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.

---

The boss guy walked in with several people who were carrying along Max and Gus. They walked through the cell block, looking for a suitable cell. When one was found the unlocked it and threw them in with the other occupant(s).

Max had passed out shortly after beginning their journey. When the noise of the prison yard grew closer she roused and insisted that she could walk. She certainly didn't want to be carried into Menard like some sack of potatoes. She'd heard plenty about the prison. It was the highest security prison in Southern Illinois. She'd come from Joliet only to be tossed into her little brother. Freedom had been nice while it had lasted... At least is wasn't Big Muddy...

Gus went to Max's aid right away He didn't notice anyone else in the cell with him and put all of his attention on the wrapped wounds on her shoulder and arm. Blood wasn't soaking through, that was a good thing.

"I'll let you soak in 'ere for awhile till I can come up wit someting for you to do." The boss said. With that the cell door was shut and the captors left the area.

"This... isn't good, is it?" Gus asked, rubbing his arms for warmth. He was still shirtless and it was quite chilly in here.

"No..." Max said. "It's not." She pulled the rough wool blanket from the top bunk and draped it over Gus' shoulders. "I'll sleep on the bottom." She told him, sitting down on the bottom bunk. "If anyone comes in while we're asleep just... Don't move. Ok? Don't make them notice you." If they came for her in the middle of the night she didn't want him getting hurt trying to help her.

"Why would they do that?" Gus asked, a bit too young to assume the unthinkable. He moved his shoulder a bit, testing the soreness of his shoulder before holding the blanket around him.

Max didn't want to tell him but it was better he be prepared for the worst. "Lets just say that the longer we stay here the chances of our getting raped rise every second." She balled him in with that. Just because he was a boy didn't mean he wasn't useful in that respect. This was prison after all...

"What?! You think they would do that to us?!" Gus asked quickly. He clutched onto the blanket tightly. "Can't we dig ourselves out like on TV or something?" Gus was pacing, looking around the cell.

"Yes I do and it doesn't work that way." She told him. "Maybe a century ago we could have dug ourselves out but this place was remodeled about fifty years ago. Modernized. I read about it while I was in pri..." She abruptly stopped there. She hadn't told Gus she'd been in prison...

A voice spoke up from the corner of the room, somehow nobody had noticed him sitting there. It didn't surprise him really, he was quite used to it. Though he had no idea how anyone could not notice him. "You don't have to worry about getting raped in here. I wouldn't let anything happen to you." A great hulk of a man rose from the shadowy corner as he spoke and raised a hand in greeting.

"EE!" Gus screamed girlishly, jumping nearly double his height into the air. He clutched onto Max's waist on reflex.

Max swung Gus around behind her into the bunk and stood between him and the... the... well it must be a man... The action of protecting Gus made her head spin from blood loss but she stood her ground no matter what the guy said. She didn't say anything but it was obvious she wasn't comfortable being trapped in a cell with another man.

The large man tried to look around Max at the little one. "You've got food. They didn't take it from you?" He asked her curiously, it was unheard of for them to not take everything when they captured someone. Somehow this little kid still had his backpack and to top it all off, there was food inside it.

"HEY! Barnaby is NOT food!" Gus shouted and a soft 'mew' came from his pack.

"I think he means the snacks and tuna." Max told Gus. "Wait... you DO have food don't you? Gus I could kiss you..." The best thing to recoup her blood loss was to eat. "Tell me you've got something to drink in there too?"

"Uhh... I think I have granola, Little Debbie snacks and a pop tart left. Or and a few last piece of jerky from the other day." Gus said.

"Give me one of those granola bars." Max said knowing they'd need to conserve food. There would be no telling when their captors might feed them. She looked at the big guy and sat down. "You'll have to excuse my lack of hospitality. Getting shot does that to a gal." That and walking around in only jeans, boots and a bra. She was glad that she had her knee and elbow pads though.

