Chapter 8: Control
Only a few minutes had passed but the Shadows below had grown significantly.
They completely stopped the ring under the Garden, which meant those monsters officially had control over were it went. But they weren't stopping there, they were working on possessing the whole Garden.
"Wait, how are they getting up here? The underground is sealed off." Zell slowly turned around, nervously looking at the walls and floors turning black. This was making him really scared.
"Not exactly, there's a hole in NORG's room that runs down there. That must be how they're getting through." Quistis explained, she too was getting a little anxious, if they didn't do something fast the Shadows would completely surround them. That would mean the end of everyone in the garden.
Was it avoidable?
"What do we do o' fearless leader." Seiphie asked, inching slowly away from the elevator since it was the most direct route to NORG's room.
Squall folded his arms and looked down in thought, The first thing he needed was a report, he knew they took over the underground but that was about all he knew. "Everyone, I want you to look around and tell me what those things have gotten into up here. If it's to bad we may need to evacuate temporarily." Squall decided, getting a nod from everyone. "Oh, and find Irvine tell him what's going on. We want to do this as fast as possible and we'll need all the help we can get to do it." Squall called out before everyone disbanded too far.
(What are we going to do?) Griever asked.
'I'll go up stairs and make an announcement, you go find Ifrit. I'll need you two to monitor the progress of those monsters from the outside, and see if you can do anything to stop it. If they get too far around the first floor come and tell me.' Squall told him, steeping on to the elevator.
He knew he was taking a big risk if those things where in NORG's room. They could have surrounded the elevator shaft and attack him on the way up, but he didn't get this far by avoiding risks.
(Alright, be careful.) Griever told him right before unjunctioning himself and appearing in front of Squall. With his speed he was little more then a blur as he flew toward the front entrance.
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Squall made it to the outside of what used to be Cid's offices with little incident. Ascending the lift to the cockpit and finally seeing where Nida had docked them, assessing the situation accordingly. They were back in there original position on the island of Balamb in the original crater where the Garden first reside. Odds were they wouldn't be there for long if those Shadows had gone through all of the trouble of gaining control of the ring.
He found the mic for the intercom sitting near the throttle and turned it on.
"Attention, this is Squall. This is very important so listen closely. First, all of the junior classmen should report to the second floor hall emergency exit. All SeeD members with odd ID numbers, go with them and stay their until farther notice. Next, all students other report to the front door, all SeeD members with even numbers go with them. Don't evacuate yet, if it comes down it someone will tell you when to do so.
There are monsters roaming the facility, they are extremely dangerous and if you see one don't engage it (If there's one, there's bound to be more around)."
Squall said the bare minimum, mainly because more information about the situation would have most definitely caused a panic. Though a lack of information could have the same effect. In any case he really needed to get back downstairs.
Squall replaced the mic move quickly to the and descended down out of the cockpit and in to the forefront of the former office. The only problem was that the elevator was being used by the junior students to the to the second floor. The last thing he wanted to do was slow their evaluation down, the students came first, so he waited.
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It wasn't more then 3 minutes until they all were done and left the elevator free for Squall. When he got back down to the first floor he found that it was completely empty except for the designated area.
Zell, Quistis, Seiphie, Rinoa and Irvine were waiting for him at the elevator.
"We got problems, those things are everywhere." Zell said hastily, having fought one head on in his quick investigation he knew just how dangerous a possessing Shadow was. "You can't get near anything their controlling with out getting impaled!" Zell didn't bother to explain what he meant.
"We need to get everyone out of here now before we're surrounded." Quistis said. And just as she did, Ifrit and Griever both returned and rejunctioned.
(Squall, these monsters have completely taken over the substructure and the rear of the first floor. They seem to be going for the emergency exit on the second floor , judging from their speed of movements in a matter of minutes they'll reach.) Griever told him, they had seen the speed of possession and gave a rough estimate.
(The ring is starting up, they're going to move the Garden.) Ifrit began, Griever had explained everything to him had been figured out thus far. (Whatever your going to do, do it now.)
Squall nodded.
"Tell everyone to evacuate right now, I'll go up and get the junior students." Squall instructed, running heading toward the elevator while the others went to the front door. 'Ifrit, Griever, I need you two to go back out side and see if you can at lest slow the shadows nearest the second floor down. There's no way I'll be able to get all of them out in time with out help.'
