Casey couldn't breathe. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears and her head was swimming. All the prisoners loose in another riot? No, it couldn't be. She groped for the Warden's table, trying to steady herself.
"Dammit," she vaguely heard Warden Joseph curse as he walked back into the room. In a fog, she watched him open a drawer with a key and pull out a gun. "Stay here," he ordered her without looking at her. He ran from the room, leaving her alone.
A whine escaped Casey as she lost all feeling in her legs and she crumbled to the ground. Oh god, oh god, oh god. Her mind was in a jumble and she curled up into a small ball. Her head felt so light and she desperately tried to breathe. Everything Dr. Crane taught her about handling her fear went right out the window.
It was like she was dying all over again.
After what felt like an eternity Casey's breath returned to her albeit slowly. She unfurled herself and looked around the room. Alarms still blared but she was still alone in the Warden's office. She stood up and staggered over to the door. There was no one outside in the hallway and that worried Casey.
As best she could, she jogged down the hallway to the junction. Over the alarms, she heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire. Casey ducked into another hallway, away from the gunfire. She didn't want to get close to any fights.
If I remember best, there was an emergency exit not too far away from the Warden's office. She just hoped she could find a guard or someone who could help her evacuate. But as she continued on, she couldn't find any exit. Her heart beat rapidly as the sounds of gunfire petered off into nothing. Please let that be a good sound.
Around the corner, she saw two shadows moving closer to where she was. In a blind panic, she groped for the doorknob of the only door in the hallway. She entered the room and slammed the door shut behind her. Then she scrambled to hide under the nearest desk.
Casey held her breath when red light filtered into the room. Someone opened the door. "I could have sworn I saw this door shut," she heard someone say.
She saw a glimpse of black shoes and the hem of bright orange pants through the crack between the desk. Inmates. She pressed a fist to her mouth to silence any noise that might come from her.
"I think you were seeing things," the second inmate retorted. "Those flashing red lights are annoying as fuck."
"But—" The first one protested.
"C'mon," the second interrupted. "The boss wants us in the main entrance to take care of the guards we rounded up."
"What about the Warden?"
"We'll find him. No one's getting out of the Administration building now that we have control of it. And where would they go? Straight to Black Mask in the Industrial building?"
Casey's heart thudded. Did everyone get out? Even—
The alarms stopped and a musical ding dong filled the air before, "Hello Blackgate."
Casey's insides froze. No. Not him. Anyone but him. Please.
"As I'm sure you're all aware, Blackgate Prison is currently undergoing a change in staff," The Joker giggled maniacally over the intercom. Casey desperately bit back a whimper. "So would all former employees of Blackgate report to the main entrance? There needs to be a change in the uniform." There was another cackle. "Oh. And will someone bring me Warden Joseph? He and I need to have a chat."
"Right," the second inmate said when the intercom went dead. "Let's go. Wouldn't wanna piss off the boss now or he'll send us to negotiate with Penguin like he did Steve."
"Poor Steve," the first inmate said sorrowfully. The door slammed shut.
Once she was sure she was alone, she started crying again. Not only was she trapped in Blackgate during another riot but the person calling the shots, again, was the Joker. It was like a cruel, sick joke. She curled back up into a ball on the floor and started to rock. Oh help me, help me. Someone help me.
In the distance, she heard the unmistakable sound of more gunfire and she whined in distress. Then she heard the ding dong of the speakers. "A quick update," the Joker cackled. "We're still looking for the Warden so if anyone sees him, tell him to come see me in his former office. He needs to hand over the keys to my shiny, new prison.And make sure to start lining the hallways men! We gotta make some rodent deterrent." She heard another hideous cackle and the loudspeakers went dead.
By that time, Casey had slowly unfurled and just lied on the floor, staring at the ceiling. What do I do? She wondered. Did she just lie there and wait for someone to discover her? What were the chances of the next person walking through that door being someone who worked here or a former inmate?
As if that thought jolted her, she sprang up. And then immediately clutched the desk for support from intense vertigo. She couldn't just lie down and give up, she decided. She needed to find a way out and get help.
