Status: Redo of my old story

Silence Falls

Chapter 37: A Suicide Mission

Bert and Otep entered the cafeteria the very next morning for some breakfast and, trustfully, some good company with the others whom they hadn't seen for days, perhaps even weeks. After yesterday's deliberation, Bert took to arranging his next escape plan gradually, and as meticulously as he possibly could under the circumstances. The odds were surely against him, and he felt, if there was a God, He couldn't denounce him for giving up on an impossible dream such as feeling the sun against his skin again. Conclusively, Bert had made a definite decision three days before, but had to let the emotions and consequences sink in before he emerged from his cell. Otep was right, they still had time on there side so there was no need to rush himself. The clock wasn't ticking down to any crucial deadline they should take heed of. They were absolutely fine.

As the duo neared their familiar cafeteria table to their attending group, they promptly took notice of the gloomy ambiance pulsating from the kids as they sat eyeing their unscathed meals with their heads hung low over their trays. It was unlike the usual tone in the cafeteria which was senseless blabbering and occasional wails of the poisoned minds of the mentally insane. Hindering their paces cautiously, Otep and Bert both shared a look of mutual concern. Evidently something had happen during their leave of absence because when they last observed their group they were forlorn and perplexed, not desolately melancholy.

Simultaneously swallowing past their distressing lumps that forged within seconds in their throats, Otep and Bert closed their distance towards the cafeteria table. She was the first to communicate, and did so delicately, scrutinizing every face that rose in her direction. “Hey guys, what's with all the long face, huh?” The females appeared like they had recently been crying and were harboring a savage horror over something that was riddle to the missing duo. Bam and Cris looked to be...wait a minute...

Bert had locked on to the missing member of the group almost instantly. He frowned questioningly, trying to diminish the feeling of apprehension defiling his stomach. Something was absolutely wrong. You just don't come to the cafeteria by choice. Something would had to have delayed you from getting there. “Wait, where is Cris?”

Feeling so irate at the acknowledgment of his roommate's name that he felt sick to his stomach, Bam clenched his fist for the millionth time that morning, his knuckles going bone white before he lowered his glare back down at his lunch tray. He said nothing, partly because of the sentiment of fragility he felt from his sleepless nights alone and because of the feeling of failure weighing heavily over his shoulders, but most of all because he wasn't sure if his voice would cripple from the fury and sadness trying to immerse him in a sea of defeat. And his fury would most certainly be directed to Bert and Otep for not being there when they needed them the most.

Scrunching her face up with discernible heartache, Demitria leaned against Alexis for solace who already had her arm around her. Now and again she'd let out a sniffle and mop her brown eyes of the tears threatening to fall, but her main focus was to conceal her emotions behind her long brown hair to keep from making an outpouring that would send the patrols coming for her. As much as she cherished Cris, she knew he'd be devastated if she was sent down there after him. That is if he was still alive...

Alexis retained her tears back from falling, and so they blurred her perception of the figures of their leaders Bert and Otep. She had begun to think she'd never see them again. They all did. And now here they were, but...the timing was all inaccurate. They were too late. But no one at the table had the nerve to tell them yet.

Natasha raised her fork and began scraping her food around on her tray, needing to keep herself occupied and now that she heard that familiar name she began blinking frantically to cover the fact that her eyes were filling in return. She didn't want to show vulnerability though they were all feeling vulnerable at the moment. She wanted to be tough, and hold her ground just like Cris had done countless times for them. He never told them to suck up their emotions, he always let them feel and express it, but now he was gone. Someone had to keep control in this profoundly delicate group.

Onika inhaled with what sounded like a gasp, then calmly let her shaky breath to regain her composure. She straighten up in her seat as much as she could make herself and tried to appear like she was doing better than the others when really she was just as messed up. She'd lost her good friend and defender. Cris had always been there, he was a constant in their lives and for the first time ever they didn't have him around anymore. They all felt so adrift without him and when you totaled in Bert and Otep's absence well...as far as everyone else was concerned, they already lost this fight for their lives. “Cris...s-something happened yesterday.” Onika had to cease for a moment because her discipline was slipping now that she was finally discussing this. Her voice was breaking and so she deterred her gaze to cover the fact that two tears had managed to emerge and were streaming down her cheeks. She had no choice but to go on this way. “W-We ran into trouble. The guards tried to make a move on me in my room a-and I refused their advances. Alexis tried helping me, but it didn't work...before we knew it they were carrying both her and I to the elevator to go downstairs...”

