Night 65: M-B Block Hallway

[nobleman]

[From here.]

It wasn't uncommon for Guy to be the first one out here, but this time around he was more nervous about that. Five were supposed to change tonight, and it was very possible that Anise or Claude were among that number. If that was the case, then it might not be his friend, but something else coming down that hallway.

If that happened, what was he supposed to do? He honestly had no idea. He had a sword and he knew how to use it, but this was Claude, the friend who had reassured just earlier in the day that everything would work itself out.

He would wait for a minute or so, and if Claude didn't show himself by then, he'd have to look into things himself. For now, Guy stood awkwardly against the wall and kept his eyes on Claude's hallway, with a sharper glance than usual. He would be lying if he said he wasn't on edge.

[For Claude.]

Comments

[impudentsongbird]

[from here.]

Gabriel's room wasn't very far from the door at end of the corridor, the one where he needed to go, but even that short distance was doing things to him he'd never been quite aware the human body could do. A marvel of creation, it was, all instinctive and automatic. Right now? It was very, very inconvenient.

His heart pounded. His palms were damp with sweat. His gut knotted, his back prickled, and the way the darkness pressed in on him around his torchlight made his mouth go dry. In the daylight it had been easy enough to ignore the differences, look at his circumstances as a new experience. In the night all he wanted was his angelic senses.

The end of the hallway approached quickly, looming so suddenly into the beam of Gabriel's torch that he almost jumped at the blankness of it. He swung automatically to the side to see the expanse of the corridor shrouded in darkness, and then to the other side.

That was what he wanted: the door. Eager already to get out of these hallways, Gabriel hurried to it and reached for the knob.

[to here.]

[skeletonenigma]

[From here.]

The act of needing a flashlight to illuminate his surroundings was so foreign to Skulduggery that he didn't even have the inclination to be annoyed. The light was so much more fluorescent than he was used to, and much more constant - no more flickering flames in the palm of his hand. Now that he saw how much of the darkness this type of light beat back, it was difficult to remember how he'd gotten around in the dark the past two nights. He'd been stumbling around, of course, putting effort into simply walking straight, which meant he had a hand on the wall most of the time. Other peoples' flashlights might have helped, as well.

Now that Skulduggery was almost completely used to the shift in balance, walking quickly was much easier. His muscles still burned far earlier than they should, and his breathing still grew shallow annoyingly quickly, but Skulduggery would take it step by step.

[To here.]

[dividedby]

[From here.]

...Even though he wasn't sure exactly where he was going yet, or how exactly to find his allies.

He had no idea which rooms they'd been placed in, nor did he know if they were also going to be seeking him out or not. As a test, Zero decided to stand in his block's main hallway and wait for a minute or two, watching some prisoners leave their rooms and seeing if any of them happened to be his friend and his...friend's bodyguard. If they were in this block, he'd see them come out at some point, right?

... No luck. After almost two minutes of waiting around, Zero gave up. He doubted the two of them would stay in their rooms this long. No, at this point he'd either missed them or he would have seen them by now...unless they were in the other block.

Zero quickly started moving again, not wanting to waste any more time.

[To here.]

[earthling]

((From here.))

As soon as he rounded the corner, Claude's light fell on Guy's familiar figure. Guilt welled up in his chest when he realized he'd probably taken a little longer than normal to get ready, especially since he'd spent most of dinner talking to Lloyd. His friend must have been worried.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, a little short of breath as he approached Guy. "I'm all right." At least, he wasn't experiencing any new symptoms or growing fur, so he'd have to take that as a good sign for now. Granted, it would have been better if he didn't have to deal with this at all, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

"You heard the message over the intercom, right?" Not wanting to waste much time, he plowed ahead with another question. "Did you manage to talk to Anise today?"

[nobleman]

The sight of the light from Claude's hard hat as it came down the hall was even more of a relief tonight that it had been yesterday. Guy felt as his heart, which had been pounding at a faster pace than usual, started to calm. It was like a huge weight had been taken off his shoulders, and he didn't hesitate to let out a sigh of relief.

"It's fine," he said with a shake of his head. "I'm just glad that you're all right." It might not stay that way, but this was still preferable to some monster barreling down the halls. "I just hope it's the same for Anise. I did manage to talk to her and Luke today, and we put together a vague plan."

That had become more solid since he'd heard the intercom announcement, though. While it was frustrating that they only had clues to go on instead of some solid facts, it was better than nothing. "We thought that the four of us could head to the medical wing, then split up," Guy explained. "Anise and Luke were going to search for supplies in case we need to resort to surgery, and I figured you and I could head to the X-ray room." At first the idea had been to just scan Claude and double-check everything, but now they had another clue to check out too.

Hopefully there would be enough time for everything.

[earthling]

While he wished he'd been able to contribute to the group discussion, Claude knew that it could be hard to coordinate something like that. Besides, their time was limited, so it was probably for the best that they had some kind of plan, even if it wasn't completely solid. The addition of Luke to their team also meant they might be able to get more accomplished tonight.

Sending him and Guy to the X-Ray room was probably the best arrangement, especially since they were both more comfortable with machinery. Although he still didn't like the prospect of surgery, Claude was glad to see they weren't in a hurry to jump the gun and leap into something so dangerous. They probably didn't have a lot of time, but he had no intention of allowing himself or Anise to get torn open for nothing.

The new clue in the X-Ray room was the only extra lead they had to follow. He just hoped for everyone's sake that he and Guy would be able to make some sense out of it.

"Okay, that sounds good," Claude said with a small nod. "Are we heading to the medical wing together, or are we going in two separate groups?"

[nobleman]

Guy was relieved to find out that Claude didn't seem to have any protests about the plan. He hadn't been that concerned, because in the end what they'd worked out made sense, but it was still good to know that everyone was on board.

"I figured we'd go together," he replied, "especially since I want to make sure that Anise is safe as soon as possible." There was a chance that the Fon Master Guardian was running around the halls attacking people at the moment, and that was a thought that Guy wanted to dispel as quickly as he could. So the sooner they met up with her and Luke, the better.

The other upside to traveling as a group of four was that if Anise and Claude changed, both Guy and Luke would be there to deal with the situation, however they decided to do that.

There really wasn't any time to wait, so with that all decided, Guy led them out of the block.

[To here.]