I must disclose that this story contains themes / content some readers may find disturbing, or be uncomfortable with, including, but not limited to:

Body Horror / Mutation / Mutilation / Deformity.
Brutality.
Cannibalism.
Death. (indiscriminate, young and old will die.)
Description of injury / sickness.
Drug usage.
Intense emotional / psychological distress.
Intense scenes.
Production of drugs.
Torture.
Use of firearms.
Violence / Dismemberment / Blood.

If any of this content is a problem for you, reading is not advised.

Also, this is a VERY LONG and slow story, over 100k words, so, if you have a small attention span, this will likely not be suitable for you.

Total word count (actual story, excluding this disclaimer section, chapter titles; part titles, etc: 115,581.

Applicable Genres:
Drama, Survival, Slice of Life; Horror, Thriller; Psychological Horror, Survival Horror.

This section is dedicated to various notes about the story of the scarlet queen, and why its written like this.

Regarding time skips / un-shown content:

Scenes that involve skipping time exist to skip content that has no real relevance to the main story, or would drag on for far too long.

This has been done to slim down on unnecessary filler and details to stop the story becoming bloated.

This is supposed to be a story about the Scarlet Queen, not about slow, sluggish, filler crap.

For example; I skipped showing the group in chapter 4 exploring the other mentioned locations, both to cut down the chapters length, as they were mostly irrelevant, and due to their lack of overall importance.

Regarding dialogue structuring:

Character dialogue is structured typically as:

Character Name, says: (Emotion)
"Dialogue goes here."

To make it easier to locate specific quotes, and to make seeing sections of dialogue among the text easier; also good for getting dialogue if I ever manage to make this into a video or comic series.

Regarding the significance of chapter 1:

Despite how slow and seemingly meaningless chapter 1 can seem, it exists to provide contextual contrast, so you, the reader, have an understanding of how Amelia's life was changed by the stories events.

It also provides context for later scenes in future chapters.

Regarding the speed of which the story is being written:

Writing this is slow due to several factors, but these are the primary reasons:

• 1. Translating Tr'allanga to English in a meaningful way.
  
• 2. Double checking the continuity of what is being written to avoid mistranslations.
  
• 3. Using physical paperwork to store information regarding continuity, which needs updating at every plot-point. (an example of this being what items each sister is carrying in chapter 2.)
  
• 4. Burnout from long, continuous, multi-day sessions of translation, planning, and writing.

Regarding the use of "dad" instead of "father" when referring to the dad.

Despite the gospel saying they refereed to him as father, I have made the decision to reference/name him as dad, as to make the tone less formal, and more casual, as to fit with the flow of English language better.

And; his canon name is not used as to maintain consistency.

Regarding the use of "[scene change]" to transition between scenes.

The "[scene change]" line is used to mark specific parts; where a scene changes to another room or area; or as part of a scene / time jump.

I am aware of these breaking the immersion; but it saves the reader, YOU; a good chunk of time, instead of re-treading ground the story doesn't need to.

Front Rake:
The angle of the steering head/stem in relation to the ground on a motorcycle.

Emanate / Emanating:
To come out from a source.

Flayed:
To strip off the skin or surface of something.

Reality sphere:
A powerful data / reality / matter storage device.

Kartrol / Neris / Hemar:
A country on the Tr'allanga home world.

"The outside":
The plane of reality the Tr'allanga reside within.

Lowl Kara'sar (Plains Cut Short):
A large cow-like animal with an exoskeleton, feeds primarily on grains and grass.

Jaw head / Cona Lowl Kric'Crensem (Common Plains Jaw Head):
A deer-like animal with an exoskeleton; has antlers much like the mandibles of a beetle, said antlers able to close/open.

Gal'iend (Sky Terror):
Large, flying predatory reptiles with an exoskeleton, antlers; and membranous wings for arms.
Body plan is similar to that of a Wyvern (Dragon)

Lowl Ras'kaar (Plains Running Cutter):
Small rabbit like, exoskeleton having animal; has mushroom like growths for ears; herbivorous/

Dira'phon (Distant Footer):
Tall 3 legged animals with a long neck, herbivorous.

Sola Tella Deazla'Ira (Mono Cyan Fever Lilly):
A species of lily pad like plants that grow interdependently of one another; flower glows a bright cyan/

Konna Pikra (Tree Fisher):
3 limbed, primate like animal; lives in trees in groups, eats mainly fish from rivers and fruit from trees.

Parapet:
A low protective wall along the edge of a roof, bridge, or balcony.

*Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.*

Awoken by the alarm clock; Amelia turns over in her bed and reaches for it, only to be met with rays of sunshine hitting her directly in the face.

Agitated by the blinding light; she squints, blocking the majority of it; and grabs the alarm clock.
Pressing a button on top, the machines beeping ceases.

She slowly sits up on the bed; moving out of the blinding sun beams, briefly rubs her eyes and looks around the room.

The room is decently sized; the walls are a pale blue, the floor is covered with a light grey carpet; the ceiling is an off-white, almost slightly yellow in colour.

Both sides of the room have a single bed, dresser, wardrobe, shelves, and some pictures hung up on the wall; all in line with the sides of the room.

A pair of desks sits in the middle of the room; surrounded by 4 chairs; the tables covered in various paperwork.

Amelia's side of the room has a cylindrical, metal machine in the corner plugged into an outlet; the top of it having a half sunk in glass sphere filled with electronic components; said sphere being plugged into it, and the front of the machine has a screen, keyboard and mouse; held on by a set of adjustable, mechanical arms.

A single wooden door sits in the middle of the wall off to Amelia's left; and a window in the middle of the wall on Amelia's right with open curtains; lets in the sunlight.

On Amelia's side of the room, the pictures are of a Cyan Flower growing from a Lilly pad, a tag in the bottom left corner of the image saying "Sola Tella Deazla'Ira" (Mono Cyan Fever Lilly), hung above a mirror on the dresser.

And a photo of a 3 limb creature with a long beak, catching a fish from a river, the top left corner having the text "Konna Pikra" (Tree Fisher); hangs next to the shelves.

On the other side of the room, a picture of a rabbit like animal with a green exoskeleton and mushroom like ears; hangs high above the messy bed, a tag in the corner reading "Lowl Ras'kaar" (Plains Running Cutter).

And a large photo of a group of 3 legged, long necked animals with glowing yellow eyes; roaming through a swampy cavern; illuminated by various glowing plants; hangs at a slight crooked angle next to the wardrobe, the corner tag saying "Dira'phon" (Distant Footer).

Amelia stands up from the bed, feeling the soft carpet on her feet; raises her arms and stretches; feeling the muscles in her shoulders and back stretching as she lowers her arms.

Unfolding her 4 long red wings; she stretches them outwards and shakes them briefly, before pulling them back up against her spine.

Turning to her right; she walks over to the dresser on her side of the room and looks at herself in the mirror.

Seeing her hair is a mess, she opens a drawer in the dresser, takes out a hair brush, and begins straightening it out.

A moment later; she finishes up; puts the brush back, and makes her way over to the wardrobe.
She opens it up; looks through her clothing, and takes out a white apron.

She puts it on, ties the back straps together, securing it to herself; and closes the wardrobe.

Thinks to herself:
"Alright, now for some breakfast."

Amelia turns to face the wooden door and walks towards it.

[scene change]

Amelia exits the bedroom and steps out into a hallway; closing the door behind her.
The hallway is long, has 6 other doors, all evenly spaced out; and the left side leads to a set of downwards stairs.

The hallway itself has wooden floor boards, the walls are painted white, and the ceiling is a dark grey; the walls decorated with various photos of landscapes; animals and plants,

Turning left, Amelia makes her way over to the stairs and walks down them.
Coming to a stop at the bottom, she turns right and enters the living room.

The room is spacious; has white walls; wooden floor boards and a dark grey ceiling; just like the upstairs hallway.

3 long couches and 1 arm chair on the right side, forming a semi-circle sit in the middle of the room; the arrangement of seating surrounding a set of short coffee tables.
All of which are sat atop a circular light blue rug.

The aforementioned arm chair having an older man with black wings, a beard, and glasses sleeping in it.

On the right side of the room, next to a wooden door; is an ornate wooden stand; which a currently turned off screen sits in the middle of.

On the left side of the room is another wooden door; sat partly open, showcasing a short hallway leading to the front door; and another open door leading into the garage.

And the room itself is decorated with various pictures of landscapes; plants, etc; except for one on the right wall above the ornate wooden stand, showcasing an image of Amelia; and all 8 of her other sisters; all 9 of them having black hair in various styles; and different coloured wings.

Amelia looks at the man sleeping in the chair, thinks:
"Best wake dad up first."

She approaches him; puts her hand on his shoulder and gently shakes him.

He jolts awake, sits up in his chair; looks around swiftly; and looks at Amelia.
He says, with an obvious tone of tiredness in his voice:
"Oh, good morning, Amelia."

Amelia: (concern)
"Hey dad, you okay?

Dad:
"Y-yeah, just, had a long night... Had a lot of orders come in."

He stands up from the chair and 2 small glass bottles fall off his lap and on to the floor.
He looks down at them, back at Amelia, and says:
"And I needed something... To help me wind down after..."

A memory barges into Amelia mind, taking front stage...

[flashback scene]

Amelia walks into the living room, her dad asleep on the chair; many glass bottles on the floor around him, the air stinking of booze.

She walks over to him and shakes him, waking him up.
Sleepy, and drunk; he sluggishly slurs out:
"L... Leave me... Alone..."
And falls back asleep.

His mouth reeking of drink with each breath.

[flashback ends]

Amelia pushes the memory aside.

Amelia: (mildly annoyed + sarcastic)
"Yeah, sure you did."

He reaches for a note pad on a nearby coffee table; picks it up, and passes it to Amelia.
says: "Oh, I did, see these?"

Amelia looks at the notepad; the last used page having yesterdays date, a list of various phone numbers, addresses; job price quotations; lists of various vehicle, machine, and generator parts with their prices, and prices for tools and equipment.

Amelia: (concerned)
"I see, must have been a bastard to get all of this done in one day.
But honestly you need to cut down on the drinking, we don't want you to relapse again."

Dad: (dismissive)
"I won't relapse again-"

Amelia: (concerned)
"You said that last time-"

Dad interjects: (mildly annoyed)
"And I learned my lesson, okay?..."
*He takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out.*
"Just... Thanks for the concern, but I really don't need this right now."

Amelia:
"Okay."

Amelia turns and walks over to the door on the right side of the living room.

[scene change]

Amelia enters the kitchen, pulling the door shut behind her, and looks around.

The room is fairly large: the floor is made of grey stone tiles, the lower half of the walls are covered with smooth white tiles, the upper half of the walls are painted a dull yellow; and the ceiling is white.

The left side of the kitchen is lined with wooden cupboards and counters; the back has counters and cupboards in the corners; the middle taken up by a large oven, grill and overhead extractor fan.

A slightly larger woman wearing a boiler suit and boots, with yellow wings, and her long black hair tied back into a pony tail; is cooking something at the aforementioned grill; the smell of something meaty and the sound of popping, frying grease, filling the air.

The right side of the room has a large refrigerator, freezer; and a wooden door with a window in the top and bottom; the windows showcasing some of the garden outside.

And in the middle of the room is a long counter surrounded by 10 chairs, the left end of it having a in built sink.

2 of the chairs are taken up by 2 women, one with green wings and short black hair; the other having blue wings; her hair tied up into a bun; and wearing a pair of rubber waders.

Amelia looks at the one operating the grill; says:
"Good morning, Rachel."

She turns around to look at Amelia, briefly waves to her with one hand, and says:
"Good morning, Amelia; don't worry about cooking anything today, I got us covered."

She turns back to look at the grill.

Amelia:
"Nice; thanks Rachel.
So; what you cooking?"

Rachel:
"Eggs, steaks from a "Plains Cut Short" (Lowl Kara'sar), and some fried mushrooms."

Amelia walks over to the counter in the middle of the room and takes a seat next to the other 2 women, says:
"Perfect."

She looks at the 2 women and says:
"Good morning, Jade and Fiona."

Fiona and Jade look at her; Jades eyes being a slight but noticeable shade of bloodshot red.

The woman with the blue wings, Fiona:
"Morning sis."

A brief moment of silence later, Jade, the woman with green wings, replies:
"Morning."
Her breath smelling strongly like chemicals, almost like a mix of rotten eggs, chlorine, and stale urine.

Getting a whiff of her potent, vile, overwhelming breath; both Amelia and Fiona cough aggressively with disgust, the sheer stink causing their facial layers to slam shut instinctively; covering their faces; meanwhile they fan away the odour with their hands, dispersing it.

Jade looks away and at the floor, embarrassment and worry visible on her face as her cheeks blush orange.

After a brief moment of Amelia and Fiona pushing away the putrid smell, continuing to somewhat cough, she says:
"I... I'm sorry..."

A few seconds later; having cleared the smell and taking a moment to catch their breaths; Amelia and Fiona's facial layers slowly retract; exposing their faces again.

Fiona looks at Jade and says: (Annoyed)
"What the ♥♥♥♥? Your breath is horrible; please go wash your mouth out."

Jade:
"I... I'm... I'm sorry."

Fiona:
"Also, why the ♥♥♥♥ does it smell that bad?
I know you smoke herbs, but they don't smell that rancid.
What the hell did you take?"

Jade's blush shifts to a more red-orange tone; replies:
"P... Paint, expired paints..."

Fiona's annoyance quickly shifts to concern, says:
"You did what?"

Jade:
"Paints... Paints... Expired paints..."

Amelia: (concerned)
"Jade, what the ♥♥♥♥; you could kill yourself doing that; why expired paint of all things?"

Jade:
"It... Feels better than herbs... Herbs aren't enough anymore."

Amelia: (concerned)
"My god, Jade; you seriously need some help."

Fiona:
"Amelia's right; you really need help.
And don't think we forgot why you started doing all this in the first place."

Jade:
"I know, just... Can we not talk about this right now?"

Amelia:
"Fine, but when I get home from work; we need to talk about this, got it?"

Jade:
"Got it..."

Amelia:
"Good, now please can you go wash your mouth out?"

Jade:
"Okay..."

Jade stands up and swiftly makes her way out of the kitchen, closing the door behind her; while Amelia and Fiona watch.

Once the door closes behind her; Amelia and Fiona turn back to face Rachel; meanwhile Rachel is serving the food onto several plates.

Picking up 2 of the loaded plates, Rachel turns around and places them on the long counter in front of Amelia and Fiona; along with a knife and fork beside each plate.

Both plates have 2 large eggs with runny yolks, a decently sized rare steak; and a side of fried mushrooms.

Amelia: (happy)
"Nice, thanks Rachel".

Fiona: (happy)
"Thanks."

[scene change]

With all 4 wings open and outstretched, Amelia slowly floats downwards, lands outside of a bakery; and folds her wings up against her back.

The bakery is small; sat between 2 other shops, the storefront a large window in the front made of reinforced glass with a thin metal mesh inside, a singular wooden door; an apartment above it; the outside of the bakery is mostly made of red painted concrete; there are 2 small concrete pillars on the sides of the buildings front; half merged into the walls; and some parts of the bakery are decorated with dark red wood; the edges of the window; the door frame, the ends of the pillars; and on various edges as detailing; hiding most of the concretes irregular edges.

Amelia walks over to the door; pushes it open and walks inside; closing the door behind her.

Inside the bakery; Amelia stands in the retail area; the front most room of the building.

The room is rather small; the walls are painted red, the floor is covered with rough white stone tiles; and the ceiling is white.

There is a wooden counter towards the back of the room with a display in the bottom; the inside of it filled with various red-brown coloured food items; bread loaves, bagels, baguettes, buns, sandwiches, etc; and a cash register sits atop the counter.

Behind the counter stands a semi-muscular but toned man with yellow wings and long black hair, wearing a white apron.
Behind him and to the right; in the corner of the room, is a wooden door.
And behind him on the wall is a circular clock; the shown time being around mid morning.

At the front right side of the room is a small set of tables and chairs.
And the ceiling has a small ceiling fan; sitting idle.

Amelia says to the yellow winged man:
"Hey Michael."

Michael:
"Good morning boss."

Amelia:
"You got today's orders listed?"

Michael reaches into a pocket on the front of his apron, takes out a notepad, and says:
"Yeah, got them right here; ordered by size."

He opens the notepad, looks at the list of orders, back at Amelia and says:
"Biggest one on the list right now being an order for the local market, they want 600 fresh, full fat loaves; for 4500 credits."

Amelia:
"600 fresh loaves? Why that many?"

Michael:
"Not sure; probably to store some away due to that resource crisis the government keeps banging on about on the radio.

Speaking of which, If you ask me, this "crisis" sounds like a bunch of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
If it was really happening, we would be seeing a fat ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cost increase in our ingredients."

Amelia:
"Exactly, speaking of which."

Amelia reaches into a pocket on her apron and takes out a small book; "Audit log" written on the front.
She opens the book, turns to one of the pages and looks through it.

Amelia:
"We need to order some more blood starch powder; were running low."

Michael:
"Alright, I'll note that down."

Michael takes a pencil out of his apron pocket, notes it down into his notebook; and puts both of them back into the apron pocket.

Michael:
"Done."

Amelia:
"Alright, lets get started."

[scene change]

Amelia stands in a decently sized room, the walls are black, smooth tiles; the floor is covered in white and red tiles; and the ceiling is painted white.

She stands in front of a long metal counter with a large mixing machine in front of her, a measuring jug, large metal bowl, rolling pin, and other various utensils; and various big bags, large bottles and jars of ingredients on the counter next to her.

Next to the counter is a rather sizeable oven; Michael stands in front of it, watching a large batch of red-brown loaves unhurriedly rise and bake inside.

Behind him, against the back wall of the room, is another long metal counter, a grill, smaller oven, and a large refrigerator; all lined up next to one another; an extractor fan siting above the grill.

A third person, a thin woman with pale pink wings and her black hair tied into a bun; wearing a white apron; watches the smaller oven as a medium batch of loaves steadily bake inside.

In the middle of the room is a pair of metal counters, a trash can; and a fan on the ceiling; spinning silently, circulating cool air around the room.

And there are 2 wooden doors on each end of the room; the left one being in the middle of the wall and slightly open; revealing some of the retail area; while the right one is on the wall Amelia is facing and in the corner of the room.

Amelia looks at the pink winged woman, says:
"That batch ready Patricia?"

The pink winged woman, Patricia; looks at Amelia and replies:
"Nearly done; a few more minutes."
And looks back at the oven.

Amelia looks at Michael; says:
"Michael; how abut your batch?"

He looks at her, says:
"Not yet."
Looks back at the baking loaves for a moment, back at Amelia and says:
"I say they need 5 more minutes."
He looks back at the oven again.

Amelia:
"Alright, i'll get the dough ready."

Amelia turns to face the mixing machine; pulls a large sack labelled "Bone Flour" over to herself; opens it up; revealing the inside to be full of white fluffy powder; picks up the measuring jug and fills it entirely with the powder.

She takes the jug over to the large metal bowl and pours it all it.

Amelia grabs a small jar, opens it up; and uses a spoon to measure and pour 4 spoons worth of salt into the bowl.

She closes the jar; puts it back; grabs and opens a small bottle labelled "Riser Mould XL", takes a single spoon full of the brown, grainy powder from the bottle, and drops it into the bowl.

Putting the bottle back; Amelia sticks her hand into the centre of the bowl; making a deep crater, pulls her hand out, grabs another larger bottle; filled with dark red fluid; labelled "Slick Vitae", opens it, pours 6 spoons worth of the thick, oily substance, and puts them into the crater.

She moves over to a large bottle of water with a tap in the bottom, fills the jug 4/5 the way with water, goes back to the bowl, and pours it in.

Amelia grabs the bowl; lifts it up, puts it into the mixing machine, secures the bowl into place with a pair of latches, pulls a lever on the side; lowering the mixers spade shaped head into the bowl, and flicks a switch.

The machine buzzes quietly as the head turns; mixing the ingredients, casually picking up speed with each rotation.

After a moment the machine settles into a moderate pace while churning the bowls contents; the ingredients rapidly forming into a relatively thick and moist but not gooey dough, with a distinct bright red, but slightly brown colouration.

Noticing the moist appearance; Amelia briskly grabs an extra handful of Bone Flour and throws it in; the mixer quickly stirring it in.

A moment later; the dough is now much dryer in appearance; only ever so slightly shiny.

Amelia thinks:
"There we go."

Ste turns off the mixer; raises the lever, unlatches the bowl, and removes it from the machine, placing it in front of herself.

Amelia reaches into the bag of Bone Flour; takes out a hand full, spreads it across the counter; and pours the dough out onto it with a plop.

Putting her hands against the lump of dough, she presses down upon it; spreads it out, and begins forming it into a large, thick, flattened square.

After a bit of sculpting, she finishes forming the square slab of dough, grabs a measuring tape; and begins checking the size.

Swiftly evaluating the length, width, and thickness; she grabs a knife and begins making many evenly spaced markings along the edges.

Finishing the markings; she puts away the measuring tape, puts down the knife; and grabs a spool of string.

Unravelling a moderate length of it, she reaches both arms out to the sides of the slab; pulls the string tight, and presses it hard through the dough; cutting a clean line through it.

Repeating this many times; she cuts the massive slab into many small dough bricks.

Finishing the last cut, Amelia rolls the string back up, looks at Patricia, and says:
"Those done yet?"

Patricia replies:
"Yep; batch is ready."

Patricia puts on a pair of nearby oven gloves; opens the oven a tad; cautiously letting the hot air out for a moment; opens it fully, reaches in; takes out a tray with several loaves on it, and places it on the side.

She reaches in again; takes out a second tray, puts it next to the first one; and closes the oven.

Patricia makes he way over to the trays; carefully slides the loaves off and onto the counter; puts one tray on top of the other, picks them up, and brings them over to Amelia; putting them down on the counter next to her.

Patricia takes off the gloves; puts them on the side, and begins loading some of the dough bricks onto it; with Amelia helping.

Covering the first tray, leaving a decent amount of space between the bricks; Patricia picks it up and puts it on the counter in the middle of the room, comes back; and helps cover the second tray.

Quickly finishing the second tray; Patricia takes it over to the oven, opens the door; puts both trays inside; and closes it.

Patricia makes her way over to the loaves she put on the counter earlier; grabs a bunch of plastic bags from a box on the side; and begins bagging them.

[scene change]

Scene shows a time lapse of the clock in the retail area; unhurriedly turning as time passes, and the sun shining through the window, sluggishly moving as it progresses throughout the day.

[scene change]

Amelia, Michael and Patricia are standing in a small parking lot next to a road; the sides are walled off by other buildings; the front has a chain fence, a currently open sliding metal gate off to the right; and the sun in the sky is in the mid-afternoon position.

In the parking lot is a large, stationary, 8 wheeled; white painted, truck like vehicle with a flexible rubber section in the middle, and a big open pair of doors on the back; the back of said vehicle filled with boxes of bagged loaves.

A man with dull blue wings, messy black beard, and short hair, wearing a boiler suit and old shoes; steps out of the back of the truck, closes the doors, and walks over to Amelia.

She reaches into the pocket on her apron; takes out 4 brown-gold coins, and passes them to him.

He takes them, pockets them, turns around, walks to the front of the vehicle, gets in; drives through the open gate, turns left down the road and drives way; the vehicles engine growling loudly as black smoke huffs from an exhaust atop the vehicle.

Michael looks at Amelia, says:
"Should we take a break before doing the next order?"

Amelia looks at him, says: (tired sounding)
"Yeah, that would be a good move."

Amelia, Michael and Patricia turn to the right, walk towards a wooden door in the corner of the parking lot; Amelia pushes it open, and they walk inside.

[scene change]

The three walk into the kitchen from the right side corner door; make their way over to the work stations, pull out steel chairs from under the counters, and sit down; leaving the back door open, letting cool wind into the room.

Amelia looks at Michael, says:
"Alright, before we relax, whats the next biggest order?"

Michael takes out his notepad, opens it up, looks at the contents, back at Amelia, and says:
"Next big order is a batch of 200 cookies for the local school."
He puts the notepad away.

Amelia:
"Alright, we'll rest for 5-10 minutes, then get a start on it."

Michael:
"Got it."

[scene change]

Time laps shows the clock progressing towards late afternoon; the sunlight coming through the window slowly shifting position, and various customers coming into the shop; purchasing goods from the Amelia, Michael, or Patricia; and leaving.

[scene change]

The sun is shining through the shop front window in the late afternoon position, its approaching sunset.

Amelia, Michael, and Patricia emerge into the retail area from the kitchen.

The three of them make their way over to the front door, Amelia pushes it open, and they walk out.
Amelia turns to the closed door, takes a key out of her apron pocket, locks it; looks at Patricia and Michael, and says:
"Alright, see y'all tomorrow."

Michael looks at her, replies:
"See you."

Patricia:
"Bye."

Michael and Patricia extend their wings out, float upwards; and fly off in separate directions.

A moment later; the sound of a motor buzzing fills the air as a metal shutter casually lowers over the store window, finishing with a light metallic clank and the noticeable grinding sound of the shutter being locked into place by a pair of sturdy metal latches, emerging from the sides at the bottom of the window frame.

Amelia reaches for the door; jiggles it; confirms its locked, turns away; outstretches her wings, and flies off.

[scene change]

Amelia walks into the living room and sees a dark red, almost black winged woman with short black hair and glasses, sitting on the couch; watching the news as a reporter outside an office talks.
Reporter:
"Officials are saying they have countermeasures in place to stop the worsening crisis; but if they fail, drastic action will become necessary.
What that means we have no idea; but we can only hope this crisis is sorted out-"

The woman groans, audibly annoyed; and turns off the news.

Amelia says to her:
"Good afternoon Jarease."

Jarease, the dark red winged woman, a moment later replies: (tone of annoyance)
"Afternoon, I guess."

Amelia:
"I sense you had a bad day; want to talk about it?"

Jarease:
"Not really, last thing I want to think about, or even talk about right now is working at that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ school."

Amelia:
"Alright, but have you seen Jade anywhere?"

Jarease:
"No, but shes probably in her room, as damn usual."

Amelia:
"Alright, thanks."

[scene change]

Amelia enters a room the same size as hers; the walls are yellow, the ceiling is white, the floor covered with light grey carpet.

The sides of the room have beds, dressers, shelves, pictures, etc; like her own room, but in reverse order.

At the back of the room is an open window; letting in fresh air; in the front left corner is another cylindrical machine, like the one in her own room; and near the back window is 2 large bean-bag chairs.

Jade is curled up in one of them, misery visible on her face as she smokes a rolled up cigarette; the smokes putrid, almost urine like smell is present but weak.

Amelia walks over to her, sits down on the bean-bag chair next to her, puts her hand on her shoulder and says: (concerned)
"Jade, we need to talk."

Jade turns over to face her.

Amelia:
"Listen, I understand why you do this, its because of-"

Jade: (mildly annoyed)
"Because my boyfriend died in that explosion at the chemical factory last month."

A memory floods to the front of Amelia's mind...

[flashback scene]

Amelia sits next to Jade on the couch in the living room; comforting her as she cries, weeping heavily and sobbing; arms tightly around one another.

Meanwhile; a report on the news shows the remains of a large, industrial chemical factory, engulfed in a giant blaze; the area around it littered with mangled stone and metal debris.

The report title reads:
"Tragedy, Explosion at Newfort chemicals; no survivors found."

[flashback ends]

Amelia pushes the memory aside.

Amelia:
"Yes, I know about that.
And I get it; smoking herbs helps with the pain of losing him.

But huffing expired paint is not going to help; if anything its just going to make your feel worse; and will probably kill you."

Jade: (miserable)
"Yeah, and so what?
Not as if I have much to live for anyway."

