My head feels like it's pounding as my ears adjust to the noise around me, "Rise and shine maggot!" I give a loud "Ugh where am I?" as I roll over and push myself up. I open my eyes to see a room made out of rough stone with iron bars on one side. There's a small metal toilet and sink on the other side of the wall, along with two ruffled-up bed cots. I look down at my clothes and I'm wearing a dull-green jumpsuit and thick black work boots.
I hear a shrill voice call out to me saying, "So the mystery boy awakens? Welcome to the land of the living buddy!" There is an old light-skinned man standing beside the bars leaning against the wall. He has untamed white hair and a long frizzy beard stretching down to his chest. He looks to be fairly old and frail and walks over to me. He limps side to side saying, "I thought you would've never woken up. You've been passed out for hours after they drug you in here. The names' Smit, what's yours roomie?"
He looks at me and smiles, I notice that half of his teeth are missing. I stand up fully and say, "My name is James…I'm in a prison aren't I Smit?" Smit gives a little chuckle and says, "Yeah, welcome to your new home James. I hope the war up there hasn't gotten too bad." As Smit finished speaking my memories of Mary and Jeb came flooding back. I fall backwards onto a bed cot and start to tear up. I grab my head and say, "Oh no…Mary and Jeb…The last thing I remember is seeing Jeb run inside after Mary…and her screaming–"
Just then a guard comes and bangs on the bars, "Settle down in there! No crying or whining. If you want something to cry about I'll make sure you two work double time." Smit quickly waddles over to the bars and says, "There's no crying here, no sir, no need for double time sergeant."
As the guard walks away Smit comes over and sits next to me on the bed cot. He places his hand on my shoulder and says, "I don't know what you went through out there kid, but starting today I'm not only your roomie, I'm also your makeshift family. Down here you can't let yourself get upset over every little thing. If you do, you won't survive. We have to take care of one another down here. We have to hold out hope that one day we can see the sun again…" As Smit finishes talking I wipe away the rest of my tears about Mary and Jeb.
After a few moments of silence I thank Smit and walk towards the bars to get a better view of the prison. Outside of the cell there seems to be guards posted around every other cell. As I reach for the cell bars Smit runs over and says, "Hey kid don't touch those-" and I feel a huge jolting pain on the back of my neck. I almost collapse to the floor as my body jolts up and down. Electricity courses throughout my system and I scream in pain as Smit catches my limp body before it hits the ground.
Smit barely holds me up and says, "Kid it's ok don't freak out! Calm down!" As the electricity fades away he helps bring me back to sit on the bed cot. He places me down gently and says, "Sorry kid I forgot to warn you about the bars; we're not allowed to touch them while we're on lockdown. They put us all on lockdown around the same time you showed up a few hours ago."
After I regained control of my body Smit pointed to the back of his neck. There is a small blinking red light beneath his skin. In shock I reach behind my head as well and I find a small bump under my skin. "What is this thing?!" I say while regaining my breath. Before Smit could answer, a guard runs up to the other side of the bars. "Hey, you!" a large man screams, "I said keep out of trouble or else I'll put you in solitary on top of double duty!" He bangs the metal bars loudly and waves his baton around in the air. After that he slowly walks away and continues to yell at other prisoners as he leaves.
Smit grabs my face and pulls down my eyelids. He continues and grabs my hand to feel my pulse. He gives me a smile and says, "Well, there doesn't seem to be any damage to your higher functions or breathing after the shock. You're a lucky kid, some people can get permanent damage or pass out from their first shock." I thank Smit once again as he pats me on the shoulder.
Smit then moves his hand and places it on my back, "Well kid, allow me to welcome you to your new home: Human Detainment Center 114, home of the worst food under the east coast. You heard me, 'under the east coast,' because right now we're about 5 miles deep underground. This facility houses some of the most famous war criminals in the world. Out of everyone here, no one has been able to break out; and I've been here for 50 years ever since the war broke out. I've seen countless people here lose their noggin after being here so long. There's no windows, no sunlight, and you guessed it, no way to escape. Even if you could escape, you would be crushed by the pressure and weight from the water. Not to mention there are tunnels running all through the ground, with none of them leading to the outside world. This place is like a labyrinth inside of a labyrinth. You would get lost forever if you didn't have a map. Anyway…I-uh- I just thought I'd let you know before you got your hopes up kid."
I give Smit a faint smile in defeat and say, "Thanks Smit, I appreciate it…But if you don't mind me asking, why are you here anyway? I know you said you've been here a really long time but, what in the world could you have done during the war to end up here of all places?"
He gives a small chuckle and says, "Well, I was put in here a looong time ago when the war first started. I used to be a healer on the front lines for the rebellion. You should've seen me in my prime kid, I was one of the best! But sadly, as the human race continued to lose battle after battle, they gathered up everyone they could in the rebellion and placed them in prisons all over the world. They've long since forgotten about me I assume. I accepted my fate long ago kid, I'm never getting out of here. Might as well enjoy the rest of my life while I can you know…Every so often when someone new comes in I ask about how the war is going, but it seems pointless to keep fighting a losing battle."
He continues and says, "That chip in the back of our necks is to keep our abilities in check, kid. Everyone in this facility has one in their neck; if we could somehow get these out, then all of us could bust out of this place easily. There are some really powerful people with some really nasty abilities in this place. You wouldn't happen to have any lock-smithing abilities or can teleport could you?" Smit and I chuckle for a moment and I say, "No Smit, I don't think I can do anything like that. To be honest I don't even know if I have any abilities at all. Before I came here I…someone told me I might have some latent abilities but I don't know for sure."
