District 42-Chapter 107: Deadly surprise

Casper spotted in one of the screens in front of him that a strange drive was taking part near the entrance of Halden.

The complex was linked to the lower levels of the Third Lab for a single, huge elevator, that could carry 15 people or more. It was located on the opposite side of the complex, where the Blocks were located. A place that Casper was willing to reach to keep up with his plan, but now something showed up and he could not help but feel completely worried.

In droves, Ridires began to leave that elevator, who continued to go up and down and bring more in the process. They were organizing their lines in front of the entrance. Their weapons were of high quality, even more than the Ridires who took care of Halden. They were well equipped, seeming prepared for a huge battle, and the way they were positioning themselves, splitting into different groups, and receiving instructions showed that they were intending to fight.

"How it could be? That doesn’t make sense! They shouldn’t appear so early in this fight. That’s really, really bad. If they start to exchange shots with our men, they will perish in no time. Our improvised guns and inexperienced troops can’t do this. They hadn’t any tactical and strategic sense, and the more time they pass fighting, the more bad organized the groups turn to be..."

Casper began to analyze the situation carefully. Before, when everything was going well and they could subdue the unprepared Ridires, the soldier got conformed with some of the prisoner’s flaws. However, now that the scenario changed completely, he couldn’t afford to turn a blind eye to it. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"But... What the heck can I do about it? I mean... we can’t just go and organize them all again, since they are into action already, and even if we did they would just make the same mistakes. They aren’t trained soldiers or anything like this. The Frelsi showed some military intelligence in the Midwest battle, but who knows how much time these guys could fight in their lives, and for how long they are stuck here without entering in a strategic battle?"

The prisoners could even have plenty of brawls in their time inside Halden, but that didn’t count as a worth experience for that type of situation. Exchange punches carefreely with another inmate and exchange bullets in a huge complex against people better equipped than you were a totally different matter.

Casper was with cold sweat running down his back and forehead, he needed to think for a long time to came to a decision.

"Our defeat here will be more certain if these guys keep increasing in number. The only advantage we have is that the prisoners outnumber them completely. If they have the strength of 5 men of ours, we need to have 6 times their troops!" He started to type in the holographic keyboard, with his eyes completely focused.

It was difficult to access the different systems from Halden. It was like walking barefoot in a path filled with thorns. He needed to be careful and pay attention to all the details. If he stepped in the wrong place, he would mess up with everything.

What turned it to be even more difficult was because Casper wasn’t a hacker or a programmer. That was not his specialty at all. He had learned intermediary knowledge about it, but that alone couldn’t make up for it.

"I have some things I need to do here. If I do it right, maybe I can overcome this situation. For now, I will need to do something that probably will make the troops quite confused, but I can’t afford them to take us at their pace. What will decide this battle will be the side who will use their advantages the best way."

The White warrior kept working on his countermeasures, It wasn’t too simple as it seemed. He would need to make a lot of things there, and the odds were against him, however, he tried his best.

But, throughout his work, something didn’t get out of his mind.

"How the Ridires could come to know that Halden was under attack? And why I feel that they were prepared for this since the start?"

...

Alfar threw the last capsule he had with him. He was already at Block H, the last cell block of Halden. At the moment he did it, the Ridires inside there got alerted, seeing that small thing, with the same size as an apple, spreading that orange gas around the corridor.

When they tried to run away from there to avoid inhaling that thing, the prisoners who were with Alfar received a signal from him and then burst inside the corridor, shooting with their improvised guns.

"These guys made a huge difference. The Ridires are perishing with some difficulty, but it’s better than go with bare hands. Also..." He entered the corridor when the exchange ended. The five Ridires inside there were already laying on the floor.

Alfar looked to one of them, who had been shot in the face.

Those bullets weren’t the ones that the Ridires used in the so-called Helheim weapons, which Alfar was very well acquaintanced with. Those were bullets based on electric power, they were used to stun or incapacitate enemies, not kill them. There were cases in which people died because of those bullets, but they were the minority.

The Dark elf nearly smiled.

"So that man was thinking even in these little things, huh? I think I misjudged him in this point."

The gates of the cells opened after the action in that Block finished. Casper remotely freed the prisoners, who began to go outside. The drug was taking effect already, and Alfar said to them to follow him before some of them started to go crazy and seek battles.

As ordered, they all went to the canteen and started to organize themselves into groups.

Olaf was talking with someone in a communicator he stole from a Ridire, and Alfar approached him.

In the background, shots, screams, and hurried steps could be heard everywhere. As the battle intensified, the complex became more chaotic. Alfar felt as if he was in the center of a superpopulated city, he barely could hear his own thoughts.

"Hey, Olaf. Olaf!" He needed to call the man two times for him to be able to listen. "What are you doing with it?"

He delayed for some time until he could sort out what was the question.

"Ah! Sorry, I did not hear quite well because of all this noise. Look, I could catch one of these from a Ridire targeted in the battle. Casper is doing pretty good with the master key and is communicating with me. He seems to be quite agitated right now, and ordered us to go to the eastern parts of the complex."

Alfar was caught by surprise by Casper’s command. It was something very strange to say.

Halden had the cell blocks, along with the canteens, all settled in the south. The north had the big elevator, along with the Ridire’s Headquarters and Halden’s laboratory. In the West was the Security room and the Infirmary as the most important sections, and in its border, they set the lockdown rooms...

"But, in the east, we have nothing but the courtyards... There isn’t anything important to us to conquer there. It’s a movement that doesn’t bring any benefit to dominate the prison. It’s like... like..."

"A retreat. That’s how it looks like..." Olaf completed. "A-at least, that’s what I thought when I heard him, because... well, he was, you know..." Alfar got quite bothered with the way that Olaf could be so capable, but always messed it up with his insecurity.

Anyway, he was right. That movement appeared to be more like a retreat. Going to the east, he would just put them farther away from their goals.

"Ok, we don’t have time to be questioning him. Casper is a human as well, he do idiotic decisions, but we need to trust him... However, I wonder what type of thing he saw through the cameras that could bring him to a decision which he feels this necessity to retreat almost 512 prisoners..." When that question showed up, both stayed quiet for some moments. They did not want to keep being pessimists, but Casper never would tell them if something really bad was going to happen.

"Ok, Olaf, let’s start. We can’t be stuck here. Ask Casper if he can do what he did with the loudspeakers before. It will help a lot in this matter. I will be going in the front to call everyone and gather some people to pass the message."

Olaf nodded energetically, raising his voice just to point one more thing.

"Sure. Please, do it fast. He said that we are almost running out of time."

Alfar nodded as well, then left Block H hastily. He needed to reach the vanguard first to make sort of a domino effect, leading the prisoners to pass the message to each other and spread it as quickly as possible.

"I don’t know what will happen, but, please, I hope we do it in time." He prayed, for whatever the god that could hear him.