A clock is ticking, but it's hidden far away

[givetheslip]

Date: June 29.
Location: Housing building
Characters: Maria Thorpe (givetheslip) and Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad (livethecreed)
Summary: Kinda-friends checking in to make sure nobody's dead.

[Things are calmer now, but that doesn't mean Maria is ready to relax. If anything, she's only more tense, because she's waiting for the next thing to go wrong. If her muscles get any tighter, she feels as if she might lock up completely. First sickness, then bombs...what will they face next?

On the bright side, she's no longer an aching, coughing mess, and the blurred vision caused by the foul-smelling gas she'd inhaled on the way into the catacombs has nearly subsided. It's enough of an improvement that she's managed to stop rubbing at them constantly, for all the good that did. The real bright side is that she's alive at all, she supposes.

There's at least one person she's not sure about, though. Altaïr is probably alive; he's a hearty sort, unlikely to fall to illness, and if he could escape from the Archive in Cyprus, he could have escaped the bombs. But she didn't see him in the catacombs, and she hasn't heard from him since they all ventured out of them. It nags at her, and that in itself is a strange feeling; it's been a long time since she's worried about a friend, not a comrade, but he is one of the few she has here and she'd rather not lose him.

So she makes her way through the housing building, trying to remember exactly where Altaïr said he lived. If she gets the room wrong, surely someone can direct her. She's not too proud to accept help.]

Comments

[givetheslip]

[These damnable apartments all looked the same to her, but his number in hand, it shouldn't take to long to find his. Maria found herself turned around once or twice, but soon she was reasonably certain she was near the right place.

After hesitating at one corner, not sure which way to go, she chose a direction only to hear the sound of someone approaching a few seconds later—and looked back to see the very man whose welfare she sought to check on.]

[livethecreed]

[True to what he'd thought, it had taken a few minutes of resting and gathering strength before he'd been able force himself to stand again; moving up the stairs was another matter entirely. Each step was an agony unlike any other, but still he continued on, the only thought in his mind bandaging his wounds and falling asleep for the foreseeable future.

Turning the corner onto his landing revealed Maria and he straightened, not wanting to show weakness to anyone. It took longer to reach her this way, and exhaustion was wearing at him, but he didn't let it show as he greeted her.]

Maria. It is good to see you survived relatively unscathed.

[givetheslip]

Altaïr. You as well.

[The color in his face indicated he'd had better days, but being alive and upright was itself better than the alternatives. He moved a little slowly, but she could hardly blame him for being tired.]

I wanted to see if you were all right now that it seems we can return to our dwellings without being blasted to Hell. There's not much else to do, as far as I can tell.

[She wasn't exactly skilled in construction and repair.]