Night 72: Night, Farwell

[nobleman]

Who: Anise Tatlin, Claude C. Kenni, and Guy Cecil
Where: Section 6
Summary: Having met up with Claude and caught him up on what they'd heard, the three decide to get some rest. But there's still plenty of work to be done...

The plan had been to meet Claude along the river that bordered the area with the courthouse and the section of town that contained the subway station they'd come out of. It wasn't a very precise meeting spot, but they hadn't had enough radios when they'd made those plans.

And so Anise and Claude had moved down along the river until they found Claude waiting for them. They all shared the spare bit of food they had, before Claude explained that the part of town he'd explored had been full of abandoned houses, and there were even a few that had usable beds.

They tracked their way back there, and once inside and settled, Guy and Anise took turns catching Claude up on everything they'd heard from Alana: the device that might be able to knock out Landel's powers, the slim chance that their brainwashed friends could be saved, and so on. They also handed over his brand new radio, of course.

By the time they were all done talking, the day was halfway through and each one of them was drained after being up for well over twenty-four hours. There were only two beds to choose from, and so after some deliberation, it became pretty obvious that Guy and Claude would have to share one of them. Guy didn't really mind, but he couldn't help noticing that Claude was kind of nervous about the whole thing...

That stopped mattering as soon as their heads hit the pillows, though, and by the time Guy woke up again it was nighttime.

He blinked his eyes open a few times and then slowly sat up in the bed, dragging a hand through his hair. It was pretty strange, having time pass while he slept when it never really had at the institute. He stretched and then slipped out of the bed to wait for the others to wake up, moving over to the bedroom window to peer outside for any sign of danger.

Comments

[earthling]

The absence of the warm weight beside him was what pulled Claude out of his dreamless sleep. Although he'd slept hard, he couldn't say he felt very rested. It was one of many stark contrasts to life in the Institute, but a challenge he was prepared to meet if it meant being able to walk free.

As he sat up, Claude arched his back into a stretch, and he barely managed to stifle a yawn. Immediately, his eyes were drawn toward the reassuring sight of Guy lingering near the window.

"Hey," he whispered, not wanting to wake Anise up prematurely. "See anything out there?"

[gald_digger]

Anise had fallen asleep almost immediately after her head hit the pillow. She slept more soundly than she had in a long time, but a sense of stirring in the room awakened her. She remained lying still for some time, her eyes closed and her arms still wrapped around Tokunaga, until she heard a voice in the room. It took a moment to register that it was Claude, though there wasn’t any urgency in the tone, so she supposed it was okay to take her time getting up.

After a few more seconds of enjoying the warmth and softness of the unfamiliar bed, she slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes. It was dark, but she could see someone (Guy?) standing near the window. Was it the middle of the night? Anise wondered if they were ever going to get back to having normal sleeping patterns.

[nobleman]

Guy heard Claude shifting around in the bed before he spoke up, and so his voice didn't startle him. He shook his head, though. "It's hard to see much. There aren't many light sources here." He could see a few spots of light out in the distance, which were probably fires people were burning, judging from the thin plumes of smoke he could barely make out.

No monsters, though. This would have been a ghost town if it weren't for the fact that the rebels had made it their own. As Guy turned his back to the window again, he saw that Anise was up too. It looked like none of them were particularly light sleepers...

"Guess we should eat something and then get going, huh?" The question was, where were they headed? They needed to check in with the rebels about that device that Alana had mentioned, but would any of them be awake at this time? Maybe if they hurried...

[earthling]

"Probably." Claude couldn't help but grimace a little at the thought of food, though, mostly because he wasn't sure if the rations here could be called food at all. On the other hand, he knew perfectly well that beggars couldn't be choosers, so there wasn't really an use in commenting on it.

Instead, he sat up completely and placed his feet onto the floor. Seeing that Anise was awake, he offered the girl a smile. "Hey. Sleep okay?"

