by Caleb Fast
Before long, the only guards left standing are along the perimeter of the room, and at the entrances to the cafeteria. They are all huddled together behind whatever makeshift barricades they could throw up. Likewise, the inmates who had their sights set on the remaining guards had also set up their own barricades. Both sides exchange gunfire, and countless cries of pain sound from all over the cafeteria.
“Look out!” Clive shouts as he tackles a dazed woman whose hands are covered in blood. As Clive and the woman hit the ground, a stream of bullets ping off of the table they had just dipped beneath.
“He’s dead,” The woman cries softly, as she reaches over to a nearby corpse, and takes a hold of its hand.
“I’m sorry,” Clive apologizes as he quickly peeks over the table at the guards who had opened fire at the woman. Fortunately, the guards are now occupied by a group of inmates who had gathered whatever firearms they could from the fallen guards who are strewn about the cafeteria and had set up their own offensive against the handful of guards. Several of the prisoners appeared to be familiar with both the rifles, and the demands of fighting in close quarters.
“After all these months, and he dies now,” The woman continues with a sob. Crawling over to the man, she cradles his head in her lap, and her tears drip down to his face, “We were celebrating our anniversary before they took us here,”
Ducking down again, Clive looks at the woman who is now openly weeping, and sighs. Seeing Dream out of the corner of his eye, he calls out, “Dream! Get over here.”
“What do you need?” Dream asks as he slides over a nearby table, as he does so, he slips on a puddle of blood which had pooled on the table and is sent sprawling to the floor. Adding insult to injury, another spurt of gunfire sends him diving for cover the moment he recovers from his less-than-graceful fall.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t see that,” Clive chuckles before continuing with a more serious tone, “Help this woman, her husband was just killed.”
“Oh no,” Dream exclaims somberly, as sorrow fills his eyes. Dream had a soft spot for anyone who was suffering, which made him invaluable for consoling those who had just lost someone. Everyone else had just become too calloused to help after spending any amount time in Paradise. Wordlessly, Dream crawls over to the woman, and works his magic.
“Thanks,” Clive says as he spins around and makes for the front of the cafeteria, anxious to find Jenessa, whom he had last seen making a charge toward Yalland and his men.
“Why aren’t the containment doors closing?” Clive hears Yalland cry out nearby.
“Richardson and his team are manning the control station,” One of his guards answers after a moment, “Maybe they are trying to give us a chance to escape.”
I doubt they’d ever guess his real intention, Clive thinks with a chuckle as he identifies the nearby door that the voices were coming from behind. Glancing around, Clive continues his search for Jenessa to no avail. After a few beats, he calls out, just quiet enough that Yalland wouldn’t be able to hear him, “Jenessa!”
“Here,” Jenessa responds after a brief moment.
“Woah, how long have you been there?” Clive asks in surprise, after spinning around to find Jenessa huddled behind a nearby overturned table with several other inmates, who also peek over to see who had captured Jenessa’s attention.
“A few weeks,” Jenessa says flatly, one of her many failed attempts at cracking a joke. Despite her occasional wit, Jenessa lacked the finesse to actually land the joke itself, as her delivery left much to be desired.
Chuckling, Clive dashes for Jenessa’s barricade, careful to keep his head down. Crouching behind her cover, he asks, “Looking for Yalland?”
“You seen him?” Jenessa asks, mildly irritated. She had never been fond of people wasting her time with obvious questions.
“They’re hiding out in there,” Clive responds, indicating toward the nearby doorway, which he had overhead Yalland and his team.
“Perfect,” Jenessa announces as she stands and fixes her eyes on the door. She raises her rifle to her shoulder and begins stepping around Clive before dropping to the floor behind him, a hailstorm of bullets chasing her the whole way down.
“Blast,” She mutters a few moments after she hits the floor, “The other guards must know he’s hiding in there.”
“I have an idea,” Mav informs the group, as he peeks from behind the others who are hiding behind Jenessa’s barricade.
