(no subject)
Aug. 6th, 2012 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gothamscopSome days are worse then others.
Ross doesn't know day from night down here. One of the SWAT guys in his team has a Navy Seal watch and it does that for him. It keeps them all on a schedule. He's content, calm even. Insists they exercise. Insists they have fruit regularly. Even Insists that the one shaft of sunlight is used every single day. Sit in it and stay alive. It's not much.
Sometimes he fancies he can see a part of Gotham City. Sometimes he likes to think that it's a part where Yolanda and Tara are, where Blake's keeping an eye on them. Everybody has their own way of coping. He knows their names and their stories and they know his. We're brothers. The SWAT guy says, Brothers and sisters, friends and allies, now more then ever.
They have radios. Earlier they kept in contact for hours. Teams were looking for ways out, now they communicate by messages. There are women in his group, and after the end of the first month sometimes he would accompany them places, sometimes the commander, sometimes they'd go armed.
Not everyone was doing well but they had their own ways of coping.
Mark, a homicide detective from the 33rd has a book. Dear God in heaven why he would have thought to bring a book on a manhunt was something that Ross would forever wonder but he praised the man day and night. It's a stupid book about knights and dragons but he reads it cover to cover whenever they're not talking or making plans. Sometimes he reads parts allowed. They're becoming something like a family and he reads them their bedtime stories, "It's such a big series, you know every time I re-read it I find something new or something I missed."
Caroline, isn't even a cop-she's a forensic sketch artist but it's all hands on deck. (Or at least it was) Halfway through the second month after a particularly nasty trip to a bad part of the tunnels she found charcoal. Sometimes she draws in mud, sometimes in leaves, sometimes with an old rotted pencil. Pictures of them, pictures of people, pictures of Gotham.
Haseem sings. He always takes the last shift in the sunlight so he sings some kind of prayer. He still keeps his prayers up too or at least tries to. The Navy Seal helped him with that-helped him find Mecca underground. A bunch of guys from the 2-7 had stopped by a week or so ago and laughed at them. Apparently they had made friends with a group of homeless people in the sewers (according to them) and they were having a fine old time.
Hunger, Cold, and even the smell had become so much a part of Ross's life that he failed to notice them anymore.
He has Blake's notes.
They are detailed and concise.
Ross-
Everyone's prayers are with you.
Nothing more? No details? Blake you idiot, you moron. You thrice damned thrice blessed moron.
Ross-
Sorry my last note was so short. Wrote it quick didn't know if you'd get it. Give whoever brought this to you five bucks. They're my new heroes.
I know this feels like a prison man, and you're not alone. Food and supplies are rationed-looting is common. Remember that meatball place we went to? It's gone man. Gone.
Yolanda and Tara aren't. Your dad and your mom are with them and they're safe.- (he cried at that. oh god he cried) -I keep looking in on them. Gordon too. we have protection for cop's families.
Things are bad but we're thinking of you.
Ross-
City's undefended. Cut off. Nobody's forgotten about you. Spread the word, plans in effect. Resistance moving. A fire will rise-but it won't be the one Bane expects.
He takes them and sits in the sun with them. Blake mostly writes about plans-he was always a serious kid-but it's the stuff that's not plans that he treasures. People slip things into the sewers for law enforcement, guards "feed" them, but it's those moments in the sun that Ross treasures.
One day he is having his moment when the crack is blocked. Dimly, a grim figure standing in the light.
"...It is as I said. And it is those glimpses of the sun that you have learned to treasure."
He knows that voice, "...You."
"...Not tried to climb out or crawl out?"
They had for the first two weeks. He would have scars on him for the rest of his life. Ross doesn't say anything. To be in the presence of evil, to be in the presence of pure darkness is to remain silent.
"...We're not stupid."
And the dragon laughs, "...I disagree officer. You're very stupid. But not as stupid as this city. Your tomb must be a comfortable one, Better then most. Here you can see the light."
There were rustles. Some of the people who had "sleep time" allotted to them were waking up. Caroline peers over, "Who's that?"
"...The brave and noble Gotham Police Force-cowering as they have for years in the darkness of not knowing yet finally perhaps-seeing the light."
"You're not going to win, do you hear me? You're not going to win this." Stupidity won out in Lieutenant Ross's head as he screamed into the sun, into the fire, "There are people who are going to stop you!"
