The Catacombs of Darkness The Defenders & Culture

Most prisons produce their own training of defenders and create their own internal culture as a general rule. What is produced as mindset, traditions and customs is based on leadership principles and ethics.

Integrity is a vital part of the training for defenders as it must withstand the challenges of the prisoners as well as the courts. Culture and integrity must uphold mission statements, strategies and desired outcomes. All are important to have a professional outfit.

Prison defenders are very special people who work in the various prison systems in the country. For purposes not alienating and combining spirits and attitudes, this system includes large jails and detention center for purposes of identifying their required needs, operations manners and existence in county, state and federal institutions.

These defenders are correctional officers by profession and are known for their exceptional bravery, professionalism and skill working with convicted felons who are incarcerated and kept inside the prison walls for any length of time.

Defenders are unique law enforcers, they carry no weapons on them while walking the various cellblocks, dormitories and open spaces. They are trained to excel in verbal communications to acquire compliance from very volatile and difficult people. They are often pushed to the edge of sanity when dealing with these kind of prisoners and not much is said about their successes as more is focused on their failures.

Crucified by the media whenever something goes wrong, they are rarely praised in public and therefore carry a heavy burden with them wherever they go in uniform or off-duty. They are often referred to as knuckle draggers and undeveloped homosapiens when in fact, many are intelligent, college educated and very well skilled in many trades required to work inside a prison.

When you compare these unarmed persons in the environment they work they are indeed well proven defenders of the criminal justice system as they proof everyday they can handle their population with much less than verbal and on hands force whenever the need arises.

That is not to imply they don’t have weapons to work with when on duty. They are trained in weapons such as shotgun, handgun, rifle, Taser, chemical agents, baton and other instruments that are used to control and restrain violent inmates who need corrective action and behavioral modifications applied to their way of making decisions.

  

The evolution of these defenders began centuries ago when the rulers built dungeons to house and contain their enemies and criminals. Their tactics were simple. Persons found to be in need of incarceration were chained to the walls with devices and kept there until their time of sentence was served. Some lived and died inside these prisons. There was no glory for these dungeon warriors. They worked out of sight, out of mind much like today and received the same lack of respect and recognition offered today. These defenders wear normal clothing on most of their duty times.

Some were combat fatigues when they are participating with special response teams and some wear polo shirts and khaki shirt and pants. No matter where they work, they all carry a badge representing the agency they work for and identifying them as peace officers carrying special law enforcement certification and credentials. From this environment came a culture that is complex and difficult to understand. It is by no means simple or easy to grasp unless you worked inside one of these prisons and see how the customs, traditions and practices are determined by the cultural influences of the workplace.

Each culture is born through leadership qualities and principles and as leadership changes, remnants of the old culture remain but a new culture develops. If the leadership sends tacit approvals of misconduct, then misconduct becomes rampant. If the leadership sends messages of zero tolerances for misdeeds, their record is cleaner and associated to accountability and transparency products.

For centuries, these defenders have engaged in this game of dominance, physically and mentally, prison management is based on the principle of dominating other people and controlling behaviors as much as the environment and rules allows by law. Some go beyond the law to ensure compliance but that is generally not an acceptable practice and draws scrutiny to the profession.These defenders were trained to perform with perfection whenever a riot or disturbance occurs. They are taught to defend in place regardless of the odds and must defend others to preserve life and property. They are sternly disciplined and rigorously simple in needs, equipment and frugal in numbers.

Defenders are usually outnumbered by a ratio of two or three hundred to one and at certain times when mass movement occurs the odds are even greater. Thus defenders must be brave and undaunted in their work and performance. The selection of defenders begins with a hiring process that covers their education, moral character, mental capacity and moral turpitude. The screening process removes those with ill or immoral character and imperfect, or deformed mental thinking that creates problems for others inside a prison.

The hiring process focuses on physical, mental and spiritual toughness. This training can be brutal for those not prepared to become defenders and many don’t cut the preparation or teaching standards and are released from hire. In training, they are pitted against each other to test their toughness and observed by their instructors.

While in training many live in the employer’s quarters where they are evaluated and scored for proficiency and character. In desperate times, older defenders are considered as there is often a very high vacancy or turnover rate for this kind of work.

Defender of the walls are traditionally high spirited and high strung. Combating stress daily, they have to be resilient and fit to come to work daily and fight the environment negativity as well as their challenges. Unlike the cops on the street, they have no place to go when the going gets tough, they have to face their enemies empty handed and deal with them in the most effective manner possible without escalating the situation.

They carry no armor. They are not soldiers and they are not police who wear body armor or vests to protect them from projectiles and bullets. They are in fact, dressed in Spartan armor. Unlike the Spartan soldiers who wore a bronze muscled imprinted breastplate, a helmet with cheek plates and shin armor, defenders wear no armor or protective gear unless they are assigned to a cell extraction team and then the armor comes on.

Defenders working is specific maximum custody cellblocks wear helmets and face shields to prevent injuries to their eyes, their neck and their exposed skin. They wear stab vests with steel plates that prevent them from being stabbed by sharp instruments or homemade knifes or shanks as they are called in prison.

