The next morning, the new prisoner was woken up by an electronic horn. She saw that Teefa was already awake and waiting for her at the now open cell doors. “Oi, newbie, get up or you’ll miss lunch hour,” she said.
The redhead got out of bed and buttoned up her shirt.
“You remember to buy a lunch token last night?”
“A lunch what?”
“A lunch token. You need one to get food for today.”
“Oh, right.” She pulled her breast out and pat it, bringing the store up. She found the lunch token which cost 15 of her ceres credits. Once done, she and Teefa went to the cafeteria.
(from the redheaded prisoner’s perspective)
You each waited in the long line of inmates to get food, giving you ample opportunity to get a look at the types of people you’re locked up with. They were all fairly attractive women of differing ages.
You watched Teefa bring her hand over a scanner, which triggered the machine to dispense a tray of what you hesitate to call food. You repeated her action and get a similar tray of food. You follow your cellmate to a small empty table and you sit next to her.
“Hey, Teefa,” you say. “How come some of the other convicts have better looking food?”
“Because they bought higher tier lunch tokens. They’re a lot more expensive, but the food they get is better,” Teefa said as she ate a spoonful of slop.
You looked down at your food and think about the idea of getting something that at least looks edible. “So how do I get more credits, again? I know you said there are jobs and getting them from other inmates, but can you go into that more?”
“Well, there’s a few ways. For one, you can join someone like Savagia over there,” Teefa pointed to a table by the wall. It was occupied by a smaller looking girl sitting by herself until a dark-haired woman with a half shaven head came up behind her and slammed her head on the table. She was followed by six other women, two of which helped pin down the smaller girl. You couldn’t hear what she was saying, but the dark-haired woman (who you guessed was Savagia) whispered something to the smaller girl, which convinced her to press her hand to her breast. The holographic screen came up from Savagia’s breast and showed her large balance of credits go up by a few hundred credits.
“Gangs like hers,” Teefa continued, “Go ‘round and take credits from people who don’t can’t defend themselves. You don’t need to join hers, but they all have particularly strict… ‘entry requirements.’ But they all work by forcing one convict to give all their credits to one member of the gang, who then splits it with the rest.”
“That sounds like a pretty harsh method to gain credits. Isn’t there a less violent way?” you ask.
“Certainly. Over there is Ms Bank.” Teefa pointed to a brunette with her hair tied up but also missing her right arm. “She basically acts as this prison’s bank. Anyone who feels like they can’t hold onto their credits in themselves gives them to her. And when they need them back, she gives them back. With a small fee for herself.”
“Really? What’s to stop her from taking all the credits for herself?”
“Well, no one would use her service if she was a dishonest thief. She has to give them back for anyone to trust her.”
“But wait, how does she give them back? I thought you could only give credits through the right arm?”
“You’re right. But Ms Bank somehow found a way around it. I heard she severed her own arm to guarantee that no one can force her to give away the credits in her the normal way. She can only give away her credits through whatever work around she found, which she keeps secret aside from a few ‘tellers’ she hires to use for her workaround.”
“Really? So I can be one of her tellers?”
“If you can gain her trust that is. With all the credits in her, she’s extremely selective about who can be a teller. I’ve tried for years to gain her trust, but she never hired me for some reason.”
“I see. So how did you get your credits?”
“Me? Well I’ve been in this prison for a while, so I specialize in selling information and selling things to prisoners that they can’t get from the credits shop.”
“Like what?”
“Blades, firearms, rope, even maps of the prison itself.”
“That sounds like stuff you could easily escape with.”
“People who think that are my best customers. Suckers like them who haven't figured out the futility of escaping are always willing to spend a lot. They figure they’ll be out the next week so they spend everything they have.”
“Well, if you have access to all that stuff, why don’t you try escaping?”
“...Trust me newbie, escaping this place is pointless. So don’t ever talk about it again, okay?” Teefa said aggressively.
“O-okay, sorry,” you say, worried you’d offended her somehow. “W-what about the prison’s jobs? You said they employ prisoners for work?”
“Yeah, that’s how most people gain credits. However, the jobs vary from extremely dangerous but decent paying to super easy but barely paying. It’s a good place to earn credits until you figure things out here, but I wouldn’t recommend sticking to it for too long.”
“Hmm.” You thought about your different options. Looking at the slop on your lunch tray, you knew you needed to earn credits soon and fast. But with each option’s pros and cons, you needed to think hard about your choice.
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