damned_institute | Night 63: Road to/from Doyleton

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Night 63: Road to/from Doyleton

[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.]

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[May I have this chaotic date?]

Getting both on and off of the buses was a difficult task for Brook even when things weren't chaotic, so it was a wonder when he finally managed to make his way to the back of his bus and tumble out of the back door. His face broke his fall, and his body assisted in a few other's exits from the vehicle before he was able to push himself up and sputter out a very scared, "W-what's happening?!"

The nurses had so quickly changed into monsters and now there were giant birds that looked nothing like the songbirds he enjoyed swooping around and diving at patients! Under the darkness of night, the scene was enough to terrify even the bravest of souls. And Brook was definitely not among those.

He shot up and let his body respond as it would, his legs taking him full speed away from the buses and, he presumed, towards the Institute. The rooms were safest. They always were! "It's like Thriller Bark all over again!" he shrieked, daring to glance back in case something was following after him. What he should have been paying attention to more was his front since others had already started their escape ahead of him.

[o/~]

Maya glanced behind and then dodged out of the way, just as someone ran past. "Hardly a thrill, I would think!" Maya responded as she, copying that someone, looked over her shoulder. Nothing chasing behind, as far as she could see.

"Is something behind us?" How far was it until they reached the relatively safer walls of the asylum? Maya had no idea if she could make the run; she was more accustomed to making getaways in short bursts and couldn't be certain of her stamina. What an inconvenient time to test such a thing. If the birds would stop making such a racket, she could think more clearly—

Brook hadn't thought he'd brought anything along with him for how fast he'd taken off, but there was always the chance that a flying creature could swoop in faster than he thought. "No, I don't believe...!" he started to answer before realizing that there had to have been someone else to answer. It was then that his frantic dash pulled a little more back to reality where he could see that another was running just a bit behind him. And a beautiful woman no less!

Had he passed her by?

Since he didn't see anything following for the moment, he slowed his long strides just enough to fall back with the woman. He needed to slow down; his body, however attuned to cowardly reflex, was not agreeing with the pace given how ill he'd been recently. Once slowed down, he was already panting quite hard and his headache had returned full force. "I certainly... never thought the day would end like this!" he admitted, trying to play off the graveness of running for one's life in the dark.

This stuff always seemed to happen to him.

[ooc: Brook is not Aquila bait, and I dunno if Maya is... that'll determine if something's following!]

[She isn't either, so they are saaaafe!]

"It could be worse. There could be zombies," Maya said cheerfully, recalling her conversation of the morning. "Though I don't think..." She paused, and turned to peer into the darkness. "Other than the nurses, I don't think there are any here." That's right, that had been a feature of town, was it not? It raised the question of why; and as the patients had been transported by bus, there was no reason to assume that the bodies (presumably there were bodies) would be discovered by the side of the road during the day. Another day/night divide, she ruminated. Monsters at night, humans in the day....

Speaking of monsters, she shouldn't stop and foolishly mark herself as flying monster bait. She turned back to the direction she'd been running, though at a more leisurely jog. "Are you all right?" she asked as she caught up. It would be problematic if one or the either of them collapsed, not least because it left the other to make the decision of whether to stop or leave, and Maya didn't relish the thought of being in either position. Pacing, pacing.... Maya glanced upward. "Shall we go slower?"

Zombies. Yes, that would have been worse, and it would have made the place even more like Thriller Bark. Or the town, which he supposed he should have been glad they weren't in. Running had barely been an option there for how many zombies had gone after them! This time there was nothing in their way and, he believed, nothing coming after them.

"Ah, yes, that is... I don't think anything's following so... slowing down would be good?" he admitted, keeping stride with the young woman. As long as they were going in the right direction and not being followed, they could take whatever pace they wanted. "I'm so used to running, but it seems I'm not as up for it tonight. The day must have worn me out!"

He hadn't done much in town, but he also hadn't been ill in some time. Bones got cold, but they didn't catch cold. His body wasn't so used to sickness and was trying to make up for it, or so he believed.

They would be relatively safe as long as they were not being pursued by the nurses, Maya thought as she glanced behind them again. The flying ones were neither in a group nor herding the patients anywhere with their own attack patterns as far as Maya could see, so as long as they were both wary, attacks from the air were less of a threat.

