Chapter 4: Prison
Of course, on the way, prisoners and chained, they realized that Christian was missing. But it seemed that the military ignored its existence, or that they confused it with Daryl because of its size, because they made no remark. Sarah was crying silently, but Ben was confident. His son had survived a week almost alone to join Atlanta from his vacation camps in the Rockies at the start of the apocalypse, when he was only 8 years old. This story, he always told it with a strange mixture of grandiloquent pride and empathy for a son who had to go through traumatic ordeals so young. He told it with a strange light in his eyes as if his confidence in his offspring had no limits. Daryl noticed that it was the same gleam burning in his eyes at that moment, in the military car. Concerning him, he had felt the boy’s breath behind him, just before his presence passed out. During the past year, he had taught her everything about concealment, mastering silence, strategy games, and nature. He was also trusting in the boy.
After an hour’s drive at a surprisingly high speed, they got out of the cars and walked to a bunker, located next to a disused industrial area , at the top of a hill. The kind of place Daryl never went, because nature was dead there and because it was the first place that the soldiers had requisitioned when they lost control in the face of the millions of bodies that surged in front of their weapons. They were taken to a medium-sized room, which appeared to be the office of the head of the dissident regiment. The man with the mustache received them. “Hello citizens, my name is Commander Ramsey. Congratulations on having escaped our survivor detection services for so long, citizens. We have been tracking you for weeks, and I must admit that it was very clever to place your camp in the middle of the forest, but once we had detected you, you were made like rats. However, this achievement shows how important you can be in the reconquest of the world that will start here in Indiana. I wish you a welcome to Camp Ronald Reagan. Here, it’s very simple, I order, you obey. Is that clear? “.
Silence.
“Ok Officer bring me a recalcitrant prisoner. Quick!” The man called out returned a few minutes later with a man, in his fifties, ragged, with a crazy look, who was more dragged than he was helped to walk. Commander Ramsey looked at him, and asked him firmly, “Have you decided to obey?” The man fixed his eyes on his mustache and laughed. The commander drew his Glock from his belt and in the same movement stuck two bullets in his head.
Daryl was flabbergasted. How can you have the audacity to shoot in this situation, in your own hideout? The building was underground, but still, the sound could be heard. The Commander turned to the group and pointed his weapon at Eva’s head. “To be clear, I am your God. Here I have the right to life and death over all of you. What is your choice?”. “We will collaborate”. The flame in Ben’s eyes hadn’t gone out. The Commander seemed surprised by the assurance of the colossal figure in front of him, in front of which he himself seemed small. He pointed to Ben. “You, you come with me, we’ll see what we can do with you. For the rest, the officer will take you to your quarters.”
Eva, Sarah, the Old Goldblum, and Daryl were in fact led to an old padded cell with rotten and torn off cushions, closed by a grid. A puddle of black blood was languishing in a corner, which showed that at the beginning of the apocalypse, this room had been used to imprison some Others for military experiments. At the back of the cell, two half-ghostly figures stood out from the dark wall. Daryl stepped closer and realized that he was actually in front of him a very old man and an extremely thin girl. The man looked at him with curiosity, but the girl seemed suspicious and drew a blade from his boot. “Wow, I don’t want to hurt you, calm down.” She replied, “What if I’m the one who wants to hurt you?”. A quavering and weak voice was heard: “It won’t be necessary. This young man is not a member of madmen”. The girl frowned. “Are you sure, father? I have a bad feeling about him.” “Wow, we don’t know each other, can you calm down, you’re a bit young to threaten me”. “Do not speak thus to my daughter, young man. You seem wise, but do not push her to the end, she could skin you alive.”.
The tension was mounting, and Sarah finally intervened: “Oh, calm down ladies and gentlemen. We will stay here for a long time, stay calm”. The old man looked at her, then looked at everyone in the cell, and just said, “I wouldn’t be so sure about it. The world is cracking. It’s coming.” Daryl’s eye lit up. “What do you mean?”. “I would like to tell you more, but I think someone is waiting for you on the other side.”. The Old Goldblum got a little angry: “Is it a threat?”. The old man laughed, shook his head, then reached for a target behind their backs. Everyone turned around. “So I wouldn’t want to disturb you,” said a triumphant Christian, holding a set of keys in his hand, “but I’m afraid that one of the soldiers wake up from his hangover, can we go now ?”
As they progressed down the hall, Christian explained that the military have small speakers that perpetually transmit footsteps sound all around the hill. “That’s why they allow themselves anything”. Daryl was able to approach the old Goldblum. “Joseph, did you hear what that old man said?” He smiled “Haha, it’s funny, suddenly I’m not the only old man in town.” Then he becomes serious again. “Yes. This is completely in line with our research. Word of a prehistoric seismologist, this old man knows something about the transformation of basements that we still ignore.” Daryl moved closer to the youth girl. He saw that she had brown hair, and despite her deeply thinned appearance, he found her rather pretty. He clears his throat: “Hey, uh, so, haha, tell me, how long have you been stuck here?”. She lifted an eyelash: “2 months. My name is Cleo. I am 29. Here is my father, Noah. Can you focus on our escape now, Don Juan?” Humiliated, Daryl accelerated to find himself at the head of the group. He stopped dead. “No one is moving” he hissed. As a guard passed the corridor, he was grabbed by the neck and smothered by Daryl’s powerful arms. In a firm voice, Sarah said, “okay, discretion now.”
Suddenly, a bright red light lit up the corridor, and a second later, an alarm began to scream.