“There you are, Mav!” Clive declares happily, “I was wondering where you’d be.”
“And there you are,” Mav nods. After several beats, he continues, “We can use the fuel that Yalland and his team were using earlier to force them out of their shelter with the smoke.”
“Or we can burn them alive like they burned us,” An inmate near Mav adds with a cruel grin.
“I like the plan,” Jenessa announces, “Especially burning them.”
Clive swallows a lump in his throat as he and Mav exchange a look. Neither of them were fond of killings, much less when they entailed cruel deaths like being burned alive. For that reason, Clive always liked having Mav’s input on plans, because his levelheaded, ‘limit the casualties’ approach bode well for the both of them.
“I’ll get the fuel,” Someone volunteers. Without awaiting a response, he rolls over the barricade he had been hiding behind, and he quickly shuffles toward one of the canisters of the fuel.
“Be cautious!” Mav calls out after a beat, “The fuel is very volatile!”
The inmate ignores Mav’s warning, and carries on, until he slides to a stop at the canisters. Glancing back to Jenessa and the others, he sizes up the canister, and gives it a slight push, as if to test its weight. Seeing the fuel was much weightier than he had first anticipated, he pushed the canister onto its side with a loud crash.
“Careful!” Another prisoner shouts after the loud clang had finished echoing across the cafeteria, seemingly muting the roar of the jailbreak.
As the woman called out her warning, the guards who were still standing took notice of the commotion, and opened fire on the man by the canisters, who stood in a daze, likely taken off guard by the deafening crash. Several bullets tear through him, and he crumbles to the ground without so much as a whimper.
“Who’s next?” Jenessa asks the others callously, seeing that her first volunteer wasn’t about to finish his mission.
“I’ll go,” A younger inmate offers after several moments of murmured discussion.
“Go,” Jenessa orders after the latest volunteer hesitates.
“If I don’t make it, tell my parents I love them,” The young man requests before diving headlong over his pile of upturned tables and chairs. He only makes it a few steps before also being mowed down by a maelstrom of bullets.
Jenessa mutters a string of what Clive can only assume was profanities, before finally speaking aloud for the group, “How about a new plan?”
“Mav, let’s get you out of here, you’ll need all the time you can get for our escape,” Clive whispers after worming his way past everyone who is cowering behind the barricade.
“What if they require my assistance down here?” Mav inquires as he peers over the barricade at all the other prisoners who are fighting for their lives.
“You’ll be of more use rigging explosives,” Clive reminds him, he continues with a chuckle, “Besides, we both know you’re not much of a fighter.”
“Very well,” Mav cedes without hesitation.
“Follow me,” Clive instructs as he rolls out from behind the makeshift fortification and takes a hold of one of the cafeteria’s carts that is heavily laden in a mess of eating utensils and trays. Spinning it around, he rolls it back to the barricade and allows Mav to join him behind its protection as countless bullets ping off of its metal frame and crash through the piles atop of the cart, which are all sent showering down on Clive and Mav.
“Clive!” Jenessa shouts as Clive pulls away, “Can you—”
�
��Already on it,” Clive calls back as he makes for the fuel canisters.
“If only we tried this to begin with,” Mav mumbles as he and Clive make their way to the canisters, all too aware of the stream of bullets which follows them their whole way.
“Help,” Clive hears a choked plea as he and Mav pass by the fallen younger volunteer. Looking down to the bloodied kid, Clive lets out a surprised gasp, realizing the kid wasn’t dead after all.
“Mav, hold the cart, cover me,” Clive orders as he releases his death-grip on their armored transport of sorts. Falling to his knees, Clive takes a quick inventory of the man’s wounds, and quickly takes the towel from the cart and uses it as a makeshift tourniquet of sorts in order to stop the bleeding from the man’s right arm, which had been mangled beyond recognition by all of the bullets it took. Clive then rips both of his sleeves off of his jumpsuit and uses them as bandages to stop—or at least slow—the bleeding from a few of the wounds left across the man’s shoulder and chest. After briefly admiring his work, Clive then asks the kid, “How are you holding up?”
