Tartarus Book 1-Departure

By Shuaib Abvajee

Tartarus is the world's first and only prison country, created in 2020 to hold all the unnecessary and undesirable elements of the world. Out of sight, out of mind.
Aaron Hassan is an adventurous lock picker in the year 2075 who wishes to someday stand atop the walls of Tartarus, to do so, he is willing to enter Tartarus, and then try to break out, something no one has ever accomplished...
Lucky for him, he's being framed for murder, which is enough of a crime to get sent to Tartarus... but once inside, he finds that the world of criminals isn't as simple as it first seems. Inside the only Sanctioned Lawless Zone in the world, Aaron finds that there are little to no rules for the strong... and while he isn't strong, he can do amazing things... especially with locks.
Khul ja Shem-Shamayim.
Be opened, doors to heaven.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shuaib Abvajee
• Release date: Mar 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781370115303

Book preview

Tartarus Book 1- Departure

By Shuaib Abvajee

Copyright 2018 Shuaib Abvajee

Contents:

Prologue- The Greatest Prison

Chapter 1- He who opens doors

Chapter 2- Typhon, the King of Monsters

Chapter 3- Empusa, the seductress

Chapter 4- Tartarus explained part 1

Chapter 5- The Minotaur’s Labyrinth- Typhon Side

Chapter 6- The Minotaur’s Labyrinth- Aaron Side

Chapter 7- Cyclops the Chariot

Chapter 8- The Grand Prix

Chapter 9- The Lair of the Hydra

Chapter 10- Tartarus explained part 2

Chapter 11- Jaeger the Hunter

Chapter 12- The Assassin’s Guild

Chapter 13- She who sees the truth

Chapter 14- The Tale of how Aaron knocked over Geist

Chapter 15- The Wrath of Leviathan

Chapter 16- Sphinx, the riddle

Chapter 17- an Auction to remember

Chapter 18- The Old Families

Chapter 19- Operation Read The First Word (ORTFW)

Chapter 20- Authority

Epilogue- Memoria Contritum

(A Random) Author Note

Book 2 Prologue

Prologue- The Greatest Prison

A young child, only five years of age, sat, watching intently at the television screen in front of him. On the hologram screen was an aerial view of the largest creation of man, not counting massive cities…

The walls of Tartarus… a super prison the size of a country, holding the worst of humanity, and on the television was a frozen image of the massive walls.

Rapists, murderers, arsonists, mobsters, thieves… if their crimes were enough, they were sent inside, never to leave again for the rest of their lives.

It had stood for 43 years, building started in 2010 and finished in 2020, the huge walls were a testament to the ingenuity of the men of past…

And all the boy could think, staring at the massive walls… was that he wanted to stand atop them.

To see what no one else could see, to stand at the border between eternal damnation, and freedom, and see all that could be seen from that point…

Of course, a normal child wouldn’t have such contemplative thoughts… then again… the intelligence of the child watching the television was much different from those of his peers in school, even during the year 2063.

The child frowned as he heard the arguing voices of his parents, panicked and hostile, even to each other, as the child sighed… it seemed they would be moving once more…

He never understood the need to move the way they did, nor did he understand why his parents seemed so strange even when they were ‘merely’ lock-smiths… not that he believed their claim.

No lock-smith, even the best in the world, would be able to live comfortably, nor would they need to constantly run from something… what it was, the child didn’t know, all he knew was that his parents were scared. He had heard whispers of fear caused by someone with white hair and red eyes…

The child frowned as he finally heard something like a slap as he stood, feeling some emotional turmoil as he considered his options… then walked to the sound of his parents shouting.

Aaron Hassan had made his choice… and it would affect everything… and little did he know it, his choice was more than just what he would do in this moment…

No, his choice had determined what his dream would be.

He would see that view, the view which no man had seen, beyond the images of cameras.

The view that could be seen atop the Walls of Tartarus…

Chapter 1- He who opens doors

Looking at the evidence, I pronounce you, Aaron Hassan, guilty of the crimes of breaking and entering, theft, destruction of property and murder. You will be sentenced to Tartarus.

