Darkness… mumbling… sounds foreign, Russian maybe, something about getting paid, but then he hears something in English.
“Joel... Joel Joel,” someone laughs sarcastically. “What a mess you’ve got yourself in this time.”
What was he talking about? He wondered. Who’s Joel? Who am I? But before he could pick up anything else, darkness overcame him once more.
“Hey, you wake up!” someone yells with a thick accent. “It’s lunch.”
And at that he woke up but he didn’t see who yelled at him. Aww my head, he thought to himself. Where am I? He wondered. It looks like some type of jail. It has Russian writing on the wall so it must be in Russia. He looks to see what the guard gave him not even moving in the process. He would tell you what it is but for the matter of the fact he’s not sure what it is, just a bunch of grey chunky mush. But then he starts thinking who am I? Where exactly am I? But all of the sudden he hears Joel… But where was it coming from. Joel your name is Joel.
“Hello, who said that?” Joel says out loud.
“Shut up in there durák!” the guard yells.
“No, but… no did you hear that?” Joel asks one more time.
But then the guard comes to the cell and slams his fist onto the bar.
“I said SHUT UP!” the guard yells even louder with his thick accent.
“Gosh sorry,” Joel says quietly but sarcastically.
But then he hears the voice one more time. Get out and don’t get killed, you should know how to do that just fine. Now Joel knows that the guard is really messing with him. So he stands up and walks to the bars of the cell.
“Ohhh okay real funny buddy, telling me to get out and not die, trying to tease me, well it’s not working ON ME!”
But before Joel could say anything else the guard unlocks the door and stands in the doorway.
“You think this is funny?” the guard says surprisingly quietly.
“Umm why yes I think this is,” Joel replies.
“Then do you think this is funny?!” the guard now raising his voice.
And before Joel could even blink the guard swings his hand right into his stomach. A rush of pain now pulsing through his abdomen, but Joel tries to stand up and give him a nice one right on the cheek but the guard just sidesteps and punches him right in the face… And then more darkness….

Thump Thump clink. Then Joel awakens from blacking out and looks around but he’s still in the same old cell. But he looks and there’s another tray of food in the slot in the cell door. But when he looks at the tray, the food is different. Instead of being a bunch of grub its actual food. It’s steak and potatoes, which are Joel’s favorite, not even knowing how they knew that, or even how he knew that, but it didn’t really matter because he was HUNGRY. So he went to get the tray but before he could a guard shows up, which isn’t the one who beat him up earlier, which is a relief for Joel.
“It’s work time,” the guard says emotionlessly.
“Oh, I was just going to eat first,” replies Joel.
“No, you eat LATER,” the guard now pushing with his words.
“Oh nooo, you don’t understand I haven’t eaten in days, well I think,” Joel says in desperation to eat his favorite meal.
“No more arguing.” “YOU come with me now,” the guard says with more emphasis.
And at that Joel gave up the effort arguing with the guard, because he didn’t want another slam to the head, and the stomach. Well, off they go to who knows where, passing rows and rows of cells and lots of turns, sooo many turns. But finally, they make it outside, but it’s not much. Joel sees just a bunch of fences and a big, and I mean big, field.
“So what am I doing out here?” Joel finally says to break the silence.
“Well what do you think?” The guard replies like he’s stupid.
“Umm I don’t know.” “Am I supposed to go and jump in a pile of dirt into that field?” Joel says sounding more stupid than he thinks.
“No you stupid durák you’re picking potatoes!” “What else did you think you were going to do?” Yells the guard.
Joel just doesn’t reply not knowing what to say, except another stupid comment.
“No more questions?” …….. “Good, now go and pick some potatoes!”  Said the guard smiling with lots of enthusiasm.
So Joel just starts walking towards the field where everybody else is picking potatoes. When Joel reaches the potato field he looks around and everybody is just super busy digging for potatoes like it’s their job. So that’s what Joel starts doing, digging for potatoes like it’s his job, not even looking over at the other person. But finally he looks over at the other person and asks him a question.
“Uhh well, hi… how are you?” Joel asks awkwardly.
“When did you get here?” The guy asks with a surprisingly light accent.
But the guy is really old. He looks like a hundred years old, with wrinkles as creviced as a valley, and ratty grey hair.
“Uhh well only like five minutes ago,” replies Joel.
“No I mean when did you arrive in the jail,” the man says with his raspy voice.
“Oh well a few days ago I think,” says Joel, while scratching his eyebrow which is surprisingly itchy.
“Okay everybody, back inside.” “Put all of your potatoes in your sack and give them to your warden,” a voice says over the megaphone.
