Nightshift 63: Bus 3

[seekingmystrength]

With the blond's outburst disturbing not only the peace and quite of the trip back, but the trip itself by way of a detour into a damn tree, Kurogane's patience had worn thin by well before the sun had begun to set. No amount of alcohol would have helped temper his mood either. Stuck on the side of the road with the night drawing ever closer... it was almost as though Landel had intended for something like this. That man knew what happened were they not back in the building by nightfall, and a good number of them knew the same.

Probably not the blond idiot.

Though his patience was all but gone, his attention to the situation was heightened with the threat of darkness closing in. Each passing moment put them closer to another attack like before, and if there was where the night was to begin, he wasn't going to be trapped in any vehicle, moving or otherwise. That decision kept him on edge, watching between the window and the bus's back door beside him and waiting with the only remaining patience he had to spare.

"Be ready," was all he'd said to the girl beside him, knowing or at least hoping that she understood what was soon to come. He wasn't sure if she'd been there the time before, but as a ninja she should have known enough to expect anything with the tension aboard.

The moment he caught the sun's final dip beyond the horizon, he was out of his back seat and unhinging the emergency hatch for a quick exit to the ground, expecting that Tsubaki would be close behind. "Come on!" he barked back before starting around the bus at a quick pace. The town was long gone, but the chance stood that the Institute would be not too far ahead of them.

Comments

[heroesdontshave]

Whoa, yelling. What was with all the yelling? He tried to get himself to focus on it so he could understand. It felt like that was all he'd been doing for the last who-knew-how-long, since his attempted rebellion had gone bust. The vehicle had ended up slamming into a tree and he'd suddenly wound up with a needle full of that damn junk shoved into him. Afterward, he'd been forced into a seat up front and had been watched ever since. He was pissed, he was confused, he was scared quiet... but above all, his head was killing him. A mix of that stuff, his sickness, adrenaline, and all those emotions stirring around in him. That whole while, as he sat there, his mind bounced back and forth as he tried to focus on his surroundings and asked himself why the hell that hadn't worked. He didn't understand. Couldn't understand. This wasn't what was supposed to have happened. So why did it? Why did nothing ever seem to work?

It was easier to try and focus on that question than on that horrible sensation in his body that left him feeling weak and distant. He might have stayed like that forever had it not been for that horrible scream near him. He turned toward it, alarmed and blood pumping before he could even comprehend what was happening. The nurse who had been watching over him had suddenly fallen to the floor and started screaming in pain, clutching herself. And her body... her body was shifting. Turning into something else. It couldn't be she was... yes, she was! She was turning Cie'th! Right there in the damn aisle!

Snow started to stand but then fell right back into his seat again. Dammit. He tried again, this time bracing his hand on something to help pull himself up. A bout of dizziness hit him like he'd stood up too suddenly even though he hadn't. Everything around him was loud and yelling and movement. The woman up front was now completely gone, past the point of return. She looked different from the Cie'th he had found in the Vestige or at Lake Bresha, but she sure as hell wasn't human anymore.

He stepped out into the aisle, using the seats to stabilize himself. Everyone else was running, but he stood there, glaring at that thing. Even with everyone rushing, it was going to take some time before they all emptied out. In the meantime, the Cie'th would take the opportunity to attack the stragglers. So what was Snow supposed to do here? Run off and save his own hide while people got attacked? No way! His body felt weak and every movement felt distant and far too deliberate... and yeah, he was dizzy and headachey, too. But he had faced these things before while most people haven't. And this thing was sure as hell creepier and freakier looking but it didn't especially look stronger. He could take this thing... Or else, he could at least keep it busy while everyone else got away.

[Ippo and Mikado!]

[ippo]

Ippo didn't have the nerve for this sudden trip to hell. Had he been paying attention, maybe he would have seen the signs and have been ready: Restless patients, concern that grew to panic and action the darker the evening became. It wasn't until he heard the screams from the nurses that he realized something was wrong, more so than an accidental collision with a tree.

Patients made a run for it towards the back and any windows they could easily break. Ippo, on the other hand, had about as much sense as a squeamish maiden running from a mouse. He stood up on his seat and recoiled from the grotesque transformation in front of him.

That was until he saw Snow stagger up on his feet and start moving toward the kill zone. As scared as he was, he couldn't let someone blindly kill themselves, not when he could try and prevent it.

"What are you doing?!" he shouted from across the bus, trying to get his attention first. Deftly, the boxer wormed his way through the crowd of patients until he came up to the tall American. "This way!" Grabbing a hold of the man's big had, Ippo tried to pull him away from the nurses.

[ofthemotions]

This was his life. Completely and utterly. Sit on a bus... Someone he knows starts to make a racket. A mildly embarrassing racket that was both mortifying and exciting at once, and so Mikado had only stared as people joined Snow, wondered quietly if anything would change if he did the same, but by then it was too late. The bus careened lightly into the tree, and the shock shook the boy out of the reverie. And reminded him that this was his life. Of course, someone he knew had broken the bus (and got sedated for the trouble). Of course.

...Was this an 'of course', too?

Of course... night would come while they were on the bus, and while Mikado thought nothing of it, that thinking was deemed faulty because that woman-- That woman had-- And she--

Society pressed at him that she needed help, but years of media ingrained influence stated the opposite outright-- She had turned into a monster in front of him, and the boy was left staring in a combination of horror and delight. Was there something special about her, or was it all the nurses, and what did it mean--

The screams had been muted to his ears until a familiar voice broke through, and Mikado shook his head, blinking against a belated panic, to see Ippo making his way to a mostly sedated Snow. What... What were they doing? Ippo was pulling on Snow's arm to get him to come away, and Mikado was down the aisle without thought, grabbing for Snow's other arm. The woman-monster was too close, and Mikado's chest heaved in quick intakes of air as he kept staring. What this what... What Celty-san had meant? Why hadn't she said anything? Her, of all people-- And she should know, that Mikado would have--

Believed her. He swallowed reactions down, and blinked across at Ippo, his expression helpless. "Where are we going?!"

[heroesdontshave]

The only thing Snow was focusing on was the Cie'th in front of him as it approached with jerky movements. Everything else became background noise... until one familiar voice called out. It startled him back into reality, and he turned in time to see Ippo's approach. He grabbed his hand and started pulling him away, and Snow stumbled after him like a child would when being led by a parent whose strides were too long. "H-Huh? But...!"

Before he could really piece together some kind of argument, Ryuu appeared and grabbed his other arm. The glare and determination were gone from his face and he simply looked surprised and confused as he found himself getting pulled along down the aisle before he could so much as protest. Everyone else was pouring out of a door that had opened up in the back of the vehicle, a loud river of panic and yelling. Wherever it was they were going, it meant they were flowing along and following everyone else out of this thing.

[to here]