At Least We Made It This Far

Eminney stepped out of the car and looked around at the collection of run-down buildings. This was the place her mother went to school? It didn't even look like what schools were supposed to look like. It was nothing like the descriptions she'd read in her books or what she saw in what few movies she had seen.

A building that caught her eye right away was one made nearly entirely of glass. What a stupid idea! Glass? How would that ever hold up? Though, as she walked toward it, she realized that there didn't appear to be any cracks or major issues within the structure. She walked to the nearest door. It was unlocked. Wow. That's fortunate. She supposed that there wasn't really a need for locked doors in this abandoned wasteland of an educational facility. Maybe her parents had left it unlocked.

Eminney held the door and looked over her shoulder back at her two siblings who were leaving the Prius and beginning to wander in different directions. "Guys," she called, "Over here! This place is unlocked!" They walked over; Eminney with a curious and slightly eager expression, and Jace looking all over with a cocked shotgun in his hands.

Eminney went inside to be greeted by some manner of antechamber with an extremely dusty trophy case to the right. She went over to it and wiped away the dust as best she could. "Wow…" she began in an unimpressed tone, "This was one of those schools, huh?"

"One of what schools?" Rosie asked staring into the trophy case. Jace entered and joined his sisters in looking in the case as well.

"One of those schools that's really excellent at debate and… debate, and also debate. Oh, and academic competition."

Rosie laughed and even Jace smirked at this. "Didn't Mom have debate trophies?" he asked.

"Yup." Eminney answered. "She didn't enjoy it, though." She thought back to her memories of asking Mom about her debate trophies and her mom telling her stories of how amazing at debate her partner was, but not her. Stories of the nicknames she and her friends would give other debaters because they never bothered to learn their real names. Stories of how absolutely retarded the judges of the debate rounds were.

"Eminney! Jace!" Rosie called to them excitedly from inside the next set of doors leading to the main hall full of scattered tables and chairs. "Come look! Quickly!"

She ran into a door attached to what looked like a temporary wall on the right side of the hall. Jace and Eminney quickly followed inside. Eminney gasped at what she saw. A rather grimy and large cloth cover that looked recently removed (without a doubt removed by Rosie) lay next to a large, black piece of furniture that it took Eminney a little while to recognize as a piano. She slowly approached the unfamiliar object. "I've never actually seen a piano before…"

"Neither have I!" Rosylynn squealed.

"Nor I." Jace said as he, too, approached the instrument with interest.

Eminney pulled up a shelf-like cover to reveal the black and white keys. Slowly, she reached out her hand and tapped one. A melodic sound filled the air around them and Eminney's immediate reaction was to match the pitch of the noise with her own voice. The three surrounding the piano all smiled and took turns touching the keys and trying to figure out the purpose to the pedals underneath for the rest of the afternoon.

"She loves you! Yeah, yeah, yeah! She loves you! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" Rosie was having the absolute time of her young life banging repeatedly on the large drum she had found in the magical room full of even more instruments, some she had never even heard of! Plus, another piano! Not to mention the piano that Jace found behind a stage in a giant gymnasium. Eminney said it was a stage that Mom had performed on when she was their age. She even found pictures of Mom on that stage in the yearbooks in the main office place called the "Admin Building." At this rate, they would all have two pianos each to their name and more fun stuff to play around on.

When Mini had suggested they scout the place, Rosie wasn't too sure, but now she was all for it. She ran around touching and attempting to play all the strange instruments in sight and continuing to sing at the top of her lungs.

"All you need is love! Love is just a game… I was made for loving you baby, you were made for loving me."

She opened a door to a cramped hallway with more covered instruments that seemed to lead to an adjoining room. She opened the door to the room and squealed in delight at the first thing she was faced with.

"Another piano!"

Jace trudged the boardwalk warily as always, gun in hand, ready to shoot at anything that poked out it's glowing eyes at him. He did not like the idea of splitting up and looking around one bit, especially with Rosie being on her own. It didn't feel right. But, after much reassurance from his little sister, he agreed that it might be a good idea if they were to ever find these provisions that their mother's correspondences had promised. But only under the condition that Rosie stay mostly indoors and not outside of yelling distance from him. He wouldn't say it out loud, but he tried to wordlessly convey that this condition applied to Eminney as well. Jace knew she could handle herself and knew that she was technically his elder sibling, but he couldn't help it. He felt almost as protective of her as he did Rosie, even if he wasn't as vocal about it.

He passed slowly by the already inspected main office and walked towards the rest of the campus. He had to take out a knife as he passed by some overgrown ivy bush that had taken over a good ten feet of the boardwalk. As he cut his way through, he realized it was coming off of a garden fence that separated the rest of the campus from a sectioned off area that housed what looked like a miniature forest. Within that forest he spotted a fairly large stone cross, standing perpendicular to the ground.

