Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 137

The prison was surrounded by police and blocked off from the general public when they arrived. It was a low-security prison kept within the city walls, and absolutely not the kind of place where people were locked away with violent psychopaths to die. Those prisons were far more rigid and kept away from civilians. This one was the type where tax evaders, drink drivers, petty criminals and the like would go.

Mark had been accessory to murder, but he hadn't been the murderer himself and the police had needed to keep him close by for his trial. He was guilty as sin, but it took time to prepare a court and find a jury, and he was a flight risk, so he'd been kept in a relatively safe prison until that time. It should have been fine, since the last death in the prison had been over four years ago and that had been by food poisoning. The place didn't have a history of violence.

Blake had found that all out by reading up on the prison in the hurried car ride over.

Jaune brought the car to a skidding stop and they jumped out. The police that had come to block them noticed their suits and demeanour, and quickly stepped aside, gesturing them to where Captain Ash had taken command. The woman was wearing a bulletproof vest and had an SMG on a strap hanging under her left elbow. She was barking orders to her people when they arrived.

"Specialists are here," she snapped. "Give us some privacy. You have your orders."

"Yes Captain!"

"Yes ma'am!"

The officers, likely leaders of their own squads or precincts, moved out to pass things on. Mira turned to them, arms crossed under her chest.

"About time. We've got the place closed down and shut off from the world. Generators have been cut and there's no power inside. Don't want our suspect reaching the outside world and revealing things he shouldn't."

That was quick thinking on her part.

"Has anyone from inside managed to get out? Security? Guards? Inmates?"

"Not a single person." Mira Ash nervously touched her weapon. "And now one of my squads is in there and well past the time they should have come back out. I want you to keep an eye out for them. Get them out the moment you find them. You can go back in after."

Jaune nodded. "We'll do what we can. Do you have a floorplan?"

"Yes." Mira handed over a plastic-like sheet. "It's a simple plan. The prison is built as a square with an open centre for the exercise yard. Front entrance is a direct line to that square, and then it's a corridor going the whole way around. Cells on left and right. The corners are set aside for other purposes: cafeteria, guardhouse, offices, storage. It'd be difficult to get lost in there. You have ground floor, first and second. Staircases at every corner."

It did indeed look very simple. Very utilitarian. Blake scanned the map and felt she'd memorised it almost instantly. The place was designed to be a squat and unappealing building, and the perimeter fence with barbed wire was enough to keep the relatively non-violent prisoners inside.

"Does it have a basement and generator?" Jaune asked.

"No. Prisons outside the cities do, but this one has a generator in an exterior building we've taken over. It's to stop a theoretical prison break being able to keep the place powered. No Grimm in the city, so there's no need to have everything locked up inside where it's safe. There's no way for them to get power without us activating it." Mira tossed a card to Jaune and then to her. "Here. Override cards. They'll get you through most of the gates. These are higher than anything the staff inside would have had. These are meant for situations like this and are only held by the city council."

"Then even if our person killed everyone, he couldn't get out…?"

"Theoretically. The fact he hasn't escaped has me thinking someone hit the lockdown alarm. That shuts every gate and scrambles codes so stolen keycards won't work. Could be that's saved this thing spilling into the city. But it could also be he's biding his time, and if he's inhuman enough then concrete walls might not stop him breaking his way out. That's why we can't just ignore this. Not to mention the people inside. The prisoners here are lesser crimes. They don't deserve whatever is happening to them."

"If we find any…?"

"Evacuate at your discretion. My men have been told not to shoot unless necessary. Make sure anyone you rescue knows to keep their hands on their head as they come out and they'll be taken to a medical station for care."

"Anything else?" Jaune asked.

"Yes. You going in like that is a bad idea if anyone in there is still alive." Mira nodded to his sword. "I think not. Come on. Let me gear you up."

/-/

The front entrance to the prison was a direct line into the cube-like building, and it came with its own small offices and greeting area, along with many barred doors. Jaune and Blake had been given police vests clearly making them as VPD in the event they ran into any security guards or the missing team inside. They were bulletproof – little use against the anomaly but very helpful for Jaune if they came across any armed inmates – and while Blake had kept to Gambol Shroud, Jaune had accepted an SMG on a strap and a pouch of four grenades. Two of them were teargas and the other two were flashbangs, both from the police's armed raids division.

