Night 62: F11-20 Hallway

[gald_digger]

Anise had been quiet that evening. She ate dinner quickly, changed her clothes, then lay down on her bed to rest. The night hadn't even started, and she already felt worn out. She hoped that closing her eyes for a bit would make the headache go away.

Unfortunately, the pain was still there by the time the Head Doctor's voice began to ring through the institute. And his message... was possibly the creepiest she'd ever heard. A bug, an infection, symptoms, and then...

Anise clutched her pillow tightly, trying not to imagine it too vividly, but against her will, the memories of the nurses' transformations came flooding back. Was that going to happen to them...? He didn't say what the symptoms were. What if the aches and malaise Anise felt weren't just from overexerting herself and being under stress, what if...

No. Anise wouldn't believe it. She couldn't accept that. But her mind continued to wander. What if it wasn't her, what if the friends who'd been strangely absent that day were actually...

Damn it, no! The longer she stayed put, the more her mind was going to linger on horrible thoughts like those. Anise shot out of bed, scrambled to grab her things, and shot out the door. She had to find Guy.

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Comments

[fonichymn]

Medication confined Tear to her bed for the remainder of the afternoon, and she slept restlessly through dinner as her blood ran thick through her veins. She had not seen Luke or Guy all day, and while the former was prone to occasional lapses, the latter had always been a constant. Having both unaccounted for (not to mention Natalia as well) was worrisome.

True, only half a day had passed. True, they might simply be exhausted. Nevertheless, Tear felt that tinge of fear buried beneath her impassioned exterior.

The sentiment increased at the conclusion of dinner. When Tear finally grasped the chance to leave her room, she found her heart pounding in her ears, her palms cold and glistening against the fabric of her gloves. For Dr. Landel had opted to aggravate the careful balance. For in a few days, innocence would be ruined permanently, and there existed nothing she could do at the moment.

Only an appointment to keep and patience to exercise.

With her weapons stowed carefully in the folds of her uniform, Tear took to running. Renamon had requested that she meet at the end of the hall. Given the circumstances, she wished to be prompt as much as possible tonight.

[diamondstorm]

...Now, that was a side of Landel the Digimon hadn't seen for quite some time. It was almost a refreshing change of pace. But even so, the words offered were nothing close to a comfort. If he was speaking truthfully, things had the potential to become very bad, and more-- If one took his words as fact, then there was another issue at hand.

Were the monsters fought on a regular basis all human once? Or at least all sentient lifeforms? It was a despairing thought to consider, and instead the Digimon slipped on her jacket, retrieved her normal nightly items, and slipped the sword artifact into a pocket opposite the one with the ring. It had been traded out for Nigredo's, and she touched it once before leaving out the door.

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[hairraising]

Rapunzel stepped out into the hall that night with a fresh stone sitting in her stomach. The first thing that had come to mind when the Head Doctor mentioned "symptoms" and people being "infected" was her own experience with the rotting food some days earlier. It had been so easy for the Institute to do that to her; she hadn't even been aware of anything strange or different until the visions were in already happening. Now it seemed just as easy for them to infect people with this horrible malady — just some people and not others, too. It was very, very controlled, and Rapunzel more than just about anyone else in the Institute, knew the effects of extreme control on a person.

At least she could be thankful that neither she nor Tsubaki seemed sick so far. Gotta be thankful for the little things, she thought as they made their way out of their block.

[To here]

[fourstonewalls]

Lana squatted on her heels, rummaging through her box. The tips of her hair brushed on the ground, and she flicked them back out of her way. The gun came out first, and went on the ground. Meekins' nightstick might be more convenient to carry, but the candlestick had heft. As she pulled it out, a small cardboard box bounced off it -- Ema's earplugs. Some of Ema's things had ended up in here.

She really had left. Lana looked down at the weapon in her hands. Dried blood was flaking off the candlestick. Damon's blood, or the monster's. Probably both. The lab boys would have a field day. She rubbed off a chunk of it, and sighed. She wasn't sure she could do this, but no one had asked her. So she would get up, put on her gun and emergency ring and go out looking for trouble.

Trouble would find her. It always did, didn't it?

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[stylebythemile]

Sonia turned to the intercom speaker once the static had cleared, moving into a defensive stance as Landel's laughter filtered out of it. She didn't know what he was talking about, but when he started to address the prisoners again, she clenched her teeth. They never sounded this happy unless something was about to happen in their favor. He had bad news for them and he wanted to draw it out.

That nasty bug? Symptoms? Infection? As if declaring biological warfare on them (that was what it sounded like) wasn't bad enough, he then went on to say it would change them. That it would--

She let out a loud gasp. He's going to turn people into monsters! Her fighting stance loosened and she straightened, her eyes widening in shock. And he's trying to get everyone to turn against each other!

The 'nurse' had told her she was sick yesterday. Did that mean she was infected, or was it only people who were suffering symptoms today? Sonia looked at Mokona. She didn't seem sick whenever she was awake, but what if she was sick today? The princess tried to wake up the younger girl again; it didn't work, as usual.

She was too busy trying to remember if Tolten had had any symptoms to check if the hallway was clear before she left.

[ichangedforgood]

Robin watched her roommate leave with significantly more interesting items than she'd seen all day. However, she knew where she could find the other girl later on - it was the rest of this place that currently held her interest. By all accounts, from what she'd just observed, this was a normal occurrence. That didn't give her any hope that this was truly a jailbreak - there had been no lock-picking of the door, for example.

All that meant to Robin was she expected a trap. She did want to explore, if nothing else to find a map of where in the world this place was located. For now she'd settle with utilizing the mental copy of the map she'd seen posted to the bulletin board. With the utmost caution, she peered out of her room and followed a few paces behind the others exiting theirs.

F19

[requitedfate]

Shiina quietly emptied her glass of water after hearing the announcement on the intercom. So, that bug was more than just a passing cold. The fever that kept Shiina's skin heated could very well turn her into something, well, monstrous. And that meant there was only very little time left. A day, then the symptoms would kick in, if she had heard that right...

Shiina set the glass the down and nearly toppled it. Her hands were shaking. She gripped her desk and pushed up to her feet. She feared she might fall apart. How could this have happened?

She was grateful Tear had slept through most of dinner and left the room swiftly after the doors had unlocked. She didn't think she could hold in the tears that blurred her vision. She would not be able to explain it any other way than telling the truth, either.

Stumbling to the closet, Shiina flung open the door to retrieve the bat. Gasping sobs were now the only way she seemed able to get air. She couldn't leave like this. Shiina indulged herself for a moment flung across her bed and sobbing into her pillow. Tears would do little to help in this problem, though. She knew it. She knew it, but still!

She needed to get to Niikura. Shou. He would have a plan. She could tell him, and he would help. Grabbing her flashlight, Shiina forced herself to her feet again and began the usual stretch of hallway towards the meeting spot.

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F16

[avengingfists]

Tonight was already shaping up to be spectacular. A little booze, the Head Doctor doling out his typical intimidation tactics, and now Ilia would be taking a trip to the morgue to see if there were a few teenagers in attendance. What a thrill.

Doing her best to keep the most morbid of her thoughts at bay, Ilia carefully stowed away the partly drunk wine bottle away into her closet and readied for the night. She had been careful not to drink enough to forget her purpose, but she did take in enough to gain a mild buzz that made tonight's plans less painful. Not completely painless but... less painful.

Supplies in pocket and flashlight in hand, Ilia quickly left the room and grimly made her way down the hall.

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