Night 58: M21-M30 Hallway

[human_sponge]

[In M24.]In the end, Peter hadn't been able to do a thing while Sam had been taken by the soldiers. Even though they'd made it clear that it wasn't for the normal things -- experimentation or brainwashing -- he couldn't help but feel both nervous for his roommate and useless over not being able to stop it. But Peter had his own plans for the night

Comments

M24

[human_sponge]

The door knocking caused Peter to jerk up from his position on the bed, his heart shooting up into his throat. It was ridiculous to be startled by something he'd been expecting, but his thoughts had drifted off as he'd waited and more than that, the knocking reminded him of how the soldiers had come in to seize his roommate.

Peter couldn't do anything about that, though, and so he redirected his focus, springing off of the bed and rushing over to the door to open it. "Yeah, that's me..."

He had to deal with a flashlight being pointed right at him as the door opened, but that was because it was positioned on top of a box full of supplies that a pink-haired, teenage girl was carefully holding. This would be the second one he'd met today, after Sakura, and the third girl this age, counting Tear. Of course, he'd also spoken to Claire that morning, but she didn't count.

It was a strange pattern, but it wasn't something that could be helped when a worrying majority of patients here were under eighteen.

"Whoa, hey, let me take that off your hands," Peter said, reaching out to try and pull the box away from her.

[roseoverture]

Utena's experience in Landel's was rather the opposite - she felt as though she ran into a lot of older patients, and she was noting right that second that Peter was another of those. Granted, he and many others were still young, but it still stood that people her age or younger weren't as common as they had been at Ohtori. Regardless, age was no reason to get weirded out or intimidated. Not many people struck her as stuffy or unreasonable here, the way the teachers and other staff at Ohtori had been. Well, not counting Akio, of course. Come to think of it, Peter looked about Akio's age, didn't he? It was hard to tell with Americans.

Moving away from that train of thought, Utena answered with a quick "Sure, thanks!", pulling her sword and flashlight out of the box as Peter took it from her. The box hadn't been that heavy, thankfully, but her arms were still glad to let it go.

"So yeah, again, I don't know what all you need, but I grabbed as much as I could carry. It's all from the storage room in that med wing that opened last night," she said, indicating the box and its contents. "So if you ever need more stuff, that's where it is."

[human_sponge]

Peter couldn't help noticing that Utena had a sword. It didn't stand out quite as much as Albedo and his shotgun, but here was yet another young person who carried around a weapon and knew how to use it (or so he was guessing). It was so bizarre to someone like Peter, who knew how to shoot a gun due to hunting trips and even found that to be pretty unappealing overall. Kids just didn't run around with swords.

Of course, he'd already accepted the fact that the other people here sometimes came from places that were very different than what he was used to, but it was still disturbing to think about.

He was getting distracted, though. As she explained, he glanced down into the box. The things that stood out immediately were the burn salve and the bandages -- the former because it'd been hard for him to find during his searches and the latter because you could never have enough of it.

"This is great," he said, looking up to Utena with a smile on his face. "Thanks so much for bringing it over." He carefully set it down on the floor so that he wasn't standing there and awkwardly holding it. "Uhh, if you don't mind me asking," he continued as he scratched at his cheek, "where in the med wing is it? I've never been there before, so if you could just explain how to get there..." Well, it'd make his life a lot easier.

[roseoverture]

"No problem at all," said Utena, nodding at Peter with a smile. When asked about the med wing, she put a finger to her chin, trying to remember the layout. "Let's see... I guess it was pretty far in, on the north end. It was past the Infirmary and to the right, I think. It'll just be marked 'General Storage'."

Either way, she was betting the room would be easier for Peter to get to than the rooms upstairs. Most of the worst monsters and other horrors had been on the second floor, at least as far as Utena's experience with the Institute went. All she had to do was think back to the night of Himemiya's brainwashing to remember that. Probably best not to think about that, she told herself, forcing the tightness in her chest to dissipate before it could fully gather.

"Anyway, there you go, I guess," she said, letting those thoughts go for the moment. "I'd do more to help, but first aid was never really my strong suit," she added with a short laugh. "How soon 'til you guys get up and running for real, do you think?"

[human_sponge]

Those weren't the most detailed of directions, but it still gave Peter an idea of where to look and that was good enough. He knew he couldn't expect too much more from the girl when she had probably only been there once and it had likely been pretty dark on top of it all. "Great, thanks for the info," he replied with a smile.

It sounded like in terms of helping out, though, all she had to offer were the supplies. That was more than enough for Peter, though, and the very fact that she was interested in the idea of a healing group made him feel more confident about the whole thing.

