Prisoner, page 13
part #2 of The Contractors Series
“Wow. Seems like a lot of effort just for us.”
“It's not for us,” Jack said.
“What do you mean?”
“Hell was created for one specific prisoner,” Jack said. “Everyone else got added after.”
Daniel had a moment of realization. “Of course. Hell. The devil. Like, the devil, not a devil. Satan.”
Jack nodded. “I haven't been there, but supposedly, way down below, it gets really cold. All covered in ice. The prisoners that live down there are the ones that lost in the games or couldn't find a team. Maybe they're not any good at fighting, or got unlucky. Made the wrong enemies. But points are everything. If you take on debt you can't handle, lose on bets or in competitions, you drop through the levels until you end up there because it's the only place you can afford. Most of the population of Hell is actually down there—they chip the ice away to make a living, buy food. It’s like being camped outside in Antarctica.”
“That’s messed up,” Daniel said. “Wouldn’t they run out of ice eventually?”
There's always more growing back,” Jack said. “Rasputin told me it's Satan's power, leaking out of the seal. And past that point...” Jack leaned in, voice lowered. “That’s where Satan is held. That’s what everyone thinks, anyway. Everyone who's gone too deep has never come back.”
Even though they were inside a cavern, Daniel could have sworn a cold wind blew across them. “Sounds like a ghost story,” he said.
“Except the ghosts are real,” Jack said, “and you’re standing in the haunted house. Satan is what this place is for. We're tacked on the sealing spell as extras. Beelzebub was using this place as punishment for demons several hundred years before the first humans came in, and he'd been using it to make money. Control of the prison gives him more influence to rule the demon world. It grew up into this giant mess we're in now—PrisonWatch.”
“Must be a hell of a lot of magic energy powering this place.”
“Please don't,” Jack said. “I've heard all the Hell-jokes a thousand times since I've gotten here. Some of the other team members think it's great to tell them all to the new guy. I'm sick of it.”
“Really? Sounds like a helluva good time.”
“It isn’t,” Jack said.
“Right—I’d imagine those crazy hellions would get old.”
“Daniel, I swear to God.”
“Alright, alright,” Daniel said, raising his hands. “No more bad puns. So how does this bubble reality keep itself from popping?”
“Energy from death,” Jack said.
“Ah, yes,” Daniel said. He slapped his forehead dramatically. “Of course. The energy from death. Death-energy. Deathergy. Makes perfect sense now.”
“Basically, when people die,” Jack said, ignoring his sarcasm, “their life force dissipates back into the aether. The aether is the chaotic space between dimensions.” Jack waved his hand. “Or something like that. They don't really know. But the energy goes unused. Dust to dust.”
“Following you so far.”
“So all this energy going back to the aether is sort of like a river, flowing along,” Jack said. “And someone had the bright idea—hey, we need to keep this really powerful Satan guy in prison forever. So let's stick a waterwheel into the river of souls moving back to the aether so it powers the prison's seal. That generates power, like electric turbines in a dam. Get it?”
“That makes a lot more sense than I thought it would,” Daniel said. He knew some of this from what Beelzebub had told him, but it was definitely better to double check the knowledge with Jack. Daniel didn’t take anything that devil told him on faith. “Is that why no one dies down here?”
Jack nodded. “There's more energy than the seal needs. The excess bleeds out around us. We're bathed in it right now. So we don't age, and we heal from injuries really fast. If your body gets...uh...damaged beyond repair, the seal takes your soul away and makes a new body for you at the crypt.”
“The crypt?”
“That's what they call it,” Jack said. “Basically you get dumped in a crowded pit of people that just died. Not a pleasant place to be. If you still have points, or if someone who's your friend can transfer you some points, you can buy back in to whatever level you can afford at the cost of a month’s rent. I had you revived to our position before you made it there, so we got off easy. It’s way more expensive to do that during a territory war...which is why we really need to not screw this up.” Jack brought his hands together. “So, there you go. That’s how we died, how we came back, and why we’re here.”