He was sure it was meant to be some sacred, religious monument, but to him it looked too much like a gravestone. It unsettled him.

As he finally his way past the tangled ivy, he decided he would check the nearest classroom and work his way back. He took a right to the closest door and peeked inside, his guard still up for any surprises. The door needed a little persuading to get open but he eventually knocked it wide open. Plus, if he actually encountered any locked doors, he certainly imagined that the keys he found in a drawer of the front desk would help with that. Although, he was a bit disappointed he wouldn't have any need to practice his lock-picking.

The room proved to be a boring regular classroom with tables and chairs and a teacher's desk. He checked the shelves for any valuable volumes, but to no avail. Who needed Calculus in the apocalypse?

As he made his way carefully out of the room to head to the next one, he heard a knocking and rustling under his feet. He immediately pointed his gun at the boards. After a while of careful listening, he made out a quiet, high-pitched trumpet noise from below. Aw. Looked like they had some pygmy elephant friends to keep them company. Smart place to hide from predators, really. They were probably the only things small enough to fit down in there. That gave Jace an idea for an emergency bunker to be built, but he would work on that later. For now, next room.

He walked forward and came to stop in front of the next door on his right and opened it without difficulty this time. When he walked in, his eyes widened. There, in front of him, was an entire wall full of guitars. He was in heaven. Finally, something he knew.

Eminney looked around for some sort of clue. Where would her mother have put it all? Supposedly there was a lot to find here, but Eminney had found none of it. She walked up the three steps of worn wood that served as what appeared to be the school's main entrance and was faced with a playground not a thousand feet ahead. She wondered absently if her mother had spent her afternoons on that jungle gym, on those swings.

She decided not to venture over there for a while. Too out in the open. She instead turned to the left down the creaky boardwalk that seemed very old, even for the amount of time it had supposedly been there. Judging from the classrooms she checked and the poorly done macaroni art lining some of the windows, this had to be the elementary side of the campus. It might have been charming in its time, but the passage of time and the extreme neglect did not allow childish memorabilia to retain that charm and it all ended up just creeping Eminney out really badly. She then decided that she did not like this part of the school one bit.

She walked a little quicker and took the nearest left. She was lead to another series of buildings and classrooms that looked thankfully a lot less like it once belonged to children that are now dead or, even worse, virus-infested. This part looked more like it belonged to adolescents. Not, quite high school material lining the classroom walls and whiteboards. Maybe early middle school? It didn't really matter. She caught a glimpse of the courtyard and saw a rusted, old… something protruding from what looked like a fire pit.

Alright, Eminney thought, That is definitely a little creepy… Is that a stake they would tie witches to and burn if they found out they weighed the same as a duck? She smiled at her own joke. She never actually saw the movie that it was a reference to, but heard her mother and father quoting it all the time. That and migrating coconuts. It was her go-to movie reference. They were rare for someone to have in their back pocket in these times. She valued it.

Carefully avoiding the witch-burning pit, she made her way towards the lockers and checked each one. Nothing… But maybe she was onto something here. The lockers were where her mom kept everything when she attended this school. Why not keep things there after? These weren't the high school lockers. Maybe if she could find those, she would find supplies.

She caught movement in the corner of her eye that stopped her train of thought. She whipped to the right, past the lockers to a pasture on which an overgrown goat was trotting steadily towards her. She raised her prized M-16 and lined up a shot. Good thing she found dinner. The goat would just have to get a little bit closer… But it never happened. As the goat met a measly wire fence, it turned tail and ran off at the speed of a mad beast. Em lowered her gun and knit her brows in confusion. What the hell is going on here?

In a little under a half an hour they’d arrive at the school. Naturally, Alaska was becoming increasingly nervous by the minute. Worries that Charlie had voiced before they’d left began to pop up in her head, and she shook them away, pressing the gas pedal farther down and telling herself that since they’d made it this far they’d be fine.

The first light of dawn was starting to show, but she kept the headlights on in case of the instance in which another bear mutant rammed into the truck. The incident had left both the twins shaken, though that had faded for Alaska after about a hundred miles or so. Her head, however, had done the opposite. A sharp ache that had begun as soon as her head had slammed into the window had been replaced by a constant throbbing, and when Alaska had attempted to brush a stray hair out of her face she’d been met with the feel of hair matted with dried blood and had to keep herself from visibly wincing as she brushed the gash. She’d known that part of the left side of her face had blood on it simply from the gross tight feeling, fortunately it hadn’t gotten in her eye.

Ten minutes later they passed a cluster of what appeared to be old, overgrown baseball fields. Alaska took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. “How soon do you think we’ll get there?” Charlie asked as he stared out the window.

