On Death's Doorstep

[Rygand]

J.P found himself staring at the van, in complete disbelief. As Lewis, Cass and Roy's family stepped out and everyone set out to greet them, the boy hung back, holding Zombiebane tightly. This was surreal. Their days were always eventful, but this was the last thing he was expecting. A smile had crept onto his lips without him noticing it. However brief it would have been, he felt happy to see them all, even Lewis. It was weird, how seeing barely familiar strangers could be so comforting.

After everyone else had greeted Lewis and co., the boy walked up to Lewis, and threw a lackluster punch at the man's shoulder. "Glad you're okay, even though you're crazy." J.P then walked up to Cassidy, and proceeded to ruffle the little girl's hair, giving a cheeky grin. "You too, beansprout."

As the familiar noise of the encroaching undead reached the group, the boy gave nothing but a weary sigh. He took a moment to catch up with Roy and his family, happy to see them in one piece, too. He summed up what they had been through in a tight nutshell, before turning to Harrison, nodding to Lewis' point.

"I guess we don't have much choice. We could just run for Secronom, but it would be safer to sit this one out and get moving in the morning, right?"

[sleix]

The scene played out rather dramatically. The man who was aiming a gun at the boy mere seconds ago was now rushing to his aid. Inbetween tending to the now assumidly unconcious boy, the grizzled man seemed to mumble to himself in quite an unsettling way, as if there was a conversation between two people, Phil did not want to seem intrusive and left the man to his work. The infected outside seemed to hear the racket inside the store, this place was not safe, not for much longer.

The wounded lad was intriguing, he was distressed, which was audible in his speech, although it may have been partly from the gun being pointed at his head, it seemed he was bothered by something else, which was most likely the cause of his wound. The scratching and banging from outside was becoming more intense, it was unlikely they'd break through, but it worried Phil nonetheless.

He decided he was of no use standing around and observing, so he assigned himself to supply juty and had a gander around the store, it seemed nobody had touched this place since the outbreak, or had at least not left any evidence of it behind. There was, however, several baseball bats lined up against the wall of the store, he had no use for one as of now, even if it was a better means of defending himself than a knife, but it was reassuring knowing they were there, if the need arises.

[lukuz13]

July 7th, 2022 Thursday. Huntington, West Virginia


-"That so..." The female soldier stated simply, looking back at Lucy as she explained. "Well I gotta say, you have some of the best luck I've seen, considering then." She chuckles. "Finding some good weapons, enough food to survive till you find help...lot of folks weren't so lucky." She nods simply, glancing back to the other soldiers who are simply keeping watch for now.
Brian felt a small pang of guilt roll through him, along with the pain from the shot, at the mention of those weapons. It was...probably best not to mention where he found those. Migaki clinging tightly to his back in fear when the man took her blood. She squeaked in fear of the needle, but simply used Brian as a sponge to help ease her fear.

It took a few moments before the results of the test came back, the woman introduced herself as 'Kat' and her job was to lead expeditions out into the city and bring back supplies. Brian and Migaki introduced themselves a little better as well..though not much. Brian did most of the talking.
The tests, thankfully, came back negative, and as such they were let into the compound.

Upon fully entering the group would realize a number of things. One thing was, despite the resistance at the front gate, this base didn't actually have too many people-perhaps less then 70 or so, with a small number of civilians buzzing around in a small section complete with campfires fed with the legs of old chairs and tables no doubt.
There are many faces, some hidden by masks and bandannas, others sheltered by shielded gazes. They didn't seem like the liveliest bunch. Brian's group was brought towards the Dormitories by Kat, away from the gate which held several watchtowers. Most of the forces seemed concentrated at the premeiter, to keep zombies and bandits from getting in no doubt. The main building itself was used as a mixture of a barracks, storage, and Command Center.

"Here, we have where you fine folks will be staying." She pointed out as the trio arrived. "It survived the apocalypse pretty well considering, no running water though. We pass out purified canteens for water rations, and have food rations distributed as often as we can afford. Bathes, washing clothes, and otherwise is nice and old fashion-boiled river water, can't afford to waste the purifier." She explained. "You're welcome to stay long as you help out around camp. Your friend is gonna need some help...and medicine is important around here, so you'll be needing to work off that debt I suppose. Sorry about that." She explained with a somewhat apologetic smile. "Anything you're particularly good at?"

