"So young man, what did you have to tell me about that fuss you people caused earlier?" Reverberated a voice in the small interrogation room, making Jax look at the narrow doorway which was now blocked with the silhouette of a uniformed personnel.
Upon a closer look, Jax recognized him as the same guard who later got them placed in these tiny isolated cells. However, his attire screamed both resemblance and difference from those of the normal guards, he had been seeing around.
The black rectangular slab on the top of the man's right pocket read the name, Klayton Quinn.
Only then did Jax noticed the different badge on his left sleeve and the four silver stars, two on his each shoulder, it seemed like he was some lower grade officer who held authority over the security guards.
That explained why he was able to make a decision on cross- questioning the mischievous inmates who caused quite some trouble in this prison. After all, it was oh so obvious that normal guards wouldn't dare to restrain that psychotic man.
Jax brewed a mischievous plan when the adolescent system, which he named as 'Nexus', urged him to get out of here soon as it reminded him of his constrained time period.
[Jax, you shouldn't waste time over these things as I still have to do some explaining regarding your first task, for that you have to out of here as soon as possible.] Nexus words echoed in his head.
This system had mentioned this to him already two times, before this Klayton guy showed up in here. Now it was urging him for a third time. Why was it so excited about this than the one who was intended to complete the task himself?
He didn't have time for pondering about this, though. Thus he set his plan in motion.
Within a few seconds of time, Jax's face contorted in fear as if he was afraid of talking about the addressed issue, while his mind raced to contort a perfect story of webbed lies to escape this whole debacle unharmed.
Why would he not? After all, Jax being here was completely uncalled for to begin with, and he had already suffered staying in that shitty dark room, starving himself over half decomposed food once.
He had enough memories of that place, that he was so enthusiastic to push 'others' into it, to face it for themselves. And without a question, the 'others' in his mind were definitely Hank and his underlings.
If he played his cards right, then he would rise victorious once again.
On the other hand, the said officer was the sub jailer in this prison. And yes, Jax was correct to some extent, as he indeed held control over the guards, but his authority didn't just end there. He was the direct subordinate of the superintendent in charge of this Prison.
Klayton narrowed his eyes at the youth who started fidgeting in his seat as his eyes wandered here and there, under his probing gaze.
"I've asked you a question, and I expect you to stop wasting my time and answer me back. Now!" Klayton hardened his tone as he demanded an immediate response, which he got as a flinch from the terrified post teenager.
Seeing this only made him glare dangerously at the young man in front of him, who looked like he would faint at any given moment if he pushed him any further.
This annoyed the officer very much that his hands balled into fists as he cursed loudly at Jax who started trembling now.
"Are you some f*cking mute? Why aren't you making a sound? Do you need a good round of beating so that you can open that precious mouth of yours?" Klayton half shouted and thumped the table in between him and Jax, as if he was going to beat the latter if he didn't open his mouth soon.
And that was what Jax was trying to get the officer to, enraged and furious, after all if he couldn't even make him believe that he was gullible, how could he make him trust the lies he was going to spin in the next few minutes?
One had to appear weak and vulnerable to prove them innocent even if they were not, right?
And before he knew it, Jax was released from the officer's inquisitive clutches and was being led to the infirmary to recuperate from his freshly inflicted wounds.
He did successfully portrayed himself as the victim of the closed prison walls bullying, or should he say the not so closed but open ground bullying?
But he wasn't much hopeful about Hank and his minions being punished for attempting to kill a fellow inmate.
Indeed, Jax did manage to divert the complete blame on to the psychotic man, saying his life was being threatened and the several injuries on his body helped to serve as proofs for this accusation from him.
And now, he could only wait and observe from sidelines what would happen next. He first needed to understand how great of an influence did Hank hold in this place. Only then could he protect himself to not fall into that man's maniac clutches again.
Because, it was clearly evident that Hank would kill him in the first chance he was given. So why would he wait until the rougish man made a move, rather figuring out how to fight him off?
Pinching a problem in its budding stage is much more effective than waiting until it grew huge to swallow you whole.
[You are correct Jax.]
Nexus hummed in agreement with Jax's words.
'Keep it aside for now. We can always deal with fudgers like them later. What is this first task you are being over excited about Nexus?'
Jax asked while entering the infirmary, following behind a guard, who then took him toward an empty bed near the farthest window of the not so big cabin.
Jax noticed that it was the same bed, on which he woke up in the morning.
Just as he was about to get onto it, the screen appeared in front of his eyes again.
[Task No. 1 : Find a person.]
[Name : Marco.]