FFD6 The Dicening, Group 1, Chapter 1, Mission 1

[Krylo]

The young white mage wrangled her compatriots into doing their job, and the group moved forward cautiously, but steadily. The silence in the air seemed an almost palpable thing, making even the midday feel somehow like night. Or perhaps it was the effect of something more sinister.

As you approached the hospital you came upon a small park, which the road runs through. The trees seemed ill tended, as though the city had been dead for years, rather than weeks, but not over grown. Quite the opposite, they appeared to be diseased and bug eaten, though no bugs seemed present.

A playground sat in the center of the park, corpses much like the rest of the city's, but much smaller, adorned it. Proof that whatever it was that struck the city left nothing alive. Not even the children.

It wasn't long after that you reached the hospital, entering the reception area, which was just as dead and silent as the rest of the city, though there were only a few corpses here, spread about, still sitting and waiting for their appointments in death.

To your right in the corner sat the receptionist's counter, the young woman who once sat there, slumped against it. Behind the counter were two doors leading out, one on the wall to your right, and one on the wall opposite the entrance. More directly opposite to the entrance was another door, with another to your left. These seem to be the doors that patients and nurses used to see the doctors on the ground floor, or clinic level.

[phil_]

Bello couldn't help but shudder as they surveyed the lobby of the dead. It wasn't the first time today. "Guys, if I never see another dead body, I'll still have seen way to many dead bodies in my life." Rubbing his arms to ward off the chills, he continued, more to the point, "If this Organization installed super-complicated computer systems, I'd expect to find them either on the ground floor or downstairs. No one likes lugging stuff up stairs, not even evil-doers. I say we look for stairs going down, but stick together. The quicker we find a place for this disk, the sooner we can all, I dunno, take in a comedy or something, but splitting up's never a good plan in a ghost story."

Bello pointed across the lobby towards the door opposite the entrance. "Let's start with that door, if only in the name of starting somewhere."

[Menarker]

Ark gave one affirmative nod, holding his shield up right in front of him in a warding fashion. Jugan waddled somewhat timidly directly behind the Dragoon's right leg as he pushed open the door with his blade, holding the shield directly in front, ready to shieldbash anything unwary enough to try to ambush him from the doorway. He would lead them go down the stairs, look for anything resembling a clue, and hopefully supplies. The dead have little use for material possessions, and medicine is always a welcome addition. But foremost, he would keep the foremost attention for any sign of movement, living or otherwise.

[Krylo]

Stepping through the doors you find yourself in the clinic portion of the hospital, before you and to your left are hallways, each connected with multiple small rooms used by the doctors to diagnose patients with less serious problems. A nurse's station is down the hallway directly in front of you, a single female elvaan corpse in a nurse's uniform laying in front of it, though you can't make out much more from this distance. Harsh white lights adorn the sides of the hallways, leaving little in the way of shadows, though they at least allow you to assess that there is still power running through the main hospital.

To your right you can see one of the doors used by the receptionists, just before a large double door leading to, presumably, another area of the hospital. A sign above it marks it as the way to the morgue, elevator, stairs, storage, and offices.

[mauve]

The absolute quiet of this village was enough to put even Elsa on edge. No animals. No birds. No sentient beings.

Complete and utter silence.

And yet, despite the apparent lack of other lifeforms, they were not alone in this village. There was something, or someTHINGS, still here. Whether they qualified as "living" or not was anyone's guess; all Elsa could sense was the underlying hum of dark energy emanating from somewhere in this dead city.

The hospital looked no more or less ominously corpse-filled than any other part of the town. Elsa sighed and leaned against her scythe, using it as a cane.

"Well, I guess everything is self-serve, now. Where do you suggest we start looking?" she asked, addressing the group as a whole. In all honesty, she'd probably forgotten what it was they were supposed to be searching for in this hospital in the first place. Such details failed to interest her, and as such, were the first to be ignored. It would probably be best if someone else led the way.

[Teal Mage]

Progress through the apparent ghost-town of Maris was slow, as Arden had expected. As the group left yet another of the dwelling that lined the - more or less - straight route they were taking to the hospital, the green eyed mage was torn between cursing the name of Jhennek for getting them involved in this time-consuming side-venture, or hugging the small woman for forcing the group to keep their movements slow. Thanks to that, Arden - and the rest of the group, she - wouldn't be quite so on edge when they got to the hospital.

Panic was, of course, the worst possible emotion in a Horror Movie.

After passing some moderately disquieting scenery - and starting to wish she had access to a certain White Magic Spell that could be used to repel the effects of the Shadow Element - the group arrived at the hospital.

And found more corpses.

This, Arden reflected, feeling a twinge of annoyance, is getting very old. Distantly, the White Mage considered that frustration was preferable to fear, but that didn't make the vague sense of confusion any easier to deal with.

She also couldn't shake the feeling that, somehow, they were walking into a trap.

Forcing such thoughts from her mind, Arden followed the group through one of the lobby's doors - any direction was as good as any other, all things considered.

