Preparing for War (Open)

[Lillian 'Alecto' Williams]

(This thread is open, though every few days or so I will post up a reply until someone joins. I left a note in the cbox a few days ago seeing if anyone wanted to make a thread and it was ignored so I am doing this because of the low level of activity right now. If anyone wanted to jump in, but I posted a reply and it messed up what you wanted to do, pm me and I will remove the last reply I did.)

Lillian had peered at the entrance of the building for a while from her hidden spot among some trees and a dumpster. Not the most pleasant of locations, but it had served its purpose long enough for her to decide that this building was where she intended to stay. Strategically, it was more defensive than anywhere she had managed to find in the city she had last been in. On the downside, it was on the outskirts of town.

She supposed that was for the best though. If she was unfortunate enough to draw as much attention as last time, it would be away from the others in this city. At least hopefully long enough that they could get away or hide so her actions didn’t affect those who held no interest in what she was doing. But that was all for a later time. Right now was the time to act.

There had been little traffic to or from the building, or whoever was using it was excellent at covering their tracks. She supposed that its intended purpose probably kept people from thinking of it as the safe haven it could be. Still, she gripped the stick she had been using as a hiking staff to reassure herself she wasn’t completely helpless. Granted, it wasn’t the firmest or strongest of sticks but it had gotten its job done so far and in a pinch would be useable against anyone who didn’t know how to use a blade. Guns were another story. She’d avoid those if she could.

Lillian made sure the band at the bottom of the stick was tight and emerged from her spot and headed toward the building like a ghost. As she moved she made no sounds, the padding on the staff keeping that quite while her upbringing allowed her to almost subconsciously control her personal presence so she could be as imposing and noticeable or as silent and unnoticeable as she wanted to be. Of course, the latter was much easier to do when she wasn’t wearing bright white.

She made it to the door and after checking to make sure it was safe she entered and began heading for the office. Not the administrator’s, but the general public one. A few moments there and she would either know where everything was supposed to be or where to learn that information. If luck was with her she’d even find some of the facility’s keys.

Either way, she planned to hit the staff area first since she had yet to hear of one that didn’t have a separate staff kitchen that was out of the way. Sugar, salt, pepper and coffee were all but guaranteed to be there while there was a fair chance there would be a vending machine or two as well. After she raided the kitchen and had her key, she’d be off to the higher security patient rooms. Those would offer the most protection and once inside she’d only need a chair to make sure that if anyone did get in, she’d know well in advance.

This crazy plan of hers was going so smoothly, it was almost asking her if the plan was as crazy as she had thought. It didn’t matter. Crazy or not, she would fulfill it the best she could. She had a war to fight and she’d survived due to her skills and the sacrifices made by others when mistakes had been made. She had learned from those mistakes and would not make them again. Too much had already been paid in this conflict and she would try to ensure all further losses belonged to her enemies.

[Lillian 'Alecto' Williams]

Half an hour had passed without any events outside of her expectations. The staff kitchen had been off of the hallway down the back of the office and she had found a handful of keys. She hated keys, so inelegant really. If one want a door to be locked so others could not pass through they had a multitude of ways to achieve that goal. Instead, everyone used keys. A screwdriver and a small hammer would render most key-locks useless with a single well placed tap.

None of these would belong to where she wanted to get, but they would lead her there. Fortunately those not in full control of their minds tended to be held behind doors that had superior locks. The ones in this building should have been designed to keep people from being able to force their way through, even if equipped with general tools. That meant is was the not-so-general tools she had to worry about.

A tote bag she had acquired had been used to collect the the basic foodstuffs in the staff kitchen along with the partial contents of the vending machine. They must have been planning on having I refilled shortly after everything fell apart. Still, it would be enough for awhile. She'd deal with obtaining a sustainable line of food later. She had other things she had acquired form the staff kitchen that she knew would be useful.

Take real silverware for instance. Well, not real if you looked at it from the perspective of her upbringing. It was at least metal and fairly decent quality at that. It was a little sad though that the plastic knives she also grabbed would be better at cutting until she dulled the teeth on them. Everything would have uses beyond the initial intentions of their designs.

The cleaner she was carrying to the laundry room was another good find. It was mostly ammonia and combined with the bleach she would undoubtedly find in the laundry room and she now had the ability to make a gas that could do anything from make someone ill to kill them depending on how much they breathed in. Even if they wore a mask, any sane person would think twice about carrying on. And that was from a purely defensive standpoint, as a weapon there were a multitude more uses that could be achieved.

Still, she was ever vigilant in her actions. There was no point surviving this far only to be caught off-guard. She was really wishing she had a Kevlar version of her clothing. If nothing else, it would provide a small measure of mental comfort.