The Cage (Book 2)

Break In

The next part is already on Ritoria! 

Break In

I was wrong. Someone wasn't trying to break out of prison.

Someone was trying to break in.

Flabbergasted, I stared at the footage on the CCTV with saucer-eyes. Was this really happening? The blaring sirens made it difficult to deny the truth right in front of my eyes.

"What is he doing? Is he for real?" Cherry leaned closer to the old screen depicting the scene with his eyes squinted, wanting to get a better look at our mystery guy.

The mystery guy in question was a very big man wielding what looked to be a crowbar. According to the guards, he'd arrived here on a boat like the rest of us, but since there wasn't a prisoner transport today, had to have walked his way from the eastern side of the island to one of three gates to the facility. The gate he'd broken through was the smallest; the one guards used to enter and leave through once their shifts ended every two weeks.

"He can't be serious." Alarmed, Cherry looked to me for guidance. But I was stumped. Completely and utterly stumped. In any case, this wasn't really my concern. Was it?

"What do you want me to do? Let the guards handle it." I spoke my mind, my eyes still on the TV.

We watched in growing admiration mixed with a bit of horror as the intruder shattered the lock on the wire hinged doors with the crowbar and swung them wide open.

Screaming guards came at him from left and right.

Either the guards were severely incompetent, or the mystery guy was overpowered, because in less than a minute, he subdued them all. None of them used lethal force. Perhaps they should have; not a single guard stood a chance against him. Like flies, he swatted them away, littering the outer courtyard with their unconscious bodies. It was truly a sight to behold. Was he ex-military? Marine? SWAT? Only a warrior moved like that, with precision and speed and determination.

"Jesus Christ." For the first time, I witnessed Cherry cross himself. He looked genuinely terrified.

The old TV monitors were from a bygone age, so it was difficult to make out any of the intruder's facial expressions-

A shiver raced down my spine.

It couldn't be.

The first few moments, I felt nothing. It was as if I was waiting for the impact of an oncoming car. My mind for the first time in a long time was eerily quiet.

And then all my thoughts and emotions came crashing down at me, and I was drowning, drowning, drowning...

"Julian!" Cherry snapped me back to the present.

"What?" I mumbled, still shaken.

Could it really be him? After all this time?

"He's in the building!" Cherry announced, and I realized I'd been staring at the wrong screen. He was indeed no longer in the courtyard. His shadow flashed in another TV showing the front of the prison near the admission office and inspection room, confirming Cherry's words.

"What the hell does this guy want?" From the way Cherry was panicking, one would think the intruder was coming for him.

No, he wasn't here for Cherry. He was here...

For me?

A cold wave washed over me. My heart started to thunder against my ribcage and my stomach rolled over and over until I felt like emptying it. I became a nervous wreck.

I practically shoved my face into the TV to get a better look at him. He seemed to be aware of the cameras' locations, always standing where the shadows were, or in the edges of the camera, making it impossible to make out his face.

Only someone who'd been here before would know each camera's location.

My heart squeezed mid-gallop

The alarms blared on.

Another wave of guards confronted the intruder, and they proved just as useless as the first wave.

This time, however, he spared one guard. He gripped him by the neck, lifting him off the ground in an impressive feat of strength.

He appeared to be interrogating him.

The poor guard kicked his feet in the air, helpless and terrified.

What was he asking him?

Whatever it was, it seemed he got his answer, because he tossed the poor guard aside like a ragdoll and continued in his path of destruction.

Could it really be him?

What if it was?

What would I do?

Why was he back after so long?

Did I dare-

I crushed the thought before it reared its ugly head. Hope like that was a dangerous thing. I would truly be foolish to allow myself to feel anything until I knew for a fact what the hell was going on, and if this was really him or not.

"He's coming here!" Cherry all but screamed in alarm, startling me out of my musings as he whirled to face the guards room's door. "Should we bar the door with a chair?"

Absent-mindedly, I said, "I don't think that'll work with him."

"Fuck! Isn't there a taser or a gun in here we can use?"

"Calm down." I stepped in front of Cherry, shielding him from the door as well as to shield the intruder from Cherry in case he did something stupid.

If he really was coming here, then the moment of truth was close at hand.

Outside the room, the sound of heavy footfalls on the metal catwalk echoed.

My heart thumped in my throat. It was all I could do not to show my nervous shaking.

A shadow appeared from under the doorway.

The door handle lowered open.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

WHO COULD IT BE?!

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