“All in a nutshell,” Daniel said. “What happens if you die and you can't buy back in?”
“The same thing happens in every level, if you can’t pay your rent,” Jack said. “You drop to the level below.”
“There’s a place lower than the crypt?”
“Yeah,” Jack said. “Rent is about every 26 days—that’s a demon month. But in the crypt, you only have a short time to buy back in, or you hit rock bottom. Ice-land.”
“You know,” Daniel said, “the Vikings named Iceland because it was beautiful and fertile, and they wanted to make others think it was a lifeless rock so they could have it for themselves.”
“Your ability to recall useless information never ceases to amaze me,” Jack said. “In Hell, Iceland is an ice land and Purgatory is where you want to stay.”
“You want to stay in Purgatory,” Daniel repeated. “Bet you never imagined yourself saying that.”
Jack sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Any other questions?”
“Tons more,” Daniel said. “When you guys were fighting earlier, I saw someone get stabbed, and he didn’t heal. He vanished. I guess his heart stopped, so he was considered dead?”
“Right,” Jack said. “Makes death a bigger consequence during a territory war. Oh.” Jack snapped his fingers. “When you kill someone, you automatically steal half their points. So you lost half of yours earlier.”
“Can’t say I’m torn up about it. I have no idea what points are worth.”
“You started with 50,000 points,” Jack said. “That’s a whole month’s worth of rent up here, it’s a ton. But yeah, the team pools points in our stash, and you get paid piecemeal. That way no one risks losing a lot at once.”
“Stash? Is that like a bank?”
“It’s called a vault,” Jack said. “Basically a big safe a team can buy so they can horde points and items. In theory, another team could bust in and raid our vault, because PrisonWatch doesn’t allow anything that’s 100% secure. But it would take a hell of a lot of doing, to the point of being impossible as things stand. Fighting in the city is unusual because of the enforcers. You can only legally attack intruders in your own territory.”
“So normally, there’s no fighting at all?” Daniel said.
“You can still fight, you just don’t want to get caught,” Jack said. “And if they spot you, enforcers are super hard to escape. They’ll give up after a while, actually, as a reward for avoiding them long enough, but it’s only been done a few times. In peacetime there aren’t many fights in Purgatory, just the usual scheduled games. Other levels of Hell are a lot more chaotic, because they only have enforcers in a few areas.”
“I guess I have really bad timing,” Daniel said. He sat on that thought. Was it really bad timing? Pure bad luck? It seemed like too much of a coincidence that this war thing started as soon as he dropped in.
“Wait,” Daniel said. “What happens if you lose your wristband? Your arm gets cut off, or it’s stolen somehow?”
“Nothing much. If you get sent to the crypt, it makes a new one for you. Otherwise, you have to buy a new one.”
Daniel paused. “How do you buy a new one if you don’t have your wristband to buy stuff with?”
Jack gave him a meaningful look. “Big problem, right? That’s the biggest reason teams formed early on in this place. Otherwise you could cut off someone’s arm and keep them captive indefinitely. No access to any resources. No access to the system. You could be the richest man in the world but you don’t have your credit card.” Jack’s voice lowered. “That’s what they do down below. They take away the armlets—the wristbands. Lets them control people easier. Enslave them.”
Daniel decided he did not like the idea of being a helpless captive. He rubbed his armlet possessively. “That’s really screwed up. This is all screwed up beyond belief. Who even came up with all this?”
“What’s really screwed up,” Jack said, “is that it’s all televised.”
Even Daniel didn’t have a snippy response for that. Morbid was not enough to describe the possibilities. He cleared his throat, loudly, trying to dispel some of the bad air. “Where’s Bathory and her special snowflake team?”
“They don’t have to do territory wars because they’re number one,” Jack said. “They basically live in the rooftop penthouse suite. Level zero. They only do the scheduled games, or challenge battles. And they do lose on occasion, but not enough to come close to being unseated.”
