damned_institute | Day 35: Bus 2

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Day 35: Bus 2

Wally woke as the intercom crackled to life and was surprised to find himself back in his room. The last thing he'd remembered was feeling relieved at finally beating off those dragonfly-lizard things. There'd been that weird intercom message, then... he wasn't quite sure what had happened after that, but he was certain it hadn't involved falling asleep. He'd be half-wondering if he'd dreamed the whole thing if it hadn't been for the nagging ache on his back and ankle from where he'd been bitten. A quick check revealed they'd been bandaged, apparently while he'd slept. He wondered if he had Kal to thank for that. Maybe he'd get the chance to ask later.

He jumped as the door swung open to admit the familiar face of the nurse who'd woken him yesterday. "Up already, are we?" she said cheerfully as she busied herself pulling out clothes. A blue shirt and a pair of jeans were passed to him. Wally blinked, he hadn't been here long, but he'd gotten the impression that the grey-and-smiley-face combo was standard.

"Does this mean I'm being released?" he asked, hope creeping into his voice.

The nurse turned back to him, pity etched on her features. "I'm afraid not, dear." She smiled brightly as she continued, "but today's when all the patients get a special field trip into town! Won't that be a treat!"

Wally stared at the clothes, his mind working away. He'd been trying to get into town and to a phone last night before he'd been attacked. But if they were going in today, this might be the perfect chance for him to contact the Justice League. He smiled warmly and thanked the nurse as she left to allow him to change, then happily allowed himself to be led to one of the buses, picking a seat about halfway down and sliding in to look out the window. It seemed like today was going to be brighter than yesterday, at least in the area of possible phone calls and rescues. About the only dark patch he could see was that the contents of his paper-bag breakfast were going to be nowhere near enough to fill the yawning pit that had taken the place of his stomach, and even that was tolerable when he was positive he wasn't going to be here much longer.

"And you say that time goes rushing by, but it seems so slow to me, and you see a blur around you fly, but it takes too long, it seems so slow to me..." he sung absently.

[Oh Captain, my Captain~]

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And it wasn't long before the quiet, uninterrupted bus ride Melissa had been hoping for was shattered by a girl who stopped and stared at her. At the dress. Melissa might have thought she was silently laughing at it, if she couldn't hear the girl's thoughts coming through clear as day. The mindcaster sank further into the seat, wondering if anything else was going to go wrong today.

She considered saying that the seat was taken, just so that she could sit alone and keep shoving out all the crowded excited and nervous tastes on the bus, without someone else's right there next to her. But Melissa decided, after a few seconds, that it wasn't particularly worth the effort. Besides, it wasn't like she had to keep up a conversation. "No," she said simply before going back to staring out the window.

Ack, the stranger turned her back immediately after answering. Was she trying to be rude? Or maybe she was just shy. Any insult Anise had taken from the gesture was neatly hidden behind a bright smile and a cheerful "Thank you!" as she sat herself down.

Unfortunately for Melissa, Anise wasn't terribly fond of silence, and it was not even a minute before she started talking again. "Ehehe, I guess they have some pretty cute clothes here. Even if most of it is kinda weird," she chattered away, at last divulging her thoughts to Melissa. It was a simple way to break the ice: girls loved talking about clothes! Leaning forward in her seat with her head turned in an attempt to meet her seatmate's eyes, Anise went on to ask, "Is this your first time going to Doyleton?"

The girl seemed to take the ambiguous 'no' as an open invitation to come and sit down herself. Melissa groaned slightly. Normally, cheerful and happy moods were some of the easiest ones to deal with; they didn't put as much pressure on her mind and they didn't leave bitter or chalky tastes on her tongue like other emotions did. Today, though, the girl's mood did nothing but enhance the conflicting feelings shoving their way into Melissa's mind, and she really did not want to deal with any of that right now.

Cute... clothes. A brief spark of anger resurfaced as she remembered what exactly she was wearing. Yeah, cute if you were a hyperactive little ten-year-old, maybe. Melissa chose not to comment and began crossing her arms over her ears to block out the noise until the girl asked another question.

She was going to snap a reply at first in the hopes that it would get the girl to shut up, but then an idea struck her. The girl wasn't specifically thinking about it, but if she was asking the question... "No. Why, is it yours?"

