I watched the beautiful mare in her stride as she trotted down the street to the town market as she did every day of every week. Her dark brown mane curled at the ends, just out of way for her luscious blue eyes to twinkle in the sunlight. Her coat was a flavor mixed between chocolate and ginger while her rump adorned a sort of tea leaf, advertising her lust for herbs and spices. Her name was Mint and she was the most gorgeous pony I've ever laid eyes on.
I was browsing at a workshop vendor for wood and other supplies to fix up a few things back at my home. I was one of those kids who liked to take things apart and put them back together, a tinkerer at heart. My father would always berate me about how I had flying colors in woodshop, but running a C- in english.
As the mare passed me I picked up the scent of pine and dill, then she suddenly stopped as if she knew I was peering at her. She turned to me, tears pooling in her eyes. I didn’t understand and simply didn’t say anything, till’ she took a couple steps closer to me. I managed to release a monotone “Um” before she looked me in the eyes and whispered,
“Why?”
//////////
I let in a heavy gasp, nearly rolling off my bunk. Cold sweat was dripping from my brow. I brought my hooves to my face and tried to recollect my thoughts. I’ve tried to forget, I’ve tried so hard to forget, but the more I try to forget the the more I remember. The only thing that I ever forgot was myself, who I was, and what I am now.
A noise stirred above me until attempting to comfort me, saying, “Another dream, huh?”
“You could hardly call it a dream” I replied to the familiar voice.
“Trust me, whatever it was to get you in here, I’m sure you’ll pass over it in time.”
I let my forehooves hang off the end of the bunk, “Ray?”
“What is it?”
“Shut the fuck up…”
Prison, It was a hellhole, but it was a hellhole that you deserved and you knew it. I’ve only been here for a month and the only stallion I would ever talk to is my bunkmate, Ray. Ray has been here for 2 years after attempting to rob a bank and fleeing after shanking a deputy with a shard of broken glass. Lately he’s been trying to pry me of my crime, failing, then telling me it’ll all be better in time… “in time”, his god damned motto… “in time”, phff…
I spend most of my time with Ray during our walking hours, at this point we’ve probably played over 80 games of chess. Ray isn’t cut from the same stone as most of the brutes here. He understands that he’s made a mistake and accepts where he is now.
Ray had a dark brown coat, black mane, and pale red eyes. With his jumpsuit always on I could only catch glimpses of his cutie mark in the showers. What looked to be a bar of iron was what was permanently on his ass. It was at that point that I would turn around to see a grayish stallion winking at me with his tongue sticking out, then proceeding to lick his lips… guh…
Ray let out a disgruntled sigh, “Uhh, my bad, Rift, sorry… you know I’m just lookin’ out for you.” The bunk creaked as he repositioned himself.
I wanted to regain my sanity and train of thought so I decided to change the subject, “Did you used to be a iron caster before, you know?”
Ray hesitated for a moment, “What’s it matter?”
“Well, you have an iron bar on your flank so, I was just guessing.”
“Yeah, I used to be an iron caster.”
“So you craft blades and other nick-nacks, right? How did you end up using a piece of glass as a weapon?”
Ray was silent for a moment then chuckled to himself, “To be honest, an employee managed to use his teleco-crap-whatever to yank my homemade dagger from my mouth, I made a rush to jump out the side window, blah blah blah, 46 years…” His tone seemed to drift as he finished his tale.
A minute of silence hailed over us and our thoughts, that’s when I noticed that somepony in the cell across from us was having a serious fit of coughing. It sounded like he was going to throw up his lungs.
“YO! SHUT THE FUCK UP!” An inmate complained, obviously trying to sleep but failing due to the dying steed in the cell adjacent to him.
When the catacombs were quiet once more I engaged back into our conversation again, “Why did you do it?”
Ray was silent for a minute, sighed as he shifted on his bunk, and told me his story.
Ray loved his job because it was what he was best at. Day in and day out, he crafted blades, rods, and other assembles for a better than average salary. He also had a brother that he loved more than anybody in the world, doing anything in his absolute power that he could to keep him out of harms way.