Amelia: (concerned + supportive)
"Jade, don't be stupid; there is plenty to live for.
There is plenty of other people out there to love.
Countless things to do.
You could maybe find a job.
And this probably isn't the best idea, but there are plenty of other drugs to try."

Jade chuckles a little bit, replies: (less miserable)
"Yeah... That's right... You do have a point."

Amelia:
"Exactly, you will get through this, now; how about you cheer yourself up?
Go get on that sphere of yours and make a nice painting, like your other artworks. (Amelia gestures to the various pictures on the walls)
Or maybe, make some funny critters for that swamp planet we were designing?"

Jade thinks for a moment, and says: (sounds depressed, but less miserable)
"Hmm... Alright, sure; I'll give that a try, just let me finish this stick first, okay?"

Amelia: (concerned and stern)
"Got it.
Also; if I find out you've been huffing paint again I will come in here, search the place; and throw it all out the window, got that?"

Jade:
"Got it."

Amelia: (calmed down)
"Good, now, I'm gonna go to my room and game for a bit before dinner.
Hope you feel better soon, Jade.
We care about you."

Jade: (depressed + thankful)
"Thanks sis... It means a lot."

Amelia: (reassuring)
"No problem."

Amelia stands up and makes her way over to the bedroom door.

She looks back at Jade, says:
"See you later."
And leaves the room.

[scene change]

Amelia walks into her room, makes her way over to the desks in the middle; grabs a chair, easily picks it up; carries it over to the machine in the corner of the room, puts it down in front of the machine, and sits down on the chair; facing the screen and keyboard.

She presses a button on the keyboard and the screen lights up, showing a desktop and several icons for various software.

She looks to her right, picks up a headset with a microphone plugged into the machine, and puts it on.

She puts her hand on the mouse; navigates towards one of the programs, clicks twice, and it starts up.

The screen is overtaken by a loading screen, a picture of a battlefield and armed soldiers; as a progress bar quickly reaches 100%.

A moment later, the game launches; the main menu opens, she clicks to join a multiplayer "death match" session, and waits.

Seconds later; the game session loads in; and her player character spawns in to the map; in a small garden, full of dead plants, behind a house; alongside her 9 team mates; soldiers in green metal armour, holding standard issue spear rifles and shotguns.

The map itself being a war torn city in some kind of desert; the buildings made from sandstone and wood; all of them in various states of damage and ranging greatly; from mildly damaged, to being almost entirely collapsed.

A mini map in the top right corner shows a top town view of the map around her; where her teammates are, and what paths are and aren't accessible; as a countdown to the game starting at the top of the screen quickly goes from 5 to zero.

The timer hitting zero, its overlay fades away and the team members begin to move.

Amelia and 7 of the others rush towards the house; kick in the back door, and emerge into a laundry room full of washing machines and empty clothing baskets.

Meanwhile the other 2 teammates, "Gruntbagger" and "Kyle33" run around the left side of the house.

A quick check confirms the room to be clear.

The team progress forward through a open doorway into a decently decorated living room, with a couch and simple screen on a stand in the middle; a stairs on the left; and a door leading to a kitchen on the right.

A female voice speaks on the teams chat, says:
"Split; two fours, we cover right; you cover left."

Another voice; a young male, replies:
"Great idea."

Amelia turns to the leftward stairs and splits off with 3 of the others, while the other 4 go right towards the kitchen.

Making her way in front; she leads them up the stairs; rifle raised and ready.
Coming to the top of the stairs; she crouches down and looks around; the upstairs is a small hallway leading to 2 bedrooms, and is clear of enemies.

The 4 emerge into the top hallway; a moment later the sound of 2 gunshots ring out in the distance.

A kill feed in the top left of the screen displays what happened; "Gruntbagger" and "Kyle33" had been killed by an enemy blue sniper.

Amelia speaks into the voice chat:
"♥♥♥♥, bastard is probably nested on the opposite upper floor; I'm going to go into the left bedroom and try to take him out, cover me."

A team member, an older man, replies in voice chat:
"Not sure about this but ill try."

Amelia opens the left door.

Immediately, a sniper shot rings out; narrowly missing her, but nailing a team member behind her directly in the shoulder; blowing his entire arm off and knocking him over.

The injured team member says in voice chat: (mildly annoyed)
"♥♥♥♥ sake; heal me please."

Instinctively; the 3 standing members hit the deck, avoiding the enemy snipers line of sight.

One of them pulls out a medic kit; crawls over to the injured teammate; and begins to heal him; reattaching the arm with glowing green stitches.
He says:
"Sure man."

Meanwhile; Amelia and the another guy, make their way into the bedroom and crawl over to the window edge; as the sounds of gunfire periodically fill the air and more kills appear in the feed; the other 4 members having gunned down 5 of the enemy blue team with rifle fire.

The other member briefly peaks over the windowsill, looks at her and say:
"Hes distracted, go for it."

Amelia positions herself under the window; carefully aims over the ledge, and spots the sniper.

Hes across the street in a near identical house, distracted, trying to shoot a green team member firing up at him from below with a shotgun.

She lines up the shot; locks on to him, and fires a short burst of rounds.

Several of them miss; but 2 manage to hit him.
One in the shoulder; another in the face.
A kill feed pop up confirming the hit was lethal, it reading:
"Bludwing [cartoon image of a head shot] CopperHead50"

Meanwhile; the injured teammate is just about finished being patched up; his arm reattached.
He gets up; readies his rifle, and says in voice chat: (amazed)
"♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wow, nice shot!"

Amelia replies:
"Thanks."

A moment later; the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs gets their attention.

Amelia and the other guy in the bedroom stand up, dart to the sides of the bedroom door; and peak around; guns ready.

And the other 2 team members approach the side of the stairs.

One looks over the banister; only to be shot in the head immediately by a burst of shotgun fire.
The other reaches into his pocket, trying to pull out a grenade; but 2 soldiers in blue armour run up the stairs and fire on him; several shots ripping his head and neck to pieces.
Both kills showing up in the kill feed.

Both blue soldiers emerge into the hallway, a third one just about visible, coming up the stairs.

Without hesitation, Amelia lines up the shot; and lands a perfect head shot on the first soldier.
Her other teammate fires on the second blue soldier; hitting him in the chest and shoulder; knocking him down.

The third blue soldier runs up the stairs, pulls out a grenade, arms it, and prepares to throw.

Amelia fires at him; hitting his arm, causing him to drop the live grenade.
A second later; the blast instantly vaporises the third blue solider; streaks of flesh and gore decorating the walls and floor; the kill feed quickly relaying what just happened.

The injured blue soldier is the last enemy player left.

The last enemy solider tries to crawl away; but Amelia emerges from cover; walks over to him, and blasts his brains across the floor with a singular head shot; maroon splatter covering the floor; his death popping up in the kill feed.

A few seconds later; a message at the top of the screen says "Green Victory!"
And a 15 second countdown until next match begins.

People in the games text chat say:
"Good game."
"Nice aim, did not even know you could cancel someones grenade like that."
"Rematch?"
"That was fun, but I gotta go, see ya."

Several seconds into the countdown, Amelia feels something vibrating in the pocket of her apron.
She quits the game, reaches in; and takes out her phone to see Michael is calling her.

She answers, puts it to the side of her head and says:
"Hey Michael, whats up?"

Michael:
"Hey Amelia; just wanted to ask if you want to go to the shooting range again this weekend?"

Amelia:
"Yeah, sure, that would be great."

Michael: (happy)
"Good, because I need someone to show me how to handle the rifles properly.
Also; I have some news.
They just purchased a brand new heavy spear sniper rifle, and its available for use."

Amelia: (surprised)
"Really?"

Michael:
"Yeah, want to give it a try this weekend?"

Amelia:
"Sure."

Michael:
"Alright, see you then boss."

Amelia:
"Sure, bye."

Amelia ends the call; puts the phone back into her apron pocket, and thinks to herself:
"Nice, can't wait to give that rifle a try."

She looks back at the screen; clicks on the multiplayer death match option again; and waits for the game to load.

[scene change]

Scene shows the alarm clock next to Amelia's bed, counting rapidly as time passes.

[scene change]

Amelia is playing another round on the same map; ducked down next to the kitchen door with a grenade ready; focusing on the sound of enemies moving around inside the kitchen.

She throws the grenade into the kitchen, and a moment later the blast kills 4 of them; showing up in the kill feed.

Suddenly, a notification appears in the bottom right corner of her screen, a message from Jade.

Interested; she quits the match, goes back to the main menu, and opens the message.

The message window opens up, showcasing 2 things.

A beautiful; highly detailed, digital painting of a path in a forest, surrounded by trees, sunlight shining down and through among the leaves and branches; various birds and small critters critters hidden around the scene.

And a 3D box, containing a small frog like animal with 4 small compound eyes, 3 legs; the back one being large compared to the 2 front limbs; and short quills covering its back.

Amelia thinks to herself:
"That paintings really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good; and this critter looks like its gonna fit in just fine."

Amelia right clicks the critter, clocks "save as"; opens a file explorer; navigates her way to a file called "Swamp world" and saves it as "Jumping critter".

She thinks:
"Now to thank her; and tell her what I think."

She goes back to the message window and begins typing.
A moment later, suddenly, she realises something and thinks:
"Actually; i'll go to her room and tell her directly; she probably needs that."

Amelia stands up and makes her way over to the door.

[scene change]

Amelia enters Jades room and sees her sitting on a chair in front of the reality sphere; drawing a landscape painting of a mountain range.

Amelia says to her:
"Hey Jade."

Jade looks at her, replies: (slightly sad sounding)
"Yeah?"

Amelia:
"Just wanted to say; that forest path digital painting you made is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good; and the little critter is quite nice too."

Jade: (surprised and less sad, almost happy.)
"Oh, thanks."

Amelia:
"No problem.
Anyway, I'm gonna go back to my room and continue gaming, see you at dinner."

Jade: (almost happy)
"Alright, see you later."

Amelia:
"See ya; hope you feel better soon too."

Amelia turns around and exits the room, closing the door behind her.

[scene change]

Amelia is sitting at her reality sphere; playing another round of death match.

Out of nowhere; her father calls out from downstairs:
"Dinner time!"

She quits the round, stands up, and makes her way to the door.

[scene change]

Amelia enters the kitchen and finds 10 plates of food served along the counter; 5 on each side; knives and forks set up beside each plate; the room smelling like a barbecue.

Her dad and Rachel are already sat down at the counter; eating.

The dinner itself on each plate is: a juicy, "blue rare" steak with fresh red blood still seeping from it; a small pile of steaming, tender, pink meat chunks; and a side of fried, crunchy, strips of cartilage.

Amelia makes her way over to the side of the counter, sits down next to Rachel and begins eating.

A few minutes later; Fiona, Jade, Jarease, and 4 other women walk in; all of them having black hair and different coloured wings.

They all gather around the counter, take a seat; and begin eating.

Some time later; half way through dinner; Rachel asks:
"So; everyone enjoying dinner?"

Amelia:
"Yeah, its good."

Jade:
"Certainly, Its nice, thanks."

Jarease:
"Sure, I guess."

Fiona:
"Yeah, steaks a bit under cooked; but its alright."

Dad:
"Yep."

A rather curved woman with orange wings and long black hair, wearing a black apron, says: (Amber)
"Yeah... its okay, but it needs some salt."

A thin woman with purple wings and short hair tied in a bun, wearing a doctors uniform, says: (Vanessa)
"It's nice, so sure."

A woman with bright purple; almost glowing neon wings; and very long black hair reaching down to her hips; wearing a shirt and trousers, says: (Michella)
"I sure am."

A smaller woman with grey wings, moderate length hair, and square glasses, says: (Helga)
"Its adequate, so I'd guess so."

Dad:
"Alright; so, how has everyone's day been?"

Rachel:
"Work at the mechanics shop was okay today; despite the weirdly high number of police and military vehicles that needed repairs and maintenance."

Amelia:
"Went quite well, made a good bit of profit, got an order for a huge batch of loaves for the local market; 600 loaves; a batch of 200 cookies for the local school; and a few other big orders."

Jade:
"I don't have a job; but today was... better, with your help Amelia."

Amelia:
"No problem Jade."

Fiona:
"Went as well as unblocking sewers for a living can be, I guess; had to go all the way up to north Kartrol to unblock 2 major sewer outlets that dump out into the ocean.

Apart from that, it was otherwise okay."

Jarease:
"Teaching kids sucks, and I would prefer to just not talk about it."

Amber:
"The salon was weirdly empty today; we got a few clients who wanted hair cuts and skin care; but not many."

Vanessa:
"Clinic was quite busy today, as always; but something weird happened.
Some sketchy, obvious glowie fed in undercover clothing came in and asked me in private via telepathy if we sold neural implants around back, the illegal kind.

Told him no; because I refuse to let that ♥♥♥♥ into the clinic; and he left, obviously quite annoyed but silent about it; I could feel him broadcasting it mentally too."

Rachel:
"That is certainly strange, but having worked in the military in the past, and with the feds; I have a feeling he was part of an operation, and maybe they got the details on a black market dealer wrong?"

Vanessa:
"Maybe..."

Rachel:
"I mean, that's the best explanation I can come up with-
Also; wait, how do you know he was a fed?"

Vanessa:
"it was pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ obvious, normal Tr'allanga like us don't just walk into a place, and ask to make a deal out back with someone like that."

Rachel:
"True... Actually; yeah, that's typical fed behaviour.
Well spotted Vanessa."

Vanessa:
"Thanks."

Michella:
"Yeah... Anyway.
Just another boring day at the office, not much to say."

Helga:
"And my day at the massage clinic was pretty normal, except there was this one client who had such tense muscles; I had to break out the massage gun; and I had to use it on the highest setting to even do anything."

Dad:
"And my day was pretty average, the usual repair jobs; except for one.
Had to visit a slaughterhouse today and fix the automatic mechanical saw they use to cut up the cattle carcasses.

It was bloody, sticky, and gross; the place stunk of death; but they gave me a whole cow carcass as payment; its in the freezer."

Rachel:
"Nice, maybe we can barbecue it out back some time?"

Dad:
"Sounds like a great idea, we can do that this weekend."

Amelia:
"Nice."

Fiona:
"Splendid."

Michella:
"Wonderful plan."

Jarease:
"Great idea."

Jade:
"Sounds good to me."

The family continues to eat.

[scene change / time skip]

The family, finished eating; stands up from their seats, picks up their plates, knives, and forks; and moves over to the sink.

They carefully stack the plates, and organise their knives and forks into 2 separate, neat piles on the side; next to the sink.

Finishing the pile; everyone briefly thanks Rachel for the dinner; and leaves; except Rachel.
Rachel stays behind; walks over to the sink, and begins washing up the plates and cutlery.

[scene change]

Amelia enters her bedroom and looks at the clock next to her bed; its very late afternoon.
(earth equivalent is around 7:30pm)

Thinks to herself:
"Looks like I have enough time for a few more rounds of death match before bed."

Amelia makes her way over to the reality sphere, sits down and opens the game.

[scene change]

Time lapse shows the clock next to Amelia's bed as time passes.

[scene change]

Amelia exits a finished, victorious match; bringing her back to the menu.
She looks at a clock in the bottom left corner of the menu, its quite late.
(earth equivalent is around 9:30pm)

Thinks to herself:
"I think that is enough for today."

She closes the game, turns off the reality sphere; and slowly stands up; feeling tired.

She makes her way over to the wardrobe, sluggishly opens it; takes off her apron, hangs it up; closes it; walks over to the light switch, turns off the lights, and walks over to her bed.

She pulls back the blanket, gets in the bed, lays down on the cozy mattress; pulls the blanket over herself; rests her head on the soft pillow, and gets comfy; before drifting off to sleep.

[End of chapter 1]

Amelia is sitting at her reality sphere; headphones off, drawing a picture of a swamp landscape; while her sister Fiona is sitting on the bed, on the other side of the room; reading a book.

Jade enters the bedroom, walks over to Amelia, and says:
"Has Rachel sent you the files for those swamp fish yet?"

Amelia turns around, looks at her, and replies:
"No, not yet; shes still fixing the tail bones.
Because, for some reason, the creature creator software really does not get along with the tail fin designs; it keeps putting them in the wrong place."

Jade:
"Any idea why that's happening?"

Amelia:
"Not really; but it may be an encoding bug; like, the software is having issues actually putting it all together."

Jade:
"Hmm, has she tried updating or reinstalling the software?"

Amelia:
"She tried both of those; nothing worked; so it might be an issue with the actual reality sphere itself; probably one of the encoding drives being out of date-"

Out of the blue, the loud popping and chattering of machine gunfire, the booms of rifles, popping claps of pistols, and terrified screams filling the air; the awful noise coming from outside.

Amelia:
"What the ♥♥♥♥?"

Fiona:
"The hell?"

Jade:
"Oh ♥♥♥♥."

Fiona and Amelia stand up, make their way over to the window and look outside; Jade following.

Looking out onto the street; they see a battle going on, a brutal fight between around 15 armed civilians, men and women, armed with various firearms; and a group of 8 large men in full body black metal armour, all armed with heavy, high calibre machine guns; a parked black military van, with no number plates, and open back doors behind them.

The only parts of the armoured men that are exposed is their faces and necks from the front.

The 15 or so civilians are firing at the armoured men from behind cover; as shots merely bounce off their armour.

Meanwhile; several civilians, men, women, and kids; can be seen hiding behind various parked cars, trash cans, etc.

All while many dead and dismembered women, men and children litters the street; chunks of gore, guts, and blood splattered around them.

Every one of them unarmoured; their heads and bodies blown apart, ruined and decimated.

Unexpectedly; a child, hiding behind a parked car, runs out crying, trying to flee the conflict.

Less than a second later; one of the black armoured gunmen aims upon him and fires; the high calibre rounds punching through his abdomen; blowing his body apart violently in a burst of gore.

"NO" shouts a man from behind a nearby car; audibly horrified, his face one of pure terror.

Amelia; Jade and Fiona, horrified; back away from the window and duck down, shocked and filled with disbelief.

Moments later; as the same man, audibly filled with hatred; shouts "My son... YOU BASTARDS ARE GONNA ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ BURN FOR THIS!" followed by more gunfire; Amelia, Fiona, and Jade feel rage boiling up inside them; their cheeks turning jet black; displaying their anger.

Without hesitation; Amelia runs over to her wardrobe, opens it; moves the clothing out of the way, and takes a sniper rifle, a belt of grenades, holding 5 grenades, a helmet, and 2 rifles off a set of hooks at the back.

She turns towards Jade and Fiona; slides the rifles across the floor towards them; and says with audible anger:
"Get ready."

Fiona, confused and angry; struggles to hold the rifle properly; while Fiona secures a firm grip; ready to fire.

Amelia puts on the helmet, grenade belt; readies her rifle; and makes her way back over to the window, sitting below it.

She says to Jade and Fiona:
"I'll lob a grenade at the armoured bastards; and when their stunned; aim for their faces.
Got it?"

Fiona:
"Got it."

Jade: (nervous and angry)
"S-Sure."

Amelia grabs a grenade; stands up; looks down at the armoured men, pulls the pin and throws it towards them.

The grenade lands among the armoured gunmen and explodes; the force launching them back and knocking them over; landing on their backs.

Amelia swiftly aims her rifle at one of the downed gunmen and shouts:
"FIRE!"

Jade and Fiona pop up; aim, and all 3 begin firing upon them.

Amelia lands a direct face shot on one; blowing his head apart.
Fiona lands several neck shots on a second; partly decapitating him; exposing his now snapped in half, shattered spine.
And Jade fires on a third one; narrowly missing the first few shots; but lands one directly into his face by accident.

The remaining 5 armoured men quickly roll over; helmets protecting the heads, and stand back up.

2 of them briefly look around while the other 3 continue fighting the civilians; the 2 quickly notice Amelia and her sisters; and let out feral; almost animalistic roars as they raise their guns.

Amelia grabs Fiona and Jade; and pulls them down to the ground as she ducks below the window; narrowly avoiding a hail of gunfire.

A moment later; an explosion fills the air as the gunfire ceases; and a familiar voice next door calls out: "Get ♥♥♥♥♥♥."

Recognising the voice; Amelia, Jade and Fiona stand up, looks out the window to their left; and see Rachel, holding a rocket launcher; smoke still trailing from the barrel.

Rachel looks at Amelia and says:
"I think I got em."

Amelia, Jade and Fiona look down at the gunmen; all 5 of them now motionless on the ground; bleeding heavily from their eyes, mouths, and from small gaps in their armour.

Amelia says:
"Looks like it-"

One of them slowly stands back up; blood pouring from his mouth and eyes; he turns to look at them, and slowly raises his gun, growling and gurgling loudly with rage, more blood bubbling and leaking from his mouth.

Amelia swiftly aims and takes the shot; hitting him directly in the face before he can fire upon them; his head exploding into a shower of gore; and his lifeless body drops to the ground as it twitches briefly.

With the armed men dead; Amelia, Jade and Fiona take a moment to calm down, their cheeks fading back to normal.

Amelia puts her sniper rifles strap over her shoulder; letting the gun hang down; looks at Rachel, and says:
"Now we've got em."

Meanwhile; the armed civilians look to see if the area is clear, emerge from behind cover and look up towards Amelia, Fiona, Jade and Rachel.

One of them; the shouting father from earlier, walks out in the open, waves at them and shouts:
"Thank for the backup."

Amelia:
"No problem."

Fiona:
"Sure thing."

Jade:
"Alright, I guess."

Rachel:
"No prob sir."

Amelia looks at Rachel and the man, and says:
"Glad that's over, but what the ♥♥♥♥ just happened?
Why was there a massive gun fight?"

The same man says:
"Not sure, they just showed up and started blasting us."

Rachel:
"I don't know either Amelia; but get everyone to the living room, we can talk about it there."

Amelia:
"Alright."

Amelia says to Jade and Fiona:
"Okay, Jade, Fiona, lets go."

[scene change]

The family is sitting on the couches and chair in the living room.

Rachel:
"Basically, all we know is they showed up; and started firing on people, innocent civilians, men, women and kids."

Rachel:
"So why not call the police?"

Rachel:
"I tried doing that quietly to avoid drawing the fights attention, before blowing the gunmen up; but got no response, the line was completely busy.

Also; the fact they obviously came from that black military van; the weirdly high number of police and military vehicles at the shop last month; and how well armed and armoured they were; having high grade fully body combat armour and heavy machine guns, makes me think contacting them would have been a bad idea; because it feels like this is all connected."

Jarease:
"What are you trying to say?"

Rachel:
"what I'm saying is, I feel like this was an organised attack, specifically by the military."

Jarease:
"That sounds ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid."

Dad:
"Could have been, sounds like it."

Fiona:
"But why would they do that?"

Rachel:
"Not sure; maybe to cull the population because of that resource crisis the government keeps going on about?"

Vanessa:
"Maybe."

Amelia, with her sniper still hanging off her shoulder:
"Well, if that's the case; how about we check the news? If they keep going on about it, surely they would announce some plan of action, right?"

Rachel:
"Well, considering they won't shut the ♥♥♥♥ up about it, probably."

Vanessa:
"Yeah, makes sense, lets do that."

Fiona:
"Worth a try."

Dad:
"I guess so."

Amelia:
"Alright."

Amelia stands up, walks over to the coffee table; picks up a remote; turns on the screen, and switches to the news channel.

On the screen, a slightly chubby man in a black suit sits at a long, rounded metal desk, with a background behind him of a city, he says:

"Due to mounting pressure, the government of Kartrol, along with the other world powers, have horribly decided that a cull is the only remaining option; and it is now in effect.

The culling will be indiscriminate, random, have no warning, and will be carried out by specialist military death squads at their own discretion."

He pauses for a moment, lets out an annoyed, almost angry sigh, and continues.

"They also want to make us, here at the studio, tell you lies, sabotaging advice to get you all killed, but no; we aren't going to do that, instead I'm going to give you all some advice to survive this; despite their orders.

Firstly; prepare yourself; pack a lot of non perishable foods, water; and a sleeping bag.

Secondly; arm yourselves, get a gun; preferably loaded with armour piercing or heavy rounds; and do not be afraid to defends yourself.

Thirdly; have a plan to escape, get a map; plan out a low traffic route, and find a place to hide and survive; one that ideally is out of the way, and has few entry points.

And fourthly; do not expect this culling to end; there is no quota or deadline for these kill squads as far as we know, so treat this as society collapsing entirely; do not go to work, do not bother calling the police, they won't be coming.

Gather your family or friends, prepare, and get out while you still can.
May whatever god you believe in have mercy on your souls.

This message will repeat in 3 seconds, 3, 2 ,1-

Due to mounting pressure, the government-"

Amelia turns off the screen and drops the remote; the shock hitting her like a punch to the gut.

Baffled, she sits down and looks around; everyone else in visible shock and worry.

Jarease:
"I can't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ believe this, this can't- no."

Dad:
"♥♥♥♥... this can't be happening."

Michella:
"What the ♥♥♥♥..."

Helga:
"No way... no..."

Rachel:
"I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ knew it..."

For a moment, everyone sits in absolute silence, processing the news.

A moment later, the shock having somewhat passed; Amber speaks up, says:
"So; what do we do?"

Rachael:
"As they said; prepare and get the ♥♥♥♥ out of here."

Helga:
"But where do we go?"

Rachael:
"Not sure; but there are a few places I can think of though.
The revolutionary bunkers scattered across the sparsely wooded outskirts; the old ruins up north in the woodlands, and the abandoned mining towns far off south-west, near the coast, cliffs; and partially logged woods.

Amelia:
"But won't the death squads check those kinds of places?"

Rachael:
"Probably, but its better than staying here and risking getting attacked."

Jade:
"But how will we get there?"

Amelia:
"Well; we can't fly, drive, or walk the streets, death squads will spot us too easily.
So; all we can really do is take a less visible path; perhaps the sewers.
Problem is navigating them."

Fiona:
"Which I can do; I know them like the back of my hand, and I have a map of this whole countries sewage systems, which I made myself."

Amelia:
"Great, we have a way to get out of here.
But out of our three options, where would be best?"

Dad:
"Honestly; the bunkers sound like the best option, I imagine they would only have 1 or 2 entrances; great for fortification, and really difficult to attack."

Jarease:
"I'd say the ruins, their far out of the way of any city, the surrounding woodlands would be a great place to hunt for food long term, and the wood is great building material; you could easily build a fort out there with logs and old bricks."

Vanessa:
"I would say the mining towns; the structures should be more intact compared to the ruins; and your near the ocean, so you basically have a near endless amount of fish to eat; and water; if you set up some kind of desalination system."

Amelia:
"All sound like good options; but I honestly prefer the sound of the mining towns; long term livability is what we should probably be considering most.

Plus; if we need fortifications; we can always build some."

Rachael:
"That is actually a good point, yeah; Mining towns sound best, actually-"

Rachael says:
"Alright, everyone; what do you choose; Ruins, Mining Town, or Bunker."

Dad:
"Hmm, Bunker."

Jarease:
"Ruins."

Vanessa:
"Mining Town."

Jade:
"Ruins."

Helga:
"I guess the Mining town."

Rachael:
"Mining town."

Amelia:
"The mining towns."

Michella:
"Mine Town."

Fiona:
"Ruins."

Amber:
"Bunker."

Rachael:
"Okay that's 2 votes for bunker, 3 for ruins, and 5 for mining towns.
Yep, looks like were going to the mining towns."

Amelia:
"Alright, and we should leave today if possible; but before we prepare and go; who here actually has combat experience and is good with firearms, apart from me and you?

I ask because, I can't remember how many of us actually have military or firearms experience."

Rachael:
"Good question."

Rachael says to everyone:
"Also; who here actually has firearms experience apart from me and Amelia? And do you actually have a gun?"

Fiona:
"I do, I visit the range even now and then; I'm fairly good with a machine gun."

Jade:
"I don't and I think that was obvious."

Dad:
"I have a bit with my pistol and revolver; but not much."