“I think about 15ish minutes. Does any of this look remotely familiar to you?”
“Maybe, a little bit. I can’t really tell, we only came here like twice.”
“I think we passed the road where dad’s parents used to live.”
“Do we know what happened to them?”
“I don’t think so…If mom and dad found out, they never told us.”
“I think we just passed that restaurant that mom and dad were pretty excited to take us to the last time we were here.”
“I think the sign says Whataburger. I kind of remember that, it was pretty good.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right.”
“Can you check the notebook for what exit it is?”

There was a shuffle as Charlie turned to grab the book and papers that were on the floor in the back. He paused for a moment to scratch behind Loki’s ears, and then turned to face the front again.
“She totally shredded the seats back there.” He said as he shifted through the papers. “It’s exit 543.”

There was another shuffle of papers.
“Yes, right, and then we just follow the main road until we see something that looks like a school. It will also be on the right.”

They were nearing a sign and an exit ramp, but before she could even begin to look for a number Charlie had already found it. “I think it’s the next one. That’s 542.”
“Right.”

A minute or so later saw them taking the exit, and roughly three minutes later they were in front of a rusted, partially broken down gate. A huge building inside the fence had letters on it that spelled out GENV, but it was clear that some letters were missing.

“This is the place.”
“Seems to be.”
“Let's go check it out.”

Alaska drove the car around the circle, only to find another car in the drive.
“Looks like someone is already here.”
“I hope it's someone we know...”
“Well if we don't know them, and they're not friendly, then judging by the size of the car we could totally take them if need be.”
“True."

They both hopped out of the car, eager to stand and stretch their legs. Alaska opened the back door for Loki, who jumped out and stretched, as most cats do. She scratched under Loki's chin, the action was met with a loud purr. They were outside of a large glass building, which Alaska inspected carefully. The building seemed to be empty, of course, if she were hiding out here, she wouldn't be in the building where you could be easily found.

“Right, so where should we start?” Alaska asked, turning to face Charlie.

Eminney pondered over the strange occurrence with the goat as she walked past the witch pit again out to a staircase that led towards the gym building with the stage. As she made to to walk over and inspect the building again, she noticed something across the vacant parking lot.

There, behind the Prius, was some huge, modified, monstrosity of a vehicle with a massive dent and a large amount of blood on one side. How did she not hear it coming? She supposed it was a fair distance away and maybe it supposed to be quieter, somehow.

Eminney then saw three things at once. The first was a pair of people at the front of the vehicle heading towards the "Lyceum," as it was labeled. The second was Jace ducking outside of the Admin building and hoisting a rifle towards the back of the monster vehicle. The third was the thing that Jace was aiming at: a really fucking big cat. The cat was stalking closer and closer behind the two people at the Lyceum. One of them, a girl, turned to the other much larger person and said something. Did they not see the danger they were in? Doesn't Jace have a clear shot yet? Take it! Jace!

"Jace!" Eminney yelled, "Take the shot!"

Charlie hated car rides, even in the truck. Stepping out of the car only reminded him of this fact more. He paced quickly, swinging his arms around his torso to stretch his back and in order to rid the aching numbness from his body, various. His movement was met with several loud pops. Alaska was taking care of Loki, and as they stepped towards the lyceum, the large cat followed behind eagerly. “I’m not quite sure…” Charlie responded as he scanned the area.

Just as he spotted the present danger, a girl shouted for someone to take a shot. She was clearly yelling to the guy who was hunched behind a rifle, aiming straight at Loki. He quickly pulled out his pistol, and aimed at the guy’s legs. He wasn’t going to have Alaska lose her shit over a dead cat, but he also wasn’t ready to kill someone. “Why don’t you put the gun down and think this through.” Charlie suggested calmly, though there was a coldness to his voice. “The cat hasn’t pounced yet, so it’s pretty fucking obvious that it’s not going to. Also, we don’t seem to be afraid of it, so what’s the only conclusion?” He continued, his voice gaining heat as he progressed in his speech.

Ignorance angered him, and while he did understand being afraid of such a creature, it was blatantly obvious that Loki wasn’t causing harm to anything, or anyone at the moment. Especially since he’d walked over to Alaska, who, standing a few feet behind him, had her hand on Loki’s head in a defensive manner.

It was far away, but Rosylynn heard it. Em screamed. That meant bad stuff. She burst out of the nearest door and ran headlong back towards the office where she last saw Jace. That's where they split up. He might still be there. Rosie was pretty sure she heard Eminney scream his name. She made her way up the stairs and had the office building in sight.

She heard Jace before she saw him. He sounded angry, though, not distressed. So, she supposed that was a good thing… kind of.

"Are you fucking insane?! Or just stupid?" Jace yelled. Huh. He cursed. Clearly that meant he wanted to punch something, and it couldn't be Eminney. So, that meant visitors! Rosie's excitement rose and she ran faster. "You keep that thing as a pet? How dumb are you?"