Brian spoke up first oddly, as Migaki had gently nodded off again.
"I...um...well I use to be a pharmacist, so maybe I can help you identify different uses for medicine..." He paused, as Kat interrupted him.
"Great! We can use someone that knows what they're looking at. You?" She said looking to Lucy.


-Cassidy, clinging tightly to Ichiru's leg, looked up to J.P at his greeting and smiled stupidly wide, happy to see them all again.
"I've gotten bigger!" She insisted at J.P, intent on not being small forever as she was brought back against Ichiru who was eager to learn from her what had happened. She was horrified to learn what had happened, as was Harrison.
"The whole shop...was burned down!?" Harrison stated bluntly. "After all that work..."
"Believe me, I know." Roy stated as he climbed out of the side of the van with a sigh. "I wasn't any happier about it either." He reminded Harrison, as he was the one who set up the wiring at the shop. "But the place was getting swarmed with undead anyway...those...shots fired Lewis mentioned brought the unholy wave down on us...so we rigged a van and came down here.
"Rigged a..." Harrison stared blankly at the newcomer for a moment. "This guy helped with that I suppose? Are you freaking kidding me?" He watched his language for the kid's sake, bringing his palm to his face. "We walked all the way down here, and you guys find a van to drive here in less then an hour..." He mumbled angrily for a moment before giving a somewhat defeated sigh. "Are we really gonna make this trip worth nothing? It's only midday. No need to turn in early I say." Harrison insisted, his brow knit slightly. "Besides, I came all this way and I want to see what's in this place...this guy here reinforced that." He pointed to Mason.

The horde was still a fair distance away, their slow gait no doubt giving them all time to talk...but there was something unnerving about watching a sea of people slowly march towards you.


-As Philip, Alex, and Jake went about their...'introductions' as well as could be expected, the soft banging of the infected outside suddenly didn't seem to be a problem anymore...not as big a one anyway
From somewhere very nearby, a deep screech cut the conversation, what little to be had, short, and silenced even the Infected outside. It was...inhuman, high pitch yet almost gurgling as well. The soft sound of blade dragging on pavement came from outside...somewhere. Either the street or the rooftops, it was hard to tell. The soft clicking was nearby, however that was for sure...and it was getting closer.

[bloodsrain]

Mason wasn't really paying attention to anyone in the group until the man who arrived in the Van rudely pointed his finger at him, that's just not good manners in his opinion. But he understood why the others weren't exactly being best friends with him from the time they met. He was obviously a prime candidate for blame. He had the symbol and the knowledge that would obviously lead any survivor to blame him for prior events. But he was still rather happy to find other survivors in his time of need, and if they are really going to Secronom, they were going to need his help to open some of the more secure doors in the facility. But, he still felt like the odd man out of the group, everyone had past experience with each other, friendships and times of comfort he hadn't experienced or been able to give, he barely even knew half of the people in the groups name. But not being dead right now was a good enough reason to trust them right now, even if they didn't trust him in return.

As Mason thought on this he decided to tell them a bit about the building they were going to. "Well, if you are all serious about heading to Secronom, you are going to need me along. It's rather locked up and only employee's can get into the building and because of my prior clearance to some of the more restricted areas not accessible to new trainee's, I can get you into some of the more important lab equipment and the holding cells we used for the infected. Not to mention I know the layout of the place better than probably anyone here.”

[thatfallout3guy]

By now, Jake had made his way out of the van, slowly walking to the other side, giving a friendly wave to the group, "Name's Jake."

Lewis smiled at the friendly punch from J.P., "The crazy is what's keeping me alive." He then turned his focus to Harrison. He couldn't help but give a frustrated grunt at the man's stubbornness, "We don't have to make it worthless. We just need to find a place to hunker down until the Frankies get bored. There's got to be at least a few places near we could bunker up until morning, right?" He said, hoping Harrison would listen to reason.

[ballerscuba]

Davey sighed heavily. "Freaking Vault dwellers," he muttered under his breath. He began walking over to Lewis, looking up toward the sun. He adjusted his Vader mask as he looked back down at Lewis. "Is this what they taught you in the military, Lewis?" he asked. "Wake up early, have brunch, then find shelter and hide before tea time? I'm sorry that leaving the Shire has been so difficult for you, but this is a war for our very survival. We are on a reconnaissance mission to possibly find a secret to their existence and their possible extinction. Now, the way I see it, you can either try to help us and aid Carl Jenkins in his quest to decipher the brain bug, or you can get out of our way. So, do you want to be Fluttershy and go hide in the corner, hoping to avoid all confrontation, or do you want to be Rainbow Dash and actively try to find a solution to this problem? What kind of pony are you? As for me, I plan to spend the night in the Secronom building. I could use a ride, but if you refuse, I'll walk. Either way, though, you're not going to stop me. You didn't want a part of this mission. That's fine, but that doesn't mean you can cancel it."