Jarease:
"I don't have any, or a gun."

Vanessa:
"I don't either."

Helga:
"I did a short bit of service; and a bit of machine gun training, but not much; and I don't have my gun anymore, sold it a while back."

Michella:
"I used to visit the range quite a lot; did a lot of shotgun and rifle practice; but if I still have that in me I don't know."

Amber:
"Nope."

Rachael:
"Okay, so 6 out of 10 of us have some form of experience.
Not ideal; but better than nothing; those with no experience, or are unarmed, can stay behind the group.

Alright, time to pack; arm up, and get the ♥♥♥♥ out of here.
If you don't have any armour, Improvise some."

[scene change]

Amelia up to her wardrobe, opens it; and pushes the clothing out of the way.

She takes out a pair of black leather combat boots with thick socks; a rolled up sleeping bag, a small radio, a metal protective vest with a short protective collar, backpack; several magazines of ammunition for her sniper rifle, and all 20 magazines of her rifle ammo.

She lays them all on the floor; puts the ammunition, radio and sleeping bag into the backpack; picks up the vest, puts it over her head, sliding her arms through the arm-holes; managing to get her head through the head-hole, with mild difficulty, slides the thick socks onto her feet; puts her feet in the boots, swiftly ties them up, closes the backpack, grabs it, and stands up.

All meanwhile, Fiona is behind her at her own wardrobe; a backpack on the floor next to her as she puts on her waders while wearing a helmet; the rifle Amelia gave her hanging over her shoulder on a strap.

Amelia looks at her; thinks "Actually; shes going to need that rifle ammo.", walks over to her; opens her backpack, and says:
"Here, ya gonna need this.", passing her some of the ammo.

Fiona looks at her; replies:
"Oh, thanks, I forgot about that; just put it in the back back down there."
And looks back to her waders as she continues putting them on.

Amelia:
"Alright."

Amelia puts the rifle ammo into the backpack, reaches into her own; and puts the rest of the rifle ammo into it; says:
"There ya go."

Fiona replies:
"Thanks."

Amelia walks back to her wardrobe; and thinks to herself "Is there anything else I should take apart from food..." while looking around the room.

Looking around, shes sees papers and pencils on the centre desks, her reality sphere, the paintings on the walls, etc; and thinks for a moment.

She thinks to herself:
"No need for the paintings... But paper and pencils could be useful as fire kindling; and I should probably take my spheres data core; it has a lot of private info saved on it."

She walks over to the table, puts the papers and pencils in her back pack, approaches the reality sphere, grabs a handle on top of the spherical core, pulls it out, and puts it in her back pack.

She looks into the bag and thinks to herself:
"Alright, ammo, paper, pencils, data core, sleeping bag, radio, all good; just need to pack food-
Aw ♥♥♥♥ I forgot my phone, and I should probably put some of that ammo on my grenade belt for quick access."

Amelia reaches into the bag, takes out 2 magazines, clips them to the grenade belt and makes her way over to her bed, her phone on the side next to it.

She picks it up and clips it to the belt.

Thinks to herself:
"Okay... That should be everything, now to pack food and water."

[scene change]

Amelia enters the kitchen, holding her backpack in hand; and sees Jarease, Jade, Vanessa, Amber; and her father; taking cans of food from the cupboards on the left and placing them into their backpacks; while Rachel is operating the oven, cooking something.

All of them, except Rachel and her dad; are wearing improvised body armour.

Jade is wearing a wooden chopping board; wrapped in a plastic bag on her chest, tied around her body with a rope; a metal cooking pot stuffed with a towel on her head, tied on with tape; a pair of rubber boots; and she no longer has the rifle Amelia gave her.

Jarease has a pair of books taped around her stomach, thick rolls of news paper around her lower arms with nails poking through the outer sides; bound on tightly with tape; and a set of serrated knives tightly taped to the ends of her wings.

Vanessa is equipped with a chest plate, made from scraps of wood, tied together with rope and tape, held on by tape; and a metal cooking pot stuffed with random cloths on her head.

And Amber has a pair of foam knee pads, elbow pads, a sports helmet, and 4 different tools taped to her wings, a screwdriver; hammer, old wood axe, and an open pair of scissors.

Meanwhile; The dad has a silver combat helmet; backpack on his back, bullet vest, a revolver and pistol holstered on his sides; and Rachel has a yellow, sleek metal combat helmet, vest, knee pads, elbow pads, leather boots; combat axes mounted to the tips of her wings by thick leather straps; a rifle hanging off her left shoulder; and her rocket launcher on the other.

Amelia walks over to the cupboards, walks past Jarease and begins putting cans of food into her bag.

A moment later; her bag around half full; Amelia walks over to the refrigerator and opens it; its mostly empty, except for a few already open packets of processed meat, butter, a large jug of milk; and half of a large box of moderately sized water bottles.

She crouches down; grabs some bottles, loads them into the bag until its almost full, zips it shut and stands up.

Thinks to herself while looking around:
"Alright, canned food and water; anything else I should grab."

Rachel opens the oven, takes out a tray, and puts it on top of the grill; its covered in many small, square, thin biscuits.

Amelia looks at her and asks:
"Hey Rachel, what are those?"

Rachel looks at her, replies:
"Long lasting rations, why?"

Amelia:
"Are those going to be enough for everyone."

Rachel:
"Not yet; going to make some more; about a months supply."

Amelia:
"What are you making them with?"

Rachel:
"Bone flour; salt, and water."

Amelia:
"Want me to help?"

Rachel
"Nah, I've got this; y'all focus on preparing; I'll portion and share em out in long lifespan containers when I'm done.

Also; I hope one of ya'll packed a mobile stove top or some kind of cooking equipment; because all that canned food needs to be cooked; and these are best served with something moist."

Amber interjects, says:
"Already got that covered, found a portable electric hotplate and bagged it; along with stuff for a campfire if necessary."

Rachel
"Great."

Michella, Helga and Fiona enter the kitchen; holding open backpacks.

Helga is wearing a metal protective vest, leather boosts, and gloves; Michella is wearing a metal vest and some rubber boots, and has the rifle Amelia gave Jade hanging on her shoulder from the strap; and Fiona is wearing her waders, a helmet; and some additional finger-less gloves; the rifle hanging on her shoulder with the strap.

Fiona:
"Alright, how much canned food is left?"

Amber looks at the contents of the cupboard, back at Fiona, and replies:
"A bit, should be enough for the rest of y'all."

Helga:
"Hopefully."

Amelia: (to Michella)
"Hey, Michella; why do you have the rifle I gave to Jade?"

Michella:
"Because shes has no training in using firearms, and I do; I have a better chance to hit something."

Amelia:
"Alright, good point; you got enough ammo?"

Michella:
"Yeah, had some stored away, just in case I needed it."

Amelia:
"Great."

[scene change]

Scene shows the sun over Kartrol's capital city in the mid day position, unhurriedly moving into the 3pm position, as clouds fly past.

[scene change]

The family stands in the living room, all of them ready, backpacks on and fully loaded with supplies.

Amelia says to the group:
"Alright, is everyone fully packed? Not forgetting anything?"

Jade:
"Oh ♥♥♥♥, yeah, I forgot something, be right back."

Jade rushes over to the stairs, and swiftly makes her way up.

A few minutes later, she comes back down; her backpack noticeably more stuffed, but not too big.

Jade:
"Alright, now I'm ready."

Amber:
"What did you go and get?"

Jade:
"Just a few personal things."

Amber:
"Alright."

Amelia: (to everyone)
"Okay, is that everything?"

Collectively; everyone agrees.

Rachel:
"Alright, good."

She looks at Fiona, says:
"And Fiona; since you have the sewer map, you are going to lead the group."

Amelia:
"Yeah, while me, Rachel, Michella, and dad; provide armed cover on both sides; and everyone else follows."

Amelia says to Rachel:
"Speaking of which, how many rocket launcher rounds do you have left?"

Rachel:
"I got 2 in my backpack, and 1 already loaded, so 3."

Amelia:
"Good."

Rachel:
"Alright, we ready to go?"

Everyone collectively agrees.

Rachel:
"Great, lets get a move on."

She looks at Fiona, says:
"Fiona, you lead the way."

Fiona takes the map out of a small pocket on the side of her backpack, opens it up, looks at it for a moment, and replies:
"Alright, nearest sewer access is a street drainage hatch down the road outside, near the 4 way road crossing, on the right.
It leads to a sewage cross way; which can take us south-west, right to a runoff opening on the coast.
And from there; we can walk along the coast; until we find the old mining towns.

Let's go."

Fiona makes her way out of the living room, walks out into the hallway, leading to the front door; unlocks it, opens it, and walks outside; the family following behind in formation.

Exiting the house, Helga locks the door behind them.

The street is a mess; littered with improvised cover; blood, gore, guts and the mangled, mutilated, ruined corpses from the earlier gunfight.

They look around, processing the carnage.

Amber, in shock:
"♥♥♥♥..."

Vanessa, horrified:
"Bloody hell."

Helga, audibly disgusted:
"My god..."

Fiona, visibly disturbed:
"♥♥♥♥... We need to keep moving."

The family moves down the street slowly, cautiously passing through the violent scene; trying to avoid stepping in puddles of blood, gore, guts, or tripping on any mutilated, ruined limbs.

Reaching a metal, moderately sized, circular hatch, with smooth slits running along it near the 4 way road crossing; Fiona puts the map back in her backpack, crouches down, grabs the metal hatch, and lifts it with her full strength.

Pulling the hatch open, she slides the metal cover away, opening the sewer access; revealing a ladder down into the sewer; a mild smell of rot escaping the hole.

Fiona:
"Here we go."

Michella mumbles to herself:
"God, this is going to stink so bad."

Fiona sits down, folds in her wings, puts her feet onto the ladder, and carefully climbs down.
Dismounting the ladder, standing in the sewer; the rest of the family climbs down, one after another.
Jade is the last off the ladder.

As they stand in the sewer while Fiona orientates herself; checking her map; they look around.

The sewers tunnels are rather spacious, arch shaped, made of stone bricks, lit up fairly decently by patches of various glowing fungi, mostly green, but some blue, purple, and yellow; and the floor feels distinctly moist yet rough, but not wet or slippery.

The very weak, just about noticeable sound of a fan is audible from somewhere in the tunnels.

Michella smells the air, says:
"Weird, I honestly expected it to smell much worse down here; its mildly like an old sock at worst."

Fiona looks at her, says:
"Yeah, that's due to the gas extraction systems."

Michella:
"The what?"

Fiona:
"Okay, in summary; to make sewer work less hazardous, fumes and gases are extracted by a specialist ventilation system, as part of waste management.
Combustible, smelly gases in particular, like methane for example; are extracted and burned for energy."

Michella:
"Huh, thats pretty cool."

Fiona:
"It sure is, anyway."

Fiona looks back at the map, turns to the right and says:
"This is the way, follow me."

The group walks forward, Fiona leading them, while Amelia, Rachel, Michella and dad, stand at the sides of the group in pairs, guns in their hands, ready.

[scene change]

Scene shows time lapse of the sun over Kartrol's capital city in the 3pm position, sluggishly moving into the 9pm position, setting below the horizon as clouds fly past and battles rage in the streets below; brutal conflicts between civilians and death squads.

[scene change]

Fiona comes to a stop and looks at the tunnel ahead; the walls and some of the floor are covered in circular bore tunnels, each hole easily 2ft wide.

The actual sewer tunnel itself continues like this for a fair bit; before opening up into a large excavated cavern, the bare stone and dirt partially illuminated by patches of glowing mushrooms.

Fiona says to the family:
"Wait up."

They come to a stop, noticing the state of the tunnel ahead.

Fiona:
"♥♥♥♥."

Amelia looks at the various holes, the bored open space ahead, and realises something.

Amelia says to Fiona:
"Fiona, this looks like grind worm territory."

Jarease interjects:
"Specifically, this looks like a nest."

Fiona:
"Huh, so that's what this is, and by the looks of it, its been digging all over the place."

Dad:
"So, what do we do?
Take another path or keep going?"

Fiona looks at the map for a moment, replies:
"Well; we can, but we would need to back track for about 2 hours; and take another route, which would make the trip longer.

Or; we could just go through here and continue, if the grind worm this belongs to is not here."

Rachel:
"But how do we know if the worm is nearby or not?"

Amelia
"Well, considering the fact I can't hear its drill revving, or it burrowing around, I think its safe to say the worms not here."

Rachel:
"True, but what if its just, laying silently, waiting or something."

Amelia:
"I doubt it, their naturally quite noisy, they literally have a biological motor inside them, kinda hard to keep that quiet."

Rachel:
"True."

Fiona:
Good points Amelia, but I'll shine a light, make sure its not directly ahead at least."

Fiona reaches into her backpack, takes out a flashlight, turns it on and shines it into the tunnel ahead, illuminating the large excavated cavern, revealing nothing but bore holes in the walls and floor, and large rocks dotted across the chamber.

Fiona:
"Looks clear, so, should we just cut through?"

Amelia:
"Might as well."

Rachel:
"Well, since its not here, sure."

Dad:
"We should probably take the other way around, but, okay, fine.

Michella:
"I'm not sure about this, but, if it gets us out of the city quicker, sure."

Jade:
"I am not sure we should do this, but I agree with Michella; whatever gets us away from the Death Squads."

Amber:
"I guess so."

Vanessa:
"I would much rather take another path, but sure, lets go in."

Jarease:
"Well; if its not here, sure, go through."

Helga:
"Let's cut through, get this over with."

After a brief pause, Fiona says:
"Alright, everyone's voted; lets go."

Fiona shines her light along the floor as she moves forward into the tunnel; the family following as they precisely manoeuvre around the occasional tunnel hole in the floor.

Eventually, reaching the opening of the main tunnelled open space, Fiona looks round with her flashlight; revealing a clear, but not entirely straight, snaking path through the rocks, stones and holes.

Fiona:
"I see a clear path, follow me and stay close."

She steps out into the chamber and slowly walks along the path, cautiously illuminating the path ahead as the family follows.

The ground below them is rough, unrefined, and moist.

Making their way through, Jade; lagging behind at the back of the group, looks around at the patches of glowing fungi, thinks to herself:
"I think some of these are edible."

Continuing to look around, Jade notices a small patch of yellow glowing fungi on the ground among a cluster of stones, not too far from the trail, the dim yellow glow faintly illuminating something round, grey, and covered in spots.

Curious, without thinking, Jade silently walks off the trail, approaching the yellow glow, getting a better view of the object.

Its sitting among fragments of grey and spotted material; just barely visible.

Reaching it, she crouches down and carefully reaches for the object.
Getting a feel of it, its smaller than a head but still quite sizeable, smooth, and round.

Grabbing the object and moving it into view; she feels the weight, its not too much, but noticeable.
The yellow light reveals the object, its a decently sized egg, covered in spots.

Jade, seeing the egg, thinks to herself:
"Neat, I'll be taking that."

She takes off her backpack; quickly opens it up, cautiously puts the egg inside, closes it up; puts it on, and quietly makes her way back to the trail, rejoining the group silently as they continue to navigate the carved cavern.

A short while later, the group reaches the end of the chamber; the path leading back into the sewer tunnels; the way into said tunnels being covered in bore holes, mainly on the walls and some on the floor; same as the way in to the chamber.

Cautiously; Fiona continues to lead them, avoiding the hazardous holes.

After a short bit of time, the family manages to clear the area, continuing on their way down the sewer tunnels.

[scene change]

Scene shows the night sky over Kartrol's capital city, stars illuminating the sky as the moon slowly rises.

[scene change]

The family comes to a stop as they enter a large stone brick room, partially and decently illuminated by large patches of glowing fungus.
The left side has a tall set of brick stairs along the wall with a metal railing, leading up to an old, rusted metal door.
The opposite side continues on with more sewer tunnel.
And the right side has another tunnel, albeit slightly smaller.

The humming of the air filtration system is noticeable and present, but not overwhelming.

Amelia:
"I think we should stop and rest for a bit, we've been walking for around 7 hours."

Dad:
"Sounds like a good idea, my legs hurt."

Amber:
"Mine too."

Jade:
"Sounds good to me, but I don't want to sit down on wet, dirty stone; maybe we can get that old door up those stairs open, there could be a better spot inside."

Helga:
"Maybe, could be worth checking."

Amelia:
"Sounds like a good idea, I'll go up and see whats up there."

Amelia walks over to the staircase; unfolds her wings, floats upwards, hovers over the rail, carefully lands in front of the door, gets her footing on the moist stone; and folds her wings up.

She pushes on the door, its weight is noticeable and hefty, the hinges somewhat stiff.
Shoving it moderately; the door slowly swings open with a long, loud creek, revealing a room.

The room is fairly well sized; square in shape, with brick walls and stone tile floor; the floor being dry unlike the outside.

The centre of the ceiling has a small tunnel leading up to an access hatch, with a broken, rusted ladder, most of the lower section being missing.

Under it is a round, barrel like, improvised furnace or cooker of some kind made from scrap metal, with a hatch door on the front, the inside of it glowing orange, visible via short rounded slits along the top of the sides; and on the hatch, as the whole thing emits a comfortable warmth, a small chimney on top of it leading up to the tunnel above; expelling the smoke to the world above.

The orange glow from the furnace illuminates the room fairly well.

Around the room is a set of improvised furniture.

At the back of the room is a couch made from pieces of wood, animal bones, and trash bags, stuffed with paper trash, some of it protruding from small holes in the plastic.

In front of the couch is a small coffee table, made from planks of old wood, crudely nailed together; the table having several items on it; cans, pots, bottles of water, packages of fast food and a few lit candles on a plate; the wax dripping down, fusing them together.

Under said coffee table; starting from the couch, is a large rug made from stitched together pieces of carpet.

On the wall above the couch hangs the skull of a Lowl Kara'sar (Plains Cut Short).

In the right corner at the back is a set of shelves, made from planks of wood; tied, screwed and nailed together.

Said shelves holding several books, a few unlit candles, some pictures in frames, a few animal bones and skulls, and a small, crude, clay sculpture of a tree.

On the right side of the room is an old, wooden, fold out wallpapering table; supported by an extra set of legs nailed on to it; the table itself having various tools, wood, and nails and screws on top of it in assorted piles.

A simple chair sits in front of said table; made from bits of old wood and planks, nailed and bolted together.

In the left back corner of the room is an improvised toilet; made from an old wooden chair with a hole cut into it; and a metal bucket underneath.

And on the left side of the room is a pair of improvised beds, the frames made from wooden boards and bones; topped with mattresses and sleeping bags; one of them visibly having something inside.

Amelia calls out:
"Is anyone in here?"

Suddenly; without warning, the sleeping bag sits up, unzips and opens; a dirty man with a long beard and brown wings emerging.

He says:
"The ♥♥♥♥? Yeah, and who the hell are you? What are ya do'in in me home?" as he swiftly climbs out of the sleeping bag, and stands up, holding an improvised knife made from a flattened, sharpened length of pipe; bolted into a carved piece of wood.

"Who the ♥♥♥♥ are ye? Why ye here?" he says in a firm, but noticeably scared voice, as he points the blade at Amelia while keeping his distance, staying close to the wall; back practically against it.

Amelia, spooked, but remaining calm, clutches her sniper rifle, ready, prepared to use it; says:
"I'm Amelia, sorry for startling you; but my family and I need a place to rest, and again, sorry for scaring you, I had no idea someone was in here."

The dirty man lowers the knife, the fear fading from him as he calms down; he gives her an almost annoyed but confused look, and says:
"Hmm... Well, you should have knocked at least, but sorry for pulling my blade out on ya like that, ya really had me thinking I was about to get jumped.

Regardless, how many of ya are there?"

Amelia puts her sniper back, says:
"Including me, 10 of us."
We just need a place to stop and rest."

The dirty man puts the knife down on the bed, walks over to her half way, and says:
"How long for?"

Amelia:
"Not sure, we've all been walking for the last 7 or so hours to escape the city and we need to rest, probably for the night, its hell up there right now."

Dirty man says:
"Really? whats going on topside?"

Amelia:
"Haven't you heard? Its a culling, death squads are slaughtering people to "save resources" due to a "recourse crisis" they won't shut up about."

Dirty man: (disturbed)
"Good lord, seriously?"

Amelia:
"Yep, and its global too; governments across the world have decided to just, start killing people."

Dirty man: (very disturbed)
"Good lord... That's... ♥♥♥♥♥♥."

Amelia:
"I know, that's why were running off down here."

Unexpectedly; Rachel enters the room, briefly looks around, and says:
"Is everything okay Amelia?"

Amelia says to her:
"Accidentally spooked this guy coming in and nearly got into a fight, but its fine.
Just telling him why we're down here."

Rachel:
"Did you tell him about the culling?"

Dirty man:
"She sure did, whole situation sounds ♥♥♥♥♥♥."

Rachel:
"It is, and we need a place to stay tonight, all 10 of us, is it okay if we stay here?"

Dirty man: (calmed down but still processing)
"Hmm... That depends, I need to ask my wife Lisa when she gets back."

Amelia:
"You have a wife?"

Dirty man:
"Yeah, met her down here 20 years ago, and we both live in here."

Amelia:
"That would explain the second bed."

Dirty man:
"Yep, the other one is hers."

Amelia:
"Alright, also, whats your name by the way?"

Dirty man / Jake:
"Names Jake."

Rachel:
"Well, its a pleasure to meet you Jake.
Any idea when your wife will be back?"

Jake:
"Probably soon, but for now I'll let y'all sit and rest here, she will decide if y'all can stay tonight."

Amelia:
"Alright, sounds good; I'll get the others and let em know."

Amelia walks out of the room.

[scene change]

Amelia and the whole family are sitting in the room, in front of the furnace in a group, feeling the warmth radiating from it; meanwhile Jake sits off to the side.

Jake:
"Whats the end goal anyway? Where are y'all even going to go?"

Fiona:
"To the old abandoned mining towns far off south-west, near the coast.
Their plenty far from the city, and have everything we're going to need."

Jake:
"You sure about that? Coast is quite far away, won't be easy to travel on foot; its gonna take y'all a few days to get there."

Amber:
"Well, Fiona has a map, and we have a good bit of stuff to keep us going, so, I would say we're going to be fine."

Jade interrupts, saying:
"Hey Jake, is it okay if I smoke? I got some herb and I am really craving right now."

Jake:
"Yeah, sure, Just take it outside; I don't want my home reeking of the stuff, wife will think I'm back on the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ again."

Jade:
"Thanks."

Jade stands up, grabs her backpack, and walks out of the room, closing the door behind her.

[scene change]

Jade unfolds her wings, floats over the rail, down towards the ground, lands, gets her footing, and folds her wings away.

She sits down next to the stairs, legs folded; takes off her backpack, puts it down on the floor gently, and opens it.

Reaching inside; pushing the egg out of the way, she takes out a decently sized brick of compacted herb, wrapped in plastic; a packet of papers, a small knife and a lighter.

Putting the brick on her lap; she cuts open the plastic along the edge of the brick, and carefully scrapes some herb from the brick.

Finishing gently organising the scraped off herb into a small pile, she takes a small paper from the pack, licks one of the edges, and begins scooping the herb into the paper with the knife.

Getting the scraped herb into the paper; she carefully rolls it up, presses along the seam, and twists the ends shut; forming a joint.

Jade puts one end of the freshly rolled joint in her mouth, sparks the lighter, and lights the end.

With her joint lit; she takes a long, deep suck of the joint; the end of the joint burning up; holds her breath for a moment, and slowly lets out a cloud of grey, thick smoke; the strong stink of burning herb filling the air.

Feeling the effects of the herb hit her, she leans back; back against the cool brickwork of the stair side, relaxed; her cravings beginning to fade.

For a few moments; Jade sits there, relaxed; casually puffing away at her Joint.

Suddenly; out of nowhere; a female voice calls out: "Who are you?"

Jade, startled, looks to the source; and sees a woman with long dirty black hair and dark blue wings; holding a pair of full plastic bags; wearing a dirty, ragged, stitched together, crude brown poncho, standing in the larger sewer tunnel; her legs and arms up to her knees and elbows are caked in dark red-brown mud.

Jade: (moderately frightened)
"Oh, hi, n-names Jade.
You Jake's wife by a-a-any chance?"

The woman / Lisa, approaching her, says:
"Yeah, names Lisa; the ♥♥♥♥ are you doing here?"

Jade: (shifting to nervous)
"I-I'm with my family, their u-up in Jake's place right now.
We need a place to stay for the night, and we-he was waiting for you to come back.
For you to s-say if its okay or not."

Lisa lets out an obviously annoyed sigh, takes a deep breath; and replies:
"Okay, and how many of you are there?"

Jade:
"T-ten of us."

Lisa:
"Alright, ill go in, take a look at y'all; talk to Jake and have a think about it."

Jade:
"T-th-Thank you."

Lisa;
"Alright, also; whats with the stuttering?
You always like this?"

Jade:
"No just- just really nervous, a-and high- I'm sorry."

Lisa:
"Its okay, and sorry if I startled you earlier."

Jade:
"its f-fine."

Lisa swiftly makes her way over to the stairs; walks up them, and enters the room.

[scene change]

Lisa enter the room and sees the rest of the family sitting around the furnace, Jake talking to them.

Jake:
"-So yeah, to recap, that's how I met my wife; and to think that I met someone as perfect as her, just by nearly losing a can of meat."

Lisa: (loudly)
"Ahem."

The whole room turns to look at her.

Jake:
"Ah honey, your back."

Lisa: (progressively sounding more disturbed)
"Yeah, and I managed to find food; surface is absolute hell; I-I swear there some kind of civil war going on."

Jake:
"Yeah, about that; according to our guests; there is a cull going on; death squads are massacring people."

Lisa: (progressively sounding more disturbed)
"Bloody ♥♥♥♥, that would explain a lot; also, I had to search through a-active combat zones for this food; as a result my legs and arms are c-caked in blood and mud.

My god, I-I swear, its a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ slaughter up t-there; I kept tripping on limbs and slipping on p-puddles of blood... Its h-h-horrible up there."

Lisa sits down, legs folded, puts the bags on the floor; and lets out a long, deep, distressed sigh, as she puts her face in her hands; each breath audibly shaken.

Jake stands up, makes his way over to her, and sits down next to her; putting his hand on her back.
Lisa wraps her arms around him, holding him; visibly distressed.

Jake holds her in return, comforting her as she nestles her head into his shoulder.

They sit for a moment; holding one another.

Amelia asks:
"Is she okay?"

Jake:
"She will be, but she needs to process things right now...
But I appreciate you asking."

Amelia:
"No problem."

For a while; Jake and Lisa sit there; embraced.

After some time, Lisa stands up; slowly makes her way over to the couch, sits down, and lays along it; facing away from everyone; curled up; her breathing still audibly shaken.

Jarease:
"I take it now would be a bad time to ask you again, if we can stay tonight?"

Jake:
"Speaking of that... You know what? Yeah sure; Y'all can stay tonight, Lisa is in no condition to be making decisions, she needs to process what she just went through."

Amelia:
"Alright, Thanks Jake."

Helga:
"Thank you."

Fiona:
"Thanks."

Dad:
"Much appreciated:"

Amber:
"Great, thank you."

Out of nowhere; Vanessa's stomach rumbles loudly as she clutches her stomach in visible discomfort.

Vanessa:
"Yeah, thanks.
Also, we haven't eaten all day.
Now is probably the best opportunity to cook something."

Rachel:
"Good idea, all that walking got me hungry.
We should cook some dinner."

Amelia:
"Sounds good to me, but first."

Amelia says to Jake:
"Is it okay if we use your... Furnace? Oven?" Whatever that is?"

Jake:
"Yeah sure, also, its a heating furnace, but it doubles as an oven; so; you can call it either."

Amelia:
"Alright, thanks."

Jake:
"No problem; but your going to need these."

