Day 69: Greenhouse (Third Shift)

[asteroidbelt]

"Sorry," Ryusei said when he turned back around to find the nurse looking at him. He caught up to her in a few strides, and when she continued leading him to the greenhouse, he couldn't resist taking another look at the door from which he'd exited. He couldn't tell if it was the same door from two nights ago. He frowned as the nurse ushered him into the glass house; but he could take another look when she came back to escort him back into what he assumed was the main building.

For now.... Were they really letting him eat here? Was that responsible, with all of these plants? Not that he knew anything about that, he thought as he picked a bench at random and opened his lunch. He hadn't known what any of those words had meant when the lunches had been described, so it was more out of curiosity than hunger that he pulled out the sandwich.

[free]

Comments

[baniichan]

The abrupt change in subject wasn't lost on Barnaby, but Barnaby decided to let it happen without any extra comment. If their locations truly seemed random, then there was nothing else to say about the matter.

"Yes," Barnaby answered. "My job from back home required it, so I'm fairly proficient in hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately, my abilities don't work quite the same way in the institute, but that seems to be a common story here."

Folding his arms over his chest, he glanced at the nurses observing them. He suspected that if even half of the patients here were allowed to function at full capacity, they wouldn't have any problems overwhelming the staff despite their superior numbers. Until they figured out what was dampening their powers, though, that scenario was very unlikely.

"What about you?" he asked.

[asteroidbelt]

"No."

Bringing it up had been a mistake; he'd been too hasty. No matter how much it was starting to make sense now that this asylum seemed to be for people whose problems stemmed from fighting, the theory itself was suspect. He couldn't continue to think that that was the case, especially since he'd come up with apropos of almost nothing.

And even if it were true, if he could trust a sample of merely three people, what was Ryusei going to do about it? He already knew why he was here; everything else was white noise. It didn't matter what the other patients' problems were; what mattered was that Ryusei get out.

He couldn't say that. Not out loud. "I was just wondering," he said in what he hoped was an innocuous tone. "People have been telling me not to go out at night...."

[baniichan]

Barnaby wasn't entirely sure if he believed it. Ryusei seemed physically fit enough, so he doubted the boy lived a sedentary lifestyle. Of course, that by itself wasn't reason enough to assume he was lying. He could have simply been athletic, after all. But, as far as Barnaby was concerned, anyone who could survive more than a few nights in this place without sustaining serious injuries had to have something going for them, whether it was physical prowess or a strategic mind.

Of course, what Ryusei chose to divulge about himself was obviously his business. Quite frankly, Barnaby didn't care enough about it to investigate the matter further. As someone who had his own reasons for learning more about the "patients", though, he simply decided to take his answer with a grain of salt for the time being.

"Hasn't stopped you, apparently," he remarked instead.

[asteroidbelt]

Ryusei cut a glance to Brooks briefly before resuming his stare out at the greenhouse. "I'm not sure. That's just what people tell me."

Another person who didn't refute it; that made all of them. Ryusei believed it too, didn't he? He had to trust what he'd experienced with his own senses. The problem was that Ryusei didn't trust his own body. No, that was wrong. He had no marks on him to indicate that anything had happened; what he couldn't trust was his own mind.

Appropriate, then. Ryusei hurriedly shoved the thought away as soon as he'd had it.

"I guess it must be true, then," he said sycophantically, to preempt the possibility of getting more warnings. He didn't know enough about Brooks to determine if he would, but in that case there was nothing lost if he weren't. "What else happens at night?"