Rapture

[Fortune86]

"Defense sounds good" agreed James walking into the room. "Though for tonight I suggest we stay together. Those little critters might be small, but I don't like them. I don't want to risk them ganging up on someone who wanders off alone."

 

James looked around the room, his brow furrowing as he did. Someone was mising.

 

"Where's Alistair? I didn't see him up stairs."

[Fangirl05]

Erin's eyes widened at James' news that Alistair wasn't upstairs - he certainly hadn't come down - but she quickly frowned.

 

"Guess we know why they broke in" she practically growled. Her mouth went a little dry at the thought that everybody who'd disappeared so far had been faced with a hoard of those things in their final moments.

[Mistress of Whispers]

"Do they need to be present for that?" Wisperlee asked. "Didn't Jaune disappear just like that?" She wasn't entirely sure, as she hadn't been there, so she looked at Mak for input.

 

Mak seemed busy doing - well, she wasn't entirely sure. Getting ready to bury the critter like a dead cat? Or did he have other plans?

"If you want to do an autopsy, you'd best put that thing in the freezer. There's a pretty big one in the scullery that might have room. Don't go alone though."

 

Ez and James had raised questions about security and she half-nodded in response. "Stick together until first light, then nail the shutters close. We'll do that from the inside, so we can pull the nails and open them if we need to."

 

She remained silent on the issue of Arwen, though she shot the girl a sympathetic glance. She understood what Petra was trying to do. A parent's job is to prepare kids for the dangers of the world - as of now, that included monsters. Didn't make it any easier though.

[Fortune86]

Wait, Jaune?

 

When James looked around again he could see the oddball was mising too. They were losing members fast, although a part of him secretly thought that losing the crazed arsonist wasn't entirely a bad thing. At this rate they were going to need to start taking roll call though.

 

"I don't think the gremlins are big enough or strong enough to carry anyone away" he said out loud. "Hurt them yeah, maybe even kill if they hit the right places, but kidnapping them? I kinda doubt it."

 

He stayed silent for a moment while he thought.

 

"I wonder if they are some kind of hunting dog? Sent to track down stragglers who were missed during the initial mass abduction so they could be mopped up later."

 

He glanced over at the windows.

 

"If that is the case, we could be in for a whole lot of trouble."

[Fangirl05]

"Maybe they just have to be in the same area" Erin guessed at Wisperlee's point, "There were those gangly things at the hospital, maybe they had something to do with it."

 

She didn't actually say it, but she kind of hoped something else would break in so she could kill it. Now that the surprise and sorrow had worn off, she was feeling a little homicidal over how her family probably vanished and/or died, plus a little less so over Alistair being taken. It was kind of nice to know there was another Irishman around amidst the Brits, even if it was only ancestral in her case.

[Avialae]

Now that the surge of adrenaline he'd gotten upon discovering the creature had worn off, Micah was starting to feel very worn out and discouraged. If these strange demonic-looking beings could die so easily, that meant that whatever it was that was actually going on, it wasn't the actual Rapture after all. He could hear Wisperlee coming up with possible theories using language that he only half understood, but in a way Micah felt the cause didn't really matter right now.

 

Putting the gun away, he stepped out of the way as the little girl threw up all over the floor. He'd experienced this sort of thing plenty of times before, but that didn't mean he liked dealing with it. Instead he turned his attention to the conversation some of the others were having. "I don't think the things we just saw had anything to do with what's going on. They don't seem smart enough." Micah paused, having missed the beginning of the conversation. With Alistair still absent despite everything that was going on and the current topic of conversation, it wasn't too hard for him to figure out what had happened. "Alistair's gone, then?"

[Quhanta]

After Petra had cleaned her up, Arwen curled her knees to her chest and lay on the floor with her forehead pressed flat on the cool linoleum. The cold made her feel a bit better, but the smell coming from her direct left meant the queasiness not too far away. She apologized a few more times and then fell into an uncomfortable half asleep kind of calm.

 

Ez listened to everyone's perspectives on what they could be and why this was happening, but she was tired and wanted sleep. Powering through was one of her specialties, so she stood quietly and listened carefully.

