Rising: Parables From The Apocalypse - Dystopian Fiction (10 page)

Secure The Block

“They’ll will indeed be back.”  Jed said.

“I don’t think they’ve actually left.”  Christa answered.  “I’m sure they know what’s going on in here and they’re already planning their next steps.  They may not know who or what we are, but that’ll change soon.  We’re about to lose what little advantage of surprise we had.”

“So, what do we do?”  Leekasha asked.

Christa looked around the block rubbing her hands together.  “Hell if I know.  This is the first time I’ve ever broken into a prison.”

The guards they’d locked in cells starting getting noisy.  “Hey freaks,” one of them called.  “The warden’s coming for you.  Your not going to get away with this.  This is our prison.  We run the place.  Your all dead.  Everyone of you.”

“He’s right.”  Christa said.  “We need to take charge.  At least of this piece.  We can’t let them know what’s going on here.  We need to know what they’re up to.  Jed, get us each one of those radios that the guards dropped.  Figure out how they work.  We need to be listening to see if we can hear them taking, before they come.  Whatever you do, don’t answer them if they try talking with you.  Let me know first, and we’ll decide how to respond.  We don’t want to be giving them any more information.”

“Got it.”  Jed said, as he ran across the cell block to retrieve the radios.

“Leekasha get the riot gear, the guards had and put it on this bunch of good revived zombies.  We’re going to need them later, and they’re sitting ducks right now.  They need all the protection they can get.  I’m going to see if I can blind them by taking out the security cameras.”

Leekasha looked to the half dozen revived zombies, that had survived the anarchy.  They were hovering around, like lost puppies at the dinner table looking for scraps.  “Alright you bunch, come here.”  Leekasha waved them towards her.  “It’s alright, don’t be shy.  I’m sure your all a bit disoriented at the moment, but trust me that’ll go away.” There were four men and two women in the group.  “I sure hope you have a lot more fight in you then I see on your faces right now.  Unfortunately, you’ve been woken up into a shit storm.  As your memories start to come back you’ll understand.  Right now, for your own protection, I need you to get some of that protective gear over there and put it on.  Ignore the jerks dressed as guards in the cells over there.  They’re just a little pissed the tables are turning on them.”

Ten minutes later, they’d all reassembled in the center of the room. 

“How are you coping with the screams in your head Leekasha?”  Christa asked.

“It’s not so bad.  I’m getting better at it, but Jed’s starting to hear them now.  He’s gonna struggle with it to.”  Leekasha answered.

“It’s not that bad.  It comes and goes.” Jed added.  “What about the rest of us?  All the newly revived will start hearing the others about the same time.”

“We need to get ahead of this.” Christa said.  “We need to revive everyone in here.  Jed, if you can hear their screams, you should be able to revive them.  We need to start shoring up defenses, so we don’t have guards charging in here while we’re reviving everyone.”

“We’ll never do it in time.”  Leekasha complained.  “There’s hundreds of prisoners in here, and some are bound to be violent ones.”

“I’m counting on that.” Christa answered.  “We need the violent ones.”

“Are you crazy?” Jed asked.  “Did you see what they did the last time?”

“Yes, of course, I was here.  Remember?  They’re our pawns, our soldiers.  There is two ways into this block.  Through the guards office or the door at the opposite end, that leads into the yard.  There’s a small enclosed area just outside the door before the yard.  It’s a small room big enough for maybe a dozen zombies to be crammed into  From that room, a narrow hall just big enough for one person to walk through leads to the outside.  It’s a natural choke point.  Anyone coming after us, will have to go through either that narrow hallway or the guards office.  We’re gonna load up those areas with the violent zombies.  They’ll be our first line of defense.”

Jed and Leekasha nodded their heads in reluctant agreement.

