Dynasty: A Batman Tale - Part 9

THEN

Yuri Petrov immigrated from Russia with his parents when he was an infant. Yuri’s father took a job with Gothams Sanitation where he worked until he was killed in an occupational accident when Yuri was seven. Yuri’s mother received a fair settlement from the city and no longer had to work three jobs. She was able to raise Yuri alone, and send him to college. She was always expressing how Yuri’s father wanted nothing more than for him to receive an education.

When Yuri was twenty, his mother became ill and passed away suddenly. The accumulated medical bills had put a serious dent in Yuri’s finances. In order to continue his education he landed a job as a security officer at Arkham Hospital.

Six years and two degrees later Yuri Petrov was getting a promotion. He was being transferred to the maximum-security wing to oversee the monitoring room. His new job was to keep an eye on the hospital’s entire security network. Over the years he had heard plenty of stories about the types of characters that called the Arkhan ‘Asylum’ home. On his first night he learned that every story was true.

“Howdy Yuri, names Miles. Welcome to the Entertainment Room!” Laughed the guard as he opened the door to the monitoring station. “I hope you’re ready for a good show.” Miles’s smile vanished and his tone became serious. “Never talk about what you see though, you’re going to see some sick shit.”

“I’ve heard stories.” Replied Yuri.

“They’re not stories. Come on in and get settled. I’ll tell you about all the doctors and their…” Miles made finger quotes in the air, “…unethical practices.”

Miles told Yuri about the two doctors in charge, Hugo Strange and Jonathan Crane. Yuri had seen the two men in other parts of the hospital, but had never met them. Crane reminded Yuri of a Scarecrow, he was a skeleton of man with shaggy shoulder length brown hair, and a habit of adjusting his glasses and clearing his throat at the same time. Doctor Strange was a sinister looking man, bald with a tightly trimmed goatee. He wore tiny circular spectacles never revealing the eyes hiding behind them.

Yuri learned in all, there were over forty patients calling Arkham Hospital home, five of which were locked in the maximum-security ward. Yuri sat in front of three sets of screens, the first monitor was divided into sixteen smaller screens covering most of the hospital, the second was a mix of feeds covering the outside perimeter and the third covered the maximum security wing and it’s five inhabitants. Miles introduced Yuri to the residents of Arkham Asylum.

“That right there in cell A, is Jervis Tetch.” Miles pointed to the monitor and enlarged an image of a short statured man sitting on his cot sipping from an imaginary teacup. “He thinks he’s a fictional character. What he is, is a fucking pedophile? He was arrested and charged with the abduction of nine little girls and the murder of two of them. He would host tea parties with his captives calling each of them Alice. Any idea which fictional character nut-pants thinks he is, Yuri?”

“Mad Hatter?” Yuri answered unsure.

“Buy the nightshift a chicken dinner, correct sir. In fact, guy still thinks he’s in Wonderland, anytime either a guard or nurse enter his cell, he’ll invite them to sit down for tea. Delusional right?”

“Have you ever had tea with him?” Yuri asked jokingly.

“Hell no, I don’t drink with crazy. A few months back there was a cute younger looking lassie on staff here. Jervis mistook her for a child, as if there’d be one running around this place. He tried to physically restrain her. They had to give him a sedative to calm him down. Gave the nurse quite a scare. She quit the next day.”

Miles closed Tetch's window. He dragged the mouse off the screen, hit a switch on the console and a hideous face appeared. “Cell B. Say hello to Basil Karlo! Or as you can probably tell…”

“Clayface!” Yuri finished.

“That is also correct! His wounds were still fresh when he arrived. His first day in the cell he caught a glimpse of his reflection and shattered the mirror. He went nuts, threw a few of the nurses and guards around before we could get him calm enough to get his cell cleaned up. We couldn’t leave him in there with all those glass shards. You know how we got him to calm down?”

Yuri had no idea. He shrugged his shoulders.

“I asked him.” Miles smiled at Yuri’s bewildered expression. “When I got to the cell, first thing I noticed, he was bleeding. He had cut himself pretty bad and I don’t think he knew and he was losing blood, I just put up my hands and said, “Please stop, you’re hurt.”

Yuri was captivated by the story, “Then what?”

“He cried.”

“He cried?”