Rosie finally could see Jace and she jumped over the chopped up ivy bush to get to him. He was screaming at someone next to the car… Wait. Cars. Plural. If you could call that beast a car. Was that a giant lion or something next to it? Oh, there was a girl next to the lion. She seemed nice, if a little ticked at Jace. That wasn't who he was cursing at, was it? If it was, Rosie would have to teach him some manners for using that language towards a woman.

Rosie finally seemed to notice the pistol pointed at Jace. Ah, bingo. Then she noticed the guy… er… the man pointing that pistol…

Whoa… From now on, Rosie thought, Your nickname is Big Hunk. Because that is what you are. Rosie got a huge, uncontrollable grin on her face. Why was she grinning? Is this what happened when she saw attractive guys? Oh, well. She didn't care. She probably should care more that said attractive person was still pointing a gun her brother… Nah. He's fine. Really fine.

She absently noticed Eminney running on the scene out of the corner of her eye, but she couldn't stop staring at Big Hunk. Huh. That grin was still on her face, too, huh? Who cares! How often do you get to stare at a hottie in apocalypse? She was gonna have this moment, dammit!

"Oh, God." Jace said next to her as he put away his rifle. "Put your tongue back in your mouth, Rose." Jace skulked off inside the admin building to do whatever. Rosie didn't care.

“Ever head of a guard dog, asshole? Well this is more effective.” Alaska snapped back. No she wasn’t stupid. She’d been training Loki since the day she’d found her, which had been about four years ago. In the beginning, Alaska couldn’t be positive of what Loki would do, but now she would obey most commands that she or Charlie said at any given time.

Charlie still hadn’t lowered his pistol, and Alaska was glad. Personally, she’d have shot the moron already, so she supposed it was a good thing that she wasn’t holding it. His entire form was ridged, which kind of surprised her. She hadn’t seen Charlie this angry in a while, and usually she was the only person who could make him this angry. Then again, however, she’ been the only person around to make him angry.

A girl appeared near the moron and, for a reason that Alaska couldn’t quite figure out, was smiling broadly. This puzzled her, as they were obviously in the midst of a tense situation. However, the tension fizzled out as the guy said something to the girl and stormed into the building, leaving the girl, who was still smiling, outside. Charlie relaxed a little and lowered his gun, discreetly flicking on the safety as he did so, though Alaska noticed that he didn’t put it back in the holster.

The girl was still smiling at them when it dawned on her. In the few interactions that they’d had with other people, a lot of the girls they met would have the same smile on their faces whenever they saw Charlie. It was obvious to her now that they found him attractive, although Alaska didn’t see it. This girl was totally looking him over, and clearing her throat was all she could do not to laugh. “Hi. I’m Alaska. He’s Charlie.” She said with a smile. “And this is Loki, a very dangerous beast who will pounce on you and devour your flesh in the blink of an eye.” Alaska continued, with a gesture towards Loki and her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Rose seriously had no shame. She wasn't even trying to hide her crush. Well, at least the guy must know what her intentions are now. There would be no confusion on that matter. Eminney supposed that was a good thing. Wait. Alaska and Charlie? The Shepards! Eminney warily tip-toed around the dangerous beast, still not quite trusting it, and approached the twins for a proper introduction, or rather, reunion.

"Alaska?" Eminney asked with a smile spreading across her face as she looked at the girl. "Little Alaska and Charlie?"

Eminney couldn't believe it. She was taller than Charlie the last time they met. Now, well, she didn't think anyone was taller than him, or bigger in general. Alaska was still cute and sassy as Em always remembered her being when they were tykes.

"I'm Eminney. That's Rosylynn. That was my brother, Jace. I'm sorry about him. He's really um, cagey? I suppose. And I'm sorry I told him to shoot Loki. It all happened really fast and I honestly was convinced it would kill you. My bad."

Eminney looked back over briefly to Rosie who's goofy grin had melted to a small smile, and she was still freaking staring at Charlie. Geez. Em never knew she had such a flirt for a sister. Although, this probably was her first real crush. Eh, she'd let Rose enjoy it. She just hoped Charlie wouldn't hurt her too bad if he rejected her.

Judging by the rise the guy had gotten out of Alaska, she would have definitely lost her shit if anything else had happened. Fortunately for them, a girl appeared and her worried face was replaced by a grin. When the guy walked into the building that he’d been in front of during the spat, Charlie lowered his gun, but made sure to keep it out, just in case this was all one big trap. He did put the safety on though, just to be safe.

With the guy gone, Charlie retreated back into his usual shell, adjusting his Mariner’s cap as he did so. He gave a brief nod as Alaska introduced him, and gave her sarcastic comment about Loki a well-deserved smirk of appreciation. As Alaska spoke, a second girl approached from behind, and quickly introduced all three of the faces that Charlie vaguely remembered from before. “We aren’t so little anymore.” He stated plainly. His attempt at humour was enough to get a chuckle from Alaska.

