Fan Fiction ❯ Nuclear Winter ❯ Unwelcome Guests ( Chapter 4 )
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
By: BlueSoul 
The hotel is hiding more than ghosts...
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Post-apocalyptic | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.07.2002 | Pages: 1 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 223 | Status: Completed
The hotel is hiding more than ghosts...
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Post-apocalyptic | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.07.2002 | Pages: 1 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 223 | Status: Completed
Indigo smiles. "You seem quite capable of defending yourself." He roots through drawers, effectively scouring the room. "Nothing in here... keep going?"
Trevelyan nods as she runs a hand absently across the relatively well preserved walls and the fleur-de-lis patterned wallpaper. "The security office that you're looking for should be somewhere near."
Indigo crosses the room, a plain-looking wooden door with a plaque labeled "Security" hides in a corner. "Guess this is it... the first door must've been the main defense, eh? Looks unlocked. You want to go first?"
Trevelyan manages a small chuckle as she walks up, twisting the handle and pushing the door inwards. "Are you expecting something?"
Indigo shrugs, leaning against the wall. "Not really, just the old 'ladies first' thing... and if there really IS anything in there, you get first pick of goodies."
"Joyous," comes the dry remark as Trevelyan gingerly eases the portal wider and steps in, looking around. "Well, you have the safes, the dead monitors, the consoles..." A pause, and then she adds a little more quietly, "The corpse or two."
Indigo chuckles. "No weapon lockers?" He steps inside, peering around. "Oh, fun... what do you think they died of?"
"Maybe," Trevelyan allows, indicating the two mummified corpses, dressed in dusty security uniforms, arranged against the wall and over a chair. "Afraid I didn't get that far, though. And looks like they did each other in. Some sort of argument?"
Indigo crouches down, rolling one of the corpses over. "Looks like it..." The man's chest has a series of gunshot wounds, the look on his face is of dismay. "Who knows what they were fighting over. Too bad these monitors don't work... the safe?" He laughs, shaking his head. "Money is useless... find a locker? This room is pretty big."
Trevelyan nods wordlessly as she gives the two corpses one last look and then searches the rest of the room's perimeter, stopping before a walled off section with a cage set in front, rather than the conventional door-and-wall. "Seems there are a few things left, though most of it's been scavenged. Guess whatever security remained took off with what they could carry - the door's been left open," she notes as she swings a section open, stepping inside.
Indigo notes the uniforms on the men. "Looks like they didn't get far, then... these look like the same uniforms on those stiffs out in the lobby..." Shaking his head, he peers through the cage. "Bleh, not much is right.... looks like a few guns though... ammo... feh, good enough. Take what you want, I'll let you take first pick."
Trevelyan snorts as she eyes the assortment left behind, shaking her head as she backs out. "I don't know the first thing about them except that they look vaguely like what I've been using. You sort it out - give me what you think I can handle, along with a few quick lessons. I'll go look through some of the other rooms for anything else that might be useful; it looks like these offices were left pretty much untouched after the first ransacking."
Indigo digs through a stack of guns, the racks tilted at odd angles. He sifts through a small pile and blinks. "Damn... what the hell was this place? There's some heavy artillery in there..." He tugs a large rifle out, the entire assembly around 4' long.
"What was that?" Trevelyan calls out, her voice floating from further down the corridor to the sound of cabinets being opened and closed. "And it looks like there's nothing else of interest," her voice grows stronger as she walks back to the security office.
Indigo leans on the rifle, looking for ammunition. "Check this thing out... too heavy for them to carry, it seems..." He pulls a belt from an ammo box and slings it over his shoulder. "I bet I can find something for you... Jesus... sub-machinegun? Or would you rather stick with something of the pistol variety?"
Trevelyan has a decidedly skeptical expression on her face as she walks into view, eyeing him. "Uhm, I think I'll stick with the pistol variety, thank you very much. Do you think it's wise to burden ourselves down with stuff that big?"
Indigo leans the M-60 against the cage and roots through a small case with pistols. Smiling, he slips a handful of clips into his pockets, along with a gun that looks alot like the other in his pocket. "Eh? I can lug this thing..." He flexes his right arm for emphasis as he stuffs a handful of shotgun shells into his pocket. "Talk about the mother lode. Here, look at these.... 9mm with a hip-holster..."
Trevelyan hmphs, a grudging grin arising as she folds her arms. "A pity we can't eat it," she remarks dryly. "Though it's amusing to see you worked up like a kid in a candy store. Maybe we should look for a room now; can move whatever you want up there and then look things over in more detail in comfort."
