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| Life is about changing yourself as the situation behests, the moment you can no longer change, is the moment you can no longer live. |
Act 2, Chapter 4: Vigilant, Part
2
Gabriel approached the double doors to 'Ray's All-Purpose Market.' A recently abandoned shop, presumably owned by some person who happened to be named Ray and wanted an all purpose market. It was dingy, the windows were boarded with particle board, and tagged by passing by graffiti artists. The front glass door initially was locked off with safety bars, but the pad lock was bent and busted on the sidewalk. He calmly grabbed the double doors and yanked both of them open, slowly walking inside. The floor was tiled with dingy black and white linoleum, a thin layer of dust forming, some of the aisles were knocked over, it's contents split and congealing on the floor. Sitting far across the moderately large corner market were two figures hobbled around an oil lantern.
The first one was a man, somewhat on the tall side with a mop of wild blonde hair going slightly past his dark green eyes. He was wearing a black sports coat, with a tan shirt underneath of it, along with a pair of jeans. He was calmly polishing a baseball bat with a clean, white rag. Gabriel quickly recognized him as Lucas Grey; The man known as L on the radio he was speaking to earlier. Leaning against one of the still standing, yet empty aisle besides Lucas was a woman, a little bit shorter than him but still fairly on the tall side. She had a long, perfectly straight head of dark brown hair, nearly going to her mid back, leaving two bangs to frame her face. She was wearing a purple suit vest over a long sleeve white shirt and a black tie, along with a black pair of dress pants and shoes. The glimmer of the lantern's light reflected off her reading glasses, making them shine and not letting him notice her typical blue eyes.
That was Mia Thompson, or M. Mia slowly pushed off of the aisle and looked to Gabriel, slowly strolling over as she put on a pair of black gloves. “I'm glad you didn't drain me of all my patience, Gabriel.” She replied with some amusement to her voice, she was about his height, putting her at about 5'9 and Lucas at 6'0. Gabriel tucked his hands into his pockets and shrugged his shoulders slightly, eyes rolling and looking away from her for a second. “I might have lost my way once or twice.” He causally mentioned. She lifted a brow, leaning over his shoulder and stuffing her hand into his drawstring bag. Shuffling a bit before pulling out a folded piece of paper. “And you didn't check the bloody map?” She asked, unfolding it and revealing all 66 square miles of Ravenglass and it's surrounding county area.
“Would you be mad at me if I told you I forgot about it?” Gabriel said, lightly tugging on his collar since it was suddenly feeling much tighter. She frowned even more, lightly reaching up and smacking upside the head with the folded paper. “No, you'll just make an arse out of yourself.” She calmly replied, folding it and stuffing it back into his pocket. Gabriel sighed a bit and calmly clambered over to the small lit lantern for a source of heat. Being out in the cold of early spring can make you miss being warm. Lucas leaned up, leaning his chin onto his hand as he looked at Gabriel. “You had a fun night, didn't you?” He asked out of light amusement, Gabriel rubbing his hands together and scooting up a bit closer to the lantern.
“Hey, I was the only one who ended up getting in a fight because of you two!” Gabriel complained to them both, since Mia spoke at a very bad time. “Don't tell me you left the radio on while you were TRYING TO SNEAK!?” Lucas said incredulously, Gabriel awkwardly rubbed on one of his arms with a light chuckle. “Uhh... I guess that's what happened.” He replied, Lucas laughing a little bit as he pat him on the shoulder. “Well the important thing is we managed to get here without other people seeing us, AND before the night ended ontop of it.” Lucas stated out of accomplishment, Gabriel smiling a bit weakly as he looked up at the ceiling. This store wasn't really in the best of conditions in it's heyday. Instead of using an array of florescent lighting, it used a skylight. The glass was either cracked or missing and was letting the cold in.