Daniel felt a wave of hope wash through him. He thought he’d have to search up and down to find her, but low and behold, she was already arch-enemies with Jack’s boss and within striking distance. Now I just have to fight her. If I can survive long enough.
Jack’s wristband beeped. “It’s almost time to move,” he said.
“Okay,” Daniel said. “What’s the plan, aside from you go first and get them while they’re distracted?”
“The plan,” Jack said, “is to hit them hard enough they don’t stand up again.”
Daniel rolled his eyes. “Wow, we got Sun-Tzu over here. General in 99 battles, victor in 100.”
“But seriously,” Jack said. “We’re gonna roll in and attack them. They’ll probably send a lot of backup, because they’ve been trying to take this node back for weeks. Now that they got it, they won’t give it up again easy.” He glanced at Daniel. “In order to take a node, we have to hold the capture point against attacks for five minutes. We’re gonna have to attack people. Kill people.”
“I figured that part out already.”
Jack put a hand on Daniel’s shoulder. Daniel wasn’t sure if he liked it there or not. “Dan, you gonna be okay in there?”
Daniel met Jack’s eyes and nodded. “I had a moment, before. I’m sorry I got us blown up.”
“It happens,” Jack said. “Sometimes, it’s almost like a real-life video game. Kinda. It makes it easier to accept if you think of it that way.”
“This isn’t a game,” Daniel said. “You don’t know what’s going on, back on Earth. It’s beyond bad. Shit has hit the fan, big time.”
Jack took his hand back. “Let’s get a drink after this. Several drinks.”
“We can do that?”
“No one’s carded me yet,” Jack said.
“I have to admit,” Daniel said, “the lack of an age limit improves my outlook on Hell substantially.”
Jack’s wristband beeped again. “Alright,” he said. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter 6
Power Play
Daniel was crouched on a rooftop—a familiar position. Back in Boston, it had always been rooftops, all the time. The city was old, and the winding roads were crammed with buildings. The best way to make up time while staying out of sight was staying up high.
Purgatory was even more packed, if that was possible. Every available space was taken by a structure of some kind, aside from the open squares that marked intersections. The vast majority of buildings had a uniform height, dotted only by vents or chimneys. Maybe it was expensive to build higher? Or maybe the rules didn’t allow for it. Either way, there was still a long way to the roof of the cavern.
The flat roofs did make for easy going, but also easy sniping. Daniel didn’t have a ranged weapon, but others would. They’d been afraid he would meet with some kind of resistance, but the roofs were devoid of activity. He kept as close to cover as possible, ducking from spot to spot. Further ahead was a long mall that stretched between the buildings—the location of the territory node.
Daniel managed to get an angle on one of the alleys in the direction Jack was coming from. He raised his wristband. “Jack, you there? I can’t see you.”
“Almost there.” Jack’s voice came through in a faint hiss. “I’m on your map, but they won’t be. Remember, if they have line of sight on you, you’ll appear on their map. This team is well organized, they’ll have someone watching their map the whole time, waiting for a red dot to pop up. Stay low.”
Daniel shrunk lower, pressing himself up against the ledge that ran the length of the roof. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone standing guard. Maybe he was the only one stupid enough to be out in the open. He raised his head to peer into the courtyard.
There was a water fountain in the center, about 20 yards from where he was squatting. The fountain was a fancy three-tiered affair with a little statue on top holding a bow and arrow. It might have looked nice if the statue wasn’t a wart-covered goblin. The water gleamed blood red in the emergency lighting.
The rest of the courtyard around the fountain was open stone. The left side turned to grass, bordered by several benches. A few scattered trees about the same height as the roofs offered the only cover. Between two trees was a metal pedestal with a round cylindrical top that was as Jack had described—the capture point.
