Arknights: Starsfall II

Chapter 33

[ =★= U.S. Government Intranet =★= ]

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The Cross and the tail

"Ma'am?" Skadi heard off to her right. She had been sitting at the bedside of Michael ever since she arrived at the Beaufort Memorial Hospital. The rest of the cots were stock full of wounded, but her presence caused the surrounding cots to be empty for a few spaces.

Michael looked better, wrapped up in bandages, wires sticking into him, and an oxygen mask over him. The doctors worked all night to clear out his system and properly stabilize him. Skadi noticed that the albinism and gray hairs that Michael had was ever so slightly worse.

His patches were stitched up and covered with bandages, his skin was slightly wrinkly from his long term exposure to the water.

But overall? He was okay.

"You are free to stay here," the doctor said, "But please, don't terrify any more of our patients."

Skadi looked at her for that comment, causing the doctor to raise her hands and back away. She started to go tend to another patient, a police officer that was being looked over by Jordi and Irene. The rest of the Abyssal Hunters were in the room, but kept their distance.

Skadi looked at the expression of Michael, both a paradox of pain yet peace too.

It is a shame that the ocean did not claim him-

"Michael..." she softly said. Blocking that Leviathan maniac out once more and returning her mind to the task of watching over the Marine. Laurentina watched from a cot nearby.

Never had she seen her close comrade so worried - well as worried as the Orca would show to be - over a land dweller. Skadi hasn't really moved from where she was, save to take a plate or something.

Napalm-Fried Seaborne was pretty cost effective, alongside the Humanitarian Daily Rations that were flowing into Parris Island from all over the United States. The goal of Washington at this very moment was to get as much aid and as much food to the tempest-tossed people of this city and the surrounding areas in northern Georgia and the rest of South Carolina.

A still full plate of rice and NFS was near her, and an unopened bottle of coke also awaited her.

But she didn't budge to eat yet.

Patients continued to be rushed into the hospital with doctors and sometimes Corpsmen moving to tend to the wounded, monitors alive with beeping and sounds of gurneys or carts of supplies zipping through. By the far wall, a few doctors are rushed by 2 familiar Abyssal Hunters.

Their eyes were hone in on the cot that Skadi was by, and the subject that was atop it. They had unreadable expressions on their faces. They stood like owls, watching human life rush by. However within, they held words of concern and worry on their tongue and on their minds.

Ulpianus had a noise that sounded like a hum before focusing his gaze on his fellow Hunter.

"It is concerning that Skadi is acting this way," Ulpianus stated. He had his arms crossed and his hat off, his weapons stowed away. He still wore his uniform, but most of his combat equipment was stowed away safely in a locker. He began to say, "Over a land-dweller too." The latter sighed, hands at her side.

"I am not so blind to not notice her affection towards him," she added, "However, I did not anticipate the extent that she carried this affection." Gladiia looked towards Jordi and Irene, who assisted another corpsman in preventing a civilian from going under. "Camaraderie..." she slowly drew out.