[thatfallout3guy]

As expected, Davey gave his usual onslaught of references that flew over Lewis' head, causing him to roll his eyes in annoyance. Davey's ultimatum of Lewis either helping, or leaving however, made Lewis glare at Davey in anger, "First off, the military didn't teach me sh- anything," Lewis interrupted himself, glancing to Cassidy, "my dad, however, taught me plenty. He taught me that plans change based on needs, and right now? We've got one injured, one kid, no safe house, and a crowd of very hungry undead right behind us. Call me insane, but I don't see this as the best time to assault the headquarters of the people who kickstarted armageddon. Secondly, postponing and canceling are two completely different things, and if you want? I'll go with you this time, but not a second before we find shelter." He said at Davey, obvious hostile intent in his voice as he refused to break his stare at the man.

[ballerscuba]

Davey stared into Lewis' eyes. "I haven't seen that look before," Davey said as he took off his Vader helmet and held it in his right hand by his side. His curly orange hair, not quite curly enough to form an afro, fell onto his shoulders. His face was marked here and there with sunburns from the holes in the helmet and his thin lips were dry and cracked. "Are you thinking of shooting me, Lewis? Or perhaps you're thinking of setting me on fire? If you really wanted to, I couldn't stop you. After all, you're the man who was too cool for the Navy SEALs. I'm just a 30 something who refused to grow up, fresh out of the basement. I may not know much, but this is what I do know. We are losing this war. We tried setting up a shelter and it lasted us, for a while, but it's gone now. Now, you can try to set up a new shelter, sure, and it can last you a day, a week, or, if you're lucky, it will last you a month. But, eventually, they will find you and they will try to kill you again.

"I, for one, am sick of being hunted." His voice began getting louder with each sentence. "Look at these things that are chasing us. These things are clearly not natural. They were made by man and they can be defeated by man." He turned and pointed to Mason. "Mason here says that they conducted experiments to create these things. For a corporation that large, there is simply no way they would not have counter-measures to protect themselves in case these things got loose." He turned and pointed over to Harrison. "Harrison here has read documentation about this Secronom that confirms some of what Mason says. Now we have the opportunity-- No, because we have the opportunity, we have the obligation to head into there and see what we can find. We may not be at full force, true, but who else is there? We are the largest group of survivors that I have seen. Hell, I haven't even seen another group since that huge guy took out Harrison's outpost. If we don't go, who will? This war is not about us. This war is about the entire world. This outbreak started here. It can end here. But, if we go and hide every time someone gets hurt or someone loses their nerve, we will never survive this war. The zombies do not relent. They will find us and they will kill us. Our only chance is in that building. It is just a chance, but it's all we have."

Davey walked back over to Lewis, his voice lowering back down. "If you want to find shelter, I'm not going to stop you, but don't expect me to join you. If you want to keep trying to be a teacher and pretend that the side of you that gives looks like the one you just gave me doesn't exist, I can't stop you from doing that either. But, having that little girl around doesn't change who you are or what you've done. But, should you decide to find shelter, and Cassidy asks you who it was that went and tried to save the world while you saved a few people, you tell her this:" Davey tightened his grip on the Vader helmet. "My name is Davey fucking Johnson." He jerked his arm back up. The piece of plastic on the helmet that he was gripping snapped, sending the helmet up in the air and off to the side. It hit the ground, shattering into a dozen pieces. Davey looked down at the shattered helmet, quickly realizing it was beyond repair. He looked back up at Lewis. "And I'm done hiding."

Davey felt the adrenaline pumping through his veins, but he tried to keep as calm as he could. He did have one last thing to take care of, though. He walked over to Ichiru. Ichiru opened her mouth to try and say something, but Davey struck while the adrenaline was still pumping. He planted a kiss on her, putting his hand on the back of her head and pressing his lips hard against hers. It was everything he thought it could be and more, despite the fact that Ichiru was clearly in shock and not reciprocating. He backed off, his eyes still not fully open and his mind still lost somewhere in a meadow with a rainbow. He went to say something, but Ichiru punched him in his jaw.

