Redemption

Chapter 1: The Abduction

"There will be no redemption because the men who run this place do not want redemption. They want to be as near to hell as they can."- Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist

Chapter 1: The Abduction

    Chief Security Officer of Westbrook Asylum, Derrick Stone, sat causally with his feet propped up on his desk as he watched the security feeds from all seventy-six cameras that were sprawled out all over the asylum grounds. Derrick took another long, stiff swig of black coffee from his I Hate Mondays mug and closed his tired eyes for a second or two before struggling against his body's refusal to sit up straight in his chair. Derrick slowly reopened his eyes as he glanced at his wristwatch and sighed. He looked over to his left to see his fellow officer sprawled out on the security camera console, snoring like a disgruntled grizzly bear. Derrick rolled his eyes as he smirked at the sight before turning his attention back to the security feeds. Nothing extreme, or of vital importance, had happened in the past two months and in a way that should have put him at ease but, it didn't. Derrick had worked at the asylum for far too long to let his guard down even for a moment, because he knew exactly what this asylum was capable of; the bone-deep scar going diagonally across his upper chest reminded him of that.

        "Anything good on?" asked a voice coming from the already open security door.

   Officer Stone turned with a smile to see another one of his fellow officers walking into the room as he casually gave him a head nod.

      "Where have you been all night, Bates? You were supposed to be here hours ago."

    Officer Nicholas Bates shook his head at the response as he slumped down in one of the empty chairs and gave Stone a questionable smile.

     "Over in the Intensive Care Wing. Apparently one of the patients had been stealing medical supplies from one of the unlocked cabinets during his weekly physical assessment," Bates replied.

      "Who was it? Let me guess. Was it James Hartman?" Derrick asked.

    Bates didn't even have to answer as he grabbed Derrick's coffee mug and took a long swig from it.

"Did he say what he planned on using them for?"

    Bates shook his head as he remained silent and looked up at the security monitors.

   "If it's not one thing it's another," Derrick grumbled as he took his feet off of his desk and set them down onto the floor.

    "Afterward we had to stop a suicide in progress over in Cell Block A. Poor girl was so hyped up on painkillers; I doubt she even felt it when we had to wrestle her out of that noose," Bates said, his voice becoming grave and hushed. "Sometimes....Sometimes I wonder why we stop them."

    Derrick opened his mouth to speak but, quietly let it close as he noticed the tension that had just been created.

   "All she wanted was to make the pain go away, Stone. That's all she wanted...and we stopped her," Bates said, his voice shaking slightly.

   "You didn't stop her, Bates. You saved her. You can't blame yourself," Derrick reassured him.

   "Yeah, I..."

   Suddenly, an alarm sounded throughout the entire room, waking the sleeping officer and startling Derrick out of his seat. Derrick quickly scanned all of the security monitors looking for any sign of a disturbance and as he looked over the security feed to camera fifty-three, he saw what he was looking for.

   "The alarm is coming from down near the holding cells," Derrick shouted as he pushed past Bates and switched on his walkie-talkie. "This is Officer Stone. I need all available officers to the holding cells. This is a Code 424 breach in security.  I repeat, I need all available officers to the holding cells."