“If the deaths of the men you fought still bother you, Gabriel. I would like to remind you that we've all been in his situation for nearly 6 months now. It's a trial by fire where we lose our innocence.” She started to try and console Gabriel. He was a pretty nice kid when they met, a bit of the head in the clouds type, but slowly came to as he got used to the situation. But still, killing someone is a pretty drastic step for someone just barely exiting their teenage years. “Both me, Lucas and many back at the hotel had to deal with the emotions of this at one point.” Mia continued, lightly crossing her legs as she sat on the other side of the lantern to roughly form a triangle with the other two males.
Gabriel looked away, leaning back and using his two arms to prop himself up as he leaned back his legs coming undone from their crossing. “I guess so.” He muttered, he felt in the bottom of his gut terrible for lying, but what else was he supposed to do at the moment? “Don't worry, this will all be over one day and our lives can go back to normal.” Lucas tried to place some optimism into Gabriel's mind, but Gabriel leaned back up and placed his hands on his knees. “So... Why exactly do we have to kill Silent Fall members if we've been spotted?” Gabriel asked Mia, who calmly stood up, setting her back down and searching through it for supplies.
“Well besides the fact they're a bunch of punks who thought using a small town as one of their major meeting points at my hometown? I can think of plenty of reasons.” Lucas said, lightly smacking the baseball bat in his hands. It was silvery with flecks of Ash along it so he could use Pulse. Mia cleared her throat quickly. “Ravenglass might be a small town, but it was pretty well known for being seated only 30 miles from The Three Mothers, a range of mountains well known for it's abundance of ore. I could only assume they're using this to undercut the Goldshore mines and drain them of their money, instead using it as a trading point on the black market.” Mia explained, gently pulling out her rapier from her belt to start cleaning it off, it seemingly was coated with dirt and scrapes.
“Along with that, it's an abandoned city abundant with food, supplies and nary a person in sight besides us. If they found out Spera has been taking in civilians as refuge in the hotel, they'd come and clear us out since they want the lions share.” She added, Gabriel nodding a bit as he felt the weight of guilt begin to form on his brow. “Would they do that?” Gabriel asked Mia, she nodded gently, polishing her blade to a shine and sliding it back into the sheathe. “They've been seen killing bystanders before once they stationed in Ravenglass. I've heard they might be behind a couple of robberies in Rosewall as of recent... But the thing that concerns me is just how many there seem to be.” Mia commented out of some concern, Gabriel tilting an eyebrow as she instantly knew he was going to ask her what she meant.
“One time I was scouting a factory along the coast, just before they moved to the water treatment plant. There were so many Silent Fall members, nearly a couple of thousand would be my guess. It's hard to count when a bunch of people might kill you if they spot you.” She observed, he nodded some as Lucas slowly stood up and walked over through he aisles, Gabriel leaning back to see what he was doing before Mia snapped her fingers to get him to look at her once again. “It's a bitter pill to swallow, I get it... But just push it out of your head. We have a job to do, people to provide for.” Mia went on one of her typical diatribes again, Gabriel sighing softly as he started to pace the floor of the stood.
“So, what are we going to do at the water treatment plant?” Gabriel asked, looking over some of the produce. Some of it was pretty rotten, pretty much anything out in the bare air was starting to turn in color. “Well.. We have some new recruits for Spera, I wanted to grab some supplies for them.” She started, crossing her arms together and standing up to walk over beside of him. “Also... If they're gonna be in our city I want to keep a close eye on them, I want us to break in and gather any information we possibly can to stay about 5 steps ahead.” Mia added, Gabirel still looking puzzled.
“Can't we just supplies off the guys we beat?” Gabriel asked her, she lightly shook her head as she reached down to slowly unfurl a map on the floor. “No, they outnumber us, but only think we're stragglers,” She explained, pulling out a pen and slowly marking a route they can take for later. “If we go looking for fights just to steal from them, they'll become more aware of us being an actual group and might possibly bring the hammer down. We can't afford that to happen” She said, rolling it back up and sliding it in her backpack.
