Night 63: Road to/from Doyleton

[dividedby]

[From here.]

But being outside was probably just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than it was being trapped inside the bus with that nurse.

Besides the many other deformed nurses that were roaming around here, Zero caught sight of numerous forms flying overhead, casting large shadows on the ground as they passed by. They looked like...eagles. But deformed and horrific-looking, just like the nurses. At first, they seemed content to simply circle overhead, screeching, like vultures swarming above a carcass. But then many of them suddenly swooped down and headed straight for some of the prisoners running in the street.

Kind of like the one flying at Zero right now.

"Kh--!" The once-Reploid barely managed to dodge the monster as it dived for him by falling to the ground and rolling back onto his feet. The bird flew upwards again, slowly flapping its wings, then circled around as if to try again, another eagle joining it. To avoid them, Zero quickly moved out of the open, where he was obviously a target, and circled around one of the buses, keeping his back to it for cover. But he knew he wasn't going to be safe here...not when there were nurses on the ground and so many eagles above.

Not since the night he had become temporarily stronger had there been so much visible chaos... And if that one prisoner hadn't started a riot, this wouldn't be happening right now...!

As he stood contemplating the best route for escape, Zero glanced around quickly, searching the fleeing prisoners for anyone familiar or anyone who might need help. He was defenseless, so protecting someone else would only get him so far (and he certainly didn't want a repeat of two nights ago), but they all might have a better chance of survival if they grouped up...

[Leanne, Lana, and Harvey, WHERE YOU AT.]

Comments

[envy_the_sinners]

Lust and the other man didn't seem to be in any immediate trouble from the birds. But by the time he had turned away from his companions to face up the road, one had swooped down and was practically on top of him. Panicking a moment, he threw up a hand as a last-minute resort as the bird swooped in.

Scar knew how to fight a man. Something on solid ground. But here, he was completely helpless. Again. Like he always was in this God-forsaken place.

The thing's beak caught his wrist on it's way by, cutting his hand open in the process. Scar growled, still watching the beast as it about-faced, coming back towards him and bypassing Lust completely. What the hell-

The Ishbalan was ready for it this time, lashing out with a carefully timed kick and knocking the monster dead in its skull. He was surprisingly quick for a man his size.

The bird hit the ground, but was clearly far from finished. He took a quick glance down at his hand to assess the damage. The cut was deep enough to warrant stitches, and God knew what sort of diseases that demon carried. Scar had dealt with worse, but that wasn't saying much coming from a man who had experienced having his arms ripped off. Three times.

[ryuuzaki]

Once L hopped down from the bus, sitting on the floor and letting his feet drop to the ground, he could see more accurately what was happening. A few of what had once been the nurses were out in the road, attacking patients, but they were negligible in comparison to the huge birds that were circling, diving in, dead, or in the process of killing or being killed. The fights themselves made it easy to see that the animals had the advantage of size: they were bigger than the people struggling with them.

Still, standing and gawking at the birds wouldn't do much good. It was important to take in the scene, to understand the variables and try to formulate a quick plan for getting through it, but that was an active process. In this case... it was possible that they could spend the night huddled under one of the buses. No, even that wouldn't protect them from the nurses. They could be trapped by one.

He agreed with his companions that they had to move, but there was still the question of where to go. Heading for Doyleton, or trying to get further, didn't seem to be worth it: even at that distance, patients woke up in their beds. And if he and Lust and Scar—the way they spoke to each other made it absolutely clear that they'd be going in the same direction, but he'd worry about that later—were able to escape into the world, that would only put them all further away from what seemed like their best chance of getting home. The way in, even if it had been involuntary, was likely to be the way out. Landel had brought them; if there was a way to send them home—and there had to be—Landel would know it.

"I think it would be best to try to get back to the Institute."

The cries of the birds, their rotting decrepitude... it really was chilling, almost as if they existed primarily to be frightening. Something about that irritated him, even though he also understood, to some extent, what they could do to him, with those claws and beaks, how they could rip him to pieces. That they were huge and, apparently, bloodthirsty... that was enough to make them terrifying. The fact that there was also a distinct element of the macabre about them just seemed heavy-handed.

