fandomhigh | Day After Doomsday, Thursday, Per 2

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?"

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"Slingshots, then. Easier for everyone. And just slings, if anyone has a good throwing arm." She nodded. "Wood, and string. The largest rubber bands you can find. And something tough, like leather material, or really thick cloth, for the pouch. Even if projectiles aren't very useful on the monsters outside, they'll be easy to use for hunting game." Hanna bit her lip. "Have you ever done any hunting?"

Probably not the kind of hunting she meant.

"Yeah." Because how hard could it be? He'd watched plenty of things die in his life. "Not lately since I just have to pick up a phone to get some food but I've bagged a few bucks in my life."

"Oh, good." Hanna didn't want to be the only one to work on the food situation if this lasted very long. "Did you do the butchering yourself? I can show you how, if not. And the others as well, but I can do it if other people are... squeamish."

Which she didn't get, but she knew it was a 'normal' reaction for many teens.

"I'm not." Not even close. "I can butcher the animals just fine. It doesn't bother me. They're already dead."

He had to take a slow, measured breath. Dear Old Dad was hooting and hollering in his mind and his eye twitched slightly.

"I'm good."

"If you're sure..." Hanna was willing to take the hit there, since that was how they'd survived for years.

And she hadn't butchered people. But she'd killed a few number of them, too. She shook that thought off and said, "Fishing line! For the fuzzy fish. I don't know if they're entirely edible. But it's worth trying. And maybe setting traps too." She stopped, eyes widening. "We should set traps for the things outside." Her mind was racing with trying to figure out what materials they might have for that already.

"Good ideas," he agreed, nodding. "Sure there's some twine around here that can be used for fishing line. Or wire can be scavenged from things that don't work. Traps are...not my specialty."

Billy had exit strategies and ways to trip up the cops but didn't go the route of rigged shotguns or bear traps. "I can set a trip wire or two."

"That would be what we should start with. And tell everyone about them," she added hastily. "We don't want to catch any of our allies in them. Larger traps, in the forest, for later, maybe. When Raven says it's safe to go out there."

"All right, I'll go and find some wire." It'd keep him busy and keep him from getting too chummy with people. Beneficial both ways.

"Thank you, Jasper." Hanna gave him a relieved smile. Hardison has a point about teamwork. "I'll search for the things Raven asked for. I'll be back in an hour."

Day After Doomsday, Thursday, Per 2

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