Sonic Hill 2: DX

Chapter 19: Land of the Sinners

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Groaning lightly, Miles felt himself once again return to the world of horrible gray consciousness. His body still hurt like hell, but now the pain was now more focused on his torso than his back. Slowly, he crawled up to his hands and knees and looked at his new surroundings, rising shakily to his feet. There were darkly lit tables everywhere, lightened up only by the new beam of his flashlight. Surrounding the garden of tables he stood in were some grim, dirty looking stone walls. From the looks of it, it was some sort of cafeteria or mess hall – there were some far-past-rotted scraps of food strewn about on dirty paper plates.

Then, the smell overcame him, that disgusting aroma that had invaded his senses far too many times already. It was the smell of rotted, dead flesh. He looked at where the smell was strongest to see dead body of a male dog illuminated on the table to his left. The dog's brown furry body was riddled with bullet holes. His sticky guts oozed out of his cottage-cheese stomach and onto the rotted wood, created the horrible aroma that emanated throughout the room. That wasn't all though; there was another body, laid out on the same table. A pale blonde male human. His wide, dead eyes stared blankly up at the pitch-black ceiling. Blood seeped out of a large bullet hole on his white forehead.

'Jesus…'

Something moved.

Miles jumped when he heard the shuffling sound and shined his light forward, seeing a figure shielding its face from the light. Though he was shrouded in shadows, the man appeared to wear a red and white jacket with long black skintight pants, which seemed stretched out on his large belly. Miles was surprised when he realized who it was, and his thoughts were confirmed when the man moved his hand away from his face to reveal himself.

"Eggman!" Miles's dry voice exclaimed.

Eggman sat there, gun in hand, looking at him with his eyes squinted halfway shut. Miles noticed he no longer had his glasses on, revealing his very small eyes, which held within them very dilated gray pupils. Once the bald man's eyes adjusted to the light, he realized who it was and got an almost maniacal look on his sweaty face. An expression of a newfound happiness was etched onto his features, like a teenage boy who had just stumbled upon a porno magazine.

"Hey, killing someone ain't no big deal…" Eggman grinned wide, his shaky voice matching with his facial expression: excitement mixed in with surprised understanding. He placed the head of the gun on his temple and made a suicidal gesture. "Just put a gun to their head and BANG!"

"What!?" Miles's jaw dropped, shocked not only at what he was implying, but also at the fact that Eggman was all the way down here. "Y-you killed them!?"

"It wasn't my fault!" the fat man said quickly. "H-he made me do it!"

Looking tense, Eggman glanced at the corpses and then back to Miles with an expression of utter terror. Miles held his hands out, trying to calm the panicked man down. "Calm down Eggman. Tell me, what happened?"

Red whiskers trembling, Eggman's eyes darted down to his gun, then back up to Miles, narrowing with anger. "He had it coming! H-he just came after me!" Leaning farther back on the wall, Eggman slid up to his feet cautiously. "B-besides, he was looking at me funny with his eyes."

"Just for that you killed him!?" Miles jaw dropped in bewildered horror.

"What do you mean 'just for that'!?" Eggman shouted, seeming offended at the short fox's disapproval. "He was making fun of me! Just like they always do! So was that stupid friend of his, so I fucking shot his ass too!"

Miles took another quick glance at the dog's corpse, then back at Eggman. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Eggman, you can't just kill someone just because of the way they look at you!" he cried, the fear showing in his voice.

Eggman looked down at the floor for a second, hiding his strange eyes from Miles's view. Staring down as if in deep thought, he chuckled and looked back at the fox, smiling mischievously. "Come on Miles, you thought I was serious?"

"Huh?"

Rolling his eyes, Eggman threw his arms up in the air and spoke reassuringly in his usual tone. "I was just kidding! Sheesh, they were like that when I got here. I was only fuckin' around with ya. I'd never killsomeone."

It was no joking matter, but the fat man seemed to think so. Miles felt relief, but also a slight bit of anger towards the man for scaring him. Why would Eggman kid like that?

"Anyway, I've got to go. See ya Miles." Eggman did an 180º turn and grasped on to the door handle not too far away.

"Wait!"

"What?" the gray eyed one looked at him, annoyed.

"You're going out there alone?" Miles asked.

Eggman didn't seem to consider how dangerous it was and just nodded, telling the fox as if it were the obvious thing to do. "Well, duh." Turning, he pulled the door open and exited, slamming it shut behind him.

