Night 37: East Wing, Hall 2-A

[yin_yang_fox]

[from here]

This hall was as familiar as the room halls by now. She quickly walked up to the door she needed, and without prelude, slamming her heel down on the knob. It broke off nicely, again. It was somewhat of an annoyance to have to do this every night.

[to here]

Comments

[cnflctofintrst]

[from here]

Things had been easy so far, and hopefully, they'd stay that way. He walked across the hallway and leaned against the wall beside the door to possession shortage, waiting for Matt to open it.

He'd planned on avoiding this room, but now, even if he skipped out, Matt would go through whatever supposedly belonged to him. There was no choice but to take the contents himself...and he should probably empty Near's while he was at it.

"Have you read your file?" he asked Matt, his voice quiet.

[tostepforward]

Considering how much of a ruckus the other two had been making, it was likely a good thing they'd left when they had. Ayumu hadn't really liked the layout of that room, either; it made her uneasy to have so many shelves and shadows.

Of course, the room they were about to enter likely wouldn't be much better, but hopefully the three of them could stay quiet enough not to attract any of the building's less pleasant residents. She still stuck close to Robin as they moved into the hallway and toward the next room, keeping an unobtrusive eye out for anything that might pose a threat. Fortunately, the hall still seemed rather empty and quiet except for them, as far as she could tell.

Just what would she find in there, though, she had to wonder. Somehow it didn't seem likely that she'd really find her possessions in a box in this place, especially not the things she really wanted to have.

[whohitreset]

After the last door, this one would be a piece of cake. They were all designed about the same. (He wouldn't be surprised if they all took the same key.) A couple soft clinks and the door was open. He stepped back to open it, unable to help a small, somewhat proud smile at Sen (though it was a silly thing to be expressing any sort of pride over).

[to here]

[its_the_mileage]

[from here]

Indy righted himself and scrambled off the floor, looking wildly for the nearest likely door that didn't contain huge killer flying insects from Hell. Right across the hall--he couldn't remember what was in there; didn't give a shit. Anything to get away from those things. "Come on!" he yelled to Pierson, not giving a damn for who or what could hear him, and ran for it.

Mercifully (somebody must be looking out for him), this one was unlocked. Indy practically hurled himself through it and slammed the door behind them.

[its_the_mileage]

[to here]

[its_the_mileage]

[from here]

Indy couldn't figure out for the life of him where those bugs had gone (or come from, for that matter), but he also didn't care. Just as long as they were out of his hair (and arms, and face, and neck, etc.).

He was moving slower this time, almost certainly leaving bloody tracks in the hallway. Tonight hadn't exactly been a triumph of the subtle approach.

The trip to the general storage room was a short one, but--wouldn't you know it--another damned locked door. Indy swore. Fluently. In multiple languages. Then he turned to Pierson.

"Well? Got any brilliant ideas? Or can I break the damn door down?" He kicked it bad-naturedly. Sniping at each other was another bad idea at a time like this, but he just seemed to be full of those tonight. Another one on the pile didn't make much of a difference at this point.

[oldest_man]

Methos flicked the file folders in some strange substitution for an airy wave. The punctures pocking his skin protested even that much useless movement, and he grimaced. The damned things itched like wildfire, even where they didn't hurt. "By all means, smash away. I'd be rather surprised if anything that wasn't deaf, dumb, and animate as a large rock didn't know we were here already."

A part of him still cringed at the thought of attracting any more attention. The insects had been vicious (and why had they turned aside already, rather than waiting to chew apart the next fools to come along?), but they were just insects; human guards would be worse by virtue of being capable of true malevolence. But the hallway was far too exposed. Just this once, attracting attention seemed the lesser of two evils.

[its_the_mileage]

Indy grunted his assent. Banged up as he was, this was going to be no picnic.

He repeated the same process as before, delivering a couple of smashing kicks around the lock to weaken the door until it started to break up under his repeated blows. Now for the really fun part. Bracing himself for the roar of pain, the archaeologist slammed his hollowed-out left shoulder hard against the door. Backed up and did it again.

