fandomhigh | The Day After Doomsday: Getting By In a Post-Apocalyptic World, Wednesday, Period 4

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doomsday

The Day After Doomsday: Getting By In a Post-Apocalyptic World, Wednesday, Period 4

When the students stepped into the Danger Shop for Reno's class today, they'd find themselves stepping into the 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 simulated 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 if 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."

[Open! Go nuts!]

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Kathy held up a map of the island that she'd found amongst the debris and squinted at it in the dim light. She still believed that their best bet was to leave the dorms, but she wasn't going anywhere without some kind of plan.

"Okay," she said aloud, swallowing back her instinctive apology and insistence she wasn't trying to be bossy or anything. "So, I think our best bet would be to head to Luke's. That giant freezer's been mentioned on the radio enough times and I guess there's a trolley system and polar bears, so there should be plenty of room and food in there. I think it runs on some kind of nuclear generator that's not hooked up to the grid, so it might still be on. It's also across the street to--I think that says the Trooper Station? Which might mean better weapons for us."

She circled the restaurant with a marker and drew a line to the dorms, following the streets.

"We've obviously got a couple of problems. We don't know what's out there--I don't think anyone's even been up to the roof yet to get an idea of what's outside. We don't know how many creatures are out there or what they can do. We don't know if Luke's is defensible or if the freezer's still working. I think that once we get in there, we can just close the freezer door, but I'm not certain. And, even if we do decide that that's the best place to go, not everyone here can run, assuming those things out there aren't faster than we are anyway."

That was a staggering amount of negatives, there. And they didn't even have a wheelbarrow or a holocaust cloak.

"My suggestion is, first and foremost, we get some information. We need to know what we're up against. I also think we should try to make this place more defensible, too. Even if we decide to ultimately leave, we can't be sure how long we'll need to get ready for that. And if it turns out leaving is the wrong option, we'll probably be glad we spent the time making this place safer and better. As for figuring out how things are in town, I think taking to the sewers is the answer. No line of sight for anything outside, the smell of, well, sewage will mask our scent if that's how they hunt, and the sewer lines should go from the dorms to the town. If they're safe, the sewers will be a good way to transport everyone and everything we need, too. That begs the question if they're safe, though."

Licking her lips, Kathy turned and asked, "Does anyone have any thoughts about this?"

[I noticed a ton of good discussions going on in separate threads, so I figured this might be a good place to consolidate them.]

"I wouldn't be making any fucking plans to go anywhere until we know what we're up against," Barry said as the soy-sauce generator kicked in. "But if there's a nuclear generator in town that still optional I can think of two thousand different things to use it for than keeping some fucking polar bears cold."

"Gee, it's almost like I just said 'first and foremost, we get some information,'" Kathy snapped, before her arm came up over her eyes at the unexpected light. "And, I'm sorry, didn't you piss and moan about how going outside is suicide, according to the professor?"

You could tell Kathy was aggravated. She used 'piss.'

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over my generator running on a bottle of fucking soy sauce," Barry said with an eye roll. "I thought maybe you were asking for opinions one of which just happens to support what you were fucking saying. "

There was the slight grinding of teeth and Kathy closed her eyes, doing some of the breathing exercises she learned in gymnastics.

"You're right," she said a few seconds later. "That was petty of me and I'm sorry. There's no reason to snipe at you, especially since you've been really helpful thus far."

His inventions, if not his attitude. But she was genuinely apologizing, so she was going to feel bad about that thought and move quickly on.

"You had more thoughts?"

Edited 2014-05-14 22:45 (UTC)

"Yes," Barry joked. "If we decide to make a fucking excursion into town hit the Chinese restaurant and grab all the soy sauce packets. That'll make the generator go for at least 20 years."

She was trying here. Really and truly trying.

"Any ones that we can use to get us to said Chinese restaurants?" she asked, counting to five.

"I can get to the Chinese restaurant," Eleanor said. "That's near where I work."

And thus, easy enough to visualize, which was a big plus when teleporting.

"I'm confused," Kathy said. "Do you know a secret way to get there or something?"

Okay, it'd help if she didn't keep making cryptic remarks.

"Y .... es," she said. "I know a secret way for me to get there. If we actually needed me to, I'd do it, but since this is just a simulation, let's assume we've all discussed my strange ability to resourcefully find all sorts of packets of soy sauce, and whatever else is nearby to my work."

That was something Kathy could understand. It had 'back off' written all over it in big letters.

"Okay, so I'm still on the fence about using your special routes just to get soy sauce," Kathy said. "Can you use your special routes just to scout and we can get an idea what the heck we're up against? Because all this planning doesn't get us anywhere if we don't know what we're facing."

Re: Plan Ahead!

nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com - 2014-05-15 03:50 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Plan Ahead!

spin_kick_snap - 2014-05-15 05:55 (UTC) - Expand

"No," Joker told her flat out. "I'm not spending the rest of my life asphyxiating inside a freezing metal death trap, and I doubt anyone else wants to, either." He tapped the main school building, right next to the dorms. "The library," he insisted. "If anyone else is left, that's where they'll be. And if not, we can go into Special Collections. There's running water in there, and plants -- probably food."

"'If anyone else is left, that's where they'll be,'" Anders repeated skeptically. "Not to be all doom and gloom, but how do we know they'd be allies? I don't want to fight to get to a place and then just get into another fight with whoever claimed it first."

"Maybe we send scouts ahead to see, then," Eleanor suggested. "Get the scope of the location. Is it overrun with creatures? Is it settled by other humans? Would they welcome us as allies, or fight over sharing their meager resources? Once we know for sure, we can plot our path."

"Well, you say 'not to be all doom and gloom'," Joker replied, "but I don't think you mean it. Any people there would be classmates and teachers -- if we can't all work together in a time like this, we are totally screwed."

"We're totally screwed already," Anders pointed out. "Whoever's in the library would have run off and left us here. It's hardly impossible that they've struck a bargain with whatever's out there, or that they just don't want to share their space. Eleanor's right. We should send scouts before we try to move as a group."

"I agree with the scouts," Kathy said. "The choice is who should scout and where. I still think the giant freezer that requires a train to get around is our best bet, but I'm willing to be overruled if we find somewhere else to go."

"I think you have too little faith in humanity, but... I see your point. The only problem is, what happens if the scouts bite it?"

Anders snorted. "Faith in humanity's not my strongest point," he said. "If the scouts die, I suppose we cry a bit, feel horribly guilty, and then figure out another plan."

"Nope, not an option," Joker told him. "First of all, our scouts would be the strongest fighters, and we can't afford to lose them. Secondly, one of them's my girlfriend."

"I was going to volunteer to be a scout," Kathy said, quietly. "I'm no fighter, but I'm fast. Really fast. And hard to stop once I get going. And Professor Reno is faster than that."

"Better idea," Anders nodded. "Not that I want to lose you, of course -- but I thought scouts were supposed to be smart and fast, not that they were supposed to take out every single threat."

Re: Plan Ahead!

spin_kick_snap - 2014-05-15 14:56 (UTC) - Expand

"Umm, the freezer has it's own trolley system. And polar bears," Kathy said. "I don't think we have to worry about asphyxiation. If what I've heard is true, we run a bigger chance of getting lost in there than we do of running out of oxygen."

"Polar bears would provide food and warmth," she said. Yes, she was talking about murdering them. That was just how it went. "I still say I want to check the Causeway first. Or were you suggesting that as a new base of operations from which to make further plans?"

"I think it's a much better place to hole up than the dorms," Kathy said honestly. Though it would be closer to the Causeway, which can't be bad."

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