Samuel kept his face pressed against the reinforced glass. Outside, the dense forests flanking the facility grounds were alive with a chaotic, unnatural energy. Birds weren't just flying; they were fleeing the canopy in massive, uncoordinated flocks. Beneath the tree line, low shadows of larger wildlife broke cover, sprinting away from the direction of the prison.
Animals possessed an instinct for survival that humans had long since traded for technology. They knew when the earth was about to shift. But trapped inside a moving steel cage, there was nothing Samuel could do but watch.
Eventually, the spectacle lost its novelty. With a faint sigh that fogged the glass, Samuel turned his attention back inside.
The transport was filled to its maximum capacity of sixteen inmates. To survive long enough to pull off the crimes attached to his name, Samuel had relied on a hyper-acute sense of observation. He didn't just look at people; he mapped them. Right now, three individuals stood out from the rest of the cabin.
A young woman sat a few rows ahead, flanked by three other female inmates who instinctively gave her space. She stood out immediately—easily five-foot-eight with a lean, athletic build that carried no wasted movement. Her features were striking, framed by pitch-black hair shot through with sharp platinum highlights. But it was her expression that drew Samuel's attention: a cold, detached glare that felt hauntingly familiar.
Seated directly in front of Samuel was a shorter, incredibly bulky man. He possessed a shocking stock of fiery red hair and a permanent frown etched so deeply into his face it looked structural. He sat perfectly still, radiating a heavy, volatile energy.
Part of the tattooed faction Samuel had noticed earlier. Unlike his companions, this man was completely bald, allowing a massive, intricate syndicate symbol to crawl up his neck and claim the side of his skull. He had to be the anchor of that group.
While Samuel was busy observing, the heavy pneumatic doors hissed shut, locking out the damp air of 2050. The driver, a gruff guard who hadn't spoken a word since startup, checked his mirrors, engaged the automated drive assists, and pulled the heavy transport onto the highway.
It was supposed to be a monotonous, five-hour journey deep into the isolated sector where Merrifield Prison waited.
But as the miles ticked by and the highway grew more desolate, the inconsistencies grew impossible to ignore. The sky darkened prematurely, and the peripheral woods remained entirely devoid of life—the animals had already cleared out. Samuel's pulse remained steady, but a distinct, cold intuition settled in his gut.
Something wasn't right. The air pressure inside the cabin felt heavy, vibrating with a subtle frequency that made the hair on his arms stand up.
Three hours into the trek, deep within a dead zone of barren highway, the automated navigation console on the dashboard suddenly flashed a violent crimson. The low hum of the electric engine sputtered, dying instantly into a terrible, dead silence.
Up front, the driver didn't even have time to radio for help. His head snapped back against the headrest, his eyes rolling into his skull as his hands dropped limply from the wheel. The heavy transport bus, now completely devoid of power and steering guidance, began to careen blindly down the asphalt.
Inside the cabin, panic erupted. Chains rattled violently as inmates tried to get out, noticing their chance, with few using the time to study one another, but Samuel remained entirely calm. His mind shifted into a cold, calculated gear. He knew exactly what his body was capable of, and exactly how much pressure the standard-issue dampening chains could take before they snapped.
The transport bus veered sharply, tires shrieking against the asphalt as the automated systems failed. Inside the cabin, panic erupted into a deafening chorus of rattling chains and terrified screams.
Samuel remained entirely detached from the chaos. His mind, sharpened by years of cold calculation, focused on a single objective: survival. The standard-issue dampening cuffs were strong, but every mechanical lock had a failure point under the right pressure.
Isolating the muscles in his forearms and wrists, Samuel braced his feet against the floorboards to maximize his leverage. He twisted his arms into a precise, agonizing angle, finding the exact weak point in the central link. With a sudden, explosive burst of hidden strength, he jerked his wrists apart.
CRACK.
The reinforced metal link snapped under the immense force. Dropping the broken links, Samuel lunged out of his seat and bolted down the center aisle toward the front of the careening vehicle.
Up in the driver's cabin, things had gone from bad to horrific. The guard's body began to violently convulse, his limbs thrashing in the grip of a severe seizure. His foot jammed hard against the accelerator, sending the heavy bus hurtling forward at dangerous speeds. Within seconds, the convulsing stopped. The guard slumped forward, his heart stopping completely.
But he didn't stay dead.
A sudden, unnatural tremor rippled through the corpse. The guard's eyes snapped open, completely drained of life and clouded with an opaque, milky film. A low, guttural rattle tore from his throat—a sound driven purely by a sudden, predatory hunger. Unbuckling with frantic, uncoordinated movements, the reanimated guard lunged blindly into the front row of passenger seats.
His targets were the group of women Samuel had noted earlier. The frenzied creature threw itself onto a terrified, brown-haired inmate, pinning her back against the seat as its jaws snapped wildly. The woman shrieked, struggling desperately against her restraints as the creature attacked.
Right beside them, the striking woman with the platinum highlights didn't hesitate. Her cold demeanor shifted instantly into lethal focus. Emulating a sheer force of will similar to Samuel's, she violently wrenched her arms back, shattering her own chains from the wall mounts.
Before the creature could completely maul its victim, the platinum-haired woman intercepted it. She locked her freed hands around the reanimated guard's head and chin, twisting with brutal, practiced precision. A sharp snap echoed through the cabin, and the creature went completely limp, collapsing into the aisle.
Samuel didn't pause to process the madness behind him. He threw himself into the vacated driver's seat, grabbing the steering wheel with both hands. With the automated navigation dead, he overrode the system manually, throwing his weight into the wheel to violently wrench the heavy transport bus away from the shoulder and back toward the relative safety of the open road.