Arkham Asylum 2: Under Seige

by Zombiehugger

No one can keep a good Joke down, not even Batman. After taking over Arkham Asylum once, the Joker broke out and took control once more, but this time he's had it for a month and has been tormenting anyone associated with the asylum.

This is a sequel to another Arkham Asylum story I wrote, if you would like to read that there is a version on here, but a better version on my deviantart under zombiehugger. Just in case.

Either way, I do not own Batman or any other affiliated party with the Dark Knight in any way shape or form. I only own the original characters I make in this story.

Please enjoy the story and let me know what you think!

Jason held a hand over his mouth to prevent himself from coloring the stained floor with the remnants of the meal he received. The stench was unbearable, to the point of where he questioned whether the smell came from the unwashed prisoners in the cell with him, or the rot growing on some of the prisoners from having open wounds in this cesspit. He had lost count of the days they had been in the cell, living off of scraps from their captors, who thought it funny to throw one medium sized bowl of gruel into each cell just to watch the men brawling over each miniscule drop. More of the food was slopped onto the floor whenever a fight broke out, but that didn't stop the others from licking it off of the disgustingly dirty floor.

One of the men in the cell with Jason gave him a side long glance; tensions had been running higher and higher as the days went by. Sooner or later, one of the lifeless bodies lying in the corner was going to be put there by one of the others in the cell instead of infection. Jason ignored the man and continued to look out between the bars of his cell, watching the lights flicker as the guards in the other room played some card game Jason didn't understand. As far as he could tell it was based off of points, like Gin, but more than one person could win. Since no one had any money to bet, the losers all had to take turns shooting an almost empty revolver in their mouths. Depending on how many people lost, they added or subtracted bullets from the gun. Steadily, the number of guards patrolling the area had been replaced because of this game.

Jason turned away as one of the guards lost a hand and had to put four bullets into the revolver, he knew the odds of survival, but was laughing while he put the gun in his mouth anyway. If the laughter died out after the gunshot, Jason did not hear it, he had already shut the guards out of his mind. With a fresh source of guards coming in each week or so, it was nearly impossible to attach a patrol pattern to any of the guards. Different guards had different nuances, which meant that finding a place to hide after finding a way out of the cell was going to be hard.

That was a later concern though, if Jason could even get out of the cell in the first place, he would be more than happy. The bars on the cells were reinforced to withstand long bouts of heavy barrages. Even if Jason could organize every person in the cell to bash the door, they wouldn't be able to make the bars budge. The only option left to Jason was to sit and wait for an opportunity to present itself.

As time went on, doctors would come by the cells and watch the prisoners for reasons Jason couldn't fathom. They never once intervened when the guards threw the food in, or when they used the butts of their rifles to smack hands away from the bars. Instead they simply stared and scribbled notes on their clipboards and moved on. Every so often, one of the doctors would point out a prisoner and the guards would open the cells and take him for the doctors. Jason prayed he never got picked.

They seemed to switch on rotating schedules, but Jason could never figure which doctor would be showing up, only when they would be here. In fact today was another one of those days. Jason was never sure of the hour they would appear, but some time that day another doctor would be watching him and jotting something down about his performance. How they could discern performance by just watching them, he couldn't understand, but he knew they were being evaluated somehow. It was almost too frustrating to bear. He tried to act casual, but he wanted to know what would prevent him from being selected. Jason was playing a game he didn't know the point of, let alone the rules.

A quiet rasp at the door echoed in the holding room. One of the guards stopped helping the others drag the dead guard's body out of the room to answer the door. He grunted as a man in a lab coat walked into the room, past the body and into the larger area with all of the cells without saying a word.

"Hello to you too Doc." The guard said, mockingly greeting the empty hallway. "Let yourself in."

