Nightshift 41: Outside the Institute - North

[windstwilight]

[from here]The wall came up quicker than she'd expected, and Senna was glad for that. She found the footholds quickly, and then paused on the top, willing to help any of the others if they needed help. She leaned a hand down loosely for anyone to take if they wanted, bracing her feet on the top. "Everybody cool

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[madeinthehrl]

Soma's attention was still drawn to the car. It had been too dark to see the driver, but she was certain he or she could have been taken down eventually. And then they would have had a car, and wouldn't that have been so much more useful? The logistics of where exactly to keep it after tonight were a bit fuzzy, but she was sure so much more time could have been saved if they'd stopped back then. They might even have been able to escape.

But Senna hadn't stopped, and Soma had never been one for questioning orders. Shifting the spear to a more comfortable position under one arm, she hoisted herself up, reaching the top of the wall with ease. She crouched beside Senna, watching their surroundings quietly.

[akarusa]

"It gets weirder than that?" Hokuto muttered under her breath as she hauled herself up. A talking car wasn't too far-fetched, but she'd still never expected to see one here.

Once she'd joined Senna and the others on top of the wall, she asked, "Weird how? I've seen decontamination stations before, so they're not super-futuristic or anything."

[sheisthecause]

Meche was still getting over the sight (and sound!) of the car in the middle of the rec field when they reached the wall. "I'm not the only one who heard that, right?" she asked, just to make sure she wasn't really going crazy. Kinda tough to tell these days.

She was the last one to start scaling the wall, but the pumps got surprisingly good traction on the uneven surface, and she made it to the top with a minimum of trouble. Not bad for an old lady, Meche reflected wryly--and not without satisfaction.

"I was wondering about this before you got here, Senna, but why is A&C interested in these ruins?" she asked now that they were talking about the town. "Weird or not, they don't sound like they'd have too much to do with getting out of here."

[windstwilight]

"No, you're not the only one," she replied, dropping down to land in a crouch. Senna rose, rotating a shoulder. "Talking car, check. Probably special conseling." Senna made a face suddenly, scratching the back of her head. "Maybe. I don't know what kind of place has fricking talking cars." Some messed up TV-wonderland obviously. Man

[madeinthehrl]

"It could have been an intercom system," offered Soma as she dropped to the ground. She hadn't really thought about the fact that the car was talking, simply because she'd thought there was someone driving it. There probably was someone driving it, she reasoned. An insane asylum with genetically engineered creatures was one thing; sentient cars were another

[akarusa]

"We just saw somebody getting chased by what looked like either a robot car or a haunted car," Hokuto retorted. "Even for here that's weird."

As for the upcoming weirdness, well... she'd just have to see. Maybe everyone else had just missed something, since they weren't used to modern-day? Senna had seen Earth recently enough, but she was guessing not much of it. Hokuto, in contrast, had a lot of experience with "normal".

And she was totally, completely deluding herself if she was expecting anything of the sort.

[sheisthecause]

"I'm pretty sure I didn't see anyone behind the wheel either," Meche agreed, but after that she was ready to let the question drop. Haunted, robotic, sentient--whatever the answer was, it was bound to be weird, and there'd be no way to pin it down but to go back. And even if she'd felt like taking on an angry vehicle with no regard for either basic traffic laws or good manners...well, they had more important things to worry about.

She kept pace a few steps behind Senna and Hokuto, picking her way carefully but steadily over the uneven ground. So far, everything seemed pretty quiet--not a demon beaver in sight. Whew.Hokuto and Soma sounded pretty confident about decontamination stations, but Meche wasn't sure she agreed with their opinions. "What kind of decontamination station are we talking about here?" she asked. "In hospitals, sure, but definitely not in any school I've ever been in. Unless we're just picturing a bathroom with an automatic hand dryer or something." She'd only missed out on about a year of the "late twentieth

[windstwilight]

"I think you're outnumbered, Peries--hey, is that your name or family name, now that I think about it? Anyway, like I said," Senna stated with a grin, having an easier time thinking about it now that they were further away. "Talking car."

Senna swung her arms up behind her head, keeping a steady pace all the same. "Ah... Don't ask me. I'm not too sure with that kind of stuff. It wasn't a hand dryer, I'll tell you that much. More like... something to shower people down or something. Pretty creepy, I think."

[madeinthehrl]

"The driver could just have been short," protested Soma only half-heartedly. This was ridiculous. Cars didn't talk any more than mobile suits did. "And it's my last name. You can call me Soma if you want. Only the commanding officers back home called me Peries." Never mind that the commanding officers were the only people she spoke to back home; the rest of the group's admittedly casual nature was beginning to get to her. Even if she hadn't unwound completely, she was slowly beginning to relax around them.

"It wasn't high-tech - only something I've seen in old photographs. A shower system to wash spilled substances off of you - you pulled a small chain and it dumped water on you. I suppose it wasn't uncommon in chemistry classrooms; it's just that there were no signs of chemistry supplies in the building and the single classroom was in a state of total disrepair." She paused, then admitted, "It's hard to explain. Perhaps you should see it for yourself."

[akarusa]

"I've seen those," Hokuto spoke up. "At least... on TV." She frowned a little. "My school had an eye-wash station in the chemistry lab, but not in any of the main classrooms. If it's a one-room schoolhouse, then I guess it might make sense, but... yeah, that's really weird." Seriously, what kind of school was it?

...sometimes having seen her share of horror movies only made things worse.

[sheisthecause]

Meche struggled briefly to remember her high-school chemistry classroom and gave it up as a lost cause. An emergency shower didn't sound too unusual, though--except when it didn't fit with its surroundings.

Soma (Meche had already been thinking of her on a first-name basis) was probably right in saying that she'd need to see it before she could hope to make any guesses, so Meche's thoughts shifted to the next logical question. "What would they need something like that for, I wonder?" she mused out loud. "Surely they wouldn't have children using too many dangerous chemicals. Besides, if I were the principal of a school so strapped for cash it only had one classroom, expensive chemistry equipment would be the last thing I'd spend my money on."

[windstwilight]

Senna spun, walking backwards, hands still behind her head. She grinned again, widely. "Soma, huh. That's a whole lot cuter. Like your hair." With a friendly wink, she spun around again, noting that they were making decent time by the look of things. Sweet. There was a nice harmony here that worked.

The girl nodded along to the conversation. "Nah, I don't think it was an innocent as that. I mean, seriously. Place that close to the Institute, missing people, lots of blood on the ground... And the place looked old, even if it wasn't. It definitely didn't fit. I think." Senna tilted her head back and forth in thought. "But if it didn't, why would it be so obvious?"

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