Castle 2017
"I don't believe it…" Chuck Bartowski breathed. "You were a prison guard?"
"Walking Boss," Dain Hacker, now reconciled to telling the whole story, corrected him.
"What's the difference?"
"Plenty," Anthony Schaeffer put in. "Road Prison was a Work Camp. Most of us worked on the prison grounds. Walking Bosses are the ones that go out with the prisoners when they work, like repaving the roads. We got a lot of those road jobs."
"Yeah…" Hacker nodded. "I hated being a Walking Boss. But I was stuck there too. Just as stuck as the prisoners there."
…..
Road Prison, Florida, 1956
Dain Hacker hated this job with a flaming passion. Everyone hated him, even his fellow Walking Bosses. Apparently, the real Walking Boss Tom Godfrey-dead these last three years-had been a psychopath of the purest ray serene.
On the one hand, that terrified Hacker, afraid that his refusal to give any of the prisoners a beat down might give his secret away. But, on the other hand, all he had to do was hide behind those damned reflective shades, try to be as emotionless as possible.
There he is, our very own ray of sunshine…
One of the other Walking Bosses had said that early this morning, before the prisoners shuffled into sight for Breakfast. Dain Hacker simply aimed his shade-covered eyes at the man, with an expressionless stare. The man went white as a sheet, and decided he had a better place to be…
Thankfully, most of the prisoners knew better than to try anything stupid, and they were all, to a man, utterly terrified of the Man with No Eyes…
So, assuming Dain Hacker didn't screw up, he could build up enough cash to resign his position here, collect his Severance Pay, and get the hell out of here.
Of course, that was right about the time the prisoners started disappearing…
…..
Castle 2017
"Yeah…" Anthony Schaeffer shook his head sadly. "And we, fools that we were, never cottoned to the fact that they were being murdered. Worse than murdered, actually."
"Don't be too hard on yourself, Tony," Dain Hacker laid a comforting hand on Schaeffer's shoulder. "How could anyone have known what was going on?"
"The Alien?"
"Yeah, Chuck…" Dain sighed. "The Alien. Hiding in Road Prison, abducting victims, doing…experiments on their bodies. Then tossing their dead bodies out like so much trash. We all thought they had escaped, only to be killed on the run. And there were always more prisoners to fill those empty beds, so there was always a full complement of workers to pave the roads."
…..
Road Prison, Florida, 1956
The latest prisoner to be found dead now lay in the County Coroner's Office. Dain Hacker was sure the same thing that had happened with all the other bodies would happen here. The body, bearing marks of severe torture, would disappear, leaving everyone no wiser than they had been when the first body had been found. Everyone was skittish these days. Just about the only good thing to come out of this was that the prisoners tending to be rather more obedient than was usual for them. The prison, for all its casual brutality, was a far safer place than whatever was lurking out there.
Dain couldn't fault them. The prison employees were skittish too. Hell…he was skittish. Everyone moving together, refusing to go anywhere alone.
Everyone depended on Dog Boy's Coon Hounds. They knew what belonged, what didn't belong. And, catching Dog Boy's mood, they were skittish too.
Only one man there wasn't skittish. The Boss, the Captain himself. He would talk to them, guards and prisoners, in his nasally voice, telling the prisoners they would be safe, if only they obeyed the rules…
Obey the rules, don't rabbit, that high-pitched nasal voice would say. Do that, and serve your term. Then y'all can walk out free as the air…
That seemed to settle everyone. Things settled down again, and Dain Hacker looked at his bank account. Just a few more years, and he would have enough money gathered to resign from this…hellish job.
When that day arrived, Dain Hacker would…rabbit…He would flee far away from this goddam prison, and reemerge with a new name, a new identity, and hopefully, a better place to be, where life was kinder.
He held on to that dream, as he saw bosses casually beat down prisoners for hardly anything at all, as the whim took them…
Then, when it looked like Dain was within reaching distance of that dream, when he was overseeing the prisoners brushing the road clean, before it could be tarred, a bus came slowly down that road, full of the new intake.
Dain Hacker, as usual hiding behind the reflective shades, caught glimpses of faces looking out the bus windows. One caught his eyes, laughing blue eyes looking directly at him. No remorse, no fear in those cool, very blue eyes…
Luke Jackson had just arrived.
Everything changed after that…