Chapter 2: Chapter 2- Good Roach, Bad Roach

When Lucas woke up, he wondered what was causing him more pain; the hangover from the night before or the horrible blunt-force trauma he’d endured. There was a bump near the top of his head the size of Mt. Everest. The side of his face felt like it had been rubbed against a cheese grater. There were cuts and scrapes all over his arm as well. His nose felt sore as hell. It was a miracle that he hadn’t broken it during the fall he’d taken. Someone had applied bandages all over his head while he was unconscious, giving him a mummy-like appearance.

Lucas reached up to touch his face and realized that each of his hands had chains connecting them to the wall behind him. He jolted up in the cot he’d been laying on and started to take in his surroundings.

It was a dark, dank cell with only one small window letting light into the room. The cell had about enough space in it for a prisoner to take two small steps away from the cot before they were touching a row of bars. There were two other empty jail cells next to his. Well, not entirely empty.

A rat and a cockroach fought each other over a crumb on the floor of the cell on his right. The rat devoured the roach and then the crumb before scurrying back into the crack in the wall that it had crawled out of. Lucas tried to look on the bright side about his accommodations. At least he had a roommate so he wouldn’t get lonely.

Next to the rat’s hole, there was a dark stain on the ground that Lucas strongly suspected was blood. Someone had left a bucket on the ground next to the cot that was emitting the foulest stench Lucas had ever smelled in his entire life. It was similar to the aroma of a skunk vomiting up a piece of moldy old cheese into a sewage line while taking a bath in rotten eggs. A fly dropped out of the air after passing over the bucket. Lucas wrinkled his nose and then immediately regretted that decision. Even a small movement like that brought on new waves of pain. Lucas tried to look on the bright side of his situation. At least they had given him some free healthcare and bandaged his wounds before tossing him in the cell. How kind of them!

Cold air blew in from the small window above him. Someone had changed Lucas into an undersized prison uniform while he was sleeping. Not only did it cut off circulation in his arms but it also had the added benefit of doing virtually nothing to protect him from the cold. He shivered and tried moving in place to keep warm. A few drops of water landed on his head from a leak in the ceiling. Lucas tried to look on the bright side of his situation. He failed.

All in all, this was definitely one of the crappier Peace Department jail cells that Lucas had been imprisoned in. It seemed like the bare minimum amount of effort had gone into maintaining the place and he had half a mind to complain to the manager about the quality of the establishment. There weren’t even any guards around.

Wait. No guards?

“Hello? Anybody out there?” Lucas said.

It was so silent you could hear a rat turd drop.

“If I’m free to leave this dump, say nothing,” he called out.

Once again he received no response. His mind started racing a mile a minute as he tried to figure out what his next move should be. Obviously, he had to break out of there, but it would be tricky to pull that off with his hands still chained to the wall. He scanned the dingy jail cell again for anything that could potentially be useful. But it appeared just as bare as it had during his initial assessment.

Lucas was just about to work up the nerve to try and dislocate one of his arms and slip it out of the chains when the metal door to the room swung open. A middle-aged Peace Officer with heavily receding red hair entered the room. His ugly brown uniform was stretched to the limit trying to contain the potbelly underneath it. A patch on his sleeve indicated that he had the rank of lieutenant.

The lieutenant was holding a metal tray in one hand containing a fried egg, a small biscuit, and a cup of water. He gave Lucas a look that didn't even try to hide the contempt that he felt for the prisoner. Wrinkles containing years of stress lined the man’s pale face. He stopped in front of Lucas’ cell.

“Morning, Spade. Sleep well?” The lieutenant sneered.

“The bed is a bit lumpy actually,” Lucas said. “And it’s kind of tricky to lay down comfortably with these chains on. I think I’d sleep a lot better if you uncuffed me and let me out of here. What do you say?”

“Not a chance, punk.”

It was worth a shot, Lucas thought.

The lieutenant held up the tray of food in front of him. It wasn’t exactly a gourmet meal but Lucas was starving. He’d been spotted last night at the tavern before he had a chance to order dinner to go with his beer. It had already been at least 24 hours since he’d last eaten anything. He did his best to keep a disinterested expression on his face so his jailor couldn’t see how much he wanted the food.

“My name is Jace Callahan. You don’t remember me, do you?”

Lucas sighed. “Sorry, I meet a lot of fascists in my line of work and your faces all start to blur together after a while.”

A vein started popping out on Callahan’s forehead and he clenched the tray so hard that his knuckles turned white. Lucas was beginning to get a distinct feeling that Callahan didn’t like him.

“Typical. This is why I hate scumbags like you,” Callahan said through clenched teeth.

Called it! Lucas thought.

“You just destroy everything around you and don’t give a damn about how it affects other people! For years you’ve been just out of reach. But it looks like your luck has finally run out.”

Callahan glared at the prisoner. “It’s obvious that you’re starving. I’m only going to give you one chance. Tell me everything you know about Second Impact and you can eat to your heart’s content.”