"The fuck do you think you're doing?!" Ichiru rubbed her fist, face flushed but angry. She stretched out her hand and snarled. "You don't just fucking put your gnarly-ass mouth on someone else's, you taste like shit," she barked, wiping her mouth with the back of her arm. Her eyebrows twitched and her gaze snapped to Cassidy.

"Don't repeat anything I just said," Ichiru muttered to the girl, her hand twitching again as she glared harshly at Davey again, looking over to Lewis.

"Davey's not wrong." Ichiru said, "But I don't want to bring Cass into a zombie-infested shithole. I'm not willing to let another life needlessly slip away under my watch."

"Totally worth it," Davey thought as he walked over to where Mason was standing. "Obviously, this is not going to be a mission for everyone. But, it never was. Mason has already expressed his interest in continuing forward. Unless he's changed his mind, I'm assuming he still wants to go and I definitely want to go. Those of you that want to take the fight to the zombies, come with me. If you feel it's better to set up a shelter somewhere, you're with Lewis, unless he's changed his mind."

[thatfallout3guy]

Lewis couldn't help but stare in awe at what had just transpired. Davey not only had grabbed his attention, he was making several valid points. Davey. Making valid points. Lewis stood there as Davey went on his rant. As Davey paused, Lewis began to assume he was finished. Davey immediately proved him wrong as he planted a kiss on Ichiru. Lewis couldn't help but chuckle at the punch he received.

When the man finally finished his rant, Lewis stepped up, saying the only possible thing he could think, "Davey..." Lewis stopped. He turned to Ichiru and Cass, signaling for Ichiru to cover the girl's ears, "you're a fucking idiot." He stated bluntly, "Of course I'm not going to shoot you, and I still think going to Secronom right now is, well, retarded. There's probably an army of undead in that place, and we didn't even have enough firepower to keep the pawn shop safe. If it were up to me? I'd have knocked your foolish ass out, and dragged you back with us by now." Lewis stopped, turning to Harrison, a look of disappointment on his face, "Unfortunately your recklessness seems to be contagious. Because of that, I need to know one thing. Are you still planning on going with him, Harrison?"

[sleix]

For a moment there was silence, not a calm, blissful silence, but one of solemn and lingering doom that was swiftly broken by the sound of metal being dragged across the floor. The awful, harrowing noise became louder with each drag, creeping closer to the sports store. Another screech sounded from outside the store, it was...indescribable, like the unearthly cry of an eldritch horror. The fear of the unknown was overwhelming, what was outside, can it be killed and does it know where we are?

Phil's mind spiraled, his thoughts were muffled, "Oh god," Phil positioned himself behind his fellow survivors, in a high-risk situation such as this, he was playing every man for himself, he wasn't prepared to let complete strangers hold his life in their hands, but what of the unconscious lad? It would be morally ambiguous to leave him here, none of us knew his motives, or was he just trying to make his way in what was left of this city? Motives. Something Phil had all but forgotten about in the last few days, finding a way to reverse the effects of the infection to revive the farther he had, it seemed impossible after the past few days, after the things he'd seen and that was something Phil needed to come to terms with, lest it make him evermore stubborn.

[graybeardhalt]

Jake froze as the scream reverberated through the room. He had heard it before, but never so close. “Ohhhh, shit,” he muttered, his breath picking up as he slowly stood. “Everybody keep your voices down and try as hard as possible to not make any loud noises. If that thing hears us, it’s gonna be bad.” His voice was lowered, but not quite a whisper. It appeared as though he had completely forgotten about whoever he had been talking to earlier, his mind finally focusing completely on the job at hand. “I’ve seen it before,” he answered before anyone could ask the question. “Never this close, but I’ve seen what it does when it hears noise.”

The memory was a little vague, but he remembered the important parts. He had been scouting around on the rooftop of some corporate building, trying to find a place for supplies or shelter when he heard the scream. It seemed to bounce off of every surface around him, amplifying and dampening at random with no way of tracing which direction it came from. Every hair on his body stood on end as his body locked up, refusing to move. Then he saw it. A pale, disfigured form hunched, its head shifting around constantly as if searching for something, its ridiculously long arms dragging across the ground. Jake couldn’t see its face from here, but the fact that it was bumping into everything made it seem like it couldn’t see. Seconds that felt like years passed and the thing was gone. Jake’s body unclenched and he released his breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding. At that moment, a zombie along the street bumped into a car and set off the alarm. Within seconds, the scream sounded again, angrier this time, and the misshapen thing tore back through the streets. Ignoring anything else around it, the infected charged straight at the car, screaming bloody murder the entire time. It launched itself easily twenty feet forward directly onto the roof of the car and began tearing into it. It was then that Jake realized that it didn’t actually have hand; its arms had grown all the way into points that cut cleanly through the steel, making ear splitting screeches every time they connected which only made the thing angrier. After a few seconds, Jake tore his eyes away and tore back down through the stairs. No way was he gonna stay anywhere near where that thing was. He charged off into the blackness, the car alarm and the screaming echoing faintly behind him.

