damned_institute | Night 55: Quarry

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Night 55: Quarry

[From here.]

After what seemed like an entire night's worth of walking, the pair arrived somewhere: it wasn't the town, but it certainly wasn't nothing, either. The ground gave way to a deep hole, the layers of the earth visible with every ridge that led into the center. The snow that covered the land and smoothed the surface was lumpier here, partially obscuring whatever was just beneath it- they could have been items, or they could have been somethings looking to nibble on their feet. Even more intimidating were some of the shapes the Scarecrow could see on the horizon, their shadows looming against the dim light from the night sky. For a brief moment, he was sure one shape was a brontosaurus, but its complete stillness said otherwise. Maybe it was just as scared of them as he was of witches, and stayed motionless in order to not draw attention to itself.

The Scarecrow took a step toward the edge of the hole, shining the light into it. The beam barely touched the bottom, and he could see ladders leading into the depths. He did his best to keep the light still- much like with his map earlier, his hands were shaking, though the pain in his arm was far less than it had been then. It had to be something else this time; he resolved to take another look at his arm when he had a free moment.

"What do you suppose this is?" the Scarecrow asked, feeling his knees shaking again. He took a step away from the ledge in the event his legs gave out unexpectedly.

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Carter had been uncharacteristically quiet during their hike through the snow. The weight of responsibility had settled firmly on his shoulders now. He'd done solo missions before but then he'd only had to watch after his own tail. Now he had Frank to protect. If anything nasty came out of the snow and the rocks he'd have to stand and fight it until his friend got away; running like hell just wouldn't be an option. There was barely a sound as they walked, not so much as a bird or squirrel crossed their path, leaving Carter to be scared silly by the sound of his own crunching footsteps. And he wasn't even sure where they were going.

When something besides more rocks finally appeared in the beam of the flashlight Carter felt a slight flush of relief. At least they hadn't come all the way out here for nothing.

"It looks kinda like a quarry, or a mine or something. Somebody dug all this out of the rock." He took a careful peek down, unable to see any lurking monsters snarling at the bottom--unless they were really good at hiding. Carter took a few cautious steps backward just in case, trying to bring Frank with him. "How's your arm doing? Feeling all right? Is there any bleeding?" Those were the sorts of questions a leader asked.

Oh, a mine- that made sense, the Scarecrow thought with a nod, given that...

He paused, his nodding becoming more of a shaking. No, it didn't make much sense after all. What was a mine doing so close to the Institute? It would have been one thing if the building was made of emeralds, but it didn't look as though it was constructed of anything out of the ordinary. Given that Wizard Landel had some sort of power over the people in town, he'd expected all of the surrounding area to be governed the same way. Maybe his reach only extended so far.

As they both stepped away from the edge, the Scarecrow turned his attention to Carter's question. "Oh, it's doing much better now," he answered. He wasn't entirely sure that was the truth, but at least it didn't hurt as badly as it had before. Aside from the hand-shaking, leg-wobbling, and occasional head-spinning sensations, he seemed to be doing as well as could be hoped from having what he was sure was a near-death experience. He picked at the burnt fabric of his sleeve idly, the parts where it stuck to him stiff and pulling sharply when he moved his arm.

"Ah!" The Scarecrow's fiddling was met with a sharp pang as he removed one of the larger burnt pieces, taking the skin along with it. Beneath it was a curious sight- red, less like his limb had been earlier and more like... the fountain in the Chapel. He recalled something he'd been told before- that was right! Flesh-and-blood bodies had blood running through them. He didn't know the reason for it, but he'd never really thought to ask anyone, either; he'd simply accepted that was the way it was.

Oh dear- he'd been so wrapped up in his recollection that the blood was trailing down his arm before he knew it, discoloring the snow in the hats even further. "Well, it was until I did that," the Scarecrow said, irritated at his ignorance. "Remind me not to mess with it again. You'd think I didn't have my head on straight!"