A lighted strip running around the column gave off a cool blue glow that cut a purple swatch through the red lights. They needed to tap and hold their bracelet against the pedestal for 10 seconds in order to begin the capture process. They then had to prevent the other team from recapturing it for 5 minutes to take it as their own territory.
If they won, the enemy team would be immediately teleported out of the captured territory and back to their designated headquarters. If Jack and Daniel let them get their hands on the node again before the 5 minutes were up, they’d lock the territory down, preventing any other capture attempts for an hour. In addition, any remaining enemy forces in the territory would be highlighted on their maps, without the line of sight restriction. At that point, Daniel and Jack would be sitting ducks with no backup.
Normally, teams would fight until they’d actually secured the space around the node. Then, having won the battle, they’d set up a perimeter and wait out the 5 minutes. Trying to take the node earlier was a risk, as if the other team managed to make it through, they’d lock the territory back under their control and leave the attackers stranded and exposed.
Jack was feeling lucky.
The faint trickle of water from the fountain reached Daniel’s ears. No other sounds.
There was a tension in the air; the sense he’d picked up in New York was crackling back to life. He could practically smell the battle that was about to happen. It felt like a stone sitting in his stomach. At this rate, he’d get ulcers.
“It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood,” Daniel muttered, half-singing the words.
Jack’s voice snapped across the radio. “What?”
“Sorry, forgot to turn this off.” Daniel fumbled through the menus. “Where is it again?”
“I’m almost there. Be quiet.”
“Sorry.”
A flash of silver caught Daniel’s eye. Jack was coming out of the southwestern entrance to the courtyard—diagonally across from him, on the other side of the fountain.
Fully transformed, he was a hell of a monster. His muscles rippled as he walked; the fur waved to-and-fro like long strands of grass. When Daniel focused, he could almost see the air shiver around the fur; magic rolled off the barrier like water off a duck’s back.
Daniel checked the courtyard as Jack lumbered forward. He was in the open now, making his way around the fountain. Daniel saw something, a flicker in the corner of his eye. It was in a window of a building, on the tree side. “Movement, up in the building. Near the tree close to the wall.”
“They’re hiding inside,” Jack said. Transformed, his voice had become deep, grating. “Gonna wait for me to step into the trap, then blast me to pieces. But they don’t know you’re here.”
“How do I get them if they’re inside the buildings?”
“They have to come out to get to the node,” Jack said. “I can take the magic hits. I’ll lay down over the node and you knock them out if they poke their heads out.”
Daniel turned his club in his hands. It was a simple rod, really, made out of some kind of alloy. The description hadn’t said much. It had been cheap, so he bought it. He was used to it, anyway; he’d been using an aluminum baseball bat back in New York.
Jack reached the grass when the first barrage came—from a direction neither of them expected.
A massive tongue of green fire roared from below where Daniel was sitting. It burst out like a stream from a flamethrower, rolling over Jack. Daniel flinched—he’d be roasted if that hit him dead on.
Jack’s ape form barreled out of the flames, forearms raised up to protect his head. He switched to all fours when he cleared the heat and galloped for the node.
Daniel opened his inventory—the pocket space that came with his wristband. It was an advanced kind of space-time magic that was a tiny, self-contained dimension. The wristband allowed him to access this space and instantly store and retrieve up to ten different objects. Most new prisoners started with only three spaces, but he earned a full ten for winning the new inmate competition.
Purchasing and upgrading inventory slots was extremely expensive, so expensive that Jack only had four slots—one more than he’d started with. It was a huge advantage to be able to pull out weapons and devices essentially from thin air, ala Bugs Bunny—and Daniel had more than three times the advantage.
He only had one item stored—a small magic orb that, when crushed, gave the user access to 10% of their magic power for 5 minutes. After tapping the menu on his wristband, the glowing purple orb appeared in Daniel’s hand. He clutched it tight, ready to activate it. He could only use it after Jack hit the node—after the 5-minute countdown started. Any earlier, and he’d run out of steam before they took the territory.
