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 Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 7:38 pm
"No...I ratha' not," Jamal said with a grumble, irritation thick in his voice at the question. "You have fun...let me know what comes up, if anythin'."
He watched her wander off, a cool, calculating expression on his face, before melting into the darkness.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 7:45 pm
It's rather late by the time Kaveri makes it back out to the road. Navigating the jungle alone was kind of a stupid idea, but she eventually emerged from the underbrush, flashlight in hand, stepping onto the pavement for the first time in what felt like hours. It might even be near midnight by now.
As she got further and further away from the site, the vulture began to withdraw to the back of her mind again -- and Kaveri doesn't even notice. She thought that digging around in bloody dirt with her bare hands, sanitation be damned, was just a random impulse act. She thought nothing of the act, or the fact that she willingly put pieces of dead skin and flesh in her pocket.
It'll certainly be interesting to see how the people at the lab react to that.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 7:59 pm
Unlike Kaveri, Zach was dodging in and out of jungle and road as though purposely trying to get lost. After narrowly avoining Anjali and her clue-hunting mentality, he'd taken to the wooded area to find a place to once and for all rid himself of the bloody cloth. Still clutching it in his clawed right hand, the left swung limply. It was true, he'd had a left arm before, but that had been close to a decade ago. He'd gone too long without it to remember how to use it for even casual gestures and tasks. Ignoring it seemed to work out just fine for him, though. There'd be no way he was looking in a mirror.
It can't be as bad as I think it is, he thought to himself numbly. Horrible shirt-wearing inconvenience aside, the only two things that came to his mind to describe how he felt were "itchy" and "aching". Certainly the new arm was... odd... but it was an arm. Though what was he supposed to think about how he woke up to his latest change?
His eyes had adjusted to the dimness, without him realizing it. Between branches and leaves, he spotted another way back onto the road where he could take another look back at the village from. Nonchalant with the assumption that he was the only one prowling the road at that hour, he pushed his way through the plant life and back into the somewhat open space, not thirty feet ahead of the vulture-necked woman.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 8:12 pm
Seeing someone up ahead caused Kaveri to tilt her head in confusion. Someone else was out here this late? She didn't make out much more than a vague shadow at first, and the first thing that immediately flashed in her mind was, "Is that the culprit?"
She broke into a heavy jog, beaming the flashlight up ahead so she could see what's in front of her -- it's an entirely unfamiliar sight, especially with how dark it is currently. Something red, horned, and scaly... it looked familiar enough, except for the fact that it had two arms.
She kept on in silent confusion and trailed behind the vaguely familiar man, swinging her flashlight from left to right to get a look at things on either side of her. Before long, her light strikes what appears to be another jeep up ahead... this one crashed into a tree and facing the village.
Huh, that's strange. Are the labtechs around here really bad drivers, or what?
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 8:42 pm
It started with the odd feeling of being watched. He stopped for a moment, his finned ears twitching and stretching a bit as he yawned. The maw of sharp teeth glinted a moment before being once more concealed in his mouth. Nothing seemed to be around. What could? The elusive attacker?
He started walking again, if a bit faster. He was starting to hear a gravelly trudging sound from behind him when he stepped out of sync with it. He considered diving back into the cover of vegetation - to his superb nightvision the darkness did not look as dark as it really was. Nervous what-ifs gnawed his mind until a flashlight beam slashed like fire through the blanketing dark and glanced off of a brave tree and what remained of a badly driven jeep. Needless to say, it was temporarily blinding and unbelievably terrifying. With a cry of confusion, his left arm groped suddenly forward as though to shove anything away that had made it into his bubble of personal space. His awkward new fingers gripped nothing. The tail behind him, which had temporarily gone rigid, now returned to a nervous twitching. His right hand had the cloth so tightly the sharp claws were actually digging into it.
"Who's there?" he called in a voice much higher than he wished he'd sounded, squinting through the beam-shaped retinal burn that seemed to temporarily dominated his vision.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 8:56 pm
"Oh, God!" Kaveri blurted, upon realizing that she had startled the one in front of her. She had startled him, and hoped that he wouldn't leap back into the bushes or run away. "I didn't mean to frighten you!" She sped up to the startled 'stranger,' holding out a reassuring arm.