“It’s so great to see y’all again, we weren’t sure if anyone was going to be here…” Alaska said, as he glanced at Rosie, the younger girl, who, by the looks of it hadn’t taken her eyes off him, then at Eminney, then back at Alaska. Part of Charlie wanted to acknowledge her stare, but part of him also knew that it was stupid and worthless. They weren’t in any position for fun. Hell, this was barely a world were friendships were acceptable to him. Acquaintances allowed for detachment. Sure it would suck if they died, it would be one less person who could possibly have his back, but at the same time it had the convenience of a lack of emotional attachment, so if they did die, their deaths wouldn’t bog him down. Then again, it was the end of the world, so what the hell. He turned back to her for just a second and raised his eyebrows in subtle acknowledgement. He then turned to address Eminney. “It’s fine, so long as he doesn’t harm her, she’s well trained and if he has an issue he can take it up with me.”

“You aren’t shooting it in the head!”
“We are on a giant moving dog, what do you want from me?”
The dog slid hard on the turn slamming into an old rusted fence.
“I think its on the next turn.”
“I guess we are about to find out.”
It was the last stretch. The ROUS’s had fallen a bit behind, their small legs couldn’t contend with Caushic’s stride, but they were no more than 3 seconds behind. The turn left came not quick enough and again the dog slid. They saw buildings and a fence that were clearly not originally intended to become a fortress had been scraped into one. Ashling caught a faded “G” and figured it was good enough
“This is our stop!”
A third sharp jerk tossed all of them into the perimeter, the gate had been kicked in at some point. Scrambling Alyosha picked up one side of the fallen gate
“Put it back up!” the three managed to get it upright and with their bodies they braced for the impact.
The rats came like a swell, crashing against the metal. They raged against it, falling away and returning to the wriggling mess of madness.
Caushic was snarling in the general direction of the commotion and baring his teeth. A handful of the rats made it through and the dog bear beastie gnashed and swiped at them.
“You can’t say we don’t make an impression.” Alyosha said as he strained to keep his footing
“Yeah. Hi we are the Forst’s..We have a few pets” Phineas had his left shoulder against the gate trying to keep the pressure off his leg
“We need a new approach to this gentlemen...’Cause this isn’t solving many problems.”
Ashling’s feet started to slide on the cracked concrete.

The reunion was interrupted with shouts and a noise that grated on Alaska’s ears. Loki immediately jumped up from where he’d been laying at her feet and rushed over towards the noise, which was coming from the gate that they’d come through. Alaska ran after her and skidded to a halt once she could see the seen at the gate. A sizeable swarm of terrifyingly large rats were pressing up against the gate that had previously been on the ground. Three clearly struggling people held up the gate, and a giant dog like creature snarled through the gate at the beasts. Loki was running towards the scuffle and, upon arrival, joined the giant dog in growing at the fence.

Alaska rushed back to the car and flung open the back door. Barely noticing the shredded leather seats as she pulled her crossbow case out from under the seat. The case was flung open, and she quickly grabbed her crossbow and a quiver full of bolts out of the back pocket of the passenger’s seat. Charlie, seeing her reaction, pulled out his bat and ran towards the gate after her.

She couldn’t run and load her crossbow, so as soon as she got to the gate she pushed her back against it and quickly winded it up. Alaska turned around and fired into the writhing mass of rats that was slowly pushing the gate over and though she missed the head of one rat, she hit the neck of one beside it. The bolt went deep enough to kill at the neck, apparently, she noted as the rat stilled. As she turned her back to the fence to reload she saw Charlie pushing with the others. “So is there any type of plan going on here? Because, if there is it sure as hell isn’t working.” She asked over the sound of the rats.

“So is there any type of plan going on here? Because, if there is it sure as hell isn’t working.”
"Is that an echo?" Phineas pretended too look around in confusion while he continued to struggle against the gate
"Alyosha? Plan?" Ashling looked from the two new players to her older brother. Isn't this embarrassing.. she thought to herself Making a noisy entrance AND no plan to boot..Its like getting caught with your pants down while giant rats are chasing you...
Alyosha searched frantically, felt a nibble at his elbow, punched the nasty rat in the nose, and then continued to search frantically.
"Well..fire is a plan." he suggested weakly
"Its a half baked one."
"WELL it's a plan yes or no?" he looked at his siblings and then to the two others, specifically the guy that joined them at the barricade.
Familiar in a husky large way, one of the twins maybe? They had the same..nose.

Jace was looking through volumes and references he found in a room in the office when a massive commotion made him look up and out the window. As he walked out the door into the main office, Eminney and Rosie burst in.

"Jace!" Eminney shouted, "Big crisis! We need help. Giant rodent army!"

"What?!" Jace started towards the door. But Eminney stopped him.

"There are already five people trying to put the gate back up and kill the damn things, but it's not working. Rosie and I are gonna run back to the Lyceum to see if anything we brought could help. You go help them and see if your rifle does any good. Go!"

