damned_institute | Night 43: M101-M110 Hall

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Night 43: M101-M110 Hall

When I.R.I.S went off, a cold shiver went down Jun's spine. He'd been able to tell earlier that this wasn't how things normally were, true, but the other announcements hadn't been as disturbing as that one. No, something was very, very wrong. Thus, he set about the room trying to find suitable materials with which to protect himself. He remembered feeling a lump in his pillow that morning when he awoke, and felt around in the unoccupied bed, hoping it was something he could use.

A flashlight. Besides the obvious, he wasn't sure how useful it would be, but after searching more, it was the only thing he could find. The only other thing he could think of was taking apart one of the pieces of furniture already in the room, but he knew that he couldn't possibly do that without help.

With a feeling of unease, he stepped out into the hallway. He hoped that the person sleeping in there would be alright, but right now he couldn't do anything about it. His only form of protection was, after all, his Persona. He didn't pause while walking down the hallway, but his eyes darted around cautiously, always searching for figures in the places his flashlight couldn't reach.

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Woah, what was that? So this was what Renamon had meant about the nights here. Well, he'd better make sure he was ready to get going, Loz said they were gonna meet up, and he didn't wanna be late to the party!

With how Heat had pulled the room apart, he'd seen something that looked like it could make a decent weapon under the guy's pillow. He'd only just woken up here too, so that meant... Yes! there was one under his too. There was a little button on it. Hey! A flashlight! Cool. He headed out into the hallway, the whole place pitch black. He was glad he'd found the flashlight, or he'd just be bouncing off the walls all night!

He sort of remembered the route back to that Sun Room, so he headed for the next hallway out at a good clip, keeping an eye out for monsters.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/700873.html)]

For the first time in 90 years, he had seen the peaceful darkness of sleep.

The feeling was so wrong, so entirely human, that opening his eyes to see blurry darkness and a room he did not recognize was overwhelming to his senses. There was no peaceful darkness slithering in through an open window, no floral smell that saturated the furniture and the walls. He had awakened - and in some ironic twist, it was more horrifying than he had awoken alone.

He roughly jumped from the crisp, stale bed, the sheets tangled around his legs with evidence of a restless night of sleep. But it couldn't have been his sleep. He didn't sleep.

At all?

Never.

Trying to put aside his horror was harder than he would have liked, but he needed to know exactly where - and when - he was. The room was four white walls, two beds, two closets, one dresser. Completely nondescript, isolated from the outside world with its absence of windows.

Edward hissed when he realized the room was familiar. He recognized this was similar to the room where his sister had her mind splintered apart as she waited for a lonesome death, until a different sort of death had come for her. Thought Alice's memories were fragmented, he experienced a sort of detached déjà vu, running pale fingers over the paler walls.

Confusion made him slow. What was he doing in a place like this - if, in fact, it wasn't a product of a loose wire in his mind? And to have been asleep? Impossible. Never had his kind achieved it, as it simply couldn't be done.

That doesn't matter. Though he expected no answer, the silence that greeted his question to the room made his rage boil. Where the hell was Bella? Had she been taken somewhere? Left?

The door was is planned victim - he turned to it with a snarl, hands curled like claws. He moved to dig his nails into it, to watch it fold under his strength like paper -

But the metal didn't budge. His nails barely left scratches on the shining silver, a vague reflection seeming to mock his sudden helplessness.

What? His astonishment was immediate, and so was the interruption that broke his thoughts. An automated voice chirped from a corner of the room, introducing itself as Iris somewhat audibly, while the rest of its message became broken, probably reflecting whatever malfunction it was going on about. A quick search of the room resulted in a strange assortment of items - journal, flashlight, a keyring of two keys, and the radio, which was still buzzing with the disjointed automated voice.

"A machine malfunctioning," he sighed, watching the radio as if he expected it to change to something else. As predictable as Taco Tuesday, as Emmett would so eloquently put it.

What the hell was going on?

Upon further inspection of his cell, he discovered both closets were filled with clothing, though it was all uniform and nondescript. Both t-shirts and long coats - he couldn't even discern what season it was. Was it still June? Was it even still summer? If he had truly been unconscious, anything seemed possible. Maybe the last ninety years had been a flu-inspired delusion?

