M Block, Part 3

The wrongly imprisoned women are being set free, by the one woman who managed to free herself from the evil tyrants who ran this prison. But will they free themselves entirely?

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This is Part 3 of the M Block series. To read Part 1, head here.

To read Part 2, head here.

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A melting, stinking puddle of what was formerly flesh, bones, and metal oozes in several directions. It’s a truly awful smell. Alejandra can’t help but to catch whiff after whiff as she breathes deeply and slowly, trying to catch her breath. Her body is already so tired. Her energy is sapped. But she isn’t done yet. She needs to press on. The keys jingle in her hand and remind her of the ever-developing plan in play.

Alejandra moves to the cell closest to her. A girl inside she has spoken with several times, Julie, stands just a few inches away from the bars to the metal gate of her cell. She has one hand gently touching the M Block on top of her head. The sight of the large metal apparatus on Julie’s head angers Alejandra.

Alejandra quickly unlocks her cell and opens the door. She tosses the keys to Julie.

“Open all the cells, let everyone out.” Alejandra instructs her. “We’re getting out of here in a second. I’m gonna go handle something first.”

Alejandra runs down the hall past all the cells. At the other end of the hallway, another door, another blood streak on the door. Behind her, she can hear Julie opening cell after cell, releasing the women.

Alejandra reaches the door. She shoves it open and looks around. To her right, the hallway that leads to the only door that goes in and out of this prison. But that door requires a fingerprint and a code. The hall ahead of her leads somewhere she isn’t sure. The hall to her left… she forgets… maybe she has been down here?

Blood splatters on the walls and floors to the left. She follows the blood to her left. It’s another long hallway. Several doors along the way. But at the end of the hallway, one more door, with a little window built into it. Inside, Vanessa’s office. Alejandra peers inside, and there is Vanessa, grabbing her laptop and several folders filled with papers. Vanessa’s eyes dart around frantically.

Alejandra flings the door open and stomps towards Vanessa. Vanessa is surprised, she tries to muscle past Alejandra but is met by two determined hands. First a fist to the cheek, then a fist to the ribs, then calculated palms gripping Vanessa around the waist and around the neck.

Alejandra positions herself behind Vanessa and holds her body close to her own chest so he can’t wrestle away. Impressively, Vanessa doesn’t drop her laptop or her folders.

“We’re leaving this place and I need your codes.” Alejandra says. “But we’re rounding up all the other women first.”

“There isn’t time!” Vanessa is panicked.

“You’re not calling the shots, Vanessa!” Alejandra jostles her body and shakes her neck. “There’s time because I say there’s fucking time!”

“This place is set to blow.” Vanessa motions towards a panel on the wall with her head. “Even you wouldn’t survive the blast.”

Alejandra looks to the panel. A keypad. And a timer counting down. Less than five minutes.

“I can’t let my work reach the light of day.” Vanessa looks down at the laptop and folders she clutches. “Not most of it anyway.”

Alejandra wastes no time. She pulls Vanessa along like she’s a rag doll. Drags her out the office. Drags her down the hall. Alejandra kicks the door open to the hallway that leads to the cells. All the women have been released from their cells, M Blocks atop their heads.

Most of the women are charging down the hall in the other direction, back towards The Channeling Room. Angered voices are bouncing every which way.

“Hey, we gotta get out of here!” Alejandra yells down to them. “The prison is gonna blow!”

Among the mob of women, Julie hears Alejandra and turns to see her holding Vanessa at the other end of the hall. Julie gets the attention of another girl, Krysta, who also looks her way. But none of the other women hear. None of the other women turn. They continue on their March towards The Channeling Room.

“Hey!” Alejandra tries again, over the loud, angry yells of the women. “Stop what you’re doing! We need to leave here now if we want to live!”

Julie and Krysta try to plead with the women but most of them don’t hear… or don’t want to hear anything. They have revenge in their eyes as they march through the far doors that lead down towards The Channeling Room.

Julie and Krysta sprint towards Alejandra.

“Where are they going?!” Alejandra asks quickly.

“They said they’re going to get the elder women.” Julie responds.

“They’re already dead!” Alejandra is panicked. “We have to get out of here, this place is going to explode!”