... Relatively. With another glance upwards, Maya slowed down. Which, of course, made her worry about the speed the nurses could achieve. Surely they couldn't go far? They'd seemed to be in pain, but never would Maya have imagined that they would change, either, and at such an inopportune time. Changing at night... how curious.

"Being accustomed to running would be a boon, in this case!" Maya responded. "May I ask what you were doing to exhaust you so?" Maya hadn't encountered anything strenuous in the town, but she hadn't been paying much attention, either. "And excuse the question, but how much do you weigh?"

Brook knew exactly how fast a zombie could run and had learned his own limit for running speed from having to get away from them. He'd had no reason to find out how quick he was as a skeleton while aboard his old ship, but the moment he'd needed to run for his life on Thriller Bark there was nothing stopping him from getting a good grasp on his new, light weight body.

Except for the occasional tree he didn't see sneaking up on him. He couldn't say he had the bruises to show for it, but those first few times he'd run away had left him a bit sorer than one would have imagined.

"I was just strolling really. Nothing that bad," he told her, "I haven't been feeling my best recently though, so that probably wasn't good for me to do." Admitting as much made his realize that she might not want to spend the evening running alongside someone who was ill, so he jumped on her second question, sort of answering her as he laughed, "I don't actually know that one!"

How much could she lift in this form? She'd never tested it, and even if she had, the exact specifics wouldn't have occurred to her, simply because there so many factors to this situation that she would have had to be truly paranoid to consider them. She could drag her companion by the hand, she supposed, but if he could keep up with her pulling him along, then surely he could run just as fast on his own. Not to speak of whether he even wanted someone to do something so rude.

Maya's thoughts finally slowed when she realized just how antsy she was. This and that were separate things. The chasing entities were not Fangire and Wataru wasn't here.

But enough of that. "At least they aren't injuries!" she responded in kind, with a feigned grin. A slowed pace was nothing compared to an injury that needed to be addressed while running. "By the way, I'm Maya! Pleasure to meet you under the circumstances!"

Not having injuries was good, as was the woman's outlook on things. Brook always preferred to be optimistic himself, and it was nice to have someone else thinking the same. Too many patients here were not as fortunate or open minded.

"That's true!" he agreed readily. Being sick was nothing compared to being physically injured. He might not have even been able to run if that had happened, and then where would he be?

He certainly wouldn't have been running along with such a beautiful woman. "Oh goodness, I forgot to introduce myself, didn't I?! No matter what the circumstances, a gentleman should always remember his manners! You may call me Brook, Maya-san. Let's hope our meeting isn't short-lived from this evening?"

So that neither one of them would be dead by morning.

"Let's hope not," Maya answered as she looked over her shoulder. It would almost be a relief to finally be attacked, so she would stop waiting for what she felt was its inevitability. But she'd best not to tempt their luck, yes?

In that vein, it occurred to her that she could make running easier for herself; she pulled her uneaten lunch from a pocket and tossed it aside. Maya felt no difference, but she lost nothing by getting rid of it, either. ...What a pointless gesture.

"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the surroundings!" she called to Brook. "Are we close?"

Brook was more used to having things on his heels, so he was less stressed when it came to thinking something behind him - he usually just thought that something had to be chasing him. That always kept him moving in any event. As did one more thing.

"Would you mind a song while we go?" he proposed out of nowhere. Usually he hummed while running for his life, but he also liked to sing. Doing so calmed the nerves and, he had decided, did good to soothe the occasional angry beast that wanted to snack on him. "It might pass the time faster and get us there quicker. I don't actually know how far we are but I know a good number of songs!"

Any half-decent musician would have to, and Brook was damn decent if he did say so himself!

"Ah—" Maya spontaneously uttered, thrown off guard. Passing the time wasn't Maya's concern at the moment, but she wouldn't have minded—if her companion's running ability weren't one of the things making her antsy.

"Can you spare the breath?" she asked. She didn't know the extent of whatever he'd said was slowing him down. On top of that, neither of them knew the distance to the asylum they still had to cover; they couldn't pace themselves.

It was terrible idea, and she would have said so if Maya hadn't been thinking of Wataru. It wasn't as if Wataru would have felt better if Maya had sang to him when she was trying to keep them safe, and she wouldn't have encouraged him to do so, either. Yet the memory of Wataru contradictorily blunted the anxiety borne from...remembering Wataru. Hmm. Maya had certainly forfeited the right to claim herself a not irrational person many years ago. "I wouldn't mind," she said instead.

