Rise of the Prepper: A Story of the Coming Collapse Read Online Free Page B

someone would set me free.
                  She chuckled at her stupidity. Prince Charming didn’t exist. No one would set her free from this goddamn hellhole. She would die there and that’s that.
                  Shaking the remorseful thoughts from her head, Amelia decided it would be better for her to get some sleep. As she closed her eyes, she heard muffled sounds in the hallway. Her eyebrows furrowed, she listened closer to the sound. Footsteps. Uneven, as if whoever was out there was dragging his feet. She could hear panting too—short pained intakes of air.
                  Amelia sat up. The footsteps painstakingly got closer until they stopped right in front of her cell. Amelia recognized the man who stood before her. It was one of her students back when she taught Kenpo Karate as well her close friend, William Rainn.
                  Since they were in different parts of the prison ward, Amelia seldom saw William but she’d heard some stuff about him. She heard how he used the skills he’d learned from her to put unruly inmates in their place. Because of that, the guards liked him and were a bit easier on him. They gave William some special perks now and again. He was known around the prison as the guy you didn’t want to mess with.
                  The William standing outside her cell did not look so tough. He was covered in blood and his eyes were swollen. His clothes were soaked through with sweat and he stank. Amelia walked over to him.
                  “What happened to you?” She asked, her voice full of worry as her eyes ran over his bloodied face.
                  “…No… Good…” He mumbled.
                  “What?” Amelia asked. She noticed he was fumbling with something. It was a large ring of keys. “How did you…?”
                  William spent a few seconds looking for the right key. When he found it, he raised the key for Amelia to see. “This… is just for you. Promise me… not to let the others here out.”
                  Amelia stared at the key wide-eyed. She was so stunned at seeing it that she didn’t hear what William said at first. When she got over her surprise, she turned to him. “What do you mean not let them out? Are you telling me we should leave them to die here?”
                  “Promise… me.” He grunted.
                  “William.” She started.
                  “Only you. You, I can trust. You’re a… good person. The others here are… not.”
                  “William!” Amelia said but William was no longer listening to her. He opened the door to her cell.
                  “Let’s go.” He said.
                  Amelia stepped out of the cell. The ward buzzed with noise. It seemed that the other prisoners had started to notice what was happening. She heard a voice from somewhere down the hallway pleading to be let out. The prisoner in the cell beside hers begged, “Please don’t let us die here.”
                  Amelia’s heart was torn. She wanted to help them and William could tell. Before she could do something stupid like taking the ring of keys from him and opening the other cells, he grabbed her arm and bodily dragged her towards the exit using what little strength he had left.
                  Amelia resisted. “We can’t leave them here.” She said.
                  “I know you want to help them—” William said.
                  “They’re gonna die here if we don’t help them.”
                  “—but you know as well as I do that they can’t get out of here. They’re too dangerous.”
                  Amelia didn’t know what to say to that. She was being stubborn, she knew. She knew better than anyone how dangerous it would be to let the prisoners in her