Jake stands up; walks over to the table, and takes out 2 items from the assorted pile of tools; a pair of long metal furnace tongs; and a round wire grid.

He walks over to the furnace; uses the tongs to open the hatch, revealing a fairly strong fire burning at the bottom of it; puts the round wire grid into the tongs; and uses them to place the grid into the furnace; sitting it on a set of small protrusions connected to the furnace walls, just above the fire.

Jake, removes the tongs, placing them on the floor, says:
"If you want to cook anything, use these tongs to put things in, and remove stuff from the furnace."

Amelia:
"Got it."

Fiona:
"Sure."

Helga:
"Alright."

Jarease:
"Okay."

The family opens their backpacks, taking out cans of meat and bottles of water.

Fiona:
"Anyone got a can opener?"

Rachel:
"I do."

Rachel takes a can opener out of her bag and passes it to Fiona.

Fiona:
"Thanks-"

Without warning; a loud whirling, drilling noise; like a large engine; and the sound of stone breaking echoes loudly from outside; along with Jade's terrified screams.

With zero hesitation, the family puts down their food and rushes outside, Jake following.
Meanwhile; Lisa sits up off the couch, startled, and follows.

Exiting the room; congregating along the stairs, they see a massive, long, pale white, armoured worm; covered in long, dirty, shaggy black hair; coiled around the room, blocking off all exits; the end of its body trailing off into the smaller tunnel.

The serpents mouth is a whirling; cone shaped hole; lined with many small sharp teeth; the sound of its inner engine is deafeningly loud; dominating the room.

Around its mouth is 4, simple, small black, marble like eyes.

Jade; paralysed with fear, is standing in the middle of the chamber; holding her backpack; visibly shaking with fear.

Terrified; acting on pure instinct; Rachel, Amelia, Fiona, Dad, and Michella pull up their guns and prepare to fire on the creature; only to notice something.

The worm is motionless like a statue, apart from its maws rotations, its not attacking at all, nor moving.

Confused; they keep their aim on the creature; focusing on its head.

Gradually; the mouth of the beast stops spinning; the roar of it engine quieting entirely.
It slowly lowers its head, steadily worms towards Jade; stops half way, and releases a set of 4, long, rope like tongues.

It's tongues swiftly snatch the bag from Jade, pull it towards the worms face; and begin meticulously feeling and opening it.

Meanwhile; The family keeps their guns locked onto it, ready to blow it away.

Reaching its tongues into the bag, the worm cautiously extracts the egg; and carelessly drops Jades bag to the floor.

Seeing the worm take the egg, everyone realises whats going on.

The worm pulls the egg towards itself and backs away to the far end of the room; sniffing it and cooing loudly.

After a moment it stops and leans down, placing the egg on the floor.
It looks up at Jade, sits up, towering over her; carefully approaches her, and looks straight down at her.

Jade, paralysed with terror; can only make eye contact with the hulking beast; as it stares down on her.

For a moment, it sits there; staring at her.

Suddenly; it huffs, and spits a massive glob of brown mucus at her.

Taking this as hostility; Amelia and the family fire at the beast briefly; only managing to hit its body a few times; the shots not even damaging the creature as it swiftly turns around, grabs its egg; and rushes down the smaller tunnel; vanishing.

With the creature gone; the family turns their attention to Jade; who is visibly still scared, shaking, and now trying to scrape the worms mucus off her face; her whole body covered in it.

They put their guns back, rush down the stairs and over to her; Jake and Lisa following behind.

Amelia helps scoop the mucus off her face and hair, Helga and Amber helping remove it from her body.

Amelia, worried; asks:
"Jade, are you okay?"

Jade, shaking with terror:
"I... I-I think so."

Amelia:
"Does it hurt? did it hurt you?"

Jade:
"A-apart from how s-s-sticky and gross this is, n-no."

Amelia:
"Also, why did you have an egg? Where did you even get it?"

Jade's cheeks flush red with embarrassment, replies:
"I f-found it in the cave, e-earlier, the n-n-nest we p-passed through.
I-i didn't even think the w-worm would-would still be around."

Amelia releases a frustrated sigh, replies (audibly frustrated):
"That was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid, but... (Takes a deep breath) You are still alive and nobody got hurt, that's what matters."

Helga:
"I agree, that was stupid to do, could have gotten yourself killed."

Rachel:
"Why even take an egg from an obvious grind worm nest in the first place?
That's just asking for trouble."

Amber:
"Speaking of which, what kind of grind worm was that anyway?
I'm pretty sure they don't have hair and small black eyes."

Jarease:
"Honestly I'm not sure, but my closest guess would be a landfill grind worm.
But the problem with that would be, they apparently went extinct a long time ago, after all the landfills were cleared away with the invention of the reality sphere.

So; it could only really be one of two things.
It's either a species that looks exactly like a landfill worm.
Or, some landfill worms survived the clearing of the landfills; and have adapted to the sewers.

That second one being my best guess on what it is."

Rachel:
"Second one makes the most sense to me."

Vanessa:
"Agreed, I don't see the first one making sense."

Dad: (annoyed and angry)
"Regardless, what kind of worm it is does not matter.
Point is; Jade should not have taken that egg, could have gotten herself, and us killed.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥... Now we probably can't stay because of this ♥♥♥♥ show...

Speaking of which..."

Dad looks at Jake and Lisa, says: (agitated)
"I suppose you two are going to kick us out now?"

Jake:
"No, its fine, y'all can stay tonight; y'all clearly had no idea she had that egg.
But the main point is, nobody got hurt, that is what matters most."

Lisa: (still sounding disturbed, but less so)
"I a-agree with Jake, Y'all can still s-stay."

Dad: (calming down)
"Oh, thank you, Jake and Lisa."

Jake:
"It's fine."

Lisa:
"N-no problem."

[scene change]

The family walks back into the room lead by Jake and Lisa.

Jade; backpack on one shoulder; following behind them, before entering the room removes the last globs of mucus from her hair and discards them out the doorway over the rail of the stairs.

Feeling leftover residue on her hand, Jade briefly crouches down and wipes it off on the outside of the door frame, stands up; and walks in.

The family sits around the furnace again with their backpacks; passing around the can opener and opening their cans of food, preparing to cook.

Meanwhile; Jake and Lisa sit down on the couch next to one another; Jake continuing to hold her.

Amelia picks up the tongs first, grabs her opened can of meat chunks and cautiously places it inside the furnace on the wire grid.

After some time, the juices in the can start boiling, the smell of steam and meat filling the air.
She moves the can out towards the edge of the flame; letting it calm to a simmer.

After a few minutes; she carefully extracts the can; placing it on the floor to cool, and passes the tongs along to Fiona.

Amelia:
"Did anyone bring forks? Spoons even?"

Rachel:
"Yep, here's some.
Packed em while we waited for the baked rations to cook."

Rachel takes out a handful of forks and spoons, and begins passing them around.
Amelia is the last to get a fork.

Amelia:
"Thank you."

Amelia sits waiting for her food to cool, while the others begin to take turns cooking their cans of food; forks and spoons ready.

After a while; Amelia feels the can, its just warm enough to hold.
She picks it up; ready to eat, only for a thought to hit her.

"Maybe I should offer Jake and Lisa some food at least."

Amelia looks at Jake and Lisa, says:
"Do you two want anything to eat too?

Jake:
"No, I'm fine."

Lisa (calmed down)
"No... But thank you for offering."

Amelia:
"Do you want some water at least?"

Lisa:
"No."

Jake:
"Nah, I'm fine."

Amelia:
"Alright."

Amelia sticks her fork into the can and lifts out some freshly cooked chunks of cooked meat; steam coming off them.

Putting the food in her mouth, she uses her lips to pull it off the fork, and begins chewing; the soft; delectable, flavourful, moist meat, breaking up easily.

[time skip scene change]

The hot flames of the furnace burn low with a dim orange glow, while Amelia folds up her wings and slowly climbs into her sleeping bag, laying on the floor of the room, the rest of the family doing the same.

Meanwhile, Jake and Lisa are already laying on their beds in their sleeping bags, comfy and asleep.

Getting cozy in her sleeping bag, Amelia rolls on her side and snuggles up deeply into it; facing towards the rest of her family.

Finale settling down, comfortable, Amelia very quickly feels tiredness overwhelming her, washing over like a flood.

Closing her eyes, she swiftly drifts off into a deep, restful sleep.

[End of chapter 2]

Amelia gazes around, standing in a ankle deep ocean of blood; surrounded by a swampy landscape of countless mangled, mutilated, annihilated, decaying corpses; men, women and children; terror quickly overwhelming her.

In the distance, surrounding her; are many mountains of ruined, broken bodies; of various sizes.
The landscape is sparsely dotted with thin, skeletal, but vein like trees, sprouting from the carnage.

The sky is a deep, dark red; the landscape of viscera around her illuminated in crimson by a sharp; glowing, red sun; shaped like a sideways eye; gazing down upon her.

The sky itself is devoid of clouds; and instead inhabited by large swarms of carrion insects; their trillions of buzzing wings sounding like a storm of radio static.

The cold; bitter wind blows, carrying the sickening stench of rot and decay.

Looking around swiftly in overwhelming fear and bewilderment; she sees a tall; wingless, skinny, pale, emaciated, vaguely female figure, with a long, half way down hanging, armoured tail and neck, neck and tail covered with patches of sparse, long, black shaggy hair; the figure facing away from her, standing in a pond of blood a short distance away; holding a lifeless female body by the head in its right hand with long skeletal fingers; the gazing sun now somehow right above it; looking down upon her.

The figure turns around; its long neck twisting with a sickening crackle; each joint of its body popping and snapping loudly.

It looks at her; its head is that of the pale grind worm, but with 4 yellow distinctly Tr'allanga eyes; its round maw dripping with thick, sticky, black blood.

Amelia stands in total terror; paralysed; her heart beating wildly.

The creature raises its arm, holding the body, pointing its face towards her, its Jade.

Her jaw is twisted, broken; abdomen has been visibly, violently torn open with a long, wide, jagged wound, and her organs are missing; as a trail of thick, sticky, black blood leaks from her abdomen and down her leg, dripping into the blood below.

Without warning, the abomination releases a loud, sickening, wet, almost choking growl, as it slowly crushes the corpses head in its grip with zero effort.

The carcasses eyes are violently forced out of their sockets as the brain gushes and ruptures out of the cracks in the skull and nose; the sickening sound of bone and flesh being crushed echoes through the air before the whole head finale implodes; the neck breaking, separating from the ruined head, and the lifeless, empty body drops to the ground; landing in the blood with a splash, leaving the broken remnants of the head in the creatures grip.

Overwhelmed with terror, disgust, fear and anger, Amelia feels a powerful knot in her gut, the pain crippling.

Falling to her knees in agony, she grabs her gut, beginning to cry, tears of blood streaming down her face.

She mutters though the tears and agony:
"No, no no no no, you, this can't- no."

Out of the blue; she feels the warm hold of arms around her, and a soft; familiar voice whispering to her.

Unanticipated; everything fades to darkness and silence.

In the blink of an eye; the darkness is replaced by sight of the room, albeit blurry; the feeling of arms around her as the familiar voice becomes clearer.

Feeling something jiggling her, and the sleeping bag around her legs, but still terrified, she shakes herself, sits up, and rubs her eyes; feeling wet, watery tears on her hands, and her own heavy, panicked breathing.

Coming to her senses but still shaken, she looks around, and sees Rachel crouched down, hugging her, visibly worried.

Rachel, in a caring, soft, but audibly concerned tone:
"Amelia, Amelia hey, I'm here.
Its okay, I've got you."

Amelia: (audibly shaken and scared), watery tears still streaming down her face.
"What- whats happening.
Where's Ja-Jade?"

Rachel hugs her tightly, says:
"Its okay; shes okay, I'm here."

Amelia hugs Rachel in return, slowing her breathing, trying to calm down.

After a bit; Rachel asks: (concerned)
"I heard you mumbling and crying in your sleep, and you started jerking around, clutching your gut like you was in pain, what happened sis?"

Amelia lets go, pulls back, takes a moment to gain her composure, and says: (still disturbed)
"I had a... horrible nightmare; a landscape of dead bodies, and I... I saw this... creature.
It was tall; thin, pale, had that grind worms head and body for a neck and tail; and... it killed and mutilated Jade...

It... It ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥... Gutted her, and crushed her head, the sound and smell... I could smell the death in the air..."

Amelia, starting to tear up again, holds on to Rachel; trying to stay calm, controlling her breathing.

Rachel:
"It was just a dream, don't worry, we're all here, look."

Rachel lets go and moves out of the way, letting Amelia look around the room properly.

She gazes around, seeing most of the family sitting around the furnace, cooking canned food for breakfast, some of them looking at her, concerned; while a few of them, Vanessa, Dad, Helga, and Jade; are still in their sleeping bags; sleeping.

And Jake and Lisa are asleep on the couch; Jake's arms wrapped around her from behind.

Amelia looks at Jade for a moment; sleeping peacefully; and slowly lays back down, focusing on her breathing, calming herself down.

She wipes her eyes again, removing the moisture of the cancelled tears.

Taking a moment; she looks at Rachel, says:
"Thank you, Rachel."

Rachel puts her hand on Amelia's head, gently rubbing along her scalp; says:
"It's fine sis, It's gonna be alright."

Amelia closes her eyes and rests.

Rachel:
"You rest for now, and have breakfast in a bit."

Rachel takes her hand off Amelia's head, backs away, heads over to the furnace and sits down.
She reaches into her bag, takes out a can of meat, opens it; and uses the tongs to place it in the furnace.

Amber looks at Rachel, asks softly:
"What happened?"

Rachel, quietly:
"She had a pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up nightmare."

Fiona, cautious and quietly:
"But what did she dream of?"

Rachel:
"In summary, a landscape of dead bodies, and Jade getting violently killed by some lanky, grind worm head having ♥♥♥♥♥♥."

Fiona: (noticeably disturbed)
"That... is ♥♥♥♥♥♥."

Jarease: (annoyed)
"Shes really crying over a dream? Pathetic."

Michella: (very annoyed, angry)
"Yeah, she did Jarease, and I would be too if I saw that ♥♥♥♥.
Also, why do you feel the need to keep being an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about everything?"

Jarease:
"Because, its pathetic and pisses me off."

Michella:
"Really?... You gonna get mad over ♥♥♥♥ that isn't even your problem?"

Jarease:
"Yeah, because its pathetic."

Jarease looks away, visibly pissed off; her cheeks starting to blush red with anger.

Michella: (disgusted and angry)
"You really need to just, sort yourself out..."

Jarease ignores her; her face growing redder.

Michella: (angry)
"Because for as long as I can remember, you've always been like this, an antagonistic ♥♥♥♥♥; always complaining about something or other; even before you became a teacher; which made you so much worse might I add."

Jarease continues to ignore her; getting as red as a tomato.

Michella:
"You are always in a bad mood, something is always pissing you off; nothing is ever good enough for you, is it?"

Jarease angrily stands up and swiftly walks out of the room; slamming the door behind her.

The slam jolts Amelia up, she looks around, confused.

Michella:
"Typical... Moody ♥♥♥♥."

Amelia:
"What... the ♥♥♥♥ just happened?"

Michella: (calming down)
"*deep breath* Oh, just Jarease being a stroppy ♥♥♥♥ over petty ♥♥♥♥ as usual."

Amelia:
"Whats pissed her off this time?"

Michella: (calmed down, but still mildly annoyed)
"You having a nightmare; she thinks its pathetic; you know how she is."

Amelia: (concerned)
"Why is she like this anyway?"

Michella:
"♥♥♥♥ if I know, she never tries to explain, shes always not in the mood to talk about it."

Amelia:
"Well, I'ma go try talking to her."

Michella:
"I wouldn't, your wasting your breath."

Amelia slowly stands up and walks out the door.

[scene change]

Amelia exits the room and looks around, quickly spotting Jarease sitting on the stairs, hands on her lower stomach, rubbing it; her cheeks blushing bright red with fury, her face one of pure anger.

Amelia: (concerned tone)
"Hey, Jarease."

Jarease does not look at her, says: (angry)
"♥♥♥♥ do you want?"

Amelia:
"I want to know why you are like this, why are you always so angry?"

Jarease
"I don't want to talk about it..."

Amelia:
"You always say that, and its clearly not doing you any good."

Jarease: (A mixture of anger and sadness)
"Because talking won't change anything."

Amelia:
"Why? Whats wrong? What specifically?"

Jarease:
"Again, I just, don't want to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ talk about it.
Leave me alone, please."

Jarease looks down towards the floor, hunching forward a bit.

Amelia:
"Okay, fine; did you have breakfast today at least?"

Jarease:
"Yes, now please, go away."

Amelia:
"Alright, fine."

Amelia walks back into the room, closing the door behind her gently.

[scene change]

Amelia enters the room, makes her way over to the furnace, sits down next to her backpack; and takes out a can of food.

Meanwhile; Jake and Lisa are now sitting up on the couch.

Michella:
"So; how did it go?"

Amelia:
"She didn't want to talk, as always, but I have an idea of whats up with her.
She said "Talking won't change anything." so, it makes me think there is something wrong that's personal to her, something more deeply rooted than just her being easily pissed off all the time."

Michella:
"Could be, that's a good point.
But honestly, I don't see her ever telling us whats so deeply wrong with her, if that is the case."

Fiona interjects:
"Sadly, I have to agree with Michella; shes been clamped up about whatever it is for so long, I doubt shes ever going to tell us whats going on, if anything is."

Amber:
"Same, as far back as I can remember, shes always been a ♥♥♥♥♥; I very much doubt there is anything actually wrong."

Rachel:
"Yeah, I agree too; chances are shes just like that, but Amelia does have a point; their could be something wrong that she just, does not have the strength to tell us."

Amelia:
"Well, regardless, whatever is up with her, it can wait for now; I need to eat and I'm not gonna pretend to be her personal therapist."

Amelia opens the can of food; picks it up with the tongs, and carefully puts it into the furnace; letting it cook.

[scene change]

Scene shows the clear sky and rising sun over Kartrol's capital city into the 9 AM position; many of the streets littered with improvised cover; dead bodies, gore, guts, blood; weapons, dead death squads, abandoned vehicles, and debris from the occasional collapsed building.

[scene change]

Amelia and the family are packing up their sleeping bags and putting their things back in their backpacks.

Jake and Lisa enter the room.

Jake:
"Alright, we're back from our morning walks, and, we've been thinking..."

Lisa:
"Due to the culling, and the surface becoming chaos, which will make finding resources and living down here basically impossible in the long term, can we tag along with y'all?"

Dad:
"Well, that depends on a few things.
What skills you have.
If you have enough food and water to last the multiple day trip.
And, if you are the right people to bring along."

Jake:
"Well, I can say we certainly have enough food."

Lisa:
"And both of us have some good skills; Jake can build furniture, as you can see.
Meanwhile, I am fairly good at finding things, like food and water, albeit in the city."

Jake:
"But if we are the right people to bring along... I'm not sure what that actually means."

Lisa looks at Jake, says:
"I think he means it in a... "if you won't back stab us" kind of way."

Jake looks at Lisa, says:
"Oh, I get it; that's for them to decide."

Lisa:
"It certainly is."

Jake looks back at the family, says:
"Yeah, anyway; in that case, I'm just gonna let y'all think.
I'll be waiting outside to let y'all come to a decision uninterrupted.
Someone come tell me when ya done."

Dad:
"Got it."

Jake turns around and walks back out, Lisa following behind; closing the door behind them.

Dad looks around at the family, says:
"So; what do you all think?
They worth bringing?
Trustworthy?
Skilful?

Because personally; I see they have some decent skill, and the ability to join us, but I just can't put my trust in em, we literally just met them yesterday after all."

Amelia:
"Good point, I'd say their both okay people, they let us stay for the night after all; but its true, we barely know them outside of a few things; like how Jake actually met his wife, and them generally being kind folks.

And regarding skill; Jake certainly has some, but Lisa... Well; her skill won't be too good for us.
So, I'd say, despite how good they seem on the surface, we best not bring them for our own safety."

Rachel:
"I agree with Amelia on this one, their skilled and kind, yes; but we hardly know them.
I'd say we don't bring em along."

Jade:
"We shouldn't be so quick to judge, their nice, skilled; and as far as I can see and know, nothing has been stolen, and nobody has been... Hurt... So, I'd say their worth bringing along."

Michella:
"Jade has a point, plus; we have guns to defend ourselves, and their gonna be running from the same issues we are, so it feels silly to not bring em along."

Jarease:
"I understand your points, but its ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid; bringing them is a liability, we hardly know em, we can build ♥♥♥♥ ourselves, and its just another pair of mouths to feed in the long run."

Helga:
"Which, we can deal with in the long run, don't be silly."

Jarease:
"Certainly, yes.
But may I also mention, we are very lucky to not have run into a death squad by now.
Because I know they will be searching around down here, looking for escaping survivors.
And as far as I know, those two have no real means of defending themselves.

Them tagging along would probably get us spotted more easily if we do happen across a death squad, and they would not even be able to provide us any real support.

What I'm saying is; bringing them along puts us all at unnecessary risk."

Amber:
"I hate to agree, but those are valid points.
In this closed place; running into a squad is almost a guaranteed death sentence."

Jade:
"Yeah, but its just 2 more people; and there is like, 10 of us, hardly makes a difference."

Amber:
"That is also a good point."

Vanessa:
"Regardless, I honestly see bringing them as more of a liability than anything, because as mentioned; we hardly know them.
Yes, they are kind; and have good skills, but that's no guarantee of what their actually going to be like long term.
Plus; I hate to say it, but Jarease is damn right; we are really lucky to have not encountered a squad, and having more of us would make us easier to notice."

Fiona:
"Even so, I think we should bring them, as Michella said; "their gonna be running from the same issues", so, despite the risks; its probably the right thing to do."

Amber:
"Even so, its not always whats right, its whats practical.
And in this case; bring them isn't worth it."

Amelia:
"I'm gonna have to agree, their nice; and bringing them would be the right thing to do; but the risk outweighs the reward."

Rachel:
"Exactly."

Dad:
"Okay, so, have we all decided and can vote on it now?"

A collective yes from the family confirms it.

Dad:
"Alright, a simple yes or no to bring them with us.
I say no."

Amelia, Rachel, Amber, Vanessa, Jarease:
"No."
"No way."
"Nah."
"Nope."
"♥♥♥♥ no."

Jade, Helga, Fiona, Michella:
"Sure."
"Yeah."
"Yes."
"Certainly."

Dad:
"Alright that's... One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six votes for no.
And, One, two, Three, Four, Votes for yes.

Well; Its a no then."

Jade: (disappointed)
"That sucks."

Fiona: (disappointed)
"A damn shame; but I get y'all's reasoning."

Michella: (disappointed)
"That's disappointing."

Helga:
"Huh, alright; its a shame, but I understand."

Dad:
"Alright, vote concluded, but who's gonna go out and tell Jake?"

After a brief moment of silence; Amelia speaks out:
"I will, I was the first one he met, so, I guess its fitting if I'm the one to let him know they can't tag along."

Dad:
"Makes sense, go ahead."

[scene change]

The family, backpacks on, ready to go; leaves the room, making their way down the stairs, some walking down; others flying over the rail and landing on the sewer floor below.

Meanwhile Jake is leaning up against the wall near the stairs; next to Lisa.

Amelia, folding up her wings, walks over to him, says:
"Okay Jake, we've come to a decision.
Sadly, we can't bring you along.

We really appreciate what you did for us, you are a kind man, and have good skill.
But, we just met you, outside of a few things we hardly know you.
That's why we can't bring you."

Jake:
"And that's perfectly fine, reasonable; I'd probably come to the same decision in your position."

Amelia:
"Alright, anyway; before we get a move on, whats your plan? Where are you gonna go?"

Jake:
"Not sure, maybe towards the woods, or an old bunker somewhere outside the city.
We'll figure it out."

Amelia:
"Do you at least have something to defend yourselves?"

Jake:
"well, I have the knife I made, which you already know about, Lisa has a small knife hidden in her rags, and... I think that's about it."

Amelia:
"That's probably not gonna be enough, so... Here, take these."

Amelia takes 2 grenades off her belt and gives them to Jake.
Jake takes them carefully, holding one in each hand.

Jake: (surprised)
"Wow, thank you Amelia"

Lisa:
"That's unexpected, but thank you."

Amelia:
"I know its not much, but, its all I can afford to spare."

Jake:
"I honestly did not expect this, again, thank you."

Amelia:
"Its fine."

Amelia looks back at her family; all of them are gathered in front of the larger sewer tunnel, Fiona holding the map; everyone is ready to leave.

Amelia looks back at Jake, says:
"I need to go now, good luck Jake and Lisa."

Jake:
"Alright, Good luck out there Amelia."

Amelia:
"Same for you two as well, goodbye."

Lisa:
"Bye."

Amelia turns around and walks over to her family, joining them as they progress onward down the tunnel, leaving.

[scene change]

Scene shows a time lapse of the sun over Kartrol's capital city progressing slowly through the sky, clouds flying past, and eventually setting beyond the horizon.
The moon rises up; passes along the sky, and too vanishes beyond the edge of the horizon.
The sun rises again, moving in to the mid-day position.
The time laps stops.

[scene change]

Amelia and the family; lead by Fiona holding her map, enter a giant stone brick chamber; lit by large patches of glowing fungi along the walls.

At the front of the chamber is a large, wide metal gate, surrounded by piles of filth and debris, the stink of it like that of rotten eggs.
On the right side of it is a dirty ladder leading up to a small platform, a door, and dirty old window.
And both sides of the room have large, dark tunnels; several feet off the ground, sealed off with embedded metal fence.
The humming of the air filtration system is noticeable; albeit not overwhelming.

Helga:
"What is this?"

Fiona:
"A filter chamber, that gate ahead leads into a funnel tunnel, stopping large debris from blocking the flow.
And those side elevated tunnels are overflows; they redirect sewage water if the chamber exit gets blocked."

Jarease:
"So, in summery, a big filter for ♥♥♥♥ that does not belong down here?"

Fiona:
"Basically, yeah."

Jarease:
"Could have just said that."

Fiona:
"Yeah, but regardless; we need to get through that gate, control room should be above that lad-"

A loud set of thumps fills the air, looking towards the source, its coming from the left, dark, drainage tunnel.

Rachel: (uneasy)
"What was that?"

Fiona: (unsure)
"Not sure, probably just the localised air filtration acting up.
Anyway, I will try and get this open."

Fiona puts the map away, walks over to the ladder, and climbs up.
Getting on to the platform, she pushes the door, it swings open easily; grinding loudly and she enters the room.

A moment later; a deep groan echoes from the left tunnel.

Jade:
"That.. Does not sound like a machine."

Michella readies her rifle, replies:
"Yeah, somethings up."

Rachel, concerned; clutches her rifle.
Amelia and dad doing the same, swiftly holding their guns, ready.

[scene change]

Fiona stands in front of a control console in the room, examining it.

The control box has various indicators for many things, water level; water pressure, air quality; temperature; water salinity, etc; and several sections of labelled controls.

Looking among the labelled sections, Fiona finds the gate controls; a pair of levers and a switch.
The first lever is in a middle position, labelled "Gate control."
The second lever is a simple toggle, named "Motor activation."
And the button is labelled "Motor power."

Pressing the motor power button, a dull rumbling fills the room, the vibrations of a engine somewhere just about palpable.

Fiona grabs the motor activation lever and pulls it; followed by the muffled electronic whirling of a unseen motor.

Moving on to the gate control; without warning, a deep, groaning roar echoes from outside.

Unsettled and baffled; she briefly pauses, listening, swiftly moves over to the window, wipes the glass, and looks outside.

She sees her family looking at the left tunnel, guns ready, visibly uneasy.

Quickly; she goes back to the lever and pulls it upwards.
A loud, mechanical clacking fills the air; along with loud metal grinding; as the gate audibly starts to move.

