Snippet #1787324

Erica

With a tray full of food, vitamins and other medications and several towels thrown over her shoulders, Erica stepped into the lobby of the clinic. She panned her head about as she did a quick head count; they were missing one of their guests. The brunette girl who accompanied Xel was nowhere to be found, but Erica put the girl to the back of her priorities. Some of the other patients weren't looking so well, especially Xel.

Erica cleared her throat to gain everybody's attention and announced, "Hello everybody. My name is Erica and I'll be attending to you this...evening. I brought some towels for everyone, it will help get the rain out. I also brought some food and vitamins for anyone who is feeling sick from the weather. Hopefully everything will clear up soon. As usual you all are free to spend the night here and we can even offer you some basic toiletries. Also, any one in need of other medical attention can bring it up to me or Armenius once he gets back."

Attending to each patient, Erica gave each a towel and those who were hungry or looked most affected by the rain she gave some food. When Erica came upon Xel, he was lolling his head over the back of the wheel chair in pain. Sweat mixed with the black rainwater on his brow, he looked like he had thrown up recently given the symptoms. Erica placed a caring hand on Xel's shoulder and offered the pineapple juice and vitamin C tablets; "Here babe, take these. It will help your stomach." She also noticed at this point that Xel was fiddling with three small, spherical objects in his left hand, but she had no idea what they were.

Erica felt a tug on her coat, she wheeled around to see who needed attention. The grey-haired man with grey eyes gestured outside with his head. Erica cautiously glanced up outside through the now dying rain. Several human figures were waiting outside, across the street in the rain and a bolt of fear shot through Erica as she remembered what had happened just earlier that day with the Raven. But she knew the Raven were all dead or had run off, so either this was another gang, or something else entirely. Erica buried her hand into her left coat pocket and felt the metallic grip of the pistol she had stowed there and again wished that Armenius wasn't taking his sweet time in getting back. Then Erica heard rushed footsteps from down the hallway leading to the wards. Erica's hand tightened around the pistol grip as she stood silently listening to the footsteps, a door opened, then closed and another then opened. Erica cautiously turned back to find out what all the commotion was about. When she came upon the bathroom, the door was cracked open slightly and the brunette girl who had just moments ago disappeared was busy ripping her clothes off.

"Hey!" Erica yelled as she quickly forced the door open. What was this girl thinking? She thought as she let the pistol fall from her grip back into her pocket.

Armenius

The green eyed girl had run off without a word. She just disappeared into the inky blackness of the shadows of the building and Armenius decided it was not worth his time nor was it a tolerable danger to go after her. Instead he had decided to return to the clinic; he had been gone for at least an hour anyway. Now he followed the road back to the clinic as the storm began to lift revealing blue-grey splotches of the night sky above. Armenius looked south through the gaps betwixt the towering ruins off into the dark distance through the dying rain. For the past five weeks or so Armenius had seen smoke rising from down south in tall dark grey columns. Due to the coloration and consistent locale, Armenius concluded that it wasn't the campfires of travelers or even the fire pits of buildings but rather something else entirely. His first guess was industry, that somebody had managed to restore a degree of electrical power, at least enough to power factories which meant that residential and infrastructural power would also be restored. Combine this with the crazy tales and rumors Armenius heard from many non-local patients about a powerful demagogue and his or her soldiers and war machines and this was enough to convince Armenius that the south was worth investigating. Whether or not Sanctum Prime would welcome these newcomers (if they existed at all), they would ultimately encounter them and Armenius always felt that sizing up the foreign party was always crucial for negotiations.

Armenius stopped and moved to the street side as he neared the clinic, noticing several figures arrayed against the wall on the south side of the street. They were obviously armed as they seemed to take notice of Armenius as well and raised their weapons--firearms from the looks of it--to ready stance. Armenius readied his weapon but kept the barrel pointed down and to the left to indicate that he wasn't looking for a fight. With great caution, and while consistently checking his surroundings, Armenius slowly approached the four figures and was amazed to see what he saw when he closed to clear visual range. The four figures were dressed in matching, urban battle dress uniforms and chem gear. Each carried an REC7 assault rifle and from the looks of it, they all had plenty of ammunition. One of the riflemen even had an M320 auxiliary grenade launcher slung under the barrel of the weapon and every one of them carried a pistol although what make or model, Armenius couldn't tell while they were holstered. On the right shoulder of each rifleman was a black and grey arm band punctuated by a white outlined iron cross enveloped by a black trefoil. One of the figures with sergeant chevrons on his collar approached Armenius.

"Sling your weapon, citizen." The soldier ordered in a gruff male voice muffled somewhat by his gas mask. Armenius did so cautiously in a smooth, slow motion. No need to get this heavily armed band jumpy. From what Armenius was beginning to gather, these guys were so far beyond an ordinary gang.

"I haven't seen you around these parts. I'm guessing you've come from outside Sanctum Prime." Armenius replied as he examined the other soldiers.

What the soldier said next both stung and alerted Armenius as to the danger he may be in. "Yes citizen, we do not roll in the filth as the rest of you do. We are a force-reconnaissance element of the 1st company, 4th battalion of the 1st Imperial Guard division. And we have come to scout this land in preparation for Her arrival." The sergeant responded. Based on the level of self-induced superiority this soldier displayed and the pompous reference to his commander in chief, Armenius grew mightily concerned for the well being of Sanctum Prime.