Casey began to pace. What did the inmates say earlier? Roman Sionis had the Industrial building. And the Joker now had control of the Administration building (but looking for Warden Joseph.) But the inmate also said something about negotiating with Oswald Cobblepot. That meant the short mobster was also loose in the prison somewhere.
Things did not look good for her. She could barely sneak around in Gotham City, let alone a prison in the middle of a hostile takeover.
She nudged the door open and poked her head outside. All clear. She exited the room and started down the hall, heading down the path where she saw the inmates come from. She hoped she headed in the right direction, away from the riot and not straight into it.
But as she walked, she found nothing to suggest she was close to an exit. She found offices and more offices. All were empty with papers and chairs strewn about as if their occupants left in a hurry. In one room, Casey saw blood spattered against the wall and felt sick.
Adam's body fell to the floor, his glassy, unblinking eyes staring up at her. A perfectly circular hole on his forehead leaked blood down his face before dripping onto the floor.
Casey shut her eyes and backed out of the room. She tripped over her feet and fell onto the hard floor, bruising her back. Not here, not here, she thought. She tried to banish the images of Adam's death from her mind but his empty face lingered.
She staggered down the hall, groping the wall for support. Around the corner, she saw two men in orange standing in front of a door. Casey backtracked and knelt at the corner, listening.
"So does the boss have any plans on getting out of here?" She heard one ask.
"Not sure," the other replied. "We can't hole up here in Blackgate. I'm sure Boss wants to get back out anyway. Got some score to settle with the Bat."
Batman. Casey's heart lifted. He'd come, right? Any time Casey was in trouble, Batman always showed up. She smiled to herself. Yes, Batman would come here and save her. He had to.
Ding Dong. "I do believe we found the Warden!" The Joker shouted gleefully. "So everyone get yourselves over to the main entrance now! We gotta get the workers in a nice and condensed space." He giggled and Casey felt a shiver go up her back.
"You heard Boss," the first inmate said. Casey peeked back around the corner and was relieved to see the two walking away from her. Then she realized that was her only way forward and her heart sank.
She headed off again, moving slowly, and listening intently for any sound of footsteps not her own and voices. To be caught again would mean coming face to face with the Joker again. And Casey wanted anything but that.
She came to another intersection and took the left path, hoping she was heading towards the edge of the building. She kept her eyes open for any sign of an emergency exit but found none. There has to be something, she kept chanting to herself as a way to keep calm.
Her spirits lifted when she came to another hallway that had windows lining it. She rushed over to one and looked outside. It was still pouring out and she could see a few men in orange milling about. In the distance, in another building, she saw smoke rising in a thick plume. If only the bars weren't on the windows, she could try climbing out. She glanced over the yard again and her heart thudded when she saw someone staring up at her.
Casey bolted. She ran for the other end of the hallway and burst through the doors. She came face to face with someone behind a guard helmet and screamed. The man's eyes were bulging and his mouth was twisted into a smile, like he was laughing. But he hung upside down from the ceiling and didn't move except for gentle swaying back and forth. He was dead.
She clamped her hands over her mouth and backpedaled as fast as she could. Again, she tripped over her feet and landed on her butt. She got a better look at the hallway and saw more dead guards hanging from the ceiling. Casey blinked and Adam's face stared at her from all of them.
"No, no, no," she moaned. She shut her eyes and rocked herself again. He's not here, he's not here. I need to keep going.
She got on her hands and knees and started crawling under the dead guards, refusing to look up at them lest she see Adam staring down at her. She didn't stand until she reached the set of doors and she quickly exited the hallway.
She stood at the edge of the foyer, the entrance where she met Warden Joseph hours before. Her body froze when she spotted several inmates in the room. Some were spraying graffiti on the walls with green or purple spray paint. While others were laying wire down around the grand staircase. Explosives, her mind registered numbly. Where did they get them?
Her question went unanswered as a couple men turned to look at her, quizzical expressions on their faces. "Who's she?" She heard someone asked.
"No idea."