[gald_digger]

As the blurriness cleared from Anise’s eyes, she caught Claude’s smile and made sure to answer it with a cheerful one of her own. “Yep! I’m feeling totally recharged!” Not really, but she had enough energy that she could fake it, and that was good enough for now. There was no denying that she’d needed that rest, though.

Anise slipped out of bed and picked up the bag she’d left on the floor nearby. Though she didn’t respond right away to Guy’s suggestion of eating, she’d heard him, and was now retrieving some granola bars. “It’s not much of a breakfast, but we’ve got some of these left.” She placed them on a small table in the room, where the others could grab one each. There was still enough to last a day or two, depending on how stingy they were with rationing.

“We’re going back to the courthouse, right?” she asked, looking to Guy to confirm. Going from yesterday’s discussions, that seemed to be the plan. “I hope they’ll have good news for us…”

[nobleman]

While Claude had grabbed some rations for them during his time exploring on his own, Guy had to admit that he'd rather go through all of the supplies that they'd brought with them before resorting to those. Not that a granola bar was that filling. Nonetheless, he went and snatched it up, taking a seat in a creaky chair so that he could focus on eating it.

"I have some beef jerky in my pack, too, if you guys want any." Guy didn't know if he wanted to tear into some meat right after he woke up, so he was going to wait on that. But he knew that Claude in particular had a taste for beef, so it was worth mentioning.

They all seemed to be revitalized enough that it wouldn't be a huge deal to make the walk back to the courthouse. Guy nodded in response to Anise's question. "We shouldn't stay here too long, either. We've gotta make it back before everyone's asleep..." They really shouldn't have slept most of the day away, but it just went to show how tired all of them had been.

[earthling]

Thanking Anise, Claude took her up on the offer and took a granola bar for himself as well. Of course, when Guy mentioned he had beef jerky as well, Claude's expression immediately brightened. "That would be great, actually!"

They had more to worry about than food, though, and Claude tried to make quick work out of chowing down on his breakfast--well, dinner...or...well, he wasn't sure what kind of meal to call it, actually. But it didn't change the fact that Guy was probably right.

"I'm sort of under the impression that they have to keep someone awake at all hours of the day," Claude added, "but, yeah, no reason to test our luck, I guess."

[gald_digger]

Taking one of the granola bars for herself, Anise sat at the edge of her bed and took a bite. Her eyes also lit up at the mention of beef jerky, but Claude beat her to the punch, so Anise just chimed in with "Yeah! I'd love that too!" It didn't really go with the sugar-coated granola, and it wouldn't be anything like the soft, juicy beef Anise liked to cook with, but it was something!

The others seemed worried about making it to the courthouse before it got too late. "It'll be fine! We went there in the middle of the night last time, and that Alana lady was up and about then. I bet she's a night owl, or something." Not that there was much reason for them to dilly-dally anyway, but Anise figured they didn't need to rush that much, either.

[nobleman]

Anise and Claude were probably right, that there would at least be one person awake no matter what time they got there. They probably all had to take shifts staying up and keeping an eye out. Even if there weren't any monsters around here, you could never be too careful -- there was no telling who might just wander into the city. The three of them had, after all.

While chewing on a bite of his granola bar, Guy went and grabbed his pack, taking it over to Claude so he could dig the beef jerky out of there and share it with Anise. Once that was done, he worked on finishing his own small meal, taking quick bites of the granola bar until there was nothing left. If nothing else, it was enough to line his stomach and get him through the rest of the night.

Since he didn't want to rush them any further, Guy took a seat once more, grabbing for his boots to pull them on.

[earthling]

"Thanks," Claude said as Guy handed the bag to him. After fishing through the bag, Claude found the beef jerky and opened the package. Before taking any for himself, though, he offered it to Anise so she could take however much she wanted. As he waited, he made quick work of his own granola bar, finishing off the last couple of bites.

"I still can't get over the fact that this place has been out here the whole time," he added after a moment. "Should we ask the rebels here if they're okay with us telling everyone back in the Institute about it?"

It was hard to decide on their own what would be best. After all, Claude didn't want to blow their cover, but he doubted Landel was clueless about this whole setup.

