Follow the rats.
Arkham held many secrets, it's walls hid the sometimes awful truth of some of the goings on in the facility. The inmates didn't talk about some of the things that had happened in the deeper, darker parts of the Asylum.
Some awful experiments and acts had been done to the inmates that would easily be forgotten.
The big leagues had nothing to worry about, they never did but now… well the thing that three adventuring inmates found was a little shocking and very disturbing.
Drury peeked up over the top of the sofa and saw Otis kneeling down on the floor, talking to his rats as per usual, but something seemed off. Otis seemed concerned.
Naturally, Drury told Garfield and this was how the whole escapade began.
"Remind me, why are we doing this?" growled Garfield as they continued their group walk, the rats scurrying around their feet and Drury wasn't far behind him, with Otis leading in front.
"Because my rats found something interesting and very concerning at the same time."
"I still can't believe Kirk didn't come," Drury mumbled. "Hey, Gar, why do you think Kirk didn't come?"
"Because Kirk had the good sense not to listen to you two knuckle heads," the pyromaniac growled out before sighing. "Unlike me."
"Hey, we're like investigators!" Drury cried. "Isn't that bad right?"
"Besides Garfield, if you didn't want to come then why did you?"
"Someone has to look after you two," Garfield explained.
"I can take care of myself," Otis protested with a growl.
"And him at the same time?" Garfield questioned as he pointed at Drury behind him.
The kid glared at him harshly. "Hey! Why is it always me?!"
"When is it never you, Drury?"
Otis chuckled slightly as he turned his head to show his smile. "He has a point there, Drury."
Garfield grinned back as Drury stood scowling behind him, fists clenched in anger as the other two continued to chuckle ever so slightly. Now they were attempting to cover it up but the damage had been done.
"It isn't always me!" Drury protested.
"Alright," Gar mumbled as he turned around to look at Drury pointedly. "Name me one time when it wasn't your fault."
He opened his mouth, tried to speak, closed it again, opened it once more, before finally closing it and turning away, a faint blush on his cheeks as he scowled into the darkness.
"My point exactly," Gar stated as he turned on his heel and the three continued their truck through the darkest part of the Asylum.
It was mostly abandoned, save for a few old hospital carts here and there. Papers were scattered across the floor and a few wheelchairs were up turned with the wind gently pushing the wheel around, it squeaked each time it went round.
They fell silent and scanned the corridors in slight fear, all three trying to push the feeling of dread down to the pit of their stomachs, but it kept pushing back up to het back of their throats.
"Well, this isn't creepy," Gar mumbled as they took in their surroundings.
"Looks like everyone just upped and left," Otis mumbled as he ran his finger over one of the lone desks that also seemed to have just been left here to collect dust and a lot of it too it seemed.
"Why do you think they left?" Drury whispered as he side stepped a wheelchair.
"Dunno," Otis mumbled as he rubbed the dust between his fingers before letting it fall to the floor. "Maybe there was an out break? A patient escaped or something?"
"One dangerous patient to make everyone leave the place looking like this," Gar commented as he walked over to a main desk, it's design was ever so slightly disturbing. "This stuff looks like it was here at the beginning of the asylum…"
"Hey!" Drury cried causing both of them to look up and stare in his direction. "There's a room down here, I think it leads to another corridor!"
Otis paused before looking at his feet. "The rats seemed to be heading in that direction too."
He went to the front of the line again with Garfield pushing past Drury and they fell back into their original line up as they continued on their way.
"Where you think they're going Rat?" questioned Garfield as they continued on their walk.
"I don't know, that's why I'm following them. Obviously," Otis rolled his eyes before sighing. "But if I had to guess… I'd say they're heading down to the lower levels of the Asylum. Somewhere that's probably used just not used often if at all."
"Oh wonderful," Garfield mumbled as Otis opened the door on the opposite side of the room and had to catch himself due to the fact there was no floor.
It looked like this was one of the old foundations of the building. The rats where having no trouble crawling along the small pieces of footing there was near the the very edges.
The other two peeked over his shoulder and Drury went wide eyed while Gar just seemed angry.
"Great… now what?" he growled to Otis who shrugged and pressed himself against the wall, crawling along the sides of it until he found a bigger piece of concrete and he stepped on to it, avoiding the rats that were scampering around his feet.
Garfield shook his head. "Ohhh no. You are not getting me to do that, no way in hell am I doing this for some wild goose chase."
"C'mon Gar!" Drury grinned at him. "Where's you sense of adventure?"
"It's being overpowered by my sense of sensibility," Gar deadpanned as he looked down at the gaping blackness at the bottom of the floor.
"You fly around the city all the time!" Otis shouted up to them, he didn't look amused in the low light they had.
"Key word there, fly!" the pyro glared at him. "If you haven't of noticed, I don't have my wings with me!" he gestured to the darkness below them. "If I slipped, I wouldn't fly, I'd do something else that begins with an 'f', you know what that is? Falling!"
"You big baby," Otis growled out. "Get yourself down here right now!"
"You want to carry on Indianna-rat be my guest! Me on the other hand, I like living, I've grown quite fond of it."
"'Indianna-rat' really?"
Garfield shook his head. "Seriously, that's the only thing you got out of that?"
"Gar come on!" Drury shouted before frowning. "Just stick to the sides and you'll be fine."
Garfield looked at him a moment before sighing and shaking his head. "I must be out of my mind," he mumbled before leaning against the wall and crawling across it before he reached the landing that Otis was on.
"Alright, Drury, now try and be careful," Otis called up to him making Garfield shake his head.
"Do better then that and actually be careful."
"Hey I'll be fine, I'll just take my time-ahh!"
Of course he'd slipped and was now hanging onto the side with wide eyes.