She turns back to the door, pulls it open and leaves the room.

[scene change]

The family looks to see Fiona climbing rapidly down the ladder, while the gate slowly lifts open.

Just as she reaches the bottom and looks at them, another loud deep groaning roar echoes from the left tunnel.

The family snaps back to the tunnel, guns ready.
Loud thumps fill the air, echoing from the tunnel, each one getting more and more powerful.

Reaching their loudest, a large figure emerges from the darkness, coming to a stop just at the metal fence.

The figure is truly massive, taking up most of the tunnel, its covered head to toe in dark blue and grey metal armour; its head tiny compared to its titanic body.

The metal clad Goliath roars angrily, grabs the wire fence, and rips it open swiftly without any resistance.

It jumps through the opening, landing on the ground below with a giant, earth shaking thud so strong the vibrations ran up the families legs.

Sensing the danger, the family swiftly moves towards the gate, keeping their guns locked onto it.

Landing, the Goliath only slight coils from the impact, the light better illuminating the details of the giant.

The giants body is muscular in shape, massive and stocky, adorned in thick metal armour; Its feet are round, devoid of toes and cylindrical in shape; its hands are robust with only 2 thick fingers and 1 equally, proportionally large thumb on each hand; and its head is small, but covered with a solid metal helmet, its face hidden with steel plates, and its eyes replaced with 4 implanted green mechanical ones; the lime pupils of the eyes glimmering brightly.

The towering behemoth stands up fully and roars while starting to run towards them.

Rachel, who is behind the group, shouts at the family:
"RUN!"

The family picks up the pace, sprinting towards the gate while Rachel runs along behind them, preparing her rocket launcher.

Meanwhile; The raging goliath is rapidly closing the distance.

Arming her rocket launcher; Rachel swiftly spins around, aims towards the rapidly nearing titanic beast, and fires on it.

The rocket hits the beast in the chest, exploding; releasing a burst of smoke and fire.
The giant roars in pain, its stomps stopping as it staggers, bellowing in disorientated agony.

Quickly; Rachel turns back and sprints, only to see Amelia turning around, aiming her rifle.
Amelia fires a quick shot in the beasts direction, the sound of the bullet hitting its armour confirming contact.

Amelia swings back around, continuing to run, just as the stomping starts to resume.

Rachel briefly glances back over her shoulder to see the hulking beast has already resumed the chase, rapidly picking up speed as it charges towards them.

Filled with overwhelming fear; Rachel picks up the speed.

Getting close to the gate, Fiona, leading the group, shouts:
"DUCK UNDER!"

The family, managing to reach the half opened gate with no time to lose prepares to go under.

Reaching it, she ducks down and contracts her body, feeling her puff glands activate, managing to get under it and through.

The rest of the family; with the goliath closing in just behind, manages to barely, just about do the same; contracting their bodies with their puff glands and pulling their wings down to avoid getting snagged.

Just about managing to get past the gate; the titanic hulking goliath smashes head first into it; the sheer impact shaking the entire metal gate, and denting it inwards extremely.

Staggered by the impact; the giant steps back, disorientated; giving the family a brief window to keep running.

Making their way down the rapidly narrowing tunnel; the family being forced to form a line, they hear the beast roar again, having regained its focus.

It charges forward again, slamming into the gate, forcing it upwards and open as it reaches in, madly scrambling to grab them.

Reaching in, the giant just about manages to grab Rachel's wings; and pulls on them violently; ripping them from her back with a sickening wet crackle.

The force pulls Rachel backwards as agonising pain ripples through her body; she screams as the force throws her backwards on to the floor.

The family stops and looks back, seeing Rachel now on the floor in visible agony; most of her wings absent.

The metal clad monster pulls its arm back, taking her wings with it.

Without hesitation, Amelia pushes past everyone, runs over to Rachel; grabs her by the arms and pulls her up; helping her to her feet.

She puts her arm around Rachel and guides her forward.
Quickly, Rachel starts to pick up pace; the adrenaline kicking in.

Swiftly, both run down the tunnel, back to the family.

Forming back into a group, the family runs full tilt, leaving the titanic beast behind.
Rapidly making their way down the tight tunnel; dissatisfied, angry roars echo from behind, along with the sounds of metal breaking, and stone being smashed.

Amelia, at the back with Rachel, glances behind, only to see the giant has pushed past the gate, and is using its massive hands to tear through the stone and bricks of the tunnel; trying to dig towards them.

Amelia, terrified, shouts:
"♥♥♥♥, ITS DIGGING THROUGH; RUN."

Absolutely horrified; the family runs at full speed; as the sound of stone breaking echoes behind them.

Before they can even process whats happening, they emerge into a much larger tunnel that splits off into 3.

Fiona, scared, shouts:
FOLLOW ME."

They take a left turn, entering deeper into the network of tunnels; a right corner; run straight to another 3 way, take a left, go straight, right at another 3 point, turn right, run for a while; and take another left; going deep into the network of tunnels; the sounds of the raging beast getting duller and quieter the further they go.

Eventually coming to a stop in a small tunnel room with a ladder and access hatch in the corner; illuminated by patches of green glowing fungi and sunlight shining in from the access hatch; the family sits down, taking deep breaths, trying to calm down; exhausted; the sounds of the raging goliath entirely absent.

Amelia, sitting next to Rachel on a raised, dry, tile area at the side of the room, leans her forward to see the state of her injuries; her wings are almost entirely missing, the wings being torn off a short distance above the bottom joint; leaving bloody, broken stumps; the fresh blood trails down her back having ceased flowing.

Her backpack sitting between the short, mangled remnants of her wings.

Rachel, scared and worried:
"H... How bad is it?
I can't feel my wings."

Amelia, scared, but trying to comfort Rachel, says:
"W... Well... The bleeding has stopped; so the arteries are intact...
But... Their gone... Rachel... All 4 wings...
It tore them off..."

Rachel sits forward, her face going pale, visibly sick, says:
"♥♥♥♥..."

Amelia holds her, says:
"Just breath, lay down, you look like your gonna pass out."

Amelia stands up and gently guides Rachel on to her side; laying her head on the dry tile.

Dad slowly walks over and sits down next to her; rubbing her head; not saying a word.
The rest of the family slowly makes the way over, sitting down near Rachel on the dry tile.
Rachel begins to shake, groaning with pain.

Jarease:
"is she okay?"

Amber:
"I hope so."

Jarease takes a look at Rachel's back, says to Amelia:
"♥♥♥♥, you should probably clean that with clean water, reduce the risk of infection."

Vanessa:
"Yeah, that could easily get infected down here."

Amelia:
"But what about the pain? Her adrenaline is already wearing off."

Jade:
"I have herb on me, that dulls pain."

Jarease:
"True, but last thing she really needs is to be high right now."

Vanessa:
"True, but better than her being in agony."

Jarease:
"I suppose so, also, do we even have a first aid kit?"

Vanessa:
"That is a good question."

Dad: (annoyed)
"Oh... ♥♥♥♥, I forgot to pack it before we left."

Helga: (annoyed)
"My god, really?"

Vanessa: (annoyed)
"♥♥♥♥..."

Dad: (annoyed)
"Yeah, I forgot, it escaped me, okay?"

Jarease: (annoyed)
"Well; ♥♥♥♥, looks like this is the best we could ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ do then...
Alright, go ahead."

Amelia and Jade take off and open their backpacks.

Amelia takes out a bottle of clean water and carefully pours it along Rachel's back, washing away the blood.
Meanwhile; Jade takes out her herb and constructs a joint.

Finishing the wash, Amelia puts the bottle away, puts her backpack back on, and rubs Rachel's shoulder; comforting her while she shakes in agony; her breathing shuddering.

Jade, holding the finished Joint; delicately holds it to Rachel's mouth and lights it; helping her take some puffs.

Taking a few puffs and a set of deep nose breaths, she focuses her breathing; her shaking slowing down as the agony dulls.

Rachel manages to grip the blunt with her mandibles and holds it still; taking puffs as she cautiously sits up.

The standing members of the family sit down again along the dry tiles, silent; taking time to calm down and breath; exhausted.

Everything is silent; except for the sounds of breathing, and the occasional noise of distant gunfire on the surface above.

Some of the family lean forwards, elbows on their thighs near their knees, heads down; while others lean back against the brickwork, wings folded in and out of the way, the chill of the cool bricks mildly uncomfortable but tolerable.

Rachel, leaning forward, continues to puff on the joint, half of it already burned up.
The colour has began to return to her face.

She takes another puff, moves the joint out of her mouth with her mandibles, looks at Jade and Amelia, and says:
"Thank you Jade, and Amelia..."

Amelia, sitting forwards, gently rubs Rachel's shoulder with one hand, avoiding touching the short remnants of her wings, says:
"It's fine, just glad your still alive."

Jade:
"No problem sis."

Rachel puts the joint back in her mouth and continues smoking.

Amelia:
"How do you feel now?"

Rachel:
"Better.. Still hurts, but I'll make it."

Rachel continues to smoke, quiet; the colour and life slowly continuing to return to her face.
Meanwhile, the family continues to sit in silence.

Some time later; a vibrating, buzzing fills the air.

Amelia; feeling it in her backpack, recognises it.
It's her phone.

She takes off her backpack; opens it up, takes out her phone and looks to see who's calling; its Michael.

Amelia answers the call, putting the phone to her ear.

Amelia:
"Hey Michael."

Michael, audibly stressed but trying to stay composed:
"Good afternoon boss, are you okay?"

Amelia:
"Yeah, why?"

Michael:
"Well boss, Things are... Not good at the moment, can't come into work.
Kill Squads are hunting people down, Patricia is dead, and work is gone.
Also; where are you?"

Amelia: (concerned and shocked)
"I'm... On the run with my family; taking the sewers to get out of the city...We're heading south-west for the old mining towns."

Also; what do you mean work is gone?
What happened to Patricia? How did she die?
And where are you?"

Michael:
"Well...

When the culling started, I had no idea what to do... and have been running and gunning for the last 2-ish days, and am now... currently hiding in a dumpster.

During that, I passed the bakery... its... totally destroyed... along with both stores next to it, looks like it was blown up, all that's left is rubble.

And while passing it, I found Patricia's body protruding partly from the rubble... She was clearly crushed by one of the columns.

Why she was there... during the culling... I have no idea; maybe to hide, I... don't know.

Also; I forgot to mention, missing my left arm.
had a close brush with a squad and well... One got a lucky shot... Took my whole left arm off... just below the shoulder..."

Amelia: (very concerned.)
"♥♥♥♥... Can you turn on a video call?"

Michael:
"Sure."

Amelia brings her phone in front of her, the screen switching from a normal call to a video feed.

The screen shows Michael sitting in a dumpster, the lid held open slightly by an old, rusted, pistol ammo magazine; letting in enough light to see him decently.

Hes holding the phone in one hand, his other arm entirely missing just below the shoulder; all that remains is a stump covered with a thin layer of grey skin.

He puts the phone down, sitting it against something out of view; propping it up.

He picks up a small pistol beside him, says:
"Yeah, as you can see... gone..." while gesturing to his absent arm with the gun.

Amelia: (worried)
"♥♥♥♥ man... That's horrible."

Rachel, curious, leans over to see what Amelia is doing, getting a view of the phone screen.

Rachel:
"Damn..."

Amelia: (moderately disturbed)
"Michael, is there any way for you to get out of the city?"

Michael:
"Honestly, not sure; running real low on ammo, and I am out of food.
Got any advice?"

Amelia:
"I do, but its risky...

If you can; go into the sewers, death squads will still be down there; like; I think we ran into some kind of... I'm not sure, big and angry metal guy, but it should be much safer than traversing the surface.

When you get down there, head south-west for the coast... That will put you a good distance away from the death squads."

Michael:
"So, do what your doing?"

Amelia:
"Basically, yeah."

Michael:
"Any other options?"

Amelia:
"Well, you could go for the old ruins up north in the woodlands, or one of the bunkers scattered across the sparsely wooded outskirts, but I'd advise going for the old mining towns in the south-west."

Michael:
"Hmm.... I'll have to think about it, but before I can do anything... I need to find more food.
So; I'm going to go, I need to save battery on this.
Hopefully, I'l... see you again.
Goodbye boss, Amelia; whatever works."

Amelia:
"You can just call me by name."

Michael:
"Alright, bye Amelia."

Michael puts down the gun, reaches for the phone, picks it up, and ends the call.

Amelia, visibly disturbed, lets out a stressed sigh, turns off the phone, puts it in her backpack, closes it; and puts it back on.

She sits back; backpack pressing against the cool brickwork.

Rachel:
"So, I take it he worked for you?"

Amelia:
"Yeah, at the bakery."

Rachel:
"I see."

Amelia
"Also; what do you think that thing was, that giant metal covered thing was?"

Rachel:
"Honestly, not sure; but if I had to guess one of two things.
Either a specialised death squad unit made to seek out people in these tunnels.
Or; some kind of experimental super soldier...

To be honest, I'd say its that first one."

Jade chimes in, says:
"Make sense to me."

Dad:
"Could be either, but considering the size and power it had, I'd say it was some mix of both."

Jarease:
"Possibly; but I'm more inclined to believe its a specialist unit, certainly released down here intentionally.
No way is something that big getting down here on its own, the access ports are way too small"

Fiona:
"I suppose so; makes sense, but it could have just smashed its way into the sewer."

Helga:
"That would make sense, it tore through the fence and smashed up that big heavy metal gate."

Vanessa:
"True, but regardless of what it is, we need to keep moving; the quicker we get out of the city, the better."

Amelia:
"That is true."

Rachel:
"Exactly, so; when should we get going?"

Amber:
"As soon as possible I'd say."

Amelia:
"Agreed, but that depends; you feeling strong enough to keep walking Rachel?"

Rachel:
"I guess so, I'm in quite a bit of pain, but I think I can manage.

Got enough herb to keep me going Jade?"

Jade:
"Yeah, I have almost a whole bale."

Rachel slowly stands up, stumbling a little bit.

Rachel:
"Good... Should we get a move on then?"

Amelia:
"Sure, if your up to it."

Dad:
"Yeah, if you can handle it like that."

Jarease:
"Whatever works for you I guess."

Amber:
"Might as well."

Helga:
"Sounds like a good idea."

Vanessa:
"Probably best we get going, yeah."

Fiona:
"Yeah, but I must check the map first."

Fiona takes the map out of her backpack and looks at it for a moment.

Fiona:
"Hmm... odd- oh, yeah; we can keep going south-west from here.

There is a turn ahead on the right that continues along to a main tunnel."

Amelia: (confused)
"How did you figure that out when we ran here in a panic?"

Fiona looks at her, says:
"I've been doing this job for many, many years; were not far from a brewery actually."

Dad:
"Nice, could use a nice, cold, foamy drink right now."

Amelia: (mildly annoyed)
"Dad, may I remind you of the fact you need to avoid relapsing again?"

Dad:
"True, but one drink won't hurt."

Amelia:
"Which is exactly what you said before you relapsed last time."

Dad:
"That.. is true... yeah... you got me there."

Amelia:
"Exactly."

Rachel:
"Alright, should we get a move on now?"

Amelia stands up, says:
"Yeah, we should get going.

Lead the way Fiona."

Fiona stands up; holding the map, says:
"Alright, lets get a move on."

The rest of the family stands up, following Fiona as she begins leading them all down the sewer tunnel; Rachel walking sluggishly with them, unhurriedly puffing her joint.

[end of chapter 3]

[scene change]

Scene shows a time lapse of the sun rising and setting over Kartrol's capital city, followed by the moon.
This repeats 4 more times.

Meanwhile; smoke plumes occasionally rise from the city as buildings collapse; leaving piles of stone and metal debris in their place.

Finale; the time lapse comes to a stop; the sun in the early morning position, several plumes of smoke rising into the sky, scattered across the city; coming from what were once homes, stores and offices.

[scene change]

Lead by Fiona, the family comes to a stop near the outlet of a large, stone brick sewer tunnel, leading out to a decently long beach; a small river runs from the sewer outlet to the ocean a fair distance ahead of them; sunlight from the sky above illuminating the outside brightly and partially, softly lighting up the sewer exit.

Fiona:
"Looks like this is it, we made it to the coast.
Before we leave the sewer, prepare your eyes, its bright out there."

Fiona puts the map away and leads the family out onto the beach, the bright sunlight almost blinding.

Standing on the course but soft sand, blinded by the sunlight; the family stops for a moment, letting their eyes slowly but painfully adjust.

The warm sea breeze blows, carrying the distinct, refreshing but fishy scent of the ocean.
And the sunlight shining down on them feels slightly warm.

Regaining their vision, the pain passing; they look around; the beach is long and wide, decorated with the occasional stone of various size; the ocean water is a bright blue, the sea edge is littered with the remnants of dead sea plants, and the beach itself ends with a slope upwards, towards an increasingly dense forest.

Along the beach, far in the distance; is a set of cliffs, standing tall right on the edge of the ocean.

Rachel walks ahead of the group, the short remnants of her wings now visibly capped off with a thin layer of skin, she says:
"Okay, If we go along right; we should eventually hit the old mining towns.
But before we do, does anyone need to stop and take a short break?"

Fiona:
"No, I'm good."

Amelia:
"I'll be fine."

Jade:
"A bit; but we should get to the actual town first."

Dad:
"Not right now, but maybe when we reach the mining towns.

Vanessa:
"Nope."

Helga:
"Maybe."

Michella:
"Yeah, but not right now."

Jarease:
"Yeah; but stopping at the town would be a better idea."

Amber:
"Nah, i'll be fine."

Rachel:
"Alright, lets get a move on; I'll lead the way this time."

Rachel turns to the right and walks along the beach, the family following.

[scene change]

Scene shows a time lapse of the sun in the sky over the woods, sluggishly moving into the late morning position; clouds flying past.

[scene change]

The family, walking along the edge of the beach, near the woods; reaches a small, old, rotten, wooden shack; the roof having collapsed in; a dirt trail next to it leading up into the woods.

Not far from the shack, lodged into the sand of the beach, are towering, old, rotting wooden dock pillars, covered in dead seaweed, the sand around them having rotten remnants of old planks protruding from it.

The trail itself is visible; but closely surrounded by bushes and foliage.

Rachel walks up to the path, carefully takes off her backpack; takes out a sharp dinner knife; puts her backpack back on, and violently slices at the foliage, clearing an opening.

Walking onto the trail; Rachel leads them, continuing to hacking away patches of overgrown greenery as they walk forward, the path leading up a shallow but long hill.

The path itself gradually becoming more and more stony, gradually turning to cobbles.

A bit of a walk later, they reach a clear section of path; the path itself now being a patchy mix of dirt and cobbles.

There are old stone and wood houses on both sides, most of them fairly intact, albeit decayed and fairly overgrown with plant life, some houses having collapsed to various degrees.

Looking around and continuing to walk, they gaze upon the silent ruins standing among the trees and foliage.

Continuing on, passing more old buildings, foliage and trees; clearing through the occasional overgrown bushes; the path under them gradually becoming more cobble than dirt as they progress; they come to a stop at a large, old, circular town centre.

Its surrounded by ancient, still intact but clearly damaged stone houses, most of the wooden doors and shutters having long rotted away.

Some of the buildings are covered in overgrown vines and foliage; while others look almost untouched, only being somewhat rotted.

A dead, dry, silent, carved ornate stone fountain sits in the middle of the centre; and old metal street signs point down several outwards going paths, spaced between the surrounding houses.

And the floor below is almost entirely cobbles; except for a few patches of exposed dirt.

Rachel looks around, thinking.

Out of the blue, realisation visibly hits her; her eyes widening a bit.

Rachel:
"Hold on a moment... I think I remember this place."

She looks up at the tree line, quickly noticing the top of a pointed stone structure in the distance, deeper into the woodland.

Rachel looks around again, sees the nearest street sign, which is facing the way they came; and reads it; it says "Tideway road."

Rachel says:
"Yeah, actually, I know this place, we're in one of the 3-4 local-ish mining towns, specifically, the town of "Anvil runners.", which If I remember correctly.. exported either iron, salt, copper... or some other stuff, maybe fish... not sure.

I don't recall the specific history of this place very well..."

Amelia:
"Which, actually; reminds me.
How did you even know these towns were out here? Among other things."

Rachel turns to look at Amelia, replies:
"Well; during my time in the military, which is where I got all my combat training, we had to go across the country and to other countries entirely.

This specific town is one of the many places we had to go.

I distinctly remember us having to do ambush and counter-ambush training here; using the various buildings as cover."

Amelia:
"So, how well do you know this place?"

Rachel:
"Decently, I recognise this place pretty well."

Rachel turns and points to the top of the distant, pointed stone structure.

"And I remember that, its an old temple on the outer edge of the town, which I think had a clearing around it."

Rachel lowers her arms, looking back at Amelia.

Amelia:
"Alright, so, where should we go from here?"

Rachel:
"Well, that depends, some of us want to stop and rest, so; we should probably sit down, regain our energy, and while that's happening I'll evaluate what we can do."

Amelia:
"Sounds like a plan, but what about those who want to keep going?"

Rachel:
"We'll sort that out when we figure out who wants to sit and rest, and who doesn't.
Speaking of which."

Rachel says top everyone:
"Alright, who needs to sit down."

Vanessa:
"I don't."

Amber:
"Nah, i'm good."

Fiona:
"Nope."

Amelia:
"I'm fine."

Jade:
"I need to, craving a smoke break."

Dad:
"I could use a break."

Helga:
"I do, I'm thirsty."

Michella:
"Yeah."

Jarease:
"I do too."

Rachel:
"And I don't need to, so that's... 5 for resting, and 5 for not.
Okay... Idea; those who need to rest can sit around the old fountain here; and those who don't need to rest can come with me while I look around the town."

Dad:
"Sounds like a good plan."

Jarease:
"Yeah, an actual good idea."

Vanessa:
"Sounds alright to me."

Fiona:
"Great idea."

Jade:
"Neat."

Jade, Jarease, Michella, Helga, and Dad walk over to the fountain, sitting down on the cobbles beside it; leaning back against the carved ornate stonework of the fountain.

Jade and Helga take off their bags; putting them down on the floor; Jade takes out her herb, papers and equipment, while Helga takes out a bottle of water.

Meanwhile; Amelia, Rachel, Vanessa; Amber, and Fiona, gather around into a group.

Rachel:
"Alright, We ready to look around?"

The group collectively agrees.

Rachel:
"Great, lets get going.
But before we do; does anyone have any paper?
Drawing a map to know where we are and remember the whole town layout will probably be useful in the future."

Amelia:
"I do, I have a few sheets and 2 pencils left; but drawing a map... I'm not good at that sort of thing, that's something Fiona would be better off doing."

Fiona:
"Which I will gladly do if it means not getting lost."

Amelia:
"Noted, thanks."

Amelia takes off her backpack, takes out some paper and a pencil; and gives them to Fiona.

Fiona:
"Thank you."

Fiona holds the paper and quickly draws a small circle, representing the town centre.

Amber:
"So, to get a start on the map, should we navigate to that old temple you mentioned earlier Rachel?
Because, if its on the edge of town, that will give us a good size reference for the map."

Rachel:
"That's a great idea Amber, better than what I had planned."

Vanessa:
"That plan being?"

Rachel:
"To go back to the beach and plot the course that way; but Amber's plan makes more sense."

Amelia:
"Yeah, that's a better plan."

Rachel:
"Alright, lets get to it then."

Rachel turns to face the direction of the distant temple and begins walking; Amelia, Fiona, Vanessa, and Amber, following behind.

Crossing the town centre, Rachel takes the straightest path towards it.

[scene change / time skip]

Rachel; leading the group, is walking down a partly cobble and dirt road, stone and wood houses along both sides, all of them in various states of rot, damage, and vegetation cover.

One a short distance ahead in particular, on the right of the path, has collapsed entirely into a large pile of stones and rotten wood, some of it having spilled out onto the path.

Meanwhile; Fiona is carefully drawing their route.

Reaching the collapsed building, Rachel turns, walking around the pile of debris.

Coming around the mound, she sees something beside it; previously unseen, the remnants of an old, large metal sign.

It's heavily rusted, most of the paint having peeled off except for a decently sized part of the upper right third, which holds the remnants of a town map.

Rachel, curious, walks closer to it for a better look.

The carcass of what was once a full map; shows around a third of a circular street layout, several rings of different sizes inside one another with branching streets running between them from the missing centre.

Outside of the outermost ring, on the top right, is a path, splitting off to 2 paths, one leads straight on to the temple, the other off to the right and to a different location, unnamed, rust and decay having eaten that section.

Rachel looks to Fiona, says:
"Hey, Fiona, come take a look at this."

Fiona walks over to her, seeing the partly decayed map; the others following behind.

Fiona:
"Oh, cool, this will help quite a bit."

Fiona looks at their route, carefully compares it to the map remnants; and begins cautiously, albeit swiftly, noting down the maps contents.

A brief, few moments later, Fiona finishes.

Fiona: (satisfied)
"There we go, noted."

Rachel:
"Alright, ready to keep going?"

Fiona:
"Yeah, let's keep moving."

Rachel continues to walk down the path, the rest following.

[scene change]

Rachel, with the group following; walks past a pair of old houses on both sides; emerging from the street into a giant clearing dotted with bushes; the path ahead leading towards a cobble stone bridge over a fairly wide but shallow flowing river, and onward to a large, ornate stone temple in the middle of the clearing.

The temple is circular and tall with a pointed roof, the middle of the roof narrowing and stretching upwards into a tall, pointed stone spire.

Arch shaped windows, evenly spaced around the structure, are visibly made of tinted glass with some form of pattern, but are too far away to see clearly.

Evenly spaced around the circular temple are 4, tall, wide, round, ornate stone pillar watch towers with open viewing areas and short, pointed roofs; connected to the temple by large solid stone arches.

The ornate designs on the temple itself being of vines, plants and various animals.
While the pillar watch towers have just vines, trees and small birds among the branches.

The front of the circular temple itself has a giant, carved, stone figure; sitting with its legs crossed and arms raised.

The stone figure is female, its head is faceless and has 4 back facing fin like protrusions evenly spaced around its head.

Its body has an exoskeleton; like the Tr'allanga, but the actual exoskeleton itself is far more jagged and robust, the body having small thorn like spikes clustered around the joints.

The figure has several pairs of long, crustacean like clawed arms emerging from its back; 2 larger clawed arms with big crab like claws emerging from behind the lower back, just above the hip.

The main arms have robust, crab claw like hands with 2 fingers and 1 thumb each.
And the feet are simple; only having 2 crab claw like toes.

The total size of the monumental statue taking up the whole front of the temple.

The whole structure and monument are also littered with patches of plant growth, vines creeping up the walls and towers in large growths as moss sits patchy across the roofs.

The statue itself also having patches of moss and vine.

In front of the massive stone statue is a shallow ramp, leading up to a large pair of doors in its stomach, surrounded by a stone arch made to resemble 2 rib bones.

The group, seeing the structure, replies with audible amazement:

Amelia: (amazed)
"Woah... That temple is amazing."

Fiona: (impressed)
"Cool..."

Amber: (astonished)
"Excellent..."

Vanessa: (astounded)
"That is absolutely marvellous..."

Rachel: (moderately impressed)
"It sure is nice, better than I remember it looking...
Alright, let's go take a look inside."

Rachel continues to walk forwards, towards the bridge.

[scene change]

The group stands in front of the doors in the statues stomach.

Both doors are tall, large, and made of surprisingly still intact, mostly non-rotted wood, albeit with a few patches of mould; held together with metal fittings and large rivets.

Rachel walks up to the doors and presses against the right one, instantly noticing its hefty weight.
Pushing with most of her strength, the door unhurriedly begins to open, creaking loudly.

Managing to get the door 1/4th the way open, it suddenly stops.
She pushes it again, its stuck.