Eminney, Rosie, and Jace ran. Jace, the opposite direction of his sisters towards the gate that Rosie had busted just the other day. Charlie, Alabama, and three other strangers were trying desperately to put it back up to defend against the mountain of rats that was constantly beating against them. To add to it, it looked like there was another freaking giant beast pet that Jace now had to watch closely. Jesus.

When he got close enough, he could tell they were slightly panicking and he heard one of the new guys say something about fire. Someone else criticized this plan of attack. Oh, look… It was the littlest emo.

Jace turned back around and started running toward his sisters who had just come out of the Lyceum wielding more various firearms and melee weapons.

"Rosie!" he yelled to his little sister specifically. She knew fire… the little freaking pyro. He spoke as clearly and loudly as he could manage. "We need to light it up!" She would know what that meant. Find fire quick.

Rosie gave a thumbs up and ran back into the Lyceum. Jace whirled back towards the furry skirmish and and joined the others, aiming his sniper and shooting past the humans holding up the gate into the hoard of dark grey fur that only seemed to grow. Eminney joined him, but got right up next to the gate and pointed the double barrel of her shotgun straight into the mass of pests and began firing.

It wasn't much longer before Rosie showed up with a gas can. She screwed the top off and ran to the gate, pouring the flammable and pungent liquid over the vermin. Eh, Jace thought, It'll do. He watched as Rosie got out the matchbook she constantly kept in her shirt.

A midst the chaos more voices and bodies were joining. Help was only help when there was some sort of organization. If there was not organisation 'help' quickly becomes 'casualties'. A bloke yelled to someone furthur back but then a scrap of a teen girl came back with the petrol.

"Woah, hey, careful. Watch the flammable liquid!" Alyosha shielded his face as some sloshed on him
"Gas explodes! Hold it with the matches unless we are all going to go down with these hell rats." Ashling's eyes flitted from girl to rat pile. Phineas shut his eyes for a second, there was so much going on around them. He was trying to sift through all the information but his senses were overwhelmed. The smell of the gas, the new faces he didn't really recognize, the flurry of movement, the scarcity of time, and the urgency of the situation all bore down on him at once.
"Ok so we are going to have to drop this fence, the one thing between us and them, run like mad men toss a match and hope it hits them so no one has to be a martyr..."
"That's the pessimistic logistics of it Phin, yeah." Alyosha rolled his eyes
"No, I'm not trying to be a prat...just listen to me. We will have to leave a gas trail away then on the count of three we run like hell and when we are at least a few paces away we light the trail and hopefully it will catch the rats. We wont be 'safe' persay but it wont kill us at least."
"Thats alot of talk, Brother..." Alyosha gave him a weary look
"Yeah..well, it's a lot of rats.."
Ashling huffed. She wished they would just hug and get over it. Seriously, those boys...Action needed to be taken.
"Hey! Make a trail of gas going that a way." She looked at the girl with the matches and pointed down the pavement in front of them.
Did everyone get it? Does everyone understand?
"After she is done RUN ON 3!" Lets hope so.

Rosie understood the plan. The dark-haired kid that talked funny was pretty sharp. But, the chick was wrong. Rosie made sure she wasn't using enough gas to explode anything… too much. Whatever fireworks display she might have been hoping for wasn't gonna happen. Maybe she and Rosie could explode stuff together later! Wait. Focus. Gas trail. Go.

Rosie let the open can drag behind her and watched a line of liquid spill from it onto the ground. When she was a good distance away, she lit the match on her boot.

"RUN NOW!" she yelled loudly and watched them scramble in all different directions as the match dropped from her hands to the gas trail. It caught fire right as the ratnado was clamoring through the open floodgate. Fire traveled quickly to the oncoming storm and in an instant, there was a near-violent burst of flames and the pain-filled screech of fried demon rodents rose in the air.

Trouble followed them wherever they went, Charlie decided as he grabbed his bat and rushed after Alaska. The five of them held up the gate easily enough, but the rats weren't going to stop pressing against it any time soon. When the blond guy suggested fire, Charlie almost brought out the small bottle of WD-40 that he kept in his pocket, but instead he waited, curious to see how the others would perform under the stress of a situation such as this. So instead of hopping to action like the others he simply watched to see how their plan unfolded. Jace appeared and Charlie’s disdain for him grew simply through his proximity to Loki and the way he looked at the other kid's massive wolf-dog. However, he soon shouted for Rosie to light things up and she quickly appeared with a gas can that Charlie hoped hadn't been in his truck moments before. It was a waste of gas, in his eyes. Other things were flammable and had they even poured a bit into a canister or bottle of make a Molotov cocktail of sorts, the gas that she was now pouring all over the rats could have been put to a much better use.

