030: VIDEO

[intheblanks]

[Chase is in one of the hospital pathology labs, a centrifuge whirring away on the desk in front of him. He's flicking through a messy looking sheaf of paper.]

I'm starting to understand why the City Guide has an entire section on zombie handling strategy. Someone told me they used to be a regular problem, here. Anyone long-term enough to be able to tell me about that?

[He's about to ask another question, but a second voice, deep and rolling, curiously accented, interrupts.]

What is an enemy to you, Doctor?

[Chase's head snaps up. He takes a gasp as though the breath has been punched out of him.]

You're not here. You're never really h—

[But the voice comes again, and as Chase moves, the picture on his device swings to show a man in a tattered, bloodied surgical gown, the flesh rotting away from his face.]

Men make choices.

[The zombie sweeps a rack of equipment to the floor, and the screen goes black.]



[ooc: Chase's ghoul is Darth Vader Mufasa James Earl Jones Dibala, the genocidal dictator of a small African nation, who he murdered shortly before arriving in the city. Dibala will be/have been around for a little bit to bother anyone at the hospital.]

Comments

text;

[as_damaged]

Chase?

Let me know you're all right

[Because she really doesn't want to consider the alternative. Either way she's heading to find him.]

text; 1/2

[intheblanks]

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action;

[intheblanks]

[And this isn't graceful but by the time she reaches the lab corridor he's made a useless attempt at locking a glass door and is barreling down the hallway, the sound of shattering windows on his heels. He doesn't have enough of his usually self-possession to catch his pace before he slams into anyone coming the other way.]

action;

[as_damaged]

[Rounding a corner, she can't quite dodge him, but she does step aside enough to avoid a head-on collision. Still, shoulder clipping shoulder when they're both hurrying is going to leave a bruise.]

Ohmygod,

[she gasps, wheeling so they're both headed away from... whatever that is. She doesn't want to know.]

All right?

action;

[intheblanks]

Not even slightly.

[There's no time, or breath, to sugar the pill right now. Somewhere back down the corridor a door panel explodes outwards. Chase grabs her arm as they run, pulling them both toward the stairwell.]

You shouldn't have come. [It's the worst of all things.]

action;

[as_damaged]

I wasn't going to leave you alone with whoever-- whatever--

[She cuts off, saving her breath for better things, and resisting the urge to look back. But that's not a satisfactory answer, so she adds--]

Hurt?

audio;

[anunluckypenny]

Chase! Hello?

Are you still alive?

audio; a little later

[intheblanks]

[Well his breath is still coming a little too quick but that's at least one vital sign in working order.]

Until the finance department see the state of the labs, yes.

Where are you?

audio;

[anunluckypenny]

Thank goodness. Still alive for now is something.

Me? Resting in room 108. In theory, I mean.

audio;

[intheblanks]

[For the second time he bites back asking after the state of her own life. In a city where life and health aren't co-dependent, these things get complicated.]

Not too restful right now?

[Breathe, breathe.]

The wards are still secure. That's where they're focusing security.

audio;

[anunluckypenny]

Not exactly. I'll go there, then.

Did you get bitten, Chase? Mauled? Maimed in any way?

[synanthrope]

[This is only audio.

The audio is of a strange noise, a not quite a screech but the sound of something enormous moving.

Something enormous that clicks, the sound like knitting needles hitting each other.]

audio;

[intheblanks]

[Chase's device is on by unresponsive for a time. It flickers to life with the sound of crashing, explosions of steel and glass, and shuts off. On, and off.

So it's some time before Chase can check the display, the number of the open line that's been sitting there in his pocket, and ask softly:]

Hello?

audio;

[synanthrope]

[The clicking is suddenly frantic, and there's a crash and someone screaming, but the screaming doesn't cut out, so whoever it is is still alive.]

audio;

[intheblanks]

[And it's not pretty to hear, but Chase listens as closely as he's ever tried to listen to anything.

Meanwhile, he's heading through corridors to where hospital information systems can track the signal.]

audio;

[synanthrope]

[The signals is getting closer to the hospital but the screaming's stopped; she climbed up to get up on the roofs and no one is watching for a giant half-spider in the air.

And it's moving fast.]

audio;

[dr_conscience]

[Damn being busy and damn not looking at the network and damn whatever that is. There's a funny, nagging guilt here; when Wilson was attacked, years ago, Chase was the first one to show up, and here he didn't even see this. It doesn't matter if Chase remembers that, he does.]

Chase?

[He sounds worried - and yeah, it's Wilson, and he sounds specifically worried, so that tone is basically dripping concern everywhere.]

Please tell me you're all right.

audio;

[intheblanks]

[When the City's overrun this way, Chase would worry if Wilson's voice wasn't soggy with concern. Meanwhile he's run the gauntlet by now - his voice is no longer shaky, just strangely quiet.]

I'm all right.

[A moment, and.]

You?

audio;

[dr_conscience]

Yeah. I'm fine.

[Physically speaking, he's in the wards dealing with the patients. Probably one of the safest places in the City right now.]

Where are you?

audio;

[intheblanks]

Um.

[Good question. That it takes him a minute to answer might say he's not quite on form.]

Locker room.

audio;

[dr_conscience]

[It's certainly enough to amplify Wilson's already-exceptional concern.]

And... whoever that was?

audio;

[vicodincrutch]

Breaker, breaker Wallaby.

[Really though he wants to ask what the fuck. What are the Back to the Future rules on approaching events that have not yet happened?]

Are you armed yet?

audio;

[intheblanks]

[Oh House, he's only wanted you to ask for a year now. To somehow know the things that haunt him.

His voice comes through after a minute, quiet. A little shell-shocked.]

To a degree.

audio;

[vicodincrutch]

[Time? Space? Circumstance? Look part of it is that what does that future hold? There's less of a bounce in Chase's step and he has more teeth. Small observations he is not feeling all too well about.]

A degree might not get you far in these parts.

[To make it sound more like an action film.]

audio;

[intheblanks]

[Bringing the future crashing in to burst the city's protective bubble is something Chase is all too aware he shouldn't do. But it's lonely, knowing too much.]

I got Cameron away. He didn't follow us.

[He got Cameron away and beat Dibala down until he stopped getting back up. Saying that much is hard.]