This building used to be a very well guarded prison for some of the worst criminals in the country. However, once the zombie infestation broke out, the inmates were abandoned and left for dead. By a stroke of luck (or misfortune) the power went out and all the holding cells unlocked and released the prisoners who quickly turned the former prison into a small stronghold for themselves.

---

Several days had passed and Aaron was returned to the cell with Dare and Hanson was put back with Max and Gus, but he was still rather weak. Much against Max's beliefs, none of them had been tortured, raped, or murdered yet. Zeppelin had been taken out of the cell a few times, but was always returned a few hours later.

Finally caught up on her sleep, Dare sat on the floor of her cell, doing some leg stretches. Her injured leg was stiff where it was healing, and it made it awkward to try to stand when people where around. She had been keeping an eye on Aaron's condition as the days passed, but as it became clear that he was in no mortal danger, she had instead spent the time silently watching her surroundings.

Gus had fixed the yo-yo that was tied to Max's arm when they first arrived. It was still bloody, but worked just fine. "Want me to show you how to do the 'Eiffel tower'?" he asked Max, sitting on the bottom bunk.

"Nah, it's ok." Max told him. She'd fished the antibiotics from her pocket and counted the remainder. She'd been giving them to Hanson as soon as he'd been brought in and was stubbornly neglecting her own need for them. The warmth deep in her right shoulder told her that an infection had set in, but she fished a pill out and ran some water from the tap into a little tin cup they'd all been sharing. She stood on the bottom bunk and toed up to reach the top where they'd put Hanson. "Padre." She said nudging him. "Time for you're dose." A couple more days and he'll have had a full course. That would leave a few left over, but it wasn't enough to fully combat Max' infection. She kept quiet about it though, not wanting to worry Gus.

Zeppelin looked at his roommates and shook his head a little. It was hard to believe that they put all of them in the same cell. These three were clearly prisoners, and yet they still didn't bother to ask him about where he kept going.

Hanson slowly opened his eyes and looked over at Max with a weak smile. "Thank you my child. You are truly a guardian angel."

"Hey Zep, do YOU want me to teach you how to make the Eiffel tower? Or do you know how?" Gus asked Zeppelin, walking over to him. This kid was always craving something to do or someone to talk with. 

"I told you to stop calling me that." Max told Hanson as she handed him his water to wash down the pill. She wanted more than anything to get out of here, but Hanson couldn't walk and she wouldn't leave Gus. The heat in her shoulder bothered her, but she kept trying to ignore it. At least here they were fed moderately and Hanson had a safe dry place to recuperate... she only wondered when they'd come for her and the girl across the hall.

Hanson smiled as he took the antibiotic and washed it down. He handed the cup back to her, "You should be taking these. I'm nothing but an easily captured priest, while you're a young and strong person with a ward to look after."

"I'm fine." Max lied. She felt bad lying to a priest, but there would be antibiotics left when he finished his course... not enough, but enough to keep her going till they could find some more... if they managed to escape...

"I don't have a yo-yo of my own." Zep replied to Gus. He thought for a moment and then smiled. "Why dno't you show me what you can do?"

"You can use mine- duh." Gus said as he bobbed it up and down along the string. "The eiffel tower is easy- all you do it pull here.... do this... and..." he muttered as he worked, but the strings got tangled in his fingers. "Ack! Hold on..."

Hanson just smiled again, like he knew she was lying but wasn't going to say anything to challenge her. "How are the others today?"

"Gus has a bit of cabin fever I think." Max told him. "If you're up to it today I think we should talk to Zep. See if there's a chance of getting out of here."

"Don't rush it." Hanson said, "Evil will always turn in on itself and then God will provide us our means of escape."

"No offense padre, but where was God when we were getting peppered with led?" Max asked a little angrily.

"Who are we to see or understand the will and plans of our Lord?" Hanson asked.

"The Lord is supposed to take care of widows, orphans and fools right?" Max told him. "Last time I checked we were all three."

Zep chuckled a little as the kid's fingers got caught in the string. "Guess it's a bit more complicated than you let on, huh?"

"The Lord works in mysterious ways, and the Devil's influence, when coupled with free will, can make for a most unexpected situation." Hanson said, not sure if he was making sense.