The young man standing in front of the judge, instead of frowning and looking worried at the words of the man, with a funny wig, the young man was instead smiling and nodded.

Great, that’s a lock that was never opened… I’ll enjoy trying. Some people in the jury couldn’t help but smile at his words while others frowned, knowing young Aaron to be a strange boy.

Well you will fail; the prison has remained standing for over fifty years without a single break-out or riot. The judge was getting a bit annoyed with the young man at this point, having learnt of his personality over the course of this admittedly short trial.

Aaron was seventeen, a young age, and, had it been soon after the turn of the twenty first century, he would have still been in school…

But the year was currently 2076, and it was almost the twenty second century. Things were obviously different compared to the past.

We’ll see… if I manage to escape, I’ll stop by to visit. Just to say I could, for no other reason. I don’t believe in murder. Aaron stated and once more the jury was a bit mixed on their opinions of his words.

I hope to never see you again, brat. Take him away. Aaron was carried away by a guard-bot, a small thing that shot tranquilizer darts, and the judge pinched his nose in annoyance, taking his glasses off, the appearance of the courtroom vanishing as he did so.

That brat… I really don’t think he murdered that person. The judge had a shot of whiskey in front of him, and downed the drink with annoyance.

Aaron Hassan. His trial only lasted one week, whereas most in his situation would at least go for a month… but in just that short week, he was able to show his personality and his nature to those around him.

To put it simply, he was a friendly adventurer. He liked wandering around and enjoyed going into places he wasn’t allowed to go into, and despite the charge ‘breaking and entering’ he never really broke anything…

Aaron was a master lock-picker, and as long as it was a lock, he could open it. Just looking at the skill, he was likely to be a thief, and that is why he was charged as one, but looking at his reports and testimony, he wasn’t one…

Rather, he just picked locks to go to places he hadn’t been, and to see things he hadn’t seen.

A strange disposition, but one which ensured that he wasn’t truly a criminal beyond the whole ‘being in restricted areas’ bit… in fact, he was so likeable he had won almost half the jury into siding with him, at least inside their minds…

But he wouldn’t get away from Tartarus… they had orders, and he had to go… the judge poured himself another glass and downed it again… now if only he didn’t feel so guilty…

As the judge drowned his complaints in alcohol, Aaron looked around in wonder at the steel box he was placed in… a simple construction, and simple was actually better in his opinion, less chance of complications ruining the mechanisms.

It’s why he enjoyed opening complex locks, making the owners fumble in confusion wondering why their ‘high-tech protection system’ didn’t stop a kid with a few miscellaneous tools.

Not that a Hassan is a ‘kid’ when it came to locks… lock-smiths and thieves, his family was in the business for generations, though at some point in the twentieth century they tried to go straight, instead only being lock-smiths…

The issue with that was the same problem known to true professionals when it came to medicine.

If one knows how to cure, one would also know how to poison, so was it any wonder that Aaron would learn easily how to break into his own creations, and later others?

By the age of four, he had already learnt how to pick standard house locks, and by age six/seven he had entered some restricted areas in some factories… not that he was caught often.

Hiding is an important skill for a lock-picker after all…

But now, his lock-picking skill was useless, seeing as this was a metal box with no openings beyond the air-holes, the top part welded on after he was placed inside, standard procedure for someone entering Tartarus.

That didn’t make it impossible to enter or leave the box though, just impossible without the correct tools, Aaron estimated that a sledgehammer could have gotten him out if he hit the right points… he didn’t have one, so he was stuck at current…

Nothing stopped him from removing his cuffs though. He’d go willingly into Tartarus, unlike most of the others sentenced to that place, but he didn’t want to chaff his wrists.

Tartarus, the world’s first and only prison country, created in 2025, and only improved since then, it existed on the land once known as Australia, made with the agreement that Australia would be given land elsewhere.

With the technology of the Chinese and the blueprints provided by a few American engineers, resources provided from a few Middle Eastern countries, the place was impenetrable and inescapable.

Aaron always wanted to visit.