Rachel:
"Mind giving me a hand?"

Amelia:
"Sure."

Vanessa:
"Alright."

Amber:
"Can do."

Fiona:
"Sure thing."

The 4 approach the door, putting the hands against it.

Rachel:
"Alright, on 3... 1... 2... 3!"

The group pushes all at once, the door beginning to sluggishly move again.

Out of the blue, a loud crunch fills the air as the door swiftly swings open.

Having no time to react; the group stumbles forwards, barely managing to catch themselves; Amelia and Vanessa being the only exceptions, falling forward, tumbling and landing on the floor.

Amelia lands on her side, while Vanessa falls flat on her face.

Amelia, briefly stunned, shakes herself back into focus and gets back up; Vanessa on the other hand slowly lifts her head up, puts her hands and wing tips on the floor; and carefully lifts herself up; using her wings to steady herself.

Amelia looks at Vanessa, asks: (concerned)
"You okay there Vanessa?"

Vanessa looks at her, her face is a bit dirty, a small bit of blood coming from a tiny cut on the left side of her forehead, she says:
"I think so... Hopefully I don't have a concussion."

Rachel:
"Do you feel dizzy? sick?

Vanessa:
"No, I think I'm good."

Vanessa feels her jaw and mandibles.

Vanessa:
"Face is still intact, good."

Rachel:
"Alright, good, lets head inside."

Rachel walks through the open doorway, the group following.

[scene change]

The group, walking through the temple doors, looks around.

The inside of the temple is almost as large as it looks on the outside, the room is expansive and illuminated by sunlight from the surrounding, decorative, stained glass windows.

The inner walls are covered with ornate carvings of plants, birds, and animals.
And said windows all have various patterns and colours.

The room around them has a ceiling, clearly for a second floor, high above them; held up by large, decorative pillars forming a circle around the outer area of the room; said pillars covered in the dry, dead remains of climbing vines; grown up from planters around the base of the pillars.

The ceiling also has regularly spaced, long, oval shaped electrical lights between the pillars, all of them old, having rust on the outer metal parts.

Between each pillar, under the old lights, sits a decorative stone planter, some having the remains of dead bushes, shrubs, and small trees inside them.

The middle of the room however has a smaller statue of the figure outside, standing; all of its arms raised up and outwards as it looks upwards.

The statue having a notable amount of dust; and patches of light green moss.

Surrounding the statue are many old wooden benches, surprisingly still intact.

In front of the figure is a small wooden stand, equipped with an old speaker and microphone system.

At the back of the room, against the back wall; a set of stairs leads up to another floor.

Looking back to the doors, they see the hinges are somewhat rusted, and the walls around them are very thick, and lacking any signs of brickwork.

Turning around again, they look back at the temple interior.

Rachel:
"Yep, just like I remember."

Amelia: (amazed)
"This place is so cool, also, do you think the whole main building is just one massive piece of stone?"

Amber: (interested)
"Yeah, could be, I don't see any seams or signs of brickwork."

Fiona: (curious and amazed)
"Which makes me curious, what kind of temple is this?"

Vanessa: (curious and interested)
"That's a good question, and why is it here?"

Rachel:
"Well... If I remember correctly, this is a life goddess temple, built... I think before this town was... I'm not sure, Jarease would be the one to ask about that, she knows more about history and general ♥♥♥♥ than I do."

Amelia:
"Noted, also; what brought you to this temple before, when you were here doing that ambush and counter-ambush training you mentioned earlier?"

Rachel:
"Well; during my short stay here, we had tents set up just outside the town, near a smaller clearing where some logging was done.

But, one day, we came back to find our tents had been destroyed; totally ripped apart, the stuff inside however being fine, apart from food being missing.

An animal probably being what did that.

So; we grabbed our sleeping bags, looked for a place to stay, and basically ended up sleeping in here, on the upper floor in one of the rooms."

Amelia:
"Ah, I understand."

Rachel:
"Good, anyway, lets go take a look upstairs."

Rachel walks forwards, beginning to cross the large room; the group following behind her.

[scene change]

The group reaches the top of the stairs; entering a decently wide hallway; wide enough for all of them to stand in comfortably.

The hallway bends in a curve, forming an obvious ring around the building.
Both sides are lined with mostly windowless, curved rooms, evenly spaced out; with old wooden doors.

The few that have windows allow in just enough light to see decently.

The ceiling of the hallway is quite low; being just a short distance above head height, and the ceiling of the hallway has evenly spaced old lights, much like downstairs, albeit smaller.

Fiona:
"What do you think is in these rooms?"

Rachel:
"Honestly, I don't know, its been so long I've forgotten...
I wonder if we left anything behind up here...

Honestly, we might have, which gives me an idea.
We should check the rooms, if possible; we might find something useful."

Amelia:
"Sounds like a good idea; there might be something useful up here."

Vanessa:
"I agree, but we should be careful; who knows what diseases and ♥♥♥♥ you could get from whatever old crap is laying around in here."

Rachel:
"That is a good point, so; I guess we just gotta be careful."

Amber:
"Sounds like a plan, lets get to it."

The group begins trying to open the doors as they progress slowly down the circular hallway, finding quite a few of them locked or stuck shut.

Those they manage to open always have a tinted glass decorative window or two, sunlight lighting up the room to some degree, but are often empty, or contain very little; typically old shelves, bags of compost, plant pots, watering cans, rusty old gardening tools, the occasional patch of glowing fungus, a few animal skeletons, old birds nests, and old, dead, dry hives from bugs that infiltrated the building long ago.

But, they do manage to find a few good items, and a large, stationary, labelled backup generator in one of the rooms.

During this, they pass 4 evenly spaced metal doors, one on each "corner" of the building, all of them open, leading out to the arch walkways and watch towers; and a ladder leading up to a hatch on the front side of the building; set deeply between a pair of rooms in a short hallway.

Finishing their search, they arrive back at the stairs.

Rachel:
"Alright, we have found a few useful things, and a way to potentially light this place up if we want.

2 old wood axes, 4 surprisingly intact, albeit lightly rusted wood saws, a pair of metal hammers, a set of wooden mallets; and we know this place has a wood burner powered backup generator, which might be useful in the future."

She points to the aforementioned tools, all of them organised on a short shelf dragged from one of the rooms.

Rachel:
"I'd say it was worth looking."

Amelia:
"But what are we going to do with these?"

Rachel:
"Keep them, they'll be useful one way or another."

Amber:
"True, but I think we should leave them here for now, come back for them once we have an idea of where we're actually going to stay permanently.

Not like they'll be going anywhere any time soon."

Rachel:
"That is true."

Vanessa:
"Yeah, and I'd prefer if we were not carrying old, rusty tools, which would easily give you an infection if you got caught on em."

Rachel:
"that is also a good point, yeah, best leave em here for now."

Amber:
"Agreed, also, we should check whats up that ladder on the front side of the building, there might be good stuff up there."

Rachel:
"Yeah, lets go give that a look."

[scene change]

Lifting open the wooden hatch; Rachel climbs up and into the room above, the group following behind.

The room is a large, cone shaped attic, held up by a central pillar and surrounding solid stone beams; the ceiling made of several triangular solid stone sections, all interlocked by carved teeth.

The pillar in the middle has several old spotlights mounted around the top; a breaker switch labelled for the spot lights stands next to the attic hatch on a metal stand.

The room is decently lit by many short, decently wide, glass windows; evenly spaced around the attic; allowing in light.

Said windows being too small to be noticed from the outside, but still a decent size overall.

They look around, most of the attic space they can see is full of shelves, plant pots, crates, stacks of compost bags, sacks of drainage gravel, bottles of various shapes, sizes and colours; boxes of various design and capacity, most likely filled with plant food, tool racks covered in old equipment, and stacks of old furniture like benches, tables, shelves, chairs, work tables, etc; said furniture being towards the back of the attic.

Amelia:
"You sure its worth looking around up here?"

Rachel:
"Yeah, I can already see stuff that might be useful, like that furniture stacked up towards the back, or the tools on those racks."

Fiona:
"Agreed, but I think we best leave the tools and furniture alone for now, or at least until we decide where we're staying."

Rachel:
"Good point, but it won't hurt to look around, see what our options are."

Amelia:
"True, it would give us options, which is always a good thing."

Rachel:
"Exactly, now, follow me, lets see what this place has in store."

Rachel walks off to the right and deeper into the attic, the group following behind.

They carefully navigate their way through the piles and stacks of old items, getting a closer look at them as they progress onward.

Many of the containers are covered in a thick layer of dust.
The bags of compost have the occasional, long dead, dry remains of small weeds.
Some of the tool racks and shelves have large layers of webs on them; covered in the dried remains of small dead insects.
Old, dry, empty bug nests can sometimes be found hiding between the boxes, or wedged in gaps atop the piles of crates.
Small, well hidden patches of glowing fungus, are barely visible but noticeable, hidden among the piles of containers.
And the occasional, rare, small animal skeleton can be found, on or in small boxes, hidden away in its final resting place.

Coming to a stop in a small clear space on the other side of the attic, surrounded by dusty boxes, shelves stocked with bottles, and full tool racks; the group looks around.

Rachel examines the tools; meanwhile the others check the shelves and boxes.

Rachel, finding a decently rusted hand crank drill hung up among the saws, hammers, hacksaws, screwdrivers, etc; carefully takes it off the rack; examining it.

Turning the crank, the drill spins; albeit with some difficulty.

Rachel looks at the group, who are peeking into old boxes and reading bottles, says:
"Will this old drill be any good?"

Amelia stops reading the back of a small red bottle; looks at her, and says:
"Maybe, does it work?"

Rachel:
"Yeah, with some difficulty due to rust, but it could be useful."

Amelia:
"Even so, leave it for now, we can always come back for it-"

Out of the blue, a noise echoes through the attic, the sound of cardboard boxes being shuffled nearby.

The group all snaps around to look towards the source of the noise, its coming from behind a pile of old cardboard boxes.

It goes silent for a moment, only to be followed by the sounds of gentle tapping.

The tapping is soft, but getting louder quickly, the source of the noise getting closer.
Instinctively; they grab their guns, readying themselves.

Seconds later, a small, rotund creature emerges from a gap between the boxes.

It has a round, fat body, 4 small legs tipped with tiny clawed hands and feet, a small pointed head with large black eyes, a large bushy tail covered in what looks like pulsating hair; and most of its outer body, except its underside, is covered in a green scale like exoskeleton.

The whole creature being no bigger than a head.

The small animal looks around nervously, flicking its tongue out periodically.
It looks at them, walks out into the middle of the clear area, and just, sits down; lifting its front legs off the floor as it sits up and looks up at them.

Realising the creature isn't a threat, they lower their guns; putting them back.

The small animal tilts its head curiously, flicking its tongue as it looks at them.

Rachel:
"What is that?"

Amelia:
"I don't know, but its kinda cute."

Vanessa:
"True, but I wouldn't touch it, you have no idea what diseases that thing could carry."

Amber:
"That's a good point."

Fiona:
"True, but it looks pretty healthy to me, I don't see any signs of sickness on it."

Vanessa:
"Yeah, but, still; I wouldn't touch it."

The creature plods over to them; passing Rachel.

It approaches the other 4, looks around at them, turns to Amelia, and waddles over to her, stopping just short of her.

It looks straight up at her, flicking its little tongue.

Amelia, looking at it; cautiously and slowly crouches down; reaching to touch the creature.
Getting down close to it; she manages to gently pet the animals head.

It turns its head to her hand and nuzzles against it gently; licking her, its tongue warm and sticky.
Meanwhile, it lets out a gentle cooing noise.

Crouching down more; she pets the animals head and neck; moving her hand along its back.
It lays down, continuing to nuzzle her arm; cooing louder.

With the animal laying down fully, she continues to gently run her hand along its head and back; while it continues nuzzling her, making louder cooing noises.

After doing this for a moment, Amelia carefully pulls her hand away, standing back up.
Sluggishly; the animal stands up, waddles over to her, and holds on to her softly with its small clawed hands; continuing to nuzzle and coo loudly.

Amelia says to the animal in a gentle, caring tone:
"I don't know what you are, but your such a big baby, aren't you?"

She reaches down and pets it again, it lets go and sits down; continuing to coo audibly.

Rachel:
"Yeah, its cute; but what do we do-"

Without warning, a rumble echoes from behind the boxes where the creature emerged; followed by much louder clacking noises.

Before they even have time to respond, a much larger creature pushes through the pile of boxes, knocking them out of the way.

It's like the small creature, but much larger, its head also having a pair of short antlers

It steps out from the boxes pile fully; releases a powerful bark and stands upon its hind legs, arms out to the sides.

Both arms are tipped with giant, hooked claws.
The animal huffs and barks loudly, standing tall above them.

In a panic; Amelia steps back, everyone scrambling for their guns.

Managing to just about get their guns ready; they are caught off guard as the small creature waddles over to the larger one, chirping.

Paralysed with confusion, they watch as the larger one looks down at the smaller one.
The small one sits up; chirping to the bigger one.

After a pause; the large one lowers its arms and slowly returns to standing on 4 limbs.
the small critter approaches the big one, and nuzzles against it, cooing.

It looks back to Amelia, coos a few times, back to the larger one; and chirps.
The large one huffs twice, looks at Amelia, coos, nods twice; turns around and walks back into where the pile of boxes once stood; the small one following behind.

The large creature climbs down a hole, the small one jumping down after it.

Snapping out of their bewilderment, Amelia walks over to the hole, gun ready, and look down, only to see a room they were unable to access before, the window to said room being broken open.

the edge of the hole is scratched, carved up; and the stone floor is thick; the hole looks like it was burrowed over time.

And the large creature letting the smaller one climb on top of its back; before climbing out of the window and down the building, the small one holding on tightly.

Rachel stands next to Amelia; just about catching the creatures exit.
The rest of the group assembles behind them, missing what just happened.

Rachel looks at Amelia, says:
"What the ♥♥♥♥ just happened?"

Amelia, a tad confused, but realising, says:
"I think that was a baby, and we nearly got mauled by... A dad... Or mom... I am not sure..."

Vanessa:
"Well, whatever it was, its clearly gone now."

A brief pause of silence passes.

Amber:
"Yeah... Should we keep looking around?"

Rachel:
"Yeah, lets get this done; then we can explore the rest of the town, map it out, and get that over with."

Amelia:
"Sounds like a plan."

They step back from the hole, walk back to the boxes and racks, and continue looking.

Some time later; finale circling back to the attic hatch; they climb down, back into the hallway.

Rachel:
"Alright, we know there's good tools up there, and furniture, so, I'd say it was worth checking."

Amelia:
"We also probably scared off those critters, despite being nearly mauled, so; that's a plus, makes it safer if we need to come back here."

Vanessa:
"True, but there is no guarantee they'll stay gone.
If they we've living here, they might come back."

Amelia:
"That is also true, yeah...

Anyway, I think we should get out of here now, and continue exploring the town."

Rachel:
"Good idea."

Fiona:
"Alright, lets go then."

[scene change]

Scene shows a time lapse of the sun in the sky over the woods, unhurriedly moving into the late afternoon position.

[scene change]

The group sluggishly arrives back at the town centre; Fiona holding a few papers.

Approaching the fountain they see Jade, Dad, Jarease, Michella, and Helga.

Jade is laying on her back, on the floor next to her bag, asleep; the remaining un-smoked half of a joint hanging out of her mouth.

Dad is leaning back on the fountain, asleep, bag next to him.

Helga is laying along the top of the fountains outer wall, bag on the floor; staring up at the sky.

Michella is awake, sitting forward, bag on her back; elbows on her thighs, hands under her chin.

And Jarease is sitting on the edge of the fountain, bag on her back, one elbow on her thigh, hand under her chin; the other hand on her knee, looking visibly annoyed.

Rachel, loudly, says:
"Alright, were back."

Dad sits up, startled, and looks at her.
Helga sluggishly sits up.
Michella, jolted with surprise, turns to look at her.
Jade wakes up, sluggishly rolls on her side, and pushes herself upwards, managing to sit up and look at her.
And Jarease, visibly frustrated, snaps around to look at her, slamming her hands on the edge of the fountain angrily.

Jarease: (audibly pissed off)
"♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ took you long enough."

Rachel, in a stern, angry voice:
"Yeah, because we had to map out an entire town, that's not something you can do easily.
So, watch your tone Jarease..."

Rachel takes a deep breath, calming down.
She continues in a calm voice:
"Anyway, we have the town mapped out, and during our exploration we found a few places that look like good places to stay, and have noted down the pros and cons for each one."

She looks at Fiona, says:
"Show them."

Fiona, with the group; walks over to the fountain.
She passes all of the papers to Dad first, says:
"Pass em around when your done."

Dad; taking the papers, looks through them.

There are 5 papers in total, the first showing a map of the town.

The town layout is composed of several rings of different sizes inside one another, with branching streets running between them from the town centre; several offshoots on the outer ring.

The second paper is labelled "Temple", and shows a carefully hand drawn picture of the temple from the front, including the bridge and river.

The third paper is labelled "Town hall", and has a drawing of a 2 floored, smooth, stone and wood C shaped building with many windows, most of them broken; a pair of doors in the middle, and bushes in pots spaced evenly around the building's front.

The brickwork covered with moss and green patches, the wood partially rotten.
The building also has patches of vines covering it.

The forth is labelled "Apartments", and has a drawing of 4, 9 floors tall, cylindrical buildings made of stone bricks and wood; covered in many windows, most of them broken.

All 4 of the buildings are connected from the middle floor by a set of arches forming an X shape between them; each tower having a set of doors at the bottom.

Said arches having rails; and leading to doors on the buildings.
Vines also trail up the arches and onto the apartments.

And the fifth paper is labelled "Farm", it shows a drawing of a small, 2 floor, wood and stone house, with a short, angled, tile roof; and a stone porch with small steps out front made from bricks; the house covered in vines, the windows broken; and its next to a large stone barn, the doors of the barn being made of wood and metal; but left open, the wood heavily rotted.

2 tall silo towers made of rusted metal sit some distance behind both structures, also covered in vines.

Dad thinks to himself:
"Huh... Interesting..."
And passes the papers along.

After letting everyone see the papers, Rachel says:
"Alright, everyone seen them?"

Everyone replies, confirming so.

Rachel:
"Alright, now; we need to decide on which one we should stay at, and to do that, I will tell you all the pros and cons for each option.

First option being the Temple...

Regarding pros, it has easy water access, literally being near a river.
It has a backup generator.
Plenty of rooms for storage or making into bedrooms.
It's overall made of solid stone, so it should be sturdy if attacked.
Most, if not almost all of its windows are intact.
And it has watch towers which are good for defending the place if necessary.

But regarding cons; there was a large animal living in the attic, which I assume got in through a broken window; and had tunnelled into the attic.
The lights are old, so no guarantee they work.
The place is pretty big meaning it will be harder to heat up during the winter.
And all the plants inside are dead, and would need to be removed."

Jarease interjects:
"Sorry, but before you continue, why are we limited to these 4 options?"

Rachel:
"Well-"

Fiona interjects, says:
"That's a good question, its because, during our exploration, we did find 4 other places, a factory, a small office, a bank, and an old warehouse; but they were too damaged, overgrown, risky, or generally not good options.

The factory was not a good place, had no real places you could stay except a main office, but it was too small, and the place had a lot of broken windows.
And it was too far from natural resources to be useful, its in the middle of the west side of town.

The bank was partially collapsed due to excess overgrowth and the supports inside rotting, like; they were visibly being eaten by mould from the outside.
Said bank being a short walk up north, we passed it on the way back here; its also near the town hall.

The office was stable, but most of its windows were broken, the carpets were all rotten, and there were no decent places to stay, their near the apartments on the north, west outer edge.

And the warehouse, despite being stable and having no broken windows, it was just, devoid of anything apart from tall, empty shelves.
Said warehouse being near the path that took us up here, on a branching off path."

Rachel says:
"That's basically what I was going to say..."

Jarease:
"Hmm... Alright, I see.
Anyway, continue listing the pros and cons."

Rachel:
"Alright...
Anyway, secondly, we have the Town Hall.

Pros, its not far from the town centre, meaning you can access any part of the town quicker from it.
it's not very big, meaning its easier to heat up during the winter.
The inside is surprisingly intact.
And it has a few office rooms that would make good bedrooms or storage rooms, if cleared out.

Cons, most of the windows are broken.
It would take a lot to seal up the broken windows.
It's far from any natural resources
And all the windows means its not very secure.

Thirdly, we have the the apartments.

Pros, lots of space for bedrooms and storage.
Very sturdy architecture, and the cross walks make going from one tower to the other much easier.

Cons, very large, would be hard to heat up the whole thing during the winter.
Most of the windows are broken, so its not very secure, and would take a lot to seal up.
And like the town hall, not close to any natural resources.

And fourthly, finale, we have the Farm.

Pros, lots of space for cattle, a barn, and has grain storage towers.
The house is small, but has just enough space for us.
The house itself is intact, and has decent, albeit slightly rotted furniture inside.
And the farm isn't far from the temple, there is a branching off path outside of town that leads off to it; which puts it nearer to natural resources.

Cons, all the windows are broken, but there aren't many so they could just be covered up.
The house itself is covered in vines.
The barn doors are heavily rotted and would need replacing.
The silo towers, despite still standing, are rusted, and covered in vines too, and would need to be inspected professionally to see if their stable enough to be used.
And the farmland itself, which was missing from the drawing, would all need to be weeded and cleared.
And that ground is all soft dirt, meaning it will get really muddy if it rains.

And that's it, those are the 4 options, Temple, Town Hall, Apartments, or Farm.
All of us are going to think, then vote on which one we think is best; whatever wins, we stay at."

Rachel sits down near the fountain in front of everyone else; the rest of her group sitting down around her, forming an irregular circle.

Rachel:
"But first, actually; I think we should eat something, its like late afternoon."

Dad:
"Good idea."

Amelia:
"Sounds good to me."

Jarease:
"It's about time we ate something."

Helga:
"We should."

Rachel takes her bag off and puts it down in front of herself; the others doing the same.

[scene change]

Scene shows a time lapse of the sun in the sky over the woods, slowly moving from the late afternoon position, into the early-mid evening position; the sun now on the edge of setting.

the sky has shifted from blue to a hue gradient, orange on the sunset, pink towards the sky, and a slow, progressive shift into dark blue along the whole sky, stars starting to become visible on the darker side.

[scene change]

Helga, scraping the last bits of food out of the can with a fork, eats the last of her canned meat cubes, and puts the empty can on the floor.

Dad:
"Alright, so, everyone's eaten and we've all decided what we're voting for, right?"

Everyone collectively agrees.

Amelia:
"Alright, lets get the votes counted, shall we?"

Rachel:
"Okay, what do you all choose?"

Amelia:
"Temple."

Dad:
"Farm."

Fiona:
"Farm."

Jade:
"Town hall."

Jarease:
"Temple."

Vanessa:
"Apartments."

Amber:
"Temple."

Helga:
"Town Hall."

Michella:
"Apartments."

Rachel:
"And I choose the Temple, so that's... 4 for Temple, 2 for Farm, 2 for Town Hall, and 2 for Apartments.

Looks like the Temple wins, we can head there after we finish cleaning up after ourselves."

Everyone collectively agrees.

Helga picks up the empty can, her fork, and puts them away, the others doing the same, packing away their cans, foods, drinks, forks, etc; and putting their bags back on.

Readying themselves; Fiona, holding the papers and map, says:
"Alright, we ready?"

Everyone, bags on their backs, agrees.

Rachel:
"Alright, lets get a move on."

Rachel turns to face the spire of the temple and begins to walk towards it, everyone following behind.

[scene change]

Arriving at the end of the street, they look forward, the temple ahead beyond the river, the bridge over said river ahead of them.

The purple-orange light of the sunset, contrasting with the dark sky, illuminates the temple beautifully.

Jade, Dad, Jarease, Michella, and Helga, look on in amazement.

Dad:
"That is so much cooler than the drawing made it look."

Jarease:
"Yeah, and bigger too."

Jade:
"Wow..."

Helga and Michella stare in silence.

Rachel looks at them, says:
"Just wait till you see the inside."
And continues walking.

Snapping out of their amazement, the 5 continue following the group.

[scene change]

The group walks through the open temple door.

The interior of the temple, the carvings, the statue, the pillars; all of it, much like the outside, is illuminated by the colours of the sunset; albeit mixed with the various colours of the stained windows.

Jade, Dad, Jarease, Michella, and Helga; look around the place, taking in all in; totally astonished.

Dad:
"Honestly, this place reminds me of when I met your mother, the Refracted Queen.
Takes me back honestly, she was a priest, and I was just a mere follower of hers...

I... Still miss her at times..."

His face becomes noticeably sadder.

Amelia looks at him, asks:
"Are you okay?
Why bring this up now?"

Dad: (his voice becoming noticeable miserable)
"Honestly, I... I don't know...
I don't want to think about it.

How... It was not my choice, it was her choice to go there..."

Visibly beginning to tear up; he wipes his eyes, shakes his head, regains his focus, takes a deep breath, and regains his composure.

Dad: (neutral tone)
"I just want to forget about her... We can't change the past.
All I can say is, it's not worth thinking about."

Amelia:
"I understand that, but; if you need to talk; we're here for you."

Dad:
"I know, and I... Appreciate it... Thank you Amelia."

Amelia:
"No problem, dad."

Rachel, looking at them, loudly says:
"Sorry to interrupt; but we should continue, there are rooms upstairs and its getting late.
So, lets head up, find a comfy room, and get some much needed rest.
We've been on the move for days, would be nice to finale settle down."

Dad:
"Sounds good to me."

Amelia:
"Good idea."

Jarease:
"An actually good idea, I like it."

Amber:
"Great plan."

Vanessa:
"Would be wise to finale settle down."

Rachel, in response:
"Alright, lets go."

Rachel turns to the stairs and walks over to them, the family following.

[scene change]

The family reaches the top of the stairs, entering the hallway.

Rachel, walking past a few of the rooms, looking into them via the open doors or windows, comes to a stop shortly down the hall.

Rachel:
"This one should do."

She walks into the room, the others following.

Entering the room, they look around; it has a fair bit of space, and is surprisingly clean, the stone floor devoid of dust.

The interior of the room itself is devoid of much, apart from a window view of the outside; a window showing the hallway, a set of shelves against the right wall, and a pair of wooden crates set against the wall near the door.

The room, temperature wise, is nether cold or hot; its about average.

Rachel:
"It's not much, lacks any furniture as most of the rooms up here seem to be for storage... Oh, that reminds me."

Rachel looks at Jarease, asks:
"Hey, Jarease, do you have any idea what kind of temple this is? Or know anything about it?"

Jarease:
"Well, I don't know anything about this temple specifically, but, based on the fact its all visibly solid stone, and seeing how detailed the ornate carvings are; plus the statue being so refined.

I would say, this is a life goddess temple; specifically, one built to worship Na'Trimi through the growth and propagation of plants, which looks like it traces back to the early post-surface colonisation era.

I say that based on the architecture, and nature of the build; but it appears this temple has also seen some use in the more modern times, prior to the closure of this mining town specifically."

Rachel:
"Oh, that makes a lot of sense."

Dad:
"Cool."

Helga:
"Makes sense."

Amelia:
"Interesting, but that raises a question, how do you know all that? Didn't you just teach kids?"

Jarease:
"I didn't always teach kids, I used to work at a higher education facility for adults a few years back.

The training to do that necessitated me having to learn quite a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lot; but I had to start working with and teaching kids for a pay raise."

Dad:
"Oh yeah, I remember that."

Jarease:
"And it was just barely worth it too, but that doesn't matter anymore, considering we can't really go back to the city."

Amber:
"That's true, doesn't really matter anymore."

Rachel:
"Agreed, anyway; shall we set up our sleeping bags now?"

Jade takes off her backpack, says:
"Yeah, lets get some rest.
We can sort this place out and set up clean water and ♥♥♥♥ tomorrow."