Lowering his hand, Miles glanced at the two corpses again. If Eggman didn't kill them, who did?

'Ooh man, I hope he really was kidding…'

The stench of the bodies was horrible, but it seemed best to check the room like he had all the others first. It really did seem to be some sort of underground cafeteria, but for what? He didn't know, and he wasn't sure if he was going to find out any time soon. Checking out what was behind him, he shined the light onto what looked like a rectangular block of wood. He took a closer look at it to see words were carved into it with a knife – 'GLUTTONOUS PIG'. Very random, but Miles had the feeling he'd need it for something in the future, so he picked up the tablet and stored it in his carrying bag.

Another survey of the mess hall proved useless, except for a single item on one of the tables on the opposite end of the room as the two corpses: a thin magazine brochure. Picking it up, he read the content on the first page. A large picture of Lake Toluca, similar to the painting he saw of it in the museum, took up half the page. Below the photo though was some writing.

'Legend of the Lake

Toluca Lake, the town's main tourist attraction. This clear, beautiful lake has another side as well. It may seem like just a typical ghost story that you might find in any number of old towns across the country. But in this case, the legend is true. On a fog-bound November day in 1918, the Silent Voyage, a ship filled with tourists, failed to return to port. A newspaper article from back then simply says, "It most likely sunk for some reason." Despite an extensive police search, not a single fragment of the ship nor any of the 14 bodies of passengers or crew has ever been recovered to this day. In 1939, an even stranger incident occurred'

Many pages were torn out. Miles looked at the only page left.

'many corpses now rest at the bottom of this lake. Their bony hands reach up towards the boats that pass overhead. Perhaps they reach for their comrades.'

"So…Lake Toluca is haunted?"

That was a scary thought…all those happy memories he'd shared with Sonic in the Lakeview Hotel and Rosewater Park, which not only overlooked the lake but also was partially built on it…Had their memories been on a land tainted by horrible tragedies in the past? He guessed most land was, but…thinking of that happening within the past hundred years felt awkward and somewhat depressing. Maybe it was only a legend…but he didn't know. He was just about ready to believe anything in this distorted town…

Putting the magazine back down, he turned and walked out of the cafeteria to search the rest of the underground place.

-CLANG-DE-BOOM!

-CLANG-DE-BOOM!

-CLANG-DE-BOOM!

-CLANG-DE-BOOM!

Miles eyes danced across the corridor, failing in its investigation of that strange sound's source. It sounded like someone was trying to start a broken chainsaw or something, and from wherever it was he couldn't tell what direction it was coming from. The distant sound of clinging gongs sounded from afar too, joining the strange noise in a maddening song-like beat. What was going on in this place?

The corridor he was in stretched to his right and to his left, so he wasn't sure which direction to go to first. There was a table next to the cafeteria double doors, which he spotted a piece of paper on. Walking up to it, he realized it was a map. In the center of the map was the large square room titled 'Cafeteria' meaning he must be on the long hallway right outside of it. There were a series of hallways in the place, two of which hugged the cafeteria until they led into another vertical corridor on to the other side of the building. There was a Visitors Hall that should be behind the wall in front of him too, while the rest of it was for those who lived in the dark place. On the top of the map, the words 'Toluca Prison' were written.

'An underground prison…?'

Sonic Hill was making less and less sense. He never heard of the town having a prison before…probably because it was over a friggin mile underground. Things only seemed to be getting weirder and weirder…

He didn't know where to begin his search…so he cautiously walked up the right end of the hall, handgun drawn. It would probably be best to check out the Visitor's Hall first, so he tried the south visiting room, shining the light and almost jumping when he saw his own shadowy reflection glint off of a window. It must have been one of those rooms where the visitors got to speak to their captive friends or relatives, which would explain why it was divided in half by a large window and a desk. Miles didn't want to waste any ammo to shoot the glass down, because it was pretty likely the window was bullet proof. If he wanted to get to the other side, he'd need to try another route. There was very crumpled up piece of paper on the prisoner's counter though, which he picked up and tried to read. It was so old and crumpled up that it was barely legible.

'F-ve n-- -ri---ers were --n- h-re today. E-ch seems t- h--- -- -nt-------- -tory.

