Night 64: West Wing, South Hall 1-A

[dualistic]

[From here.]

Still no one. Harvey imagined that before long these areas were going to be flooded with sick people who were going to follow that clue, so he was glad that he'd beaten them to the punch. It wasn't that he thought it was contagious anymore -- by this point, they would have known -- but he didn't need to be surrounded by a bunch of miserable, sniffling people, either.

Relieved that he'd dodged that bullet, at least so far, Harvey reached the end of the hall and took a right toward their regular meeting spot.

[To here.]

Comments

[stop_the_rain]

Murphy only smiled sadly and shrugged a little.

"I really wish I had answers," he said. And he did. "I was in...a weird place before I woke up here. That honestly sometimes doesn't seem so different. And I don't know why they want to keep us here. There's a lot of us though, I could tell during the day. They give us different names and insist that's who we are. I know it sounds insane, I think it sounds insane." He ran his hands through his hair, clearly frustrated with his own lack of knowledge.

"My roommate...he got me up to speed as best he could. They let us out at night but there's monsters all over. People die a lot. I saw two of them last night. The military was here, I guess, but I don't know what they've got to do with anything. And no one gets out. Last night...I was out with a woman, we were in another part of the building. The front door. And then I was waking up in the room I woke up in first and it was morning and a nurse was there."

He looked up and down the hallway, keeping his eyes open for anything that looked dangerous heading their way.

[knightspirit]

"......"

Kyousuke remained silent, suddenly feeling like he'd been stabbed by some unidentifiable emotion. He had no idea how much truth that story held, but it was difficult to wrap his head around, especially as he was. A lot came at once, and he couldn't seem to process his feelings.

"So, what you're saying is... People get brought here, told they're insane, and get attacked because they want leave. They're here fighting against their will." He said it deliberately, more to himself than anything, trying to string his own thoughts together.

People died. Murphy had mentioned that before, but Kyousuke hadn't thought to put it into context, and doing so made all the difference. He'd seen people's emotions toyed with before, and he'd seen people try to ruin others' lives, but not quite like this. Never on this level. It was repulsive no matter what the scale, but death? ... There was ruining a life, and then there was ending it. At least life held a little hope, even if it sometimes seemed impossible. But dead was just dead. There were some things you could never regain. ... He thought of his brother, and how how hard his loss had been, and then what would have happened if he had lost even more, but the idea was so unfathomable it just made it insides recoil. But according to Murphy, people were being forced into just that.

"Then leaving won't change anything," he realized. His head burned, over-strained from his lack of energy, his limbs felt sluggish and heavy, and he was starting to feel sick, but his anger overrode all of that. "People will just keep getting hurt."

... He couldn't save only himself. He knew his brother would never stand for any of this, and his friends would never abandon anyone. Kyousuke wouldn't either. His course of action couldn't be any clearer: "We need to bring these people down." He looked Murphy directly in the eyes as he said it, intent and challenging.

[stop_the_rain]

"That pretty much sums it up," Murphy agreed, nodding. No, it didn't make any sense. But there were only so many things a man could reject before he had to trust what was happening around him. At least to some extent.

He had to smile a little when Tsurugi stated his...challenge, he guessed. He was right, though, and the ex-con agreed with him. Though he didn't know what they could actually do, if this place had been around as long as people claimed. But it had to be stopped. They had kids here.

"Yeah," he said. "There's a doctor who's in charge, comes on the intercom a lot. He's different at night, too, but he's running things right now. I don't know anything about him, except his name's Landel and I guess the military doesn't like him."

When it came to detailed information, Murphy was seriously lacking.

[knightspirit]

At least they were on the same page. He relaxed a little, knowing he wasn't going to be met with protests, although there was still a certain kind of frustration in it: things would have been a lot easier if Murphy had just said all of this from the beginning. It didn't matter, though. At least now he was on the right track.

The question was, what did he do about it? Everything he was being told was vague and insubstantial. He had a basic idea of what was going on, but no real knowledge of how the other side functioned or what they were trying to accomplish. ... It was strange and unfamiliar being so far out of the loop. There had to someone who knew something they could use...

"... There have to be more people trying. What about them?"

That was the best lead he had. Moving around alone in the dark could only get you so far, in both senses of the phrase. Kyousuke wasn't keen on cooperating with just anyone, but with the right people, they might be able to manage something. And from the sound of it, they were all in this together, whether they liked it or not.

[stop_the_rain]

Now Murphy understood why Harvey had seemed so annoyed earlier.

"I've only been here maybe twenty four hours," he said again. "I don't know who's trying to do what. People have groups that I think are trying to bring this all down. You'll be able to find someone who's been here longer and knows more when it's daytime. They just let us all out together for food and activities and stuff."

Which was a step above prison, most certainly.

"i'm sorry I can't tell you more. I'm sorry I don't know more. I really don't want to be here, either."

[knightspirit]

Right.... That was plenty to find out more by Kyousuke's standards, bit it couldn't be helped if Murphy didn't know too much. He decided to refrain from asking anything else, only able to assume he'd exhausted everything he could. If he had to press for details, he could get them somewhere else. Kyousuke briefly pinched the bridge of his nose, half in frustration, and half to ease his headache. From the sound of it, he'd just have to keep an eye out for any of these alleged groups.

"...."

The last bit made Kyousuke shift his gaze. ... There was really nothing he could say to that. He knew he was being demanding, but he didn't have any reassurances, and he wasn't one for apologies or petty excuses, which put him at a bit of a loss. Maybe acknowledging it was enough; it wasn't like there was anything else he could do.

"... Let's go," he said quietly, turning his back. They weren't accomplishing anything by standing around.

[to here]