fandomhigh | 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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"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."

Kathy nodded. "The best scouts shouldn't even be seen if possible," she agreed. "I don't think we can do that here, but we might be able to outrun them and keep their attention. Let's keep our heavy-hitters in reserve for protection, not aggression."

"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."

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

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