"You're babbling." Max said disgruntled, stepping off the bottom bunk so they were no longer at eye level with each other. She hated how much sense Hanson really made and how her father had said trust and it'll all be ok... She was a bad catholic, but it was hard to get away from what she'd been taught as a child. She sat down on the edge of the bunk and rubbed her face with her left hand, favoring her right arm. They needed to at least fashion weapons... Something, anything that might give them a second or two when the window opened. Since Zep was sitting in the corner with Gus she took the opportunity to lay back in the bunk to try and think. That's when she noticed the wire grating that made up the net that held up the upper bunk. It took her a moment to figure it out, but she smiled. "Anyone have I can use as a leaver?"

Gus took his attention off of Zep and the yo-yo to look at Max. As he reeled the string back up, he kept his gaze on her "That's sure random...why?"

"If it doesn't work it doesn't matter." Max said. "A coin would be perfect." But who had use for coins now-a-days?

"The padre should have a cross, right?" Zep offered with a glance at the top bunk. They take everything back to him when he leaves, but take it back again when they put him back in the cell. But a cross was soemthing that they might just leave for a person like a minister.

"Rosaries aren't all that tough and I don't wanna risk breaking it." Max said. "A spoon might work too..."

"I didn't say rosaries, t'gla ." Zep told her, throwing the insult in there more out of habit than on purpose. "I said a cross. They're usually made of gold or some other shiny metal. Half the time rather sturdy stuff really."

"Still..." Max groaned a bit. She'd gotten her fingers in and the Padre could feel a slight tugging on the foot end of his mattress. Then a sudden jerk as the wire she was pulling on came loose from one end. The sudden movement probably wasn't the best for his legs.

Hanson groaned a bit at the sudden movement and pain from his legs, but said nothing else.

"So I take it the lever wasn't needed after all?" Zep asked Max, noticing she had tugged the wire free.

"Sorry about that Padre." Max said apologetically. "Tell us Zep..." She said as she wiggled her length of wire back and forth so it would break off. "Where is it they've been taking you? Am I gonna have to stab you with this length of wife for being a spy?" Just then the bit of thick wire came off from beneath the bunk's under netting and she began working the next section free. From this one strand she could probably make six short shivs. The rest didn't come off so rough since she'd already gotten the bound end lose.

Gus just finished untangling his yo-yo and lifted his head and looked at Zep. No way he was a spy....right? Though it was a bit curious why HE got special treatment.

Zep looked at Max and scoffed. "Hu'tegh! A spy? I told you why before, didn't I?" He looked right at Gus and pointed, "They take me for the same reason I knew that he had food."

The sections of thick wire began to come off one by once, but it was slow work with only one good arm. "And why's that?" Max asked Zep.

Zep groaned and shrugged, "How the hell should I know? I just do. It's not like I can smell it or anything. Nowadays the food I find tends to be in sealed packages, so it's not like I could smell it if I wanted to."

"Maybe that's your super power?" Gus asked, heading over. "I got one too...I can burp the ABC's, wanna hear?"

"Sure." Zeppelin said with a smile, looking over at the child.

Max frowned. What sort of explanation was that? He could sense food... it made no sense, then again, nether did Zombies in the real world. She continued to work with the thick steel wire that held up the mattress beneath Hanson. She'd started on a second strand, not taking too much that the bunk was no longer supported, but having enough that each of them might have a few shivs between them. They needed handles, but that would come once they were sharp.

After a deep breath, he started belching. "AEE...BEEE....SCHEE..." Gus took another gasp of air, "DEE...EEEE...EF...JEE..." The nasty burps echoed in the hall, bouncing off the concrete slabs into other cells.

"SHUT DA FUCK UP DOWN HERE!" came an angry, yet familiar voice. A few seconds later the man they know as Rasta appeared with five of his goons. "I can hear all ya'll's useless asses from clear down da hall! Fuckin' annoyin'"

---

Aaron groaned from his side of the cell, waving slightly towards Dare; he was still down for the count really, he couldn't move his legs much and he was pretty sure the doctor was giving him weakened drugs because he didn't like him. He had given him a rather vicious tongue lashing when he'd arrived after all. "How are you doing Dare?" he asked, turning his head to look over at the girl. He'd risked his neck for her, he hoped she was alright.

