Guarded

A bit of dark humor, the frustrations of a normal man taken hostage when super villains break out of prison.

Emma Foley

Guarded

“You mere humans have no idea with whom you are dealing!” bellowed a compact, heavily muscled man. “How naive you are to dream that such an affront to one so powerful as I could be tolerated. No one crosses Gravitor and lives! Your magnets may have imprisoned me for now, but I will not be denied the promised meatloaf! Did you think I would not notice that you have served us turkey sandwiches three days in a row???? When I return to my glory, you shall feel my wrath! I will kill you all!”

Exchanging looks, a hard-bitten young guard relieved the older, taller one who had been laughing bitterly at the monologue in front of him.

The fit, middle-aged man dropped his heavy gun into the rack on the wall, then peeled off his flexible blue body armor. The uniform beneath had “Dorthea Dix Federal Correctional Facility” embroidered on the pocket, the stitching slightly frayed. Next, he slid off his boots, removed his watch, emptied his pockets and dumped it all into a scratched gray plastic box with the ease of boredom. Heading over to the first security gate, he traded friendly insults with Bob, who patted him down and sent him to the next gate. Stepping onto a conveyor belt, he closed his eyes as the radiation penetrated his flesh. No alarm bells sounded, and he moved on. Retinal scan, fingerprint analysis, and twelve digit code entry. Finally, he had to answer several very personal questions from Denise, who was required to know him well enough to recognize whether he was an impostor with merely the voice and appearance of Maxwell S. Larsson.

He gave a weary glance to the “Break Room: Employees Only” sign on the heavy door and stepped inside. For now, he was alone. Pouring inevitably stale coffee into a crisp Styrofoam cup, he paced the room. Max scuffed his steel-soled boot on the smooth magnetic floor. The field it created was just strong enough to tug gently on the metal, like a spring zephyr in an outstretched umbrella. Stepping towards the wall, he looked up at the grinning poster of Captain Elastic and Atomika. Part of the campaign to improve prison morale, it read “You don't have to be super to have a super day!” He suppressed the overwhelming urge to hurl and turned his attention to the battered TV flickering fitfully on the wall. The volume was turned way down, but he could already tell that that it wasn't worth watching--some idiot in a cape grinning in front of the burning White House, with the President talking animatedly at him--probably spewing more over- adulating crap about how we'd be lost without our nation's superheros. Vigilante b******s.

Idly, Max kicked the Coke machine, but it didn't move. He hadn't expected it to--everything in the break room was welded to the floor or the counters. Slumping into a curved plastic chair, he stared at his hands, thoughts of quiting time lingering in his mind. He had forgotten to kiss his wife this morning, something he always made a point to do. They had had one of those meaningless fights--she didn't want to bother calling to get the washing machine fixed. And Vanessa had looked so good in her gray suit, storming out the front door on her way to work. Right now, she was probably sitting at her desk at the office, calculating risks. Being an actuary, she knew exactly how dangerous the world was. And Max hadn't kissed her. He would apologize when he got home.

The moment of quiet was broken by the blare of alarms and spinning orange lights. The warden's stern voice came over the intercom, “There has been a breach in cell block E. All personnel immediately employ ear protection and follow protocol 7-G.” Max fished in his pocket for earplugs, but all that he turned up were his car keys and wallet.

“Damn,” he swore under his breath.

“Magnetic fields activating!” The tug on his boots became much stronger, anchoring him for the next security measure.

“Gravity reduction introduced!” His clothes drifted nebulously around his body. Only prison employees had magnetic shoes"the inmates would be floating unanchored. And most non-specialized weapons would be yanked to the floor. But then, with a crackling, the magnetism powered down and the gravity slowly returned to normal.

“Damndamndamndamndamndamnhell.” Whoever had broken out had trashed the gravity and magnetism banks. Which meant that the escape was very well planned. “Damn.” His mind filled with the image of his wife behind her desk.

A hum was building all around him. The walls and floor were buzzing, vibrating, shaking; a crack began to appear behind the TV, which fell and crashed in a shower of sparks and glass. Once the fissure had grown bit taller than Max, and not quite as wide as his hand span, the humming abruptly stopped. He was suddenly quite aware that he was unarmed, and began backing towards the exit. As he did, silver talons scratched their way through the hole and began to widen the opening. Scrabbling, they pulled at it, breaking off chunks of concrete to reveal three figures standing in clouds of dust, all clad in orange jumpsuits. In front, a shining eight foot figure stood, with the hideous claws morphing back into fingers. Max remembered when that one, Jason Wilder who called himself Chrome, had first arrived in the prison"they had had to build a water tight cell to contain the shape shifter. He had taken one of the big office buildings downtown, held hundreds hostage. Four city blocks were leveled in the standoff between Wilder and the Titaness, who finally brought him in. The guard who had the shift after Max, Sam Tennyson--his wife had been a clerk in one of those buildings. That's why he'd taken the prison job. He swore he'd keep freaks like that locked up.

