fandomhigh | The Day After Doomsday: Getting By In a Post-Apocalyptic World

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getting by

The Day After Doomsday: Getting By In a Post-Apocalyptic World - Period 2

When the students stepped into the Danger Shop for Reno's class today, they'd find themselves stepping into lobby of the dormitory all over again, with a few pointed differences. There seemed to be a barricade built against the boarded-up windows, consisting of a good deal of the furniture that had clearly been dragged down from the floors above them. The power to the building had been cut off completely, which meant that they were sitting in near-absolute darkness, because naturally Reno was going to be an ass and set this scenario for the dead of night.

There were cans of food lined up against one wall. There were weapons, what looked to be the entire contents of both the weapons locker and sharpened, weaponized versions of the practise fare from the Salle, laid out against the other. A sign hastily scribbled down on a piece of paper pointed deeper into the building, directing any possible injured to a first-aid station in the rec room.

Reno was sitting in the middle of the floor, grinning up at the students as they came in, legs splayed out in front of him and his elbows on his knees, Danger Shop supplied stun baton in one hand.

"Trust me," he said coolly, nodding back to the doors that closed themselves and instantly fell behind another barricade the moment the last of the students stepped in, "you don't wanna go back out there. This ain't your everyday Fandom invasion, where somethin' shows up, tapdances nasty around us all for a week, an' then gets sent packin'. This is the real friggin' deal, yo. This is your doomsday scenario, where there ain't no cure for bein' dead. Where you get bit and infected and turn into one of them, you ain't snappin' out of it. Where the weapon that blew up the school took half of you with it, and you don't got time for so much as a head count to figure out who's left."

He leaned back, the cool metal of his baton scraping against the floor of the lobby, playing an eerie harmony to the sounds from outside, which alternated from complete silence to screams to gunfire, to the sound of something not remotely human calling out into the dark, answered by what had to be a hundred more just like it, all converging in on one point: The Dorms.

"I ain't gonna pretend there ain't heroes among you, I ain't gonna sit here and point at you one by one to tell you the likelihood of comin' back alive, either. If you're one of them who's gonna run out there, then there ain't nobody who'll be able to keep you inside. And that'll cost the island one of its first big advantages early on. Because once you guys are dead, what are the people who ain't fighters gonna do?"

And then, all at once in a flash of speed that was jarringly unnatural, Reno was on his feet, baton on his shoulder, and he was prowling back and forth in front of the students.

"What the enemy out there is don't matter in this scenario. What's out there is the predator, that thing that goes bump in the night, that sees you as prey or pest, but whatever the case is, it don't want us here, and it's lettin' us know with extreme prejudice. This is the Danger Shop, so if you go out them doors here, you'll just be steppin' out into the school again. This lesson ain't about fightin'. This is about stayin' alive. Look around. Take in what's been set up, here. Let it sink in that there isn't a single resource in this lobby that'll last even a severely reduced dorm population more'n a few weeks at best. And then, try an' figure out what the hell you're gonna do about it."

[OCD is up! Have at it!]

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Now that you know what you've got, and what you've got is mostly borrowed time, what are you going to do about it? There's a garden on the roof, and if you're lucky then whatever the enemy out there is, it won't be able to get up there. Can you possibly cultivate enough food to keep your survivors fed in the long term? What about winter?

How about power? How badly do you need light at night? They'll need it to work by in the first-aid area, of course. Candles? They're a finite resource, too. Magic? Well and good, assuming you have people with powers who aren't dead yet, too.

Weapons? The blade of a sword or an axe will tarnish and get dull, but it'll last a load longer than a few rounds of ammunition or a few crossbow bolts, once things get hairy. How many experienced fighters are there left, realistically? How many people can be trained to fight, under the circumstances?

You've got to get out of here, eventually. How do you even know if there's life beyond the island, anymore? Can you manage to scratch out a permanent residence here, assuming the portals are down and the Causeway has been torn apart? And if you do stay, what is there in the town that you can use, assuming you can get that far? And if you don't try to make it that far, how do you make certain that your makeshift barricade holds?