Dare rolled over and moved over to where Aaron was. "I'm fine," she said quietly. "Are you hungry? Thirsty? They delivered food not too long ago, if you want to take your chances with it again." She had simply eaten what she absolutely needed, saving the rest for Aaron.

"Ah, I'm fine. You know doctors, worst patients and all, I'll probably be hungry the moment after you fall asleep" Aaron gave her a small smile and tried to seem confident and strong, even if his legs were giving him pain. "Just wondering how we're going to get out of here" he muttered softly, then looked over towards the one called "zep" or whatever his name was "What about him? Where's he keep going?"

"I haven't asked," Dare replied. "I haven't really spoken to him at all." She looked over at the large man, apprehensive to really say anything. It wasn't as if they could have a quiet conversation at all, seeings as they were in different cells.

"Remind me to do it when I get better" Aaron said, rolling onto his back and bit and closing his eyes. He took a deep breath... yes, he had to ask. "Dare, when they... found you... they didn't... do anything did they? I mean... they didn't... hurt you or anything?" he just had to ask. He had done his best to protect her after all.

"No," Dare said quietly. "Not so far." Her eyes traveled back to Aaron. "Though how long that lasts..." So far they had ignored that she was female, but she was certain they would eventually. And her fear on that was easily read in her eyes.

Aaron nodded slowly and gazed up at the ceiling. He winced, then slowly began to try and shift around. He was squirming on the spot, wincing and letting out hisses of pain as he tried to move himself. He had to do something.

"Let me help," Dare said, quickly standing and moving to help Aaron shift or sit up, whichever he wanted to do. Having been hospitalized on more than one occasion, she knew how restless one could get just lying there.

Aaron grunted softly, but nodded and sat up with her help. He licked his lips slowly, eyes closed as he swayed slightly. He was looking around now, searching for something that he could try and fashion into some kind of splint for his legs...

Sitting back on her heels, Dare watched him look. "What are you looking for?" she asked, her voice staying low.

"Something... so I don't have to use all of my legs... for support" Aaron grunted, wondering if he could take the bed apart.

Sliding under the bed, Dare felt around for anything that might be used. She found the supports for the bed. There were five supports, so she pulled at the second and fourth, trying to see if they were loose enough to use.

They looked like they were barely held on with the rust and lack of care. They didn't budge at first pull, but looked like they would go with enough effort.

Sliding under the bed, Dare put all her weight into yanking one of the bars out. Aaron would feel a slight shift of the bed, and Dare coughed as a little rust rained down on her. She triumphantly held the bar out to Aaron, though. "Ha! Got it!"

"Thank you. Don't suppose you can do three more? No hurry or anything" Aaron said, taking the metal struts and examining them carefully. He'd have to take parts of a spare blanket to pieces as well, just to help him walk around a bit.

Disappearing under the bed again, Dare did some more pulling. A second strut came loose, another shower of rust fell on her, and she pulled out from under the bed, rubbing at her eyes and coughing. She dropped the bar on Aaron's lap as she stood to find her way to the small sink to rinse out her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Aaron sounded worried, and actually attempted to get up and move to her air before the pain in his leg made him sit down with a hiss. That did not feel good. He would need to make his supports quickly.

Dare washed the rust from her eyes and turned. Her eyes were red and puffy. "Just got some rust in my eyes." She blinked and dried her face on her sleeve before disappearing under the bed one last time. She pulled one more free, this time keeping the rust from her face and crawled out again, sitting there and blinking as her eyes watered.

Aaron winced at her, taking the pieces of metal and gazing at them carefully "Thank you Dare... look, go sit down, you don't need to hurt yourself doing all of this." These were pretty heavy actually. Not that he couldn't use them for supports for his legs, but he was considering how hard you would have to swing to do some damage with these.

Pulling herself up, Dare sat on the end of the bed, blinking and making faces. She could still feel the dust in her eyes and wanted nothing more than to rub at them.

Aaron was looking around for any spare blankets, wrinkling his nose and frowning every time he looked at Dare. He looked down at the bed again and said "Maybe you should pull one from your bed as well... for self-defense and all. I mean, they're pretty good for swinging."

