Participants:
| Scene Title | …Et Je Doit Crier |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | …but I must scream. |
| Date | May 31, 2018 |
All the air is knocked out of Adrienne's lungs as she is flung up against the concrete wall.
The noise that does escape her is a startled yelp. Her vision swims from the impact of the back of her head against the dark, moisture-stained concrete wall. Arms pinned out to the side, vision blurred, Adrienne tries to focus on the dark shape in front of her. Even the sound of the klaxons blaring are muffled, the orange flash of emergency lights in the ceiling seem dull. She can feel the intense pressure at the center of her chest, at her wrists, aroun dher ankles. It's hard to breathe.
As her vision steadies, as five shapes become one, Magnes Varlane comes into center focus. There's a look of regret in his eyes, of unspoken apology. With out hand outstretched, Magnes furrows his brows and makes a noise in the back of his throat. "I don't want to hurt you…" he says quietly, but all Adrienne can do is struggle to breathe. She stares him down, expression intent, posture board-stiff.
Visibly struggling, Magnes' lips press together in a thin line and he clenches his fist closed. There's an intense pain at Adrienne's extremities, and she's pulled forward toward the young man and then violently slammed against the wall again.
This time, harder.
Fifteen Minutes Earlier
Sunstone Manor, Research Level
California Dead Zone
"Jaime, I need three copies of the bloodwork by this afternoon."
Adrienne Allen is a practiced liar. She grew up that way, in a household that was not condusive to the burgeoning genius in its midst. Children of abusive parents often develop an aptitude for lying as a measure of self-defense, and it is a defensive tactic that has served her well over the years. As she hands a requisition form over to the bespectacled scientist standing behind a table and microscope, she's earned a puzzled look.
"Aren't…" Jaime looks down to the paperwork, then back up to Adrienne. "Aren't you going to the Canada facility next week?" Adrienne flashes a smile that wordlessly says you know I can't tell you that as she steps away from his desk, palming his ID card as she slips by. "Wait," Jaime says, setting the paperwork down on the desk. Adrienne hesitates, slowing her pace and looking over her shoulder to the older researcher.
"Mm?" She queries, non-verbally, one dark brow raised. Jamie plucks something from the clip board the paperwork was on, then hands out a pen to Adrienne. She laughs, nervously awkward, and takes her forgotten pen and waggles it in the air. "I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached," she quips, tucking the pen safely into the same pocket she'd just stashed a stolen ID card. Jaime laughs, not realizing what happened, and turn shis back on Adrienne as she leaves the lab.
Moving through a pair of swinging double doors, Adrienne briskly carries herself down the hall, moving past the closed doors of examination rooms marked quarantine. The halls are sparse, far quieter than they were even two years ago. The facility has been hemmorhaging talent in numerous ways, none of them sustainable. At the end of the hall, she stops outside of a door marked with a ♊ that reads Authorized Personnel Only. Briefly glancing over her shoulder, Adrienne pulls out Jaime's ID card and swipes it through the card reader. After an excruciatingly long moment, the light turns green and there's a magnetic buzz of a lock coming undone.
When the door opens, Adrienne is swift to step through and close the door behind herself. The concrete-walled hallway beyond is less brightly lit than the others, the floor's dark tile reporting each of her footsteps with a soft echo. She tucks the iD card back into her pocket, hustling down the hall past inactive labs. When she reaches a door marked B4 she pushes it open and slips inside, briefly glancing back out into the hall.
The lab beyond is dark, save for a soft blue glow from tubing at the back of the room. Flipping a switch on, lights come on one by one, revealing rows of mechanical aparatus suspended from mechanical amrature on the walls. They are harnesses of some kind, connected with clear tubing. Each harness is paired to a central device, and the tubing interconnects between the two harnesses. At the end of the rows of machines, one device is still active. A single young man in a loose gray shirt and cotton pants is suspended in the harness, multiple IVs plugged into his arms and neck, spreading a luminous blue fluid under his skin that radiates out from the tubes.
Moving to a computer console between the harnesses, Adrienne swipes Jaime's keycard again to unlock it. Swiftly, she keys in a few commands and the harnesses whirr with a mechanical, hydraulic power and slowly lower the suspended figure so that his feet just touch the ground. Glancing back over her shoulder, Adrienne draws in a sharp breath, then looks back to the young man with head bowed and eyes shut. She goes through the process of disconnecting him from the device, luminous blue fluid spilled down onto the floor.
"Magnes," Adrienne hisses, "Magnes." She looks back to the door to the lab, then back to the young man again. "Pour l'amour de Dieu, réveillez-vous." She runs the fingers of one hand thorugh his hair, then grimaces and slaps him across the face. With a joly, Magnes wriggles out of the last restraint as he is violently woken up, legs weak and knees wobbly. He collapses to the floor, held partly in Adrienne's arms as she drops into a crouch to try and support his weight.
"Whrr…" Magnes mumbles incoherently, staring up at Adrienne. Her fingers touch along the side of his scalp, feeling for something behind his ear, then pull away. "Whhh… what… day is it?" He asks blearily. Adrienne flashes an anxious smile and gently cups his cheek with one hand.
"It's Christmas day," she replies in a joking tone of voice, looking back and forth between Magnes' dilated eyes.
Awkwardly laughing, Magnes responds, "Th— then there's still time." He smiles in like return, briefly taking hold of Adrienne's hand. It's only then that he notices the other harness is empty. "Where's…" he looks back to her, concerned.
"Your involvement in the project is being liquidated." Adrienne says with a sudden seriousness, helping Magnes to his feet. "Something happened. Pete's… gone off the deep end. He's ordered the remaining copies to be destroyed." Adrienne's dark eyes square on Magnes'. "They haven't thought to come here. Yet."