"More than likely." She stated bitterly in response to Micah's plain statement of Alistar being gone.

"I think that from now on, no one should be left alone. They only seem to disappear when they're alone. Thoughts?"

[Fangirl05]

"Sounds good" Erin agreed, "At the very least, someone will be able to pass it along directly if somebody else disappears."

[Salix]

Petra listened to the others discussing various options. While she understood the need to secure the house, she wasn’t feeling too keen to be shut in, spending the rest of her life living in a gloomy house, hiding behind boarded up windows, but on the other hand she recognised that they would have to take some kind of precautions.

 

Her gaze drifted back to the creature. It had large forward facing eyes and from rom the countless David Attenborough programs she had watched with the boys, she knew that these facts could indicate that the creature could probably see quite well in the dark, or at least better then humans, and the forward facing eyes indicated that it had evolved to be the predator rather then the prey.

 

Before Mak had a chance to move the creature she spoke up “I agree with Wisperlee, I think it would be prudent to keep the creature in here with us, put it in the freezer for the rest of tonight and then examine it again in the morning. We know nothing about these beings” she waved a hand at the creature resting in the bin bag.

 

“For all we know this could have been ‘their’ revered and beloved leader, who selflessly volunteered to enter the house to make contact with us, and we repaid it by shooting holes in it. I’d imagine that his comrades would be rather upset if we just dumped his/her body outside the door”.

 

“Equally these creatures could be ruthless killing machines. I think it’s safe to say that they posses a high level of intelligence, at least two of them were able to find a way to enter the house without alerting any of us; but we don’t know if the creatures were working together or independently. They could be some kind of hunting dog”. Petra looked at James as she said this, to acknowledge that it was his suggestion. “Which would mean that they may have some kind of pack mentality?”

 

“I think that any way one looks at it, keeping the creature in the house buys us some time, the creatures may not bother us until they have discovered what has happened to their comrade. Or if the creatures operate independently of one another, we should at least take this opportunity to learn as much about them as we can.”

 

[Fangirl05]

Erin raised her eyebrow doubtfully at Petra's suggestion that this was the top dog amongst the creatures; it seemed a little... Puny for that position. Still, she could just as easily be right as wrong.

 

It made her feel a little bad to consider that they might've killed somebody important to these things. Everyone here had lost at least one person they cared about.

 

"I'll handle the, eh, burial if no one else wants to" she offered.

[Avialae]

"Animals don't have to be super-smart to get in someone's house without them knowing; we used to have raccoons sneak in through our back door at night back at home to try to get food before we put a padlock on it, and only realized what was going on due to all the bags and cardboard boxes that had been chewed through; and there was a colony of squirrels living in our walls for months before we noticed anything." Micah shrugged. This sort of thing wasn't new to him, living in a rural area. It was only the kind of animals that he had encountered that had him so shaken up.

 

"If you want to dissect this thing, I can do it if you like. I used to dress and butcher the game we killed before we ate it. As long as its insides are roughly similar to Earth animals, I think I can tell what's what. Of course, if someone wants to help out, they're more than welcome." Butchering animals had never been Micah's favorite job back at home, and he wasn't exactly thrilled to do it now on a creature with possibly unidentified insides, but he couldn't deny the potential usefulness of doing so.

[Kestra15]

"I think we'll leave the autopsy for daylight hours," Mak commented, managing to stifle a yawn as he said it. With the adrenaline abating he was now feeling just as rough and tired as the night before; the short nap between last night's meeting and his turn to take watch just wasn't enough to keep him going, and his body was starting to complain. That he had been suffering from a hangover the day everyone disappeared didn't help either; he'd never had a chance to recover from that amount of wine.

 

"But keeping it inside? No," he continued, blinking a few times. He had the bag in hand now, and started moving to the back door. "Commander or not, we don't know what it is and how virulent and contagious it can be. I'd rather not contaminate the freezer or put us and the animals at risk from some new disease. Sorry, but in this instance I just don't think it is wise to keep it indoors."

