Thane strode out of the armoury, his sword over his shoulder. His plasteel boots clunked upon the concrete floor, his armour hissing slightly with every movement. He scanned the environment, noting possible escape routes and blind spots in the building. Nodding in assurance, saved a few snapshots of his comrade’s faces- who could tell when a little bit of information could come in handy?
As he was doing this, several other inmates streamed in. The red-eyed armoured berserker came back, and some psychotic madman dragged a woman into the room. Jacob gritted his teeth as a skeletal being got into a fight with Audiophile. When he was a commander, he would have had his soldiers executed for such indiscipline.
Other prisoners filed in, until a pair of young girls entered with what appeared to be the warden in tow. Jacob’s eyes widened in surprise. This could be a great opportunity.
Then one of the girls said that he had been chosen to join her team. His eyes narrowed again, and he clenched a fist in indignation. He seethed inside his armour, and when they were told that they were given the warden as a present, Jacob wondered at her intelligence. Couldn’t she see what an important asset the warden was?
This was why Thane started in shock when Audiophile rushed to the warden and started wounding him. Jacob tightened his grip on his sword, and prepared to stop her senseless violence. He glared angrily at her.
‘Do you have any idea how important this man is? He represents our entire future. If we can take him with us- alive, and preferably uninjured- then we can ransom him back for money.’ He looked towards the girl who had asked him to join her team. ‘Enough money to set up your band of merry men. And do you know what it would do for our reputation? Others would see on the news that not only had we escaped from Neo Alcatraz, but that we had managed to make a profit from it as well! We would make quite an impression. Mindlessly killing the warden now will only label us as blood-crazed lunatics. And,’ he glanced at the surrounding blood-crazed lunatics, ’a reputation like that means less contracts, and less contracts means less people to kill.’
He turned back towards the more sensible people of the group. ‘But don’t worry about the warden when we release him. Do you really think the authorities will want to re-institute the man who let slip the most dangerous people on the continent? No. He’ll be convicted for dereliction of duty, or some other negligence crime. I predict that he’ll safely have committed suicide in under a year.’
He strode back towards the girl who dared to ask him to join her team. ‘And you,’ he spat. ‘You want me to join your team? And what right have you to call it your team. I assume you want to take control of such a thing. What have you shown us that proves you are capable of that? That you are worthy to command us? You say that you freed us. I’ve heard that you helped Virus to escape. But what did you do after that? It seems to me that everyone else took good care of themselves. It was Virus that freed our electricity-creating comrade, not you. And then the rest of us escaped by ourselves- or with the help of other inmates,’ he nodded his head towards Audiophile. However thoughtless she had been with the warden, he appreciated her assistance.
He turned back towards the upstart girl. ‘What qualities do you possess that make you deserving of leadership?’ he asked. ‘What experience have you- of fighting in a war, of leading people through hell and back? I have no wish to be led by a fool. A lion has no wish to be commanded by a donkey. I’d rather find my own way out than take orders from you, but thanks all the same.’