Indigo chuckles, pulling a loose locker from the wall and stuffing things into it. The M-60, he loads up and slings over his shoulder. "Alright... I think I got most of everything... if there's anything else you'd like to grab, go for it... the kitchens and restaurants were on what floor, the next one up?"
"You're not helping," Trevelyan sing-songs in an aggrieved tone as she steps gingerly around the corpses, unconsciously quickening her steps, eyes straying to the closed doors that she passes. "And if not mutants, then what were they?"
Shrugging, again, he follows her quietly. "Not a damn clue. Looked like... like something you'd see in a video game... or one of those art books with demons... or hell, a nightmare..." He slides one of the pistols out of his belt, looking about as he walks. "All this shit can't be here without a reason..."
"You're saying, then, that those creatures existed before the fall of civilization?" Trevelyan scoffs, stepping carefully over the fallen door, pausing outside to regain her bearings. "Or that those poor sods somehow amassed this armory in the time since in the hopes of setting up a fort of sorts? Have you ever seen those things before?"
Indigo shakes his head, a grim look on his face. "Could be something created after the fall... hell, could be something created by humans... we blew the place up... why not make something to live in it? It could be anything... experiment gone wrong.. radiation... These weapons... their condition, the loadouts... this can't be some half-assed attempt at putting together some firepower, these people knew something... or maybe this hotel is more than meets the eye." Sighing, he starts up the stairs after moving past her.
Trevelyan casts a sour look at his back as she follows in his wake. "Sometimes I forget how reassuring you are. Are you sure you still want to explore the kitchens?"
Indigo nods, equipment clanking as he climbs the stairs. "That's what I'm here for, love." He chuckles, feet thumping on the plush carpet "I'm hungry. There's got to be something to eat. Canned stuff... hell, even freeze-dried military rations sound good. I don't know if any critters are here, anyway... that battle down there lookied like a stalemate."
Trevelyan sighs in resignation, resettling her pack on her shoulders as she slips the glasses back into their wrappings, tucking them carefully away. "What's your favorite foods?" she abruptly asks, changing the subject.
Indigo smiles, stopping in the upper hallway. "I can eat just about anything... I like peaches, though... and strawberries..." He sighs, looking down the polished marble hallway, various restaurant fronts leading down to the end. "I used to know a girl... she always smelled like peaches... made me smile.." trailing off, a single tear slides down his cheek as he makes his way to the nearest door.
Trevelyan's eyes stray toward him as his voice turns toward reminiscing, and she watches in silence as he walks away. Biting her lip, she trails after, offering quietly, "Father - the old man, Samsung, traded for some dried apples once. We had a cobbled-together oven, and I still don't know where he got all the ingredients, or even the recipe. But he made an apple pie - and it was the oddest thing I'd ever tasted, sweet and yet somewhat sour, and more than a little burnt around the edges. He apologized about how bad it was through the whole eating of it. But I think it was one of the best things I've ever had. And he looked like he wanted to cry when the first aromas floated from that iron box."
Indigo smiles, pushing a glass door open and peering into a dark, rather expensive looking restaurant. "Apple pie... it's been years since I've had one... hard as hell to even find apples anymore..." He goes into a full-blown laugh, obviously trying to hide some sorrow. "Totally out of season! HAH!" Quickly wiping another tear away, he slips through the door, hitting a light switch.
There is a sputter, an electric hum, and for a wonder, a few bulbs even turn on, shedding a reluctant light over certain parts of the dining area. To reveal scattered chairs, empty tables, and the dessicated remains of potted plants. The floor is littered with small bones and pellets of scavengers.
Trevelyan peeks around him, and then moves wordlessly past, heading slowly for the rear and the free-swinging double doors that would undoubtedly lead into the kitchens.
"Quiet as death in here..." Indigo morbidly notes, dropping the locker on a table close to the swinging doors. The loud 'thunk' echoes loudly throughout the empty dining room as he quickly goes about stacking tables and chairs against the glass and doors, forming a barricade.
Trevelyan flinches at the sound, glancing back toward him as if to reassure herself of his presence before she hesitantly pushes one of the doors inwards, looking around it. "Maybe we should forget about moving up to the rooms, and just secure a corner..."
Indigo grunts, stacking a veritable wall against the doors. "There's gotta be food here. If not, some sort of staff elevator in the kitchen that leads to an isolated store-room... If anything, this may be the best place to hole up. If you see anything big and heavy in there, try to drag it out here and help with this..." He starts arranging another row of tables in a U-shape around the kitchen doors, other bits of furniture in various bunkers.
