“Good, you work on that. I have a plan.”
The sound of the guards office door closing echoed through the block, followed by the sound of military boots moving down the block.
Locked Up
“You hear that?” Jed asked.
“Of course, I hear that. Those boots are loud as hell. I guess they’re not trying to sneak up on us are they?” Leekasha answered.
“They know we’re trapped. There’s no way out, except back where we came from.”
Leekasha stood up from the bunk. “You remember what you did back there with the guard? The way you had him shoot the other one.”
“I didn’t try to make him shoot the other guard. I just remember you helping me, and getting me out of that horror. Then, I saw them coming up behind you. I just wanted them to stop. I didn’t specifically tell him to shoot, I just didn’t want them to hurt you. It was you I was thinking about. The other guard knew what his partner was going to do. He decided to shoot, not me.”
“Good, so you remember. That’s good. Pretty sloppy the way you handled it, and more than a little lucky but good enough. You’ll get better at it.”
“Better? At what?”
“You have abilities that humans don’t.”
Jed looked worried. “I am human … what do you mean abilities? What are you saying?”
Leekasha put her hands on his shoulders. “OK, look, we don’t have time for a history lesson right now. Let’s just say your different. You’re kinda improved in ways you may not remember.”
“That’s crazy, I …”
Leekasha gripped his shoulders tighter. “Shh! Stop. Just listen to me. Right now we need to deal with those guards coming down the block. They’re gonna be here fast. I need you to think about me just like you did back in your cell. These guys coming are pissed. One of their colleagues is dead, and we had something to do with that.”
Jed covered his mouth with his hand.
Leekasha continued. “That’s good you feel bad about it, believe me that’s a really good thing. Not everybody reacts that way. Still, we need to deal with them. I’m going to need your help. I can manage two maybe three of them at a time. If there’s more of them, you’re going to have to help. Got it?”
“Yea, yes. I can do that,” Jed said nodding his head in agreement.
The guards had finished sweeping the lower floor, and were moving up the stairs. There were two guards on the upper level and two below watching above and the far exit. The two above leapfrogged from cell to cell, and looking inside. Leekasha could hear them at the cell next to theirs.
The muzzle of the first guards weapon inched into view, followed by the guard holding the gun. He raised the weapon to his shoulder, aimed at Jed and applied light pressure to the trigger. Jed raised his hands, while Leekasha suggested the guard move his finger off the trigger. The guard did. The second guard came into view, took aim, and Leekasha convinced him to put his safety back on.
Leekasha could hear the footsteps of the other two guards racing up the stairs. She looked to Jed. “There’s two more coming. I need your help. Ready?” Jed didn’t look happy, but nodded in agreement.
Leekasha directed the first two guards to enter the cell and secure the prisoners. They did and placed tie straps around Jed and Leekasha’s wrists.
The third guard appeared and said, “What are you doing? We had orders to shoot on sight. These two are dangerous. They killed Kenny.”
The first guard replied, “New orders. The warden wants these two locked up and interrogated.”
When Leekasha tried to focus on the third, the second guard reached for the safety on his weapon. She brought her focus back to him, and lowered his hand. She started alternating between the three guards in rapid succession. The strain was apparent on her face, as the fourth guard appeared. Leekasha looked to Jed pleadingly. Jed stared the fourth guard down, but the guard raised his weapon, flipped the safety off and placed the muzzle square in the middle of Leekasha’s forehead.
Jed pushed harder in his head, and the guard lowered his weapon. Jed pushed harder still, and the guard backed out of the cell. He backed up right up to the railing overlooking the lower floor. Jed’s face turned red as he strained to keep him there. The guard tried to take a step towards the cell. Jed raised his restrained hands clenching them in fists. The guard turned to face the railing and threw himself over landing with a thud and a crack on the concrete floor below.
“I’m sorry.” Jed whispered, his fists still shaking. “I couldn’t hold him. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“No time for regrets,” Leekasha hissed at him. “I need help here. Just a little. Distract one of them for a second.”
Jed tried, but barely kept the guard from raising his weapon. It was all the break Leekasha needed. She focused on the guard with the sergeant stripes.
The sergeant ordered Jed’s guard. “Call the medics, and get down there to check on Frank. Make sure he didn’t break his neck. Move!”
The guard called for medics on his radio as he double timed it down the stairs. He called from below. “Franks OK, but I think he broke his leg. He can’t stand.”
“Stay with him till the medics get here. We’re taking these two back to Z block for lockup.”
***
Leekasha had convinced the guards to lock both her and Jed in Jed’s old cell. The sergeant informed the guards on watch, that the warden would be down later to deal with them. For the time being all prisoners were to be kept in their cells.
“It’s time.” Leekasha said to Jed. “I’ve had enough of this.”
“What about your friend? Christa?”
“All in good time. Right now, we need to make some changes around here. You feel OK? Can you hear the others?”
“No, what do you mean?”
