I missed months with this story. At first, I wasn't going to continue. But then I saw that there were 11 followers. People who'd waited for me to update. And I hadn't updated anything. I owe those people an apology.

I'm not going to write out any excuses, because none of them are good. But I'm not going to quit on this story anymore. Even if it doesn't get the attention it had, I'm going to finish it. I have to.

And so, about half a year later, here is Chapter IV.

2016 August

Act I - The Early Days

California

There is one thing I can remember vividly about life before the war.

Life had been simple. So simple. There was always order. A daily routine. Structure. All of that. Things made sense back then. Mom was gone, but Dad and Logan were always there.

But we got separated from Elias after shit hit the fan. And then came prison, where I got split up from Logan.

I knew that Logan could take care of himself - Elias had taught us good. But I'm his big brother.

I'd needed to protect him. It's in my blood.

Maybe I should have just let them have it. It was just a bench. It wasn't worth this.

'This' was a brutal trip to some stretch of the prison that had nothing but cages running along down either side of a long hall, about 100 yards in distance. Most of the cages were empty. And the smell of the place was beyond sick. It was like the smell existed. Like a living entity. To add to that equation, it was very dark here. The few lights that actually worked were dimming out. As if they'd taken all they could from the foul stench, and were on the verge of giving out any second.

Logan was on the verge of giving out any second. He couldn't take it. He felt so dirty and exposed here. Both of those feelings were foreign to him. Anger was beginning to seep into him. But his anger wasn't as strong as his hunger. At this point, Logan would eat anything that they'd throw him. Well, mostly anything. He wouldn't eat another human being - ugh.

All those zombie games were getting to him.

He shook his head to clear it. Escape was what Logan needed. He'd been getting pretty far in his mental map of the prison - or so, he thought. If the map was accurate, Logan's personal icon - his face - was located far up on the map. The legend on the right side of his brain had the icons that represented the other places in the map. In his mind, the icon of a very powerful green and black alien from a future timeline represented the cells that Logan had been at. Those cells were far down on his mental map.

Logan couldn't break out until he had David with him. He had no choice but to assume that David was in one of the cells - and the only cells Logan had encountered had all been on the same wing of the building. So, mentally, Logan created an icon to represent David. It was his face, next to a question mark. He placed that icon on the cell block that he'd been in. David was possibly there.

Which meant that, logically, David was possibly not there. So if Logan tempted some break out, and went looking for David, there was a 50-50 chance of him locating David in that cell block. Like flipping a coin. A 50% chance to get it right. A 50% chance to get it wrong.

Logan needed to increase his odds by at least 35% before he could risk it. So, 50 + 35 totaled up to be 85.

What you do to one side of the equation, you must do to the other. Or something like that. Math class was stupid.

So, he subtracted 35 from the 50 point bet that he would get it wrong. It came out to be 15 points left behind. The score would then be 85 to 15. With Logan having a comfortable lead.

But the match wouldn't be over at that point. There was a 4th quarter. And it was a super-bowl match. So the other team wouldn't let him get away that easy. Because Escape Attempt + Failure to find David = Failed Escape Attempt. Which was congruent to Loss of Life.

And there were the random events that could pop-up. Random encounters that you have.

Logan shook his head and dismissed the stupid thoughts that he'd been having. He took a look around.

What he could see didn't impress him. The Federation boys were slacking. The single guard that patrolled up and down the aisle of cages was overweight and very distracted. He was whistling to himself. Talking to himself. And he kept yawning, as if he was beyond bored. Which Logan could understand. What Logan couldn't understand, however, was how the guard seemed unfazed by the smell. But Logan spotted and heard the fat ring of keys jingling from the belt of the guard.

He could try out something. The pace that the guard walked at had him passing Logan's cell every 7 minutes and 23 seconds, with a margin of error at about +/- 8. Logan calculated the distance between him and the guard, when the guard passed him, to be less than 1 yard - the aisle was extremely cramped. He didn't care too much about that distance.

What he cared about was the height of his cage - which was definitely more than 1 yard.

While the guard's back was turned, Logan tested something. He tested his strength. How he did that was by giving the side of the cage that would be facing the guard a small shove.

The cage leaned with it.

Interesting. Brilliant. Logan could shove his cage as hard as he could as soon as the guard got in front of him. The momentum from his cage as it toppled over would cause the guard to fall down with it. The guard would be caught between Logan's cage, and the ground. So, not only would the guard be pinned, but Logan would have ease-of-access to the keys hanging from his belt.

What could the guard do to stop him? He would be pinned.

Logan could release the lock on the top of his cage, crawl his way out, and be on his way.

It sounded like a good plan. And he had no plan B.

