Futuristic The Sun's Rest

[Kazanna]

Eli studied Edward solemnly for a long moment, before standing up, and approaching the man, he stood in front of him, and loomed in. He was larger then Edward by almost a head, and almost double his muscle mass, "Come on boyo, You used to be a peacekeeper didn't cha, don't take that look, it don't suit ya. Yer one to lead, not to get whipped like a puppy by a few embarrassing moments!" He clapped the man's shoulder firmly and then shook him. To Eli, the shaking would be a little thing, but to Edward, it would be similar to a rag doll being thrashed around by a pit bull. He had been studying his companions carefully and it didn't take him long to realize walks of life or former career choices by their movements and direct actions. Eli stood back from him after a moment and grinned widely, "Come on Lad, This old dog can see plain as day whats on your mind here, and ye have nothin' ta fear Aye?" He looked to the two women in the room, a brow raised, a grin on his face.

 

[phenixrider]

Edward realized that Eli was right. "You have got a point. Sorry. Wait." Edward took a long look at him. "How did you know I was an officer?" Edward looked around and stood up. "Anyone else tired?"

 

[Yang]

Raven didn't answer; she had found a small shelf that had a small overhang over it, had curled up on the shelf and promptly fell asleep.


So Ed could take that as a yes from Raven!

 

[Kazanna]

Eli tapped his chin curiously, then replied, "It's mainly in the way ya move lad, that and how you speak. Ya walk tall and talk like your tryin ta diffuse a situation before it happens." He shrugged slightly, "Ya learn ta pick the lawmen out when ya have a rifle trained on a crowd, helps ya learn who to avoid takin shots at needlessly. Lawmen always heard the trigger before it's pulled..." He grins lightly, regarding the man quietly. "And Aye, I think it's time for a rest, I'll take first watch, we might be locked in, but it's still not safe enough to not post a watch."

 

[phenixrider]

Edward tilted his head. "Thanks Eli! You know, for taking first shift. I'll take second. But as for now, I'm whipped. Goodnight. Well umm...oh what the hell, goodnight." Edward spread a small blanket on the ground before curling up and closing his eyes.

 

[Kazanna]

Eli snorted, and shrugged saying quietly, "We'll seey my friend." He slid his kukiri out, checking the edge for blemishes and nicks, but he knew there would be none, the blade was nearly unbreakable, though it was twice as heavy as it looked, he held the blade out in front of himself, muttering, "Not like I'll be sleeping any time soon anyway..." He heard the noises, The Dark Ones were at their door, sniffing and scratching, he knew they would spend at least two days above, scouting the place out, so he stood up, his old mind having already formulated a plan, he went to the generator, and pulled a long pair of jumper cables out from a box near it. One end to the generator, the other ends to the chain and to the wall of the shaft. He flicked a switching mechanism on the generator that allowed a compete loop to build, muttering, "Come knock now darkies... Come and say hello..." He stared up the shaft grimly, his jaw set firmly. After a moment, he turned and returned to his companions, sighing quietly.

 

[xxDragonEater95xx]

Ashley was worn out from all that had occurred, and her body language showed it. So much had happened recently and she wasn't sure how to even deal with it. Pops was a super solider, Raven Bourne had been a mute until a bit ago, and Edward turned out to be an officer. She felt a little left out just being a cage fighter, but she definitely felt safe being surrounded by this group. She put her bag down against the wall and snuggled up next to it. Since Eli said he'd take first watch and Ed said he'd take second, she figured she'd take third. "I'll...take third," she began to say as a long hard yawn interrupted her. As soon as the yawn was over her eyes grew extremely heavy and as she opened her mouth to try to finish her sentence again, the sand man had assaulted her and she quickly let the realm of the conscious.

 

[Kazanna]

Eli nodded muttering, "Aye, and I'll dance a jig under the sun one o these days..." He sighed and sat back, letting his body rest at the very least. He had retrieved his bag and was going over the internal provisions in it, the former resident of this place may have been low on food supplies, but he was not. Eli had always been one to make sure to have enough provisions for a very long period of time, He sighed as he looked through his bag. He hadn't planned for four, maybe one or two others. His gaze went to each of his companions as he looked through his supplies. He withdrew his map from his pocket and started going over it as the lights began to dim. He was looking at the point he'd marked, the liquor store. He knew he could get in, knew he could fortify the whole building within an hour, but now they were being stalked by the dark ones, now he had an extra element to deal with, Now his party was four, two more then his supplies would last for the rest of the week.


