Chapter 11: Lockdown

I held my breath trying to think of what to say. I turned back to the warden. "I, um, was- I thought I left something in here but I guess not. Hey! So what are you doing with that control panel?" I quickly changed the subject hoping to get out of his interrogation so he wouldn't ask any more questions. He looked at me suspiciously but answered me anyway. "The system has been giving us some trouble. It keeps going offline, so we're trying to find the problem and repair it before the entire place shuts down."

My eyebrows furrowed. "One malfunction in the system can cause something like that?" His expression grew tense and he stood up to escort me outside. "It's no problem. You don't have to concern yourself with anything technical. Allow me to help you out of here." He took my arm and I quickly pulled away.

I was about to tell him off when a shattering sound came from behind the warden. He turned around and I saw that one of the coffee mugs had been accidentally tipped over by a guard, and had spilled over the electronics. immediately, the alarms went off and red lights started to flash all around the prison. The screens turned red and spelled out 'LOCKDOWN INITIATED' in big black letters.

I took a step back not knowing what was happening or what to do. Then the warden yelled at the guard who broke the mug. "You idiot!!! Look what you've done!!! You've killed us all!!!" His words horrified me. 'W-What does he mean?! W-What does lockdown mean?'

*

I woke up to flashing red lights and for a second I thought it was a dream. I sat up and saw that Liza had escaped. 'Shit.' Then suddenly, a mechanical voice came from the hallway that said, "Lockdown initiating in t-minus ten seconds." I raised an eyebrow. 'Lockdown? What happens in a lockdown?' I had nothing else to do besides listen and see what would happen.

"Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Lockdown imminent." Everything was silent until I heard my door unlock. A beep came as the door opened by itself and no one was behind it. I looked curiously as I saw all of the other doors in the hall open as well. Prisoners started to walk out and look around. I was speechless.

'What did that warden do now?' I then realized that I had a chance to escape. I got up immediately but was stopped by my chains. 'Fuck. I'm sure I'm the only one the warden chained up. Pretty soon all of the prisoners are going to get their stuff back, and who knows what kind of murderous items these people were found with. This sounds like it's going to be so much fun.'

I smiled and turned to see Fangs crawl out from under my bed. I bent over to pick him up and walked to the window to place him on the wall outside. "This could get ugly. I don't want you to be a casualty in this game of mine." He moved slowly, but I watched until he made his way to the bottom of the wall safely. I got distracted watching him and about an hour passed before I was interrupted by the sound of an engine behind me.

I turned around and saw another prisoner in my cell holding a chainsaw and running towards me. My eyes lit up with excitement as I moved away at the last second, making the prisoner slice my chains off and cut my arm. "Ah..." That feeling came to me again. The sweet taste of adrenaline flowed through every inch of me. 'Pain... I want more! I want to kill!' The prisoner struck again and I moved away, but not fast enough so it would cut me again. "Ah..."

I fell to the floor shaking with pleasure, and the prisoner tried to hit me again, but I moved, making the chainsaw cut the chains around my ankles, and I kicked in his knee, making him fall. He dropped the chainsaw and I grabbed him by the neck. He struggled and tried to get away, but I pulled him up and laughed as I placed my hands around his head. "Goodnight." I moved my hands in a jolt, snapping his neck and he fell to the floor.

I knew I didn't have time to eat him but I did have time for a taste. I leaned over him and sank my teeth into his shoulder, pulling out his flesh. I swallowed and couldn't stop smiling. I wiped the blood from my mouth and walked to the corner picking up the chainsaw and using it to cut off the metal armlets and anklets that used to hold me to the chains in the wall. As soon as they were off, I only got even more excited.

'I haven't been as free as I am now in so long. It feels amazing. Looks like some prisoners found the storage of their old things already. I should see if I can find my old stuff, and I wonder if the warden is dead yet. That would be a relief and a shame. I want him dead, but I hope I'm the one who gets to kill him.' I stood up and walked to the door.

I decided to leave the chainsaw behind because it was already almost out of fuel anyway. Plus it would be funnier to fool other prisoners to think I'm easy prey. I looked down both hallways and it was dead silent. It was completely pitch black other than some flashing red lights and some dim windows. 'The lights must've gone out during lockdown. It's going to be harder to see prisoners so I should be cautious.' I stepped out of my cell and decided to go right.

I walked for a few hours and I hadn't run into any prisoners yet. But the farther I went, the more bodies I would find. They were both equally of guards and prisoners, but the murderers were nowhere to be seen. 'Where is everyone? This is boring.' I walked for a few more minutes until I passed a completely dark cell and a girl with black hair jumped out at me screaming with a knife in her hand.

I stepped back and grabbed her wrist, turning it around to immediately shove the knife through her neck. She screamed again in agony and I slammed her head against the wall. She fell dead and I pulled the knife from her neck, licking it clean of her blood. "Thanks." I could use it. It was a large pocket knife, and it would be useful if I wanted to end someone slowly and gruesomely, like the warden. I also wanted to cut myself later and enjoy my craving for a knife at last getting satisfied.

I continued to walk down the hallway and I felt lost. 'I must've walked every inch of this floor of the prison, and I still can't find the stairs. I feel like I've been going in circles, but I haven't seen my cell yet.' I looked ahead and saw a broken window showing that it was pouring rain and dark clouds were outside. A crack of thunder passed, and so did a bolt of lightning.

I sighed and something came to me. 'Wait a minute, where is Liza? Is she okay? Is she still in the prison? Is she still alive?' I walked faster down the hall, hoping that I wouldn't see her body lying with the other corpses. Then suddenly, I heard a scream ahead of me.