(Mikey? No son, chicken.)
Reaching up towards the shackles holding Mikey up, JJ took out his knife that was on him and started to saw away at them. As he did so, he felt a graze over his leg. Refusing to get distracted, he kept going, and eventually changed his method to aggressive bashing the shackles.
This seemed to start working, and soon, he got one undone. As he was halfway done with the final one, he felt another graze over his leg. Accidentally looking down, he saw Mikey weakly directing his attention to something behind him, and he looked back, only to see the same guy he'd previously encountered on the same railing.
"You seem to be interested in this process! Mind if I let you have the full experience?"
Suddenly under twice the pressure, JJ continued at the last shackle, and eventually snapped it apart. Mikey abruptly crashed down onto the rail, and JJ instantly shoved him off and onto the floor where it was safe. As he was about to jump down too, he heard a shouting coming from not too far away.
"Who needs shackles? The electrified water should do just fine for you!"
Just when he got too close, JJ grabbed him by his coat and threw him down, causing him to hit his head. Then, JJ got down, and after a few long seconds of watching, the man was let off into a pit of electrified water, and his body instantly sunk inside.
Desprate to get out of the room, JJ picked up Mikey and hauled him away. When they got into the place where JJ had killed another guy with a syringe, he saw the third person who he'd forcefully hit unconscious.
Rage still churning inside of him for what they'd done to Connor and tried to do to Mikey, JJ got an idea.
"He isn't dead; he's just knocked out." JJ observed, gently laying Mikey down, and taking out his knife. "Something needs to be done about that."
He looked over the body, pondering how to go about this. As he thought about it, he suddenly heard shifting coming from behind him, but didn't turn around.
"JJ..." Mikey's voice sounded weak and faint; almost inaudible. "Don't... let's just..."
Firmly disagreeing with doing anything else, JJ didn't respond to this, and promptly dug his knife into the person's throat. He carved a line straight down, and after that, dug even deeper and started to lift up parts of the flesh underneath. But before he could progress further, he felt someone watching him. He knew it was Mikey, and just then, he remembered the importance of getting out of here.
Hesitantly leaving behind what he started, he retrieved Mikey again. JJ heard him slightly whimper as he did so; the reason most likely being due to the residue on his hands. Deciding not to worry about that now, JJ only focused on escaping, and tried his best not to look at the body that he'd unfortunetly stopped working on.
The doors to leave didn't require a scanner from the inside, and opened automatically. Outside, people were crowded at the gate, and in front of them, was the fourth and final person - the one JJ had snuck past to get inside the building in the first place.
"Where are the others?" He demanded, and the crowd went quiet as he did. "What did you do to them?"
Deciding not to answer verbally, JJ set Mikey down again and went back through the door that had been yet to close. After a few tentious moments, JJ returned, hauling the two bodies, and stacked them on top of each other out in the open.
Not a word needing to be said, JJ resumed carrying Mikey. After making his way to the gate, he found himself right by the same guy who'd asked about his partners. He stared at the two bodies, apparently distracted by JJ's presence. The only thing keeping them in the same range, was the lacked ability for JJ to open the gate - even from the inside, it required a hand scanner.
"Open it." JJ muttered. Despite not averting his gaze, the man seemed to actually know he was there. He reached over with little effort and unlocked the gate using his hand on the scanner, and once JJ was out, the crowd silently parted to make way for both him and Mikey.
Their faces all seemed to wonder the same thing: "How did this happen?" But it was clear; the certain substance on his clothes didn't necessarily hide anything. Continuing on, the unsettling feeling of being watched only grew until one voice asked:
"Who's going to provide for us now?"
JJ stopped walking.
"Them together knew how to give us sources of food," Another guy added. "Without their strategies, how are we going to survive?"
"You won't."
The crowd went quiet again, and JJ resumed what he was doing.
"What a stupid question. Even if someone was there to murder and strip apart their own kind for others to feed off of, they would eventually die anyway. There's only so many people down here."
"Where are you going?" Another person blurted out. When JJ didn't respond, they started coming to their own conclusions. "There's another base, isn't there? Is there food there?"
At the mention of food, the people started to stirr.
"Can we follow you?"
"Please take us with you! We need food!"
"We'll die if we stay here!"
The people started to stream towards him, forming a loose circle. This quickly got overwhelming, and as they continued to shout and beg to be taken with on his journey back, JJ eventually broke under the pressure.
"Get back!" He snapped. "I'm going to save Mikey, not you disgusting creeps! My son is inside of all of you as we speak; I'll never help you! For what you've done to him, you starve and die! In fact, I want you to!"
This only made the crowd more rampant. At the realization that JJ wasn't going to willingly lead them back, they decided unanimously to go there themselves. They started to close in on JJ and Mikey, and, remembering that he still had his knife on him, resorted to the one thing he was used to.
Letting go of Mikey abruptly, JJ shrieked and lunged at the nearest person. He intended to slash their throat, but ended up cutting just below, causing them to reel back and instantly flee. Catching onto their behavior, everyone else started to follow suit as JJ continued to attack multiple people; sometimes directly killing them, and otherwise slashing dangerously close to their necks.
Even as the crowd dispersed and fled, JJ kept grabbing people and hurting them. At one point, JJ caught a young woman, and she instantly started to fight back. Seeing the resistance as a challenge, JJ striked her in the side of the head, and by the time she went limp, everyone had successfully escaped.
With the proper space to now breathe, JJ casually picked up where he left off. As he approached Mikey, he noticed that he looked even weaker and unmoving.
"The drugs are setting in." He realized. "Who knows how long they'll last for? Well, at least I took care of the monsters who caused this for him."
JJ kneeled down and went to lift Mikey up, but it was only then that he saw something in his eyes. Despite being weak with drugs, Mikey's expression could still capture what JJ knew all too well to be pure terror.
Looking down, JJ observed that the same hands that he was about to touch Mikey with had blood sticking to them.
"Don't worry," JJ falsely soothed. "This is nothing; it'll be washed away by the time we're back in bed together. Just ignore it."
As he reached forward and gained a firm hold around Mikey's waist, his expression didn't falter.
