damned_institute | Day 43: Courtyard, Third Shift

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Day 43: Courtyard, Third Shift

Once again, Endrance's nurse interfered with his plans. He had been planning to look around the Game Room, but the moment he began to move towards the Sun Room, she had taken him by the arm. "Your family has asked that we make sure you get as much fresh air and sunshine has possible, and you won't get that by staying inside playing video games all day."

He had thought for a moment about protesting, but decided against it. After all, if what had happened to Haseo was punishment for having spoken too strongly the day before, he didn't want to make that worse somehow. So, when given the choice of going out to the recreational field or the courtyard, he chose the latter.

There were a few reasons behind the decision, the most salient being that he wanted to see what the area looked like for a second time - this time without the threat of a brainwashed patient surprising him. The second reason was just as strong as the first, and it had to do with the presence of a second former Demon Palace Emperor. As energetic as she was normally in The World, he couldn't imagine Alkaid not wanting to spend some time outside.

Just as before, he sat down under a tree by the side of the pond, keeping one eye on the door.

[closed to Alkaid]

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Kon felt weird when he finally woke up, like his head was stuffed with cotton wool. He didn't remember what had happened yesterday after he got split off from Robin and Impulse in the town but he was pretty sure they hadn't been brought back here while he was awake. Which was just- Why would they let them be awake for the trip down but knock them out on the way back?

....And the intercom announcement had changed too. Listening to the electronic voice going on about test-subjects he scowled, shoving himself up and heading over to hammer on the door. It wasn't that he hadn't already heard that this was some sort of messed up experimental facility but having it confirmed made him uncomfortable. He really wanted to find the loser in charge and punch him now.

Finally his nurse came along, looking tired and irritated as she unlocked the door. "Don't be so impatient Caleb, you've been sleeping all morning, I don't see why there's an emergency now."

"How did-"

"I don't really have time for questions right now, we're very busy organising people's visitors and the new patients. Whatever it is can wait. Here, why don't you get some fresh air and meet someone new?" And before he even got a chance to say anything else, she'd dragged him out to the courtyard and dumped him there. This sucked.

Maybe someone else would know what was going on here. Or maybe not but at least he could find someone to be confused with. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he looked around. Brightening as he spotted Robin, he trotted over. "Hey, R- Tim!"

Tim managed a small smile as he turned to face Kon. It was possible that Kon would drive him a little nuts before they were done talking, but at least he was a familiar face. And he wasn't a total angstball like Bart was, which made it a little easier to talk to him. Tim felt bad for Bart, and wanted to help him, sure, but a break from everything was all right.

"Hey Kon," he said, hoping he sounded normal enough. It was good to see that he hadn't been hurt in the zombie apocalypse, so that was one more worry off Tim's mind. "You all right after last night?"

Kon grinned back at Tim, just being around his friends again was enough to put him in a good mood no matter how confused he was. The confusion wasn't helped by Tim opening though.

"Last night? What do you mean?" Had he slept through something important again, like when Kurt had been hurt? But Robin was fine and he wasn't with Bart - which he would be if Bart had gotten hurt bad. It could be something to do with how they'd gotten back here but why didn't he remember anything? "What happened last night?"

Tim stared at Kon. He'd been in the town at lunch. How did he manage to not know what had happened?

"Oh, nothing much. Just about a million freaking zombies crawling all over the place!" Tim was visibly confused. Seriously, what was going on here? Kon had to have been there; there wasn't any way he'd made it back to the Institute. Anyway, if he'd managed to get out of the town, why come back here? This place just presented question after question.

"There was not!" It didn't matter that Robin wouldn't say something like that for kicks, Kon's first response was to argue. He didn't remember any zombies so there couldn't have been any zombies. Robin was just testing him or something. Besides, if there had been zombies, why didn't he remember them? It wasn't the sort of thing you just didn't notice.

It looked like Bart's luck was starting to turn, at least a little bit. Just when he'd finally begun to wonder just how he was going to follow through on that resolution to actually talk to his friends about what had happened to him, the night before last -- he stepped out into the courtyard and saw them both, already talking. Then again, resolution or not, he really wasn't looking forward to this conversation, so maybe this didn't exactly count as good luck after all.

And he hadn't even stopped to think about what Kon and Tim must think of him, right now. Oh, frak...he'd totally been acting like a spaz yesterday, hadn't he? Of course it all made perfect sense if you knew what he'd been going through, but Kon and Tim weren't mind-readers, no matter how much Tim liked to act like he was all-knowing and all-seeing. Now he really needed to explain what was going on...If he could just get the words out.