The doctor looked at the man and then to the other guards dragging the body into a chute for the furnace, a small scowl marred his otherwise pristine face but he didn't say a word. Instead, he walked over to the seat the dead guard once occupied and began dragging it nosily into the cell area. Jason's grunts were echoed by the other prisoners as the sound filled the room, smashing the silence in the once quite chamber. When he reached the middle of the room he stopped, swung the chair behind him and sat down.

Jason stared at the man, as he was sure everyone did by now. The doctor before them was new, which was strange because Jason had seen each doctor at least twice in the time he had been here, he was sure it was going to be either the nice woman with the red hair this time or the loud, balding man who couldn't seem to stop muttering about the prisoners. This man though, was neither balding nor loud; in fact he looked as though he could teach walls about silence. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but Jason liked to watch and understand everyone around him while he was in this cell, to him it was another person he had to remember.

The doctor's eyes scanned the prisoners for what seemed hours, but Jason was sure it was only a few minutes before the man stood again and paced down the line of cells. At every other cell, the man would stop and count the men still left alive, nod and scribble something on his clip board before continuing down the line. When he reached the end of the line, he went back and counted the men alive in the other cells, repeating the same pattern he did before. After completing his second round, the doctor walked back to his seat and sat down again.

Time was elapsing slower than usual for Jason, these sessions were never longer than what seemed like a half-an-hour to Jason, but this man hadn't even done more than look at the prisoners before that time came and went. For a long time, he just sat there after walking the line, staring at them like animals being picked for the slaughter.

"W…what do you want?!" One of the men in a few cells down from Jason screamed out. The doctor looked over, but said nothing to the man. He simply stared, considering the man for a while before breaking off and watching the others again. After a few minutes of awkward silence, another man echoed what the first screamed. This time, instead of looking at the second man, the doctor stuck his hand in the pocket of his white lab coat and withdrew a packet of cigarettes. Casually taking one from the box, he placed it delicately between his lips and, protecting a lit match from an imaginary breeze, lit the cigarette. He took a few earnest drags before shaking the match out and throwing the extinguished trash at the closest cell.

Jason looked at the other men in the cell with him, but no one looked back. They were all staring intently at the doctor, who was now making a point not to look at anyone in the cells. The man was certainly confusing, maybe he was playing some sort of mind game with them, or maybe he was just the crazy one. Jason was starting to believe the latter, all of the doctors never actually showed any signs that they knew what they were doing, but Jason couldn't prove that they were in fact insane, or just someone sent to make the prisoners off guard.

The doctor strolled into the guard's room and whispered something to the guard that met him at the door. Nodding as if he were agreeing to something with a colleague, the guard stroked his chin thoughtfully before motioning for the other guards to follow him out into the cells. Five fully armed men and one doctor walked out of the room looking grim.

"What's the matter, couldn't handle us Doc?" One of the prisoners said with a laugh. Instead of answering, the doctor nodded and pointed to the man with his half burned out cigarette. Instantly, the five guards were unlocking the cell with the man who had spoken, smashing hands with the butts of their rifles to prevent any idea of overpowering the five guards. Three went in while the other two stood outside, waiting for someone to try anything.

In a few moments, the guards were hauling a filthy man out of the cell, clothed only in a sweat stained jumper and white undershirt, which did little to cover his curly chest hairs that were poking out from the top of the neck. The man stammered apologies to the doctor in between trying to convince the man it was not him who had said anything. He spouted out a few names and pointed to a few of the other men in the cells, blaming them and saying that they had it out for the doctors. In a lower whisper, but still loud enough for Jason to hear, he tried to convince the doctor about four or five conspiracies against him personally.

The doctor did not seem to hear the man speak, he puffed on the cigarette some more, expelling the smoke from the side of his mouth. When the guards pushed the man onto his knees in front of the doctor, the doctor walked away from the man and instead went back to walking the lines of the cells.

