Chapter 495: The Prison
Laz laid in the cheap motel bed, Jill curled up beside him. Nothing had happened the previous night other than Laz waking in the middle of the night to find the young girl had joined him and was snuggling up close to him.
’I guess once we left the gate, the facts of this world are weighing down on her again. With nothing to distract her, all the pain and hurt she experienced with life just hits you..." Laz said, holding Jill closer to which he got a contented moan in return.
’Still though, I hope they got out of there ok. The news isn’t reporting on anything yet so I doubt anything serious happened. Hell, ever if something did, they would at least post a cover up story. Ah well, that’s no longer my problem I guess. For now, I guess I should take a look at this prison I heard about. Not that I want to wade into the shit again... but for some reason it kind of pisses me off knowing they would be rounding us up just to lock us up. Besides, I somehow doubt it’s as clear cut as that... fuck... I didn’t want to get involved yet here I am already thinking way too much about it... fuck....’
Laz had trouble sleeping after that, not only because of his thoughts, but also because Jill’s hands seemed to be wandering in her sleep.
After a quick breakfast, they set out on the road, although they weren’t entirely sure of their destination.
"I wonder just where this place would be?" Laz pondered out loud. Jill, who was sitting in the passenger seat next to him while holding her phone, suddenly looked up.
"I think I got it," she said with a hint of a smile.
"Hmm?"
"Well. It’s just... why would they build a brand new building when there was probably already one available, right? So therefore I searched up old prisons and ones that had recently closed in the area and got a few hits. Then I was thinking that while it could be old, it can’t be too old that it would cost a lot to remodel just to allow people to live in it. While they might not think much of us, they had to at least have the appearance there of treating us like people..." Jill began to explain before cutting off, unsure if she was making sense.
"Go on. I’m with you so far."
"Ok. So with that in mind, I figured it had to either be something newer that closed or something that had been remodeled or was being remodeled and found only one that fit that description." Jill held out the phone so Laz could see.
"The Reformation Institute?" Laz said reading the name.
"Yeah. Sounds kinda stupid if you ask me but I guess making prisons not sound like prisons is a thing..." Jill said, bringing the phone back to check out more information.
"Sounds like a good of a lead as any. Let me know where to do and we’ll check it out," Laz said as Jill began to tell him which way to go.
"We’re not just driving up to the front door and knocking, are we?" Jill asked as they neared their target.
"No. Course not. That would be foolish. I was thinking maybe I could get myself arrested though," Laz said with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Master..."
"Alright. Alright. I was just kidding. For now we should check it out to see if it’s even what we are looking for... whoa..." Laz turned on his turning signal and changed directions immediately. The prison gate was off the road they had been on, but Laz noticed some strange looking people parked across the street and watching the road.
The reason that stood out was because all around them were nothing but open fields. They had passed through a town a few miles back, but out here were nothing but crops and dirt as far as the eye could see. Based on that, there was no reason that guys in suits should be sitting in an unmarked SUV sitting off the side of the road. Maybe if they were in a pickup and not suits, Laz would believe it was some farmers checking on their fields. But this just stood out way too much.
"Well... guess that leaves out the front entrance," Laz said, driving carefully as to not attract attention.
"They wouldn’t have people all over the place would they? You don’t think they knew we are coming?" Jill said, panicking a little.
"No. Don’t worry. Those guys are probably just some sort of perimeter watch or something. Of course if the prison were closed, that would make no sense. But if it contained detained infected, then that would make a lot more sense," Laz said, turning off the road and into a cornfield which had a small path through it.
"Luckily we can hide this here for now," Laz said, killing the engine.
"So is this what we are looking for?" Jill asked.
"I don’t know. We would need to get a visual on the prisoners themselves to know for certain. So why don’t we take a walk and find out for certain," Laz asked Jill.
She smile and got out of the van, opening the back door.
Laz got out as well and walked around, seeing Jill rummaging through their packed belongings.
She handed some clothes over to Laz who immediatly started to take off the white shirt and jeans he was wearing. Stripping all the way, Laz slid into the liquid metal armor that he had been allowed to keep before putting the black shirt, pants and hoodie on. It was only once he was covered that he noticed Jill still looking at him, a blush in her cheeks.
"Get changed. We want to be in and out quickly," Laz said playfully before slipping on some black gloves.
Jill stripped as well, as she was bending over to grab her attire though, Laz noticed her shaking her ass a bit while seeming like she was searching for something.
’She’s doing this on purpose, isn’t she?’ Laz thought before strapping his pouch to his waist, not knowing that Jill was actually watching him and his reactions from a mirror in her one hand.
She quickly put on some underwear, something she didn’t really need to take off, before slipping on the super thin and light and almost invisible chainmail. She then slid into her black clothing as well.
"Let’s go," Laz said when they were ready.
Jill had a strange, two sided blade strapped to her waist, something he hadn’t seen her with before. When Jill noticed Laz eyeing the weird weird weapon, she just mouthed, ’gift.’
Making their way through the forested area, they quickly came upon the clearing. Off in the distance, several hundreds of feet away from the tree line, was the fence that marked the boundary of the prison. Massive guard towers were dotted along the fence in a normal fashion. The first strange thing that caught Laz’s eyes though were there were some sort of mounted guns pointing both inward and outward on every singe tower. While they couldn’t get a clear view of the front from where they were, they had gotten luck as it seemed like there were layers of fence and barbed wire, inside of which was some sort of open ground.
’Prison yard?" Laz asked, since he had no idea why there would be a huge open area surrounded by fence instead.
"Looks like it..." Jill took out some binoculars and took a closer look while Laz activated his golden eyes and used Heaven’s Gaze to get a good look.
Sure enough, inside the enclosure were dozens of people, sitting around and talking mostly. Besides that, there didn’t seem to be much activity going on otherwise. The equipment in the area went mostly unused. Thinking about it, this either meant they wouldn’t use it or they couldn’t,
’or maybe they just haven’t been here long enough to be bored enough to use it?’ Laz thought to himself.
Watching them for a while, Laz didn’t notice a single fluctuation... meaning that they weren’t infected. Had they been, his skill would have been more than enough to have detected it.
’Maybe we were wrong?’ Laz thought before noticing the collars..
"No way..." Laz said, surprised.
"I don’t think they are infected..." Jill said, turning her gaze from the prison back to Laz before noticing his surprised face.
"What master?" Jill asked.
"They are... all of them.." Laz said with a heavy sigh.
"How do you know? I don’t see anything."
"Those collars... they are not only locking their ability, but they are also hiding their aura’s so they seem just like normal people."
"But... how is that possible..."
"Runes... And I know this because I’ve seen them before. I have no idea how they got their hands on those collars... or the ability to make them I should say since each one looks identical. But that means something bad might have happened to a few friends of mine."
"You might know people in there?" Jill asked.
"Maybe. But it doesn’t matter one way or the other."
"Because we are going to do something about it?" Jill asked with a smile.
"Exactly!"
