The Shrink and The Aussie (closed)

The Shrink and The Aussie

(closed)

(This scene is part of a game/role play that you can find here if you are interested. We are looking for more writers.

Paula was in the 2nd floor hallway when she heard John Down Under calling out. She finished her conversation with the National Guard soldier and fumbled with her keys as she headed for the door. She chuckled at her recollection of how one of the now absent nurses had given the John Doe his more appropriate nickname. He'd come to the Lane County Mental Health facility already deep into the infection stage of the virus. He was mumbling incoherently for the most part, but occasionally his words were clear and -- unmistakably -- delivered with an Australian accent.

She peeked through the diamond shaped, wire reinforced window in the middle of the isolation room's door to find him conscious, sitting on the edge of the hospital bed. She'd hated having him here like this, handcuffed inside a padded psychiatric cell like a patient from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, but it had been necessary.

Seeing it was safe to proceed, she unlocked the door and entered, smiling as she said, "Welcome back. We thought we were going to lose you there for a while."

Adam looked at the lady who walked through the door and quickly dismissed a few of the more exotic ideas that had been running around in his head. She was dressed very professionally in a white lab coat that did have something stenciled on it, he just couldn't read it as she walked towards him. The stethoscope around her neck also reassured him, but there was still that nagging doubt.

"Yeah, okay Doc if you say so. Ah thing is I have no idea what your talking about and while you may appear nice and all," actually more than nice he admitted to himself now that he was starting to wake up a bit more, " You have no idea of the thoughts running through my head."

He gave her a little grimace and shook his arm with the handcuff on it. "This sort of doesn't inspire confidence in me either. You want to fill me in on whats going on and why I am like this please."

"You want to fill me in on whats going on," the patient asked, "and why I am like this please."

"Yeah, that," Paula said, her tone in just those two words showing her embarrassment. She reached into the pocket of her lab coat for her keys, then hesitated. The reason he was cuffed to the bed was still applicable, so until she learned more, it was still a bit too soon to cut him loose. "About the cuffs..."

She flipped open the chart she took from the end of his bed and spoke as she looked it over. "The situation is ... well ... I have no idea who you are. You came in as a John Doe, but after we heard you mumbling with that accent of yours..."

She was a bit embarrassed to actually say the words, so she closed the cover of the chart and turned it to the patient. The words Down Under had been written on a piece of masking tape and placed over the words Doe #14 until an actual identity could be established. She chuckled.

"Don't be offended," she went on, opening his chart again and returning to the information there. "It's just that you were brought to us because you had no ID ... no driver's license, no passport, no student ID ... and with the tension right now over the fear that this virus is an act of terrorism, well..."

Adam looked at her in puzzlement. Virus, what bloody Virus! He was getting a bit agitated again but then he looked at it from her point of view. If what she was telling him was the truth, he was probably in a pretty bad situation here. If he had no identification and he had even mumbled once in his sleep they would know he was a foreigner. Couple that with them thinking it was a terrorist attack and...Oh boy was he in trouble.

"Okay Doc let me explain. My name is Adam Hunter. I am an Aussie tourist currently backpacking my way around the country doing odd jobs here and there to pick up some extra cash as well as having money in an international account. I should have had a backpack with me that had my passport in it and my wallet with my ID and cash but I guess that was stolen huh. Last thing I remember was checking into a backpackers hotel in Eugene because I was going to go see my first college game of football. I had always promised myself I would catch a live game when I was over here," he smiled.

Then he frowned. "If what you are saying is true though guess I wont be doing that any time soon. So what is this about a Virus anyway. Just what does it do?"

"Okay Doc let me explain," Adam began.

Paula listened intently. She had always been able to ferret out lies and deception from her patients. It was part of what made her a good head shrinker.

He continued, "...I guess that was stolen huh?"

"When you came to us," Paula confirmed, gesturing to the very clothes he was wearing, "this was all you had."

"If what you are saying is true, though," he went on, talking about seeing the Oregon Ducks play a college football game, "guess I wont be doing that any time soon."