Eli began calculating things in his head, muttering to himself, "Two teenagers..." Eli narrowed his eyes at the map, and tapped another location he knew was abandoned and fortified, one he couldn't understand WHY it had been, just that it had been and was still. He muttered to himself again, "Here... To..." He'd taken a piece of charcoal and was making small marks on the map, drawing up a game plan, he glanced at the wall, where he'd seen the maps and the charts, the subsystem patterns. He stood up, and stepped over to them, then paused, and looked to the generator. He stepped over to it, cranked it back to full power and was rewarded with a screech as something was electrocuted topside, he grinned and chuckled, "Bad timing." He tapped charts one at a time as he went over them, until he found the one he was looking for, and pulled it out, the underground, the road-map of the cities subsystems.


Eli gazed at the map quietly and muttered "We can make it underground from here..." He tapped point's on the map, "To here..." He tapped another, "I know that's caved in..." He tapped a point and made a series of broken lines over it, then paused. Looking over his maps he shrugged and nodded, "Two blocks... Two blocks away is all the supplies we'll need for a decent amount of time..." He looked at the second location, a feeling of dread washing over him, "Four miles... through Central Park..." He tapped the second location and shivered, hanging his head in silent resignation, He'd need to scout it alone, No way he could bring the others with him. He went to a supply bin, grabbed up a notebook, one of the smaller ones, a pencil, and a highlighter from a neighboring bin, and began to write plans, notes, and guide's to the city, He snorted, remembering an old movie from before the sun went out, he turned back to the cover, and wrote in his clean cursive writing, on the cover as a joke, "The Book of Eli" He would leave the book with his companions when he went scouting, in case he didn't make it back. He glanced to Edward, and frowned quietly, nodding, He'd leave more then one, One with Edward, the other...


With his eyes narrowed slightly, Eli looked to Raven, a light chill running down his spine, the girl was a survivor, he had more respect for her then some of the men he had served with in times of war and conflict, She had survived for years on her own in a world that normally consumed someone of her making. He continued to write, then went to the bin, and retrieved a second notebook, he began transposing what he had written in the first, adding further details to both in notes, and scratchings, he muttered to himself, "Rantin's of a madman more akin to..." With a snort. He filled the pages, a bit at a time, he was a proficient writer, and knew how to set up a field manual well enough, add notes relevant to each area, He would have to set up a glossary in the back though, after he was done. He would keep the books a secret until they were needed. He would have to locate another city map and update it to the markings on his map, and add it into the spine of each of the books, the under-city maps would be harder to replicate he realized, so he hoped there was more then one or two here.


((OOC: If it's TLR for you, The summary is, Eli puttered around doing random things, talking to himself, planning ahead.))

 

[Yang]

Raven shivered in her sleep, feeling like someone was watching her without her knowing. She shifted slightly, forgetting in her sleep that she was in a veeeeery cramped space. She bumped her head, and woke with a start.


She looked at Eli, who was writing in a book, and her other friends, who were all sleeping.


She slithered out of her little shelf and walked over to Eli and sat down, not saying a word.


She shivered slightly again.

 

[Kazanna]

Eli looked up to Raven and smiled lightly, "Not much of one ta sleep in unknown regions are ye lass?" He was still working on the journals, filling them both in equally as he went, details on all he knew from New York to Miami, and from there to Washington State, then down from there to Mexico. He tapped his chin and said, "So Lass, Looks likes as it's first come first served on the watch rotations, at least how I actually do it, Your on second if ye don't mind. S'pose I ought to tell ye what I've been up to." He stood up, and closed the two books, stacking them neatly atop each other. He folded up all of the maps, and set them aside as well in a neat stack. He made his way over to the generator, that was still spinning, and cranked it powerfully. He pointed to the jumper cables hooked up to it, and traced them with his finger over to the chain and the column, "Doorbuster's special." He grinned at the joke and chuckled lightly, "Let's see them get in with a dose of electrocution to go with it eh?" He returned to the table, and took up just one of the manuals, then offered the second one to her, "Won't hurt to let you in on my little scheme I suppose. Ye've already proven yerself able to survive, but this..." He tapped the book that was titled, "The Book of Eli" with a grin, "This is a bit of a gift from me, to you and the group, In case the worst should happen to me..." His eyes took a serious light, "I'm getting old Lass, Every fight I've been in with the Dark One's... has felt to be my last, It's always just been by luck alone that I survive I feel... that or just that I'm a bit bigger and more durable then them, with a really sharp blade at my side at all times." he cleared his throat, "But anyways, These are guide books, detailing everything from here to Mexico, I've done a lot of traveling in the past ten years, and I know that not all of that will be accurate all the time... but whatever is still intact will help ye." He smiled lightly, his old eyes filled with his experience.

 

[Yang]

Raven smiled ruefully. "I've never liked sleeping."