On a simple workday Ray was confronted by an entrepreneur that offered him to be one of a select few ponies that would participate in a research program that could change the lifestyle of Equestrian Earth and Pegasi ponies for ages to come and would be paid a hefty fee for his contribution. The research was that of a theory, a theory that you could use lightning rods to harvest energy from the lightning itself and then using that energy to power a magic bulb, or a light bulb as unicorns call it, without any use of unicorn magic. It was a lot to take in and very exciting to be a pony to help with this project, so Ray excepted.
Ray gritted his teeth, “If he woulda just backed off like I told him to…I wouldn't be here!” He tried his absolute best to not scream out loud.
With all due respect, long story short, Ray manslaughtered his little brother, submitted himself to heavy drinking, lost his job… and attempted to rob a bank for cash. But something inside me tells me that he wanted this
“I don’t know what to say.” I said with a cringe.
“There’s nothing else to say.” Ray’s moderately bright mood wasn’t present at the moment.
It was quiet.
“Sometimes I wish hell upon this earth…” Ray muttered, more to himself than me.
I decided to just lay back and try to put on some sleep for the rest of the morning we had left. After a couple minutes with my eyes closed tight I heard what I thought was a faint yell of terror coming from way down the hall to the left of our cell. At first I thought I was just imagining things, but then I knew what I heard after that, two gunshots rang through the halls like a megaphone. Other inmates rustled in their bunks, some whispering to one another.
“Rift, you hearin’ what I’m hearin’?” Ray asked in a startled tone.
“A scream and gunshots, yeah, I heard it. What the hell is going on?” I have to say, I was pretty frightened. Ray rustled off of his bunk above me and jumped down, I stood on up after him. It was dark, really dark. Dark, silent, and a bit moist.
What was completely pitch black was suddenly shifted to strobing red as an ear raping alarm filled the catacombs. Ray looked around, back to me, and then back at the bars. He grasped one of the cell bars and tried to peek down the hall to see what he could see.
Only seconds have passed until another gunshot blasted down the hall, sounding much closer than before. What had to be 10 seconds felt like an hour and another gunshot went off. Ray slowly looked backed to me, he showed me a face I haven't seen before, horror.
“There shootin’ fucking ponies out there, man!” I couldn’t tell if Ray was angry or terrified, but that didn’t exactly matter to me. What mattered to me was trying to understand what ray was talking about.
Another shot.
“Bu- wha~...” Was all I managed to mumble out before Ray scooted closer to my muzzle, looking me in the eyes.
“There is a security guard with a gun walking down this hallway and SHOOTING THE INMATES IN EACH CELL!” Ray seemed quite furious. He walked back past me and over to the sink.
Another shot.
Ray turned on the water to the sink. I was left to my thoughts.
Another shot.
We were going to die in less than a minute.
Another shot.
Maybe we deserved this, we’re terrible people in a terrible place that is meant for us.
Another shot.
The water turned off and ray looked to me.
“Maybe it has something to do with that riot yesterday. That flu going around, you just don’t see a guard jump on an inmate for no reason, not even provoking him. Maybe this is just some sort of protocol so the disease doesn’t spread, or something.” Ray seemed to be sputtering nonsense, even if he was right we were still gonna be killed by this guard taking names.
Another shot.
They were really close now, only a couple cells away. Arguing came from other cells around us, everyone seemed scared shittless.
“You just gon’ kill all of us then? I’d like to see what you could do if this fucking cell was-”
Another shot.
“Aw shit!” Ray exclaimed as he bucked his hind legs into the bunk behind us. I looked back and stared at the bunk. I wasn’t quite ready to die yet…
Another shot.
“Ray,” I toned in to get his attention, “Take off the top bunk.” Ray looked at me with an eyebrow raised, but didn’t waste any time asking questions. The top bunk came straight off as he lifted, he then let it down on the floor.
Another shot.