How could he not? The world’s most secure prison; wasn’t that just a fancy way of saying ‘world’s most locked box for humans’?

That could have been worded better, but Aaron understood what he was thinking obviously.

He had always wanted to see the place, see what was inside, then leave, proving that he could open any lock in existence, even one that hadn’t been picked or opened for fifty years.

There were stories told about Tartarus, that it was the lawless zone of the world, that the conditions in there were unbearable for the modern man, and it was filled with the scum of the world…

Not that Aaron cared; he just wanted to see as much as he could. And to do that, he had to open locks, open doors, and step through.

And doing things like that was his specialty… he did frown at remembering why he was going to Tartarus however… murder?

Never, Aaron did not murder, and he never would if he had any say in the matter. Aaron had been going on another one of his nightly outings to see places he had never been to before, and when he had unlocked that door…

Finding a dead body on the floor was not a nice experience, and it had stopped Aaron in his tracks as he tried to catch up to his thoughts.

Unluckily though, a security guard happened upon Aaron, and he was quickly captured, and his trial happened so fast he barely understood what happened…

Not that he cared for the trial beyond the knowledge that he would visit the one box he had always wanted to try and unlock, but the reason for him visiting was not what he had expected, and he disliked that fact…

By the way, he thought he would eventually break into the prison, not out, or worst case scenario, get sent there for being in a restricted area, in other words, breaking and entering.

Prisoner Hassan, we’re arriving. Aaron blinked in surprise before a grin was on his face… talk about travel, having flight easily within reach with most vehicles made things nice and simple.

Aaron missed his float-bike already…

Ignoring that, Aaron barely felt them touch-down before his very impressive cage was cut open and he was lifted out using a mechanical arm… robots are awesome.

…Why isn’t the prisoner cuffed? this old man that looked kind of constipated appeared, and Aaron took a moment to take note of his appearance.

The old man wore a lab-coat, spectacles, and was thin and weedy, but that stern frown and his glare just made Aaron think that he had a poop that didn’t want to come out.

I think there’s a toilet over there, you look like you need to go. Aaron was quick to say his piece as one of the guards, surprisingly an actual human, covered his mouth, clearly hiding a laugh…

At least some people appreciated his humour, for the past week people around him had been a bit too serious for his tastes… sure, he was now a ‘murderer’ but he wanted to laugh a bit you know?

…Answer the question, Prisoner code 63977387. Aaron blinked his eyes at the long number… he wasn’t sure if he could remember it, but he’d probably remember it if he said it over and over in his head.

Oh, the cuffs… yeah, those hurt my ankles and wrists a bit, so I took them off to stretch a bit. Don’t worry, I left them there. Aaron replied honestly and cheerfully…

And his words got the stock of a gun to his face causing him to groan in pain as he fell to the floor… that same guard that almost laughed was the one that did it.

Respect, prisoner 63977387, respect… it’s important, especially in Tartarus… now, follow, and you’ll be given the explanation on how Tartarus works. Should you wander off or move to slowly, you’ll be encouraged to step in line.

Aaron didn’t need to question what the man meant by encourage when he heard the click of a bullet sliding into the barrel of a gun.

I understand sir. Aaron knew when he could joke around, and he’d take it as far as he could go before he’d stop, but at least he had that filter… even if it was a bit damaged.

Right… Tartarus is split into multiple districts and areas, your crimes determine where we drop you usually. Inside Tartarus, your prison number doesn’t mean anything beyond letting us know if you died or not. As Aaron was about to question what was meant by that, he was grabbed and felt a needle enter his neck.

What entered your neck just now was a single Nano-bot, not capable of doing anything really, and we don’t need to anyway. What it does is let us know if your heart still beats, or if it has stopped beating. Aaron was a bit surprised at this point, before the man glared at him.

Know this, Tartarus is a prison in name only… in actual fact it is the world’s only sanctioned lawless zone. What happens in Tartarus is none of our concern. Kill each other, rape someone, deal in drugs, it means nothing. Aaron blinked in surprise at the words of the man, before he walked again, Aaron having to move quickly to keep up.

