Day After Doomsday, Thursday, Per 2

[geniuswithasmartphone]

The sim looked exactly the same as it had last week when the students entered the Danger Shop, right down to having Hardison sprawled on the stairs, poking at his laptop. "Hey, y'all," he said, nodding. "Pull up a patch of floor or wall or whatever, a'ight? Normally, the way things are gonna go, the first few minutes of each class is gonna be spent goin' over what y'all've accomplished last week an' then tellin' you a bit about the day's scenario. But this week's gonna be a little bit different cause I think it's kinda important that we make it really clear how this class is gonna work."

He ran a distracted hand over his head. "So, one of the keys of survival in any major situation is communication. It doesn't matter what the problem is, if there are other people around, you gotta find some way of communicatin' with them. You can't all be independent, lone wolves here, doin' your own thing with no interest in what anybody else is doin'. At the very least, there ain't enough supplies an' stuff for you to scavenge to support all your own little projects. Right now, as far as you know, you are it. If there are other people still alive, you don't know about 'em. They certainly ain't in any position to help you. Any person you lose is irreplaceable--not just from a warm an' fuzzy friendship standpoint, but from a manpower, survival standpoint. Whatever they know an' you don't is lost. That's one fewer person to fight off whatever's out there, or to help barricade the door, or do any other task that y'all decide is important to your survival. Any decision you make affects everyone, no matter how innocuous it seems, yo. Everybody's gotta work towards your survival cause otherwise the odds of y'all making this out alive drop. This means talkin' to one another, findin' ways to work together, an' discoverin' one another's strengths an' weaknesses."

Hardison wished he had Nate's gift for this. If he could make four of the most independent and recalcitrant thieves work together to pull off amazing cons, he'd easily be able to convince a class of teens to do so. "So, last week, I got a basic idea of what y'all were gonna do between that class an' this one. Let's see if we can figure out where a bit more communication could be useful. We got one student who made a cold room for all the perishable food so you wouldn't have to rely on the refrigerators. This student can also create fresh, clean water at will, so all your water supplies have been topped up. The rest of the week, they brought plants an' planters inside to see about makin' interior gardens to grow fresh food in. Then we got another student tryna find ways to purify the pool water to make it potable an also thinkin' about makin' a garden an worryin' about food. One student is tryna make your generators work more efficiently an' quietly, while makin' the most of the limited fuel you had left an' another is plannin' on makin' a radio to try to contact the outside world." Yes, he was deliberately not mentioning names or other identifying factors. "Most of you seemed to agree that we needed scouts an' had ideas for what they should do, but nobody was able to give me any more information than that. Buncha y'all thought the scouts should be volunteers, but nobody asked if anyone wanted to go outside. Some of you had lists of things to look for, but didn't know who to give 'em to. Some of you tried to tell me what you wanted other folks to do, but that's the one thing I can't help you with. I ain't in charge of what your classmates do or don't do. You want somethin' done by someone else, that's on you to find the right person an' ask. If they agree, you can come to me an' tell me what's what. Otherwise, nothin's gonna get done, because I'm only programmin' in tasks that I am specifically told to do by the individuals involved."

He clapped his hands and stood up. "So, unlike the way the rest of the class will be run, only 24 hours have elapsed between last class an' this one. Just enough time for y'all to hopefully realize that much of what you wanna do over the week will be better done if you maybe talk to other people." Though he wasn't going to make anyone talk if they didn't want to, just insisting that doing so would be a very good idea. "Let's see if maybe we can't get a little more organized this week, huh?"

Comments

Plan Ahead

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Most people had similar or at least complementary plans. Find out who was working on what and see if you couldn't work on it together. Get organized! If you want to build something, figure out where the best idea to get parts would be. If you want to scout, find other like-minded people and figure out the best way to get the lay of the land. Based on some people's actions last class, they have a lot more information on what's out there--information that could be the difference between life or death in the sim. Find out what that is. Have a plan and need help implementing it? Ask people!

Re: Plan Ahead

[sciclone]

"So the big priorities are water, food, scouting," Cosima said, summarizing the lecture. "And it sounds like water's covered. Should we split into a scouting team and a food team?"

It wasn't that she liked being bossy, but Hardison sounded a little desperate for someone to make some progress, here.

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"I can be on a scouting team," Raven offered. "I've already gotten a look at what we're up against out there."

Re: Plan Ahead

[sciclone]

"You're kind of uniquely qualified to run that one," Cosima agreed. "Unless somebody else here can turn into a squirrel, which I wouldn't put past this place. I can focus on the food thing."

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"I'm willing to scout as soon as Raven has a pattern figured out," Hanna mentioned to Cosima. "I'm good with weapons. And faster than normal." She paused and added, "Jasper and I are working on making more weapons for hunting for food, if foraging in town isn't enough. Have you ever used one?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[sciclone]

Cosima shook her head. "No, but I'd like to learn. Even if I'm never scout girl I should at least be able to keep from getting killed if the barricades break down."

