Nightshift 46: M11-M20 Hallway

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Once again the doors had opened. Cloud believed most of what Yuffie had told him, but it was still unreal the way this place operated. They were clearly being tested, mocked, or both with the nightly routine, yet they didn't have many other options but to take the chances they were given.

Still unarmed, but hopefully ready to deal with anything, the blond nodded a goodbye to his roommate before stepping out into the hall with nothing but his flashlight. Yuffie's room was in the single female block, which was on the other side of the block he was currently in. It wouldn't take long to get there, but knowing that creatures could attack the patients even within the patient block caused him to keep his guard up right from the start.

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Recalling where Anise got the maps from, Luke had a feeling that going to her might not give them the results they needed. "She said she got it from the bulletin," he explained. "Before they decided to make everything harder on people." Not that he knew how well distributed things were before, but Luke could easily imagine. Anise was able to get maps then. That was enough of an explanation of how much things changed. "I—I have a pretty good feeling that she probably will be as clueless as we are." In a way, he berated himself a little for not asking that very obvious question when they were talking. Then again, it was too late now to worry about it.

"So sticking to the second floor pretty much seems like our only option," he said with a sigh. "Damn ... Why can't this stupid place make any sense?" It seems really illogical to assume that no one had made their way around the second floor completely; from what Luke could see, there were a lot of people here. And if there were others providing maps and no stories of people being ritually killed every night, it seemed unlikely to assume that people were less than proactive. No one wanted to be brainwashed—or, at least, that was his logic.

His outburst given, Luke returned to his desk to tidy up his journal and put it away, with the exception of the map of the second floor, which he kept out. Better for tomorrow morning. He grabbed his own flashlight and tucked it under his arm the same way Guy had been, and handed Guy's back to him when he reached him again. "Better get going, right?"

[nobleman]

That did complicate things, then. If Anise had just snatched them off of the bulletin, then anyone could have put them up. Chances were that they wouldn't be able to ask about it on there unless they used some sort of veiled language, but it might be worth a shot just to solve this mystery. There was a chance that someone had just made the map up to try and mislead people, but Guy didn't want to assume anything. "Yeah, we... might be out of luck, then," he agreed. At least Anise had managed to copy it down before the staff had started watching the board so closely.

While Guy couldn't blame Luke for being frustrated, he couldn't stop himself from letting out a lighthearted laugh. "You'd better get used to this place making no sense. If there's one thing that doesn't change here, it's that." Most people got to a point where they stopped trying to explain the odd things that happened and just accepted them as best they could.

Nodding when Luke returned with the second floor map and his flashlight, Guy took it in hand and then turned toward the door. He had to pause for a moment when he wondered which of them should take the lead. It was usually always Luke, and yet his friend wasn't used to this place yet. "Do you know where the stairs are?" It was a subtler way to ask Luke if he wanted to lead or follow.

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One of the good things about drawing maps while Guy was coming was that he wouldn't be going out completely blind. Luke didn't know all the various intricacies of the institute, but he at least recalled where the stairs were. "Yeah, I remember from drawing it," he replied. His hands shifted to fold up the map for the moment, so it would at least be in a different condition. Plus, even if Guy offered to lead, Luke wasn't sure he would have wanted that. It was a thing that he forced himself to do, even in the most difficult of conditions. Making decisions for himself was one of the big changes, and his friends had always been there with him. Now that he was here, it only seemed logical to continue down that vein.

Luke took the proactive position by easing around Guy and opening the door. His flashlight pointed forward, he started down into the hallway, hoping that he wouldn't run into anything problematic along the way. And if he did, at least he would have the meat cleaver, which felt decidedly better than a stinky old pipe.

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