Main Hallway, 1-Center

[fluctuate]

[from here]

Instead of thinking of the mess she might find—which she promptly realized wasn't going to be that easy to figure out, there weren't exactly people gathered here like she expected—she decided to think of food instead. Okay, so Ramona wasn't exactly a chef or a connoisseur of good food—even she was Stockholmed into liking Sneaky Dee's nachos after the sixth time she'd been there—but she figured she could whip something up. There was a part of her that wondered if they really ... bothered to look at recipes before they cooked things here. Was it all cafeteria style, comes in a giant pan food? Then again, it tended to taste better than that. Were the eggs really made with eggs? Were the burgers actually ostrich? These were the mysteries that the world left her with when it came to food.

Of course, maybe the food was laced with hallucinogens and they were about to find out the great mystery to that. Anything was possible, she figured. Anything. But she figured as long as nothing turned out to be Soylent Green—which, unfortunately, seemed to be a possibility—they were golden. And even if it was, you can't make grilled cheese out of people, right? Right? And that was one thing she was sure she had a handle on. Maybe she was selling herself short a little in that area. She could cook, but who knew what was lying beyond the great abyss of the kitchen. Wherever it was.

It wasn't here, anyway.

Ramona trotted up to the entry way and tapped her bat on the door. Well, there wasn't any immediate growling, so she figured she could risk opening the door and taking a peak inside ...

[to here]

Comments

[madeinthehrl]

[from here]

The smell of blood faded somewhat as they entered the main hallway, which helped a little. Soma shook her head in an attempt to clear away the memory of it.

The place was eerily deserted. Were they some of the first patients to reach the Institute? Considering how weakened she'd felt, it was a little surprising.

"Should we split up to get our things?" she asked, turning back to face Castiel and Lingormr. "I'll only be a minute--I just need to get my gun."

[freewill]

If they'd had more time and weren't in as much danger, Castiel might have insisted that they salt and burn the bodies. He wasn't a hunter, but he knew that leaving two corpses be when their deaths had been so violent was not a good idea. On the other hand, a few ghosts were the least of their worries right now, and he had neither salt nor a way to start a fire. It made more sense to focus on themselves.

As they left the room and reached some clearer air, he considered what Soma had said. Those two men had helped the traitors to safety, and this was the fate they'd been served. It was clearly meant as a message to anyone who was considering disobedience, although he imagined that most people already understood the risks. Although being killed like that seemed excessive, he had to admit.

He didn't mind that Lingormr had taken the knife; it would have been a waste to leave it there. When Soma suggested they split up to grab their things, he turned to Lingormr. "What's your room number?" If they could go to the same block together, gather their weapons, and then get his wound seen to, that would work best. He didn't want to waste more time than needed.

[complicatedliar]

"M73," Loki said. He frowned slightly, but logically, Soma had been doing just fine on her own here for quite some time. Though Castiel apparently much less so. And more importantly, with the identity he'd built up for himself, it made absolutely no sense for him to offer to be someone's escort since he was supposed to be quite incompetent at that sort of thing.

Not that he had any interest in acting as some sort of shield to begin with. He truly wasn't a warrior in that fashion.

"I'll prepare the materials in my room so it takes as little time as possible." There was no reason to waste more of the night, now that they were here. What else they might do, he wasn't certain, but there were quite a few possibilities.

They were all going in the same direction to begin with, so he lead the way.

[To here]

[mirrorimage]

[From here!]

Nina's heart was pounding so hard and rapidly that she was afraid it was only seconds away from making a wild kamikaze leap into her throat. She tried to fight her fear and anxiety by concentrating on her determination and drive for answers. She knew she would never be entirely prepared for what was waiting for them in the entry room, but she felt as ready as she'd ever be.

Even though she hated the idea that she might be leading him into something dangerous, Nina couldn't help being grateful for Murphy's presence. At least she wouldn't be facing this alone. She could sense him only a few paces behind her, and even the sound of his footsteps, the rubber soles of his tennis shoes gently pounding the floor along with hers, was strangely soothing.

Nina shone her flashlight on the entry door before she glanced over her shoulder to look at her companion. "Do you think that's it?" she asked quietly, the fire of determination still burning in her eyes.

[For Murphy!]

[stop_the_rain]

"Probably."

Murphy was mostly bothered by the lack of radio fuzzing. He swore he could hear footsteps, off in the distance or another hallway, but...

Ugh, this place gave him the creeps in an entirely different way than Silent Hill had. The hallways weren't too bad, and sure there were no blood smears or strange markings or howling in the distance, but it was eerie.

