Vadri Al

Heading back to her resting place, Vadri quickly emptied most of her ammo pouches, probably leaving a good 40 pounds behind as she returned to the main area for their departure. She didn't like leaving so much behind, but if they were going to be hauling freight than she wasn't going to slow herself down too much carrying it all. Hopefully, they wouldn't run into too much resistance on the way there. Once she returned, she took her position up wordlessly. While she had to admit that this might not have been the preferred job, at the very least they would be assisting out the survival of a settlement until they managed to clear out the path for trade to continue once more. Once Loki returned, Vardi followed behind her as the group made their way to Nairvalle.

Once the group had arrived at the blockage, it became obvious that it wasn't something minor. After a few moments of silence, she looked over to Sidney. "Sorry to say, but I don't think you'd have enough explosives on you to put too much of a dent in this. Might make it easier to clear out the smaller pieces, but it might also just bring down a whole lot more on the worker's heads." She said before glancing over to Newt as she offered the torches. She smiled a little at the girl's antics before taking a torch for herself, saying a quick thank you before turning her attention to Loki.

"Well, what's the plan? A few heavy crates to lug through the maze of dark tunnels, so we'll need something to go off of until we get to another main passage that leads to the destination."

It was disgusting, but now that Sidney had finished vomiting, she felt like a million dollars. Worthless since the apocalypse, but still comical to have around. She quickly suited up. As quick as she went, she was the slowest out of the bunch. She was one of the few people who seemed to wear an adequate amount of protection. Occupational hazards and regular hazards, after all. Bringing the right amount of equipment would be imperative. She would only need to bring what she needed this time. Her shotgun, about thirty rounds in pouches around her hip, both shovels on her back, her engineering kit on her hip, two blocks of plastic explosives hoisted in a bag on her chest, and a bag of assorted grenades above the blocks. About 1/3 of her usual equipment. It was the bare minimum that Sidney would bring with her.

She left the makeshift change-room, prepared to haul an ass-load of cargo.

---

As guns pointed at Sidney, she honestly didn't give a shit. More specifically, she was excited. An ambush gunfight? It would be so much fun for her. Even if she was shot to the point of certain-death, she could just pull a few pins in her bag and the surrounding area would light up as if it was the second apocalypse. She would die as she lived - surrounded in explosions. As the guns were lowered and they were called to meet the chief and walk through the tunnels, Sidney couldn't help but feel disappointed. Putting those feelings aside, she listened to what the chief was talking about. Service tunnels and darkness galore. Well, there weren't many better ways to spend Wednesdays. Or whatever day it actually was.

The cave-in was just that - a cave in. After a quick inspection by Sidney, she knew she couldn't blow it open. Well, she could, but it would probably make an even bigger mess. Vadri was right, but for the wrong reason. "I do indeed have enough explosives to clear it. The problem is that if I blow it up, it'll probably collapse more. If I had seven," she said as she counted on her fingers, "two weeks, I could clear it no problem."

Before she could explain why, Newt took the scene by selling flashlights. They would be useful. So much so that Sidney had to buy one. She pulled out a grenade from her bag. It looked rather makeshift and janky. A tube made from aluminum foil in a small perforated steel pipe with a string extending out from the bottom. "Trade," she said as she gave the small tube to Newt. "If you're in shit, pull the pin, you have four seconds to toss it behind you and run. Don't look back. If you cover your ears, make sure you're really covering them, and as soon as it goes off, try to hit the deck. Also make sure that you're not holding it when it goes off, otherwise you'll be a few fingers short of a ten-count," she joked as she took a flashlight. Some would say giving explosive devices to children would be a bad idea, but it was how Sidney was raised.

@BubblegumQueen@BurningCold@Eodwyn Aether@Tala Avana@Inertia@SilverDawn@Liotrent@The Heretic

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Loki rolled his eyes as she witnessed Sidney giving an explosive to Newt. Either the brat blows up, good riddance, or she lives to see another day to crawl in small places. Loki didn't know if a faulty explosive device could be considered as salvation from the gods or a particualarly cruel joke from life, but she didn't want it either way. She walked up to Newt and then gestured at the grenade. "I need you in one piece brat, so keep your fingers where I can see them." Her eyes gazed into Newt's for what felt like an eternity, but she eventually ended the staring contest by turning on her night vision implants and changing her retinas to a deep green color. Most of the group has already found partners to search with expect for Vadri, who seemed to be waiting for her opinion on the situation. Loki hummed for a second and then pat Vadri on the back. "I think you're very good at basic observation. Let's put that skill to use and find some tunnel." She chuckled for a second before backtracking deeper into the darkness of the tunnels, gesturing for Vadri to follow.

"This is the part where I will skip the boring part. What? I told you it's really boring. You want to hear about it anyways? Too bad, I'm not going to sit here for hours on end. You should be contempt with them searching the tunnels. What do you mean I'm a bad storyteller? Listen here you punk, I'll tell you the best short story of your life. *clear throat* The Devil Runners searched the tunnels for a few hours, their torches (//Yes, the storyteller is british and he calls falshlights torches, deal with it//) illuminating every dank corner of the wretched tunnel. They turned every stone and swiped away countless wines to look for a way to get the much needed supplies to tehir destination. Once they've searched the tunnels the met up in front of the cave-in to share information and discuss their plan of action in light if their recent actions. *takes a sip of tea* What do you mean that was bad? Mutants? Radiers? EXPLOSIONS? What do you think this is, some kinda request show? Next time you get Spongebob transition. Now let me continue or screw off you bugger."

