Chapter 3: The Rules of Hell (Part Two)
1134 Words
Chapter Three:
The Rules of Hell (Part Two)
Elias stood motionless beside the concrete wall, his fingers still hovering near the worn bolt on the bedframe. The whisper had vanished as suddenly as it had come.
"If you're the engineer... they've been waiting for you."
The words echoed in his mind.
He slowly scanned the ceiling.
Tiny black dots, almost invisible against the white surface, revealed the presence of microscopic cameras. Another glance at the ventilation grille exposed a miniature directional microphone. Whoever had spoken knew exactly where the surveillance devices were positioned.
Whoever it was had survived here long enough to understand the prison better than its architects expected.
A soft chime sounded through the cell.
"Prisoner A-7319," CERBERUS announced in its calm mechanical voice. "Proceed to the Central Hall for evening orientation."
The steel door slid open without another command.
Outside, dozens of prisoners stepped from identical cells. Nobody spoke. Nobody smiled. They walked in silence, each watched by hovering drones whose blue lights swept continuously across the corridor.
The prison felt less like a correctional facility and more like a laboratory where human beings were the subjects of a never-ending experiment.
---
The Central Hall was enormous.
Hundreds of inmates entered through separate corridors, eventually gathering beneath a dome so vast that its ceiling disappeared into darkness. Bright white lights illuminated polished steel floors. Long tables were arranged in perfect rows, each with a numbered seat.
There were no guards shouting orders.
Instead, illuminated arrows appeared on the floor, directing every prisoner to a specific place.
Elias noticed something peculiar.
Not everyone wore the same colour uniform.
Some wore grey.
Others wore blue.
A smaller group wore black.
The men dressed in black carried themselves differently. Their faces were scarred, their movements disciplined, and even the other prisoners avoided making eye contact with them.
Before Elias could study them further, a booming voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Eyes forward!"
Director Adrian Voss stood on a raised platform overlooking the hall.
"You are wondering about the colours," he said.
"The uniforms are not decorations."
He pointed towards the prisoners dressed in grey.
"Grey uniforms are assigned to new arrivals and low-risk inmates."
Then towards the blue uniforms.
"Blue uniforms have earned limited privileges through years of compliance."
Finally, he looked at the prisoners in black.
"And black uniforms belong to those who have become... useful."
No explanation followed.
Yet the hall seemed to grow colder.
Useful for what?
Elias suspected he would soon find out.
---
Dinner arrived without servers.
Rectangular compartments silently rose from the tables, each containing a carefully measured meal.
Every portion was identical.
The nutritional value had been calculated precisely.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
A large man sitting opposite Elias laughed bitterly.
"They don't feed us to keep us alive."
Elias looked up.
"They feed us to keep us productive."
The speaker extended his hand.
"Malik."
His grip was firm.
"Most people call me Iron Wolf."
Elias recognised the name instantly.
Malik Hassan.
Former commander of a criminal empire stretching across three continents.
Interpol had once described him as the most dangerous strategist never to command an army.
"You know who I am," Malik observed.
"I read," Elias replied calmly.
Malik smiled.
"Good."
"Reading keeps the mind alive."
He leaned forward.
"But curiosity gets people killed in this place."
Before Elias could answer, a drone descended between them.
Its sensor glowed red.
"Conversation limit exceeded."
Both men immediately fell silent.
The drone hovered for another ten seconds before flying away.
Malik whispered without moving his lips.
"They hear everything."
"But they don't always understand everything."
---
After dinner, prisoners were escorted towards the recreation sector.
The name was misleading.
There were no games.
No entertainment.
Only exercise equipment, books, and educational terminals.
Every activity appeared carefully designed to maintain physical and mental fitness.
"They're preserving valuable assets," Elias muttered.
Malik heard him.
"You noticed."
"This prison doesn't want broken prisoners."
"It wants efficient ones."
"Why?"
Malik's expression darkened.
"Because some of us disappear."
Elias frowned.
"Disappear?"
"They're called for special assignments."
"They never return."
"Nobody knows where they go."
For the first time that evening, genuine concern crossed Elias's face.
He remembered the old transport guard's warning.
I simply haven't realised I'm already dead.
Perhaps the man had not been speaking metaphorically.
---
The lights suddenly dimmed.
A piercing alarm echoed throughout the recreation hall.
Every drone froze in mid-air.
Every screen went black.
For exactly three seconds...
...the prison lost power.
The darkness was absolute.
Then, just as suddenly, the lights returned.
Everything resumed as if nothing had happened.
Except Elias noticed one detail.
Several prisoners exchanged quick glances.
Not fearful glances.
Hopeful ones.
Three seconds.
It was the first imperfection he had witnessed since arriving.
The prison was not invincible.
Somewhere inside Black Fortress Zero, something had interrupted its flawless operation.
CERBERUS spoke immediately.
"Minor technical fluctuation corrected."
"No cause for concern."
But Elias had spent years designing automated systems.
Perfect systems never suffered unexplained fluctuations.
Someone—or something—had interfered.
---
That night, back inside Cell 47-B, sleep refused to come.
Elias replayed every event in his mind.
The worn bolt.
The mysterious whisper.
The coloured uniforms.
The disappearing prisoners.
The unexplained blackout.
None of it fit together.
He sat quietly at the desk until another whisper emerged through the wall.
"You noticed the blackout."
Elias answered just loudly enough to be heard.
"Who are you?"
A pause.
"My name no longer matters."
"How do you know I'm an engineer?"
"I helped build this prison."
Elias's eyes widened.
The voice continued.
"I designed parts of its structural foundation."
"I also designed the hidden passages that were never supposed to exist."
Silence filled the room.
Then came the words that changed everything.
"This prison was never built only to keep prisoners inside."
"It was built to keep something else from getting out."
Before Elias could ask another question, the corridor erupted with the sound of heavy footsteps.
Robotic guards.
The voice vanished instantly.
The steel door remained closed, but a red scanning beam swept across the cell.
CERBERUS spoke softly.
"Good evening, Prisoner A-7319."
"You are thinking unusual thoughts."
"We will be watching more closely."
The scanning light disappeared.
Outside, the footsteps faded into the distance.
Elias leaned back against the wall, his heartbeat steady despite the danger.
For the first time since his arrival, he realised that escaping Black Fortress Zero might not be the greatest challenge.
Discovering the truth hidden beneath it could prove even more dangerous.
And somewhere in the deepest level of the prison, behind doors no inmate had ever seen, a classified file appeared on a secure monitor.
Its title contained only two words:
PROJECT ORPHEUS.
Below it flashed a new warning.
Subject A-7319 has begun asking the right questions.
- Writer