Lucas’ usual playful smile was replaced by rage. He hadn’t expected a Roach from a backwater little town to ask him about them. Lucas hated Roaches and he hated rich people, but there was nobody he hated more than Second Impact. They’d taken everything from him. It had been years since he’d last interacted with them and it still made his blood boil when he thought about how everything had played out.

He sat back on the bed and crossed his arms. “Fuck off. I’m not telling you a damn thing.”

Callahan grinned. “I was hoping you’d say that.” He flung the tray of food across the room and it splattered against the door. The biscuit broke into a million pieces on impact and the fried egg slid down the door for a couple of seconds before falling to the ground. Callahan jumped up and down, crushing the food underneath his dirty brown boots. He looked as gleeful as a kid on Christmas morning.

Lucas stared at him incredulously. “Um… What are you doing?”

“Getting some sweet, sweet revenge,” Callahan said. He pulled his roll of keys out from his belt and unlocked the door to Lucas’ cell. The smile on his face was so unsettling that it gave Lucas goosebumps. He tried to take a step back and ended up falling onto the cot.

“Can’t we talk this out, man?” Lucas said. “I don’t even know what I did to piss you off!”

Callahan whipped out his baton. “Maybe this will jog your memory!”

He swung the baton with all his might. It whizzed by Lucas’ face as he just barely managed to sidestep the blow. Callahan roared and charged at Lucas again. Lucas tried to jump out of the way, but the chains on his legs pulled him back in place. The baton struck him in the gut hard enough to knock the wind out of him. He crumpled to the floor.

Callahan pulled his leg back as far as he could and kicked Lucas in the stomach. Even on an empty stomach, Lucas somehow managed to blow chunks all over the floor. Callahan briefly recoiled in revulsion before leaning down to smash Lucas’ face into the vomit.

“I thought you were hungry. Eat up, motherfucker!” Callahan yelled.

Lucas tried as hard he could to keep the second round of vomit down. Callahan began stomping on him repeatedly. Then he started alternating between stomping and swinging his baton. Lucas tried his best to block the blows with his arms but a few good hits slipped through. He glanced up. Tears were streaming down Callahan’s face as he laughed and continued his deranged attack.

“What the hell is going on here?!”

A female Peace Officer with dark hair tied into a bun was standing in the doorway, mouth agape. She looked to be in her twenties. Lucas guessed that she was about a year or two younger than him, give or take. Probably fresh out of the academy. He recognized her as the officer who pointed the gun at him the previous night right before he passed out.

Callahan froze mid-stomp. The color drained from his face. “Um.. uh… Th..This isn’t what it looks like!”

The female officer glared at him and crossed her arms. “It looks like you’re assaulting a prisoner and violating his rights, sir.”

“Yeah, it’s exactly what it looks like,” Lucas piped up.

“Shut up,” Callahan snarled.

“Sir, this is a gross breach of Peace Officer protocols and I’m going to have to report you to internal affairs,” said the young officer.

Callahan scurried towards her. “Private Bellini, let’s not make any hasty decisions,” he said. “This is all just a big misunderstanding. I wouldn’t want you to get into trouble for making a false report. Nothing happened here.”

Lucas winced as he picked himself off the ground. “I’ve got some fresh bruises here that say otherwise.”

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“Don’t worry, we’ll get you in to see a doctor as soon as possible,” Private Bellini said. She turned back to face Callahan. “As for you, this looks like a pretty open and shut case of brutality and abuse of power. I might be new here, but I wasn’t born yesterday. You won’t be talking your way out of this, sir.”

The color drained from Callahan’s face. “You don’t understand! You don’t know the things that he’s done! He deserves far worse than the beating he just got! He needs to suffer!”

“Thanks for admitting your crime. That should make this process a lot smoother,” Bellini said as she walked out to the hallway. She called over a couple of officers at the end of the hall and moments later they were escorting Callahan away for questioning.

“This isn’t over, Spade! I’m not through with you!” Callahan bellowed.

His screams and ranting got quieter and quieter as he was marched away from the cells. Lucas had always had a knack for rubbing people the wrong way but he’s never elicited such a strong reaction out of someone before. The rage and hatred in Callahan’s eyes were unlike anything he’d seen before. No matter how hard he wracked his brain, Lucas couldn’t remember what he’d done to hurt Callahan so deeply. Thinking about it just made him feel uneasy so he put the whole thing out of his mind.

Private Bellini closed the door to the room and leaned against it. She let out a sigh and some tension left her shoulders. She brushed away a few strands of hair that had fallen in front of her hazel eyes. “That was… intense,” she said. “Sorry that he put you through that.”

Lucas was sitting on the cot in his cell and trying to catch his breath. Callahan’s blows packed a punch. “I’ve been through worse,” Lucas said. “But I’m a little surprised that you turned against your fellow Roach though. I thought you guys were all about solidarity or whatever.”

