Fan Fiction ❯ Frailty ❯ You are the quarry ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

"Frailty"


Chapter six- "You are the quarry"


It was quite easy, if not impossible to refrain from getting what Hermes would say stuck in even the strongest-willed mind. However, the actual impact of the ghost's words were seldomly the true reason for this. Normally his placid attitude, or the way of which he spoke was the true culprit, but on this occasion the controversy that he had sparked stemmed from all but the latter.
Raven could have heard it from anything, even another human being, and she wouldn't have been left any less perturbed. It was a question she had not bothered to ask herself this entire time and now that it had been introduced in the worst way, it tore at her mind so extensively that even when she entered the D-level cell block, which was easily the largest area encountered, hardly anything was noted.


The second floor of this rectangular, massively -proportioned room actually occupied a little more than ten percent. Assuming the shape of a backwards L, it extended out from the rear and right walls roughly ten feet before giving way to a near fifteen-foot drop to the first level. At the corner was a concrete staircase that connected the two floors. Lining the upper-level "walkway", if you will, was a series of un-populated cells. Possessing just enough attention to realize that the second story of which she had entered through was a dead-end, Raven begun to venture down the stairwell.


A low hissing that seemed to infiltrate Raven's earshot from all around snapped her from a particularly dire train of thought just as she stepped unto the first floor. Not a breath was wasted raising the magnum and surveying the area. To her left was a nearly bare brick wall. What sparse items decorated it's rough surface were bland and didn't appear to be useful in any manner. Directing her attention to the right, she beheld another wall that was occupied with numerous holding cells. In result of being directly underneath the walkway above, their contents were engulfed in shadow. If someone or some thing were inside waiting for her, there would be no possible way to tell from the point of which she stood.
"Now or never...."


With much understandable reluctance, Raven begun to approach the wall. The sidearm had fallen to her waist, but remained clutched in such a way that it could still easily be risen to a blast-ready position in a matter of milli-seconds. A foot shy of her destination, a unique crashing sound rung out from the dark depths of the cell. A moment later a nearly foot-long pipe flew between the bars of the door and came to rest at Raven's feet. The magnum was raised as a reflex, but the thought of returning fire quickly died when a shaken human voice cried out, "D..Don't come...any closer!"
Again, her weapon fell to the side. Squinting harder through the darkness, she could see the very faint outline of a crouched human being.


"Hello?" The titan called back, "Are you alright?"
"Stay away! Stay away from me!!!"
Raven relented slightly, surprised at the man's shrill voice, but did not give up, "Look, I'm not one of them, okay?"
"What's the difference? He was human too, and he still kills us! You're probably working for him, aren't you?"
"What are you talking about?!?"
A brief episode of the man's sniveling took hold of the air before he replied, "The warden doesn't care about what's going on! He'd sooner kill one of us than those things....and their everywhere in here, man! They're everywhere !"


Naturally puzzled by his abrupt subject change, Raven opened her mouth to query further, but did not receive the chance to speak before the terrible and all too familiar racket of blades striking concrete begun to rip through the silence. With no eyes in the back of her head to reveal the occurrence behind her, Raven whirled around and leveled the magnum.


If the phrase 'Shocked to death' had been forged in literal terms, the dark titan would have been several times dead in that instant. Like a massive swarm of insects, the machete beasts entered the room through every window, door and hole that made surprisingly bursting in a possibility . In a matter of seconds, both floors were covered. The panic over-rode Raven's logical thought pattern and in turn, she begun to blindly fire into the mass of beasts. With so little free space, missing was rather difficult. However, the shots that connected with a target rarely hit where it counted--the head. Regardless, she continued to fire till an audible click was all that arose from the barrel.


After scanning the gun quizzically , she plaintively muttered to herself, "Out of ammo...." and started to backpedal away. Just as the notion of taking flight arose, the nearest beast violently lashed out, feinting with both arms and driving a dodging Raven backward till she met with the cell-door. After crouching to avoid yet another slash, the man's voice echoed from behind the door, "Here, use this!" With that, a double- barreled shotgun slid out. Sparing no time to consider the kick-back, she seized the gun with both hands, pointed the barrel(s) at a ninety-degree angle and pumped off a round.


The butt of the shotgun slammed against her arm with such force that a bruise being left behind as a mommento was blatantly imminent . In exchange, when the powerful blast met with the abdomen of her assailant , everything from it's waist up exploded into a confetti of blood, bone fragments and organs. With no torso to control them, the legs briefly stumbled about before collapsing to the floor.