I released one of the four latches on the inside of the bottom bunk that attach the metal support bars for it’s structure. I pulled the metal pole from it’s sheath with my teeth and threw is to the ground, near Ray’s hooves. I proceeded to unlatch another bar for myself.
Another shot.
I turned back to Ray, “In the next 30 or so seconds that guard is going to show up to our cell and when he does we’re going to use these rods to knock the asshole back and hopefully unarming him, that’s the best I got, so it better work.”
Another shot.
Ray nodded and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.
Another shot.
We readied ourselves, steel between our teeth. The alarm still dampening the silence and filling cells with shades of red.
Another shot.
The guard walked up between our cell and the parallel, distracted by loading a lead ball into his flintlock with his telekinesis. He looked up, I nodded to Ray. With our strengths combined we forced the guard back with the metal rods until our muzzles pushed up between the cell bars. I aimed for the guards forehead to constrict his usage of any magic to counter our attack, while Ray had him pinned against the chest. The guard fell back on his rump and his gun clanked off to the left of him.
I let off my pressure to try and reach for the gun with the metal pole, while Ray’s moved up to the guards neck. The guard started choking, trying to move away the piece of steel nearly penetrating his throat.
As we continued our attack I noticed a silhouette in the opposite cell. I glanced only for a moment as it started to get closer to the guard. Hooves came out from in between the cell bars and wrapped around and under the guards chin. At first it seemed that a fellow inmate was helping us kill the guard before he killed us, that was until I realized that he was only helping himself.
The inmate across from us squeezed his muzzle between the cell door and ripped off a piece of flesh from back of the guards neck with his teeth. Ray dropped his weapon and jumped back. I could only freeze as I watched the guard scream for mercy as his neck was ravaged by an enraged stallion. The guard kept screaming as one of his legs were dragged into the cell. There was no use for him to fight back anymore, he was finished. His audible agony continued to decrease in volume until all that was heard was the alarm still ringing furiously.
I dropped my metal rod and released the contents of my stomach all over the floor, missing the toilet by about five feet, but I could care less.
“Dear Celestia…” Ray let out quietly, “It’s one thing to eat meat, but, cannibalism? What the fuck?” I couldn't disagree with Ray, eating meat was taboo, but I never even heard of anypony who has submitted themselves to cannibalism.
I collected myself and went on with the plan, “I sure hope he has the cell keys on him” I prayed. Ray looked to me with a frown and then back to his pole. After a couple of moments of staring at the deceased guard we picked up our weapons and tried to reach over and pull his body towards us. The cannibal wasn’t letting his meal go that easily. He latched onto one of the guards hind legs and continued feasting.
After a few minutes of tug-o-war we managed to yank the guards body out of the carnivorous inmate’s grasp. Blood pooled the hall as we slid the body closer to us. I gritted my teeth as I bent down to find a ring of keys. I was holding my breath as I used my hooves to feel around the guards belt. As if a guardian angel was watching over me I heard a jingle and I yanked the keys right off of the corpses pants. I let out my held breath and looked to Ray who was still frowning.
There may have been about six keys on the ring, the second one I tried fit right in like a puzzle piece. I turned the key and gears of the lock clicked satisfyingly. I took another look at the ravaged security guard. He lied in a bloody heap on the floor, pieces of his own flesh hanging off his limbs. I slowly slid the cell door open to the right. I steeled myself and stepped out. Down the hall to the left there were white, non-strobing, regular lights where I assumed the alarm was not ringing. To the right was the rest of the cell block and commotion amongst living prisoners still trapped in their cells. I had the keys to open up every cell in each of the six cell blocks, but I’ve already seen the horror of what just the man across from us can do, I can’t just lead the whole prison to the outside, I had to leave. Just leave with what I’ve got and what I still have.
Ray pushed past me to pick up the flintlock pistol the guard was using to execute everypony with. He then leaned over the guards corpse, looking for his pouch of lead pellets. I closed our cell door and pulled the keys out, I didn’t have any bags to store them in so I just slipped the ring around one of my ears. Ray pulled off the pouch of tiny musket balls from the guards belt with a smile, he wrapped the string that was attached to the bag around his upper foreleg.