"And in three weeks, they will be dead. And your torment will end. Do you think we don't see? How you have degenerated living in the darkness? How does it feel to be incarcerated? Truly incarcerated?"
"Shit." Ross snorted, feigning laughter, "Stuck in a sewer? It's Rush week at Gotham U. It's...it's cleaner then my mother-in-law's house that's for sure."
"Ross." Mark was quiet, "Be quiet."
"yes. Lieutenant. Your bravado is to be commended but be quiet. Be quiet so that your friends can hear. Did you think you heard a clue in my voice Detective?"
Mark flinched, "...What do you mean everybody will be dead?"
"Exactly what I said. Gotham is a dying animal. The appropriate thing to do is put it out of it's misery. If the men and women of this city's protectors degenerate so quickly then it's people must be prevented from seeing it. At the least."
Ross did not want to think about that, "As long as there's a police force." He said, shakily, "We will fight you."
"It says so on the badge." Caroline murmured, "...Duty, Honor, Hope."
"Then perhaps." Bane murmured, moving closer, "It is time I put you out of your misery for good, and remove that godsend. I do not do this out of torture."
His tone suggested they had all clearly gone mad.
"I do this out of mercy."
Whispers in the dark. Ross crept back as Bane approached the hole...and filled it.
The sewer pressed around them. The smells, the dark. Mark clutched at his book, Caroline's hands were smeared and filthy.
Ross held his notes.
Something echoed in the chamber-a gun going off. He climbed to his feet, "..Captain! Captain!"
His nametag read, "Kane"
"...Ate his gun."
Other people had come running to the summons. In the dim light of the sewer the body looked grotesque. A plainclothes officer snorted, "Not the first."
Ross remembered the man who had told them when to wash, what to do to survive, tried to ration their food and cook their meals. The man who had given them the sun if only for a moment, and the man who had taken him away.
"There are other tunnels. Other ways out. We have to find them." His uniform was ragged and dirty and he had no idea how badly he smelled but his gun was clean, "...What good will it do?"
He could have said, the people of gotham were going to die. He could have said do it for Kane, do it for their families. He could have said do it to honor the men who were losing their lives and their sanity in the darkness.
"...I don't need to have the sun to have hope."
He clutched his letters. They rose and followed him.
Ross doesn't know day from night down here. One of the SWAT guys in his team has a Navy Seal watch and it does that for him. It keeps them all on a schedule. He's content, calm even. Insists they exercise. Insists they have fruit regularly. Even Insists that the one shaft of sunlight is used every single day. Sit in it and stay alive. It's not much.
Sometimes he fancies he can see a part of Gotham City. Sometimes he likes to think that it's a part where Yolanda and Tara are, where Blake's keeping an eye on them. Everybody has their own way of coping. He knows their names and their stories and they know his. We're brothers. The SWAT guy says, Brothers and sisters, friends and allies, now more then ever.
They have radios. Earlier they kept in contact for hours. Teams were looking for ways out, now they communicate by messages. There are women in his group, and after the end of the first month sometimes he would accompany them places, sometimes the commander, sometimes they'd go armed.
Not everyone was doing well but they had their own ways of coping.
Mark, a homicide detective from the 33rd has a book. Dear God in heaven why he would have thought to bring a book on a manhunt was something that Ross would forever wonder but he praised the man day and night. It's a stupid book about knights and dragons but he reads it cover to cover whenever they're not talking or making plans. Sometimes he reads parts allowed. They're becoming something like a family and he reads them their bedtime stories, "It's such a big series, you know every time I re-read it I find something new or something I missed."
Caroline, isn't even a cop-she's a forensic sketch artist but it's all hands on deck. (Or at least it was) Halfway through the second month after a particularly nasty trip to a bad part of the tunnels she found charcoal. Sometimes she draws in mud, sometimes in leaves, sometimes with an old rotted pencil. Pictures of them, pictures of people, pictures of Gotham.
Haseem sings. He always takes the last shift in the sunlight so he sings some kind of prayer. He still keeps his prayers up too or at least tries to. The Navy Seal helped him with that-helped him find Mecca underground. A bunch of guys from the 2-7 had stopped by a week or so ago and laughed at them. Apparently they had made friends with a group of homeless people in the sewers (according to them) and they were having a fine old time.
Hunger, Cold, and even the smell had become so much a part of Ross's life that he failed to notice them anymore.