As the doctor stopped in front of Jason's cell, he took one last drag on his cigarette and blew the smoke in Jason's face. Jason wanted to cough and move away but he didn't want to give the man the satisfaction. Instead, Jason stared at him until the doctor moved away and back to the man on his knees. With one look at the cigarette, nearly burned down to the doctor's fingers, the doctor crushed the lit cigarette against the kneeling man's forehead. A loud scream echoed in the chamber, reverberating in Jason's head. The man slumped down and nursed the burn on his face, groaning softly to himself.

"You son-of-a-bitch!" The man started to get up to attack the doctor but was cut short when the butt of a rifle slammed between his shoulder blades. The man fell with a grunt and stirred as soon as he hit the floor. In a matter of moments, the man was on his knees again, eyeing the doctor and waiting for a moment he could strike.

One of the guards clicked his tongue repeatedly. "You shouldn't have done that, you never know what might happen."

The man on his knees smiled and laughed manically. "I'm not worried about what will happen, death would be a sweet release from this place. These crazy-ass doctors wouldn't be doing some experiment on me at least."

The guard's laugh could have matched the man's. "I wasn't talking about you, don't you ever think about Jessie? How about Susan? I can't remember which one is your daughter and which your wife, but how about I just kill them both and we'll call it even?"

"Don't you touch them! I'll kill you! You hear me? I'll kill you and I'll enjoy every second of it, I haven't had a decent bath in weeks in here, I think I'll start after I cut through that throat of yours." The man's eyes went wide with delight, Jason wasn't sure if it was from the perceived threat from the guard, or the idea of killing the guard. Either way it was disturbing. Jason didn't have any training in psychology, but he could piece together that the man was insane already, even if they were to escape, he wouldn't recover whatever sanity he had once had. Praying that he wouldn't end up like the man on his knees, Jason backed away from the bars of his cell and plopped down on the end of the only cot in the bed.

"That's quite an imagination you've got there." The guard taunted the man, circling him with the rifle propped on his shoulder. "How long have you been in here? A month? Two? Do you think your wife has found a new man yet? Maybe she's already got someone to comfort her while her husband is locked up. I know if I saw this," The guard took out a picture from his pocket of a blond woman Jason couldn't make out. "Walking down the street I'd have to take my chances. Mmm, the things I would do to her."

"Shut up! Shut the hell up!" The man started to push up to his feet, his fists clenched in rage when the doctor suddenly took out a pistol from his coat pocket and shot the man in the head. Jason heard his gasp returned many times over throughout the chamber. The lifeless corpse collapsed on the floor with a puddle of blood circling the head, the eyes staring right at Jason's cell.

If they were going to kill him, why didn't the doctor just get it over with? Why allow this charade to continue any further than necessary? What was going to happen to him? Who the hell was this doctor?

Thousands of questions swirled around in Jason's head and he did not have an answer for any of them. As a whole, everyone moved back from the bars of the cells, each man trying to climb through the person behind him to get as far away from the doctor as possible. Jason looked around his cell and realized that he hadn't backed away, confusion and worry fastening him to the floor. After a few seconds, Jason saw that the doctor was looking directly at him, his head cocked to the side with wonder. Jason found the nerve to inch back from the doctor's gaze, but the doctor followed him as he moved.

"Interesting." Jason stopped as his heart began to beat faster. It was the first thing the doctor had said, and Jason was terrified that it was about him. Someone behind him shoved Jason away from the group huddled in a corner of the cell. He looked around, but could not see which had pushed him.

"Get away from us if you're gonna make him stare." One of the men said followed by a unanimous murmur of consent from the rest of the cowards.

"If you make him come in here, I'll kill you." Another whispered, not expecting to be heard. The man's eyes went wide when Jason turned to him, but he didn't falter from his convictions.