[gald_digger]

Having finished her own granola bar, Anise took to fixing her hair. Last night, she’d been too tired to bother taking her pigtails out before bed, and now they were lopsided and messy. She took them out, ran her fingers through her hair to straighten out any knots, and then tied them back up. Fortunately, she’d done it enough times before that it didn’t take much time at all.

When Claude brought over some jerky to share, Anise took a piece with a grateful grin, and started nibbling on it.

“You really think Landel doesn’t know already?” she asked in response to Claude’s question. It was kind of hard to imagine them having much information that Landel didn’t, especially when there was a shortcut running out of his own basement. She took another bite of the jerky and mulled over their recent discoveries. “… Though I hope he doesn’t know about the device, at least.”

[nobleman]

It was pretty unbelievable to realize that this place had been hiding under their noses for all these months. Guy doubted that it was any mystery to Landel, though. "He had to know about it. He practically sent us here by telling us to check out the Coliseum, right?" Which still didn't make much sense to Guy. The only thing he could justify that with was the possibility that Landel didn't even see the rebels as a threat.

Then again, Landel was a madman, so it wasn't like any of his choices had to follow logic.

"Anyway, I think it'll be fine for us to tell the others. The rebels probably want us to spread the word, right?" The only problem with that being that it was so hard to actually get here. They'd had to make it through the coliseum and then the caverns first, and he didn't know how many other patients were working on that. "Guess we can ask for ourselves, though." With his boots both on, Guy stood up and stretched, waiting for the others to be ready.

[earthling]

"Yeah, I figure he knows," Claude added between bites of jerky. "I just wasn't sure how the rebels would feel about a bunch of people going back and forth between the Institute and here. Maybe that's what they want, but they've got the military to worry about too, you know?"

With the rest of the jerky clenched between his teeth, Claude slipped his feet into his shoes and began to gather his things. For the sake of efficiency, Federation-issue uniforms didn't require any lacing, which was nice when he was on the move.

When he was ready, he stood near the door, still chewing on some jerky, though his gaze moved toward the window. He was still processing all of the information he'd learned last night. A device to stop Landel in his tracks almost sounded too good to be true, but he was still willing to give the rebels' plan a try.

[gald_digger]

Landel did pretty much send them here. That was what made Anise so suspicious of the whole thing. But it looked like none of them were kidding themselves about how fishy the situation was, so it was best to leave it at that.

The military was another problem, too. Anise had put most of her thoughts about them to the side after they left the institute, but now that she knew they had their loved ones somewhere on reserve... well, they couldn't ignore them for long.

Anise fastened her belt around her waist, slipped into her boots, and picked up the shopping bag with food supplies - she didn't know if or when they were coming back here. "Okay, I'm ready! Let's go!" Maybe the rebels could answer some of their remaining questions.

[nobleman]

Claude made a good point about the military. It had been complete silence from them since Landel had ousted Aguilar, but Guy knew that they still had to be keeping a close eye on all of this. Maybe they planned to sweep in again when Landel was at his weakest.

Wouldn't that be odd, if they ended up working with the military to stop Landel? Granted, those soldiers would turn on them just as quickly, since they were all valuable assets as possible recruits. Guy didn't know how this was all going to play out, but it was clear that the odds were stacked against them.

So long as they kept their wits about them, though, they would hopefully be fine. Guy nodded to both of them and led them out of the room, down the stairs, and through the living room area of the abandoned house, to the front door.

The once-neighborhood was dead silent as Guy stepped out onto the street. It was pretty cold out, too, and so he crossed his arms over his chest to generate some warmth before nodding down the empty road. "Back that way, right?"

[earthling]

"Yeah, that looks right," Claude answered. With that established, it didn't take the three of them long to start on their chosen path.

As they walked, Claude couldn't help but occasionally glance over his shoulder. "It's weird," he said after a moment, "but I almost keep expecting monsters to ambush us."

Considering how long they had all been in Landel's, maybe that wasn't so strange after all. Not only that, but abandoned neighborhoods could be unnerving even under the best of circumstances.