When the Night Comes Out presents the Hive Warden Michael Ketdinger's log date August twenty
third, twenty one point fifty location, Subterranean Prison, AV thirty one,
aka the Hive. I have no idea how to do this. I've never
been one to keep a journal, but the people who built the Hive want
me to do it, so I'm going to give it a shot. The
fact is I was brought in on this project as a consultant, and then
the people who had the bright idea to build this thing sprung it on me
that I was to become the warden. They laid this on me halfway through
the project. I was stunned. Of course, I shouldn't complain. I
was born into a mining family and spent many days as a teen working underground.
Then I got into law enforcement and worked as a prison guard. So
a guy with experienced mining and living underground as well as experience in a prison,
and I guess I sold it as the perfect match. What the hell
the pay is good? So anyway, since I'm supposed to be writing this
down for posterity, this is the situation. If you're listening to this years
later and the Hive no longer exists. You may wonder what the hell I'm
talking about, Well, be patient and let me tell you. The Hive
is technically called the Subterranean Maximum Security Prison and Work Camp with the random number
designation AV thirty one. However, anyone who takes a look at the twisting
spiral of prison cells and the way they're laid out set into the rock itself
says the place looks like a beehive. US a nickname is born, and
be damned anyone who wants to call it AV thirty one in private conversation.
The police was conceived decades ago. You see, there was a problem with
prisons in general. What do we do in an overcrowded world when we have
so many prisoners. Well, you can keep building prisons above ground, but
space is limited. And then there's the problem of what to do with the
worst of the worst. You can't put them in with the standard prisoners who
haven't been butchering people, blowing people up, or any of the other horrendous
things these people have done. What to do, well, some genius theorized
you could bury them. That's how this all started. So the hive was
carved out of solid rock beneath a mountain. That's right. We are about
as buried as people can be. We are beneath a mountain, and by
beneath I mean way way beneath. We are miles underground, and you have
to go through deep pressure risation to get back to the surface, like you
do when you dive beneath the ocean. We hover just above the parts of
the earth where it starts to get really hot. We use that heat,
of course, to do all sorts of things. Anyway, It's about as
deep as you can get without dying. It is here that society sends the
worst of the worst. There are a few who bargain to come here because
the conditions are so rough and the work we have them do so hard.
Some criminals can barter a deal by coming here to get an earlier release date.
However, there are many of them that will never again see the light
of day, and even those that have bartered a way to get out will
likely not do so for a very long time. We are completely self sustained
down here. We have places that can actually grow food using artificial sunlight.
We have water and a way to purify even waste water. We have full
medical facilities that can even perform heart surgery if needed, have prison cells,
kitchens, and everything a person would need to live underground. We can even
purify the air so that it almost feels and smells fresh. Lots of new
technology was created to build this place. Amazing how humans make the biggest advances
to kill each other in wars or find ways to lock people away forever.
We also have apartments, stores, a movie theater, bowling alley, and
an entire underground town for the two hundred plus guards, medical personnel and administrators
who help keep this place running. We even have a city to house the
guards on personnel as well as their families. There are even kids down here.
In a way, all of us have been sentenced, even if all
of us were volunteers. Don't get me wrong. They pay us well,
really well, and the housing is free and the prices that the stores are
reasonable. However, you have to request be here and go through rigorous testing
to get the gig or live here. Some families can't handle it, and
a few of my personnel have their kids and spouses back on the surface.
You have to be a special kind of crazy to end up down here.
Whether you're a prisoner or a worker. Oh yeah, and we have about
eight hundred prisoners. All of them are monitored twenty four hours a day by
cameras and computers. They all wear equipment that can shock them into submission remotely
if their biosignatures say that they might want to start a riot. Many of
the men are chemically castrated, so their interest in sex is almost nil.
So we have a lot fewer sexual assaults here than other prisons. Some are
medicated for other reasons, and we make sure they stay monitored for everything that
might indicate trouble. We also produce things. Yes, the prisoners here work
in the mines. They help mine the rock here to produce gas and other
minerals for use above ground. Owned. The selling of the gas, oil
and minerals we find from the pulverized rock helps fund this operation. As I
said, we're almost entirely self sustained. It all sounds great, right,
yeah, except that despite all of the precautions and medicine and computers and monitors,
there's still the fact that your life and your family and your home are
feet away from the most dangerous people in the world. These are people who
have mostly dedicated their lives to getting around the rules and finding ways to do
outright evil. So the tension is always there, always just around the corner.
And now Dalton King is coming here, and I think things might just
blow. If you're reading this Year's in the future, then you may or
may not know Dalton King. Given the fact that he has been accused of
murdering over three thousand people during his lifetime, there's a good possibility you have
heard of him. Yes he is the one who set off the nuclear device
in downtown Chicago. Yes he poisoned that town in West Virginia. Yes he
is the one who blew up the subway train in Manhattan. Those are just
the three that come to my mind first. Those are the three I know
he was behind right here in the United States of America. The man has
been a criminal for most of his life, and when law enforcement made him
public Enemy number one, he made all of humanity his target. It took
them five years to track him down, and it amazed everyone that he surrendered
quietly and let himself go on trial. I watched the trial from down here
as the first batch of prisoners came into my care and hoped that they would
send him somewhere else they didn't. He'll be here tomorrow. We even have
a special cell for him, a special cell at the lowest level of the
lowest level. He won't be mining. He will barely get out of his
cell for exercise. Not that there's much to do for exercise here, seeing
as how we are far underground. In short, the man is about as
varied as one person can be and still be alive. The most dangerous man
in the world is coming here. I get to take care of him until
he dies. In case you're not able to tell from the writing, I
am not thrilled about this, but it's my job. I never let anyone
down when I take a job, so I'm going to do my best to
keep the Hive safe, keep the men working, keep my staff happy,
and keep Dalton King alive. Lord help me. You've been listening to When
the Night Comes Out the Hive, Tune in next time for the Hive Part
one. Written by Brian w Alaspa, narrated and produced by Allie James,
music by Viveka Bishek. Catch up on the first four seasons of When the
Night Comes Out now. Support us on Patreon for more terrifying content.