There is a rough scrape of metal over linoleum as Trevelyan drags a chair over to prop the door into the kitchen open, and she scrapes back her hair with a breath, surveying the area. "Well, there's always the refridgerator units," she quips, eyeing the large, stainless steel cubes lined up against the walls, long since gone silent from lack of power or malfunction. "Of course, that's also assuming that something hasn't shacked up in here, and we're just trapping ourselves in with it. See, it's all your fault," she continues rambling as she heads further in, searching for likely pantries in which canned and preserved foods would be stored. "Now I'm beginning to think morbid too."
Indigo chuckles, finally setting up a 'fort.' Cracking open the locker, he begins laying things out on the table. He calls to the kitchen. "If anything IS in this place... looks like we've got enough to hold it off... as for the fridges, eh, see if there's food in them, then I'll drag 'em over here if not... " Quickly the table becomes cluttered with several weapons and various ammunition. Whistling, he calls back to Kit. "I keep telling you, something is up with this place... why would security have a LAW? This thing is anti-tank."
"Stop it. You're corrupting me," Trevelyan retorts amidst the sound of rummaging, along with a squeaked 'oops' just before there is a truly horrendous clatter of tin falling against each other and steel counters and linoleum. As the cacophany begins to die down, she calls back out in a pained voice, "At least...it appears they had canned food in abundance."
Indigo pokes his head into the kitchen, gun in hand and a worried look on his face. "Are you okay?"
Trevelyan looks guiltily toward him from where she is perched on one of the counters, one hand steadying herself against the higher cabinets and the other holding a can - the one that had most likely caused the veritable avalanche that scattered the rest of its brethren across the majority of visible counter and floor space in the area. "Care to help me sort out the ones that are still edible?" she jokes weakly.
Indigo smiles, eyeing the flood of cans. "At least you're not hurt. Now, they all look fine unless severely dented.. rusted.. glowing, or moving... you think?"
Trevelyan nods, carefully sliding down to the floor, nudging a few cans aside to clear herself some foot-space. "Yes. I think glowing is definitely out. You wouldn't happen to have a can opener handy, would you?"
Leaning down, Indigo nods. "I've got something... I think." The subtle sound of metal sliding across metal echoes a bit as he slips a small dagger from his boot. "Would this do? Don't know why, but I keep this thing around just in case I might need it..."
Trevelyan snorts, unable to resist a grin as she holds out a hand for it. "'Don't know why' indeed. From the way you were drooling over that stuff laid out downstairs, it's a wonder you can still walk around relatively unhindered. C'mon, help me shove this mess out into the dining room. There's more light out there, and this place is giving me the creeps."
Indigo smiles. "I know what'll help... hold on." He jogs out of the kitchen, retrieves the now-empty weapons locker from the dining room, and rushes back. "Fill 'er up... And how I manage to walk... well, I've got amazing balance and ol' Betsy here.." He taps his left leg, his knuckle klunking against it.
Trevelyan rolls her eyes, but seems to be in better spirits in spite of herself as she begins to scoop the cans into the locker. "Well, one thing I know I *will* miss that only comes with a room is a shower. I wonder if the water still works, at least..." She abruptly pauses, tilting her head in a listening attitude.
Indigo shakes his head, loading cans with his free hand. "I doubt any water at all would work, the stores would be contaminated. Even then, it'd be cold... And... what? What's with that look on your face?"
Trevelyan shakes her head with a frown, holding up a hand for quiet. "Do you hear that?" she asks in hushed tones, turning to scan the dining room. But all that follows is only silence.
Indigo blinks, leveling the locker in both arms. "I didn't hear anything the first time..." He turns his head, scanning the kitchen as well. "Where do you think it came from?"
Trevelyan releases a pent up breath as she stands, absently dusting her hands off on her pants. "No, no...maybe it was just an overactive imagination. Heaven knows you've been stirring it up..." This time, though, she is interrupted by a quite audible *thump* as something leans against the doors and the makeshift barricade into the restaurant, snuffling sounds following soon after as the same something investigates the doors' edges.
"Shit" Indigo peers at the door and the barricade of chairs and tables. "The storm can't be over... that thing may be over us for days... do you think it was already in the building?" Questions and images race through his mind. "The refridgerators... we got cans, we barricade the kitchen doors, too..."
Trevelyan swallows, caught frozen in her pose of dusting off her hands, eyes locked intently on the doors which shudder again, but it appears that whatever is beyond them is more intent on investigating than actually trying to barge in. "Perhaps they take shelter here too," she murmurs in hushed tones. "But the stranger...he was here. Do you think he lived here for long? If so, he must have some way of fending them off. Maybe they'll go away after a while."
Indigo's eyes move between the doors and Kit, his voice hushed. "Who knows... that crazy old guy... sure sounded smart, but who knows... the security room was shut.. as for the critters, you saw the bloodbath downstairs."