"Public assembly," she explained, "has been illegal for ... 'bout a month, I guess. Season's cancelled. Lot'a Quacker Backers disappointed. Last game they played was attended by the players, coaches, and a minimal television crew that broadcasted it live. Ain't been an audience in Autzen since early September."

"So what is this about a Virus anyway. Just what does it do?"

Paula stared in silence at the man for a long moment, thinking, You can't be serious? Then she remembered that he'd probably been suffering from one of the virus's most interesting symptoms -- short term memory loss -- since about the time the CDC had discovered that the simple flu they'd been tracking was actually becoming a killer plague.

"Listen, this is, um..."

She wasn't sure how to explain this to him. Adam was the first patient she'd had who had actually survived the virus and didn't become one of ... one of them! She pulled a stool over to the middle of the room, still staying away from him. She didn't honestly think he was a danger, but she still had to be cautious.

"This is going to be hard to believe," she continued with a serious tone. "You've been unconscious here for--" She checked his chart again. "Six weeks."

She looked up for his reaction to that news. Most patients either beat the virus and regained consciousness after 4 weeks, succumbed to it and died within 2 weeks, or ... turned after just 1. She continued, "And it says here that you were in and out of consciousness for 2 weeks before they brought you here. That means ... well, you've been out of it for 2 months. And in that 2 months--"

The words caught in Paula's throat before she was able to get them out. She still couldn't believe that this was true. She continued, "In the past 8 weeks ... over 300 million people have died across the globe ... almost 70% of them here, in the US."

She hesitated again, not necessarily for him to respond but because she was about ten seconds away from once again crying. She should be able to talk about such things without sobbing before her patients. But Paula had always been a soft hearted person, the kind who cried at emotional commercials on television or felt their stomach turn seeing a child fall on the pavement and skin their knees.

"That means ... well, you've been out of it for 2 months", the Doc said casually after spouting a couple of other figures.

Adam sat in stunned silence trying to fathom that. 2 months. he had just lost 2 months of his life. How the hell was that possible. He had gone to sleep feeling fine one night and then woken up 2 months later. Shaking himself he just put it behind him. Okay deal with that later. He had to find out what was going on now.

"In the past 8 weeks ... over 300 million people have died across the globe ... almost 70% of them here, in the US."
, she continued.

Oh fuck. The blood drained from his face and he felt like throwing up. He noticed the Doc didn't look that good either and she must have been used to this information. Over 300 million. That was 2.4 percent of the worlds population. That also meant just over 200 million had died in the US alone. God it must be like a ghost town out there.

"So what you are saying is that the world is dying and that we are the lucky survivors. Only one problem Doc, You might be good at your job and all but I have become pretty good at reading people. You have to be when you are meeting strangers every day. There is something you are not telling me isn't there. Best to get it over with in one hit, so keep on with the bad news, and before you ask how I know that it's easy. You would not have hesitated to tell me good news would you," he smiled at her and chuckled trying to ease the mood.

"There is something you are not telling me, isn't there?" Adam asked.

There was a lot Paula wasn't telling the young man. But where the hell did she start?

"Best to get it over with in one hit," he continued, obviously able to see what was going on inside her mind. "So keep on with the bad news, and before you ask how I know that it's easy. You would not have hesitated to tell me good news would you?"

Paula couldn't believe she could, but she laughed at Adam's questions. To answer his questions was like explaining the plot of a script you were trying to sell to a Hollywood director, knowing that it could never be more than a bad "B" movie. She looked to his chart again, mostly just to be able to divert her eyes from him.

"I, um..." She stood, reached into her pocket for her keys again, then said, "I can't really explain ... I can't tell you what I'm keeping from you. You ... you have to see it. But I have to tell you ... it's ... it's hard to see ... hard to watch. It's ... gruesome. Are you sure you want to know. You know, ignorance can be bliss sometimes."

Adam looked at her. Okay if a Doc thought something was gruesome it must be pretty bad, but he had always faced things head on. "C'mon Doc I am from Australia. We have eight of the top ten deadliest creature's in the world, and heaps more besides that try to kill ya. I am sure I can handle anything you are going to show me. Besides I am awake now and I guess I am going to have to live in this new world right? Better for me to know what I am facing."