"Which way shall we go once we're inside?" she asked.

"I was thinking we could split up and go both ways."

Blake snorted. Trust Jaune to make a joke in a situation like this. "Seriously, though?"

"We'll see what we see but do it clockwise if there isn't anything to catch our interest."

"You think the anomaly will be on us instantly?"

"Maybe. I think if the way out was clear, people would have made it out – or at least to these locked gates." He unlocked them with the override card and, as he said, there was no one waiting on the other side for rescue. "That has me thinking the way out is blocked off. Unless an anomalous aspect is keeping people inside for some reason."

They passed through the last barred door and into the prison proper. Posters on the walls detailed security measures and also included a picture of a guard and inmate with arms on each other's shoulders. Below it a tagline read: Not your enemy. Some effort to minimise possible violence, she supposed.

What there wasn't was dead bodies, eldritch monsters or anything else to drive them to action.

"Everything looks clean." Jaune poked his head out to look left and right. "No signs of struggle or instability. That worries me more than a corridor filled with the dead."

It was almost always worse when they couldn't see what the anomaly was doing. That meant it might already be exerting its influence on them. Jaune scanned the far ends of the corridor with his gun. The lights were all off, power gone, but the open-air central square of the building created enough natural light to keep the place well-lit during the day, and the prison didn't need to bar and close its inward-facing windows.

He motioned them left, to begin their clockwise sweep. Blake went first, aura up, and Jaune walked slowly behind her with the SMG raised and pointing backwards down the corridor. They moved slow, Blake making sure not to outpace Jaune's careful backwards steps. On the left and right, jail cells were left empty, their barred doors open. Either the anomaly had broken loose during a time when everyone was allowed out, or the guards had released everyone to try and buy them time to escape.

The door ahead led to the cafeteria from what Blake recalled. The sign above it confirmed that when they got close. Blake nudged the door open and slipped through, Gambol Shroud at the ready.

"It's clear. Nothing here."

"Again?" Jaune came in after her and finally lowered his gun. "That's not good. Where is everyone?"

The cafeteria wasn't exactly spotless. Chairs and tables had been turned over suggesting a mad rush to get out, and food lay splattered among plastic green trays across the floor. The food in the kitchen area was still relatively fresh. Cold by now but not having been left long enough to rot. The door to it, normally locked to protect the serving staff, was left open.

"It looks like inmates and staff alike fled." Jaune paced across the room, avoiding the trash on the floor. There was a staircase in the corner, as promised, which he pointed his gun up. "We should continue on the ground floor before going up."

The next corridor was a marked change.

"Fuck—" Blake hissed, one step out the door. Where there had been pristine corridors before, now blood was everywhere. Blood and viscera caking the walls, and several dead bodies. Too few to create so much gore.

"That's a sudden change," Jaune remarked, nose pinched. "So, they ran this way and were killed. Why not run for the exit? The other way was clear."

"Unless the anomaly came from that direction and chased them this way."

"True. Be care—"

"DON'T MOVE!"

At the far end of the corridor, through the door that connected to the med bay, two men in bright orange jumpsuits pointed shotguns their way. Blake shoved Jaune behind her so her aura would tank it, and shouted back, "VPD! Put your weapons down!"

"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" a large, bald man shouted back.

Something about that line tickled Blake's mind. He sounded… panicked. Which made sense given he was an inmate with a gun facing what he thought were police officers, but there was no way a shotgun had caused this much gore. Not unless it was swallowed and shot within someone's body.

Blake lowered her weapon. Her aura would protect her either way. "What happens if we come closer?" she asked.

"The thing will take you."

The other man, smaller, thinner, kept his gun trained, but she noticed it wasn't aimed at them. It was aimed slightly too high. Blake looked up. There were several narrow holes in the ceiling. Each about the size of an arm in width. Blake nudged Jaune and pointed upward.