That voice sounded awfully familiar, which further added to the strange air about this man. Kaveri beamed the flashlight on his back again, putting him in a spotlight. She squinted, confused. Could it be..? But that arm...
Kaveri stopped in her tracks, tilting her head. "...Zach? Is that you?"
Either the darkness is playing tricks on her eyes, she accidentally dug up a gas pocket in that mess of blood, or... he'd changed, just as Jamal did. Had all of her friends changed?
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 9:35 pm
"No, no, it's okay... I didn't realize it was you." Hearing Kaveri's familiar voice, he turned around sharply, catching the beam of of light right in the face and giving a another moan of annoyance. Blinking tears of pain out of the blank-looking yellow eyes, he attempted to clear his vision again. He'd never known flashlights to hurt one's eyes that much.
"Kaveri, what are you doing out here in the dark?" he blurted out sharply, knowing she likely had the same question for him. He stared at her for a moment, confused. The changes hadn't quite sunk in yet, so he didn't realize how unrecognizable he may have become. "Yeah, it's me..."
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 9:42 pm
Kaveri decided to politely keep quiet on the subject of changing right now, instead giving Zach a smile and a small wave. She didn't want to make a huge deal about it, even if that big new arm was kind of... alien. "It's a relief to see you, either way. I'm glad you're not in trouble or anything..."
"I was about to ask you the same thing," Kaveri said, moving the flashlight beam to the ground. "I'm going up to the labs to drop some stuff off. I found some... things, stuff they could probably analyze. Dunno how much of an effect it'll have, or how much dust it'll clear..." With her other hand, she motioned to the lumpy, odd-smelling bulge in her hoodie's pocket.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 10:23 pm
Meeting her gaze, he gave her a look of thorough bewilderment before turning his head to make a silent sweep of the surroundings. His vision had adjusted to the inky darkness again. Something was nearby against a tree. It was difficult to tell, but it looked rather like an enormous if short metal accordion in the front and a car in the back. Everything else was devoid of anything but large trees or glittering stars. His fingers were having difficulty holding the cloth now, as the knowledge of the same blood having been in his mouth and all over him was still very revolting. "Trouble? F-for what?"
"Oh, I'm... um... doing things... taking a walk... yeah..." He glanced over his shoulder at the wrecked vehicle again, his mind sluggishly admitting to him that there was something oddly familiar about it. He shifted on his feet a little, the wings on his back giving a twitch as though they expecting to defy gravity with one tiny beat. "Wow, I didn't realize you could do that... I just thought people were supposed to look for the attacker in question. And speaking of all this crazy stuff... er, I was wondering... on Sunday, did you... wake up in your duplex?"
He couldn't possibly be the only one who had awoken that morning to a stomach-churning mix of wilderness and blood, could he?
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 10:34 pm
Indeed, the scent of blood was starting to call out the vulture again - but not as bold as it was when Kaveri was at the site - but she certainly had become a little more aloof upon catching the smell. "You know... that whole Aubrey thing? Moreau's making it out like all of us are suspects..." She said, lowering her voice.
"Well, I--" Kaveri paused, chewing on her lip. "I was given orders, otherwise I'd be held responsible for... well." She begun walking towards the lab again, briefly waving the flashlight at the wrecked jeep once more. She makes a mental note to visit it on the way back, or maybe hit it during the day when she goes back out here again.
"I didn't," she frowned, "Did you? Last thing I remember, I was in the shower. We were high, staring at the showerhead. Then I wake up... and it's not where I remember being. It's quite inexplicable... and I think it was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time." She shook her head, absently rolling the flashlight from hand to hand as she walks.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 11:18 pm
Zach's sense of smell was not very refined, though his human nostrils did get a whiff of something a little bit like the heavy scent that had overwhelmed him in the cave. Bile rose in his throat. A look of abject fear crossed his face at her statement, causing him to nearly slice into his own hand with the force he gripped the cloth at his side with. All of them, suspects? There was little surprising about the islanders being blamed - after all, viva la revolution, and all that - but her tone of voice indicated something more sinister.