After discharging another two rounds to clear her path, Raven sprang to the right and fully recovered to her feet. Exiting the shade of the second floor/walkway, she left herself open for the beasts that had entered through the ceiling. In one sloppy, uncoordinated motion, they dove for her, landing on - top of their very own. Taking in the enemy reinforcements, Raven gauged the distance between her and them, then un-loaded the shotgun of two more rounds. Pleasantly surprised that the blast brought the intended targets and roughly three more the ground. The loss did not slow down nor intimidate her foes. Mindlessly , they continued to close the distance.


Realizing that they had grown far too close, Raven ducked low and rolled in reverse, squeezing the trigger of the shotgun the moment she had recovered to her knees. In succession with every shot fired, a multitude of beasts crumpled from the sloppy front-line and vanished behind the legs of their still living and moving peers.
Not sure of how much ammunition this gun had started with, Raven begun to pay particular attention to how she aimed, and the aftermath of the shot.


She fired once- The blast met with the left arm of the target, blowing not only the said limb off, but also much of the left portion of it's torso, morphing it's chest to a crescent shape. This particular shot also caught the head of another beast, promptly bringing it to the floor.


She fired twice- A direct hit to the target's head. In reaction, the cranium exploded, riddling the cage that entrapped it with blood, bits of skull and brains. In some mysterious manner, this blast also brought down roughly three others (Perhaps striking the shoulder) crumbling a quarter of the front-line.


She fired a third time, then quickly followed this up with another blast- The first shot plowed through nearly ten full beasts, ravaging the points of impact. The second shot finished off those who had fallen victim to it's predecessor .


The playing-field had not been leveled, but with appropriate blasts taken, the once prominent horde of beasts had now been reduced to a meager five. Caked in a mixture of blood and perspiration, Raven, not averting her eyes from the remaining five foes, reached toward the ground and produced a blade, belonging to one of the many monsters that had been taken down in the hail of gun-fire. Raising her arm then arching it behind her, she placed aim and flung the blade forward with a surprising burst of strength.
It sailed through the air, end-over-end before catching deep into the throat of the closest beast. Dark blood immediately begun to seep out of the wound and wash over the imbedded blade. There was no shriek of pain or ungainly movement. It simply crumpled to the floor.


With no reluctance, the remaining four begun to rush toward her with only one command in mind-- kill .
"Alright!" Raven hissed through clenched teeth while raising the shotgun. "A blast for each of you!"
The first monstrosity to threateningly raise a blade was met by a powerful shotgun blast to the midsection, slinging it to the ground in two blood-washed segments. Following suit, Raven discharged another round that met with the collar-bone of another beast, reducing the enemy count to a hopeful two.
With the gap closed, both creatures swung for their prey, but were met only be the other's offending blade. Raven, whom had cleverly anticipated such a front and rolled out of the way, watched from nearly ten yards away as her puzzled opponents gathered their priorities . With the circumstances almost jerking her lips into a thin smile, she placed aim and finished them off.


There was no time to muse over the outstanding victory, or for that matter, even make a body-count before the man locked in the cell behind her begun to cheer, "Alright! Kick ass! I was wrong, you'd never work for that worthless son of a bitch, Stidewall!" After starting a bit at the man's out-burst, Raven turned to face him. He had not exited his accommodations , but was now in full view. An inmate--no doubt about it. His worn orange uniform detailed everything she needed to know.
"What are you talking about?" She asked while approaching him, "Who's Stidewall?"
The in-mate relented as she grew closer, as if his full trust had not yet been gained.
"Huh? You mean to tell me you don't know?"
Raven gesturally shook her head.
"He's the warden of this prison. When all of this shit happened, he went off his fuckin' nut and started slaughtering all the inmates and haulin' em' outside...I watched two of my best friends get capped in the head by that damn maniac!"
"How'd you live?"
He shrugged before replying, "Guess he doesn't bother to check under the beds."


With peace restored, Raven took a double take on the room. There was a lone door, beside which was another plate-glass window, looking into what she could only assume was a control-room of sorts.
"Can I maybe open up your cell from that room over there?" She nodded toward the door, but the in-mate promptly begun to detest, "No, I'm not coming out....It's safer in here n' besides....I got epilepsy...If I had a seizure, I'd only be weighing you down..."
Raven stared blankly. Almost confused at his reaction, as she couldn't even fathom the thought of sitting helplessly still in this place.
"Are you sure you don't want to..."
He quickly nodded his head and cut her off, "Uh huh. I'll be okay. Uh...here..." The inmate ducked down behind his bed and extracted a box of shells. Handing them to her through the door, he begun to explain, "When Stidewall started wasting the others, one of his guards left that shotgun and some shells behind, I fished em' in here with that pipe...." He gestured toward the metallic tube that had been flung at her earlier. Raven accepted the shells and begun the confusing process of reloading the shotgun. As she went about doing this in a 'Trial by error' manner, the in-mate pointed toward the door that her eyes had just been fixed on.