Ray turned back to me with the empty flintlock in his mouth. I looked down to notice that the guards eyes were wide open and at that moment my mouth hung open. The dead guard swiped at Ray’s hind leg tripping him as he started to walk. Ray skidded to the floor on his face and tried his best to roll onto his back. I acted fast and lunged for one of the poles I dropped earlier. I picked it up in between my teeth and swung at the guards head. I hit him hard hard enough to knockout a boxer, but he continued to limp after me. Ray got back on his hooves.
“Let’s go, Rift, c’mon!” Ray ordered. I turned back and galloped my flank towards the checkpoint. As we ran I caught a couple glances of dead inmates with holes in their heads. Poor bastards.
When we reached the checkpoint I looked back to see that the walking corpse was still coming this way. Ray tried to open the East wing checkpoint’s office, but the door was locked.
“Shit, Rift, open this door, now, hurry!” Ray exclaimed in a frightened tone. This is when I realized that the checkpoint lobby we were in had multiple bloodied bodies lying about and from one of the corners came more slowly limping ponies with torn flesh and dead eyes. I ran up to the door and used the same key that opened our cell door, it only made sense, and it worked. I opened the door quickly and signaled Ray to get in. We slammed and locked the door behind us. I sat and slid off the door to the ground. I looked up to see two other inmates and a guard. A hoof connected to the right side of my face out of my peripheral vision.
//////////
I opened my eyes, my vision was blurred and there was a faint ringing in my ears. I could barely make out what was somepony waving their hoof in front of me. As my vision cleared I slowly realized it was Ray.
“Hey, you alright?” Ray asked comfortingly. The only thing out of order was his bloody nose. “Apparently, Jeb took you as an intruder and dealt with you the only way he knew how.” Out of the corner of my eye I could see an inmate with a blackened eye sitting against a desk, not looking particularly happy.
“For a second we thought you both were gonna give us the chomp.” Spoke a greasy looking prisoner who didn’t seem to be too thrilled about the situation we were in. I looked down to see my hooves as a bloody mess, as if I had gutted roadkill. It took a while to occur to me that the door I was laying against had plagued stallions knocking for a meal. Ray offered me a hoof, I accepted obligately. I stood up on my hooves with a wobble. My head felt as if it were beaten with a sack of bits.
“Thanks.” I answered assuringly. I turned back to the banging metal door to notice a small viewing latch. I stared only for a moment until I reached out to the latch. I slid the small viewing door open just a crack to find myself face to face with a growling, drooling, flesh eating monster. I stood absolutely still as I watched the… ‘thing’ push itself against the metal door. I looked straight into it’s blank, dead, foggy eyes, it disgusted me, but even more so when I realized this stallion was a stable being not 12 hours ago.I slid the peep latch closed and turned back around. Everypony was looking at me, but I had nothing to say.
The first stallion to catch my eye was the checkpoint security guard, a pegasus. He wore a silver plated chestpiece and shoulder caps and he kept a baton strapped tightly to his front right leg. He had dark rings under his bloodshot eyes, as if he hadn’t slept for days.
“Do you even know what’s going on out there?” I questioned, directing my attention to the guard.
“All I know is that there’s some sort of disease going around, other than that, I’m clueless.” The guard answered, stopping for a moment to relocate his state of mind, “I’m ordered to lock myself in the checkpoint if the alarm sounds...” He turned to face the other prisoners, “...That was, until these tail draggers started frantically pounding on the door” He nodded his head in the direction the three inmates were accumulated in, “There was four… and… i-it was after that when I let them in.” The guard frowned for moment, then raised a brow to me. “I’m going to assume a random security guard just handed you his key ring.” I looked down to see the keys still beneath my blood stained hooves.
“Oh, n-no, it wasn’t us… something else did, emphasis on ‘thing’. But it’s not like he didn’t deserve it. I took his keys af-” I was interrupted by my host.
“Woah, ho, wai-... What do you mean he deserved it?” The guard demanded. I slowly looked up to him.
