Apex

Chapter 2: Tartarus

Chapter 2: Tartarus

Warden West led his two prisoners into the main building. Once inside, they saw at least five floors of prison cells. However, there were no prisoners in sight. Of the twenty-six residents of Tartarus, only two did not wear riot gear. One was the Warden, who wore his S.W.A.T. gear and combat pants. The other was a woman who was seated in a chair in the corner. She was being guarded by two armoured men. She wore all black clothes and had a sniper rifle at her feet. Though her face was shadowed, Lex thought she recognised her.

“So, from what you said outside, it sounds like you two don"t know much about our little home here,” West said eventually.

“What do you mean?” asked Lex. “Is there something special about your prison here?”

“Hah!” the Warden laughed. “You really haven’t heard anything, then. Most people that come here come to fight. Like that girl over there, she’ll be fighting in a minute if you want to wa-“

“I’m sorry, ‘fight?’” Lex asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, people come here to square off against one another. Like gladiators, you know? Anyway, the winner takes away a bag of food and ammunition. It provides entertainment for my soldiers and supplies for the winner.”

“And the winner is just free to go?”

“Yeah, if they’re in any shape to walk. We’ve cleaned out most of this area but there’s an old military encampment not far from here. It’s got tonnes of supplies left but it’s on the far side of town so we only go there if we need to.”

“Jesus Christ,” Jake exclaimed. These people had enough supplies to go around and then some, not to mention the almost impregnable prison they were hiding out in.

“What if the winner wanted more than just one bag of food and ammo? What if they wanted a few bags and functional weapons?” That provoked some surprised groans and whistles from the residents of Tartarus.

“You planning on fighting yourself, redhead?” West asked. He seemed hesitant. “Well, if the winner puts on a good enough show, me and my boys might decide to throw in a few goodies. Still, we can’t go giving away much more than is promised, we still have to sustain ourselves.” Jake and Lex liked the sound of this. If there was any chance they could increase their already generous supply of food, and add to their small collection of guns, they would take it. “That’s not why I brought you two in here, though, I’m sorry to say. I brought you in because I can’t risk letting you two go if you’re part of a larger group that might come back to take this place over.”

“You look like you’d put up one hell of a fight,” Jake told him.

“Well, of course we would but we still can’t risk it.”

“You don’t have to worry about us, Warden,” Lex assured him. “It’s just the two of us.”

“Can’t really just take your word on it, now, can I? I made the mistake of doing that once before and it lost me a few of my men.” It was not going to be easy convincing West that they posed no threat to Tartarus. If he chose not to trust them, he might well decide to keep them prisoner here. He certainly had the jail cells for it. “Well, there’s no point trying to sort this out now anyway. Fight’s about to start.” The tanned woman in black stepped up to the raised platform in the centre of the room. Her opponent, a tall woman slightly muscled like Lex, came out in combat pants and a tank top. There was no referee or anyone to regulate the match. As soon as both fighters stood atop the platform, they went for each other. As brutal as fights get, this one was particularly violent. Though the second woman was bigger and stronger looking, she was beaten to the ground by the tanned woman Lex thought she knew. When she was done viciously punching her opponent, she stood up and composed herself. It was at this moment that Lex caught her eye. Apparently, Lex looked familiar to her too.

“Bravo, Natalie, bravo,” West yelled dramatically. He was handed a large bag by one of his men which he in turn handed to Natalie who still had her eyes fixed on Lex. “There’s plenty of food and enough ammo to last that gun of yours a month at the very least.” After a few moments of silence, she replied to the confused Warden.

“Yes, fine. I’ll be leaving then.” She started towards the exit but halted. Lex was about to call her name just as she remembered who this woman was.

“Alexis?! From the Marines, is that you?!” Natalie asked eagerly. The two of them had served together before, years ago. Lex greeted her old friend and introduced her to Jake.

