Chapter 35 - Holding the Line
The prison library was a fortress of knowledge, but against a marauding mob of rioting inmates, its glass-paned double doors were desperately vulnerable.
Grant and Marcus barricaded the heavy oak entrance with steel bookshelves, dragging heavy legal encyclopedias and filing cabinets against the barrier. Outside in the hallway, the sound of breaking glass and violent shouting drew closer by the second.
"They're at the door!" Marcus yelled, holding a heavy iron fire extinguisher as an improvised club.
"Stand back, Marcus," Grant commanded, stepping to the front of the barricade.
A heavy impact slammed against the library doors, splintering the reinforced wood frame. A masked inmate forced his way through the gap, swinging an iron pipe, followed by two others eager to trash the legal archives.
Grant didn't flinch. Drawing upon a physical resilience forged through years of hard labor and the absolute clarity of his new purpose, he stepped forward, ducked under the wild swing of the iron pipe, and delivered a swift, precise strike to the intruder's center of gravity, sending him crashing backward into the shelving.
Before the others could recover, Marcus swung the heavy fire extinguisher, spraying a blinding cloud of white chemical foam across the entryway, neutralizing the breach instantly.
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"Back off!" Marcus roared, his voice echoing off the high ceilings. "This is our work! You want to destroy yourselves, do it outside! But you don't touch these files!"
The rioters, disoriented by the chemical spray and unnerved by the absolute, unyielding resolve of the silver-haired inmate and his clerk, hesitated, cursed, and then retreated down the smoky corridor as the heavy sirens of the outside tactical response teams finally wailed across the compound perimeter.
