CHAPTER 5 – SHOCK TREATMENT

The Joker was once again in his cell, busy planning his escape. Oh those silly doctors! If you stick a criminal genius in an empty cell all day, with nothing for him to do, what do you expect him to think about? Not that escape required much thought for him. As far The Joker was concerned, Arkham Asylum may as well put their revolving-door policy when it came to their "treatment" of him in writing. All he needed was one opportunity, and he'd be free to paint the town red once again. He'd gotten breaking out of Arkham down to a fine art.

"You'd think they'd have increased the security budget by now - HA HA!" laughed The Joker, talking to himself.

Just then, the doors opened. Ah, Harry and Jeff again. Must be dinner-time. Up against the wall, chained to the hoop, sit down, straightjacket off, yada yada yada. And now in comes the guy with the tray. It was another new guy today - Greg was obviously one of those guys who couldn't stomach a week before quitting. Ha, the little baby should consider himself lucky he only lost an ear!

Greg's replacement was called Brian. He was bigger than Greg, and looked a bit older too. He sat down the tray in front of The Joker. Soup, smelt like congealed tar flavour - yummy! Then suddenly, Brian took a little plastic baggie out of the soup. Inside was a small revolver. In a flash, Brian had taken out the gun and put a bullet in the heads of the two apes. He liked this guy already, ha ha! Brian took off the collar around The Joker's neck.

"Come on, we can get out of here before anyone notices these guys," said Brian.

The Joker smiled, giving a cheery thumbs-up. He had no idea who this guy was. But if he was breaking him out of Arkham, he wasn't complaining. They went out into the corridor. Brian pointed at the food-tray cart.

"Get in."

The Joker crept into the lower compartment, concealed by a sheet hanging over the sides. Brian was able to wheel him right out of Arkham through the kitchen. Once outside, The Joker got out of the cart, and motioned for Brian to lead the way ahead of him. As Brian walked past him, The Joker snatched the taser off of his belt.

"Hey..." started Brian.

But he didn't get any further before The Joker had thrust the taser into his side, pumping him full of electricity. He'd always wanted to play with one of these things, and now he had! Brian collapsed to the ground, his gun scuttling away.

"Oh, I forgot to say thank you, how rude of me, HAHAHAHAHA!" laughed The Joker, "And it is very rude of you, not telling me who is responsible for my release."

"I don't know!" gasped Brian, "I was hired over the phone, I don't know who's behind your release, damn it!"

"Well, what good are you?" said The Joker, readying the taser.

"Wait wait wait wait!"

The Joker hesitated, tilting his head with amused curiosity at Brian's pleas.

"Why are you doing this, after I helped you?" sobbed Brian, "Why?"

"Why not?" asked The Joker, jamming the taser right into Brian's head.

He held it there until it had fried the guy's brain. Brian started frothing at the mouth, his bulging eyes rolling up into his head. He started spasming madly, and then he was dead. The Joker poked the corpse a few more times with the taser, just for an extra cheap laugh.

Humming to himself, The Joker took Brian's phone, gun and keys, using the keys to let himself out of Arkham's rear gate. He had lots to do! He was going to get into a decent set of clothes, find the person who had him bust out of Arkham, and make Batman's life a living hell - in that order!

Chuckling malevolently to himself, The Joker disappeared into the night.