[Fangirl05]

"Gimme a minute to find a shovel" Erin asked as Mak headed out, "Maybe burying it will help keep whatever diseases it might be carrying from spreading."

 

That and it felt kind of wrong to just throw it out on the curb. Freakish or no, it had still been alive a little while ago.

[Mistress of Whispers]

Wisperlee listened to Erin incredulously. Not keeping it inside was one thing, but burying it? Now??

 

"Raise your hand if you think it's a bad idea to dig holes outside in the middle of the night, when we don't know how many there are and we suspect *they* can see?"

 

They'd just discussed postponing setting up defenses 'til light, and she really didn't think digging graves was more urgent than that.

Edited November 8, 2015 by Mistress of Whispers

[Fangirl05]

"Now raise your hand if you plan to kick in the face of whatever tries to grab at your legs" Erin countered, raising her hand and her eyebrows at Wisperlee, "Besides, it's what, 4AM? The sun'll start rising before I'm done, anyway."

[Salix]

Petra bit her tongue as she listened to Micah. In her opinion his examples just served to highlight how ‘unaware’ humans were, waltzing about in their arrogance, presuming that they were the superior intellect on the planet. Whatever level of intelligence these new creatures possessed, they had proved that they could gain access to the house with relative ease.

 

“Erin” Petra tried to keep her voice calm and reasonable, “I agree with Wisperlee, burying the creature only to dig it up again if a few hours would be a waste of time and effort, not to mention exposing you to a possible unknown danger. Why don’t we pop the creature into a wheelie bin and tie the handles down with these zip ties?” She waved a bunch of zip ties which she had found in one of the kitchen draws while looking for tea spoons.

 

“I noticed earlier when we were pushing the fridge to block the back door, that there were some bins lined up a few feet away from the door, covered in a little shed type structure” presumably the previous occupants of the house didn’t want the inconvenience of walking too far to dispose of their rubbish. “We can remove any rubbish and store the creature in the bin until we are ready to examine it?”

 

“Whatever you all decide to do, Mak will you pause a minute so that we can find some torches? If we are right about the guess that these animals see well in the dark, then maybe we can deter them from coming too close by dazzling them with light, rather then blasting them all to smithereens, and attracting even more attention down upon ourselves”.

 

[Fangirl05]

Erin's mouth twisted unhappily; she'd been looking forward to possibly taking a spade to one of those things' heads.

 

"Fine" she growled, holding her hand out for the ties, "Lemme have some of those."

 

She looked over at the bin ruefully at the prospect of being exposed to week-out trash. Preemptively, she tugged the neck of her shirt up over her nose and mouth; better her own stick than way rotten foodstuffs.

[Quhanta]

Ez sat back at let Petra and Erin passive-aggressively fight over who's opinion would best suit everyone. She saw valid points in both arguments, though, plus Mak's.

"Since no one's going to sleep, why don't we just leave it in here, in the middle of the kitchen, and take shifts watching it. This way, we don't go outside at all and we don't poison ourselves by putting it in with the food. We won't have to take any unnecessary risks." Ez was speaking calmly and with her usual authoritative tone. If they chose to listen to her, that was fine, but that was her opinion and she was making it known.

[Kestra15]

Already gloved up, Mak took the cable ties for the creature and nodded to Erin. "I'll do it," he offered,nodding to Ez at her suggestion to show he'd heard it - but given he was on the way outside anyway, he may as well finish the job. Taking the cable ties and under the cover of his colleagues, Mak swiftly reached the bins outside, tossed the creature in, and dashed back to the safety of the house. Sweating more from fear than exertion he paused at the threshold of the house to strip off the outer gloves and leave them on the ground, maintaining the idea of not exposing anyone to any of the unusual blood, guts and gore, before slipping back into the house. It didn't take long for him to scrub down his hands and change clothes, re-emerging downstairs a few minutes later in a fresh long-sleeve t-shirt and baggy trousers.

 

The group had largely taken the suggestion of staying together to heart, and had gathered between the downstairs living room and bedroom for rest. Dawn was still a few hours away and they'd secured their house as best as possible, so now it was time to get what little rest they could before sunlight came and the work of fortification began.

