The silence following the EMP blast was broken not by the sound of sirens, but by a sound that chilled Lou and Johnny to the bone: the King was sobbing.
Donny didn't just break; he shattered. The combination of the 50% shock, the EMP's neurological rattle, and the sheer psychological weight of being a puppet had pushed him into a state of Acute Post-Traumatic Dissociation.
The Clinical Crash: The Panic Attack
As Lou reached out, his massive hand hovering near the surgical scar, Donny recoiled as if he'd been struck by a live wire. His breathing became a series of frantic, wet gasps—Hyperventilation Syndrome triggered by the brain's "fight or flight" center, the Amygdala, being stuck in a permanent "on" position.
His heart rate was likely hitting 180 BPM. With his history of intracranial pressure, a panic attack of this magnitude was dangerous; the spike in blood pressure could cause a secondary bleed at the implant site.
For Lou and Johnny, seeing the man who had stood down an entire prison infirmary weeping in a heap on the gym floor was a trauma of its own. It was a "Gold" soul being crushed by "Iron" reality.
The Technical Timer: The Reboot
Johnny looked at his tablet, the screen flickering with static. "Sarah, the EMP didn't destroy the coil. It just overloaded the capacitor. These medical-grade devices have hard-wired failsafes. The moment the charge dissipates—maybe ten, fifteen minutes—the internal battery will kick back in."
"He's right," Sarah said, her voice trembling as she held Donny's shaking frame. "And Vance will have the 'Sanitizers' on the way to recover the 'asset' the second it pings back online."
The Impossible Surgery
To be free, the device had to come out. But this wasn't a simple extraction.
The electrodes were currently "latched" into the Thalamus via a microscopic electrical current. If they were pulled while the device was active, the resulting "arcing" would essentially fry Donny's brain from the inside out. They had to bypass the micro-balloon trigger before the Warden regained control as well...
The Plan: The "Dark" Surgery
"We can't go to a hospital," Johnny said, his eyes darting to the door. "Vance will have the police and the medical boards flagged. We have to do it here. Or somewhere deeper."
"The Tunnels," Lou growled, standing up and wiping his own eyes. "Under the old infirmary. There's a backup surgical suite we set up during the riots. It's lead-lined. It'll block the satellite signal."
"But we need a surgeon," Sarah said. "And we need to keep him under. If he wakes up while the device is booting, the pain will kill him."
The sound of Donny's voice—usually a steady, low-frequency anchor for everyone in the South—was now a jagged, high-pitched splinter. He wasn't just in pain; he was experiencing a total collapse of his dignity. To a man who had built his life on being the provider and the protector, the thought of being a remote-controlled weapon for the Warden was a fate worse than the Bridge.
The Clinical Collapse: "Death Before Control"
Donny was experiencing a Sympathetic Storm. His body was flooded with so much cortisol and adrenaline that his brain was screaming for the only escape it knew.
The Brotherhood Holds
Lou didn't flinch. He dropped to his knees, his massive chest heaving, and pinned Donny's shoulders to the mat—not to restrain him this time, but to ground him.
"Look at me, 4492!" Lou roared, using Donny's old cell number to cut through the panic. "Look at me! You don't get the easy way out. Not after what we went through to get home."
Sarah was on his other side, her hands cupping Donny's face. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but her eyes were iron. "Donny, listen to my voice. You are not a puppet. You are my husband. We are going to take this thing out of you, and then we are going to burn that prison to the ground with Vance inside it."
The Technical Reality: The "Gold" Window
Johnny was staring at the tablet, his face pale. "We don't have time for this! The internal battery is re-sequencing. The 'Coil' is going to ping the satellite in four minutes. If it doesn't get a response, it might trigger the 'Fail-Safe'—the micro-balloon."
"Then we move," Lou said, his voice returning to that lethal, calm vibration. He looked at Donny, who was still gasping "Kill me" under his breath. "You want to die, Donny? Too bad. You're the King of the South. You stay on the throne until we tell you otherwise."
The Tactical Move
Lou scooped Donny's trembling frame up into his arms as if he were a child.
"Johnny, get the van. Sarah, I need every medical kit from the gym's emergency stash. We're going to the Tunnels."
"Lou," Donny rasped, his eyes finally finding focus, though they were clouded with terror. "If I... if I start to turn... if he takes me back... you have to do it. Promise me."
Lou didn't answer. He just tightened his grip and began to run toward the back exit.
The Next Move: The Descent
They are heading into the "Old South" tunnels—lead-lined, cold, and hidden beneath the city's foundations. It's the only place where the Warden's signal can't reach.