“I can’t feel my arm,” He complains as tears stream from his eyes, washing away much of the blood and soot on their way down his face.
“What’s your name, kid?” Clive asks as he applies presses his hands against a bullet hole on the man’s side.
“Pell,” The boy coughs after a scream of pain.
“Alright, Pell,” Clive starts as he finishes tying off one of the bandages with his other free hand. Biting his lip in concern, he continues, “I need you to apply pressure to this wound. We’ll have you safe and sound soon enough.”
“It hurts,” Pell moans as he closes his eyes and slowly swings his head from side to side.
“Just press your hand here,” Clive repeats as he takes Pell’s remaining hand and holds it over the bullet hole. Before long, the blood seeps past Pell’s fingers, but Clive assures himself it was better than nothing.
“Are you going to leave me here?” Pell asks with pleading eyes as Clive turns to Mav to make a break for it.
“We have to,” Clive responds, he continues with the best reassuring tone he could muster, “You’ll be fine, and we will be back for you.”
“Don’t leave me here alone,” Pell begs after a weak cough.
Clive pauses and glances around for a moment before his eyes settle on Dream and the woman he is still consoling. A beat passes before he looks back to Pell and asks, “Think we can move you?”
“I think so,” Pell seethes as he tries to sit up without using his arms. After a brief effort, he stops, knowing he was in no condition to do so.
“Mav?” Clive asks as he turns to Mav who is peering around their little cart at the battle which is still ensuing around them.
“This will likely hurt,” Mav informs Pell after briefly inspecting the boy.
“Things can’t get much worse,” Pell reasons as he bites his lip in pain.
“Alright, here we go,” Clive warns as he takes a hold of Pell and prepares to perform a fireman drag the dozen or so meters over to Dream.
“Ready,” Pell says in a near whisper as he prepares for the impending world of pain.
“Three, two, one,” Clive counts down before pulling. By now, most of the guards have shifted their attention away from Clive and Mav’s cart, and were focusing on the inmates who were shooting at them once again. Clive quickly makes his way over to Dream, with Pell in tow, and Mav covering his advance with the cart.
“Dream,” Clive wheezes as he stops just short of Dream and the woman he is with, “Can you take care of Pell for me?”
“Consider it done,” Dream nods after looking Pell over.
“Thank you,” Clive smiles before he glances over at the clock in the cafeteria. 19:30… That doesn’t leave us much time before the pickup tomorrow, Clive thinks with some discouragement.
“I was contemplating the same issue,” Mav informs Clive after seeing Clive’s hopeless look which was brought on by the late hour.
“We’ll have time for our plan still…” Clive starts, but finds himself reluctant to continue. Clive knew that Mav knew better than to believe what he was about to say. Biting his lip again, Clive cuts straight to the chase, “How are we supposed to take care of everyone now? It’s going to be chaos.”
“We must take the time to adequately prepare those we are leaving behind,” Mav announces with a solemn nod. He continues, carefully crafting his words, “It is likely the others will be better equipped to survive in your absence, which you may not fully realize. However, we need to focus on our people as well, otherwise we won’t be able to return for the others. And I am sure we will be able to prepare ourselves in time as well, albeit, not to the extent we had initially hoped.”
“I hope you’re right,” Clive says before joining Mav once again behind their mobile citadel.
“What’s the hold up?” Clive hears Jenessa yell from her barricade.
“You ready?” Clive asks Mav after they both look at the canisters of fuel they had promised to fetch for Jenessa.
“I doubt I will ever be,” Mav jokes before continuing, “Let us proceed.”
“Charge!” Clive says just loud enough for Mav to hear before they both barrel their way toward the canisters. At first, the guard don’t pay them any heed, but after the rickety cart made enough noise, the guards let off a few bullets which ping off of their cart.