"That way's the only way outta' this prison, but I'm pretty sure you'd have to get through Stidewall first..." The carton of shells nearly fell to the floor when this particular remark flooded the titan's earshot.
"Wait...you mean he'd try to kill me too?!?"
The in-mate nodded his head solemnly. "You don't look like no prisoner, but you don't look like no C.O either, n' those are the only guys the crazy bastard trusts anymore. I can't say for sure, but I'm willing to bet he'd sooner blow yer' head off then let you get out alive."
Raven shook her head despairingly as she got this information straight.
"How...stupid..." She brought her gaze back to the in-mate. There wasn't a snow-cone's chance in Hell she'd attempt to debate with a man that had been serving time in a maximum security prison, but it was worth one more shot...
"Are you absolutely sure you don't want to tag along? Once I leave this room, I won't be coming back..."
The in-mate smiled reassuringly while giving a slight nod of his head.
"I'll be okay...Even if I don't make it outta' here alive, all I had to live for was my little ole' ma' anyway...you go on. Get outta' here."


She felt the need...no, the moral obligation to object, but stuffed it down. She thanked him one last time for his invaluable assistance , wished him well, then headed for the doorway. Closing the door behind her and leaving a human being alive with the knowledge that his chances of survival were slim to none was the hardest thing Raven had ever done, not only here, but within the course of her lifetime. And despite the fact that there was nothing she could have done, she already hated herself for it.


The door of which she had walked through emptied into a room that's proportions could not have exceeded fifteen square feet. Despite it's general small size, it was furnished with a leather love seat, a table and matching potted plant. Adding to this were two doors, excluding that of which she had entered through. Above one was a sign, reading "Control rooms- Authorized personnel only"
Knowing that this was a dead-end, she turned toward the other unlabeled door and pushed it open.
She was led into a dimly lit corridor that stretched far off into the distance. The nearest door on her right quickly caught her attention. The sign that had been hung in the center distinctly read
"Entrance to supply-depot/ Eastern wing exit"


Her heart skipped a beat in anticipation, but just as her hand met with the smooth surface of the push-door, a voice panicked voice rung out from behind it, "Oh shit, man! He's gonna' kill us! He's really gonna' kill us!" Not a moment later, it was met by another much deeper and slightly more placid voice, "Shut up! Don't let him know yer' scared! That's exactly what he fuckin' wants!"
Stealing her nerves, she plowed through the door--to find herself in yet another compact room, only differing from the last in the lack of furnishings and the window positioned across from the entrance door.


Raven gasped and had to fight the urge to slip back behind the door when she became witness to what lay behind the window. Hanging upside down, directly in front of plate glass, as though to greet someone who had decided to enter the supply depot were two prone forms of in-mates.
Upon her making a rather noisy entrance, one of them hanging men peered over his shoulder.
"Hey!" He cried in surprise. "Hey, you! Get in here, quick! You gotta' cut us down before--"
He was cut off by the other in-mate, a much larger black man, "Shut up, you damn fool! You keep this up n' he'll blast our asses for sure!"


Heeding the information, Raven made quick time of the next hallway that would lead her into the supply depot, a massive room that in truth, more-so resembled a hangar.
With the shrouding darkness and outstanding length-wise proportions, it was impossible to see the other end of the room. To her immediate right were the in-mates. They met eyes and the smaller white man instantly begun to ramble, "C'mon! Hurry up and get us down or Stidewall's gonna'...."
There was no time to finish before a wave of hot lead begun to sink into both men. After close to a half-minute of pummeling it's victims, the firing subsided. Following this, a voice filtered into the hangar-like room through a hidden intercom. In a heavy southern accent, it boomed, "The situation at hand does not concern me even half as much as the thought of any of these in-mates escaping from this prison. No one leaves Carnate without the permission of Jonathon Stidewall! And that goes double for you, little Missy!"


Feeling directly threatened, Raven prematurely called, "Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS." And in turn was blanketed in a dome of what one could only describe as a black light. Moments after this gambit was made, a wave of bullets came sailing toward her, stopping and falling just inches short of the force- field . Once more, the voice crackled over the P.A system,
"Hah! That light show o' yer's won't work forever, little girl. When yer' in Stidewall's prison, you are the quarry!"


-End Chapter 6-

*More rambling from the author*

Well, after putting up with a frantic week, it look's like Ozzy's back in the saddle again. As I said before, my frequency in posting these chapters won't be quite as good as it once was, but I'm doing what I can with the time I have. Also, in the actual game you did fight the warden of the prison, however his name wasn't Stidewall. For lack of a long-term memory (To paraphrase, I forgot) I had to give him that.

Again, I'd like to take the time to thank everyone that's been leaving behind a review. I love hearing what the reader has to say, and will try to respond to it on the review dingus in the future (Now that I know I can do that)
-JackoMegane