"I might later," Dare said. She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes, allowing them to water.

The two could suddenly hear the kid from the other cell burping the ABC's.

"Lovely" Aaron said in response to what was going on in the other cells, taking a spare blanket from another bunk and starting to try and pull shreds from it. He would need to bind it tight to make sure the supports didn't just fall off.

Dare glanced over at Gus, her nose wrinkling. "Impressive but disgusting," she said, forgetting that she wasn't supposed to be rubbing her eyes. Her hand went palm first into her eye, and when she accidentally ground some more rust into her eye, she winced and pulled her hand away.

---

"SHUT DA FUCK UP DOWN HERE!" came an angry, yet familiar voice. A few seconds later the man they know as Rasta appeared with five of his goons. "I can hear all ya'll's useless asses from clear down da hall! Fuckin' annoyin'"

Before they arrived Max managed to hide her soon to be shivs. She had turned her back away from the door to appear as unassuming as she could. So far they'd not come in after her and she'd been glad, but she knew time was running out on that clock.

"We're just tryin to entertain ourselves, Rasta. No harm done, right?" Zeppelin offered, hoping he was still on the man's good side. The last thing he wanted was to be on the list...

Dare looked over at Rasta, blinking fiercely. Aaron and herself hadn't been making much noise at all. It had been the boy and his burps. But she sincerely hoped that Rasta didn't take out his annoyance on Gus.

"Sorry mister." Gus said, walking over to the bars and peeking through. "Say...is Rasta your real name? ...or is it a nickname?"

"It's da nickname your mum gave me after we conceived ya!" Rasta said rather nastily. "I've been tryin' to come up wit a use for da lot of ya, and I've only found uses for two." As he said that two of his goons went and opened Dare and Aaron's cage while two more opened the other, they went into them and grabbed Dare and Max. "You others will 'ave to wait and hope I tink of someting for you."

Dare immediately stiffened. She dug her heels in, trying to slow them from dragging her forward. "No!" Her injured leg kept her from kicking out, and she tried to grab onto the cell door but missed.

Rasta saw Dare resisting and gestured for his other goon to go and assist in retrieving her. "Are ya really havin' trouble wit one little bitch?"

Max stiffened, but let the guy pull her up from the bed. She had seconds to decide what to do. Zep and Gus were the only two uninjured. She had one good arm, Hanson was out of commission and she was kicking herself at the moment having not learned the status of their neighbors across the hall. The girl seemed to have enough fight left in her, but were the four or five of them enough to take on five relatively healthy men? All she had were the nine or ten sections of wire that had meant to be shivs. She hadn't even had time to sharpen them. For now the doors of their cells were opened and she had no intention of figuring out what they'd decided she and the girl were useful for. It took only second to process this before she drove the blunt broken end of one section of wire into the eye of the man who'd grabbed her to pull her out. The second man she aimed for his throat with every ounce of strength she had in her body. She'd heard the sound of wire hitting the floor behind her from her back pocket and hoped that she hadn't lost all of them and if she had, Zep was smart enough to back her up. He was certainly big enough.

Gus knew that if he didn't act now, Max might get hurt. Without thinking, he sprinted forward and picked up one of the metal wires that had fallen out of Max's pocket. He leapt onto the back of one of the men who were heading for Dare. Gus was small and agile, able to run straight up the goon's spine. With all his might, he jammed the end of the wire into the man's ear and jumped off, almost falling down.

The man holding on to Max howled and grasped the makeshift shiv, currently useless. The other one, who Gus shived did the same, but was less distracted. He caught Max's hand as she went to shiv him in the neck and quickly, and fiercely headbutted her in the face.

As Gus recovered from falling down off the man's back he felt someone grab a hold of the back of his neck and lift him off the ground. Before he could look around to see who it was, the person banged his head off the metal bars of the cell. "This shit is gettin' ridiculous. The next time one of ya motha fucka's fucks wit me or my men, I am gonna kill one of ya. Starting wit dis little cocksucker!" he said holding Gus up to reinforce his words.

