Nightshift 62: F-A Block Hallway

[ninelivesonce]

[from here]

Taura was passing the door to the bathrooms when a thought occurred to her. Could that have been what Okita had been worried about? Did he know something had started? He hadn't looked especially well, come to think of it, but he'd never looked terribly energetic, except in the middle of a fight.

But if he'd known this was coming, why hadn't he said anything? He didn't have to use his own handwriting -- if he'd wanted to, he could have let them all know that something was coming without tipping his hand.

Or it could be something else. Politics. Loyalties. She hadn't expected him not to have any, but she wished he'd been willing to explain. Did he think she'd be disappointed? Maybe she would have, a little, but she would have listened to what he had to say. Did he -- no, he didn't think her unworthy of trust, but perhaps he hadn't been able to turn that same regard to himself? Or maybe it's just embarrassing, Taura.

[to here]

Comments

[hairraising]

[From here]

Rapunzel hefted her hair, trying not to leave too much of a trail behind her. It was tough, though; the bundle got so heavy after a while. She couldn't help but leave at least some to follow along behind them, same as it had been both at home and on the road with Eugene. "Shouldn't be too hard to find the right room. I remember it being not too far away from the top of the stairs," she said as she finished re-adjusting her pan in one hand and her bundle in the crook of her arm, careful not to mishandle the dagger (wrapped in a pillowcase cloth sheath) that was stored inside her hair.

[thecamellia]

At the nightly intercom announcement, her earlier worries came crashing down around her, cementing her worst fears about what was to come. She suspected she knew who the Head Doctor was talking about: Doyle, the other man who’d helped him build the Institute. But to use the radio man’s research to make people sick and make them transform against their will! It was a horrible thought…

No, it wasn’t just a horrible thought, it was also a very dangerous situation. If what Landel was saying was true, then any foe, whether it looked like familiar or not, could possibly be a prisoner in an altered form.

Ugh, to think anyone showing symptoms could end up like that…

It was a small blessing that she and Rapunzel appeared to be fine, but they were only two people in a much larger group. That knowledge cast an even more palpable pall over their trek into the main corridor.

“It’s hard to believe they would keep assigning missions now that people are getting sick…” she commented in a quiet voice. Actually, it was only hard to believe for someone who felt compunction over such callous disregard for people’s well-being. None of the people who’d reigned over the Institute seemed to share that sense of conscience. The fact was, they couldn’t trust the hospital wouldn’t do anything, try anything, to accomplish its goals, no matter what the costs were.

Given that, she was more protective of Rapunzel than ever, surreptitiously glancing over each shadowed corner as travelled onward. It wasn’t quite anger in her heart, or frustration, or even weariness, but a mix of all three, among many other things. Eventually something had to give, but she’d be damned if it was the prisoners who had to suffer more.

_{[to here]}