“Broke down like a wee little girl I tell ya, turns out big ugly also happens to be a fairy. He’s been nothing but sweet to me since. See, way I think he sees it, is that I care and I was looking out for his well-being. Truth be told, I just didn’t want him to kill any of our guys, big son of a bitch is perfectly capable of it, that’s for sure.”

Yuri watched as Miles clicked the window of Clayface shut and opened the next video feed. “Who’s that in Cell C? He looks familiar.” Yuri asked.

“You may have read about Edward Nigma in the Newspaper not too long ago.”

“Oh yeah, The Riddler!” Yuri interjected.

“Never call him that to his face. I’ll tell you first hand he does not appreciate the name.”

“What’s his story?”

“Edward Nigma used to be a brilliant chemist. He was working on some kind of serum for some big pharmaceutical-tech firm, from what I’ve been told, pressure led him to experiment on himself, things went bad and he killed a bunch of folk.”

Miles brought up the next inmate on the monitor, this one Yuri saw was the only female in the maximum-security wing. Yuri whistled.

“Yeah she’s a beauty, Isley. Pamela Isley.”

“The terrorist?”

Miles made finger quotes, “Eco-terrorist, she’s responsible for the mass murder of One hundred seventeen people and over four million dollars in property damage when she bombed the Gotham Town Center Mall. A former classmate of mine was killed in that attack.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I guess building over more than half of Gotham’s Botanical Garden really pissed her off.”

Miles brought up the next feed, “And that will bring us to the crème de la crème of Arkham, the inhabitant of Cell E.” Yuri felt a chill run down his spine when he saw the albino staring back at him through the camera feed.

Miles continued, “You are looking at what I believe to be the most mysterious of all the patients and perhaps the most deadly. Check out those lifeless eyes, this guy hasn’t said a word since he arrived, and he’s been here years. Time goes by and he just sits there expressionless.”

“He’s creeping me out.”

“Makes you think he can see you the way he stares at the camera uh?”

“Yeah he does.”

Yuri noticed how the albino’s ghost-like transparent skin seemed to absorb light.

“John Robinson has basically been catatonic since he killed his entire foster family. Strange and Crane spend time with him everyday, I think they’re using hypnosis. Get this though. I don’t know why, but I’ve heard Doctor Strange only refer to him as Joker.”

“Joker? Why? Nothing about him seems funny to me.”

“I know. Laughter is the last thing I’m thinking about when I look at him.”

Over the next few months Yuri fell into a comfortable routine watching over Arkham. Yuri became familiar with Doctor Strange’s unethical methods and procedures, all of which he was grateful not to be part of, but didn’t mind watching. Everyday Yuri watched as they conducted different tests and experiments. Yuri never saw any change in any of them until one day when Doctor Strange entered Isley’s cell holding a large needle filled with a green bile looking fluid. After what appeared to be a quick discussion ending with Pamela nodding in agreement the Doctor stuck her once in the neck, once in between her index finger and thumb and a final injection just under her bottom lip. Yuri watched Doctor Strange exit the cell only to return a few moments later, but now he wasn’t alone. Another patient accompanied him. Yuri recognized Garfield Lynn, the Firefly. Lynn was a convicted pyromaniac at Gotham Penitentiary. He had been responsible for burning Doctor Strange’s wife to death in a failed escape attempt. She had been a nurse there until Lynn doused her with diesel fuel that he had syphoned from one of the prisons emergency generators. Garfield was soon after transferred to Arkham for evaluation.

Yuri noticed Lynn’s walk was sluggish, his shoulders were slumped and his eyes were barely open. The doctor gestured for Isley to approach Lynn. What the hell is he doing? It appeared as if the doctor was presenting his patient with a gift. She stepped within a mere inch of Lynn. Yuri watched as she grabbed her gift by the neck and kissed him hard on the lips.

The doctor then had Firefly escorted back to his cell on the lower security ward. Yuri brought up the video feed for Lynn’s cell. Ten minutes later Yuri watched as Garfield Lynn alone in his cell began to convulse and cease. Yuri called in a code blue rushing a medical team to Lynn’s cell. By the time they arrived, Lynn was dead on his bunk. His internal organs had begun to liquefy and ooze out. His skin had broken out with exploding pustules. The first responders could not hold down the contents of their stomachs. Yuri had to switch off the monitor to prevent himself from vomiting.