Gasoline splashed on he and the blonde guy and Charlie couldn't help but smirk at his response, he had been seconds away from saying the exact thing, although perhaps without as much emotion. His eyes rolled at the debate over what to do next and which way to trail the gas in order to light the rodents of unusual size up. Eventually Rosie went in the correct direction and lit the trail, sparking up a flame that rushed towards them as they dove out of the way. Charlie ran sideways along the fence line for a few paces, then circled back to watch the screaming rats burn. It wasn't overly pleasant, but the rats writhed under the flames in a mass of flesh, fur, and flame. The smell was not pleasant.

Alaska approached from the opposite side, wiping her forehead as she did so. Charlie noticed the blood immediately. "I fell. It reopened. It'll close again." She murmured in response to the question in his stare. Together they watched as the others collected themselves and the pile of rats continued to burn.  

"I'm assuming your Ashling, Phineas, and Alyosha, but it's been a while." Alaska said with a grin at the three newcomers. They all seemed seriously worn down, and Charlie wondered how far they'd traveled. He surveyed the scene with a bored look and waited for whatever introductions would surely come next.

((Guys I'm so sorry I took so long to reply...I had this written last Sunday/Monday, but then the week went crazy and I've been on a retreat and I didn't get a change to post it on Friday before I left...))

Jace wiped a hand across his face to remove the sweat that had accumulated due to not only stress, but his frightening proximity to the rat roast. God, Rosie was really crazy and impulsive sometimes. Oh, well. It worked.

He made his way back to the group of newcomers and the twins they had encountered earlier. He heard the girl, Amanda? No. Not even close. Ally? Alaska! That was it. Weird. He would have to remember to ask her about it. She spoke to the new trio. Ah, the other kids Eminney had spoke about. As he looked at the interesting collection of people that looked incredibly uncomfortable with one another, he remembered how close they were really all supposed to be. His mother had considered these children and their parents her family. Eminney was named after their mothers.

Jace felt a swell of emotion he always tried to suppress rise inside him like the tides. He pointed a gun at Bethanney's son. Guilt hit him and allowed the tide to swallow him. But, he was very careful to stay calm stoic and still on he outside. He knew he looked awkward, though. Whenever he fought his emotions, he stayed perfectly still like a statue with a neutral expression. His sisters had often told him it was creepy.

When Alaska smiled and tried to exchange pleasantries with the other three, Jace noticed a lot of blood on her head. His mask broke slightly at this and his brows furrowed in worry. He walked almost unconsciously toward her and stopped in front of her face. Without a word, his fingers started to gently probe around the injury. He could imagine how upset her brother was at this, but he didn't quite have the amount of ducks necessary to give Charles any. He would absolutely try to make amends with him and still felt guilty for aiming a firearm at him, but right now, priorities.

"Em!" he yelled in Eminney's general direction, "She's hurt bad. It's a head wound! Possible concussion!" He heard Eminney yell back that she would get her med kit.

He turned back to the bleeding girl. "This wound isn't new, is it?" Jace asked with concern. "You could have spoken up earlier." He was trying his best to speak in a kind way and without sarcasm, but it was difficult. Not because he intended anything sarcastically, just because it had been a while since he said anything without bitterness in his tone. It felt weird, but he supposed that meant he was doing it right.

He heard Eminney's footsteps approaching. "Don't worry." Jace said, stepping away from her. "My sister's a good doctor."

He observed his sister's initial assessments and watched as she went into sweet nurse mode. "Don't worry." Eminney took her hand and started leading her towards the buildings. "I'll get you patched up, hun."

Jace watched as they walked away and met eyes with his approaching little sister. He realized he still had a concerned look on his face and inwardly cursed himself. He exchanged it with a look of irritation in a moment. Rosie just smiled brightly at him and said under her breath, "Careful, brother. You're slipping. Looking less and less like a hardened little android. Keep that up and people will soon figure out how much you can't help caring about them. They'll learn how protective and sweet you are. We wouldn't want that." Rosie smiled wider and skipped away after her older sister while sneaking little glances at her overgrown crush.

No, Jace silently agreed, We would not want that.

"I'm assuming your Ashling, Phineas, and Alyosha, but it's been a while." Alyosha gave a nod but didn’t say anything else. They let her wound get the attention it needed.

The three watched while they caught their breath. Everything smelled of burnt hair, but aside from that everything was oddly still. Caushic nuzzled through the roasted flesh until Ashling had composure enough to call him away. It was odd working with other humans. Sure the crisis had only taken 15 minutes or so to rectify but they hadn’t had anyone else to yell at but each other for a very long time. Even Alyosha wasn’t sure how to proceed next.

Phineas felt a familiar feeling of apprehension well up inside of him. Others. They had indeed made it, and there they were, the other fantastic families of lost legend. He trusted Alyosha remembered their names, or Ashling. He hadn’t exactly tattooed them onto his forearm. Another girl came running to attend the wounded one, so that brought the grand total up to 8. And three heads of the house so to speak. That’s going to be an excellent spector. Watching them all vie to be in charge. He looked over at Alyosha who caught his eye and sighed. Ashling had contented herself in whispering something to Caushic, who was looking all too pleased with his big wolf self.  

