NIGHT 65: WEST WING, SOUTH HALL 1-A

[his_legacy]

[From here]

No time was wasted in this short stretch of hallway. Link had run across all of Hyrule Field. This hospital was quite small in comparison.

Praying that he wouldn't come across anything to slow him down, Link turned into the main hallways.

[To here]

Comments

[earthling]

((From here.))

As they continued down the hallway, Claude tried to keep an eye out for anything unusual. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for his eyes to be drawn toward some kind of commotion up ahead, the light from his hardhat revealing a group of three patients and a dark figure (a monster, he realized with dread) that he'd never seen before, clothes clinging to its body.

The sight made Claude's heart seize, and he managed to stop himself from reflexively grabbing onto Guy's arm.

"No!" he blurted with a tinge of panic in his voice. Claude could usually keep his cool when it came to combat situations, but he normally wasn't faced with a situation like this, much less the possibility of turning into one of the vicious beasts that prowled the halls. The Sorcery Globe had done something like this to Allen once, yet the solution hadn't taken anyone's life in the end. This was completely different, and much worse in some ways.

[nobleman]

As much as Guy had tried to prepare for something like this, he had to admit that he hadn't expected to come across it so quickly. There were three other patients, just like him and Claude, trying to fight off a humanoid creature that was pitch-black and was clearly out for blood. He had never seen a monster like it in the institute before, and the fact that it looked more like a human than a beast made it clear that it had probably once been a patient.

When he heard Claude call out, Guy grabbed for his shoulder, aiming to stop him from doing anything reckless. The question was, how they did handle this situation? There were already three other patients (technically, four) caught up in this, but there was no guarantee that they could just move past it either.

"What do you want to do?" Guy asked Claude under his breath. "We need to make sure we get to Anise as soon as we can, but..." What if these patients tried to kill the transformed one? Did they have an obligation here? Guy just wasn't sure what they should do.

[earthling]

"Anise--" Claude swallowed hard and looked back toward Guy with an anxious expression. They couldn't just keep her and Luke waiting. What if she'd started to transform too? He couldn't stand the thought of other patients attacking her, and he wasn't sure if one person would be enough to guarantee that everyone stayed safe.

"We have to get to Anise," he said, a little more focused now. It killed him to say that at a time like this, but they couldn't just leave her and Luke alone when they weren't sure what was going to happen. Besides, with three other patients involved, they would probably get in the way.

Still, he knew they couldn't slip by without saying anything. Realizing he might attract unwanted attention, he called out to the group anyway. "That might be a patient!" Claude warned. "Be careful!"

[nobleman]

It wasn't a choice that Guy found easy, either, but the fact was that they probably wouldn't be of much help trying to fight in this narrow hallway, anyway. And if they got held up, it might mean the worst for Anise and for Luke. In the end, it had to be this way.

Once Claude gave out his warning (which probably wasn't needed, but it was best to be safe), Guy grabbed him by the arm and started to quickly pull him past the group. While it did pain him to run away from a group of patients that might be their help, they really had no choice.

Luckily, the monster didn't end up switching targets, so they were able to get past without any complications.

[To here.]