War of factions

Casper entered the room, then walked slowly between the lines of beds, looking flabbergasted to all the prisoners laying there. 

The main room was destined only for light injuries and diseases, however there were people in danger there. Casper noticed that the wounds they had were from bare-handed fights. Some had bruises that clearly showed that even tough objects were used in the brawl. 

The nurses desperately walked through the room, trying to assist each patient the best way they could. Nevertheless, it was just too many people to take care of. When they started to treat someone, another one suddenly cried in pain, or the devices inspecting their heartbeats and body condition warned that they were destabilizing. 

Casper could realize the cruel dilemma they were obliged to solve: choose who would die, and who would live. 

The nurses did not care about the prisoners. They were like trash for all of them, and Casper heard it from their mouths. However, hating or liking, they were still nurses, not murderers. Their work was to save lives, no matter their opinions about the individuals they should help. If they failed that duty, it was all meaningless. 

Before Casper's eyes, two patients could not resist for long and passed out. A nurse was trying to do a cardiac massage in one of them, the other died because he lost too much blood, and there was nothing they could do for him anymore. 

Ridires were walking in that room, helping to move the corpses of those who were not lucky enough. Some more were arriving there with more patients. 

At some point, the room got so filled that some prisoners needed to be treated in the ground. 

When Casper had passed through half of the room, Amelia appeared in front of him. She seemed anxious and in a rush. 

"Casper, we will not have the time for your check-up today. But you seem to be all good. Get here another day and we can proceed as we should have, ok? As you can see, we are quite busy." She did not wait for him to answer, going towards a nurse and scolding her for doing something wrong. 

The Ridires were looking to Casper as if he was not supposed to be in the way, and to walk off right now. One of them called a warrior who just had left some injured prisoners and said to him to guide Casper until his cell. 

The soldier usually could walk around the infirmary as he pleased after he gained some trust from the employees there. But he was always handcuffed, so the Ridire just needed to call him and take him to his cell. 

The man was in a haste and did not say anything to him during the trip. When they arrived in front of the cell, he quickly freed Casper from the handcuffs and threw him into there. Asking rudely to the security operators to close the gate. 

"Well, it has been some days since I beat those two guys in the security room. It seems that they did not report at all. That's good." He thought, at least taking good information from that situation. 

Casper looked around the cell and saw Anton seated in his bed. He seemed to have some bruises on his body as well, but nothing like the other inmates from the infirmary. 

He glanced at Casper, noticing the confusion in the eyes of the White warrior. The middle-aged man sighed, then facepalmed. 

"Man, you can't do something like this… Are you an idiot by any chance? Anton thought that you were crazy forever. And now that crap of a plan you had is ruined." 

"Burn this tongue of yours, Anton. I wasn't crazy at all, that was part of the plan. Anyway, that's not what's more important now. Before I give you more details about what happened during these four or five days, I need to know what the hell is going on in this prison." He sat on his bed as well, looking intently to Anton and waiting for a response. 

The man sighed once more. 

"You are quite stubborn. You should be the one explaining first since you fooled everyone. But it's okay, it's not a long story that I have for you after all." He gave up. Anton knew that Casper would not let him take the control of the conversation. 

"Do you remember clearly what you saw in the nursery, Casper?" He asked, darkly, somewhat with sadness in his voice. 

"Yes. I can't forget." Stated the soldier. 

"That's about the normal for Halden. As I said to you, this start of the year was quite peaceful among the factions until now. The real Halden is what you are seeing now: the corridors are always painted with blood, there are raids among the blocks, the lunchtime has always brawls everywhere, the outdoor activities are warfares… And it will worse… It surely will worse. The grudge among the factions is increasing and… and Alfar isn't accomplishing anything with his objectives at all." 

Casper got pensive for a while, stroking his chin. He leaned his back in the wall while saying: 

"But that's good, depending on the perspective." Anton looked curious for him. "Alfar is desperate, probably, so it's unlikely that he will not accept our proposal. He seems to be a clever guy, he just needs the right tools to mobilize all the prison. In this time of chaos, what the Ridires expect the least is to be the ones attacked, or am I wrong?" 

"Attacked? What are you implying, buddy?" 

Casper grinned for him, shaking his head. 

"Don't worry, old man. You will see soon what I mean. Now, we need to do something quickly to stop these fights between the factions. For this, I will need to talk with Alfar… By the way, did you get to know someone who could help us with the weapons?" 

"Yes. I will make your acquaintance in the outdoor activities… but I am not sure if he was taken by the ruckus in this morning… and If everything remains just as bad as it is now." 

Casper paid special attention to the last part of the quote. 

"As bad as it is now…?" 

"If the factions do what they are willing to do in the next days, our plan can be delayed… or vanished." 

Casper pondered about those words. It was not difficult to guess what they were trying to do. 

If things went as he was thinking they would, everything would just be a huge mess.  

"Maaan… Why am I so unlucky in this world? Why I can't arrive in good times?" He complained, sighing. 

"We are talking about a generalized clash between the factions, right? A war, in short." 

Casper heard so much the word "war" since he arrived at District 42 that he was already hating it. 

"People here seem to like conflict because everywhere I go have a different kind of war…"  

Anton started to say something. Casper noticed it and waited for him to say it.  

"There is a way to stop all of this, but we need to be careful and make the right decisions… First of all, it will depend on how was your plan and whether we will be able or not to bring Alfar to our side."  

Casper wondered what he had in mind, but for the time being, just told him about how it was during these four days in the hospice. 

"Ok, the first thing is that now we have control in all the security systems." Anton widened his eyes and nearly jumped from his bed, but did not, just sustaining a look towards Casper.  

"I told Olaf to bring me this" he pulled off the white cube. "That's a master key. It can connect with all sorts of devices and operate them in long distance. I connected it with the main panel of the security room, and now I can access all its functions and control them without anyone knowing."  

Anton found it impressive that Casper could accomplish such a difficult feat. However, with the good act that he did before, it was not that difficult to trick everyone and pull out such a thing.  

Indeed, nobody was suspecting Casper. Surely it was two times as easy to make it to the security room.  

"That's awesome, buddy… But, how can we use this in our favor in a practical way? Anton means, it is pointless to just open the cells and go running at full speed through the complex with nothing in mind." 

"And you are completely right. I am not pretending to use it by now. It's just something that will be worth it on specific occasions. Most likely, we will just be using this resource in the end game. It's an important part of our main plan." 

Anton nodded.  

"Well, that's all you got?"  

"No… There is one more thing that I learned after this."  

Anton tilted his head to the side, curious.  

"I learned how we can overcome the mask's restrictions."