"Come ON, Trish! snap out of it!"
Tristina shook her head to clear it, then looked up to see a blonde haired blue-eyed man squatting in front of her, shaking her shoulder. As her vision cleared, Tristina noticed a man in a doctors uniform with a surgeon's mask standing behind Jack, pointing a revolver at him. "Watch it!" Tristina cried, shoving Jack aside with one hand and pointing her palm at him.
"Tristina!" Jack cried as the white quesa and bloodied surgeon fired at the same time. As Tristina grabbed her shoulder and fell back, the splicer (If he was stunned by Tristina's blast or still naturally insane, Jack couldn't tell) stumbled backwards.
flipping head first over the rail, the splicer cried out as he fell head over heels down the metal stairwell. "If you want to use the Emergency Access, you'll be needing Doctor Stienman's key." came Atlas' voice over the radio as if nothing had happened.
"He's the one who runs this place. But I don't expect him to hand it to you out of the milk of human kindness. Steinman ain't that kind." said Atlas, "Frankly, I'm not even sure he's still human." Atlas finished dryly. "Atlas, Tristina's hurt!" Jack cried into the radio as he kneeled down to the injured quesa.
Tristina heard Atlas mutter something like "Damn lass" and frowned. "Give me a scrap piece of wood or something to bite on." Tristina instructed, gritting her teeth as she sat up and slit the hole around the wound open with one claw.
"Why?" Jack asked. "JUST DO IT!" Tristina snarled, baring her teeth at Jack. the young human appeared taken aback at the quesa's sudden rage, but quietly got up and began to look around.
Jack shortly returned with a leather belt, squatting back down beside Tristina as she attempted to clean the wound with some water and a scrap piece of cloth. "Here" said Jack dryly.
"Thanks." said Tristina, sliding the faus cow leather between her teeth and biting down as she dug into the wound with her forefinger claw and thumb claw. letting out a muffled yell of pain, Tristina buckled over as knives of white-hot agony ripped from the bullet wound through her neck and arm.
breathing heavily through her nose, Tristina let out another muffled cry as she tore the bullet from her shoulder and dropped it in Jacks lap. "Oh, eye showwy." Tristina mumbled, the leather belt still clenched between her canines.
"What?" Jack asked as Tristina took the gauze from him and began to wind it under her arm, over the wound, and back under her arm. Spitting out the belt, Tristina spoke again.
"I said I'm sorry..." said Tristina. "For yelling at you earlier. I'm not used to people asking questions when I...well, when I tell them to do something." Jack gave a quiet smile. "I take it you were some sort of leader on the surface?" Jack asked, smiling.
"You could say that." replied Tristina, smiling at Jack. Tristina then tied the bandage to itself in a knot to secure it, and shakily stood up. "Has Atlas said anything about what we're supposed to do here?" Tristina asked, refraining from moving her left arm much due to the pain.
"Yeah. he said we need to find someone named 'Doctor Steinman." said Jack, leading Tristina into a hall way lined with various ducts and pipes. a red light from an above lamp gave the pipes an eerie red glow, as if the room was a furnace. "Good. maybe this 'Doctor' can point me in the direction of some alcohol or something to sterilize the wound." said Tristina, nodding to her bandaged arm.
"He's mental, lass." came Atlas's Irish brogue "The only thing youll manage to get out of Steinman is the key. Best to just focus on that." Tristina sighed in resignation and followed Jack down the tunnel. "Nice!" said Jack, stepping into the room and off to the left Tristina looked to see a metal box similar to the emergency access area, except it overlooked the opposite end of the medical pavilion.
"Nice." said Jack, picking up a tommy gun and examining it. "Maybe this might let us into a control room or something. we might be able to use the cameras to see where Stienman is." said Tristina, motioning to the circuit breaker on the metal box. "Flip it. lets see." crouching down slightly to put her full weight behind the switch, Tristina let out a grunt as she shoved the switch forward.
Stepping back as a loud 'clank' sounded somewhere above them, Tristina and Jack looked up to see pairs of enormous lights turning on. "Its not a room full of cameras, but it'll do." commented Jack, noticing the brightness of the room. "Now you've rattled the monkey cage." Atlas called warningly over the walkie as several splicers in surgeons gowns rushed into the room opposite them. "Here they come!"