Chapter 4 [ The Mother of Strongholds ]

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The flight there was the easy thing. Barely any turbulence, no bad seats and amazing films. The worse thing was arriving in New York. How on earth do we get from New York to a desert? We seemed to be passing forests and motels, using the off-road paths. We were seated in an eight seater limousine. McKayla was busy examining the website of the prison whilst Darius was informing us of the incident. The sounds of pencil scribbling and the tires popping soon became distant to my ears as I was more focused on the information Darius was giving us.
"Listen up. The prison has been attacked." He spoke briefly.
"Wait, what?" McKayla looked up from her laptop.
"Recently, murders have been popping up more frequently. Now, these murders aren't just regular knife fighting between criminals. These fights include gunshot wounds." Darius informed.
"Then it had to be one of your men, right?" I guessed.
"No, Imperial State guards carry long-range tasers -so it says on the file." McKayla corrected me.
"She's right. Witnesses say that it was someone hidden beneath a long cloak. This cloaked killer has been targeting people of a certain gang: Krucial." Darius said.
"The first murder happened during lights out; January 23rd. I was fast asleep in my room, -the same with the criminals- that's when I heard a sudden bang. I called all night-shift guards towards the scenery through my radio as I grabbed my gun and flashlight. I saw the body for myself. He was left on the floor, bleeding out all his guts." He described.
"It makes sense that he did it at lights out, he didn't want to be seen coming in or heading out. What I'm pondering about is how he smuggled a gun through the section of the prison without getting seen by the guards..." I highlighted.
"Except he didn't only strike at lights out, the next one was at lunch. Our most dangerous criminals were held within their own cells. Apparently, my guards had been told by a superior guard that they were relieved of duty. That's when he shot the gang member in the stomach. He's alive and is holding up in the hospital. The doctors say he might live and will have to go to a different prison if he does. Yet, I have no belief in him coming back to life. The sad part was that he was one of our criminals that gave us intel on where the other members were." Darius said.
"If it's someone that gave off intel that was killed, perhaps the murderer is a gang member that doesn't want to be found?" McKayla pointed out.
"You're probably right, that's why we've put every gang member into solitary." Darius confirmed.

"So? Was there another murder?" I asked.
"Yes there was. This one happened in the shower room. The gang was asked to shower all together after everyone else was finished. The doors were heavily guarded and there were no windows to come through. Still, on that day, we counted 11 gang members instead of the usual ten. The killer managed to sneak in as one of the gang members and not get noticed. This time, a gun wasn't used. Since we've recently had a problem with our water supply; it's still here today. Each bathroom has a switch that is used to be turned on. I'm guessing that the killer fiddled with the switch and turned it into boiling water, burning one of the gang members."
"This one is quite smart..." McKayla noted.
"Except the cloak, did the cameras get a good look on the killer?" I asked.
"Cameras?..." Darius' eyes widened a bit.
"Yes, the cameras! They had to have seen what the killer looked like!" McKayla slammed me on the back.
"Oh, yes. The cameras!" Darius realised something.

"Driver! Blind the windows!" McKayla clicked.
"I took a look at the architecture from one of the files of the prison. The ground from the parking lot is a bit softer than the land surrounding the prison and the soft ground leads all the way up to..." She pointed at the screen at the back of the Limousine.
"The laundry room!" I jumped up before hitting my head against the roof.
"But wouldn't it still take a lot of work to get through all that cement and dirt? Plus, the fact of not wanting to be heard or noticed doesn't help either." I asked.
"I don't know what to say... What about you Darius; do you have any clue?" McKayla diverted the question towards Darius.

The man was silent.

