touchedgod
in
damned
DAY 59: CAFETERIA
Billy surfaced into wakefulness. Sleep receded like an inky tide, and it didn't say anything to him before it was gone. His dreams had been nothing but the sensation of water, rocking him restlessly in his bottle. There seemed to be an ocean beyond his confines, but he couldn't see it and couldn't reach it. He pawed at the glass, but any progress
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Taura wasn't entirely sure how the languages worked, but she had a feeling Vino hadn't heard of electronic translation. Psychic translation would be really weird, then. She didn't have a chance to answer, though, when he hit upon what was obviously a favorite topic.
That was what people saw when they looked at Taura. Back home, obviously. Bloodlust, even if it was just oversized canines and a jaw slung to use them.
She'd lost her taste for revenge the moment Miles had introduced her to a better flavor. Winning. If you did it right, you could have both, but winning had to come first.
"How many do you think you could take? Ten? Twenty?" She'd done both, and, on one memorable occasion, both at once, but this body was a little underpowered. She didn't think Vino could get close to matching that, but it didn't hurt to overestimate. "What are you going to do when they send fifty after you?"
She let him envision that just long enough for the likely sputtering to start, and continued. "If we're going to destroy them, it's going to have to be an inside job." There'd been something about that last night before everything went awful, hadn't there? Huh. Maybe Vino knew something about that.
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Now, this -- this was interesting. Claire leaned in, eyes bright and mouth grinning. And his expression? Confident. He radiated it. He was, after all, secure in his knowledge that he could handle whatever his world threw at him. Whatever situation Taura was creating, Claire was confident that it was nothing he couldn't handle.
"Easily," Claire said, in reply. Whether or not he came across as convincing was up to Miss Taura, but Claire's ego was one that was deeply rooted on his solid belief in his own existence. There was nothing that could kill him, not even fifty of whatever terrors the Institute decided to throw at him. Nevermind that he'd gotten injured at the claws of just one monster the previous night.
"I'd manage, I'm sure. I'm good at improvising," he continued. "In fact, I'd like to see what they could up with, actually! I need the exercise. Last night was a good warm-up, but hardly enough."
He waited for Taura to finish what she was saying before he spoke more.
"Oh, I see. Well, that would be smarter, I agree! A lot more convenient and probably faster, right?"
Claire paused thoughtfully. "Wait, wasn't there something over the speakers yesterday about this? Some soldier in the military...?"
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"You caught that too? I've been trying to find them, but I haven't had any luck." Just seeing a soldier talking to patients -- really talking, not just barking orders -- should stick out, but whoever it was had managed to keep it quiet.
"Unless they're trying to infiltrate us." That was a worry, too, though not as much of one as some might think. The patients had very few ways to keep things from the staff; the fact that they wanted to put together an assault and escape couldn't be a secret. The right tactics had to account for that; allow that everything they did would be predictable, but would succeed anyway. "I think one of the best things we can do is make them underestimate us. The weaker we look, the more surprised they will be." It meant losing their games once in a while -- maybe another riot wouldn't be a bad idea, if they could make sure that it fell apart quickly.
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On one hand, it meant that the military wasn't too hard to infiltrate if they, the 'patients', had a connection on the inside. But on the other, it also meant yet another link on the chain, right? In his opinion, things were much less complicated if there were less links. Besides, what if this rogue soldier was untrustworthy? That would be problematic, right?
"Anyway, it's the first I've heard of it, really! Interesting! The military's only been in charge for a few days, right? Less than a week! Already, they've got a rat! Sort of an incompetent bunch, right?"
Claire hadn't much trust in the competency of government-run justice groups, anyway. In his opinion, they always seemed to miss all the important points of defending justice and the common people, see? That was why he felt like he needed to step up to the plate himself.
"Oh, that's an interesting thought," Claire commented. "But I doubt they'll succeed. I think our lot have already managed to do our own thing, even while being under military watch."
He was silent for a moment as he thought about Taura's suggestion.
"But wouldn't the better idea be to overwhelm them and show them that there's no way they could even try and control us?" he asked. When a man believed himself to be the god of his world, it really was the only solution, wasn't it? "Besides, if they really do underestimate us, why would they do things like send monsters after us and give us free gifts? It's like a test or a challenge more like, don't you think?"
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"Doesn't mean I'm not going to win, though." She had that in common with Vino -- neither of them wanted to lose, though they might define the words differently. Winning meant as many of them walking out alive as they could manage, over only as many bodies as necessary. The messier this was, the fewer of them would survive, and so many weren't fighters.
The cafeteria went into motion before she could make any more suggestions as to how they might manage it, and it was time to go. "It was nice meeting you," she added, before joining the exodus, and she meant it. It had been a good conversation, and it had taken her mind almost entirely off what had happened last night, for which she was doubly grateful.
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Taura's view on this confused him, but if Claire had cared to understand the difference between their opinions, he might have seen her point more clearly. Perhaps it was because Claire's view of the overcoming of an obstacle was different. Having eliminated the outcome (and thus, fear) of death for himself, what followed in his line of priorities seemed only natural to him. A challenge could have one of two outcomes to Claire -- success or failure. And the point was to succeed, wasn't it? It was nice to do well at whatever tests his world threw at him, right?
Claire might have asked Taura to explain her reasoning to him if she hadn't continued on first. Her next statement was one that Claire completely agreed with. He grinned.
"Well, of course!"
But then, Claire realized that time must have passed more quickly than he'd thought, because the soldiers were already moving to get the patients to the next shift. Oh, already? But the conversation had been so interesting and he would have liked to continue!
Claire managed little more than a tip of an invisible hat to her and a "it was my pleasure, Miss--" he couldn't tell if it should be Miss or Ms. or Mrs., really, but he hadn't seen a ring, "--Taura!" before he no longer could help having to abandon an interesting talk. His soldier was already at his soldier, impatient as always, so Claire sighed and stood up, ready to follow to his next shift. Perhaps he'd find an interesting conversation in the Sun Room.
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