"No," Dare said on a whisper. As much as she was scared for what they might do to her, she didn't want the child hurt. She looked back at Aaron, unsure of what she should do. Dare was more than useless in a fight where she didn't have any weapons.

(what about the struts they took from beneath the bed?)

Max's head went blurry for a moment, but she'd taken harder shots from bigger men in the past. Her ex-husband for one made this guy look like a midget. She hadn't taken this shit from him and she wasn't about to take it from this guy. Groping in her back pocket she felt four of the skewers she hadn't yet lost and grabbed one of them, saving the last should she still need it. She attacked the guy who'd headbutted her and the adrenalin made her forget about her wounded shoulder. She was going to take his head off if it was the last thing she did. Using his downed buddy as a stepping stool she launched herself at him. Being so small her center of gravity was much lower, but she was dense, solid and she'd suck his eyes out through his nose if she had to. Once she was done with this one, she was going for Rasta.

She hit the man and put him to the ground, but so far he was successfully preventing her from stabbing him. It didn't look like he would be able to hold her off for very long.

Then there was another bang off the cell bars as Rasta bounced Gus's head off the bars again. This time he didn't say anything after.

Gus let out another pained shriek as he was slammed face first into the bars. "AAUAH!" he cried out for mercy. "AAAGH!" His face was cut up along his cheeks, chin and brow from the strike to the metal. The poor little 11 year old was screaming for help with all his might, agony ringing clear in his cries.

"Here!" two bars flew out towards Dare, one rolling along the ground, a weapon for her to use, the other was aimed squarely at the head of the guy assaulting her, and in all the confusion of the other cell it slammed squarely into his face. It was a short range and not exactly a difficult shot. "GRAB THE LEADER YOU MORONS!" Aaron yelled out at the others in the cage, taking the third strut and throwing it physically into the bars on the other side, clanging loudly and no doubt distracting Rasta enough for someone to make their moves. That left him with one bar for himself, and there was another guy in here as well, who was probably taking offense to all his throwing of solid metal bars.

When Rasta started bashing Gus up against the bars, Zeppelin saw that as the final straw. He surged to his feet and moved into a sprint that was certainly unexpected of a man of his immense size. He plowed into Rasta and just prayed that Gus wouldn't wind up underneath them. "That's quite enough of that you miserable BiHnuch!"

Dare tore herself free from the men and grabbed the bar. She came up swinging it. Being this close, there was only one result of her swinging a solid metal bar. It smashed against one of the men's ribs and Dare instantly swung again.

It was hard not to notice Zep spring into action. Max was thankful for that, he'd hopefully keep Rasta from killing Gus while she did her best to tear out the throat of man she was currently grappling with. Well, not so much grappling as sending her knee square into his crotch while stabbing at him with one of her few remaining skewers.

Rasta saw Zep coming at him, and probably had enough time to get out of the way, but was too amazed at the man's speed to move. He made a "hoof" sound as all the air was knocked out of him, unfortunately he didn't let go of Gus till after he was in motion which caused Gus to hit the ground and tumble into the cell across the way.

When Dare swung the bar around one of the men she just broke free from, caught the bar and yanked it from her while the other laid her out with a hard right hook to the face. They ignored Aaron since it was obvious he was injured and not going to be much of a threat.

There was a sudden "Bang" that was the obvious retort of a shotgun. When everyone looked over there were five more men coming towards them, all armed with guns. "Alright you dumb fuckers. Drop whatever makeshift weapons you've gotten and lay on the floor." the one that was talking looked around, "You ok Rasta?"

Max had been sprayed with the blood of two men and the only thing that made her stop stabbing the man who's chest she was currently straddling was the report of the shotgun behind her. She'd forgotten about her shoulder but the categorized wound in her inner shoulder had begun to ooze. Though it was hard to determine whether or not it was her's or the ocular jelly that had come forth from the man who's eye she'd skewered.

Zeppelin didn't waste any time at all. When he heard the shotgun blast, he couldn't help but unleash one of his own. The fowl stench erupted from his backside as he surged back up to his feet. With one arm he hauled Rasta to his feet. His other arm wrapped around the man's neck and he held him up like a human shield before him. "The BiHnuch is a little preoccupied at the moment to respond, gentlemen." He grinned and tightened his grip on Rasta, ensuring that the man wouldn't be going anywhere.