[bloodsrain]

Mason was hesitant to speak but cut Harrison off before he could speak. "We seem to be at an impasse here. So let me explain some things about the building we are about to go into. It's a large building with a tough exterior and many floors, enough for a long time defensive position if we needed it. But here's the problem, the place was like a hospital before this infection happened, so I don't know how many people are in there or how dangerous it is. I've only explored what I thought was there, I have no idea how big the place actually is on the inside than that." Mason said flicking his eyes between Lewis and Davey.

"The thing is both of you are right in different areas. If we go to that place in the night we aren't going to stand much of a chance at seeing anything coming at us from the building, and more so the chances are the backup generators in the building aren't probably working as we were having trouble with them earlier before this all started. In my opinion, the best course of action here is to set up camp for the night in one of the buildings around here then scope the place out. This isn't the type of place we can just barge into and expect to live, this is a very dangerous place where it all started, probably with all the mutations you have observed and possibly more." Mason said walking between Lewis and Davey.

"Look, im not trying to discourage going into that place, but im adding the math here, and chances are we will die if we don't do this step by step. You are going where all of this started, probably the most dangerous place in the city. But, here's the good news. Like I said that place is like a fortress, if we take control of it and clear out most of the Infected in the place, we can definitely hold it for a long time, even possibly contact rescue or find a cure. It has a rather extensive amount of room on some of the lower levels underground for research and development, if we had a crew we could possibly find something out."

[Rygand]

J.P set his jaw and took a step back as Davey went on his rant. He had never seen the man so... serious. It was almost unsettling to see him like that. The boy figured asking for consistency with anything at this point must've been too much. He fell silent as the plastic helmet smashed into bits on the pavement. Grasping Zombiebane nervously, the boy shifted his weight around as he thought on the matter, a bead of worried sweat gathering at his brow. His thoughts were abruptly ended as his attention was snapped to Davey once more, and his spontaneous actions of the romantic variety. Shot down or not.

The boy scratched his head with one hand and sighed heavily, still looking rather worried, but somehow, Davey's outburst took the edge off the situation, if only briefly. He looked towards the Secronom building, clicking his tongue.

"Well." He began, closing his eyes. "As... eager as Davey and Harrison seem, I still think we have no good reason to burst in guns blazing. Unless you two hotshots have a particularly good reason for wanting yourselves dead -- and us by extension -- I'd like us to revise our strategy here."

The boy rested his gruesome weapon against his shoulder, looking to everyone to group in turn, his tired, bloodshot eyes appearing strangely calm for the moment. He gave another weary sigh, before continuing.

"I think we should approach the building and find refuge somewhere nearby. We all know morning is the safest time of day." The boy looked towards the sky, with a wry smirk on his scarred, dry lips. "I'm no meteorologist, but I don't think it'll rain tomorrow. With that in mind, I'm pretty sure waiting until tomorrow morning is our best bet."

J.P slung Zombiebane back into its place on the harness on his back, switching it for his shotgun. He loaded it carefully, the action in his muscle memory by now. He nodded slightly once the weapon was readied. "To sum up, I think we should head to the area now, find somewhere to spend the night, and then wait until morning to enter Secronom."

The boy's expression took a turn for the grim, as he lost eye contact with the group, dropping his gaze to his feet. "I... I want to stick together with you all, to the very end, but... I can't go along with a suicide plan. I just can't."

[awhaleandabowlofpetunias]

In passing the threshold and entering the camp's interior, Lucy lapped up as much information as she could glean, considering and re-evaluation her impressions. Water. They had water - but from the river? And if the infection could somehow survive the boiling process...is it a matter of time? Human error loves to fuck you up, regardless.

