28 months after his first tumultuous year in The Prison Dome, Chuck Berger again finds himself embroiled in conflict. An Entry Portal guard has been thrown into the Dome with the inmates and the prison force is set to enter and lay waste to the inmates to get him back. Powerful forces both inside and out are working against him and Chuck must make monumental decisions with little to no time. And to make matters even more complex he's beginning to feel something he thought he'd left far behind him. He can only hope his Ranger training, common sense and intestinal fortitude will see him and his friends through this crisis.
28 months after his first tumultuous year in The Prison Dome, Chuck Berger again finds himself embroiled in conflict. An Entry Portal guard has been thrown into the Dome with the inmates and the prison force is set to enter and lay waste to the inmates to get him back. Powerful forces both inside and out are working against him and Chuck must make monumental decisions with little to no time. And to make matters even more complex he's beginning to feel something he thought he'd left far behind him. He can only hope his Ranger training, common sense and intestinal fortitude will see him and his friends through this crisis.
Fear settled in on him like a blanket of fog enveloping the countryside just before dawn. The stupid entry guard made his dumb jokes and laughed about them with the false bravado that came with never being challenged. But he knew he was different, he’d known it his whole life and he wasn’t going to let this dumb bastard make fun of him.
As they approached what he assumed to be the dome entry portal he tensed every muscle in his limbs like a feline huntress preparing to pounce. Just as he heard the whoosh of air that signified the opening of the entry portal he grabbed the wrist of the guard with both his hands and flung him into the dome head first. Then he plunged headfirst into the dome himself, knowing that it was the only way to avoid death from the machine gun that was laser-sighted on his position. The gun opened fire and the first round penetrated his left thigh just above the knee shattering his femur and severing the femoral artery. He went down instantly, but none of the other rounds fired from the gun penetrated the portal which had closed automatically. Blood began to squirt out of the open wound as though a hose were being rapidly turned on and off and he knew what that meant. He was going to die. He looked to his right, toward the guard who didn’t look nearly as sure of himself as he did only a few seconds ago. The man stood and approached him at a gallop.
“You fucking son of a bitch, do you know what the fuck you did? I’m locked in this fucking dome and now I can’t get out for at least an hour because the fucking gun fired.” He was screaming but suddenly grew silent, a look of utter horror on his face. The guard walked over and kicked him right where the bullet had ripped into his leg and left him crippled. His scream was loud and immediate and then all the lights went out and he slumped over to meet his fate.
The guard, seeing that man was undoubtedly going to die, reached down and grabbed the new inmate’s pack, wrestling it from his shoulders. Then he grabbed the rifle, though he knew it would do him no good. He didn’t have the nine-digit combination to the locker where the ammunition was left for the inmate. At this point he knew it didn’t matter, he began to run in the direction he had seen the majority of the inmates run, East, and put as great a distance between himself and the gas grenade as possible. When he heard the pop that he had witnessed at least a hundred times he did just what all the others that had run did. He began to run faster. He looked all around but saw no one. By now there was usually someone coming out of the woods to “greet” the new arrivals. They were always armed, but this time there was no one. He didn’t understand that, but it didn’t really figure greatly into his current plan to get away from the entrance and stay alive for the next hour or so until his partner could get the Commissioner on the phone to get him the hell out of there. He wasn’t exactly sure how that would work but he hoped it would only take an hour or so. This had never happened before, at least not that he knew of. Why would that asshole throw him in here? Was it some last-gasp effort at revenge on the system or did he honestly think he could escape? Regardless, he had to make a beeline for the woods just up ahead and hope he could stay out of sight of the animals that lived in here for the next hour or so. Then he would come back to the entrance and beat the crap out of his partner for letting this happen. Then they could have a drink and laugh about it for the next several years.
He waited in the shadows of the first line of trees where he could keep an eye out for his partner and also watch the clearing in case any of the locals showed up. His mind kept playing out likely scenarios if that happened, but as yet it hadn’t. He kept wondering why the inmates weren’t swarming over him. He didn’t think it could be fear, although he did still have his service pistol and two full clips. Maybe they were going to try to surprise him after the sun went down. Their odds of taking him went up substantially after dark. But he had seen a few other inmates grab all of their ammunition and still be met by others before they succumbed to the gas grenade. Why just two days ago a young woman, he couldn’t remember her name had gone in and was scared away from the entry just before the grenade went off by what looked like a frontiersman dressed in deerskins and carrying a bow and arrows and some kind of spear thing. He hadn’t heard any gunfire so he assumed the man had gotten her with the bow.
After watching for about two hours he finally saw the other guard approach the entry portal. Another man was with him whom the guard recognized as their boss, or at least the man who had hired him. He wasn’t sure “boss” was the right term for the man. He’d spoken to him during his interview but hadn’t seen him since the day they drove out here to the dome together, the day he started working for the South Dakota Penitentiary System. Still, the sight of the man raised his spirits considerably and he began to trot over to the entry portal to meet them and find out what was being done to extricate him from his current predicament.