One more snuffle, what sounded almost like a sneeze, and then silence descends once more on the place. Slowly straightening, unnaturally aware of any sound she might make with breathing or movement, Trevelyan shakily whispers, "Is there any other way into the restaurant?"
Indigo nods slowly, voice in its usual morbid tone. "Outer windows..." He points to the far wall. Cheeful bergundy curtains cover about four mid-sized windows. "Second floor though... hmm. Ventilation, if they really wanted to get at us... last possible scenario, the dumbwaiter in the back of the kitchen..."
"Perhaps...one of the rooms...on the highest floors...would've been better..." Trevelyan whispers in broken phrasings as she begins to inch her way toward the door. "Should we try to take the - " Her next words are lost in a gasp as one foot nudges a can, sending others cascading away and under her other foot just as she sets it down, sending her sprawling across the floor with an *oof* of expelled air and a clatter of tin.
Outside, there is an immediate response as a sharp bark is followed by growls, snuffling returning to the door's edges, complemented by the scratch of claws prying against the wood.
Accompanying the clatter, the oof, and the animal growls is the /very/ horrendous sound of the locker falling to the ground, every can inside making a considerable racket. Indigo hops over the locker, yanks Kit to her feet and then carries her over to a small make-shift bunker, the table of scattered weapons right in the middle of it. "Shit... Alright, this could be good.. or it could be bad..."
Trevelyan has barely enough time to realize she just had the wind knocked out of her before the crash of the locker further numbs her ears and mind. Being manhandled over to another part of the restaurant becomes a comparitively mild affair, and it isn't until she is set down that she coughs weakly and struggles to restart her lungs again. "That...was terribly...clumsy of me," she wheezes.
At least three of the creatures circle the door from the various snuffings and barking whines, two soon scattering to pace around the edges of the restaurant while the third remains by the doors - and begins to throw its weight against them and the barricade keeping them closed.
Indigo takes a moment to gently smooth out Kit's hair, an apologetic look on his face. "That's alright... you think we can get the fridges out of there and against the doors in time? Or do we just set up shop and blast them?"
Indigo's touch finally seems to bring her out of her daze, and Trevelyan takes a last deep breath to settle herself as she flicks a quick, uncertain look his way before pulling away, peering over the edge of the table to survey the array of firepower laid out. "As much faith as I have in the people who made your arm and leg, I don't think we want to try the refridgerators." She winces at an especially emphatic *thump* that rattles the makeshift barricade, shifting it somewhat. "Not in the time we have, anyway."
A bead of sweat rolls down Indigo's face as he surveys the room. "You're right... and the casters on those things are too small... they'd get swamped in the carpet." Growling, he leans over the table, plucking the M-60 from the edge and grabbing a medium-sized SMG. "You're going to have a quick crash course on this thing. Figure one: Pull the trigger with the barrel pointed at the target.. figure two, hold it down until a, the critter is dead, or b, it's out of ammo... in case b, hit that switch and stuff a new clip in...Tap the trigger if you don't want it full-auto. Safetey's off. " He tosses the gun and a small ammo case to her as he settles on the floor with the heavy machinegun, tripod down and belt over his shoudler.
Trevelyan automatically catches the one, fumbling slightly with the other though she manages to keep both in hand, looking down with misgivings. She doesn't utter either protest or comment, though, and merely positions herself for a clear view of the doors, making sure their each of their lines of fire were clear.
The other two have rejoined the third by now, having found nothing to admit them within the building, and now there is a cacophany of thumps that slowly shove the barricade back, the occasional snout or claws poking through the cracks, trying to squeeze through.
Indigo tugs gently at the trigger, feeding the belt with his other hand. A burst of four or five shots cuts through the barricade as the gunfire sound itself bounces off of the walls in the large dining room. "Maybe I can scare them off." He smiles, watching the door, though in the back of his mind, a low thumping is heard.
There is the quick scrabble of claws as shadows duck swiftly away from the crack, Indigo's shots seeming to have done the trick. Trevelyan waits tensely for several long moments, counting her heartbeats until she has reached thirty before mumbling half to herself, "It can't be that easy..."
And right on cue, with a roar to rival that of the machine gun burst Indigo had triggered, three furry bodies rush the doors in a concerted effort, breaking through the weakened barricade to pile into the room.
In tandem with the roar, a blast of continued gunfire erupts from Indigo's side of the room, one of the critters nearly cut down in mid-air. Its corpse, driven by momentum, slides to a halt against one of the scattered tables. The two others, warily take cover as Indigo eases up, hefting the gun and standing. "Watch yourself, Kit.." He approaches the table, reaching for another belt of ammo just in case. In the back of his head, the thumping increases in volume. "Uhm, Kit? Are you hearing that... that thumping noise...?"