I feel like I’m supposed to do something, but perhaps justice is served in random and mysterious ways. Who Am I, but the pen that records the history of our sins. Yuri couldn’t believe some of the things he observed most nights. He started keeping a journal, and over the next year filled multiple notebooks with detailed accounts.

The Joker remained catatonic while Doctor Strange continued his daily sessions, sometimes accompanied by Doctor Crane and sometimes not. Nigma continued to babble in riddles and Jervis spent most of his time wrapped in a straight jacket. Basil unless faced with his reflection for the most part stayed calm in his cell, while Pamela Isley seemed to be getting more attractive.

Maybe there’s something wrong with this monitor. No, the colors fine. Why does she look different? I swear her hair was blonde, why does it look greener? What did Strange do to you? He looked at the feed of Edward Nigma. That’s the riddle!

On what seemed an average day, Yuri arrived at work as the sun was setting. He watched it fall below the horizon just as the full moon began to rise.

Yuri entered the Entertainment Room, sat down at his station just in time to see on one of the screens, Doctor Strange was with Joker, and the scarecrow-looking Doctor Crane was observing. Doctor Strange was holding a large hypodermic needle while Crane was detailing everything onto his clipboard. Strange then grabbed the albino patient’s arm and injected him with its purple contents.

Yuri realized he was sitting on the edge of his seat waiting just as anxiously as both doctors appeared to be. They waited two minutes with no result, Yuri watched as the doctors turned to leave when very suddenly the catatonic man was no longer so. Yuri’s jaw dropped at what happened next. Patient John Robinson also known as Joker, no longer catatonic, abruptly stood up, snatched Doctor Crane’s pen from his hand and stuck it into his neck. Blood began to spurt all over the cell while Doctor Strange stood there helpless, then just as fast Yuri witnessed the albino snap Strange’s neck. Strange dropped dead to the floor. The pasty patient turned to watch the shaggy frail man bleed out. Crane tried best he could to cover his wound, but it was to no effect. Yuri watched on the screen the Joker stare at Crane while his life slipped away.

Oh my God! Yuri’s gaze was stuck on the monitors, he hadn’t moved an inch. He was petrified, frozen in his chair. Yuri couldn’t look away as he watched Joker stand over the two dead doctors, his face covered in Doctor Crane’s blood. Joker looked at his reflection in the mirror. Crane’s blood was smeared on his scarred mouth dressing his grotesque smile from ear to ear. A demonic clown! Yuri thought as Joker started laughing uncontrollably at his reflection in the mirror.

Yuri snapped back to reality when the blood covered albino directed his gaze away from the mirror and directly into the camera, as if staring directly at Yuri. That’s all it took for Yuri to remember his training, he jumped out of his now urine soaked chair and hit the emergency alarm. Instantly the sirens began to sing through every corridor of the hospital.

Yuri’s radio came to life “Yuri, come in. Yuri, what the hell is going on?” It was Henderson at the Gatehouse. “He killed the doctors!” Yuri replied.

“What? Who?” Henderson said before Yuri cut him off.

“The Joker!” Yuri felt his body stiffen.

“What?” Replied Henderson.

“He’s no longer catatonic. Christ…” Yuri watched as Joker bent over the slump corpse of Doctor Strange, then walk out of the examination room. Holy Shit! “He’s got the keys!”

At the far end of the control room was the weapons locker. Yuri raced over fumbling through his key chain, finally grabbing the correct one. Arming himself with an extra clip for his sidearm along with a pump action tactical twelve gauge shotgun, Yuri made his way to the exit glancing one more time at the monitors. Yuri’s heart leapt out of his chest at what he was saw. Joker was making his way down the main hallway of the maximum-security wing from the examination room. The other monitors were filled with orderlies, nurses and guards scrimmaging all over the hospital leaving the halls of the Max wing relatively deserted. Yuri watched Joker casually stroll down the corridor unlocking each cell he passed, all while dragging the corpse of Doctor Strange behind him.

“Yuri, What’s your status?” Henderson’s voice crackled over the radio.

“They’re all out, where the hell is everybody?” Yuri cried.

“The alarm barricaded the Maximum-security wing off from the rest of the hospital, the staff evacuated when the alarm sounded. Relax, even out of their cells, there’s no way out of that wing…and thankfully no one is in there with them.”

Yuri collapsed onto the chair, suddenly realizing the true severity of his situation. He looked up at the monitor, now filled with all the criminally insane patients freshly escaped from their cells.

“Except me!”