Her body kicked into flight mode and she ran for the back of the foyer, where another door was. She heard shouting and footsteps behind her but she didn't dare look back. She ran though the door and down the small hallway, taking turns at random. Eventually, the footsteps faded into the background and she darted into an abandoned bathroom, hunkering down in the handicap stall.
They saw her. They knew she was here, wandering the building. It was only a matter of time before—
Ding dong.
"I heard we have a little mouse scurrying about," the Joker said over the loudspeakers. "Come out of your little hidey hole mousey or else I'm going to have to call the exterminator. HAHAHAHA!"
Casey let out a shuddering sob. They told him. He would come looking for her and if she had to face him again, she would die. Casey scooted closer to the toilet, practically hugging it, and tried to muffle her sobs.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the vent. Her sobs ceased as she stared at it thoughtfully. It was just big enough to let her through. But the vent cover was still on. Casey stood and climbed atop the toilet to examine the cover. To her relief, the screws where flat heads. She rummaged through her pocket and her fingers curled around some pocket change. As she pulled out a penny, her foot slipped and fell in the toilet, bashing her knee against the pipe. She hissed in pain but pulled herself back up and started working on unscrewing the screws.
Her hands hurt as she twisted the penny in the screw, trying to loosen it. But eventually, it did come free. She pulled the screw out and tossed it behind her. The next threw screws followed suit and she barely managed to catch the cover before it fell. But she threw it to the ground all the same, not caring about how much noise she made. She clambered up into the vent, kicking her legs wildly as she wiggled inside. Once most of her body was in, she began crawling forward. I really hope this is a good idea, she thought.
Casey sneezed several times as she brushed past cobwebs and she tried not to think of spiders or other bugs that could be lurking around her. Or tetanus, she noted when she spied a rusty nail sticking through the metal.
Everywhere she crawled, she was met with more and more vents barring her way. She was nowhere near being strong enough to open the vents from the inside. But she was completely alone. Once or twice, she did hear men talking below her and she ceased her movements until they left. But as far as Casey knew, they didn't know where she was.
Until…
She passed her third junction, taking a right this time, when she heard the ding dong. "I've been told our mousey took to crawling through the vents!" The Joker said cheerfully. "Naughty, naughty little mousey," he chided. "Don't you know there are all sorts of traps for a mousey to get caught in there? No? Well, I figured this would be a perfect time to test the ventilation."
Casey glanced behind her and her eyes widened when she saw thin streams of green gas filling the shaft. What the?
"I've taken the liberty to hook up my very own Joker Toxin into the ventilation system. You really don't want to get caught in it, mousey. It's a real killer!"
She surged forward to stay ahead of the gas, taking turns at random and praying that it led to a room. The hiss of the gas kept getting louder and louder and she started coughing. But to her relief, she spotted an empty hole. She scrambled towards it but underestimated her momentum and found herself falling out of the vent and down several feet.
Casey let out a cry of pain when she collided with the wooden floor. Agony laced through her right shoulder and she lay there in a daze, watching green gas flicker out of the vent. She made it. But when she tried to sit up, her shoulder protested. Glancing at her shoulder, she saw three shards of glass sticking out of her shirt.
She then became aware of cracking underneath her and realized she must have landed on broken glass. As carefully as she could, she rolled over, taking care not to put weight on her injured shoulder, and scooted off the rest of the glass. Thankfully, she did not cut herself. She sat with her back against the wall and attempted to extract one of the shards in her shoulder. But pain shot through her and she took her hand away. Tears dripped down her cheeks again as she cried in pain and hopelessness.
Something prodded her back and she reached behind her and her fingers around something hard. She pulled her phone out of pocket and stared at it as if she never saw it before. How did she forget she had her phone on her? She turned it on and input her password. No signal flashed back at her. Of course, she cursed. She was trapped in an old building. Of course the reception was crap.
Another idea hit her and it made her sick but she didn't know what else to do. She opened her camera and switched to video. Her tear-stained face stared back at her in the screen. Her eyes were red, her face puffy, and her hair wild.