Tartarus is given supplies for the people inside to survive, even luxuries for those criminals such as drugs are provided in air drops… but once its inside, whether or not you get it or get nothing is up to you.

Aaron didn’t quite know what to make of the man’s words… what he was describing was basically a place of no law and no jurisdiction.

While the murder and drug use didn’t appeal to Aaron, everything else about it seemed… kind of okay.

No one could complain if he was in a place he wasn’t supposed to be, and no one could complain if he happened to be looking inside a previously locked container.

Seemed nice in that aspect at least, and Aaron was kind of thankful for that… but as far as everything else went, Aaron would take the ‘it’s not my business’ point of view.

He didn’t use drugs, he didn’t know much of fighting beyond some knowledge of how to take things from people trying to hurt him, and beyond that, he just liked moving around and going where he wasn’t supposed to be.

Though doing that had gotten him here… eh, worth it in his opinion.

Now then, since your worst crime is murder, you’ll end up in section seven… that would be that way. The man pointed in a certain direction, and Aaron smiled… oh, he was so thankful for the tip.

Of course, that’s for normal prisoners, but you are kind of… where did he go? the old man turned and Aaron was no longer there, and the man who had held a gun to his back was now on the floor, holding his… tender parts.

…Why is it so difficult to get competent guards? Well, someone, after him! the old man shouted, and a few guards who were further down the hall responded by running towards where they presumed Aaron to have ran…

Well, if they just looked a bit closer they would have noticed that he wasn’t that far… just a bit to the left, then upward. Knowing how to scale walls and such helped him in his pursuit of finding new things, so it was easy for him to hide himself in this manner…

And lucky for him, the Nano-bot injected into him was not a tracker… though he wondered why they didn’t just include a tracker; hindsight is 20-20 apparently.

Well… seeing as my stop is that way… I only needed help getting in; I’ll find my own way from now on. Aaron whispered to himself as he moved away…

Getting out of Tartarus was next to impossible, seeing as it was an island prison and he had no transport, but he wanted to get in anyway.

There was another reason Aaron had left though… despite how he acted at times, he was definitely not stupid, especially considering he had tested ahead of his age and completed his ‘schooling’ by age 14. Not the most advanced, but he was smarter than he appeared at times…

And the fact that they were leading him away from his designated area… that gave Aaron a feeling that something wasn’t quite right involving that. Combine that with the fact that his trial went by in only a week as opposed to a month or two, his testimonies were generally ignored, and false evidence had appeared…

He was framed, and dragged here for a reason, what the reason was, he didn’t know, but he wouldn’t let them just do as they pleased… he had remained quiet during his capture to get to this place… but now that he was here, he sure didn’t need to listen to them anymore.

With that being said, he knew he had to at least get away from wherever that old man was taking him, because that old man for sure wasn’t someone generally affiliated with prisons… perhaps he could be a prison doctor if it was a normal prison, but Tartarus, which did not need a prison doctor?

Yeah, Aaron was suspicious of what they were doing here, and he really didn’t want to find out what that was when it was too late. As it was, he couldn’t even find out what it was… no, his best bet was to escape into the prison.

Now wasn’t that a strange thought?

Aaron moved within the shadows, making him difficult to see even if someone happened to look up, where they would find him crawling along piping and vents, but Aaron also didn’t believe that he could be left alone for long like this.

Aaron’s suspicions were answered about ten minutes into his crawling and manoeuvring, when a massive metal contraption noticed him as he was crawling above it…

Though to give some backstory there, he had been crawling above as that thing patrolled below him… and he had overheard the voice of a prison guard and the old man talking nearby.

From their words, that robot was still being tested, and as such, didn’t have things like guns, grenades, or whatever else they wanted to place on it.

It still had search and destroy protocols though, and while it had no ranged abilities, a robot the size of a two storey building would still kill you if it hit you… that bit was obvious though.

The robots codename was also known as Enforcer-Prototype version and Aaron didn’t really think it to be that impressive from his point of view… after all, he understood most structures from touch/sight and well...

