hell in the spot where I’d been choked earlier.

I started to slide over the blanket, heading face-first towards the ground. And the ground was really too far away for anything good to come of it, but the momentum had started, and I was too far gone to stop it. I grabbed onto the fence like Winky had and held on as tight as I could, closing my eyes and gritting my teeth, sending all my remaining energy into my hands. Don’t let go, don’t let go, don’t let go!

My stomach tickled like it had butterflies in it the moment my legs fell free of the fence and started their one-hundred-and-eighty-degree journey to the other side of the fence.

A split second later, my entire back half hit the fence hard, bouncing up once to hit again. I was able to hold on for the first bounce, but the second one was my undoing. My hands released the metal and I fell to the ground.

Lucky for me, I landed on my feet somewhat, if a little off-balance, and was able to execute a fairly decent drop and roll to distribute the jarring force.

Once I stopped rolling, I scrambled over to Winky on my hands and knees, ignoring the cheering coming from the other side of the fence.

I pushed her shoulder, rolling her over. Her face was covered in blood and her nose was definitely broken. “Oh, shit, Winky. You broke your nose.”

“Bag-a-digs,” she said through her already swollen nose, smiling weakly.

“Bag of dicks is right,” I said. “And don’t be mad me for what I’m about to do.”

“Wha …?” she said, still in a daze, right before I grabbed her nose on either side and re-set the bone for her with a loud crack.

***

She frowned at me as we walked over to the front doors of the prison entrance. “You lygd doing dad.” She sounded like she had the worst head cold in history with a very stuffed-up nose.

“No I didn’t like it,” I said, looking straight ahead.

“Yez, you did. You were pudishing me for climbig on your bag.”

“Nope. Climbing on my back was smart. I was saving your beautiful face from a lifetime of pure ugliness.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that her nose was now turning purple and was twice its normal size. She was going to be ugly for a while, but at least it was only temporary.

We reached the door and I pulled on the handle. “Locked.”

“Brayg da glass,” said Winky, holding up a rock she’d plucked from the nearby planter. Her eyes were watering, I assumed from the pain in her face.

I hit the window near the handle and realized too late that there was wire embedded in it. The glass broke but the wire was still there.

“Sud of a bidge!” yelled Winky.

I giggled.

“Shud up, or I’m gonna go Aberican whide girl all over your azz,” she threatened.

“Technically, you can’t do that, since you’re not white. But I’ll take your threat under consideration. Now tell me what I’m supposed to do with this thing.”

“What’s happening?!” yelled Peter from behind us.

“Door’s locked!” I yelled back.

“Break the glass!” he responded.

I shook my head, saying quietly, “Yeah, thanks, Peter. We couldn’t figure that one out on our own.”

“Here, gib me dad,” said Winky, taking the rock from me. She bashed the window wire over and over like a mad woman, eventually causing it to bend inward.

When her energy flagged, I took the rock and continued the fight. Eventually, the wire gave way, and Winky was able to sneak her tiny hand in and find the deadbolt lock knob. She turned it several times, and we finally heard the solid thunking of lock mechanisms moving back.

I turned around and threw my arms in the air, claiming victory for all womankind. “We did it! We’re in!”

I turned back to see Winky grabbing the handle and slowly pulling the door open. She looked at me and gestured towards the opening. “Abter you.”

I stepped inside, sniffing the air for the odor of dead bodies but getting nothing back but the smell of old, disused, institutional building.

***

We found a front desk that had a set of keys hidden in the back of the bottom drawer. It had been locked but we beat it open with a stapler. The ring was huge, with about a hundred different keys to choose from, many of them strange shapes I’d never seen before.

“This is going to take all night,” I said, moving out of the building and across the front lawn area over to the main gate. Winky followed behind, slowed down considerably by the pain from her earlier antics.

“It’s about time,” said Peter. “What took you so long?”

“We were showering and having a meal,” I said absently as I started trying one key after another on the big lock at the gate. I looked up and noticed they’d already taken the blanket down.

“Try one of those weird ones,” Ronald said, pointing to one that had a flat square shape with some cutouts on the end.

The first one I tried slid in okay but wouldn’t turn. The seventh one worked, and I had to make six full revolutions before the thing actually opened the lock all the way. Winky and I rolled the gate open a few feet.