Silence Falls

“…Cris...wake up.” A voice whispered faintly in the darkness.

“Hmmm, what? WAIT, YOU!? What are...where have you been!?” Cris loudly whispered in high pitch whine.

"..of that, we have a problem..” That unfamiliar voice whispered again, his volume continuing to fade in and out of Bam’s ears making it difficult to understand what he was saying in his lazy slumber. A part of him was curious as to what conversation was being had in his room that he shared with Cris, while the other part of him was wishing they would keep their voices down so he could get back to sleep. The tired side was winning.

Bam let out a loud groans as he lifted his head an inch off of his pillow and grumbled out to whoever was talking. “Shut the fuck up, you dipshits! People trying to sleep here.” He didn’t wait for their reply before dropping his head back onto his pillow to get back to sleep.

"Maybe we should be quieter...” Cris whispered much more quietly than before out of consideration for Bam.

“Fuck that, man! That little bitch can get back to sleep after I'm done talking to you!" That voice spoke more angrily, and inconsiderately much louder than before with the very intent of pissing Bam off further. And it worked.

Ripping the sheets off himself as he sat up in bed, Bam could see through the dark a complete stranger with long hair sitting on Cris's bed with him. His eyes shot lasers of hatred through the man’s skull in hopes it’d blow his brains out so he’d finally go away. When that didn’t work, Bam growled with rage at him instead and spat out a threat that he hoped would send the guy running instead. "Hey, you fucking prick, keep your fucking voice down, or I'll fucking lower it for you!”

"Have at it, you fucking pansy! C’mon, swing your best shot and see what fucking happens!" The stranger retaliated back at him with the same intensity of rage. Not the least bit of afraid, the stranger stood up from Cris’s bed as the same time as Bam, and strode over to him until they both stood toe to toe together, sizing one another up with the malicious intention of causing bodily harm.

“Boys, knock it off right now!” Cris whispered harshly to them while trying to keep from being heard outside of their room so they wouldn’t get in trouble with the staff and be send to downstairs. That was the last place anyone wanted to go. Seeing that neither of them were listening to him, Cris jumped off of his bed and stepped in between them with one hand on each of their chest. Despite their greater strength, Cris used as little as he had to push them back away from each other. “I said enough!” With a great shove, he had them both at a respectable safe distance from each other. Taking a deep breathe, Cris immediately turned to Bam and whispered an apology for their loudness. “

"Look Bam, I'm truly sorry we were talking to loud and disturbed your sleep. That was very rude and inconsiderate of us to do, trust me, I get it.” He then gestured to the stranger that’s appearance started it all. “But my friend here doesn't ever come into my room to talk to me at random times in the night unannounced unless there is a SERIOUS problem ok? Forgive us, but what’s going right now between us is bigger than your need for sleep."

"Bull-fucking-shit it is!” Bam snapped, practically dead tired. He jabbed a finger in Cris’s friend’s direction, wanting to know who the guy is and why he took a trip down here in the middle of the night to talk like girlfriends with him. “And who the fuck is your ‘friend’ anyway!?"

“Bam meet Bert McCracken, Bert meet Bran- Bam Margera.” Cris said, finally having got around to introducing the two of them. He stepped back and gestured to each one as he did, and stayed there when he was done expecting the two to hopefully shake hands with each other and put all this anger behind them. Sadly, deep down inside Cris knew this wasn’t going to happen.

"I don’t have time to shake hands with this dude, Cris, I’m sorry, but I’ve got more important things to discuss with you which you’ve already pointed out to him is why I am here." Bert reminded Cris who nodded in response and gesture back to his bed.

"Yeah, sure. Go on and have a seat, Bert.” Cris whispered to him, before trying to reassure his very stressed out roommate. “Again, I’m sorry for all the noise, Bam. We'll try and be more quiet this time, I promised.”

“Whatever, man.” Bam muttered before retreating back to his bed and plopping down onto it. He found himself a very comfortable position, and closed his eyes to fall back asleep. Unfortunately, as the minutes passed, he couldn’t find any left, and so he decided to listen in instead to Bert and Cris’s conversation. Now that he was more awake he could hear them much more coherently than before.

“So, what’s going on Bert that’s so important to come visit me this late over? And where the hell have you been, anyways? I haven't seen you in ages! I almost thought you died, or something.” Cris started off calmly before ending in a reprimanding tone.

