{.chapter o2.}

-but it all turned into one big giant clusterfuck anyway

Sunday, December 21st, 2025; shit shit shit!

After glancing back at my trembling form, the Future Warden walked closer to me, taking my arm - and for once, in a gentle manner, but at the time, I hadn't even noticed that he had done so. "Come on," he said, leading me away from the courtyard. "Follow me."

"O-okay," I stammered, recognizing that I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter, and it honestly didn't mean very much to me. At least he recognized that I was nearly muscles-locking-up terrified.

He led me down a hall and into a small room, one of the few that had not been almost decimated by rebellion troops {we'd been attacked a few weeks before we launched one on them, you know}, but the enclosed space did little to ease my fears. But apparently my mind hadn't realized that we weren't around near the soldiers anymore, as the Future Warden shook me slightly. "Warden? Warden! Damn it, calm the hell down!"

I flinched before glancing at him, still feeling a bit edgy, but the shaking had brought me back. "W-what? What is it?" Great. My mind had went completely blank.

"What the hell was-" the Future Warden started to snap before shaking his head, calming down himself. "...never mind. Are you okay?"

Pursing my lips, I nodded. "Uh, yeah. Yes. I'm fine. Something just... freaked me out, is all. I-I... ah..." The sense of panic returned again, but I managed to pull myself together before anything happened.

The older me looked skeptic. "You had a panic attack. There's a big difference, Warden." He sighed. "Look, is there something you know that I don't?"

"K-know about what?"

"The disease the soldiers caught. Something seems off and I..." He realized that he must've been coming at me from the wrong angle again, and he immediately rephrased his question. "Do you know anything about this disease?"

...and, even despite him trying to remain nice and calm when talking to me, I couldn't calm down. "I-I have no idea!" It was also pretty clear that I wasn't going to calm down enough to answer his questions. The Future Warden recognized this, thankfully.

"Come on, Warden. Let's go and let you get a hold of yourself..." He had started to say, gently gripping my shoulder and probably hoping that I wouldn't freak out on him, but all of that was before his pager buzzed. He was about to snap something when Jared could be heard speaking.

"Sir, the soldiers are getting worse and trying to infect the healthier soldiers." At this news, the Future Warden curiously pulled out the pager, looking at the screen. Jared was nowhere to be seen, but we did see the scene playing out - the zombified soldiers were chasing down and tackling the other soldiers, gnawing and clawing on them, but a few of the zombies were shot down expertly - Jared must have had his sniper rifle with him. "I'd suggest taking some form of action soon..."

"Acknowledged," the Future Warden replied, "But I'm afraid I can't do much when I don't know anything."

There was silence, and then I stammered, "We could put them into quarantine until we k-know..."

He glanced back at me, surprised, which was evidenced through his slightly widened eyes and raised eyebrows. "Yeaaah... you know, that could work, actually..."

Quickly, I acted to shoot down my own idea. "My only concern is how we would do it..."

"Well, I wouldn't do it."

"You are not sending me down there. No way in hell!"

He blinked. "I... wasn't even planning on it this time. I've got some robot soldiers that I could order to herd them."

"Sir?"

"Mm?"

"Please come to a decision soon."

"Right." He glanced back at me as the screen on his pager went black, one eyebrow raised now. "Soo... quarantine them, you say?" I nodded, and he smiled slightly, mirroring my nod. "Warden, I think that's the best idea I've ever heard from you."

I had no idea if he was praising me or mocking me, so I just muttered loud enough for him to hear, "Well, somebody had to come up with it." Before he could say anything in response, I left the room.

~.x.~

He came back to our quarters a few hours after that little... ah, 'incident'. I had been reading over the diagnosis sheets on the 'new' disease again, and quite frankly, I had not been expecting any visitors at the time. This was... kind of very obvious when I heard the door open... well, no, actually, wait. That wasn't what freaked me out. It was actually more the intruders voice. "Hey, Warden?"

...one could say that I overreacted. I jumped, accidentally cutting my arm with the paper {don't ask}, and as I grabbed the papers - which had been sent flying into the air - I glared at the person at the door. Who happened to be Future Warden. Pretty much immediately thereafter, I laughed nervously, my glare gone {for the most part}. "Oh. Future Warden. Hi." I gave him a half-hearted smile in greeting {now that I think about it, it might have been a grimace} before turning my attention back to the papers. "What's up?"

"Do you know anything about the disease?" The Future Warden asked, apparently deciding to skip all the small talk to get to the matter, and I glanced over at him, frowning. "Anything at all?"