Defenders are subject to attacks by darts, hot liquids, feces, urine, spit and many other weapons that are aimed at their eyes and face or neck to inflict maximum damage. They carry no offensive weapons like cops wear guns, batons or Tasers most of the time.

They only carry firearms and the other gear if they are assigned special duty or assignments that require them to be armed or able to defend others around them in case the prisoner goes crazy or tries to take a hostage.

Defenders all have a legacy. Each are inspired by their actions from the past and throughout history, the reputation and respect for prison defenders has grown but has not yet matched the glorious position police officers have attained in society. Here in their own captive world, they do the best they can with what they are given to work with which is very often, very little and most of the time, insufficient for what they have to do on a daily basis.

Modern interpretations of defenders have typically stereotyped them as more brutal than they really are. Society portrays them to be devils of the abyss in the criminal justice system, the prisons.

  

Although some is not entirely undeserved, there are many more good men and women defenders than bad but the media has extinguished that light of positivity, along with hateful reporting of their own personal perspectives of the defender’s role and abilities to do their jobs. Defenders have built one of the closest relationships between coworkers much like the military. Their culture bonds them as family even when not related by blood but since many family members follow their relatives into the occupation, families are multi-generational in many places.

Their bond is the trust developed with their austere way of life and their sense of duty. Defenders created and build a sub-culture to the culture and undergo extreme hardships that could only be understood by a fellow defender. They work and live under a strict moral code and short of being accepted as full time law enforcement, they accept their roles in society based on their perceived need to be there for public safety.

Defenders are expected to prove their mental and physical fitness daily and are subject to fitness for duty tests or exams. They are working in deep chasm of misfits and a world filled with anxiety, stress and violence.Defenders are expected to adhere and function in a para-military environment which means they have a chain of command hierarchy and system to report for work and duty. This system is designed as a supportive system but also to instill discipline and order in their performance and techniques in the workplace.

Defenders are tough individuals. They must be able to withstand internal strife and pressures that includes hazing, fighting and other hard elements of life rather than the softness of life. They are trained to endure the violence by their peers and superiors alike.

During their operational stages, they learn to withstand the cold, hunger, and pain associated with sleep deprivation, stress and long hours of standing on duty. They are subjected to a development of mindset and physical fitness that allows them to survive, avoid cowardice and intimidation.

Defenders expect to work there for a long duration. There are many who serve twenty to thirty years as defenders as they have chosen an occupation other than the military but still a public service. Defenders expect to be ritualistically beaten and assaulted by the prisoners as a means of carrying out their duties as assigned. The reason for these beatings are the cultural differences between the two codes of defender and prisoner that defines them as an “us versus them” philosophy.

Last but not minor in importance, defenders are taught to never quit or surrender. Surrender or quitting is an act of disgrace and subject to more punishment than one can imagine as it is imposed by co-workers and supervisors to ostracize them or force them to quit their jobs.

They are expected to back up and provide solid support for the others regardless of the odds against them and running away is unacceptable under any conditions. Surrender in any confrontation or disturbance was the ultimate disgrace for any defender and usually the end of their career.

Defenders were subject to many of the same laws and social conventions as their partners in the free world outside of prisons. However, when found guilty of misconduct, the offending defender is punished severely and sometimes censured for seemingly trivial misdeeds. So how did defenders end up working in the catacombs of darkness of the underground cemeteries of the stone-walled castle-like prison located here in the valley? 

The history of the use for catacombs goes back to the days of Rome as there was a shortage of land and cemeteries were hard to come by thus they used the land they owned and buried their relatives there on their own land rather than common cemeteries.

The concept grew and after a design was developed in the state of California called Pelican Bay, prison administrators decided that catacombs were a unique way to save space and use the land underneath the prisons as cellblocks, tiers and cages for lock up and storage.

The state, granting more land ownership for the purpose of prisons allowed the construction of new prisons in a similar design as Pelican Bay and other super max prisons which housed their prisoners under the ground rather than up above on land. Just like Christians were burying their dead underground, the prison systems began to bury their living underground. The differences were slight but regardless, the concept of catacombs in the darkness were developed and used excessively today and staffed sparsely with defenders or officers because most of the living were locked down 23 hours a day and some even never left their cell.

These living tombs were uniquely cost effective in the manner they were spread out and while nobody could see these catacombs, the mere existence of such underground tunnels, chambers, pathways and caves created opportunities to house more prisoners in the space allocated below the ground rather than above the ground. 

These catacombs were natural fortresses. They required little upkeep as they were made of steel, concrete, stone and more steel. Hence the resurrection of catacombs to house the living ended up being a plan to house the dead, the living and the undead.

Underground prisons are literally out of sight, out of mind structures. Although many have above ground cellblocks and dormitory like living there to support the service needs of the prison, these catacombs were dug deep and used to store away the bad and ugly of the prison systems.Those who were hard to manage and needed to be isolated from the other populations. Many were mentally ill and incapable of functioning or coping with others around them as they were easily manipulated to mule drugs or perform sex for other prisoners.

Their stigma of being mentally challenged alone put them in a class of prisoners that served no value to the slavery for labor and put them at the end of the vital or needed species continuum of prison labor sources.

No prisoner may walk unescorted or unrestrained. They are shackled wherever they go and that is rare since it takes manpower to conduct such tasks. If it was up to the bosses and defenders, they would leave these persons inside their cage and forget about them.