“I can hear the pain from every other zombie in this place. Trust me, it’s good you can’t hear them. I need your help again. I want you to send some suggestions this time to the guards in the control room over there.”
The first thing Jed did, was suggest to the guards, that his cell door should be open. After they opened the door, he had them restrain each other hands and feet with tie straps. Leekasha had a good chuckle watching the one guard figure out how to put straps on the other while he himself was restrained. Jed then instructed both of them to lay on the floor and take a nap. They bot got a chuckle out of that.
“I still don’t understand why you let them lock us back up in here like you did.”
“Sometimes, it’s important to know when your beat. Right now, we’re a little short staffed. What do you say, we recruit some help?”
Recruitment Drive
Leekasha and Jed started working their way down the cell block. The first occupied cell had a zombie chewing on his last remaining fingers. Only the thumb and index finger remained on his right hand, and it didn’t look like his index finger had much time left. He was missing the pinkies off both feet as well.
Leekasha’s look of disgust said more than her words. “This one’s not likely a good candidate for recruitment. I prefer my helpers to have opposable thumbs.”
“I don’t understand.” Jed said. “Helpers for what?”
“That much I haven’t figured out yet, but I need to revive some zombies from the drug. I only want the good ones though.”
“The good ones. How do you know they’re good?”
“That’s where you come in. I was hoping you’d remember some of them. Maybe you had some sort of interaction with them under the drug. A connection. Maybe just a feeling.”
“I don’t know, I can try.”
“Anything would be helpful Jed. It’s a bit exhausting for me to revive them, and I’m not sure how many I need. The more the better.”
“For what? What exactly are you reviving them for? We can get out of here now can’t we? Just make the guards let us out.”
“There’s the matter of my friend Christa. I’m not deserting her to this place. Secondly, I
don’t think you quite understand the gravity of the current global socio-political environment we currently find ourselves in as a planet.” Leekasha tried to hide her smile.
Jed looked totally confusion.
“I’m just messing with you buddy, but suffice it to say, Christa and I didn’t just break into here for the thrill of escaping. That, would be a waste of effort don’t you think?”
“Yea, sure I suppose. So why exactly did you break in here?”
“Um, we’re taking over the planet.”
This time Jed cracked a smile first. “Your pretty funny. I get it this time. You break into the Louisiana State Prison so you can save the planet.”
“I may be smiling Jed, but I am totally serious. We are about to spark a revolt here the likes of which even God hasn’t seen. And you my friend are lucky enough to be at ground zero. So, help me figure out which of these zombies are destined to join the revolution.”
Jed didn’t really remember much from his time under the influence of Pacize, so Leekasha was forced to pick zombies based mainly on their current behavior. Going was slow, but within a few hours, she managed to revive a dozen good zombies. There were another five that were stark raving mad freaks. As soon as they revived, their skin began to decompose and they nearly tore their own limbs off trying to get out of their cells.
It took it’s toll on Leekasha. Between reviving zombies and blocking the screams of the doped out ones, she could barely stand.
“I need a break.” She said. “Just a few minutes, then I can do some more.”
“I don’t know Leekasha. You don’t look so good. Isn’t this enough? How many do we need?”
“Probably all of them. I’m not sure.”
“You can’t do all of them. There’s no way. You need some sleep, and some food.”
“What I need is another thousand revived zombies.”
“Can’t I help? What about the others you’ve revived. Can’t we do what you do?”
“You will, just not yet. You need time to get stronger.”
Just then, the alarm siren and lights went off for the second time.
“Damn. We need to keep moving. I was going to wait till I was sure, but we need to let the good ones I revived out of their cells now. We’re sitting ducks with me in this state. Go to the control room, and make those guards show you how to open the cell doors. We need the revived zombies freed.”
Jed made a frantic dash for the control room as violent zombies in their cells clawed at him through the bars.
Let Loose
Jed charged into the guard room to find two very unhappy guards sitting on the floor. They were trying to free each other with limited success. Jed and Leekasha had been too busy reviving zombies, to bother controlling them. One was pretty overweight, and was having a difficult time of it. With the alarms going off, the thought of being found by their colleagues rolling around on the floor tied up with their own restraints didn’t appeal to them. The big one kept losing his balance and falling over as he tried to open a drawer. The sounds of the alarms seemed to have everyone in a bit of a panic.
“How do I open the cell doors?” Jed directed his question at both of them.
“Screw you freak.” The big one said. “Why the hell would we do anything for you? Just wait till the others get here. I’ll be more the happy to open your cell door, and throw your ass in for good.”
Jed try to mentally force the fat guard to tell him how to open the cells. That didn’t work, so he tried the other guard with the same result. He was so frazzled with the alarm and exertion from helping Leekasha he had nothing left to control the guards.
“Fine, the heck with both of you. I’ll figure it out myself. If two buffoons like you can do it, there’s no reason why I can’t.”