He looked at her and smiled again. He had been told he had a pretty charming smile and he tried it out on her now. He held up his wrist and looked her in the eye. "I am not going to attack you if that's what you are worried about and if you don't want to watch whatever you are going to show me I will understand. Just point me in the right direction and I will find it myself. You really don't have to put yourself out Doc."

He then looked at her quizzically. "You know you never did tell me your name. It kind of feels strange calling you Doc all the time. So going to tell me it or do I have to guess?"

Paula couldn't help but smile at Adam's comment about the dangerous land down under. She'd been there twice, once for work, another for pleasure. And both times she'd run into some of the dangers about which he was talking. While serving as an exchange doctor in a small town on the edge of the Outback, she'd had a woman die in her arms after an encounter with a Huntsman spider. Ironically, the big hairy creature hadn't bitten her but had instead scared the crap out of her as she drove a truck full of sheep down a dirt road. She'd driven the big truck head first into the only tree for ten miles in either direction. And on her honeymoon to Sydney with her thankfully now long gone Ex, she'd come face to face with a Great White while scuba diving. The big shark had, for reasons she did not understand but also never questioned, simply swum right past her and disappeared into the murky water beyond her. She hadn't been in the ocean since, not even up to her ankles at the Oregon beach, once her favorite of all places.

When he jingled the hand cuffs against the bed's metal railing, she smiled and turned for the door behind her, calling, "Corporal...?"

As she waited, he said, "You know you never did tell me your name. It kind of feels strange calling you Doc all the time. So going to tell me it or do I have to guess?"

She was already removing the hand cuff as the Soldier entered, saying nothing but conspicuously unsnapping his side arm and resting his palm upon its butt. She said with a smile, "Paula. Doctor Davis if you wish, but ... I'd rather you didn't."

She stepped back, gesturing him to follow her almost reluctantly. As she pasted the Soldier, he stepped to the side to allow the two of them to pass before taking up the rear. They were on the second floor of the building, and only after Paula began escorting him down the hallway did she remember that this was Adam's first conscious viewing of the structure.

"I should probably at least tell you where you are," Paula said. She stopped at the railing and looked down into the lobby. There were only three people down there: another Soldier from the National Guard; an elderly woman slumped back in a chair, gently snoring; and a four year old girl that at some point Adam might learn was the old lady's granddaughter. She continued, "Lane County Mental Health Services. Eugene, Oregon ... but you probably knew or at least assumed that much."

She continued toward and down the stairs to the lower level. At the bottom, she turned and greeted another woman in a lab coat. She stood beyond the closed lower half of the Pharmacy door. Beyond her, most of the shelving space -- which typically overflowed with drugs -- was empty. "This is Helen."

Paula continued toward the front of the building. There were two doors to left and right, separated by glass and also flanked by glass. Beyond that -- but currently not seen -- was a second configuration of the glass door and window. Paula had always like the entrance to her place of work, which sat in one of the rainiest counties in the State. Between the two walls of glass was a 15 foot entry area, and during the raining months, patients and others had always been able to enter through the first set of doors, shed their sopped coats and hats, dry a bit, park their bikes if they were on them, and even leave their umbrellas expanded to dry off without ever once letting the wet or cold bother those beyond the second set of doors.

Now, though, that second, outer wall of glass doors and windows -- near which was yet a 3rd soldier -- was hidden from view by unfolded, cardboard boxes stuck to the frame from floor to ceiling with duct or packing tape. Paula stopped short of the wall of cardboard, staring at it for a moment. She looked to the Soldier there as the one from the lobby moved close to the glass also.

"Let him look," she told the pair. Then, she turned her back, looking to Adam. She feigned a smile, saying, "I've seen it already. I'll be inside when you are finished here."

She touched him gently on the shoulder before passing and going inside to sit with the little girl, who was building a skyscraper with dozens of empty, never-before-used pill bottles of various sizes. Back at the cardboard covered door, one of the soldiers explained, "We block the view, because we've learned that if they can't see us, they stop attacking the door, trying to get in."