His laugh was bitter when the message ended, and he only stopped upon a new sound: footsteps. The hallway? He hadn't checked the door, just assumed it was locked. With a light touch of a handle, the door opened soundlessly, revealing a lightless hall.

And I can't see through it. This was less surprising after everything else.

His options were limited. Bella certainly wasn't here, but someone had been; the other bed looked disturbed as well, and the smell of some sort of human did stain the sheets. Staying put was simply not a viable choice. After donning one of the coats (the only sort of color that the clothes provided... and anything to cover the smiling face he had discovered on his shirt) he slipped into the hallway, stuffing the now-silent radio and the flashlight into one of its pockets.

The hallway didn't give an insight to where his current location might be. It was as white and nondescript as the room he'd left behind; luckily his eyes could still somewhat see, so the flashlight would be mostly obsolete. The immediate area around his room was empty, but a small collection of scents did linger... so someone was wandering the hallways.

Then he heard them a second time - footsteps, not too far off. They weren't clear sounds like they should have been, but easily trackable.

With how weak he felt, he would have almost believed he was human if his familiar, burning thirst didn't still linger along his throat.

Edward followed the sound of steps, staying along a wall that held a symmetrical pattern of doors until he was close enough to see - and smell. It was the same scent that had been lingering in his room. It was human.

Making his own footsteps audible, he approached - even a human! - with caution. "Excuse me." The human's clothing looked similar to his own, so not a guard? Recognized his senses dulled, he already assumed his second hearing would be too... but this was strange. He should have heard more than he needed to know already, but even as he closed the distance between them, all the vampire could hear was a faint buzzing.

Shit.

"Did you just come from 105?"

Jun turned around sharply when he heard the footsteps behind him, his flashlight revealing the person he'd left sleeping. That was good; he'd been worried that the person wouldn't wake up. Leaving his flashlight centered on the other man's face, Jun gave him a precursory glance up and down. The feeling he got--this person didn't seem as friendly as those he'd met before. (Were his eyes black, or was that a trick of the light?) The boy hadn't said anything beyond the norm, but he still couldn't shake the feeling.

When he did reply, it was with extreme caution, easily audible in his voice. "...Yes..." was all he gave, slowly moving his flashlight onto other subjects, making sure that there was no one else, nothing else, lurking in the shadows. He thought he saw a door that hadn't been there before, but when he re-focused his eyes, it was gone. His mind... was it playing tricks on him again?

After a moment of indecision, he added, "...You did too."

"I'm alone, if that's what you're looking for," he tried to say amiably, but his brow turning down into a frown wasn't helping much. The distance between them was as minimal as it could be for a normal conversation, but he still could not hear anything but white noise. Was Bella's syndrome catching?

His head jerked from the boy, momentarily startled by a door that had appeared next to him, then disappeared before his eyes could move directly to it.

I am finally losing my mind. Vampires did not hallucinate, either.

"I did. I just... woke up." Though still skeptic on what exactly had happened to him, he found it hard to believe that he had been sleeping. Even now, his mind was trying to imagine different scenarios, all of equal absurdity. "I'm afraid I'm a little disoriented. You don't happen to know where we are, do you?"

"I was told that we're in a place called Landel's Institute..." He left out the fact that he was new too, choosing instead to continue peering around, constantly on alert. So far, so good, but how long had it been? Ten Minutes? Who knew: his watch was, after all, broken. Rubbing the wrist housing the watch uncomfortably, he decided that some elaboration was probably in order. The name "Landel's" hadn't meant anything to him, after all. It was probably the same for others.

"There are monsters here at night, or so I've been told..." He said, focusing the flashlight back on the other man's face. "In the morning, nurses will probably tell you that the life you've lived is a lie..." He was glad that he'd read the bulletin board before anyone laid into his concept of reality. Memories were a touchy issue with him; this was just adding to the pile, the low of the wheel of fortune. "...Don't listen to them." Those were, he thought, the most important parts of the introduction.

Though the name "Landel's Institute" did not exactly denote what the building actually was, Edward felt his initial fears might have been quite accurate. He hadn't seen very much, but the general layout seemed consistent with the memories he had seen in his sister's mind.

What he hadn't expected, however, were tales of... well, monsters. Normal in his world as they were, humans didn't speak light of them except in jest.

"And by monsters, you mean... what? Giant bears, dragons, and zombies?" Sounded appropriately skeptical, he blinked against the light once again in his face. What did this person see there that was so interesting? Possibly he was just suspicious. It was comforting to know some humans still had their base instincts.