Edited 2010-07-12 12:06 (UTC)

"Do we have any communication with people off the island?" Madison wondered. "And more importantly, do we have any teleporters who can get to the mainland?"

"Communication's a sticky one," Reno mused, smirking at Madison and leaning back against a mattress that had been propped against one of the windows. "There's no power, and we're gonna assume in this scenario that whatever cut that out probably took the phone lines with it. You might be able to get a portable radio up and runnin', if you have somethin' like that somewhere in the building. Never know with this bunch, right? E-mail's right out because of the power thing. So is conventional mail, unless you like seein' your messengers gettin' mauled."

He pursed his lips a little.

"You might have teleporters, sure. But then the question is the same, if you could send a message, if you could go to the mainland to look for help or supplies, who's to say it ain't the same way out there? Who you gonna call, yo?"

"Assuming the ghostbusters aren't an option?" Madison joked. "I would try to reach people I thought could help. Maybe some of the alumni and former teachers?"

"Now, there's a thought," Reno mused. "And once you get in touch with 'em, assuming they're still alive and well out there, then what're you gonna do? Strength in numbers? Pray one of 'em has nukes?"

Madison shrugged. "Depends on who it is, I guess. I mean, a lot of people around here have abilities that could be useful in situations like that. I don't know any of the former teachers or students so we'd have to figure out what we have to work with."

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Scully had frowned in concentration, listening to Reno and Madison's conversation. "Some of the magic-user can summon things from other places, so they might be able to do the same thing with food. Assuming they're still alive." She let out a slow breath. "But that's a big assumption. A radio signal to someone trusted off-island might be the best option, but I don't know how we'd arrange that, or who we'd get in contact with."

"At this point, beggars can't afford to be choosers," Reno mused, nodding to Scully. "Anything you do at this point will probably be a gamble, based on what you can learn from your enemy, yo. If it's somethin' predatory and you do manage to contact someone off-island, you're gonna want to be careful where you're scoutin' about. Somethin' hungry is gonna go where there's food, after all."

He smirked faintly. "If it ain't hungry, if it just wants everyone dead, then you might be screwed all over. Might not. How does the invadin' force think? Can it think? And if it can, then who's to say you got any means to contact people anywhere at all, right? Maybe you're better off without 'em, but you still gotta get food, medicine, and weapons from somewhere, yo."

Scully nodded slowly, thinking carefully. "There might be a way to treat the water in the pool so it lasts longer. Depending on what pool chemicals are lying around." She grimaced. "This really does depend on preparation before anything happens, doesn't it? Having medical supplies in place, having options for the retrieval of food." She bit her lip. "And figuring out ways to scout the enemy without everyone getting killed."

Reno nodded, pointing a finger Scully's way.

"Bingo," he announced. "But you're gonna find over and over and over again that survivin' the aftermath almost always comes down to knowin' that it's comin', and gettin' ready for it. And how are you gonna do that? The meteor we saw last week took weeks, shit, months comin' down. It ain't hard to stock up food from there. But if we get hit by somethin' hard and sudden, you can't plan for that, can you?"

"No. You can't." Scully shook her head. "I suppose there's basics we could put in place that would work in any situation. Keeping medical supply kits stocked and handy. Knowing where the food is stored. But they'd only last so long." She frowned, then said tentatively, "But knowing the people, and what they can do in advance, that helps, doesn't it?"

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"Enforcing the barricade seems top priority," Jake reasoned. "Make sure we're safe and block whatever doesn't need to be used as an exit or entrance. Not that you can stay put forever. It's probably best to start planning on doing scouting and scavenging missions when you've still got enough food to last you than wait until you're about to run out. Decide which of the group will be fastest and most efficient to go out and find out what's up."

"I like your brain," Reno informed Jake, nodding. "Trick is keepin' them out while at the same time not limiting your own options, yo. You never know how long a bunch'a crap you pulled out from upstairs is gonna hold out, and you know there are supplies in town, you just gotta get your hands on 'em, somehow. Now, how many people would you send on a supply run, do you think?"

