Dark clouds hung low in the sky, casting shadows across the already darkening ground. It was sun set already, though it seemed the day had been cut a few hours short. The green lights were already creeping out from between the distant houses and trees, the only sign of life left in the emptying world. It was not the life of human, but the tell tale signs of the horrors that lurked just outside the camp.

From the roof you could see everything that happened during the day and night before. The lurking beasts collapsed whole buildings if they wanted, or else catch them on fire. The city was a wreck at any rate.

Climbing back down the stairs Copper looked around for his gang, temporarily fearful that they'd all somehow died in the few minuets he was away. "Unlikely" he reminded himself out loud. "everyone's just fine, they're just in the basement. Safe."

At the bottom of the stair was the basement door, just where it belonged. Taking a deep breath he calmed himself, slowing his heart rate, and pried open the door. The creaking was unbearably loud, it was a miracle they were still alive. At any rate the room was exactly as it had been left. Orange garage like doors lines the long hallway, a few open and spilling light into the hallway. This was where he'd lived for a year and a half. All that time ago each storage box had been inhabitable, a person or two calling each one their home. only 5 where left now. The last of the survivors.

"Sharlene, Steve, you two here? Everyone, is everyone okay?" he said, his voice echoing down the vacant hall. People stayed in there room a lot. He'd only gone out to ensure their security and to see the sun set, never having set foot outside at any other time. It was dangerous to be out for to long.

@kkbird123@Banana@Queentze@MissCapnCrunch

Valix stepped out of her room, marked conveniently with a spare flashlight, and looked down the hall, seeing Copper. She was relieved to see he didn't die, especially considering the circumstances made it easy to die recently. Valix smiled and waved, then proceeded to do some sign language. She hadn't really known any prior to these events, but after rummaging around for new books to read, she found one on learning the way to speak in hands. She was quite relieved to have this knowledge considering she had no voice.

"Glad to see you are okay. I am going to assume it is not safe still?"

To be dreadfully honest, Valix had no idea if Copper even knew sign language. Nobody really knew anymore, and it really only had one purpose, and that was for stealth missions out into the lands so nobody heard your conversations. Valix didn't really care as her only method of communication before, which were pads of paper, had become scarce around the shelter, and pens were even more scarce. The only real thing she had to write with was a dried out Sharpie. It barely wrote at all, and those were even harder to find around the base in good condition. Valix didn't worry about it though, because she knew that one would turn up.

@Classpet

Brinley was laying in bed when she heard the door open to the basement. The sound was a skidding along the concrete base. A familiar voice called out, barley enough to wake up anybody. Brinley sat up and stared around. Her room was a mess, full of scrap papers found in abandoned office buildings, and clothing meant to be tucked away neatly. Brinley had stayed up late last night attempting to fix a broken gas stove. She was wearing a gray T-Shirt and a pair of sweatpants, as usual. She almost never wore her best clothes, as she was afraid it would be ruined while she was doing repair runs.

Who ever came back must of been out, it could of been one of the supply runners. She poked her head out of her "room," which was made from cardboard box walls and a cloth as the door way. "Glad your back." Brinley glanced at the figure. It was Copper, one of the shelter members. "Did you go on a scouting trip?" Brinley stumbled back into her room, still listening. She slipped a pair of sneakers on and tied her hair back. She was prepared for another day of repairs, fixing random stuff around the shelter.

Sharlene had been in her room for a bit of the day, which was out of the ordinary for the usual chatty young girl. She usually would be posted up in one of her friend's rooms, curled up in the bed under the covers and talking about the day or just messing around. Despite the world being in total and utter chaos, the young girl kept an almost strange sense of happiness. The sound of the large basement door was heard long before Copper, calling out the names of Sharlene and Steve could be heard. Sitting up from her bed, she exited out of the room and followed quickly behind Valix and Brinley down the small hallway. Standing idle, she observed what was going on before giving a small gesture of kindness. "I'm glad you're back safe and sound Cooper." she stated, giving the boy a warm smile.

Copper breathed a sigh of relief, everyone seemed okay.

@Banana
Valix was the first one he saw, her quick sign language hard to make out, especially in the dark. If she had signed at him 5 years ago he'd know exactly what she'd said. He'd done several projects in middle school about sign langauge. Now most of it was forgotten, the stress from trying to stay alive did that. he made out the "happy to see him" part and the "not" near the end.

@kkbird123@MissCapnCrunch
Brinley and Sharlene followed shortly after, each one alive and well. "Glad your back." Brinley said before questioning, "Did you go on a scouting trip?"

"I'm glad to see all of you too," Copper said earnestly "Nah just a quick look around from the roof Brin. It looks really bad out there...But i think they're heading east, so maybe tomorrow we can all go check out the walmart for supplies. Uhmm bad news though, the supply run from this morning never came back. It's just us now." With a frown he looked over to Sharlene.

She was probably most fit to be second in command, maybe even the leader really. Alas up until this point everyone had just let the oldest be leader, and he was the oldest. "so, uhh." he turned back to the rest of the group, "I guess i'm the leader now, and Sharlene's the second oldest so she's second in command. But. uhm. Yeah we should all probably see if we can't salvage any sort of weapons from the abandoned rooms and be ready to leave early tomorrow."