 

0800hrs, May 5th

 

Mouth like a hermit's flipflop and head throbbing like an overloaded washing machine, Mak was not the first to rise for a change. The last few days were starting to take their toll on him; his wavy brown hair was a mess of spikes, his eyes had developed a deep shadow beneath them, and there was a definite stiffness to how he moved as he unfolded from the chair. He stumbled through to one of the bathrooms to relieve himself, take a look in the mirror that he soon regretted, before heading back out into the kitchen.

 

Last night almost felt like a bad dream, but sadly the shards of plastic and the footprints he'd traipsed indoors told a different story, as did the forlorn pair of yellow gloves he'd left outside. One of the plastic bins at the end of the garden held something that, at night, had been the closest to a demon as he'd ever met in this world; hopefully under the sunlight it would be a different story.

 

The weather that day was typically late-spring; warm enough to be outside but just a hint of a cool breeze to dissuade anyone from thinking it would last. As he looked out down the short row of houses Mak scanned his eyes over the five-foot wooden fences that separated the eight gardens into separate plots. The houses themselves stood empty, full of kit to be scavenged from clothing to food to tools. They already had the generator in their own back garden, some wooden shelters for bins, and past the line of trees at the end a wide field they'd never have a hope in using for farming stood empty. Plans slowly coalesced in his mind.

 

0900hrs

 

"I've got some ideas in mind," Mak announced as the group met in the front room. Breakfast had been served, everyone was as clean and clothed as they could be, those who needed wounds dressed and antibiotics had been given supplies from their growing medical stock. There was tension in the air, but Mak presumed that was partly due to the smell of having everyone sleep in the same closed rooms overnight and he had cracked the windows open to let in some cooler, fresher air. While he didn't like to think himself as the leader of the group he was at least the opening speaker when they had group chats, now a staple of their daily routine before the day began and after their evening meal.

 

"After yesterday and last night, we all kinda agreed that having us all spread out for scavenging, farming and so forth is dangerous," he began, summarising plans from the previous day. "So we want to keep close to each other, fortify the house, and I think we need to sort out the equipment we've scavenged. I don't think we can store much more in the cellar and larder, but there's a lot out there we want to stock up while we can."

 

He gestured to the wall of the living room, beyond which the row of eight two-bedroom houses lie with their respectable gardens and plentiful supplies. "Since we don't need to put a deposit down on housing or ask the landlord's permission to decorate, I was thinking we should use what we already have and keep close today. What I propose is we start off by clearing through the houses and make sure nothing is hiding in them, then convert them to storage. Use the closest two houses for now, clear them out and use them as depots for any more equipment we find. There'll be plenty of food in them we can use, clothing that we could all do with, tools, sundry items, toys, deodrants, board games...all sorts of things we need. And water. Bottle up as much water as we can before the tanks and pumps run dry, and store it.

 

"As well as the houses for storage, I think we should turn the gardens into a large allotment. We have plenty of fencing around them, so we could double-fence them, strip them out ready for planting, so that we have somewhere this or next autumn to produce fresh food ready for when tinned goods run out. We then have a close, protected source of food.

 

"The field out back we can use for rubbish, for the time being - I know landfills are not eco-friendly but if we just dig a pit for now to fill up with the rubbish already lying around, and in the next couple of days scout out somewhere down the road to use as a more permanent dumping ground - far enough so we don't get the smell or risk contamination, but not miles out of the way. And it might be worth us building an outhouse as well, some simple plumbing for a toilet so that when the ones in here stop working we have somewhere to do our business."

 

Mak looked around the room, aware that he had gone on a little longer than he'd expected. But these plans had been buzzing around his head the last couple of days and with the attacks from last night he figured now would be a good time to speak up and suggest a way to keep them safe and secure. He shrugged to the group at large. "What do you think?"

Edited November 12, 2015 by Kestra15

[Quhanta]

"I think I want to find a shovel and start digging an outhouse. Why wait until the plumbing stops to start building something. Where do you want it?" She spoke a bit aggressively. Ez hadn't slept well and the rest of the night, after the break in, she couldn't go back to sleep. The sick child laying on her didn't help either. She was in a pissy mood, so digging a hole and not talking to anyone was a safe bet for her not to snap at someone, deserving or not.

