Chapter 522 - Dry Remnants

It takes a couple hours to actually reach the area where the Medical District apparently sits. Due to them primarily using the rooftops, they almost never encountered Ghosts, the only time they did was when they had to scale over a Rooftop Villa Restaurant which was almost completely infested.

Fortunately, Afton easily cleared the area, collapsing the staircase leading to the roof with a few hard punches while tossing all the Ghosts off of the roof.​​

By now the sun had already set, bathing the entire place in further darkness than it already was under the Cloud. Usually, you'd be able to see somewhat in the night with the moonlight, but none of its light managed to breach the Cloud overhead...

In actuality, the Cloud overhead seems to become more erratic and tumultuous during the night, which was quite disturbing considering the effects it'd already had on Anja. Every now and then you could see orange lightning flashing overhead, providing a flash of sight before disappearing, this of course was followed by the loud crack of thunder.

Afton and Veronic had activated the lights on their Power armour to see where they were actually going. Anja would too, if not for the obvious... Dean seemed fine using the other's lights to navigate however.

Soon enough, they reached the Medical District... If Afton were honest, it looked less like a proper district and more like a collection of relatively large buildings. Of course, most of it was obscured by thick Cloud and shambling black figures, so perhaps he was missing something.

The only actual indication that they were where they were supposed to be was the flickering red and green medical sign...

Dean takes one look at the place and frowns, "This place is full of Ghosts... Are you sure you want to try this now? We can come back tomorrow when the Cloud has thinned and some of the Ghosts have migrated."

Afton shakes his head, "I'd rather not spend more time than we need to in this place, Anja still needs extensive medical treatment and I doubt this place will have the equipment we need for it. She needs to be taken back home, but first, we gotta find Christine." he states, hopping to the next roof.

Dean audibly lets out a long sigh, "Whatever you say..."

The group make their way towards the District, hopping across rooftops until they finally reach it. They climb through a hole in the roof to get inside, and are immediately attacked by a Ghost that spotted them from the hallway.

Afton immediately kicks it, and accidentally sends it through the wall and plummeting to the ground below... "Wah... I didn't even kick it that hard..." he says with surprise still present on his face.

Dean just chuckles, "Don't be too surprised, this whole place is barely held together with spit and glue... I dare say if it ever rained here, it'd melt like a sandcastle." he jokes.

Afton hums at Dean's words while looking around the hallway, quickly spotting a strange device in the far corner... It looked like a speaker mixed with a camera of sorts... Dean spots it too and unconsciously takes a step back, clearly avoiding it.

"Another 'detonation signal' huh?" Afton asks, already guessing its function.

Dean nods, "I have no idea what purpose they serve... Back in the day they were used for announcements and such, but now they only play that single signal that'll blow my head off." he says, making sure not to mention the fact that his collar was disarmed.

Afton shrugs and draws his revolver, firing a single shot that causing the speaker to explode. "Well, just try to keep your head, cool?" he chuckles before beginning to look around.

Veronica of course continues to assist Anja in moving around, they weren't about to risk leaving her alone in her current state. Not to mention the fact that Dean had never been in this part of the Medical District before, partly due to disinterest, and partly due to Elijah setting up shop and collaring him.

The group begins slowly exploring the place, occasionally finding medical supplies, but more often than not they had already passed their expiration date, that or the Cloud had rendered them useless or dangerous.

Afton does eventually stumble across something of interest... He pushes through a doorway that seemed to have some trash fallen behind it... Once inside he finds an operating room of sorts? Old black blood still stained the equipment around the place, but more importantly, there were some clothes presumably left by the last patient...

Afton gapes as soon as he sees it, and this feeling is mirrored by Nyx... He lifts it to straighten it out and is confused when he finds a suit looking remarkably like the Stealth Suit. The only difference was the fact it contained no electronic components, meaning there wasn't an AI contained within.

Aside from that, the materials looked almost identical... Well, it would have if Afton hadn't upgraded his own slightly. "Nyx, what is this? Why is it here?"

"Sir, that is a previous version of the Stealth Suit, one without the components that make me so valuable... It's from Big Mt." she states.

Obviously, this means Christine had been here... He doubted Elijah would try wearing this as it seemed to suit people with smaller frames...

He glances behind him at the others, "I found some of Christine's clothes, we must be getting close." he states, tossing Veronica the clothes so she could hold onto them, he doubted Christine would want to be walking around naked.

Veronica almost drops Anja as she catches it, her eyes still angrily scanning the various blood stains covering the operation room. If she found out Elijah was responsible for this she'd tear his damn heart out!

The group continues moving, the new discovering spurring them forwards at an accelerated pace. In all honesty, Afton and Veronica were slightly frightened by the amount of blood they'd discovered...