A Crumbling Society

Part 3-13

Phaser

Contemplating what to do and on who should answer the door we quickly returned the room to normal. Filing cabinets got shut and I turned the monitor back to the whole prison. I took a deep breath and got up out of the chair, looking at the other two to keep calm I slowly opened the door. A guard was standing there looking at me, I had to play it off and asked, "yes sir?". He said he was here to check on us and our progress with the system. Telling him it was going well didn't seem to stick and then he asked if we were going to let him in. Opening the door as wide as it went, I invited him in with ease, even though it seemed off. A quick glance at the guards outside and they were watching us, a little too hard. Closing the door behind me our guy walked around the room steadily, examining every inch he could put his eyes on. I dared not look at the girls, something told me if I did it would set him off. "We just finished checking the power levels on the energy system, the controls for air and door frames, we are about to start on lock systems and then move onto the cameras to check for any malfunctions", I lied out of my ass. He gave a slight eyebrow nod as if he had a realization and then said "okay". Standing there not moving nobody knew what to do, it was awkward but could determine if we ruin this or not. "Continue", he said in a creepy tone like I had to prove to him what we were doing. This was when I exchanged looks to the girls to imply, "just go with it, but really act like you're doing something". Vortex grabbed the blueprints of the current floorplan and read off different sections to the prison for us to check the footage. Hummingbird began searching the camera log and pulled up each one that was named. She stated that they all checked out, I took my seat again and pulled up the computer log to search through the recordings. It was a databank of all footage, and I ran a system report, my computer classes from college paid off here. The girls continued and I waited for the results, the man slinked around watching us. After fifteen minutes went by, he said "okay, you have a good time" and made his way back to the door. I still didn't want to make eye contact again until he left just in case. The door clicked from the handle, and we waited eagerly but it did not open. "Oh", he said, "by the way, you told me you were doing that after the lock systems".

Having to come up with something on the fly was pretty difficult considering I didn't know if this meant we had been found out. He could have wanted to pick a fight anyway, but it was still alarming. Even if we fought, the question of the other guards coming in could set us in a whole different direction too. Of course, my train of thought was over when he cocked the gun and placed it at my back. "You're lying to me", the man said with anger building in his words. "I don't like liars", he stated before laughing freakishly. Something must be really wrong with him in the head but in a world like this, I'm not surprised he fits in with the inmates. Still laughing and pressing the gun harder, I told him to just shoot me, you could hear the girls' unease as I said it. "Oh, you wanna be brave then huh, well here at Xicot we don't do heroes", and he clicked the gun. His hellish laugh spewed around the room until he realized something. Nothing happened, he pulled the trigger once more but still the gun didn't' work. As he pulled it away to examine if it was loaded, he opened the barrel revealing it was empty. "You brought a standard issue gun with you in a room with three people when you guys normally use blasters. The thing about that is that I took your bullets out for you so that you were rendered useless upon entering", I told him. He looked pissed and dumbfounded but I struck a nerve. Placing my hand out before him the bullets appeared from my smoke that I use to phase through objects. "You're a- ", he managed before I spoke over him saying, "girls", giving a signal. They picked up on it quickly and Hummingbird locked the door while Vortex got ready to fight. Clocking me in the face with the gun quicker than I anticipated he got me. Vortex full on ran over and punched him sideways to which hummingbird chimed in and threw an elbow at him. He hit the floor but moved fast, getting out of the way he recovered. Hiding behind one of the bulky hard drives he taunted us. My moment of being taken aback by his hit was over now. "Wait until the others see what I've got", he bragged, but hummingbird retorted. "You've got nothing" she teased, "I got your radio so your friends are oblivious and can't help you". You could hear his response of being mad, but he decided to try and attack again. Now he came in, fists drawn at about his chest. Unfortunately for him we were ready, hummingbird tapped his shoulder and shrunk out of the way. As he turned Vortex clocked him again spinning him to face me. Hummingbird clipped him in the legs from behind and threw him to his knees. This is where I grabbed the back of his head and forced my right knee into his face. Rendering him unconscious he fell sideways with blood coming from his nose. "Good work!", I told them, and they were starting to drag his body out of the way.