Otep's eyes enlarged in terror at that horrid news. She almost couldn't accept it herself and so she enforced herself to vocalize it in order to get past all the denial and believe it, because if what Onika was saying was legitimate, Cris didn't have time for anyone's disapproval. His life depended on them to believe and respond hastily on his behalf! “They took him. They took him to Solitary Confinement.”

When Otep glanced to her side to share an identical look of unease with Bert, he was already shaking in his seat from the violence bursting from him. Fists clenched tightly before uncurling to swoop into his long greasy hair to clutch fistfuls of the strands. “SHIT, THOSE MOTHERFUCKING ASSHOLES!” He cussed emphatically to himself. So overcome with his soaring rage he couldn't stop himself from nearly charging out of his chair to beat the hell out of any of the guards that dared to reach him. Luckily for him, Otep seized him by the back of his collar and wrenched him back down before he could draw any unwanted scrutiny to himself and his group. Still, he felt like his skin was turning crimson with fury as his eyes dimmed with tears saturated with need for a vindictive bloodshed. His head kept blaring 'no way was this happening, no fucking way' over and over again. Cris couldn't be down there, he simply couldn't be! Cris couldn't survive down there, Connor sure, but not Cris. He was too fragile! “God, Otep! I tried! I try and try and no matter what I do th-”

“Bert, that's enough!” Attending to the rigid voice that declared his name, Bert peered up to Natasha's bloodshot brown eyes that were still clamoring to curb back her tears. “We don't have to time for all of this! You're here now, so we your help need to go and save him. Please! You and I both know he won't make it down there if we don't do something right now and fast, okay? You know this!” She expressed gently to him but also firmly, all the while trying to keep herself from selfishly breaking down along with him.

“She's right, man.” Otep coincided. Earning nothing but his silence, she knew he needed to recollect himself, and so until then she would have to do his work for him in the meantime. “Alright you guys, this is what we're gonna do to save Cris. Fir-”

“Whoa whoa wait a fucking minute here! When you say save him do you mean go down there and get him out ourselves?” Bam discontinued, finally speaking up. His blue eyes were hurtling between both sides of the table as he turned to confront them and ignore his tray. As much as he wanted to attribute Cris's absence on them, he had a feeling he knew exactly what Otep was about to propose before she could begin, and he didn't know if he liked it all that much. “That's fucking dangerous, Otep, as in our lives could be at risk of being taken too! Besides even if you were successful in getting him out of there, don't you think they'd notice if he went missing and somehow appeared back in his room safe and sound like some goddamn wizard? What's stopping them from taking him straight back to Confinement when they do!?”

Otep sighed heavily at his remark. Not because he was being a Negative Nancy about everything, but really that was truly him being rational about the situation. No, what she was peeved with was that he made a damn good point. However it was a damn good point she already thought of a damn good solution for...sort of. “Obviously we won't be fucking escorting him back into his room, dumbass! We'll....fucking hide him in our room, right Bert? It's not like they can take him from there because our cell isn't like their cells. Your father-”

“No. No, they can take him away even if they found him in our room. My father may have been the leader of the council once upon a time, but I doubt they'd keep to their word on leaving me to him in a situation like this. Helping an escapee? C'mon Otep, even you know it wouldn't work.” Bert scrapped, before dropping his head to lean on the cafeteria table with a sigh. He needs his mind to take him elsewhere. He needed seclusion!

And as if by magic, the voices of his friends, the sound of dishes clanging from the kitchen, the maniacal laughs, sickly coughs, and groans of misery all disappeared. Bert's head leisurely reared up as if an invisible hand tenderly took hold of his chin and was now turning his survey to the elevator leading to Solitary Confinement. Bert's lip parted as pictures of his dream came back to him; the sun and Hermanni's vow of freedom upon his release. If in fact Bert were to free the forgotten boy living in an deserted prison below their feet he would have to go past Solitary Confinement anyway to get there, which is where Cris and his half-brother Connor now resided. If his dreams had been real and he did decide to listen to Hermanni and release him, he could save his friends too in turn! Only then, how would they make it out alive?

The only way out was up, and by the time they get through the elevator, the alarms would set off and notify everyone of the escaped patients. They would surely pay for their lives if they were arrested. But then what else can they do? Let Cris die down there with his brother? No, that can't happen! Bert refused to let that happen. Cris has become more than just a patient, more than a friend, he was family now, as secure as any blood related member could be! Saving him is clearly a suicide mission. But Bert felt heavily in his gut that it was a price he was willing to pay. Like he said before, this was family.