“That ‘random’ security guard was shooting everypony in their cells, like a bunch of fucking animals!” I raged, “So even if I did kill that guard it wouldn’t matter to me nor anybody in our situation because we got a bigger fucking problem on our hands. There are dead ponies outside that door trying to eat our FLESH! So why don’t you tell me, ‘judge’? Why don’t you tell me what we’ve got to worry about?”
“My name is Flare, and you’ve got me to worry about,” He took a couple steps closer, “Because if you raise your voice to me like that again, son, I’ll have you on the floor faster than I can pull a trigger, do you understand me?” The air was silent for a moment or two.
“Rift.” I held out my hoof. Flare furrowed his brow for a moment, then returned my offer. As the hostility in the room faded more worries started again. The banging and screeching still persisted on the door behind us. Ray looked back.
“That door can’t take much more beating, I know Iron and Iron can keep you safe from an attack,” Ray peeked back behind his shoulder, “But not this constant.” I started searching the room to find something that’ll help us get out of this mess. I walked up to the closed shutters of the checkpoint window, near the desk the other inmates were huddled around to take a look at the “San Palomino Desert Maximum Security Prison” map. I studied the map, there was no way to escape out the front doors, there had to be a third of the guards regularly patrolling those front halls.
“You’re best bet of escape would be roof access.” Flare spoke up after noticing me staring at the map, “Lucky for you I’m armed with every key for this whole institution, not just individual cell blocks and I know this prison like the back of my hoof.”
“Alright, but how do you expect to get out of this room then?” I asked.
“Well we could start by…” Flare leaned up against a wall, “...Going up?” I looked up to see a large metal grating hanging above us like a sign with the word “obvious” written on it.
//////////
After stacking a cabinet, a few crates and boxes, and a chair, as well as having flare undo the bolts on the grating with a wrench found in said cabinet, we managed a path out of this room, but those fleshpounds were still trying to knock down the door and were succeeding. The door has been bending inward with every smash of their weight, they just wouldn’t stop, they were god damned relentless.
Flare had already flew up to lend us a hoof. I hopped up the boxes first and stood upon the folding chair. I grabbed hold of Flare’s hoof and pushed off with my hind legs, grasping onto the ledge above me with my free hoof. Flare let go of me and I pulled myself up the rest of the way, turning around to help the next in line. Ray climbed forward and we hauled him up with ease, ready for the next of our newly met acquaintances.
Up came the greasy looking bastard, he had a pigment of pale orange and dark blue eyes under his slicked black hair. The door inside of the checkpoint was starting to creak and sure to breach at any moment. Next came a darker looking stallion, he had not spoken this whole time, I had no objections to that. After he was secured the final survivor in the checkpoint was last to come up. He was the one that knocked me out before getting the shit kicked out of him by Ray. One last smash of the door came along and it busted off it’s hinges like picking an apple off a tree.
The last inmate hurried up the crates as the dead poured in the room. He stood upon the chair and started reaching for me and Flare franticly. He only managed to give me a high hoof in his attempt to grab hold of us. He accidently kicked out the chair beneath him, landed his back onto a corner of a crate, and rolled off onto his face. He stood up only to be pursued by the plagued, knocking over our makeshift staircase. I quickly turned away with a hoof over my mouth. His pain echoed all throughout the lobby.
“Um… okay, just wait here a moment.” Flare ordered, eager to get out of here. He flew up above to a catwalk another floor above us, “I’ll try to find a service ladder in the maintenance room up here, where we’ll also make our way towards roof access.” As Flare disappeared into a door I heard in on the poor fool being eradicated by diseased cannibals. His yells and struggles quit about 20 seconds after that. I didn’t dare look back into the checkpoint, I wasn’t up for anything like that.
We all stood in a corner of the east cell block lobby, only 12 feet higher after climbing up and out of that dead end, dead end. I heard the slam of the maintenance door as Flare came back carrying an extendable service ladder with which he wasted no time hooking onto the catwalk railing.
