Nightshift 34: M61-M70 Hallway

[tyki_pon]

Both nightshift and his Noah kicked in after what seemed like forever. Tyki slicked his hair back and grabbed his things before stepping into the hallway. It seemed he was pretty early considering no one was around just yet, but that would mean no one would beat him to the kitchen, right

Comments

M70

[wild_right_hand]

The two announcements in a row, with such very, very different tones to them, pretty much drove home that this place was really just as weird as people had been hinting it was all day. Tokito still wasn't sure about "monsters" as such--maybe they were just regular animals that Bridget hadn't seen before, or something--but the Head Doctor definitely didn't have good things planned. That laughter was just creepy.

Tokito looked over at Jamie and raised an eyebrow, trying to look calmer than he really was. "Still believe this place is really about helping us get better?"

Re: M70

[wildunderstress]

Jamie, staring with obvious alarm at the speaker from which the announcements had issued, startled a bit when Tokito addressed him. "What - was that about?" he asked nervously, pointing numbly at the speaker. Had the guy on the intercom just called them his pets? That...sounded bad. Creepily bad.

Re: M70

[wild_right_hand]

"How the hell should I know? Obviously it's not good for us, whatever it is." Tokito got up and started moving around the room, opening drawers and throwing anything he found in them onto the bed. Mostly he was finding clothes, but that didn't mean there was nothing in here--people wrote stuff on the board with something, right? He'd had to borrow a pen from a nurse, but most people seemed to have their own.

Re: M70

[wildunderstress]

Jamie watched him a little dazedly. "...what're you doing?"

Re: M70

[wild_right_hand]

"Seeing if there's anything useful in here." Damn, Jamie could be dense. And Tokito wasn't exactly a genius himself, so if he was wondering about his roomie's intelligence that was pretty sad, as far as he was concerned.

The desk yielded the expected pens--a whole lot of them, in fact--and a blank notebook. The notebook wasn't any use, so Tokito put it back in the drawer. A little more rummaging around yielded batteries, so there had to be something in the room that needed them, right?

Tokito moved on to the dresser.

Re: M70

[wildunderstress]

Jamie rose from his chair, frowning. "Are you gonna try to...break out, or something?" he asked dubiously. He knew, after hearing that last announcement over the PA system, that he definitely didn't want to stay here, but neither was he sure that escaping was even a viable option. Whatever security personnel there was around here surely wasn't going to make it easy for them to get away.

Re: M70

[wild_right_hand]

The dresser yielded slippers and some more clothes. Neither seemed especially useful, since Tokito was already wearing slippers and clothes. It was warm outside, too, so he didn't see any need for the bulky sweaters. So far the pens looked like the best bet, but there still had to be that battery-operated something in here. "What, were you planning on just sitting around all night like a good little pet?"

Re: M70

[wildunderstress]

Jamie half-flinched, half-bristled at that; the notion was both insulting and terrifying. "No," he said quickly, making a cursory scan of the room for anything that might be useful in an escape attempt. Seeing nothing, he moved to the neatly-made up bed, a spot Tokito hadn't inspected yet. "Just - d'you know how to get out of here?"

Re: M70

[wild_right_hand]

"No clue. But we're not going to find out by staying in here. Somewhere with windows, or doors to the outside would be a good place to start." Like the field, or maybe the cafeteria--there'd been extra doors in there that might lead who-knew-where.

Tokito moved on to the closet on his side of the room. More clothes. Outdoor clothes, for cooler weather. Tokito didn't like the thought that he might be here long enough to need them. The wooden bar holding the clothes, though, might have potential. He gave it an experimental tug with his left hand, seeing how well it was attached. ... Too well for that hand, apparently, but Tokito wasn't sure he was willing to use the extra strength in his right in front of Jamie.

Re: M70

[wildunderstress]

Jamie grunted agreement and investigated the bed, looking underneath it and then prying up the mattress. Nothing either of those places, but patting down the bedclothes revealed something solid beneath the pillow; lifting it, he discovered a good-sized flashlight. Well, that should come in handy, anyway. He took it over to the desk, having seen Tokito get batteries from the one on his side of the room, and set about unscrewing the end of the flashlight to put them in. "There one of these on your side, too?" he asked, glancing at the other teen.

Re: M70

[wild_right_hand]

Tokito abandoned the closet for now, since he was having trouble making a decision about the closet rod--was a wooden stick worth possibly revealing the truth about his hand? He found another flashlight under his own pillow, and nodded. "Good find. I didn't think to look there."

Cooperation. He had to think in terms of working with Jamie, since the kid had to at least be better than fighting all alone. Probably. "The closet rods are screwed in pretty solidly. I wonder if we could pull one down if we worked together?"

Re: M70

[wildunderstress]

Jamie clicked the flashlight briefly on and off to test the batteries and then looked from Tokito to the open closet. "Guess it's worth a shot," he said, though he didn't sound very convinced. Jamie wasn't exactly built for tearing apart fixtures with his bare hands. He moved to the closet to inspect the way the rod was attached to the walls. "Unless you found something we can use to unscrew it?"

Re: M70

[wild_right_hand]

Tokito looked around the room again--it now appeared to have been recently robbed, with everything yanked open and tossed around--to see if there was anything that might work like a screwdriver. Pens? No. The thing that looked like it should have a keychain attached? Too thick, probably. Everything else was too big, except maybe the plastic utensils from dinner. He grabbed the spoon out of his empty bowl of ice cream and held it up. "Don't think it'll last long, but it's thin enough to fit in the slot..."

Re: M70

[wildunderstress]

Jamie nodded. "Let's try it," he said, turning back to the desk to grab his own spoon.

Re: M70

[wild_right_hand]

Tokito went to one side of the closet bar, reminding himself firmly to grip the spoon with his left hand, and be very careful about any pressure applied with his right. He'd broken bones and game controllers with his right hand, so he really doubted a plastic spoon would hold up for more than half a second if he accidentally used his full strength.

It was awkward and really difficult, but Tokito found that if he held the spoon really close to where it was inserted into the screw slot, he was able to turn the screw a little bit at a time. Better to go slowly than to snap the spoon off trying to hurry, but patience was really not something Tokito was good at, so he really had to fight with himself to keep calm and careful.

Re: M70

[wildunderstress]

Jamie watched Tokito for a second before moving to the opposite end of the bar, squinting as he slipped the end of the spoon into the groove on the screw head. With the right amount and kind of leverage he could rotate the screw without breaking the spoon, though he could feel the plastic twisting dangerously between his fingers as he worked. At this rate, they might end up having to force the bar out, after all...