Chapter 1: Week 00

- 5 Years Ago -

BNN News Broadcast

“I stand here before Alcatraz, more commonly referred to as “the Pit”, where less than twenty four hours ago, the biggest prison insurgency in all of history occurred. For those of you who do not know Alcatraz is the highest security prison in the world and houses the worst criminals of the world, where the one and only sentence is death.”

The pretty newscaster motioned to the ground below and around her before proceeding.

“Due to the many international interests in this prison, the ground I am standing on is considered international ground and its exact location is unknown. To get here I had to sign a release form okaying the use of drugs to get me here. My crew and I had to take tranquilizers before we could be transported here, so I cannot say where I am for sure. Though, from the salty smell in the air I suspect we are located on an island somewhere.”

The newscaster’s face took on a more serious expression.

“Needless to say, no one has ever escaped from “the Pit”... at least not alive. We have heard from official sources that the prison population has been reduced to 12% of its capacity during this insurgency. There has apparently been a full out war amongst the prisoners during their only “together time”... in the yard. Prisoners reportedly attacked one another using any weapon at their disposal including filed down toothbrushes and screws, but also their bare hands. More than one prisoner is said to have died from a bashed in head or gouged out eyes.”

While the newscaster tried to maintain an ambivalent expression, you could see her face taking on a gray hue.

“Correctional officers say that what they think started out as a gang war turned into a full-blown blood bath when they could not take control of the situation. Unfortunately, prisoners were not the only victims to this heinous occurrence and four officers lost their lives during their attempts to take hold of the situation.”

The pretty woman took a deep breath.

“After those failed attempts at taking charge again, all that the rest of the officers could do was sit back and watch as the prisoners fought. It wasn’t until three hours later when they could finally enter into the bloodbath of “the yard” again. No one was left standing and only 128 of the original 1043 prisoners were still alive. Of these 128, only 53 remained conscious. The majority of these prisoners are still in ICU, and the number of surviving prisoners continues to diminish.”

The newscaster steeled her face.

“It seems death is really the only way out of Alcatraz.”

- Present Day -

“Honey… It’s dinner time!”

“....”

“Dinner is on the table!”

“...”

“Jessup Noman, come downstairs… NOW! Do NOT make me call you one more time!”

“...”

Stomping could be heard on the stairs and then down the hallway before a furious woman appeared at the boy’s door. She scowled at her son who was glued to his holoscreen. He was oblivious to her presence, so she accessed her override options on the holoscreen she brought up herself. Finally, assuring herself he would hear her, she said.

“Food. Now.”

Finally ungluing his eyes from the screen he looked up at her furious face as he whined.

“Come on Mom! They are getting new prisoners! Just let me..”

“NO.”

“MOM! Five minutes! They are introdu-”

She glared at him, shutting him up.

He growled in annoyance, but succumbed and followed her out of the room, giving his blank screen one last forlorn look before he exited it.

---

- Two Hours Earlier -

His injuries still hurt him. His cuffs were chafing at his wrists which were missing layers of skin. The bandages did little in the means of preventing the pain of the friction. He was dreaming of an ice pack when someone nudged him from behind. He winced. His injuries weren’t limited to his wrists, but he continued shuffling forwards. Yet even there, the injuries were forever present and he couldn’t help cringing as his cuffs chafed against his ankles with every step.

Kasai Ogon mindlessly followed the man in front of him. He tried to keep his thoughts off the chaffing pain and thus payed particular attention to his surroundings. There were maybe ten other men dressed just like him in white overalls and cuffs at both wrists and ankles. They walked both ahead and behind him.

Surrounding them were just as many men dressed in the opposite black. These were uniformed with heavy armoured clothing as well as long batons which Kasai preferred not to dwell on. Instead he focused on the bleachy smell of the numerous hallways they passed along with the standard concrete floors. He tried finding patterns in the draining stains, anything to keep his mind off his injuries.

“Alright boys, line up!”

One of the uniformed men said.

’That’s a bit redundant don’t you think?’

Kasai thought looking at their already orderly file.

They had reached a room with white tiled floors and walls. Without warning he heard a slight woosh from his shackles. Kasai was beginning to get a bad feeling when the same uniformed man shouted.

“Strip.”

When none of the men moved, he repeated his command, raising his voice and taking out his black baton.

“STRIP!”

Finally, the white coveralls started to come off… along with the now open shackles. Kasai tried to keep up with the others, taking off his clothes as fast as his injuries would permit… which wasn’t fast at all, until he felt a searing pain throughout his whole body. Before he knew it he was panting, on the ground.

He wasn’t quite sure what had hit him and his ears were ringing, though he felt almost certain someone was shouting at him. Before he could get his bearings straight he felt the same horrible convulsive pain wash over his whole body. Kasai was still perplexed as to what was going on, though this time he was able to track the origin of his pain to somewhere on his back.

It was hard. Most of his body was already in pain. Differentiating between old and new pain was almost impossible.Before he could work out for himself what the pain was he felt the pain again.

He knew his mind wasn’t working as fast as it should be. He was now aware of shadows around him, of voices yelling at him… and still all he could concentrate on was the pain… and the wetness he was starting to feel on his hands. At first he thought they were tears, but at closer inspection he realized it was slobber. He was drooling all over himself and he didn’t know how to stop it.

Things didn’t go much better from there. It turned out that the pain had been one of the guards repeatedly shocking him the black batons when he refused to ‘cooperate’ to their commands. They had been yelling at him to get up and take his clothes off like everyone else. They were very enlightening.

