Silence Falls

Halting in the ventilation area heading to the shower tunnel, Bert twisted to face his two attending companions and imparted the next steps they were going to take on their crusade to retrieve Cris and Connor from Solitary Confinement, and then go back up to recruit the girls, so they could all escape from the sunken facility. “Let see so far, we've made it past the showers and almost got apprehended, we're now almost through the first series of vents, and soon we'll be in the shower tunnel protected from harm. The cameras have already detected us and the alarms have gone off, which means they'll be hunting for us now. In the past we've always wandered through the night in stealth and secrecy, but now this is different, we're in the fight of our lives. Despite that our objective is still the same, we're on a recovery mission, and a suicidal one if you wanna get technical, so there isn't time for all that Mission Impossible bullshit we used to do anymore. Especially now, we need to be vigilant. We gotta watch each other's back at all time, and not leave any one behind unless...unless we have absolutely no choice.”

Concluding his speech, Bert proceeded the rest of the way through to the end of the vent with the others faithfully pursuing behind him. Infiltrating the shower tunnel, Bert directly hiked towards the second ventilation system, the others lagging behind him. Sighing, Bert managed the vent cover off as he commence to chat again. “So, this is the place where we may find a lot of uncertainty going down. The guards down here are even tougher, and hopefully, there won't be those ghoulish crawling freaks there, or else we're in jeopardy. But that's another story for, let's pray, another time. You guys ready back there? Do you need more time to prepare yourselves?”

Otep shook her head, letting out a deep unsettled breath at the reference of the crawly patrolman. “Nah, I-I'm good.”

Bam stiffened his hold on Bert's lead pipe, not an ounce of unease in him at the moment. “All I gotta say is, bring it on, assholes.”

Trembling with apprehension, Bert took the ventilation cover off and ascended in. After some time trekking, they reach the end. Bert guardedly peeped through the grates and immediately identified something he never wanted to observe during his last night alive. “Fucking hell.” He hissed to himself. It turned out he foresaw the worst, that they might die tonight. With a rocky sigh, Bert now comprehended that his life was just two seconds from being over, and in that case he should state his last words to Otep and Bam before it transpired. With a few adjustments, Bert turned onto his back, and bolstered himself up on his elbows, so he could regard their silhouette.

Perceiving that something was amiss, Otep pressed her back to one of the vent's walls, so she could turn and pluck the pipe from Bam's hand and veer it over to Bert who seized it.

“What is it? What's wrong?” Bam demanded, also sensing that something wasn't valid now that he was without his pipe.

“Like I said before, this is going to be a fight to the death. We may not make it out tonight. When I open this vent, and we officially infiltrate Solitary Confinement again, I'm gonna need you guys to fight like hell. Give everything you got and then some. If we can beat this obstruction, then we may have a better shot at withstanding this. Know when we leave this vent that I will fight to have your back and I hope you'll have mine too. Good luck out there, and I'm damn proud of each of you guys. It was an honor to have met you. No regrets.” Bert gave them a sentimental smile, then a reassuring wink before he twisted around to confront the vent again. With a brisk breathe, he whacked the pipe given to him into the vent cover, causing it to shoot off and crash into the wall across from them.

The noise reverberated the hallways and staggered the two guardsmen on duty, one very enormous and one short. What also astounded them during their investigation of the noise was the unforeseen view of the boy who came swinging from around the corner, nearly clubbing them in the face with what looked to be a old pipe identical to the ones from the shower room. The patrolling duo managed to surge back in time.

Otep and Bam bounded out of the vent soon after, and Otep visually substantiated why Bert took the time to give them a second lecture. Their two obstructions were a looming man made of muscles, and a lanky shorter man. Otep's eyes increased with horror in realization of the creature that was more primitive and ferocious than it was a man. Because of their agility, they were kept on leashes and only interacted through a series of clicking sounds. Their sense of smell were equal to that of a canine and their spike collars only tallied to that analogy.

The scrawny one was what intimidated Bert the most since he'd never observed anyone like them in the subterranean facility. In an all black tight leather wet suit with belts, chains, and hooks adhered all over it, this creature looked menacing. It's face was covered in some weird leather mask with frosty glass over the eyes that was impossible to see through, it's skin sickly pale and wrinkly on its hands and bare talon-feet which were in dire need of pruning.