Not one for girl talk, was she? Anise pretended not to notice the other girl's evasive body language, a polite smile lingering on her face. Didn't all girls like talking about this kind of stuff? Oh well! There had to be other things to chat about.

"Nope! This'll be my second time. I thought I'd ask," she lowered her voice a little, just in case, though her tone remained somewhat inappropriately upbeat, "since anyone who wasn't there should probably hear about it." Particularly about the unusual transition to nightshift. Anise wasn't about to forget the ambush that had taken place that evening, and the horrifying transformation of the nurses. This night wasn't going to be like that too, was it? It was hard to tell with Landel's. It didn't hurt to warn as many people as possible, at least! "But if you already know what's going on, then that's good!" She smiled again.

The simple lie had worked much better than Melissa thought it would. So something did happen last time, and it had to do with a horrible transformation and an ambush. That was completely not helpful, but at least it was a start. Melissa vaguely wondered why she hadn't been able to pick up this information from other people's stray thoughts, but simply decided not enough people had been on the last trip. Or they were trying not to think about it. Stupid, in her opinion. You couldn't run from a problem.

"So," Melissa realized suddenly, "Nightshift comes before we get back to the Institute?" That blew the cover of her lie, not to mention would raise the inevitable questions about mind-reading, but that wasn't very important at this point. Melissa needed to swallow her pride for now and simply get all of the information she could now as quickly as possible, so she could be prepared for whatever was going to happen.

What was she asking her for? She had to know as well as Anise did. The girl frowned a little, then shrugged dismissively at the weird question, letting her cute act falter for the moment. "Who knows if they'll try it again? I sure hope they're not that predictable." Though she said it in such a disdainful way, the truth was that she just didn't want to deal with something that scary again. She and a lot of others had only barely escaped with their lives!

And if it happened again today, Ion would be caught up in it, too... That was the one thing Anise didn't want, more than anything.

Scary? What would be considered scary in a place where monsters came out regularly at night? Melissa shuddered to think. She was powerless against the regular monsters, how on earth would she be able to handle anything this girl thought was scary?

You knew you'd been in this place too long when you started thinking of the monsters as 'regular.'

Melissa shook her head slowly, her expression still kept carefully blank. "Ion?" she couldn't help asking, wondering what on earth it was and what it had to do with anything. Only then did she realize it could be a person's name. She sat back again with a sigh, regretting the question. "Never mind."

What did she just say?

Anise visibly stiffened a bit at the sudden mention of Ion. Did this girl know the Fon Master? It wouldn't be strange if she'd met him at the institute, but bringing up his name so abruptly in a conversation like this was strange no matter how Anise looked at it.

"Did... you just say Ion?" Anise frowned, staring hard at the suspicious stranger. It was even more suspicious that the girl tried to dismiss it as soon as she'd brought it up! Did she know something Anise didn't? "What does Ion have to do with it?"

Melissa didn't answer for a moment as the familiar throbbing headache came back in full force. She rubbed her temples with a deep breath, trying to shove out all the tastes and thoughts crowding in - the newest of which was the girl's suspicion, coming in the loudest with its source sitting right next to the mindcaster.

"Yes," she answered the first question without looking up. "I did. You tell me. I have no idea what Ion is." If this led to a wild-goose chase of Ion being something - or someone - that wasn't important to the transformation ambush... not that Melissa held out much hope, anyway.

What was this girl's problem? Even though she was the one to bring up Ion's name, she didn't know 'what' he was? Did that mean she didn't even know he was a 'who'?

There was a rumble and a slight jolt as the bus's engine started. Anise flinched at the sudden movement, unused to the alien vehicle, but quickly turned her attention back to her seatmate.

"If you don't know, then where did you hear that name?" Anise shot at her, not about to tell the stranger anything. It was her duty to protect the Fon Master, and if his name was coming up in weird places, she had to find out why!

Melissa had not yet met anyone who didn't, by this point, at least hesitantly ask if she could read minds. In a few cases, they didn't even ask and simply snapped at her to stay out of their heads. Melissa glanced sideways at the girl. Was it really taking her this long to figure it out?

"From you," she answered sharply. Yeah. Ion was definitely a someone/. And now she knew that he was a Fon Master, whatever that was. Probably another one of the patients the girl's thoughts had simply brushed on and Melissa mistakenly took it as something important. Last mistake like that she'd ever make.