“I guess that makes sense.” Gabriel admitted, looking over at Lucas while Mia began to unfurl her sleeping bag. “The night hours are too little for us to actually pull any of this off, I think we should rest and discuss our plans in the morning.” She suggested, Gabirel nodding lightly before a sound from Lucas turned his attention to him. He was currently digging through a canned good section a couple of aisles away. “Oh sweet! They have an entire section devoted just to canned pasta!” Lucas said with the excitement akin to a small child, even if he was 22 years old. Gabriel, now interested walked up beside him and started checking some cans for himself. Lucas started to stuff them into whatever excess room he had inside of his bag.
“This isn't the time for shopping, Lucas.” Mia commented in a commanding tone, Lucas just turned to look at her and slowly put another can of noodles into the bag, even if he had a guilty look on his face. “..What? Sometimes I want soup.” Lucas mentioned, Gabriel reaching up behind him and grabbing a couple of bottles of juice he could take along as well. “Hey, the people back at the hotel could use something nice once in a while, right?” Gabriel tried to back up Lucas's argument, she just sighed and softly rubbed her head out of frustration. “Do I need to remind you again, Lucas?” Mia complained, Lucas just blinking with an awkward grin on his face. “We need the room in the bag FOR THE WEAPONS AND ARMOR WE'RE TRYING TO STEAL!” She said, lips curling into a frown along with her brow furrowing.
“Yeah, yeah I get it...” He said, sighing out of defeat and slowly dumping the cans back out of his semi empty bag, he only had a map, his receiver, a sleeping bag, some binoculars and a canteen in there most of the time. It had more than enough space to pack something large, he kept one can of those O shaped noodles in tomato sauce for himself. He always liked making bulls eyes out of them whenever he was a kid. Gabriel sighed, placing every juice bottle he took back onto the shelf and slung the bag back over onto one of his shoulders. “I understand you both want to make the best out of a bad situation, but this isn't a game.” Mia once again stated how serious this entire thing was, she tends to do that a lot.
“We can have other people do a supply run if you want your... novelty soups that badly, but we are the procurement team. We take weapons and gather intel so we don't get completely curb stomped by a bunch of thugs who don't mind killing women or children.” She continued, they both just sighed as she gestured them to both follow her. She lit a small lantern and gestured both of them to lay out sleeping bags near hers. “Every 3 hours, we'll switch who takes watch for the night, just in case anyone else just so happens to barge in here.” She said, Lucas sitting on his rolled out sleeping bag as she drew her sword from the sheathe, resting it on her lap as she slid to sit against the wall.
“I'll go first, and I'll wake you when it's your turn.” She added, letting Gabriel and Lucas slide into their makeshift beds and fall asleep. The rest of the night was quiet, every couple of hours, someone would be woken up and asked to trade off watching over the other two as they made up for sleep. Gabriel couldn't sleep at all, but he tried his best to at least let his body rest for the allotted time. He thought a lot about if this was the right decision to stay here. He did have his family, but they were gone now, either dead or far away. Spera consisted of not only Mia and Lucas, but a group of people nearing 200. Not just young adults who fight, but children, grandparents and pets.
He could probably just go run to Spectrum if he really wanted to live a better life than this, but it would mean sailing the middle finger to anyone who happens to want to try and make the best out of a bad situation, or even those who are incapable of protecting themselves will be forced to either adapt or perish in a pretty hellish situation. The next town is about 100 miles off since they were on a pretty remote town on the coast side. Admittedly, the fact it has gotten this bad made him somewhat resent Spectrum as a concept.
Spectrum only has one purpose and was backed by the government to fulfill that purpose. They slay the monsters, sometimes they'll help with evacuations or go on rescue missions, but it's like getting wounded. They stop the bleeding and disinfect the wound, yet they don't close it or help the person rehabilitate. They don't help them rebuild what they've lost, they just kill the threat and leave. There is supposed to be funds and charities to help, but they're more about publicity than actually helping. And even if there was a charity willing to give a helping hand, it probably would be a bit of a stretch to help renovate a city that was destroyed, along with burying the dead and trying to remove a base of terrorists who happen to think an abandoned city is a good place to build a base of operations.