The catacombs served that purpose well and as such a benefit, is used to house those undesirables in rows of catacombs under the ground. Resources are sparse and although denied to be cruel and unusual prison practices, catacombs are used excessively and expressly for the purpose containment and control.

Once buried alive under the ground, their human rights, their dignity and their mere existence ceases to be a concern and time will take its toll on many who die while living inside these catacombs stacked with incorrigibles and misfits of society.

Some prison use a multi-tier housing system. Most tiers number between 3 and 5 tiers and since catacombs are stacked tiers of rows of tunnels situated in a maze like setting, it can manage to house thousands of persons underground without much of a problem for spacing.

The only drawback, strategically and operationally is the need to feed, shower, recreate and move them to and from services required to maintain their stability and wellness. These catacombs do not provide such logistics and if any services are required the service must come to the cell front to deliver. However, the danger of doing so exceeds the practical element of such a delivery system thus the defender and support employee must design a venue to deliver but not impose on the support system to overburden it. The obvious solution is to neglect and avoid any deliveries and leave them be.

Neglecting them and not offering them any service except feeding them would require a paper trail documenting the opposite. Many records in these catacombs are never kept up to date or even recorded since the frequency of personnel making their rounds is rare and dangerous. Thus the practice of pencil whipping or falsifying documents is common and difficult to detect during security checks or audits. In defense of the defenders of the prison, they have been put in a very difficult position when they are assigned to these catacombs which are rows and rows of tunnels and cages located in a wide and spread out area.

Their sheer numbers outweigh the ability to run it like it should be and many die because the defenders can’t be there when they are in distress or under attack of another prisoner.

Their bosses set them up for failure and the turnover rate is higher in the catacombs than anywhere else. Nobody can survive working there for a long period of time and if not rotated out of there, they themselves go crazy just like those housed there for long periods of time.

Catacombs of darkness is a place where only the strong survive. Strong physically and strong mentally. The weak suffer quicker than the others and are quickly preyed upon by the predators in the group where they are housed.

Catacombs used to facilitate single cell or cages. That has changed due to overloading and the need for more space in them to house the mentally ill, the most violent and the personality disorder individuals who are manipulating others to commit criminal acts while incarcerated.

Catacombs are solid housing assignments for those who commit homicides inside prisons, take hostages and have a total disregard for the value of life whether it be a defender or another prisoner.

Catacomb style living can be accomplished with perfection if they reduce the population and select only those extreme cases to be housed there as the criterion for such housing has been politically altered and based on social and political reason rather that best practices and security preventive methods.

Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. Catacombs facilitate such housing arrangement best.

The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group described these catacombs best as:

Solitary confinement of prisoners exists under a range of names: isolation, control units, supermax prisons, the hole, SHUs, administrative segregation, maximum security, or permanent lockdown.

Prisoners can be placed in these units for many reasons: as punishment while they are under investigation; as a mechanism for behavior modification, when suspected of gang involvement; as retribution for political activism; or to fill expensive, empty beds, to name but a few.

Although conditions vary from state to state and in different institutions, systematic policies and conditions of control and oppression used in isolation and segregation include:

·         Confinement behind a solid steel door for 23 hours a day

·         Limited contact with other human beings

·         Infrequent phone calls and rare non-contact family visits

·         Extremely limited access to rehabilitative or educational programming

·         Grossly inadequate medical and mental health treatment

·         Restricted reading material and personal property

·         Physical torture such as hog-tying, restraint chairs, and forced cell extraction

·         Mental torture such as sensory deprivation, permanent bright lighting, extreme temperatures, and forced insomnia

·         Sexual intimidation and violence

Recent history of isolation - Beginning in the early 1970s, prison and jail administrators at the federal, state, and local level have relied increasingly on isolation and segregation to control men, women, and youth in their custody.

In 1985 there were a handful of control units across the county. Today an estimated 44 states have supermax facilities confining more than 30,000 people. Prisoners are often confined for months or even years, with some spending more than 25 years in segregated prison settings. As with the overall prison population, people of color are disproportionately represented in isolation units.

Mental health effects of isolation - Increasingly, isolation units house the mentally ill who struggle to conform to prison rules.

An independent investigation from 2006 reported that as many as 64 percent of prisoners in SHUs were mentally ill, a much higher percentage than is reported by states for their general prison populations. Contrary to the perception that control units house "the worst of the worst," it is often the most vulnerable prisoners, not the most violent, who end up in extended isolation.

Numerous studies have documented the effects of solitary confinement on prisoners giving them the name Special Housing Unit Syndrome or SHU Syndrome. Some of the many SHU Syndrome symptoms include:

·         Visual and auditory hallucinations

·         Hypersensitivity to noise and touch

·         Insomnia and paranoia

·         Uncontrollable feelings of rage and fear

·         Distortions of time and perception

·         Increased risk of suicide

·         PTSD 

If one is not mentally ill when entering an isolation unit, by the time they are released, their mental health has been severely compromised. Many prisoners are released directly to the streets after spending years in isolation. Because of this, long-term solitary confinement goes beyond a problem of prison conditions, to pose a formidable public safety and community health problem.