1: Mikeu M-to--y-. Con--ct-d of se----- a-sau--, c--ld mole------n, and murder with - dead-- --apon. 6 ----im- w-re questioned, th---- -- is believed there may possibly be ---- ---------

2: Light H-dget w-s c--v----- of mass murder. He ------ up -- -3 people – H--- Beach –h------ --------.

-: ------ -------- --- ----- -t--- -. –h- ----- --- --- ---e-- ---. A ---- ----, b----- --- ---- ---y ---. S- -- --s --- ---- --'

His eyes widened in fear as he saw the words 'The Abyss' spelled out. That couldn't just be a coincidence…

Shaking his head, he put the old paper down and looked through the glass to see if there was anything of use on the other side. A small metal lighter glinted off his light, but that was all.

"Damn…"

He exited the South visiting room and took the door only a few yards away from it – the north visiting room.

The table and glass in this room that blocked him from the visitor's part of the prison was destroyed, completely. It seemed just like the work of whatever or whoever had broken the doors in the historical society down – whatever it was, it was very big and very powerful. Shards of glass and splintered wood covered the floor around the huge gap, sprinkling up to the visitor's corridor doorway. Big scary monster or not, Miles needed to check out that place. Then, if he didn't find a way out, he'd check the prisoner's section.

Static burst from the radio the moment he entered the visitor's corridor. He shined his flashlight down the hall and saw some of the light reflect off of the slick flesh of a straight jacket monster as it stood there, shaking its body around awkwardly. A single handgun bullet buried itself into the monster's skull a second later, and that was eternally where the slice of lead planned to sleep. Just like eternally the monster would sleep on the floor of that corridor, or at least until Miles exited and reentered the place later to find that it had disappeared. And it had—like the straight jacket monsters usually did—after he had reentered the South visiting room, picked up the lighter, and entered the visitor's hall again.

The visitor's corridor was simplistic – just a short corridor with a total of nine doors, four on each side and one on the end. The two back doors on the left wall were the two visiting rooms he'd already entered, and the two left doors farther down the hall were both marked 'Restroom' with one of those gritty stick figure people on the front. According to the prison map, the farthest door on the right wall was the guard's lounge. The other three right doors were all right next to each other, giving Miles the impression they were storage closets or something. It didn't say the name on the map. He guessed there must be a door leading from the visitor's section to the prisoner's section somewhere, but he couldn't find where it was listed on the map. He wouldn't need it anyway; he could just walk through the north visitor's room again.

It was unlikely there'd be anything he needed in the rest room, and he didn't need to use the toilet himself. But he might was well check it out. The men's bathroom door was locked, but the women's wasn't. The women's restroom proved to be just as dark, dirty, and quiet as the rest of the place. He remembered at the beginning of this long journey he had stared into the mirror at the restroom on the outskirts of town. What a different person he was then, never even imagining any of the horrible things he'd seen now.

Something made a sound.

He almost jumped when he heard it, the sound of a single footstep, like someone had jumped down onto the ground. It seemed to have come from the back stall, but he couldn't tell exactly. All the stalls were locked tight from the other side, meaning he couldn't get in unless he crawled under, and he sure as hell wasn't doing that. The floor looked like it hadn't been washed in years.

Stopping at the last stall, he placed his gloved knuckles on the wooden door and knocked a few times, half expecting to hear someone ask who he was. No voice came, no sound at all. Just silence.

'I must just be hearing things…'

Turning, he began to walk out of the room.

-Thump!

He jumped and spun around – something heavy must have hit the door. "H-hello?"

No response.

"Is someone in there…?"

Silence.

'…just get out. Now.' Miles speed walked, practically charged, out of the restroom and back into the visitor's corridor. He was too scared to deal with that kind of stuff, and didn't even want to think about what could have caused that noise.

Unfortunately for him it wouldn't be the last strange noise he'd hear. The sound of that broken chainsaw starting up and stopping over and over again echoed in the distance for the second time, except now it sounded even louder.

-CLANG-DE-BOOM!

-CLANG-DE-BOOM!

-CLANG-DE-BOOM!

-CLANG-DE-BOOM!

That too scared him. He ran the short distance from the left wall to the right, opening the door in front of him – the guard's lounge. There were some bookcases, a few desks, and a bunch of other crap that Miles didn't care for. But there was an opened book on the desk with some neat-penned handwriting in it. The young fox read the content of the book, which turned out to be a journal.

