The unstoppable vengeance of Micheal Krux.

5. Welcome To Hell

Chapter five, Welcome to Hell

Michael Krux POV

The helicopter dropped so fast my stomach stayed in the air.

No windows. Hood still on, only the scream of the rotors and the smell of aviation fuel mixed with my own sweat.

Forty minutes of nothing but noise and chains had finally come to a stop.

Then the skids hit ice hard enough to rattle my teeth.

When the door was yanked open, cold breeze punched me in the face like a fist made of knives.

The kind of cold that burns before it freezes, rough hands shoved me forward.“Walk, princess.”I stumbled down the ramp but they dragged me anyway.

Finally, the hood came off and all I could see was white.

Every direction I looked , I saw nothing but white. A concrete box the size of a shopping mall squatted in the middle of it, gray against gray sky, no fences, no towers you could see. Just one red light blinking on the roof like a dying star.

This was the Iron Glacier Federal Penitentiary I had only heard of, now it will become my home for the next one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six days.

Thirty of us new arrivals stood in a line, shivering in thin orange jumpsuits.

I could literally see how our breaths froze the second it left our mouths, welcoming us to an eternal abyss of cold.

A guard in white arctic gear and mirrored goggles walked the line slowly. “Listen up,

You are now property of the United Atlantic States Department of Corrections, Arctic Division. There are no walls because the weather is the wall.” He said with no sense of humor whatsoever.

“Average winter temperature here goes as far as minus fifty degree Celsius, Average survival time outside without gear is eleven minutes and It will interest you to know athat average number of escape attempts last year equates zero. Average number of bodies we mailed home was twenty three.”

Then he stopped in front of me and asked, “Name.”

“Krux Michael.” I answered immediately making the whole line turned.

The guard’s goggles reflected my face back at me, my bearers were unshaven, eyes bloodshot, and my lips were already turning blue.

He smiled at me and said, “The president killer, billionaire, haha you are welcome to the VIP wing.” He sarcastically said and landed on me with a punch in the gut so fast I didn’t see it coming.

Being caught off guard, I lost my balance and fell on the ice floor with my legs disfigured.

I could hear someone behind me laughing but I didn’t care any longer. I stopped caring since I knew my fate.

After a few more punches with his boots, he dragged me upright by the chains and marched us inside.

Our first assignment was to strip naked in a room colder than outside, bend, spread, on the cold floor while three guards watched with bored eyes.

After a while, one of the guards took a hose down with water and poured it on our body, it felt like liquid fire in such a cold environment. We tried to dodge it, but there’s nowhere to go, so we all had to take it in and pray it would soon be over.

Many of us coughed and danced in funny ways, but it didn't stop the guards from being merciless with us.

It went on for a while that I could no longer take it. I bit my tongue to keep from screaming.

After a while, the doctor, a thin guy with prison tattoos on his knuckles, gave me the welcome exam.

When he shoved the gloved finger where it didn’t belong he leaned in close.“Rich boys always cry the first week,” he whispered.

“Try not to relax.” He said and and wanted to do something next, but I looked him dead in the eye and said, “Touch me again and I’ll feed you that finger.”

He laughed, but he didn’t do anything again.

After that, we were given new orange covers two sizes too big, with no underwear and old boots with holes in the soles.

Everything smelled of bleach and old blood, clearly it has been the ones used for inmates before us. But I soon realized hygiene was going to be the least of my problem here

They shaved our heads with electric clippers that pulled hair out by the roots, leaving traces of injury on my head.

“Ash” I gasped when the clipper left another injury on my scalp.

“Hey you, stop sulking and fall in line.” A guard called after me soon after I finished shaving, not a bother to my fresh scalp injuries.

Once the we were in line, A giant metal gate rolled open with a scream.

The first thing I noticed was the sudden heat that struck me, wet, stinking of sweat and piss and boiled cabbage.

As if that was not enough, there were loud screams, I looked up at the sounds and saw at least two hundred men screaming at once.

