Night 57: Infirmary

[antiheroed]

[ from here]For as direct as they were being, Riku understood how much of this section of Landel's remained unexplored. They were so focused on acquiring the drug that it hadn't occurred to them to stop-or, if it had, it was a thought stopped by his frustration with his partner for the night. To think he pushed off some old man because he thought he

Comments

[zack_fair]

[From here.]

The room here was familiar in its own way. Shin-Ra HQ had an infirmary for injured soldiers and Zack had spent his fair share of time in there. Usually it wasn't for too long, seeing how Cure materia could handle just about any injury, but illness or poisoning could be trickier to magic away.

He got the feeling that the room would almost be pleasant to be in during the day. The pattern on the ceiling and the clean sheets seemed welcoming in their own weird way. Of course, that would have only been the case if this was a proper hospital. As it was, he knew that anyone who was brought here had to be going through something pretty terrible.

Either way, the drugs had been set up for them and as Zack approached, he saw that a few had already been taken. Where had everyone gone, then? It was an eerie thought, and yet there weren't exactly bodies littering the floor either. The stuff clearly wasn't fatal.

So what would it do, then?

"They're not even labeled," he said as he grabbed for one of the syringes. "Talk about

[zack_fair]

Before Zack could even get all the way to his feet, Rose was there, her face flooded with concern. He tried to give her a painless look in return, but then the hurt started to pool at his mouth, hands, and feet, forcing him to sit back down again. While he didn't want to have to stick around here and waste time, he didn't know if he could actually take a few steps without collapsing from the pain

[loyalrose]

"Zack?" Rose spoke again when he didn't answer her, but at least he was moving back to the bed and she helped him, lifting his feet up so he could lay down, although he looked far from comfortable. His hand was over his mouth, his expression screwed up in a grimace of pain.

"Shit, Zack, what did I tell you about dying on me?" she muttered, her hands clenching in the sheets beside him. She had no idea what to do. How did you counter a drug when you didn't even know what the drug was? But dammit, she was in an infirmary, there had to be something"Stay here," she ordered him, worry making her tone a little sharp, her brain not really remembering that he was unlikely to go anywhere in his current condition. There was a small table beside the bed and she crouched, going through the drawer with no luck. Nothing useful. She got up, moving to the table with the assorted drugs once more, but there was nothing there that gave any indication of what any of them held, and she couldn't risk giving him a second one in hopes that it might counter

[zack_fair]

The last thing Zack had wanted was to worry the person he was with, and yet this wasn't something that he could just ignore or hide behind a smile. He wished he could, but this was too much even for him, and that meant that he was left to lay as still as he could on the bed while Rose tried to help him. In reality, he didn't really want her going anywhere; he'd rather there was someone at his side. It made him feel weak to even think that, but he had no idea what was happening to him and --

He wanted to tell her so many things: that he'd be okay, that there was no way he was dying, that he was sorry he was putting her through this. Instead, he only winced his eyes shut as a thin layer of sweat started to form at his forehead. He clenched his fists, but something seemed wrong; the pain from his hands extended outward, and suddenly it was obvious that he was changingInto what? Was he going to sprout wings like Angeal or lose all of his color like Genesis? Was he going to go crazy like Sephiroth? Zack sucked in breaths, trying to remain

[loyalrose]

Something lurched sickeningly beneath his skin, caught in the eerie glow from her flashlight. He arched, head thrown back and his mouth parted in a strained sound of pain, but that wasn't right either. Rose took an unconscious step back, her flashlight illuminating the change shuddering through the form on the bed, horror in her eyes.

"Zack... what..." she whispered out, shock mixing with fear as he convulsed again. She had no idea what was happening to him. Would drugs do this? Though she'd never seen anything so strange, so horrible in all her life, one word kept echoing in terror in the back of her mind as she stared at his teeth. The only explanation she could come up with for the changes she could visibly see in front of her.

Werewolf. Werewolf.

Was it full moon? Was this something he was or was this only because of the drugs? And what the hell was she going to do now?

[zack_fair]

Rose's voice only barely came through over the sound of blood pumping through his ears. Zack's heartbeat was going at a mile a minute and before long his hands were clutching at the mattress, tearing into it with nails that were too long and hard to be human.

He didn't know if he could bear to look Rose in the eye at this point because this had to be terrifying to watch, and so all he could do was hope that she kept her distance. He was still there, in his head -- there was nothing taking over, and he had no intentions of lashing out, but

[loyalrose]

Torn between her utter horror and her fear for Zack, Rose could do nothing but back away, her pale hands gripping the flashlight, illuminating everything in sickening detail. His screams had her trembling, furious and terrified and helpless to do anything but watch. She was almost relieved when the flashlight slipped from nerveless fingers and clattered loudly to the tile floor, the light going out and hiding the sight of his twisting and convulsing form

[zack_fair]

As Zack's body kept twisting and contorting into something completely different, he was forced to turn onto his side and then eventually onto his stomach, as if he could work the pain out of him if he shifted his position. That wasn't the case at all, but somehow being face-down on the bed felt more right all of a sudden.