'November 14th, 1869

Prisoners do not feel remorse. In fact, they do not feel themselves to be villains at all. Even the most uneducated brute will use what little words he knows to justify himself. Such trifling dreams they have, flourishing even in the darkness. Prisoners, too, are no exceptions. No matter how foul nor loathsome one's own life and existence may be, mortal nature is abiding.'

That was the only date written on it, and it was on the first page, telling Miles the guard must have only written one entry in it before he…well, whatever happened to him.

"1869…" he said out loud. Had no one been in this prison since then? Aside from the two bodies in the cafeteria and Eggman, no one else seemed to be in the place and there weren't any more corpses lying around that he could see other than that one he'd created when he killed the straightjacket monster. No wonder the place had been so old and dusty, not to mention extremely hard to breathe in. If it wasn't because of the age that made it hard to breathe, it was the fact that it was so deep underground not even a radar could pick it up.

'But…that magazine had a more recent article than 1869…so someone must have been here since then…' He was getting sick and tired of not knowing what was going on.

There was a wooden door on the right wall of the room titled 'Armory'. That gave him a little excitement, which died pretty quickly when he tried the door to find it was locked. Looks like he wouldn't be able to get any of the weapons or ammo that might be in there. Sighing, he walked out of the room and checked the rest of the visitor's corridor.

All the other doors were locked, except for the one on the end of the corridor not far from the ladies restroom and the guard's lounge. Miles tried that door, and it opened into another small hallway. Except all the doors were locked in this hall. One thing he took note of though was a strange trapdoor on the floor. The handle was missing, leaving two empty sockets where it should be. He couldn't open it with his bare fingers, so it was useless to try and see what was in the prison's basement.

'Hell, the whole prison alone is like one giant basement…' he thought as he walked out of the visitor's area and back into the main part of the prison.

There were four long cell corridors. North Cellblock A and B, which were north of the cafeteria (obviously) and had a total of four different entrances according to the map. The two on the wWest side of the prison he was on were locked, so he'd need to find another way to the other side. South Cellblock A and B were, of course, on the south side of the cafeteria. While the B block door was locked, South Cell Block A wasn't. Miles took note to check it out once he finished searching this side of the freaky dark prison.

The only other unlocked room on the west corridor of the prison was the shower room, which held surroundings not unlike that from the shower room in the mental hospital. The cold walls magnified his light breathing as he walked deeper into the showers and noticed something on the ground in the back. Another slide of wood, just like the one in the cafeteria. Leaning down—and feeling a slight bit of awkwardness thinking about what would happen to him right now if he lived in the prison and there were others in the showers with him—he picked the item up and read the words carved into the surface: 'THE SEDUCTRESS'.

"ooooOOOOOOHHHH…"

Miles spun around, handgun aimed, and fired at the straight jacket monster before it could make another move. It was on the ground dead with the radio static a moment later, and Miles was leaving the room with the tablet joining the other in his carrying bag, which was beginning to bulge with all the stuff crammed within it. Straight jacket monsters felt so trivial now, though they were still dangerous like everything else. Leaving the showers, the two tailed furry took a deep breath and opened the door to South Cellblock A.

A small but ever-present bit of static was buzzing from the radio, and Miles understood why pretty quickly. There were about ten small dingy prisoner cells that lined the right wall, while the other side had nothing but dirty concrete walling. Within a few of these cells, the twitching bodies of straight jacket monsters could be seen. How long had they been in there? Miles had wondered just that, but he didn't have any time nor patience to stop and check around, that is until he saw an open cell around the back of the corridor, barely visible in the darkness.

His flashlight beam cut through the ocean of blackness, lighting up a very strange sight. Inside the cell were various items that all looked like they were meant for some sort of occult. Candles lined the cell, along with various old books that were so withered and beaten up that the pages were completely illegible. On the bed sheets was a strange symbol painted in red ('Blood…?'), which Miles recognized as the same symbol he had seen on the inside cover of the Book of Lost Memories: An isosceles triangle with a circle surrounding it, strange ancient handwriting scribbled all over the edges. Underneath the triangle the word 'CHAOS' was written messily. In the very middle of the triangle was a clump of wax that he figured was supposed to be a doll – while it had no arms, it did have a circular head-like piece on the top.