“Should we go get them— tell them—?” Krysta starts to head for the mob of women.

“There isn’t time.” Vanessa finally speaks. “If we want to get out—“

“Shit!” Alejandra is furious. “Just— come on!”

Alejandra bursts back through the door, motioning for everyone to follow her. She drags Vanessa along, heading towards the one exit. Vanessa can hardly keep up and keeps tripping and stumbling. Alejandra doesn’t worry one millisecond about Vanessa’s well-being. As long as she remembers her code and has all her fingers intact by the time they reach the door.

Julie and Krysta breathe in a panic as they follow along down the hallway, their M Blocks bouncing around on their heads.

They reach the heavy door. The one exit. Alejandra shoves Vanessa towards it and commands her to open it. Vanessa inputs a code and scans her left middle finger.

“Hilarious. Giving us all the middle finger.” Alejandra scoffs. “We’ll see if you can keep a cool head once I have time to say something about that.”

The door opens in a slow drone. The group waits impatiently for there to be enough room for them to squeeze out. Alejandra latches onto Vanessa once more so she can’t escape.

The foursome squeezes through the opening door and runs up the steep staircase that’s tucked away behind it. They ascend higher and higher up the staircase. Alejandra expects it to get lighter but it never does. Finally, an opening ahead.

They emerge through the opening. They step outside… onto grass. It’s dark except for the light of a bright moon. It’s nighttime. Alejandra didn’t even have any idea what time it was.

As they sprint across a humongous grassy field and smell the scents of surrounding vegetation, Alejandra is overwhelmed. She stifles tears. This is the first time she’s been outside in a year. The first time she’s smelled anything besides the stale walls of her prison cell… in a year.

They race along the field. No destination in mind. Just extending the distance between them and the underground prison behind them. Racing through a field in the nighttime, a thicket of trees far off in the distance, high and looming, hiding this massive field with the shadows they cast.

An explosion sounds. A tremor beneath them swells the ground and lifts them off their feet, tossing the four several yards and crashing them back down onto the grassy field.

A slight rumbling persists beneath them. They turn over to see smoke billowing up through the doorway they escaped through, hundreds of feet behind them. Portions of the ground breaking and cracking away. Flames spitting up through the dirt like flickering, orange teeth.

The rumbling subsides. The four get to their feet. Vanessa still clutches her laptop and her folders. Alejandra snatches one of the folders and looks through it, unsure what she may find. She holds onto Vanessa while she does this so the rat can’t scurry away.

“The other women…” Julie’s voice cracks with sadness.

Alejandra looks over the folder a bit more. Reading through information. There is a lot here. A lot she will need to examine at a later date. She tosses the folder onto the ground.

Alejandra looks at the M Blocks on top of Julie and Krysta’s heads. “What metal are your M Blocks?”

“Titanium.” Julie answers.

“Zirconium.” Krysta says.

“That’s it?”

Alejandra instructs Julie to hold Vanessa. While she does, Alejandra grips the M Block on Krysta’s head.

The heat comes quickly… from her forehead, down the shoulders, down the arms, soon her hands are aglow and melting the metal apparatus on Krysta’s head… more and more… until it's nothing but liquid metal dripping down her head.

Krysta holds Vanessa still as Alejandra does the same for the M Block on Julie’s head. Melting it all down to liquid stains on skin. Once it’s all done with, both Julie and Krysta have looks of wonder on their faces… they realize they’re free.

Vanessa hardly pays attention. She is busy searching frantically through her laptop. Alejandra snatches the laptop away from her and hands it to Julie. She takes the other folders away as well and tosses them to the ground. Vanessa finally looks up.

“Your turn.” Alejandra places her hands on Vanessa’s head.

“No, wait!” Vanessa’s last words.

The only words she manages to get out before the heat becomes too intense. Before her mouth can only emit gurgling noises as her tongue melts to liquid… as her whole body deteriorates.

It feels so good to Alejandra. It feels so good in her hands, feeling that skin melt away, feeling the bones and muscles break down under the intense heat, until Vanessa was nothing more than viscous goop and broken down chunks of her former evil self… laying in a puddle in front of Alejandra.

“So she didn’t keep a cool head.”

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