The other soldier motioned Adam to the one section of the wall that was notcovered in cardboard. He explained, "One way glass. It was a spare piece, left over from the renovation, when they removed one of the observation rooms. You can see them, but ... well, you've probably watched Law & Order haven't you? Do they have that in Australia?"

He stepped back, even as the other soldier pressed his face up against the cardboard at the other end to look through a tiny hole someone had cut into the paper. Beyond the windows he saw what had made him retch all over the floor the first time he'd seen it happen...

(OOC: Sending you a PM. Read it before you post.)

Adam wondered what all the fuss was about but considering that even these soldiers seemed to be cautious about looking outside he was beginning to second guess himself. Still these guys were only National guard soldiers and no offense meant to them, they were basically civilians like him with a little bit of training. If it was anything remotely upsetting they would probably be as effected as he would be.

He looked back at Paula and shook his head. Still she was a doctor and had probably seen her fair share of crazy stuff. If she had worked here she was probably only a psychiatrist but he had heard some mental patients that had been committed still did some pretty weird stuff. Besides who knew what she had done before she had settled into this profession. Didn't all Doc's start in medicine or something?

Well this wasn't getting the job done he thought. He approached the glass and with a big intake of air he looked through it. At first he didn't see what all the fuss was about. There just seemed to be a bunch of people walking around on the grass and paths outside. Sure their clothes might look a little ragged but that could maybe be explained away by this Virus thing.

Then he caught sight of the bodies. Lying on the ground just to the right of the building was the body of what he thought used to be a woman. He only thought that because there was a scrap of a dress caught underneath her. The rest of her body was torn apart and mostly gone, leaving her bones to bleach in the sun.

Now that he had seen one he started to see others. Some large and others small all in various stages of mutilation. He couldn't believe it. They were just lying there and the people did nothing. Then the horrifying truth hit home as one of the people turned and looked at the building. His entire face was caked in old blood as were his hands and he seemed to be sniffing the air as he walked.

Adam looked around in new horror as the sight before him took on a new meaning. All of those so called people out there were like that 'Thing', whatever it was. He couldn't call them Zombies, well not like he was used to. These things were walking normally not shuffling along. Then he saw something that had him reeling away from the glass. One of them had approached one of the 'Fresher' looking corpses and had dived in headfirst and started to eat.

Adam staggered away his face pale and leaned up against the wall sucking in large breaths. The Soldier approached him with a look of sympathy on his face. "Yeah I felt like that as well. In fact you are doing better than me. I lost my lunch my first time. Take your time and just breathe deeply."

Adam stayed there for several minutes before making his way over to were Paula was playing with the girl. "I guess I should have listened to you," he chuckled. "So what happens now? We hole up and wait for help or do we have a better plan?"

"Take your time," the National Guardsman said, "and just breathe deeply."

The Soldier watched Adam for a long moment, wondering whether he needed to grab the nearby trash can and hold it below the man's face, just in case he, too, lost his lunch.

"We call'em Crazies," the man began once he knew Adam's mind was ready to hear more. He nodded his head toward the lobby, toward Paula, continuing, "Not in front of the head shrinker, of course. Don't want to offend her. Been told she fired an intern once for calling a patient crazy. Anyway, we call'em that 'cause that's the way they act. They ... I don't know ... they don't act like they're all there anymore."

The other soldier jumped in, saying, "They hunt by sight ... movement. Don't seem to even be able to hear people moving about. We've seen a person run within twenty, even ten feet of one of them but behind'em, you know ... at their backs ... and the Crazy didn't know they were there."

"You ever seen little kids ... kindergarteners at an Easter Egg hunt?" the first soldier hopped in. "One kid'll search a bush, and two seconds later another one will search the same bush, and two seconds later a third one will search the same bush. That's what these guys, these Crazies are like. I've seen one stick its head through the window of a car, then another, then a third and a fourth and fifth in less than a minute, as if they were the only Crazy in the world searching for something to eat."