The big guy shrugged, "No worries. Get plenty of injured through here." He looked her up and down and then shook his head. "You might be wantin a shirt though. A good many of the 'gentlemen' round here would take a bit too kindly to those." He smiled and turned back around to his little corner. "They called me Zeppelin, by the way."

"Tell me about it." She said considering the state of her clothes. She'd tried getting a shirt from her gear before they'd brought them here, but their captors hadn't wanted to risk her rummaging through her gear. "I'm Max this is Gus. How long you been here?"

"Long enough...." Zeppelin replied with a shrug. "They keep me around..I know I don't look it, but I'm useful."

"Oh yea?" Max asked. This guy seemed pretty harmless... sure he was big, but that didn't mean anything. So long as he stayed on his side of the cell she didn't mind relaxing a little.

Gus was almost naked too. He clung the blanket tight around himself, feeling a bit uncomfortable in front of a man without a shirt. He knelt down and slipped off his backpack. Barnaby, a small calico cat leapt out and walked around the cell. Gus proceeded and pulled out the granola. "Here."

"Your lucky they didn't know you had food in there." He told them both, sitting back down in his corner. "They would have taken it for sure. Odd they let you keep the cat too. All animals are meat around here..."

"It was a little... hectic at the time." Max told him. She ate the granola wishing there was more, but her body would just have to deal with it. "You don't uh... you don't happen do know what they do to the wounded around here do you?"

Gus took the opened can and peeled back the lid more so the little cat could nibble for a bit.

"Depends on a few things." Zeppelin said with a shrug. He held up one finger, "How bad you're injured." Then he held up another, "And if you're worth it." He turned around at that and smiled. "If you're worth it and the injury's not too bad, they'll try to heal you. But I don't think there's really any doctors left here."

"Hypothetically..." Max began, "What say you had a priest... with cauterized bullet wounds in his calves?" She'd done what she could for Hanson, but if infection set in or if he didn't get enough food he could easily be done for... especially if they couldn't find a use for a priest...

"A priest? Well....these are a pretty lawless group we've got here. But I suppose a priest may have some purposes." He told her with a shrug. "Though I can't imagine they'd keep him around to preach Sunday Mass. No...as long as he's not an old decrepit man, they'll probably keep him for grunt work at the very least."

"And if he can't walk?" Max asked. She could suddenly imagine the sound of a bullet being fired into Hanson's head.

Before Max's question could be answered, she heard a faint female voice from the nearby cell that the group of men just stopped at.

---

An hour or so later the group returned with two more people. The dumped the girl into a nearby cell and continued on with the bleeding man slung over one of their shoulders and headed off to the Abandoned Penitentiary Medical Wing.

Dare's legs buckled as she was dumped into the cell. Turning, she looked outward, watching them carry Aaron off. Standing as best she could, she turned on the cell door, using it to hold her up. Her leg would no longer hold her, and she just wanted a friendly face.

She could see a cell nearby with, what looked to be, three people sitting in it talking to each other. Looked like a woman, child, and the third couldn't be seen very well from her angle.

"Hello?" Dare said tentatively. She didn't know these people, but if they were being held prisoners, she figured she could at least talk to them. The enemy of her enemy and all that.

"Hello?" Gus replied, waving from his cell door. He was a young redheaded child with a blanket wrapped around his torso, roughly the age of 11 or so. 

Max looked across the hall at the woman and realized her chances of being raped suddenly went down. That didn't make her feel very good though. Still, chances were they'd go after the goddess type rather than her beaner ass.

"Hi," Dare said to the child across the way. She gave him a wave, lowering herself to sit on the floor because she really couldn't hold herself up anymore. Her leg was bleeding and she was feeling very weak. "What'd they get you for?" she asked jokingly. She might have been shot and lost a lot of blood, but she could still joke with a child.

Max and her blood stained bra and torso turned away from the door to let Gus chat with his new friend.

"Not a clue." he replied. "He was just being mean, really. We even did him a favor and we still got tossed in here." Gus noticed how pretty she was. Even at his age, he could tell.

