One of Them (Dragontear)

[OAMP]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

The other woman eventually got the idea, sipping carefully from the mug as Merlacie held it. She seemed to feel better because of the water, her eyes were much more alert afterwards. She growled lowly, but appovingly.

The infected followed Merlacie back this time, leaving the deeper hallway unexplored. Around the reception area and down the other hall was a set of double doors, about even with where the broken elevators in the other hall had been. There looked to be a darkened stairwell here.

 

[Dragontear]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

(Egh, feeling like my posting ability is blah.)

For now the deeper hallways would best be left alone, and Marlacie managed to at least ignore the strange sensation that had originally brought hir to this place, enough to seek out what could be a more urgeant matter. Entering the onyx-laden reception room and gazed around carefully, noticing the set of double doors and trudged towards it, seeking to go up the darkened stair well with equal measures of caution and haste - fueled by curiousity and a sense of urgeancy that over-rode the confusion of her awakening and strange words and mental images...

 

[OAMP]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

The stairs went up quite a ways, but there was a pile of office furnature on the landing, blocking any attempts to go up past the third floor, so Merlacie could exit on the first two levels, as well as use the door she came in. However, the first door out only lead to a small security room, not the offices where Merlacie wanted to go. There was a small beeping coming from inside, offering yet another distraction to the already flustered infected.

 

[Dragontear]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

(Second floor; possible offices, creepy whimpering and distractions, yay!)

The relatively short, if oddly difficult journey up-stairs taught Merlacie how to better her posture and walking ability, exercising muscles that saw less strain before now, having only moved horizontally. Shi grudgingly took hold of the railings whenever possible, allowing the Tier II to follow and quietly glad for the company - for now; The urge to strike out and hunt for something or someone, be it to sate any appetite or to seek out whatever the odd buzzing in the back of hir mind demanded, was still present, if only a dull and faint ache for now.

Naturally it took longer than expected, and gave the dark-skinned, light-haired female sufficient time to ponder what the codes meant, and whether or not they were at all related to "Code White Red Gold", such a thing annoyed a naturally inquisitive creature. Thus reaching the second floor was but a short moment of relief as, upon pushing open this set of double doors, shi was greeted with a security room and a beeping noise that demanded some sort of intense poking around.

That annoyed her.

Grunting in a particularly un-lady like, the well-built yet feminine Infected took this opportunity to stride forth and investigate the beeping, to see whatever it was all about. This should hopefully be but a brief glance in comparison to the increasingly strong desire to find the offices.

 

[OAMP]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

Unlike most everywhere else Merlacie had encountered, there was a small, active electronic here as well, with a large object plugged into it. The screen was flashing with a red message, "Override", and that was it. The keyboard also had a green light indicating it was powered. There were signs of a struggle here, or at least someone looking for something, though no bodies were around. As Merlacie looked the other woman came up behind and accidentally bumped into her, making a small growling noise and having such a lack of coordination.

 

[Dragontear]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

Gazing over the technology shi would otherwise prefer to avoid in favor of... well, doing anything favorable, her mind had a case of 'metaphorgotten', for she hadn't even been concious long enough to determine what the older memories were. Blankly staring at the 'Override' message that almost seemed hypnotic to the absent-minded, shi wondered whether or not, due to the lack of clear memories before waking up, if she even had what amounted to a life before...

Then such sagely pondering was rudely interrupted by the Tier II arriving and knocking into Merlacie, shaking the lightly armored female out of her stupor, and responding with a light swat and a hiss with bared teeth, before gazing back at the screen, to the keyboard and then at the device plugged in. It was larger than the little data-pad she had investigated, a pager some distant memory chirped, but it didn't seem that much bigger. Huffing and giving it a tug or two, Merlacie hissed in thought and decided to leave it alone for now, a gut-feeling warning the mutated female that the present situation was best left alone until she actually knew what was happening.

Without further ado, she hopped past hir accomplice and moved up the stairs, grumbling in increasing frustration.

 

[OAMP]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

As they moved on the other infected looked in and happily gibbered something, but quickly started followeing Merlacie again. As they got onto the third flor the floor creeked worringly. The building seemed to be a bit unstable up higher, though here it wasn't too bad, yet. There was a hall leading deeper in, but also one going towards the front. Merlacie could once more hear little whimpering noises, mixed in with a bit of terror. It seemed to be coming from a few offices down, though the source was out of view. Merlacie's goal was getting ever closer.