Silent Fall is probably going to learn their existence sooner more than later, yet there might be too many people in one group attempting to leave that they might draw attention. It didn't help that Gabriel might have made a major mistake. By the time he was through thinking, day had broken. They left their sleeping bags there to make sure they had as much space as possible in their bags. The less amount of runs they need, the less they need to reach their hands into a nest of hornets to get the nectar the less risk they'll be in.
The dawn of morning broke and Gabriel felt his shoulder gently shaken by a rough, yet dainty hand. Mia was peering down at him as he slowly sat up and yawned, rubbing his head and shoulder as it was still pretty sore from sleeping on such a cold, hard floor. “We have planning to do.” She stated, Gabriel rubbed his rough, reddish brown hair as he checked his clothes to see if he still had everything in order. “Planning?” He wondered, as Mia grabbed him by the arm to stand him back on his feet. “Yes, Planning. I don't want to leave Lucas sitting around for too long, I'm worried he'll start trying to steal soup again.” She halfway joked, which was enough to get a slight chuckle out of the very weary Gabriel.
She walked over to one side and took a seat next to an equally tired Lucas as she rolled out a piece of paper that appeared to be come kind of map of the city. “Unfortunately I don't think there's a floor plan for the water treatment plant.” She admitted, pulling out a marker and slowly tracing along it a route they can take. “But I just want to set some general ideas before we head in.” She continued, her hand tracing left and right along several roads. “What we're attempting to do is safely break into a base full of what I could guess is full of roughly 150 or so people from our scouting reports,” She started, looking up at anyone to see if they had a question.
Lucas raised his hand almost like it was a class presentation. “Why are they so far from Rosewall?” He asked her, she looked up at him, taking off her glasses and folding them in her side pocket. She didn't have huge vision issues, she just needed them to read. “I could only guess that they're attempting to make this city their base. I'm guessing they assume it's abandoned or only has a couple of scavengers.” She continued to explain, sliding the map to the both of them so they can inspect the area. “From what I've heard on our radio interceptions, I don't know their intentions. All I know is from the train schedules I've seen in Blackwood, the city just before this one, where the train stops.. They tend to all appear from Rosewall. But Rosewall has a population of 850,000. That means putting a base there would be a very stupid move.” She explained.
Gabriel approached the double doors to 'Ray's All-Purpose Market.' A recently abandoned shop, presumably owned by some person who happened to be named Ray and wanted an all purpose market. It was dingy, the windows were boarded with particle board, and tagged by passing by graffiti artists. The front glass door initially was locked off with safety bars, but the pad lock was bent and busted on the sidewalk. He calmly grabbed the double doors and yanked both of them open, slowly walking inside. The floor was tiled with dingy black and white linoleum, a thin layer of dust forming, some of the aisles were knocked over, it's contents split and congealing on the floor. Sitting far across the moderately large corner market were two figures hobbled around an oil lantern.
The first one was a man, somewhat on the tall side with a mop of wild blonde hair going slightly past his dark green eyes. He was wearing a black sports coat, with a tan shirt underneath of it, along with a pair of jeans. He was calmly polishing a baseball bat with a clean, white rag. Gabriel quickly recognized him as Lucas Grey; The man known as L on the radio he was speaking to earlier. Leaning against one of the still standing, yet empty aisle besides Lucas was a woman, a little bit shorter than him but still fairly on the tall side. She had a long, perfectly straight head of dark brown hair, nearly going to her mid back, leaving two bangs to frame her face. She was wearing a purple suit vest over a long sleeve white shirt and a black tie, along with a black pair of dress pants and shoes. The glimmer of the lantern's light reflected off her reading glasses, making them shine and not letting him notice her typical blue eyes.
