“This is so painful to watch,” Well said as he looked at the inmates of the wards screaming and crying and cursing in the darkness, with only the light coming off the torches being the only light that illuminated their faces. As the crowd went wild, the piercing sensation stabbing through the chest of Well intensified. This had been the worst case scenario Well was trying to anticipate hours before they even arrived here in the City Reserves. This had been the kind of situation he always feared of being involved in. He hated it. He hated the sound of pain, the screams of frustration. The ghost of agony that filled up the filthy air. “Do not be deceived by their faces. Remember that they possess danger as much as they possess pity,” Detective Deib Anchorman said as he stepped forward, leaving the confused young man behind. As he began walking past an aisle where on both sides of it were the wards and the prison cells brimmed with prisoners poking their hands through the bars and tryin
Well had been walking forward when he noticed that the detective was not following behind him. Confused, he turned around to check on what had been causing the delay to detective Deib Anchorman. As Well saw it, it turned out that he was going on for a face-off with the inmate who was shaking the bars of his cell as if it would do him any good. Well walked back a few steps behind. When he reached the detective, the first thing he saw was the figure of the inmate that the detective was arguing with. He was tall– about six feet in height. He had a coffee-tanned skin, a pair of deep, brown skin, and brows that were wildly and oddly thick. He had tattoos all over his body, and they were all visible because he was not wearing any tops. He was only in tattered, old, black trunks, and flip-flops that did not match each other. The left was dirty yellow, while the right was blue. “You are being superior,” Well heard the inmate said right in front of the face of Detective Deib Anchorman. Well
“Are they gone?” It was the first question that Well had raised as soon as he noticed that the sound of the footsteps faded away and vanished into the thin air. The smacking of the secret door against the walls also hinted to the three people lurking in the dark that the officers had indeed left the place. “Oh, my god. That was close,” Well added as he released a sigh of relief. “Yes. We almost got caught,” Allen Mar agreed. “Anyway, did you come here to look after me?” he asked as he raised both of his brows to the ceiling, but Detective Deib Anchorman and Well were not able to see it because of the darkness that wrapped the entire cell of Allen Mar. Well walked a few steps to the right, and then suddenly he bumped against the broad and tough chest of the detective. He acted normal and then continued answering his friend. “Yes, we came here because I suspect you were missing. Were you really missing, though?” Finally, the mystery that Well had long thought of will finally be answ
“I don’t know much about it, sorry. However, I can guarantee you that even though what I know about this place is only a little bit of what’s there to be discovered, everything I am going to tell you is a fact. A proven fact. Because I have seen them with my very own eyes. I have heard them with my very own ears,” Allen Mar continued as he shrugged the detective’s hands off his shoulders. “Before I was brought down here, the officers in charge of taking care of me had to take a long route around the entire City Reserves first. With my hands being cuffed, and with my mouth being taped, I was able to witness every single cultish thing that happened in every building that we walked through.” Detective Deib Anchorman and Well were already engaged in the conversation, likewise, they were also convinced that whatever it was that they were about to hear from Allen Mar, it was going to be a big reveal. To Well, it will serve as another note-worthy pointer to be added to his long list of reas
“Now, how do we get out of this place?” Well asked after a brief silence that broke the momentum of the three’s conversation. “Please don’t tell me there is no way out other than that secret door or else I will be losing my mind,” he added, his heart skipping in overwhelming beats. He had enough of those goosebumps and chills and fear of being caught. This time, all that was Well had been asking for was a peace of mind. But by the looks of the situation, it seemed like peace of mind would be very difficult to obtain. "How is not the question that we should be answering here. Where is not either," Allen Mar replied in an instant. "The biggest question that we need to find an answer for is When. When do we get out of this place— that, that is where we should be focusing for," he added as he stepped out of his cell and finally, after more or less thirty minutes, he was able to catch a glimpse of light from the torches. " Are you trying to say that there is already an exit from this pl
“So, basically, the plan is to go all the way to that tunnel one after another and hope that we don’t die above by the time the soldiers would be alerted that three invaders have just infiltrated the place? Is that the ‘only’ plan the two of you are talking about?” Well confronted the two, his eyebrows were having a close match against one another as if entering a duel to see who among them would win. “Yes, Well. That is the plan. Unless you have another thing in mind, we are going to be sticking to that. We can’t just be stuck down here. We do not have all the night. And in case you did not know, we have to make it out before four o’clock in the morning because soldiers are going to be doing their first inspection of the day to check in their inmates are still on their respective cells. If that time comes and we have not gotten out of this place yet, we are surely gonna end up inside those empty cells. And take note, I’ve been into one– although it was a no-brainer because I had a d
“Euthanasia? And what the heck is that? I hope you excuse my ignorance, but I have not heard of that word yet. I do not even know what kind of thing is that!” Well said as he shrugged his shoulders and stared at Allen Mar long enough for him to realize that he was being honest when he said he did not know a single thing about it. Allen Mar only nodded his head and massaged his eyes with both of his hands. Shortly after rubbing his eyes, his fingertips roamed around his whole face. He could feel his sweaty skin in every touch. “He sighed. “All right, all right. Let me explain it to you while the detective is not here yet,” Allen Mar said. “The quickest way to understand euthanasia is by recognizing that is it lethal– mercy killing, to be exact. It is a process of the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. The practice is illegal in most countries, but because that old man is expert enough to know the best way to hide i
If only overthought memories could kill, Well’s cold and lifeless body would have been on the floor for hours by now. The questions, the what-ifs– he could not brush them off his head. Ah, overthought memories of all sorts. Like what if they would be busted by the soldiers just before they even made it to the tunnel? Like what if there was no opening by the end of the secret exit Allen Mar was talking about? What if all there ever had was a trap? What if there were no other available options but to recognize the end of a life lived worthy? “It is giving me anxiety, goodness!” Well exclaimed as he flashed a quick look through the dark and narrow tunnel spread wide inside of the door ahead of them. “We have no choice, kid. It is either we die without doing anything at all, or we die trying. Choose your faith,” Detective Deib Anchorman said as he swung the door wide open and stepped his left foot first inside. “To put an end to our debate, I am going to give this tunnel a dry run. I