Why had he chosen to focus on monsters? Normally, people would be more concerned about being told that their universes didn't exist... Maybe the other boy's world didn't contain them. It was unheard of for him, because he'd been living with them, controlling them for so long that it was normal, but perhaps for others it wasn't the same.

Of course, answering the other's question would mean admitting that he was new too. Most people wouldn't find that comforting, or would dismiss his words as nonsense. But then again, from what he had seen so far, the people here didn't fall into the boundaries of what he considered to be normal.

"...I don't know. I haven't encountered any yet." He admitted, albeit a bit sheepishly.

Edited 2009-08-30 05:49 (UTC)

He hadn't seen any, but spread the words as fact? Now that was unusual.

So it was very low on his newly created "strange" meter, but it was worth noting. More importantly, if they were supposed to be imprisoned (which he figured one could safely assume from the lines of cells and the thickness of each cell's doors), why was the door waiting for him to open it?

There that flash was again - it looked like pipes running underneath where his fingertips had met the wall only moments before, but they were gone in the same instance. The first could have been a fluke, but he knew the second wasn't.

Nurses being low on his priorities, the vampire stayed attached to their situation at hand. "I'm sorry, I know it must be annoying to answer so many questions at once," he said, once again distracted - but this time it was by another human, not a flash of change in the very structure of the building.

... was that -? No. Of course not.

Turning back, he smiled at some private joke. "Is there a reason no one seems to be locked inside their rooms like I assume they should be?"

"The first person I met this morning said that they weren't aware of any of the 'whys' of this place... but I think it's safe to assume that it's malicious..." Even during the day he'd gotten a weird feeling from the nurses; it would not surprise him if they turned out to be bloodthirsty, or something along those lines. "...The general consensus I've heard is that it's important to find a weapon because of that."

Jun felt a little weird saying all of that, because pretty much any time he had said something back home, for a while, it was a rumor to be spread. Rumors that came true; and he couldn't risk the same happening here. What was said that morning could have been merely a rumor, spread by a few children for kicks, and if he was spreading it... there was the chance that rumors still came true around him.

There was also the chance that this whole place had been born from a rumor. But that was getting into territory that he wanted to avoid. Instead, he focused on the fact that his hands were itching slightly. Normally, he had something else to do with them besides just hold a flashlight. He rubbed his wrist again, now feeling slightly off. Why wasn't Maya here - or Tatsuya? He didn't want to be here, not without his friends, even though he knew that when/if he went back home, he wouldn't remember them... was it wrong to want to have not wasted this grace period?

"I think, though, that it would probably be best if we don't stay in one place... in case there really are monsters here." He added, distracting himself with dialogue, pointing his flashlight the way he'd been walking when the other boy had found him.

He hadn't seen enough to agree with the other's description of "malicious", but it was safe to say the building's main intention wasn't to be benevolent, either. At least that answered another silent question of his - whether there were other people here, especially similarly dressed "patients".

"That seems like a good idea," Edward agreed after a beat, looking back at the darkness behind him. He didn't like that images seemed to keep floating along the peripherals of his vision and disappearing once he went to look. Combined with the disjointed message of whatever machine had made the announcement on the radio, he could almost believe he was in some sort of... video game. He'd seen one too many science fiction movies of that particular story.

Against his better instincts, the vampire had accepted that... something about him had changed, and he was not going to be able to act the single predator he normally could. "Would you mind if I accompanied you on your search for weapons? If what you say is true, it can't be a good idea to move alone."

Also, this might be a good way to find out something more.

Jun could feel himself get relax when the other asked to accompany him; it seemed like his first thoughts had been wrong, which wasn't that uncommon of an occurrence, but it was nice that the correct impression was positive this time.

Finding a weapon didn't seem like it was going to be an easy task, though; that morning, Sora hadn't had any ideas of where to find something decent, so he was somewhat at a loss of where to look. There were maps, copied into his journal, yes, but he didn't know how much of a help they would be, since he didn't know what was actually contained in the rooms mentioned on it.

"Ah, that would be fine... Though to be honest, I'm not quite sure where I'm going yet..." He admitted, beginning to walk down the hallway. Originally, he had thought of trying to dislodge a pipe or a stick from its place, but he doubted that he had the physical strength for that. However, he did remember there being an activity shed outside. It could possibly contain a baseball bat, or at least something he could potentially use as offensively, or defensively, if need be. The other boy, however, he wasn't sure about. Could he defend himself?