Arwen walked over to Mak, rubbing her eyes and then gently pulling on the hem of his shirt. Once he payed attention to her, she spoke.

"Mr.? Does that mean we're not looking for my mummy and papa today?" She looked up at him with her wide and vibrantly blue eyes that looked just barely too big. Her tiny child stare was unblinking and sad. "What if they go really far away looking for me?" The stare continued and her bottom lip quivered a little bit.

[Fangirl05]

May 5th, 0700 hrs

 

Erin passed out for another couple hours after Mak tossed that thing's body. It still didn't feel right just throwing it out like trash. Dead non-insects deserved an actual burial, she thought.

 

Anyway, she woke up again and pulled on a set of fresh clothes, - a grey cardigan over a black tank top and another pair of dark, skin-tight jeans - opting to wait for everybody else to wake up.

 

She listened through most of Mak rattling off their to-do list, but Arwen was what got her attention. She frowned sympathetically at her question.

 

Wait a second... Oh, she was good!

 

"I have an idea" she put a hand on her shoulder, "Wisperlee's pretty tech savvy, and we have a couple of radios lying around. If you can tell us a radio station either of them likes to listen to, she might be able to play them a message about where to find you."

[Fortune86]

Like everyone else in the room, James had not had much in the way of sleep. He had settled down in a corner and tried to doze, but the uneasiness of the house kept getting to him, gnawing at his thoughts until he had finally given up and just waited for the sun to rise.

 

A few hours later he sat listening to Mak's grand plan with a cup of coffee in his hands. He wasn't much of a caffeine drinker, but he needed to wake himself up some how. As Mak spoke James frowned, it sounded like a whole lot of digging.

 

"What about our little gremlin friend?" he asked. "We going to take a proper look at it before it starts to rot?"

[Mistress of Whispers]

Wisperlee nursed her coffee as she listened to the others talk. She'd been up since six, and had already shovelled down a large bowl of sugary treats disguised as cereal. Now she was quietly enjoying the post-sugar rush. Erin volunteered for tech duty on her behalf, but she was happy to contribute and oblige.

 

"If we can hook it up to the generator, I could loop it. Might be a good way to find other survivors too. We need to decide how open we want to be though." They had a good thing going here, with decent people and plenty of valuable equipment. No point in inviting the bad seeds in on it.

 

Her feet were looking much better already - Ez was clearly skilled at her job. Well, that and most of the cuts had been minor. They still hurt, but Wisperlee thought it wouldn't slow her down.

 

"What about our little gremlin friend? We going to take a proper look at it before it starts to rot?"

 

Normally she'd agree with James, but she'd noticed something this morning.

 

"All organisms carry viruses with them," she pointed out, "and Mak's been awfully under the weather. We sure these critters aren't carrying something that we react badly to?" Her voice was pleasantly conversational, as she didn't want to upset Arwen, but her intensely dark blue eyes betrayed worry.

[Fortune86]

"That's a good point" frowned James. "I think the last thing any of us want is for someone to come down with gremlin flu. What if we took it to a hospital? Maybe it'll have quarantine equipment to make it safer to cut open."

 

James had vague recollections of TV shows featuring patients with contagious diseases. Whether the things used where available in all real life ospitals he didn't know, but it was worth bringing the suggestion up. If nothing else he wanted to take a proper look at the gremlin's teeth and stomach contents, see if they could get any clue on what the darn things ate.

[Fangirl05]

"Hmm..." Erin pursed her lips thoughtfully. Didn't Mak say something about having worked in a hospital the other day? And Micah apparently had experience with butchering things...

 

"Maybe Mak and Micah should head back to the hospital," she mused, tapping her fingers against her coffe mug thoughtfully, "make use of the morgue, try to recollect those meds we lost." She raised and eyebrow in James' direction.

 

"Maybe they should bring James' shotgun along in case that Bony swarm is still there."