When Jade woke up he was greeted to the sight of the bloody and bruised inmates and eight dead ones, one of the inmates whose long skinny arms that were covered in tattoos, came over to him and said “Dude, you’re crazy, I bet you didn’t know that Iroko was a member of Mantra”
Jade replied “Who is Iroko? And what is Mantra?” The tattooed man pointed to the corpse of the boss that was in front of him “Mantra is an influential gang with members in and out of prison; they are known to always take revenge for the death of any of their members”.
Jade yawned, thought ‘If they knew who I was they wouldn’t even bring up the name of a pointless gang like that’ and said “What’s done is done, no need to fuss about it”.
The tattooed man extended a hand for a hand shake and said “My name is Fifé and I’ve been this…” Fifé pointed at Iroko’s corpse with a look of regret, anger and disgust “… bastard’s bitch ever since I came here”.
The reveal surprised Jade for a bit as Fifé was one of the sitting people who were smiling when he came, ‘He must have hidden his suffering by laughing at other people… the things we all do to stay sane’ he thought as he wasn’t about to ask for the motive behind his smile.
“Fifé” Jade said as he took the hand shake “do your relatives visit you? And if they do can I get some food from you? I don’t have anyone on the outside”, Fifé smiled and responded “No worries, you didn’t even need to ask, we’ll help”
Over the week the remaining inmates gave Jade some of the food their relatives brought for them, as a sort of thanks for the opportunity he gave them and as a sort of consolation for his inevitable death at the hands of Mantra.
The soldiers weren’t about to use the money allocated to their prison to feed the inmates and no one was going to start fighting for the rights and comforts of criminals when they themselves weren’t fulfilled, so the only source of provisions for inmates came from relatives.
If one didn’t have anyone to give them provisions they would have to somehow, take it from those who had, suffer hunger or die of thirst.
6 days had passed since the brawl incident, Jade thought “the soldiers for some reason neither bothered to torture me nor did they dispose of the dead bodies, they seemed very busy judging from their lack of casual chatter and hurried footsteps … the bodies are a given but aren’t they interested in finding my base, or did they already find it… I doubt it; they would gloat if they did”.
Jade woke up from his thoughts with a start and stood up due to the sounds of gunshots ringing through the building, the remaining inmates stood up, puzzled, pressing their faces against the bars of the cell to get some idea of what was going on, which didn’t help as their cell was further from the entrance than any of the 10 cells in his section of the prison.
Jade couldn’t make it to the bars as he was at the back, though he wasn’t as tired as when he got here he wasn’t about to waste more energy on a futile effort, that was until he heard the roar.
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Ten minutes into the shooting, it was like nothing he’d ever heard, it sounded like a Lion’s roar but way deeper and gave all who heard it a premonition of their death and suffering, vibrating through the building shaking their bones and echoing down to their very souls.
Everyone who heard it froze up not only because of fear but because the roar seemed to have a stunning effect on those who heard it, making many people involuntarily release their bowels and piss themselves as they were overwhelmed by a terror whose origin was not known.
Regardless the inmates didn’t move after the sound, why? No one knew what was going on and no one had ever experienced such a thing so they didn’t know how to react, so everyone just stayed as they were. The guns stopped blaring and the sound of heavy footsteps rang through the prison, along with some occasional screams which were cut short by slashing sounds and wet thuds.
The footsteps approached the cells, filling every inmate with a sense of foreboding; inmates retreated to the back of their cells while still hoping that the source of the footsteps was an ally not an enemy.
“AHHHHHH!!!”, “OH MY GOD!!!!”, “WHAT THE FUCK”, “HAHAHAHAHA, we’re dead!” Accompanied by the panicked screams of the inmates in the cells closest to the entrance of the jail section the footsteps neared the end of the section, it didn’t kill the inmates giving Jade, who was filled to the brim with mind numbing fear, more reason to foolishly hope that the owner of the footsteps was looking for someone.
’The people in the other cells are still screaming’ he thought as he gulped ‘this person is clearly looking for someone why else would he have left the other inmates alive’, until he saw the source of the footsteps.
It was a four footed animal that was as tall as a person while standing on all fours, it resembled a lion with iron fur, three eyes with shining green eye balls, 8 fingers on its paws fitted with black claws that were covered in a green aura and huge teeth that shone with a green, somewhat electric aura.
The muscles on this thing were so taut, even though lions are very muscular predators this one was a lion on steroids; each muscles twitching, looking as if they would burst out of the skin at any moment, promising a world of hurt to anyone they exerted on.
There was silence for a moment and then everyone began to scream Jade included, this was about to be a killing spree. Jade could swear that the iron lion smirked as it turned towards his cell.
Jade had never prayed for the cells bar’s well being as he did today hoping that the dead soldiers had maintain the bars and kept them at optimal condition for this day ’please let the bars hold, please let the bars hold please let the reason why the lion didn’t kill the others be that the bars were too tough for it. I’m sorry for calling you soldiers lazy, if the bar holds I’ll never insult you soldiers again’
Jade prayed to the dead soldiers, trying to protect his mind from the pit of despair it was falling to, but with every second he hoped the bar would hold the taut muscles of the lion came to mind filling him with the very despair he was trying to escape. The lion bent the bars apart as though they were made of chewy candy and preceded into the cell with a relaxed gait.
Jade’s last hope, which depended on the fact that he was the farthest from the lion was destroyed when the lion extended it claws, they where as long as short swords, glowing with a green aura. One swipe and the closest people were cut into ribbons, after that the inmates scattered (as best as they could in a cramped cell).
Many like Fifé who were daring trying to escape by sliding under the lion or going across it sides but damn, the lion was fast, the shoulder joints were also more flexible than the a normal lion’s, blessing it with more reach, with a flash of green anyone who tried to run was dashed into pieces, soon the room was filled with green flashes and when the flashes stopped dismembered corpses filled the cells.
Some inmates in the opposite cell fainted at the site, they knew they were next; many had looks showing they had accepted their fate as the lion turned to meet them, its face covered in blood but its glowing claws still clean and pristine.