He concluded his 'speech', hoping he hadn't bummed everyone out to terribly much with the news of their loss of three more people. They needed to keep their spirits high now more than ever if they where going to survive this. Everyone deserved a better leader and a good life, for now he'd just have to make do.

Moving past everyone he made his way to one of the older storage rooms. It was filled with every manner of junk: baseball bats, hand held drills, pipes, bits of wire, even a few planks of wood. There were never any actual weapons like guns or swords in the building, or to Copper's knowledge anywhere near by. The odds and ends would be fine, they were just in case the kids ran into trouble anyway, there was no telling if they actually would need them. "Better safe than sorry though," he whispered to himself, confiding in the room his worries.

Brinley listened carefully to the conversation. Copper had talked about the scouting team going missing.She was in disbelief. These days, it was so easy to be "gone." It used to be that people would assume you would come back or escape from what ever caught you, but now, a slight change in schedule is a almost certain indicator that something has gone wrong.
"You shouldn't assume that they just died, they probably got stuck somewhere. We should wait and see if they come back." Brinley knew that was a lie. They weren't going to comeback. People don't just go missing anymore, they die. It was now just a matter of time before the rest of the camp would be wiped out. Brinely walked out of her room wearing a pair of jeans and a thin jacket. Her shoes were stained with shades of black and her hair still frizzed up.

When Steve heard the doors he jumped up from the floor of his personal space. The basement they had lived in had been a refuge for a while now and Steve was starting to get comfortable. Copper had come in and was talking to Sharlene, Valix, and Brinley. Copper had just told them that the other supply run had not come back, and while Brinley's optimism was refreshing, Copper was probably right, that group now belonged to the dead world. He stepped up and put his hand on her shoulder, to converse what they both knew, they were not coming back even if they were alive.

When Copper named himself leader, Steve shook his head in agreement, better Copper than him. When he left Steve turned towards the girls and smiled. "So where do you guys wanna start?"

@kkbird123 @MissCapnCrunch @Banana

Valix shrugged to the question of where to find a weapon first, but then she remembered that a few days ago she found a box full of "weapons". Or was it a few weeks...? Months...? Valix could hardly remember, but she knew a general location of the box. It would be hard to find with the added stuff but it would prove helpful. Valix proceeded to one of the newer storage rooms to dig around in the boxes for anything that could work as a weapon. After about 4 minutes of neatly searching, Valix found the box containing a few weapons, one of which included a long chain. She took the chain, figuring it would be more like her to use a "restraining" weapon as opposed to a lethal one. Valix then proceeded to go find Copper, and figured she could help him in some way, if any. Once she was there, she hit the wall with the chain to get his attention, then she spoke in hands, following it with pointing at a box.

"There's a revolver in the box over there, but there's only a small amount of ammo."

Valix looked around every other day for new stuff that was picked up, and typically took any maps that she came across. She was trusted with the navigator of the group, and typically she was the one that planned the scouting trips, although it wasn't rare for someone to not return since she couldn't calculate for contingencies.

@Classpet

@kkbird123@Queentze@Banana@MissCapnCrunch
Copper gave Brinley no reaction. Others had been condemned to death for less. It was sad, yes, that people died but it was a part of life now.
Rustling through the memorabilia he found a sturdy looking wooden baseball bat. It wouldn't do anything to the horrors but that's not really what they were defending against anyway. it was other scavengers and wild dogs that might be the problem, an unlikely problem but "Better safe than sorry," he finished out loud.

Valix's sudden appearance was, to say the least, terrifying. Jumping at the sound he held the new found bat high, ready to swing or die. Heart nearly beating out of his chest he huffed dramatically. He only really caught the sign for 'gun'. "Valix, don't scare me like that!" he said, exasperated. "I don't think we'll need a gun, we really don't want to kill anyone, oh..well,..okay, well...just in case though."

Rumaging through the case he came upon the same gun Valix had found, as well as the meager supply of ammo. A short trip back to his room and he had his backpack in hand, along with a few other helpful supplies. He was ready to go, all he needed was everyone else.

@Classpet@Banana@Queentze@kkbird123@MissCapnCrunch

Pushing a piece of hair back she made it to the house. The plan had gone wrong very wrong. A thing she would have to explain in a few seconds, a thing she didn't want to explain. This shouldn't be so hard but it was. She tried to help but it was too late. She refused to let herself think these thoughts. 'They ran off in pairs, there alright.' It was good enough for her, even after what happened to Fefe.

She walked toward the door, after getting out of the woods and pushed it open. She closed it behind her as she entered the building. She saw Copper have the door of the basement open. Running over she called out, "Hey, what are you guys talking about?" Her voice was slightly scratchy as it came out and not completely optimistic as it hinted some sadness.

She eyed the group knowing what they were going ask next but before giving them the chance, she quickly answered, " The plan went wrong." These four words was the only summary needed to sum it all up. She sighed as she placed her hands in her pocket leaning on the wall.