The speakers blared to life.
"All inmates go back to your cells." a deep voice echoed throughout the prison.

Prisoners hurriedly finished their lunches and neatly made six lines. The guards began counting them but you could tell that they didn't care. No one wanted to stay in the dining room. Not when she was being set free.

"Single files. You, take line one." the chief officer said.
"You, line two." he pointed at Jack, who visibly relaxed.

"You line three." He loosely pointed at Jessica, who was praying to be picked for such a boring duty. She was a working mother, after all. She wanted to see her kids again.

"You, line four." He pointed at Mack, who was clearly one of the strongest officers on the team, but also the Chief's son.

"I will take line five." the chief said. Most of the guards rolled their eyes but the Chief didn't see them behind their helmets. Leave it to the Chief to always run away from danger.

"And..." he squinted as he looked around. He always did this to build suspense.
"You!" he exclaimed, pointed at a new kid.
"You take six." The kid saluted the Chief before standing in front of his line.
"The rest of you, to your stations. You will receive your next order soon. Dismissed."


"Switching guards."

"Activating all cameras."

"Reminder to all guards: stun guns are to be set to lethal"

One of the new guards twitched as she realized the weight of the situation. Psycho Ellie was coming.

"Checking halls for any abnormalities. Dining hall. Check. Corridor 1. Check. Corridor 3. Check. Corridor 4. Check." "Opening gate to cell 511."

Tension grew as a deafening silence resounded within the jail. Some guards double-checked their weapons, others began praying, but all had grim faces on. They were the unlucky ones, tasked with transporting an insane serial killer to the other side of the building for "counselling".

"Prisoner 234-681 has been released."
________________________________________
A man that looked like he time traveled to this millenia walked in with a folder in one hand, water in the other. This tactic again.
"Oh. Fresh meat. What happened to doctor Halzar?"
"Dr. Halyard will not be able to make it today, so I will stand in for him while he is gone."
Sigh. I really liked him. He took way longer than the others.
"Do you know how many times I've heard that? Don't leave me in the dark. Is he dead?"

A twitch.

"Ah. He's close. So what did he do? Jump off a bridge? Crash on purpose?"

Nothing.

"Overdose? Gunshot? Hangman?"

No response.

"Come on dude! I'm trying my best here! At least give me a hint?"

A smile. You think you've got the upper hand? And when I was trying to be nice?

"Fine. I'll just keep spewing random causes of death and we'll see what killed your wife."

Twitch. His smile faded by two millimeters.

I leaned back and smiled. "Ah. That's better."

"Shall we begin?" He said in hopes of regaining control, but it was too late.

"Oh, my quiet friend. We already have."