Chapter 211: The silence of Augustus
Fortress Four prison was holding only three criminals. One was Malcom Taft, a resident that had drunk himself stupid and urinated on the wall. He was being held for two days, he would be fined and then released.
Prisoner two was Nurse Cole, Fifi’s partner in crime and assistant kidnapper. He was to be released after five years as Sunshine neither liked nor trusted the man. But if Nurse Cole was to be asked if he wanted his freedom returned, he would respond with a hulking "No."
Not only did he have a comfortable bed, but he was also fed well and very safe behind tall walls and a weird pink bubble. He also had a job in the base library which he both hated and loved.
He loved it because he would lay back and read books all day and he hated it because he was not allowed to talk to other people. His job was to clean up and keep the shelves organized.
He worked for three hours a day and then he would be led back to the prison which he also cleaned to pass the time. His favorite days where the ones where he got company.
Nurse Cole did not miss the outside world. Being a prisoner on a safe base in the apocalypse was better than running around and starving. He was also glad to be away from Fifi Quinn. Her promises were empty air.
The third prisoner was Augustus Bellam, the marauder, who was a new arrival. He was still adjusting to his current conditions, having been snatched up in the night, gassed and dropped off in his new accommodations.
He had only just opened his eyes and he was still trying to make sense of things when a soldier who was on prison guard duty opened the door and asked him to get out.
"Where are you taking me?" he asked.
"You will see when you get there. Move it." The soldier barked.
Augustus moved, dragging his feet with his eyes darting around. He wondered how strong the soldier was and if he could overpower him.
That thought dwindled as they came across five more soldiers that were on a smoking break outside the main office of the prison. Even if he overpowered one, he would not have gone far.
Augustus’s shoulders hunched over as he was walked across the prison to the base police station and taken to an interrogation room.
It was a medium sized stone room with a closed window. Fire was burning hot and wood was crackling in the fireplace. The fire provided most of the light in the dimly lit room. There was one metal table in the room and two chairs. Two armed soldiers were standing in the corner.
Once again, Augustus lost hope.
He was pushed to sit down in the chair across from a man that was sipping a hot drink out of a thermos cup. His wrists were cuffed to the table and then the soldier who brought him in stood behind the man with the thermos cup.
Augustus stared at him with defiant eyes--unwavering, untouched by fear. It was not his first run in with law enforcement. Authority in the normal world would have made him quake but in the apocalypse, there was no authority.
Carson Warnock was the man sitting across Augustus. Outside the interrogation room in a room which had six screens, Sunshine, Hades and Elio were watching and waiting to see how things would go.
The reason as to why Carson had been chosen for this role was because of the experience he had in interrogating terrorists in the old world. Everyone had concluded that he was the best person for this job.
Carson placed the cup down and leaned forward. His voice was low, deliberately so. "Is your name truly Augustus Bellam?"
Augustus stared back, his mouth did not move.
"We know you came from the forest. Where are your friends hiding in there?"
Augustus didn’t blink.
"How many of you are left?"
Silence,
Carson reached into his jacket and unfurled a piece of paper with the drawing of the superhuman that was leading the marauders. He pushed the paper towards Augustus.
"Who is he?"
Augustus’s lips curled into a smirk. "He will be the end of you all."
Carson raised his eyebrows. Only someone that had not met Sunshine could say something like that. This mystery superhuman would be crushed to dust under her hammer or shattered into smithereens after she froze him. That was if Elio did not get him with a bullet first.
There was also the possibility of Tommy frying him or Morris ripping him to pieces while he was still breathing. It was too soon to say who would end who.
"We know that he is a superhuman." Carson mentioned. He paused and waited for Augustus to react.
Augustus flinched but said nothing.
"We also know the kind of power he has and we are prepared to meet him." Again, he paused and watched Augustus’s face.
Augustus blinked. "You think you can stop him?"
Carson shrugged. "Nobody is invincible. Every superhuman has a weakness. That is my belief. His is that he needs to be within touching distance of someone in order to get the advantage over them. That is why he had not come out of hiding to face us head on. He is a coward, a murderer and a thief."
Augustus held silent.
Carson looked back at the soldiers and said calmly, "Strip him bare."
Outside, Hades frowned. He wondered what Carson hoped to accomplish. Sunshine just looked on, trusting in the process to get them the smallest answer. It seemed clear already that Augustus would not be easy to break. Whatever his purpose was, he would not reveal it easily.
"This would be so much faster if we just put a gun to his head and ask him what we want to know." Major Elio huffed.
"He won’t talk." Sunshine said. "I have seen people like him. He is too afraid of the person he works for than us. If I had spent time around a bottomless vulture like an energy feeder like that superhuman, I would be scared too."
"So a bullet is a merciful death." Hades said softly.
Sunshine nodded. "As devour energy, those leeches of the superhuman community can be gentle or cause you inexplicable pain. And they don’t always devour at once." She looked at Hades, a haunted look settled in her eyes. "They can keep you alive for days, weeks, months, years even. All that while, leeching off your energy slowly while you scream in pain. Then, you are fed and allowed to get some rest and the cycle begins again until they tire of you."
Hades clenched his jaw. From that look in Sunshine’s eyes, he guessed that there was a story from before her rebirth related to this.
Had she been captured by a superhuman like that? Did she suffer torture at their hands?
Major Elio wondered how Sunshine knew what she knew just as she knew everything else about the apocalypse. His eyes traveled from her to Hades.
Was this a time travel kind of thing? Did she get premonitions like Moon Raine?
There was a secret surrounding this whole thing.