In the Lobby of the hospital, of a quiet evening, Ash was sleeping. Snoring slightly, truth be told, in one of the hard hospital chairs. The sound of the elevator invaded her tenuous sleep, the change in the air from the vibration, and woke her. At about the same time that the Freeman Commander Garth Lowinn wheeled his chair down the hall from the elevator shafts to the lobby, Bliss Lovejoy limped in. She'd hurt herself on her motor bike, an accident in the dark. Ash did a preemptory examination right there in the lobby to determine if Bliss’ wrist were broken and what damage had been done to her knee.
Both women noted the improvement in Garth's appearance. Then Ash teased him about his relationship with Terra and how he was all the research doctor talked about. Garth, for his part, made himself scare down the hallway.
While Ash was still examining Bliss, Malybdemus came in with gasoline in hopes of trade for sterile wraps, alcohol, syringes, and various chemicals and information. He wanted news on the Church – or Nukes as he called them – the Freemen, everyone. While Ash wouldn't trade hospital supplies to him, she did inform him that there was a Freemen soldier in the hospital who'd just ventured down the hall and he might get a good trade from him for information but warned him at keeping politics out of the hospital. He went in search of Garth and Ash tended to Bliss’ broken wrist. There was no indication by temperature of any signs of infection and that pleased the Union Medic.
Shad Grey came along then on his constitutional from within the hospital to the lobby and Garth returned apparently unfound by Malybdemus in the mean time. Ash suggested that Shad, ridden with some bug, speak with the Commander to discuss with one another their various maladies. Shad said that he would talk even to Makabb, the god of suffering, at this point; but went to sit by Lowinn to talk.
the dull plodding of the metal against the floor sounds as the metal tipped end of Sitharis’ fetish spear, held in clawed hand, is heard as he stepped through the door. The cold reptilian stare met Ash's nod as she offered it after hearing him before she seeing him. His serpentine tongue slithered between rows of razor-edged teeth as each step took him further into the room.
Ash poured antiseptic on a swab, careful not to get her own dressing damp as she tended to Bliss’. Sitharis sent a slit eyed glance toward the one treated, and took another taste of the air before he moved in that direction. She looked up to see the Syrynykk approaching. "How's the world of the supernatural?"
Bliss winced as Ash worked on her wound. She smiled faintly and with difficulty at the distasteful expression on Ash's own face at the work she had to do and said, "Be glad I wear a helmet...or you'd be doing that to my face."
"You might not have a face," Ash responded. "Heh." She took her time to clean the wound, using various tweezers and picks from her med-kit.
"Sssupernatural?"
While Ash fished around in her bag for bandaging, she looked again up at the Sitharis. "Yeah...you know...hocus-pocus magic stuff."
He took another step toward Bliss and Ash, his towering form stopped and he looked almost straight down on them. "Underssstand, I do not. No magic, I have."
Felling comparably small as she looked up at Sitharis, she said to clarify, "I thought you all bought into that stuff."
"All?" He gave a sharp rap of the staff against the floor in irritation. "Fair, I am. All huumunns warlike and foolish ... fair, I am?"
Bliss looked back at Ash, interjecting quietly. "How's the leg, beside painful?"
Ash sat up and away from Bliss, her hands held up in a gesture of peace to the Syrynykk. "Easy now. I'd say I'd have to agree with you." She tried to be placating, even offered a crooked grin to Sitharis before answering Bliss. "Just scraped up. I'm gonna give you some antibiotics and put that arm in a sling. When you're ready, you can head up to X-ray and the docs will fix you up." She suited actions to words.
"Destroy all huumunns, we should? End war, we will."
"Depends on your definition of war, hey?" She said as she finished up.
Bliss nodded and stood. "Which way do I go? And do you want the trade first?"
Ash pointed her bandaged hand to the elevators. "Second floor...third door left of the nurse's station. And I trust you, sister. We'll trade when you're all fixed."
Sitharis demanded Ash’s attention again, then. "Definition, you ssspeak... matters, it doesss? We are all alike, you sssay...."
She glanced askance at Sitharis, closed her kit and leaned back. "Everything's war, you know? Survival is war. So yeah, all huumunns are warlike. And yeah, all Syrynykks know more about magic than I do." She shrugged. "What's the big deal?"
The soft and barely heard tune of a wind flute drifts in the air, his head canted upward a bit, listening to it. He saw no recognition in any one else of the gentle sound. "If war, all isss... dessstroy the othersss, our kind ssshould. War endsss, violence, endsss."
"Violence won't end," she said, and cradled her hand in her lap, tilting her head back.
"Peace, there wasss," he insisted. "Before your kind came. War, you bring... violence, you bring ... death, you bring..."
"There was no peace." She said, being contradictory, but not deliberately so. "That was all here before we got here."
His clawed hand gripped the shaft of his spear more tightly. "Peace, there wasss.. dessstruction, your kind brought. invaded, you did..."