"My name is Casey Wilson," she said as calmly as she could but her voice wavered. "I am—was a technical analyst with the Gotham City Police Department. Tonight a riot broke out and I don't think I'm going to live through it." Here more tears trickled down her face and she sniffled.
"Mom," she cried. "I love you so much. And I know you never believed it but I am so proud to call myself your daughter. Annette, thank you for all you've done for us. Please take care of my mom. And it wasn't Rodney who broke your Michael Jackson vinyl. It was me. I'm sorry. Rodney, you were an awesome little brother. You'll be a great vet someday."
She paused, trying to catch her breath but the tears were coming steady now. "Bruce," she added. She tried blinking away her tears but ended up wiping her face. "I love you," she confessed. "I'm sorry I never got to say it to you, but I love you and being with you were some of the happiest moments of my life. Thank you, Bruce." She ended the recording and the screen went black.
There, she thought. If I die, I'll have said my last words. She stood and stared at the rest of the room. She was in an old storage room of some sort. There were tables and boxes, all covered in dust, scattered around. Casey shuddered when she saw a large, old paper cutter on one table. She did not want to imagine what would have happened if she landed on that.
A door was across from where the vent was and she went over to it. Slowly, she opened it and looked outside. It was a ransacked office. As she stepped into the office, footsteps made her stop. She backed up in the storage room and closed the door.
Ding dong. "Has anyone found the little mousey yet? Someone check the vents to make sure she hasn't died up there. I'd be very disappointed if she did."
Panic flooded her and she hid under the table, trying to make herself as small as possible. The storage door opened and Casey bit her tongue. "Dunno why the boss has running all around the building looking for this one chick." A man said.
"You know how he is with witnesses. He's got too many ideas and not enough victims," another replied. "He's got something planned for her."
"Hey look at this," the first said. "Broken glass… and blood."
"She must have fallen from there," the second observed. "Fuck that looks like it hurts."
"You didn't see anyone come out of that room, did you?"
"Nope."
"So that means she either climbed back up into the vents, unlikely, or she's here. Hiding."
Casey pressed herself into the back of the desk. She hoped they believed she climbed back up into the vents.
But someone started walking around the room. "She couldn't have. Not with an injury. Also that vent is like eight feet up. No way could she climb up to it. And do you see any chairs of desks in front of the wall to use as a boost? No, she's in here somewhere." She heard footsteps and she choked on a whimper. "She's just..." A clown face appeared in Casey's vision, "hiding," he finished, triumphantly.
Casey screamed as he reached for her. She tried to pull away but he hooked a hand around her shirt and yanked. She slid out from under the table and she brought her foot up to kick the man. She made contact with his shin and he let go of her.
"Help me, would you?" He grunted to his partner.
As Casey scrambled to get away, she felt a hand on her ankle, pulling her back towards them. "NO!" She screamed as loud as she could. She clawed at the floor, her nails leaving marks. Anything, anything to get away.
"Come on!" One of them shouted but she was fighting like a mad cat.
"No, no, no!" She kept wailing. Her left ring fingernail caught on the floor and it ripped clean off. She screamed louder both in pain and distress and her struggles intensified. She groped for the desk leg, trying to catch it, leaving bloody smears.
"Fucking grab her!"
"I'm trying!" A hand gripped her shirt and then she was lifted into the air where a pair of arms clamped around her shoulders, putting pressure on her injured shoulder.
"LET GO!" She shrieked and started kicked her feet.
But the other man was there, grabbing her ankles. "You got her?" He asked.
The man holding her shoulders squeezed her glass-filled shoulder and she yelped. "Yup. Now let's get her to the boss."
"No," Casey moaned. "Please…"
"Shut up," the man behind Casey grunted as he and his partner carried her out of the room. "Save your pleading for the Joker."
-x-
And that concludes chapter twenty-five! Casey's really in trouble now, isn't she? She's in for a reunion with the Joker and that's never good. Batman's gotta show soon, right? Stay tuned to find out!
Reviews, favorites, and follows are love! See ya in chapter twenty-six!