“I’ll let you catch up, then,” West told them. “But afterwards, we need to talk, redhead. You too, baldy. Come find me when you’re done, both of you.” With that he left them.

“s**t, girl, I never thought I’d see you around here,” Natalie admitted. “Thought you’d be as far from the city as possible, actually.” Lex laughed nervously.

“So did I, if I’m honest. Just left a couple of days ago. We’re trying our best to stay alive out here. What about you, huh? How’ve you been?”

“Pretty shitty, to say the least,” Natalie said bluntly. “Doing what I can to come by any food, you know?” She gestured to the back of supplies in her hand.

“We’ve got a generous enough store of supplies,” Jake piped up. Seeing as Lex and Natalie knew each other, he figured Alexis wouldn’t mind if her old friend came with them.

“That’s true,” Lex concurred. “We’re holed up not too far from here if you want to come back with us.” Natalie looked happy at that.

“Yeah, I’ll wait around here for you, West looks pretty pissed.” She was looking up at the Warden who was pacing outside his office. “I wouldn’t keep him waiting.” Lex and Jake made their way to the office and were let in by West, who was sitting in a chair behind and official looking desk.

“Suppose you two are looking to go free, that about right?” he asked as he stared at them through his sunglasses.

“Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited at the idea,” Jake joked. West smirked slightly, though he might have been cringing in disgust at Jake.

“Well, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m keeping you two here for three days. You’ll both be in the same cell and you’ll be fed twice a day.”

“You can’t be serious!” Lex exploded. “You can’t just keep us prisoner here like your own personal hostages!”

“Actually, I can,” the Warden retorted. “I’m the one with the firepower and the cells. It’s just a safety precaution before you get your knickers in a twist, redhead. If nobody comes looking for you in three days, you can go free. I just want to make sure you two aren’t part of a larger group.”

“This is bullshit, West,” Jake spat. “Just have someone watch us for a few days, see that we’re alone. There is no bigger group, man, we’re not lying to you!” West whistled and a man in a hoodie entered the office. It was the man they had seen earlier, entering the prison.

“Thomas, take these two to the largest cell we have and lock them in. They’re about to do some time in Tartarus. Don’t worry, skinhead, it ain’t as bad as you think.”

“You’re a f*****g asshole, man. You can’t treat people like this!” They were led to a cell on the third floor which was, admittedly, fairly large with two roomy beds. Thomas locked the cell door and left them. It was a few minutes before Natalie appeared.

“I was afraid this might happen. He did the same to me.”

“You had to stay here for three days?” Jake asked.

“Three days?! Hell, no. He let me go after one. He must really not trust you two.”

“Well, this is just great,” said Jake, clearly becoming angrier by the second.

“Look, it’s not that bad,” Lex told him. “At least we get fed while we’re here, right? It could be worse, at least he’s letting us go unhindered after three days.” Jake frowned for a few moments as if deep in thought before sighing deeply.

“Yeah, alright. Could be worse.” By nightfall, they were both lying in their beds wide awake. Lex couldn’t sleep at all. She couldn’t quite put her finger on why, exactly, she just felt uneasy. It didn’t feel right being held as a prisoner, even if they weren’t actually in any danger from their captors. When morning came, Jake was the first to rise. He hadn’t slept well either. “Didn’t sleep a wink last night, Lex,” he greeted her with. This place isn’t exactly the friendliest place to stay.” It was early yet and the residents of the prison hadn’t risen yet.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. There were no fights below, which made their stay even more boring, and nobody came to speak with them, not even Natalie. When asked about it, West told them that she left a few hours ago but told him she would not leave the area without Jake and Lex. That was slightly encouraging. At least they would have a friend once they left here. Jake passed the time by doing push-ups to combat the fact that they were forced to sit around all day and do nothing. Lex eventually joined him when her tolerance for boredom had reached its end.

