Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

[Courage Wolf]

River woke up. She was always waking up in her third floor apartment, because the part of the city she lived in was in no understatement, a dangerous shithole, and tonight the sounds pounding through her window at 2 in the morning were the sounds of a 9mm and screaming police sirens as someone else had decided to try their luck at something stupid. Through the flickering lights of the red and blue cherries of the police, and the continued noise blaring through her apartment building, sleeping was probably out of the question, she was awake now. O well, time to make some coffee and watch the drama?

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

The sound of gunfire woke the woman for the umpteenth time in memory. Usually the sounds of shots ended after less than a minute, so she groaned and rolled over, but when the sirens came on, she knew that wasn't going to happen. Tossing her sheet to the side, River threw on her pants, already fully dressed otherwise, and walked out to her living room. She left all the lights off, simply walking to her patio door and staring out and down past the curtains, towards the flashing lights. It was a bad angle, but she could pick out enough, and she wasn't drawing any attention that way, which could sometimes be a problem, though sometimes not immediately.

Knowing that as soon as the cops got involved, they were going to -be- involved for a good while, she figured there was no sense thinking she'd get any more sleep, and started her morning exercises, keeping an eye out the window as she stretched and went about the routine, more out of curiosity than anything else.

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

Everything seemed to be going just fine, the complete example of SSDD all over again, some asshole with a gun making a last stand, before she caught the sight of an explosion through her window, the flash of light staggering before the glass shattered and River was blown against the back wall, shattered car parts embedded in her wall.... from 3 stories down...

The lights had gone out, her ears were ringing, and her apartment was trashed, the sounds slowly returning as normal turned into completely rediculous for a moment. Shaking her head against the wall to clear her ringing ears, nothing else happened, silence pervaded in the streets below her after a few minutes and then the fire department showed up.

It seemed the fires had spread from whatever bomb had gone off, and it was only within those few minutes that River got a good luck at what had to be at least half of a police cruiser door embedded in her wall, before there was a knock on the door...

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

River picked herself up from the explosion, ringing in her ears and her place trashed. She let out a string of curses she couldn't even hear, bracing against the wall for balance until her equilibrium returned, and checking herself for injuries. She could feel her back tightening, there'd likely be a decent bruise there for a few days from the impact.

Then she caught sight of the cruiser door in her wall, just a little off from where she had hit the wall herself. She stared at it in surprise for a second. The bomb wouldn't have been in the cruiser, if it was big enough to send shrapnel from the other cars that far... The building is probably no longer good, there must be a serious hole in the bottom.

The knock came to the door, and she turned to look at it, continually surprised. She dug her knife out of her pocket, the reassuring weight centering her for a moment. "Who is it?" She called out, thankful her hearing had returned a short while ago. Not wanting to waste the time simply listening, she jogged over to her room and stowed her laptop and a few other belongings she cared about in her pack, just in case she really was evacuating.

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

"It's the Fire Department! Is Everything Alright, Please open the door! We need to check for debris and your safety, if you don't we're required by law to break down the door!" A voice called from the other side, another sideways glance at the car door making that at least make perfect sense, and they were telling the truth as well, the voice seemed two parts worried, one part confused, and the knocking resumed even as River packed her things up a little.

"Please open the door miss!"

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

"Okay! I'm fine but in the other room, give me twenty seconds to get decent, I'm coming!" She called out in response, frowning. Unless the hit knocked her out, there was no way the fire department could make it up that far, that fast...

Slinging the pack over her shoulder, she ran back to her door and checked the peephole, still a few seconds under the time she called out.

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

Surprisingly, it really was the fire department, in full gear, the man at the door an older fellow with unruly blonde hair and actually looking very worried, though the men behind him had a fire ax ready. "Miss, we would really rather not destroy your door, we NEED to check you over, it's the law, your apartment and only two others were damaged, we still don't know what caused the explosion!" He called through the door, seeming very distressed by everything.

Only two other apartments damaged by the explosion...

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

"I know! I'm coming!" She called out, a bit quiter to make up for the fact that she was right on the other side of the door. That flash was too bright, no way only three places were hit. and these firemen would have to have been climbing the stairs up before the explosion to have reached her door that fast.

"Fuck it." She mumbled, and broke into a run for her smashed balcony window, hopping up on her railing carefully, in case it was damaged, and climbing up to her upstairs neighbor's balcony, as fast as she could, hoping to be out of sight before they started busting the door down. She spared a glance down at where she saw the explosion come from earlier once she was safe on the balcony, trying to figure out what was going on.

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

The pounding on her door increased 10 fold as she ran, River bolting through her window and up towards the roof as the firemen started to smash down her door, her meager belongings in her pack.

Turning to glance down, more strange greeted her, because only one car was damaged, and it was decimated, the explosion seeming to come from the gas tank as the usual decimation that follow an explosion simply wasn't there, simply the burning wreckage of the car as people milled about. Surprisingly no one seemed to be seriously hurt either apart from a single officer being loaded into an ambulance as she climbed... THE FUCK WAS GOING ON!

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

Yeah, some strange shit was going on. River parked herself on the new balcony after looking over it, checking in the window to see if whoever lived there had a problem with her sudden arrival. She climbed this way often enough, but parking was new. She'd offer a finger to her lips for silence if that was the case, tapping her wrist and holding up a single finger to ask for a minute. She wanted to hear what the firemen were doing downstairs...

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

No one greeted River on the balcony, and the usual bustle around the sight of the explosion was nothing outside the ordinary. Below her, the firemen were milling around her apartment, the same voice greeting her from below as she listened, as well as another.

