Chapter Text
Inside Arkham Asylum, if you don't have a watch on you, you could never tell what time it is. It's always so dark in here. She'd look at her watch so often, her biological clock took that into consideration and after years of working here, she picked up this little quirk of looking at the time exactly every five minutes. Damn was it annoying, having to see that only a few minutes have passed and she still had long hours to spent in this place.
Because she didn't like her job, quite obvious if you'd ask literally anyone. Janitor at Arkham Asylum? Lord have mercy. The worst job at the worst place. She would take every opportunity to rant about it to her understanding friends. But hey, in this day, age and place, you take what you can get.
The one thing she got out of this (besides her payment, which honestly wasn't much to be desired), was a certain self-pride: as far as she knew, being near the criminally insane on the daily hasn't affected her. That was because no one paid attention to her, no one ever pays attention to the janitor, appart from her superior who ordered her around, and even then, she suspected him of not even knowing her name.
After five minutes, she looked at the time again. A smiled formed on her face when she saw that only half-an-hour of her shift remained, after that she could finally go back to her apartment and get some much needed rest. She began scrubbing the floor of the deserted hallway with more enthusiasm.
Suddenly, a loud alarm rang in her ears, she gasped and looked up. Red lights lit up the whole hallway as a voice yelled through the speakers.
"Alert mutiny! Alert mutiny! They're taking over! Everybody run to the nearest exit in five minutes before lockdown! I repeat!..."
Her legs began to shake. She was lucky enough to not have gone through this, until now. The man from the speaker didn't have to explain further: this was a 'bad guys have gone wild' situation. She dropped the broom she was holding and went to press her back on the nearest wall, sliding down on the freshly cleaned floor.
"Those assholes." she said to herself, frowning.
She wasn't referring to the supervillains however. Arkham Asylum is a massively big place, the only people who could get out of here in five minutes are the doctors (whose workplaces are closest to the exits) and the security guards (who have the stamina to run that fast). But the janitors? No way they could get out of here, not when they're in the middle of the place like she was at that moment.
And she knew that the people outside won't risk going in. She knew the whole mentality behind this lockdown protocol: "until Batman shows up and fixes everything for us, nobody goes in and nobody goes out." She knew they won't be looking for her or the unlucky few who weren't able to walk out in time, because they don't care. If they're killed they may call it 'casualties', write a half-assed apology letter and send it to their families along with some flowers. She shook her head just thinking about it.
'No. You know what? Fuck that!'
She slowly stood back up. Staying here would just mean she'd be waiting to get herself killed by some lunatic. If no one will come save her, she'll just get out of here herself. She was still shaking, but she now had a little determined spark in her eyes.
She began walking but stopped after only a few steps and turned back. She kicked her bucket and knocked over a plant. She figured the inmates were already making a mess of the place, so a clean hallway would be out of the ordinary and they could figure out the janitor was here. Low chances, but you're never too sure with these guys.
She walked up to the doors at the end of the hallway and looked out the little windows. Inmates running around wrecking havoc while laughing and cheering. The fact that her hunch was correct surprised her. But she soon panicked and stepped back when a group of inmates approached her hallway. She didn't waste any time and rushed towards a little closet, emptied its content and locked herself inside, covering her mouth with her hands. She was in complete darkness with only a single thin stripe of light right in front of her.
She heard the doors open with a big slam. She heard voices:
"Man this party's awesome!"
"Yeah! This time we're goin' all out!"
"Who caused the outbreak anyway?"
"Who cares?! Let's just have fun!"
There was a pause. Silhouettes passed in front of her.
"Someone's already been here it seems."
"Right..." one of them stopped right in front of the closet. "and they did a terrible job!"
Just as they said that, the closet was knocked over and she protected her head just in time as she fell face first unto the ground. Miraculously, the closet was still intact but she didn't dare to move.
"*This* is how you make a mess!" she heard, along with laughters.
She felt the closet's back side pressing on her back. Did one of the inmates sat on it? She slowly exhale, then stopped breathing all together, she felt the back side balancing loosely on her back. Her heart sunk. The closet *did* break. And now her body was keeping the entire structure together like a cheap costume.
She tried to calm down. They didn't notice her, all she had to do now was not move an inch until they go away. And that was a problem on its own. The laughters soon faded away, but that didn't necessarily mean that they were gone, at least not all of them. The silence was unbearable, and her heartbeat sounded so loud to her that she was scared they could hear it too. She shut her eyes, feeling her throat burning, begging to get some air going. When she heard something crashing in the distance, she decided to make a run for it and hopefully she'll catch them off guard and will be able to outrun them. She stood up, the closet crumbling down. She grabbed its back-side and widely swung it before it flew out of her grasp and crashed on a wall.
