[Worm]

The guard raised his eyebrow with Josef's comments, but that's all he did. When he was done, the guard stated simply "Well, she's not vegan then." and continued guiding them towards the hospital. He seemed only mildly intrigued by the newcomers and their backstories. Probably too strung out, and too exhausted to care. Rin, however, shot a critical glance over to Josef. Ashi's feeding habits were not necessary information for the guard. As long as she wasn't feeding from other humans, it shouldn't matter right?

The building was blown out at some point. All that was left was a skeleton of infrastructure, which it seemed that the residents of Natesville worked to repair. Now there was sticks, 2x4s, planks and even plastic bags used for insulation and paneling. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. When they got inside, the smell of the hospital hit Rin hard. It reminded him of his mother on her death bed. It reminded him of the dripping of her intravenous medication. It reminded him of the flat line sound. He looked down at his feet, taking a deep breath to settle himself. "Alright, I'll leave ya here." The guard tipped his invisible hat. "Suzie, we got four newcomers!" He yelled in the direction of a red head woman. She looked to be in her 60s and in just as bad shape as the building. She hacked up a response. "Thanks Larry!" She waved as he backed away from the group.

The redhead made her way to the group quickly, but hobbled on a bad leg towards them. "Hello fellas. I see we've got two unnatural, and two healthy. Is that right?" Rin looked at the nurse then back at each group member.

"Depends on what you mean by unnatural." He chuckled nervously. "Hell, depends on what you mean by healthy." He smiled coyly.

"I mean that these two -" She waved a clipboard over Drishe and Ashi's figures. "Need to be prioritized for radiation testing." She was unamused, a wrinkled grimace drooped from her face.

"How can you tell if someone's sick? What happens?" Rin questioned, the nurse swung an arm to gesture the group forward. She led them through the entrance towards a badly lit hallway. "That's what the tests are for, honey. You've never seen someone with radiation sickness? You must be hella lucky." She hacked up a sarcastic laugh.

"We've been underground. So this whole - world is new to us." Rin mentioned, a bit ashamed of his naivety. The nurse shook her head. "Surprised. I heard its seeped its way down there. What were you guys doin' underground anyways? I heard that's a place for nasty sex trade stuff." She had a disgusted look on her face now, probably judging her new patients. She pointed to a chair next to a blood pressure monitor and some scales. "First up, sit." She held her finger over the designated chair. Rin looked back at the group for assurance before going first. He sat down, her boney fingers worked to get the blood pressure cuff over his muscled arm.

"It's a long story to be honest. None of us were raised there. It was just a coincidental meeting. And yes, there is definitely some nasty stuff that goes on down there. I was actually excited to return up here. I'd only heard rumors of what had happened." The nurse looked at Rin in disbelief, pumping up his cuff with her hands.

"Rumors? How did you not hear the bombs go off? The people screaming? Oh my god - it was awful." She shook her head again, a sinking feeling hit Rin.

"I suppose we were lucky." He actually had some sympathy for the woman, for all the people still upper side.