Chapter Four Part 3: What a Long Day
"And over here is where most of the officer's spend their down time whenever they're not patrolling the prison or standing post in the cell blocks."
Vi simply nodded, glancing into the sparse recreational room, exerting all of his will power just to stay awake on this snooze-a-thon. While they certainly didn't expect someone like Vi to want to take a tour of their prisons, they didn't seem to mind showing a fellow law enforcer around for a little bit. And what Vi had seen really scared her.
The prison where Dreyer was being held was locked up tight. Randomized guard paths at random intervals, cameras posted pretty much everywhere (you couldn't even get any privacy in the bathroom!), guards armed to the teeth at the slightest whisper of trouble brewing. Even the prisoners were scared shitless of the guards. Vi mentally compared this prison to the prisons in Piltover, and realized the difference immediately. If she had to choose a place to get locked up, Piltover would be the easier out. At least there they got fed regularly and didn't face brutal beatings at the slightest sign of disobedience. The reality of the prison cruelty also gave her a nasty knot in her stomach that she tried hard to swallow away.
Vi returned her thoughts to the present and simply nodded. "Very Spartan in the extreme. I take it guards don't get coffee breaks much?" she asked, trying to add a little bit of humor to the dreadfully dull tour. The prison warden gave her a blank look in response. "Now if you'll follow me I can show you where the guards go through their training." He spoke in an absolute monotone voice. Vi grimaced at the sourpuss behind his back, following him and getting a good look around. "So, what do you do if a prisoner breaks out of their cell?" Vi asked, curious for a few different reasons. The warden glanced back, not breaking stride. "Our guards are positioned in such a way that we can have at least ten guards at any given spot in the prison within thirty seconds of an alarm going off. There's hardly any threat of rioting here." The monotone came again. Vi simply nodded, feeling the knot in her gut grow bigger and bigger.
It seemed like ages before they arrived at an outdoor field. It was large enough to have both a shooting range as well as a physical training area in the same field. Training cadets swarmed the vast area, training in the various aspects of becoming a police officer, with some rather rigid discipline Vi noted. Vi had already seen several cadets beaten down by their superiors for struggling to lift a large weight or not completing an obstacle course in a certain time or missing a certain target, and the threat of immediate and brutal punishment elicited extreme levels of effort. Vi smirked a little and made a mental note to suggest this to Caitlyn; there were a few cadets in training that she wouldn't mind giving a smack-down to.
Without warning a loud shrill filled the entire field, causing unsuspecting cadets, as well as Vi, to cover their ears in shock. The warden looks unsurprised by the loud noise, but the fact that it was actually there shook him a little. A guard ran up to the warden, whispering something into his ear before dashing back off toward the main compound. The guard simply smiled before looking back to the Enforcer, a sly grin on his face. "It appears that someone is, indeed, trying to escape. Did you want to see our riot protocols in action?" he said, motioning for Vi to follow him. Vi hung back a bit, flipping a small switch on her gauntlet. "You getting all of this?" she said softly before following the warden.
"Yeah Vi, I read all of this. We're on our way out of the block as we speak. Do what you can from there to get them heading the wrong direction."
-Fifteen Minutes Earlier-
Caitlyn mentally groaned as Vi tried to make awkward conversation with the Prison Warden for the umpteen-billionth time as she slid down the hallways of the prison compound as quietly as she could. Her normal rifle had been modified to a more compact form, the butt of the rifle folded in and a suppressor attached to the barrel of the rifle to muffle any shots that Caitlyn had to make. In addition to the changes in weaponry, Caitlyn ditched her usual outfit for a stealthier, all-black outfit. Her hair, usually flowing freely down her shoulders and back, was now put into a tight braid and no top hat rested on her head.
The pounding of feet froze Caitlyn in place as she crouched low and hugged the wall as a patrol of guards moved past her, the guards oblivious to the prone female. Caitlyn mentally counted to ten to ensure that was the last of them before getting up and resuming her march. Halls passed by and by, slowly beginning to meld into an endless continuum of the same looking hallway. The only thing preventing the Sheriff from losing all sense of direction was the fact that she studied the layout of the prison before. She passed one more intersection before pausing, making sure that everything was clear before she took a left, then another right. Just as she hoped, a door stood in front of her. Caitlyn approached the door, kneeling and pulling a small device from her pocket and placing it against the lock on the door. She pressed a button twice before a soft grinding came from the device. A few sparks came from the crack in the door and the wall as the Sheriff waited in silence, eyes and ears peeled for the slightest sign of an approaching patrol.
