The Silence of the Storm

[shardofwinter]

Rations have been cut. Again. Everyone is on one bowl of watery soup a day. Sometimes with crackers, sometimes not. Most people are too tired and weak to do much more than sit around and talk, and nobody discourages them in the slightest. Work has to be rotated constantly as people weaken quickly, but the fires still need to burn, people still need to guard the cooks and rations, and the sick still need to be tended to. Soon the hardest job is keeping up morale while the big expedition comes back. All the gods and heavens of the multiverse help them if they don’t come back with supplies, and soon.

The boundaries have tightened to an almost suffocatingly small space. It doesn’t take much to imagine where they will be by the end of Winter, which at least makes planning a little easier. People are already relocating to deeper in the Plaza. Unfortunately it means that those who have enough energy to often end up fighting with their neighbours, as the close quarters tests everyone’s patience. There are a few spaces carved out for like minded people to shelter from the dreary situation. Mechanics and those like them have set up a nice little place close to the Crossroads Café, and a break area for those helping the sick is sheltered in a room behind the injured and ill. Zandros moves from groups to individuals, looking for help in creating some form of morale boosting display that will adhere to Isidor's instructions. People are surviving in whatever ways they can, but it's reaching breaking point.

((It's the Final Event Post, everyone! OOC Post is here! This is for those stuck at the hub while the Main Expedition is going on. There will be a second part to this post for the Return of the Expedition. In the meantime, have fun!))

Comments

[outpostcook]

"Glad to see you made it, Matt. Got your arm taken care of." Kinner joins Matt beside the fire. "I wanted to check up on Palmer. Is he all right? I was kind of worried how he'd handle himself out there. He's a mechanic, not a soldier."

The little cook's worried about the other man, given Palmer's recklessness and lazy ways. Once he has informarion on Palmer, Kinner will give it to his friends.

[he_put_the_devil_in_me]

It's been a long day and Matt is pretty tired, so he doesn't pay much attention to the sound of footsteps until suddenly there's someone right next to him, talking, and he has to rally himself to respond. "Uh, he's fine, I think. He did come back with us; I didn't smell any blood on him. Human blood, I mean."

[outpostcook]

"Not human blood." That means that Palmer was in a direct fight, and almost certainly killed at least one Fallen. Kinner gives an impressed sound. "Seems like he carried himself pretty well. Maybe things'll ease up now we've got food. I reckon they'll be looking for me in the kitchens to help cook it pretty soon."

[he_put_the_devil_in_me]

"It was a real shitshow out there. Anyone who made it back did good, as far as I'm concerned." Even some of the dead, probably, but Matt had been far too busy to notice.

Besides what he heard of the convoy as it roared into the distance, anyway, and he frowns a little at the reminder that Kinner was part of that. "How'd you end up getting away? I heard some of it, but you were too far away for me to hear what happened in the end."

[outpostcook]

"Isidor's fire finally scared 'em off, I think. That and Furiosa's driving. I'd say my markmanship helped, but I'm not sure it did. One of them hit me in the chest at one point and knocked me off the snowmobile, but Furiosa pulled me back."

Kinner doesn't disagree with Matt's description of the battle.

"Oh, it was a real mess. Those Fallen just wouldn't quit. They chased us almost all the way across the torches, and it was all I could do to hold on when Furiosa was goin' full throttle. It was chaos out there. Whatever else they're up to, they really, really didn't want us to have that food."

[he_put_the_devil_in_me]

"But they backed off at the torchline still?" Matt still doesn't know what it is about that arbitrary barrier that's holding the Fallen at bay, but it seems to him that if they'd been able to cross that line, that would've been the time to do it. It makes him uneasy, relying on some kind of barrier he doesn't understand, but it's reassuring too, to know that there's something keeping them all safe regardless.

[outpostcook]

Kinner nods in response to Matt's question. "They didn't stop us, though if you ask me I'm glad the flames were there. Probably discouaged them from trying. They're tough opponents. They don't give up easily. Very smart, and very brutal. Pack hunters, though that was obvious from the first attack. They could probably overwhelm us in a night if they chose to. They've got the numbers and machines to do it."

[he_put_the_devil_in_me]

"Gee, that's comforting," Matt says flatly, mildly sarcastic. "So they still might be lulling us into a false sense of security and kill us all in our sleep. Yay us."

[outpostcook]

Kinner shrugs. That's a possibility. "Well, I can't say that ain't a situation I'm used to. The paranoia, I mean. In any case, we'd better stay on our guard as long as they're here in the Nexus."

[he_put_the_devil_in_me]

He sighs, sounding as exhausted as he feels, and waves vaguely at his splinted arm. "Well, I don't think I'm going to be a ton of help until this is more healed up."