There was a very distinct scent to any place medical; disinfectant so strong as to make the nose twitch slightly, crisp linen with no perfume to agitate patient's skin, rustles of nurse" skirts. Everything was also muted"colors, voices, laughter, medicine was often a harsh science and no matter how hard a building meant to tend the sick and to heal was scrubbed, death and the lingering after taste of it was difficult to remove. It stayed in the corners of things.

After the recent rash of explosions, death did not just linger in the corner of things but sat"wide and bloated grinning madly"every where Ran settled dispassionate amber eyes. On her arrival in the early morning the distinct coppery-sweet tang of blood, early rot as well as blasted flesh assaulted the flower prophet's nose. Nurses, male and female scurried like honey bees from patient to patient looked harried, sleepless. Several of them as they passed Ran sported blue or purple circles of sleeplessness under their eyes.

As far as her eyes could see there were wounded. Within rooms or strewn about the hallway because there was no more room for them. In make shift cots or jury-rigged cots made to hold groaning masses until something better came along. Every one who could move'did. Every one who was healthy enough not to bleed to death helped"for a moment, Ran even spotted one patient who had only lost an eye and finger console a sobbing boy who lost a leg and arm.

Ran felt a little bit like a rock in a nest of busy adders twisting and turning, one harried nurse finally noticed the russet jacketed woman standing stone still in the midst of them all and stopped to eye her tiredly.

"You aren't bleeding, hit with shrapnel, missing a limb or critically wounded. I'm sorry, you'll have to visit another clinic. We're full up."

The man reached out to take her shoulder since Ran did not look at him or answer right away, as if he would have turned her about and guided her back to the door.

"I don't need a doctor. But maybe you need a nap." There were few who knew Ran very well, but those who did would have said such an illogical sort of non linear way of speaking was very much Ran-like. "I've come to help. I don't have any medical training past the random bits of common sense. What do I do?" Amber eyes ticked up and aside to the mans cheek who considered her shrewdly.

"This way,? he said without hesitation. He led Ran further away from the door and down the long hall that she could not help but think of it as a rabbit hole filled with tears.

One look at Ran's dispassionate gaze had helped him decide something.

He dragged her down a hall to a smaller room with a half open door, the words: J a n i t o r spelled out in small black letters on the door.

"We don't have time to worry about the floors or garbage. You'll notice though that the wounded bleed and bandages need to be changed and things happen. Floors and bins need to be kept as sanitary as the cots, sheets and bandages"not to mention we can't afford having one of us slip and fall. I want you to pick a room and start there. These are all the supplies you'll need?"

The store room was for janitorial supplies with bio haphazard waste handling included. He pointed to a long shelf with several bottles; aerosol sprays, latex gloves, mops, wheeled bins for dirty linens and sheets as well as a slew of cleaning supplies she didn't have a name for. Amber eyes fell on one of the bottles: This phenolic based product contains a multipurpose formula that is both functional and economical. Disinfection includes HIV, TB, Herpes I and II, as well as the hospital trio...It seemed'surreal and she was pulled back immediately from inspecting the shelves to trying an attempt to follow him as he continued speaking.

Ran didn't question why such a room existed with electric lights or running water sinks while the frazzled looking man who began pointing out cleansers, cleaners, medical grade gloves, warnings about needles, wore a long robe trimmed with gold and fetishes about his neck. It made sense to her, as the outside world was such a melting pot that inside places like this it would be the same.

"Wear your gloves at all times and do not touch your face, mouth, eyes, ever. Don't touch anything clean either. Don't brush against patients, clean beds, cots, clean towels, or clean sheets"you'll cross contaminate. Take off your jacket if you want to save it. Don't try and treat anyone since you don't know what you are doing. It sounds cruel, but trust me when I say you could make things worse. Call for someone that looks like they know what they're doing. Some of us have name tags; others will be wearing clothing like me. The laundry room chute is in the hallway and to the right past a set of blue doors, everything material goes down that way. For bio haphazard waste?"

He kept talking. And Ran had never listened so hard in her entire life. He talked fast; he didn't have the time to repeat himself. He warned her about needles again and what to do if she accidentally stuck herself with one. He told her where to empty them, as they went into an entirely different place as normal garbage. As he talked, Ran's mouth became thinner and thinner in an effort to keep all of it. The flower prophet was"overwhelmed.

When he was done he handed her a plastic bin on wheels lined in more plastic, along the side several spray bottles, scrubbers, garbage bags, latex gloves were already handing cleverly around the lip of it in arranged chaos. Again, he rolled off what each cleaning chemical was for, how to use it and when and then patted her awkwardly on the shoulder opening the door.

The cacophony of groans, moans, murmurs and sounds of pain washed Ran in the light of reality.

"I have to go. I'm sorry about the crash course, good luck." Out the door in a swirl of robes leaving Ran to blink at the space he once occupied.

A glance down at the wheeled bin and the mop in her hand then back before Ran shrugged out of Russet colored coat and dropped it to some random place within the room. There was some sort of irony lingering in her mind as she realized she was pushing a cart again, just a different sort. It seemed like hours she had stood in darkened janitor's closet, when in reality it was only moments and she was pushing the cart out into the hallway and choosing a room.

She'd have to have lost the gift of sight not to notice the large man picking up people and gently settling them down as if they were made out of glass.

"Mister Henri," over the sounds of foot steps, a metal container crashing to the floor and several people crying. Odd how life could continue on even in the midst of greatest suffering, wasn't it' Ran pushed her cart forward and toward the nearest linen bin filled with things that'd turn a weaker stomach sour.

"No one you know has been hurt?? Ran's voice was nearly monotone, but not entirely emotionless. It wasn't as if the woman was heartless, it was if she'd forgotten what it was like to have one as she bent to pick up the linen bin with legs and dump it into her cart.