When spoken to, Lucy coughed, torn from thought, and scrambled to recollect where the conversation had been without giving anything away. "Err..." She paused, eyes searching her surroundings in mock uncertainty. "I can do some things. Shooting things, mostly, as well as...mechanics. Yes. Bits and pieces." When she finished speaking her piece, she found her mouth had gone utterly dry; she supposed it would do well to make themselves useful for now. But involving themselves in a larger community was of doubtful wisdom. Even if the others had given away their chances to slip beneath and appear completely benign and useless, the hope that they may yet be able to stay a free element remained in Lucy's mind.

[lukuz13]

July 7th, 2022 Thursday. Huntington, West Virginia

-Harrison was staring in awe right along with everyone else. Even though he agreed with what he was saying, Davey saying all this suddenly and changing his tune about everything sent a chill up his spine. He actually sounded...well, like a man his age, despite the references. He knew a lot of media, sure, but this showed Harrison something important-it showered him the man that lurks underneath all that other stuff. A man he could stand beside. When he watched Davey suddenly quite randomly kiss Ichiru, he let his jaw finally hang slack in shock.
"H-Hey! What the hell are you doing that for?!" He said at first, but it was too late. Ichiru already delivered...well...face justice to the poor man, and sort of undermined his point. At least she agreed with him, it seemed.
Cassidy, in light of all the loud talking, took the honor of closing her ears with her hands, and looking up at everyone with her big eyes, as if waiting for the cue to know it was okay to listen again. Grown ups were so weird when they talked sometimes...

"Honestly? I wasn't going to argue that hard for it. I was just pissed that we suddenly had to stop when we were quite literally, over the last hump." He pointed to the fact that the imposing building itself was very close. "But I happen to agree with Davey...I'm tired of hiding." He nodded. "Back with the V.R.S, all we did was sit back and protect ourselves...and, well, all that really did was buy time before we had to pick up and move." He frowned. "Do you know how much it sucks to bunker down, and have to leave because a particularly nasty infected took a liking to your house?"

Finally, Harrison gave a sigh. "Anyway, that's a yes from me." He took a few steps after Davey, giving everyone else a glance. "At the very least, we should make it to the foot of the building." He stated.
He gave Mason a look.
"And for the record, I don't think trying to clear out a multi-level hospital sized building is that safe an idea...unless you had a minigun, or a few grenades I'm not aware of."

Roy, quite honestly, had never paid much attention to Davey, and while he was listening now, he didn't seem terribly pleased. He gave Lewis a look however.
"Look, you folks are obviously way more into this...uh...killing freaks thing. Why don't we get there, and you let us clean out a spot nearby. Give us a nice hole in the wall, and not get everyone lost in that looming deathtrap." He explained.


-The sounds outside only grew louder as whatever it was drew closer. The sound of the occasional knocked over trashcan-followed by the brutal mutilation of said trash can- filled the alleyway. Finally, it showed itself: or at least, part of itself. Peaking around the corner, the bleached white head and eyes of the mummified creature could be seen. It's body thin yet powerful, as it's head swung from side to side, gurgling vaguely as it listened carefully for sound, teeth wicked and jagged in it's head. It's arms did indeed seem replaced by weaponry-but closer inspection revealed they were simply horribly mutated. Thick growths on the monster's bones had torn through the skin and caused most of it to rot away, now earning a dull scrape whenever it dragged across something.
It moved as if clumsy, as it seemed to be...following something. Suddenly as it stuck it's head up, and seemed to 'take in' the air, it lept to the doorway, where John once was, in full view for all survivors. It hunched over the blood stain as if it were confused. This was were it's senses told it blood was, after all. It seemed distracted by it's quarry, almost angered if it could express emotion.

-"Ah, Mechanic? That's perfect too, we have a couple machines that're going bust...do you know how to repair generators?" She asked, before pausing herself.
"Ah, that can come later. You guys go ahead and pick out a room not marked by a red marker. Those are free. Get settled and I'll be back in 10 or so. We'll take your friend for now, make sure she's alright." He assured Brian, as Migaki protested weakly...but eventually went along with it. Brian watched her go reluctantly, but was thankful she was getting some help at least.

Brian paused as he watched Kat leave, before picking up their stuff and heading to the door , glancing back to Lucy as if to ask if she was coming.
Going inside would show that the people here weren't exactly in any better spirits then the ones outside, but they were alive, and that counted for something. Stepping into one of the free rooms, Brian set the equipment down and sighed, stretching and cracking his back now that he was able to. He almost instantly regretted the decision.
"So...lucky find, huh?" He asked Lucy. "These people seem nice...and they have shelter." He said, as if unsure how to properly speak to the woman alone.