Graveyard Shift: Hospital

[Tisis Antony]

Ninth Memorial Hospital, Downtown- November 31st, Light Snow Dust, Late Evening.

CONTINUATION OF THE THREAD: Graveyard Shift

Aella spread her wings and fluttered up to a balcony, ducking behind the doorframe as a nurse walked past. She peeked out of cover and listened, hoping to hear some clue as to the whereabouts of her quarry.

The hallway Aella had entered was dark, the lights having been dimmed for consideration of the patients. Aside from the nurse who had passed, the building was asleep, with patients tucked into their rooms and the rooms closed away. The building was clean, if not old, with drab, crumbling decorations that seemed to have warped and wilted with age. A bright sign that read "Wash after Work- Save a Patient's Worth" was poorly angled but otherwise dominated one nearby wall.

Aella was in a long hallway, with doors on either side. Overhanging signs indicated that this was the burn ward, and that the burn-ward elevator was immediately down the hall. A large poster had been tacked to a nearby spongeboard which held a map of the entire hospital.

THE MAP:

[Aella]

Aella thought for a moment, trying to remember if she had read anything about how hospitals worked. The Guerellas had been injured by that pony, so it seemed likely that they were either recovering from surgery or were about to undergo it. Making up her mind, Aella slinked down to the elevator and looked for some clue as to which floor the recovery ward was on.

[Tisis Antony]

The elevator had a series of buttons. They were labelled one through six, and a diagram plastered to the side of it identified which was which. It only went to the first four floors- the upper two were locked by a key-latch on the button itself.

• #1 Ground Floor Administration
  
• #2 Recovery Ward
  
• #3 Burn Recoveries
  
• #4 Terminal Patients
  
• #5 ---
  
• #6 ---
  

The elavator was operated by a lever which signaled a generator to winch it down and up. In order to move a floor, the proper floors button was pressed, and the lever was pulled completely down, as was indicated by the placard right next to said lever.

[Aella]

Aella reached out to pull the lever, then realised that she was holding her polearm. Hardly the least suspicious thing to be carrying. After a moments thought she moved back to the balcony she entered through and dropped the weapon onto the ground below. Now slightly less likely to provoke an armed response, the griffoness walked over to the elevator and went down to the second floor.

[Tisis Antony]

The second floor was dim too, the lights having been shuttered except in a few notable locations. A custodial pony mopped the floor on the other end of the hallway.

This hallway was different from the one above. Its walls were recently painted a gay yellow, and a mural had been put in with flowers and children running about. A bit less bleak then the one above.

The custodial pony noticed her, resumed her chores, then had a double take as she really noticed her. She paused at her mop, and looked at Aella from down the hallway.

[Aella]

Aella moved towards the pony with a mop, trying to look as nonthreatening as a large, heavilly muscled and collared griffoness could. She did not think it would work very well.

"Umm... hello" she said awkwardly "I do not suppose you have seen a few tercels enter here very recently mistr-... miss? badly injured ones?"

[Tisis Antony]

The pony attending the mop indicated that no, she had not seen anyone enter in at least an hour and a half. "The griffons are usually held in the building across from here, since they normally have violent injuries that need immediate attention. But I could be wrong."

She shrugged and resumed her work.

[Aella]

Aella murmered her thanks to the cleaner and trotted off through the halls towards the emergency wards. As she stepped out into the cold air of the courtyard, she wondered whether to try intimidating the guerellas or... using other means.

[Tisis Antony]

The emergency building loomed ahead. It didn't have an elaborate entrance from the courtyard, but light streamed out from the windows and bustle of the activity inside. The windowed entrance slid open as staff entered and exited, some escorting patients, some ferrying crucial supplies into the facility. The stone facade bore electric lighting that had been bolted on with awkwardly dangling wires strewn haphazardly.

A small gurney burdened by the weight of a dead griffon was brought from the building and born onwards to the crematorium. You could tell, because the beak peaked up from underneath blanket that covered him, and even though they tried, they couldn't conceal the wings hanging over the sides.

[Aella]

Aella stood aside to allow the gurney to pass, breifly considering following the deceased griffon before realising the futility of it. She continued into the building, slipping in through the doors.

[Tisis Antony]

The emergency wards were alive with activity, nurses and surgeons running about, wheeling patients in from the curb. A row of gurneys were readied by the side. The tell-tale sound of IV drips and cardio-monitors filled the room, as hastily made notes and requests were passed from racing doctors to racing nurses. The linoleum floor was slippery, and smelt of bleach and blood, but no visible blood stained it, except along the baseboards, where you could see the floors hadn't been scrubbed well. The lights overhead beamed down hotly and caused a tear of sweat to form on Aella's beak.

The griffon's Aella was looking for weren't in sight, but she was only just in the doorway. A tall, scraggly griffon in scrubs seemed to be directing foot-traffic between the doctors and patients. Maybe he knew the way.

[Aella]

Aella approached the tercel, slipping between the various medical staff as the rushed about.

"Excuse me sir? I am looking for some wounded guerellas that were just brought in"

[Thorin]

Thorin was surrounded by half-frantic doctors, nurses and surgeons, trying to keep the unusually busy trauma ward running smoothly. He was in no way qualified to run this hospital.