Slightly behind Chrome was...well Max supposed it was a woman, but she had paws and a tail. And seemed to have fur from the neck down. Her dark eyes were unnervingly piercing as they fixed upon his slow movements. To her left was another woman, this one stunning enough to make him go slightly weak in the knees. With shining red hair and eyes the color of jealousy, she was unsettlingly beautiful.

“I don't think you want to walk out of here.” Her voice was like flutes, like honey, like promises. And suddenly, Max wasn't quite certain why he had been backing away. He had to do something, something important, but...

It was not until the cold mercurial arms had him locked that he began to remember that things were very wrong. He began to fight, but the lovely woman's harsh laugh stilled him. The leonine one leaned her face in close to his and purred, “I have a riddle for you. What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?”

“A man.” Max could not believe this, and the woman looked put out. “You need some new material. I read Oedipus in high school.”

“If you do not hold your tongue, I may have to claw your eyes out,” her voice was all embarrassment and ice.

“Sphinx, I think you need to remember the value of live hostages,” the other woman breathed in her ear.

“But Siren, you get to have all the fun,” fingering the tuft of fur at the end of her tail, she was pouting now.

“Sssstop,” came the soft, sibilant whisper of the silver figure. “Let'sssss jussst get out of thisss placccce.”

“Yes, I believe that we have a bit of revenge waiting for us,” replied Siren.

“Do you think one meat shield is enough to get us out of here?” asked Sphynx.
“If we are sufficiently charming,” sang Siren. “Chrome, do you have the explosives?”

“Of courssse. It feelsss ssso good to be armed again.”

“Then its time to move along. Take more hostages only if you find it convenient.” Wrapping her arms around Max, pinning his to his sides, she hummed softly in his ear as they made their way through the halls, melting his thoughts.

Outside the break room, it was a torrent of noise, between the shouts and the alarms. When the volume threatened to drown Siren's song, Max could almost fight back, but the bareness of her breath in his ear was pervasive and the small bit of coherence left in his head wished desperately to be tied to a mast.

Shots rang out, aimed at the two escapees without hostages. They slid through Chrome, the only evidence of their passage punctures in his clothing. Sphinx was remarkably good at dodging, something Max would not have expected from looking at her. In his fuzzed state, he wondered if her feet were paws and if she had always walked upright.

A shout, a metallic clang, and the corridor began to fill with acrid gray smoke. Coughing, the motley quartet broke into a flat out run, Siren stumbling over Max, nearly knocking them down several times.

Heads clouding over and eyes filling with blurring tears, all they could do was continue straight forward and hope not to hit a wall. Max's desperation was growing under the gag of Siren's spell, and he shut his eyes, unable to bear the searing pain of the gas. The steady throb of his heart rose in his ears, bearing down on him, filling him with panic he was unable to express--enchanted as he was by the constant whisper--and so it took a moment to come to him that the smoke was thinning.

They had finally pushed through, out of the range of the gas bomb. He choked on oxygen, gulping down the brand new air. Almost there, almost there, and he could see the light of the front doors. Strangely...unguarded...that wasn't right...but the song in his ear was triumphant.

A flash of blue and gold, and both Siren and her hostage were knocked to the ground--stopping the singing in her throat--and a yellow shape whooshed about, confusing the already dazed Chrome and Sphinx.

Fighting pain, Max tried to stand, only to have his left leg collapse under him; his ankle was broken.

“Not to worry, citizen,” came a booming voice. “The Liberator is here to rescue you!” A triangularly muscular man was hovering a few feet from the ceiling.

“Ahem!” A bright voice put in.

The Liberator chuckled. Max could not believe he was chuckling. “With help from Liberty Belle, of course.” Their costumes matched, clearly marking them as hero and sidekick.

The pert blond teenager swooped down and socked Sphinx in the solar plexus, who, winded, gasped, “the Liberator is going to put us back in prison? I didn't spend a year cooling my heels in this place to get defeated by irony.”

“No one has the liberty to run from the consequences of their actions,” said The Liberator.

“That's right!” chimed Liberty Belle.

Siren snorted derisively, then let out a clear note.

Another swoop by the girl silenced her, slamming the escapee's head into the concrete floor.

“Out cold, sir!” she cheeped. Max leaned over the lovely woman and saw crimson blood mingling with her copper hair.