“EVERYONE BACK UP!” Bert hollered to his friends as he began to fall back at the appearance of his worse nightmare all swathed up in leather. The creature let out a few screeches in response before reducing itself to the ground on all fours like it was about to pounce like a jaguar. And pounce it most certainly did. In the blink of an eye, it flung up in the air and jumped right on Bert's back when he was turned like a cricket. It barked as it clinched its bony legs around Bert's waist and then both arms around his head to shroud his face completely, subduing his scream and enforcing him to drop the pipe to try to get the creature off of him. “WHAT TH-”

“THE PIPE!” Otep sought the pipe with her eyes, and quickly raced for it. The pipe rolled past the hulking bodyguard who ensnared it beneath his colossal boot, daring the girl to try to take it from him.

“HEY, YOU!? DICKWAD! WHY DON'T YOU FIGHT A REAL MAN, HUH!?” Learning what Otep was trying to do, Bam swiftly dropped in front of the behemoth to deliberately allow himself to get arrested him only, so he could divert him from Otep, who seized the pipe away.

Dashing around the behemoth, she swung the pipe into the back of the humongous guard's knees, causing his legs to give in and topple him down onto his knees. “Or a real woman.”

“Yeah yeah, don't get cocky.” Bam snarled as he wrenched himself free from the guard's clutch and stood before him.

Needing to extricate Bert who was in the most danger, Otep scampered up behind his floundering form trying to slam the creature against the walls in an attempt to get him off. She took all her energy to strike the pipe against the creature's back a few times until it eventually reached upward to grasp a hold of the light fixtures above them to kick Bert away from him and then twirled to dive onto Otep instead. “FUCK! GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!” Otep shrieked as she collapsed onto her back with the creature violently walloping his bony fists down onto her while she shielded behind her arms. “GET IT OFF!”

Bert's back and head had hit the wall pretty brutally when he was kicked, causing his perception to blacken and blur as he sagged down the wall in a groggy state. “Shiiiit, man.”

“KINDA BUSY RIGHT NOW!” Bam shouted as he dodged getting seized by the muscled guard's lengthy reach by sliding along the tile floor through the opening between his legs. Sadly, he didn't go far enough, for when the guard spun around all he had to do was stoop down to easily capture him. Bam was doomed now. “SHIT, THIS MOTHERFUCKER GOT ME!”

The lanky one continued to patter down fists on Otep's secured arms, periodically stopping to recoup it's energy by tilting down to screech like a feral animal right in her face. Otep memorized this sequence and took the opportunity after the second time to expose her face to scream. “FUCK YOU, YOU EMACIATED ASSHOLE!” And with that she headbutted him, shattering the frosted glass of his eerie mask in the process and observing its milky lid-less protruding eyes gawking right back down at her. “HOLY SHIT!”

The creature screeched back before clambering off her, it's eyesight obscured now without the glass. Bert, having finally recovered consciousness, came up behind it with the pipe and stuck it in over its neck, hauling the metal object back to trap it in a choke-hold. “YOUR TURN IS OVER YOU FUCKING FREAK!” The creature squeaked powerfully, thrashing its legs and hands, which made it troublesome to hold onto, but Bert managed it, and hauled the pipe tighter on his windpipe with all his might. Gradually, but certainly, the creature ceased moving, having been strangulated. Otep and Bert shared a teamwork's smile of triumph, and what would have also been a thumbs up if they hadn't heard Bam shout. They simultaneously jerked their heads around to observe the guard had gotten a hold of Bam's ankle and the back of his neck in his grasp and was hoisting his body over his head for a murderous ending.

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, HE'S GONNA LITERALLY BREAK HIM IN HALF, BERT, IF WE DON'T DO SOMETHING!” Otep screeched in terror, having only witnessed this orchestrated about fives times before with other patients, but never to a colleague.

“Oh my god, Bam is going die right before our eyes, Bert panicked to himself as he yelled in fright. “BAM. NOO!”