That night, they both settled down once more in a futile attempt to fall asleep. It was a few hours after midnight when Lex heard commotion from the lower levels. She rose from her bed and went to the cell door, looking down to the bottom floor. West and three soldiers were speaking rather frantically with one another. The soldiers left him and he made his way to Lex and Jake.

“Can I trust you?” he asked suddenly, the key to the cell in his hand. It was at this point that Jake rose from his bed and joined Lex.

“What’s going on?” he asked, still groggy and disoriented from the half hour of sleep he had just gotten. There were gunshots from outside.

“Can I trust you two?!” West asked once more, growing impatient.

“Yes! Yes, of course!” Lex told him firmly. He hesitated for a moment before unlocking the cell door.

“Meet me outside.” He hurried back down to the bottom floor and left the building. Lex and Jake quickly dressed themselves and made their way down the rusted metal stairs. They were handed a shotgun each and told to meet the Warden outside. Once they exited the prison and joined West on the walkway, they understood why they had been called. Four Titans were rampaging through the barren streets of the town, tearing a herd of cattle apart.

Natalie stood on the roof of the building opposite, using her sniper rifle to shoot the beasts. They were strange animals, massive in size with a height of at least ten feet. While once human, they now looked far different and stood leaning forward in a bestial manner. Their heads were almost canine and their skin was a pale grey in colour. To add to their ferocity, they could take a lot of damage. The ten or so residents of Tartarus that stood firing at them were using heavy shotguns and had not managed to topple one of the beasts yet. The scene on the street was c*****e.

With the cattle torn limb from limb, the Titans focused their attention on the prison soldiers. One of them grabbed a human from within the walls of Tartarus with its immense reach and proceeded to bite straight through the riot gear. Jake landed a well-placed shot straight to the head of the Titan. It did not fall. It must have had an extremely thick skull to withstand that. Lex had faced Titans before, but not many. Of those she did fight, two she killed and they only died when exposed to explosives. West took a shot to the same beast, whose armour-like skull finally succumbed to the pressure of the gunshots and smashed to bits. That was one down.

“How strong are these f*****g things?!” Jake asked in utter bewilderment. West lost five more of his men before two more of the Titans were killed. The last one was beaten when Natalie landed an almost impossible shot to one of the creature’s eyes. With all of the beasts finally dead, everybody calmed down.

“Alright, everyone,” West called to his soldiers. “Head back inside. Best we can hope for is a good night’s sleep.” With the others gone and only West left, he thanked them. “That was a good thing you two did for us. Without you, I might have lost more than five of my people.”

Though he was wearing sunglasses, Lex was sure the Warden was welling up at the loss of his soldiers. “Look, those gunshots will probably bring more Titans by tomorrow. You two don’t want to be here for that. I’m going to have my boys throw you a few bags of supplies and ammo. You can keep the shotguns. By dawn tomorrow, you’re free to go.” He went back inside without even giving them a chance to thank him. By morning, they were given a generous amount of food and ammo. They left the prison as early as they could. Natalie joined them outside the gate.

“Well, that definitely could have gone worse, eh, Lex?” she joked.

“We better move,” Jake warned them. “If there are any Titans nearby, we don’t want to be around when they arrive. Let’s head back.” As they made their way back to the house, Natalie and Jake got to know one another. At one point, the conversation moved on to Lex.

“Oh, man, I have some funny stories about Alexis,” Natalie teased. “This girl was insane back in the day!”

“Oh god,” Lex groaned. She could almost guess where this was going. Jake looked all too excited to hear about this.

“Do tell,” he said.

“Alright, well, it was about a year before all this s**t happened. We’d just finished serving with one another for the first time, right? So naturally we had a few weeks off. And what do you do when you’re on leave and you have to go back working in a few weeks?”

“Get wasted,” Jake laughed.