"It come from there?"

"Yeah. Comes from above. Tears your head right off your fucking shoulders. We don't know what it is. Some Grimm maybe." The man had to keep shouting to be heard down the corridor. "We've got wounded here. No way we can get them out."

It was on the first floor, then. Or second.

"I could try and get through," Blake whispered. "I have aura. Only problem is you won't be able to follow."

Jaune shook his head. "Not worth it." He raised his own voice. "Are you safe for now? How many of you are there?"

"Sixty inmates and ten guards," the bald man shouted back. "But the guards are hurt. They raced through the prison getting us out cells and took a beating for it. Half of them died and we were barely able to drag the other half here. The doctor is alive and doing his best with 'em, but one has lost a leg and needs to get to a hospital."

"We're here to deal with the Grimm," Jaune assured them. "Can you tell us anything about it?"

"Never saw the body. It has tendrils. Tentacles. But not like a squid. Like… They're like chains, but flesh. Literal chain links made of flesh and bone, with holes in the middle and everything. They come down and wrap around people. Arm, leg, neck." He shook his head. "Then they pull. Some get ripped in half. Others choke and hang. I saw one man smashed against the ceiling as it tried to drag him through one of those fucking holes. Kept smashing and smashing until he was crushed to pulp."

Ugh. Lovely.

"Thank you for your information. Stay there and we'll deal with this. The police are outside ready to evacuate you and offer medical attention. One squad was sent in but hasn't responded. Did you see them?"

The man shook his head. "Didn't come this way. Must have gone the other way around. Oh, there's one more thing! It's why we're still alive. For some reason the chains don't hit certain rooms. Ceiling here is same as anywhere else but they haven't tried hurting us. Same for the cafeteria now I think of it. The chains came down the stairs from above and we panicked, but they never came through the roof of it."

"That matches what we saw," Blake said. "Some limitation, perhaps?"

"Maybe." Jaune whispered back, then shouted, "Thank you! We'll do our best to get you out soon. Stay there where it's safe for now. Don't take any risks."

The inmates nodded but didn't close the door. They kept their guns trained on the ceiling, likely to see and shoot any chains that tried to come down and then sneak into the medical bay via the door. If they could come down the stairs into the cafeteria, they could do the same with the infirmary area.

Blake and Jaune headed back into the cafeteria and closed the door behind them.

"Chains might be symbolic of a prison," Jaune said. "Our man transforming in a prison might have had an influence on him. Feelings of restraint. Fear of being chained up. Him killing guards makes sense if he hates them, but the other inmates as well suggests he's become indiscriminate."

"Why spare certain rooms?"

"No idea. It's probably not an intentional thing. Some lingering hold-out from his human mind influencing behaviour. Maybe because it's wrong to hurt doctors. I know that doesn't explain the cafeteria, but it's all I have."

"The entrance hall was clear as well. We'd have seen holes in the roof."

"I know. I'm guessing." Jaune nodded to the staircase. "We're going to have to go up."

"You don't want to head the other way and see if we can find Captain Ash's team?"

Jaune grimaced. That was enough. They both knew the odds of finding that team alive were slim now, especially if they'd come across the chains.

"Upstairs," he decided.

Blake ascended first.

/-/

The first floor was practically a repeat of the ground floor, at least with regards to the corridors north and east of the corner of the prison they were in. Blood, bodies, but also holes in the ceiling, suggesting the anomaly itself was housed on the second floor of the prison. Right at the top. The room directly above the cafeteria was an indoor recreation and common room for the inmates. It wouldn't have made sense for anywhere more official than that to exist directly above the cafeteria.

Unlike the cafeteria, it had a lot of damage done to it, including holes in the ceiling that Jaune and Blake did their best to avoid. Obviously, there was nothing stopping the chains punching down through the corner complex. Only they couldn't do so to the cafeteria and infirmary itself.

A rustle nearby had Blake spinning and pointing her gun. "Who's there?"

"C—Chill. Chill." A man slowly stood from behind an overturned sofa. An inmate in orange. Around thirty, black, with short fuzzy hair and a terrified expression. "And quiet," he whispered. "Please. It might hear you."

