The women and child went willingly and were treated much nicer. Even Tobias, Cender, and Abby were treated nicer despite their many verbal protests. They were led away from Misha.
“What do we do about this one?” one of the soldiers had asked another. “He’s clearly not going to go through inspection without a fight.”
Misha grinned internally because he had been right. He would bite them if necessary, risk of infection or not.
“Put him and the dog in a cell,” the superior office had told him very nonchalantly. “We’ll wait a week and if he hasn’t turned, then he isn’t infected.”
* * *
So now Misha was in a cell, pacing back and forth. He wondered what was going to happen once the week was up. He had no window and through the bars, he could only see into the empty cell across from him. He could see the fronts of other cells, but not really into them. He assumed they were empty. If there were the same amount of cells on his side as on the other, there were ten cells total, five per side. At one end was the door he had been dragged through, a big metal thing with extra locks on it. On the other end was a large and heavily barred window, which provided Misha with enough light to see by.
He sighed and sat on the little cot. It didn’t even have a pillow or a sheet. Rifle looked at him and squeezed his skunk, so Misha reached over and scratched his ears.
“What are we going to do when you have to poop?” Misha asked the dog.
He himself had been given a bucket. Apparently, the toilet in there wasn’t working. He had no problem with the bucket, but he was fairly certain Rifle wasn’t trained to use one.
Rifle circled a spot on the floor and lay down with a huff. He placed his toy down next to him.
“I hope they bring us some food soon.” Misha lay back on the dingy cot. “I’m starving, and I’m sure you are too.”
The soldiers had said they would feed him, but he had no idea how often this would occur. He assumed they would continue to treat him as badly as they had been and spit in his food. He was hungry enough not to care.
He sat up and took his boots off. They were still damp inside, and his feet could use some airing out. Carefully, he unwrapped the bandages. They had become soggy and clung to his feet, which still looked raw, but at least they were clean. Taking off the firefighter’s jacket, he saw that it had mostly dried, but a little bit of dampness still clung to it. He hung it across the useless toilet bowl. Misha lay back down on the cot and stared at the ceiling, wondering how he was going to get out of here. He had never expected he’d have to one day attempt a jailbreak, and yet, here he was.
Rifle suddenly stood up and trotted to the cell’s front, drawing Misha out of his planning. He rolled off his cot and walked up to the bars just as the door at the end of the hall opened up. A soldier walked in, leading Tobias, Cender, and Abby. Two other soldiers trailed behind them. The first soldier opened the cell next to Misha’s without giving him a glance. He directed Cender into it and locked him in. He then opened the cell across from Misha and put Tobias in there, then Abby went into the one next to him. The soldiers said nothing; they just left. The outer door clanged a hollow and ominous sound.
“Hi, Misha.” Tobias waved from his cell.
“What are you guys doing here?” Misha had to admit to his curiosity.
“Well, you know my broken leg?” Cender spoke from the cell next to his. “Apparently, for their examination they wanted the cast taken off, which isn’t going to happen. Even they don’t want to go through the trouble of recasting it, so they decided I needed to go into quarantine for a week.”
“We told them we weren’t going to separate from him, so they stuck us in here too.” Tobias shrugged out of a large backpack and placed it on the floor.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a key in there, by any chance, would you?” Misha asked sarcastically as he turned from his cell’s front and lay back down on his cot.
“Sorry,” Tobias laughed. “You don’t have any supplies?”
“Do you see anything in here that could be classified as supplies?” Misha gestured with one of his scrawny arms around the cell. He knew Tobias could see him.
“When was the last time you ate?” Tobias asked, sounding almost concerned.
“Let’s see, what time is it?” Misha kept up the sarcasm. “That would be, sometime yesterday.”
Tobias didn’t answer, but Misha heard some rustling. Something rattled across the floor and hit the bottom of his cell’s bars. He lifted his head and looked. There was a tin can sitting there. He didn’t think, he just scrambled over and grabbed it. It was a tin of fruit that had a pull tab on top to open it. He yanked open the tin and started to devour the delicious and juicy fruit inside. It wasn’t until he was licking the tin clean, that he realized he should have offered a piece to Rifle. He felt badly for temporarily forgetting about the dog.
“Here.” More stuff came skittering across the way as Tobias threw more things.
Misha reached through the bars and scooped them up. There were four power bars, two granola bars, another fruit tin, and something called an MRE. Misha started to gobble them down, thinking of nothing but filling his stomach. He split the power bars, granola bars, and ‘Meal Ready to Eat’ 50/50 with Rifle, who wolfed his share down faster than Misha could. Misha held a piece of fruit up to Rifle who sniffed at it. The dog licked the fruit, but decided he didn’t want it. Misha ate it despite the dog’s lick. He ate the rest of the fruit one piece at a time, always offering it to Rifle first. Rifle though, had no interest in it. However, when he was given the tin full of juice, he quickly licked it up. He was probably thirsty.
“Thank you for the food. You wouldn’t have some water you’re willing to share, would you?” Misha turned and asked Tobias. He knew he was being selfish, but at the moment, his stomach was more in control than his mind.