He followed after her, taking another long look at the vehicle and furrowing his brow in concentration as he faced forward again. The end of his tail dragged along the ground a little. "What?" he cried, incredulous. "Why the hell would he blame you? You were with me! We both know that. Their cameras should know that too. But..." He trailed off, unspoken suspicion in his voice.
"I didn't either," he said with considerable relief. "I'm glad I'm not the only one. I woke up... in a cave. Pretty much like this." He paused to consider something. It was true, he was too spineless to hide the cloth anywhere. Perhaps Kaveri could find some better use for it clearing her name. "Er, Kaveri... you may want to get this checked out by the doctors too. See whose blood it was and all..."
Reluctantly, he held up the tattered cloth, which had blood both splattered and smeared on its normally white fabric.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 11:30 pm
"Actually," Kaveri started, her voice taking on something of a nervous tone, "I want this to be kept between us, where I woke up. See, I woke up next to Aubrey. You know, that one doctor -- I don't really know what her deal is, other than her staff status..." She trailed off, lowering her voice even more.
"Someone approached us -- I never caught her name -- and I came to around then. I found that there was blood on my chin, and bite marks on Aubrey," she said, looking away briefly. "While I was unharmed, she was practically dead. I want to think I wasn't so stupid enough to... I just..." She bit down on her lip, making a frustrated "mnhf" noise. "And since I was there, Moreau himself personally called me on the intercom after I got home and asked me a few questions. I told him it wasn't me, so he told me to find out who did it otherwise he would MAKE the culprit be me, just because I was there. The guy was a d**k."
She looked over, reaching out to take the cloth in her hands. Hey, it's only slightly less vile than the contents of her pocket. "Looks like we're almost there, anyways," Kaveri said, pointing her flashlight at the fence not too far up ahead. "Let's go turn this in. I've been itching to get this crap out of my pocket since I found it."
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Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 12:06 am
Reluctantly he handed the cloth over, a hundred regrets crossing his mind as soon as it left his hand. Zach gave her a mystified look before she launched into her story, which grew more and more knowing with each sentence. "That Moreau sure sounds like it. Never met him and honestly hope I never do."
"Of course it wasn't you! I remember being with you that time in the shower... it's the last thing I remember before all this insanity started. I... I found someone else who had blood on them out in the jungle yesterday. Oh well, as long as we're keeping secrets... I woke up with blood on me too. Even some in my mouth, and on both my hands." He wavered a moment, greatly unused to the plural. "I was in a cave, though, of all places. I can't remember a lot of Saturday evening. Just about all of it's gone, really... though, um, that car we saw back there..."
He mumbled something quietly under his breath while throwing a glance over his shoulder at the dark and empty road they were covering. The dull aching that followed his transformation still gripped his body all over.
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Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 12:17 am
"Jeez... if this keeps up, all of us might as well be the murderer," Kaveri snorted. "But how many of us woke up next to the victim in question?" As far as she knew, she was the only other one there save for Emelyn and the comatose Aubrey. "Either way, it's not very heartening."
She perked her eyebrows. "The smashed-up jeep? What about it?" She was tempted to peek in it and see if there was anything for her to scavenge -- but on the way back. Coming to the labs with a stolen object in your hands would be a bad idea.
As they walk, the finally get within earshot of the guards. Kaveri raised her voice, pointed her flashlight at them and waved her arm. "Hey, guys! I got some stuff for your Big Doctor here!" Once close enough, probably about ten feet away, she continued, "I got Aubrey's hat, and a trove of biological... nuggets right here. And this shirt."
Her lips parted into a wry grin. "You guys want it? It's still fresh."
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Island of Moreau Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 12:22 am
The guards approached them, looking at then, especially Zach, with a bit nervousness. They were really tired of messing with the island freaks, and it was beginning to become obvious.
"...tropical nuggets? What the hell you talking abuot?" The two cloest shifted their rifles to their other shoulder.
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