"Hey, don't do that!" Carter pulled Frank's hands back, more panicked than Frank was over his injury. "You're gonna get infected or something. Don't bleed." In comic books you tore up someone's shirt and made it into bandages, but it was so cold outside that it was probably a really bad idea.

As he tried to patch Scarecrow back together, the knuckles of his right hand became stained with blood. Where it touched his broken ring it solidified into a small red gem, replacing the one Carter had broken four days ago. In his fussing Carter barely noticed.

"We should get inside. I hear wild animals can smell blood." He looked out into the gigantic hole in the mountain. "What's down there?"

Assuming Carter was the keener of the two of them on the behavior of the wild animals possibly living in the woods, the Scarecrow took his advice in trying not to bleed, though it wasn't exactly in his control once it got started. For the time being, he switched the flashlight to his other hand, using the good one to cover the bleeding. He could only hope he'd not already gotten it infected somehow... whatever that entailed. He'd heard the word once or twice before, but the details of how one became or prevented becoming infected were never made clear.

He returned the light to the deeper part of the quarry, trailing it along the levels as he surveyed the area. "It's hard to tell, to be honest. Looks like there's a lot of things along the ground, but it's all under the snow and hard to tell what's what. I think I see a shed, but we'll have to go down a ladder to get to it."

As he brought the light back to the top ledge, something else caught the Scarecrow's eye- metal beams worn into the ground, along with signs on the trees to the west. "It looks like there's something that way, too. I can't help but wonder what all this is doing so close to the Institute."

Carter squinted, trying to distinguish snow from rock from foreign material. "Those look like...tracks. Too small for a train, maybe for a mining cart if this really is a mine," he said, baffled. "Let's follow them. If we can get into the mine then we can find out what Landel's been trying to dig up out of the ground."

The mine looked so old-fashioned, too. Well, contemporary fashioned to Carter, but it didn't have any of the sleekness and smallness of future technology like he'd seen back at the institute. Maybe it was abandoned or condemned, or someone had just forgotten about it like the old mine tunnels that formed the backbone of the Stalag 13 underground.

The wind was starting to pick up. Carter shivered and rubbed one arm. "And at least we'll be inside."

Asuka was about to ask exactly where all this walking was going to inevitably take them when she saw a strange change in the landscape ahead of them. It looked as if there was a seam in the ground, but that couldn't be right. Squinting didn't help any, nor glaring unfortunately. She was going to have to wait until they came to it and hope it wasn't a some kind of trap.

Now, she was kind of worried. Taura's plan was to go north and that seemed to be it. Asuka decided to start walking a little slower. Her reflexes weren't as seasoned as the older woman's, so the eva pilot was more than willing to let Taura give it the old college try.

Thankfully, though, Taura didn't need to be sacrificed for the greater good. The seam turned out to be a large patch of earth in the process of being dug out, judging from the amount of construction equipment still covered in the snow. "I can't imagine Marc hiding out here..."

Taura didn't try to bite back the bark of a laugh at the comment on how quickly the nights ended; Asuka wasn't the only one tired of wasted time. The laugh turned into a cough, and one cough turned into a series, and then she looked up to see Asuka squinting into the darkness. Oh. Whatever it was, it was large -- some sort of construction?

Strip mining? That was illegal, at least on most planets where laws were more than vague suggestions thrown to the winds at the hint of profit. This looked old, and she was about to add disused, when a flicker of light reflected off what looked like plastic. Thin, like a food wrapper, and flapping in the wind.

"Neither can I, but maybe there's more to it? Caretaker's quarters, or one of these old gas-burning groundcars." She'd never driven one, but they had to be child's play compared to anything that could go airborne. But whatever might be down there, they'd have to start by finding a way down. "I say let's go for it."

"Alright," Asuka agreed. They'd made it all the way over here, it would be stupid to just shrug and turn around. The question was: "How the heck do we get down there?" Preferably with their spines attached. If there hadn't been so much snow....

