Chapter 6: Questions and escape
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John didn't know where he was but he had a very bad headache, as he groaned and sat up. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw cobblestone walls before turning to see iron bars.
'What the hell happened?' he wondered as he began to try and recall what happened.
He was making his way back towards the black hawk until he stumbled across those children... Then the guards showed up followed by that rag tag group of random animals... he then remembered fighting them until he was left only with the tiger... and then... nothing.
It didn't take long though to tell he pieced together what happened, and he felt like hitting himself outside the head.
'I got too focused on the tiger and one of the other animals knocked me out great... way to go dumbass!' he thought as he began to examine himself.
To his further frustration he saw most of his armor had been removed with only his under-armor shirt, pant leggings and boots remaining. He could also tell he had in fact broken a few ribs by the pain he was feeling, and after lifting his shirt up saw the bruising.
'Fuck' he mentally cursed before trying to push himself up.
Leaning against the wall John pushed himself up before walking over to the iron barred door. Looking down the hall through the iron bars he saw other cells like his, and he immediately realized he was in some sort of prison.
"Hey look." He heard someone say to his left and after turning to his left saw three rhinos walking by with spears. "The demons awake." Continued the left rhino as they walked.
'Great! Apparently, I'm a demon.' He thought sarcastically with a slight roll of the eyes.
"Once the grand master is done you it's off to Char Gom for you, ugly." He then heard the middle one say, followed by the three laughing as they walked away. I was going to say something to this asshole but before I could I heard some chuckle from the cell next to me. It sounded like someone was laughing with a sore throat.
Once the guards were out of sight I decided to ask who my new cell neighbor was, maybe even get some answers on what the hell was this place. "Hey, you there, can you understand me?"
'Ok, not the best way to start a sentence, but it'll do.'
"Hmm, I didn't think you could speak, but I guess it is nice to talk to someone who's not a guard." Said my cell neighbor. "I'm guessing since you're new here you would need to be filled in on what the schedule here is."
"You won't need to, I won't be here for long." John spoke.
"Hmmmm, yes I heard what the guard said, something about you being taken to the Jade Palace master." The voice spoke.
"Yeah, but I'm not planning on being taken somewhere I might be executed for, I'm planning my escape."
"Good luck with that, not many have escaped from here, there will be guards everywhere. Your odds are 4 to 60 chances of escape." The voice spoke.
"I'll improvise." John spoke with a hint of confidence. "But before I do, I want some answers to a few questions of mine."
The voice was silent for a minute before he gave an answer. "Well I'm not going anywhere, so ask awayyyy...." He ended with singing at the last part, creepy.
John wondered what he should ask first until he decided to ask who those six animals were from his arrest. "Before I was brought here I had a fight with six animals, a tiger, snake, crane, monkey, mantis, and believe or not a freaking Panda. Who were they?"
The voice was silent,again, for a moment before he answered. "The first five animals would be the notorious Furious Five, a team of ...." He paused for a sec, not a good sign. "Mercenaries who were trained in the arts of Kung Fu, they are paid for protection from other bandits and the Jade palace master is the master of this group." The voice paused as he let John take in this info, 'I could tell from my encounter with them that they weren't anywhere close to a mercenary type, and I've dealt with many in my career, so this guy is obviously lying, but till I get info I'll play his game.' John thought to himself.
"Now what about the Panda, why is he important?" John asked.
"The pandas name is Po, he was chosen to be the so-called 'Dragon warrior', he isn't the true warrior, it should've been one of my own." The voice spoke with bitter evident in his tone.
'Dragon Warrior, the hell does that- You know what I'll figure that out later.' Were Johns mental thoughts.
"Anyways, thanks for the info mr.." John trailed off not knowing the voice's name.
The voice caught on quickly "Where are my manners, my name is Junjie, MASTER Junjie. I really care for names right now, all I know is if we don't escape we'll both lock up for good." The voice now named Junjie answered.
'Why would a master be in here, unless for a good reason, best not to let him out once I escape.' John thought to himself.
"Agreed to that." John said before he started to try to find a weak spot in the cell, nothing, that is until he noticed the lock on the cell.
'Great! Going to need a key.' He thought only to realize he was in luck as a guard walked by with a key chain full of keys at his side.
'Bingo' he thought as he wondered how he was going to get them though. Looking around John soon spotted a small empty metal tankard near the corner reflecting in the moon.
'That'll work.' he thought as he picked up the empty tankard. Once the guard was out of sight he spoke to Junjie. "Best to cover your ears, this might take awhile."
"And why is that?" Ask Junjie.
"You'll see."
(Thirty minutes later)
CLANG CLANG CLANG... CLANG CLANG CLANG...
John had been hitting the tankard off of the iron bars for about a half an hour now and he knew his plan was working. If the complaints were to go by.
