damned_institute | NIGHTSHIFT 42: BLACK ROCK HOTEL

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NIGHTSHIFT 42: BLACK ROCK HOTEL

Snake jerked his head away from Fox's hand and shot to his feet, disorientated slightly by the sudden shift. The grout in the tiles was black with what looked like old blood, and the stench of rot heaved in his throat. Something was badly wrong. He sensed threats - left, faint shapes in the dark outside the large windows - Fox - something creaking in the ceiling - a long groaning voice off to the right, past the walls - and something moving in the back of the room -

It staggered towards him, and before he fully knew what he was doing he ripped the match from the book and struck it with his left hand alone, popped the cap off the hairspray, and blasted a tongue of flame at the aggressor, aiming for its face. He saw, in the flickering light, long hair and long nails and the skin on its rotten face peeling and cracking and bubbling in the heat. It gave a long, screaming cry, and toppled to the floor. Its arms and legs writhed and kicked furiously, an automatic, animal gesture, before it finally lay still.

"Here?" he snapped at Fox, wrapping his fingers around the can of hairspray. "This place gets better and better. It's like a theme park." His voice quaked with anger. The place now stunk of something far worse than rotten meat, and for a fraction of a second he thought he could hear Big Boss's voice saying something he couldn't make out before he realised that it had come from inside his own head.

"At least I don't have to be the only thing here back from the dead," he growled. The woman zombie was leaking something he didn't want to think about. He guessed that the decomposition must have trapped methane and other flammable gasses inside the body, hence why it went up like a candle.

That said, he didn't really think he could burn anything else again. For a while.

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Yuuhi was all for finding a room and hiding out the remainder of the night. If this mess was truly going to end tonight. There was no way to know for sure. It could be just as likely that the head doctor had finally decided they were of no further use and this was the handiest way to dispatch them all at once.

Sakura announced that the doors were locked, which shouldn't have come as a surprise, but it was certainly an inconvenience. This was exactly the sort of moment when Kurogane would show up and fix things. But the onslaught of the dead continued, with no sign of the angry ninja. He couldn't keep relying on the other man to solve their problems.

"We'll have to break one of the locks," he concluded. "It's too dangerous to go back. There should be furniture or something we can use to hold the door." He picked one of the doors at random, delivering a hard kick near the handle. It shook, but didn't open. These locks were a little different from the ones in the institute. Yuuhi clenched his teeth and got ready for a second try.

Duh. Of course they'd be locked. Why hadn't Touya thought of that, honestly? Fortunately, it looked like his and Fai's combined efforts could probably break the lock. Afterwards, they could just lean the bed against the door--maybe the TV too--and it'd give them a head start in case they had to escape.

Touya patted Fai's shoulder briefly to get his attention. "Together, yeah?" He gave the magician a firm nod and stood even with him. "Okay, on three, okay?" He looked briefly down the hallway--he thought he heard something crunch. "One, two, three!"

He kicked at the top of the lock.

Much like the others, Yue mentally berated himself for not thinking of the fact that the door to a hotel room would be locked. At least there should be furniture inside with which they could barricade the door, and if they were lucky maybe there would even be clean running water as well. There certainly wasn't in the Institute at night, and the general decay that had come over the town at nightfall hadn't left him much hope, but there was still always a chance. And the less reeking zombie goo left on him, the better.

As Fai and Touya started their assault on the door, the guardian remained slightly back from the others (though always keeping Sakura in the corner of his vision), still holding his battered and stained barstool at ready. It wasn't exactly the best weapon, and he was keenly aware of how idiotic he must look with it, but it was better than nothing - and better that he reserve what power he had left in the case it was needed.

For the moment they were all right, but that wasn't going to last very long. Where they were coming from, he didn't know, but Yue could see another group heading down the hallway in their direction. Hopefully the door would be open soon, so they could seek shelter.

Like Yue, Sakura quickly moved and got out of the way after Fai and Touya took charge, watching as the boys pounded against the door. As much as she wanted to help, without her magic, she felt useless. She didn't have special martial arts training like Syaoran to use without magic, and it seemed like the only thing that resulted from her arrival was both Yue and Touya sacrificing themselves to protect her.

"Not like this," she thought to herself, getting lost in her thoughts. What could she do to help? Looking over to Yue, she noticed that the stains on his clothes seemed to be getting worse by the minute. It seemed like all she could do was stay out of trouble so the others wouldn't be thrust into danger. She leaned against the wall across from the room they were trying to enter and shut her eyes. There had to be something more.

Things went much better with the combined effort and the door collapsed inward, lock broken. He wasn't sure how well the door would close behind them, but once inside, would such mindless creatures really be able to find them? It was hard to be sure of anything at the moment, but Yuuhi took the lead into the room, just in case it'd had some previous occupants.

The room was neat and tidy, beds all made up, though the furniture was stained and dusty, much like everything else had become. Luckily, it also meant there were none of the dead still skulking about, at least in this room, though he did check the closet and bathroom just to be sure. It was all much of the same. As if time had suddenly aged the place.

"It's clear," he called back to Touya, exhausted now that they'd made it this far. Just a bit more though and they should be safe.