Of course, if Kon and Tim were going to argue about zombies, it was hardly Bart's fault if he got a little sidetracked, now was it? "There were totally zombies," he said, once he'd gotten close enough to join into the conversation without having to yell or anything. "The Flash got bit twice."

He didn't really consider giving that away an invasion of Wally's privacy, for all that he'd actually taken care not to mention any names or other specifics when talking to Wally on the bulletin board. That had been so any outsiders reading their messages wouldn't know what was going on; but Kon and Tim were his teammates, so it was okay to let them know. Assuming Robin hadn't already found out from Batman or anything.

Tim glanced in Bart's direction. Both of them at once, almost like things were normal. Bart seemed to be doing a little better, but he couldn't be quite sure.

Wait. What had he just said?

"The Flash got bitten by zombies twice?" he asked, incredulous, "He seemed fine just now when I spoke to him." That was strange. He'd have expected someone who got bitten like that to be worse off. Unless the bites healed by morning, but Tim had a feeling that wasn't the case.

He turned back to Kon. "What, did you sleep through the whole night? There were zombies everywhere. Where were you that you didn't see any zombies?" That was crazy! The town had been completely overrun with the living dead!

"No way! There can't have been zombies 'cause I'd remember if there were! Are you guys sure you didn't have some kinda joint hallucination?"

He glanced at Bart in concern the moment he said the word 'hallucination'. Bart had been acting so off at lunch yesterday, seeing things and freaking out and he didn't want to set him off again. And he really didn't want both his friends to be hallucinating but it made more sense than him missing a bunch of zombies. Except that that left him as the only not-messed-up one and meant he'd have to tell Batman and the Flash that Robin and Impulse had started seeing things. Which would suck big-time. Like, seriously. He'd be in so much trouble for that and he wouldn't have even done anything. So they'd better not have gone crazy on him.

"I don't remember anything after lunch yesterday. I just woke up here," he told Robin defensively. "If Bart says the Flash got bitten but you say he's fine, maybe it wasn't real and they're just messing with you."

Bart flinched, starting at Kon like he'd just been struck.

"I don't think...no, it couldn't have been a hallucination," he said unsteadily, looking at Robin with an obvious, if silent, plea for help. "The Flash's bites must have healed up."

But that didn't make any sense. Wally's superspeed clearly hadn't been working last night; otherwise, he wouldn't have been bit at all. Why would his injuries heal so quickly if his speed was out, while Bart's speed was still working just fine, but the cuts on his arms had yet to finish healing? As if in reaction to that thought, the itching in his wrists suddenly redoubled; he scratched at the bandages without thinking about it.

"Batman was there too," he said, trying to sound decisive. "He saw Wally get bitten, so...he can confirm it..." Bart hoped. Oh, he really hoped so. He did not need any more reason to doubt his grasp on reality right now...

Tim frowned at Kon. Bart seemed to be really upset with the idea that it was an illusion.

"It wasn't an illusion or a hallucination," he said, carefully, steadily. "I woke up this morning with something I'd grabbed last night in my closet. It wouldn't have been there if I were hallucinating it." He turned to Bart and continued, "Maybe the bites did heal up, or maybe he's just hiding them. I don't know. I only saw him for a few minutes. What I do know is that something really screwed up is going on here. There were zombies in the town, and I don't even believe in zombies. And now there's some weird thing going on with the intercom."

He wondered if some of the patients had blacked out instead of taking part in the zombie apocalypse. It was hard to say. Now that he knew that Bruce had seen Wally get bitten though, he was definitely going to ask him about it.

Awww man! Now he felt like a jerk for trying to be sensible about the whole thing. "OK, OK- I believe you," he told Bart as sincerely as possible while batting his scratching hand away from the bandages.

He turned to Robin to ask, "But then why did I get dragged back here instead of being left for zombie chow?" Why did he miss out on kicking some zombie ass? It would've been awesome! ....Except if the Flash got bitten twice it had to have been pretty dangerous too and maybe not so great. But he felt lame for missing out. He would've been too good at beating up zombies, that was why he'd been brought back here instead.

"Wait, so you can buy monster squirr- monsters and people from all different worlds being kidnapped without even noticing but not zombies? Why not?" What was so hard to buy about zombies? They were just the undead. Not undead like Superman was undead but still just undead.

Edited 2009-08-24 21:55 (UTC)

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Day 43: Courtyard, Third Shift

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