[to here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/700873.html?thread=58056393#t58056393)

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/700873.html?thread=57854409#t57854409)]

As he turned down Pilgrim's hallway, Indy realized that he had no idea what the next stop was. He wasn't a hundred percent convinced that the nurse was telling the truth about Dad having left, but right now he didn't have anything to go on. Besides, he reasoned, if visitors were still in the compound in any accessible place, someone would almost certainly have made that fact known by now.

He still hadn't been to the downstairs file rooms, but that could be a risky trip--there was a fair amount of prime hallway between them and the entryway, and Pilgrim would be barely armed, if at all. They could always make that supply run if they had to. It came uncomfortably close to babysitting, but Indy would need to get up there pretty soon, and an aerosol can to keep the torch burning might wasn't the worst possible trade-off for their time. Outside wasn't even a possibility. Not as gung ho as this guy was. A place with a heavy risk of lab rat patrols might be a bad gamble anyway, with his injured shoulder.

Well, he was supposed to be helping here. He'd lay out the options, let Pilgrim decide what he wanted to do.

Indy reached M107 and knocked with the hand holding the whip. He was aware that he might look faintly ridiculous to Pilgrim--after all, it wasn't every day most people opened their door to a guy with a leather jacket, fedora, and a chair leg wrapped in a burning t-shirt. Looking faintly ridiculous was not high on the list of things Indy cared about right now.

The computerized announcement system had been kind of off-putting all day, but now things were just getting plain creepy, especially with the lights turning out so suddenly. It's just a game, it's just a game, Scott tried to assure himself, though that little nagging feeling from earlier keep trying to jab him in the brain with a fork whenever he thought that. In any other game, he would have been tempted to head out of the room to explore no matter what mission instructions he was given; when there was no timer in the bottom corner of the screen, any game instructions could be followed in as much time as Scott damn well pleased. In this case, however, the atmosphere of his virtual surroundings was so ominous that he felt safer just sticking around in the room waiting for Indy as told.

As he waited, he checked around the room for any items or secret spaces that he might have missed earlier. Sure enough, under his pillow he found a flashlight with full batteries, and in his drawer he found a key ring with two keys and a bundle of pens, among other things. He didn't find many more useful items than that, which was lucky considering he only seemed to have four inventory slots - left hand, right hand, left pocket, and right pocket.

By the time Indy came knocking, Scott had the flashlight sticking out of his right pocket, the keys in his left (they had to go to something if they were available to him), the bar from his closet in his right hand, and three pens jutting out from between his knuckles in his left hand like makeshift Wolverine claws. "Whoa, nice torch," said Scott in awe when he opened the door, gaze fixated on the burning end of the chair leg. The man's outfit didn't faze him in the slightest either; he wouldn't have had Indiana Jones looking any other way. "So where to?"

"Thanks," Indy deadpanned back. "My prize for outsmarting the Landel's Sphinx. Hopefully we'll actually find some way to use it." At least Pilgrim had his flashlight in case it went out. Looked like he'd picked up the closet bar too--following advice; that was a good sign in Indy's book. The pens were kind of a strange touch, but if Pilgrim thought they would help, Indy wasn't going to talk him out of them. God knew he'd found uses for stranger things during his adventures.

He dug into his jacket pocket and unfolded the two maps, flattening them out against the door frame with the free fingers of his whip hand. "I don't have any real plans tonight. So far I've been focusing on looking for information--I still need to check the first-floor file rooms and some of the doctor's offices. If you want advice, I'd say those supply closets I mentioned might be your best bet as a first stop." He pointed to the east side of the second floor on the map. "It's your call, though."

While he was listing options, he remembered that their range of choices was a little broader than usual--wasn't that beer thing supposed to be tonight? Indy wasn't in much of a carousing mood, but a stop there might not be the worst choice they could make nonetheless. A destination in the men's block (M90, wasn't it?) would mean a pretty safe trip, and he was pretty sure the notice had mentioned information. Maybe someone would have some to spare.

It occurred to Indy that taking Pilgrim to a drinking party might give him the wrong idea about just how dangerous Landel's was. It also occurred to him that that wasn't necessarily his problem--although somehow, he thought with a sigh, these things usually had a way of becoming his problem.