Rasta grabbed at his neck, trying to free himself. When that didn't work he launched his head back and headbutted Zep in the face. "Put him down Zep or we will shoot you." The man said as one of the guys with a pistol trained on him. While they worked on getting Zep to drop Rasta, the other three moved into the cells to take care of the riotous captives.

Gus was writhing and twitching in pain at the corner of the prison, his back against a bared wall. The young boy's face was a bloodied mess and it was hard to determine where the actual injuries were. His head body was in shock, graciously convulsing weakly as he laid there.

"How about you control these leprous retards you call jailers and we won't have to beat the crap out of them" Aaron growled at the new person with a gun, not particularly caring whether he was showing off or not. It's not as if he could rush the new guy, seeing as he had two bullet wounds in his legs, but he was happy to be a distraction, or whatever he wound up being.

Max left behind the bloodied mess of a man she'd killed and went to attend Gus. She didn't exactly care if she got shot in the process. Now that her synapses began firing again she realized that his hurt was obviously her fault. She'd started this whole thing any way.

"Oh, I don't think so." the guy nearest Max with a gun said as she tried to walk away. "Your gonna get on the fuckin' ground like you were told.

"Shut up." the armed man said to Aaron as he walked by him and pushed him down and helped subdue Dare.

Max stopped inches short of Gus and glowered at the man who'd spoken to her. She was already on her knees, if he wanted her any lower she wasn;t listening.

The ground was a bad place for Aaron to be pushed. Mostly because that now meant he was able to haul himself around on his arms instead of just sitting there uselessly. And he was still holding his pipe. He lunged before he realised what was going on, and found his teeth biting hard into the ankle of the one holding the gun who had just knocked him over, burying them deep, going through soft flesh and biting into the Achilles tendon and the veins there. With the pole still in his hand he began trying to swat at the gun in the man's hands, knock it away or make it so he wouldn't be able to get a clear shot.

There was a yell from the man who Aaron was biting and then a sharp whack on the back of the head over and over again till he let go.

While their attention was focused on Aaron and his repeated biting Max flung herself at the man with the shotgun. She met the cold steel of the barrel with her hands and jerked it towards her, using that momentum to pull the man's crotch close enough that when she kicked out, his chances of reproducing suddenly declined.

Zep grunted when Rasta slammed his head back into him, another burst of gas was accidentally released when the jailor did that. There was almost a visible cloud to go along with the stench now. He grit his teeth and muttered, "You worthless t'ooho'mIrah!" With his immense arms, he twisted the man's scrawny neck until he heard it snap savagely.

The whacking was just helping Aaron's teeth dig in more. He wasn't letting go. In fact it was more likely that he would tear off the back of this guy's ankle before he opened his jaws. He'd seen zombies do this hundreds of times before. He knew that this would cause incredible crippling pain and would make it physically impossible for the person to move. All the time he continued to hit the person in return, slamming the pipe against the arm as it tried to swing at him again and again, parrying the blow with hard ones of his own. This was basic. Instinct. If these boys wanted savagery then he would give them simple animal brutality.

There had been worse pain before. Dare had suffered worse and still made it out. She had been stunned for a moment, unable to see out of one eye, where she could practically feel the blood swelling to turn it purple. When she came to, it was chaos. Everything was chaos. Dare sent her heeled foot flying into the nearest guard, aiming for his thighs.

As Max's swift kick caused the man t topple over, Max took the shotgun. He didn't have to worry very long about his wounded manhood, not after she blew off his head and fired at his closest comrade. It was hard to believe that all this happened in the breath of only a few seconds.

Gus was still twitching in agony on the prison floor. His eyes were open and full of blood, but he wasn't there. He was slipping out of consciousness quickly now.

Having successfully liberated Gus from Rasta's murderous grip, and then exacting a little revenge on the slime, Zeppelin retrieved the man's gun from his belt before letting his lifeless corpse drop to the floor. He didn't waste any time in cocking the pistol and taking aim at the other armed gunmen in the room. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger




Post here please:
Chapter 1: Down Zombie River Without A Boomstick

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- Level Five
Abandoned Penitentiary Archive 1