“Totally!” Natalie agreed surprisingly. “Anyway, we were pretty bad this one night, okay? We were trying to make it back to my place which was about a mile from the bar. We’re so pissed, we can’t even dial the number for a cab so we just decide to walk. Anyway, we’re just strolling home, wearing these stupid short dresses because that’s just the kind of s**t you wear when you go out at that age. So, Lex spots this dog and she, being a big animal lover, goes over to pet it.” Jake had a smile from ear to ear.

“Bad idea, I’m guessing?” he asked. Natalie almost couldn’t contain her laughter.

“Very bad idea! This thing was huge, I mean, it made a bloodhound look like a puppy. Naturally, it starts growling at her but being drunk as f**k, she just doesn’t get that it’s not friendly. Eventually, that brain of hers starts working and she leaves it alone.” Lex was even laughing at this point and had her hand on her face in anticipation of what was to come. “Next thing you know, the dog jumps at her and bites her in the ass! I mean, the teeth tore right through the dress and broke the skin!” At this point, Jake became paralyzed with laughter and doubled over in the middle of the road. “I know, right, man?” Natalie said as she joined in with his laughter.

“Oh, come on, you two,” chuckled Lex. “It could happen to anyone when they’re that drunk!”

“When we got home, she just had these teeth marks in her right ass cheek,” Natalie said once Jake had calmed down, prompting him to begin laughing all over again. “That’s not even the worst part, when we got home, she got the bright idea to pour vodka on the wound to heal it! It hurt so bad, she ran forward and smashed her face off the wall. Poor girl ended up with a bloody nose!” Jake’s face had turned purple and there were visible tears in his eyes. Lex, however, was trying her best not to laugh at the story she had almost forgotten about. Once he had composed himself, Jake rose to his feet and hugged Natalie.

“Thank you for entering our lives,” he jested. They eventually managed to continue forwards. Natalie’s ability to go without mentioning the incident again, however, was virtually non-existent.

“Still can’t believe you have a dog bite on your ass, Lex,” she laughed.

“Yeah,” Jake concurred. “I’ll have to see that sometime.”

“Hah! Oh, sure,” Lex mocked.

“You showed it to me, might as well just show everybody!” Natalie continued with the joke. “s**t, why don’t we head back to Tartarus and give West a look?” That started Jake off again which, in turn, made both Natalie and Lex start laughing.

“Alright, can we just drop it now?” Lex implored them. “Hilarious story, now let’s just move on with our lives.”

Natalie got five seconds before leaning over to whisper in Jakes ear.

“She couldn’t sit for a week!”

“I heard that, Natalie!” Lex scolded her friend. Once they arrived at the house, Lex leaned her shotgun against the wall and went inside to make sure everything was okay. While she was inside, Natalie circled the house and nodded her head, evidently impressed. The three of them lit a fire inside the house and exchanged stories of one another’s past experiences. Today had been strange, in Lex’s opinion. The arrival of Natalie had been refreshing. It was the first time any of them had laughed like that in years. After a few hours of chatting and eating, they retired to their beds. Though there were only two beds in the house, Natalie didn’t mind. She curled up in a ball in the living room and was asleep within an hour.

Jake stepped outside for a few moments to make sure no Titans had ventured this far away from Tartarus after the gunfight earlier. It appeared as though they were safe enough for the night. Jake was about to return inside when he noticed Lex’s gun leaning against the wall. He took it inside with him and made his way to her room. As he pried the door open quietly, he noticed she was still awake, lying on her bed.

“Sorry to disturb you,” he whispered as he sat on the end of the bed. “You don’t want to be leaving that outside overnight.” He sat the gun down next to her bag. Lex laughed.

“No, I don’t suppose I do. Thanks, I completely forgot about it.” Jake smiled before hesitantly leaning his face in towards hers. When she pulled back, he got the message and stopped immediately.

“Well, sleep well,” he said as he began to rise from the bed. Lex grabbed his arm suddenly.