"And that's what they're doing," the second soldier took up the tale again. "All they do is eat. But here's the really weird thing. They hunt as if they are the only Crazy on the planet, but--"

"The call!" the other said, shivering visibly as he grimaced.

The other soldier continued, "Even though they hunt by themselves, when they find prey-- When they catch someone out there--" He hesitated before continuing, his eyes out of focus as he stared ahead at nothing at all. "They let out this ... this scream--"

"The Crazy Call," the other inserted.

"And when they do," the second continued, "every Crazy for as far as you can see comes running ... and together ... well ... let me just say that if you get caught out there, you're done for."

"The other day," the first soldier jumped in, heading toward the windows and pointing at the cardboard as if Adam could see the corpse at which he was pointing. "They caught that woman out there near the fir tree in the open. One Crazy became three ... became ten ... became...!" His breathing was becoming excited as he recalled the incident. "The woman ... oh god ... she was screaming!"

"We tried to help her," the second soldier cut in again. "I hurried to the roof and started shooting Crazies. But as fast as I knocked them down, more arrived. Pretty soon, there were twenty, maybe twenty five Crazies on the ground and still ... she was surrounded by two ... three dozen of them."

He looked at his National Guard partner, who was now pacing back and forth, reliving what had happened that afternoon just a few days ago. He looked back to Adam and finished, "Then..." He hesitated, drawing and releasing a deep breath. "They all attacked together ... took her down ... blood was-- Oh God, it was just ... squirting! And less than a minute later..." He pointed his finger toward the cardboard. "She looked like that. Everyone once in a while, one of'em will come back and feed on her a little bit, as if ... as if she's a fine cheese or wine, getting better with age. It's sick!"

The other soldier apparently had had enough and headed back into the lobby, quickly disappearing. The second soldier just shrugged his shoulders to Adam. "And ... that's the story."

He watched as Adam made his way back into the lobby.



Paula looked up from the little girl as Adam approached.

"I guess I should have listened to you," he chuckled. "So what happens now? We hole up and wait for help or do we have a better plan?"

"We don't have much time left to, as you put it, hole up," Paula informed him. She stood and gesture him to follow her, with the original soldier -- who was rarely far from Paula -- following behind the pair. She led Adam to a back room -- the building's Employee Break Room -- where she began opening one cupboard door after another as she explained, "We're out of food. Eight people here, and we've got maybe enough to feed us 'til tomorrow."

She moved to a locked cabinet, tapped in a code, and removed a small box. She set it on the dining table, opened it, and gestured Adam toward it. "We were saving this for you, just in case you didn't kick." It included several single serving packages that obviously had come out of the vending machine that stood in the background unlocked, opened, and now empty. She finished, "Enjoy it. It's the last you'll see for a while."

Adam looked at the food then at Paula. "Any chance of just going back on the drip you had in my arm," he chuckled. Still he gathered it all up and then wondered what to do with it. He wasn't really hungry at the moment and he doubted he would be eating much when he did want to eat. He was pretty sure his stomach would have shrunk after 2 months of not eating.

"I appreciate you doing this but I am not really hungry at the moment. I might just take a couple of these bars and you can share the rest out. I am sure everyone else is hungry and there is no use wasting it."

Adam looked around and then started thinking about their situation. "Ah if we can't stay here where are we going to go and how are we going to get there. If those things are everywhere out there, what place is safe?"

"The Casanova," she answered. She explained to him that the Stadium just across the road had an additional dozen or so National Guard soldiers, 100 civilians or more, and a few more days worth of food, medical supplies, and more resources to get them through. ' the only problem is..."

She hesitated, looking towards the break room's open door as if afraid somebody might overhear what she had to say. Then, in a soft voice she said " I am not getting any cooperation from my security for moving everyone across. I get that feeling, maybe, that we are not all welcome the Casanova. And I will not leave unless everyone goes."