He turned to yet another questioning figure in the crowd, a pure white and heavily muscled hen. He thought for a moment before pointing down one of the halls.

"A few wounded Guerrillas were brought into the surgery over there"

[Tisis Antony]

Thorin had directed Aella to the surgery ward, a wide corridor with large double-doors lining the sides. The doors led to individual operation room, and chairs lined the hallway. Sitting with a bored expression on his face, one of the griffon's Aella was following relaxed next to a set of closed doors.

A pile of assorted armor and weapons had been strewn nearby his chair, where they had been kicked to the side by the bustle of doctors moving through the halls. The griffon leaned over and picked up a mace, and began boredly spinning it about on the tip of his fingers.

[Aella]

Aella looked down the hallway past the Guerrilla, thinking. She could not confront the Guerrilla in the open. She spied what looked like a closed office down the hall and a plan formed in her mind. She put on what she hoped was an authoritative air and stalked down the hallway past the tercel.

"This way" Aella said, moving over to the office and pushing open the door.

[Tisis Antony]

The griffon bolted to alertness, and looked aglance to see if she was talking to anyone else. He rose from his seat and followed her. He paused and doubled back quickly to drop the weapon at the pile, which clattered and rolled into the hallway.

He peaked his head into the office, an uncertain expression on his face.

[Aella]

Aella motioned for the tercel to sit in the chair in front of the desk and closed the door behind him quietly. Phase one, complete.

[Tisis Antony]

The tercel plopped his feathery tush into the awkwardly made chair, and tried to position his tail right. "Dam- damn these chairs." He stood up and walked around the room some, looking for a better chair. He came back and just flipped the chair's back to the desk, and sat in it backwards. "Whadya need doc? A citation or something?"

[Aella]

Aella closed the door and stood in front of it, blocking the exit. She glared at the tercel before her.

"You are here because several of your comrades were wounded during a failed insurance scam this evening. I know because we were watching. You will tell me who you are working for, and I will put in a good word for lenient sentencing. If you try to run, you and your family back home will suffer for it"

[Tisis Antony]

The griffon rose, and without a singe word, he'd hefted the chair up and motioned to smash it across Aella's face.

[Aella]

Aella grabbed the chair as the Guerrilla swung it at her and tugged hard, trying to pull the tercel off balance.

[Tisis Antony]

The tercel let go and kicked at Aella with his foot. He looked around the confined office space, and picked up a hefty pewter-cast idol off of the table, readying it towards Aella. It easily weighed something like twelve kilos, he saw an opening and cast it towards her.

[Aella]

Aella tried to duck under the big mass of pewter and grunted as it clipped her head on its way past. She dropped the chair and launched herself at the tercel, talons extended.

[Tisis Antony]

The Guerrilla shrieked and fell backwards onto the desk with Aella pinned on top of him. He tried to kick the table out from underneath hisself but couldn't get the leverage. His talons were underneath Aella, but he cut at her with what leverage he could muster.

[Aella]

Aella ignored the stinging pains on her legs and belly as she raised her fists and bought them down on the Guerrillas head.

[Tisis Antony]

The griffon was dazed, then out cold in two swings. His body went limp and one of his talons clung to Aella's side from the claws having snagged inside of her meat. As Aella caught her breath, an orderly opened the door and began to scream.

[Aella]

Aella spun and jumped at the orderly, heedless of the pain as the unconscious griffons talons tore out through her flesh. She clamped a talon down over the pony's mouth.

"Shut up!" she hissed. "Official guerrilla business!"

[Tisis Antony]

The nurse whimpered, and began crying. She slowly began nodding, trying to bow an apology of respect, but the look of it made her appear to be having some weird back problem. She had dropped the stack of papers she was carrying in, but didn't even look to them as she walked backwards from the room.

As the door clicked shut, it became apparent that the nurse had created a small puddle of urine.

[Aella]

Aella wrinkled her nose at the distasteful display and turned back to the Guerrilla. She moved over to him again and began to search him.

[Tisis Antony]

The guerrilla didn't have much on him- a small pouch for medicines, a pair of keys, and an address scrawled over a piece of parchment. "1348 Greenestcrest Ave," the paper read. As Aella searched the Guerrilla, a set of high pitched screems filled the hallways outside- not directed at Aella per say, but definitely close.

[Aella]

Aella left the pouch on the Guerrilla and tucked the keys and note under her collar. She turned and exited the room, closing the door behind her and going in search of the source of the screams.

[Tisis Antony]

The building suddenly shook, and the sound of a massive explosion filled the air. Smoke began billowing out of the doors to Aella's right, and the fire sprinklers kicked in instantly, covering the floor with water. Sirens filled the air, and orderlies began running about demanding evacuation.

The building itself felt like it was sagging over to one side, as an incline formed. It wasn't too much at first, but the furniture began skittering slowly to one side of the room. Suddenly the hallway lurched, and the incline jumped to forty degrees. Papers went flying, and the doors began flying open from the force of the tilt...