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Apparently he thought he was special.

Apparently there was nothing that made him special.

Apparently he was just of the scum of the earth.

After finally getting his clothes off when the guards gave him more than a couple of seconds to recuperate. He was forced to take off all his bandages as well. If he thought that garnered him any pity from the guards… he was wrong. When he proved to not be moving as fast as they wanted, they took on the task of stripping his bandages themselves.

Three guards brutally ripped off bandages from his arms, legs, back, neck, face… everywhere really. There wasn’t much of him that wasn’t missing a couple of layers of skin. Current science would probably allow him to look good as new, unfortunately a criminal with a death sentence deserved to look good as new… so he was bound to look like a wrinkled mess until he died. He didn’t know how long it would take the burns to heal naturally, he could only hope it would be fast. Though… from previous experience he doubted that would be the case.

After finally being naked, the guards had made them all bend over, spread their cheeks and cough. It would have been mortifying… if they hadn’t all had to do it… and if the guards hadn’t all just treated it so matter of factly. Apparently his butthole didn’t hold as much interest as Kasai thought it should.

They were then told to shower… extensively. The soap stung something fierce on Kasai’s missing skin… but then he saw that he wasn’t the only one suffering. The other men were also cringing at the contact with the soap. So it must not be because of his injuries… the soap itself was evil.

Later they were taken to a room where they were literally branded. REPLACEing his hand into a machine he felt horrible pain much too similar to the pain that he was already feeling, before taking it out and seeing 9482811 stamped onto his right hand in big bold black.

Kasai was still looking at the fresh tattoo which had been placed in one of the places with lower degree burns when he came face to face with a guard. He still felt a bit uncomfortable about being naked in front of this fully clothed man, but the guard gave him no regard and instead motioned for him to turn around.

He felt the man place something on his upper back, he felt like cringing away from the contact with his charred skin, but the guard held him in place and… yes… you guessed it. More pain was to be had. He felt a burning sensations, somehow much deeper than the other pains. Before he had a chance to cry out or ask what had just happened the guard gestured for him to move on and called for the next man.

Kasai stayed only long enough to see that some kind of little plaque was REPLACEed into the guy’s back. He continued to mindlessly follow the other naked man before him as he tried to, gingerly, feel at his back. Unfortunately… the tag or whatever it was… was located exactly where he could not reach it. Not from the bottom and not from the top.

Next he was shuffled into a room where he was given another pair of white overalls, this one had his number stamped on it. That took him by surprise. He hadn’t had the number 9482811 for more than five minutes and he already considered it ‘his’. He smirked at this only to be interrupted by a closeby guard. There seemed to be an infinite amount of them. Surely more than was warranted for the number of prisoners.

“What you smirking at!?”

He wanted to know. Kasai didn’t know what he was supposed to say and slowly began to respond.

“Well, I uh. You see I was just laughing bec-...”

“Do I look like I care!???”

“... Well.. Not really it’s just…”

“Are you giving me lip… What’s your name?”

“Kai-..”

“Did I ASK you to tell me your name…. Ooogon?”

Kasai definitely thought he did, but decided to remain quiet. He had learned from previous experience… or so he thought.

“Are you giving me attitude, inmate? Respond!”

Before he could give an answer though, he was reaquainted with the electrical side of the baton again.

“Errr…. No, Sir. No.”

He hissed through gritted teeth, trying to hold in the agony.

Finally he was allowed some space to put on his clothes.

He followed the procession of white-clad men through rooms with seemingly different roles. One was for pictures. Another for a mandatory haircut. A shaved haircut. Another room was for another picture with the attractive new bald look. Then there were fingerprints to be taken... sadly his had burned away a long time ago. Fortunately he had plenty of blood samples and hair samples and skin samples and urine samples and any other sample they could think of to supply them with. After being poked and prodded for a good hour they finally reached a room that seemed to lack a purpose.

There were no nurses waiting to take samples, and no assistants to take pictures. Kasai was starting to think they would be taking toeprints next (he still had some of those) and was relieved when the guards just put them in a straight line again. He was getting used to lining up.

Just another sardine in the can.

Just match in the box.

Just ano-

“Take this!”

Kasai brought himself back to the present where a guard was pressing something into his chest. He wanted to flinch back again, the burns on his chest where crying out at the contact. Before he could reach out to take the device that was offered to him he felt the increasingly familiar shock of the baton. This time on his left shoulder.

Another guard had approached them.

“You again. Orgon. I knew you would be causing trouble. Now get in line!”

Kasai thought he was still in line but decided not to say anything this time.

The faceless guards seemed to be satisfied with his silence and left. He was happy the baton was leaving with them.

He was taking his time looking at the device in his hands, trying to figure out what it was. It looked like some sort of half-helmet with the part of the top missing and a visor in front. He thought it looked familiar somehow but before he could further speculate the guards were shouting again.

“Equip, and head to your designated rooms!”

Kasai didn’t understand how all the other prisoners knew what to do. However, he took the hint and followed suit. He put the semi-helmet over his head and followed the men down another uniform hallway. Kasai was briefly distracted by the drain stains again before he noticed how men were each going into a room. He was wondering how they knew which rooms were theirs… which rooms were “designated” to them… until he saw 9482811 on one of the holo screens that hovered in front of each room.

He knew that number.

That was his number.

He entered.