Rabbit Hole

Cell Block Strategist

WARNING: This chapter (and let's be honest, the rest of the story now) contains strong violence.

To think I didn't know this place existed a few weeks ago and now I was tearing it down. It felt insane.

But there was a reason we were tearing it down, and we were about to discover so much more.

Blake's POV

So, this is where I almost ended up. I'll be honest, if I knew nothing else about this place, I'd have bought the cover story. It doesn't exactly look awful, the decoration actually seems nice. Come to think of it, that's why it's dangerous. Somewhere this good at creating a smoke screen must be hiding something serious. But apart from the guards, we were yet to discover something truly disturbing. However, that wouldn't be the case for long.

We were almost at one of the rooms for the 'patients', when I suddenly hit my hand on something on the wall. Turning to look, I see nothing, but Kat looks from another angle and finds something.

"This is a door handle. They've painted it to be hidden."
"I guess they're not used to people running their hands across the wall."

Harriet goes to open it, and we're greeted with an iron hellscape. A corridor with orange lighting appears, and we decide to enter. Before we proceed, Kat pulls out their knife for protection. Eventually, we reach another door, but it's locked. However, it's made of really old wood, so it's not really the peak of security.

"So, how do we do this?"
"Well, we could break down the door, but-"

Before I can finish my sentence, Kat has already charged at and plowed straight through the door, smashing it to pieces. I was gonna say we have to be careful if anyone's on the other side.

Luckily, I didn't need to worry, this place looks abandoned, however what we find looks horrific.

A wall of cells greets us to the right, and straight ahead, a wall of weapons. Knifes, guns, saws, hammers, you name it, it's on that wall. No signs of blood stain the walls, so either it's for show or they clean up after every try.

However, Kat notices something in the cell, and goes closer.
An engraving.
However she can't read it from that distance.
She gets closer.
Something doesn't seem right.
Closer.
I hear footsteps.
Closer.
They see it.
"It says Cheshire."
At that moment, I realise what happened.
It's a trap.
I go to stop what's about to happen.
A guard shoves Kat into the cell and locks the door.
Harriet is horrified and instantly goes to fight, but a pistol aimed at her face stops her, from a new person.
She's not a guard.
We have no idea what's about to happen.
But Kat does.
"Carol."

One of the four main runners of this place.

"You're predictable."
"So, you're one of the ringleaders." I start to talk to her. It helps to understand who you're going up against.
"Indeed. I'm surprised you came after escaping us the first time."
"Don't flatter yourself, you never got close. I didn't know you existed until three days ago."
"Still. You avoided conversion therapy, only to come back by choice."
"I didn't come for your 'treatment', Carol. I came to end this."
"Going by first names, are we?"
"I'm not calling you anything else, you don't deserve a rank."
"Well, I know enough about you as well."
"Wait, come to think of it, how'd you know we were gonna be here?"
"Oh, I had someone on the inside of your operation. I'm shocked you didn't notice."
"Who is it?"
"Why would I tell you that?"
"You think we're gonna survive to tell anyone else?" I'm fully expecting to, but she might buy it.
"Fair point. I'll give you a hint: the heart fell for a lie."
"What does that mean?"
"I'll let you figure it out."

The heart? She probably means characters, so that's either Amanda or Liv. More likely to be Liv, and who did she-

Andrew.

"Oh god."
"I think you've got it."
"We need to warn Liv-"
"You're not getting out. You know that."
"We can try."
"How? You're outnumbered. There's 4 guards, and 1 of me. There's 2 of you. Well, 3, but you can't really do much damage from a cell."

At that moment, Kat reaches his arm through the bars and stabs one of the guards in the stomach.
Harriet takes the opportunity to run to get a hammer in the chaos.
I quickly disarm Carol by throwing the gun across the room.
One guard runs towards Harriet, but gets a quick blow to the head with a hammer.
Blood splatters on the wall as they fall dead.
Another grabs onto Harriet.
She stabs them in the head and kicks off them.
Straight into the second cell.
Carol slams it shut before Harriet can escape.

"Well, that just leaves you. You gonna try fight it again?"
"I mean, I've got a perfect record. Might as well go for two for two."

I run to grab the gun.
Another guard tries to knock me over.
I dodge the tackle and grab the gun.
Just before I can shoot the lock, Carol punches me in the face.
The gun fires as it drops, the bullet heading straight into the wall.
I notice the chamber only has one bullet left.
And that's enough for me to form my plan.
I grab onto the guard and run backwards towards Harriet's cell.
He slams into the bars and slides to the floor.
Carol gets the gun.
She aims at me.

She shoots.
I dodge as I elbow the guard in the face.
The bullet travels directly through his neck and into the lock.
Harriet's cell opens, and the guard bleeds out on the floor.

Carol goes to shoot us, but the bullets are out.
Harriet goes to fight her as I run to the weapon wall, grabbing a crosscut saw from the wall.
She lands a punch on Carol.
Carol is knocked to face me.
Harriet stabs the sharp end of the hammer into her head as I swing the saw, slicing her throat clean open.

That's one down.

We go to rescue Kat, but remember something that turns the moment dark again.
There were four guards.
We killed three.
Staring at Kat's now empty cell, we realise they were taken in the chaos.
We lost her.

"Oh no. Damn it! I should have-"
"Blake, this isn't over. If they've taken her, we know that they don't plan to kill them."
"Good point. Where would they take them?"

At that moment, we notice flashing on our radios. Checking it, we see Kat's light flickering on and off. We also notice Nick, Jade and Jules have been incapacitated, potentially killed. Then, it clicks. Morse code.
I fire back a message.
.-. . .--. . .- -
She recognises it as "repeat", and it doesn't take long before they respond.
-- . - .- .-.. / -.. --- --- .-.
Metal door.

"That must be the place they do the brainwashing."
"We need to get there. We need to save them."
"We will. But we'll need as much help as possible."
"So, what are we waiting for? Let's find the others."

We run back out the metal corridor and into the hallways.

We've got to find someone soon.
We have to save Kat.
We have to destroy this place.