Guns & Roses

Chapter 46

[Hank]

While understanding that the odour was quite disagreeable, he didn't understand the reason Sheriff had to react the way he did. But no matter the reason, he couldn't complain. They weren't here to distract anyone with their blabbering, which is more than he could ask for with a process like this. Still, he wondered if they were alright but - no. He had more important things to do than listen to him sulk.

Once Deimos's body was in place he crouched next to D9, taking their wrist. Their pulse was slow, a little weaker than usual but not at all faint. This was good. The weird see-through screen D9 brought with him started beeping incessantly until 2B came and took it.

"He's found Deimos." That fast? Usually it took about 10 minutes to find anyone. Apparently it took D9 an hour to find him once. In fact, he was oddly proud of that record.

Sanford paced around the other end of the kitchen, turning to speak every other second before going back to pacing. While it got boring, he was a little glad he didn't have any close relations like everyone else seemed to have. From his perspective, it seemed almost maddening.

"We have a problem." As 2B spoke Sanford let out a frustrated huff of exasperation.

"What the hell does that mean, everything is a problem down there!" Sanford threw his hands up before going straight back to pacing, this time a little faster than before.

"Apparently there's no door to the door Deimos is in." 2B explained, confusion edged in his tone. "Hank, go find something to help them break it down."

"And no rockets this time!" 2B added as he walked out, like it wasn't Deimos's idea to use rockets for those situations in the first place. Shame, too, it would've been a perfect revenge after they did it to him.

"Where are you going?" Sheriff asked, tagging along. Usually he'd hate this, but lately he couldn't be bothered. At this point, he might as well drop the investigation on Sheriff, since he could never seem to find anything anyway.

"To find something to break a wall down." Hopefully that answer would keep his mouth shut, if only for a while.

"To.... Why?" Hank shot him a bored glance, and they didn't press it any further. They were getting better at knowing when to stay quiet, at least.

As usual, the armoury was pretty bare. It was more the labs that would have weapons in these buildings. A little stumped, Hank looked around anyway, not wanting to bother if there was something perfectly good here.

"Will this work?" Sheriff asked, holding up a hammer. Usually he'd find this stupid, he still did, but given he wanted to leave already he just shrugged. It might take a while, but it would probably work. Although, when they returned 2B didn't seem all too amused.

"Oh for fuck- Something proper Hank!" 2B snatched the hammer off him, mumbling to himself as he started tapping on that weird screen-less thing again.

Sighing, he walked out again, hardly registering the outraged look Sanford was giving him. On second thought, maybe the hammer wasn't a good idea. For all he knew, Sanford might just kill him for trying something like that again.

His next guess was the labs upstairs. Sheriff was still tagging along, but had gained the sense to stay quiet. About time.

"We'll split up." Hank said dismissively, before leaving Sheriff. There came a quiet 'but-', before they must've seen sense, because their footsteps echoed in the other direction. Finally, some time to himself.

Between helping on the trans-dimensional portal and standing idly as Sheriff tried learning to aim, he never had peace and quiet anymore. It was nice. For the first time in weeks, he could hear his own thoughts again.