Bellini let out a small chuckle. “Not all of us are fine with corruption. His actions were completely unacceptable.”

Now it was Lucas’ turn to chuckle. “An honest Roach. Now I’ve seen it all.”

Pain shot through his side as soon as he started laughing and he grimaced.

Bellini rushed over to him. “Are you okay?” she said “Sorry, stupid question. I’ll get you to the doctor like I promised.”

She shifted on her feet a bit. “But before that, I have a proposition for you.”

Lucas groaned. Of course there was a catch. There was always a catch when dealing with Roaches. “Alright, what’s the deal?”

“The higher-ups back at HQ are desperate to find a gang called Second Impact who have been wreaking havoc all over the country. You’re the brother of their current leader, Isaac Spade, right?” she said.

Lucas clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white. “He’s no brother of mine. Not anymore.”

Bellini tried and failed to hide her discomfort. “Sorry for bringing up a sore subject. Regardless, you probably know him better than anyone else. The bosses want to offer you a deal; Help us catch him and we’ll give you full immunity for his past crimes.”

Lucas glared at her. “And if I don’t agree to help, you won’t take me to see the doc? Was this whole situation a setup to get me on your side? Good Roach, Bad Roach is the oldest trick in the book.”

“Whoa, you’ve got the wrong idea. You’re going to get the medical help that you need whether you accept the proposal or not,” Bellini reassured him.

“It’s true that I came in here to talk about this offer with you, but I didn’t expect to see Lieutenant Callahan whaling on you like that. That was very real and once again, I apologize on behalf of the entire department for his actions. I take this job very seriously and would never resort to underhanded tactics just to get my way. Please believe me.”

Lucas looked into her eyes. She met his gaze and didn’t look away. She had a look in her eyes that was burning with intensity. Lucas didn’t know why, but for some reason, he felt like she was being sincere. He didn’t have any logical reason to trust her words but something about her just seemed different from the Roaches he’d interacted with in the past. Maybe it was just because he thought she was smoking hot. Her expectant gaze was starting to feel unnerving. Lucas looked away.

“So let’s pretend that I believe you,” he said. “What guarantee do I have that the government will honor the agreement if I take Isaac down? And why is this offer coming from you? Aren’t you just a private?”

“Second Impact has been behind countless robberies, assaults, and murders over the years and they’ve been growing bolder and bolder recently. Our intel indicates that they’re planning something big.” Bellini replied. “The current administration is willing to do anything at this point to put a stop to their activities. You can trust them to hold up their part of the deal because if they don’t then nobody will accept deals like this in the future.”

Lucas had to concede that she was making sense. “Alright, but why am I hearing about this from you? No offense, but shouldn’t this be coming from a more senior officer?”

Bellini smiled sheepishly. “Lieutenant Callahan was actually supposed to talk about this with you, but I guess his um… prior issues got in the way. He’s my training officer but they’ll probably assign someone else to oversee the two of us now. Assuming that you take the deal, that is.”

“What happens if I turn this down?”

“Best case scenario? You get sent to a higher security prison. But the worst case would be a public execution.” Bellini squirmed as she said this.

Lucas mulled it over. On one hand, he hated the Peace Officers and everything that they stood for. They were opportunistic fascists who used their power to keep people down instead of protecting them. The thought of working together with them made him want to upchuck all over again. But on the other hand, he would love nothing more than to make Isaac pay for everything he’d put him through. Not being killed sounded pretty good too.

“If I agree, you guys have to replace my bike tires that you destroyed. Those things ain’t cheap!”

“Deal,” said Bellini. “I didn’t mean to send you flying that far when I shot them out. My bad.”

“I’ll pay you back for that one,” Lucas groaned. “I’m also gonna need some guns and ammo. The more powerful the better.”

“Of course. Anything else?”

“I’m also gonna need one- uh, I mean two thousand iron coins. My expertise doesn’t come cheap.”

“Done. Is that it?”

“A year’s supply of chocolate, my own mansion, and of course, a harem of consensual concubines.”

“Don’t push it. So do we have a deal?” Bellini stuck out her hand.

Lucas hesitated for a second. He could see a ring of keys on her hips. It probably wouldn’t be too hard for him to knock her down, unlock his restraints and book it out of there. Of course, they were still inside a building that was crawling with more Roaches. He didn’t love his chances of making it outside.

The chains on Lucas’ arm clanked as they shook hands. “I look forward to murdering Isaac with you, Ms. Bellini.”

Private Bellini narrowed her eyes “The deal is to bring him back alive, not take justice into our own hands. He’s going to answer for his crimes in a court of law,” she said.

“And call me Gia. Ms. Bellini makes me sound like my mom.”

Lucas grinned. “A fine name for a fine woman. Trust me, Gia. Justice will definitely be served. But before that, I do have one more request.”

“What would that be?”

“Can you take me to the doctor now? I just coughed up a little blood.”

“Right. Sorry!”

 

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