"So it's peaceful when Makabb slams himself into Sabatt, eh? It's not war when She invades an encampment, eh? No one died before the huumunns arrived, eh?"
"Excusssesss, you give." He gave a small shake of his large head. "Brought it, you did..." And with that, he turned toward the door and the wind flute music he barely heard. "No war, there wasss...."
She let out a quiet sigh. "No war..." she said, as if prayer or dream. She watched as Sitharis stepped through the doors and into the night and the future. The rare distant music he could hear foreboding now.
Ash never did hear the music.
Trying to relax a bit after that, Ash felt Shad staring at her. They began to talk, easily at first about the changes happening to him. Quickly, however, the conversation became eerily uncomfortable for Ash. For some time, the Medic of the Union had seen and heard things she had kept to herself … visions of ghosts … the voices of the dead … Now, Shad was telling her things that sounded all to familiar. He had passed the morgue and had seen a hallway crowded with the souls of the dead. It was clear to him that otherwise, the hall was empty, as it should be, but there they were. Ash told him he was hallucinating – which not long before Garth had said he himself had been doing; visions of his past and so forth. Shad looked … doubtful, but let himself agree with Ash since he could see how uncomfortable she was.
"Must be that..." Shad nodded. "Just dreams." Ash asked him, quietly, as if she were almost afraid to know, what it was the hallucinations may have said. "So many things. It crowds my mind…" he told her. "They mesh with my thoughts. Requests ... arguments ... simple need for communication." It sounded so familiar that Ash’s jaw dropped involuntarily. "But I can't. They all talk at the same time. I just wish they would be quiet for once... But they won't be. Or … can't." He thought he was scaring her, and really, he wasn't, but she was mute and the voice overwhelmed him at that moment, forcing him to his knees. "They won't be quiet!" He tried to see through the visions, "Mother," he whispered. "Father …" and slowly via sheer willpower, Ash's arm around him for support, he straightened.
Garth, concerned, said, "You O.K. kid?" He watched from his chair, where he'd been while he and Shad had been talking and cursed his inability to walk or assist.
"I remember something … one of the medics told me… Mera … that's her name … she said things would get better."
"Yeah?" Ash asked, easing him back into his chair. "She's usually right for a kid."
Shad nodded, agreeing that he thought, now, that Mera was right, even though his body was apparently rejecting itself and being torn up from the inside and remade. While Ash tended to another patient, who would have to go to the OR to have a bullet removed from his leg, Garth told Shad that they were all dying in their own ways, but the idea was to struggle for life, no matter what happened. Shad agreed, resolved that he would feel self-pity no more. Garth told him that he wasn't alone and to visit him in his second floor room if he ever wanted to talk more. "God knows," the Freemen said, "there isn't much else to do around here." Shad smiled knowingly and said he wouldn't come to Garth's room when he heard the soft music from it and Garth, blushing said, "Yeah, um, I trust you kid. If you hear the music, just turn around." Garth had been growing closer and closer to Terra Skye and they took what little time they could to get to know one another better. Neither of them needed interruptions.
One-Eye, rarely if ever known as Bad Zac made his way into the hospital cafeteria for water. The kid Ash was tending to spoke to him, somehow rousing his ire. Zac roughed the kid up a bit disregarding his wound and Ash was highly displeased with Zac and his attitude. During the slight scuffle, she wound up on the floor further agitating her injured wrist. She managed with no help, though Shad offered before going back to his room, to get the kid into a wheelchair and off to the OR for attention.
Garth made his way into the kitchen of the cafeteria, returning the glasses he and Shad had used to drink from, since Ash had things under control. He passed Zac on the way and the man followed him, his scavenging protege, Kait, in tow. Zac passed a shower card to Kait and ostensibly dismissed her, continuing in his pursuit of Lowinn. Garth gathered up a bowl of stew and some water, when Zac caught up with him, spun him around to a surprised exclamation of "Hey!" and said, "Easy Sarge, we have to talk."
Zac wheeled Garth back into the cafeteria and to a table. Garth said, "Do you always go around bullying cripples? You almost spilled my stew and water..."
"Learn to eat faster, Sarge." Zac offered with a smirk as he sat across from the man he'd come to see.
Garth set the bowl and water on the table. "I haven't started yet..." After taking a sip of his water he went on. "Now, what do you need? I'm a busy cripple..."
Never much on pleasantries, Zac nodded. "What's with the chair?" He asked not because he was concerned with Garth's health so much as he was concerned about his own plans.
"Hm? The chair? Well, I have this problem, see...I can't feel my knees..."
Zac’s one eye perused the man and the chair. "Gonna make things hard." He tsk'ed and chewed absently on the cigarette in his mouth.
"Already has..."
"They got any notion as to what's wrong?" Zac glanced over at Kait who was moving about the cafeteria like a silent cat, unwilling to be noticed, but noticing everything and everyone. He nodded her over. She brought her bowl of stew and sat, occupied by eating and looking as if she weren't listening at all when she was hearing every word.
