Footsteps echoed through the hallways of the institute. The sounds were hard, quick and efficient – the product of military-issue boots, and the soldiers who wore them. They were a sharp contrast to how the nurses normally sounded when they prepared for a shift change. Patients who'd been here long enough to notice the difference might have found it unsettling, particularly once a fresh flood of soldiers began pouring into the Sun Room, Recreational Field, and Greenhouse. They didn't immediately call attention to their presence, of course, but the weapons they toted on their backs and the spartan way they carried themselves made their sudden increase in numbers impossible to miss.

One or two nurses and orderlies were pulled aside and kept near the exit of all three rooms. It was only then that three separate officers, one assigned to each room, came forward and bellowed over the patients' chatter.

“By order of General Aguilar, all Landel's Institute personnel will relinquish their authority to the military, effective immediately!” they barked in iron-clad voices. “Unless otherwise spoken to, nurses and orderlies will now return to the second floor and await further instructions. No exceptions!

This announcement startled much of the staff, who exchanged uncharacteristically worried glances with one another. But the steely gaze of the soldiers in the room left little room for debate. Save for the few nurses and orderlies standing near the exit, the staff began to reluctantly filter out of the room. With no voice of dissent among them, it appeared as though the military was going to seamlessly take their place as the patients' captors.

At least, that was the case in the Recreational Field and Greenhouse.

The Sun Room, however, was a slightly different story. )