Tobias had been filming him, which was a little unsettling, but he reached down and pulled out a water bottle. He rolled it across the floor. Misha cracked it open and took a swallow. He then poured half the bottle into the still clean bucket for Rifle to drink. Both of them drank every drop.
* * *
Once the impromptu meal was over, Misha gathered up the litter and stored it in a corner with the bandages. He doubted they would have a use, but just in case, he would keep them on hand. He looked back at Tobias again.
“Why did you do that?” he asked.
“Do what?” Tobias gave him a confused look.
“Give me your food.” Misha sat cross legged on the floor in front of the bars. He could just make out the girl, Abby, sitting in front of hers.
“I don’t know.” Tobias also sat down. “I guess ’cause you were with Cillian when he died. He saved my life, you know. I would never have made it without him. I would have gotten munched not long after the outbreak happened.”
“He saved my life too,” Abby chimed in.
“I don’t think he saved mine.” Cender must also have been sitting against the bars judging by the location of his voice. “I feel left out.”
“So, because you feel like you owe him, you’re helping me?” Misha didn’t understand that.
“I guess,” Tobias shrugged.
“Whatever, I’m not going to complain.” They were helping him, which was more than anyone had done so far. Well, except for Rifle. And, he guessed, maybe the addle-minded woman, but she had no idea who he was or what was going on. He wondered if she had been taken to this place.
“Did you see anyone on your way in here?” Misha hadn’t had the opportunity to look around. He was just hustled quickly through a cellblock and shoved into this offshoot. His large captors blocked off most of the view.
“Not really,” Tobias shook his head. “I caught sight of a few people milling around, but most of the people I’ve seen so far have been soldiers. Well, Keystone mercs, I guess would be a more accurate term.”
“It seems like there aren’t enough people here,” Misha voiced aloud. “When I sa
w those trucks in the city, there were a lot of them. They were going door to door, grabbing everyone out of their homes. They even had these guys in these bubble suits.”
“We saw some in the city, remember?” Abby spoke to the other guys. “When we were in the limo, before that flood of infected swept over us.”
“There must be other places set up like this,” Tobias suggested.
“Or they killed off a bunch of people,” Misha muttered.
“Why would they do that?” Abby asked him.
“I don’t know, but they had no problem gunning down a man who didn’t want to go with them.” That was an image Misha’s mind would hold onto for a while. Possibly for life. “Did you get a good look at what they were doing to the outer walls? I saw some welding equipment but I didn’t get a good enough look to see what exactly was being done.”
“No, sorry,” Tobias shook his head again.
“You might be paranoid,” Cender suggested.
“I might be,” Misha agreed. “But you don’t sound very trusting of them either.”
“The woman on the radio said that Marble Keystone had let out the virus on purpose,” Abby told him. “If they did that, why would they then want to protect us? It all does seem rather suspicious to me. What can we do though?”
She brought up a very good point. In their cells, they couldn’t do anything. They couldn’t even see outside. Misha got up and lay down on his bunk again. He was tired of talking. Instead, he went back to thinking, trying to plan. Now he had slightly more options because the others had some equipment with them, equipment that they might be able to use.
* * *
Misha was lying there, perfectly still, for some time before the next interruption. The door at the end of the hall was once again opened. Misha sprang to his feet and looked out through the bars at the man coming in who looked like a Keystone merc, but was behaving rather oddly. He moved cautiously, checking around him a lot, as if he was trying not to be seen.
“Cender?” the merc whispered. “Joshua Cender, are you in here?”
“Yo.” Cender stuck his arm out through the bars and waved.
The merc walked over to him. “Hey, I’m Mathias. I’m a friend of Riley’s.”
“You must be if you can call her Riley and live,” Cender answered him. “Where is she? Is she here?”
“She is, although we’re trying to find a way out,” Mathias told him.
“Join the club,” Tobias spoke up.
“Friend of yours?” Mathias asked Cender without turning.
“Yeah. How did you know I was in here?” Cender wondered.
“Riley spotted you being hustled along by some guards,” Mathias explained. “The crutches made you stand out.”
“Better question,” Misha drew attention to himself, “how did you get in here? In this room?”
“I look the part.” Mathias gestured to his merc clothes. “There’s a lot of them walking around here and they don’t all know each other. This was a hastily put-together operation. I literally just walked up to the guy with the keys and asked for them.”
“You have the keys?” Abby asked, trying to restrain her excitement. That question had undoubtedly sprung to everyone’s minds.
“Yeah.” Mathias held up his hand, revealing the keys dangling from them.
“Well come on, let’s go, hurry up.” Cender stuck his arms through the bars to try to reach the keys.
“Whoa, hold on a minute, sparky.” Mathias held the keys out of reach. “There’s no point in letting you out until we know what to do once you’re out.”
“We leave this place,” Tobias said it like it should be obvious.
“And how do we do that, smart one?” Mathias turned to him. “There are guards walking around all over the place. Not to mention the big walls with all the zombies pressed up against them.”
“Did you see what they were welding to the walls?” Misha didn’t know why, but the welding irked him. Something about it didn’t seem right, but he didn’t get a good enough look.