There was no one here.
"Ow fuck." she exhaled with a voice full of relief and hunched over with a hand on her heart, panting.
She quickly caught her breath and looked towards both sides of the hallway before going back to the doors. One of them has been knocked off its hinge, so she hid behind the second one and looked through its little broken window. Things seem to have calmed down (well, at least it was better than before). The furniture were piled up, some were set on fire. There was only a small group, laughing as they sat around a knocked over vending machine and ate or drank its content. She looked around the room, there were a few doors, but there was only one she could get to without being seen by hiding behind the piles of furniture.
She gulped. Those guys won't move, she'll have to be careful.
Crouching, she slowly and carefully made her way towards the nearest pile. She looked back-and-forth between the group and the floor. She knew of the classic 'don't walk on the cracks' things, and right now, some of the tiles were smashed into pieces. So yes, not stepping on them would be great if she wanted to not make a sound. As she approached the men, she heard their conversation.
"Did you see his face?! It was awesome!"
"Bro he had it coming for challenging me!" she heard laughter.
She sighed through her nose and kept going. She'd regularly paused to check on them and the distance remaining between her and the door. Despite coming here everyday, this room seemed bigger than ever. She stopped when she realized that this was her last possible hiding spot to get to the next room, but there was still a certain distance to walk through. If she wanted to get to the door, she'll have to risk being out in plain sight for a few seconds. Which she imagined was plenty of time to get killed. She chewed on her bottom lip, thinking of a way to secure her safety.
Just then, a can was thrown towards the pile she was hiding behind, hitting the wall and falling right beside her. Has she been spotted? No, she was certain she hasn't made a sound, and the can was empty, one of the man must've tossed it after finishing it. It gave her an idea and she reached for it.
'No, wait.' she stopped herself. 'If I throw the can, they could recognize it and trace it back to my spot.'
She quickly looked around and picked up a little piece of broken tile. She turned around and straightened herself a little bit. The men were still talking. She waited for them to be a bit more quiet, then threw it towards the hallway she came from before quickly crouching down again.
"You heard that?"
"Yeah, so what?"
"That sounded too quiet compared to the usual chaos... Maybe a staff member is sneaking around."
"Bro no way, they either got out of there, or we got 'em."
"You mean *they* got 'em."
"Shut up and go check it out, since you're so worried~." he mocked him.
There was a huff and the sound of someone walking. She frowned, one wasn't nearly enough. She chewed on her lip again, thinking.
Just then, the door which was her goal slammed open. She scooted closer to the furniture and took a look. Another inmate was standing on the doorway, panting in panic.
"Guys! This is bad!"
"What?"
"It's Bane! He finally got a hold of his venom and now he's gone berse-"
The next thing she knew, he was flying to the other end of the room. Bane walked in, destroying the doorway with his massive figure. As soon as he saw the other men, paralyzed by fear, he dashed towards them and it was then she turned her back on the scene, covering her mouth with her shaky hands. She heard screams and the sound of things crashing and breaking. From the corner of her eyes, she saw a body getting slammed on the wall and falling on the floor, motionless. A chair on fire was knocked towards her pile, slowly setting it on fire, but she didn't dare to move. After a moment, there was no more noises, and that was scarier than anything. All she could hear was the crackling of the fire slowly creeping closer to her and heavy breathing, not from her though. She felt her shoulder getting intensely warmer and moved away in panic when she saw the fire. Her other shoulder knocked on the pile and a few of its components fell. She froze in terror when she heard them drop on the floor, making a lot of noise.
Slow and heavy footstep came closer to her. When they stopped, she looked up without moving her head and her eyes widen when she saw a single hand, bigger than her head, with green tubes going inside his wrist, going over the top of the pile and slowly reaching down. She lowered her head, then her torso. She was so scared she forgot all about the fire. It crept up to his arm, he wasn't even fazed. But when it began to burn the tubes and one of them even melted a bit, Bane gasped and quickly pulled way.
"Not as sturdy as they used to be." she heard him say to himself with a thick accent as his voice faded away, along with his footsteps.
He went to another door, crashing the doorway on his way out. She waited until she couldn't hear him anymore, then she quickly stood up and stepped away from the fire, hitting her shoulder and her back to make sure they didn't burn.
The men were all dead, their corpses now part of the chaotic background, the coast was clear. She let out a heavy sigh.
This hasn't even been half-an-hour, and she already almost died. She was reminded that right now, it wasn't just insane patients that were running free, but the most dangerous psychopathic criminals of all Gotham. And she was right in the middle of the facility they have now taken over.
She gave herself little slaps and went for the door. Promising herself to be more careful next time.