"One more thing," he added. "One of the patients nearby is supposed to have an open house with beer tonight. I can't guarantee that we'll get anything useful out of it, but I thought it was worth noting."

Scott made a face at the mention of beer. "Yuck, no thanks," he said simply. Besides the fact that outside of games, he was far from alcohol's biggest fan, he figured that a beer party sounded more like a funny sidequest or easter egg to be checked out later. It would be best to focus on other things first, he thought. Like finding a butt-kicking weapon or something.

"Supply closet sounds like a good idea to me. Seems like a good route to get the lay of the land with. I'm betting I'll like the items up there, too." Instinctively he made a move to grab the map, but then remembered that his inventory was already full. Stupid challenge-happy game designers, Scott grumbled mentally, moving his hand back. The more he thought about it, however, the more the design decision made sense. At least the support characters have more slots. Indy's got the map, the whip, the torch, and maybe something else cool too. Maybe that's how you're supposed to get more items - team up with as many other characters as possible so that everyone can have more items between each other. Wow, just like in real life! Awesome, I can dig that!

With a confident smile, Scott moved away from the door and motioned for Indy to follow him. "All right! 3, 2, 1, Mission Start!" he said as he started down the hall.

[To here]

Giovanni didn't sleep. The excitement for the coming night kept him awake; a nurse had told him that he should try to get some rest, but he was perfectly content with sitting at the desk and reviewing the notes he had written in the journal. When the lights went out, he sat on the edge of the bed and held his head in his hands, closing his eyes and trying to shut out any outside stimulus so that he could think. However, he didn't have time to think for long: he lifted his head up and involuntarily opened his eyes at the noise of the intercom coming on. I.R.I.S. spoke, and his frown deepened as she went on. He thought back to what Badou had told him, and then what Fai had told him, and then, without further ado, he stood up.

Light - he reached under the pillow and retrieved the flashlight, flicking it on to test that the battery worked and then flicking it off again. Shoes - there were boots and sneakers in the closet, weren't there? Giovanni stepped out of his slippers, not bothering to arrange them neatly, and pulled on the sneakers from the closet. Communication - wasn't there a radio on the desk? He checked, and indeed there was. He tucked it into his pocket along with the keyring. Last but not least, weapons - Giovanni turned on the flashlight and shined it around the room, but it was just as it had been during the daytime: completely void of anything useful. He would have to find somewhere that would be sure to have items that could be used as weapons (or better yet, real weapons themselves). With a small smile pulling at his lips, he headed into the hallway.

The hallway itself was empty, but Giovanni could hear the shouts and speech of people in adjacent hallways. It seemed like the whole institution had come out to play. Amusingly enough, the building seemed more lively during the night than it had during the day. Keeping his flashlight aimed low to the ground, covering half of it with his fingers so as not to draw unnecessary attention to himself, he looked down both ends of the hallway. Weapons - weapons, he needs weapons. Where would they-

He had an idea. Since he had no time to waste, he took off towards the bathrooms in a jog.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/705883.html)]

Setsuna had been staring up at the ceiling, wide awake, when the announcement over the intercom was broadcast.

Frowning, he slowly sat up and reached for the flashlight he had found underneath his pillow a little earlier and flipped its switch. This was certainly an unexpected turn of events. Was someone able to locate the institution's main computer before he and Feldt had a chance? The likelihood was high, since it appeared that whoever had hacked into the system had also caused the door locks to be released. But more importantly, had any important data been wiped off?

Either way, the mission remained unchanged. He was to fetch Feldt in her room, and they were to locate said computer to gather more information that the staff at Landel's refused to provide freely. And then there was the subject of the other Celestial Being member who had communicated with them via the Bulletin Board...

He made sure to grab his journal before he headed towards the door. Hopefully, he would also be able to find sufficient enough materials to improvise a weapon with. Flashlight in hand, he slowly turned the knob and stepped into the hallway.

He swung the flashlight in both directions before proceeding to the left, the thought that the atmosphere felt ominous refusing to leave his mind. Distant footsteps and voices indicated that the other patients had also left their respective rooms and were also investigating the strange occurrence.

But so far, no one sounded as if they were in grave danger, so he continued advancing in the direction of the female block, intending to fetch Feldt at room F25, as was earlier planned.