That was Mia Thompson, or M. Mia slowly pushed off of the aisle and looked to Gabriel, slowly strolling over as she put on a pair of black gloves. “I'm glad you didn't drain me of all my patience, Gabriel.” She replied with some amusement to her voice, she was about his height, putting her at about 5'9 and Lucas at 6'0. Gabriel tucked his hands into his pockets and shrugged his shoulders slightly, eyes rolling and looking away from her for a second. “I might have lost my way once or twice.” He causally mentioned. She lifted a brow, leaning over his shoulder and stuffing her hand into his drawstring bag. Shuffling a bit before pulling out a folded piece of paper. “And you didn't check the bloody map?” She asked, unfolding it and revealing all 66 square miles of Ravenglass and it's surrounding county area.
“Would you be mad at me if I told you I forgot about it?” Gabriel said, lightly tugging on his collar since it was suddenly feeling much tighter. She frowned even more, lightly reaching up and smacking upside the head with the folded paper. “No, you'll just make an arse out of yourself.” She calmly replied, folding it and stuffing it back into his pocket. Gabriel sighed a bit and calmly clambered over to the small lit lantern for a source of heat. Being out in the cold of early spring can make you miss being warm. Lucas leaned up, leaning his chin onto his hand as he looked at Gabriel. “You had a fun night, didn't you?” He asked out of light amusement, Gabriel rubbing his hands together and scooting up a bit closer to the lantern.
“Hey, I was the only one who ended up getting in a fight because of you two!” Gabriel complained to them both, since Mia spoke at a very bad time. “Don't tell me you left the radio on while you were TRYING TO SNEAK!?” Lucas said incredulously, Gabriel awkwardly rubbed on one of his arms with a light chuckle. “Uhh... I guess that's what happened.” He replied, Lucas laughing a little bit as he pat him on the shoulder. “Well the important thing is we managed to get here without other people seeing us, AND before the night ended ontop of it.” Lucas stated out of accomplishment, Gabriel smiling a bit weakly as he looked up at the ceiling. This store wasn't really in the best of conditions in it's heyday. Instead of using an array of florescent lighting, it used a skylight. The glass was either cracked or missing and was letting the cold in.
“If the deaths of the men you fought still bother you, Gabriel. I would like to remind you that we've all been in his situation for nearly 6 months now. It's a trial by fire where we lose our innocence.” She started to try and console Gabriel. He was a pretty nice kid when they met, a bit of the head in the clouds type, but slowly came to as he got used to the situation. But still, killing someone is a pretty drastic step for someone just barely exiting their teenage years. “Both me, Lucas and many back at the hotel had to deal with the emotions of this at one point.” Mia continued, lightly crossing her legs as she sat on the other side of the lantern to roughly form a triangle with the other two males.
Gabriel looked away, leaning back and using his two arms to prop himself up as he leaned back his legs coming undone from their crossing. “I guess so.” He muttered, he felt in the bottom of his gut terrible for lying, but what else was he supposed to do at the moment? “Don't worry, this will all be over one day and our lives can go back to normal.” Lucas tried to place some optimism into Gabriel's mind, but Gabriel leaned back up and placed his hands on his knees. “So... Why exactly do we have to kill Silent Fall members if we've been spotted?” Gabriel asked Mia, who calmly stood up, setting her back down and searching through it for supplies.
“Well besides the fact they're a bunch of punks who thought using a small town as one of their major meeting points at my hometown? I can think of plenty of reasons.” Lucas said, lightly smacking the baseball bat in his hands. It was silvery with flecks of Ash along it so he could use Pulse. Mia cleared her throat quickly. “Ravenglass might be a small town, but it was pretty well known for being seated only 30 miles from The Three Mothers, a range of mountains well known for it's abundance of ore. I could only assume they're using this to undercut the Goldshore mines and drain them of their money, instead using it as a trading point on the black market.” Mia explained, gently pulling out her rapier from her belt to start cleaning it off, it seemingly was coated with dirt and scrapes.
“Along with that, it's an abandoned city abundant with food, supplies and nary a person in sight besides us. If they found out Spera has been taking in civilians as refuge in the hotel, they'd come and clear us out since they want the lions share.” She added, Gabriel nodding a bit as he felt the weight of guilt begin to form on his brow. “Would they do that?” Gabriel asked Mia, she nodded gently, polishing her blade to a shine and sliding it back into the sheathe. “They've been seen killing bystanders before once they stationed in Ravenglass. I've heard they might be behind a couple of robberies in Rosewall as of recent... But the thing that concerns me is just how many there seem to be.” Mia commented out of some concern, Gabriel tilting an eyebrow as she instantly knew he was going to ask her what she meant.