[Aella]

Aella used a choice selection of swears that would make a sailor blush and ran back into the room with the unconscious Guerrilla. She roughly slung him over her back, holding him in place with her wings as she dashed down the hallway.

[Tisis Antony]

Aella had the luxury of being relatively close to an exit, as indicated by the large, magically glowing signs that read "EXIT" all along the path. Taxon horns sounded off loudly all over the hospital signalling the evacuation.

A small crowd of patients in stretchers formed outside, as orderlies scrambled to get them out of the collapsing building.

[Aella]

Aella looked at the injured civilians blocking the door, then to the unconcious griffon on her shoulder. The criminal was likely going to be executed anyway. She moved over to a window on the higher side of the building and unceremoniously dumped him out of it. She could come back for him later if he was still alive.

Aella barged her way through the crowd and took some of the less injured ponies from their stretchers and slung them across her back, thanking the years of exertion that made her strong enough to bear the load.

Hopefully the reduction in stretcher-bound ponies would speed up the evacuation. She did not want to leave them behind, but she also did not want to be buried alive in a collapsing building.

[Tisis Antony]

Suddenly a massive thud sounded off, and a crash. The furthestmost area of the hospital collapsed in its entirety, a resounding explosion filling the air. A colossal plume of smoke and flames rose up from that area, now nothing but rubble and bodies. The taxon horns ceased blaring, the power having been totally cut out from the building at this point. The lights began to flicker off, and one by one the floors of the building went dark. The building groaned as metal and brick supports largely lost their hold, resulting in collapses in tertiary areas of the building.

The crowd was chaos, ponies desperately trying to flee the building, or ponies rushing in for their loved ones. The stretchers lay forgotten now, a great deal of the injured cast about on the ground and by the side.

A snow of soot and debris began raining from above.

[Aella]

Aella could not stay in the building any longer. She ran along the hall, shouting for ponies to follow her. She hit an intersection and turned to run up the sloping floor onto a balcony. Without a second thought she ran and jumped off the edge of the building, trying to keep the injured ponies on her back with her wings.

She fell through the smoke and dust and smacked into the ground below. Her legs buckled underneath her as she landed, unable to handle the added weight of the injured equines on her back. Aella cried out as her ribcage hit the ground, feeling at least one rib break from the impact.

The now sooty and dusty griffoness scrambled away from the building, eager to keep herself and her cargo away from the danger.

[Tisis Antony]

(((How do you reckon we should continue Aella? Do you think this is the end of the hospital segment?)))

A black plume scarred the night sky. An assemblage of fire fighting forces formed up, but as the hours passed they made little progress. The most they were capable of was preventing the spread of the fires that had started. The injured were able to be ferreted into the adjoining buildings that were undamaged, but the damage to the hospital was colossal. The entire building was in ruin, and the other buildings weren't equipped for emergency services.

The ponies that Aella had saved were grateful, but the suspect griffon was nowhere to be seen. Someone had either grabbed him and put him with the patients, or he had been crushed by the debris. No news of the Guerrillas who had been in emergency care was known.

The suspect was deliberate demolition. Someone had bombed the hospital.

[Aella]

Aella managed to squeeze her way through the crowd of ponies, whining as her broken ribs ground against each-other in the crush of worried and injured ponies. She had to find the Guerrilla, the address and keys were likely not enough. She would also have to figure out how to explain that she was not involved in the explosion.

The Griffoness pushed her way through the crowd, towards the building which seemed to be taking the majority of the injured.

[Tisis Antony]

When Aella entered the building, a small clearing had formed around the image of a small-ish earth pony brandishing a blade at Aella's Guerrilla. The Guerrilla, who she'd so aptly clocked out and tossed from a window, was at his feet and didn't appear worse for wear, despite the present threat that his assailant was providing.

The pony had the upper hand it appeared, quickly rushing, then tackling the griffon, turning him about and pinning him to the floor. He brought the knife down and began sawing at the griffon's throat with the improvised blade...

[Aella]

Aella roared and threw herself at the pony, smashing into him. She wheezed as her ribs ground against eachother, bringing tears to her eyes with the pain.

[Tisis Antony]

The pony was thrown off of the griffon, who was now bleeding profusely from his neck. The pony hit the ground sliding, and climbed to his feet, taking off down the hallway adjoining the lobby.

[Aella]

Aella turned back to the Guerrilla, ignoring the fleeing pony. She applied pressure to his wounds with her talons, trying to keep him alive.

[Tisis Antony]

The griffon was bleeding badly, but it was only a shallow cut. He too clutched his neck, trying to get to his feet. A bystanding nurse came in and dressed the wound, which he continuously asserted was only a flesh wound.

He looked to Aella with a leer, before trying to excuse himself and get admitted into a room, preferably a private one with a lock.

[Aella]

Aella grabbed the griffon and pulled him into a bipedal arm-lock before frog-marching him out of the hospital.

"Try anything again and you will die. You are under arrest"

[Tisis Antony]

The griffon muttered a profanity, but was too beaten on to resist. He followed Aella's pull and exited the hospital.

(((End thread?)))

[Tisis Antony]

(((Kroll notified me that the first Graveyard Shift thread is where'd you to would meet up.)))

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