[Sorry for the wait, guys!]

Touya nodded in confirmation to Fai, then put his hands on Sakura's shoulders.

"Come on," he said quietly, trying to sound as comforting as he could. He gently guided Sakura into the safe room. He wouldn't forgive Landel for subjecting his little sister to something like this. Death and the violation of nature--no doubt she was traumatized by the sight of Yue covered in blood and gore; not to mention the chaos that was still going on downstairs. As he passed Yue, he gave the guardian a worried look. Was this the end, then...?

"Let's get you cleaned up," he nodded into the room for him to follow. "You're a mess from all that."

Yue had been watching the approaching creatures warily, hoping that Fai wouldn't find more of them in the room that was intended to be their shelter. He didn't exactly relax when the all-clear was given, but the set of his shoulders did shift a little and he started to move back toward the doorway again.

Good. At least now they could get a break from the fighting, for however long it lasted. Or however long they lasted. He hoped it would end with the morning, as all the other horrific nights had been so far in this place, but...apparently the rules had changed. One couldn't be certain, now.

He glanced briefly toward Sakura as Touya led her into the room, concerned about how she was holding up in this situation, but instead caught Touya's worried look. The guardian hesitated, expression softening for half a second into something that certainly wasn't a smile, but was closer than what was usually visible on his face, then shook his head slightly and moved into the room with one last glance down the hall.

"There's time for that when we're safe," he replied, moving immediately to the closest bed, dropping his barstool-weapon in favor of tugging at the mattress. "We have to block the door first." They would have a few minutes, with the rate at which the creatures were moving, but only a few.

Sakura nodded slowly before following her brother into the room. At least it seemed like things were going according to plan. Hopefully, day would come soon and save them from this nightmare, as she wasn't sure how long barricading themselves in a room would prove effective.

After realizing what Yue was doing, Sakura rushed over and helped by pulling the pillows and blankets off the mattress. Although she couldn't help with any actual zombie fighting, she could always do small things such as this to help everyone out.

Once everyone was inside, Yuuhi moved to grab the other end of the mattress, forcing it up against the door before going back for the bed frame. Whatever they could use, they had to get over there right away. Would the undead know they were here, among all the other doors in the hall? Or would they be safe? There was no way of knowing for certain.

It wasn't until they'd moved a good portion of the room's furniture to the door that he let himself relax in the slightest. He leaned back against the furniture holding the door, almost collapsing as he slid to the floor and the hopelessness of their situation seemed to sink in. Normally, with as terrible as the night was, day always meant waking up in their own bed. Tonight, there was no such guarantee. This could be the end of the line and all they could do was hide and hope that someone or something else saved them.

Touya wasn't buying Yue's brushoff, but in some respects he was right. They had to block the door before the zombies got in and left them without an escape route.

As Fai put the mattress against the door, Touya lifted a bedside table and put that against the mattress. Then he hefted a chair on top of that, and a small table. He stood back, brushing his hands of and taking a moment to thank all those stupid retail jobs for building muscle in him.

"That should hold them for now," Touya said, turning around. His eyes flicked to the wounds on Yue again. By now, it was obvious that they were growing, and it wasn't just zombie blood on Yue's shirt and jeans.

"C'mon, you're covered in stuff," Touya said, trying to keep the truth from Sakura for just a little longer. "Maybe there's some water in the bathroom."

He didn't wait for Yue to agree. The way he saw it, Yue's body was just as much Yuki's, and Touya had been holding hands with him mere minutes ago. The young man put a hand on Yue's back and steered him firmly into the bathroom.

[Jumping down for a bit!]

Although the barricade against the door was the best that they could manage with the furnishings in the room, and was likely to hold for at least a little while, Yue still wasn't entirely pleased with it. He was studying the makeshift structure with a small frown, imagining he could already hear zombies in the hallway trying to open the door, when he suddenly found himself being manhandled into the bathroom.

Getting cleaned up wasn't exactly something he'd protest, but wasn't there time for that once they weren't in danger? Or rather, once Sakura wasn't in danger. He glanced back over his shoulder toward his mistress, then toward Fai, his frown deepening, but before he could say anything he was pushed rather unceremoniously into the bathroom.

[dropping down to here]

Even with the furniture pressed against the thin wooden door, it was difficult to feel safe. He could still hear them, not far away, but he tried to smile and put on a brave face instead of letting on just how frightening the whole thing was. If it was enough to shake him, what about a child like Sakura?

Yue and Touya left to get cleaned up and Yuuhi couldn't really say he blamed them. Doing something normal, even if it was just going through the motions, would probably help. He glanced over to Sakura, looking concerned for a moment.

"That was a pretty close call," he tried, after a bit of silence. The other two were probably having a conversation in the other room, but it was hard to hear anything specific. He didn't really want to invade their privacy anyway. "Lucky we all found each other though, right?"

Not that it'd really been luck. And as he tried to push himself up from the floor, he could feel pounding on the other side of the door. Did the dead know they were here? He took an apprehensive step back, but kept himself between Sakura and the door. Maybe if they kept quiet enough, they'd give up and continue on.

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NIGHTSHIFT 42: BLACK ROCK HOTEL

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