Once the doors were all unlocked, I followed the stream of people down the steps to the main floor. I shoved my way through the angry mob of men and women to try to get to Farris. The people had swarmed the two Guardians that lay on the floor, yelling at them and spitting on them. They were beating the two men to a bloody pulp. I turned away from them and made my way to Farris, who stood near the metal door, talking with a burly man who looked as though he were in his thirties.
"This is crazier than I was expecting!" I shouted above the noise. People were beating on the concrete walls, shouting obscenities. They were kicking at the metal door, pulling the metal hooks off the walls in the cells.
Someone wrapped their arm around my neck, squeezing hard. I gagged, clawing at the arm as Farris shouted at the person to let me go. I kicked at the person, spots growing in my vision.
Farris shoved the man back, pushing him against the wall as the man Farris had been talking to grabbed me, putting me between him and the wall. I gasped for air, sucking in deep, shaky breaths, my head against the cool concrete.
"Fighting amongst ourselves will solve nothing!" the man shouted.
"She's the reason I'm in here in the first place!" the man who'd attacked me shouted in response, fighting against Farris to get to me. I looked at him wearily. Brown hair. Green eyes. Average weight. He could have been any person I passed on the street.
"And she's the one who's trying to get you out of here!" Farris shouted back, shoving the man back into the circle of people who had formed around us. "You're not the only one she's hunted in the past. We've all done shitty things and we're all well aware of why we did those things!"
"I'm going to kill her!" the man hollered, surging forward again. I watched as he collided with Farris, the two of them falling to the ground.
I pushed past the man in front of me, pulling the other man off Farris and shoving him back towards his posse. I planted my feet, squaring off with him. He wiped his bloody face with the back of his hand as Farris clambered to his feet. Farris moved to stand in front of me, but I pushed him off to the side.
"I don't need anyone to fight my battles for me," I growled at him. I turned and faced the other man. "As for you, I did what I was ordered to do. Nothing more, nothing less. There was nothing I could have done to—"
There were shouts all around us as he shoved me to the ground. The air rushed out of my chest. I gasped, pain exploding in my head as he brought his fist down on it. I covered my head with my arms, groaning. He shoved his knee into my stomach, blocking my airway even more.
I tried to knee him, but he just put even more weight on my legs. I jammed my elbow into his eye. He cried out, rolling off me. I rolled over and slowly rose to my feet as he stumbled to his feet too.
"You're fighting the wrong person," I told him, my voice crackling. "We can't fight amongst ourselves if we want to free the Leader."
"The Leader's dead," he growled, moving towards me. Farris stepped in front of him. "She's been dead for months."
"So they've told you," I hissed. "How many lies do you think all of us have been fed over the years? How can you possibly trust a word that comes out of their mouths? I was sent to hunt Farris and his brother who were known as the Chameleon Agent. They arrested me and Derek, the former Executioner, because we killed the person that they told us was the person we were supposed to kill! I know what it feels like to be wronged and I know that you feel that way now, but you're taking your anger out on the wrong person. I never decided who died or who was arrested. I only planned how to capture the person. I was ordered to do that just like those Guardian's are ordered to work here."
He wiped the blood off his face, glancing at the now silent crowd around us. "This is not my fault," I said softly. "This is what happens when people think that they have all of the power they could ever want. We are the ones who are going to show them differently. We're going to show them that they can't oppress us any longer."
Farris eased back from the man. The man didn't move, but he didn't look fully convinced that I was telling him the truth.
"You can believe me or you can't, but we're wasting time. The Guardians, Agents, and Officers are going to be in here any minute and we're not going to be able to hold them off," I told everyone standing around us. "We have to go now!"
I turned my back to them, pushing through everyone to the door, praying that Rose had changed the password to the one she'd had us all memorize. The doors had never opened on the cells. I didn't know if she had run into a snag or if it had just taken that long to get the other cell blocks opened.
I took a deep breath, trying to ignore the pounding in my head and the pain in my ribs as I shakily typed in the password. The light flashed red. I took a deep breath and entered it again. The light still flashed red.
"Farris," I said softly, looking over at him. "It's not working." He looked back at me before he came over, typing in the password himself.
"She must have been caught," he replied, speaking what I hadn't wanted to admit. "We'll have to break the door down."
"That'll take too long."
"We don't have a choice." He turned away from me and went to speak to some of the people standing at the edge of the crowd.
This was all taking too long. We should have been out of the cell block by now. I angrily kicked at the door, ignoring the pain that ran up my leg.
A siren started blaring in the cell block. Red lights flashed overhead as an automated warning blared for everyone to surrender or we would all be killed in sixty seconds.
"We have to get out before they gas us!" I shouted at Farris over the ruckus. They had skipped protocol. We were supposed to have more time before they threatened us with gas.
He started barking orders at everyone. They swarmed around the door, all of them shoving against it to try and knock it down. I grabbed Farris' arm, pulling him to the side.
"That isn't going to work. Those doors are reinforced to prevent them from breaking out in cases like this! We need the override code or else we're not getting out of here."
"That isn't exactly working," he replied, watching the swarm ram into the door over and over again.
I put my hands over my ears, closing my eyes as I tried to think about the riot simulations. They'd skipped the raid. They'd skipped the negotiating. The prison was on lock down. It was harder to move through the prison because each gate was protected by a specific password. That was the password Rose had given us. It was only to be used for special events.
I sunk down to a crouch, resting my head on my knee. Something else. Something that would protect the Guardian's, Agents, or Officers who were trapped in the cellblock.