"Always for music!" Brook announced proudly, though he admittedly hadn't considered what singing would mean with him as tired as he was. He liked to think he would always be able to cheer up a situation with music, regardless of what was happening. "Any requests? I can't guarantee I'll know it though..."

Worlds and all. At least music was universal though! And who knew, maybe a song was just the medicine to make his head stop pounding?

He liked to hope.

Oh dear. Maya only knew classical music. And nursery rhymes, she supposed, after a moment of thought. "I have no preference," she answered, a little breathlessly.

Should she add something about being careful about this breathing? If he sang often, he should know, and he did mention that he ran a lot. She'd omit it, then. "Careful about your footing!" she said instead. It was fairly innocuous: it was dark, and they didn't know the terrain.

No preference was just fine with Brook. That meant he could sing whatever he pleased, and he had the perfect song in mind!

"Then I've the perfect song! I hope you don't mind it being upbeat..." he warned at a beat before heading right on into the introduction, "So, Bink's Sake is what it's called! And since we're running, it's perfect! Now... Going to deliver~ Bink's sak--"

WHACK

Not more than a few words in, Maya's warning about footing doubled back on him as Brook tripped straight to the ground, ending his song. So singing and running while already out of breath hadn't been the best of his ideas so far, and now that even the ground was aware, he would have to reconsider his means of passing the time.

Still, Brook couldn't help but laugh as he raised his head to see where Maya had continued ahead of him. "I suppose singing on the run doesn't work so well," he joked as blood trickled down from his nose.

Upbeat was fine, but she should have warned that if it wasn't good (by her standards, of course), she'd have to stop him just on principle—

Oh dear. Maya nearly tripped herself as she, despite the strong urge to keep going (flighted attacking monstrosities), stumbled to a stop and turned. "I had faith in you," she cheerfully replied as she walked back to where Brook lay. "Are you all right?"

The loud sound had been worrying, but in her experience, the lack of shrieking indicated that nothing was too hurt...possibly. No one could determine that but the hurt person himself, so she reached for Brook's arm, to offer assistance. "Can you stand?"

Pushing himself up, Brook sighed before sniffing back the blood - not the best sensation, snorting blood - and coughed a bit when he felt some catch in the back of his throat. "Well, that's all that matters then, Maya-san," he took the compliment happily as he nodded. "I'll be all right. A little bruised pride shouldn't get the better of me just yet!"

A cracked skull on the other hand... no, wait, he'd had that before!

He reached his hand up when he offered, but got himself up mostly on his own ability so as not to take her down. Like most people, and most women in particular, she was smaller than him and he didn't want to cause a young lady any harm! "If I'm having problems with both running and singing, then today has definitely not been my day."

Now, about making it to the asylum. Maya glanced in the direction she thought the building was while she aided Brook; she thought she could detect the outline of a building if she looked hard enough. Or it was fanciful illusion and Maya was seeing mirages.

Speaking of, Brook felt lighter than she expected him to be. "You're sure you're fine? Can you walk?" Can you utilize your singing ability to keep the winged creatures at bay should the situation arise? Singing was unlike birdsong, however, though there was a non-zero chance that Brook did know something to that effect. Perhaps they would continue to be lucky. In that case, it was no reason to give up. "Let's continue slowly," she said, turning back to their route.

"Oh, believe me, I've taken far worse hits to the head!"

He was a regular punching bag now that he had female crew mates. Robin wasn't so violent unless pushed, but when it came to Nami, he really should have developed more of a sense of self preservation around her. Or the ability to duck.

"And yes, I can walk. So long as nothing comes after us, a nice stroll in the moonlight doesn't sound so bad. Especially with such a pretty lady at my side."

Normally she would respond to the flattery, but she didn't want to flirt right now. "Then excuse me for this." Maya took hold of a bit of Brook's sleeve—it would prevent her from dragging him, and if the sleeve slipped from her fingers, she was going too fast—and began walking a little faster. "We seem to be close."

Was that the asylum that she could see? Ah, she wasn't a liar, then. A few more moments and they were at the door, which Maya cautiously opened.

[to here]

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Night 63: Road to/from Doyleton

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Sorry for the delay!

Re: Sorry for the delay!

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