“Don’t leave…” she whispered. That was exactly what Jake wanted to hear. He leaned back towards her and kissed her full on the lips with one hand on the back of her head. She kissed back just as eagerly before fumbling for his jumper. Once she had a firm grasp, she tore it from his body and threw it to the ground. Jake had already removed his own pants as his hands went to Lex once more. They both hoped that Natalie would not wake up. She was, Lex remembered, a light sleeper. But they were being as quiet as they could, given the circumstances. Jakes hands undid Lex’s jeans and slipped them down her legs, removing them swiftly.

Once they were completely undressed, Jake positioned himself atop her. He waited patiently for her to give him some sign that she was ready. When she nodded firmly, he thrust his hips forward and entered her. With one hand on her left hip and another at her shoulder, he thrust harder and harder. Lex wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him passionately as she made every attempt not to make any noise that would wake Natalie. As the night went on, Jake’s stamina waned and Lex rolled him over onto his back. Jake sighed with exhaustion. Lex, however, gave him no time to relax and immediately began gyrating her hips.

They were both sweating profusely now and Lex was sure that the loud moans both she and Jake were making had woken Natalie. Eventually, Lex could feel herself nearing climax. Her movements became faster and faster as their heartbeats quickened. She felt Jake finish inside her moments before she, herself, climaxed. As Lex dismounted Jake and went to lie back down beside him, he briefly spotted the dog bite on her right buttock.

“Was hoping I’d see that bite,” he teased. Lex looked around at him quickly.

“You didn’t!” she said in disbelief.

“I did!” the man whispered with giddiness. “That speck of moonlight coming through the window is a godsend.” The two of them tried and failed to contain their laughter.

“Well, now you’ve seen it. You happy?”

“Very. That’s the whole reason I came in here tonight, girl.” Lex slapped him affectionately before they both drifted off to sleep. For the first time in a while, they both slept rather soundly. In the morning, Jake was the first to rise. He threw on his jeans and ventured out into the living room. Natalie was waiting for him, leaning against the wall with an expression of pure mischief on her face.

“So, you’re banging Lex, huh?” she asked with a bluntness that startled Jake. He rubbed the back of his head and chuckled.

“Well, not exactly.”

“s**t, if you two weren’t banging last night then I don’t want to know what happened in there!”

“No, no,” Jake corrected himself. “It was just last night. It hasn’t been an ongoing thing.” Natalie grunted.

“Still, out of all the men I’ve seen that girl go the bed with, and there have been few enough, I probably approve of you the most.” Jake didn’t quite know what to do with that remark.

“Well, thanks. I think.”

“Don’t mention it.” Natalie turned to leave before halting for a moment. “Oh, by the way, well done on lasting as long as you did, man! That surprised the s**t out of me!”

“Oh, Jesus!” Jake exclaimed. His face had turned utterly crimson at this point.

“Maybe I could take that stamina of yours for a test drive someday,” she murmured with a wink. With that, she left to attend to her sniper rifle which she had evidently stripped earlier. Jake genuinely did not know how to react to her statement and instead decided to return to Lex’s room and finish dressing himself. Minutes passed, then hours and Lex finally arose. When she entered the living room, Natalie was rummaging through the supplies and picking out food for their breakfasts while Jake stood watch at one of the windows. They were still very much on edge and needed to be alert if any Titans entered the area.

“What’s our plan of action, then?” Lex asked as she took a seat and began eating the rather appealing meal of fish and vegetables that Natalie had laid out for them.

“I think we should keep going to the police station,” Jake suggested. “If there are still weapons and ammo there, we could use them.”

“I agree,” Natalie added as she started on her own breakfast. “I mean, it’s true that we do have a fairly good supply of weapons as it is, but if we need to defend ourselves like we did outside Tartarus then our ammo is going to run out real fast.” Alexis couldn’t argue with that. “And a vehicle wouldn’t be bad, either.”

“Vehicles make noise,” Lex argued. “I’m not sure that would be such a good idea.” Jake finally joined them and began devouring his own food as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks.