The Liberator, meanwhile, unleashed a mighty gust of freezing breath upon Chrome, who was frozen into place. The surface of his metallic skin began to crack, and he convulsed but still could not break free.

Then the two joined in pummeling Sphinx until she whimpered for mercy, promising to return to her cell.

“Justice has prevailed! The streets will not be plagued with this garbage today.” The man in the gaudy tights was looking very pleased with himself.

“No need to thank us, sir,” piped Belle to Max, “it's just lucky we were passing by and heard the alarms. Who knows what would have happened if we hadn't stopped by.”

“Where the hell were you fifteen minutes ago?” burst Max. “You 'heroes' swoop around, playing gods and demons, not giving a damn about collateral damage. The rest of us normal humans are left to clean up your messes, to pen up the loonies who try to compete with you. Why can't a few of you take up guard jobs? Not glamorous enough? The military, law enforcement, federal agencies--work within our f*****g institutions. I'm so glad you 'stopped by'. I am so glad that I nearly got killed because none of you can deign to work in a prison. You can feel really good about the fact that this time you managed to help.” His breath was ragged, and he stood for a moment, not knowing where to look after the torrent of words. Suddenly, he was painfully aware of how loud he had been.

The Liberator chuckled nervously. “Well, I can see that all of this excitement shook you up a bit. Don't worry--I won't hold this little outburst against you. You'd be surprised at the number who lash out at the wrong people after an experience like this. But now, we'd better be off, so keep the cause of freedom alive!” And the two flew off into a clear sky.

As heavily armed guards rushed in, Max dragged himself over to the nearest wall and slumped against it. “That's going to be a lot of paperwork.”

Author's Note

How is the pacing on the action?
Is the end too abrupt/ thoughts on Max's outburst?
Are the superhero elements believable in context?

Reviews

[Anonymous]

I love the dark humor of the main character and just how much literally everyone seems to hate the superhero, even the protagonist. I found the line about irony especially amusing. Amazing short story, btw. You should write more like it.

[Tina Kline]

I like this, its great. The pacing I thought was just perfect and the superhero elements worked perfectly with the story line. Everything worked every well with the storyline, it was believable in the context it was presented in, very entertaining story.

[La3uren]

i like the superhero twist, and the characters are really real. nice :)

[Laura76]

I think this was a lot of fun. I'd say the superhero elements are believable because it does seem a little futuristic in parts (magnetic fields and gravity reduction) so it gives me a hint there may be some more "out there" things going on later in the story.

I think the opening monologue is hilarious but I'm confused about where exactly the speaker is standing/sitting when he says it. Is he at the security gate as Max arrives? Is he in a cell? Also it would be nice to have more description of Max's surroundings so we can picture the setting a little better. But overall, it was a fun story. I like the characters you created.

[alesuriko]

First off, you spelled guarded wrong in the title. Secondly... no the superhero elements are in no way believable! But in context of course they are! This is hilarious! I started off reading this thinking... oh great another crappy little sci-fi thing about jail and blah blah blah oh hello claws? Siren... Sphinx... interesting... and then everything picked up into absolutely hilarity with the entrance of the superhero and side-kick. I love it! Such a great parody/satire! I loved the transitions... how it starts off serious, normal, everyday, the inclusion of the "not kissing my wife goodbye" was a great realistic, typical, over-done part. The supernatural aspects of this were really well played, adding them in slowly as these creatures or villains that are terrifying and deadly. Loved the bit with the riddle, I hate that play but I love trumping people when they try to out wit me by using that line, thinking they're so clever and smart haha. Then everything went to s**t with the superheros and their bullshit names, brilliant! I was laughing the entire way through it after they entered. Everything was such a great parody on everything about these. Especially with Max's outburst, I'd say the same damn thing if superhero's existed. Sure I'd be grateful that they came around but really, do you need to wait until people are dead/injured/endangered or when buildings have been destroyed or damaged? It's not too abrupt either, the outburst. It's realistic in terms of shock, anger, outrage, etc. Good emotions expressed in this piece. I must say I loved the ending... reminded me of Shawn of the Dead... A LOT of paperwork. Although I do have to inform you that "a lot" is two separate words, not one. Also, in the Liberator's last speech, you have an unnecessary quotation mark after "Don't worry" because the dialogue continues. There are also a few sentence fragments and run-ons but they are easily overlooked and you can get away with them for creative justice or whatever you wanna call it (I just wanna call it justice because of your superhero thing haha). There are also some parts that lack a little intrigue but overall it's a great story.

[writergirl10]

It was really good, and I really enjoyed it. It's a great story!!