"Dissension among the ranks or are you just the stray they cast out once now that you're marked?" Jason nearly leapt out of his skin when the doctor's voice came from directly behind him. He was holding onto a bar with one hand, while casually stroking another bar with the index finger of his other hand. "Maybe I should come in, just to see. Hell, he might just be boasting or maybe he really believes that you drew my attention on purpose. Did you? Are you fearless, or stupid? I wonder…"

The doctor trailed off, seemingly intent on tracing some sort of outline in the bars. He never once looked at Jason while talking, if Jason didn't know any better he might have assumed the man wasn't even talking to him. He waved a hand dismissively and pushed away from the cell. Suddenly, the doctor motioned for two guards.

"Get him out of the cell."

Jason stumbled backwards, tripping over the end of the cot in the cell. What had he done? What was going to happen? Those unanswered questions fled from his mind and were replaced by new ones, old ones rephrased and despite everything they too were replaced by horrors that could only come from his imagination. The prisoners all whispered about where those chosen were taken and what those doctors did to them. Jason didn't believe half of the speculations even if the prisoners who spoke them had "undeniable proof". Yet, even if he didn't believe them, Jason was faced with those horrors now. He saw the expectation of explanation in the doctor's eyes as the guards unlocked the cell.

Futilely, Jason fought against rough hands that were dragging him to his feet. Pushing backwards, one of the guards punched him in the stomach. He went limp, but the guards carried him to the doctor. The doctor pulled his head back by his hair painfully so that Jason would look him in the eyes.

"I'm going to enjoy this." When the doctor let go of his hair, Jason noticed the third guard pushing in a wheel chair that was used for unruly patients. They set him down and buckled his hands and feet to the chair so he couldn't move more than a few centimeters in any direction. Once his hands and feet were attached to the chair, the doctor pulled a thick leather strip across his chest and fastened it to the back of the chair so he couldn't struggle.

"What are you doing!?" Jason was screaming before he knew what was happening. "Where are you taking me!?"

"Is that what you're really worried about? Shouldn't you be worried about what I'm going to do to you?" The doctor threw his head back and roared with laughter. When he stopped, he gave Jason a look that sent shivers through his spine and tapped him fondly on the cheek. "All of my answers will be revealed soon enough. I have been waiting for the permission to do this and now that I have it, no one will take this from me. I have been given a special room, one that is silenced I hear, so I don't disturb the other residents you see, and I can use it how I wish. That's what he told me and you can be sure that I will use it to its fullest. Now, just so you won't bother me while I'm working." The doctor took a rag from his coat pocket and stuffed it in Jason's mouth.

He turned back to the other prisoners. "Of course I may need more subjects, I'm not really certain that you'll be enough. When I expend your usefulness, I'll need more you see." He waved to the prisoners. "I'll be back for you all sooner or later. Tah-tah."

The wheel chair squeaked constantly as they wheeled Jason through the cell block into the common room where the guards were playing cards. He stopped at the table where one of the guards took a thick strip of black cloth and tied it around his eyes. The fear crept up in the back of Jason's skull, caressing his rationality and twisting it to form even more gruesome images of what was going to happen.

They started up again, the squeaking never ceasing as they moved through hallways and rooms. Jason felt like he was going in circles, always moving left and right an equal number of times, as if they went down hallways needlessly just to disorient him. After about twenty minutes, Jason tried his best to keep time as they moved, they stopped and the blindfold was ripped from his head unceremoniously. A bright light burned Jason's eyes, forcing him to look away with a groan barely stifled by the gag in his mouth. Even if he hadn't been in that dark cell for what might have only been a month the lamp was set so high that he wasn't sure the guards weren't looking away.

"Now, that we're alone here, what's your name?" The doctor put a foot on the wheel of the wheelchair and rested an arm on his raised knee waiting for an answer. When he didn't get one right away he backhanded Jason across the face. "Are you trying to be funny? Why won't you…oh you can't talk. Sorry about that, I get over anxious sometimes."

The doctor pulled the rag out of Jason's mouth. "Let's start again shall we? What's your name?"

Jason stared at him, trying to decide what to tell him. "Ryan. Ryan Shumaker."

