That brought them to stare at him, and when he started moving they followed along. Marching almost mechanically single-file.
Seriously creepy, thought Ranma to himself.
Ranma consulted the map several times and went down to the sub-basement that had been converted to living quarters. At least out of this deal he was getting bigger living quarters even if he had to share the area with several others.
Waitaminute.
"They're kidding me, we're staying in the same room?!" Ranma double checked the map. One room. Ten beds. Two toilet areas. Access to the bathing area and the garage off two nearby corridors.
He became aware of a girl with short blue hair peeking over his shoulder at the map. He suppressed the desire to jump halfway across the corridor with some effort and merely presented the map to her.
The others quickly gathered around and stared unblinkingly at the map themselves.
"That's gonna be our new home base, there's a connecting tunnel dug between this building and that one on the lowest level," explained Ranma.
The heads had slowly swiveled up to orient on him while he spoke. Ranma was getting seriously creeped out at this point and hoped that these nine would start "humanizing" soon.
Ranma decided to lead them straightaway to the tunnel and get them set up in their new area.
The lowest level of the former office building had a set of metal lockers at one end, Ranma opened these to reveal the tunnel, and stepped through into another set of lockers which he opened from the inside. Once his "troops" were through he closed both sets of doors and ushered them forward.
Natsume and a group of others were in the former office building next door. Ranma himself found he was looking at a similar office building, nearly identical to the first one. He followed the map and ended up in the core of the second basement level.
"Okay, there's a mini-kitchen, storage area, and bunks over here." Ranma pointed. "There's a set of stairs up to some place called 'Chicago Fitness' on the third floor and that's the shower area. The showers were running when the radiation pulse hit, and as long as we don't shut 'em off there's no fluctuation to alert the Machine. Or so I'm told. When you're above ground here, stay close to the inside of the building, that way motion sensors can't pick you up from outside."
The unblinking stares had turned to him, then began looking about their current location.
Ranma didn't see any sign of acknowledgement. "Uhm, guys? If you understand when I'm explaining something, nod or something so I know you're listening. If you don't understand something, ask me."
All of them immediately started asking questions. Ranma groaned and held up a hand. "ONE AT A TIME! One... okay, you. You first. What's your question?"
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(Posted Wed, 30 Jun 2004 09:35)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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