Blake lowered her weapon.

Jaune approached the man. "Are you hurt, sir? Are you injured?"

"No. No, man. I'm alive. Somehow. When shit kicked off, I was up here and didn't dare move. Froze stiff. Might have saved my life. The chains didn't see me. Or hear me."

"Do they only react to movement…?"

"I don't know, man. Maybe." He shrugged. "I wasn't gonna question my luck. I'm starving, though. Don't dare go downstairs for food or water."

"The cafeteria is actually one of the safest parts of the building right now, so you're safe for that," Blake told him. "But we'd like to ask you a few questions first if that's all right."

"Shoot. Uh. Not literally but… you know. Name's Mack."

"Agent Belladonna." Blake holstered her weapon to calm him down. "Did the chains that went downstairs come from the ceiling or the doors?"

"Both. But I heard one hell of a ruckus in the corridors outside before they did. Screaming, shouting, and then the alarms went off. Not the fire alarms or the ones for prisoner violence, but the emergency one. We're told it's for when natural disasters happen or threat of a Grimm attack."

"What's the advice when that sounds?"

"Get to safety and hunker down. Comply with all orders from security. I was already here so I decided to stay, and then when that shit started spewing into the room with blood all over it, I panicked and didn't dare move. Heard everyone downstairs start screaming and running."

"Did any other inmates or guards come this way?"

"No. No, they'd have been mad to. Bloody chains everywhere. There are staircases on every corner, though. Maybe they took one of those. I hope so. I heard the emergency release on the cells going off. Only guards can do that. They released those of us still locked up."

"They were trying to save your lives."

Mack nodded. He didn't seem surprised. "They're good folk. This place isn't too violent, you know? Most of the guards and inmates are on first-name terms. The inmates aren't in here for big crimes. I'm here on drugs. We get some people in for assault every now and then, but it's first-time offenders."

"Tell me, Mack." Jaune stepped in. "Do you know of a prisoner called Mark Green? He'd have been new. Not even in trial yet."

"I know of him."

"Infamous?"

"Weird, more like. Guards were hush-hush on what he was in for. Told us to stop asking. That usually means it's bad but can't have been too dangerous if he was here so people let it go. But the kid… well, he seemed to think we wouldn't let it go."

"He was afraid?"

"Absolute panic. Total paranoia. Some of the guys went up to talk to him. Not to threaten," he assured them, hands raised. "Just to try and ease him in. He started screaming. Told them not to come near him. The guys backed off before the guards could think they'd done wrong, but most people started avoiding him after. He would flinch whenever someone came near. Would press his back to the wall in the showers." Mack rolled his eyes. "Kid had seen too many shows about prison."

"He had unrealistic expectations, then?"

"Yeah. Seemed to think this was like one of them nuthouses from the movies. The ones where you gotta find the meanest man on day one and slug 'em. Big Rich is the biggest and meanest here. Drunk driving. Killed a mother and child by accident. He still has nightmares about it, wakes up crying and apologising most mornings. Man would sooner die than hurt someone again."

"But Mark assumed the worst of everyone."

"Hmhm. I overheard him shouting to the guards about how he didn't belong here, how this was all a mistake. Thing is, we knew he wasn't even convicted yet. Could have been innocent for all we knew. None of us wanted it on record that we threatened an innocent man, even if that record was just him being hysterical, so we kept out his way. I figured he'd calm down after a week or two. Realise no one gives a shit if you drop the soap."

"Did he show any signs of mental instability recently?"

Mack hummed. "Now I didn't see or hear this, but I know a man who has a cell two down from his. Said the nutter was talking to someone late at night. Didn't think much of it, though. Could have been talking to himself or making up an imaginary friend. A lot of people get freaked when they're locked up. Losing your freedom can shake a man. Make them act a little crazy." He offered a shrug. "Sometimes it takes time for them to accept it, but they usually do. People adapt. Get used to things."

"Last question. Do you know where his cell was?"

