Night 47: Main Hallway, 2-West

[scientist_skye]

[from here]Once Ema and Agatha made their way upstairs, they were officially in unfamiliar territory. At least, it was unfamiliar to Ema; the girl had no idea where Agatha had and had not been. She figured it was time to check in with the other party. Even if there was an unspoken agreement that Agatha was the leader of the pair, Ema still

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[mistressmadgirl]

"This is the first time I've been this far," said Agatha, a little tensely despite herself. It wasn't as if they were moving through a giant mechanical deathtrap, but there was a certain menace in the air that brought it to mind. "From what I've heard, they should be up here somewhere, but there's a lot of ground to search..."

[damned_monsters]

It wouldn't be right if brand new patients got too far in their searching, would it? The whole point of having monsters on the loose was to stunt that sort of progress, and that was no exception when it came to these two girls.

Three of the commonly seen rats who had seemingly come out of nowhere started clattering across the floor with sharpened claws, headed in a straight path toward the two girls. While they kept near the walls, their squeaking noises couldn't really be classified as squeaking; there was a deepness to the sounds that came from their toothy mouths that betrayed their unnatural sizes.

Closer to small cats in size, the three rodents darted between the girls' legs, and two of the creatures wasted no time in jumping for each patient, ready to sink their teeth in at the first chance that they got.

[ Court ]

[scientist_skye]

Agatha's answer was not the declaration of confidence that Ema was hoping for. The pair was wandering around the Institute armed with little more than a vague idea that their belongings were upstairs somewhere. Ema had to admit she was disappointed--not in Agatha specifically, but in the situation overall. Perhaps it had been too much to hope that escaping this place was going to be easy.

Movement caught Ema's eye, and she looked over to see three smallish creatures moving toward the pair while hugging the wall. By the time Ema managed to fish her flashlight out and turn it on, the creatures were underfoot. They were... oversized rat things. With claws. And sharp teeth. And a low, ominous noise that wasn't really the sort of noise that rats were supposed to make.

And they were pouncing.Ema, a failure in all things physical even when not taken completely off-guard, flailed and swung her t-shirt-made-bag at the creature pouncing specifically at her. The jerking movement was enough to prevent the thing from sinking its teeth

[mistressmadgirl]

Agatha herself was a lot calmer, having expected something- not necessarily this, and not right now, but in general- and having spent the past few months with her kolee Zeetha gleefully beating her senseless at every opportunity to teach her how to respond to a sudden attack. She was already stepping forward with a hand raised by the time she really registered the first aggressive movement, and while her mind was saying What's happening? Well, a couple of big rats seem to want to eat us. I've seen worse, her reflexes were bringing her flashlight down hard on where they expected her rat-thing's skull to be.

Ema didn't sound as if she was doing quite so well, and if there had been time Agatha might have wondered if she should have discussed the possibility of a fight with her before setting out. She had looked a little... sheltered. But at the moment, all there was time for was to yell "Just hit it!" Complicated things could come later.

[scarefaux]

[From here.]

The Scarecrow turned one more time to look over his shoulder as they reached the top of the stairs, just to be sure nothing nasty had followed them. How had he ever managed as a scarecrow? The more accustomed he grew to his humanity, the harder it was to see himself returning to his straw body and its lack of sensation.

No, he wasn't about to start thinking like that- not until he was sure his brain was rested and well, and certainly not while he needed to be keeping his eyes peeled for somethings and the Mangled Witch and whatever other spooks were lurking in the shadows. They were in the Horrible Hallway now.

"Which way should we go?" he asked quietly, hoping no one but Abe heard him.

[bprd_fishman]

Abe hadn't seen anything on the stairs either, but he'd seen things with the potential to use stairs and that was all he needed for caution. He shifted the flashlight to his other hand and flicked the light around the corridor.

Being in charge was more trouble than he'd expected. "Perhaps to the middle of the building?" he asked, pointing down the hallway. "The area around the Sun Room seems to be a protected area, and below it lies the passage to the basement. Therefore it makes a certain degree of sense that the area above the Sun Room is important as well." Abe's hands kept moving as he exposited, making the flashlight beam flail around like an advertisement spotlight.

When in doubt, trust symmetry. Magic loved symmetry.

[scarefaux]

"I suppose that does make sense," the Scarecrow said, clicking his flashlight off. He thought briefly that he might have felt the pressure from the button beneath his finger, but it seemed to be a false alarm. He really would have to figure out what caused the clever little thing to activate when they were in a safer area than the Horrible Hallway.

After all, if there was a reason it was turning off his senses so much, maybe he could find a way to avoid it from happening at all.

[To here.]

[fourstonewalls]

[from here]

The hallway above looked identical to the one below, but this one was currently unoccupied. She panned her flashlight across the hallways leading off -- one by one, the light a silent question. Then she added one final request to those both implicit and explicit.

"As well as anything else you feel is relevant."