“Yeah, sorry about that, man.” Bert started of explaining, rubbing the stubs on his face. “I've actually been spending all my time up in my room during the day committing the blueprints of this place to memory. Then later on in the night when everyone is locked up and the staff is on patrol I’ve begun exploring this prison more thoroughly from every nook and cranny in this place. I’m trying to soak up as much information on this place as I can, then map it out on paper the very next day so I can study it, and then the following night retrace it all by my memories just to make sure it’s all imprinted in my head 100%.”

Bam’s jaw dropped at that piece of hidden treasure. The guy ‘explored’ the place by night? How was that possible when they were all locked in at night? Come to think of it, how did he even get in here? Needing answers right away, Bam sat himself straight up in his bed and looked over at them with a look of annoyance on his face. “Wait, what!? Did you just say you explore this place at night? How the fuck can you explore this place? I thought everything was locked off without a keycard or something!” Bam looked to Cris for answers.

Cris gave him a nod of confirmation that that was indeed the only way to come and go as easily as you can. Seeing that Bam was still lost and in search for more answers, Cris took the opportunity to explain it to him so he’d understand. He trusted Bam, despite all the animosity that radiated from him. “And that is very true, Bam, but…the thing is Bert is one out of the two people that have been here the longest. To clarify specifically, he is the only one out of the two that has been traveling throughout this place from top to bottom unseen by the staff members, and has the greatest knowledge of this entire place from both the inside, and outside.”

"Wait a minute, let me get this all straight.” Bam cut in, before looking to Bert who sat with his back against the wall on Cris’s bed with one leg drawn up and his arm stretched out over his knee. “Are you trying to tell me that that you've been able to bypass security to roam around this ENTIRE place without ANY suspicion whatsoever? You’re telling me no one, and I mean, NO ONE has ever suspected you of sneaking out and Dora Exploring this place up?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” Bert admitted with a confident nod of his head.

"So, that means you have to know a way out of here, right? That you at least know how, or have some kind of fucking idea, am I right!?" Bam shot forward until he sat at the very edge of his bed facing them, all of his attention were on the very words that would ooze out of Bert's mouth next.

Bert gave him a simple nod to confirm that he did indeed know the way out of this place, and Bam damn near lost it. He punched his fist in the air in victory. Finally! Finally, his ass was getting out after barely one full day there. Bam didn’t have to stay a week, a month, or years to know that this place was hell. He saw what little did already earlier that day before bed, and he didn’t want to stick around any longer if he had anything to do about it. Now, he finally has, and no one was going to stop him! But wait a minute...Bam was confused all over again and stopped his celebrating. "Wait, why the fuck haven't you left yet if you already know the way out!? Why are you even sitting across the room talking to me right now knowing that escape is right around the corner?”

"I…I have left actually. Specifically, for only 5 minutes.” Bert hesitated to admit as he looked down at the bed. “….but I had to come back.”

"WHY!? What on this motherfucking fucked up earth would make you come back to this shithole again?!?" Bam cried out almost too loud, earning a hush from Cris who also wanted to hear about Bert’s short taste of freedom before his return. He too was unaware of this information.

"That answer is simple. It’s because of my friends.” Bert scratched back of his head. “You see, I realized when I was outside for the first time in years that freedom from this hellhole truly meant nothing to me if I wasn't able to share it with the small amount of friends I’ve gained while being imprisoned down here. I had to turn around and come back…I uh…I had planned on getting all of them out of here tonight." He admitted sheepishly in a voice that sounded like it was beginning to fade towards the end.

His explanation and the announcement of his plan to rescue only left Cris confused. Expectedly, he’d be crying right now at the promise of freedom and would rejoice, but at the same time he knew Bert. Bert wouldn’t be here sitting and chatting if he truly planned on escaping tonight. And then there was that past tense ‘had’ word..."But wait a second, you had just mentioned to me that there was a problem when you first came in here and woke me up, but have yet to get around telling me about. What was the problem, exactly?”

“Otep…” Bert muttered, letting out a deep sigh as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall like he was exhausted over the subject.

“Otep? Who is Otep?” Bam questioned them, looking between the two once again for an answer as to who this mystery person was.