After some waiting, the last group arrived back in front of the cave-in and took their seats on large concrete pieces that Loki and Vadri gathered in a circle for the meeting. In the middle was a large flat piece of rock, which Loki was standing next to. She began counting the crew in her head but had to remind her not to account for Doc. She was kinda sad that the old guy wasn't coming to the mission since she enjoyed his silent company and no bullshit attitude. She grabbed a map from her belt and laid it down on the concrete piece. "From what I could gather from all our infromation, we have two possible routes to take." She pointed at two locations on the map. "The problem is that we don't know how long they are. We just have to go by our guts when choosing which way to go. It looks like on of the tunnels will stick close to the tunnel network, and the other will most likely take a more direct approach towards the settlement. Of course none of this info is 100% accurate, but this is all we have. I say we vote for which tunnel to take since we have no way of making sure tiher is safe or short. I trust your instincts will make the right decision." With that, she leaned back and crossed her arms waiting for a reply.

Liam looked around as the rest of the group weighed in their options. "So basically whichever tunnel we choose, there's an equal chance they wont lead anywhere." He said to no one in particular as he began pacing. With a sigh he pulled off his helmet to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

For the most part, everything was going good for Liam. He has been down in the tunnels before once or twice while escorting supplies so Liam knew that whichever path they choose, his phobia would only get worse the more they spent time here.

With another heavy sigh Liam put the Helmet back on. "What do you guys think?" He said asking the group

Kian tried to rub his chin, absent-mindedly forgetting he still had his mask on and began stroking the cold rubbery plastic surface of it. He shot Liam a worrying glance, the tunnels wasn't exactly his choice for a picnic. He made a mental note to keep an eye out for him if he needed it."Well, if we do want to get more of a reward we can choose the direct route." he considered,"However the tunnel system seems a bit more safer buuut, we have no idea if it's collapsed or not." His eyes fell onto Sidney for a moment before tracing back onto Liam, "If push comes to shove we can always ask our local demolitions expert to do something about it. But that doesn't seem too safe." as soon as those words left his mouth, a sprinkle of earth fell from the rickety roof.(edited)

"John, thoughts?"

The stale, hot air in the tunnels was a very familiar feeling, John listened, glancing at each person around him. He sat down next to the tunnel wall and listened, Liam was looking more distressed every second he was down in the tunnel, he was worried. He snapped back to Liam when he heard the question directed to him. He thought it over for a moment, the direct route was probably the fastest, however, the safer route would help if Liam suddenly breaks down. He thought it over looking at the supports and the state of the tunnel roofing.

Finally, his gravelly voice broke the silence, "The roofing isn't very relaible, and the supports are old and worn, if we run into a blockage we'd be risking collapsing the tunnel on top of us..." He looked at Liam, then back to Kian "But, which ever route we go, we can't guarantee whether there'll be blockage or not, so we're risking it either way. I say we take the safer route, it might not be faster than the other, but it'll be safer, that is if you don't mind losing some pay." He put it bluntly, as he shone the torch down the narrow tunnel corridors. He thought of the rats and other monstrosities that lurk in the dark, definitely not something any one from the group wants to deal with.

Liam closed his eyes and began pacing. "Look I more than anyone would like to go through the safe route, or what your definition of safer is, but I feel that if we have no way of knowing which one is collapsed we should take the more direct route." He said. "The quicker we can get out of here and to a bar, the happier I'll be" He said with a nervous chuckle.

John stared down the dark lengths of the tunnels, shining his lights down one path, then the other, over and over again, "Huh... Kian, any additional observations?" Teach may have been a teacher for engineering and physics, but the tunnels have changed quite a bit, they could encounter anything down each corridor.

"Hm, yeah, I'll opt for the direct route too." he replied, his eyes following the trail of light originating from John's torch, "My gut's telling me that something's off about the safer route, can't really explain it. Only proper argument I can say is that the more time Liam spends here, the worst it gets. No offense meant Liam." He scrunched his eyes at the endless dark of the tunnel, "Course, I don't mind going the safer route too. However this tunnel doesn't seem too stable, taking too long might be a mistake. We could reinforce the tunnels too, buut that'd really suck up our time."

"None taken mate. What about you guys?" he said as he looked around to the rest of the group.

Klaus was so distracted, studying his surroundings and all that, that he didn't notice when Liam approached him. That was until he spoke. Admittedly, he gave a small start, eyes quickly going to him. However, he was mostly able to relax after seeing who it was. Even going as far as to give a small smile.

“Sure, I don't mind.” Klaus stated with a small shrug, internally glad for the company even if he wasn't in the most social of moods.



Klaus and Liam had somewhat diverged over time but Klaus still kept an eye on him from wherever he was. The concern was due to Klaus' knowledge of Liam and his... feelings towards any enclosed or smaller space. He felt that he needed to keep an extra eye on him.

And as Klaus stood a few feet away from the group, pacing a little in a small area, he did what he did best. He listened. He listened to Loki. He listened to Liam, Kian, and John as they each gave their own opinions on where they should go next.

What I'd give for a cigarette right about now. Klaus thinks after the trio gave their thoughts, a small near silent sigh escaping him. However, he is aware that now isn't the time and pushes his need to the side to speak up.

“I believe the direct route is a better option.” Klaus finally said, bouncing on his heels a bit as he said this. “The 'safer route', I feel, is not very safe. Just a feeling I get from it.” Klaus admitted, using quotation marks around the words 'safer route'. “And at this point, I think we shouldn't stay in these tunnels any longer than we have to. And who knows how safe the quote on quote 'safe route' really is.”

Klaus' eyes had flickered to Liam during the last part, giving away his worry about Liam being in the tunnels. But, he managed to finish his observations well enough. “BUT, that's just what I think on the subject.” He naturally spoke a bit fast BUT he was putting in an effort to speak slower and he liked to think he did pretty decently. He now looks to the rest for their input.