It was a dark and stormy night in the year 2041. Johnny was taken to his cell for cyber reconnaissance. Johnny was an inmate of the largest jail on Earth. In prison, Johnny was assigned the job as a dishwasher. He was given a scrappy bed, clothes, and three sheets of paper. Johnny, who was only 26 at the time, was feeling extremely nervous. He thought to himself, “How did they catch me? How am I going to get out? Why did I do this in the first place?”

After dinner, Johnny went back to the kitchen wash the dishes. After doing the dishes , he walked back to the cell. While walking back to the cell, he was seeing if there were any jailmates he could ask about life in jail, but sooner or later he found out that he was the only inmate…or was he? Next, Johnny went back to his cell to search for some hidden clues. After hours of searching, he found a piece of paper in the corner of the room.

It read:

You shall have found this very letter

This will make your life a lot better,

On the side wall of the cell

There is a button you press to make you well,

Pressing the button shall give you the key

You shall have fifteen seconds to flee,

Once the fifteen seconds come to an end

The guards will be notified and make a send,

You either have escaped or have been caught

At the end of the day we know you had the thought.

Sincerely,

The Watcher

After Johnny read the letter, he suddenly felt a glimpse of hope. He went to the right side of the wall and tapped on all of the places, but he found nothing. Then, he went to the left side of the wall, and on the bottom left corner, he saw a damp spot. He tapped it, and a red button came out.

Before he pushed the button, he had to rethink his decisions.

“I think I’m a pretty fast person, but getting out of jail in 15 seconds will be very challenging. I should map out where I need to run during breakfast.”

The next morning, during breakfast, he looked for the straightest route. After breakfast, he used one sheet of paper to map out his escape route. Once it hits midnight, Johnny pressed the button to unlock the key and made a run for it. At midnight, he pressed the button and ran, but got lost within the fifteen seconds. He mapped the wrong route.

Suddenly, three guards pulled up behind him and grabbed him. The guards led him to the warden, who led him to a cell directly in front of him.

Johnny was depressed. He told himself, “Why am I so stupid! I knew it was impossible to escape!”

Then a shadow popped up behind him and replied, “Ah I see that you saw the letter that I wrote! I have been watching the whole time to see if someone also tried what I did! It was tough, wasn’t it? I watched you go through your whole sequence step by step!”

Johnny was gassed! He said, “You’re the Watcher? I knew I wasn’t the only one in the cell!”

The Watcher smiled deviously and said, “Yes I am. I made that letter for myself fifty years ago and didn’t manage to escape. I am seventy now, and I was always waiting for someone to find my letter and try to make it out.”

Now, they both wait for the next hopeful escapee.