"I know where my friend's was. Top floor, north wing. You're in south-west corner right now, so you go up another floor and take the corridor that way." He pointed. "And then you carry on to storage before taking a right. His is on the block facing outward. It'll be on your left. About halfway down. But you realise this place has gone mad, right? People being torn apart out there and it's just the two of you? Call the huntsmen, man."

"I'm a huntress. Don't worry."

"You?" He looked Blake up and down. "Huh. Okay, then. Do I squat here or…?"

"No." Jaune tapped Blake's arm. "Take him out to Captain Ash and see him to safety, then come back in."

"Uh. No." Blake stared back at him. "I'm the one with aura and that corridor is clear. You take him out while I hold this incredibly dangerous position. There are holes in the ceiling here, Jaune. You'll die."

He looked like he wanted to argue, then changed his mind. Jaune took the man downstairs and left, no doubt giving him a verbal report to deliver to Captain Ash. Blake took the spot by the staircase to hold, so she'd have a way down and out if things got bad. The holes in the ceiling were spaced in such a way as to make it difficult to keep an eye on them and both doors at the same time, so she backed into the staircase proper.

Crunch—

Blake's ears twitched forward. The sound had come from ahead, in the room, and above, but it was the dust falling out one of the holes that made it more obvious. Little bits of concrete dust sprinkled down as something worked its way through the hole, scraping against the walls of it and causing the mess. Blake raised Gambol Shroud, ready to fire.

It was a glistening red chain-link that poked out the hole. It was slimy and reflective, gory, with white dust spotted across it that had been picked up by it boring through the roof. Like a worm poking its head out the hole, it seemed to look around the common room. Apparently seeing nothing, it snaked its way out, revealing more fleshy links as the inmates downstairs had described. It slowly came out, revealing more and more of itself until the chain draped from the ceiling to the floor. About twelve feet in length.

It should have seen me. Guess that means it doesn't have eyes.

Blake curiously moved her arm. Just a little at first, but then more, moving it slowly but meaningfully from left to right as if she were waving. The chain didn't react.

The body is on the top floor. These are extensions, like fingers. It makes sense that the anomaly has to locate people to kill them. It's not eyesight or some movement-based sensing either. That only leaves sound.

Discharging her weapon would be the wrong move. It'd lure the chain to her and panic Jaune into running back. She'd have loved to slide out her clip and toss that, but even the click of her doing so might be enough.

So, Blake summoned a clone through her Semblance. It wasn't a living creature, but its flat expression seemed to convey a lot of personality – and its feelings about her plan – when she shoved it out the staircase and into the common room. The clone fell to the floor face first, landing on her hands.

THUMP!

SHINK!

The chain twitched and stabbed down. Her clones weren't made to be resilient. In fact, they were less resilient than a baby. They lacked real skin, muscles, bone and all those things that made a body what it was, so the chain pierced the clone's back with ease. It vanished after taking lethal damage since she hadn't used any dust when she activated it, leaving the chain almost confused.

That confusion had it poking around the room, maybe searching for the origin of the whispered conversation they'd had with Mack, before it withdrew back up the floor above. Drops of blood across the floor left by its oozing links were the only evidence.

Once it was clear, Blake crept down and met Jaune on the way up.

"I saw it," she whispered. "It's drawn by sound."

His eyebrows rose and he drew out his scroll, flicking it first to silent and then typing out a message for her.

"Captain Ash will use drones to deliver food and medicine to inmates. Won't enter until anomaly is dead."

Blake nodded, then reached out to tap the pommel of Jaune's weapon. Crocea Mors, being an anomaly itself, might be especially useful here. He nodded and loosened it, wincing at the bright, searing light that for even a fraction of a second burned at their retinas.

Blake pointed at herself, then the room, then the ceiling, before finally to him and mimicking the swinging of a sword. Jaune looked against the idea but quickly agreed. She had aura, and that made her the only one who could safely do this.

Creeping out into the common room, Blake took a deep breath.

"Mark Green!" she shouted. "We're the ones who arrested you. Rachel sends her regards!"

The whole room began to shake, raining concrete dust and powder from the ceiling.

Next Chapter: 17th March

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