09-07-1999 22:36									#1
	The Great Escape Support Apolyton

Author's note: "Cooler" was the building that held about 20 jail cells. This was a punishment for prisoners who tried to escape or did some other act against the Nazis. I thought it fit well with the Hive.

The Great Escape: Chapter One

Hive, 2231

A line of trucks drove up to the new prison camp and stopped. Out of three, Gaian prisoners came out. Out of the other two, elite Hive guards came out, holding chaos guns. The guards pushed the prisoners into the camp. Captain Peter Smith, the 50-year-old senior officer of the prisoners, was escorted into the command building. He walked into the Hive commander's office. "Welcome," the commander said. "As you know, this is a new camp. We have brought your most daring and resourceful prisoners here. We expect total cooperation. We hope you will direct your efforts to leisurable activites, and both sides in this camp can sit out the war."
"We have sworn to harass the enemy as much as possible, and force them to use an unusual amount of men to guard us instead of fight at the front. Do you think our officers will just forget that?" Smith replied.
"No...... no, I do not. But, we will make sure that all your attempts will fail. All of your best men are at this camp. Look at these profiles. Bill Hughes: escaped, recaptured, escaped, recaptured, escaped, recaptured. Virgil Hilts: 17 escape attempts. Danny Johnson: 11 escape attempts. Tom Dorson, 7 attempts, Fred Collins, 9 attempts, Robert Langs, 4 attempts. The list is almost endless! We demand these activities cease at once! You are dismissed."

Virgil Hilts walked around the camp, looking closely at the guard towers. "Hilts! Hey, Hilts!" Another man ran up to Hilts. "I've looked all around this camp. I can only find one other guy from our old capm. Name's Langs, but he calls himself the Scrounger. I'll try to find more."
"Great. Hey, you see that spot on the fence right there?"
"Yeah, so?"
"I think there's a blind spot between the towers right there."
"A blind spot! You're crazy!"
"No, I'm serious. And I'm going to test it right now."
Hilts walked up to a small wire stretching 1 foot over the ground on small posts. This was the "Wire of Death". Any prisoner who crossed it could and would be shot at by the guard towers. Hilts slowly crossed the line and then ran to the fence, hiding in the blind spot. He bent down and reached inside his shirt for the wire cutters. Suddenly, a guard walking around the camp spotted him. "Hey, stop!" Shots flew from the guard towers, and Hilts quickly got back across the Wire of Death. The guard ran up to him. "What were you doing?"
"I was cutting through your fence."
"20 days in the cooler. You can join the other prisoner, Ives. He tried to sneak out on a truck."
"Yessir."
Hilts was lead into the cooler, where he started throwing a baseball onto the wall and catching it.

Collins and Patrick Tomson walked through the camp. "I see most of the people from the X Orginization, but where's Big X?"
"I don't know, but I sure wish he was here."
A car suddenly pulled up to the command building. Three guards got out, along with a prisoner.
"It's him! You spread the word, I'll tell Smith!"
Tomson walked into Smith's room. "Big X is here!"