The Enforcer was kind of impressive, from the viewpoint of good weaponry… but the issue was that Aaron could see quite a bit of how it worked just from looking at it, including the systems that allowed it to stand on two legs and move fast in a straight line due to tank-like threads.

So he now knew how it could be dismantled… it didn’t help him when the thing punched towards the ceiling and he almost fell were it not for him grabbing onto its arm…

So here he was, hanging onto the arm of a giant killer robot which could move faster in a straight line than he could run, and they were clearly planning on hurting him in some way for them to be this uptight about him going to his designated area… they should know he was going there though.

Enforcer, capture prisoner number 63977387! the old man shouted as the hulking robot tilted its head, showing four tiny red light cameras along its head, flaring a bit as it stared at Aaron who showed a peace sign to its stare.

"Directive accepted, Doctor Lionel." Huh, so now Aaron knew the man’s name as Lionel, though he didn’t recognize the name… beyond remembering some football player from a couple decades ago, but he was reasonably sure they weren’t related.

Uh, doc, can’t we talk this through, I just wanted to get to my spot in this place quicker? Aaron asked, even as the Enforcer tried to swing him off the arm, Aaron having to let go, before he’d go flying into another wall with broken bones or worse.

No, we can’t. You are to be taken to the Ascension Chamber, not released into Tartarus just yet. Aaron blinked at the words of the doctor… before dodging a full swing by rolling into the gap between the legs of the giant robot.

Uh, doc, are you a Bond villain? Yes, despite the author being dead for roughly three or four decades, those books were still famous, as well as their movies…

No, I am not a Bond villain. That being said, you don’t know what the Ascension Chamber is, let alone why I wanted to take you there, so no harm was done. Aaron couldn’t fault his words, even as one of the guards tried to raise a gun to shoot Aaron, only for the doctor to raise a hand to stop him.

Don’t, despite how annoying he is he’s been determined to have a ninety seven per cent compatibility with the Code. Also, the boss is interested in him. The doctor stated, even as he watched Aaron dodged another swing, thankful for the fact that as long as he stayed near the robot, it couldn’t chase him down…

He was less thankful for the fact that one swing would lead to extreme pain, death, or capture, so he was jumping and rolling as if… uh, because, his life depended on it.

He was focused enough to hear what the doctor was talking about though, so he was glad he wouldn’t be getting shot while taking apart the giant robot…

Well, sorry to say this doc- he dodged under another swing, then rolled to the side as the robot almost got him on a return swing… luckily it wasn’t going to step on him since that would kill him…

He was apparently very suitable for something the doctor wanted to check out, and that meant that he would not be killed, thankfully… at least, not yet.

Aaron wasn’t going to wait for that, as he stepped forward to the robot’s leg, the robot attempting to move back, only for Aaron to jump and grab onto one part of its leg.

-But I have places to go! Aaron shouted to Doctor Lionel even as he held onto the leg, which couldn’t quite shake him off as he reached into its wiring… now normally this would be dangerous and lethal without protection, but, thankfully for the near 22nd century, they had very safe and insulated wiring.

It didn’t help here; in fact, it only made this move easier for Aaron to do as he ripped out some of the wiring, making the leg twitch before it stopped moving entirely, allowing Aaron to climb higher and onto its back, ripping into some of the wiring and circuits there as well, shocking those watching.

Very soon, the robot twitched, whirred and shut down, now offline while standing as Aaron jumped down with a smirk, ready to take off again even as he held a metal covering he had removed from the back of the robot after it powered down.

Sorry doctor, but this robot was really faulty. The wiring was very easy to access, and because it wasn’t trying to kill me, I had the advantage… that being said, bye! Aaron waved and ran, carrying the metal covering with him even as someone attempted to shoot his legs out from under him, only to collide with the metal covering he had acquisitioned.

…That boy might be more suitable for the Code than we realized. Doctor Lionel said to himself with a smirk even as he walked away, the guard following behind him looking awkwardly behind them as Aaron ran away followed by a few guards.

