10/9/22 Breaking the Cage (Part 4)

                                                     Breaking the Cage (Part 4)

    After days of searching public records state by state, Hilton finally managed to find where Morris lived. It was going to be a long drive, but to end the People Cage, it would be worth it.

    From the description Ben gave him of the document and its case, he figured he would need some tools to get the document first, off the walls, and then to open it. Taking a day, Hilton preps all the supplies for the demolition of the document. 

    The time had now come for him to travel to Morris’s house, he was ready, prepared physically and mentally for what was about to come. Hilton get’s in his car and begns the long drive.

    After two days of straight driving, paused only by short periods of sleep, food and bathroom breaks, he had arrived mid afternoon in a very fancy housing complex. He pulled up to Morris’s house and stopped the car. Looking through the windows he couldn’t see anything or anyone. Hilton gets out of his car and walks to the front door, giving the stained hardwood door a firm knock.

    The slight pattering of feet is heard as Morris makes his way to the front door and opens it, “Hilton, what are you doing here?” He suddenly grows nervous, “You aren’t here to hurt me are you?”

    “No, I need your help.”

    “Help with what? I’m not really a therapist if that’s what you are looking for.”

    “I need you to help me end the People Cage,” Hilton says with a dead serious look on his face.

    “What?! Destroy the cage? Why would I help you with that? I would be losing my job, taking away an over forty year old tradition. I would probably be killed for even thinking of doing something like that.”

    Hilton could tell Morris’s words were not sincere, his words were more like a script, the answer the controllers would want to hear. “Morris please, I know the cage has taken a toll on you. You want it gone just as much as anyone else who opposes the cage.” Morris stays silent, “Please.”

    Morris let’s out a sigh, “Come inside,” Morris says shuffling Hilton into his home. Morris shuts the blinds in the living room before the two sit across form each other. “How can I help?”

    “Do you know where the cage is?”

    “Yes of course I do, I drive there every month to do my job.”

    “I need to get there.”

    “What would you do? If you damage anything they can rebuild it in no time.”

    Hilton chuckles, “Oh there is one thing they could not repair, the thing most precious to them.”

    “And what might that be?” Morris asks, very confused.

    “Forgive me for not trusting you comepletley, but please trust me when I say, there is something there that if I can get to it, the People Cage will be ruined and there will never be another tournament ever again.”

    Morris is hesitant but realizes that Hilton himself had just been through a tournament, and if anyone would want to destroy the cage more, it would be a survivor of the cage. “Alright, I will take you there, but I don’t want to be seen.”

    “That’s fine, all I need you to do is drive me there and I will do the rest. The only thing I will need you to do is get a message to someone for me, I’ll tell you who when we get there.”

    “Why can’t you send the message?”

    “I don’t think I will ever be leaving the cage.”

    Morris understands and gives Hilton a solemn nod, “You can stay here for the night, we will leave early in the morning.” Hilton returns the nod and follows Morris to the spare bedroom.

To Be Continued

10/9/22