Solitary confinement violates basic human rights - Prison isolation fits the definition of torture as stated in several international human rights treaties, and thus constitutes a violation of human rights law

For all these reasons—for the safety of our communities, to respect our responsibility to follow international human rights law, to take a stand against torture wherever it occurs, and for the sake of our common humanity—prison isolation and segregation must end.

Outlining what the AFSC describes fits the catacombs and their structure. Its design and construction has been hailed as a solution to prison violence but nothing guarantees the reduction of violence inside these catacombs as staff are shorthanded and often reactive rather than proactive in most critical situations that hinge on life or death.

Defenders, no matter how well trained they are, no matter how diligent they work their shifts or duties and no matter how they conduct themselves around the clock, cannot keep up with the duties, responsibilities and outlines of best practices that guarantee constitutional and civil right enforcement yet, through the debilitating nature of these catacombs, it is impossible to make it a better place to be for defender or prisoner.

In the meantime, their bosses focus on number crunching and not improvement of services, staffing and other logistical development that could aid in the use of the catacombs as they are and have been an acceptable mode of housing maximum security inmates who need isolation from others.

                                                                                                                                             

George Zimmernan - Is Karma following him

Gathering intelligence inside prisons

Over my span of 25 valuable years, I learned several things when investigating a violent incident and what dynamics take place before and after such a disturbance. Much discussed on some agencies and barely conferred or spoken of by others, there lies a wealth of viable information regarding gangs, drugs, weapons and other dynamics that impact the overall security of the facility.

Some agencies have developed special security units for such purposes and in the process of doing so, they have alienated a valuable source of intelligence gathering capabilities by omitting the role of the correctional officer in the task of gathering information within the prison population. This source is a human resource called the correctional officer who works the line and does shift work as well as various posts throughout the facility.

In my time, these special units relied on most information coming from the line staff who had their own sources on the yards and managed inmate behaviors according to the manner these sources provided viable and accurate information. This was commonly known as the “snitch system” and often condemned by the administration who ironically, use a very similar system but tag it to be different than the informant banks on the yards.

As a combination of good searches, questioning and a little bit of luck brings vital information by either coincidence or design, karma has a way of creating good police work by correctional officers to reveal security breaches, drug buys or identifying mules, sanctioned hit lists and many other vital information that keeps the place safe and secure if a proactive plan can be initiate to offset the prisoner’s plan for disruption, introduction or in many cases, an assault or other criminal activity.

Needless to say, these channels are required to be maintained open and active at all times to gather sufficient data to ensure a pulse on the yard of concern. Such channels exist for the reasons of obtaining and deciphering information that may lead to somewhere or nowhere depending on the reliability of the source.

Today, this channel of communication has been severely impaired as the information gathering duties have been taken away from the line officer and exclusively assigned to special security units or security threat group officers investigating gangs and other security concerns.

In addition, the focus today appears to be on radicalization of prisoners converting to terrorism and organized crime outlets within prison as they are all connected to the community by someone incarcerated calling the shots or providing the resources to make things happen.

The network of cops related to radicalization of prisoners is intensely growing as the function of gathering information on drugs, weapons and contraband has been rapidly declining, creating unsettling essential dynamics becoming unidentified and resulting in unexpected surprises of disturbances, assaults and mass drug introductions or cell phones.

Since the queries are now directed to radicalization and terrorist intelligence, this internal priority is now secondary [which was once primary intelligence] is suffering badly and needs to be restored.

To make a long story short, there needs to be an active plan to re-instate the line officer in the role of gathering intelligence on institutional needs as well as operational concerns in the area of gang activity, drug control, and violence and escape potential or planning.

Today, correctional officer rank and file has been breached by outsiders hired to work for the cartel or other disruptive groups as well as street gangs working for the drug connections. Because of this flaw, the reinstatement of Intel gathering must be done discreetly and with selected personnel trained and experienced to gather these needs.

Correctional personnel can be valuable in gathering intelligence and sharing that intelligence with other criminal justice and intelligence agencies but they can be equally effective to work and gain insights on yard dynamics, shot callers and the drug trade. They could serve as worthy and reliable sources to:

1. ·         Discover trafficking techniques
2. ·         The names and role of prisoners involved in the criminal activity
3. ·         Reveal identifying characteristics according to gang, race, ethnicity, associations etc.
4. ·         Observation of visitors and associations inside the visiting room as well as sharing rides
5. ·         Watching video monitors closely to detect smuggling or transfer of codes or papers
6. ·         Listen to conversations and recordings of suspected individuals involved.

To be successful against institutional security breaches and detect potential acts of violence or disturbances e.g. riots, work stoppage etc. correctional agencies must learn to work more closely with everyone assigned who may contribute to the overall product of gathering intelligence on the various yards. Intelligence has no boundaries, no limits and no territorial spats thus it is important we use and have available, all the human resources and technology we have at our disposal on every shift we work. 

Up in Smoke

Up in Smoke

An apocalyptic vision

Watching the news, the common headline read, “A prison was up in flames today after inmates went on a rampage, apparently sparked when they were ordered to lock down after a racial war broke out on the recreation yard spreading to the housing units almost immediately.”

Today, the Nebraska state government is dealing with a riot as other states have been over the past few years as prisons are overcrowded, understaffed and cutting costs that hurt inmate idleness and programming.