They all knew that, the most they had was 30 seconds before the shadows possessed the exit. And Squall wouldn't have time to get back down to the front door so they had to work fast.
(Be careful.) Ifrit said before leaving with Griever again.
"Alright."
The elevator reach the second floor just in time before the shadows crept up the elevator shaft from bellow and stalled it. 'Damn...' Those monsters were heading toward the front door, he could see them progressing upward from the cracks in the floor along the walls like a cloud passing over the sun.
"Everyone, go now!" Squall shouted, and with that the students headed toward the exit with SeeD escort. They filed out quickly, but they could only go so fast since it was made for one person at a time. Squall had chosen this exit for them because the shadows were coming from the bottom of the Garden up, this should have brought them more time!
They would have more time to get out then the other students, and there were less junior classmen then other students. They would be able to get out of this exit more easily then the upper classmen would and it would be more safe. At least in theory.
Whatever these things were they were intent on hindering all of those plains.
'Damnit! What are those things.'
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"Come on! Go! GO! GO!" Seiphie shouted, waving her arms frantically. She, Rinoa and Quistis were facilitating the evacuation while Irvine and Zell checked around for anyone still hanging behind. Of course there were a few, with different excuses which nobody wanted to hear.
"Can't you see what's going on! Go, run." Irvine yelled at two students in the library, they were trying to gather some important papers and other things to protect them from whatever was dangerous enough to warrant an evacuation. Irvine ended helping them out.
Zell was helping two people in the infirmary, both with a broken leg or an injury of that nature. With their arms wrapped around his shoulder he helped them out the front door.
"Is that everyone?" Quistis asked, they had been push to the very frame of the front door. The Shadows surrounded them from all sides except the back which was an open door. It was like looking into a dark room, it was a dark room since the lights had been destroyed. How did these Shadows spread so fast! What the hell did they want!
(If it's not they're really screwed by now.) Carbuncle said plainly.
"I think so." Zell said, ignoring Carbuncle's comment for the moment.
Time was up.
The garden shook violently as the ring below started to rotate and the whole structure began to lift in to the air, making all of them lose balance and fall out of the open doorway with mingled cries of surprise and pain.
"Oh Man….We have to get everyone away from here." Rinoa groaned, picking herself off the ground.
"We'll move them to Balamb, Come on we have to move fast!" Quistis said. Trying to get back inside was a useless and lot cause, right now their main concern was not being sliced apart by the Garden's ring.
"You guys go ahead, I'm gong to look around for Squall." Zell called back, going the opposite direction.
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Squall felt the violent jump that was almost to make him lose his balance, he managed to stumble around a bit and gain a somewhat stable footing. Behind him he could see the a dark shadow sweeping over and possessing everything, they had just taken over the second floor class room and were coming his way. Outside he could hear explosions from Ifrit and Griever attacking trying to hold the shadows back. Amazingly enough though they were throwing rather powerful attacks dangerously near him, their was no damage like their should have been, the wall wasn't even shaken.
It was hard, the Shadows were moving fast and coming at him from the floor and both walls. Only three of the junior classmen remained to be evacuating.
"Squall! You have to go now, we cant hold them off, they're too fast." Ifrit called to him from beyond the doorway.
Squall was moving as fast as he could, getting the kids out as fast as he could with out throwing them into the air. With only two more left he could see the shadows at the bottom of the doorway rising up to block him. 'Damn, I have to hurry!'
Ifrit and Griever couldn't do anything about those in the doorway, if they attack they would hit Squall and the kids.
Squall roughly pushed the second kid over the gel-like wall of blackness rising like waters of an incoming tide. It was too high... "Griever!" Squall called out to as he lifted the last frightened boy and tossed him over the dark wall to Griever waiting on the other side. Narrowly saving the child from being sealed in...but not himself. Before he could even think of leaving the black wall had sealed the doorway and showed no sign of moving, the shadows reinforced the doors from the outside from the inside.
And Squall was completely surrounded in darkness, not in a sense of no light. But in the fact that everything was outlined in shadow, and a few pair of red eyes. "…..Damnit."
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