As Real as it Gets

Plan A: Riot (Chapter 13, Part 2)

The large group of jail breakers were quickly making their way through the hallways, shooting anyone who dared to cross their path. They didn't have the password for the elevator so they blew up a lock on a door and headed up the stairs, but heavily armed Feds stepped in front of them, blocking their way.

"Follow me! I know how to get to level 9 faster." Sylis turned back downstairs and the others followed.

They went through several hallways packed with traps, but managed to enter a small room. It didn't have much in it, only a desk and a bookshelf. Then, the one and only door behind them closed shut, trapping everyone inside.

"Sylis, where are we?" Rick asked, growing suspicious of the pink alien.

Sylis turned to meet his gaze, "I'm sorry... they promised I could talk to my family again."

"What?!" Rick wanted to question, but was interrupted when laser guns appeared from the walls and pointed at the jail breakers.

A voice through the speakers was heard, "Drop your weapons." They did as they were told. A moment later several gromflomites entered the room, handcuffing all the prisoners.

The General also walked in, looking as happy as ever, "Thank you Sylis, for telling us his plan. We couldn't have done it without you."

"Motherfucker." Rick growled.

"And my- my family?" Sylis stuttered, "Can I talk to them now?"

The General laughed quietly, "Oh, they're dead. They're all dead, you can't talk to anyone. We killed them all a long time ago."

"You monsters!" Sylis cried out.

Rick's gaze was drawn to one of the laser guns, the green light on it flashed a couple times before turning red. It moved slightly to the right and shot a deadly laser beam, hitting the guard who held Rick straight in the head. The guard collapsed to the ground.

"What the fuck?!" The General looked at the laser then at his workers, "Why are you standing around?! Grab Sanchez!"

The door opened, seemingly by itself, without any of the guards doing anything to trigger it. Rick took the chance and bolted through the door as fast as he could. He didn't know where he was going, he only knew he needed to escape the Feds who were hot on his tail.

He slowed down to catch his breath after he outran all the insects, and somehow managed to slip his hands out of the handcuffs. A loud sound of metal scraping against metal caught his attention. He noticed that a door had opened. Curiosity got the best of him and with a lot of hesitation he started making his way towards it.

The eerie silence was broken when something collided with him quickly and forcefully. He fell down and it took a second for his vision to come back, but when it did, he was taken aback by who he saw.

"Birdperson?!" Rick's eyes widened, "What did those fuckers do to you?!"

"I am Phoenixperson." The half robot, half humanoid bird stepped closer to him and grabbed him by the neck, effortlessly lifting his feet off the ground.

Rick gasped for air as he tried to free himself from the strong grasp, "It' s me, Rick, your best friend... D- don't you remember me?"

Phoenixperson looked at Rick, but his eyes were empty and soulless. He started walking towards the prison cells, still carrying Rick with him.

Rick was running out of air and his eyes were slowly closing. The last thing he saw was Tammy's delighted smirk after Phoenixperson threw him back in his cell, "You fucking bitch." He said weakly. The doors closed and he was all alone once again.

-

He woke up several hours later, his head was pounding and vision slightly blurry. After standing up, he took a few steps to lie on the slightly more comfortable bed.

A sudden loud noise made him jump and look at his cell door which seemed to have opened by itself. No automated message from the speakers was heard, nor was anyone outside who might have opened the door manually.

Rick stood up, confusion obvious on his face. He peeked outside of his cell, noticing that only his was open. What was also different was that the usual green lights on the security cameras turned red. He took a deep breath and stepped outside, knowing full well that it might have been a trap.

He avoided and sneaked past the guards as best as he could. None of them appeared to know he escaped. After a while of walking through the halls, he faced the door that had opened just before Phoenixperson got to him.

The door opened again. Rick stepped inside after making sure nobody was following him. The room he found himself in was very large, but cluttered and full of old weaponry, brainalyzers and computers. He slowly and cautiously walked through the maze of tall shelves before arriving to a space free of clutter. There was a circle of blue light on the floor, the only thing that seemed to have power in that room.

"Alright, I'm here." Rick spoke as if he knew he wasn't alone in the ghostly storage room, "You wanted me to come here, whoever you are. So quit with this suspenseful, mysterious bullcrap. I'm not buying any of it." He looked around the room in an attempt to find whoever brought him there.

"Orange really isn't your color," a familiar voice giggled, "I much prefer the old lab coat."

Rick turned back to the circle of light and his heart skipped a beat, his shaky legs barely kept him standing up, "...Babe?" He whispered.