Nightshift 39: Bus Unloading Area

[its-the-mileage.livejournal.com]

[from here]

It felt like he'd probably been about right about the season; the night air was more than a little crisp (comparable to New York? Indy wondered, trying to get his bearings. No, they weren't freezing. Either somewhere warmer, or he'd been a few months off about the time of year). There did seem to be some kind of drive for vehicles here, but Landel evidently hadn't been generous enough to leave them a Rolls-Royce with the keys in the ignition. Well, no surprises there either.

"Where do you want to start?" he asked Pierson, still scanning the darkness for any obvious signs of impending death.

Comments

[oldest-man.livejournal.com]

Methos hadn't really been expecting a conveniently laid out parking lot with easy access to vehicles which could be stolen, but he was still a little disappointed. People had to get to and from this place somehow, didn't they? He grimaced as he surveyed the drive. It would be nice to be able to call the situation suspicious, but he had to admit the impulse was just irritation speaking.

The wide, open space seemed no safer than the dark room behind them, and the absence of any visible guards didn't really help. There were shadows thick enough to hide lurking people, or more guard animals, and he hoped it was only a trick of his eyes that made them seem to move when he wasn't looking straight on.

"We could try the front gate," he suggested. "Then get off the road and find some cover." Walking straight down the front drive might not be the best idea, but then again, maybe it wouldn't be expected because of that. He didn't think they were likely to find any conveniently secluded and easily scalable points along the wall. Their luck hadn't been that good so far.

[its-the-mileage.livejournal.com]

For the moment, Pierson's suggestion looked like their only choice: they'd have to get out of the compound first in order to open up any other travel options. The road had to lead to something eventually--a town? All roads did lead to Rome, after all. But they had no way of knowing how far away that might be, and no reason to think that the townspeople (if there were any) wouldn't pick up on Pierson's uniform and have them carted right back on the spot.

If there were guards (or guard dogs, guard Bigfeet, etc.) on patrol, Indy couldn't see them, but that wasn't saying much. His range of vision was almost nil. The flashlight beam only penetrated a few feet into the darkness. If they were going to get any advance warning of an attack, it would have to be aural, and that would get unreliable fast if the terrain got rougher.

"All right," Indy replied, keeping his voice low. "Let's move fast." He cupped his fingers over the face of the flashlight to dim it as much as he dared, and jogged quietly ahead toward the gate.

[oldest-man.livejournal.com]

Methos nodded curtly, opting to save speech for once they were through the gate. There would probably be guards outside the compound's walls; in fact, if people really were snatched back up again even if they breached them, there would have to be. But the further they got, the more spread out any watchers would have to be. Here, still within the confines of the institute, it seemed like it would be too easy for unnecessary conversation to carry.

It was second nature to keep his head down, to settle into a lower posture to cut a less obvious figure against the open space, and to muffle his footsteps as he jogged along. He was relieved with each step that didn't come accompanied by the call of a guard, or the baying of a guard dog. He tried not to tick off the paces remaining to the gate as it loomed closer, then gave up and did it anyway. It was better than focusing on who might be watching from the too-deep shadows.

[its-the-mileage.livejournal.com]

This area almost made Indy miss the main hallway, which was also a ridiculously open space with nowhere to hide but at least had the advantage of a lot of other targets. Out here, it was just the two of them against everything else. He picked up speed as he got closer to the gate. For some reason, he kept conjuring up images of unseen snipers on the roof.

He still hadn't figured out what he was going to do if the gate didn't open easily by the time he reached it--wing it, probably; try to bash the lock off with the pipe. As luck would have it, the question didn't come up. Just a couple of seconds to get the catch up--not to mention an agonizing creak that he almost would've given his hat to silence--and the gate swung open.

Indy adjusted said hat a little sheepishly, hoping no one had heard that. He didn't plan on waiting around to find out.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/588043.html)]