A large bay window on the far side of the room shatters, glass spraying everything. The critters whirl around, surprised. With a roar that shakes the room even further, a hulking beast nearly as tall as the ceiling stands at the edge of the room, bulging yellow eyes tracing the four occupants...
Trevelyan nods as she runs a hand absently across the relatively well preserved walls and the fleur-de-lis patterned wallpaper. "The security office that you're looking for should be somewhere near."
Indigo crosses the room, a plain-looking wooden door with a plaque labeled "Security" hides in a corner. "Guess this is it... the first door must've been the main defense, eh? Looks unlocked. You want to go first?"
Trevelyan manages a small chuckle as she walks up, twisting the handle and pushing the door inwards. "Are you expecting something?"
Indigo shrugs, leaning against the wall. "Not really, just the old 'ladies first' thing... and if there really IS anything in there, you get first pick of goodies."
"Joyous," comes the dry remark as Trevelyan gingerly eases the portal wider and steps in, looking around. "Well, you have the safes, the dead monitors, the consoles..." A pause, and then she adds a little more quietly, "The corpse or two."
Indigo chuckles. "No weapon lockers?" He steps inside, peering around. "Oh, fun... what do you think they died of?"
"Maybe," Trevelyan allows, indicating the two mummified corpses, dressed in dusty security uniforms, arranged against the wall and over a chair. "Afraid I didn't get that far, though. And looks like they did each other in. Some sort of argument?"
Indigo crouches down, rolling one of the corpses over. "Looks like it..." The man's chest has a series of gunshot wounds, the look on his face is of dismay. "Who knows what they were fighting over. Too bad these monitors don't work... the safe?" He laughs, shaking his head. "Money is useless... find a locker? This room is pretty big."
Trevelyan nods wordlessly as she gives the two corpses one last look and then searches the rest of the room's perimeter, stopping before a walled off section with a cage set in front, rather than the conventional door-and-wall. "Seems there are a few things left, though most of it's been scavenged. Guess whatever security remained took off with what they could carry - the door's been left open," she notes as she swings a section open, stepping inside.
Indigo notes the uniforms on the men. "Looks like they didn't get far, then... these look like the same uniforms on those stiffs out in the lobby..." Shaking his head, he peers through the cage. "Bleh, not much is right.... looks like a few guns though... ammo... feh, good enough. Take what you want, I'll let you take first pick."
Trevelyan snorts as she eyes the assortment left behind, shaking her head as she backs out. "I don't know the first thing about them except that they look vaguely like what I've been using. You sort it out - give me what you think I can handle, along with a few quick lessons. I'll go look through some of the other rooms for anything else that might be useful; it looks like these offices were left pretty much untouched after the first ransacking."
Indigo digs through a stack of guns, the racks tilted at odd angles. He sifts through a small pile and blinks. "Damn... what the hell was this place? There's some heavy artillery in there..." He tugs a large rifle out, the entire assembly around 4' long.
"What was that?" Trevelyan calls out, her voice floating from further down the corridor to the sound of cabinets being opened and closed. "And it looks like there's nothing else of interest," her voice grows stronger as she walks back to the security office.
Indigo leans on the rifle, looking for ammunition. "Check this thing out... too heavy for them to carry, it seems..." He pulls a belt from an ammo box and slings it over his shoulder. "I bet I can find something for you... Jesus... sub-machinegun? Or would you rather stick with something of the pistol variety?"
Trevelyan has a decidedly skeptical expression on her face as she walks into view, eyeing him. "Uhm, I think I'll stick with the pistol variety, thank you very much. Do you think it's wise to burden ourselves down with stuff that big?"
Indigo leans the M-60 against the cage and roots through a small case with pistols. Smiling, he slips a handful of clips into his pockets, along with a gun that looks alot like the other in his pocket. "Eh? I can lug this thing..." He flexes his right arm for emphasis as he stuffs a handful of shotgun shells into his pocket. "Talk about the mother lode. Here, look at these.... 9mm with a hip-holster..."
Trevelyan hmphs, a grudging grin arising as she folds her arms. "A pity we can't eat it," she remarks dryly. "Though it's amusing to see you worked up like a kid in a candy store. Maybe we should look for a room now; can move whatever you want up there and then look things over in more detail in comfort."
Indigo chuckles, pulling a loose locker from the wall and stuffing things into it. The M-60, he loads up and slings over his shoulder. "Alright... I think I got most of everything... if there's anything else you'd like to grab, go for it... the kitchens and restaurants were on what floor, the next one up?"
"You're not helping," Trevelyan sing-songs in an aggrieved tone as she steps gingerly around the corpses, unconsciously quickening her steps, eyes straying to the closed doors that she passes. "And if not mutants, then what were they?"