Paula had an emergency responders radio, provided to her Homeland Security, which would connect her to all of the other radios currently being held by National Guard soldiers, the sheriff, the local hospital, and just about everyone else who was furnished with one and was also still alive. The major across the road at the Casanova Center for reasons that would not be explained, would only discuss the possible transfer of her patients with the Guardsman in the next room. Something was going on, but she didn't know what it was. The pair talk every day, sometimes multiple times a day, and yet paula was never permitted to be part of those conversations.

He stared at her with a worried look. He could understand her reluctance to move if she had to leave anyone behind. It would be a no win decision. Leave people to starve to death or risk them on a mad dash across open space to a place that did not want them through a veritable war zone.

"So how many more people besides the ones I have met are we talking about, and just exactly who are they?" Adam asked her. He had a feeling he was not going to like the answer considering the place he was in. It might explain the reluctance of whoever was in charge of this 'Casanova' place to allow everyone to cross over.

He also looked at the layout of the building and noticed a few things. Adam had been a big fan of action movies and in most of them one of the things he had learned was that big buildings had decent sized ventilation shafts. Sure enough this place did as well. If people were keeping secrets then that might be a way to over hear them without them noticing. However he would keep that idea to himself for now.

"Eight," Paula answered, her voice low still. "Well, actually, you're nine, I'm ten. Not counting the three Guardsmen. The issue, besides number, is that..."

She hesitated again. As if able to hear Adam's thoughts on the issue, she continued, "They -- the others -- some of them aren't all ... well ... they're really not all entirely here, if you know what I mean." She gently tapped the tip of her index finger to her temple twice. She rarely ever made such gestures, just as the Guardsman had said to Adam earlier about not using the word Crazies in front of her. Mental health and mental illness in particular were her life. Making goofy faces while swirling your index finger near your ear was not a gesture of which those in her profession approved.

"I get the suspicion that I'm being put off," she continued, "until they can figure out a way to get me -- and only me -- across to the stadium. And I just won't let that happen!"

Of course, Paula didn't know what she could do about it. How do you get a gramma and her little granddaughter -- who had taken shelter here when the mayhem began -- and six men and women with varying stages of mental illness across a battlefield of blood thirsty Crazies without help...? Particularly when the only men available to even offer help were also the only ones with guns, a radio, and the ability to ensure that the doors to the Casanova would be open when you came a'runnin'?

(OOC: I made a change. Paula doesn't have the radio. The Soldiers do.)

Adam nodded at her. He could see why they were doing that. She had skills that could be utilized while the rest of them would just be a drain on resources. He was pretty impressed that she would stick up for her patients in a situation like this though. He knew a lot of people who would have just tried to save their own lives and thrown everyone else to the wolves.

He looked at her and then decided to throw caution to the wind. "Okay Paula, you said these guys were in contact with this other place 'Casanova' every day right? Do they do it at a regular time, because if they do I might know a way to listen in on what their planning. Every building like this has big ventilation shafts. We just sneak in and get to the room before them. Oh it might make a bit of noise so we need to do it a little while before they report in, say at least ten minutes and wait ten minutes after they leave. However at least that will give us some information about whats going on and we can plan accordingly." He smiled at her. "Oh and when I say we I mean me, Can't have you risking yourself can we. You have patients to look after."

Adam was also thinking of ways to get past the things outside. If they hunted by sight all they needed to do was give them a target. He wondered if there was something in here he could rig up that would do the job. He was pretty handy with computers and knew a thing or two about robotics as well. If he could maybe find an electric wheel chair he might be able to soup up the engine and programme it to run a set course away from their destination. That may give them a chance to slip away.

Paula couldn't help but smile at Adam's thinking. He was intelligent, innovative, courageous, and -- best of all -- selfless. No one here -- the Soldiers specifically -- had given a rats ass about the other patients under Paula's care. Well, that wasn't entirely true. One of them had captured the interest of the Soldiers. Unknown to Paula, she was at this very minute capturing his interest in a back room. But aside from the sex addict for whom the three soldiers would fight an entire army of Crazies to ensure she continued to part her thighs for them, the other 6 patients and 2 guests were nothing more than excess baggage. Paula couldn't understand how three soldiers who had sworn an oath to their country could let these vulnerable civilians just die here, either by not having anything to eat or by being eaten themselves.