"Drury!"
Otis and Garfield stare in slight horror at the new predicament the kid had gotten himself into.
"Just wait there, hold on!"
"Trust me, I wasn't even thinking of letting go!"
Garfield began to carefully walk along the side again, before he slowly slid down and reached for Drury's hand, but the ground grumbled beneath him and he slipped, catching Drury's hand as they both fell before thankfully catching the side of the floor that wasn't too eroded.
Otis face palmed. "I knew I should of done this alone."
"Trust me, I agree with that!" Garfield growled out as he struggled to keep both of them up, Drury swinging slightly on his arm as the kid stared up at him with wide eyes. "Now help us up, Otis!"
"I'm coming just give me a second," Otis shouted back as he climbed up onto the side and began to shuffle.
"Careful, the ground's crumbling along here."
"I saw," the rat catcher deadpanned as he reached them and began to bend over to grab at Garfield's hand.
He'd almost reached almost go it and that's when the cracking sound began.
Otis looked down at the floor and his eyes widened at the sight of the crack that was slowly trailing along the part they were all stranded on.
"Uh-oh."
The concrete broke and the three super criminals went tumbling down into the blackness at the bottom.
"I told you this was a bad ideaaaahhhhh!" Garfield yelled as they continued to fall, their screams echoing up the sides of the walls and all around them as they continued their descent.
They stopped for a moment and looked at each other with the air rushing past them.
"We're still falling!" Garfield yelled and they started screaming again.
This was it, this was how it all ended for the three of them. Gar knew, he knew he shouldn't of listened he knew he shouldn't of said yes.
A splash of water and the cold was their greeting at the end of the fall, causing the rogues, once they swam to the surface to look slightly confused before they looked around them.
"Okay…" Garfield trailed off. "Definitely not how I pictured hell."
"We're not in hell," Otis scowled before his face brightened. "We're in the sewers."
The other two stared at him, Drury looking slightly disgusted and Garfield held a blank look on his face.
"Like I said, not how I imagined hell and I'm still stuck with you two."
"Yeah well remember that it works both ways, Gar, we're stuck with you."
"I suppose…" he trailed off before hooking a thumb at Drury. "And we're both stuck with him."
"Why do you guys always pick on me!?"
"Because you almost made us fall to our doom!"
"Still alive aren't ya?"
"By chance, Drury, not by luck or skill."
Otis shook his head before he swam to the sides and climbed out, shaking himself slightly, before he ruffled his hair and turned to the other two who were just climbing out at the same time.
"Now what?" Garfield mumbled as he shook himself slightly and ruffled his own hair.
"We follow the rats," Otis explained as he pointed at the continuous line of vermin that littered the floor.
"Aww man."
"Sounds like a plan," Drury smiled as he began to follow Otis.
Garfield shook his head. "You're both nuts!" he yelled.
"Not as nuts as the guy following us."
He frowned at that before following them through the darkness, keeping himself to himself the whole way, pocketing his hands as they went.
Thankfully nothing else happened and the trip through the sewer system was short and then they found it, the thing they'd been walking and falling all this way to find.
It was a cell. The rats were surrounding it and looking up at it, sniffing the air around them as Otis walked forwards with Drury and Gar hanging back.
He peered inside and almost jumped back as a face suddenly appeared at the bars, eyes hollow, body terribly thin and frail looking, but there was no mistaking that ginger hair and splash of freckles across his face.
"Lonnie, Machin? Anarky is that you?"
The boy gave them sad looks as he clung to the bars for support before he fell to the floor, coughing and spluttering.
"Kid what happened?" cried Garfield as he stared at the wreck that used to be Anarky, but it seemed that had changed a lot in recent times.
Lonnie gave them a sad look before saying sarcastically. "The Government don't like anarchists too much," he explained before coughing again. "Guess they wanted to forget about little old me."
"Good job we found you by the looks of things," Otis mumbled as he grabbed at the handle of the rusted cell and began to pull, Drury and Garfield helped too.
It took some effort but eventually they were able to open the rusted cell and Lonnie tumbled out before he gripped the floor coughing.
His shit was far too big for him, in fact any clothes would be far too big for him in this current state. His ribs were showing through his skin as was his spine. Kid didn't look like he had any meat on him at all, he was just skin and bone.
"Come on, up ya get," Garfield commented as he pulled the kid to his feet and looped an arm around his shoulder, using his other arm to support his waste.
"How long have you been down here?" Drury whispered as he took in the others poor shape.
"I don't know… about a month? Feels like years," he croaked, obviously his voice was harsh and horse from the fact he hadn't needed to use it in a long time. "It was fine until they found out who I was, then the guards put me down here, only giving me scraps."
"Which guards where they?"
"I dunno, wasn't paying attention to what they looked like, just the fact they would hit me with their batons and things."
"Figures."
Anarchy paused a moment. "Where are you taking me?"
"The surface kid," Gar shrugged as they helped him to walk. "We'll take the path the guards take."
"Thank you."
"Oh I'm not doing it for your sake," Gar grinned as he grabbed him roughly and held him by his shirt collar. "I'm doing it so you owe us one. You're one of the best escape artists I know when you're in your stride."
Lonnie stared at him for a while before slowly nodding. "Honour among thieves then?"
"Or pyromainiachs, rat and insect obsessed nut jobs and anarchists… yeah."
The kid smirked slightly before he frowned. "How are we getting out of here again?"
Gar blinked before turning to Otis. "How are we getting out of here?"
Otis grinned at him and pointed at the floor, the other three glanced over to see where he was pointing.
"Follow the rats."
THE END.
Note: Sorry this one has taken so long guys, been having trouble with my computer but I finally managed to get it done and written! :)
