Hatchback Maze

Who: The Medical Staff and Patients
Where: Corridors
When: During the mechanical madness
=====================
<<SNIP>>
"RIGHT! FINE!" he managed after a moment of dumbfoundedness. He
stormed back up the corridor and turned to where a service hatchway
lay embedded in the corridor floor. He reached down and began to
unlock the securing bolts.
"But Shakespeare's going first!" he snapped, and was momentarily
gratified to hear a faint whimper from behind him.
<<END SNIP>>
Shakespeare looked down at his boss, currently pulling out the very last
securing bolt from the hatchway. Keto tossed it over his shoulder and
again caught a moment of gratification as Wildflower yelped in pain. He
got to his feet and gestured to Shakespeare.
"After you," he said, beginning to enjoy what limited power he possessed
over a subordinate that never failed to obey.
Shakespeare looked at the hatchway cover with a mixture of trepidation
and bravery - a mix that began to cause his head to throb a little. He
stepped over to the hatchway, past the smug Keto, and touched the handle
of the service hatch. As he did so, the lack of securing bolts caused
the metal covering to drop downwards into the hole. There were a series
of loud metallic thumps and scrapes as the over sized cover descended
down the service route.
Shakespeare winced as Keto sighed angrily.
"You better pray that covering took care of any would be robots
attackers," Keto said through gritted teeth. "Or our element of
surprise just went out of the window."
*rustle* asked the tree.
"Not the actual window," offered Wildflower supportively as Keto
growled.
"Charles! I hath chanced upons a query mosteth vexing," Shakespeare
said. "Thy patients of thou party, whyfore somes't nay hath locomotive
means for travels in thy serviceway."
"He's right Charlie," agreed Wildflower. "Half of these people can't
even lift their arms, let alone navigate down some treacherous duct
system. What do we do?"
Keto shook his head. "Why does it always fall to me to come up with the
plans?"
"You ARE the chief of medicine," said Wildflower.
"Chief of Medicine involves making medical decisions! I don't remember
commando style stealth tactics being a part of the medical syllabus!"
*rustle*
"That had best be your last contribution to this matter," said Keto,
shooting the tree a murderous glare.
Shakespeare looked at the hatchway then at the group that was travelling
with him. The tree wouldn't fit in the service hatchway either judging
from the leaves. They couldn't go on using the corridors for fear of
running into the robots, but some of them couldn't ably use the service
hatchway. This required careful strategising.
"Charles, prhaps, if I mighteth make thy suggestive plans. Thou, fair
Wildflower, mineself, thy nurse Cleavage and thy ables't bodied patients
art thou hatchway adventurers. Thy tree, who be'th great sizedeth in
foliage and thee patients with nay full movement'st could'st hide ins't
oneth of thine nearby roomst?"
The tree rustled importantly and some of the patients who had figured
out what Shakespeare was trying to say murmurred in agreement. Keto
threw up his arms in indifference, already reaching the end of his
action and adventure motivations for the day.
"Fine. Do it. Whatever, I don't care any more. The longer we stand
around talking, the more likely we are to get attacked by those robots.
Shakespeare, get in the hatch."
Obeying his superior, Shakespeare climbed into the hatchway, resting his
hands and feet on the metal bars of the ladder. He began to slowly
climb down, the darkness of the hatchway enveloping all around him.
Despite this, he felt quite good about the task.
After a few minutes Shakespeare called up to Keto, explaining that it
was safe to follow and one by one, those who could climbed down into the
hatchway after Shakespeare, the bard leading the way.
"This migheth go well!" Shakespeare said brightly as he spotted Keto's
feet beginning to appear above him. He sped up a little, dropping down
two rungs at a time until his feet went to land on a bar and caught
nothing but air. The shock caused him to lose his grip and for a
fraction of a second he floated in middair before gravity caught up with
reality and caused the surgeon to start falling.
"Charles!" he shouted as he dropped into the darkness.
As Keto realised what happened, his first reaction was to smile. His
second reaction was to laugh and his third reaction was one of relief.
Wildflower kicked downwards as Keto laughed louder, hitting his head.
"Don't be so mean Charlie. We've got to hurry after him and make sure
he's ok!" she said forcefully.
"Infernal woman," muttered Keto, starting to move downwards again.
<< snip>>
Seymour grabbed her by the normal hand. Then he grabbed her by the
injured hand. He screamed as he imagined touching the open would, and
Rosette screamed in pain as she felt someone touching her injury.
She slipped away and continued slipping down the stairs towards the
metal monster at the bottom, Rufus and Seymour watching with horror.
<< end snip>>
"What did you do?!" shouted Rufus.
"I...I..." Seymour stammered as they watched the unconscious Rosette
heading towards a certain doom. Then they heard a strange loud clanging
noise followed by a yelp of horror or possibly excitement. At that
moment a large piece of metal fell away from the roof in front of
Rosette. It landed on the stairs in a diagonal position and acted like
a dam, stopping most of the flow of oil and catching Rosette in the
process. Along with the metal grating, the scared form of Shakespeare
dropped also. He landed across the grating hard and screamed in pain,
before falling over its edge into the oil pool next to Rosette,
unconscious.
"Is that who I think it is?" Asked Seymour.
--------------------
<Hope you don't mind me stealing Rosette's tag! I wanted us all to get
together and have some massive posting! TAG ANYONE!>