Nobody wants to read or hear about a prison riot where the prison goes up in smoke because we all have someone dear to us who works there and who might be put in more danger than there already is working inside a prison. Hopefully, staff will be evacuated and treated for injuries immediately and the areas is locked down completely.

Under current and past practices, staff would be forced to retreat from part of the effected sites due to understaffing and the inability to control and contain the areas until emergency units or back up resources become available and take back the prison. There will be millions of dollars of damage and the fires, flooding, wrecking ball destruction will create a budget deficit Arizona can ill afford as it climbs back into the saddle of economic prosperity under the new governor.

Hopefully, prison staff will be rushed to medical sites and a joint command center will be created to control and contain the disturbance. The cost of such resources equals those of a natural disaster but this disaster was man-made and totally unavoidable if prison management was based on best practices rather than the ad hoc manner they administer the policies today.

The signs of a prison riot are very common and predictable. First there will be a small disturbance that diverts the attention from the area where the main disruption is planned. Inmates know staffing weaknesses as they assess manpower daily and gangs in control of designated territory will always try to manipulate a power grab from such shortcoming as they increase their pressure to control the drugs, weapons and contraband.

All these disadvantages are published daily in the shift manpower numbers, their inability to cover vital areas and mass movement and the need to pull staff for other duties not related to shift coverage or inmate programming. Today, Arizona is more vulnerable than ever to riots and large scale disturbances as they cultural dynamics are not at the height of tension, conflict and corruption.

The governor will be red eyed mad when he sees the huge plumes of smoke billow into the sky about either Lewis, Eyman, Florence or Tucson. The possibility of it spreading to the other complexes spread out in the state are high and likely Winslow will be an active participant as well.

Inquiries will reveal many red flag warnings ignored and or forgotten as executive staff focus on the appeasement of inmates rather than providing a safe and secure environment that entails sound security practices and searches for contraband, weapons, drugs and cellphones.

The list is long but the tasks are not being completed except for the random mass searches that are so predictable, the contraband is hidden and the finds are symbolic rather than legitimately seized due to proper procedures in place consistently.

The executive inquiry will have a toned down message shifting the blame to individuals rather than the systems not in place to prevent such a catastrophe from occurring. The burning inferno will also be downplayed as the agency brags how it controls and contained the riot but fails to mention the extent of injuries and damage done until challenged for the specifics by the governor or the press.

There are and have been many warning of such a riot in the making. The house of cards has long been susceptible to a collapse of system failures as experience levels dropped, retention and morale of staff is low and the vacancy rates are high. Spending more money on private prison does nothing to alleviate the need in releasing the pressure of public run prisons.

In fact, it serves as a catalyst of inequality where inmates fight other inmates due to the lack of programs in state prisons compared to the better funded private prison. A normal tactic would be to allow the riot to calm down as resources arrive and set up a more secure perimeter as the inmates destroy buildings and its contents and corrections and other agencies become spectators until such time a plan is initiated to take back the prison.

Make no mistake and let me make myself very clear, under the present conditions of high gang violence and extortion, with high assaults on inmates and staff out of control and the need for protective custody on the rise, the prisoners will mutiny. They will revolt and push back hard when the right time comes for them to act out and take over the prison sending it up in smoke.

There thread has been unraveling. Staff have seen the difference in tone and demeanor but nothing has been done to tone it down. This was a long time waiting but the end is near. A riot is just around the corner and when or where is yet unknown. Sadly, the DOC is ill prepared as many others around the country take it for granted it won’t happen here.

 

Catacombs of Darkness A Gladiator’s Pit

This is the second of series in the fictional disguise of the reality within. You decide what is truthful and you decide which is false. 

Catacombs of Darkness A Gladiator’s Pit by Carl ToersBijns, a short story with fictional overtones and touches of reality mixed into the madness. 

The break is over, it’s time to head back to the briefing room where you will share your story of hell with others who have walked the underground catacombs of darkness. Laughing out loudly you boast of having no fear yet inside your heart, it is still pounding like a large drum in a parade. 

This world consists of three kinds of persons. The living, the undead and the dead. There is another class of people who reside here in the gates of hell as well. They are the warriors and the gladiators. 

Each in their own, serving the purpose to maintain peace and order. So they call them the peacemakers and gladiators for the sake of knowing who is who in this underworld cemetery of darkness. 

The maze never ends. There are no straight corridors except the main one which leads you straight to hell. There are many side corridors and each has their own purpose. Each has a large steel door with heavy hinges welded to remain secure no matter what force is used against it. Each has a wooden plank bridge that separate the cells with water where there are piranhas waiting to eat your flesh. 

Some store cadavers, others store the living and down the far end, on the side corridor well hidden, there live the undead. The zombies created by the lack of sunlight and fresh air that is denied by the concrete around them and the solid walls of stone that keeps the cold and never sheds the environment any heat. 

Each corridor has a chest with cell extraction equipment hidden inside it. Indeed, there are weapons as well as mace, masks and gloves to protect themselves from the infected. Each corridor has its own hazards and each hazard is well hidden from the outside world. Some are toxic and some are bio but regardless, each has its own risks.