"I already told you, I don't know. That being said, I was panicking the last time you asked me, so..." Now it was my turn to look thoughtful. "...wait."

"What?"

"It came from Superjail! In the safe!" No idea how I came up with that, but what the hell ever. While I looked as if I had just had an epiphany {oh, wait, I guess I actually did}, the Future Warden just raised an eyebrow, leaning against the doorway.

"...what safe?" Or, in Future-Warden-speak, 'come again?'. This had been asked after a few more seconds had passed - yeah, he was confused.

And I wasn't at all helping. I was looking at him like as if he were the idiot. "You know... the safe! With the... uhm, the stuff!" How very eloquent, I believe I said to myself, but my excuse was that I couldn't remember what all was in that safe. At any rate, the other still had no clue as to what I was babbling on about.

By now, the Future Warden had started to give up, slipping his hand behind his amber-lensed glasses and covering his eyes. "Warden, could you be any more specific?"

"Uhhhh... no. But I swear there's a safe in Superjail."

"And you didn't tell me this before now... why?"

"I didn't remember at the time, Future. It's kinda hard to say what you don't remember."

"Well, saying that you didn't remember would've helped."

"Well, meh," I replied, folding my arms across my chest, staring at the other. "I don't have as good a memory as you, and given you, I don't think that's saying a whole hell of a lot."

The Future Warden just sighed, frowning. "I keep you on a need-to-know basis, Warden. I'm not forgetful." When I didn't look convinced, he snapped, "Look, I'm not!"

Before anything else could be said, however, the pager buzzed for the second time that day {at least when I was around}, and the Future Warden whipped it out once more, face unimpressed. "You know, Jared, I've got a new title for you - Bringer of Bad News. How's that sound?" When his short lackey didn't reply, he continued on, "What is it?"

Jared was still quiet for a few moments before he cleared his throat. "Anyway, sir. That quarantine idea isn't working. More soldiers have been infected, and trying again is probably going to end the same way."

The Future Warden frowned. "Well, I'm sure that if we had been a little more careful - or discriminating, whatever - this wouldn't have happened. Not that I'm blaming you, Jared." He sighed as well, folding his arms across his chest, tapping his side with vaguely impatient fingers. "I guess we'll have to evacuate." I tilted my head with a 'wait-what' sort of sudden movement, one eyebrow raising. That seemed rather rash, even for him. Hell, even for me, if you so wanted to put it that way. "But where to...?"

But I was going to take my chance anyway as it was offered to me. "Superjail. We should go to Superjail."

And apparently, Jared could hear me. "Superjail, sir? Returning there would be dangerous!"

"Aaaand...?"

"I agree that it could be dangerous," the Future Warden cut in, interrupting Jared for the moment. "We haven't been keeping close tabs on it like we should have, so we have no idea if Superjail's even occupied by the rebellion or not. And I don't want to take chances like this..."

"...and what is in Superjail that could possibly be of use to us now?" Well, at least Jared wasn't a scared pu- wait, what?

The Future Warden glanced at me with a quirked eyebrow, and I stared at him with the firm and stubborn look he usually gave me when he had an idea on which he was not going to bend. And while he was still staring at me... "Damn it, I know what I'm doing! I'm not a complete idiot. We need to get to Superjail, because I know the damn cure is in there."

Everything was pretty silent after my outburst, and the Future Warden glanced back at the pager, shrugging. If only I knew what Jared was doing on the other side of that screen. After a moment, the older Warden was whispering into his pager, and after a few seconds, maybe a minute or two, he nodded. "If you think the cure's in there-" I know the cure's in there. "-then I'll go. We'll go." He frowned in more of a thoughtful manner this time. "Jared, how's the situation down there?"

Without even a second thought, Jared responded, "It doesn't look 'good', as you would put it. Alice and I are... trapped. By the time you could get us out, we would probably be dead, instead."

The Future Warden just blinked, grimacing slightly. "...and I sent Jailbot off to who knows where. Oookay. That leaves you all out." He glanced at me. "Jared, don't die. Same goes for Alice. A lot." Afterwards, he gestured for me to stand up, so I did. Didn't have much else to do. "And... good luck?" Off went the pager. "Let's go. I'll grab an aircraft."

Needless to say, I was stunned, staring at him. Had he actually listened to me? Like as if I had a legitimately good idea? Well, then he had left the room while I was still standing there in a state of catatonic shock.

"Come on, Warden! I'll leave without you if I have to!"

I shook my head, running to catch up to him. Never mind that thought.

{.end of chapter o2.}

-your Warden

So... I don't think it's as good as the last chapter. Ah well...