But then the old man pulls him real close and whispers.
“Meet me in five minutes in the closet,” the old man says.
And at that he gathers his potatoes and starts walking towards the door.
“Wait what?” Joel replies trying to catch up to him. “What do you mean?”
But the old man wouldn’t listen and he just goes right on doing his business. So Joel, confused as ever, just gathers his potatoes and gives them to his warden and does what the old guy told him to do. But when he goes to the closet the man wasn’t there, but only a few minutes later he shows up.
“What’s going on?” Joel asks the man with curiosity.
“I’ll tell you soon enough,” the man replies.
“NO, I want to know now.” “How do you know me, and who am I?” Joel asks him a million miles a second.
“Your name is Joel,” the old man says first.
“Wait, how do you know that?” Joel questions the man. “Were you the guy who was saying that that was my name?”
“No, it wasn’t me.”
“Then who was it?” Joel now talking even louder, the tension now growing in the room.
“Shhh quiet now, you don’t want anybody else hearing us,” the old man says.
“Why not!”
“Just shhh, I’ll tell you,” he says while peeking out the door.
“Okay then tell me,” Joel now mocking the man.
“There’s a microchip in your eyebrow that was sending electric waves into your brain that was sending you that message,” the old man says extremely fast and extremely quiet.
“Wait what?” Is all that Joel could say, now feeling his eyebrow and how itchy it was. “How is that possible and wouldn’t I remember that?” Joel now pushing more than he should.
“They erased your memory so you wouldn’t know.”
“Who?” “Who erased my memory so I wouldn’t know what?” Joel now practically shouting while whispering at the same time.
“I’ve already said too much.” “You’re on your own now.”
“No, no we are not done here, you need to tell me everything,” Joel shouting this time.
“I’m sorry but you need to go, and you can trust the voice, you always can,” and at that he was gone.
Joel was in shock he didn’t know what to do, his world was crashing in on him. But somewhere, not knowing where, he held on to some hope and he knew exactly what to do. So he opened the door of the closet and sneaked out of it without anybody seeing. And turn after turn after turn he made it back to his cell with the guard waiting by it.
“Where were you?” The guard asked.
“Oh um, I was just going… Uhh, to the bathroom,” Joel says, which is the lamest excuse he could come up with.
“Well do it faster next time.”
“Well if you insist.”
And at that Joel was back where he started. So Joel just goes to sleep, and just like that it’s morning. But when Joel wakes up he feels different, but he doesn’t know why then out of the blue he knows exactly why… the voice. So Joel just reacts on instinct and trusts his gut feeling.
“Agghh, help someone help me!” Joel yells, squirming towards the front of the cell.
As Joel yells a guard comes over to see what the commotion is all about.
“What’s wrong, are you okay?” The guard says in a panic.
“Help, come over here,” says Joel in a painful tone.
And as the guard comes closer to the bars of the cell Joel punches the man, disarms him takes his gun and shoots him all too fast. Then he takes his keys, unlocks the cell door and takes the guards clothes, so he will fit in. He then hides the body of the guard. Thankfully the gun was silenced so any sound the gun made would have been muffled. Then Joel takes out the magazine and looks at it, eleven in the chamber. That’s enough for now, Joel thinks to himself. Then Joel peeks out of the cell and takes a look around, and there are three guards. Tew... tew tew three tangos down. Eight in the chamber, and then Joel turns the corner and there are five more guards, but one spots him with his gun drawn.
“Hey, hey you.” “Why do you have your gun unholstered?” The guard questions Joel with precaution, while he un-holsters his gun.
But before he could even bring it up into the air Joel shoots him in the chest, but another guard had better reflexes then the last guard, and shoots at Joel. Few few few, the bullets grazing his shoulder and rib, but one hits him.
“Aggh,” Joel mumbles under his breath.
Joel presses his back against the wall and examines his wound, but he was only shot in the arm, so it wouldn’t be fatal. Seven in the chamber, so Joel gathers himself and springs into action once more, does a barrel role, and shoots three of the guards. The guards fall to the ground as Joel gets up to approach the last person, who has his gun raised in the air.
“Put the gun on the ground,” Joel says quietly but menacingly.
But before the guard can even put the gun on the ground Joel shoots the man right between the eyes, blood splattering on the wall almost immediately as the bullet entered his skull. Three in the chamber. But Joel doesn’t even check to see if the people he shot were dead or not he just walked right past the bodies and towards the outdoors. Very good, says the voice. But Joel ignored the world, ignored the voice, and ignored the moans of the dying with a cold and unforgiving look on his face. He would look back at what he had done… but there’s nothing to look back to.