District 42-Chapter 81: The speech
The soldier solemnly got up on one of the metallic tables of the canteen, drawing the attention of all the prisoners there. He looked around to all the mess made, the spilled blood all over the floor, the injured prisoners still standing there, and also the ones who could not stand anymore. Casper paid special attention to the cameras around and they seemed to be turned off. As he planned, Anton could make it until his cell and cut the signal of the security system for a while, using that cube-shaped device.
"Thank you, Anton, you sure are a reliable, hell of a guy. I always trust that you would make it all right!" He nearly smiled but retained himself to do so. He needed to look as much strict and assertive as he could.
He would do it the exact way he planned. If he did so, everything would end well. Casper could convince everyone there to get together with him and Alfar.
"You!" He pointed to Ragnar, who was being cared for by some prisoners who seemed to be his comrades. "Get here now!" He said with a firm tone of voice.
Hesitantly, but never lowering his head to Casper, Ragnar walked in front of him. He did what he could do to erase the shame he passed a while before. It seemed to be working since none of the prisoners were looking down on him or something.
"You are the leader of that faction, right?" The tattooed man nodded for Casper, looking to be dumbfounded by that question.
"I see... I see." Casper walked on top of the table, turning to the prisoners.
"Do you see the pitiful figure of your leader right here? Do you see every single comrade or enemy you have laid on the ground, most of them probably with their lives taken? Everything that happened in this canteen today, and any other battles that you all triggered in the past, were worth for nothing!" Casper was gesticulating furiously, but in a way that, instead of showing despair, gave more emotion and assertiveness to his speech.
The prisoners seemed to be puppets lead by his words and gestures, looking back and forth to Ragnar, the corpses, then Casper.
"All you are doing right now just brought to you shame, pain, and nothing more! This way, you guys are acting just like these damn scientists want!"
Casper could notice the mixed feelings that were showing in the faces of all the inmates there. Some were got by the speech just in the first phrases, but there was the majority who did not seem to be like that.
"This slaught occurred here, was not mine’s, Alfar’s, or Ragnar’s fault, only, but all of you take part in this guilty. Everyone here, including me, that fought until the very end, is nothing but idiots!" After these tough words, the prisoners started to get angry and anxious, but Casper didn’t stop.
"Yeah! That’s it! That’s the truth for you. And because it hurts so badly, you know that I am not lying here. It hurts to realize that after all these efforts, you still are nothing but guinea pigs of the laboratory!" At that point, some of them were about to jump in Casper’s throat and kill him right there.
They just didn’t do it because Alfar was around, and he seemed to be on Casper’s side. Although he was debilitated now, no one knew what could happen if he would go crazy again.
They just kept staring at him gritting their teeth and approaching cautiously the table where he was.
Ragnar also wished to punch him right in the face, but with the situation he was in now, he couldn’t. Not just because of his exhaustion, he had something inside his mind that feared the idea of exchange punches with someone again as well.
"However, I am not saying all of this because I want to belittle you but to make you realize that something is wrong here. Because, after all, no one here is a mere lab guinea pig! Nobody here is an object that they can use as they please! We are all humans, or am I wrong?"
Hesitantly, the prisoners agreed with him. First, four or five of them. Then, the number increased even more, until everyone was reaffirming his words.
"So, knowing that we are all humans, why we are fighting each other instead of getting together, unite our strength, and fight with the ones that are stealing our humanity!?" They fell silent at that question. Everyone knew the answer, and Casper as well.
"Is it because of the masks? Very well, let me say something to you, I don’t have one. And I can do everything that you can’t do. I dare to carry each one of you on my back if needed!
"So, if you want your freedom, if you wish to go to another path and get your humanity back, trust in me. I just ask this for you, just trust in me, and soon we will be free men again!"
The excitement was rising in the eyes of everyone there. They looked at each other with caution at first, but then getting more confident.
"I am not trying to be the leader here or put myself upon you. My main and only objective is to get out of here. You can’t do it alone, and the same goes for me. That is, we need each other’s backs to rely on! I will start everything as soon as possible, and I am confident enough in my plans to guarantee for you that you will have your so desired freedom.
"That said, if someone wants to pass for more frightening and pitiful days like this for the rest of your life, then stay still where you are. However, if you agree with my ideals, come closer."
For long seconds, nobody moved an inch. They just glanced at each other and seemed to have no will to move from where they were.
However, everything started to work when the first person gave a step forward and timidly went beside the table which Casper was on top.
After him, the other prisoners walked there as well, and no one remained.
Ragnar stayed there, seeing all his comrades passing and avoiding his gaze. He was without words for Casper’s speech. He had completely gained all of his men in a matter of minutes, only.
The work of years, where he had to domain each of those prisoners one by one through countless fights, was thrown away with five minutes or so of speech.
When he was the only one standing there in front of Casper, he reflected on what to do. Now, he was alone. No matter how much power he had, it would be impossible to recover from that fall.
"Ragnar... I know that it can be hard to accept, but we need you as well. Your power will be of high value in my plans." Casper invited him, with a calm voice.
"You also influence a lot of people that aren’t here yet. If we want to get them in our cause, you will be essential."
After that last argument, Ragnar just sighed, getting back to his usual bothered personality, walking sloppily towards him.
"I don’t have many good alternatives here, do I?" He reunited with his friends, disappointed, but also conformed.
"That’s awesome. One more step made. That’s it." Casper needed to held the sigh of relief that was coming. "Just a few days. The last preparations... Everything will go well." Because of the pressure, he felt that his consciousness was fading but he could not surrender there.
Inevitably, he was a figure of leadership there, although he himself had brushed away that title in his speech.
As soon as everything was settled, Ridires started to appear through the entrance of the canteen. Upon seeing everything that happened there, they started to surrender everyone who was there.
They separated the prisoners from each block and ordered them to kneel on the ground. Some of them got encharged of move the corpses and bring everyone that was still alive, but seriously injured, to the infirmary.
They got briefly interrogated, but there was nothing much to confess that the Ridires didn’t know already. With exception of Casper’s new group of escapists, they told everything.
The Ridires brought the prisoners who took just a small part of that action to their cells after a slight punishment. However, the leaders of that action were get together and all of them were sent to the lockdown, where they would pass more than one week.
Among them was Casper, Alfar, Ragnar, another leader of one of the factions fighting in Block B, and even Anton, who was discovered to have triggered all the confusion in that Block.
While they were walking together in the corridors in the direction of their lonely fate, Casper could approach Anton and say some words for him, and also take the Master key back.
"Could you do the final step of the plan?"
The middle-aged man nodded slightly, glancing at him.
"Ok, the third step is ongoing them." He thought, holding the urge to smile.
