NIGHT 65: M-C Block Hallway

[repelling]

[ From here ]

Stepping out, he found himself at the end of the hall of rooms. It would be the M-C Block, he thought, remembering as he moved his first night. His first night and Kida-san: he had not seen him for days, warranting the most unpleasant of assumptions. Flicking on his flashlight once more, he looked over the corridor, pausing the light on the door the to bathrooms. He'd looked there then, examining the running water, the swirl of the flush, even the toilet paper. He remembered, so he knew: just down this hall, then through the doors to another. Head right, then through another hall, until the Main Hallway, and from there the entry room.

The entry room, and the file rooms. Perhaps even Kratos-san, though he could not explain his certainty that it was no longer the same day, the same night. Even if it was, through drugging or other, he had dallied, been too long, slept for some unknown portion of night. Someone could only reasonably wait for so long.

Without knowing how many hours were left until night ended, he still had no intention of wasting time and waiting for it. So on he walked.

[ For Riley. ]

Comments

[repelling]

This was promising. A contrast: regardless of content, when Kurosaki told him to shut up, it was because 'you talk too much' or 'your story's too long', not that the information was flawed. This guy listened, even told him to 'keep on talking', but clearly thought he and what he had to say were absolutely insane. Not that Uryuu could blame him.

Reasoning away fault did not make less irritating that long exhale. He could be patient with skepticism, with suspicion, but he didn't have to like it.

Uryuu had not pointed the light at the man's feet, but the sound of him walking told enough: no heavy, hard soles. No material like the slippers, either.

"...No need for gratitude. That will take you to the field, yes. Marked for football- rather, soccer, if you prefer. It's probably walled, I haven't yet been properly out there." He'd poked his head out the first night, enough to ascertain what was beyond the door and get a good look at the sky. "The Entry Room is the other direction. Either way..."

Now he let the light fall, catching on the man's feet.

"There should be boots in your closet, along with a coat and two sweatshirts. The rooms, and what each so-called patient has access too, are identical. I could lend you a sweatshirt, but I'm afraid I don't have spare footwear. The terrain beyond the institute is extremely unwelcoming. The road to the next town is a long one, and your other options are a putrid forest, or mountains, or doubtless more I haven't learned of."

More to say: that he was running out of time, not that it mattered, since his goal was escape. Regardless of how far he walked, he would wake with the rest of them in the same way. That could wait, perhaps. For his next dishing of crazy talk. Monsters had yet to be breached.

[albuquerquesnorkel]

... A soccer field. Okay. Well, that was something.

"I..." Riley paused for a moment before heading back to the room. "I think I'll use my own sweatshirt. No offense, it's just... I don't know you, you could be anyone, and... I should probably go get boots, anyway."

And with that, Riley hurried back to the third door down - M98, according to the plaque his flashlight lit up - and, out of force of habit, flicked the light switch as he went in. Nothing happened.

Now that he was alone again, Riley couldn't help imagining all sorts of disastrous scenarios to explain why or how this was happening to him. People didn't just black out and wake up in mental hospitals. And even if they did, they didn't wake up in the dark with no sounds of nurse activity and nobody around to explain anything. And even if they did that, they didn't find convenient flashlights in their beds and portable radios on their desks and a random guy out in the hall clearly doing his best to explain complete and utter nonsense.

This was all feeling very much like it was planned. And not like a prank. In fact, it was feeling a little like a video game, and that thought didn't do anything to comfort Riley. He'd played horror games. He knew exactly how stuff like this turned out.

No. Okay. Get a hold of yourself, Riley chastised silently. There's obviously a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this. You just haven't found it yet. Go and get the boots and the sweatshirt and the coat. Let's take this one step at a time.

Right. One step at a time.

With another deep breath - this time for calming down - Riley pulled on all the articles of clothing he'd come back to find, retrieved his flashlight and radio, and retraced his steps to find the random guy back out in the hall.

"Ah," he muttered, slightly disappointed and slightly relieved. "You're still here." He aimed his flashlight beam at the guy's chest. "You're not an alien, are you?" he asked half-jokingly. "'Cause aliens... I don't know, I kind of pictured more antennae and slime."

[repelling]

Had the reason not been tacked on, Uryuu would have seen no reason for offense. He had little interest in wearing other people's clothes, even if they were seemingly identical, and in this case, his might be a little too small. Shapeless and hideous as it was. No, but he had to add on the practical but insulting implication that his being a stranger made his clothing somehow suspect.

It tempted him to explain that he'd just woken up, that he'd hadn't worn any of it. Why would he have wanted to wear such unflattering things? A good thing, then, that the guy was already moving; that would have revealed that it had bothered him.

As the man disappeared down the hall, Uryuu found himself, to his slight surprise, not movnig. He did click off his flashlight, but otherwise he stood still, for all intents and purposes waiting. As if the guy had not been about to ditch him, as if Uryuu had any desire to stick with him, as if there was any responsibility. Sure, if he had walked off and left him to return to a deserted hall, the guy might have been more liable to dismiss the entire story. But, this had not changed: it wasn't his problem. He'd learn in time.

His thoughts were becoming redundant.

With every reason to leave, he stayed, and as time wore on (not that the guy took all that long, but every second counted), began to resign himself to the possibility that he would not be making headway with the files tonight. Footsteps sounded down the hall once more, now with heavy soles, and he turned his flashlight back on, to be less of an ominous figure in the dark.

At the alien comment, he raised his eyebrows.

"Your imagination is pretty limited, isn't it? No, I'm not an alien." Uryuu did not add the precise reason he dismissed his imagination: there were, apparently, aliens here. People from other worlds. Antennae and slime failed to mark them. Yet another fact that wouldn't help his case. After the truckload of information he'd unloaded earlier, it was best to stick to the essentials now. The absolutely need to know, which would be hard enough. No need to weigh it down with aliens.

"Come on. Have a look at the stars."

With that, Uryuu turned and walked through to the next hall, heading for the door labeled 'FIELD'. Actually expecting to be followed.

[ to here!! gs i am a tldr machine ]