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CAPTURE AUDUN TEAM

At Alberto's voice, Lai turned to face the man, looking beyond to where his thumb marked. The crate was open and full to bursting with items. Good, very good. The Russian moved to the box and pulled out a flashlight, flicking the switch up with his thumb. The light poured out in a decent sized beam and was very bright. The batteries must be fresh, though Lai did not know that was what the light ran on.

"Thank you for packing the flashlights comrade." He flicked the light off and placed it in his left hand, his right to be used for the knives. "Everyone should have one of these in the groups, there looks like there is enough." He picked up one of the binoculars. "Maybe one of these in a group too, though they may not work too well in the dark." He stuffed one into the opening of his bag, the dark colored object barely fitting in between the knives and the water bottle he packed. As he did this Mokoyis came up and grabbed a radio, directing that he would be grouping with her. He didn't mind in the least, but he had a feeling it was because she wanted to keep an eye on him and felt like he could put the majority in jeopardy if he went with the larger group.

"That is fine Miss Mokoyis." He stood by her, his words an answer to her statement about where he goes. When Alberto spoke again, this time about Einar and time, he nodded. Every minute in here was a minute wasted and a minute more Audun had to make his escape. Lai made his way to the door that led out, opening it with no trouble and getting his first real look at the world with his own eyes.

The land was barren and torn asunder, what should have been a beautiful little town with trees and gardens was now broken down walls, a few trees (skeletons of its past), and a sea of thick mud and holes. From the light pouring out of the plane he could see many rocks. Those could be thrown to trigger traps and be used as projectile weapons. Without waiting for Mokoyis or the others he stepped down gingerly. His leather boots made a faint squelching sound once he touched the ground and automatically his eyes began to scan. From this side of the plane he couldn't see Audun's message but he also couldn't see anyone around. Once he felt a safe he knelt down and started picking up rocks until he had a good handful. Once done, he stood back up and, after fitting the flashlight into the bag and putting the rocks in his left hand, he proceeded to throw them out away from the plane in an arc with the slender fingers of his right.

What is out there waiting for us?

AT LOTUS

"W....w...what do you mean Lai's in Poland...? Wh...wh..."

Einar's eye went wide at the answer he received from the three people, his face growing more pale (if that were even possible), and with a heavy groan he tried to move himself upwards into more of a sitting postion. The actions took a heavy toll on hi, the pain strong enough to cause tears to run down his cheeks, and as Einar continued to struggle to sit up blood began to run from his mouth and nose like small rivers.

"Why the hell didn't any of you stop him?! You've...you've all...."

It was hard for him to talk like this, the blood causing him to cough and spit and choke with each word he tried to say, but it was like he had to let them all know. Einar could ignore the tubes and whatever else Shee and the Norwegian woman he knew from before had hooked up to him as he moved, his arms finding an awkward way to prop his weary body up.

"You've all given Audun what he wants. He's..."

There was more coughing, followed finally by the sound of retching as it seemed that Einar couldn't hold himself back anymore. He dropped back from how he'd managed to prop himself up on his elbows and onto the ground, his head turning to the side as he fell. The impact made a dull thud and he winced, though it didn't knock him out.

"He's going to kill every person there, but he'll torture Lai before he does it."

TEAM EINAR
Estrelas let out a yelp and leapt back as Einar sat up and started spouting blood like a watering pot again.

"You! You sit back down! Now!" she yelped angrily, puffing her cheeks and overall looking like a fluffed-up hen. She whirled her head around, seeing if Shee and Lokiari would do the same.

TEAM AUDUN
Eponine ducked and rolled into a defensive position the moment she heard the madman's voice. Her mechanical pupils dilated, shifting the world into a cleaner, sharper focus. She wished that she had the mechanisms of robots made for this job- heat signature tracing, lasers, something! Well, she didn't, and she had lasted this long anyways.

No traps went off, but Eponine was still paranoid. She turned to the others and piped nervously, "Everyone heard that too, right?" She wondered what the madman meant by "belonging to Einar," but she didn't dare voice her question.

They had to move. If Audun had guns they had to move- unfortunately, the places they could hide in were most likely booby-trapped.

"Let's do something- we can't stay here!"

Having gotten Archer's name down, Johannes also picked up his walking speed a bit -- keeping up with Wraith was just as hard as keeping with women who went crazy shopping and carrying bags.


When he entered the library, he was feeling nervous. It was now time to figure what can save Einar, or at least subside the injury. He stood awkwardly in front of Wraith, who was seated and ready for action. Taking his hat off and putting it on the table, he then looked to Wraith, trying to not show his nervousness (Hands, stop shaking, scheiße!).


"Well, I'm afraid I don't know much as Archer here -- I arrived to the scene later -- but he did mention that he was hit by a bullet that kills anyone within 36 hours." "I..."

Johannes' voice trailed off. He really couldn't understand much about anything else in regards to the situation. He only knew the basics and that's that. His mind was also going crazily in all directions, so that might have something to do.

CAPTURE AUDUN TEAM

He had only caught sight of the log rolling out of the corner of his eye, and when he saw it Lai's head turned quickly, causing a kink to form there. He didn't pause to rub it, but the few remaining rocks fell from his hand as his eyebrows raised in surprise when he fully saw the log rolling. His blue-grays then flicked to Eponine, amazed that the frail looking girl had managed to send the large thing rolling. Then again, big things did come in small packages, and there was the chance the log was rotted away somewhat so it would be lighter than if it was just broken.