Vanessa, taking her bag off:
"Agreed, would be wise to get some rest before we even attempt to settle in long term."

Dad, taking his bag off:
"Agreed."

Amelia:
"Sure."

Jarease:
"Would be ♥♥♥♥'in nice to actually rest in something that isn't a sewer for once, so, yeah."

Amber:
"Would be best."

The others remain silent.

Rachel takes her bag off and sits down, says:
"Alright; time for bed then."

Taking the sleeping bag out of her bag, she unrolls it along the floor; the others quickly doing the same.

Swiftly getting their sleeping bags set up; they climb in, close their eyes, and rest.

[End of chapter 4]

The family stands in a circle outside the temple, the warm mid-morning sunlight shining over the tree tops, illuminating the scene.

Amelia:
"If we're going to survive long term, we need to establish a few things.

We need a long term, sustainable source of food; a way to store said food long term.
A system to store water for long term use.
And, a way to heat up the Temple during the winter."

Rachel:
"All of which should be relatively easy.

With water, we can just search around the town, gather up some old barrels and storage containers, and put them down around here, outside the temple; allowing us to collect and store rain water easily."

Jade:
"Good plan Rachel, also, regarding long term food, we could find some mushrooms in the woods and grow them inside the temple.

The place is full of compost, and gardening equipment, all we need to do is find the right species, set up some space for them, spread the spores around; and do that enough to have a consistent food supply."

Amelia:
"Yeah, good thinking, and regarding long term storage, we can hang up meat inside one of the rooms to dry; wrap it in cloth to keep any bugs off of it, or alternatively smoke it over a fire."

Vanessa:
"Sorry to interrupt, but In relation to Jade's idea, said mushrooms could be dried for long term storage, or even be useful for medical uses; like making painkillers from the Purple Dull Cap."

Amelia:
"That's a great idea, good thinking."

Amber:
"Agreed, but in regards to heating the temple, that's the biggest long term issue, also; we won't have ammo forever, so we'll need to hunt food in alternative ways, probably with a spear, a bow and arrow, or by setting some traps."

Dad:
"Those are really good points Amber.
Also, if you build the heater wrong, deadly gases can leak out and be a problem, which is something to consider, and we best save our ammo in case get get attacked."

Rachel:
"Exactly, a faulty exhaust on a heater can be a death sentence.
But in regards to how we should hunt for food, I think setting baited traps and using spears will have to do for now.

But, we need to actually make said spears first."

Amelia:
"True, also, all of these ideas are well and good; but how about we actually organise into teams and deal with the highest priority stuff first?

Those being the water, mushrooms, and spears."

Jarease:
"Sounds like a wise move."

Helga:
"Yeah, would be optimal to organise and carry out what's essential first."

Amelia:
"Alright, well, in that case; lets organise into teams.
Starting with food... I know nothing about fungus and stuff, but I assume you do Jade?"

Jade:
"Yeah, I know quite a bit about fungus, and nature generally.
Before all this, I spent... a shameful amount of time sitting on my ass, smoking, and watching nature ♥♥♥♥ on my sphere."

Amelia:
"Alright, good.
Vanessa, do you know what effects specific types of fungus have?"

Vanessa:
"Yeah I do, because, may I remind you I worked at a clinic?"

Amelia:
"Oh yeah, I remember.
So; would you be able to identify the effects of different species?"

Vanessa:
"Yeah, I could, to a pretty good extent."

Amelia:
"Alright good.
Jarease, would you be any good at identifying mushrooms?"

Jarease:
"Not really; pretty dumb question to ask.
But, I might be useful; I could carry them, along with any other cool ♥♥♥♥ we find."

Amelia:
"Okay, so that's, Jade, Vanessa; and you.
But you will need protection, so, someone with a gun needs to go with you."

Fiona:
"True, but why are you deciding the teams and who goes where?"

Amelia:
"Because, I don't see any of you doing it."

Dad:
"That is true..."

Rachel:
"Yeah... good point..."

Fiona:
"True..."

Amelia:
"Anyway, regardless; who wants to guard the mushroom team?"

After a brief silence, Michella says:
"I'll do it."

Amelia:
"Alright, Mushroom team; Jade, Michella, Vanessa and Jarease.
Could you all stand as a group please?"

The 4 collectively agree and form into a group.

Amelia:
"Alright, next, spear and water team; who here has good DIY skills?"

Dad:
"I do."

Rachel:
"Me too."

Amelia:
"Alright, and I don't have good DIY skills, so, anyone else?"

Everyone replies no.

Amelia:
"Alright, looks like I'll have to be on the spear team, good opportunity to learn some DIY skills.
Meaning; Fiona, Amber, and Helga will have to be water team.

Alright, Helga, Amber and Fiona, into a group please."

The three form into a group.
Meanwhile; Dad and Rachel form a group with Amelia.

Amelia:
"Alright, good; but before we all set off, everyone okay with the group arrangements?"

Everyone agrees.

Amelia:
"Alright, everyone know what your doing?"

Everyone collectively agrees, again.

Amelia:
"Good, okay, see you all around."

Amelia walks back into the Temple; Dad and Rachel following.

Fiona, Amber, and Helga turn towards the town, open their wings and take off.

And Jade, Michella, Vanessa and Jarease; turn towards the woods on the right side of the temple and casually walk towards it.

[scene change]

Jade, Michella, Vanessa and Jarease are slowly walking along a natural game trail in the woods, surrounded by dense trees and foliage; sunlight seeping in among the branches.

In the far distance, the top of a pillar tree is just about visible.

Looking around as they walk, Jade notices something off to the right of the trail a short distance ahead; a fallen log covered in mushrooms; partially obscured by bushes.

Jade points at it, says:
"Hey, look up ahead; a log with mushrooms; lets go take a look."

Stopping at the fallen log, they get a better view of the mushrooms in question.

The mushrooms have short, thick, dark grey stems; long, pointed, shiny, black, cone shaped caps; and 9 long, dark grey, upward angled spikes; evenly spaced around the bottom part of the cap.

Jade:
"Hmm, these look like they could be either Rot King mushrooms, or Blight Crowns."

Vanessa:
"Both of which produce a neurotoxin, similar to the stuff found in Tr'allanga hair.
Which is pretty interesting, but useless to us."

Jade:
"Noted; let's keep moving then."

The group walks past the fallen log; continuing on along the trail.

A short bit later; walking through a particularly thick section of bushes, they emerge into a very small clearing; surrounded by densely packed trees and shrubs, a patch of mushrooms growing on the floor among the grass on their left, next to the dry, white, picked clean skull and spine of an animal.

Vanessa, spotting them, says:
"I see some, on the left, near those bones."

Jade walks over to the mushrooms, getting a closer look.

The mushrooms are tall and growing in small clusters around the skeleton.
They have long, thin stems; round, small caps; and are bright yellow in colour; giving off a dim glow.

Jade:
"These look like Carcass Lanterns; not edible; not toxic; just tastes very bad and chewy; also, they glow bright yellow at night.

And, as the name implies; prefers to grow around decaying material."

Vanessa:
"Could they be useful as interior lighting?"

Jade:
"Not really; they prefer outdoor conditions, and are seasonal, only growing from the early spring to late summer."

Jade examines the animal skull.

Jade:
"Huh, cool, this is the skull of a Lowl Kara'sar, which to me, looks like it died within the last year."

Jade crouches down and picks the skull up, finding its jaw bone and teeth are still attached.

Vanessa:
"I wound not be picking that up, ♥♥♥♥ knows what could be living in it."

Jade turns the skull around a few times, examining it.

Jade:
"Looks like its been picked clean, inside and out; no brain, no veins, or even cartilage; all just dry bone.

I'm going to keep this, would be a nice decoration for my room."

Jade sits down, opens her backpack; and tries to fit the skull inside; failing to find space for it.

Jade:
"♥♥♥♥, won't fit.
Got any space in your bag Jarease?"

Jarease:
"Yeah, but not for dirty ♥♥♥♥ like that."

Jade:
"Its not dirty at all; its completely dry; just, open your bag please."

Jarease lets out a long annoyed groan.

Jarease, visibly annoyed, takes off and unzips her bag, replying:
"Fine, put it in."

Jade closes her bag, puts it on; walks over to Jarease and carefully fits the skull into her backpack.

Jarease zips it shut; and puts on the bag.

Jarease:
"Okay, happy now you have your skull?"

Jade:
"Yeah, thanks Jarease."

Jarease, slightly less annoyed:
"No problem... I guess...
Lets just, get a move on."

Jade:
"Good idea."

The group continues down the path.

[scene change]

Fiona, Amber, and Helga, stand outside of an old factory building.

The buildings shape is mostly square, having rounded corners; the upper half is covered in windows; most of them broken; the roof has a pair of dark smoke stacks on the right side, and the whole structure is made of large stone bricks.

The front left side has a partially open metal shutter door; and wide, square stacks of old barrels, made of either metal or wood, next to it.

The factory itself sits behind a large car park, surrounded by old; rusted, metal fences.
A few dead, rusted, delivery vehicles; sit abandoned in the parking lot.

Fiona:
"This is that factory I mentioned, remember?"

Amber:
"Oh yeah, that."

Helga:
"Yes, and I see why you disqualified this place."

Fiona:
"It has plenty of barrels over there, by the shutter door, they should be perfect for water storage."

Amber:
"But, what if they already have stuff inside?"

Fiona:
"Well, we can just search for empty ones; which their will probably be a good number of."

Amber:
"I would hope so, but that raises a question, how will we get these barrels back to the temple?"

Fiona:
"Well, that depends on how heavy they are.
Speaking of which; lets go grab some."

Amber:
"Alright, might as well give it a try."

Helga:
"Sure."

The 3 fly over the fence and across the parking lot.

Coming to a stop and landing at the stacks of old barrels; Fiona examines the stacks; the nearest one being an assortment of metal barrels with removable lids.

Opening her wings again, Fiona flies upwards, and carefully lands on top of the stack of metal barrels.

Crouching down, she grabs and jiggles the closest barrel; finding it empty and surprisingly light.

She lifts the barrel up without effort, puts it down next to her, and feels the barrels around her; jiggling them.

All of them feel empty and light.

Fiona:
"Well, would you look at that, seems their all empty, and surprisingly light too."

Fiona picks up a second barrel; puts it down next to the previous one; lines herself up with both of them, puts her arms around both, and lifts them up on to her shoulders easily.

Unfolding her wings, she flies backwards and carefully lands on the ground.

She turns to Helga and Amber, says:
"Grab a pair each.

Also, when we get back to the Temple; we should get some rope, that way we can bundle barrels up and bring a bunch back at a time."

Helga:
"Bunching barrels together sounds like a more efficient plan."

Amber:
"Helga is right, also; maybe we should leave these here for now; go get the rope, then begin bringing the barrels back."

Fiona:
"Good idea, would be less work on our shoulders."

Helga:
"Exactly, better to work efficiently."

Fiona:
"Alright then, let's head back."

Fiona puts the barrels down, opens her wings, and flies back to the front of the parking lot; Helga and Amber following.

[scene change]

Scene shows the sun in the sky over the woods, moving from the mid-morning position to the late-morning position.

[scene change]

Jade, Michella, Vanessa and Jarease are walking along the trail.

Passing through a thicker section of bushes; they emerge into a moderately sized clearing; half of it taken up by an old wooden shack with a rusted metal roof.

The front of the shack has an old, rotten wooden door, just about hanging on by its hinges, sitting open in the middle; and 2 dirty windows, one on each side; the glass so filthy it can't be seen through.

The open doorway shows nothing but darkness.

Outside the front of the shack, on the left side; sitting among the grass are several round, yellow, rotting fruits, covered in many, small white mushrooms.

The same mushrooms growing on the ground around said fruits in small clusters.

Jade:
"I see mushrooms, on those rotting fruits."

Jade approaches them and crouches down, getting a better look.
The mushrooms are entirely white, small; and resemble bumps held up by short but wide stems.

Jade picks up one of the fruits and examines it; feeling the tops of the mushrooms.
Their smooth, but slightly rubbery in texture.

Jade sniffs it briefly.

Jade:
"These are brewers mushrooms, which are often used to make alcohol.
And Giant Yellow Ball Berries; perfect for making cider's; which can in turn be distilled for alcohol.
These berries grow all year round; but only ripen fully during spring and summer."

Vanessa:
"Nice; we can purify that to make disinfectant."

Jade:
"True, but we can also make some nice drinks."

Vanessa:
"That as well, although I wouldn't encourage it for medical reasons, namely liver scarring and organ damage."

Michella:
"Good point, also, let's not forget; dad's previous problems with drinking, and ongoing issues with that stuff?
I don't think it would be wise to have alcohol accessible at all; until we can confirm hes recovered."

Jade:
"I agree Michella, would not be wise to risk him relapsing again, but I do think having disinfectant would be great."

Jarease:
"Yeah, disinfectant would be good to have, we would just need to make sure dad doesn't get a hold of it."

Jade:
"So, I take it we should take these?"

Vanessa:
"Yeah, we should; but what conditions do they grow in?"

Jade:
"They prefer warm conditions and soil where fruit has recently rotted; or to grow on fruits directly as they decompose; but they can grow in regular soil, albeit they won't produce very much alcohol that way.

They need to grow on fruit or sugar rich soil if you want them to have a good amount of alcohol in them.

Also; they die off during the winter and fall; but as long as the mycelium root system is intact, they will sprout up again in the spring and summer."

Vanessa:
"Alright, so, just sprinkle the spores around the back of the temple then, let a cluster grow there, and we can harvest them for alcohol production later."

Jade:
"Sounds like a plan."

Jade picks up the rotting fruit and walks over to Jarease; while Jarease opens her bag.

Jade puts the fruit inside and Jarease closes the bag.

Michella:
"Hey, while we're here, should we check out that shack too?"

They all look at the shacks open door and the void inside.

Jade:
"Might as well, might have something useful inside."

Vanessa, visibly slightly unnerved:
"Good idea... So, who wants to go in first?"

Michella:
"I will; but first, need to let some light in."

Michella turns towards the cabin, walks towards it; hand on her rifle; approaches the left, dirty window and delivers a swift kick directly into the middle of it; her boot shattering the glass loudly; and dislodging part of the wooden window frame.

Bits of broken glass shatter into the shack, audibly hitting the floor.

Pulling her foot away, she stumbles a bit as she regains her footing.

The window is now broken wide open; sunlight entering the shack, dimly illuminating the interior just enough to see whats inside.

Michella walks over to the door and enters the building.

She looks around briefly, looks back to the others, and says:
"Nobody's in here, lets see what this place has."

The group approaches her and follows her into the shack.

Entering the shack, they look around.

The inside has a fair bit of space, the walls are made of wood; along with the floor, and the rusted roof is held up by 2 wooden support beams on both sides of the building; small holes in the metal allowing in tiny bits of light, the majority of light now coming from the shattered window.

The shack, furniture wise; only has a wooden bed with a rotting mattress in the back left corner.
A set of wooden tables along the back wall; covered with various items.
A dark red, dirty rug covering most of the floor.
A wardrobe next to the bed along side a cabinet.
A small kitchen on the right side, composed of an old, rusted wood stove, wooden counter, cupboards, draws and metal sink, all lined up against the right wall.
A tool rack on the wall above the set of wooden tables, covered with old, rusted saws, hammers, etc.
A pile of compost bags, dimly illuminated, sits in the front left corner near the now broken window; covered in large brown mushrooms; broken glass shards covering the floor in front of them.
And a set of wooden shelves between the bed and set of wooden tables; placed against the back wall, said shelves covered in various boxes of materials.

Jade approaches the compost bags in the corner, the shards of glass crunching under her rubber boots.

Meanwhile; the others search the rest of the building; checking the drawers, cupboards, shelves, tables, etc.

Jade; reaching the mushrooms, drags the sacks into the light, getting a better look.

The mushrooms are large, with a short, thick stem; and a 2 layer, large, brown, flat cap; the gap between the layers having a second stem; both caps having their own sets of gills underneath.

Jade: (visibly excited)
"Perfect! Meat Caps, an edible mushroom species."

Vanessa pauses looking through the contents of the wooden shelves, looks at Jade, and replies:
"But are they of any use?"

Jade:
"Useful? These are perfect! They grow indoors, outdoors; can grown on regular dirt as long as it's kept somewhat moist, and can withstand most weather, except extreme heat and cold; like droughts and snow storms.

And, their name comes from their flavour, they taste like steaks and are really juicy if prepared properly."

Vanessa:
"Well, in that case, grab as many as you can."

Jade:
"Can do!"

Jade grabs the mushrooms by the stems, pulling off as many as possible.
Meanwhile, Vanessa continues searching the shelves.

Managing to swiftly accumulate a good number, Jade scoops them up in her arms, and looks around for Jarease.

Jade quickly notices Jarease looking through the kitchen, checking the drawers.

Jade shouts to her:
"Hey, Jarease! come here real quick and open your bag up!"

Jarease stops looking through the kitchen drawers, looks at Jade, and replies: (annoyed tone)
"Alright..."

Jarease takes her bag off; opens it up, and walks towards Jade; coming to a stop just before reaching the broken glass.

Jade stands up, slowly walks over to her; arms full of mushrooms as broken glass crunches beneath her boots; carefully manoeuvres her arms over the bag and drops the mushrooms in, the sheer mass of them filling the remaining space within the bag.

Jarease zips the bag up and puts it back on.

Jarease looks at the other 2, says:
"My bags full now, can't fit any more."

Michella, searching the tables contents, replies:
"Noted, thanks for warning us, I'll carry any other interesting ♥♥♥♥ we find."

Michella:
"Actually, speaking of which, I'll check that wardrobe."

Michella walks over to the wardrobe and opens the doors, looking though the contents.

A moment later; she says:
"Hey, check these out."

She steps out of the way of the now open wardrobe, revealing the contents.
Most of it is dirty and ruined, except for several, clearly hand made leather coats, which stand out among the other clothes.

Michella:
"Do we have any use for these leather coats?"

She reaches in and takes one out, it's long, black, the inside is lined with white fur of some kind, it has several buttons along the length; and the shoulders have pads made from a refined exoskeleton of some kind.

It's also dusty and mostly intact, albeit with a few patches of the outer most layer of skin missing around the elbows and shoulders; the edges of the breaks being rough, as if the leather was too dry.

Jarease:
"Well, do they fit?"

Michella:
"Not sure, I'll try this on."

Michella shakes off the dust, takes off her backpack, puts it down, takes the coat off the hangar and carefully slides it on; putting her wings through a set of holes in the back; before sliding her arms into the sleeves.

Closing the coat around her; feeling the soft, but dusty fur against her exoskeleton, she moves her shoulders around, feeling the jacket and how it moves with her.

Michella:
"It fits pretty well, perfectly might I add.
It's... Surprisingly comfortable too."

Jarease:
"And how many coats are there?"

Michella:
"I will check."

Michella looks back to the wardrobe and quickly counts through the coats; all of them various sizes and styles.

Michella:
"12 of them, all of them in the same condition, dusty, but intact.
They will serve us pretty well when winter arrives.
Can't say the same for everything else in there, all the pants and shirts are useless."

Michella crouches down, picking her bag up and putting it back on.

Jarease:
"True, but they need a serious clean, their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ filthy; and we'll need to come back for them later, no way can we-"

Vanessa turns away from the shelves, says:
"Sorry to interrupt, but remember this morning when Rachel mentioned using baited traps?"

Everyone looks at her.

Jarease:
"Yeah, why?"

Vanessa pulls 4, large, rusty, metal traps out from the shelves.

The traps are large, almost pyramid shaped; but otherwise triangular and mostly flat metal devices; said shape coming from its pair of triangular jaws, connected to a metal base, slightly spacing the jaws apart at the bottom.

At the sides of each jaw are a pair of sizeable, simple, metal sheet springs; holding them shut.

The jaws themselves being lined with sharp, spike like interlocking teeth towards the tips; the exact tip of both jaws having a noticeably thicker, sturdier tooth, slightly longer than the rest.

The centre of each trap, at the base, has a plus shaped metal pad connected to a trigger system; and a metal chain is attached to the base near one of the springs, said chain ending with a thick, square metal spike; which has 4 small barb like hooks on the sides towards the pointed tip.

Vanessa:
"This is why."

Jarease: (amazed)
"Woah, that's... Something..."

Jade: (surprized)
"Oh, cool."

Michella:
"Nice find sis, those will be really useful, put em in my bag."

Michella takes her bag off and opens it.
Vanessa, holding the traps by the chains; walks over to her and places them inside, the traps taking up most of the space.

Michella zips the bag shut.

Michella:
"Alright, lets keep looking."

Michella puts her bag down on the floor and continues searching the tables contents.
Meanwhile; the others continue searching the rest of the shack.

[A bit later]

Vanessa, looking under the bed, finds a flat, long, wooden suitcase like box with a handle, covered in dust; held shut by 2 latches.

Grabbing the handle, she drags it out into the open.
Gently; she wipes the dust off the top, revealing red text written in faded, decorative lettering, clearly in a different language.

Vanessa:
"Hey, I found something, but it's labelled in a different language, can anyone translate?"

Jarease stops looking through the contents of the tables, replies: (annoyed tone)
"Not too good with other languages, but I'll try."

Jarease walks over to Vanessa and examines the box; meanwhile Jade and Michella gather behind them, watching curiously.

Jarease: (slightly confused)
"Hmm... I can't translate it directly, but I do recognise the language and meaning; it's from Neris, and the wording basically means the contents are dangerous."

Vanessa:
"So, what do you think is inside?"

Jarease:
"♥♥♥♥ if I know, maybe a heavy or sharp tool of some kind?"

Vanessa:
"Could be, but the'res only one way to find out."

Vanessa undoes the latches, turns the box a bit to avoid being directly in front of it, and cautiously, slowly opens the lid.

Opening the box, light illuminating the contents.

The box contains a bolt action, spear gun hunting rifle with a wooden stock and lightly rusted body, a pair of ammo magazines, a small combat axe, and a bayonet attachment for the rifle.

Vanessa: (surprised)
"Woah, that's good."

Jarease: (happy)
"Awesome, that will be useful."

Michella: (surprised)
"Good find Vanessa, That'll be useful."

Jade: (happy)
"Sweet find sis."

Vanessa closes the box, latches it shut, and picks it up by the handle.

Vanessa;
"Speaking of which, anyone else find anything useful?"

Jade:
"Nope."

Jarease:
"Nah."

Michella:
"Apart from the coats, and a box of nails, no."

Vanessa:
"Alright, I think that's it for this shack then."

Michella:
"Pretty much.
Also, regarding the aforementioned coats, we could bring back a few if we all put one on."

Jarease:
"That's actually a good idea Michella."

Jade:
"Yeah, it is."

Vanessa:
"Agreed, would also make collecting the rest of them less hassle later."

Michella walks over to the wardrobe again, gestures to the coats and says;
"Alright then, pick a coat; after that we can get out of here."

The others approach the wardrobe and look through their options.

After some consideration; Vanessa chooses a white leather, zip up coat, lined with grey fur.
Jade picks a hooded, button up; green leather rain jacket.
And Jarease chooses a slightly oversized, zip up, dark red leather jacket, lined with short black fur.

After closing their coats up they put their bags back on; Vanessa picks up the gun box by the handle, they look around the building one last time and walk out the door, back into the clearing.

[scene change]

Scene shows a time lapse of the sun in the sky over the woods, slowly moving into the early-evening position.

[scene change]

Emerging from the tree line, back into the clearing around the temple, they see a large assortment of many metal barrels; all placed around the front of the building.

Jarease: (surprised)
"Woah, water team sure has been busy."

Jade:
"You can say that again."

Michella:
"Agreed, also, Jarease; I need to say this, I've noticed something."

Jarease:
"What is it?"

Michella:
"You've been... Different today, less hostile and aggressive than usual."

Vanessa:
"Shes right, you're noticeably calmer, and more talkative.
Are you... Feeling any different today?"

Jarease: (town switches from happy to sad)
"Honestly, yeah; but... I'd rather not talk about these things... Not like it would change anything..."

Michella: (disappointed)
"As usual..."

Jade:
"Would... A fat blunt help?"

Jarease:
"I don't smoke, so no; but... I appreciate the offer..."

Jade:
"Alright, noted."

Anyway, we should go and sprinkle the brewers mushrooms spores behind the temple, get that out of the way, then drop off everything we've gathered in the temple; and maybe rest for a bit before we go back for those other coats."

Jarease:
"Sounds a bit stupid, considering I have all the mushrooms in my bag with the skull you wanted.

Instead, we should take the stuff in first, sort it out; remove the brewers mushrooms from the rest, seed them behind the temple, then rest for a bit; and later inform the others about what we found when we see them."

Jade:
"Actually yeah, that is a better plan, lets go."

The team walks over to the Temple, up the ramp, and in through the front doors.
Entering the temple; they all sit on the floor, taking their bags and coats off.

Jarease slides her bag over to Jade; while the others take out the stuff they found; organising it.

Grabbing the bag, Jade unzips it; takes out all the mushrooms, rotting fruits, and skull; and separates them.

Getting all the rotting fruit into a small pile, Jade picks them up and walks outside.
Meanwhile, the others remain seated, resting next to their organised items.

[a bit later]

The voices of Helga, Amber and Fiona can be heard outside the temple, with the sounds of metal shifting around.

Curious; Jade, Jarease, Michella, and Vanessa; stand up and walk out front.

Emerging from the temple and standing outside the doorway; they see Helga, Amber and Fiona; each of them holding around 5 barrels per person, via a rope tied around the barrels; floating through the air as they carefully land; placing the clusters of barrels on the ground near the temple.

Vanessa shouts:
"This is quite a lot of barrels! Do we really need this many?"

Fiona and her team approach the temple, walking up the ramp.

Reaching the others, Fiona replies:
"Not sure; but we will definitely have a large supply of rain water stored up soon."

Jade:
"Which is perfect, because during our search for mushrooms we found both, Meat Caps; which will be a good, sustainable food source; and brewers mushrooms which can be used to make alcohol for disinfectant, or drinking...

Said brewers mushrooms are seeded around back already, just... Make sure dad doesn't find out about them...

Last thing he needs is to risk having another relapse..."

Fiona:
"Yeah, reasonable, I'll keep that quiet."

Helga:
"Noted."

Amber:
"Won't speak a word of it to him."

Michella:
"Good; we also found some other stuff; its all laid out on the floor inside, come take a look."

Michella walks back inside, everyone following her into the temple.

Entering the temple; Michella, Jade, Jarease and Vanessa step out of the way, letting Helga, Amber and Fiona see the stuff they gathered.

Fiona:
"Wow, these will certainly help out."

Amber:
"Neat."

Helga:
"Agreed, but you should seed those mushrooms as soon as possible, or else they'll go to waste."

Jade:
"Good idea, I'll do that now."

Jade walks over to the Meat Caps; scoops them up, makes her way over to the nearest pillar; places the mushrooms delicately on the floor; picks up one, holds it over one of the nearest planters at the base of the pillar, and begins lightly slapping the top of it; small spores visibly shedding from the gills underneath; landing on the soil.

After a short sprinkle of spores, she moves on to the next; repeating the process, only coming back to pick up a new mushroom when one runs out; leaving the empty mushroom on it's final planter.

Meanwhile; Fiona says:
"Anyway, since we have a good amount of barrels; we might as well rest for a bit."

She sits down, and so does everyone else, except Jade, who is busy seeding the mushrooms.

[a bit later]

Jade approaches the resting group, asks:
"Anyone know where a watering can is?"

Fiona:
"There should be one upstairs somewhere; maybe ask Dad, Amelia, or Rachel where one is."

Jade:
"Got it, thanks."

Jade opens her wings, flies across the temple, and up the stairs.

[scene change]

Flying into the second floor; Jade notices a course, loud, repetitive noise; coming from one of the rooms.