“Ready to get out of here?” I asked Ray in hopes of boosting his morality.
“I guess I can’t say no.” Ray answered, looking down into the dead and blood that scoured the lobby, “But we're not out of here yet.” Flare pulled out a pin and released the ladder. It gave off a hearty bang when it hit the concrete.
“Yo, shouldn’t we say something, like, for Flint, you know?” Spoke up the greasy fellow. it took me a moment to realize who he was talking about. I was about to speak my opinion.
“You can, but I’m leaving this hellhole sooner rather than later, understood?” Spoke Flare, who was already walking away, back to the maintenance room. Greasy noname looked to the ground with a frown. I started up the ladder after Ray and the two others followed.
Ray walked into maintenance and held the door like the gentleman he is. When I walked in I was greeted by what you’d expect to be in a maintenance room, but Flare wasn’t there. I made a bit of a sour face for whatever reason and walked over to the only other door in the room. I turned the handle and opened it to reveal a small, dimly lit corridor. I looked back to the others and all I got were a couple of shrugs. I started down the corridor towards a narrow staircase. At the top I saw Flare looking back down on me.
“Like I said, I ain’t waitin’ around.” Flare paused , “‘Specially for some prison scum like yourself.” I gave him a look before he started walking away again. I signaled the others with a hoof to follow.
“Stay close, Ray.” I ordered, not making eye contact
“What do you mean?” Ray asked, expecting an answer, but I kept silent. We ran up the stairs after Flare whom disappeared around a corner when we reached the top. The air felt heavy and Humid. Flare continued to lead the way as we caught up.
“Gentleman, welcome to the rat tunnels.” Flare announced, pausing for a moment to take a sharp turn to the left, “Plumbers and carpenters get around using these halls, let’s just hope nopony was working overtime.” We continued down the dark blue colored corridors and what felt like hours, in reality, only took mere minutes. Another set of stairs came into view, one that would take us to the floor of the prison. A door stood ahead, Flare pulled out his surplus of keys upon a ring and, like an expert, found the correct one within seconds.
The door opened with a creak. At the moment Flare stepped into what seemed to be another maintenance room he was hit in the head with a lead pipe.
I reacted as soon as my mind comprehended the situation by clearing the distance with Flare and his attacker. Flare, stunned, fell back into the the door he was holding open and his nose bloodied from the blow. The attacker readied his weapon once more. I interrupted his assault by tackling him. Ray, who was right behind me, kicked the unknown stallions weapon into a corner of the room and assisted me in restraining him.
“Get off me you flesh eating abomination!” The man yelled
“Mister, calm down, we’re not one of them.” My attempt at cooling the stallion’s rage did nothing.
“Look sir, if you could jus-” Ray started, but was interrupted by Flare who had creeped up behind us and knocked out our attacker with his baton. Flare backed away, breathing heavily. The two prisoners stood in the doorway. I examined the unknown stallion, he wore a blue jumpsuit that bared a tag that read, ‘Maintenance’, as well as, ‘Hello, my name is Hilt’ I sighed.
“Should we… help him?” Ray asked, staring at the unconscious maintenance worker.
“Yeah, we’ll help ‘em. Let’s help the guy who tried to smash my skull.” Flare was displeased with Ray’s question. He sighed, “You’re carrying him.”
//////////
We ended up in the west cell block after our little trip. Flare explained how we’ll make our way to the other end of this section to reach the stairwell to the roof. Ray and I carried Hilt on our backs, his front legs hanging off the right of my side and his hind legs hanging off the left of Ray. I decided to take up some of our time by finally knowing our two extra tagalongs' names.
“My name is Caballa.” Spoke the greasy inmate.
“And I’m Rallo.” Answered the darker colored one.
“Name’s Rift.” I announced.
“Ray.”
“Oh hey, are we playing meet and greet?” Flare mocked, “This is my friend, patience, he’s a bit irritated at moment.” It was only a few moments later until the lights around us went dark.
“Woah!”
“Hey!” Exactly 7 seconds after the lights went out, they came right back on.
