"Then let's go. And princess?" Tank's eyes were hard. "Whatever you do, don't show fear. Fear's like blood in the water here. It brings sharks."
The cell door buzzed and slid open with a grinding screech.
Shuyin took a deep breath, shallow, like Tank had taught her, and stepped out into the corridor.
Into her first full day at Blackwater Maximum Security Prison.
Into whatever hell was waiting for her next.
The corridor was a gauntlet of hostile eyes and predatory stares.
Dozens of inmates lined up outside their cells, waiting for the march to the cafeteria. As Shuyin emerged from her cell, supported subtly by Tank's looming presence behind her, the conversations along the corridor died away.
Heads turned in her direction. Eyes locked onto her battered face, taking in every bruise and swelling with morbid interest.
"Jesus Christ," someone muttered from a nearby cell.
"Fresh meat got tenderized real good. Already on it so soon! Damn it!"
"Didn't even make it through one night without getting destroyed."
Laughter followed, cruel and sharp, echoing off the concrete walls and reverberating through the corridor.
Shuyin kept her working eye focused straight ahead, refusing to meet anyone's gaze or acknowledge the comments.
Her broken hand throbbed painfully with each heartbeat pulsing through her body.
Her ribs felt like they were held together with nothing but desperate wishes and pure spite. But she stayed upright, forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other in a steady rhythm.
"Move it! Single file formation!" A guard's voice barked harshly from the end of the corridor.
The line of inmates began shuffling forward slowly. Shuyin found herself sandwiched protectively between Blade, walking in front of her, and Tank positioned behind, with Razor somewhere ahead in the line.
It was a protective formation, though anyone watching casually wouldn't notice the deliberate arrangement. It just looked like four cellmates naturally grouped together in line.
They descended two flights of metal stairs, the sound of footsteps echoing loudly.
Each step down jarred Shuyin's broken ribs mercilessly, sending sharp spikes of pain shooting through her chest with every movement.
She gripped the railing tightly with her good hand, focusing all her energy on not falling, on not showing any weakness to the watching eyes.
On the second-floor landing, a woman with a completely shaved head and a thick scar running from her eye down to her jaw stepped deliberately into Shuyin's path, blocking her way forward.
"Well, well, well," the woman said, her voice mocking and loud enough for nearby inmates to hear clearly. "The little princess actually survived the fighting pit. I heard you didn't even try to fight back, just curled up on the ground like a pathetic little bitch."
Shuyin said nothing in response. Her grandmother had taught her years ago that silence was often the best response to cruelty and bullying. Let them exhaust themselves on their own words.
But her silence seemed to enrage the woman rather than defuse the situation. "I'm talking directly to you, rich girl. You deaf as well as beat up?"
"Back off, Torch," Tank's voice came from behind Shuyin, low and carrying an unmistakable threat. "She's with us now."
Torch's eyes narrowed dangerously as she focused on Tank. She was a big woman, nearly as large as Tank herself, with arms like tree trunks and visible muscle. "Since when do you protect fresh fish who just arrived?"
"Since it's our business and not yours to worry about," Blade said, turning around to face Torch directly. "You got a problem with that arrangement?"
The tension in the stairwell ratcheted up immediately.
Other inmates were watching now, sensing the potential for violence. In prison, entertainment came in severely limited forms, and a fight between established inmates was considered premium content.
"Move along now!" A guard's authoritative voice cut through the standoff. "Torch! Get your ass moving or you're going straight to Isolation for a week!"
Torch held Blade's gaze for another long, challenging moment, then smiled slowly, a cold, predatory expression that held no warmth whatsoever. "This ain't over between us."
She turned deliberately and continued down the stairs, her heavy footsteps echoing throughout the place.
"You just made another enemy for yourself," Razor muttered from ahead in the line.
"She was already an enemy from the moment Shuyin arrived," Tank replied calmly, "Torch works directly for the pit bosses who run the fighting ring. That confrontation wasn't random at all. She was testing to see if we'd defend her publicly."
"And we did defend her," Blade said quietly, understanding the implications. "Now they know for certain we're protecting her."
"Good," Tank said firmly. "Let them know it clearly. Let them understand that getting to her means going through all three of us first. Maybe they'll think twice before trying anything."