The metallic, warbling sounds of the computerized intercom woke Minato from his brief nap. Despite the strangeness of the entire situation, he had felt the need to get as much rest as possible before tackling the evening. If everything he had been told by Yukari and Mitsuru was true, he would need as much energy as he could muster for exploring the institute by night. He pushed himself off of his pillow, frowning as he felt a lump that hadn't been there before. A quick search ended with him finding a cylindrical-- a flashlight? Very useful.

...And bright. He winced and aimed the flashlight away from his face, shaking his head briefly to get rid of the dots that had temporarily blurred his vision. With the lights off, everything seemed more ominous, and he did not need a window to know that it would be a long time before dawn greeted him.

Sliding out of his bed, Minato looked down at his feet and noted the slippers. They were comfortable for shuffling around the grounds by day, but if he needed to run, they wouldn't be very helpful. He would also need a weapon.

Finding a weapon was his immediate priority. He hadn’t been able to find anything remotely useful to take apart on his bed, but maybe something in his closet…

So that was two things to look for. Pushing the closet door open, he fetched the pair of white shoes he had seen while scanning through his closet earlier. After replacing his footwear and storing the slippers in the closet, Minato moved to shut the door before an odd bit of inspiration took over. He tugged one of the T-shirts from its hanger and then tested the formed plastic—it wobbled when pressure was applied, but wasn’t entirely flexible.

Holding the hanger by its hook, the boy turned away from the closet and pointed his flashlight at the desk. If he couldn’t find a weapon right away, making one was his only option. The silence of the sound-dampened room was jarred by the sharp, repetitive cracks of the plastic hanger hitting the edge of the desk. It took a dozen swings before the hanger split at one end, and Minato fumbled with the hanger and his flashlight as he tried to break the length of plastic on the other end.

The end result was a thin tube of formed plastic, about a foot and a half long. It wasn’t anything he would feel comfortable fighting off Shadows with, but it might work if he ran into surly patients. He still wasn’t sure what to expect out there.

He tossed the remains of the hanger back into the closet before returning to his desk. Keys? Those hadn’t been there before. He slid one of the keys in the drawer to test it, frowning in slight confusion as the lock turned. Why would he need to lock anything in his desk? The other key was shaped differently, and he made a mental note to himself to figure out what it could be for.

It didn’t take a second glance for him to figure out what to do with the roll of pens in his desk; he pulled one out of the bundle and grabbed the unused journal off of his desktop.

He hesitated as he stood there, trying to hold his makeshift weapon, the journal, and his flashlight. This isn’t going to work. Gray eyes averted over to the closet, where he had noticed the long brown coat. He could use the tie as a belt. As he bound the journal to his back with the coat tie, Minato looked at the radio sitting quietly on his desk. There wasn’t much else in his room to take, but was it necessary to take everything he could carry?

In the end, the desire for music—in whatever form it was available—won out. Still feeling underdressed for the ‘mission,’ Minato stepped out of his room and into the hallway.

His preparations had taken quite awhile; there were no lights or nearby movements as Minato poked his head out into the hallway. Despite what Yukari had told him, he still half-expected to see the greenish tinge to the darkness that marked the Dark Hour.

The keyhole on the door deserved a closer inspection. With faint satisfaction, Minato listened to the bolt slide as he turned the key in the lock. So apparently he could lock his door if he felt the need to. This would probably be useful if he actually had something worth guarding in his room.

He turned to face the hallway again, shining his flashlight in either direction. Time to do some exploring.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/700873.html?thread=58271177#t58271177)]

And just like that, the door had unlocked. The voice that had come from the speakers was odd, and had reminded Heat of the Dissemination Machine back in the Junkyard. The announcement was made even more confusing by his lack of context. If it really was a machine, then it was malfunctioning. If that was the reason the power had gone out, it was a lucky break for him.

Here, at least, was a use for the flashlight. Though he didn't like the idea of having to worry about keeping track of it, his eyes weren't quite good enough to penetrate a pitch black environment. One look out of his room had shown that there weren't any windows or lights aside from those other escapees carried - and he didn't appear to be the only one taking the opportunity to leave. His roommate had left immediately, but being as lost as he was Heat decided to exercise some caution for once. It was one thing to break a door down. It was far more suspicious when the door opened on its own.