Catacombs are complicated tunnels that lead you to evilness and darkness. There is no sunlight, no rain or snow but the frost in the air is often covered as you breathe the forty degrees of air walking these tunnels. There are keys for every door, no key is the same and each key is restricted and carried only when you are charged to walk the darkness. 

You work in an area that is tainted, a place nobody talks about or even whispers at their dinner table. Not a secret by any means, it’s just so hard to describe, it is best left alone. Nobody cares where you work or what you do and when you are injured, you are taken by personal vehicle so your trip is not noticed coming from the underground stonewalled prison nearby this location. 

You are headed to another cellblock, your rounds and tasks have been given. Each cellblock has a special purpose or designation. 

Some are living some are dead and some don’t seem to care anymore. Those are the dangerous one, those are the gladiators who will fight for the sport of it and the will to die. 

The silence is deafening, not a word is spoken. You carry your sword and armor with respect and hold your head up high. This profession is often criticized and belittled by many who have no clue what these men and women do, so the secret is kept of the dungeons below and the darkness. 

You reach for the key. It is a large one so it’s hard to displace or lose and makes a loud ringing noise if ever dropped on the stone made floor. It’s hard to lose it, you carry it close to you and every minute or so, your hand grazes the handle to make sure it isn’t lost or broken. 

The key is your friend that allows you to enter or exit these darkened tunnels. Without it you are lost and stranded inside the darkness. The light you carry is recharged often but if the key is lost or broken, your light will eventually leave you blind in the darkness as you struggle to navigate these tunnels where the sunlight never sets or shines keeping it all in darkness. 

Each round is like a game of chess, each walk is a temptation of power and glory as you walk the valley of death and surrounded by cadavers, skulls and bones of warriors of the past and gladiators that were broken in spirit and killed when they attacked the peacemaker inside the catacombs of darkness. 

Open the cell door and you begin your journey to hell. Each is occupied with the living, the dead and the unbroken. Vile in spirit and vigorous in wanting death as the cell door opens, and the spell is broken. 

You fight each time you open a cell, you battle each man who crosses the line that is in the sand but no matter how hard you try to keep the peace, there is always somebody ready to die and break loose from the leash. Some with lunge, some will jump and others will stalk you as you walk your journey of darkness. 

Up and down the stairs these darkened catacombs are above the ground but still enclosed with steel, concrete and stonewalled floors. Your ears pick up every note that is spoken and your vigilance is high so not one bone is broken. You cover your head with a shield so the spit and feces don’t penetrate your eyes and mouth.

Nobody really knows why they toss this crap but the bio in them is enough to kill you or infest you with a disease that will eventually cause a long term illness and forever make you resign your role as a warrior and peacemaker and your spirit is broken. 

Protection is desired and much more can be done to keep you safe but you handle what you have with what you are given to work with as the peacemaker of this darkness. You never fear the battle, you know that each day you walk the possibility is there that someone will try to kill you or maim you forever. 

It’s the code of the catacombs and the code prevails when all other rules are broken. A culture that is secret, a way of life that rules this underground world with silence and traditions hardly ever spoken. 

Damn the spiders and damn the scorpions that crawl along the walls and floors you walk in the darkness. 

They are both the enemies of men, they are both lethal and if they bit or sting you with their poison, you will eventually die and not a word is spoken. There is no remorse, no compassion for either peacemaker or foe, the world has been neutralized with violence and death yet nobody cares. 

The audio gets louder, the voices nearer and the violence is imminently closer. Taking care of the spiders and scorpions first, your hands are clenched in a fist and the blade is close by but the heat of your body is offset by the cold in the air as your eyes stare for any of those who turn rogue and await a chance to kill you if you are near enough to be stricken with homemade weapons or shanks of steel made from the materials used to bed them, to enclose them and to restrain them. 

Being careful is an understatement in the catacombs of darkness. There is no end to the violence and risks you bear when you shine that badge you wear. A badge of honor for some and a badge of power, to those who misunderstood their purpose here within the tunnels of darkness. 

Your ear tells you the living are near, the footsteps inside the cells are pacing. Your awareness heightens as you walk the path that brings you closer to the cells as the circular stairway that took you to your path high above the others echoes your footsteps loudly and warns the living and the dead you are coming but the real threat are those of the undead who are awaiting your arrival to initiate battle if given a chance to strike out at you. 

Each catacomb has a tier and each tier houses the will of society’s castaways and broken. Each tier serves a purpose as the higher you go, the less dangerous they are but in the middle, the routine is broken as there is a buffer of maniacs deemed to be mentally ill and barely alive as they lay there so still, comatose or unconscious, they serve harm to the peacemaker unless provoked by another crazy who wants revenge.

Revenge by the voices inside the head, who have told him to strike out and kill a peacemaker wearing the thin armor of steel, easy to penetrate if you can sneak up behind him and stab him between the ribs or neck where the flesh is exposed and the risks are higher than elsewhere to strike a lethal wound that may fell the warrior if not treated or taken to medical for treatment. 

Being careful, the peacemaker makes his way up to the upper tier. The sounds below are still stirring with hate and voices. Voices that are mellow while some are loud and the mood of serenity has been broken. You glance along the side of the path, its narrowness is a concern not to fall as there is nobody there to catch you. 