The second I stepped through the gate, the screaming changed into one long howl and chants.

“Fresh fish!’”

“Pretty boy!”

“Krux! Krux! Krux!”

I felt every eyeball crawling over me like insects.

A giant stepped out of the crowd, six-eight, shaved head covered in prison ink, arms thicker than my legs.

He had a neck tattoo written “BEAR” in gothic bold letters

As he approached me, I remained calm and quiet because I didn’t anyone to tell me that I could not fight a huge man like him.

“Heard you like blowing things up, rich boy,” he said, voice low enough only I could hear.

“Let’s see how you like getting blown.” He said and just like that, without warning, I noticed the cloud started becoming darker, the air started becoming thinner and the ground looked so far from me.

At least fifteen equally huge looking inmates were surrounding me, as if waiting for a cue, the big bear swung his fit right into my face.

The second punch threw me to the floor caught me in the ribs, I immediately wrapped my arm around chest and curled up.

I thought that was enough for the hungry inmates to leave me, maybe they would consider I am not strong or interested in fighting anybody and would have mercy on me.

But no, they were not merciful even one bit, they used their boots to step on me and randomly hit me in different places.

I curled up, arms over my head, blood all over my body, including my mouth. I was too weak and too tired, and lost a lot of blood.

I remember thinking, ‘This is it, day one and I’m already dead.’ I closed my eyes ready to give up, after all, I have no reason to live again, no family to fight for and no one waiting for me. I was accused of a crime I know nothing about, the world was against me, and I didn’t deserve any of this.

I had thought I’d be able to survive and take my revenge, but now I know I dreamt too much.

I closed my eyes and let the giant inmates continue to beat me to my death until I heard a distant voice cut through everything like a gunshot.

“ENOUGH.”

One word and the boots stopped. I lifted my head to see and thank the guard who had saved me from the hungry wolves, but I was surprised to see that it wasn’t a guard who had talked.

Instead, an old man stood in the center of the circle with his orange coveralls hung off his shoulders still wide as a doorway.

He had a lot of scars across his knuckles that looked like train tracks, but that was not what fascinated me the most, it was how people took steps back one after the other for him.

I was even more awed when Big Bear tried to talk and one look from the old man made him quiet.

He reached down and looked at me with his pale blue cold eyes “Get up, Krux.” He said.

I quickly obeyed, I didn’t know who the man was, but I knew he had saved me with some punches. I didn’t know who he was, but I liked the power he wielded and most importantly, I respect him. Not everyone could control a prison of criminals, I thought.

Blood dripped from my eyebrow onto the concrete, but I still struggled to stand straight up.

The man looked at me from head to toe, he studied me like he was buying a horse.“You’ve been betrayed by your closest ones right?” He asked a weird question.

For a minute I debated telling him the truth, or defending my family, but in the end, I resolved to tell him the truth, afterall, my case had been a public one, everyone probably knew already, so there was no point in lying.

“Hmmn” I nodded.

Blood spattered the floor as I managed to speak.

He smiled, small, sharp.“That changes today.” He turned to the crowd.“This one’s mine, anyone who touches him again will answer to me.”

Nobody argued, but everyone just gasped but said nothing.

As for the man, he gestured for me to follow him and I did until we stopped at a metal table no one else dared sit at.

Up close I saw the name stitched on his coveralls: VOSS, E. He folded scarred hands and introduced himself. “My name is Elias Voss. Your father owed me a debt.

You’re going to pay it.” He shocked me with his words.

There I was thinking he was my savior, at the end, he also wanted to use me for his games.

I wiped blood from my mouth.“I don’t owe you shit.” He leaned forward. “You do now, or else, I’ll let the hungry wolves have a bite of you.”

As he said that, we both subconsciously turned to look at big bear with his friends standing by the corner looking at us with deadly stares.

The look was self-explanatory, Mr. Voss had saved me from my death today so it was only right to say that I owed him right?