Alyosha rolled his eyes at his younger brother. Fine. Stay there.
He crossed to others not engaging in minor head surgery and cleared his throat.
”Yeah we are the Forsts. Sorry ‘bout the entrance, we were scavenging in the small town and they jumped us at the yogurt joint...You guys were holding up well here it seems. How long have you been here?”
For some reason this tedious, but slightly necessary, conversational piece seemed foolishly collected for their situation. He almost felt like he should have added a bit about the weather or how the ol’ family was. A social stigma left over from a long forgotten world.

Her head hurt, but Alaska would never admit it. She stiffened visibly when the guy who’d threatened both Charlie and Loki, she was fairly sure his name was Jace, approached her. She raised an eyebrow, but stayed silent. It was awkward and uncomfortable. Alaska suddenly made the realization that the only conversations she’d had in the past few months had been with her brother (aside from the ones she’d had with herself, of course).

For some odd reason, he prodded the side of her head that was bleeding. Alaska hissed at the pressure. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Charlie move forward protectively. She leaned back away from his hand, but after seeing the worried look on Jace’s face she also made a motion indicating that Charlie shouldn’t do anything just yet.

Alaska’d been under the impression that she only had a mere scratch and a little bruising, so the concussion comment was a surprise. Yet, the introduction of a med kit seemed ideal, she didn’t like the feeling of dried blood on her face.

”No. We hit a giant ass bear on our way here, I hit the window.” She responded as Emminey rushed over with the kit.

She flinched a bit as the girl attended to her head wound, but stilled soon after.

The new girl, Ashling by process of elimination, asked how long they’d been there. Surprisingly, Charlie responded first.

”We got here about 5 to 10 minutes ago, but they were here before we arrived.”

Giant ass bear... Ashling liked that idea, although she figured it wasn't what the girl had meant by giant ass bear.

"Ah, so I guess you guys haven't had time to pick out rooms then." Alyosha gave a tired grin. He was the charming one of the three, or at least he pretended to be.
"Speaking of which, Ash-" he turned to face his sister
"I will not be sleeping with your beloved pet, so you had better find him a...stable or perhaps copious amounts of newspapers."
His sister did not turn away from her canine and merely said
"Focus on making friends brother mine, worry about your crippling fear of a blind creature later."

Phin smiled at that, Ashling's integrity cut like a knife when it needed to and she had been doing nothing but sharpen it this entire trip down south. He began to fear for their new acquaintances.

They had set out about a month ago. They walked the subway lines to start off with, Phin liked to follow the lines with his old subway map but Ashling did not like the damp and dark spaces. Alyosha figured they would avoid the biggest beasties by traveling underground which was true, for part of the way at least.
His sister did not have the usual phobias, she feared very specific things like Styrofoam in large quantities or stepping on hot gum, but deep in the tunnels of the lost civilization she had been truly afraid.
She would sleep fitfully while the siblings tried to keep warm bundled together and the brothers would talk about why she was so affected.
Phin thought it was because she felt so separate from the earth, she was lost.
Alyosha thought it was because she never had to be this far from what she knew.
Either way, when she began to get sick they knew they had to get out. She was so faint as they carried her through the first open exit back onto the earth, but she smiled as they basked in the sun for a few moments.
And then here they were. A months time later, and he feared she would feel trapped again.

Alyosha felt the tired tug at his soul, his charm began to fade and the logical robotic Alyosha glinted through.
"Well then. Should we see about moving in? Which buildings are stable? Have we done a run through to clear the are of beasts and unfavorable occupants? I assume the Kaplans have at least had a look about." He looked to the others.


((ohh man these characters are rusty...sorry its short and mayhaps a bit awkward...progress is progress though I guess.))

His two siblings slept soundly next to him, exhausted from months of travel and finally sleeping without much fear of being mauled by a mutant rabbit or the like.

Phineas's leg ached and kept him from sleeping, so he turned his attention to his maps. After they had settled down from their entrance Phineas snuck away from the group and did a bit of poking around making preliminary sketches of the grounds.
Moving a bit away from his sibs so the low candle light wouldn't disturb them, Phineas was making more notes. Specifically he was making note of buildings that were structurally sound and which were to be avoided.


They had set up their stuff in the stone office building, it was snug enough to be a comfort and there was a rudimentary kitchen in the back corner. Caushic was asleep next to Ashling, and Alyosha seemed to be getting over his worries about the bone crushing dog as he slept just on the other side of his sister. He wasn't sure how long they were going to stay here before they tried to move on and find other survivors, but it was not the time to worry about that.
For this moment they could sleep and have a little peace.