“Go ahead freak.” The big guard said. “I don’t know how you got yourself free, but it won’t matter once the others get here. You’ll be back to your doped up loser self in no time.”
Jed walked to the control panel, giving the mouthy guard a kick in the ribs and a smile as he walked by. How hard can this be? He thought. The control panel was archaic. It looked like original equipment from when the prison was first built. Most of the numbers and letters were worn off. How the hell am I supposed to know what switch is for what? They probably leave it this way just to make it harder for prisoners to sneak in and cause problems. I could just start flipping switches and see what happens. What’s the worst that could go wrong? Jed looked back at the big guard on the floor, who just grinned back offering no assistance. The alarm persisted. Damn it. I’m running out of time. Jed could see Leekasha through the windows. She slowly got up and started moving towards him. I need to do something.
Jed just started flipping switches. The first couple he tried, didn’t do anything. He flipped them back, and tried a few more. Cell doors opened, but not the ones he wanted. Two doped up zombies entered the common areas. He flipped the switches back, but the doors remained open. Looking through the windows, Jed could see Leekasha shaking her head, and pointing to the cells with revived zombies she wanted open. Jed moved his hand down the row of switches, guessing which cells went with which switches, and flipped a few more. Two cell doors for revived zombies opened. OK, good. Now we’re getting somewhere. Let’s try the next few. Jed flipped the switch at the end of the row, and every door in the block opened. Oh shit!
Every zombie in the block exited their cells almost in unison. Those most anxious to get out were the five revived violent zombies. They started wreaking havoc on the rest of the population, attacking and devouring every zombie they could. Leekasha tried to get to one of the good revived zombies, but couldn’t get through the crowd fast enough. The violent ones were on the good zombie tearing her apart. Zombies didn’t normally attack other zombies, but the revived zombies appeared human to them. Like famished sharks in a tank of tuna, it was a bloodbath. Leekasha tried desperately to control the violent ones, but in her exhausted state, she could only hold one at a time. There were too many.
A violent zombie burst into the guards office and lunged for Jed. The guards on the floor rolled under the desks to hide. Jed reacted just in time to duck out of the attackers way, placing a chair between him and the zombie. It provided little protection, but kept the zombie just out of arms reach. The two of them danced around the chair while Jed repositioned it to provide the best protection. Eventually this bastard is going to get me. I can’t keep this up forever. As soon as Jed had a direct line to the door, he swung the chair at the zombies torso knocking it to the floor. The zombie noticed the two guards lying on the floor next to him. Jed raced out of the office. He paid little attention to the the screams of the guards as he made his way back to Leekasha.
Leekasha was holding one of the violent zombies in check, when Jed made his way to her.
“I’ve got one locked in the guard office, with enough food to keep him busy for a while.” Jed said.
“I’ve got this one good.” Leekasha said motioning to a zombie sitting on the floor leaning against the wall. It rocked back and forth, banging the back of it’s head against the wall. “There are still three more violent ones out there. They’re going to rip apart the good ones we’ve revived if we don’t find a way to stop them.”
Just then doors at the other end of the block open and a dozen prison guards barged in with fire hoses blasting the crowd. Two of the guards fought their way through the crowd with riot shields and metal batons. They were making their way to the guard office. The guards with hoses cleared a path in front of them. One of the violent zombies almost got to the guards, till the fire hose water hit him straight in the chest, and knocked him unconscious against a wall. Leekasha and Jed kept to the periphery of the crowd, staying well away from the guards.
“Their trying to get into the office, to get them back into their cells.” Leekasha said. “I don’t think the revived ones will go back. That’s not good. The bad ones will be on them in a second without the crowd to keep them separated.�
�
“Maybe the guards will get them first.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think they realize there are revived zombies in the crowd. I don’t think they’ve ever seen a zombie revived before. They’re not going to be happy when they find out.”
The guard leading the charge made it to the office and went inside. The others stood outside the office keeping the crowd at bay. No sooner had the guard entered the office, then the zombie inside attacked him from under the table. It pinned him against the window and ripped into his throat. Blood shot all over the window. The rest of the guards reacted by dropping the fire hose, and sending a hail of bullets into the office. The zombie was knocked onto the control panel where it twitched for a few seconds then died. A second guard entered the office, and cleared the zombie corpse off the panel with the butt of his rifle. He flipped a switch killing the alarm, and spoke into the microphone saying “Go home. Go home. Go home.” The Pacize controlled zombies in the crowd started heading for their cells. The remaining revived ones did not.
“Jed, you’ve to stop those violent ones. They’ll rip the good ones to shreds. See if you can one of them to attack the others.”
Jed picked up on one of the violent zombies racing towards them. He focused, but the zombie kept coming. Another violent zombie was trying to get at two good ones on the other side of a table. The two good ones managed to stay on the opposite side of the table, but kept running into each other. The violent one kept getting closer.
Rising: Parables From The Apocalypse - Dystopian Fiction Page 7
