Nightshift 38: Decontamination Room

[jokers-wildcard.livejournal.com]

[coming in from here]

Harley walked in cautiously. She'd learned enough that the rooms were more dangerous than the hallways, and the last thing they needed was to get pounced as soon as they marched inside. There was a faint, distant sound... the slow, rhythmic pat of water dripping from a shower head. Otherwise, the room was silent.

This was definitely new. She actually wasn't quite sure what kind of place this was, but there was nothing like it back at Arkham. It was a large room with several places some giant freak bug could be hiding, but as far as she could tell, the room was empty. Too empty and too clean. There was definitely a feeling that the room had been used within the last 24 hours.

"Uhh," she droned in a loud whisper. She wasn't quite sure why herself. The place just gave off the feeling of needing to whisper. "There should be a door 'round here that leads to the labs..."

Maybe it was that chemical smell or maybe it was the fact that they were so close to the labs where who knew what ended up happening, but Harley was getting a bit creeped out here. Not that she was planning to turn back or anything. She was not leaving without her darlings.

Comments

[its-the-mileage.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/558708.html?thread=46055540#t46056820)]

Indy was not this kind of scientist.

The room, he saw, was divided into three parts--presumably, as the name suggested, used for some kind of decontamination process. Were they worried about preventing contaminants from outside from getting into the lab, or about preventing whatever the researchers were dealing with in the lab from getting out? Either way, that setup left a lot of places for potential assailants to hide. The flashlight beam reflected off the aggressively white surfaces but didn't pick out any lurkers. Still, he'd rather get through here as quickly as possible.

"Lab door is up ahead at the northwest corner of the room," he said, already striding toward it.

[oldest-man.livejournal.com]

"Then we won't have to rely on reports, will we?" Methos replied. The prospect didn't disturb him, but he allowed his voice to settle into a deliberately bland register anyway.

He didn't head directly for the door Jones indicated, instead taking the time to get a quick look at the area around them. It had too many blind corners for comfort, but that had only a little to do with why he found himself unnerved by the room. "What are they doing, that they'd require this sort of set-up?" he muttered. Whatever it was, it couldn't possibly be good.

[its-the-mileage.livejournal.com]

Indy didn't comment on Pierson's first statement. "Who knows?" he said in response to the second. "Whatever it is, they must only need the room sterile at certain times. They have to know patients are coming through here every night." His instinct was almost to say some sort of disease or chemical study, but if so, they evidently weren't worried about the possible risk factors inherent in letting patients in there and back out. "Could be--"

But that was as far as he got with that conjecture, because that was when he heard voices coming from the far doorway. The speakers were men, and they were angry, but that was all Indy could make out from their tones. But what the hell were those slamming noises?

[oldest-man.livejournal.com]

"They could likely seal the room off if there was risk of active contamination," Methos replied. It seemed almost futile otherwise, unless all they had to deal with was the sort of caustic spill that might damage only those who came in direct contact with it.

Jones' abrupt trailing off alerted him to the sounds coming from the next room. Methos stilled, straining to hear more clearly. Another quick sweep of the room picked up a splash of blood across the walls. He grimaced. "That's not a good sign."

[its-the-mileage.livejournal.com]

"Whatever it is, I don't think we want to get mixed up in it, and they're blocking the door," Indy said, keeping his voice down now. "We could try to go around through the morgue, see if we can make it into the lab the back way if things calm down."

[oldest-man.livejournal.com]

Methos nodded once in agreement. Rather than speaking up to add to the gesture, which conveyed enough information on its own, he merely turned and headed back out of the room. Though he wasn't quite creeping, his already quiet steps were notably muffled.