No Matter What

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^*Zacky’s POV*^
Brian was missing for another day, and then he finally showed up.

“Look who’s finally decided to crawl out of his cell.” I said with a smirk as Brian sat down next to Jimmy, across from me, and Matt sat down next to me. I noticed Brian wincing with every other breath.

“Don’t fuck with him, Vengeance.” Matt told me, and I eyed Brian.

“Hey, you okay?” Jimmy asked, resting a hand on his shoulder and he nodded, pushing his food away and resting his head on the table, taking deep breaths.

“Brian?” I questioned, slightly alarmed by his sudden downfall in health.

“I’m…I’m fine. Ribs hurt.” He answered, still not looking up. He sounded really bad, too.

“Did Crunch and Marsh really do that much damage?” I asked Matt, and he nodded.

“I would’ve tried to stop ‘em, but I had blood rushing down my face, and I could barely stand up. Having bones moved around in your knee is fucking painful. Especially when you can hear them crunching and grinding around.” Matt answered, poking around at the food on the metal tray in front of him.

“Well, there goes my appetite.” Jimmy pushed his tray away from him, and I did the same.

“Brian, are you sure you’re okay?” I questioned Brian again, seeing his breathing become more harsh.

“It hurts. I’m going back to the cell.” Just as he was about to stand up, the two that put him in the painful state came up behind him, and Jimmy moved out of the way as Crunch hit Brian in the back, and he fell back down into his seat, cringing.

“Where have ya been, buddy?” Marsh asked with a grin, and Jimmy and I stood up.

“Leave him alone.” Jimmy said, and Matt got up, clamping a hand on my shoulder to steady himself as he stepped around the table, and glared at Crunch and Marsh.

“Fuck off.” Matt growled.

“Matt, I got this.” Brian slowly stood up, trying not to cringe.

“What are you gonna do, Haner?” Marsh stepped up to him.

“One second.” He leaned on the table, and took a deep breath. Then stood up straight again. “Okay, you make me sick, I hate you, all of that, and then I’m supposed to this.” Brian finished his sentence as he punched Marsh square in the face, and he was knocked into a momentary daze. Brian shook his fist out, then looked to Crunch. “I take it your next?” Guards all immediately snapped their attention to all five of us, but they didn’t move to come help.

“I’d like to see you try.” Crunch smiled, and Matt backed off as Jimmy came around the table and stood next to me.

“Alright, just let me get my breath back.” Brian wheezed out, and Crunch glared. Brian stood back up straight taking a deep breath. “I hope you realize what you’re getting into. Because I’m not going to stop.”

“Says the sorry ass motherfucker who’s friends with the rejects.” Crunch smirked, and Brian threw a punch. Crunch dodged, and swung his fist towards Brian, and Brian tackled him, and started hitting him repeatedly in the face until Crunch stopped trying to fight back and started trying to protect himself. Jimmy, Matt and I just watched. We weren’t about to stop Brian from giving the guy what he deserved. Finally Marsh got up, but instead of trying to pry Brian off of his friend, he went straight towards Matt, and Matt knocked him away, and then someone on the other side of the cafeteria yelled, ‘Fight!’ and the next thing we all knew, chaos had broken loose. Guards couldn’t get around anywhere because of all of the inmates going crazy. I was knocked down, and I saw someone hit Jimmy and he was out cold. I tried to push the one guy off of me as he snapped at me, screaming at the top of his lungs. He got one good punch in, and I heard my nose crack, and blood poured down my face. I ignored the pain and hit him in the face and he fell off of me. I heard Brian cry out, but I was shoving through people just to try and find the exit. I accidently shoved a security guard as gasses started filling the room, and I was shoved into the floor, face first, hard enough to knock me senseless, and unconscious.

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^*Brian’s POV*
I punched Crunch until finally all hell broke loose, and fists and chairs started flying all around us. I kept hitting at Crunch and eventually he started hitting back, and I felt a punch go into my ribs and I cried out, my scream cutting through the pandemonium as I fell off of Crunch, holding my ribs and I felt someone grab my collar, as what I guess to be tear gas filled the air. I gasped for air, and I felt Crunch’s boot smash into my face, and then come back on my arm hard, and I felt skin tear. Crunch was knocked down before he could smash his boot back into my face, and I was pulled to my feet as I heard Matt’s voice tell me to cover my nose. I did with the collar of my shirt, feeling blood immediately soaking into the fabric from my newly busted lip. Matt kept a grip on my arm, and one hand on my back, pushing me without hurting me. We narrowly avoided blows from inmates as Matt pulled me through the chaotic scene and to some double doors, and just as we got to them a guard was smashed against the wall by an inmate, followed by a gunshot ringing through from somewhere in the room. Matt pushed the large heavy doors open, and as we got through they immediately were pushed back by someone, pushing us both to the ground in the hallway. I groaned, hugging my ribcage as I breathed in short, quick breaths.