Shrugging, again, he follows her quietly. "Not a damn clue. Looked like... like something you'd see in a video game... or one of those art books with demons... or hell, a nightmare..." He slides one of the pistols out of his belt, looking about as he walks. "All this shit can't be here without a reason..."
"You're saying, then, that those creatures existed before the fall of civilization?" Trevelyan scoffs, stepping carefully over the fallen door, pausing outside to regain her bearings. "Or that those poor sods somehow amassed this armory in the time since in the hopes of setting up a fort of sorts? Have you ever seen those things before?"
Indigo shakes his head, a grim look on his face. "Could be something created after the fall... hell, could be something created by humans... we blew the place up... why not make something to live in it? It could be anything... experiment gone wrong.. radiation... These weapons... their condition, the loadouts... this can't be some half-assed attempt at putting together some firepower, these people knew something... or maybe this hotel is more than meets the eye." Sighing, he starts up the stairs after moving past her.
Trevelyan casts a sour look at his back as she follows in his wake. "Sometimes I forget how reassuring you are. Are you sure you still want to explore the kitchens?"
Indigo nods, equipment clanking as he climbs the stairs. "That's what I'm here for, love." He chuckles, feet thumping on the plush carpet "I'm hungry. There's got to be something to eat. Canned stuff... hell, even freeze-dried military rations sound good. I don't know if any critters are here, anyway... that battle down there lookied like a stalemate."
Trevelyan sighs in resignation, resettling her pack on her shoulders as she slips the glasses back into their wrappings, tucking them carefully away. "What's your favorite foods?" she abruptly asks, changing the subject.
Indigo smiles, stopping in the upper hallway. "I can eat just about anything... I like peaches, though... and strawberries..." He sighs, looking down the polished marble hallway, various restaurant fronts leading down to the end. "I used to know a girl... she always smelled like peaches... made me smile.." trailing off, a single tear slides down his cheek as he makes his way to the nearest door.
Trevelyan's eyes stray toward him as his voice turns toward reminiscing, and she watches in silence as he walks away. Biting her lip, she trails after, offering quietly, "Father - the old man, Samsung, traded for some dried apples once. We had a cobbled-together oven, and I still don't know where he got all the ingredients, or even the recipe. But he made an apple pie - and it was the oddest thing I'd ever tasted, sweet and yet somewhat sour, and more than a little burnt around the edges. He apologized about how bad it was through the whole eating of it. But I think it was one of the best things I've ever had. And he looked like he wanted to cry when the first aromas floated from that iron box."
Indigo smiles, pushing a glass door open and peering into a dark, rather expensive looking restaurant. "Apple pie... it's been years since I've had one... hard as hell to even find apples anymore..." He goes into a full-blown laugh, obviously trying to hide some sorrow. "Totally out of season! HAH!" Quickly wiping another tear away, he slips through the door, hitting a light switch.
There is a sputter, an electric hum, and for a wonder, a few bulbs even turn on, shedding a reluctant light over certain parts of the dining area. To reveal scattered chairs, empty tables, and the dessicated remains of potted plants. The floor is littered with small bones and pellets of scavengers.
Trevelyan peeks around him, and then moves wordlessly past, heading slowly for the rear and the free-swinging double doors that would undoubtedly lead into the kitchens.
"Quiet as death in here..." Indigo morbidly notes, dropping the locker on a table close to the swinging doors. The loud 'thunk' echoes loudly throughout the empty dining room as he quickly goes about stacking tables and chairs against the glass and doors, forming a barricade.
Trevelyan flinches at the sound, glancing back toward him as if to reassure herself of his presence before she hesitantly pushes one of the doors inwards, looking around it. "Maybe we should forget about moving up to the rooms, and just secure a corner..."
Indigo grunts, stacking a veritable wall against the doors. "There's gotta be food here. If not, some sort of staff elevator in the kitchen that leads to an isolated store-room... If anything, this may be the best place to hole up. If you see anything big and heavy in there, try to drag it out here and help with this..." He starts arranging another row of tables in a U-shape around the kitchen doors, other bits of furniture in various bunkers.
There is a rough scrape of metal over linoleum as Trevelyan drags a chair over to prop the door into the kitchen open, and she scrapes back her hair with a breath, surveying the area. "Well, there's always the refridgerator units," she quips, eyeing the large, stainless steel cubes lined up against the walls, long since gone silent from lack of power or malfunction. "Of course, that's also assuming that something hasn't shacked up in here, and we're just trapping ourselves in with it. See, it's all your fault," she continues rambling as she heads further in, searching for likely pantries in which canned and preserved foods would be stored. "Now I'm beginning to think morbid too."