"It's kind of hard to say, but if we're really lucky we can start doing a thing or two by tomorrow night. Right now it's just a matter of figuring out who's committed." Which would have to be his project for tomorrow, if at all possible. "Anyway, I really appreciate all this -- we wouldn't be very effective without supplies." He wouldn't, anyway; it was true that plenty other patients could heal by their own power, no bandages or burn salve needed.

[roseoverture]

"Yeah, that's what I figured. Probably not good to have to bandage up a busted leg with bedsheets or something like that," she said, glad to hear that Peter expected to get things going so soon. She hadn't been critically injured much during her time in the Institute, but one never knew when that might happen next. Never mind the number of patients who probably did get critically injured in a night. The more help those people could get, the better.

"Good luck with the rest of the night, then," said Utena, giving Peter a wave as she turned back to the door. "I'll see you around."

[To here]

[human_sponge]

It was true that bedsheets or ripped clothing were pretty bad substitutes for the real deal, and Peter was relieved that he wasn't going to have to resort to anything like that any time soon. Either way, it seemed that Utena had places to be and so he nodded to her and waved goodbye, watching as she headed off.

He was still waiting on Soma. While there was always the option of just heading out and leaving her a note that it was okay to drop the box off, Peter felt like he should be there to personally receive the items and thank her. Hopefully she'd arrive before too much longer. Peter was worried about Max.

[madeinthehrl]

[from here]

Soma entered the hallway at a dead run--or as dead a run as could be permitted under the circumstances. It wouldn't do if anything in her box of supplies broke.

M22...M23...M24. This was it. Soma slowed at last, breathing lightly, then shuffled the box to one arm and knocked.

[human_sponge]

Not much time passed before someone was knocking at his door once more, and Peter knew that that had to be Soma. He got up off of his bed again and moved over to open it, finding that the girl was also cradling a box of supplies. He'd really hit the jackpot this time around.

"Hey, Soma," he greeted with a smile that wasn't quite as bright as it could have been. It was hard to manage that when he recalled the circumstances of their initial meeting. It seemed like the girl was doing a lot better now, but Peter was still clueless as to what she'd gone through and if she was really managing. All things considered, he had to ask. "How've you been? And let me take that off your hands," he offered, extending his hands forward.

[madeinthehrl]

The small smile Peter gave Soma as he opened the door wasn't lost on her, but she chose to ignore it for the time being. "I'm doing fine. Thank you," she added, as she handed the box over.

It would have taken too long to explain, and anyway, she was doing...well, not fine, but better, certainly. She'd reached some kind of understanding with the voice in her head, strange as it was, and even stranger, she seemed to have reached one with Allelujah, too. Manageable. That was probably the right word. She offered a small smile of her own, in hopes of convincing Peter of the same.

"Has Utena been here yet?" she asked. "I've got more of the same, I think. Vicodin, half a box of gauze...some bandages and syringes, too. I'm sorry, I haven't had time to take proper inventory."

[human_sponge]

That wasn't much of an answer, but Peter hadn't been expecting anything more than that. They barely knew each other, after all. It would be silly of him to expect her to spill her guts about what had been done to her simply because he'd been the one to greet her when she'd stumbled through that door. If she'd wanted to tell him, she would have. As things were, it was best not to push the subject.

And hey, if she could smile -- even just a little -- then that was definitely a good thing.

"Yeah, she came by already," he replied as he took the box and then set it down next to the one that the first girl had handed over, pointing it out to Soma. "I guess she had somewhere else to be, though, and you probably do too, so..." Well, so did he for that matter, but he didn't need to make a point of that.

"Anyway, thanks so much for taking the time to bring it over. I promise I'll put it all to good use."

[madeinthehrl]

Soma nodded once, widening her smile slightly. "I'm happy to help. Let me know if you need anything else--and I shouldn't keep you waiting, either."

Resisting the urge to salute, she changed the instinctive motion into an awkward wave and departed, trying not to run until she was out of sight.

[back to here]

[human_sponge]

While Soma's visit had been even quicker than Utena's, Peter knew that he had already made Max wait far too long. It was that and that alone that stopped him from giving into the urge to go through both of the boxes meticulously and sort everything. He could do that tomorrow during dinner -- he was pretty sure that Sam was used to him hoarding supplies by now.

Sam. Peter still had no idea what had happened to his roommate. He knew that worrying wasn't going to fix anything, though, and so he had to try and forget about it all over again.

After grabbing a few essentials (an extra roll of bandages and the bottle of hydrogen peroxide) from the box that Utena had brought, Peter went to grab his duffel bag and flashlight and then considered himself ready to go. He could have brought his shovel with him -- in fact, it almost felt strange not to -- but he realized that he wasn't going to need it if they were just staying in Max's room.

Funny, this almost felt like making a house call. Peter shook his head and then headed out the door and down the hall. No time to waste now.

[To here.]