"Boooo! That doesn't make sense. You're the one who brought it up, not me!" Was this girl hoping Anise's memory was bad enough that she'd think she said it first? That kind of cheap trick wasn't going to work on her!

It was pretty strange that Anise had been thinking about Ion at the time his name came up, but there was no way the stranger could have known that. It was a creepy coincidence that made this conversation even weirder than it already was.

There had to be some explanation for how this girl knew the name and nothing else, but Anise just couldn't think of one that seemed realistic.

Melissa slunk further down into the seat, thoroughly annoyed now. "And what about that scenario isn't realistic?" she snapped without looking up at the girl. Honestly, this was the kind of reaction she'd expect from a stiff. Melissa didn't exactly consider anyone here a stiff, not anymore. Not with all the people who'd simply accepted the fact that she could 'mind-read', their opinions about it aside. This girl was dangerously close to bringing herself back down to stiff status.

"Look. If you can't figure it out, drop it. Instead, tell me what happens when we're going back on the buses." Or, you know. Think it. Whichever works for you.

Anise froze. Did she just answer her thoughts?

That was impossible. Anise was sure it was impossible. And yet this stranger seemed to know exactly what was going through her head...

It was scary to imagine the possibility of there being people in the world who could read minds. Anise was a person who relied heavily on lying to get by - and, she hoped, to someday get ahead - so it went without saying that she was starting to get uncomfortable.

How could she just drop it? This was getting way too weird!

Crossing her arms, Anise turned her head the other way and answered haughtily, "What do you need to know that for? I thought you've been on this trip before." By now it was obvious that had been a lie, but Anise felt like rubbing her nose in it a little. Putting on a scornful front was all she could do to try and hide how vulnerable she was feeling.

It was amazing how much convincing it took some people to see a truth that was right in front of them. Jessica was a classic example, refusing to believe the blue time or darklings existed even after being chased by one, in the blue time, up and down three dozen streets. This girl had finally figured it out, and all she felt at first was more disbelief. Melissa was actually grateful when it turned to discomfort and then a kind of anger similar to that woman from the greenhouses.

For once, Melissa smiled slightly at the girl's accusation. "Well, I haven't. You're not the only one who relies on lying." Melissa had never been bothered by what other people thought of her, and the girl's obvious dislike didn't faze her at all. "If it helps," she added on second thought, "I'm never going to 'blow your cover,' or whatever you want to call it." Selfish Melissa may be, but she wasn't evil.

That clinched it, then. It was still hard to believe, but at this point it was impossible to deny that this person could really read minds. Though Anise would have appreciated not getting called on her dishonesty... Just how much could this girl tell about her, anyway?

Anise was starting to wish that she were somewhere else right now, but she tried to convince herself there was nothing to worry about. She wasn't involved in any of the shady stuff she used to be, so she shouldn't have that many secrets anymore...

Shouldn't, but she certainly had a few still.

Though she had turned her head away, Anise caught that smile out of the corner of her eye. That was a weird way to react to somebody getting abrasive like she was. Was something funny about this, maybe? It almost sounded like she was trying to reassure Anise, too. It was starting to throw her off, and she wasn't sure whether to stay mad or not. Still uncomfortable, and at a loss for words, she nodded slowly, to show that she was listening and understood - though the stranger probably knew that without any outward acknowledgment.

While Melissa did taste the discomfort and vague internal conflict, she ignored it. None of that was her problem, and she had more important things to focus on. Besides, in Melissa's recent experience and guesswork, she was not the only telepath in this place, and she figured that the sooner people got used to it the better. "What happened last time?" she asked instead. "I got ambush, and scary. That's about it." She actually thought that she had a pretty good idea at that point, but it never hurt to confirm her suspicions.

That and Melissa really, really hoped that her idea was wrong.

There was no shaking the discomfort that came with knowing her every thought was being heard loud and clear, but Anise did remember that she had initially intended to talk about the events of that night. And even if she decided to be difficult about it, there was a chance this person would get most of the details out of her anyway.

"The ride back was pretty normal, but once the buses stopped, the sun went down... and everything went weird. The nurses," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "they turned into monsters, right in front of us. And even when we escaped from the buses, there were monsters outside, too." The situation outside had been so bad, with all of those gigantic bird-things swooping down from above, that a lot of patients actually had to run into the institute building for cover.

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Day 35: Bus 2

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