 

[Dragontear]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

Somewhat leading the other infected further upstairs, if the journey from the ground floor to the second was marginally difficult, then a second trek up the seemingly long staircase felt worse, though Merlacie tried her best not to complain. Hissing at the few times shi nearly or did mis-step, the agile female clenched one hand on the handle bar and took two steps at a time, eager to reach this distracting whimper...

...Only to be presented with the tyranny of choice and the creaking of less than perfectly solid flooring. Frowning and lowering into a crouch upon elongated tip-toes, her odd, arachnid-like tail flickered to one side then the other, irritated yet curious, clawed fingers stretching and curling as hir white-green eyes peered into the deep darkness. Of course the whimpers continued, with a new tone of pronounced fear laced within, causing the urgency to rise as with annoyance. However this dilemma was not so bad, if more cautious due to the creaking noises of the floor, and took little time in deciding to rapidly move down the corridor leading towards the front; idly noting how the laminated flooring felt rather soft against hir armored toes than downstairs. The mutant's pace was faster than a walk but more than attentive to know if shi was about to be ambushed,

 

[OAMP]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

Merlacie made a lot of noise as she moved, alerting the noise maker, who was now quite obviously a human woman. She screamed, and there were sounds of scuffling, from the door towards the outside wall of the building, back to the hole the infected had first noticed. There was at least one person, and she was very much afraid of Merlacie. The other infected heard her making noise and got very excited, moving as fast as she could to reach the room, almost racing Merlacie to get in first.

 

[Dragontear]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

(Should've gone in quiet... doh. D

The amount of noise her agile feet made was far too great, in her own honest opinion, for there was a greater preferance of stealth, caution and careful progression over announcing her admittedly vunerable presence. Hissing at hir own rash stupidity for now being more light-footed, Merlacie froze as soon as a scream occurred, hurting the Infected's sensitive ears and making hir cover the aching ears with shaking, balled hands, fanged teeth bared and anger boiling up where concerned curiousity had been. Of course, as if being audibly assualted by terrified vocal chords was not irritating enough, the Tier II had to become excited and tried to push past a now angry female.

Lashing out with the back of her long arm, shi hissed at the other 'zombie' and felt compelled to leave this whimpering female alone to her fate, feeling more concerned with something else - perhaps anything distracting. Though shi did remain, slinking to either side if it allowed her to enter cover behind some junk or an adjacent room, not entirely sure what to do...

 

[OAMP]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

The other woman was not happy, hissing and growling and still wanting past. There really wasn't anything she could do if Merlacie wanted to stop her, however. She continued making low noises towards the fightened human, but would not advance without permission.

As the stronger woman stood, thinking, a strange buzz entered her mind. Something was almost tugging at her mentally, telling her to go searching, deeper within the building. There were no words, just a strange feeling.

 

[Dragontear]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

(Ah, she was actually kneeling down, but my bad for not describing that. <<')

Lowering into a kneeling, annoyed manner, a head-ache formed and persisted after the woman's scream left a ringing noise in the white haired female's ears, which helped to create a sort of sensory chaos that caused more frustration than this could be worth. Hissing at the other infected's low, still irritating noises, shi staggered back towards the stairs; hastily compelled to seek out whatever the odd sensation was, perhaps mistaking the intended direction - the idea of stumbling into the room with a female screeching at hir ears was hardly appealing...

 

[OAMP]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

As Merlacie got to the stairs, she felt the feeling better, it was also compelling her downwards as well. The other woman followed, expression changing, perhaps feeling it as well. She started down the stairs ahead of Merlacie, almost falling. She still wasn't quite as coordinated as she should be. Every ten steps or so she'd eagerly point in the direction they were both being tugged towards, down the hall deep into the building on the ground floor. There could be no confusion now as to where the sensation wanted them to go.

 

[Dragontear]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

Allowing the screaming woman some sort of reprieve for now, Merlacie hissed as shi followed the sensation, feeling like some sort of sleepy pawn in a entity's little game, the thought irritating her further, yet having some sort of direction in existence was preferred to none at all. The sensory chaos remained as a ache in the skull and blurry spots in her vision as they moved downstairs, taking the time to be careful as having any sort of trip of slip would be far more painful downwards then up.

Thus they entered the ground floor and moved down the corridor, senses tingling...