"Okay Ryan, let's see how you do without your pinky finger then." The doctor produced a knife from inside his coat pocket and took hold of Jason's finger, pushing the blade up against his figner just short of drawing blood.

"No, no, no, please!" Jason screamed.

"Fine, Jason, oh I ruined the fun." The doctor pulled the knife away from Jason's pinky and shook it in front of his face. "Next time you lie to me you will lose it. Now, third time is the charm, what's your name?"

"Jason Wink." Jason slumped down in the wheelchair as far as his bindings would let him.

"Good, that's a good boy Jason." The doctor stroked his hair like an obedient puppy. "Now let's try another one, get this one wrong and I'll cut something off. Describe to me- in detail mind you- what we use the loop of Henle for. You've got thirty seconds."

As Jason's mind reeled, searching for an answer, the doctor watched a clock on the wall, counting silently to himself. "Twenty seconds, Jason."

"U…uh…" Jason sputtered, unable to come up with an answer that would satisfy the man. Jason remembered that the Loop of Henle had something to do with the body, but it had been years since his last biology class and even then he didn't pay too much attention. "It's in our bodies, a part of an organ…"

"Oh, you've got that right, but I need a slightly more specific answer than something among trillions of other things. You can do better than that, think Jason. Ten seconds by the way."

"Heart?"

"No."

"Liver?"

"No."

"Lungs?"

"No. Try harder Jason, five seconds."

"I…I don't know! I don't know God damn it!"

"That's too bad Jason, I didn't want to see you hurt, but I have to stick to the rules, or else it wouldn't be fair to the other contestants." The doctor put the knife against Jason's pinky finger and pressed down. Sharp pain shot through Jason's hand and up his arm as the doctor drew blood. Suddenly, the doctor stopped. "Just kidding."

He pulled the knife away from Jason's hand, cleaning the small stain of blood off the blade on Jason's shirt. As he was taking the knife away from Jason's shirt, he quickly sliced a thin gouge in Jason's cheek. A howl escaped from Jason's throat before he even realized what the doctor had done. Jason could feel the blood running down his chin and getting caught in the beard he had grown over the time he was in the cell. After a few seconds, the excess blood dripped down onto his lap.

Staring at the blood collecting in a small puddle between his thighs, Jason gaped. He was glad that his finger was still attached to his body, but the pain in his cheek still forced a small whimper from the back of his throat. The doctor tsked loudly as he cleaned the knife on the rag that was Jason's gag at one point.

"I think you can think on what you did today for a little while. Besides, I think it's past time you met your roommate. I do hope you enjoy each other's company, while you have it."

Jason felt the wheelchair start to move again and he was taken through a door to his right into another room with only two cells. One cell was empty, obviously waiting for Jason to be thrown in, while the other held a sleeping woman, curled into a ball on her cot.

The guards pushed Jason's wheelchair into the cell and into a corner, where he was facing a wall to his left and right. Instead of taking him out of the chair, they closed the door on him and shut out the lights.

"Hey, hey, take me out of this chair damn it!" Jason screamed and fought against the leather straps that held him to the chair. The leather was designed to withstand exactly the type of crazy thrashing Jason was giving it and it didn't budge. With one final grunt, Jason relaxed; it wouldn't do him any good to tire himself out fighting like that. When nothing stirred and everything was quiet, Jason began to sob.

"Listen, I know this is all new to you, but you might as well accept it. We're not getting out of here any time soon, so the faster you just stop crying the faster they'll let you get back to being a caged rat instead of a caged rat tied to a chair." The woman in the next cell sat up. "I can't untie you, but I can at least sit up with you. I doubt either of us is going to get any sleep tonight. So, maybe we can keep each other company for when it gets really boring. I think I heard you say your name was Jason right?"

Jason hesitated, but nodded. When she didn't say anything he realized that she couldn't see him nod. "Yes, yes, my name's Jason. What's yours?"

The woman sighed and drummed her fingers along the bars of her cell. "Lydia, my name's Lydia."