The Condemned (18 page)

This concludes the investigation into the death of Prisoner ID PYRO009.

Official Statement of Events Regarding Breach of Security

Report Number:00312

Date of Security Breach: August 20
th
, 2154

Compound Breached: Clone Enclosure

At approximately 03:00am on the morning of the 20
th
, the guard on duty in the Clone Enclosure, one Sidney Washborne, has been determined to have suffered a lapse of sanity which resulted in a breach of security within the compound.

 
From reports gathered from recaptured Clones it can be established that Washborne unlocked
a number
of the pens within the compound. At this point he was overpowered by several of the freed Clones and was killed. The key-card he carried was stolen and the remainder of the Clones, 500 in total, were released into the main section of the prison.

 
The resulting death toll, although high, was not alarming in respect to the enormity of the situation. The prison staff can be commended on their quick thinking and well trained actions, all of which saved many lives. In order to put a stop to the proceedings in as timely a manner as was possible, a high percentage of Clones were needed to be shut down
 
irretrievably, a significant but necessary loss.

Total losses incurred are as follows:

Death of Prison Officials: 74

Termination of Clones: 368

 
The remaining Clones were recaptured and security tightened within the Enclosure.

Action will be taken to prevent these events from occurring again.

During this breach no prisoners reached the outer compound.

External security
has at no point been breached
. The prison remains a secure unit.

This concludes the investigation into the Security Breach.

Governor:

The following sheets are the unofficial notes as handwritten by Guard Nate Benson in regards the events of the 20
th
August,
as requested by yourself.

I wer sposed to be takin over shift from Mafyews at free in the mornin on Chewsday Awgust twentyuff. Wen I
clokt
cloct in he weren’t ther and I got a feelin rite away somefin wasn’t rite. Mafyews was new to the wing and he’d been told abowt the Firebug but he’d only pulled nite shift sofar and he hadn’t seen what she did durin the day so I don’t fink he believed it. I’d seen him lookin at the girl funny sometimes. I got a bad feelin and I ran down to the sells. All free of the dores wer open and ther was a
nayk
naki
nood burned man on the flore in the Firebugs sell. I was pretty shur it was Mafyews. Later reports conferm it was. I
raydeeowd
raydeowed for bakup but didn’t set off no alarms cos protocol says not to caws un nessesserry panik rite away. We startid to serch the wing and all the surowndin
arears
airears but cos ther was noledj that Benelli was wiv the Firebug and the Clone we assoomd he wud leyd em rite to the egsit. We put most of owr men inside the mayn dores so we cud stop them before they got owt. Security in
uvver
uver aereas was kompromisd to put atenshun wer we fort it needid to be. We had no way to no that they wer goin to the Clone Pen or that Benelli wud no to avoyd the mayn dores. At free oh eyt the first Clones wer seen aprochin the mayn gayts and that was the first time we new ther was a problem and we set the alarm goin. By this time almost all the guards in the bildin wer eyver tryin to get controle of the Clones or wer gardin the mayn dores. Ther was minimum security owtside the prison as it was not
egspegted
egspektid that they wud get owtside. From reports we got from
torchurd Clones afterwuds we have establishd that Benelli, the Firebug and the Clone enterd the Pen. Benelli was disguysd as a guard and the Firebug killed Sid. The Clones sed that Benelli was yewsin a kard to open dores. We assoom this was Mafyews kard. They wanted wun Clone. Reports vary on hoo it was but most ov em agree it was a female Clone. Wer still goin fru tags to try to identify her.

They yewsd Mafyews kard to free the woman Clone and they left the Pen. Reports from Clones say that
Benelli instruktid them to wayt fiyv minnits before they opend the uver cages, akkordin to the clones Benelli also diskardid parts of Mafyews suwt before they left. After fiyv minnits the clones yewsd the flame resistant gluvs to serch Sid’s boddy and steel his kard.

Most ov owr manpower was yewsd tryin to controle the Clones wen it was fownd owt that they were runnin lews in the prison.

There are no reports ov enywun seeying the Firebug, Benelli and the too Clones after they left the Pen but we have establishd that they used Benellis noledj of the bildin to mayk ther way to a serviss egsit that was unguarded.

We layter fownd evidens to show that fore guards had beyn kild at the owter mayn gayt and that Benelli, the Firebug and the too Clones had eskapd the compound.

We have no noledj as to ther werabowts.

Officials owtside of the prison have beyn alerted and arr awer ov the
sityewayshun sityooay sityewash
awer ov wat has hapnd and are lookin owt for the eskapd prisoners.

At this time it has beyn dissidud that lornshing a full skale sertch wud only panik civilians and cud even help them to stay hidn. It is egspectid that the Firebug or
Clones will mayk a mistayk soon and they will all be bak in captivity wivin free days at the most.