Augh, whatever. She'd figure something out. The eva pilot went with the safest route: sitting on her butt and scooting down. The first ledge wasn't too high, but after that... Asuka couldn't be sure with the strange lighting. A full moon and snow was never a good combination.

"I wonder how long they've been digging this?" And to what end? Had the institute been constructed before or after this quarry? Was it to be a new part of the institute or had they given up? So many questions and no one who knew the answers. Wonderful.

"Well, maybe I can find something a bit more deadly than a baseball bat around here..."

"It's hard to tell -- I wonder what they've been digging it with?" That would help answer the question of how long, as well as be a potential answer to Asuka's hopes for a better weapon.

Taura crouched, made sure her throwing star was securely belted down, and then just hopped down to the lower ledge. The footing was slippery, but the ledge wasn't that narrow. Neither was the next one, which she jumped down with ease, and held up a forearm for Asuka to grab. "I've never heard anyone mention this place, but we haven't gone that far. I wonder why..."

The potential reasons ranged from the disturbing to the merely boring -- it was possible there was nothing at all to be found down here except some trash and some rocks, but at least they'd know.

Asuka groused softly when she saw Taura making better head way than her. The woman was more than a foot taller than her, but still! The redhead looked like a fool trying to get down this descending cliff with all her pieces intact. To add insult to injury, Taura offered a hand down, which caught her between screaming and accepting.

But staring at her with a sour face while she made up her mind would do neither of them any good. She succumbed to help and took the hand, jumping down safely. It made the pain in her head ring, but it wasn't debilitating.

"Who knows?" The eva pilot snapped a bit more petulantly than was necessary. She was used to rigorous, but her rigorous was much different than the history club's apparently. "So--" She piped up, hoping to change the subject to something more neutral. "How long have you been stuck here?"

Height was a major advantage on this stuff; Taura could just jump down ridges. But they could walk along this one until they got to the building, and Taura headed that way. It was as good of a place to look as any, and it wouldn't bruise either Asuka's skin or her pride. Any more than they already had been, that was.

"Little over two weeks." It seemed like a lot longer than that; it took longer than that to get to some planets, depending on where you were going. It shouldn't have felt like an exile, except that it was. "You?"

"A little over a week for me." which was the insult of all insults. All three evangelion pilots locked away at a "mental institution" while the world crumbles around them. What person in their right mind would think that the saviors of humanity should be separated from the one weapon that can defeat the apocalypse? Why weren't heads rolling for this!? Why weren't NERV's special operatives busting down the door of this stupid place and taking them back?

It was beyond maddening! If Asuka was going to die because of someone else's mistakes, she wanted to go down fighting at least! Now she was a little girl with a bat. Yeah, that'd learn the angels.

"So stupid," She mumbled at the unkempt shack Taura seemed focused. "All of this is so stupid." There was a very conveniently placed chip of cliff under Asuka's military boot that felt her ire. It made a bee-line for the shack and bounced off the worn metal like a clap of thunder. It relieved anger and let them know if anything feral had turn the place into its personal nest.

The sound of ricochet was their only answer.

"Well, I suppose it's safe enough..."

Taura listened. To the ricochet of the pebbles impact, and to Asuka's commentary, with equal gravity.

"I think....I think that's exactly the point," she rumbled. "What's more disheartening -- to get beaten fair and square, or getting laughed at?" She wasn't looking at Asuka, and one hand moved to straighten her hair out without conscious thought. "They know that, too. Too bad knowing what they're doing doesn't stop it from hurting, yeah?"

She was off-balance, no matter how well she trained her body, because they wanted her to be. And yet she'd won the fight in the rec area -- at the expense of Asuka's dignity, setting them at odds.

"You're right. Either there's nothing in there, or it's smart enough not to rise to the bait. In which case it probably spotted us when we entered the mine. Let's see what's in here." The door was old, and could use some grease on the hinges, but it opened.

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Night 55: Quarry

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