Exit 23

[loxmyth]

Looking at the locked counter, Daunte sighs. Guess I'll just have to file that away for an emergency, he figures. I don't think I can justify busting the lock unless we actually see something... but damn is that annoying.

He follows John back to the restroom holding up his end of the tent, his beam of light bobbing across the walls as they moved. Everything seemed quieter, which was disconcerting considering a gunshot had just gone off. The suspense of the whole situation was killing him, and he needed to cope with it.

Daunte's coping mechanism was to talk.

"Hey man, what's your name?" he asks his tent-carrying partner. "I'm Daunte. Daunte Spinks. This is kinda crazy, huh? Power going out, cut off from the outside world by a snowstorm, and gun shots. It's like a movie or something, you know? My friends back home are never going to believe this."

 

[tmart]

BJ waits inside the freezing cold washroom, kneeling with his bloodied hands on his pant legs, seemingly not minding of the blood on his expensive clothes. Maybe the coffee desensitized him. Whatever the case, today is a bad day to be worn by BJ.

 

[Jarval]

OOC: Slight delay in my next post, update coming tomorrow night.

 

[Jarval]

The Parking Lot:

Seeing you returning towards the rest stop, the wolf walks away. To your amazement, the creature slowly dissolves into flakes of snow and vanishes into the storm. As it disappears, the storm again picks up force, the wind whipping the snow up and around you. The parking lot is quiet, and the car headlights slowly go out, one by one.


Inside the rest stop:

John and Daunte pick up the tent and hurry back to the washroom. The temperature seems less unnaturally cold than before, but the floor is still slick with ice.

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

"Hey man, what's your name?" he asks his tent-carrying partner. "I'm Daunte. Daunte Spinks. This is kinda crazy, huh? Power going out, cut off from the outside world by a snowstorm, and gun shots. It's like a movie or something, you know? My friends back home are never going to believe this."

"I'm John," he replies, shifting his grip on the tent and being carefully not to slip. He shifts in to his own coping mechanism- recalling facts. "You ever read your namesake's works? Great stuff. More like a pyschological representation of midieval europe than a physical one of hell. Which layer was it that people were encased in ice... my memory must be going. Cania, maybe? Betrayers of Family?" John grins halfheartedly. "Forget to send a mother's day card?"

He leaves the joke lying flat, changing tacts to what had been said earlier. "Isolation, being cut out from the outside world, is a common theme everywhere. Ditto with man against the elements, although that's more recent. Less of that when Gods were actively controlling them. Ever read Crane's 'The Open Boat'?"

 

[loxmyth]

Daunte shrugs. "I suppose you're talking about Dante's Inferno? Nah, never got around to it... maybe I'll pick it up in the near future though. Was it good? Looked a little on the tedious side to wade through. Of course, that's a little silly coming from a law student. But you'll be happy to know I also do a lot of sports, so I must be channelling on my inner jock." He grins at the other man, trying to keep the situation light.
"Never even heard of The Open Boat, but I read Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea. Similar?"

By this time, the pair had arrived again at the restroom, and the sight of the bleeding man unnerved Daunte, enough that he started talking again. "You okay, Doc? I'm Daunte, this here's John, and we've brought you that stretcher you wanted. Think this will be good enough?" He indicates the tent. "This guy's going to be fine, right? He's going to stabilize?"

 

[ErichDragon]

Ben looks at the vanishing wolf and tries to recall any stories or legends he heard growing up on the reservation that might fit this situation.

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

"Never even heard of The Open Boat, but I read Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea. Similar?"

"I haven't read it, but from what I've heard, not really. 'The Open Boat' is a short story about a couple of guys trying to get to shore after a shipwreck. The big theme is that nature isn't a hostile force trying to crush them- it's just an unintelligent and impersonal force that may kill them anyway. Cheery, huh?" he concludes, grinning humorlessly, as they arrive the the bathroom.

 

[loxmyth]

"I haven't read it, but from what I've heard, not really. 'The Open Boat' is a short story about a couple of guys trying to get to shore after a shipwreck. The big theme is that nature isn't a hostile force trying to crush them- it's just an unintelligent and impersonal force that may kill them anyway. Cheery, huh?" he concludes, grinning humorlessly, as they arrive the the bathroom.

"I suppose," Daunte replies warily. He then runs his flashlight around the bathroom, up and down the slick patches of ice, and the foot-long icicles that had mysteriously formed here, skewering a man.

"But if nature did this, I'd say your short story is a crock. This wasn't just some random act of nature, this whole room's closed off. It's just not right." He flashes his light into each nook and cranny of the room, hoping to be proven wrong. All there needed to be was an open window or maybe even a vent that lead directly to outside. Then he could believe that the fact that the restroom looked like a winter wonderland wasn't totally weird. Maybe it was in one of the stalls?

 

[tmart]

By this time, the pair had arrived again at the restroom, and the sight of the bleeding man unnerved Daunte, enough that he started talking again. "You okay, Doc? I'm Daunte, this here's John, and we've brought you that stretcher you wanted. Think this will be good enough?" He indicates the tent. "This guy's going to be fine, right? He's going to stabilize?"

"Sure, that's fine.. just lay it next to him there." BJ puts his hands beneath the wound in the executive's abdomen. "Alright, I need you to help me lift him, on three. And it's BJ." He strains to help lift the executive.
"The ranger had better get back with my kit soon... he'll die without it."