“Goddamn what in the fuck were you thinking?” Matt asked me as I held back tears, just willing the pain to go away.

“I don’t know…” I muttered, and he rolled onto his back, chest heaving unevenly as he tried to catch his breath. “You look horrible.” His eye was black, and his bottom lip was swollen and busted on the right side,

“I got hit by a fucking chair, then I was tackled by some fucking douche bag, but trust me, you look worse.” He stood up shakily, as he tried to not put much weight on his bad leg. “C’mon, let’s get you back to the meds center.” He helped me off the floor, and I doubled against the wall, feeling my ribs pain at the slightest movement. Aggravated from having the living hell beat out of me by Crunch. Again. Matt wrapped an arm around me, slinging my arm over his shoulder as he helped me stand up straight.

“I’ll fuckin’ kill him next time.” I muttered through gritted teeth as I relied on Matt to not let me fall into the floor.

“There won’t be a next time, especially if someone besides Madi sees me helping your scrawny ass.” Matt muttered.

“You’re such a hard ass.”

“I will not hesitate to let you fall.” At Matt’s words I shut up, and we walk- limped in silence.

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^*Madison’s POV*^
“Oh god, what happened?!” I screeched as I ran over to Matt as he dragged Brian into the room.

“There was a big fight in the lunchroom, and we both got the worst end of it.” I immediately helped get Brian onto a stretcher as Matt sat down on the one next to it, keeping his leg straight.

“Joey!” I yelled and he came rushing through the door.

“What?” He asked as he ran into the room and over to me.

“What happened out there?” I asked him, very concerned. We only had fifteen beds in this small place we were forced to call a miniature hospital, we couldn’t handle a lot of inmates at a time. They’d have to be transported to surrounding hospitals if their injuries were bad.

“We got guards down, tear gas flying, people knocked out, broken bones, and all kinds of injuries. We’ve already called up for ambulances from three surrounding hospitals to come pick up about half of the jail.” My mouth dropped at his words. “We got a few that aren’t that bad, so I got Gary and Chuck bringing them down here now.”

“Now?” I asked, and he nodded.

“Yea, now do you need anything important? Because I need to get back out there.” He asked, motioning over his shoulder.

“I’m fine, go.” I shooed him away and he ran off, and back out the door.

“Just give me something for pain, and I’ll be fine.” Matt jumped down, but I pointed a stern finger at him.

“Sit your ass right back down, your face is cut up, and if you haven’t noticed, you have blood running down your side.” I said, and he looked at his side, and took his shirt off, revealing a gash that was allowing blood to flow freely down, already soaking into the white sheets on the bed. He crumpled his blood coated shirt up, and tossed it over to the corner in a trash bin with a sigh as he sat back down. I sighed as I looked at Brian. There was a gash in his forearm, like a good two inch long tear down, looking worse by the second as blood ran from the ripped flesh down his arm and hand. He’ll need stitches. Matt probably will too.

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^*Brian’s POV*^
Another guard had come in just a few minutes ago and said that they were just going to go ahead and transfer the inmates to nearby hospitals since they didn’t exactly have the proper medical care here. Madison was currently stitching up my arm. Which looked like hell. Matt and I were the only two here besides the guy nurse that had just ran in a second ago. Travis? Trick? No…Tripp. That’s his name, Tripp. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Matt kept fucking with him as he tried to sew up the gash in Matt’s side.

“Ow.” I flinched away as I felt the needle slice through my skin. ‘Ow’ was about the only thing I had said since she started.

“It doesn’t hurt that bad.” Madison stated, and I awaited the remark from Matt, which followed soon after every flinch I made.

“Oh suck it up, Haner, it’s only a few stitches, I have to get fifteen.” Matt brushed it off, though I had seen him flinch a few times too.

“And that’s coming from the guy that started bawling when he got one little stitch.” Tripp teased, and Matt grabbed a needle from the tray next to where Tripp was sitting, doing careful stitching in Matt’s side, and he grabbed Tripp’s hand, threatening to shove the needle through.

“Say another word, Trippy.” Matt growled at him as Tripp’s terror stricken face looked up at Matt.

“Madison! Help!” Tripp yelled, but Madison just laughed lightly as she continued gently pulling the thread through the skin of my arm.

“You’re on your own with the teddy bear.” Madison remarked casually doing another stitch. Most of the guards from back here had to go to the hospitals with the rest of the beaten inmates.

“I fucking dare you to say another word, Tripp.” Matt glared, a hate in his eyes that just set a new standard for ‘Not to be fucked with.’

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” Tripp quickly apologized, and Matt took the needle away from his hand, and placed it back on the table. Madison stuck the needle back through my arm, and I gritted my teeth. It was mostly numbed down, but I could still feel it. I wish this would be over soon.