Indigo chuckles, finally setting up a 'fort.' Cracking open the locker, he begins laying things out on the table. He calls to the kitchen. "If anything IS in this place... looks like we've got enough to hold it off... as for the fridges, eh, see if there's food in them, then I'll drag 'em over here if not... " Quickly the table becomes cluttered with several weapons and various ammunition. Whistling, he calls back to Kit. "I keep telling you, something is up with this place... why would security have a LAW? This thing is anti-tank."
"Stop it. You're corrupting me," Trevelyan retorts amidst the sound of rummaging, along with a squeaked 'oops' just before there is a truly horrendous clatter of tin falling against each other and steel counters and linoleum. As the cacophany begins to die down, she calls back out in a pained voice, "At least...it appears they had canned food in abundance."
Indigo pokes his head into the kitchen, gun in hand and a worried look on his face. "Are you okay?"
Trevelyan looks guiltily toward him from where she is perched on one of the counters, one hand steadying herself against the higher cabinets and the other holding a can - the one that had most likely caused the veritable avalanche that scattered the rest of its brethren across the majority of visible counter and floor space in the area. "Care to help me sort out the ones that are still edible?" she jokes weakly.
Indigo smiles, eyeing the flood of cans. "At least you're not hurt. Now, they all look fine unless severely dented.. rusted.. glowing, or moving... you think?"
Trevelyan nods, carefully sliding down to the floor, nudging a few cans aside to clear herself some foot-space. "Yes. I think glowing is definitely out. You wouldn't happen to have a can opener handy, would you?"
Leaning down, Indigo nods. "I've got something... I think." The subtle sound of metal sliding across metal echoes a bit as he slips a small dagger from his boot. "Would this do? Don't know why, but I keep this thing around just in case I might need it..."
Trevelyan snorts, unable to resist a grin as she holds out a hand for it. "'Don't know why' indeed. From the way you were drooling over that stuff laid out downstairs, it's a wonder you can still walk around relatively unhindered. C'mon, help me shove this mess out into the dining room. There's more light out there, and this place is giving me the creeps."
Indigo smiles. "I know what'll help... hold on." He jogs out of the kitchen, retrieves the now-empty weapons locker from the dining room, and rushes back. "Fill 'er up... And how I manage to walk... well, I've got amazing balance and ol' Betsy here.." He taps his left leg, his knuckle klunking against it.
Trevelyan rolls her eyes, but seems to be in better spirits in spite of herself as she begins to scoop the cans into the locker. "Well, one thing I know I *will* miss that only comes with a room is a shower. I wonder if the water still works, at least..." She abruptly pauses, tilting her head in a listening attitude.
Indigo shakes his head, loading cans with his free hand. "I doubt any water at all would work, the stores would be contaminated. Even then, it'd be cold... And... what? What's with that look on your face?"
Trevelyan shakes her head with a frown, holding up a hand for quiet. "Do you hear that?" she asks in hushed tones, turning to scan the dining room. But all that follows is only silence.
Indigo blinks, leveling the locker in both arms. "I didn't hear anything the first time..." He turns his head, scanning the kitchen as well. "Where do you think it came from?"
Trevelyan releases a pent up breath as she stands, absently dusting her hands off on her pants. "No, no...maybe it was just an overactive imagination. Heaven knows you've been stirring it up..." This time, though, she is interrupted by a quite audible *thump* as something leans against the doors and the makeshift barricade into the restaurant, snuffling sounds following soon after as the same something investigates the doors' edges.
"Shit" Indigo peers at the door and the barricade of chairs and tables. "The storm can't be over... that thing may be over us for days... do you think it was already in the building?" Questions and images race through his mind. "The refridgerators... we got cans, we barricade the kitchen doors, too..."
Trevelyan swallows, caught frozen in her pose of dusting off her hands, eyes locked intently on the doors which shudder again, but it appears that whatever is beyond them is more intent on investigating than actually trying to barge in. "Perhaps they take shelter here too," she murmurs in hushed tones. "But the stranger...he was here. Do you think he lived here for long? If so, he must have some way of fending them off. Maybe they'll go away after a while."
Indigo's eyes move between the doors and Kit, his voice hushed. "Who knows... that crazy old guy... sure sounded smart, but who knows... the security room was shut.. as for the critters, you saw the bloodbath downstairs."
One more snuffle, what sounded almost like a sneeze, and then silence descends once more on the place. Slowly straightening, unnaturally aware of any sound she might make with breathing or movement, Trevelyan shakily whispers, "Is there any other way into the restaurant?"