There had been information about the birds in Lamperouge's bestiary: some fact about them that was weirder than their existence alone. L tried to remember what it was, but recalling a minor detail like that was harder when the beasts were circling nearby, and when the memory of a few of them lying dead in the courtyard earlier in the week was much more fresh than information he'd read about them a while earlier. Details about how to kill them were more important. They were vulnerable to... to what?

The bird that had attacked Scar skipped Lust on its return trip, and Scar kicked it down. That was it: the bird's attack patterns were like an eagle's, and—

"The base of the wing!" he called out. Any injury there would be the most effective, although severing a muscle or an artery would be best.

A course of action was hard to decide at this point. They could leave this creature where it was and make a run for the Institute, or for Doyleton, or for the woods, but none of those places was really safe, and meanwhile the bird would probably be in the air and attacking again soon. However, if they stayed to finish it off, they'd become sitting targets for its fellows. If the birds were like eagles, they would have sharp vision and could probably see in color.

In color. He could try to keep his arms close to his body to try to cover the garish sweater, but that would hamper his movements enough that it might not be worth it. He felt cold, in the night air. Exertion would probably take care of that.

There was something else about the eagles, he knew, something that had made him take note of them to begin with, because he thought he would be especially vulnerable to them. But with the birds all around him, and patients fighting them with various degrees of success, he still couldn't recall quite what that factor was.

He hefted the heavier bag of food, the one with the canned fruit in it. Its weight was substantial and satisfying and would be more so with the force of motion behind it. Not as good as the weapons he had back at the Institute—something else he'd like to have before attempting any forays out into the world—but better than his own fists or feet.

That cut of Scar's looked nasty.

[a_sin_for_him]

Lust was used to chaotic battle and highly charged situations, but this was beyond even her experiences. The things of the institute...they were worse than any chimera her master had ever ordered made.

"I'm inclined to agree!"

They knew the building better than the road or town. In this chaos...and besides, they just woke up there anyway no matter where they were. What was the point in charging off into the unknown, unarmed?

By the time she had surveyed enough to grasp precisely what was going on, Scar had already been injured. Lust's claws slipped out but the attack she expected never came. The creature made no attempt to attack her, but went for Scar yet again. How angry had he made the monster?

The thing was down and she moved when Ryuzaki called a warning regarding the creature's weakness. She leapt, her claws still out, slicing them into the decaying flesh of the vile winged monstrosity that had blooded Scar. It made an awful noise, and the blood that came from its wing joint smelled rotten. It snapped at her and she flung herself backwards just as her claws slid back into normal fingernails. She felt the heat of its breath and the wind of its thrashing but eluded any harm.

It still drove her mad that she had no control over her claws return. It hardly seemed like they stayed lengthened for any time at all. But there were other things to worry about. The Beast needed tending and they had to leave this place, now.

"Scar!" She was already unwrapping her scarf to press against the wound as a bandage.

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar heeded the other man's directions, focusing on the beast's wing joints as he moved to leap back into action. But Lust had beaten him to it, and once again the Ishbalan could do nothing but simply stand off to the side as she seemingly effortlessly crippled the decayed monstrosity. He really was just dead weight here.

Before he had a chance to turn tail and make way for the Institute, Lust had moved right in front of him. He hid his bewilderment that she actually seemed genuinely concerned as she pressed her scarf against his bleeding wrist as a makeshift bandage.

"I can do it." His tone was tight and uncomfortable as he took the scarf from her with his good hand, pressing it against the gash that was bleeding quite badly. He prayed she hadn't noticed the rash on his hand. He had done what he could to hide the fact that he was being affected by whatever sinister illness these people had inflicted him with, but a rash was a rash. He could not hide that. He looked back up to his other current companion, avoiding Lust's gaze.

"Then let's get going back." Preferably before they were dive bombed again.