“I know.”  Christa said. “It’s barbaric.  Trust me I don’t like it any better than you guys, but we don’t have a lot of choices here.  We’ve got to work with what we have.  Right now, I need both of you to start reviving zombies.  Leave the good ones in their cells for the moment, and release the violent ones.  Once their revived, I can control them and move them to the appropriate area.  I killed all the cameras, so they won’t know what we’re up to.”

Christa turned to the newly revived good zombies.  “If any of you start to hear screams in your head, don’t panic.  You can learn to control it.  It’s just your brothers and sisters in the cells around you.  We’re going to get them out.  We’re going to free them all.”

Captured

The windows high up on the wall shattered, as tear gas cans came flying though and hit the floor spinning. The gas from the canisters blended in with the gas from the vents, and visibility disappeared.  Zombies were bumping into each other, into the furniture and into the walls.  Panic ensued, and those that could call for help did.  Not that there was any coming.  At least not for them.  All their pleas for help did nothing to mask the sounds of military boots.

Leekasha called for Christa, and Christa called back.  They’d been separated by the panicked scurrying of others fleeing for safety.  Christa bumped into a table and backed up to move around the table, only to trip over a chair and fall sprawled out face first.  Christa called again, and Leekasha reached her crawling on all fours under the table.  Leekasha grabbed Christa’s hand, and pulled her back under the table. 

Nose to nose Leekasha said, “This is the safest place to be right now.”

“My eyes hurt so much.”  Christa said, wiping away the tears.  “I can barely see you and your right there.”

“Don’t try.  Cover your eyes with your shirt to protect them.”

“Were did Jed go?”

“I’m not sure.  Last I saw, he was heading back towards the guard office.  We should try and go that way too.  The other door, will just lead us out into the open yard.  If we go through the guard office, we can get to the other cell block.  Maybe it’s clearer in there, and we can regroup.”

“Hold my hand and stay low.  I don’t want to get separated again.”

Leekasha and Christa made their way towards the outer wall, and work their way down it towards the guard office.  Intense beams of light shone through the smoke filled room, searching for movement.  Two revived zombies were hit by the lights and a half dozen prison guards were on them, beating them down with metal batons.  The guards restrained, and dragged them away.  Christa and Leekasha could hear their cries, but couldn’t seen them.  They continued trying to make their way to the guard office. 

“I can see the door, just ahead.”  Leekasha said.  “It looks clearer through the windows.”

“Can you see guards?” Christa asked.  “Can we get through?”

“There are a couple of guards and someone else.  It’s hard to make out through the smoke.”

Christa leaned past Leekasha and squinted.  “It’s Jed.  I think he’s got control of both guards.  He’s got a mask and goggles from the guard.”

“Jed!”  Leekasha called out over the chaos.  “We’re here.  Get the other mask for us.  We’ll make our way to you.”

Jed looked momentarily in their direction, then bolted for the other door towards the empty cell block.  He left the two prison guards behind in the office.  The one without the mask reached quickly to cover his eyes for protection.

“Where he’s going?”  Christa asked.  “Jed! Wait!  We’re right here.  Wait for us.” 

Both guards in the office were still coming too, as Leekasha focused her mind on them.  The one guard still had his mask.  What she didn’t see though, was the guards with the fire hose behind them.  They opened it full blast and sent both Christa and Leekasha sprawling across the floor.  They tried to stand and regain their footing.  The hose hit them again, this time slamming them into the near wall.  Leekasha was stunned from the force, but Christa slammed her head into the wall and fell unconscious.  Before Leekasha could turn to check her friend, guards slapped restraints on both of them, and dragged them off to a prison cell.

***

Jed heard the cries from the two girls as he made his way through the guard office.  He never slowed, as he moved into the empty cell block, and immediately made his way to the upper level.  Part way down the block, the smoked cleared, and he discarded the gas mask into one of the prison cells.  He could see more guards running along the lower level towards the office.  He ducked into empty cells, until they passed.  Eventually, he made his way to the end of the block, and into the prison yard.  There were no guards to be seen. 
They must all be storming the prison block.  I wouldn’t want to be in there now.
  Jed ducked into the first building with an open door he could find.