A peacemaker works alone most often when traveling these above the ground catacombs of darkness. There aren’t enough to fill each slot and the castle owner has just enough money to pay each warrior a meager wage to risk their lives and walk the catacombs of darkness. 

 You have reached the upper checkpoint and you open the large steel door that is see-through in design but hard as a rock with heave hinges welded on six spots of the frame. The door opens and you head in per the directions of your boss and your duties as the peacemaker in charge were voluntarily chosen.

Chosen to walk the paths of hell, chosen to keep the most evil and vile contained while others sleep in peace and never a word is spoken. A chosen legal custodian, a peacekeeper or guardian of the stonewalled prison, a badge you carry and a sword or blade that is your voice whenever approached by the living, the dead or those willing to die for the glory of being a gladiator chosen to attack the guardian as he walks the wooden planked bridge near the cell that sooner or later must be opened. 

Careful not to step in the water, you are headed towards the most upper cellblock where the gladiators live and fight for either life, thrill, or devotion. You enter the checkpoint bare of any other officer and the line is broken. As you go through the doorway, a skull is seen as you pull the lever on the right side of the door, to open the gate ahead and not a word is spoken. 

The words of your boss echo inside your head. He said “do not be afraid of those who want to kill you, be strong and use your blade to cut off their heads.” Speeches are frequent and often the message is the same, “us versus them” is the code spoken. Here and there, the will to fight is high when you enter the gates of hell high above the others and where death is hardly spoken. 

A death up here has glory attached to the martyrhood for exaltation and celebration of death. There is an unwritten rule here about how these fights are conducted as the code was left behind a tier or so and here, all the rules are broken. Fighting here is life or death, its likely to be cruel and harsh but the environment promotes a death and the peacemaker’s will should never be broken. 

The rule is crude but useful advice as you are told, never allow the gladiator to enter the cage in rage. Use the time you have to your advantage and make a move that will give you the leverage you need to be victorious of any attempt to strike at you or bring you down to your knees with blows from object made of stone or steel. 

Each fight is different, each fighter has his own style and each has a pattern that could deliver the fatal blow if not aware of his presence or intent to strike first and strike you hard with a rage that often untold and unspoken. 

Each warrior has a rage meter that determines the intensity of the strike or blow delivered from the moment to kill the other. This meter is inside his head and keeps his adrenalin flowing as the hormones rage to give strength when the battle is chosen.

There is one important note about fighting them as each time the blade ignites the strike, a head must roll in addition to any other damage or bones and ligaments broken. These attacks are fierce, they are meant to inflict pain and suffering and more damage that is caused by the evilness that surrounds these catacombs of darkness. 

So the gladiator lunges with rock in hand, he attacks at will and sees a moment of vulnerability in the peacekeeper’s proximity to be harmed. In the other hand he has fire and throws the flaming liquid onto the armor but the fire goes out and the hand is sliced with the blade neatly striking it near the elbow and the arm is broken. 

The rage increases considerably as the pain is numbed by anger and vehement force and devotion to kill the peacemaker. Each act of defense triggers a reaction, each reaction trigger another action causing the effect to stimulate both fighter’s adrenalin as hearts pound loudly with the best warrior to win this fight and the other spirit and will to be broken. 

His best bet is to maintain a distance and use the blade to defend himself, he calculates and measures his distance staying just outside the gladiator’s reach. With every attack the melee escalates and moving in and moving out, the peacemaker’s will is almost broken for the attacker is fierce, his will is to die trying and by moving too close, his final blow misses the head of the peacemaker and the sword finds the neck and the neck is broken. 

These close range attacks are very intense, they are no longer a two hit wonder. Each gladiator conditions himself for the fight and each night you can hear them doing push up and other exercises inside their cell as their will to win in unspoken. Depending on the weapon of choice they are using, they may strike at you three or four times before the charge is defended well, and the spirit is broken.

Close range battle or combat with gladiators is often but not at all spoken at the meeting of bosses or the dinner table at home. Depending on the fight, not much is said and if wounded or found with cuts or bruises and bones broken, a silent stealthy ride to the infirmary will be all that is said until a new day is broken. 

Catacombs of Darkness

Catacombs of Darkness

Making my rounds inside the prison

Working inside a prison is much like working in a cemetery for the place is filled with zombies and walking undead who fill the bunks and dormitories like skeletons from the grave. The moment you enter the huge outside gate, the metal grinds as the locks twist the two heavily hinged black painted panel sections of steel shut and locked by the flip of a switch located twenty five feet about in a secure tower.

Armed with a rifle and sidearm, the officer checks every corpse, cadaver and person who walks through those gates night or day, the procedure is the same. The prison is like a castle, huge walls with silver razor wire surround and capsulation of life sustained only by the will to breathe and survive.

From the entrance down below, the path leads to a huge wall that shows bullet penetrations where the firing squad practices their executions in front of the eyes of the undead who witness such voracity to kill with an equal appetite to kill any officer that comes near them unprepared and unarmed to fight their lust for blood and killing.

Coming upon the partially hidden steel door near the stairs, there lead a pathway under the other cellblocks and buildings where catacomb tunnels of death are spread out like veins throughout the body. At the access point, there is a checkpoint where another officer stands with shotgun and sidearm, waiting to verify your identity and purpose into the catacombs of death.