Garth leaned over the table and whispered. "Crazy notion that its genetic engineering..."
The one-eyed man arched brow and offered up a half smirk. "Should call em wac's, not doc's."
"Well, I have faith in Terra, she's good at what she does." He chuckled softly and murmured, "Everything she does…"
Zac paused in his masticating of the cig and tilted his head. He'd not missed that comment but he choose to withhold his own on it. "Well," he said, getting to the subject of his visit. "I'm going after it."
Kait sniffled, poked her spoon at the hunk of meat in the stew ... and said, as if absently, "After what?"
Garth and Zac together ignored her. Garth's brows steepled and he said, quietly, "Violator?" Knowing it full well even so. Zac’s single nod confirmed and Garth sat back. "Damn it..."
One-Eye perused the Commander again. "Looks like it might have to wait, though."
"Why is that?"
He shifted, leaned in, "See... I was hoping for tread blowers. And seein's how you Legion boys got some o those..." He let his words drift, then rubbed his chin in thought. "Need some heavy firepower too." Kait pursed her lips and inched her chair closer, not sure that she'd heard what she thought she'd just heard. Garth leaned forward and grabbed his water, drinking a bit. Zac shot a glance at Kait to hush her. "I been keepin' tabs on that tank."
Garth sighed. "I can get you tread blowers...good ones..."
"Good. Cause once I blow her treads ... she's next."
"I want to see it down ... but I want it, too..."
Zac shook his head violently. "No way, Sarge. We take her out...or I do. Plain and simple."
"That tank could be a valuable asset ... The Freemen need it." He looked up, emphasizing his words with a stern Commander's look.
Zac nearly spit as he leaned across the table. "Asset my ass." He grit his teeth and his one eye flickered in anger. Kait shook her head at Zac. She had no intention of working with the Freemen. Garth was watching him, obviously not impressed. Zac saw the look of near contempt and cursed virulently. "I take it out ... with, or without you."
"Gonna hit a helpless man?" Garth grinned, he knew he had something despite Zac’s bravado.
The man snorted and chewed on his cigarette again. "Done worse, pally."
"Yeah, but how you gonna get the gear you need, bud?"
Zac sat back, suddenly relaxing, a half smirk on his face. Garth wasn't so sure of himself anymore. "I'm resourceful." Garth moved a finger goes over his chin, as he looked at Zac and sat back a bit himself. A few moments of that odd silence passed between them. Zac tilted his head. "Two weeks, Freemen. Then I get what I need and go."
Kait blinked and sputters on a mouth full of stew, quite startled. "What!" This was the first she'd heard of this plan.
Finally Garth sighed, deciding something internally and leaned forward. "What do you mean by 2 weeks?"
====
Ash had taken another patient, who had introduced himself to her as Trizaeya, with some radiation burns, into the cafeteria kitchen for water. She was tired and hurting, but she pushed herself to take care of him even though he wasn't completely easy to understand. She had to focus to hear everything he said and she smiled when he thanked her for the water she gave him, calling her friend. It was a tired smile, but a relieved and genuine smile. She got his full story of being near a lot of water before coming into New Rydynn City and having partaken of that water, it made him quite sick. Even then as they stood in the kitchen he was feeling ill. He abruptly showed her a wicked looking firearm he'd found, among some dead bodies. He had accidentally shot himself with it and revealed, gun still in hand, the nasty festering wound in his leg. Ash, surprised, dropped to her knee to view it, a stream of curses coming from her mouth. The sharp motion and her loud reaction spooked Trizaeya who jumped and threw the gun down. It discharged which made him angry at Ash. With a child's simplicity he blamed her and feared her for what had happened, then ran out to hide in a cabinet in the ER.
Ash tried to explain that she was only trying to help, but the site of his wound combined with her exhaustion and the shot still ringing in her ears brought bile to her mouth. She ran from the kitchen through the cafeteria, heading for the lavatory before she completely lost her lunch.
====
At the sound of the discharging gun Zac, had slipped a hand into his coat. Garth cursed his bum legs. Then, when it became evident that there had been only the one shot and that Ash wasn't injured – she having run past them to get to the bathroom – Zac let it pass. It didn't concern him, didn't threaten him or his business directly, so he slowly sat back down. Garth turned back to him and waited for his answer.
"I mean two weeks." He nodded to Garth's wheelchair. "You ain't walking then... Then you ain't goin'."
"In that case, I ain't going...I don't think I’ll be out of here in two weeks..." In a moment of unguarded emotionalism he said quietly, "I don't think I'll live two weeks."
Zac chewed the cigarette in his mouth a little harder, thinking. Kait pushed her bowl away, sulking in her chair. Zac pushed himself away from the table and straightened to his full height. "Well, then...its been nice knowing ya."
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