Day After Doomsday, Thursday, Per 2

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Class began with something unexpected. Rather than an introduction from Hardison, a voice was heard from Cecil's radio.

"Hello?" It was a man's voice. He sounded tense, maybe even scared. "Hello, I don't know if anyone is still out there, if anyone's listening, if anyone's alive still to listen. This is Jeremy, at First National Bank of Fandom Town, over on Unicorn Street. We've been hiding in the vault since those--those things arrived. There are six of us. We're--we're awful hungry. It's been a few days since we've had anything to eat. If you're out there...if you can hear us...please help? Again, we're at First National Bank of Fandom Town, on Unicorn. I hope you can hear us. My name is Jeremy and there are six people here in the vault. We're weak and we're hungry and we're scared. If anyone is still alive out there, please help. Hello, my name is Jeremy, we're in--"

There was a loud squelching noise and the broadcast stopped.

"Well," Hardison said, stepping into the sudden silence. "There's that. Your radio's still working fine, so the problem's likely on their end. But there you have it. The first definitive proof that there's intelligent life still on the island. The question is, what do you make of it? More important, what are you gonna do about it? You got plenty of options, but each options is gonna have an affect on the group as a whole. This seems like the kinda thing you might wanna discuss."

"Now, as for last week, some folks realized that the noises comin' from the bathrooms was the water pipes. They were able to learn that the water's shut off to the dorms. This could be somethin' as simple as a watermain broke or somethin' or it could mean that someone's turned off water here deliberately. You don't know. Elsa's keepin' you supplied with fresh water for drinkin', bathin', an' for the garden. No one's presented me with a plan to turn the water in the pool into somethin' drinkable, but it's enough to keep the toilets flushin' manually an' to keep the dorms clean if you're so inclined. Raven found some cleanin' supplies, but..." He looked around at the dorms which were definitely a bit worse for wear, so no one had mentioned doing any actual cleaning. "Y'all might wanna start puttin' 'em to use, just sayin'. Or not! Maybe you're looking to Oregon Trail it up in here an' see who dies of dysentery first."

In which case, keep on keepin' on.

"One thing. Food's gettin' tight. Most of the scouts are on food detail, but gardens can only grow so fast an' you got some pretty heavy competition in the top predator category. You got a greenhouse goin' an' that's cool, even some seeds an' things to plant in there, an' Hanna's been able to smoke an' salt a lot of what you do catch to make it last. Congrats, the food you have right now is gonna last till Week Six if you keep tight rationing, but huntin' is pretty much gonna take up most of your time if you wanna add enough to get to Week Seven, leavin' you no time for other scoutin' pursuits. Looks like y'all have got some choices to make."

Comments

Plan Ahead

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Even without the broadcast, there's a lot to talk about. Unless you want all your scouts to focus on nothing else but food for the rest of the class due to diminishing returns, you're gonna run out of food on Week Six and that's assuming you keep strict rationing. The dorms could use cleaning. More and better weapons could be found or made. More information could be gathered. Over the last week, Raven found a map of the sewer system under Fandom. It's not the tunnels, but it's something! Does that affect what you decide to do?

Basically, you have a LOT of things to do. What do you want to do, that's the real plan.

Figure it out. Talk to one another.

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"I think it's time we start thinking seriously about how to get rid of those things out there. We're obviously not going to be able to just hole up here forever, and we've got some good information now about what they do and how they behave. Picking them off one by one isn't going to help us. Is there --" She looked around for Cosima and Tali if they were there. "Is there someway we could make a bomb?"

Then she looked for Elsa.

"Or freeze them out."

Re: Plan Ahead

[goforthe_optics]

"If we're willing to sacrifice what's left of the generator and fuel, maybe," Tali said slowly. "Otherwise we may need to consider some kind of low-tech trap instead."

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

Raven nodded. "Could work. Any ideas?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[goforthe_optics]

"Not much that doesn't involve more energy and time than we can probably afford to expend," Tali admitted. "Digging a pit trap, for example, isn't likely to be worth the effort. But maybe we can herd them into an abandoned building somehow, and collapse it on them, or set it on fire?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"I don't think we'll be able to herd them too well. Lure, maybe. I don't know how we'd collapse a building on them without bombs, though."

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"I think you are right. Without enough food, this is going to become more and more difficult." Hanna frowned, trying to remember. "Do we know if they are vulnerable to fire?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"I don't know. I've been keeping an eye on them while scouting, looking for weaknesses. I'll check with Hardison."

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"So, strategically... some kind of an attack on the community center. Then, taking care of the stragglers." Hanna paused, then said, "Then, maybe, Jeremy and his friends?" Or before they got to the stragglers?