Indigo nods slowly, voice in its usual morbid tone. "Outer windows..." He points to the far wall. Cheeful bergundy curtains cover about four mid-sized windows. "Second floor though... hmm. Ventilation, if they really wanted to get at us... last possible scenario, the dumbwaiter in the back of the kitchen..."
"Perhaps...one of the rooms...on the highest floors...would've been better..." Trevelyan whispers in broken phrasings as she begins to inch her way toward the door. "Should we try to take the - " Her next words are lost in a gasp as one foot nudges a can, sending others cascading away and under her other foot just as she sets it down, sending her sprawling across the floor with an *oof* of expelled air and a clatter of tin.
Outside, there is an immediate response as a sharp bark is followed by growls, snuffling returning to the door's edges, complemented by the scratch of claws prying against the wood.
Accompanying the clatter, the oof, and the animal growls is the /very/ horrendous sound of the locker falling to the ground, every can inside making a considerable racket. Indigo hops over the locker, yanks Kit to her feet and then carries her over to a small make-shift bunker, the table of scattered weapons right in the middle of it. "Shit... Alright, this could be good.. or it could be bad..."
Trevelyan has barely enough time to realize she just had the wind knocked out of her before the crash of the locker further numbs her ears and mind. Being manhandled over to another part of the restaurant becomes a comparitively mild affair, and it isn't until she is set down that she coughs weakly and struggles to restart her lungs again. "That...was terribly...clumsy of me," she wheezes.
At least three of the creatures circle the door from the various snuffings and barking whines, two soon scattering to pace around the edges of the restaurant while the third remains by the doors - and begins to throw its weight against them and the barricade keeping them closed.
Indigo takes a moment to gently smooth out Kit's hair, an apologetic look on his face. "That's alright... you think we can get the fridges out of there and against the doors in time? Or do we just set up shop and blast them?"
Indigo's touch finally seems to bring her out of her daze, and Trevelyan takes a last deep breath to settle herself as she flicks a quick, uncertain look his way before pulling away, peering over the edge of the table to survey the array of firepower laid out. "As much faith as I have in the people who made your arm and leg, I don't think we want to try the refridgerators." She winces at an especially emphatic *thump* that rattles the makeshift barricade, shifting it somewhat. "Not in the time we have, anyway."
A bead of sweat rolls down Indigo's face as he surveys the room. "You're right... and the casters on those things are too small... they'd get swamped in the carpet." Growling, he leans over the table, plucking the M-60 from the edge and grabbing a medium-sized SMG. "You're going to have a quick crash course on this thing. Figure one: Pull the trigger with the barrel pointed at the target.. figure two, hold it down until a, the critter is dead, or b, it's out of ammo... in case b, hit that switch and stuff a new clip in...Tap the trigger if you don't want it full-auto. Safetey's off. " He tosses the gun and a small ammo case to her as he settles on the floor with the heavy machinegun, tripod down and belt over his shoudler.
Trevelyan automatically catches the one, fumbling slightly with the other though she manages to keep both in hand, looking down with misgivings. She doesn't utter either protest or comment, though, and merely positions herself for a clear view of the doors, making sure their each of their lines of fire were clear.
The other two have rejoined the third by now, having found nothing to admit them within the building, and now there is a cacophany of thumps that slowly shove the barricade back, the occasional snout or claws poking through the cracks, trying to squeeze through.
Indigo tugs gently at the trigger, feeding the belt with his other hand. A burst of four or five shots cuts through the barricade as the gunfire sound itself bounces off of the walls in the large dining room. "Maybe I can scare them off." He smiles, watching the door, though in the back of his mind, a low thumping is heard.
There is the quick scrabble of claws as shadows duck swiftly away from the crack, Indigo's shots seeming to have done the trick. Trevelyan waits tensely for several long moments, counting her heartbeats until she has reached thirty before mumbling half to herself, "It can't be that easy..."
And right on cue, with a roar to rival that of the machine gun burst Indigo had triggered, three furry bodies rush the doors in a concerted effort, breaking through the weakened barricade to pile into the room.
In tandem with the roar, a blast of continued gunfire erupts from Indigo's side of the room, one of the critters nearly cut down in mid-air. Its corpse, driven by momentum, slides to a halt against one of the scattered tables. The two others, warily take cover as Indigo eases up, hefting the gun and standing. "Watch yourself, Kit.." He approaches the table, reaching for another belt of ammo just in case. In the back of his head, the thumping increases in volume. "Uhm, Kit? Are you hearing that... that thumping noise...?"
A large bay window on the far side of the room shatters, glass spraying everything. The critters whirl around, surprised. With a roar that shakes the room even further, a hulking beast nearly as tall as the ceiling stands at the edge of the room, bulging yellow eyes tracing the four occupants...