He leaned back in his cell and waited, trying to appear as casual and annoyed as possible. In the background of noise, Logan heard a faint dripping sound. They needed to get that fixed. And he tried to block out the smell, which he failed miserably at. His stomach growled in anger, but he ignored it. There weren't any other prisoners locked up near him - the nearest one was about 8 cages down to Logan's left.

Could I free them? Could I spark up a riot?

Logan played with the thought for a minute. He played with it in his mind, pulling and stretching at it like play-doh. He turned the thought into a basketball and shot a 3-pointer into a fake goal. Score.

If he freed up everyone in here, he could get them to cause a big enough debacle to keep the guards at bay. With any luck, Logan could use the disarray to get his hands on a cell key. Boom - he would have instant access to all the cells in at least one wing of the prison. That meant about 100+ angry, pissed off prisoners. With so many prisoners set loos, he would almost be certain to locate David.

Logan smiled faintly. Game over.

Well, not yet. The guard was heading back down this way. Logan sighed loudly, as if he wasn't interested in shit down here. A whistling tune started to get louder as the guard approached.

"Hey, dude, you got any air freshener?" Logan said quietly.

As expected, the guard couldn't hear him. Whistling stopped as the guard approached his cage and stood right in front of it.

"I said, do you got any -" Abruptly, Logan shoved his cage forward as hard as he could.

It gave, and he slammed into the guard. The weight of the cage, plus Logan's force of shove, caused the guard to stumble and fall with the cage. The trip down was short and hard. As soon as they touched floor, Logan reached through the bars of the cage to the guard's keyring. There was a brief struggle as the guard tried in vain to fight him off. It was a futile effort. The cage weighed too much. And the guard wasn't in good enough shape.

Logan grabbed the keyring and yanked it hard, ripping them from the guard's belt. Without wasting any time, he unlocked his cage - there were 10 keys, and all of them were identical. He hadn't even needed to try any of them out. He pushed the top of the cage out and crawled through it. He got his legs out and stomped the guard in the face, hard. Logan felt and heard a crunch. The nose was broken. He stomped again, and this time, the guard stopped moving.

Logan got out of the cage entirely, and the rest of the prisoners were zoned in on his actions.

"Everybody listen up." Logan said, just loud enough for them all to hear him. "We need to spark up a riot. But we can't do that if we act stupid. I need you all to follow me and keep quiet until we reach the cell blocks."

Logan looked around after that. He didn't know if they were with him or not. He had to hope that they were. But in the worst case scenario, they would just be random prisoners running free inside of a prison. That would be enough to start up a distraction long enough for Logan to locate David. And so Logan began unlocking their cages. He moved all the way down the line on the left side first, and then he hit the right side.

Good start.

Leonid knew what being in prison felt like. Prison pre-USA and Federation War, at least.

This was different. This was stupid. The mathematician in his mind was mad at him for ignoring the probability of success for this little move. But the artist in his mind was praising the creativity behind it. Leonid's mental penmaster had nothing to say.

The guy sitting across from Leonid had something to say. "So, what're ya in for? Heh." The prisoner asked.

Their cell was too tight. With one bunk on each side of the room, they hardly had any room to move. Leonid was stretched out on his bed, looking into the ceiling.

"Damn dudes caught me wit my gun." Leonid said, masking his Russian accent with a perfect southern American one.

"This shit is so messed up. I managed to keep the US government from arrestin' me, but here I am, sitting in a Federation-run prison, inside the United States. Life done turned into shit." The guy said.

Leonid felt the same way.

His life back then had been different from this one. Back then, he'd been something different. A highly valuable asset, was how some had put it. The Urals had churned him out. His grandfather Viktor had molded him when he was just a young boy. The result had been something that hadn't quite fitted in with normal society.

Leonid was used to being on assignments. Having missions that needed to be completed. Serving to fulfill the purposes of someone higher than him. The in-between had always seemed like shaky ground to him. He'd never quite known how to simply enjoy life. He just knew how to live it. School had been a breeze for him - beyond easy, to the point where he simply got tired of it and dropped out. Working a simple job had turned out the same way. Leonid had risen to a high-managing position within his company within about 5 months after getting hired. It was a stupid job, and that's why Leonid had quit it.

Instead of doing any of that junk, Leonid had decided to join the military. That was when he'd found his calling.

He heard some calling now. Shouting outside of the cell. Screaming. Leonid scrambled to sit up, and he rushed over to the cell door. His cellmate did the same.

They could hear some loud shouting and scuffling. And what sounded like bones breaking. Somewhere out there, a gunshot went off. But the sounds still came. Leonid strained to see anything in the hall outside. Rushing down the hall from the right were 3 armed security guards. All of them were yelling into their mics. They sprinted past Leonid's cell without stopping. He could hear combat waging out there to his left, along with rifle discharges.

