Lt. Dan Got New Legs!

[DrifterUK]

''It's fine, there's no way you could have known that would happen.'' said Simone, lying on her back. 'Let's just get off of this goddamn bridge.''

[Seloine]

Colton nodded weakly, still whimpering softly, but slowly he managed to get up onto his hands and knees.

"O-okay," he choked. "I... Yes, the s-sooner the better... Th-there might be other people on the other side..."

[DrifterUK]

''We can only hope'' Simone said, pulling herself to her feet.
Kara continued to lead on across the bridge, but stayed closer to the others this time, just in case.

The group, after much awkward picking their way across, made it to the far side in one piece, The mist that had been hanging around all day had began to thin out a little now, but still cast an eery haze across the place.
More of the trade district stretched out in front of them, mostly razed and ruined by fire.

[Seloine]

Colton nodded again, taking a deep shuddering breath, but then picked himself up slowly.

His brief optimism, however, faded as they reached the other side of the bridge and found it just as burnt out as one they'd come from. Morgaine put Kemp down and the dog trotted over to his master immediately, whining softly, and she pushed a hand through her hair with a heavy sigh.

"I... This is not what I'd hoped, I will admit," she said. "But this side of the district is at least... Smaller. We should be able to make it out through its gates by sundown, if we're lucky - unless we would prefer to find a defensible location and rest first?"

"We don't know what it's like in the land on the outsides of the walls," Wolfgang said, patting Kemp reassuringly. "It's not guaranteed to be safe at all, at least not until we get a bit of distance between us and the city. And there's a hell of a lot less places to hole up on the outside."

[DrifterUK]

''We'll hole up over night, find somewhere safe and take watch in pairs'' Simone said sternly, pretty much ending the coversation. ''We'll find somewhere near the gate and barrricade ourselves in best we can.''

[Seloine]

"Alright, let's start looking for somewhere then," Morgaine said, stretching slightly and rolling her shoulders. "If we've enough light left, we can fortify a bit before we settle down for the night. Wolfgang, can you cook again?"

"I can try," Wolfgang said, rubbing his nose. "But... With Mari gone, we need to pick up ingredients more, we all need to carry some, or we'll end up hungry. If everyone can keep an eye out for stuff while we walk, that'd be... It'd really help. Once we're outside, I know roots and herbs well enough for us to get by, but inside, not so much."

[DrifterUK]

''This was the trade district, right?'' said Kara ''There must be some food somewhere that survived the fire.'' She paused and looked around. '',,,hopefully''

Simone gestued to get the group moving again.
''Let's find somewhere for the night first. That's more important for now''


The group continued to head towards the gate, Kara occasionally disappearing into the more intact building in search of food. Aside from a few vegetables here and there, she didn't really find much.

[Seloine]

"Hopefully," Morgaine agreed, and though she led the group forward again, she proceeded more slowly. Wolfgang peeled off every now and then, investigating too, but like Kara, he found little.

Kemp, however, seemed to cotton on to what they were doing quite quickly, and after a while, he led them to a smokehouse with several racks of undamaged but thoroughly cured fish still in it.

Carefully, Wolfgang bundled up as much of it as they could reasonably carry, and he split it between the group, Kemp bouncing round delightedly and wagging his tail in celebration of his find.

They had been walking for perhaps an hour and a half when Colton, who had started to lag behind again, started to wheeze and stopped again, coughing, before trying to rush to catch up and only making himself wheeze more.

[DrifterUK]

Simone took pity on the kid.
''We'll stop near here. It'll be getting dark soon'' she called out. ''Split up and see if there's somewhere we can hold up for the night.'' She paused. ''And don't go too far''

Simone and Mogaine began to search though one side of the street, while Wolfgang and Kara lead Colton along the other.
Most of the buildings had been gutted and weakened by fire, and looked unsafe to enter, let alone stay in. Kara spotted a potentil building, but the wall collapsed partly when she tried to open the door,kicking up a load of dust and making her cough and left her stading there meekly holding the remains of the door handle

[Seloine]

Morgaine, who'd been glancing back at Colton regularly with growing concern, nodded her agreement with Simone and she walked quickly as they searched for a place to hide.

Wolfgang, brushing some of the dust off himself and coughing a couple of times, looked blankly at Kara for a moment before grinning.

"Well... Bit of camouflage never hurt anyone, I guess," he said, as Kemp stood at his side and sneezed. Colton, slightly further back, was coughing and spluttering slightly, the wall having collapsed just as he inhaled to yawn.

[DrifterUK]

Kara dusted herself off slightly.
''...warning is usually nice beforehand though.'' She looked at Colton. ''Sorry'' she said sheepishly.

Simone opened the door to old stone building that seemed to have escaped mostly unscathed by the flames.The inside was dusty, and looked like it hadn't been occupied for a while, long before the outbreak and the fire.
She and Morgaine inspected it, and Simone was satisfied they could holdup here for the night and be relatively safe if they were careful and quiet.

''We should go find the others and then settle in here'' she said to Morgaine as she poked around in what looked like the kitchen.

[Seloine]

Wolfgang shrugged and patted Kemp.

"It... I-it's okay," Colton wheezed, turning away to spit on the ground a couple of times, his mouth clogged with ash. "I um... Wow, that... S-so much ash..."

Morgaine leant over the firepit set against the wall, checking up the chimney, but shifted back out carefully and nodded.

"Agreed," she said. "I think I saw a well out the back too, it's got a cover on it, so it should be safe enough. Should be both go, or do you want to go get them and I'll start fortifying?"

[DrifterUK]

''No, I'm not risking anyone being on their own, not with that... thing out there. We'll go back together.''

The pair headed back out, and found the set of foot prints belonging to the other group, and began to follow them into the side streets.

[Seloine]

"I just... I can't believe it's all gone," Morgaine said quietly as they walked. "This place, it... It was so alive. Sure it was messy and everything was a bit shabby, a bit of a patchwork, but it was bustling with activity all the time. It's... It's difficult to accept this is the same place."

[DrifterUK]

''A lot of this is difficult to accept, but its the reality of the situation. We just...have...''
Simone trailed off. She was looking at the footprints.

''Morgaine, is it just me or is there one to many pairs of footprints here?''