"A hidden entrance" I whispered, shooting to my feet. "There's a second entrance. It's not as secure because you don't know it's there unless you were told."
"Where?" Farris asked, but I was already running to the steps, shoving past everyone.
Fourth floor. Hardly any inmates were ever situated there. Any unused cells had the doors shut and locked, but one cell was never given an occupant for population control reasons. Or so they said. I skidded to a stop in front of the door. I'd opened it earlier without even realizing it.
I rushed into the room, Farris and a few others who'd overheard us rushed in after me. I ran my hand along the wall, squinting to see any cracks that weren't meant to be there, before my hand ran over a bump.
"Bingo," I whispered, shoving my shoulder against it. I rammed the wall three times before it gave, revealing a door set back into a little alcove with a keypad.
"Great, now we need another password," Farris muttered.
I looked at him. "Which I was taught when I got my job. They never would have changed it because it's been the same password for a decade. No one's ever needed to use it."
I turned away from him, quickly typing in a code. The light flashed red. Farris cursed behind me, but I shushed him. I was rusty. The code wasn't exactly something that I used every day. I typed in another code, letting out a shout of joy as the light flashed green.
Someone ran out onto the cell block's ledge, shouting to the people below that we had a way out.
"How much time?" I asked Farris' acquaintance.
"Less than twenty seconds," he said. I nodded and ushered him through the door, shouting for people to get through as quickly as they could. We had a few seconds after the gas was released. It would take about thirty seconds for the body to inhale enough of it for it to become toxic.
"Put a piece of your shirt around your mouth!" I shouted to the people who were further back in the crowd. Everyone was pushing and shoving one another. I wasn't sure if they were even listening to us.
I pulled off the Guardian uniform, ripping a piece of it to tie over my mouth before I started tearing other pieces and tossing them down the stairs to people. It wasn't much of a block, but it was better than directly inhaling the gas. It would at least buy everyone a little more time. Maybe up our time to forty seconds.
I stood next to Farris, watching the vents above us anxiously. There was no way to see the gas, but there had to be a change in the air. Something that gave a hint about the release. I swallowed hard and turned to look at Farris.
"I don't know where this leads to," I told him in a low voice, "and I don't really care if it means that we got everyone out safely. But, we're going to be facing a lot more people than we were expecting to if they're already resorting to gas. Or, it could be worse and they're going to just gas the entire prison."
He stared at me. "Why didn't you mention that before?"
"Panic isn't something that we need right now, now is it?" I asked. I turned away from him, watching as the people continued to push their way down the stairs. "I doubt that's something that would happen. Killing this many people would cause an uprising on its own."
"That doesn't mean they wouldn't do it, though," Farris said bitterly. I nodded, but didn't answer him. I cast my gaze up to the ceiling again. The gas had to be in the room by now and we were too close to it for comfort. I swallowed hard, stepping closer to Farris, the only familiar face I had in this place.
"Farris, you realize that the two of us may not make it out of here, right?" I murmured.
"All of us were aware of that when we started this."
"No, I mean, you do know that this really could be the end," I told him. "Not just a speculation or a theory, but the truth."
He nodded. "Yeah, I'm aware of that."
"Good," I murmured.
We were in deeper than we had planned to be. Never had I seen the prisons break protocol. Never had I seen a riot where everyone was out of their cells and flooding the prison. In extreme cases, they would gas or burn the entire prison. It wasn't worth the battle and it wasn't worth the lives that the government would lose.
These people didn't count. They were criminals, people who were easily disposable. They couldn't be disposed of because who had ever heard of killing someone for jaywalking? For telling someone that an apple was a peach? Only hardcore criminals were to be executed, the thieves, the murderers, anyone who was a major threat to society. No one would have ever allowed for the deaths of people who had committed a crime that did not threaten the lives of others.
The end of the line was snaking down the steps now. It was getting harder to breathe, but we were going to make it through this part. I followed Farris down the stairs, slamming the door shut behind us and hurrying down the steps, coughing. The gas was still evident in the stairwell.
Still deadly.
We pushed people down the stairs, coughing and hoarsely shouting for everyone to move faster. We needed to get into a larger space. This could kill us as quickly as being in the cell block could have.
Farris grabbed my hand, pulling me through the throng of people. I followed him, trying not to trip over hidden obstacles like people's feet or someone passed out on the ground or the person trying to help the person who had passed out.
We shoved our way out into the long gated hallway and to the front of the line. We realized then why people weren't moving quickly.
A line of Guardian's, Agent's, and Officer's stood in front of us. They were dressed from head to toe in bullet proof body armor. Every other person held a shield up in front of them and the person next to them while the second person held a laser sighted gun. They were all pointed at us.
The position of the laser changed from random people to Farris and me the instant they saw us. I froze, pulling Farris to a stop.
"Hand yourselves over and no one will be shot," a Guardian shouted, his voice muffled by the mask he wore. At least they were following protocol now.
"You know how wrong this is," I called hoarsely. "These people are in—"
"Not another word!" an Agent shouted, his finger hovering on the trigger. "Come peacefully and silently and you will not be shot."
"Yet," Farris sneered. I squeezed his hand tightly.
"Fight back," I said softly to the people around me. "We are just two lives. You all have a chance to win. So take it."
X.X.X
© All Rights Reserved by Harmony'sLoveHP. No part of this story may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real people is merely a coincidence. This work is a work of my imagination. Any similarities to other works of art are coincidental.