Dare nodded. "I was just in the wrong place," she said. She gave the other woman a look, frowning at her lack of clothing. Dare's own revealing clothes were hidden by her trench, which they thankfully let her keep. "My name is Dare West."

"My name is Gus... that's Max." He pointed. "And that's... some guy we were bunked with. His name is Zeppelin." Gus said, pointing to the larger man in the corner.

Zeppelin held up his hand and smiled, though he wasn't sure if she would notice or not. It still baffled him how often people lacked the awareness to notice him. The simple fact that they couldn't was absurd. How do you not notice a man of such girth? He shrugged mentally and settled back against the wall. He had told this Max girl many things during the last hour. He hoped it was enough to sooth her worry about her preacher friend.

Max wasn't very interested in Gus's conversation so she turned to Zeppelin. "What do they do with the supplies they bring in?" She asked him. She sounded as if she wasn't at all interested in sticking around. Like there was some way to get out of here and she was going to find it.

Dare waved back at Zeppelin. She had noticed him, but since Gus was talking to her, she decided to continue the conversation. "Gus. Nice to meet you." She looked at Max, wanting to say something, anything, to get the other woman to look at her. But Dare was well used to other women giving her the cold shoulder.

The little calico cat walked between Gus's legs. "This is Barnaby." Gus pointed before walking over to the bars. Standing at his side, he started to shuffle between them, wondering if he could slip out. He was a tiny little thing so he kept his hopes up.

"All supplies go to one of the rooms down below. Weapons and the like go to a separate room in the same hall. It's not a perfect system, but it works for dunderheads like them." Zeppelin told her with a grin. He would have preferred to keep his own stuff with him, but he was a prisoner here and didn't get much as far as the civil rights thing went

"So they probably split stuff up... weapons in one room, food, clothes in others?" Max wasn't happy about that. She was rather attached to her gear. It had taken a long time to accumulate the perfect balance of equipment to survive without being too heavily weighted down. If there was an opportunity to escape she very well wouldn't get a chance to go shopping for her gear. At least before all her stuff had been packed onto her bike.

"If you've just been brought in, they may not have gotten a chance to sort your stuff out." Zeppelin offered her with a shrug. "This injured priest might be taking all their attention at the moment. Hypothetically, of course."

Dare looked at the cat, wondering how it had survived so long. Certainly Gus had a big part in keeping it alive. She suddenly found that she missed having Aaron near and wondered where he was. They had only been together a short time, but he had tried to protect her. "Hello, Barnaby," Dare finally replied, watching the cat to take her mind off of what was happening.

"Here's hoping they forget about it..." Max said leaning back with a shrug. She winced at her shoulder and readjusted herself. "I just found that bike too..." She said sounding disgruntled.

"What's a matter with you?" Zeppelin asked her when he heard the girl wince.

"Let's just say you should see the other guy..." Max told him. "Well... guys. I took out four, Gus got one. I got shot twice in the process then when Gus was fixing me up we got ambushed."

Gus smiled when Max spoke of him. He was very proud of himself and the work he had done on her bullet wounds. Had it not been for his fast acting, she may not have woken up.

"And they didn't try to fix you up here?" Zeppelin asked curiously. That was strange. They usually would fix up the women first, nobody likes to get with an almost dead girl. not these days at least

As they had their conversation, Dare leaned back against the wall. She was simply too weak to try to stand and make it to the bed. Not that she hadn't slept in less comfortable places. Blood loss over the last few days was taking its toll, and she sat so she could still watch what was going on outside her cell, but her eyes took on this glazed over feature.

"Gus already had me patched up." Max told him. "Besides, if he hadn't I'd have bled to death half way here. The guy we brought in too... I'm worried he may have lost too much blood though."

"Got a little medic then, huh? That's handy." Zeppelin said with a chuckle. "I'm sure they're doing whatever they can for the preacher. It's not very often someone like that comes along. Maybe they'll actually feel it and have to save him."

"Fat chance." Max said placing her head back against the wall. She needed to sleep. Passing out on the journey here wasn't enough. She fought it though, not trusting this place or their new roommate just yet.

