Nightshift 36: Main Hallway, 2-West

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

[from here]

No one else appeared to be in the hallway. It should've been good news, but Archer still found it disconcerting. There were usually other patients around by now, but he couldn't be certain. His sense of time felt off in this place.

He might as well move on, since he was short on time. Not to mention that he didn't want to risk getting attacked.

[to here]

Comments

[requiemforasoul.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/491309.html?thread=40723757#t40723757)]

The first thing Siegfried noticed upon reaching the second floor was the group of five patients, some of whom were injured. Whilst he would have liked to help them, there was next to nothing he could do. He would have to ignore them.

Before continuing on down the hallway, Siegfried spoke quietly to Kio. “Kio, it is important that you be very careful from here onwards.”

[stalksperverts.livejournal.com]

Kio was absently trying to discern his surroundings and understand exactly what Siegfried was fighting for. Atonement was all nice and proper, but he'd seen what it had done to Soubi. It had taken his friend and turned him into a zombie. And for all of that, only Ritsuka had managed to get him alive again. Though Kio would never admit it, he did feel a bit of regret (jealousy?) that it hadn't been him.

The injuries came as a shock. A hospital, letting patients simply get injured like this? Kio stopped dead in his tracks, his ears almost ignoring Siegfried's words. Leaving these patients here... how could they? Just... no, no, that was wrong. No, they couldn't. And what was the warning about anyway? It was a hospital, if Siegfried could be believed.

"We can't just leave them here! What if they need help? If this is a hospital as you claim, then we have to find a nurse, a doctor, someone to take care of them." Kio sounded genuinely distressed. This was not how he imagined people reacting to wounds. There should be someone with them. He looked at Siegfried pleadingly, thinking the man would surely help.

Looking around, he called out, "Nurse! Hello, nurse? Is there a nurse around here?"

[requiemforasoul.livejournal.com]

He should have expected this. Not everyone could turn a blind eye to injured individuals. A thought formed at the back of Siegfried’s mind, telling him that maybe he was just too used to seeing people injured in such a way. He stopped that thought before it grew into something worse.

“Kio, be quiet!” Siegfried did not raise his voice, yet it still commanded attention. “There aren’t any nurses that will help them right now. It’s very possible that the nurses themselves inflicted those injuries. This is why you need to be careful, or else you’ll gain unwanted attention and get yourself hurt.”

[stalksperverts.livejournal.com]

No. No, no and no. To Kio, the idea of simply abandoning those people was kin to murdering them. He closed his eyes against the sight of them, shutting out their pain. It was as if he were with Soubi again, shutting himself against that pain so he could tend to his friend's wounds. He had loathed Seimei, with a fiery passion that somehow contradicted his easy-going nature and carefree attitude.

He shut his eyes tighter. He tried not to think that perhaps Soubi was lying in a similar way somewhere. He tried not to think of the place he was in, of the things Siegfried had said to him. Kio felt despair and anger and an overwhelming sense of defeat.

Opening his eyes, he walked closer to Siegfried and placed his hand upon the man's arm. "Siegfried-kun, let us move on. If the nurses and doctors could let their patients be hurt like this, then I have no wish to see them. Please, let us keep moving." In his heart, Kio cursed himself for being a coward.

[requiemforasoul.livejournal.com]

Siegfried flinched when Kio touched his arm. He wasn’t used to contact like that at all.

“It’s all part of the experiment. By tomorrow, they’ll be well on the way to recovery.”

He stepped away from Kio, and continued along the hallway.


[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/502061.html?thread=40836141#t40836141)]