The door opens, the darkness catches your eye and your hands reach for a light so you can see you way down the stairway to hell, as the metal creaks and the smell overcomes the pedestrian walking through a tunnel that reeks with mildew and other vile odors.

Another smaller door opens and the space opens up like an open field, underground without sunlight and without fresh air. Then suddenly the tunnel narrows and the girth of the field has been reduced to the size of a tennis court.

Down the numerous hallways with light in hand, the darkness brings an eerie feeling of fear if you are new or not used to walking the catacombs in darkness. Passing several closed portals and gates, you can tell the temperature is dropping as the frost begins to exit the mouth as your breathing is labored

On one side of a tunnel is the infirmary where the infected are carried away and buried. Then, as you walk towards the end of the main hallway you can find a large wooden chest filled with gear that is used to forcibly extract the undead from their cellblocks or dormitories if they resist or refuse to come out of the darkness.

Next to the chest are gurneys for those who cannot walk or have expired while buried underground for any length of time. These survivors are rogue in nature and troublesome to keep under control but the catacombs of darkness keeps them alive and hidden until they die.

Spiders, large spiders the size of a man’s head are all over the ceilings. They attack if you get to close but normally remain passive rather than aggressive since they are fed daily and kept content by those who are assigned caretakers of the catacombs of darkness.

Spare no water and spare no light, for the scorpions are active and join the spiders in their feast if a victim is found or wandered into the darkness without a light. As the spiders or scorpions get too close, the officer attacks the creature and knocks it down off the wall or ceiling finishing it off as it is still alive and kicking when it hits the floor.

Kicking it, stomping on it and clubbing it with the light, the lifeless beast is no longer alive and will be fed to the other when mealtime comes around. The creature is decapitated, dismembered and put inside a bag as its head, legs and chest are heaved into the cloth burlap bag for feeding time.

The catacombs are endless, there infinitive lengths is anyone’s guess and as you head own deeper into the abyss below the ground, there are more stairs and more rooms as the stench gets stronger and the elevation deeper. Shining the light through what is now a fog or mist, you spot a human skull near the end of the run on the right side of you and as you step gently out of the way, you know someone had wandered too far alone and was eaten or devoured by the creatures hidden in the darkness.

You make your way around bones and piles of skeletons left there for the last decade or so as the cemetery up above is full and no space has been found to bury the dead with any decency or covered with dirt. The death rate is high and the frequency is often but the catacombs of darkness hides all that happens underground as well as what occurs above when the lights are turned down or the rooms are filled with complete darkness.

Continue your way around, and take another set of stairs that lead you to an open room where the light from above shines through a window connected to somewhere up above. This natural light serves as a means to navigate the paths now surrounded by water almost frozen as the temperatures drop below freezing.

You pick up the pace, you are surrounded by the cadavers of the human race and suddenly you find yourself staring at a mirror. A mirror that shines in the darkness and gives you a view of your mortality and weakness in your armor as you enter the dungeon where you meet the dragon.

You stop and open the chest there in front of you and take out a weapon forged to be strong and able to kill with one swift by mighty swing of the blade to the head as it falls on the stone floor of the dungeon.  

A distant roar, a flame of fire and a sound that sends chill down your spine as you are aware, the dragon is away and willing to protect its lair from any intruders including those with the light.

Before you head into the direction of the fiery flames, you take out your blade and pick up the pace to prepare yourself for battle as the weapon forged can kill anything it touches if you need to defend your honor or life with such vengeance.

Suddenly, your foot feels something solid on the floor and stepping on a pressure plate hidden, it opens the door to another catacomb that leads away from the dragon as you hear the roar but return the blade to its holder focusing on following the tunnel that now leads you down the main path as you see an open door at the end of the hallway knowing you are close to leaving these catacombs of darkness.

You made your rounds as you were told to do, your courage carried you through the entire journey underground and following the catacomb of darkness. Your spirit, your courage and your strengths has earned you renewed respect and as a reward you are told you no longer have to walk these catacombs of darkness.

You head back to the light, you cross a wooden planked bridge and the light becomes brighter. You hear the wooden plank break so you jump across the water and as your foot reaches the other side, you can feel something tugging at your other foot still in the water.

With all your strength you pull yourself clear and find yourself on the stone floor again safe and away from the water. You see the stairs, and take them up to the light as you breathe heavily because of the steepness and the stairway comes out at the end of the tunnel where you can see the stars up in the heavens.

Not yet clear of any obstacles or prisoners kept there in the darkness, you have been warned not to talk to any prisoners that calls out to you and if one does, you must kill him after you open the cells that hold their weakened bodies.

Walking now on fresh green grass, you realize there are no more infected bodies, no cadavers or skeletons around you. The smell of the air is chlorophyll as the grass is freshly cut and odorizes the entire area with chlorophylls.

Tonight, you did not have to kill anyone, nobody called out to you and nobody was released from their cells. There was no need to pull the levers that unlocked them and no need was there to swing the blade forged to kill. Last but not for the last time, you found no enemies to kill or pierce your armor.

Resting your feet, you sit down to eat, as your stay in the officer’s room is brief but close to the cellblocks where the prisoners are kept inside their cells 23 hours a day with one or two hours a week of time inside one of those darkened catacombs you were walking.