 

[OAMP]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

There was a small bend, then the hallway opened up into some sort of office space with many cubicles. Many of the panneled mini-walls were knocked over, the workspace inside trashed, papers and electronics strewn all over. Along the walls, besides a hallway directly across from Merlacie and one to the right, were doors to various offices, some open some closed.

The other woman came to a halt beside Merlacie, looking around rapidly. From her actions, and now a change in the feeling she was getting, it seemed that there was perhaps something in this area that Merlacie should look for.

 

[Dragontear]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

(...Slightly late. ^^')

Arriving in a yet another scene of utter administrative chaos, Merlacie shook her head briefly to clear the fog that seemed to have flowed into her eyes, and hissed slightly in response to the other infected female's rapid-fire movements, obviously something... was here, something of such importance that she was compelled to search about, paying little heed to things like crushed family photos or the occasional vulgar joke scrawled somewhere, or last-moment messages of desperation, all the same.

It was a thankless task, in the sense that she didn't even know -what- she was actually looking for, perhaps just like before in dealing poorly with the codes and the Pager device, shi had to sift through the junk, shoving things aside with some effort and ensuring hir tail did not get stuck under debris...

 

[OAMP]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

Her companion moved about, watching as Merlacie searched and not quiet understanding. She ventually stopped shuffling near the far end of the room, looking around, but not helping.

Merlacie couldn't help but make some noise as she shifted about in the rubble. However, before long another sound reached her ears. Past her friend was some shuffling, then a rapid fire, muffled sound that was very clearly words, though she couldn't make out was being said. Then rapid footsteps of someone running away, down that hall.

 

[Dragontear]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

Of course the lesser-mentally weakened female was annoyed that no assistance was given from the Tier II, however with only the typically quiet hissing being her feelings on the matter, the purple-green skinned humanoid scavenged around for the... thing that had to be found, the reason shi had been psychologically lead here for. It could have been the required codes for the... emergency state, or something, affecting the Bank, instructions on how to use them or merely some sort of relevant information scrawled down in a convenient manner better suited for children, as though some poor employee had foreseen the infected female's arrival.

Of course, all shi could find was... useless papers, broken furniture, nick-knacks and more useless paper, getting attacked by some office equipment en-route to the conclusion that nothing of value was here, much to her ever-growing chagrin. However what really irritated the female was more noise - elsewhere, past the friendly infected to the tune of something running away. Eliciting another aggravated, feral noise from within the mutant's throat, shi rose and stalked towards the hallway harboring the retreating noise, distracted once more and remained in a low crouch, flitting to and fro rapidly and quietly despite the dull headache that had settled upon hir skull.

 

[OAMP]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

As Merlacie entered the hallway she heard a loud slam down a few doors, then sounds of large objects being piled against it. The other woman followed and then quickly passed by, going right to the correct door and banging up against it. She growled and sounded very angry. Something inside told Merlacie she needed to get to the other side of the door, that this was what she was looking for.

Merlacie also noticed the smell of the man. She could teld the gender by the smell, for one, but also that there was something familier about him. Her memory still wasn't back, but she knew she'd encountered him before.

 

[Dragontear]

Re: One of Them (Dragontear)

Giving up on the boring, un-interesting papers, the monstrous humanoid lurched onwards in a low stoop, much akin to a wild, feral animal that had taken human form... or had created a parody of whatever the infection may have considered to be beautiful in the eyes of humanity - and added claws and teeth to it, and then further warping the form as though to merely poke more fun. Blinking away some irrelavent train of thought, the beastly she-demon saw how rapidly her counterpart had advanced to and began banging at the door where the fleeing presence had left via. It was a non-too impressive show of considering, for the door had... of all things... handles, or so the former Human thought.

Catching up to and joining the other woman, shi sniffed the air and hissed, wishing for silence from the banging, and of general dislike of odd scents like this - something... tingled in the back of her mind, with repeated scentings, she figured out it was a male, a particular male she felt as though she had detected before waking up in a dumpster with a realistic looking stuffed-cat toy.

Just like with the incredibly brief, fascinating meeting with a screaming woman, Merlacie initially hesitated, before hissing and yanking at the handle hard, before adding her own powerful slams to it, if the former did not work. Naturally, exerting herself like this was most uncomfortable... thus she also searched for an alternative route, hoping to figure out what was dragging her puppet-like life around, why she was being directed like this, and perhaps to find something nice to nibble at as well as curl up somewhere and sleep.

Of course, she felt the last few things would not be easily achieved, for some unfathomable reason.