A World of Grime

Joseph and Rita

Joseph woke with a start, a slow 'drip drip', dripping down his face. His eyes were fuzzy, but they always were, ever since he'd lost his glasses way back when, they were normal for him now. Squinting, he could make out the scenery. Pipes drew thick along the ceiling and walls, a barred and locked door holding him from looking out. Peering closer, colours started to spring, mostly metallic greys and browns, but there was a jarring red coating the floor, and his mouth. He spat, the blood flying out in spittle. Now he remembered what had happened, his head feeling achy from the hits it had endured last night. Sitting up, the head began to swirl and churn, the slight loss in blood making him woozy to small movements. Finally, his hearing began to come back in from his slumber, and he could make out what felt like white noise. Clanks and whooshing from the pipes, with that faint 'drip drip' coming from what felt like everywhere. Focusing though, he could make out a faint sob, coming from through the wall to his right. He slowly moved across, pressing his ear gently to the wall, avoiding the pipes to avoid the white noise. The sobs became louder, clearer. "Definitely a prison or something..." He mumbled. Clearing his throat, he spoke up, hearing how worse he sounded.
"Alright?" There was a gasp, then silence, a shuffling of feet, like someone walking backwards. Some more silence, as a female voice came from the other side.
"Joseph?" His eyes widened.
"Rita?!" his exclamation made Rita immediately begin shushing him quiet.
"He can't find out we're awake yet!"
"Who?"
"Don!" Joseph took a step back, in a similar way to Rita.
"What are you saying?" the other side fell silent. "Rita?" Still silence. Finally, small sobs again. "What happened?"
"He did something and-" She stopped herself. "Oh god Joseph, he's gonna kill us." Her tears overcame her, and Joseph heard her bawling, and couldn't take it.
"No he isn't, I won't let him." he puffed out his chest, looking around, eyeing up the ceiling with a grin. "You know what'll be Don's downfall?" He grabbed up at the top pipes, beginning to pull with as much of his weight as he could.
"What?" There was a sudden scraping clunk, as the pipe fell down from the ceiling.
"His need for a creepy aesthetic." Taking a big swing with a grunt, he took out a small chunk of the wall in front, it falling with a large cracking sound. He leant back, taking a bigger swing like a top baseball player, taking out a more sizable chunk. The wall began to fail on the third and fourth hit, crumbling down. He could bear the confines no longer, taking a huge swing with a yell, smashing down the wall and busting through, immediately turning to her cell, starting the same. Unfortunately, the echoes of the hits were far larger on the outside, so he had to be much quicker, but his adrenaline had begun to flow, and he had hit the zone, bashing down the wall hit by hit, yelling "STAND BACK!" as he tore it down like it was wet paper and rushing through.
Inside, Rita was a heap on the floor, covered in dried and wet blood, large stitches in her side that had been torn and sewn back, the stitched area now sore and red from scratching. Her eyelids were puffy, and her eyes bloodshot, skin pale, body convulsing in small cries of happiness and pain. "Hey hey hey, you're alright!" Joseph picked her up like she weighed nothing, but he began to fret, as she almost didn't, looking which way to go.

A few staircases above, the crumbling sound was echoing up to Don, hearing the muffled yell of "stand back!".
"Damnit... you two stay right where you are, don't move!" He held the gun out, rushing out of the room. Manuel waited a few seconds, before following close behind, Oscar following out of fear. The corridors winded round, before ending up at two broken down walls, and the sound of yelling echoing from down the hall. There was a crack of gunfire as they crept along towards the end of the hallway, ending in 4 rooms, the screaming coming from the furthest on the right. Manuel took a deep breath, looking over at Oscar. He nodded, and they threw open the door.