"Darius?" I waved my hand in front of his eyes.
"Huh? Oh." He jumped back, " We've had construction going on near the laundry room; maybe that's it." Darius said bluntly.
"We'll there was one more murder though..." Darius mentioned.
"Then say! What happened this time?" I leaned forward, eager to hear more.
"This one happened in clear day. Cloak had to kill many guards just to get pass a fence. Instead of a gun he had a melee weapon. It was a black and red patterned knife with a crack on the blade. Although, it was covered in blood, so no one was able to see it at all. I was in my office finishing my paperwork for the construction work. Apparently, cloak guy was able to manoeuvre around the bullets and past the crowd muscled men with weights. He killed everyone standing in his way. The total killed was 19 people and 7 injured, just until he could cut the head off a gang member. It was so gruesome... I never want to see it again..." He described.

"I thought..." McKayla covered my mouth before I could say the rest.
"Thanks for the detail, we'll interview the rest of the suspects." McKayla closed her laptop with a smile.
"You're here!" The driver rolled down the cover blind from his seat.
We all headed out of limousine, carrying files and a pile of notes. The doors swung open revealing a desecrated desert. Cacti and scorpions scattered around the desert, all dead still. The sand invaded the rubble road; only the tire marks were to be seen. Behind us stood a metallic fence, barbed and spiked, ready to electrocute anyone who dared to climb over. As said, construction workers swarmed the corner of the building, finishing off one of the cells. That place was heavily guarded -perhaps because of the laundry incident. An 15 foot gate stood before us. Pass that was a path towards the prison, surrounded by cinder blocks and armed men with several guard dogs. Towers overhead looked down upon the yard and desert. The prison was split into sections. The front was the yard and entrance to the prison. At the main entrance held a reception and stale wooden seats at the sides. People looked gloomy, some carried flowers and the rest carried duffel bags. At the end of the reception was a large steel door guarding by two men with Ak-47s. That was section one. The next one had a patio in the middle with a glass ceiling. Surrounding the patio were guards with batons in their hand and tasers by their wastes. Pillars held the format of stone pathway beyond the cell doors. These cells belonged to the lower criminals. But don't let your guard down, these people were still criminals with high records. Not to far off, the hallways were split into their little tributaries. Each one contained the main parts of a prison; cafeteria, showers, cells etc. The next steel doors were guarded by 4 men with tasers. Pass those doors claimed the same rooms as before but carried punishment rooms. Each one was more excruciating than the other. They all had glass windows to show examples of each punishments. A room was blazing hot, filled fog and smoke. The next had guards with metal batons slamming them against the head a criminal. The others only got worse until it led to the next pair of steel doors; the highest level of criminals. This one had an elevator leading up to it. These doors were guarding by 8 men with shotguns and M45s by their sides -two even held riot shields by their sides. The elevator pulled apart to reveal two men in suits, coming to collect us. They brought us to the top floor, which had the solitary confinement rooms and the warden's office along with all the gang members, before handing us three sets of ammo for 2 G17s and 1 shotgun for me. We ambled passed barricaded doors with swat forces guarding the hallways. Darius had a concerning look on his face. It was as if he regretted asking for us. McKayla pulled me by the shoulder.

"Whatever you do, just be careful of the warden..." she uttered behind her hand.
"This is your room!" Darius turned around, pointing at one of the solitary confinement rooms.
"But isn't this solitary?" I asked.
"It is sadly. We don't serve any rooms in here; it's a prison." Darius stated bluntly.
"But not to worry! We've sent in a bed and clothes to wear! Plus, we have a private bathroom for you guys to use. The room has a board for the notes and clue you all are collecting." Darius informed us.
"What about wifi?" McKayla asked.
"We've set up wifi and a laptop connected to the prison's security system!" Darius answered.
"Wait a minute." I paused.
"You said 'A' bed, not TWO beds." I implied worriedly.
"About that, sadly we tried to minimise some of the objects in your room so you enough space for files and everything." Darius grinned.
"Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh..." my mind went blank.
Me and McKayla had to share a room, let alone a bed! I already left my Camero back in Britain, now I have to leave my dignity too? McKayla looked absolutely disgusted, but I can't blame her.
"Well, how about you guys go explore!" Darius insisted.

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