damned_institute | DAY 43: CAFETERIA, MORNING

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DAY 43: CAFETERIA, MORNING

Where was Blitzwing?

Lugnut ignored the nurse's fussing over his foot, even as it howled objections to his ill treatment of it the night before, pounding through the town in search of his wingmate, reportedly helpless and injured by an attack the night before-- and not finding him, not seeing even a glimpse of his crazy triple-changing ally.

Snarling at the nurse, but restraining himself from shows of violence-- Blitzwing would mock him if he showed up drugged already, and he would be useless to Megatron like that--he made his way impatiently to the cafeteria, stopping for just long enough to post an urgent notice on the board.

Where was he?

Looming in the middle of the cafeteria, he took the tray the nurse handed him (filled with disgusting human fuel, didn't she know he didn't have time to eat, not when his wingmate was missing?) and ignored it, watching for Blitzwing, where was he?

He refused to think about what might have happened to a wheelchair-bound, drugged, incapacitated warrior, with the swarms of monsters flooding around him, clawing and biting...

[for Scourge]

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"Oh!" Eileen's hands flew to her mouth, feeling her stomach sink as it always did whenever she met someone 'new' to the hospital.

"I'm so sorry," she said, lowering her eyes. "I'm sorry. It's terrible, isn't it? It's like a nightmare you can't wake up from, even when you do wake up." The worst nightmares were like that.

"I haven't been here as long as some people, but I've been here long enough. If there's anything I can tell you..."

A small, newly born and analytical part of her mind reminded her that she could trade information, if she had to. And any sort of police officer was bound to know how to fight off an attacker. And maybe would even be willing to help out a poor woman with a psychotic serial killer after her....

‘A nightmare’ was precisely how Lunge would have described things, had he not been on duty. If that had been the case, the day ahead of him would have been painted in very different shades. The Tenma case, memories of Ruhenheim, perhaps even Doctor Tenma himself… all of the things left so infuriatingly unresolved would have clouded his thoughts. Coupled with the complete absence of any sort of logic in his situation, he imagined he would have been just as bewildered as any other new patient.

It was fortunate, therefore, that Lunge hadn’t let himself off duty since the day he’d joined the force.

There was little room for uncertainty while there was still a mystery to unravel. The same went for sympathy. But forcing information out of a potentially fragile witness (which was precisely what Eileen Galvin was) was like forcing blood out of a stone, and getting where he wanted to was going to require a gentler approach.

First things first: the previous night's events. “There are a few things you could help me with,” answered Lunge, nodding slightly. “You looked nervous when you arrived. Was that due to the incident last night, or something else? Could you possibly tell me about what happened?”

"Oh, last night..."

Eileen wasn't sure she wanted to admit she was nervous because another 'patient' was out for her blood. In a way, it was embarrassing. Poor little Eileen, always needing help.

"In town, there were...zombies," she explained. "If you've ever seen Night of the Living Dead, it was just like that. That's never happened before. It was terrifying. I didn't even know if..." If she was going to make it. But she had, for better or worse.

"I don't know how much you know already," she went on, quickly, "so you might be thinking I'm crazy right now, but there have never been monsters like that at night before. And never as many."

As soon as she began, the hand on the table started to type. Data had begun to be entered into the system, ready to be analysed. But barely five words in and Lunge had already hit a snag that stopped his fingers mid-sentence.

Zombies. It was one thing to read about sightings but hearing about them face to face was... troubling, to say the least. They did not exist. They were fictional. Just as monsters and just like nurses that changed into demons at nightfall were fictional. Yet he'd seen Galvin's unease first hand, and from what he could tell she didn't seem to be lying to him now.

The only possible solution was that everything was an elaborate illusion of some sort. An illusion that, somehow, had managed to injure and even kill a great number of patients. Further investigation was required.

Lunge couldn't have hesitated for more than a few seconds before his hand settled back into the rhythmic patter of fingertips against table. "Not at all," he answered smoothly. The typing broke off and he tilted his head. "Did you see where they came from?"

Where they came from? Eileen shrugged. "Everywhere, I guess. One minute the town was normal, and then..." And then it was like a bad horror movie come to life.

"It was like how it is every night, like that. Where once it got dark everything was...wrong. But we've never had zombies before. And everyone's convinced it means ten different things...." And were arguing on the notice board, which was ridiculous. Did it matter why? Did it matter who had been talking to Landel last night? None of that helped them, did it?

Everywhere. One minute the town was normal. Once it got dark. Eileen's descriptions were as striking as they were impossible. Like turning a light on, the effect was instantaneous, and a sudden, severe change left no room for preparation. The townspeople wouldn't have had time to change into costume or even turn away without one of the patients noticing.

Which meant.. well. It meant that there was a logical explanation for these 'zombies' and 'monsters' just waiting to be discovered. The computerised announcement from earlier gave him reason to believe that this place was more technologically developed than where he had been taken from. Perhaps the answers lay in science he had not yet been given the opportunity to understand?

His expression hadn't changed. "I see. Thank you, you've been very helpful." His right hand finished entering the data and bridged with his left, fingers loosely laced. "Change is always significant. I'm sure there's meaning in last night's events. All I have to do is find that meaning and use it to trace a pattern within the overall scheme of things."

"Heh. Good luck." Everyone had been looking for patterns and common factors and everything else. And as far as Eileen knew, no one had found it. And maybe they never would. She knew first hand that not everything was logical. She accepted the possibility that everything that happened to them here was purely random, and for no greater purpose.

But what did it matter anyway?

"It's dangerous at night," she went on, tapping one finger against the edge of her breakfast tray. "People shouldn't go out alone. Or unarmed...."

Good luck would have nothing to do with it. The answers weren't going to make themselves apparent of their own free will; Lunge was going to force them into the open, by any means possible. The sooner he solved this place, the sooner he would be able to return to his own life. Even so, he put on a smile to show he appreciated the sentiment.

"So I gathered. I'm guessing that there won't be any firearms just lying around. Where would you say the easiest place to acquire weapons from is?" Even if he still couldn't fully commit himself to the idea of monsters it didn't mean that he wouldn't be taking any precautions. The more able he was to defend himself, the more easily he would be able to work; he didn't doubt for a second that this was going to be far from easy.

Eileen shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it depends. I...have an extra knife, though. I don't really use it, I've never been good with blades. I have a metal pipe." And she wasn't going anywhere without it tonight.

"I know there's a club that will get you a weapon, but I'm not really involved with any of them. And...you really should find someone to meet with once night falls. I...I mean, if you want that knife, I could meet you somewhere..."

And hopefully that would take care of her as well.

Lunge had seen the clubs listed on the bulletin board- coyly named, carefully run, all of no interest to him whatsoever. The leaders might have been able to provide him some insight purely from the perspective that they had a broader look at the Institute than most other patients, but other than that? He had his own work to do.

"Thank you. That would be very helpful." Of course, there was no reason to rush into making any solid plans just yet. The day was still young. He still had a lot of ground to cover with the basics, so the last thing he wanted to do was book time that could have been more profitably spent elsewhere. "If you don't mind, I'll contact you over the bulletin board and let you know if I can make it before the day is out."

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DAY 43: CAFETERIA, MORNING

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