Nightshift 41: East Wing, Hall A

[broken_exorcist]

[from here]

It'd been almost a week since he'd been down this way, though it felt like much longer.  Allen was pretty sure he remembered the right office, especially after he'd watched Tyki and that other patient facing off over a package of cigarettes.

His ribs still hurt from last night's injuries, but at least some of the bruises had started to

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[its_the_mileage]

[from here]

The flashlight beam didn't reach to the end of the hall, but the map depicted five doctor's offices on either side of the corridor. Farther down would be the larger offices and a door to the greenhouse at the opposite end. Simple enough. Indy didn't see anything moving.

He tried the first door on the left. Of course it was locked. Ten locks--no, nine; looked like someone had been into the second room on the left--to get through. They'd better move fast.

"How do you want to do this?" he asked, turning to Pierson. "Go in together one room at a time, or each take one side of the hall?" The second option would probably be more efficient, but it could go sour fast if they ran into one of Landel's pets--or if the offices were guarded.

[oldest_man]

"Considering Landel's fondness for releasing test subjects in strange areas, I think we might want to sacrifice speed for caution," Methos replied. It was a little reluctant, but not too much so. Even outside of the guise of Pierson, he didn't relish the idea of running into one of those strange, mutated apes alone, let alone who-or-whatever had caused some of the more grievous wounds he'd spied on other patients in the common area.

"We can opt to use another tactic if we find a pattern of unguarded rooms," he added. "Though I wouldn't put it past the people running this place to anticipate that sort of thinking."

[its_the_mileage]

Indy couldn't say he was sorry about that decision. "All right. Got your lockpick?" he asked. He wasn't too optimistic about the ultimate fate of the light bulb filament--it'd worked pretty well so far, but one of these nights it was almost certainly going to snap. Like a lot of the patients in here, come to think of it.

With no way to know what was behind all these doors, though, Indy was more than willing to try the subtle approach. If Pierson could get the door open quietly, hopefully they'd have enough of the element of surprise to get the drop on whoever--or whatever--was on the other side of it.

[oldest_man]

"And several backups," Methos replied as he produced the filament and knelt down to work on the first door. "Though if we're going to do much more of this, I'll need to go back for some more spares. Or find a better alternative." The rueful smile accompanying the comment might have been lost on the door in front of him. Once again he found himself wishing for his usual equipment, or at least for companions to call on who had expertise in this particular area. He could hope to find something in town in the morning, but it seemed unlikely, especially if the nurses kept as close a guard as they did inside the hospital.

"Watch my back," he added absently, though several more seconds of work saw the lock clicking into place. He pulled the filament out and eyed it critically. There was one more use in it, maybe, before he had to swap to the next one. Looking down the hall, he found himself abruptly hoping the spares would be enough to even last the night.

[its_the_mileage]

"If it turns out they're not guarded, we can go back to the old-fashioned way for some of these," Indy said. He looked down the hall again in both directions, but nothing seemed to be moving. Pierson made pretty short work of the lock, and Indy tightened his grip on the metal pipe as he edged closer to the door.

"I'll go first," he muttered; whatever arguments you could make about who the leader was here (and no doubt Pierson would have a few to make), Indy was the one better equipped for a fight. "If there's anyone in there, I'll try to take 'em, but get ready to run if this turns out to be the tiger cage." The mild crack sounded a lot less funny to him than it should have as he ducked into the room, pipe at the ready.

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