Sucking in a sharp breath, Magnes puts a hand on Adrienne's shoulder, his slipper-clad feet tentatively moving across the floor. "Ok," he says, even though he doesn't mean it. "I thought— " he searches his jumbled memories, "I thought dad was… I thought…" he look sup to Adrienne, brows furrowed and not understanding. The look she gives back is not one of understanding, just concern.
"You need to go," Adrienne reaches into her right front pocket and pulls out a folded piece of lined paper and tucks it into the front pocket of his gray shirt. Her hand stays over the pocket, pressed firmly in place. "But we have to hurry."
Still confused, Magnes makes an exasperated noise and looks around the lab, then back to Adrienne. "But I— I want to help. Dad needs me, he needs us to…"
"Your father killed one of you with his bare hands. He watched you melt in his arms and he told me he was liquidating the entire project. I think— I think he finally realized the son he remembered is never coming back." There's guilt in Adrienne's eyes, guilt and remorse. "You know he never saw you as his son. Not really."
"I knew," Magnes affirms, starting to walk when Adrienne does. "I just… he's my dad." That resonates with Adrienne, in a way she can't quite explain. She nods, the faintest hint of an honest smile crossing her face as she takes Magnes' hand and leads him to the door. She stops there, listening, and Magnes continues to work out aloud what's happening. "So he… he killed— all of the tanks?" He looks up to Adrienne, who swallows nervously and pushes the door open to an empty hall, her silence is all the confirmation Magnes needs.
The two emerge out into the empty hall, hurrying on down the corridor past more lab rooms until they reach the end of the hall. The maintenance door refuses Adrienne's ID card, the light turning red, and she lets out an exasperated cry of frustration. Magnes, looking up to her, releases her hand and steps toward the door. Raising one hand, he concentrates, and makes a grunt of exertion before the door groans in protest. A low, vibrating hum resonates through the room, and the door bends, flexes, and finally snaps out of the frame as the lock breaks. Magnes, exhausted, slouches against Adrienne who wraps an arm around him.
A moment later, alarms begin to sound.
"We have to go!" Adrienne shouts, grabbing Magnes by the hand again and hurrying through the door. The pair rush past metal shelves filled with cleaning supplies, disinfectant, and drums of hydrocloric acid past enormous HVAC vents in the ceiling, around a corner and to another door. Magnes stops, lifting his arms and starting to concentrate and Adrienne pushes them down to the floor. She makes a hesitant expression, tests the lock, and pushes the unlocked door open with a grimace.
Magnes, sheepishly, smiles in appreciation. "When all you've got is a hammer…" he starts to say, and Adrienne understands it well enough. As the two move through the next door, the concrete-walled room beyond smells musty and the walls are streaked with moisture stains. Enormous metal valves in the left wall are sealed by a padlock, stamped lids marked disposal held shut.
"What is this?" Magnes asks, looking up to the flashing emergency lights in the ceiling. Adrienne looks to the valves, then back to Magnes.
"Biological waste disposal. This facility used to be…" Adrienne hesitates, there's no time for a history lesson. "These pipes go all the way to the coast, but you'll— you'll have to swim. I can't— I can't promise you'll make it. It's a long way." Probably too long, and yet here she is. It's only in her explanation that Magnes understands this trip doesn't include Doctor Allen.
"No, wait." Magnes looks back to the valve, then to Adrienne. "They'll kill you for— you have to come with me, I can…" Adrienne lets go of Magnes' hand, shaking her head slowly. She looks to the doorway, hearing distant shouts, then looks back to him.
"I can't," Adrienne says, for a number of reasons. "You have to make it look like you forced me. Like… this was not my plan. You have to hit me." Adrienne looks to the doorway, then back to Magnes and the look of objection in his eyes. "If I'm not hurt they won't believe me," she hisses, stepping forward to close the distance between herself and Magnes.
He's silent for too long, looking nervously to the doorway, then back. "Why are you doing this?" He asks her, as if her answer is his requirement for compliance. Adrienne looks away, then back again.
"Because it's never too late to… to start making up for the past." Though Adrienne delivers that explanation with utmost sincerety, the true meaning of it is lost on Magnes. There's no way he could remember. "Please," she steps forward and presses a hand to the note tucked into his pocket. "Please."
Magnes furrows his brows, looks to his pocket and then to Adrienne. he doesn't understand. If he survives, though, maybe. He swallows a breath, swings the door shut to the room and bends the handle with a twist of his hand, forcing it shut. Then, looking back to Adrienne there's a visible expression of apology in his eyes. Make it convincing, her loosening posture says. Magnes' right hand twitches, teeth press down on his bottom lip, and he looks back up to her and raises his hand.
All the air is knocked out of Adrienne's lungs as she is flung up against the concrete wall.
The noise that does escape her is a startled yelp. Her vision swims from the impact of the back of her head against the dark, moisture-stained concrete wall. Arms pinned out to the side, vision blurred, Adrienne tries to focus on the dark shape in front of her. Even the sound of the klaxons blaring are muffled, the orange flash of emergency lights in the ceiling seem dull. She can feel the intense pressure at the center of her chest, at her wrists, aroun dher ankles. It's hard to breathe.
As her vision steadies, as five shapes become one, Magnes Varlane comes into center focus. There's a look of regret in his eyes, of unspoken apology. With out hand outstretched, Magnes furrows his brows and makes a noise in the back of his throat. "I don't want to hurt you…" he says quietly, but all Adrienne can do is struggle to breathe. She stares him down, expression intent, posture board-stiff.
Visibly struggling, Magnes' lips press together in a thin line and he clenches his fist closed. There's an intense pain at Adrienne's extremities, and she's pulled forward toward the young man and then violently slammed against the wall again.
This time, harder.