“Shit…” Flare exclaimed.
“Flare… what’s going on?” I asked, he clearly knew something we didn’t.
“Well, whatever unicorn was powering the generator isn’t anymore.” Flare explained, “So now the magic reserves are powering the gener-” Flare paused and halted in his tracks.
“Flare-” I started.
“Sh!” We all remained quiet for the moment. After a little while I swore I could hear only an ambient crowd of dead in the distance. Flare turned to us.
“Run.” He spoke in a whisper. He proceeded to turn back around and take off, “RUUUUN!” It was at that moment I noticed we were being chased by half the floors dead prisoners.
“Holy shit…” I said to myself. It was already hard enough to run away as fast as possible, but carrying an unconscious stallion made it that much harder. Poor Caballa stood there shocked, but we couldn’t do anything for him. At the moment he realized he was supposed to run it was far too late. Caballa lunged in our direction, but was grabbed by the tail. He fell and that was as much as there could be to say about that.
Flare was a good 20 feet ahead of us until he turned a corner. As I advanced to the threeway intersection of hallways Flare came back from the way he went and bolted the opposite way. I turned to see more dead trudging after us. Ray and I cooperated the best we could to keep up with Flare and Rallo followed. The dead prisoners yet again flooded Flare’s position, it was game over. They trapped us from every direction. I could see the saliva and blood dripping from their open jaws.
“Here!” Flare yelled to us. He pulled open a door to a boiler room and held it for us to get in. In our struggle me and Ray dropped Hilt. I quickly turned back to pull him on his collar with my teeth. Rallo hurried to the door but was nipped on his hind leg. With all his force he bucked the creature back into the crowd and ran inside the boiler room. Flare pulled back the door shut. We all stood back and listened as the dead banged and scratched and beat against the door that separated us.
“It was a pleasure meeting you boys, truly.” Flare announced, completely void of hope. I looked around the room, there were no other doors besides the one being busted into. I peered at a vent that was bolted to the wall.
“What about that?” I nudged a hoof over to the possible escape.
“No, you can’t, because some sections of the ventilation is pumped with carbon dioxide, you’d literally be dead before you know it.” Flare elaborated.
“Carbon dioxide?” Ray asked as if Flare had been insane?
“Ever noticed that you’re trapped in a prison?”
This was it, there was no escape this time, we were going to be eaten alive and the most we could do about it was to shoot ourselves. In that time I couldn't stop thinking about my daughter whom I’ve never had the chance to apologize to… I could kill myself even if there wasn’t 30 plus dead inmates beating on a door to a dead end that I was trapped in.
“I killed my wife…” I admitted. Ray looked to me with a raised brow. “I killed my wife, and now I’ll never be able to even see my daughter for one last time…” I paused to blink out a tear. I hated myself. “It’s not the story nor it’s writer, but the ink it is written in.” I accepted my death, I deserved it…
Ears perked when another prisoner’s screams came from down the hall to our left, as well as a couple gunshots. The terrified yells persisted and the banging on the door became less heavy. Flares eyes open wide, his head high.
//////////
Flare kicked open the door to the roof. The sun felt like heaven itself as it just rose over the horizon. We made it over the the fire escape and Flare flew Hilt down to a pair of rail carts in which we were to escape in. Flare cuffed the knocked out maintenance worker to the middle of the cart. Me, Ray, and Rallo all made our way down the fire escape. We dropped down onto a train docking station, where the prison undoubtedly gets all their supplies from. Without a care in the world we hopped over the first two tracks to the third where we boarded our rail carts and made our great escape.
Ray and I occupied a cart while Flare and Rallo took the one ahead of us. We pumped the levers and started making our way north. I looked to Ray.
“We’re out.” I startled giggling like a school filly.
“So that was all you did, but you couldn’t tell me?” Ray questioned, “You know, I don’t even care anymore. I’m glad we’re out of there…” I turned my attention to the prison which was now way off in the distance.
Along came a sign that read, ‘Welcome to the San Palomino Maximum Security Prison”.
End song
