The Study

On the evening of Day 6, one Guard sends Prisoners back to their cells for the night-time lock up. But he doesn’t attend too closely and, in one cell, the Prisoners jam the lock with a cardboard packet. The Guard doesn’t check the door either. He is unaware that it remains open and that the Prisoners can escape.

As the night goes on, the same Guard is on duty in the Atrium. He is teased ceaselessly and mercilessly by the Prisoners in the open cell. Another Guard joins him for a short while. But most of the time he is left to cope alone.

Eventually, the man on watch has had enough and he retreats to the Guards’ mess. The cell block is unattended. The Prisoners open the inner door and force the steel mesh outer door. They are free.

Even now, the Guards don’t respond together. The man on watch is again left to face his tormentors alone. He speaks to them from behind the steel mesh door to the Guards’ quarters. They answer him as one:

gTQ: How did you get out?
pKM, pPP, pJE (as one): You left the door open.
gTQ: Who left it?
pKM, pPP, pJE (as one): You did.

He is overwhelmed. And he is helpless when the Prisoners force their way out of the main atrium and invade the Guards’ final sanctuary.