"Wait...What?" He nearly fell back as he realized Eponine had set the log rolling in an attempt to weed out any traps set by Audun. His back pressed against the cooling metal of the plane and he was ready to throw himself into the mud should anything be set off and be potentially explosive. He breathed a faint sigh of relief that nothing did, the log went a long way so right then the group knew there was no traps in that area.

"Oiyo~

Oiyo~ Which one of you belongs to Einar?~"

He had straightened himself out before the voice had echoed out, and once it did he was not prepared in the least. The Russian almost jumped out of his skin (had it not been attached) at the heavily accented voice and (like Eponine) had gotten into a defensive position, though his was a low crouch with his eyes scanning the area and his right hand gripping the handle of one of the blades within his bag. In that position he moved towards the front of the plane, peering out to survey what lay beyond the now still propeller. Vaguely he could feel the finer hairs on the back of his neck standing up, the rest of his hair that was still tied up felt like it was too, that's how shocked he was at the taunt.

He heard Eponine's frantic tone and he quickly swiveled his body to look at her. In his eyes, she looked similar to a field mouse, hiding from a cat and he knew what she meant, but she had to be calm. "Miss Eponine!" The young Russian tried to quell the obvious startled edge to his voice as he spoke. "Miss Eponine, please calm yourself! You must be calm as fear will only cloud your better judgment. I heard the voice as well, but I do not see anyone and cannot tell where it is coming from. Take a couple of breaths, your head must be clear. Remember the hunting metaphor, fear will cause rash decisions that could put you and the rest of us in danger."

His voice was rapid, breathy and it shook a bit as his nerves blazed from the sudden voice and mentally he cursed the maiden that caused the insane man's voice to resound around. If only there was no echo! But, from what he could tell, the voice was not coming from this side of the plane. The voice's echo weakened and died around here, so Lai figured that Audun was in the vicinity of that taunting welcome message. He withdrew his right hand from the bag and instead placed his left one in, feeling for the flashlight. Once he grabbed it, he flicked it on, stood up, and stepped out very slowly in front of the plane. The Russian cast the beam around the walls and few trees in front of him. The weather was cold, and plumes of vapor appeared from his mouth as he tried to quell his rapid breathing. His senses were on high alert and, if anything should happen, he was still close enough to the plane where he could run backwards and shield himself behind it. He turned to the right slightly (casting his light there now) and, talking to himself, spoke in Russian.

<<"Where are you?">>

TEAM AUDUN
No plumes of steam came from Eponine's mouth, even as she inhaled and exhaled- all her water had been drawn back into the storage tank to prevent freezing. The robot girl stifled a sigh as she felt the heaters around her water tank start, warming her metal insides up a little. She turned to Lai, grateful that at he was so level-headed. "Don't worry," she said, steadying out the trembles in her voice. It was good that she did not realize that it did look strange, just picking up a log like that. "Don't worry, I'm fine," she said, trying to sound chipper, but jumped when Alberto spoke. "Oh!" She ducked quickly. "Sorry. Just I expect bullets to come whizzing out of nowhere..."

Was Lai feeling all right? Einar was his friend after all. Or Mokoyis and Alberto and Rodney? Did they feel the press of death and danger in the air? Eponine looked hard to Alberto, trying to see if she could see if he was afraid. She wondered if she should ask, or would that seem strange? And when they asked her how she was, did they mean physically or mentally? Some things weren't included in her language banks.

She followed Lai into the eerie setting, hesitating to see if the others were doing the same thing. Eponine's sharp hearing picked up words in Russian, and she started before realizing that the words were coming from Lai, and that the madman Audun was Norwegian.

Eponine reach down and picked up a large tree branch. The rot from the rain stuck to her bare hands and squished a bit, but she held tight. Half-consciously, she swept the branch in front of her like a minesweeper.

"So, there aren't any traps in the open... Should we risk it, or head for cover?" she asked, automatically deferring to Lai, but looked assured at the suggestion of teams. The dark-skinned man, Alberto, made her feel.. Not safe. But ready. Prepared, perhaps. "Teams?" she piped up.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip.

In a less romantci reality to "A Little Fall of Rain," Eponine half-turned her head as if to look at her comrades as the bullet ran headfirst into her head, a little bit above her ear.

Then she crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut, folding down on into herself so that only her head and one bony hand showed from under the voluminous folds of her coat. Her hat sat crooked on her masses of tangled black hair.

Right before she fell, this last thought went through her mind: I wonder if it looks like a movie.

Because, as Eponine had learned so long ago, most things didn't.

What if Estrelas saw how silly I'm being? The little loaf of bread Estrelas had baked came out of her pocket and rolled just so that it brushed her fingertips, all under the cover of her coat.

Without the insulation of natural flesh, Eponine's body cooled off almost immediately when the heaters cut off. Soon, if anyone touched her, they would feel skin cold as the trees.

Almost the Norwegian woman winced when Hyo asked how to tell what blood type he had. Since Estrelas didn't know and she personally was O+, that only left Shee and Einar for blood types. Einar was a definite O- as he had mentioned this and so even if Shee had A or B - they wouldn't really be able to test that way. With a small frown, Lokiari pondered over how to test people for blood, she didn't know much about it since, well, the men and women she'd served with all carried their blood type neatly labeled on them. The woman raised one hand to her chin and tapped it deep in thought, her eyes flitting from Shee to Einar and back again. What if...

"Shee, would we be able to take some of Einar's spilled blood and match that to everyone else's blood here that we don't already know the blood type of?" If they were just playing a matching game, wouldn't that work too? It was a long shot, but Shee did seem to know more than she did about this particular area of the medical field and so she left the decision up to her.