'Too weird…' he thought. Maybe the guards let the prisoners practice their own religion, he wasn't sure, but it scared him either way. Backing out of the cell, he tried to stay focused on the task at hand and went through the door at the end of the cellblock, leading him into the east side of the prison.

The east side consisted of nothing but a corridor leading from the north to the sound end of the prison, just like on the west side. Except there were two sets of double doors in this corridor – both parallel to each other. The one on the left wall should lead to a room in the back of the cafeteria. Whatever that room was for, Miles would never know – the door was locked, and the name wasn't listed on the map. The second set of double doors though was unlocked, so Miles pulled them open into a gigantic room that seemed as large as the prison itself.

'Whoa…'

Concrete, the ground was not. Instead, it was just hard brown dirt. He didn't know what the room was used for, but it didn't even look like it had an end. Shining his light on the map, he saw the words 'Courtyard' written over the huge square he was standing in.

Gun pointing forward and ready to shoot anything that moved, Miles moved across the open surface of the underground arena. He continued moving on forward for about twenty seconds before he saw something large appear in the shadows.

'What the…?'

It was a wooden platform with a stairs leading up to it. Suspended in the air above it was a single noose rope, which was held up by another piece of wood. From the looks of it, the mechanism was a hanging platform. Still full of so many questions, Miles wondered if the room was built so the prison staff, along with the prisoners could watch the next unlucky one sentenced to death be hung. It would be a good thing to make the prisoners behave, he guessed, but things like that seemed so immoral…

The stairs up to the platform were behind it, but there were three strange rectangular holes on the wooden wall facing him. A few seconds of contemplating what they could be for later, Miles came to a conclusion and pulled out the two tablets. He slid the 'GLUTTONOUS PIG' tablet into the rectangle the farthest to the left, and then 'THE SEDUCTRESS' tablet into the middle one. Nothing happened, to his disappointment, and he figured it was because he still needed one more. He left the large room, hoping he'll find the third and final tablet soon.

Since there was really only one place he hadn't checked yet that he could, Miles opened the door to the North Cellblock B. North Cellblock A was locked, so this was his only other option to go to. Right when he entered the room, some small static erupted again. Quickly he pulled out the handgun and aimed forward, eyes scanning what he could see from the beam of the flashlight. No monster was in sight, and no sound of it nearby either, but the static told him there must be one there. Creeping forward, Miles felt nervousness in his heart again. There was a row of about ten cells on the right wall, and normal walling on the left, so at least he knew the monster could only be either in front of him or to his side.

All the cells were empty of straight jacket monsters, so it must have been something else…but what?

-Clink…

-Clink…

-Clink…

-Clink…

The scared fox jumped a bit when he heard the sound of something tapping above. Looking up at the ceiling, he saw nothing. But there was a long stretch of grating in an area above the cells, looking like it was meant for storage or something. For a split second, he could have sworn he saw a clawed brown foot in the shadows of the area behind the grating, but it had disappeared too fast for him to understand exactly what it was.

"ekatotluosym…"

Miles jumped again. Something with a very deep baritone inhuman voice whispered from above.

"drolehtyarpiekawierofebeiddlouhsifi…"

'Fuck! What the hell is that!?' Miles cried in his mind. The beam of his flashlight waved back and forth as he looked up and down the grating again, desperately searching for whatever he had just seen a second ago was. But he couldn't see it – the shadows of the grating covered it from his light, and at this angle he couldn't see very much of the top area anyway.

"peekot…lousymdrolehtyarpipeelsotnwod." It spoke again. "emyaliwon…Lautir…Lautir…Lautir…"

Whatever language it was speaking, Miles didn't understand it. Suddenly, a soft squeak was heard, and the fox's eyes darted down the cellblock to see a metal barred door slowly open, its cage-like bottom dragging across the concrete floor. Scared out of his mind, Miles moved towards the door ever so slowly, handgun still gripped firmly in his sweaty gloved palms and pointing at the caged area above. Taking his eyes off of the space above, Miles glanced back at the opened cell door as he reached it. Shining the light into the cage, he saw three pieces of paper nailed to the wall. On each piece of paper was a drawing created and colored in various different crayons. All three of them looked like they were made by a kindergartener, but Miles got the impression it was made by a prisoner – he hoped it was. If there was one place children shouldn't be, it most certainly was here. Stepping into the cell and trying to ignore the monster tapping against the ceiling above, he read the very badly spelled and handwritten words written at the top of each picture.