He has Blake's notes.
They are detailed and concise.
Ross-
Everyone's prayers are with you.
Nothing more? No details? Blake you idiot, you moron. You thrice damned thrice blessed moron.
Ross-
Sorry my last note was so short. Wrote it quick didn't know if you'd get it. Give whoever brought this to you five bucks. They're my new heroes.
I know this feels like a prison man, and you're not alone. Food and supplies are rationed-looting is common. Remember that meatball place we went to? It's gone man. Gone.
Yolanda and Tara aren't. Your dad and your mom are with them and they're safe.- (he cried at that. oh god he cried) -I keep looking in on them. Gordon too. we have protection for cop's families.
Things are bad but we're thinking of you.
Ross-
City's undefended. Cut off. Nobody's forgotten about you. Spread the word, plans in effect. Resistance moving. A fire will rise-but it won't be the one Bane expects.
He takes them and sits in the sun with them. Blake mostly writes about plans-he was always a serious kid-but it's the stuff that's not plans that he treasures. People slip things into the sewers for law enforcement, guards "feed" them, but it's those moments in the sun that Ross treasures.
One day he is having his moment when the crack is blocked. Dimly, a grim figure standing in the light.
"...It is as I said. And it is those glimpses of the sun that you have learned to treasure."
He knows that voice, "...You."
"...Not tried to climb out or crawl out?"
They had for the first two weeks. He would have scars on him for the rest of his life. Ross doesn't say anything. To be in the presence of evil, to be in the presence of pure darkness is to remain silent.
"...We're not stupid."
And the dragon laughs, "...I disagree officer. You're very stupid. But not as stupid as this city. Your tomb must be a comfortable one, Better then most. Here you can see the light."
There were rustles. Some of the people who had "sleep time" allotted to them were waking up. Caroline peers over, "Who's that?"
"...The brave and noble Gotham Police Force-cowering as they have for years in the darkness of not knowing yet finally perhaps-seeing the light."
"You're not going to win, do you hear me? You're not going to win this." Stupidity won out in Lieutenant Ross's head as he screamed into the sun, into the fire, "There are people who are going to stop you!"
"And in three weeks, they will be dead. And your torment will end. Do you think we don't see? How you have degenerated living in the darkness? How does it feel to be incarcerated? Truly incarcerated?"
"Shit." Ross snorted, feigning laughter, "Stuck in a sewer? It's Rush week at Gotham U. It's...it's cleaner then my mother-in-law's house that's for sure."
"Ross." Mark was quiet, "Be quiet."
"yes. Lieutenant. Your bravado is to be commended but be quiet. Be quiet so that your friends can hear. Did you think you heard a clue in my voice Detective?"
Mark flinched, "...What do you mean everybody will be dead?"
"Exactly what I said. Gotham is a dying animal. The appropriate thing to do is put it out of it's misery. If the men and women of this city's protectors degenerate so quickly then it's people must be prevented from seeing it. At the least."
Ross did not want to think about that, "As long as there's a police force." He said, shakily, "We will fight you."
"It says so on the badge." Caroline murmured, "...Duty, Honor, Hope."
"Then perhaps." Bane murmured, moving closer, "It is time I put you out of your misery for good, and remove that godsend. I do not do this out of torture."
His tone suggested they had all clearly gone mad.
"I do this out of mercy."
Whispers in the dark. Ross crept back as Bane approached the hole...and filled it.
The sewer pressed around them. The smells, the dark. Mark clutched at his book, Caroline's hands were smeared and filthy.
Ross held his notes.
Something echoed in the chamber-a gun going off. He climbed to his feet, "..Captain! Captain!"
His nametag read, "Kane"
"...Ate his gun."
Other people had come running to the summons. In the dim light of the sewer the body looked grotesque. A plainclothes officer snorted, "Not the first."
Ross remembered the man who had told them when to wash, what to do to survive, tried to ration their food and cook their meals. The man who had given them the sun if only for a moment, and the man who had taken him away.
"There are other tunnels. Other ways out. We have to find them." His uniform was ragged and dirty and he had no idea how badly he smelled but his gun was clean, "...What good will it do?"
He could have said, the people of gotham were going to die. He could have said do it for Kane, do it for their families. He could have said do it to honor the men who were losing their lives and their sanity in the darkness.
"...I don't need to have the sun to have hope."
He clutched his letters. They rose and followed him.