“One time I was scouting a factory along the coast, just before they moved to the water treatment plant. There were so many Silent Fall members, nearly a couple of thousand would be my guess. It's hard to count when a bunch of people might kill you if they spot you.” She observed, he nodded some as Lucas slowly stood up and walked over through he aisles, Gabriel leaning back to see what he was doing before Mia snapped her fingers to get him to look at her once again. “It's a bitter pill to swallow, I get it... But just push it out of your head. We have a job to do, people to provide for.” Mia went on one of her typical diatribes again, Gabriel sighing softly as he started to pace the floor of the stood.
“So, what are we going to do at the water treatment plant?” Gabriel asked, looking over some of the produce. Some of it was pretty rotten, pretty much anything out in the bare air was starting to turn in color. “Well.. We have some new recruits for Spera, I wanted to grab some supplies for them.” She started, crossing her arms together and standing up to walk over beside of him. “Also... If they're gonna be in our city I want to keep a close eye on them, I want us to break in and gather any information we possibly can to stay about 5 steps ahead.” Mia added, Gabirel still looking puzzled.
“Can't we just supplies off the guys we beat?” Gabriel asked her, she lightly shook her head as she reached down to slowly unfurl a map on the floor. “No, they outnumber us, but only think we're stragglers,” She explained, pulling out a pen and slowly marking a route they can take for later. “If we go looking for fights just to steal from them, they'll become more aware of us being an actual group and might possibly bring the hammer down. We can't afford that to happen” She said, rolling it back up and sliding it in her backpack.
“I guess that makes sense.” Gabriel admitted, looking over at Lucas while Mia began to unfurl her sleeping bag. “The night hours are too little for us to actually pull any of this off, I think we should rest and discuss our plans in the morning.” She suggested, Gabirel nodding lightly before a sound from Lucas turned his attention to him. He was currently digging through a canned good section a couple of aisles away. “Oh sweet! They have an entire section devoted just to canned pasta!” Lucas said with the excitement akin to a small child, even if he was 22 years old. Gabriel, now interested walked up beside him and started checking some cans for himself. Lucas started to stuff them into whatever excess room he had inside of his bag.
“This isn't the time for shopping, Lucas.” Mia commented in a commanding tone, Lucas just turned to look at her and slowly put another can of noodles into the bag, even if he had a guilty look on his face. “..What? Sometimes I want soup.” Lucas mentioned, Gabriel reaching up behind him and grabbing a couple of bottles of juice he could take along as well. “Hey, the people back at the hotel could use something nice once in a while, right?” Gabriel tried to back up Lucas's argument, she just sighed and softly rubbed her head out of frustration. “Do I need to remind you again, Lucas?” Mia complained, Lucas just blinking with an awkward grin on his face. “We need the room in the bag FOR THE WEAPONS AND ARMOR WE'RE TRYING TO STEAL!” She said, lips curling into a frown along with her brow furrowing.
“Yeah, yeah I get it...” He said, sighing out of defeat and slowly dumping the cans back out of his semi empty bag, he only had a map, his receiver, a sleeping bag, some binoculars and a canteen in there most of the time. It had more than enough space to pack something large, he kept one can of those O shaped noodles in tomato sauce for himself. He always liked making bulls eyes out of them whenever he was a kid. Gabriel sighed, placing every juice bottle he took back onto the shelf and slung the bag back over onto one of his shoulders. “I understand you both want to make the best out of a bad situation, but this isn't a game.” Mia once again stated how serious this entire thing was, she tends to do that a lot.