Rose was still there, but everything was dark now. That didn't bother him as much as it should have -- in fact, he thought he could see better than he should be able to, which was not reassuring in this case. It was just one more sign that he was becoming less and less human.

She was scared, and he knew it. He could smell it on her, and that disgusted him.

He tried to speak even through the pain, but no words came out. Instead, he made a noise that sounded more like... like a bark. His vocal cords had to be gone and now all he could make were beastly noises. His arm still had enough joints that he could reach up and feel his face, but it was no longer flat -- no, part of it jutted out and with a clawed finger he

[loyalrose]

Rose's fingers brushed against the cylinder handle of the flashlight, feeling it start to roll again, but she lunged for it, ending up on her knees as she grabbed it and clutched it to her chest. She clicked it on but nothing happened. A half-breathed curse slipped from her lips as she banged it against her palm

[zack_fair]

The process was almost done. Zack could only tell because the pain in some areas was fading. His eyesight had shifted -- there was no color anymore, not that there could have been in the darkness. He could feel the fur hanging on him, a protective layering, and yet the sweat that had beaded at his forehead was gone. Probably because he couldn't sweat anymore. Instead, all of the pain gathered at his arms and legs, as the joints shifted and the limbs shorted, as hands turned into paws and the claws he'd grown found their proper place.

But he was more than just a dog, and somehow he knew that too. He was too big to be a normal animal and he could see the fur on his front legs (not arms, anymore) and how it was only there in patches, with bones and raw flesh showing through. Somehow, that didn't hurt, and as he slowly pulled himself up from the laying position onto all four legs, he realized that the change was over

[loyalrose]

Whatever was happening to Zack was coming to a finish. His form was almost entirely canine now, although what, exactly, Rose couldn't tell. He wasn't a wolf, but he wasn't completely dog either and there were parts of him... missing. Rotting. As if half of him were cursed, decaying, dying. Despite the impossibility of that, he was beginning to move, standing on four feet atop the medical bed, shaking himself.

And then he was on the floor, nails tapping on the tiled floor as his shaggy head turned in her direction.

Shit. He was looking right at her.

Later she would be embarrassed about the yelp that escaped her lips as she scrambled to her feet, darting backwards and stumbling over the end of the bed behind her as she moved to keep something between her and him - it? - before he prowled even closer. She kept the light trained on him, too terrified to not know where he was at all times, as her mind raced with half-formed plans of escape

[zack_fair]

Honestly, Zack couldn't blame her for being scared, for screaming and backpedaling like he might hurt her. It was the sane thing to do, and he made sure to glance down at the floor so that she wasn't on the receiving end of his canine gaze for too long. He didn't want her to misinterpret and think that he was sizing her up like a slab of meat or anything like that

[loyalrose]

The dog nodded at her. Well. That was comforting. At least, in as much as she didn't have to worry about an improbably huge canine ripping her throat out in the next fifteen seconds.

"Shit," she exhaled, still clutching her flashlight as if her life depended on it. (At the moment, it sort of felt like that.) "Shit, Zack. You can understand me still? Are you... are you alright?"

That was a stupid question. Of course he wasn't alright. He was a rotting dog, for god's sake.

[zack_fair]

The relief on her face was visible to him and so also relaxed in turn, the tension leaving his newly changed body as he nodded again. He could understand everything, which meant that while actually having a conversation would be difficult, he could at least handle yes or no questions.

The second thing that Rose asked wasn't one that could be answered so easily. Zack was doing a pretty good job of holding himself together despite what had just happened (and how could one drug even do that?), but saying that he was doing well would be a lie.

So he attempted a shrug, not sure if these muscles worked the same as what he was used to. Hopefully the sentiment came across either way.

He would have drawn closer and tried to nudge his snout under her hand as some sort of comfort, but considering that he was half-rotted? He was guessing that would just gross Rose out. No, it was better if he kept at least three feet between them at this point.

[loyalrose]

She resisted the urge to curse again, despite it being the best logical response she could come up with to describe this situation at the moment. He didn't move closer, and Rose was rather relieved about that, since she wasn't quite sure she trusted any canine in her personal space anymore. Considering she'd nearly died the last time that happened, her caution was completely justified. Except... now what were they supposed to do

[zack_fair]

That was a fair question, considering the backgrounds that some of the patients here had. Zack couldn't imagine having to go through what he'd just experienced on a normal basis, but it was probably like everything else in life: you got used to it. He was just glad that that wasn't the case for him, though who knew after he'd taken that drug? Maybe he was going to be doomed to switching from human to monster every single night