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"Alright," Raven said. "So I can get a look outside currently without drawing attention to myself -- or to the rest of us. I took a look last week, and this is what I saw." She proceeded to describe the creatures she'd seen through the window. "They seem to travel in small groups, from about three to seven, and aren't too concerned about attacking each other. They're about seven or eight feet tall, and pretty fast for their size. I'm pretty sure one pack was hunting in the Preserve, so I'd say it's safe to assume they're carnivorous, and they were pretty happy about attacking anything that moved. What I want to do is keep an eye on them to get a better idea of their behaviors, so I can work out a shape I can use to go out and check around the town, maybe bring back more supplies. Maybe I can even find a dead one of these things and work out how to kill them. Personally, I think we need way more information before we start sending more scouts out -- unless someone can turn invisible. From what I saw, not getting spotted as big and tasty by these things needs to be a priority for anyone going outside."

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna frowned at all that, and said, "We can keep track of how close they are from the roof, maybe? Do you think trying to shoot them from there would be smart, or would it cause them to attack more?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"I don't even know yet if we can shoot them, or if they'd bounce right off," Raven said. "This island isn't exactly at a loss for firepower, so either there used to be way more of them, or they're at least a little bullet-proof."

Re: Plan Ahead

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

Jasper's nightmare had left him bleary and tired but he was there, pushing all that down and looking about as mundane as he could. He listened in on the things other people had to say, nodding and sniffling every so often.

"Should we try and gather something for defense?" he asked to anyone around him. "If there's creatures out there that aren't nice, I'd like to use something other than my hands."

He knew a fair bit about weaponry, knives specifically, but there didn't seem to be a nice butcher's block sitting around.

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"Well, we've got those," Raven said, gesturing with her head.* "But if anyone knows how to make projectiles -- arrows maybe? -- that'd probably be good."

* from last week's post: "There were weapons, what looked to be the entire contents of both the weapons locker and sharpened, weaponized versions of the practice fare from the salle, laid out against [one wall]."

Re: Plan Ahead

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"Right." He'd barely looked around save for exits last week. His bad. "I don't know a thing about arrows. Pointy end goes away from you is about the extent of my knowledge."

He rubbed his chin.

"Then, probably get people armed with at least something no one's caught off guard. Doubtful that these barricades hold people forever."

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna had been listening to Jasper and Raven, and spoke up now. "I can make arrows. And bows, too. I just need the materials." She bit her lip. "And teach people how to use them, although slings would be easier to figure out quickly. But if anyone already knows archery, I can make them a bow if we get some wood materials."

Re: Plan Ahead

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"What materials are needed for arrows?" he asked, uncapping the glitter pen and taking a few notes. "Wood? And...something sharp?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[goforthe_optics]

"We'll definitely need to coordinate our tech plans," Tali spoke up. "It will be helpful to have an idea of how much power we expect we'll need for basic necessities, communications, equipment . . . and find ways to minimize that as much as possible."

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"If you take an inventory of the supplies we've got for that stuff and tell us what we still might need, I can make sure the scouting team knows to look for it when we eventually go out scavenging."

Re: Plan Ahead

[goforthe_optics]

Tali nodded. "I'll get a list put together for you, but in general, any scrap metal, or anything that used to be electronic at all. I can find some way to use or salvage it. Glass, too, for solar panels."

Re: Plan Ahead

[voiceoverdue]

"I was hoping to make a radio," Cecil spoke up. "I'm sure someone has one somewhere for receiving, and if we have the parts, I can make it send out a signal. And I was thinking if we could find instructions or if you know how, we could use it for a sort of sonar thing?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"To track the attackers?" Hanna asked. She tilted her head. "And if we could manage to find more parts in town, maybe communication radios." She frowned and then said, turning pink, "I didn't check my phone. Are they still working?" She couldn't remember from last week, or if they just worked locally.

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"Do you think you could make something like walkie-talkies?" Raven asked. "That could be good when we're ready to go scouting."

Re: Plan Ahead

[goforthe_optics]

How did people live without comm buoys? Tali suspected she might end up with more of a headache than she'd initially thought, trying to make sense of twenty-first century human technology.

"I can give it a shot at least," she said. "This sonar thing . . . what did you have in mind?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[sciclone]

"I'll be working with the garden up on the roof," Cosima offered. "And ... plants in general, really. Trying to find ways to grow things to maximize our food supplies."

She grimaced. "...for the rest of us, anyhow. Sorry about that."

Re: Plan Ahead

[goforthe_optics]

Honestly, it was just nice that someone took the amino-acid thing into consideration enough to be apologetic about it, and Tali waved a hand. "It's okay. You'll have enough to deal with figuring out, without having to worry about cross-contamination concerns. Though I'll probably need to coordinate with you about how to share the roof space, once I get those solar panels taken care of."

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Regretfully, Hanna said, "I'm used to doing with power, and I'm not very mechanically inclined, so. If I can help with brute strength, let me know." She paused, then asked, "Your suit. Is it armored, or not?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[goforthe_optics]

"A little bit," Tali replied, "but it's not as protective as actual armor. If it was, I'd never have to worry about suit ruptures."

That would have been nice back on Illium. Oh well.

"And if there are any alternatives you can think of to accomplish things we're used to relying on electricity to do, that would be great. Sometimes it's hard for me to remember they exist."

Tech nerd.