A drawing of a stick figure colored in red with various spikes sticking out of the top of its arms, legs, and head:

'buRNiNg maN'

The second drawing was what looked like a colored in woman. The only thing explaining the sex of the figure was her long brown colored hair. There was a red cape drawn over her body seeming to wave as she floated above a cloud-like plain.

'flieNg wolmaN'

And finally on the right side, a drawing of a square with a lot of dots inside of it:

'665 peeple at recital'

'What the hell?' he wondered. His eyes dropped down to the bed beneath the three drawings, and widened in surprised joy when he saw the third wooden tablet there. Picking it up, he read 'THE OPPRESSOR'. To his surprise, there was something underneath it. A small key, which had a tag on it saying the word 'Armory'. He picked that up too and put it in his pocket, feeling glad that he might be able to get some more ammo after all.

"LAUTIR!" the deep dark voice shouted, now sounding much much closer, almost as if it was shouting directly into his ear.

Miles screamed and jumped backwards, his heart skipping a beat when he felt something cold touch his back. Whirring around, he saw the metal bars of the cell were closed. Immediately he put the tablet in his carrying bag and the handgun in his side pack and grasped the metal blockade, pushing. The bars held, and he realized with sudden terror he was locked in the cell.

"Shit! No!" he cried, panicked and rapidly shaking the bars. His body was already beginning to sweat, and he took a few steps back, running and ramming his arm into the gate in an attempt to open it. But they still held. He took a few more steps back and did it again, this time pushing the gated door wide open and falling to the floor of the cellblock. The door smashed into the wall beside it and swung back. It would have hit Miles in the head, but by this point the fox was already down the corridor, trying to hold back a scream as sprinted out of the room as fast as he could..

Right when he pushed through the door of the cellblock and back into the east corridor, he slammed it behind him and put his back to it, letting out quick gasps of respiration while trying to calm himself down. His heart beat a thousand times a second, until he took a deep breath and put his hand to his chest. Seconds later, the fear had drained from his body and he was in one piece again.

"My god…" he shakily looked down at the floor. That had seriously freaked him out, but he was okay, and still alive. "What a day…"

That usual tired miserable feeling replaced the fear again, and he pulled the tablet back out and stared down at it. It sure better do something of use for him after putting it in that hanging platform, or he'd be pretty ticked off.

So, he went through the double doors in the middle of the corridor and began to jog deeper into the large dark courtyard, hearing his own footsteps across the dirt, along with the clopping of quick horse hooves.

'—horse hooves?' he stopped, hearing the horse behind him move for a second longer and then stopping too. Whirring around, he half expected to see a horse carriage behind him, ready to charge and trample him over, but there was nothing. Only darkness.

'My imagination's getting too out of whack…' he thought to himself, knowing that probably wasn't true. He was afraid that, if anything, his imagination wasn't strong enough to fully accept some of the monsters that he'd run into in this town, which would explain why he hadn't been in a complete panic throughout the whole trip.

Shaking his head, he continued to walk forward, only hearing his own footsteps now. Through the darkness, he eventually saw the wooden platform again. Once he reached it, he stuck the 'THE OPPRESSOR' tablet into the most right and final rectangle. Once he did, he heard a click, along with a half-second male croak of pain.

Shivering, the fox tried to shrug it off and looked around the platform, expecting to find a key or a secret door or something. There were none. In fact, absolutely nothing had come out of sliding those three tablets in there. Miles guessed maybe he was supposed to put them in some kind of order or something, but when he tried to pull the tablets back out of their slots, they wouldn't budge. Cussing under his breath, Miles turned and began to walk back to the double doors. That sure was a good waste of time and sanity.

But something really had changed, as it turned out. Resting on the left door handle was an iron horseshoe. He didn't recall seeing that before, but that didn't seem to matter, and it wasn't the first time something had suddenly appeared out of nowhere when he wasn't looking anyway. Grabbing the horseshoe and sticking it in his bag, he left the large open room.

Since there was virtually no other unlocked place he hadn't checked yet, Miles took the South A Cellblock (seemed like a much better idea then going back into the North B Cellblock, obviously) and went back to the west prison corridor. From there he took the North visiting room to the visiting corridor, then jogged to the guard's lounge. Finally, he unlocked the door to the Armory with the armory key.

