Edited.
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With my eyes closed I could hear the gentle humming of an old song that my parents once used to sing to me as a child, the callous tune awoke me and I slowly stirred from the cold iron bed. Dragging my legs to hang over the side of the bed, the humming stopped.
"So your finally awake, it's about time you got up off your lazy ass."
I opened my eyes and saw Azazel pumping away, press up after press up.
"What the hell are you doing?"
He stopped and sat on his bed across from me as he spoke.
"Wasn't it obvious that I was doing my daily exercises dude?"
A sudden thought struck me as I frantically tried to understand the situation.
"Wait a minute, why the hell are you in here too?"
He began to laugh at me.
"Isn't that another obvious question buddy, I'm just like you. I've been talking to the guards and some of the inmates to get a better understanding as to what happened to us, and they call you a spawner which is a rare individual, who is the key to all of us. When you let out that light back at the observatory you basically spread the mutated cells in your body to the surrounding area, in other words, every single survivor from our school became like we are now and is somewhere within this prison designed to keep us in and everyone else out."
I was listening with such focus and I couldn't believe what I was hearing, because of me and my lack of self-control all the people I once looked at with joy on their faces are now trapped in here or dead before they could be turned. Nobody escaped a fate bound with the demons that crawled out of that hole. Realizing this I sunk my head into my hands and begged whatever gods that cared enough to look down on me for forgiveness.
"What have I done? Is that what you're thinking dude?"
I looked up at Azazel with my heart aching in pain.
"Stop pulling the face of a dog prepared to be put down, I admit I didn't expect this but in honesty there are much worse endings to a high school life than this. Most people say goodbye and lose good friends forever, go off to a boring job they hate and struggle their entire lives for wealth and any shrivel of power they can find. But in the end they die and all that goes to waste, we might be held down but we are more free than people like that will ever be, besides out of us all you've had it pretty rough. I mean you had your arm ripped off then it slowly healed by your flames and then after that there is everything that happened upstairs in the operating theatre. They broadcast it throughout the prison, I'm sorry for what happened, if only I could have done something to help you like a good friend would have."
I couldn't see my friend apologizing for my father's death, it was just too painful to bear.
"Azazel, please don't apologize for that, the man who killed my father will be terminated by my own hands someday, when that happens I'll listen to whatever feelings you have regarding the matter."
Azazel paused for a minute before standing up and walking to the cell door, he turned his head back to me and spoke sternly.
"You don't have to pretend to be made of steel, your human just like the rest of us. It's okay to mourn over the loss of a loved one, get some rest and think about things while I'm gone, I'm going to get some dinner for us from the cafeteria."
He walked through the door and it began to shut automatically.
Maybe he was right and I was trying too hard to be tough but for some reason I just couldn't cry.
("Crying is a useless excess of emotions so why are you worrying about it?")
("It may seem pointless to you Garo, but it's an important part of being human. I don't want to believe that I've fallen so far so fast that I can't even express my pain over my father's death.")
("But people die all the time, war, plague, famine, death through old age, there is no end to the list of people dying each and every day but you lived carefree and happy before, but only now when somebody close to you dies do you feel any kind of remorse or sadness. The human mind is indeed a very delicate creation, like placing a single feather on a weighing scale, it only takes a small nudge and everything can be thrown out of balance.")
I laid down on my bed with my hands behind my head and one leg bent with my knee facing the ceiling.
("I'm quite surprised Zokishiro, you haven't even asked me what happened to your little girlfriend.")
I rolled my eyes.
("What girlfriend?")
("You know, creepy stalker girl with blue hair.")
I laughed under my breath as the door to the cell opened and Terra walked in.
"So how is my kid brother doing so far then, is the prison life all you thought it was cracked up to be?"
I looked up at the ceiling averting her gaze.
"Sure it's been great so far, I watched my father die, failed to do anything about it and now belong to the government as their disposable mercenary to be used as they see fit."
She smiled before coming to sit beside me on the bed.
Laying her weight on her hands she leaned back and looked up at the ceiling.
"You know this place isn't so bad once you get used to it. I came in here just like you having lost a lot of my friends and family, eventually after a few months a new guy transferred in, he was tall and skinny, no muscle or attractive features about him. He wanted to get out of here to see his family again, he trained alone in his cell day and night and by the time we saw him again, he was well built and strong, within weeks he used his knowledge and personality to pretty much dominate the prison, the guards would laugh with him and talk with him as if he were one of them. The inmates trusted him like family and I myself fell in love with the lunatic, but that wasn't meant to last, whilst he was stationed out on a seek and destroy mission for an average ranking demon in the south west of India, he made a break for it and escaped, he came back to the prison the following day as if nothing had ever happened. He spoke with me and we laid together all night, I fell asleep and when I woke up he was gone, nobody had no memory of him but all of the inmates that were close with him still retained their memories. He had vanished without a word of goodbye to any of us, the man I'm talking about is called Shougo, your big brother."
I rolled over and faced the wall.
"At least I know he could be alive, I guess that's a load off of my mind. Thank you for sharing that with me, and can I ask you a question?"
She smiled and turned her head around to look at me.
"Of course, I already consider you family if there is anything you ever need don't be afraid to ask."
"Why is it that you're the only girl I've seen in this prison? My best friend is here and he said all the survivors from my school were brought here as they had mutated bio-genetics thanks to me. I had a friend, a girl with blue hair called Mazira, she should be here too but I couldn't see her before when I first came down into the prisons main quarters."
She began to laugh.