Dare slowly fell asleep in her cell, the only sign that she had fallen asleep being her closed eyes and relaxed features.

Gus watched and tilted his head at Dare before looking over to Max, "I think she is narcoleptic."

Max leaned forward and glanced at the girl. "She's probably wounded." Max said leaning back against the lower bunk. "Blood loss does that to a person."

"You look far worse than she does." Zeppelin pointed out with a grin. "If you've lost so much blood, why don't you rest? I'm sure I could always palaver with Gus."

Max opened her eyes and lifted her head "Pal-a-what?"

"Palaver, a long parley usually between persons of different cultures or levels of sophistication." Zeppelin defined the term for her, having a hard time thinking people didn't know the term.

"Uhhh.." Gus tilted his head, not comfortable with that. "Whassat?"

"He means a conversation Gus." Max said laying her head back against wall again.

"You wanna talk? Sure!" Gus said, "So- what's up with your name? It's kinda weird."

"Zeppelin? Kinda a joke on my expense. I've gone by it for years, so it sort of grew on me. M'real name's Horace Zeplinsky." He told them with a smile. "I'm large and tend to get rather gassy, not to mention Zeplinsky, let's just say people aren't entirely original when it comes to nicknames. A Zeppelin is a giant gas filled airship."

Gus laughed when Horace said the word 'gassy'. "At least your honest." he smiled. "Hey- you wanna play yo-yo....or wait....nevermind. I used it to tie up Max's arm. Hmm....uhm...Wanna play 'thumb war'?"

Max laid over in the bunk and quietly closed her eyes. She should have moved to the top one considering Zeppelin probably slept on the bottom, but she didn't have the thought or motivation to do so.

"Thumb war?" Zeppelin asked him curiously. He hadn't played that since he was probably Gus's age. He smirked and nodded, "Sure thing."

Gus smiled and went toward the bed, sitting down next to him. "Alright, ready? And no cheating! Dad always cheats." he explained, holding out his left hand.

Max wasn't being quiet to be unsociable, but like their new friend across the corridor, she'd drifted off to sleep.

Zeppelin turned toward Gus and grinned, holding out his left hand as well. "Cheat at thumb war? How in the world do you do hat?"

"Like this." And Gus's index finger swung out of the hand lock and pinched Zeppelin's thumb down.

"Maw'tok!....no snakes then?" He replied as his thumb was held down by the finger. "Wasn't cheating when I grew up..."

"I say it's cheating. Dad's fingers...and yours are way bigger then mine. It's not fair." Gus said, letting go of his digit.

"That was creative thinking when I was your age." He told him with a grin. "But fair enough. No snakes."

"One, two, three, four... I declare a thumb war." Gus began and readied his weapon. This was a nice distraction from the fact they were in jail. "Five, six, seven, eight...try to keep your thumb straight."

"Never heard that part before." Zeppelin said quietly as he kept his thumb straight, he had no intention of letting this little kid pin him

Gus stuck his tongue out and swayed his thumb from side to side, trying to fake Zep out.

Zeppelin's thumb arced downward slightly, attempting to intimidate the kid into an early attack.

Gus smiled at this charade. "Oh you think you're so coy. I'm a pro, I'll have you know."

"You're a t'gla if you think I don't know that." Zep replied with a smirk. He arched his thumb out wide and the knuckle it was attached to gave a sickening pop sound

"EWW!" Gus exclaimed, pulling his hand away and staring wide at the double jointed thumb. "That's disgusting!"

Zep grinned from ear to ear and crossed his arms, looking at the kid in triumph. "You broke, I win."

"That was so gross! No fair- that's ....still cheating!" Gus countered, waving his finger.

"Bah! I was merely stretching my thumb. I didn't cheat." Zep told him with a sneer, "You just chickened out."

"Fried please." Max suddenly said lazily from her position on the bed. "Dark meat..."

---

- Level Five
Abandoned Penitentiary