"AH MAKE IT STOP!", "MY EARS HURT", "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE". That and many more complaints were sent out as John continued to drag the metal cup across the bars at the window.
Finally, after another two minutes his plan started coming together as the guard walked up to the cell door.
"Hey! Stop that!" he ordered but John didn't listen as he continued to drag the tankard across the window bars.
"I said stop that!" he then ordered again as he thrusted his spear forward to poke John in the shoulder slightly.
John winced at the slight pain before resetting himself and waited for the guard to do it again. Hearing the spear lightly tap the bars as it entered his cell John sprang into action. In the blink of an eye John turned around and grabbed the spear and rushed forward to grab the surprised guard. Then using all his might John yanked the guard forward resulting in the guard's face being smashed into the cell door before falling to the ground unconscious.
Taking a deep breath, John glanced down the hall and didn't see anyone, meaning none of the other guards heard the commotion.
After struggling to shift the guard slightly John reached for the keys, and barely got them in his grasp.
'Gotch ya' he thought as then immediately brought them the cell door and began trying each key.
Trying one key at a time John struggled to open his cell, before finally opening it on the seventh key. As soon as the door opened, John swung it fully open and started to move the unconscious guard into the cell, though had some difficulty because of the size difference and because of his injured leg.
When the guard was finally in the cell, John closed and relocked the cell door. "Excellent work there, now come on, unlock my cell so we can leave." Said Junjie. Now that John was out of his cell he could get a better look at Junjie. He looked like a fox, but he was smaller than normal ones, he wore glasses and was dressed in a dark blue robe and had some pants. And if John was being honest he looked kinda creepy.
Junjie noticed John's hesitation and was starting to become a little annoyed,"What's taking so long you hairless ape, let me out and we could escape, and maybeeee, get revenge on the animals who imprisoned you? Hmm." He ended his speech with a 'hmm' look.
If John was being honest with himself it sounded tempting, too tempting to get payback on the animals who attacked him, but he stopped himself, he reminded himself that if he were to try to get back at him, it might start something he might not win.
With that decision in mind he tossed the keys inside an empty cell across from him, and then turned back to a stunned Junjie who looked like he was ready to beat the everloving crap out of him, the only thing that stopped him was the cell.
"Sorry, but I don't deal with criminals, but thanks for the info, even though some of it is probably wrong." With that John left before Junjie could get a word out.
(3 minutes later)
After he found the way out to a hall, John began to quietly creep down the hallway to where he hoped was a way out. He silently made his way to the end of the hall, before pressing himself into the dark corner as he heard a couple of guards coming.
Waiting silently, he watched them continuing down the hall before turning and disappearing down another hall. With the guards now gone John peered around a corner to see a group of four guards sitting around a table drinking, with his equipment on a bench off to the side.
'Well Crap' he cursed in his head as he wondered how he was going to get it.
Peering into the room a little more he soon realised his equipment was on a bench beneath a window, which meant if he could get outside he could circle around before retrieving it and then retreating. Turning around he began to make his way to where the other two guards had went, and stopped at the corner.
Taking a quick glance, he saw the door open and ran towards the door before opening it to get outside. Once outside he saw the two guards returning, so not wanting to be spotted he ducked into a bush right next to him.
As soon as they passed he sprinted around the side of the building to get to the window where his stuff was but pulled himself back around the corner when he saw another guard. Taking a second glance, he saw him standing with a torch as he scanned the area, but could see he was also facing slightly away.
Slowly taking one step up at a time he slowly snuck up on the guard before pulling him back into a rear naked choke. Realizing though the guard still had height on his side, John kicked out his knees to give him the height he needed to incapacitate the guard. When he felt the guard go limp he realized the hold and slowly lowered him to the ground so as to not make any noise.
Looking around to make sure no one else heard he saw the window and once making sure that the coast was clear he sprinted to the window and ever so slightly peaked inside.
The guards were laughing either from a story or a joke one of them was telling, but John didn't really care, as all he cared about was the fact that they were being loud and were distracted. Reaching into the room from the window he tried to reach his gear.
He could feel his hand rub against the fabric of his bag but couldn't get a grip on it so he raised himself a little higher, even though he knew he was increasing his chance of getting caught. Extending his arm as far as he could he smiled when he finally got a grip on the bag, and ever so slowly began to pull it towards him.
Inch by inch he pulled and he was beginning to think it was certain that he was going to be caught, that one of the guards would see his hand and expose him to the others. But he nearly began laughing when the pack came completely out of the window. Not even wasting a second he threw the pack on and began sprinting towards forest not caring which direction he was going in.
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Sorry this took awhile and yes I made Junjie a little cameo, and to those who want to say more, I'm sorry to say but this was just a one time thing for the guy, but I got other things in mind for the next chapters.
Anyways hope you enjoy and hope to catch you next time.