Nightshift 45: Recreational Field

[doneinthree]

[From here]The air outside tasted so good that Bill didn't even bother to worry about how improbably realistic it was that he could be hallucinating fresh air too. He supposed if his genius IQ had to be good for something, it was for conjuring overly complex delusions. How else would he have come up with that whole bit about old future Spock

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[damned_monsters]

Something stirred in the dark field, making the mists clinging near the walls swirl in brief warning before...something emerged from the deeper darkness by the wall. The form revealed in the dim moonlight might once have been human, but now? Under the twisted experiments of the Institute it was far more than the sum of its parts. And such varied parts, indeed

[doneinthree]

Movement swirled in the corner of his vision as Bill's flashlight went over the area for the second time, and his head turned to face it before the electric light did, catching a glimpse of... a woman? If there was only one thing he knew well, it was feminine shapes, but the rest of it was all wrong: hulking where she should have been slender, twisting where she should have been straight.

You're seeing things, his mind insisted, which was the same time that he called out "Hello?!" - which was also the same time that the woman emerged from the shadow of the high wall, propelled forward by claws and tail and wings.

While Bill was aware of some logical inner voice telling him that he was still seeing things, it could not overcome the soft pink animal part of him that saw those nails and started backing up, clumsily, blindly.

"Okay, now would be a good time to wake up," he suggested to himself, as if just saying it would be enough to snap him out of his nighttime hallucinations. Mind over matter, Bill. Wake up, wake up, wake up-

[damned_monsters]

Though he was backing away, he wasn't moving all that fast; it wasn't difficult at all for the grotesque creature to keep up and come closer still. Its movements seemed uncoordinated, snake-tail undulating over the frosted grass and wings flapping out of sync as though the parts of different origin were still trying to move on their own. No matter how awkward its appearance, though, it was still unnaturally quick to close the distance between itself and its prey.

The leftover lunged forward, driven by a hunger that would never cease, its mouth agape and a string of drool oozing from the corner, dripping unheeded onto its bare chest. One misshapen arm lifted and swung to strike once it judged it was close enough, blade-fingers spread and glinting razor-sharp in the cold moonlight.

[doneinthree]

Even as Bill kept stumbling backwards away from the woman-bird-snake-thing, he couldn't help but stare at her with the sort of detached fascination that came from knowing that you were looking at something which wasn't real. Her awkward, out-of-its-element movements reminded him of a dream: an endless field even colder than this one, a massive improbable creature stumbling across the ice toward him, close enough for him to smell the stink of it but just far enough (inches, seconds) that he wasn't shredded to jerky...

Like now.

Like right now."Son of a-!" Bill spun away from her, but too late - the monster's lunging claws caught him across the chest and shoulder, slashing past both his thin T-shirt and unbuttoned coat. Bright red pain shot through him, and he screamed as he tumbled into the cutting grass, retaining just enough sense to twist his body so he didn't hurt himself worse. Pure desperation fueled what he did next. Bill chucked his flashlight at the monster's head with all the strength he could muster and, without waiting to

[swornandbroken]

[from here]

He hadn't seen or heard anything even potentially life-threatening yet, but Mello remained wary as they went. Sure, some of the other prisoners could've been so suggestible that a little darkness would've freaked them out, but just like the place should damn well have been shut down from the outside by now, it was equally inexplicable that there would still be people trapped here if there were a chance to walk right out every night. He twisted the pillowcase into a sort of rope, and wrapped it around his left hand, ready to swing it if he had to. Maybe it would prove overkill to have headed out with a weapon in each hand, but he felt better with them.

It was fucking cold out there, and Mello huffed quietly in annoyance that he'd been in too much of a hurry to leave the room to look for warmer clothes. There wasn't anything to be done for it now. He squinted out into the dark night and gave Emmett a shrug that said: Let's go while the going's good.

[damned_monsters]

It seemed clear enough for the moment, though with the mists clinging thicker at the edges of the field it could be difficult to say for certain if one was alone out there. It was possible that the way was completely open for the two to reach the far wall and even climb over.

The bell-like howl of a canine that had scented prey, however, would probably make one doubt that assumption. There was no sign for the moment of the creature that had called the hunt, though, and the sound shivered sourceless over the chill field.

[swornandbroken]

Mello followed, switching off the flashlight. In this murk, it seemed likely that the beam would alert other (things, he thought, and pretended he hadn't) people to their presence before it could do its job alerting them to theirs. Thing was more useful as a club, anyway.

He nodded back to Emmett to show he was still good to go. This whole setup reeked of B-movie horror: vague, pseudo-ominous warnings from strangers; noises that were supposed to be spooky. It was all so fucking cheesy, Mello would have laughed if stealth hadn't been an issue. He wouldn't lie to himself, though: he sure did miss the familiar, live weight of his gun in his hand.

[pleading_ngri]

[From here.]

Besides, there was a superstitious part of him that didn't want to announce too loudly any kind of happiness, just in case someone was watching and felt that needed to be corrected. Phoenix heaved a deep breath, giving into to the itchy restlessness that always took hold of him in the open air around here and speeding to a jog as he headed for the other door.

I'd say that's paranoid, but it's been pretty well proven that they're actually out to get us around here.

[To here.]

[war_wounds]

[from here]

A light shudder ran through Ratchet's frame, startling him until he remembered that Sari often made the same spastic movement when she was too cold. The air was uncomfortably cool out here, and a quick glance up at the stars and down at what had to be grass explained why. So, he'd ended up outside. Interesting. The stars weren't rendered all that well, only a thin sliver of their light visible. Well, even a well-coded sim had its limits. What dim light there was was still preferable to the pitch-black building he'd just left.

He could just make out a wall on the far side of the field. There was a decent chance that the sim ended there, and even if it tried to render more environment on the fly, Ratchet would be able to spot the program working. Either way, he'd be that much closer to shaking off this damnable virus.

[spandexorgtfo]

[from here]

There were already a few patients moving through the field, but Kratos paid them little mind; it was more important that they focus on reaching the basement as fast as possible.

Similar to the previous night, he fell to the rear of the group, watching closely for any sign of a monster.

[buteo_sapiens]

< That's far enough, kids, > said a voice in their heads, and something leaped lightly from the top of the wall across the field, trotting closer, but still just deep enough in the darkness to be hard to see. < This is a no-passing zone. >

Which, Tobias considered, was a really awful one-liner, something Marco would say, but it got his meaning across, as did the way his tail-blade glinted slightly in the moonlight, arched and at the ready over his back.

< If you turn back, I won't have to hurt you, > he added, trotting back and forth over the grass, his hooves almost silent as it crushed greenly beneath them.

[faile]

Fortunately, it hadn't taken long for Hitsugaya to arrive, and after a brief exchange of greetings, they were on their way. "I suppose we'll be taking the same route as before, then?" he asked as he began to make his way towards the vine-covered wall they had scaled the night before.

But before he could get near, he heard a strange voice. There wasn't anything particularly strange about the sound of the voice, but rather how he heard it. It seemed to ring within his own head, among his thoughts, though it was easily distinguished from them

[itstaichoutoyou]

Hitsugaya paused when he heard the voice echo in his head. Being called a child did cause Hitsugaya's eyes to narrow a little in irritation, but he wasn't perturbed in the slightest by the telepathic communication. Even if it couldn't be cast in this damned place, shinigami had similar means of communication