[unheroed]

The emptiness of the hallway was almost a relief considering what they had just come from, but Harvey knew that it wasn't going to stay that way for long. Chances were that the people they'd passed in the stairwell would make it up here soon enough -- unless they were attacked, but that wasn't Harvey's problem

[fourstonewalls]

Blood in the dark. The smell, and the smooth weight of the flashlight in her hand, were the first things that made sense. It was the bleak, over-precise sense that was her sole insulation against the worst humanity had to offer, but it was finally something familiar.

Lana crouched down next to the puddle, her flashlight holding it dead center. Her other hand went automatically to her pocket for a rubber glove. Which wasn't there; nor was the pocket she had reached for. She sighed, and settled for a quick visual study of the trail. Because a trail it was -- there was a whole constellation of drops and secondary spatter, even if the middle two had smeared under Harvey's foot. "Hm. Fresh, and from someone moving like so." One hand swung over her head, tracing out a line that ended at the door they'd come out of. Her eyes never left the floor. "Fell -- say between two and three feet. A little low for a gut wound, but without a ruler and better light, I can't rule it out. Nor determine a species, or verify the composition

[unheroed]

While Harvey could understand why Lana might want to hold onto something that she was familiar with (analyzing a crime scene), there really wasn't much point in it. This very same scene was probably mirrored around the institute in more than a few places, and the reason for it was pretty clear. Not that she could know that yet, but at least this showed him that she was clearly a professional

[stlg13bomber]

From here.]

Carter didn't notice the blood on the floor until he'd actually stepped in it and skidded half an inch. He tilted his flashlight down, wondering who'd been so messy as to leave a puddle unattended and about to warn his companions of the slipping hazard before

It was red and viscous, smeared across the floor as if some horrible battle had taken place here. At the end of the trail lay a still, furry lump brutalized beyond Carter's ability to recognize it. Carter gasped, stomach twisting in horror.

"There's...there's blood here," he said in a faint voice, staggering backwards until his back hit the side of the doorframe. "There's something dead here!"

The idea that this might not be such a good place, formerly a mere bit of trivia in the back of Carter's head, began to work its way towards his frontal lobe. The only thing he'd seen spray that much gore around was a mountain lion who'd gotten into the chickens, and you didn't find those inside hospitals very much.

[tartaros_avatar]

Recluse saw and smelled the blood immediately, looking over the bodies, the scent of the blood so thick that it was almost enough to identify the creatures by themselves. "Rats." He'd certainly seen enough of them to last several lifetimes during the Great War. He nudged one with a foot, getting a little of the blood on his leather boot. "Likely the most harmless out of the things that try to attack here."

"We should keep moving," He said, scanning the hallways around them. "I don't see any other hostiles here, but that's no reason to slow down."

[toxicspiderman]

Recluse had gotten the necessity of speed. That was something. Carter, on the other hand, was freaking out and not moving. And now Recluse was kicking the damn thing and releasing a plume of toxic fumes from its bowels. Or that was what Sangamon Taylor's false alarm he had once called a nose was claiming.

"The cockroaches aren't too bad." His voice was strained; he was holding his breath and gritting his teeth. Unless he wanted to be lightheaded or the decaying monstrosities had opened an IHOP branch in the chem lab, he needed to keep dinner down.

He lunged across the hallway and around the corner, faster than a greased turd around the U-bend.

[to here]

[razing_phoenix]

[From here.]So they had made it. Guy turned toward Claude once they had both set foot on the second floor, looking somewhat relieved. Dodging attacks didn't sit well with him, but he knew he'd been beaten and battered enough in recent times

[full_score]

Once they'd reached the top of the stairs, Claude let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He was still feeling pretty unsettled with the way they'd had to bail out of the hallway like that, but...what was done, was done. He understood this was probably for the best, even if it still made his stomach turn a little bit

[razing_phoenix]

While Guy knew that getting more pain medication probably wasn't a terrible idea, he didn't think he was hurting enough to really justify it. If they went to the pharmacy they'd likely end up wasting a good chunk of time when it wasn't entirely necessary. Heading straight didn't seem like the worst idea, though. Guy was pretty sure he hadn't been that way much, so it might be worth exploring. It was always good to be systematic about stuff like this

[full_score]

When the radio suddenly came to life, the blond jumped a little in surprise. He hadn't expected the thing to actually go off, and he couldn't help but admire Guy a bit for thinking to bring his along. As his friend held it up for the both of them to listen, Claude moved in closer, straining to catch every word.

He wasn't so surprised to hear that the radio man was gone for good, but it did mean that he probably wouldn't ever get any clear answers as to why he'd told them the key to escaping was in the basement. This new radio personality, whoever she really was, hadn't been much help to them the last time she was around, either. Hadn't she led them straight into a trap that night he and Guy had gone into the music room? He hadn't forgotten those two lurching monsters that had come for them from seemingly out of no where. There was no way that had been some kind of coincidence. It was for that reason that Claude wasn't so sure how much stock he could put into any of her future clues, but...well, it probably wouldn't hurt to