Nightshift 35: M71-80 Hallway

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

Wally frowned in confusion at the intercom announcements. CM-US Experimental Trials? Special Counselling? He wasn't sure what either of those things were, but considering this place, they could hardly be good. And the following announcement didn't do much to reassure him. "You know, that's what I like about this place," he commented dryly to Tony. "You can always rely on the crazy to show up right on schedule." He stood up as the doors clicked open and stretched, paying particular attention to the muscles in his legs before rummaging around behind his pillow for his flashlight. "So, you wanna go and see about that maintenance room?" His lips quirked into a familiar smile. "I figure with two of us, at least someone will be able to get something useful while the other plays monster bait."

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[strayfag]

Badou didn't say anything else to Armand as he left, except to stick his tongue out at the man's retreating back. He had bigger things to worry about. Like visiting an autopsy room in the middle of the goddamn night in a hospital full of flesh eating monster goth guys. How the hell did he get himself into this crap? He didn't even want anything special, just a few tiny matches. For which he needed a few tiny scalpels to exchange. For which he needed to go into a room full of dead bodies that might get up again and eat him.

Badou cradled his head in his hands, scanning the map one last time in vain. Of all the times he really, really wished Haine was around... At least the guy could pass for a zombie goth vampire wannabe. And spontaneously regenerate his organs if that didn't work out.

On the bright side, if he died there was fire in hell.

Badou sighed and went about grabbing the stuff he needed for the night - flashlight, maps, glorious but cruel cigarettes - and let himself into the hallway. He'd planned to live stingy until he got to the bottom of things, and here he was chasing his stupid habits. Thanks, bro.

...He still needed a partner. Like the one standing right there. Since when did he have a neighbour? "Hey, are you going out alone?"

[missedfortunes.livejournal.com]

"Huh?" Quickly as in a reflex, Kaiji flicked the switch of his flashlight and aimed it at the person who he assumed was talking to him, letting out a sigh after a quick look. The guy looked normal enough, although the inspection came to a stop when that right eye (or possible lack thereof) caught his attention - to think that they could have matched if Kaiji hadn't vouched to gamble over his ear. That patch made him curious, but not curious enough to ask: he was sure that this guy wanted to talk about his eye about as much as Kaiji wanted to discuss his fingers and ear.

Seeing that this person was probably not going to rip his face off or whatever, Kaiji subdued the light from his flashlight by placing his left hand over the bright end just as he had done the previous night, creating an orange, fleshy colored glow that accentuated the seams on his fingers. Although he was fairly positive that this person wasn't out to do anything nasty, Kaiji still frowned nervously at him. "Um, yeah," he answered in a quiet voice, not even completely sure what he was doing at this point. It was kind of embarrassing to admit that he was by himself for the night, especially since he only knew the locations of a handful of rooms.

[strayfag]

"Hey, ow, what the hell man?" Badou covered his eye with his free hand, squinting and blinking rapidly to try recovering his vision. Why did people insist on blinding him? He just had the one working eye, for fuck's sake.

Then the light suddenly dimmed enough for him to see, and he caught himself staring down at the man's hand. There were seams along his fingers where they'd clearly been re-attached. Badou's skin crawled just a little. He'd seen similar injuries before but it was still a bit weird. He didn't ask.

"Yeah, don't do that. You'll get eaten or kinda maimed," Badou replied. "If you've got nowhere to go you can come along with me. Where you'll probably still get eaten or maimed. But at least you won't die alone?"

[missedfortunes.livejournal.com]

The other guy's protest of the sudden flash of light was essentially ignored: it was his own damn fault for showing up out of nowhere as far as Kaiji was concerned. At least he'd bothered to turn it down reasonably quickly.

Technically after last night's venture, Kaiji did know better than to wander off alone. Had he been by himself then, the autopsy room would have received a slick red overnight paintjob. As it was, he was lucky to have gotten away with just some soreness and scrapes and punctures from a set of claws. That didn't stop him, though: his options were to go out and try to find the trick to this place, or... There really was no 'or' about it. He knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep normally knowing that others were out here trying to sort things out, unless of course he ended up getting drugged (again) or just plain couldn't muster up the strength to move.

Was this guy being serious? Kaiji's expression took a turn for the 'somehow even more miserable.' His life might have fucking sucked, but he didn't want to end it. Especially not at the hands of some jerk over a speaker who sat around controlling mostly innocent people all day while apparently getting away with it flawlessly. He probably would've loved to be there, wouldn't he? Kaiji could just imagine some creepy bastard getting off on watching their collective demise.

He managed to calm himself down with a quick shake of his head. Obviously the other man was exaggerating, otherwise he wouldn't have even been going out in the first place. Unless he was suicidal. But in that case, he should have been able to find plenty of ways to off himself here already. "What about you?" Kaiji asked sharply, trying to sound unconcerned, "What's so important that you have to get done tonight that it made you come out here by yourself?" Whatever this guy was after must've been damn important.

Hopefully this wasn't going to turn into another 'radio clues' venture.

[strayfag]

Ok, so he wasn't the best at convincing people to come along with him. At least he was honest about it. He really didn't know what was going to happen, so he might as well give the guy a heads up about what they were getting into at worst. Maybe in the process he could convince himself not to go that way.

The unlit cigarettes in his pocket reminded him of what a sorry job he was doing fighting against them by, well, existing. He needed matches, and right now he only had one way to get them. Why did his life have to suck significantly more than anyone who could make an expression as sorry as this guy?

Badou shrugged, "I didn't plan to go anywhere alone or I would be gone already. I need to get some scalpels. Are you coming or what?"

[missedfortunes.livejournal.com]

Oh dammit.

"Like the ones from upstairs?" Kaiji asked, already knowing that the answer was probably 'yes.' Where else would they keep scalpels? Well, probably a lot of places the way this place seemed to be run, but he only knew of one off the top of his head: his itchy bandaged stomach wouldn't let him forget about it for a while. Kaiji didn't want to go to the autopsy room again, especially if there was any chance at all that the creature from last night might reappear and try to exact its revenge on him, but on the other hand this guy seemed to need all the help he could get.

What had he learned about trying to help people?

The whole situation was worrying and annoyed him by principle, but then again just about everything here except for the fact that he was being decently housed and fed was. Kaiji hated the way that his brain worked. Somehow, regardless of how much he absolutely despised this scenario, he couldn't really help but go with it. What else was he going to do?

Kaiji started to take a few steps down the hallway unenthusiastically. "Fine, let's just get this over with."

[missedfortunes.livejournal.com]