Hanna had enough sense to know she needed cooperation to get Jeremy and company out of the vault, but even though this was an imaginary exercise, she still felt the obscure bite of guilt at leaving them to suffer for any length of time.

"Maybe we could get more supplies to them. If they have survived this long."

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"I want to at least check the bank out," Raven said. "If it's a trap, then we need to know that there's something here intelligent enough to set it up." The monsters outside hadn't seemed that clever to her, yet. "And if it's not -- we might be able to share resources somehow with them, or get more information than what we already have. I can go in without being seen, check things out."

Re: Plan Ahead

[sciclone]

"Molotov cocktails?" Cosima suggested, a bit cheerily considering the topic. "Dirt simple, cheap, and there's enough stuff out there that if we threw a couple big ones into areas with a lot of rubble we could make some big fires. Only problem would be how to put the fires out before they reached us."

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

"Ooo, I like that plan," Raven said, grinning a little evilly. "Do we have enough booze? . . . Do we have any booze?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[sciclone]

"Boarding school dorms" Cosima said, and shrugged. "If we don't, TV has lied to me. Besides, does it have to be real booze,or can we use perfume and mouthwash and stuff?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Putting out fires is probably where I'm most useful, in that regard," Elsa offered, tentatively. "I'd be slightly concerned about what might happen if I get carried away, but ice is a little easier to handle than wildfire. I think."

She... didn't really feel cold the same way other people did, so that one was a wild guess.

Re: Plan Ahead

[sciclone]

"You," Cosima informed her, "are a lifesaver. Like, literally. Could you make some kind of ice wall around the dorm before we start bombing things, or is that too much?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa ducked her head a little at that suggestion, but she couldn't deny, after hearing the voice on the other end of the radio, that things were getting dire. If the call was real... that sound on the other end didn't really say wonders for the possibility that the people on the other end might still be alive. And if it wasn't... The creatures didn't seem capable of setting a trap like that, but other people, who were hungry and desperate and who didn't care who they took down in order to get through this alive without having to go out there themselves...

"I guess there's a chance that the creatures will be susceptible to cold as much as anything else," she allowed, biting her lip. "I would need somebody to point me in the right direction, of course. I'm more a resource than a strategist, in this class, I'm afraid."

Re: Plan Ahead

[tigerundercover]

Raven nodded. "How big can you go? I know you had the, uh." Raven bit her lip, not sure how open Elsa was about what she'd done under the influence of Gaunt. "But that was sort of extraordinary circumstances."

Re: Plan Ahead

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Fairly extraordinary," Elsa agreed, looking slightly uncomfortable. "I don't entirely know what my limits are. I've spent a lot of my life trying to keep myself from reaching them. I would probably have to start small, make whatever I do count and then work my way up from there."

... Probably no bears, though.

"Even just supplying water for everybody is more than I normally let myself do. That, at least, I know would be easy enough to manage."

Re: Plan Ahead

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

Jasper hadn't really been helpful last week (bad weeks happened) but he was trying to be more focused this time around. He'd been doing demonstrations of weapons here and there, focusing on knives and other blunt objects, to those who wanted it.

But cleaning was one thing Jasper knew and knew well. He'd cleaned his father's crime scenes for years. Blood and other fluids that no child should have to clean so he grabbed a few of the cleaning supplies and went to work on that.

"If we're gonna stay healthy, we should clean this place up a bit," he stated, looking around. "Make this place nice and cozy."

That was a joke.

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna gave him a slightly amused look. "Cozy. Yes. With six floors." She tilted her head, and said, "We should, maybe, move up to a higher floor? For sleeping, just in case..." Yes, just in case monsters broke in, but they'd probably be dead if that happened. "Or not. Perhaps it is not worth it."

Re: Plan Ahead

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"That's not a bad idea," he said, rubbing his cheek. "It'd be easier to know if someone else was in the building too. Give us some advance warning."

Re: Plan Ahead

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"We need an exit plan, if they do get in." Hanna winced to realize they'd never thought that through. "And perhaps to practice it. Ropes, or something, rope ladders?" That would be better for those who didn't know much about fighting. "Something, anyway. To be trapped in here would be foolish."

Re: Plan Ahead

[sciclone]

Cosima huffed a laugh. "Yeah, I can't promise cozy unless one of us can work miracles, but I can clean," she said. "The plants are as planted as they're gonna get, so I may as well keep busy. How should we split up the work?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[ihuntkillers.livejournal.com]

"Anything you particularly don't wanna do when it comes to cleaning?" he asked, glancing around. "Wanna sweep?"

Re: Plan Ahead

[sciclone]

"Sure, I can sweep," Cosima nodded. "And not really? I mean, I'm not going to be overjoyed to clean up the bathroom or whatever but I don't think any of us are."