Strange atmosphere

The lights were being turned on already inside the prison. The prisoners were waking up and following the usual schedule settled for every day. It was kind of boring to do always the same thing, but nobody complained about that.

That start of the year was very peaceful for Halden. There weren't many fights between the factions. The lockdown cells never were so untouched before. In truth, it was used just for Casper until now, and just for a few days.

However, a different atmosphere rounded the air that day. Even the Ridires knew it, but they wouldn't do anything to stop it. They preferred to see the outcome of that situation throughout the day.

In the canteen of Block B, the prisoners were eating more quietly than they usually did. They were not the type of prisoners to always made a ruckus out of nowhere. It was mostly the inmates of Block F who did such a thing. However, they were not the reserved type at all.

A Ridire woman approached a veteran. She was new in Halden, just got promoted from city guard to Ridire, and was encharged of accomplishing a shift of 6 hours in there.

"Hey, what's going on? I am not sure, but the environment today is different from what it usually is. Do the prisoners got scared because of what happened the day before yesterday, in the Dark zone?"

The veteran looked at her and nearly laughed at her worried voice. He didn't have any idea as to why the newbies always acted like that towards the inmates. Actually, even if they were planning something, these black masks never would let them do a movement directed against the Ridires. Not even curse words could be used towards them.

"Hey, relax. You don't need to be over-conscious about it. I mean, no harm will be directed to you. Or are you more worried for the sake of the prisoners?" He asked, in a somewhat ironic tone, but that was not entirely offensive towards the newbie.

"N-not that I am worried about them, but…" She was fidgeting a bit. The veteran noticed it.

He gave a friendly slap in her back, giving a funny smile behind the mask.

"You're a guard from the north, right?"

"Y-yeah… how did you know this?"

He raised his five fingers in front of her.

"We have five regions here in District 42, you already know that, right?" She nodded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Ok. And you also probably know that, outside the castle, every part of the District is just a big slum. Everything is under poverty. The taxes are too high for most regions and the criminalism against Jarls or the crown is nullified because of the masks, but there is no protection against commoners eating commoners.

"Well, that said, there is a region that has the lowest taxes and criminalism rate. Do you know what region is?"

She faltered for a second, shrugging. Her eyes were even more hesitant. Just those points could make a Ridire even more sure about his theory. She was an underrated Ridire.

"It's the… the north region."

"Exactly. And just someone who came from the peaceful North region, which lives with low taxes and high security due to the high level of export and technological contribution, could hold pity against these types of people." He pointed to the prisoners.

That woman probably lived the life of her dreams until that point. At least, she never saw once an assassinate case in her region, giant waves of thefts, or drug trafficking.

All the Ridires that came from the north region were judged as completely inexperienced. They never had to face the real trouble.

"Well, I will not turn to be harsh on you, don't worry." He shook his head. "But, just don't sweat this much about it. Here, no Ridire cares about what will happen with these people."

She nodded in agreement and then remained silent, totally embarrassed. She was not expecting that someone would found out about her secret so easily.

"To be honest, soon or later, you will even find it amuse… It's like a show. A lot of jailed animals thinking that they had their little society and that they need to fight among themselves for their ideals. That's the craziness that all of them have inside their heads. Since they can't live into the outside society, they try to create their own."

"D-Do you find it… funny?" The man nodded, giggling, and narrowing his eyes to the silent prisoners.

Something was about to happen.

….

Casper was again feigning to be in a difficult mental state. He decided to make it more reasonable than the last time, acting more like a traumatized person than someone with a serious mental disorder. The outcome of this change was just what he planned to be.

"Hmmm, it seems that Casper is handling it very well…" Spoke the nurse that was examining his pupils and nerve responses.

"T-That's awesome, then. It seems that he isn't in an irreversible state at all!" The scientist, who was behind her, appeared in Casper's field of vision, seeming very relieved.

"You are being very optimistic there, Doctor. I know that you are receiving pressure from your superiors due to this serious mistake, but we still need to see if Casper will keep improving or if it is his new default mental state. It's hard to judge how much he was affected…"

The scientist stuttered, trying to say something, but nothing came. He was sweating all over and was viciously fixing his hair or caressing his lab coat.

"They said that the deadline for him was in four days. They will not allow him to be under treatment for so long. It was clearly said to me to 'keep up with the procedures no matter how his mental state will be until then'."

The nurse turned to him, exasperated, with a look that meant danger. She was about to punch someone's face, and since she couldn't do it with the superiors, she felt like doing it with that wimp of a scientist in front of her.

"And after this, what? Lose an important lab rat like him? Casper is unique and they know this. Now that his mind showed inconsistencies that never showed before in any resident of this district, we are sure that he has something inside him that we can discover… And you know what more, right?" She pointed to the GBI impressed in her skin, which seemed like a complex bar code.

"Yeah, I know the scientific and Belic value that Casper has. They know this as well. But you have to understand them. It's been years of war already, our district will perish if we don't discover anything." The doctor begged for her understanding, showing that there was nothing he could do at that point.

"I don't care. You better go talk with Catrina, because if I do it, you know what will happen." She threatened him.

The scientist did not speak anything more, he just turned his back and left that place.

After that discussion, Casper got curious to know what was the actual position of both, that nurse and the scientist.

The woman did some more exams on him, after give to him the same medication as before and moving him to the room-hospice again.

Casper remained with the same routine every day after this, showing gradual improvement in his mental state in the most natural way he could. On the fourth day, Casper was completely recovered.

He already did not need to stay at the room-hospice, the nurses conversed with him a lot. He made sure to charm all of them, and although they just saw him as a patient, it was worth it just to have their sympathy for now.

None of them were good as a person, but they would be of huge help, so Casper did not really care about that matter.

He discovered that that nurse from before was called Amelia. It was a different name from the common in District 42, and Casper felt light just to be able to hear a name that was not nordic except his.

She seemed to have a good reputation inside the Third Lab particularly because she was one of the idealizers of all the Halden prison's complex. She was an ex-military nurse, that acted on the battlefield in the tents and supported the warriors. Besides, she was the cousin of Catrina, and both seemed to not get along well.

Casper was leaving his room in the morning. As that was his last day there, he wanted to greet everyone, do his check-up as fast as he could, and then head to his cell again.

However, as he passed for the different rooms, he noticed that something was different.

He reached the main room of the infirmary, the one that had more beds, that was destined for light cases of injuries or just to take medicine.

That day, all the beds were filled with people, just like the other rooms he had passed for.

"What… What happened…?" He mumbled, surprised.