She picked up the "book of Eli", and flipped to the first page.

 

[Kazanna]

Eli shrugged at her, and smiled lightly, "Aye, neither did I... Always leads to a knife in the back..." He rubbed one of his shoulders ruefully. "Though, now days, it seems to be more along the lines of being eaten..." He looked down the book darkly, sighing quietly.

 

[Yang]

Raven didn't comment, but her gaze wandered onto Ashley.


"Wasn't she alone also? Having to survive by herself?"


Raven's skin seemed sickly in the pale light, and she shivered, wrapping her arms around her long legs.

 

[Kazanna]

Eli glanced at the other girl, shaking his head, "I think it's recent, she moves well in a group, She must have lost them..." He sighed, and stood up, shifting smoothly, his long coat was off, and he stepped past her, wrapping it around her shoulders as he went to the generator again, cranking it several more times, raising the level of the lights slightly. "Not my business to share though Lass, You'll have to ask her yourself when she wakes up... I get a pretty good read on people but..." He sighed, and closed his eyes for a moment, then half opened them, "There are times... when the books you read into... are filled with more then you want to see."

 

[Yang]

Raven accepted the jacket thankfully, and wrapped herself in it, looking like she was drowning in a lake of coat. But it was warm, and that was all that really mattered.


Raven looked down at Eli, and couldn't help but admire his strength, and her eyes grew sad, thinking about all that had he had probably gone through.


She gazed at the generator, beginning to warm up, and watched the light flicker now and then.


She glanced down at the sleeping form of her companions, thinking How easy it would be to slip out alone, unnoticed. It doesn't really seem like they consider me part as their group. Ed barely even noticed that I wasn't mute, and I still don't know if Ashley knows. She might not have heard my 'tiny' voice. The only person that cares about me here is Eli, but he has so much more he has to do, and I can't take up all his time.


All of this slipped through her brain at once, and she pinched herself. No, they care about you! All of them! Don't think like that!


Raven curled up on a small rock, her arms wrapped around her legs, now feeling cold AND miserable.


Good job, Raven. Good job.

 

[Kazanna]

While Raven contemplated her place in the group, Eli set about cleaning out his bag, he'd had it since Mexico City, it was a heavy US Military backpack for long excursions that he had modified down to have exactly what he needed. He started to unload it and take stock of everything he had, withdrawing clothing, which he set aside carefully, all of it neatly folded, and rolled, he pulled out all of his cords, the high tensile tungsten reinforced Kevlar fibers braided together, he had several of these lengths of cord, almost a half a mile of it. He pulled out several throwing knives, each of them were the same metal as his kukiri, each of them had a length of cord tied to the circular loop pommel. Two more canteen's still full, besides the one he'd lent to Raven earlier, a tightly bound parcel marked "Dried Foods" It was as large as his head, but squished down slightly. He tugged at the bindings and nodded, setting it aside, he muttered, "Always low on bandages... never enough bandages..." He pulled out twelve vacuum packed packages of bandages, each one ten feet long and tightly woven and wrapped. He set these aside and then, at the bottom of his bag, he withdrew a single pistol, a 9mm Beretta, etched into it's barrel were the words, "Last Resort." He stared at it and sighed, dropping the clip, he stared at the ammunition inside, it had five bullets left of the twelve that had originally been in it. He sighed and closed his eyes his shoulders slumping slightly. He replaced the clip, double checked the safety, and refilled his bag, tying it shut a moment later. Eli sat back after he was done, staring at the ceiling, muttering, "Going to need to get a lot more then this before we can dig in anywhere long term..." He glanced over to Raven after a moment of contemplation, "Hey Lass, Nothin' against these two, but you mind takin' watch while I sleep? I figure ya had a week ta kill me and ya didn't. Figure at this point, Ya have my back, even if those two suddenly went rogue." He un-clipped his Kukiri from his bandolier, and set it down in front of her, sheath and all, to him, it was a hand knife, to anyone else, it would be like a sword. He offered it over to her, "If anything happens, or if ye start to drift off, wake me or Edward, Dunnae how long Ashley was runnin' for, or where she was comin' from, but Ed seemed fresh when we met up, so he's next after you." If she'd take the knife, he'd tug his axe down out of the manhole's tool rack, and then sit down against the wall facing the entrance, his axe against his shoulder, his eyes half lidded as he slept with his eyes nearly open.

 

[Yang]

Raven nodded, sitting up. She could take second watch. She was capable of that.


She paced around quietly, analyzing the scenario. They were stuck in a manhole with a few provisions, and they had four people in their party. The generator was good, but Raven didn't completely trust it to hold out much longer.