"I'd go alone at first, I think," he admitted. "Check out if anything's going to be jumping down our necks first. Then take two others, maybe three. No more. Big groups draw a lot of attention and they're slower."

"There you go," Reno agreed. "Keep it quick, take your heavy-hitters, sure, but only if they can keep up, yo."

Reno would apologize to Rude for that statement later, maybe.

Maybe.

"What are your priorities gonna be, once you set out? You're gonna need a clear idea of what you wanna get, and know where to get it from. Don't get too ambitious and try to take everything back in one run, you'll just slow yourself down more, yo. But you can't run back and forth forever without gettin' caught, so you're gonna need to figure out what you need most."

"Water, or whatever we'd need to create a filter to clear the pool water," Jacob said. "And perishables. The canned stuffed will hold, so you'd want to clear out anything that will spoil before it's lost. And medical supplies. I think anything else, the dorms got to have some alternative for."

Cloud wasn't really the planning type. Sure, he could come up with strategies, but his main strategy was to deal with the source of the problem, and this looked more like trying to avoid a confrontation in an unnecessary way. So, for him, it was a waste of time. Surely he wasn't the only fighter in the class, and surely enough the things outside were kill-able -if not, there wasn't a point on staying inside and go mad...again, anyway-. So Cloud was more focused on not lashing out at Reno; all he would get was probably a smirk and some smart comment regarding his lack of imagination.

"There is no point on staying here more than necessary", he started, once he had managed to ease his thoughts. "Those that can fight and those that can be trained should come with an action plan; those more given to plan and stay behind should start looking for a way to get away, fast. Underground transportation, magic, or creating a diversion big enough to allow us to get away." Anything but sitting there and wait to die.

Oh, Reno was going to smirk anyhow. That was just the way Reno was made.

"Get away, huh?" He gave Cloud one of those sly smiles of his, crossing his arms over his chest. "Where would you like to get away to? We ain't talkin' one angry bastard holed up under a dome, Chocobo Hair. We're talkin' the whole world, no escape because it's everywhere. I ain't against action plans, don't get me wrong, but runnin' away in this case is just gonna turn everyone into movin' targets, at this point in the game, yo."

"If there is nowhere to go, then this is as useless as anything."

If he knew something, it was that no matter how bad it looked, there was always a way. That had defined most of his life on the last years, anyway. "Survival is not survival if you die in the end anyway. It's just prolonging the end."

"So, your solution is to go running into the wild blue like an idiot, because dyin' out there ain't dyin' in here?"

Oh yes, Reno was using his 'Cloud, I think you are a moron' voice.

"I'm teachin' survival here, Cloud. You gonna give me a chance to do my job, or are you gonna keep standin' there makin' yourself look like the optimistic twit that stared down the end of the world and managed to make it through because he got lucky while makin' idiot choices?"

"There is no solution, according to you, Reno."

And this was Cloud using his...eh, he was pissed.

And Reno was not- No, Cloud wasn't about to put his fist on the redhead's mouth, because that would only end biting him back in the ass later. "Could you at least explain more what are the things outside? Can they tear concrete? Why is this part still standing? Do they know we are alive? Do they think? Do they eat anything?"

Like idiotic Turks with too much authority?

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"We don't have enough healers," Ino said softly, not looking up from her notebook. "Basic first aid wouldn't be enough and once supplies ran out, you'd only have your magical-based healers."

Actually, unless she missed her guess, she was the only magical-based healer in the class. That was a scary thought that had this scenario been real...

"Healers'd wear down fast," Reno agreed, nodding slightly, the corner of his mouth quirking a little. "It'd be important for the ones we got to know how to pace themselves. An' that makes it that much more important for everyone else to be careful. Some of the most devastatin' casualties in a scenario like this could be the ones that ever set foot outside, yo."

Her lips twitched.

"We don't have enough that can pace themselves, even if we took in the whole school."

That was the problem with heroes and bleeding hearts. They died.

Reno snorted, rolling his eyes Cloud's way for a moment, rolling his eyes upward, and then looking at Ino again.

Heroes did stupid things. Reno didn't have much respect for heroes, no.

"So, what would you do about it?"