“Still, if we did attract any of those things, we’d be better off escaping in a truck or something than running on foot.” The prospect of a vehicle was attractive. Dangerous and risky, but still very appealing. They would need gasoline to keep it running, of course, and a damn good mechanic to get it working in the first place. If they found one already in working order, then all the better. Still, with the threat of Titans wandering into the region looming over them, Lex was not prepared to leave the house and supplies undefended.

“I’ll go alone,” she proposed finally. That provoked looks of disagreement from the others.

“Hell, no! Are you insane? If one of those things is anywhere near the town, you’re dead,” Jake argued, strongly against them splitting up.

“He’s right, girl. You’ll have to pass by the prison to get to the station anyway, it’s too risky alone.”

“But we can’t just leave this place with nobody to protect it,” she retorted. “Besides, there are other routes to the station. Shorter ones.”

“Like what?” Natalie asked, doubtful.

“I could take the sewer. It runs all the way beneath the city, I guarantee there’s a manhole right outside the police station.” Jake and Natalie exchanged a pained look of incredulity.

“There’s no guarantee there aren’t any Titans hiding down there, Lex,” Jake warned her. Truth be told, there was no guarantee that Titans hadn’t taken up refuge in the station, either.

“I know,” she admitted. “But if we want this stuff, I’m going to have to try. And I’m not leaving this place undefended.” They both knew by the tone in her voice that she had already decided to go alone. There was no changing her mind, Natalie knew that. If she was going, they were staying.

“I don’t like this,” Jake said aloud, though it was more of a general thought than an actual contribution to the conversation. At midday, Lex took one of the hunting rifles she and Jake had acquired from the dead men’s camp. She also took her knife and a flask of water. With only a few words, she left and headed back towards the town. The first manhole she saw, she lifted, albeit with difficulty, using her large hunting knife. Once it was off, she hopped down into the filthy sewer tunnel below her. It was dark down here, but there were occasionally a few beams of light that poured into the tunnel from holes in the ground above her. She ventured deeper into the tunnel, rifle in hand. She had a fairly good sense of direction and kept the manhole she had entered the tunnel through at her back. This would lead her directly below the prison. From there, she would head to the right which would lead further into town and towards the police station.

As she delved further through the sewer, she noticed light up ahead. The source was not the sun, however, and this light was artificial. It was coming from fire. Someone else was down here. Lex dropped to her knees and held her rifle aloft. It looked like there was some sort of larger chamber ahead. She could see movement of some sort, but she was unsure if the source was human or otherwise. She rose again and edged forward as slowly and quietly as she could.

Upon entering the chamber, she was met with multiple men dressed in ragged pants and worn boots. Their torsos remained relatively uncovered except for the bones of unknown animals which had been strapped to their bodies in a very tribal fashion. Indeed, the skulls of humans, dogs and even Titans served as shoulder pads. These men also wore some form of face paint, white and red in colour. They had seen her, of course, but they made no move to attack her. They simply observed and hovered their hands above their weapons which were, obviously, made of bone and wood.

There were no guns in sight, only crude, manmade axes and swords. Lex lowered her rifle and walked forward slowly. There were several barrels full of burning fires scattered throughout the chamber. Deeper in, there were women and children, too. That put Lex at ease. This was still a very strange experience, however. None of these people spoke or made any move to harm her. When she had lowered her rifle, they, too, had laid their hands down by their sides and relaxed. Considering they apparently had no interest in speaking to her, Lex decided she would approach one of them and ask for information about the station. Perhaps if she found out right away whether it was safe or not, she could save herself a lot of trouble.

She approached a tall, muscular man whose bushy beard made up for the lack of hair on his head. He held an axe in his left hand and a woman in his right. The Titan skull mounted on his left shoulder and the axe, obviously made of the same type of bone, spoke volumes about the ferocity of this man and his allies. If they proved to be hostile, this would not end well. Lex swallowed hard and hoped she would escape this sewer system alive.