FFXV: After the Fall

Chapter 33

After locating the room in which the Crystal was kept, the unorthodox trio started gathering several jars of pickled fish from one of the crates in Bay C. Those got opened and tipped all over one of the underwear crates, and Nyx in particular thoroughly enjoyed doing it...apart from the smell, of course.
How anyone could eat that was beyond him.
After that, they then went back to Bay C to try and find some drugs that the guards hadn't discovered as yet, and struck white gold in another crate. Two more bags, to be exact, looking rather like baking powder in texture and consistency.
   "...what's this stuff?" Helena asked Nyx.
   "Looks a bit like Daytripper," he replied, "can get it in tablet form but most people prefer it ground down."
   "What's it do?" Noctis then asked.
   "Apparently, this stuff does its namesake; if you have some you start hallucinating, seein' stuff that ain't there and shit."
   "Woah. Sounds hardcore. How do you know so much about it?"
   "One of the Glaives had some on him ages ago. He went out on a job and during that, got shot. He didn't die, which was real fortunate cos' then I could bust his ass for takin' drugs while on a fuckin' job. He was real easy to track down, though. Few civs reported him cos he was tryin' to eat a tree."
Helena looked at him. "You just made that up, didn't you?"
He grinned. "Sorry, sweet, but it's totally true. All of it. Had to wait two days to read him the riot act and slap him in jail cos' at the time? He couldn't hear shit. He was way out to lunch."
   "...and you wanna burn this stuff?"
   "Won't kill 'em, if that's what you're worried about. But, it will start makin' them trip if they breathe too much of the fumes in. That also goes for us, too, so once we light this and grab that Crystal, we need to get outta here fast."

That was their next destination, so after quickly scouting the front side of the Garrison where they were hoping to escape from, Helena carefully lit several crates and then closed the lids, giving them a little more time before the alarm was raised.
They then returned to the stone-walled room quite a bit further away and up a short flight of stairs, and stood looking at the Divine who was asleep on a reinforced bed in the far corner of the room. Right next to him on a low table and glowing softly, was the Crystal of the Lucii. They'd imagined it to be a lot bigger, somehow; as it was, it was maybe the size of an ostrich egg in rough shape and dimensions, hollowed out and covered in jagged, hexagonal-shaped crystal chunks as if it had just been mined.
There was no time in which to be jubilant, though.
As Nyx was the actual stealth expert and most likely to be the quietest, he carefully moved on silent feet towards that low table, hands reaching out for the softly-humming item.
He froze briefly as the form of Ifrit seemed to flicker slightly when his fingers touched the Crystal's surface, then he tensed and the item came free of the table, resting in both his hands.
They then heard a distant sound, and managed to leave the room and close the door before a loud siren shattered the silence.
   "Uh-oh." Noctis said. "Time to leave."
Unknown to them, a couple of guards had gone to help unload a truck that had pulled into that bay, and they'd smelt smoke.
They investigated, opening one of the crates where wisps of it had been seen, and were then hit with an almighty whoosh of flame that shot out due to a backdraft effect. It soon spread to the other crates as well as the nearby truck, and the two guards collapsed to the floor with their faces burnt beyond recognition.
Their bodies soon followed, and huge clouds of evil, grey smoke began billowing out of every gap that it could fit through.
The bay was full of it, and as the trio started to get closer they could see several guards running around, swatting at things that weren't there as well as trying to rip their own clothes to shreds.
The fire was therefore expanding rapidly, unchecked, and anyone who got close enough to try and douse it were then covered in smoke and also began hallucinating.

   "...look for a gap." Nyx said in a low voice. "And whatever you do, don't breathe that shit in."
   "This looks awful." Helena said sadly.
He looked at her. "It's harmless, I can assure you. Cos' it's in the smoke, it shouldn't kill 'em. Only the fire will do that, if they're stupid enough to walk into it. Come on, we haven't got time for this. We need to escape." He then touched his earpiece. "We're leaving, job done. Where are..." He then paused as a large amount of static interference was heard on the other side.
   "What's up?" Noctis asked him.
   "Lots of static. They may already be out." He then turned the earpiece back off. "We need to do the same. C'mon."
They followed his lead, hiding frequently to avoid being seen by any screaming or gibbering guards. Even if they were high, they couldn't take the risk of being spotted by one of them.
   "Look!" Helena pointed towards the front. "There's a truck, and it's trying to leave."
   "Not without us." Nyx said.
He then warped forwards towards it, skipping around several guards who were scratching at their faces, and flung open the driver door to start attacking the two people inside.
Noctis was right behind him, going for the passenger seat, then he shifted over and helped Helena to get in and sit down on while he crouched inbetween them both, holding onto the seat sides.
Nyx took the wheel, and the truck broke out of its line and headed away from the Garrison, bearing west towards Leide.