“How in God’s name did you let this happen,” the boss said through the SolidAir that made up the dome.
As solid and impenetrable as SolidAir was to anything solid, it was still permeable to the weather, flowing water, and sound, of course.
“I didn’t let it happen, he surprised me. I had no idea it was coming until I found myself face down in the dirt and him bleeding all over himself. I knew I couldn’t get out so I hid in the forest until I saw you. The better question is, when do I get out?” the guard said with a little more disrespect in his voice than he felt.
“Get out? I have no idea how to get you out. Jesus, your training should have made it very clear that we can’t open the entry unless we have an order from a judge sitting on the Circuit Court or higher. There’s no way we’re gonna get that today. I did manage to retrieve the prisoner’s nine-digit ammunition locker code, so you can hopefully protect yourself until tomorrow when we might be able to get something done. What a shit storm you’ve stirred up. The media has gotten hold of this story cause this idiot,” he said jerking his thumb toward the other guard, “used his radio to contact me and the newsroom was listening to the frequency. Now all hell’s breaking loose and this place is gonna be crawling with reporters in about twenty minutes. Grab the ammunition and go find a place to hide. We’ll set off a flare when we have something for you. Until then, you’ll have to fend for yourself the best way you know how. Good luck, we should be able to get you out soon.”
“Soon! You can’t leave me in here! I could be dead by morning! Can’t you do something today, it’s only 3:00 PM?”
“Just calm down, we’ll have you out of there in no time, but it won’t be today. Just lay low and stay out of sight. You’ll be fine,” the boss said without nearly enough conviction to allay the guard's fears in the slightest. “Here’s that code.” The boss held a slip of paper out where he could read it. He quickly memorized the nine-digit code and went directly to the ammunition locker and retrieved the ammunition for both the inmate's rifle and pistol. Then he walked back to the corpse, still lying there, and removed the pistol from its right hand. He now had two pistols, a rifle and enough ammunition to take on a small platoon. His tension began to ease, slowly, and by the time twilight arrived, he was feeling mildly confident. He would certainly have a great story to tell all the guys at the bar next week.
Near three in the morning, he fell into a fitful slumber. A slumber from which he awakened one hour later to an entirely new reality.
The Prison Dome II: Bitter Pills is the sequel to author Warren Wagner’s outstanding debut novel, The Prison Dome: Survive or Die Trying, published in 2021. While most characters are familiar faces, a couple of new, strong personalities step into the spotlight and the resulting plot is riveting.
The Entry Camp has settled into a workable routine with Grant reluctantly agreeing to helm the community and ably assisted by Chuck and Jim. Communication and trade opportunities with the other two established camps, River and Christian, have slowly developed and improved despite the high level of mistrust and suspicion. Still, all the groups exist on the thin edge of failure as food sources, especially larger game, grow scarce, and their agricultural endeavors meet with limited success and are not extensive enough to truly provide what is needed. The author does a great job conveying their fragile existence, always one poor season of crops away from disaster. The tension is heightened by the presence of small, roving bands of prisoners who don’t belong to any of the organized camps and exist by preying on their weaknesses and any perceived opportunities they find.
While Grant has accepted his role as leader of the Entry Camp, Chuck still has an important voice in decision-making. He has stepped back somewhat, consciously trying to avoid any resemblance to Belinda, the former despot of the camp, who enslaved new prisoners as they came through the portal. New to the Dome is Melita Albright, separated from her three young children when she was imprisoned for armed robbery. She is a strong female protagonist and, at least initially, a sympathetic character as she did what she did to provide food for those kids. However, I was a little confused by her sudden plan to prostitute herself and other like-minded female prisoners to get out of daily chores. She never resorted to this before coming to the Dome, and I thought it was out of character. She is quickly disabused of the notion by everyone she mentions it to, thankfully, because there is a delicious slow-burn romance with Chuck brewing.
The plot starts off with a twist when one of the portal guards is shoved into the Dome by a malicious prisoner and can’t be released immediately. This puts the entire prisoner population at risk because the prison forces are going to rescue their man no matter the cost, which includes shooting any prisoner on sight. The action sequences of Tony Russo landing in the Dome were heart-pounding as he frantically worked to escape the gas bomb, machine gun, and the perceived danger from the inhabitants. Even though he’s observed the Entry Camp prisoners save numerous new inmates’ lives when they are first dumped inside the Dome, he’s bought into the media-manufactured hype regarding what goes on inside and is absolutely terrified.
With the threat of the prison forces entering the Dome, the unsustainable food resources, and an evil opportunist ready to do anything to bargain his way back outside, THE PRISON DOME II: BITTER PILLS is a fantastic dystopian story and follow-up to the previous novel.