When he made his suggestion about listening in on the Soldiers, Paula's eyes opened and her smile spread. She lifted a finger to her lips in a gesture of silence, then made another gesture for him to follow as passed by him whispering, "Look tired ... unsteady."

As she'd expected, her shadow -- the Corporal who had been with her upstairs -- was just down the hall a few yards, barely out of ear shot. As she passed by him, leading Adam toward the stairs, she told the serviceman, "I'm taking him up to the exam room again. Stick an IV in him. Juice him up."

The Corporal laughed, asking, "If you got an extra one for me, Doc..."

Paula feigned a laugh as she continued. She led Adam to the second floor, then to the end of the hall. She paused there, then gestured him quiet again, and led him down another hall to a room that had a hand written sign on it:

As she unlocked the door and gestured Adam inside she explained, "We were renovating when the mayhem began." Inside, there were wired, conduits, and ducts exposed by missing ceiling panels. On the wall, a vent panel just barely big enough for Adam to enter was also uncovered.

"That goes the whole length of the building ... I think," she began. "I wasn't part of the reno' ... but I was asked for my thoughts on privacy issues concerning how sound travels."

She saw Adam's reaction to the topic of traveling sound and knew that they were on the same page. She continued, using her hands to gesture directions, "The Director's Office is toward the end of the building, to the right, far corner. It's where the National Guard soldiers have their gear -- their satellite radio and computer -- set up. They talk to Autzen ... to this Major the call The Big Rigg twice a day, sometimes more." She looked at her watch, adding, "Four o'clock ... an hour and ten minutes from now ... they have a scheduled conversation with him or his people or whatever."

She stepped a bit closer to Adam, donning her bed side manner expression and touching his arm as she said, "Listen, if they catch you..."

They chatted about the options, then Paula excused herself. "I need to go check on someone."

She headed back down to the lobby again, telling the Corporal she had put Adam back in his room to sleep off some drugs she'd given him. "He'll be out for a couple of hours minimum, but he needs quiet, so ..." The Soldier nodded his acknowledgment. "I locked his door. He won't be going anywhere."

Next, she headed off toward the back of the first floor. She heard a door open, then close. She slipped into an office and hid, waiting for yet another soldier to pass. When she went to the exam room from which he'd come and opened the door, she found Vicki only just pulling her thong back up into place. Paula only shook her head lightly, asking, "Would you like to sit down and talk for a while, Vicki?"

(OOC: Aussie is going to post once more here, then we are going to end this thread and take the "game" to the Game Thread.)

(OOC: Angel, I sent you a PM about this.)

After Paula left Adam crouched down and hid behind some ducts and then looked at the door for a whole minute to make sure it wasn't going to be opened. Once he was sure he was safe, he crawled back out and looked at the vent. It was going to be a pretty tight squeeze but he could manage it. He was fortunate that he had lost weight during the months he had been out. If he was his usual healthy self he probably wouldn't have fitted.

Slowly he crawled in, then stretched himself out and began to elbow walk his way down the tunnel. He was lucky that the vents were reasonably large so he had some light to go by, but it was pretty dark in the shaft. The going was slow as he didn't want to cause too much noise, but he had plenty of time.

He made the end and then turned right and headed to the furthest vent. By the time he got there he was sweating profusely and was short on breath. His body was not used to this amount of exercise any more and he knew he would be paying for this later on. Still he had made it here and looking down he could see a room full of electronic stuff and a large radio. He moved back so there was no chance he would be seen and then settled in to wait. He had no idea how long it would be until the soldiers came in to report but considering how long it had taken him it shouldn't be more than a half hour or so.

He decided to pass the time by thinking up ways to create that diversion. He already had the wheelchair option but what else could he use. Explosions were no good, and it seemed neither was scent. Perhaps they could use room dividers if this place had any and form a box or temporary room and move across that way. Heck worse case scenario they could take off doors and use those. Anything big enough to cover a persons whole body should work.

He started to think of other ways as he waited, wishing he had brought a notepad and pencil so he could jot some of them down.