ext_201995 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
promisedawhale.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
damned_institute2011-09-08 09:01 pm
promisedawhale.livejournal.com) wrote in damned_institute2011-09-08 09:01 pm
Night 58: West Wing, North Hall 1-B
[from here]
"I wonder where everyone is at?" Brook paused a moment in his humming to question at the empty hallway.
He knew he'd left his room in a bit more of a rush than was his usual, but still, more patients were about at this time of night. It was strange to see not only so little of a number, but even stranger to have no one else passing him by. He thought back to what announcements had been made only to realize that only one had broadcasted. That short message at the beginning of the night: Code 1-8. The message had been mysterious enough to warrant an equally short comment from Brook to his guard about it, but the lacking response had caused Brook to let the man alone. Now though, he had the feeling that he should have pressed more about the reasoning.
His humming resumed as he took the usual left and tried not to worry even more for what might have been happening this evening. "Code 1-8" didn't sound good. Then again, in this place, nothing did.
[from here]
"I wonder where everyone is at?" Brook paused a moment in his humming to question at the empty hallway.
He knew he'd left his room in a bit more of a rush than was his usual, but still, more patients were about at this time of night. It was strange to see not only so little of a number, but even stranger to have no one else passing him by. He thought back to what announcements had been made only to realize that only one had broadcasted. That short message at the beginning of the night: Code 1-8. The message had been mysterious enough to warrant an equally short comment from Brook to his guard about it, but the lacking response had caused Brook to let the man alone. Now though, he had the feeling that he should have pressed more about the reasoning.
His humming resumed as he took the usual left and tried not to worry even more for what might have been happening this evening. "Code 1-8" didn't sound good. Then again, in this place, nothing did.
[from here]
no subject
"On second thought," Kirk was saying as he fell into step beside Wichita, "it's dangerous and you shouldn't be going out there alone. Which I assure you has nothing to do with you being a girl, even an unfairly hot girl, because the last time I went out there alone..." He shrugged, making the beam of his flashlight bob along the floor. "Well, you probably don't want to hear boring stories about me."
Yeah, better that he not tell Wichita about the time he was brainwashed and stupidly wandered into the clutches of a patchwork snake-bird-woman monster. He couldn't see anything heroic about getting your shirt slashed to ribbons and yelling hysterically at your rescuers while bleeding out on the floor.
Which wasn't to say Kirk wasn't shameless enough to grin and try to bait an unfairly hot girl into showing interest in him. Although the gambit might've worked better if his radio had decided then to crackle to life, but not with music this time, or even silence at first. Kirk let his flashlight dangle from his wrist (a good move, to get that strap for it in Doyleton) in order to bring his radio up closer to his ear.
"Keep an eye out," he told Wichita. "We don't want to get attacked while it's—" He cut himself off as Marc's exhausted voice came through. As the radio man lay out the events of last night, the smiling, flirtatious young captain vanished from Kirk's face, becoming someone older and more serious. A rebel, killed by one of the prisoners here? He remembered Aguilar's speech at the beginning of last night, giving them the choice to "kill to eat" in order to gain something from their captors. He'd thought at the time that the only task the general had laid out was to guinea pig themselves with the drugs in the Med Wing.
It sounded as though other patients received a different task. Murder. Kirk looked over at Wichita, wondering if... No. But then, did it matter if it was her? His hands weren't free of blood either, but what he'd done, he'd done to protect the Federation. He didn't regret it, not one bit. And he couldn't judge this person's reasons for doing what they did, not from hearsay.
"'This shell of a town,'" Kirk murmured after the transmission ended. Somewhere near here... not Doyleton, but an abandoned settlement... He remembered going out into the woods with Spock and Bones, following a trail of old campsites along the river. "The shed, right?" he said abruptly, to Wichita. "Come on, it's right through that door."
no subject
Wichita hadn't honestly been expecting Kirk-- Riverside to catch up with her, but it was sort of a blessing because she couldn't seem to get her map out of her boot anyway. Not without sitting down and untying it, and that seemed like entirely too much effort when she now had someone with her that knew the way. Usually she didn't trust anyone so quickly with this sort of thing, not when it was possible that he had an ulterior motive or some angle to play, but it was extremely difficult not letting herself just trust him. He knew the place, knew the random voices on the radio she never bothered to pay attention to, and seemed calmer than a lot of the other 'patients' in this place, so. That was enough, for now. Until she got her hands on a bat, anyway.
'Unfairly hot' made her grin, but it was too late to comment on that. And she wanted to ask about the radios, but. Maybe later. Getting a bat and being armed, that was the important thing.
But while she walked, she'd take the bait he set.
"I would actually love to hear a boring story about you. If not just because I was really banking on this being a quick job, maybe some sneaky running to get out to the shed without being seen, but otherwise nothing too risky. Are we talking monsters or armed guards?"
no subject
But for all that Kirk carefully scanned the darkness ahead before each step, his voice was as casual as ever. "Or just one — in my case, anyway. I know, how uncool, I got taken out by just one massive science-experiment-gone-wrong abomination, but trust me: not as cuddly as it sounds. Although, I don't think we'll see her out there tonight..."
While he was pretty sure the chimera-like thing hadn't died on that night, Kirk had seen neither hide nor hair (nor feather) of her since then. It made him shiver to wonder where exactly Landel — and now Aguilar — stored their eldritch creatures during the day.
Maybe he should just be grateful the answer wasn't "anywhere near here," apparently. He and Wichita reached the exit door without incident, and Kirk shouldered it open before stepping into the cold night air.
[to here]