“We can have other people do a supply run if you want your... novelty soups that badly, but we are the procurement team. We take weapons and gather intel so we don't get completely curb stomped by a bunch of thugs who don't mind killing women or children.” She continued, they both just sighed as she gestured them to both follow her. She lit a small lantern and gestured both of them to lay out sleeping bags near hers. “Every 3 hours, we'll switch who takes watch for the night, just in case anyone else just so happens to barge in here.” She said, Lucas sitting on his rolled out sleeping bag as she drew her sword from the sheathe, resting it on her lap as she slid to sit against the wall.
“I'll go first, and I'll wake you when it's your turn.” She added, letting Gabriel and Lucas slide into their makeshift beds and fall asleep. The rest of the night was quiet, every couple of hours, someone would be woken up and asked to trade off watching over the other two as they made up for sleep. Gabriel couldn't sleep at all, but he tried his best to at least let his body rest for the allotted time. He thought a lot about if this was the right decision to stay here. He did have his family, but they were gone now, either dead or far away. Spera consisted of not only Mia and Lucas, but a group of people nearing 200. Not just young adults who fight, but children, grandparents and pets.
He could probably just go run to Spectrum if he really wanted to live a better life than this, but it would mean sailing the middle finger to anyone who happens to want to try and make the best out of a bad situation, or even those who are incapable of protecting themselves will be forced to either adapt or perish in a pretty hellish situation. The next town is about 100 miles off since they were on a pretty remote town on the coast side. Admittedly, the fact it has gotten this bad made him somewhat resent Spectrum as a concept.
Spectrum only has one purpose and was backed by the government to fulfill that purpose. They slay the monsters, sometimes they'll help with evacuations or go on rescue missions, but it's like getting wounded. They stop the bleeding and disinfect the wound, yet they don't close it or help the person rehabilitate. They don't help them rebuild what they've lost, they just kill the threat and leave. There is supposed to be funds and charities to help, but they're more about publicity than actually helping. And even if there was a charity willing to give a helping hand, it probably would be a bit of a stretch to help renovate a city that was destroyed, along with burying the dead and trying to remove a base of terrorists who happen to think an abandoned city is a good place to build a base of operations.
Silent Fall is probably going to learn their existence sooner more than later, yet there might be too many people in one group attempting to leave that they might draw attention. It didn't help that Gabriel might have made a major mistake. By the time he was through thinking, day had broken. They left their sleeping bags there to make sure they had as much space as possible in their bags. The less amount of runs they need, the less they need to reach their hands into a nest of hornets to get the nectar the less risk they'll be in.
The dawn of morning broke and Gabriel felt his shoulder gently shaken by a rough, yet dainty hand. Mia was peering down at him as he slowly sat up and yawned, rubbing his head and shoulder as it was still pretty sore from sleeping on such a cold, hard floor. “We have planning to do.” She stated, Gabriel rubbed his rough, reddish brown hair as he checked his clothes to see if he still had everything in order. “Planning?” He wondered, as Mia grabbed him by the arm to stand him back on his feet. “Yes, Planning. I don't want to leave Lucas sitting around for too long, I'm worried he'll start trying to steal soup again.” She halfway joked, which was enough to get a slight chuckle out of the very weary Gabriel.
She walked over to one side and took a seat next to an equally tired Lucas as she rolled out a piece of paper that appeared to be come kind of map of the city. “Unfortunately I don't think there's a floor plan for the water treatment plant.” She admitted, pulling out a marker and slowly tracing along it a route they can take. “But I just want to set some general ideas before we head in.” She continued, her hand tracing left and right along several roads. “What we're attempting to do is safely break into a base full of what I could guess is full of roughly 150 or so people from our scouting reports,” She started, looking up at anyone to see if they had a question.
Lucas raised his hand almost like it was a class presentation. “Why are they so far from Rosewall?” He asked her, she looked up at him, taking off her glasses and folding them in her side pocket. She didn't have huge vision issues, she just needed them to read. “I could only guess that they're attempting to make this city their base. I'm guessing they assume it's abandoned or only has a couple of scavengers.” She continued to explain, sliding the map to the both of them so they can inspect the area. “From what I've heard on our radio interceptions, I don't know their intentions. All I know is from the train schedules I've seen in Blackwood, the city just before this one, where the train stops.. They tend to all appear from Rosewall. But Rosewall has a population of 850,000. That means putting a base there would be a very stupid move.” She explained.