"Well... Shit, I can't believe it, that damned door really did spiral all the way up here"

"Yea it did chief, but why did the woman run? Think she was doing something illegal?"

"It's a possibility, but personally, I'd be scared shitless if something like that smashed through my balcony window... O well, put out an APB for whoever lives here, we need to make sure she's okay somehow. and if she's a criminal, well, that solves two problems at once."

Well it seemed everything involving the fire department seemed on the up and up, but now the police would be looking for her, and the fire department below would probably make sure she was dragged to a hospital for a proper check up. It was during this short ponderthing that River caught something moving out of the corner of her eye, like a bolting shadow, and if she looked back at the balcony window she was perched on, she'd see nothing... literally nothing, black on black, a swirling mass of shadow where a room should be... And then.. she blinked, and it was gone...

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

River's gaze twisted about at the motion, searching the inky blackness for the movement, and wierded out by how little she could see compared to a moment a-And it was gone, the room back to normal. Okay, something seriously fucked was going down here. Moving quickly, she slipped over the edge of the balcony she was on and back down to her own, holding her hands out for the firemen still in there.

"Nothing illegal boys, just paranoid. A rather healthy trait living in this neighborhood." She said guardedly, letting them check her over if she still wanted to. She looked over to her door, sighing a bit at the damage. Well, the wall was needing replacement anyways, may as well fix the friggin door, too...

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

Seeing River just slip down back into the room, the Firemen were too shocked to do much about it right away, though the man in charge, noted by the sound of his voice almost immediately sighed before scratching his head. "Well, I suppose you're right, come one, lets get you looked at properly. I take it that bag has everything truly important to you. Please don't misunderstand! I just... That door, I need to have someone look at it, we still have no idea quite how it got this far up. Your permission is alot faster and easier then a search warrant, Bah, we'll sort out the red tape bullshit after you've been looked at, come along miss."

He was smiling now, a soft, gentle curve of the lips as he offered his hand to her personally to see her downstairs, it looked like she was going to the hospital for at least a summary check up, because that was the law... besides, there was something fucked up here, maybe best to put some distance between it and herself... let someone else handle it.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

"You learn to pack fast, last people trying to bang down doors around here carried guns." She told them. "And yeah, blast wave from whatever hit that car threw me across the room. Figure I got a nasty bruise coming, but everything is working well otherwise."

She smirked a bit at the gentlemanly hand, shaking her own head a bit. "I can walk on my own, thanks. Pretty sure if I was going to pass out, I would have noticed while climbing outside." She said matter-of-factly, starting towards the door down and letting them lead or follow as they wanted. Her gaze went over her shoulder to the window out briefly, wondering what it was she saw just a floor upwards, or rather she had just hit her head too hard...

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

The firemen formed up behind and in front of her, but gave her plenty of room as they led her down into an ambulance waiting for her, and gave her a wave as the ambulance EMS workers took a look at her and started driving. And off to the tower of healing it was. Annoying hours worth of checkup later, the staff at the hospital insisted rather forcefully that River stay overnight for observation because the CT scan had revealed a concussion from the impact and sleeping alone wasn't safe, and their ultimatum was that if she didn't, well, she didn't have health insurance and this bill was going to be rediculous... or it could all be free if she simply did as they asked and let them watch over her for the night.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

The woman couldn't argue with free, unfortunately. So she wound up pent up in the hospital, pacing as far as any wires they had hooked up to her would allow. On the bright side, chances are the concussion explained some of the weird crap going on.

Eventually, River wore back down, slipping into the hospital bed provided and falling to sleep.

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

Falling asleep, nothing important happened whatsoever! Which was probably nice for River, who didn't so much as even dream. Upon awaking, she was greeted by the sight of a nurse bearing breakfast, also free, and the doctor who was so unimportant in this tale that I didn't bother to give him a face, saying in a voice that was neither feminine or masculine, that she was free to leave whenever she pleased, and that the Fire Chief was waiting outside to talk to her if she had time.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

"Far as I'm aware, 'Free' Isn't a word tossed around here often. Any idea why I'm getting the VIP treatment?" River asked the nurse, brow creased in confusion. Pretty well regardless of the answer, she wasn't going to turn down free food (even hospital food), and she sat there and emptied the entire plate rather quickly.

Once that was done, she had her short and incredibly meaningless chat with the dull blob that appeared to be the doctor, then made sure all her stuff was still where it should be, and went looking for the fire chief, pack slung over one shoulder. "You wanted to talk to me?" She asked simply when she found the man, sizing him up and looking around out of habit.

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

"Standard law miss, it was city property that caused the damage and injuries, so the city is paying for it" The nurse said smiling.

As River made her way outside, there was the same damned fireman, waiting for her, although he did smile when she came out. "I did, because if you answer this next question i can either explain everything, or be forced to admit that I have no idea what's going on. Miss, Does anyone nearby to you stockpile explosive compounds. Please say yes... because if not, then I rightfully have no fucking idea what happened. The officer that was injured keeps muttering about ink and shadows, he hasn't said anything else, so we had to place him in the psychiatric ward for now under watch.

Waiting anxiously for her answer, the man, who still handn't introduced himself, suddenly stuttered and then held out his hand. "George, my names George"

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Mazes within a Steel Jungle (Shrike7)

“You‘re the fire chief?“ she asked, a little incredulous, moving to shake his hand after a moment. “I‘m River, nice to meet ya George. As for the neighbors, everyone pretty well keeps to themselves, so i dont really know. Wouldn‘t be durprised to find out there was, though.“ she explained, then paused a moment. “an inky blackness, you said?“