Something flickered on the edge of his vision, and the Asura spun to catch it with the beam of his flashlight but found nothing. He scoffed at himself. Just because he couldn't transform into Agni was no reason to jump at every small thing. He was still a force to be reckoned with.

If each of these rooms held at least two people, then the rest of his tribe was sure to be around somewhere. It was just a matter of finding them, then finding answers.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/700873.html?view=58012105#t58012105)]

Edited 2009-08-31 09:38 (UTC)

Chihaya had been quiet through dinner, to the point of pretending to sleep. Lord Michael, this place.... he was really confused about what was really real. That HAD been Lord Michael but....

Chihaya waited a while before getting up and heading out the door (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/701217.html?thread=58017057#t58017057).

Walter had been sitting on the bed, tracing patterns on the walls, when the intercom went off. He listened to the message but what really mattered was that the door was open. He quickly gathered the coat and the axe from the closet and the flashlight from the pillow and stepped out into the hall.

For a moment he thought there was a hole in the wall next to him, but it vanished when he cast the beam from the flashlight on it. He looked at the wall with nearly visible disappointment but he had to move on. Eileen was somewhere in this labyrinth and he would find her and return with her and Henry to the room.

Even if interaction with his roommate hadn't exactly gone according to plan, Chekov hadn't let it dampen his resolve. He'd discovered his own flashlight, figured out how to turn it on, and was proceeding to the rendezvous point at a steady, careful pace. Getting to the rendezvous point was more important than getting there quickly and being careless.

...still, he found that even as he walked calmly down the hallway, there was an extra touch of urgency in his steps and his eyes swiveled nervously for reanimated bodies. ...so far, so good.

[To here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/700873.html?thread=58246601#t58246601)]

Did the radio run even at night? The strange broadcast issued forth from its speaker and Adam watched it carefully. It was nighttime, lights out - he knew what was expected of him at night in a facility like this one. Go to bed, be quiet and behave. He'd learned how to do those things - not that Bob was interested in letting Adam go on good behavior.

As soon as he thought that, he heard a loud click from the door, and his gaze moved quickly from the radio to the lock. Had it just undone itself?

Suddenly what the girl had told him earlier made sense.

"...I'll admit it gets downright boring during the daytime. Good thing there's more to it than that, right?"

"Good thing indeed," he whispered, slowly rising from the bed. Adam turned, grabbing the radio. He looked at it for a moment, frowning, before flipping it off and putting it back in place. The last announcement had been nonsensical at best, and besides, once he found a way out he wouldn't be needing it anyway.

Instead, he turned towards the door, slowly opening it. There were people in the hall beyond, sure enough - all patients from the look of it, walking about, likely looking for an exit. They all seemed to be carrying flashlights...

Adam pulled back into his own room, eying the radio. Were the flashlights given out to all patients here? Everyone seemed to have one, but in his cursory search of his room that afternoon he hadn't found one. Then again, his quest had been interrupted by the nurse who had insisted on leading him around all day. Adam moved across the room to the desk, quickly going through the drawers there. Nothing. It seemed he hadn't missed anything searching there...

Frowning, he turned towards the bed. He ducked, checking underneath it, but it was empty, and pulling the blanket off revealed nothing. Not a surprise, as he'd been sitting there a moment earlier and would have noticed something under those covers. There wasn't anything in the closet, either. He frowned, staring at his side of the room for a moment. Now, if he were a flashlight, where would he hide? The halls were too dark to wander without one, and he'd really rather not rely on someone else's light. He'd relied on people before, certainly, but never when he didn't have to.

Sighing, Adam sat back down on the bed, and then suddenly stood right back up. He'd placed his hands at his sides when he'd slumped down, but one of them had rested over the pillow, touching something...

Grabbing the pillow, Adam tossed it to the foot of the bed and reached suddenly for the flashlight. He turned it on, then smiled. "Well. Let there be light."

Turning the beam towards the door, Adam moved quickly out through it and into the hall beyond.

There were a few less people now. Adam glanced around, quickly, noting how different the hall looked in the dark. Several times he thought he caught something out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned, there was nothing.

Calm down, he told himself. You don't want to lose it here. There was no reason for that.

Heading down the hall, he took a left, noting a pair of double doors further down.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Night 43: M101-M110 Hall

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M105

outside M105

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M106

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M108

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[Leaving M108]

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