A dark crawler scratched at the cover overhead, and Raven shivered, wondering why she was still cold. She wrapped the huge jacket tighter around her shoulders, and polished a small rock with her fingers.


After about four hours, Raven wearily went over to Ed, and she gently shook him awake.

 

[phenixrider]

Edward slowly opened his eyes. He gave a slight cough before sitting up. "Uggh. Raven? Is it my turn to watch? What's going on?"

 

[Yang]

Raven nodded and stumbled to a corner, catching herself on the wall. She curled up in the corner and pulled the jacket over her legs, and shivered underneath it. She closed her eyes, but immediately opened them. Despite having lives nearly ten years by herself, sometimes the dark still scared her. She knew it was foolish, but it actually made sense at the moment.


Suddenly, she realized. Ed had acknowledged her! Her eyes widened slightly as she watched Ed sleepily pace around, and her spirits soared dramatically. He knew she existed! He acknowledged her! Now Raven just had to wonder if Ashley had ever accepted her.


She closed her eyes happily, and for a moment stopped shivering.


Sleep. Yaaaaaay.


And darn those shivers.

 

[phenixrider]

Ed noticed Raven shivering and draped his blanket over the jacket she was wearing.. He smiled a little at her sleeping form. He paced around the room for a while and watched the others at rest. He leaned against the wall and began to twiddle his thumbs. This was going to be a long night.

 

[Kazanna]

After a few Hours, Eli woke with a start, his axe still in hand, he glanced around the room and sighed, relaxing, it was dark, and still quiet, so he slid out his flashlight, shook it till it had power, and then clicked it on, glancing around the room. Raven was asleep, Ed was on watch, and Ashley was also asleep. He pulled himself off the floor with a grunt, and flexed his muscles, wondering how long he'd been out. He slid his sleeve back to expose his old self winding watch, and held the light over the display muttering, "Six hours... Not bad... Generally don't get more then an hour." He moved over to the generator, and cranked it until the lights came back on, and was awarded with a tell tale dimming flicker and a screech as something else up top was electrocuted, he snorted and muttered, "And they're supposed to be smarter then us." He turned to Edward and stepped over to him, sitting down beside the man, "Ya still awake there Ed? I think your watch is done with for now, I'll wake Ashley for hers so we can both get some more shut eye eh?" Eli would have let the man take a longer watch, but he wanted the man rested for the coming events. So he nudged Ashley into waking, "Come on princess, Wake up and smell the apocalypse." he growled softly.

 

[phenixrider]

Edward smiled and nodded at Eli. He had been bored out of his mind for the past few hours. "Sure, thanks Eli." He stumbled over to his spot before remembering he gave his blanket to Raven. He walked over to her and sat down, leaning his head against the wall. "Pleasant dreams," he whispered. Edward closed his eyes and before he knew it fell asleep.

 

[xxDragonEater95xx]

Ashley woke up from her siesta, feeling reenergized. "Seriously, Pops...that's the worst wake up call ever." she chuckled a bit as she sat up, wiping the drool from her mouth and the side of her face. "If only one day we'd wake up to find out that this was all just some horrible shared nightmare...what I wouldn't give to be able to go to the movies again or just to laze around the house in a cozy pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt." she slowly got to her feet and stretched her limbs. " Sooooo...what's the plan here. Wait out the creepy crawlers of death some more or are we good?" She yawned widely as she cracked her back and her neck.

 

[Kazanna]

Eli shrugged at her, sighing he says,"Ed needs a bit more rest, and Raven's still out, I'm going to nap a bit more myself in a bit, but your on last watch, so keep the generator up and running while the others rest. Were going to need a bit more in the way of supplies soon, So I'm going to get a few things ready before I catch an hour or so more of sleep." Eli went between the shelves muttering, "Lets... See..." He'd spent a while organizing the supplies that were available into a couple of bags that were hung up in one of the corners. He muttered, "At least enough for each of us... In case..." He silenced the thought and sighed as he scrounged through the meager supplies left in the shelter. He looked to the medical unit before shaking his head, knowing it wasn't possible to bring it with them.

 

[xxDragonEater95xx]

Ashley nodded in understanding. She had heard those things before, but that last encounter was the closest she had even been to them. Even though outwardly she wasn't showing it, she could feel small tremors shaking her to her core. "Well get some rest Pops, can't have the Morpheus of our group being tired now, can we?" she was good at redirecting her anxiousness and worry with a good joke or jest. Ashley went over to check the generators and began to walk back and forth, sometimes going under the manhole and looking up the way they came down. "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!" she thought as she looked up. "Do you think Raven's going to be okay?" she asked in almost a whisper as she took her eyes away from the tunnel that symbolically, to her, represent the ascension into hell.