"Well," The group's Dark Knight spoke suddenly, "I guess everything is self-serve, now." Elsa was leaning on her scythe, the blade glinting in the harsh lighting of the hospital, "Where do you suggest we start looking?"

Glancing toward the sign on the group's right side, Arden spoke. "Bello's was a good start. We'll begin our search for the computer in the basement, then work our way up." She was, truthfully, tempted to check the morgue. However, her curiosity wasn't worth the added risk it posed. "Ark," She looked toward the Android, "if you sense anything alive in here, tell us immedately." Her gaze moved to the Dark Knight, "Elsa, please tell us if the Shadow Energy you sensed changes. It could be important."

Finally, she threw a quick glance over the rest of her team, "Everyone else, try to check the rooms we pass, but be careful. Try not to open any doors unless you're wearing armor, or prepared to take a hit. But, whatever you do, don't fall behind. I doubt the system's in one of the patient's rooms anyway, so it isn't worth getting seperated."

With that said, Arden turned toward the stairs - using the arrows on the sign as guidance, "We'll take the stairs, there's too many of us for an elevator." She added, by way of explanation. That said, Arden started off - allowing Ark to take his customary position in front of her, of course.

She was too pragmatic to put anyone but an Android out front.

[Krylo]

Walking through the double doors, the group finds themselves in another brightly lit hospital hallway, thankfully free of corpses. Following the hallway they walk past another hallway that leads to another entrance to the receptionist area, and an entrance to what is marked as the hospital offices to their right, and a much longer hallway that leads to a pair of doors connecting the clinic area to the morgue.

Walking a bit further they reach another set of doors, to their left leading into the morgue, and to their right, once more into the offices. The hallway turns to their left as they reach the end, however, and following it along brings them past the medical storage area and yet another entrance to the morgues that leads out directly to the elevator banks and the stairs.

The stairs and elevators both only go up. A sign near each describes each floor:

Second Floor: E.R., O.R., and Pediatrics.

Third Floor: Psychiatry, Admin Offices, Research.

[Teal Mage]

Empty and eerily identical doorlined hallways passed by, as Ark and Arden lead the group further into the seemingly abandoned hospital complex. They'd just passed the Morgue and, what appeared to be, a supply closet, when they arrived at their apparent destination.

Another directory sign.

Arden cursed softly. Story conventions had failed them! How unexpected.

"Alright," The silver haired mage drew her hood up, hands working at the hidden ties that would unfurl her robes to the normal White Mage length, "I'll check the third floor's Research area first, then the rest of that level if I can't find anything there." She turned back toward her allies, "I'd like one of you - preferably Elsa or Ark - to accompany me. The rest of you may join us, or examine another floor. However," Now enfolded completely in the standard baggy white mage's baggy robe - with a long cut visible just above the waist - Arden's voice became hard. "no one is to be left alone. Understood?"

With her new orders imparted, the cowled White Mage opened the door to the stairwell, and began to make the ascent.

[Riin Whitewind]

Bangles and anklets safely stored away, the uncustomarily silent Jhennek trudged along in the middle of the group. The heavy silence, the cold, and sense of impending doom crushed her normally chipper spirits. For the first time in her young life, she had absolutely no desire to do anything - even dancing would be too much effort.

Wrapping a curl of red hair around her fingers, she absently mused on the problem of Maris. In her mind, the pieces of information they had been given and since discovered drifted upon a vast board, showing her the linkages between each piece. There were many blank spaces, but she was confident that they would all be filled in time. To think otherwise would be a betrayal of her upbringing.

At the mention of beloved research, the Tarut's ears perked, and a bit of her normal excitement returned. The Black Mage made her way next to Arden. "I'll go with you!" Bright blue eyes sparkled up at the Hume, temporarily forgetting the heaped bodies and twisted essences of the city in the thrill of knowledge. "Who knows what kind of information will be present there!" Jhen gave the cowled Mage a smile, though it was difficult to tell if she had seen it.

[mauve]

"Right," said Elsa, hefting the scythe. "I'll tag along too." If they were going to split up in this deathtrap of a hospital, Elsa would much rather be in the group with the healer. She may be crazy, but she wasn't stupid.

----------

"Remind me what it is we're looking for in this mess." Elsa grumbled as the trio cautiously made their way upstairs. The change in scenery between the ground floor and this one was almost immediately evident.

Directly across from the stairwell was a corpse. This in itself was obviously nothing new-- by now it would be more of a shock if there WASN'T a pile of corpses on every floor. This particular body, however... was different.

"Hmn." the Dark Knight grunted. She crouched down by the corpse to get a closer look. It was an orderly-- no doubt he came from the psychiatric ward that loomed just beyond. A billy club lay discarded at the dead man's side.

The body was riddled with bloody gashes. His was not the swift and bloodless death of his fellow citizens.

"Well this isn't a good sign." She half-turned back to Arden and Jhen. "Look. Claw marks." She gave the gashes another critical look. "Something didn't much care for the psych ward staff."

The disturbing question was whether the something was trying to get out, or get in. Even more disturbing was the question of where it was now.

"Well," she said, standing back up. "This trip just got more interesting."