Overhead, the prison’s comms let out a brief burst of static before Jenniston’s voice comes over the intercom, “Lay down your arms and we will forgive you for your rebellion. All transgressions prior to today will also be forgiven. Inmates, return to your respective cells.”
Across the cafeteria, all of the prisoners sound their disapproval of Jenniston’s message as several inmates shoot out the various speakers across the cafeteria. Moments later, the prison’s alarm finally begins to sound. At the various entrances to the cafeteria, blast doors slowly close off as the prison’s safety measures finally kick in.
“Looks like Richardson lost the control tower,” Clive reasons as he and Mav pull alongside the canisters of fuel that Jenessa requested.
“I do not believe so,” Mav starts as he looks up to the control station, where Richardson and his team were supposed to be, “It is more likely that Jenniston is accessing the prison’s systems from her own office.”
“How are we supposed to get out of here once those doors shut?” Clive asks Mav as they tip a fuel tank onto its side and prepares to push it toward Jenessa, hoping it can roll the whole way.
“Taking the construction method of this facility into account…” Mav starts, always keen on providing more information than necessary. Noting an irritated look that Clive shoots toward Mav, he skips providing too much more unnecessary information and continues, “It would seem like the only way to halt the lockdown procedures is by destroying the control station itself. Because Commander Jenniston is likely accessing the compound’s systems while Captain Richardson and his team are doing the same, both from different locations… If either of their access points are destroyed, I believe it would… crash the prison’s operating systems, and bar any further lockdown measures, until the systems were adequately restored.”
“So, we have a chance, provided Richardson knows what to do,” Clive concludes from Mav’s discourse. He shouts over to Jenessa as he gives the fuel tank a shove, “Here you go Jenessa!”
Jenessa peeks over the makeshift walls of her shelter and shakes her head in disapproval once she sees that Clive had sent the fuel cylinder careening toward her. She barks some orders to the others beside her and passes her gun off to one of them before rolling over her barricade and preparing to stop the canister before it hit something, which could very well result in an explosion.
“Yes, we do,” Mav confirms as he peeks around their cart once more.
“Wait a minute…” Clive starts as the blood drains from his face. He continues, shouting at the top of his lungs, “Dream is under there! Dr
eam! Dream, move!”
Mav takes a hold of Clive and yanks him down behind their barricade as seemingly every guard in earshot turns their focus, and firepower, toward Clive. After a beat, Mav yells to Clive, barely loud enough to be heard over the gun reports and countless bullets crashing all around them, “Perhaps we had better just make out way over to him,”
Clive sees Dream, who looks up from Pell, whom he is currently attending to. Dream sees Clive peeking just far enough around the cart to be seen and give him a curious look and cocks his head slightly before looking around, trying to see what Clive had been yelling about.
“Get out of there!” Clive yells to Dream, who finally seems to get the message, and begins gathering up Pell and the woman he had been helping. After a few moments, Clive shouts again, “Hurry—”
A deafening explosion sounds, cutting Clive off and sending out a shockwave that knocks everyone to the ground. The entire prison shakes with the force of the blast. Clive feels the searing heat of a massive fire against the back of his neck as he slowly peels his fact off of the ground after several moments. He looks up to where the control station had been just a few moments before. The once opaque windows which had looked over the cafeteria were now spewing out massive columns of fire and smoke, and much of the remaining concrete was barely clinging to the red-hot tendrils of rebar which stiff fastened the wreckage to the ceiling. The prison’s alarms had fallen silent, and its lights had all gone out as the blast seemingly cut power to the prison.
“It seems the Captain knew what was required of him,” Mav reports solemnly as he peers up to the inferno which now lent its light to the cafeteria.
“Dream!” Clive cries as he tears away from Mav’s loosened grip. He begins charging toward where much of the control tower had fallen to in the explosion, right where Dream had been just a few moments before. Clive calls out again as he races toward the wall of flames, “Dream—”
Clive is cut off as Jenessa plows into him from behind, tackling him to the ground. Pinning him to keep him from squirming away, Jenessa shouts, “Clive, he’s gone,”