An eternity dragged itself through sixty seconds before the grinding stopped. Caitlyn removed the device from the door and placed it back in her pouch before trying the door. She gave it a bit of a yank before it slid open. She walked past the arch and slid the door closed once again. The female sharpshooter took a deep breath before getting a good look at her surroundings. She had just entered the solitary confinement wing, and doors now lined the halls. She mentally pulled up the layout of the wing in her head before moving out, taking an immediate left as she kept an eye on the cell numbers. With her destination being C73, and her current location only being at C6, she realized she had a bit of a walk in front of her. Caitlyn just shrugged before moving on. Aside from the occasional curious head popping into the small, bulletproof glass window at the top of the door, the halls were quiet. Hence the "solitary confinement" aspect of this wing.
She paused at C48 at the sound of a footfall that was not her own. She froze in horror as she came to the realization that the "solitary confinement" wing wasn't always solitary. Her eyes gazed upon a lone guard, pushing food trays into slots in the door.
Caitlyn moved as quickly and as quietly as she could, getting behind the guard as he was busy pushing a tray into a slot that didn't want to cooperate. All she did was push the barrel of her rifle against his back. "Not a sound." She spoke quietly. The guard froze where he was, not moving an inch. "Now, slowly drop your keys and kick them to the left. Do it slowly and don't make a noise and you'll walk away." She said, pressing her firearm further into his back. The guard simply nodded, reaching his right hand slowly down to his belt. The jingling of metal keys could be heard as the key ring fell to the floor. He nudged it to the left with his right foot before returning his hand to the trays. Caitlyn simply smiled before slamming the back of her rifle in the back of the guard's head. The trays hit the ground around the same time as the guard's unconscious body did. The Sheriff picked up the keys before smiling slightly. "Don't worry, you'll walk away. Eventually." She spoke to the prone body before she picked up the pace, running down the hallways.
C73 came quickly at the pace she had to adopt. She slid the keys into the lock, trying to figure out which of the hundreds of keys on the ring worked on that door. It took quite a few tries, but eventually the lock clicked open and she slid the door open to reveal a man lying down on a bed. At the sound of the door opening, he shot straight up to identify the person who opened his cell door. "Are you Dreyer?" Caitlyn asked. The man simply nodded. Caitlyn nodded before waving him over. "Come on, some friends of yours say your time in here is over. Besides, I need a few favors from you as well." Dreyer got up and walked out of the door. "Thank yeh. Whatevah' yeh need once we's oudda 'ere, I got yeh. Yeh dig?" he spoke in an urban drawl that irritated the living hell out of the Sheriff after the first word. Thankfully, a loud, shrill, blaring noise came through the hallways to cloak whatever the criminal mechanic was going to say next. Unthankfully, it was the prison's alarms. Caitlyn simply waved Dreyer to follow her, placing a hand over her mouth, signaling him to stay quiet as she paid attention to the conversation between her partner and the prison warden.
"You getting all of this?"
Caitlyn nodded at the information. Vi was perfectly safe right now, unless Caitlyn got busted trying to get out. That probably wasn't going to happen, but that problem could be crossed if it came to it. "Yeah Vi, I read all of this. We're on our way out of the block as we speak. Do what you can from there to get them heading the wrong direction." She spoke into her comm, not breaking stride in the slightest.
C115 passed by as another intersection came into view. Caitlyn rose her hands to signal them to stop as she peeked down both hallways, trying to make sure it was all clear. Not seeing anyone, she signaled Dreyer forward. A shout followed him, and he dove to the opposing wall as a burst of gunfire followed him, hitting thin air. Caitlyn looked down the hallway briefly, seeing two figures with weapons held high. She spun out of cover, firing a few rounds down at them before diving across the gap. Her fire gave her the window to get across without any return fire greeting her. She rose to her feet, waving the criminal to keep going. "Just keep going straight down to the end!" she called over the alarm's blare. Dreyer's eyebrow raised, not knowing what was going on, but nodded and started running, the Sheriff hot on his heels. It only took a few seconds for the guards to catch back up with them, the sounds of gunfire echoing down the stony hallways. Caitlyn spun around, taking shots as she walked backwards as the number of guards now came up to four. One shot found a guard at the knee, and he collapsed in a shout of pain and shock. A second guard stopped to help him out of the field of fire, while the other two continued the pursuit more carefully. Caitlyn fired one more shot to get them to duck before wheeling around and sprinting to catch up with Dreyer.