Gabriel rubbed his chin, leaning
forward some and picking up the map so he could remember the route
from their current position. “So they're coming here to lay low? Do
we know what they've done so far?” He asked Mia, who just sort of
rolled her eyes down and away, a signal that she didn't exactly know.
“All I know is they seem to be functioning like some sort of
militia.” Mia observed, Gabriel nodding as he folded the map up and
slid it back to her. “I had some people from the Hotel drop by and
give us more supplies before we head out. I want us to rappel into
the water treatment plant from a skylight that we've found while
scouting it out.” She ordered casually, Gabriel furrowing his brow
some as Lucas raised his hand again.
“Why rappel from the roof?” He asked, she grabbed the folded up map and gently bopped him on the head out of annoyance. He just sort of glared at her as she rubbed her head. “Because militias don't like it when people knock on their front door and ask 'can we rob you?'” She said half mockingly, he just growled slightly and sighed. “Back on point.” She segued to explaining the mission parameters once again. “Our mission is to grab some weapons and supplies after finding where they store them, if one of us is spotted or you feel like we'll be unable to actually achieve this goal... We are to abort immediately. Call in on the radio and tell the others that you're planning on leaving.” Mia continued.
She stood back up and dusted herself off, pulling on the seams of her waistcoat to remove the wrinkles from it. “We'll meet outside of the Water Treatment plant at dusk.” She stated, they both nodded and prepared some food to eat before they headed out. Hours passed and they had another supply run from the hotel to get them things suck as grappling hooks. They set out and perched atop a hill just before the water treatment plant. Mia pulled out a pair of binoculars to inspect the water treatment plant. It was on the coastside, and was a large factory, where most of the people would probably preside. There was a large field next to it where they used to actually start the purifying process with several circle shaped tanks in the ground with a walkway over each one.
On the open spaces there were tents set up, it was too far away to see any detail, but it also appeared that no one was out in the fields. “What do you see?” Gabriel asked, she calmly muttered before zooming it in even more. “They're either not there at the moment, or they're all in the main building.” She stated, gesturing them to stand up and begin to follow her. “We'll play cautious at the moment, stick to objects to break line of sight, and don't make any sudden movements.” Mia added as they both stood up to follow her.
“Why rappel from the roof?” He asked, she grabbed the folded up map and gently bopped him on the head out of annoyance. He just sort of glared at her as she rubbed her head. “Because militias don't like it when people knock on their front door and ask 'can we rob you?'” She said half mockingly, he just growled slightly and sighed. “Back on point.” She segued to explaining the mission parameters once again. “Our mission is to grab some weapons and supplies after finding where they store them, if one of us is spotted or you feel like we'll be unable to actually achieve this goal... We are to abort immediately. Call in on the radio and tell the others that you're planning on leaving.” Mia continued.
She stood back up and dusted herself off, pulling on the seams of her waistcoat to remove the wrinkles from it. “We'll meet outside of the Water Treatment plant at dusk.” She stated, they both nodded and prepared some food to eat before they headed out. Hours passed and they had another supply run from the hotel to get them things suck as grappling hooks. They set out and perched atop a hill just before the water treatment plant. Mia pulled out a pair of binoculars to inspect the water treatment plant. It was on the coastside, and was a large factory, where most of the people would probably preside. There was a large field next to it where they used to actually start the purifying process with several circle shaped tanks in the ground with a walkway over each one.
On the open spaces there were tents set up, it was too far away to see any detail, but it also appeared that no one was out in the fields. “What do you see?” Gabriel asked, she calmly muttered before zooming it in even more. “They're either not there at the moment, or they're all in the main building.” She stated, gesturing them to stand up and begin to follow her. “We'll play cautious at the moment, stick to objects to break line of sight, and don't make any sudden movements.” Mia added as they both stood up to follow her.
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