Under instrukshun I have distroyd any notes for tests run on the Firebug after Awgust firteenf.

Sined

Nate Benson

Chapter 16

Two solid days of running
,
with only small breaks to rest the horses, they slept in shifts, rotating who rode and who sat in the back trying to cling on and sleep at the same time.

 
Nobody was feeling very refreshed by the time the sun rose on the third morning but they all felt the need and the urgency to put distance be
tween themselves and the prison
. No one was complaining though spirits were beginning to lag and it was clear that if they didn’t find somewhere safe to stay soon they would be putting themselves in more danger; the possibility of making silly mistakes rose in direct proportion to their tiredness.

 
They had kept as much as possible to secluded areas, woodland mostly which was ideal for coverage and even occasionally provided lone cabins inhabited by reclusive hermits, Leci could only assume that at some point way in the past people had chosen to live out here spread so far from their neighbours as to be offered complete solitude.

 
It seemed a wonderful idea to her.

 
If she had been free to live where she wanted she would’ve liked to have made a home for herself somewhere like this. The cabins
, though sparse,
were like small goldmines for the escapees
when they did come across them,
and usually offered
thievable supplies of some kind. A
ny food they could get their hands on was welcomed but other items were just
as valuable, blankets, candles, bottled water,
they even found a torch at one place, any coins left laying around and most importantly; weapons.

 
So
far they had managed to equip themselves with a rifle, two pistols and a small knife. Amato had kept the rifle, it was slung over his back
with the long leather strap that was attached to it. It looked
as though it belonged there and the sight of it brought back to Leci visions of the man who had begun the pursuit of her all that time ago, the first Official to pick up her trail had carried a weapon just like this.

 
Bitsy and Beriael seemed comfortable with the pistols and carried one each. Alecia hadn’t wanted anything, had argued that it was more fair to give the knife to Bits, reasoned that she was capable of protecting herself if it came down to it.

She couldn’t win where Amato was concerned, he refused to take no for an answer and so she rode with the weapon strapped to her inner thigh.
She was secretly quite touched by his insistence that she carry it. It was nice that he wanted her kept safe.

 
They could’ve perhaps equipped themselves even better if they hadn’t skirted the towns they had passed on the way but they had made a point of giving heavily populated areas a wide berth.

As they entered their third day on the run since leaving the underground shelter
,
finding somewhere to stay was becoming a priority.

 
Bitsy dozed against Alecia’s back, her hands hung loosely at her sides and Leci was afraid that the other woman was going to fall, she’d slowed the horse down to a walk and was quietly surveying the dense trees around them, alert for both signs of danger and for somewhere, anywhere to just hole up for a couple of hours
, even a small clearing would seem like a palace right about now
.

 
To her left Beriael had dismounted and was matching her pace, guiding the animal through the woodland, Amato was asleep in the saddle and she couldn’t help giggling to look over at the sight of him slumped over with his arms wrapped around the horse’s neck.

 
Beriael heard her, glanced over and then followed her gaze. He grinned and then went back to watching the woods.

The tension between the two of them seemed to have almost vanished over the past couple of days. She still occasionally caught him looking at her a little oddly but she couldn’t really expect him not to have a few issues could she?

 
She suspected Morgan had played a big
part in his change of attitude but whatever it was that had quieted the vast portion of his rage, she had to admire the way he was handling things, she would’ve been a lot more messed up if it had been the
other way around.

 
So far t
hey ha
d come across only one empty cabin
, the place had been falling apart and looked as though it had been abandoned for
the better part of the last century
. The inside had been stripped completely and in places the roof had fallen in, the floor creaked ominously underfoot, threatening to give way at any second and send one of them plunging through darkness to land on hard ground if they were lucky, splintered beams if they weren’t.

 
Leci hadn’t been able to stop imagining herself laying down there, pale and motionless, a long and deadly sharp spike of wood driving
up
from beneath her, through the back of her skull, passing through the soft matter of h
er brain and then the tip, sticking out through
her
socket
, a punctured eyeball perched on the end, dripping blood and other icky fluids
.
She pictured
her hands and feet pierced in place
, errant stakes holding her, fixing her to the ground
, her mouth open wide, froze in an eternal scream of agony...

 
That had been over twenty hours ago and they had all agreed it was safer to keep moving.

 
Leci half wished now that they ha
d stopped. I
t felt as though the chances of coming across another such opportunity were sparse at best and despite how degraded the place had been and however Leci may have spent the night torturing herself with
an over active imagination and
visions of a
painful death it
had
at least offered protection from the elements and cover from prying eyes.