Smit pats my back again gently and says, "Well they wouldn't have put you down here if not. This facility is specifically designed to ward off almost all types of abilities. The warden keeps a sharp eye on anyone who looks like their inhibitors have been messed with. Maybe you just haven't manifested yours yet. I've heard of cases where they come later in life but they're very rare."
As he finishes speaking our bars open. Smit stands up quickly and helps me off the ground. "Come on kid! They're finally ending the lockdown! We gotta get to the food court before everyone else so we can get our rations." He busts out of the room, running much faster than I assume his age allows. Trailing behind him, I walk forward to see the area beyond our cell.
As I walked out, I am almost blinded by giant fluorescent lights shining above my head. I gasp in utter shock. The entire space is a giant vertical concrete shoot; with giant concrete walls leading up to the lights above a mile high. Straight across and a couple hundred feet away are other cells filled with prisoners flooding out of their rooms and descending down to the bottom floor. To the sides of the cells are massive holes dug into the walls, with tunnels seeming to go in all different directions. Small metal walkways and bridges connect the sides of the walls together. Additional lights are hung over the entrances to the tunnels and walkways above.
Almost every floor holds what seemed to be hundreds of tunnels, with cells jetting in every which way next to them. Cameras and enormous metal doors block entrances around the bridges while giant stairwells lead down below. Towards the ground below I see an abundance of people starting to form groups around metallic tables and chairs. The bottom floor seems to be a large rest area where prisoners could sit, converse, and eat. At the bottom of the stairwell Smit has already made it to the ground and proceeds to wait in a large line where others were waiting for food.
Next to him are all types and colors of men and women, each in their dark green and black prison garb. Some are dressed in contrasting yellow hard hats with dim lights attached, their clothes are tattered and covered in dirt. Next to another large group of people are guards standing next to inmates, unlocking their shackles to be let into the main area. In another entrance, guards seem to be checking inmate's implants as they enter. Smit is right, the monitors here are a really big deal.
As I continue to survey the bottom floor, I see Smit being pushed down to the ground by an angry looking man. The man starts to shout at Smit screaming, "Watch where you're going old man!" He then punches Smit in the gut, calling him an "old piece of shit" as he beats him. Smit drops to his knees and forms his body into a ball trying to protect himself, silent and unmoving.
I look over to the guards around the room as they stand there watching. The guards are doing nothing to stop this from happening. As I run over to the guards next to me, I hear them whispering to one another about the outcome of the fight. I yell, "Aren't you guys going to help him?! He's just an old man!" They both look at me in disgust, and one moves away from the wall and pulls out a baton.
The baton starts to crackle with electricity and the guard says, "Listen kid, you need to learn your place around here." He points his baton at me and says, "You've been getting on my nerves since you got here. You must be begging me for punishment." In defense I raise both of my hands and say, "Nope, my bad sorry! Just figured it was your job to help. Won't happen again, sorry!" The guard turns off his electric baton and turns around, giving me the finger. I look back over the banister and see the situation down there getting worse and worse.
Downstairs, other inmates begin to circle around Smit and the other inmate and yell, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" in unison. As I make it down the stairs there are inmates and guards blocking my view of Smit. I try to push my way through but I can't reach him. The only thing I can see is the other inmate towering over Smit's cowering body.
Through the crowd I hear, "Next time when I tell you to move out of the way you MOVE!" and I hear a loud thud and Smit grunt in pain. As other inmates around me shift in place I notice the attacker reaching down and grabbing Smit by the neck. As the attacker grabs Smit's neck the crowd grows more and more restless.
Towards the other side of the crowd a young man runs up behind Smit's attacker. He slides onto the ground and kicks the man behind his knees, making him fall backwards. Smit falls out of the attacker's grip and hits the ground hard. The man then circles around the attacker and kicks him square in the face, making him fall back towards the ground with an amazing amount of force.
The man attacking Smit moves his hands to his nose as it starts gushing out blood. He screams, "You just broke my nose you little shit! You're gonna pay for that!" and growls as he stands back up.
The young man runs towards Smit's attacker and jumps forwards while wrapping his legs around the inmate's neck. The man locks his legs around the attacker and swirls around and shifts his weight to pull the attacker back down down. The attacker face-plants on the floor and lets out an audible, "OOF." The young man then jumps up and swivels to the back of the attacker's neck. He then punches the back of the inmate's neck with one solid swipe, and the attacker's head juts into the ground with an even louder thud. His head bounces once on the ground and looks like he got knocked unconscious, all the while creating an indent where his head smashed into the ground.
The young man then puts his foot on the attacker's unconscious body and leans down to his ear and says, "Be careful next time you go and pick a fight with someone who can't fight back. Next time, if you want to fight someone, you fight ME!" He gradually grows louder and louder as shouts, pointing to himself in the chest. The man cries out, "Does anyone else have a problem? How many more of you wanna fight over some shitty rations?" as they all remain silent. Soon after, they all turn and walk away.
As everyone disperses, the man moves away from the attacker and walks over to Smit lying on the ground. He helps raise him up to a nearby table and sits him gently on an open seat. As more and more people move out of my way I run over to them.
As I get closer I hear the young man talking to Smit saying, "Don't worry Smit, next time that guy wants to start a fight with someone he'll think twice." As I get closer to the both of them the man stands up with his fist raised, ready to fight again. "You got something you wanna say?" he says as he looks at me with fierce eyes and a sturdy fighting stance.