Night 55: Entry Room
[From here.]Even with the change in staff, the Entry Room looked the same as it did during his first nighttime visit, save for the lack of Mele and her conjured fire. Oh, thinking about her brought back a twinge of guilt- knowing how the town was at night, she surely wouldn't approve of his heading there, even if he was in good company. Well, he
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He did look rattled, though. He was not looking forward to doing his job tonight, especially not with someone new calling the shots. To say that he was a little worked up with the stress was an understatement. Sam could already feel his blood threatening to boil - literally.
Which was why he wasn't going to have much patience for these patients if they didn't turn straight back around. "Hey!" he said with a slight hiss in his voice, holding up both hands. "What are you guys doing here? Do you know how dangerous it is out this way?" His wide grey eyes were half pleading, half filled with frustration. "You're gonna get yourselves hurt real bad, or worse." The ( ... )
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"Don't worry, we've been out there before." He displayed his crowbar proudly. "And we've got protection. It's real neighborly of you, but we'll be fine." He tried to walk around the black-coated man, assuming he wouldn't do anything but complain in order to stop them.
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As the Scarecrow filed that tidbit away as something to mention to his roommate later, a man stepped from the shadows. Another patient? He wasn't dressed like one, but he certainly didn't look like one of the guards or a witch, either. His warning seemed friendly enough, though. "Yes, that's awful kind of you to worry," the Scarecrow agreed, following Carter's lead around the stranger. "We know there are risks out there, but we'll be careful. Honest."
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Were these two for real? He was clearly very agitated about this danger he was warning them of. Even if they felt like they could face it, the least they could do would be to act like they were worried about whatever the danger might be. But no. No, these two were ready to just waltz into whatever Sam the Good Samaritan (for all they knew) was so intensely worked up about with smiles on their faces and thoughtless reassurances falling from their lips. They didn't even know. They didn't even know.
Well then, Sam supposed he had no choice but to enlighten them.
"Oh I really don't think you've got protection, friend." As the man with the crowbar passed him, Sam made a subtle move with his hand, bringing it into range of the crowbar. If he got it just in range enough, a spark would leap from the end of Sam's finger to the bar, then creep up through the metal and into the man's hand. The unarmed man wasn't quite in range yet, and so ( ... )
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Klavier took a quick sweep of the room with his flashlight before walking through completely. The last time he had been in this room was when he'd gone off exploring by himself. He already knew that heading out the front door was a bad idea and that the desks were relatively useless as far as finding information went. So he ignored both. Instead, he walked in far enough for the other two to enter after him, then turned his flashlight to illuminate first one door to their left then one to their right.
"There are actually two file rooms here. I'm unsure as to how they're segregated, exactly." It could have been anything, honestly. He turned his light to focus on the first room. "Both are locked, but I was able to break through the lock with relatively little difficulty." His attention went to the two. "...It would probably be simplest to approach this in order and start with the first room."
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Smelled odd in here, Mele noted as she eased the door open slowly and peered cautiously inside. She hadn't encountered anything weird behind doors she'd decided to open yet, but going by everyone else's injuries, something was going on....
That smell was familiar, for some reason. As was the room, she thought as she stepped in, even though she was certain she hadn't been beyond this door, despite having seen it fairly often in the day. Had someone been burning something in here? There was that one time with Soma when Mele had gotten completely distracted by something completely inane, but that was just that one time, and it wasn't like Mele imagined up things on a regular basis. Discounting the reason she had that pin on her hat...and the name on her necklace thing.... Mele frowned as she shone her flashlight around. Serious deja vu.
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Which, as far as Sam was concerned, could work to his advantage here.
He put on his very best agonized expression (not hard), and groaned. "Ohh god. Oh Jesus, not good," he spoke in a strained tone, as his throat tried to constrict around itself from the pain. "There's somethin' bad out there, miss. It got me real bad. You can't go that way. I'm telling you. You gotta go back. You gotta go back. Please don't go out there."
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Don't you look a mess, she thought as she looked him over. "Don't know anyone who could help," she said cautiously, running through the options in her head. She knew no one who could help; she had no idea how long it was until morning-how did others who'd been injured at night cope? Waiting until day didn't make someone's organ burn any slower, she'd imagine.
More importantly, was whatever was out there coming in? She glanced at the door at the other side of the room as she asked, "What was it?" Nothing that could smash through doors, she hoped. But if it were, maybe that was a lucky break. Or maybe it was a lucky break that someone had already been out there first and thought to warn someone despite his own position. At least this guy's and her situations weren't reversed at this moment; maybe she should thank him. Mele had never been one to be the selfless scout. "... Can you walk?"
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His head shook when asked what the thing was, and if he could walk - with some added involuntary shaking in the rest of his charred body for good measure. "I don't know," he answered on both counts. "But whatever it is, you'd better get out of here. It strikes real quick. You won't even see it coming. Safest way is just to go back the way you came," he continued to insist. Strange hair aside, the woman seemed nice enough. Smart too, probably. He really didn't want to have to do anything to her.
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The smell of charred flesh hung in the air; human, possibly. Lana's flashlight swept the area -- scorch marks there, and ash. A trail of it led to one of the lobby doors. On the other side, the handle of the file room door had been sheared away. Brute force, and not that much required, if a cursory examination from several yards away was any indication. Which it likely was; she hadn't been a top detective for nothing.
She flicked the beam it in a quick dip, towards the undamaged file room door, hoping Ilia would take the hint. No need to advertise that they were here more than they already had. They could check the desk on the way in; that would also give them a little cover if whatever had gone into the lobby came back out.
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That said, the nuclear man was still not exactly peaches and cream. No matter what kinds of breaks he got, this wasn't going to go away. He could wish it away all he wanted, sure, but he might as well be yelling at the sky for all the good it did. It was actually kind of funny, when he thought about it hard enough. This was all going to become routine eventually, wasn't it? As plain and mundane as brushing your teeth, driving to work, or making dinner. This was going to become the new normal, the pain and the fear and the rage all fading and blurring together for the rest of whatever his life. Rise and shine, Sam. ( ... )
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The smell hit Ilia a second after getting past the door, and she stopped when the sound of laughter filled the air. Not good.
"Hurry," Ilia whispered, starting again at a brisk pace. She kept her hands to her sides, trying to give off an air of peacefulness. If they didn't threaten the thing or person or whatever, maybe they could ( ... )
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Lana looked at the lock one last time, and jiggled the handle -- the tumblers were no looser. Brute force had never been Lana's strong suit. Ilia might have better luck with the door, but there was an easier solution.
"The other door is already open -- this one's jammed and Landel neglected to supply us with the appropriate tools for forcible entry." Lana spoke quickly and quietly, but in the same tone she'd have exchanged nonsense about the weather with a colleague. No sense tipping off whoever -- whatever was out there. She slipped past Ilia and strode across the room, hoping Ilia'd be right behind her.
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