All the glass cases in the armory were shattered, leaving nothing inside most of them but specks of broken glass. Inside the nearest case though were two handgun clips, turning his nine bullets left into thirty-nine. Excellent. Unfortunately there were no shotgun shells within any of the cases, but what lay in the back of the room made up for that by far.

The fox had become the hunter. Within the case was a clean, new-looking hunting rifle.

"Yeah!" he shouted, grinning and picking up the weapon. Checking it, he saw that it was fully loaded with seven shells. Unlike the shotgun, it had a thin strap attached to it, so instead of wedging it between his back and the belt he'd gotten from the hospital like the shotgun, he just threw it around his shoulder. He was feeling loaded down, carrying a bulging side pack, a carrying bag, a shotgun, and the rifle, but at least he was a lot safer now with a powerful loaded weapon in his possession.

Not too long after that, he began to worry that maybe the weapon would never be put to use, because he remembered he didn't have any more keys or leads left to continue on.

'Shit, this isn't good…' he thought. 'All those other doors are locked, except for the trapdoor, but I can't open that because it doesn't have a handle—'

An insane idea came to his mind. An insane idea that probably wouldn't work, but it was worth trying. Maybe if he used the horseshoe like a handle, and somehow got his hands on something that could stick it to the trapdoor…

There was that wax doll in that one cell, and he did have a lighter…

Hoping for the best, Miles ran back to the South A Cellblock and grabbed the wax doll off of the bed in the occult-ridden cell. Then, he backtracked back to the visitor's corridor and took the door at the end into the second corridor. Kneeling down, he pulled out the three items. The lighter's flame was hot but small, so it took a while for it to melt the wax doll. Eventually though, he had filled up both holes on the trap door with the melted wax. While it was still somewhat melted, he dipped the horseshoe into it and held it there for a long time.

Knowing that if it didn't work he'd be screwed over, Miles waited until the wax had dried out and hardened enough to stay still, and pulled on the iron horseshoe. To his eternal relief, it worked, and the rusty trap door opened up.

'Phew…' he thought. That was amazing – he felt almost proud of himself for thinking that ridiculous but good idea up. His flashlight illuminated the cement ground below, so it was safe enough to jump in. It seemed almost like the basement's basement of the hospital…but the prison 'basement' was built like the visitor's corridor. Five doors were in the room, two on each side and one at the end. Quickly he tried the four on the sides, only to find them locked. The steel door at the end, on the other hand, was unlocked. So Miles opened it into the next room.

Right when he saw what was within the new room, he covered his mouth and tried not to vomit. But the sight mixed in with the horrible aroma, and he couldn't hold it in any longer. Leaning forward, he puked up a river of yellowish green bile, croaking and crying out in disgusted pain.

He had entered the morgue. Stacks of dead, naked, rotting corpses were piled up around the room, along with a few others that rested inside eight holes along the walls with their feet sticking out and viewing the fox's gurgled cries. All the corpses looked and smelled like they'd been dead for well over a week, yet the room itself looked a lot older than that. In front of him was a cart with yet another corpse in it, but the room 'thankfully' spared him the sight of one more corpse. Its body was covered within a white sheet.

"Ugh…I hate this place…" Miles whispered after he emptied his stomach. Not only did he now look, sound, and feel terrible, but now he had that disgusting taste in his mouth, not to mention that horrible image of the place engraved in his mind forever.

For a second, he thought the cart with the corpse in it not too far away had moved. It sure looked like it did, but he couldn't tell, and he didn't want to know. He just desperately wanted to get out. Blinking rapidly, he ran across the morgue and grasped the two double doors at the other end of the room, pulling them open and slamming them behind him right away. The gritty, sickening air that lives in the prison seemed like a blessing compared to the air in that room.

'This is too much…' he cried in his mind. Just the single thought of a part of him still being in that room disturbed him, but thoughts of the morgue's scenery were pushed aside when he saw what lay before him now.

Another hole.

'Jesus, how many of these are there?' he wondered, glancing down the square hole into the darkness below.

The whole room looked just like the other two did, and he knew there was nowhere else to go—and even if there was, he would have already passed it and he did not want to go back into the room behind him now.

'This isn't over.' He reminded himself. 'And I don't know when it will be, but for now I've just got to keep going…keep going…'

Keep going.

Nodding, Miles closed his eyes shut, took a deep breath, and jumped.