"Phew, I thought you were going to ask for some help with something scary. The reason I appear the only woman is because I'm the leading representative of the prison inmates as well as being in charge of the inmate inductions I can freely go as I please between different wards of the prison. This wing is full of men only. There are 3 wings dedicated to female inmates, there were quite a few girls brought here at the same time as you but unfortunately they were inducted by the guards so I'm not sure whether or not your friend is in here. But based on your description I should be able to find out by lock-down tonight, just wait patiently and promise me you won't go vanishing on me like your brother did."
I turned over and as I did Terra wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug, I could feel the warmth of her tears running down on to my shoulder. I lifted my arms and hugged her back.
"You don't have to worry about that, I won't be leaving here without my friends and when I do I'll unfortunately be using the rest of the inmates as a distraction. You have to come with me until I find my brother, he never showed interest in women before so the fact he loved you means it's my job as his brother to reunite you both together."
I wiped her eyes and she began to stand up when the sliding door moved to the right to show a frantic inmate stuttering and slurring his words.
"Terra, you need to come quick, he's attacking the new kids again."
She let go of what little hold she had on me from our hug and sprinted out of the door. I rolled out of bed and peeked my head outside of the door to see Azazel covered in blood motionless on the floor.
"Mokuba, why are you being violent with the new guys again, you are getting out of hand!"
As she spoke I began running towards Azazel to see if he was still breathing.
"Oh come on Terra, I've been here for 3 years now, this pipsqueak wouldn't let me pass him in the queue, on top of that he had the nerve to ask for a second helping. I'm sorry but I for one will not be made to feel less than these idiots who can't even control their own abilities, just fresh daises picked from the field, until they develop a few thorns they aren't worth a dam thing!"
Terra span around slamming her heel into Mokuba's rib-cage but she simply bounced off, grabbing her foot he threw her across the room where she skidded across the floor for several meters.
"What the hell was that Terra, it almost seemed like you wanted to start a fight but I guess you really wanted to massage my hot body for showing these brats the ropes."
I looked up from Azazel's slowly breathing body to Mokuba with a fiery hatred gushing from my eyes, even stood behind him he could feel my killing intent and turned around in a flash.
"What are you getting all fired up for puppy boy, didn't you notice my body is harder than steel?"
Standing up I walked to Mokuba only inches from his face.
"You want to go puppy boy?"
"Sure piglet geezer."
Mokuba sent a corkscrew cross straight for my face, I ducked and punched him rapidly at the top of his chest. He leaned backwards and began to laugh with his hands on his hips.
"I thought I told you puppy boy, my body is like steel ha-ha."
("I'm getting bored of this guy's attitude Zokishiro, just aim for the head and teach him a lesson in respect already.")
I strafed to the left as quickly as possible.
"And I thought you should know, the higher the piglet flies, the harder it falls!"
I jumped up through the air grabbing the back of Mokuba's head and forcing it down into my already accelerating knee, the sound of his nose snapping echoed through the room as he fell to the floor. Falling from 6 feet in the air I landed crouched and rolled standing back up ready to fight. An announcement came over the tannoy system throughout the speakers placed in every corner of every room.
"Well well, taking out the titan Mokuba on your first day aye Zokishiro, keep it up and you will have your first assignment within the week."
I have always hated people hiding from me and trying to seem powerful, the announcement began to make my blood boil.
"You call this a prison, by now a riot squad would have come in to stop this and let me guess there isn't such a thing as medical attention either. People like you make me sick, spouting your prejudice bullshit whilst making the rest of us suffer for something we have no control over, your more of a pig than the tub of lard laid out bleeding in front of me!"
The prisoners began to laugh and rejoice over my little speech.
"You all think this funny do you? I guess its feeding time then ha-ha."
"Shit, RUN!"
"Terra, what's going on?"
"Get your friend and get to your cell now Zokishiro, there isn't time to explain just press the red button next to your door as soon as you get in and don't move from your beds."
I could hear the pain in her voice, she knew something bad was coming but she didn't want to discuss it. I ran over to Azazel and hoisted him up on to my shoulder before heading back to my room, the moment I walked through the thick steel doorway I looked to my left to see some large blue feline creature walking through the main gateway to our wing of the prison. Suddenly it began to roar before running straight at us, I managed to get through the door and press the emergency shutdown switch that slammed the door shut just moments before the beast collided with the wall. The 12 inch thick steel door became dented from where the creature had rammed it's body weight. The tannoy system began to activate again.
"Well, how do you like my pussy cat then Zokishiro, isn't she wonderful? I even have an endless supply of food in the form of your inmates, I've got myself a pretty good deal now haven't I?"
I laid Azazel down on his bed before using the stool to climb up to the speakers and cameras in each corner of the room, smashing each of the camera's lenses I ripped all of the electrical equipment down from the walls.
I could hear the screams of some of the inmates which were unfortunate enough to be caught by the beast parading around the prison ward in its meticulous rampage.
"Wow, I can't see you anymore Zokishiro, and I can't even tell if your saying anything but I would like to give an answer as to you previous question. The reason you have no medical treatment or riot guards is simply because we cannot legally employ people with your level of abilities so we can only use humans from regular society. If you are feeling sick man up and deal with it or if you get into a fight go back to bed and lick your wounds, each and every room has bandages and basic amenities stored in a box under each of your beds. Also if you believe you require a riot squad you're a little off the mark with how we work here, this is no ordinary prison, your mutants, dangerous life forms found across the planet. All the things the world doesn't need to see we lock up right here in our little fun house. Now with regards to the prison guards and facilitators, they are here to keep you here, nothing more, so please don't start a fight expecting help again, this isn't pre-school anymore Mr Night. Welcome to Cell-block 101."