About 25 seconds later, a storm of inmates came rushing down the hall from that direction. Some of them were carrying rifles. They were yelling and shouting loudly.

An uprising!?

In the middle of the pack, Leonid spotted someone. A boy about 16 years old, dressed in dirty inmate fatigues, carrying a pistol in his hand. The boy was giving out orders.

Elias' boy, Logan. Had he done this?

Logan was directing the charge from the front. Commanding his army at the head of the pack. He was the general here. His soldiers were following his orders precisely. The enemy general, whoever he was, was commanding from the rear. Coward general. Logan was winning the battle.

He told everyone to fan out in packs of 6, all of them being led by someone who had a weapon. In his mental map, they were spreading out inside the prison, covering plenty of ground. But Logan needed more soldiers in his army that he'd created. He needed to reinforce his western flank. If the flank fell, then they would be surrounded. The general would die, and morale would be broken. The battle would be lost.

Logan began unlocking every cell he came across. He was still hunting for David, though. So far, he hadn't had any success.

The cell block area that he'd been in was clear. So there was no David in that part. But Logan needed to find the other cell blocks. He followed a team of inmates down a long, narrow hall. They were headed to the cafeteria. Undoubtedly, there would be a large presence of security guards there. By protocol, the Federation always maintained a number of security personnel inside the cafeteria, because that was where most of the fights happened at. Logan needed to capture the cafeteria. That would deal a major blow against the Federation security forces.

The pack of inmates burst through the large set of double-doors into the cafeteria.

There was fighting everywhere. It was a massive brawl. Tables were tossed over, and chairs were being thrown around. Logan hugged the wall to keep an eye on everything. From his perspective, it looked like the Federation were winning. A few gunshots rang out on the other side of the massive cafeteria, and Logan instinctively ducked low. He had his own handgun, but he didn't want to risk shooting one of the inmates. There were no clean shots that he could take. He would have to weather this storm while he was in the middle of it.

Logan rushed up behind a group of inmates who were struggling against a team of guards equipped in riot gear. The guards were sporting riot shields and helmets, pushing the inmates back.

If they could get their hands on those shields...

Logan rushed over to a small round table and pulled it behind the struggling inmates. He grunted as he used all of his strength to pull it - it was a heavy table. When he got it in place, he took a few steps back, lining himself up with the table and the riot-shield guards and prisoners. Then he tucked his stolen 9mm into the waistband of his sweatpants.

Logan sprinted forward, breaking off as fast as he could. He leaped up onto the table and used his momentum to push-propel himself forwards. It was a very high jump. Logan had pushed off of the table with his left leg. He soared through the air, twisted and tucked his legs and arms in, cleared the line of prisoners, and crashed into a pack of guards. They all crashed into the floor in a big heap. Logan's land was softened by the mass of guards that he'd landed on.

Logan had successfully felled at least 6 of the guards - more than enough for the prisoners to gain the upperhand in the struggle. He was sprawled out on top of 3 of them. Without wasting time, Logan pulled out the 9mm and directly fired it into the three guards. There was no risk of hitting an inmate in this position. The gun discharged, dealing devastating damage at such close range. Blood erupted from the bodies of the guards.

Logan rolled off of them and got to his feet.

"Take their shields! Drive them back!" He shouted.

The prisoners scooped up shields and charged the fleeing guards, screaming and shouting at the top of their lungs. They brushed past Logan as he whirled around to scan the rest of the cafeteria.

The guards were routing. Logan felt a huge wave of relief. The cafeteria had been taken. His riot was going according to -

- A hand gripped Logan on the shoulder, and he spun around, bringing the 9mm up to bear. He had it aimed directly at the face of David.

"David!" Logan shouted, immediately lowering his pistol.

"We gotta get out of here, asap. Follow me - I know a way." David said.

This was Logan's first time seeing David since in-processing. He looked scraggly and worn out, but Logan figured that he probably looked the same way. That's what a few days in the pin could do to you, Logan guessed.

David was right. They were running out of time - probably already out of time. It wouldn't be long before the entire prison was surrounded by Federation forces. If they weren't long gone by then, then they might as well get back into their cells. While Logan's little uprising had worked as planned, it was doomed to fail. What could a bunch of untrained prisoners hope to do against a professional military? Logan got into step behind David. They had a long ways to go before they were free again. Even if they managed to get away from the prison, the Federation would be hunting down anyone who'd managed to get away.

If they got caught, Logan didn't think that the Federation would risk letting them get away again. Ever again.