She finally caught up to him as he stood against a dead end, eyeing her as to ask "Okay, now what?" She simply knelt and reached into her pack of supplies, pulling out a large, rectangular block. She placed the block against the wall, flipping a switch on it and pressing a few buttons as a red light began to beep on it. The criminal eyed the Sheriff with bewildered fright. "You're going to blow a hole in the wall!?" he screamed, concern for his well-being seeping from his voice. All Caitlyn gave him in reply was a shake of her head as she pulled a large block out of her bag as well. She set it down in the middle of the hallway and pressed a button at its base. It began unfolding, expanding in all directions until it was about chest high and roughly four feet wide. It gave her ample cover to hide behind, just in time for the pair to duck behind to avoid the gunfire of the two guards reaching their position. Caitlyn popped up to return fire, causing the guards to hug the wall and crouch to minimize their exposure. She reached up to her ear and touched a button on her comm, changing the channel she was receiving. "Alright, the transponder's set. Are you guys getting its signal?" she spoke. A short pause. "Yeah. We're inbound. ETA five minutes." Came the reply and the Sheriff simply shrugged. Five minutes was maybe doable. She changed the channel back to where it was before. "Vi, you may wanna start getting out of there. Truck's five minutes out." Another short pause. "I think I'll excuse myself out. You look like you have your hands full as it is. We can finish the tour on another day." Came over the comm as Vi spoke to the warden. A few words Caitlyn couldn't pick up later and a short sigh came from her partner. "Alright I'm out. Meet you back at the motel." Her partner spoke.
Dreyer let out an exasperated sigh. "Five minutes? Nothing takes five minutes!"
Caitlyn switched back the channel to the channel of the incoming truck, ignoring his sarcasm, as she popped out again, returning fire down the hallway. The guard count was slowly starting to grow, now up to five guards. The fifth had also brought riot shields that they were setting in the ground as cover. Caitlyn fired a burst of shots, none of them hitting any of the guards as she spun back behind cover to avoid being torn to shreds by the returning fire. The exchange continued in that manner, one party firing at the other, only to be forced to duck to avoid being shot themselves. Even with the superior numbers and firepower of the guards, the sheer accuracy of the Sheriff prevented them from simply pinning her down so that she could continue fighting as well.
Five lifetimes could've passed in the five minutes before a voice came over her intercom. "We're in position. Firing hook now."
Caitlyn sighed. "Our ride's here! Get ready to move!" she said, sliding backwards and pressing a button on the transmitter as two poles extended out of the block, nozzles on the ends of each pole. A thin stream of plasma shot out of each nozzle, cutting through the walls like a knife through air. The poles began rotating in a circle, cutting a circular line in the wall. Just as the circle was complete, a crash came from behind them, a point now protruding from the circle. The point expanded into three separate points that gripped the wall. Finally, the circle fell backwards and out, exposing the outside world to the inside of the prison. Caitlyn raised her gun over her cover, firing blindly for a while before she nodded to Dreyer. "Go, jump into the truck below!"
Dreyer approached the opening, making sure to stay low to avoid taking a bullet and looked over the edge. Even though a truck sat there, its bed full of mattresses and other soft things for them to land on, it was still roughly a three story fall. The idea was unpleasant to say the least. Caitlyn glanced back to see his indecision before sighing, strapping her rifle to her back before tackling the criminal, forcing them both out of the hole. They plummeted downwards for a few seconds before landing squarely in the bed of the truck, the fluffy material cushioning their fall for the most part. Caitlyn slapped the sides of the truck, the banging telling the driver to punch it. Soon, the prison was just a shape on the horizon.
A/N: Yeah, that took way longer than I thought it would. Apparently I get distracted waaaaay too easily. I really apologize for the time it took me to write this, and I really hope you're enjoying this. Hopefully I'll be able to get chapters out faster than this, and after this we'll finally be able to leave Zaun (thank god)! Anyway, as always, feel free to favorite or follow, and don't forget to drop me a review to tell me how I'm doing or what you'd love to see in here, because it's called the Tales of VALORAN, not the Tales of Piltover, for a reason :P
ALSO, during the time it took me I spent a lot of time playing League of Legends to try and get my motivation to write this up more. It made me come to the realization that I don't really have all that many people to actually play it with, and we all know how much of a pain soloque can be. So if you're looking to play a game feel free to hit me up! My username is Noogai21! Anyway, that's about it. I'll see you guys next time!
