Chapter 3: The Rules of Hell (Part One)
1045 Words
Chapter Three:
The Rules of Hell (Part One)
The heavy steel doors slid shut behind the new arrivals with a deafening clang that echoed through Level 112.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
The silence itself felt like another security system.
Elias Kane slowly surveyed his surroundings. Every corridor curved gently, making it impossible to see more than a few dozen metres ahead. There were no corners where someone could hide, no blind spots for conspiracies, and no shadows deep enough to conceal an escape plan.
The prison had been designed by people who understood one simple truth: every escape begins with privacy.
Black Fortress Zero had eliminated privacy.
High above, hundreds of miniature drones floated silently. They resembled harmless insects, but Elias recognised advanced surveillance technology when he saw it. Their lenses continuously adjusted focus, recording every facial expression and every whispered conversation.
A cold voice filled the corridor.
"Attention, inmates."
The voice belonged to CERBERUS.
"Orientation will begin in sixty seconds."
The prisoners exchanged nervous glances.
One tattooed man whispered, "Orientation? Like we're starting school?"
No one laughed.
Another prisoner murmured, "I've been in fourteen prisons."
He swallowed hard.
"I've never been afraid until now."
The countdown reached zero.
The walls around them suddenly came alive.
Gigantic holographic screens appeared, stretching from floor to ceiling.
The image of Director Adrian Voss materialised before them.
His face was expressionless.
"Welcome," he began. "You have entered the most secure correctional facility ever constructed."
"This institution is not governed by emotion."
"It is governed by certainty."
As he spoke, holographic diagrams of the prison rotated in the air, revealing only a fraction of its immense structure.
"There are no prison guards on routine patrol."
"There are no keys."
"There are no schedules available to inmates."
"There are no weaknesses."
The diagrams disappeared.
"The following rules are absolute."
A single word appeared in enormous red letters.
RULE ONE
"You will obey every instruction immediately."
"Delay is considered resistance."
"Resistance is considered violence."
"Violence is met with overwhelming force."
The display changed.
RULE TWO
"No prisoner will enter an unauthorised sector."
"Every corridor is monitored."
"Every doorway records identity."
"Every movement is analysed."
Another screen appeared.
RULE THREE
"No prisoner shall possess unauthorised tools, electronic devices, or written maps."
"Discovery of such items will result in permanent isolation."
The prisoners shifted uneasily.
Then came Rule Four.
Several inmates visibly paled.
RULE FOUR
"No prisoner may remain awake during mandatory sleep hours without authorisation."
Whispers spread immediately.
One man frowned.
"How can they control that?"
Before anyone answered, CERBERUS replied.
"Asleep or awake..."
"I always know."
The whispers stopped instantly.
Elias remained calm, but his mind raced.
This prison wasn't merely enforcing behaviour.
It was attempting to control biology itself.
Director Voss continued.
"There is one final rule."
The hologram seemed almost to stare directly into Elias.
"Do not attempt escape."
"For one hundred and twelve years, every escape attempt has failed."
"The probability of success remains zero."
The screens vanished.
For several moments, no one spoke.
Finally, a sarcastic voice broke the silence.
"So what happens if someone actually escapes?"
The speaker was a lean, sharp-eyed prisoner with silver hair and a scar running across his left cheek.
Director Voss smiled for the first time.
It was not a pleasant smile.
"If anyone escapes..."
he said quietly,
"...we simply lock the world outside."
The transmission ended.
Several prisoners looked confused.
Others looked terrified.
Elias noticed something else.
Director Voss had not said they would recapture the escapee.
He had implied something much larger.
Almost as if Black Fortress Zero possessed authority beyond national governments.
That thought stayed with him.
A loud mechanical tone interrupted his thinking.
"Cell assignments commencing."
Robotic escorts emerged from hidden wall compartments.
Each prisoner was directed towards a different corridor.
Elias's escort spoke in the same emotionless tone.
"Prisoner A-7319."
"Follow."
They walked for several minutes through immaculate passageways.
Every ten metres, security doors scanned Elias's wristband before opening automatically.
The prison knew precisely where he was at every second.
Eventually they stopped outside a steel door.
The number displayed above it was simple.
Cell 47-B.
The door slid open.
Elias stepped inside.
He expected darkness.
Instead, he found something surprisingly comfortable.
A narrow bed.
A desk fixed to the floor.
A bookshelf.
A sink.
A toilet.
A small window displaying what appeared to be a beautiful sunrise over the ocean.
Elias immediately walked towards it.
He smiled faintly.
It wasn't a window.
It was an ultra-high-definition screen designed to simulate the outside world.
Even hope here was artificial.
As the door sealed behind him, CERBERUS spoke softly through hidden speakers.
"Welcome home, Prisoner A-7319."
Elias ignored the remark and began studying every centimetre of the room.
His engineering instincts took over.
The ventilation openings.
The ceiling joints.
The wall thickness.
The lighting fixtures.
The floor anchors.
He examined everything.
After nearly twenty minutes, he discovered nothing useful.
This cell had been designed by perfectionists.
Then his eyes settled on the bed frame.
One bolt.
Only one.
Unlike every other fastener in the room, its head showed microscopic wear.
Someone had tried to remove it years earlier.
Elias gently touched it.
A voice behind the wall whispered almost inaudibly,
"Don't."
Elias froze.
The whisper came again.
"They're listening."
He stepped away from the wall without replying.
Several seconds passed.
Then the same unseen voice whispered,
"If you're the engineer..."
"...they've been waiting for you."
Silence returned.
Elias stared at the concrete wall between the cells.
His heart beat steadily.
He had told no one here he was an engineer.
Not a single prisoner should have known.
Yet someone did.
And if that mysterious voice was telling the truth, his arrival at Black Fortress Zero was no accident.
Someone—perhaps several people—had expected him long before he ever set foot inside the world's most secure prison.
Outside his cell, unseen cameras silently zoomed in.
Deep within the prison's central command centre, CERBERUS recalculated its risk assessment.
For the first time in its operational history, the probability of an organised escape increased—not by much, but enough to trigger an internal alert.
Escape Probability: 0.00003%.
It was still virtually impossible.
But it was no longer zero.
End of Chapter Three – Part One
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