"I'll go in first?" He stepped forward and shifted the chair to one hand, holding it down and a bit behind him. They had no idea what was in there but Nina seemed like a classy, educated lady. If there was something that wanted to hurt people in there...well, better the knucklehead with the chair and the years of street fights in his past.

Besides, to hell with the PC police. Nina was a woman and he was a man. It just made sense for him to charge into potential danger first.

[mirrorimage]

Nina was conflicted. This had been her idea in the first place, and she couldn't help feeling like that meant she should risk whatever was in there first. After all, educated or not, woman or not, she had years of martial arts experience and months of assassin training. It wouldn't be the first time she had to defend herself from someone -- or something -- dangerous.

But Murphy was the one with the bat, which counted for a lot, and he was the one who seemed to have more of an inkling of what was going on than she did. Besides, despite the slight guilt she felt, part of Nina was touched by Murphy's chivalry, something slightly warm creeping into her chest.

So with only a trace of reluctance lingering in her voice, Nina agreed. "Okay. But I'll be right behind you."

[stop_the_rain]

Murphy was really glad they didn't have to stand there and have a debate about it. He took a deep breath and moved towards the door, pausing a moment to press his ear against them. He didn't hear anything inside....

He nodded to Nina and then pushed open the doors.

[to here]

[tasteoftruth]

[From here.]

Badd had no idea what they could do against giant birds and monster nurses, but he was no coward. He'd spent too long as an agent of justice to cower inside their prison while others suffered. The only matter of concern was Byrne. Byrne didn't know how to fight, at least not as well as Badd did, and Badd would be putting him in danger by letting him go outside again.

But, he reasoned, Byrne would never let him go along, no matter how much of a hindrance he'd be. And acting to protect Byrne against his will had repeatedly backfired in Badd's face to the point where he was starting to consider it completely futile. Fine. Byrne could go running around putting himself on the front lines.

If Badd had to die to protect him from his foolishness, well, that was his job.

[corvus_veritas]

Somehow, Byrne managed to tear his eyes away from the bloodbath and took his friends' lead. One friend said something that the prosecutor had a difficult time agreeing with, while the other friend said something that sounded a lot like the word 'demon'. Yeah, 'demon' was perhaps the best way to describe whoever was responsible for--for this. This horror. Who (or what) the hell could've done something as awful and unforgivable like this?

As for why he felt hesitant about Badd's response, well. Wasn't it obvious? Why did Badd think it was safer to head inside, towards the thing that killed these two men? Sure, there were less enemies inside of the Institute versus outside right now (maybe, hopefully), but if there was something capable of killing two men in such a brutal way on the loose, possibly still nearby-!

... They did need to get armed, though. None of them had anything as far as Byrne knew, and, despite knowing how both Badd and Renamon were fairly capable of putting up a fight on their own, having some sort of weapon was better than having nothing at all. Even a small kitchen knife could be helpful.

They needed to keep moving, too. Although, Byrne found himself simply following along by this point, the still air of the Institute and the previous horrific scene having reduced him to silence and a stoney expression.

[diamondstorm]

When one spoke and moved out the door, she blinked, then set to follow along with Byrne. There was a problem, however, in the man's choice of location to move to. She glanced at him sharply in the dark. It was only because of their conversation earlier that it occurred to her, but he couldn't possibly be thinking of going downstairs currently. There was too much risk without any weapons or planning involved. She paused in the hall, looking toward the patient rooms.

"I have a few guns and other weapons in my room. If you want to continue any further, I would suggest we retrieve them." As well that she had two portal rings currently, one set to the basement if the man insisted on moving downstairs.

[tasteoftruth]

"They won't be there," Badd reminded her. "The nurses are monsters and the orderlies never saw us come back."

Damn. They should have tried the buses, or made a run for the woods. Having to come back in here made him sick, made him feel like a coward that ran for safety the moment Landel waved his stick at him. Panic had made him a stupid leader.

[selfnighted]

[from here]

That was better. Honestly. Blood and monsters and such disappeared in the morning, so she assumed the asylum staff had clean-up crews; there was no reason to leave the bodies there.

Ignoring the thought that the bodies had been intentionally put on display, Maya turned her attention to the asylum at large. They weren't clear of danger yet. For one thing, there was whatever had torn up the people in the entry room. Was it invisible or silent or waiting, perhaps? Maya tensed, but when nothing happened upon the passing of a few moments, Maya was free to wonder where it had gone. She didn't want to come across it in the trek through the asylum, but she didn't have her flashlight and thus couldn't look for any indication of where to avoid.

"Brook, where do you want to go? If you wouldn't mind, shall we stay together for the night?"