“No,” Mathias shook his head.
“Can you see out that window?” Misha pointed to the window even though it was obviously the only one in the room.
Mathias shrugged and went over to it. It was set high and he had to pull himself up on the bars to see. “Too hard to tell. The window isn’t exactly clean and they’re far away. Why?”
“Just a bad feeling is all. Hey, if you work for them, why do you want out of here?” Misha suddenly realized that this could be some sort of trick.
“I don’t work for them, not anymore, not since they tried to kill me.” Mathias walked to where Misha could easily see him and showed him a hole in his shirt right over his heart. There was a bulletproof vest under the shirt. “Apparently I was creating too much of a fuss, so they cut me loose. If it weren’t for Chant, the woman on the radio, if you guys heard it, I’d be dead.”
“Can’t you just commandeer one of the trucks?” Tobias asked. “We can just drive out.”
“No,” Mathias shook his head. “The trucks come and go constantly, they don’t stop. I don’t even know where they stop for gas.”
“Can’t you at least let us out of the cells, so we can look around?” Cender sighed.
“Like I said, your crutches stand out,” Mathias shrugged. “You might be spotted by someone who knows you should be in here.”
“Look, can you at least let me take a look out the window?” Misha asked. “I know a thing or two about welding, and I may be able to spot something you can’t.”
“Actually, here.” Tobias took the camera off from around his neck. “Zoom in and film it. Then you can show it to Misha.”
Mathias took the camera and did just that. He managed to hold himself up with one arm while he used the other to film. Misha had to admit the guy was strong and could pummel him to pieces if he wanted. He filmed as long as he could and then dropped down again. Once Misha was given the camera, he worked the buttons through the bars. It took him a moment to figure out where the play back button was, but he managed. He peered closely at what Mathias had filmed.
“See anything?” Mathias asked.
“Looks like a large metal plating,” Misha commented. “Like they’re trying to keep something from climbing over the wall.”
“Like the zombies? Some can climb, you know.” Tobias sounded like he spoke from experience.
“Then why are they welding it on the inside of the wall?” Misha had thought the same thing, but the plates pointed inward, not outward.
“They want to keep us in,” Mathias frowned and looked at the film himself. He then handed the camera back to Tobias.
“So you have no idea what they’re planning?” Misha asked.
“No,” Mathias shook his head, his face clearly in concerned thought. “I do know they like their experiments though. When I got out of the main facility, I had to escort these scientists to a school. They had all this equipment with them but I had no idea what any of it was for. At the time, I didn’t care because I was getting out, but now that I think about it, it had to be something strange.”
“What if this is another experiment?” Abby worried.
“Oh God.” Mathias clearly had a thought. “It is. It’s definitely an experiment.”
“For what?” Tobias and Cender spoke at the same time.
“Chant. Chant said they did it deliberately to cleanse the world, or whatever, to make the world their own,” Mathias was thinking out loud. “But the zombies aren’t going to just go away. They would know that. They would need to stay locked up in the White Box, hidden for quite some time, right? Well what if a zombie got in? One experiment they’ve never been able to run, is a zombie getting into an enclosed space full of non-infected. Their computer simulations couldn’t figure out how the non-infected humans would react. What they do about the zombie and what they might do to each other.”
“Oh, my God,” Abby gasped. “You mean…” she trailed off.
Mathias nodded. “I think they plan on locking everybody in here, then letting the zombies in.”
“That’s insane,” Cender cried out.
“You haven’t been out there.” Mathias gestured to the rest of the prison. “Riley noticed something out there. There are cameras, discrete cameras, but cameras none-the-less. They aren’t prison cameras, either; the prison cameras are obvious.” He gestured to one up against the roof as an example. “These new cameras are running as well. At least on one of them we were able to spot a small LED light that was on. If they are running an experiment, then they would want to see the results.”
“It’s still insane,” Cender said again. “You’re just guessing.”
“Look, just let us out of the cells,” Tobias brought it up again. “It would be better if we could all work on this together and when we do think up a plan, you won’t have to come back for us.”
“Technically, I’m only here for him.” Mathias pointed to Cender. “But I guess you’ll want them along.”
“I do,” Cender told him.
“What about this one?” Mathias gestured to Misha. “He doesn’t seem to have the same stuff you guys do. He with you?”
“He is now,” Cender said.
Misha was touched to hear that, especially considering he hadn’t been the friendliest or most grateful of people. They could have left him in the cell to suffer whatever fate was coming, but they weren’t going to. He quickly stuck his feet into the boots and put his coat back on. Rifle, who had been standing and silently watching the conversation, went and picked up his skunk toy. He seemed to realize they were on the move again.
Mathias went from cell to cell and unlocked the doors. Thankfully, the same key unlocked each door, so he didn’t have to search through them every time. Grouped together, the freed prisoners headed for the outer door. Mathias told them to wait there while he checked that the coast was clear. He was back in a moment and gestured for them to follow him.
Misha actually felt slightly uncomfortable walking with so many people, but he dealt with it. They had helped him so far, and he could always separate from them once they were outside if he felt he needed to.
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