Sir, shouldn’t we go after him? the guard asked nervously, only for the doctor to shake his head, looking over his shoulder to see Aaron turn a corner.

No need… he isn’t trying to get off Tartarus, and as long as he is inside we can find him again… by the way, tell the engineers that the Enforcer needs a few upgrades. The doctor walked away with little worry… Aaron would be captured eventually, he was sure of it, Tartarus could not be escaped… worst come to worst, the Head Guards would find him.

Oh yes, and get more guards. Normally this wouldn’t happen but this is clearly a bad security flaw… we need very little guards so we haven’t gotten many, but still…. The guard next to the doctor agreed to relay the idea to the Head Guards, though they both hoped they wouldn’t be angry.

With Aaron, he had successfully evaded the three guards chasing him, which had him wondering how Tartarus was secure with so few guards, and he was now at a small door, with the heading above it reading ‘Area 7’

The issue would have been that it was locked, for any person other than Aaron, but he instead just looked to it, and back to his metal sheet he had carried with him, looking around before finding a pin nail on the metal, not too rare in design now, and just about everywhere, and he smiled as he held it.

Khul ja Shem-shamayim. Aaron stated the motto of his family, the Hassan’s, with pride as he slammed the metal that held the pin to the floor, releasing the pin.

Taking the pin to the lock, knowing the make and age of the lock, and with the pin entering the lock, and a deft flick, Aaron knew exactly how to unlock it.

Be opened in the name of heaven. The motto of the Hassan family sounded arrogant, and not suited for a thieving family, but Aaron didn’t care, he took pride in the motto… because to him, it wasn’t about heaven, or religion… to him, it meant, be opened for freedom, and that was how he accepted it.

Not even half a minute after stating his family motto, was the door unlocked, and he pushed it open, walking with pride and confidence.

His confidence vanished shortly after as he looked at the derelict buildings, the spray-paint on some, a lot of people in the distance doing something which would be illegal outside of Tartarus, whether it was the guy brutally stabbing someone already dead on the floor, or the man sniffing cocaine, and even the woman who led a man away into an alley way where a scream was shortly heard…

Well… I knew this place was messed up even before I came here. Aaron said to himself, keeping the pin nail with him just in case it needed to be used, and noticed that he really needed to get rid of his prison jumpsuit quickly, especially considering other people weren’t wearing such eye-catching things.

Speaking of eye-catching… Hey, there’s a newbie… Aaron heard nearby and looked to the right to see someone holding a knife, a few people behind him also holding weapons, be they bats, chains or knifes as well… luckily, no guns…

He was sure he’d die if there was a gun involved as he smiled awkwardly, already noticing how they held their weapons…

Listen guys, we don’t need to have a problem… I’m just going to be leaving now… Aaron was quick to say, not wanting to deal with some wannabe gang of some type…

Unfortunately, even as he said it the man in front stepped forward, wearing a hoodie and jeans, and some faded sneakers which was not very fashionable in the 2070’s… maybe the 2010’s or 2020’s.

Oh, we’re going to have a problem, ‘less you join us, little Muslim. Aaron took offense to that, knowing that he wasn’t a Muslim… he wasn’t any religion really, beyond holding faith in God and that his ethnicity shouldn’t say what he was.

Uh, I’m not Muslim… though I also don’t want to be joining you… I’ll be too busy travelling to stay with you guys anyway. Aaron, as mentioned before, wasn’t stupid, despite what he’d say or do.

He knew that saying what he was would likely get him hurt or possibly killed, something that would ruin the doctor’s plans, but he just needed to keep them busy as his eyes snapped around, looking for a place to run to…

Well, you aren’t joining the Red Knives, so you must be dying today I guess. The man said, and everyone prepared to kill Aaron… yeah, he didn’t want to die today, so he ran.

Get him! Aaron rolled his eyes at the standard playground bully catch-phrase, even as he registered that this was much more dangerous than a play-ground squabble, not that he’d ever been in school beyond internet schooling, so he ran as quickly as he could.

Remember how running on roofs and climbing walls helped him get to inaccessible places? Well, some others could do it as well apparently, but not all of them, given