In the dim illumination of Pierson's flashlight, he could make out the blood on the door. "He will pass over the door of the house, and not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses and to hurt you," Indy muttered to himself. They could only hope. Just another couple slams oughta do it. He gritted his teeth.

Two more attempts weakened it enough that he could clear out the rest with a few well-placed kicks, and then they were in.

"Next time," Indy said tiredly as he picked his way over the wreckage, "this is your job. I've had it with the hero act for tonight."

[its_the_mileage]

[to here]

[enigmaticmedium]

[from here]

Xelloss waited outside patiently for Anise and the cart. In the meantime, he looked at the damage to the door they were thinking of entering. It had been impressive, certainly, even if it had left some blood stains in the process.

"Maybe you should go in first," Xelloss suggested. "After all, you look rather non-threatening, and we don't want to start a fight." Well, not especially at the moment and with other patients, at least. The memory of the bald man's abrupt visitation in the other storage room also came to mind. Anise seemed to like playing cute and charming, the two rugged looking men would be good targets for that.

[gald_digger]

It took a moment to get the cart moving again, its joints squeaking in protest as Anise jerked it out of the corner and pushed it out of the room.

Just as planned, the men had left the door completely busted. The damage was more than she had expected, but as she caught a glimpse of blood spots, Anise realized it probably hadn't been easy. Did this mean those guys were injured? If they were, it would at least mean that they wouldn't be able to pose a threat to them. Probably.

Anise pouted at Xelloss' suggestion. "Boooo. Making little old me take the lead in case they turn out to be bad guys? How cruel." But even as she made a show of complaining, Anise complied. Xelloss was right; some people around here were jumpy - and with good reason - and most would rather get approached by a cute, nonthreatening girl than by a bigger man. Not that Xelloss was very big to begin with. Just when compared to her.

[To here!]

[gald_digger]

[From here!]

Stepping back out into the hallway, it wasn't long before Anise stopped and gave her partner an inquisitive look. "Where to now? Should we head back? I guess we aren't in such a hurry anymore." With their materials securely in a smaller, more portable container, it was safe to assume they weren't going to lose them no matter where they went. That meant that while they could go back as originally planned, they could also just go wherever seemed interesting instead.

[enigmaticmedium]

Shifting the cart out of the way to make it easier to move, not to mention getting the metal from the cart into the pillowcase, was taking most of Xelloss's attention even as Anise finished off their conversation with the two new patients and headed out as well. He managed to finally move all of the metal, and pushing the cart to the side, shovel and flashlight balanced under one arm, he offered the improvised bag to her with a wide smile.

"If you'll take this, I can hold the flashlight and we can look over the map again. Or we can head back, too. We've been very lucky with not encountering monsters so far, don't you think so?" He wasn't completely happy with that, but now that they'd succeeded in getting the metal they'd sought, it seemed too bad if they might lose it in a fight.

[gald_digger]

Anise glowered at the offered sack, though fortunately the sour look couldn't have been too easy to catch with the light unfocused as it was. She only just managed to pass it off, and it was already coming right back at her! With a sigh, Anise pulled her map out and reluctantly took the pillowcase.

"Okay, let's take a look." She shifted her pipe and sack into one hand, holding the map with the other. "It doesn't look like we'll find much more metal around here, but some of these rooms look kind of interesting, huh? Like, the file room and the patient possessions room."

[enigmaticmedium]

Xelloss felt warm and comfortable inside. It had been such a lovely evening so far. Especially without holding heavy bags full of metal.

He leaned forward to look at the map, using the flashlight as promised to help illuminate. "Unless one of us is supposed to have possessed metal! I understand it's only what our fictional lives here were supposed to have possessed. Are you curious about that? Files might be interesting too, do you like reading? I'm fine with either, especially since I don't even know what sort of files they are. It's a mysterious world of possibilities!"

Then he looked up, aiming his flashlight down the hall for a moment. "Are any rooms not raided yet?"