Hogans Heroes

The mass confusion worked well for Leekasha and Christa, as the guards took back the prison block and gradually restored order.  Days later, the prisoner Jed was still missing, so for the time being the girls were locked up in his cell.  The guards had orders to move them to separate cells away from the rest of the population. Whenever it came time to execute those orders, the guards would suddenly change their minds, leave the girls alone, then lie to their superiors about having made the move. 

The same thing happened when medical staff were sent to investigate revived zombies.  The warden had some real concerns regarding the behavior of a growing population of the zombie inmates that seemed to be acting strangely.  The medical reports all came back, that there was nothing unusual about the behavior of the inmates, and no further investigation was required.

The warden eventually took matters into his own hands.  Regardless of what the medical staff and prison guards were telling him, he could clearly see via the repaired security cameras that the inmates were behaving differently.  They were ignoring direct orders from guards, leaving lights on long past curfew,  and having lengthy conversations with one another.  They were acting completely out of behavior for zombie inmates under control of the Pacize drug. 

The Warden decided it was time to visit the prison block personally.  The visit was quick.  He only visited Jed’s old cell containing Christa and Leekasha.  Upon returning to his office, he wrote orders countermanding his previous orders to investigate the cell block, and promptly forgot about the problems with the zombie inmates.  A few days later, the same notion that something was wrong in the zombie cell crept back into his head, and the whole cycle repeated itself.

***

“I’m not sure how much longer we can keep this up Leekasha.  Sooner or later, something has got to give and someone higher up than the Warden is going to get involved.”  Christa said.

“We won’t have to go for much longer.  With the latest batch of revived zombies helping, it should only be another day or two at the most.  One more day to have everyone revived, and an extra day just to let the latest get their bearings.  This has worked out far better than I would have thought.  I don’t know why were so busy fighting the authority here.  We should have just blended in from the beginning.  I’m thinking, that’s going to be my new strategy from here on.  Just blend in, and kill them with kindness.”

Christa smiled.  “I suppose having another eight hundred or so revived zombies on our side doesn’t hurt much either.  I can’t believe we actually managed to pull this off.  Do you think, anyone outside of the prison will figure out what we’re doing?”  Christa thought for a second.  “What exactly are we doing?”

“We’re taking our rightful place, is what we’re doing.  Have you noticed who’s working for who now?  The guards do anything we want.  We can do anything we want.  They’ll bring us anything we want.  What more could we ask for?”

“Maybe, you’ve forgotten, but we are in a prison.  Do you really want to live in a prison?”

“Actually, this place doesn’t seem so bad.  I had imagined prison life being much worse.”

“The other ones are starting to talk.  Some have been here for a long time, and are starting to remember where they came from.  They’re not going to want to stay here forever.  I’m not sure we just want them running loose outside these walls.”

Leekasha tilted here head.  “Are you suggesting we keep them here?  Do you fancy yourself their jailer?  I’m thinking they may have some ideas about that.”

“What then?  Just everyone goes free?  We’ve managed to keep this secret within these walls for the time being.  At least I hope we have.  If this place empties though, there’s no way people won’t find out.  Is that what you want?”

“No, of course not.  I have been thinking about it though.”

“Really?”  Christa smiled.

“Yes really.  I know.  Big surprise right?  This girl actually has a brain.”  Leekasha paused for a second.  “Seriously though, we can’t keep everyone here against their will.  Actually, we can’t keep a single person here if they don’t want to.  Everybody has a choice.”

“A choice between what?  Stay in prison, or live their lives out in the big beautiful world?  I’m pretty sure, I know what people are going to choose.”

“That’s not a choice.  Not really.  I want to give them a real choice.  Gather everyone in the common area in fifteen minutes.  It’s time we had a talk.”