Nighshift 63: Ames Street

[fourstonewalls]

[from here]

They were passing houses, now, and it was time to stop running. There wasn't anywhere completely out of sight of any of the houses -- the best they could do was a tall hedge separating two driveways. Lana stepped off the road and into its shadow. She was panting, and she rested her head in her hands for a moment while everyone else collected nearby.

"We should decide where we're going now. We don't want to attract any more attention downtown than we have to." She took a deep breath, and her head swam. Focus, Skye. "I'd like to take a look at the records at the police station," she whispered, and waited to see if there was any objection.

Comments

[dividedby]

As he'd intended, Zero released Leanne once the four got some distance away from the eagle monsters and then kept running, eventually noticing the fact that they had finally made it into town. It wasn't until the group paused under the cover of a hedge, however, that he realized just how much all that running had taken out of him. The adrenaline fueling his body was now fading, and exhaustion was quickly replacing it. Now the once-Reploid found himself struggling to catch his breath...ugh. This was a sensation he was still not used to... The pain from that gash in his shoulder - which was still bleeding a bit, unfortunately - wasn't helping matters, either.

...Ignoring his own health. Hopefully the others were doing alright, although Lana and Dent were still a concern health-wise. This might be a good time to ask about that, actually...except Lana beat him to speaking. Zero put his questions aside for the moment to answer her. "The police station," he muttered to himself, thinking. Then he spoke (just loud enough for the others to hear, taking Skye's hint), "They'll have some sort of weaponry there, won't they?"

Yes, the question was necessary, even though it was hard to believe that a police station wouldn't contain the tools police officers needed to perform their jobs correctly. Firearms were, of course, the first thought that came to mind when thinking about the kinds of weapons that place might have, and it reminded Zero that certain prisoners he knew had guns. Perhaps Doyleton's police station was where they got them from? But of course, this was assuming the weapons weren't hidden, locked away, or otherwise conveniently missing after hours...and it was never wise to make assumptions. Hence why it was necessary to ask.

[survives]

Her wrist released, Leanne only ran harder, pushing her legs as far as she could. Until they were finally in the town, and they could be sure they were safe for the moment, she didn't dare slow down. Thankfully, the opportunity soon came, at the shadow of a hedge. Not exactly the best cover they could have asked for, but it'd have to do. The state their group was in, she knew they sorely needed any kind of respite.

It was in a part of town she hadn't gotten to explore much, still mostly unfamiliar territory to her, but the police station... She remembered that particular building. "Yeah," she said in answer to Zero's question, nodding at him. "They might have guns and stuff there." It was where she'd gotten her own, after all, thanks to Renamon. There just had to still be others there too. "I guess..." She frowned. The police weren't something she was terribly familiar with, but she could guess at the basics. And she couldn't exactly picture anyone just leaving guns laying around... "I guess they're the police's?"

[dualistic]

They'd finally made it, and Lana even found them some cover. Harvey stopped and worked on catching his breath, but his muscles were achy and sore from all that running. When he glanced over his shoulder it was clear that they hadn't been followed by anything, which was pretty remarkable. Maybe those birds preferred to stay near the institute.

He didn't hear any moaning yet, nor was there that telltale dragging sound of a rotten body pulling itself forward, so it seemed that the zombies hadn't figured out they were here yet. They were probably closer to the main street, anyway. Regardless, a group of four relatively healthy humans was going to grab their attention soon.

Harvey was glad that the police station was the first place mentioned, since that was exactly where he wanted to go. He was surprised that Leanne had been there too, but at least it meant there were two reliable sources. "Yeah, they have a cabinet they keep it all locked up in. We break that open and we've got first pick of whatever's there." It didn't seem like any of the other patients had thought to run this way, after all.

"First we need to get past those zombies, though." He turned to look at Leanne and Zero specifically, since as far as he was aware both of them were relatively new. "Don't let them bite you." With that, he focused his attention on Lana. "We ready to go?" They couldn't put together much of a plan when none of them were armed. The main thing was, as he'd said, trying to dodge those things.

[fourstonewalls]

"Ready as I'll ever be." She smiled, and took a deep breath. "I expect we'll have no trouble arming ourselves, when we get there." When was said evenly, with no particular emphasis; they were all nervous, and they needed reassurance. It helped, even if she knew she was lying.

"Just a few pointers. On most handguns, the safety is here," she said, cocking one gloved hand like a gun and gesturing with the other. "Never point one at anything you don't plan to shoot, and try not to tense up. Got that?" She nodded, looking for all the world like they were walking into a clean, controlled firing range, and not unarmed into a war zone, and walked off.

[to here]