She gently lands, folds her wings away, and listens for the source.
Paying close attention, she notices the sound is on her left, coming from one of the rooms ahead.

She walks down the hallway, passing a few doors; the sound quickly getting louder until she reaches the 8th room on the left; where it's loudest.

Approaching the door, Jade knocks; the noise stopping a moment after.

Rachel's voice, from behind the door, says:
"Who is it?"

Jade:
"It's me, Jade; whats that noise?"

The sound of footsteps approaches and the door opens; Rachel standing just behind door as it opens.

Rachel:
"Us making spears, want to see?"

Jade:
"Sure."

Rachel steps out of the way, letting Jade step in and look.

Looking into the room, she sees Amelia and Dad were using an old hacksaw to cut up metal trays, using the metal to make triangular spearheads.

Amelia is holding the hacksaw; while Dad is holding the metal tray; both looking at her.

A sizeable pile of the aforementioned spearheads sits on the floor nearby, next to a stack of poles made from wood; a box of nails; and several tools.

The broken down, carefully disassembled remains of a large, old, wooden shelf just behind Amelia and Dad, clearly being the source of said wood.

Jade:
"Nice work; also, on a related note; while we were looking for mushrooms, Vanessa found some traps in a shack; which will be useful in the long run, and a bolt action rifle, among us finding other things.

All of it is laid out downstairs for y'all to see and evaluate."

Rachel:
"Nice going."

Dad:
"Good work."

Amelia:
"Great, we'll go check em out later."

Jade:
"Thanks, also; do you know where a watering can is? I need to water the planters inside for the Meat Caps spores to take root properly."

Rachel:
"Look in the next room, the're should be some gardening stuff in there."

Jade:
"Alright, thanks."

Jade leaves the room, making her way to the next one.

[scene change]

Jade floats down the stairs and across the temple; holding a large, metal, slightly rusted watering can.

She lands near the group, resting by the door; and says:
"Alright, I'm going to water the planters; and I also told Amelia, Rachel and Dad about how we found stuff; they should be down here in a bit."

Fiona:
"Noted, I'll tell them about the barrels when I see them."

Michella:
"Got it."

Vanessa:
"Sure."

Jade walks past, exits the temple; later comes back with a watering can, moisturises the soil of a few planters, and leaves again to get more water; doing this multiple times.

[a bit later]

Amelia and Dad float down the stairs, holding bundles of spears under one arm per person; while Rachel walks down them, carrying the same.

Amelia and Dad float over to the group, and put the spears down; while Rachel walks across the temple.
After a moment, Rachel reaches them, putting the spears down with the others.

Amelia, Dad and Rachel look at the gathered items; while Jade comes in with another full watering can, passing them.

Amelia:
"Ah cool, 4 traps, 4 coats, a box of nails; a skull, and a... Suitcase?"

Vanessa grabs the gun box and opens it up, revealing the contents.

Rachel:
"Oh cool, a hunting rifle."

Dad:
"Nice; that'll be useful."

Amelia:
"Combat axe, ammo, and bayonet included; great find."

Vanessa:
"Yeah, thanks."

Michella:
"No problem."

Jarease, does not reply.

Fiona:
"Also; we got a lot of barrels out front now, go take a look and tell us if its enough."

Dad, Amelia and Rachel:
"Alright, I'll take a look."
"Sure."
"Can do."

Dad, Amelia and Rachel walk outside and make their way down the ramp.
Looking around, they see the sheer quantity of barrels.

Dad: (surprised)
"Woah, that's a lot of barrels."

Amelia:
"Looks like we have more than enough."

Rachel:
"We certainly do; but theirs one issue, their all closed, they all still have the lids on."

Amelia:
"We best tell Fiona about that."

Amelia walks back into the temple, Rachel and dad following.

Entering the temple, Amelia approaches Fiona, says:
"That's more than enough barrels, but unfortunately, they won't be collecting any rain water because their closed."

Fiona:
"Aw... ♥♥♥♥, I forgot to take the lids off."

Fiona stands up, says:
"Alright, Helga; Amber, come help me."

Both stand up and follow her as she walks out.

Amelia says to the others:
"Alright, apart from that, I'd say today's been pretty successful, great work everyone."

Vanessa:
"Thanks."

Jade; approaching with another empty watering can:
"No problem."

Jarease:
"Thanks... I guess."

Michella:
"Can do."

Amelia walks over to the stuff, picks up the traps by the chains, and says:
"Alright, now; lets go get this all organised and put away."

Vanessa stands up, walks over and picks up the gun case.
"Can do, and after that, we can go back and get the rest of those coats."

Michella stands up; approaches, and grabs the nails and animal skull.

Dad and Rachel grab most of the spears, while Amelia uses her other hand to pick up the rest.

All of them make their way over to the stairs and walk up them, trying to not drop the items; leaving the coats behind for the next load.

[end of chapter 5]

Amelia, Rachel, Dad and Fiona; are on the beach, not far from the path towards the mining town; gathered around an improvised leather bag of various tools, and nearby building materials; lengths of cut and split logs, many stacks of various sized old bricks, and boxes of nails.

Several of the trees a short distance away now being reduced to stumps; a wood axe stuck into the nearest one.

The sun in the sky above in the noon position; partially obscured by sporadic clouds.

Rachel:
"So; how are we going to actually build this?"

Dad:
"Simple; we stack the bricks in the water to form a wide, thick, stable base for the front; biggest bricks at the bottom; do the same a few more times along what will be the length.

Form some sturdy wooden frames; lay those along, and cover it with sideways half logs; fixed in place with nails."

Amelia:
"Sounds like a good way to go about this."

Fiona:
"Yeah; but how do we get the bricks to stay together?"

Dad:
"Simple; we interlock them, and build the supports in a sort of... Angled cube.
Like; almost a cube; but the base is wider than the top by a bit-"

A mans voice, some distance away; calls out "Hey!"

Confused; they look around; quickly noticing a small group walking up the beach; a fair distance away; too far away to see their faces in detail.

One of them waving with one arm; the other holding hands with a smaller figure.

The same voice shouts out again:
"We aren't here to cause trouble!"

Dad steps forward; ahead of Amelia, Fiona and Rachel, hand on his revolver.
Shouts:
"Come over here."

The others putting their hands on their guns too; prepared.

A moment later; the group comes to a stop a short distance of the family.
It consists of 2 women, a man; and a toddler; all 4 notably thin in shape; semi-starved looking; but not skeletal.

The first woman has short black hair in a messy bob cut style; dirty to a point of being nearly brown.
Her lower arms, legs and wings stained with dried mud; covering parts of various, detailed, intricate tattoos along her limbs and wings.
Her wings a dull blue-green, almost Cyan.

The second woman has her left arm missing at the elbow; the wound covered by a thin layer of skin; and long, messy, white hair down to her waist; half of it stained with dirt.
Her wings dark grey, almost black.
Her remaining lower right arm and legs wrapped with taped newspapers; coated with filth.

The man has a dirty, messy black beard; shaggy black hair, bright yellow wings; several odd bits of wood tied around his body; some having signs of damage and wear; and a small gun loosely stuck to his left pectoral with some tape.

His left lower wing; and half of his upper right wing, visibly being missing.

The toddler; a little boy, much like the man, has messy black hair; arms and legs caked with filth; and is wearing a crude, improvised; long poncho like set of rags; tied around him with old wires and strings.

The man says to the family: (relieved)
"Thank Na'Trimi, finale people who aren't trying to kill us for once."

Dad:
"Whats going on?"

The Man:
"Chaos, that's what.
The cites are madness; first it was the death squads; now everyone is just, killing each other over food and resources."

The white haired woman says:
"Not just that, but the death squads have reinforcements now; the military is backing them."

The dirty haired, tattooed woman says:
"Its not even a cull anymore; its a damn genocide."

The man says:
"We barely got out of there."

Dad:
"I can tell, especially by the state of y'all.
Speaking of which, you never told us your names."

The Man / Richard, replies:
"Oh, my mistake.
I'm Richard.

This little fella is my son; Charlie.
The white haired woman is-"

White hair woman / Abigail.
"Names Abigail."

Dirty haired woman / Mia:
"And mines Mia."

Dad:
"Well, good to meet you all; these are some of my daughters."

Amelia; Fiona and Rachel quickly introduce themselves to the group.
"Names Amelia."
"I'm Fiona."
"My names Rachel."

Dad:
"And my names Mr Axel... But you can just call me whatever."

Richard:
"Well, its a pleasure to meet your Sir.
Do you happen to have any food? Water? Or know a place nearby we can stay?"

Dad:
"Depends; can you step back and let us discuss for a moment?"

Richard:
"Sure."

Richard, his kid; and the 2 women step back a moderate distance.

While dad says to Amelia; Fiona, and Rachel:
"Gather round."

They form into a small group.

Dad:
"They seem really desperate, and nice; do you think we should bring them to our place?"

Rachel:
"No, you have no idea what their about; or who they are; that's a massive unnecessary risk."

Fiona:
"Seriously? Look at them; they have a kid; and clearly need help."

Amelia:
"Exactly; we should help them, plus we have more than enough space for them."

Dad:
"Good points... But we should ask if they have any useful skills first.
That way, if they end up staying with us, we can all get something out of it."

Rachel:
"Might as well."

Fiona:
"Would better our chances of survival if they have useful skills; so I would say its worth evaluating."

Amelia:
"Sounds like a wise way to tackle this."

Dad:
"Alright, I'll ask em."

The family turns around to face the group.

Dad:
"Sorry, but what skills do y'all have? Like, what are you good at? Where did you work?"

Abigail:
"I'm a gardener; but I used to work with animals on a farm; mainly rearing cattle."

Mia:
"I'm an artist; a former decorator; and worked for a tattoo shop; the inks on me being my own designs."

Richard:
"Used to do construction work, primarily building wooden frames for houses and brick laying; prior to becoming a stay at home dad."

The family forms a circle again.

Dad:
"Okay, so, we have Abigail; a gardener who worked with cattle, Richard; a former construction worker, and Mia; an artist and former decorator; they seem useful to have around; what do you think?"

Rachel:
"Id say their a liability; but if their claimed skills are true; their probably worth keeping."

Fiona:
"I think their fine; and worth bringing; despite Mia clearly being the least beneficial in the long term."

Amelia:
"I agree with Fiona; but despite Mia's apparent lack of long term usefulness; it would be right to bring her.
Also; would be nice to have the inner temple re-decorated, maybe some paint to bring out the carvings more."

Dad:
"Alright, 3 for yes, 1 for no... looks like were bringing them with us."

Dad and the family turns around to face the group.

Dad:
"Alright come here."

The group approaches; stopping a short distance away.

Dad:
"There is an old mining town just north of here, up that nearby path.
Me and my family are staying at the temple on the edge; and you are welcome to stay with us; we got plenty of spare rooms."

Richard:
"Wow, really? Thank you sir."

Mia:
"That really means a lot; thank you."

Abigail:
"I appreciate it."

The toddler Charlie; gives a little smile; and speaks up in a soft baby voice, says:
"Th.. T.. Tan-kuu..."

Amelia and Fiona smile; briefly enjoying the little fellas cute pronunciation.

Richard:
"But I assume you want something from us in return?"

Dad:
"Yeah; for you all to contribute and help out where needed; and not be a drag on us."

Richard:
"It would be the least I can do; so sure."

Mia:
"So; you help us, and we help you; sounds good to me."

Abigail:
"Can do."

Dad:
"Alright; I'll show you the way there."

Richard:
"Thanks; but first; what are you doing around here? Building something?"

Dad:
"Yeah, we were about to start building a dock for fishing, as a long term food source."

Richard:
"Do you have a plan drawn up? Or some sort of health and safety assessment and method statement recorded?"

Dad:
"No; not really; we don't particularly have the means to do that; nor do I think we need it."

Richard:
"Do you at least have an idea of what your going to do construction wise, if you don't mind me asking?"

Dad:
"Yeah; were going to build some wide; sturdy, stone brick supports at regular intervals; with a wider base than top; make a wood, reinforced frame on top; and cover it with secured; half logs as a floor."

Richard:
"And how do you intend to keep the supports together?"

Dad:
"Well; we have no mortar or concrete; so were going to have larger bricks at the bottom as a stable base; and build up at an angle from that with interlocked bricks; the friction and weight holding it all together."

Richard:
"Hmm... Not the safest, or best method of construction.

Personally; I would just cut spikes on the tips of some logs; drop them straight into the sand from above, at what will be the perimeter; build a set of wooden supports across the inside; fill in the space with bricks; and build a wooden cover on top to give it a flat surface.

The whole structure would be much more sturdy, and stable in the long term.

But yeah; I guess that would work too; as long as a giant wave or boat does not crash into it; or an abnormally high tide doesn't displace the top."

Dad:
"Actually; yeah, that sounds like a better plan.
Anyway; lets get a move on."

Dad walks towards the path; the family and group following.

[scene change]

The family and group emerge into the clearing; just before the bridge; the temple now clearly in view.

The group; witnessing the grand temple, are in absolute awe at its magnificence.

Richard:
"Wow... You live in a life goddess temple?"

Mia:
"It's amazing."

Abigail:
"Wow... Cool..."

Charlie:
"Woooow..."

Dad:
"Yeah; we live in there."

[scene change]

Dad slowly pushes open the temple door and walks in, the others following behind.
The group looks around, taking in the various details, amazed.

Richard:
"Did you install those lights?"

Dad:
"Surprisingly no; they were part of the building when we moved in."

Meanwhile Jade, Helga, and Michella are watering the planters; which are covered in many mushrooms.

Jade, Helga and Michella put down their watering cans and look towards Dad.

Jade:
"Hey dad- who are they?"

Dad:
"Survivors; they barely escaped the city."

The group looks at Jade, Helga and Michella.

Michella:
"Mind introducing yourselves?"

Richard:
"Sure, names Richard.
And this little man is my son; Charlie.

I'm a former construction worker."

The toddler briefly waves at them; his arm movements unrefined and messy.

Mia:
"Names Mia.
Artist; former decorator; worked at a tattoo place."

Abigail:
"And I'm Abigail.
I'm a Gardener, formerly a farm worker; mainly did cattle rearing."

Michella:
"Well, Nice to meet you all.
I'm Michella; used to work in an office."

Jade:
"I'm Jade."

Helga:
"And I'm Helga.
Used to work at a massage clinic."

Richard:
"Nice to meet you all."

Mia:
"Always good to meet new people."

Dad:
"Anyway; let me show you upstairs."

He walks over to the stairs, the others following.

[scene change]

He opens the door to a stone room with a boarded up window; its empty, except for a pair of improvised showers.

Dad:
"This is the shower room, we only have cold water; sadly."

Said showers are made from a pair of water barrels, held up on thick wooden supports.

Both barrels having improvised shower heads attached to the front; and pipes on top leading up through a large, scratched up hole in the stone ceiling above; said hole being mostly covered with half cut logs; except for some small gaps.

Richard:
"How did that massive hole appear; before you clearly covered it with wood?"

Dad:
"There was some kind of animal living in the attic when we got here apparently; never saw it myself, but my daughters scared it off.

I assume from what they told me about it; the thing having huge claws; that it must have carved that hole."

Abigail:
"Any idea what it was?"

Dad:
"Nope.
Anyway; next room."

Dad closes the door and walks down the hall; the group following.

[scene change]

He opens the door to another stone room; one with a window.

Around the room is an improvised set of sideboard cupboards; devoid of doors, made from wooden boards and cut logs, and a few sets of shelves.

In front of the window; in the middle of the room; is a decently sized, open front; improvised stone oven, made from bricks and slabs; a dirty, clearly dug up stone pipe acting as the exhaust; leading out of a small hole broken in the window.

And in the middle of the room is a table; made from logs and wood.
At the table stands Vanessa with an improvised knife, made from scrap and wood; cutting the meat off a decently sized Jaw head carcass; and placing it into a crude fabric sack.

The head and hide of the animal sat on a counter on the right side of the room; its guts in a pile next to them.

Dad:
"And this is the kitchen; where one of my daughters; Vanessa; is currently preparing a carcass for future meals."

Vanessa looks up at them, says:
"Who are you?"

Dad:
"Their a group of survivors we came across, who barely escaped the city and need some help; they'll be staying with us, and helping us out in return."

Vanessa:
"Nice, but I need to talk to you later; and I'll get introduced with them later; but for now I'm busy."

Dad:
"Alright, also; where is Jarease and Amber?"

Vanessa:
"Out gathering more wood."

Dad:
"Noted; thanks.
Anyway. to the next room."

He closes the door.

[scene change]

He opens the door to a room with nothing but a window; shelves along the walls covered with sacks and small boxes; and improvised sacks hanging from a wooden support structure along the ceiling.

Dad:
"My mistake, this is the drying room; long term food storage, next room."

He closes the door.

[scene change]

He opens the door to a room with nothing except a window; and a set 4 of old toilets; clearly removed from another building and placed along the back wall; set up on wooden frames.

The tanks of the toilets have old; dirty, copper and iron pipes coming out; leading up through a few of several small, carved holes in the ceiling; the rest of the holes plugged with crudely carved wooden plugs.

From the back of the toilets leads a set of larger, old, metal pipes; all converging to a singular exit point through a jagged, carved hole in the lower wall.

And between each toilet is a simple dividing wall made from a few logs, but mainly planks; the front of each toilet also having a simple curtain rail; with a crude, improvised curtain made of animal hide.

Richard:
"I take it the same animal carved these various holes in the ceiling too?"

Dad:
"I'd say so.
But yeah; this is the bathroom.

And yes; the toilets do indeed work; those pipes lead up to a rain water collection system in the attic; which is collecting rain water that seeps in from many small gaps between the giant roof slabs."

Richard:
"So; you turned a leaky roof into a way to collect water?"

Dad:
"In summary, yes."

Richard:
"How were the holes formed?"

Dad:
"Not sure; but I'd say from general erosion over time.
Anyway; and now for the last room of importance."

[scene change]

He opens the door to a room with a window.

It has a simple wooden bed, made from a pair of repurposed wooden benches; with an improvised mattress; pillow, and blanket made of animal hide in the corner.

A small, simple side table next to it made from 2 logs and a few planks; a small old pot filled with animal bones; and green glowing mushrooms growing from them, sitting on top.

A simple wardrobe and dresser next to the left side of the window; made from cut logs and planks; devoid of doors.

An animal hide rug; made from the skin of a Jaw Head.
and a simple table and chair in the back left corner.

The group walks in and looks around; while the family stays in the hallway.

Dad:
"This is one of the spare bedrooms; the next few rooms after this are spare too; and have the same setup; so all 3 of you can have a room each if you want.

And if the little man needs a bed; feel free to grab one from another room."

Richard:
"Wow; did... Did you make all of this furniture yourselves?"

Dad:
"Well; me and my daughters did; mainly to pass the time."

Richard:
"This is seriously impressive."

Mia:
"And they look really nice too."

Richard:
"Honestly; I wish I had this level of creativity.
This is really cool.

But seriously... Thank you for letting us stay."

Dad:
"It's no problem, but anyway; I'll let y'all get settled in; clean yourselves up; and I'll come get you all when its dinner time; which is not long from now.

He walks away, the family following him.

Amelia; Fiona, and Rachel walk past him, making their way towards the stairs.

Meanwhile; he heads towards the kitchen.

[scene change]

He enters the kitchen, where Vanessa is still butchering the carcass

Dad:
"What did you need to talk about?"

Vanessa stabs the knife into the carcass; leaves it there, looks at him, and says: (very annoyed)
"What the ♥♥♥♥ are you doing?
Banging total strangers into the only safe place we have?"

Dad:
"They barely got out of the city; the guy has a kid, one of them lost an arm; the guy has injured wings, and obviously they haven't eaten in a while.
They need a place to stay; and have skills that might be useful in the long term."

Vanessa:
"Which I understand, but still; you have no idea who these people are, if that kid really is his; you know nothing about them; outside of whatever they say."

Dad:
"And I agree; I don't know them, but you can't be so distrusting of everyone, especially when they clearly need help."

Vanessa lets out a long, frustrated sigh.
"Which... Is true; yeah, but still it's...♥♥♥♥, whatever, I'm clearly not going to change your mind."

She takes several slow, deep breaths.

Vanessa, calmed down; says:
"Also; I need to ask you something."

Dad:
"Yeah?"

Vanessa:
"Do you still get cravings?"

Dad:
"For drink?"

Vanessa:
"Yeah."

Dad:
"Sometimes; why?"

Vanessa:
"Because we plan to make alcohol for sanitation; and maybe drinks.
But if we do; can you promise me; you won't relapse again?"

Dad:
"Yeah, sure."

Vanessa:
"Seriously; can you promise me that?
Because if you do; I will not hesitate to throw it all away.

I'm not joking around... I..."

Vanessa becomes visibly upset.
She walks over and up to him; looking him in the face.

Vanessa:
"I hate what it did to you.
Seeing how lazy and... pathetic you became.

Please; promise me, no; promise us it won't happen again."

He steps forward and hugs her; Vanessa hugging him in return.

Dad:
"I promise; okay?"

Vanessa, nearly crying; wipes her eyes.

After a moment; she lets go and steps away; says:
"Thank you, dad."

Dad smiles at her, replies:
"It's no problem.

Anyway; I'm going to wait downstairs."

Vanessa:
"Alright; see you soon."

[scene change]

The family; and the group; are all gathered in one room on the second floor at a set of old, wooden tables; sitting on old chairs; some of which clearly having had parts recently replaced.

Charlie sitting on top of a stack of slabs; topped with an improvised cushion on the chair; as to reach the table; next to Richard.

All of them eating; and finishing their bowl of food.

Richard; empty bowl near him is holding a fork; feeding Charlie the last of his food.

All of the group now clean, devoid of dried on filth; Mia's hair now its natural black.

While helping Charlie eat; Richard asks: (satisfied and happy)
"What did you cook, if you don't mind me asking?"

Vanessa:
"Cooked mushrooms and roasted Jaw Head meat."

Richard:
"That was honestly quite nice, I appreciate it."

Mia; empty bowl in front of her, says: (satisfied)
"Yeah, thanks; we needed that."

Abigail; also with an empty bowl: (satisfied)
"It's much appreciated."

Vanessa:
"No problem."

Rachel:
"Anyway; so, tell us more about yourselves; like; about your lives; What you did? Where you came from? Why do you only have 1 kid with you? Wheres the mom? And stuff like that."

Mia:
"Well, prior to having to escape the absolute chaos that's the capital city right now; I worked at a tattoo place along the main avenue; not far from the kings castle, the inks along my arms, legs, and wings; all being designs I made.

And before that; I was a painter and decorator for a small company; mainly did stuff like wall papering, painting; plastering and such."

Abigail:
"I'm a gardener and former farmhand; used to mainly rear cattle on a farm just north of the capital.
But; after the farm closed I moved to the city; took up a job as a gardener for the parks."

Richard feeds Charlie the last bit of his food and puts the fork down.

He looks around and says:
"And I'm a former construction worker; mainly did brick laying and setting up the wooden frames for houses; so, an actual builder.

[He smiles]

But; I met a woman at work one day, she was nice; we got to know each other; and next thing I knew, I was a stay at home dad; while she went off and worked to keep a roof over our heads."

Amelia:
"That's really nice; but where is she? And why only 1 kid?"

Richard's smile fades.

Richard: (becoming increasing upset)
"Well... sadly; only 2 eggs hatched; we had a little girl, Lizzy; and Charlie here; but...
Lizzy... she didn't make it past a few months.

Doc said there was something wrong with her; the way she grew in the egg; her brain was deformed along with the... Arteries or something... she... she passed in her sleep."

Everyone is silent; stunned.

Richard:
"As for my wife; she... got killed during our escape from the city...

We were making our way through the sewer; when we reached a big metal gate; looked like it had been busted open, and something tried to claw through the tunnel ahead when...

This... ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing... some... Metal monster came out of the tunnel behind us; like it had been following us...

We ran but; the thing got her; It..."

Richard puts his head in his hands, visibly holding back tears.

Rachel: (concerned)
"Sorry but; can you describe the thing that... that you saw?"

Richard wipes his eyes and looks at her; looking visibly distressed.

Richard:
"It was big; covered in metal... Round feet, no toes... Had 2 fingers and a thumb on each hand... And 4, green glowing eyes on a tiny head..."

Rachel looks at him with bewilderment, asks: (concerned)
"What..."

Richard looks at her with a worried concern, asks:
"I take it you recognise this thing?"

Rachel:
"I do... That ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing tore my wings off."

She stands up and turns around; better showcasing her absent wings; which have somewhat regrown.

Richards sadness turns to shock.

Richard:
"♥♥♥♥..."

Jarease:
"But on the plus side; they are regrowing."

Rachel turns around and sits down again.

Rachel:
"But yeah; I'm sorry you had to go through that."

Amelia: (concerned)
"Same here; nobody should have to go through that.
Also; how long ago did that happen"

Richard becomes visibly sad again.

Richard:
"A few days ago..."

Jarease:
"...Are you going to be okay?"

Richard:
"...Probably... Not the first time I've lost someone; but that's something I'd prefer to keep private..."

Jarease:
"Understandable..."

Dad: (uneasy)
"Anyway; how about a different topic?"

Richard:
"Yeah... sounds good..."

Vanessa:
"Yeah, like; here's an idea.
Instead of staying with us permanently; how about we help you fix up some places in the town at some point; so you can all have your own places to call home?"

Richard, looking less sad:
"That's a good idea, would be nice to have our own places in the long term..."

Jarease:
"Yeah; also, considering a lot of people will be escaping the cities due to the violence; plenty will probably end up here like they did.

So; it would be a good idea to fix up the town; that way; not only do they get a place to stay; but, we could also get things out of it.

We could have a whole community forming down here before we know it."

Amelia:
"That's a great idea."

Mia:
"And because Richard here is a trained professional; maybe he could teach y'all how to go about it?

Amber:
"Sounds like a good idea."

Richard looks a bit less sad.

He sits up, says:
"I guess I could help rebuild this town; gives others a safe place to go; especially the little ones."

Jarease starts to look slightly uncomfortable.

Jade:
"Speaking of which; that mean's we'll need a school, and teachers."

Jarease is looking noticeably uncomfortable.

Jarease:
"Which, I'm pretty sure will come to us, on their own with time."

Mia:
"Probably, yeah."

Dad:
"But for now; lets focus on what needs doing first.
That being; helping the new ones get their strength back; and put some weight back on."

Richard looks less sad; mostly neutral, says:
"Which I appreciate; thank you all for letting us stay."

Dad:
"It's fine.
Anyway; I'd say that's about it for dinner, would you?"

Everyone collectively agrees.

Dad:
"Alright; all of you go about your business; I'll start cleaning up."

Dad stands up; picks up his bowl, cutlery; and begins walking around the tables; picking up the bowls and utensils as he goes.

Meanwhile; everyone stands up and walks out.

Exiting the room, Amelia approaches Jarease; whispers to her:
"I need to talk to you for a minute."

And walks into her bedroom, Jarease following behind.

Entering the room; Jarease closes the door behind her.

The room is decorated much the the others; table, chair, dresser, bed, etc; but with a few additions.
A few old paintings on the walls of various landscapes; an extra chair; and the skull of a Jaw head, antlers included; on a wider side table near the bed in place of the plant pot; green glowing mushrooms growing on top of it; along the skull and antlers.

Amelia looks at Jarease, concerned; and asks:
"When they mentioned little ones, and the school needing teachers; why were you so... uncomfortable?"

Jarease lets out a sad sigh, walks over to the bed; sits down on the end of it, and says, while looking down at the floor:
"Honestly; a few reasons, both, not wanting to be a teacher again; and... Stuff I'd rather not go into..."

Amelia sits down next to her, growing more concerned.

Amelia asks:
"Is it that thing you refuse to talk about; because you think talking won't change anything?"

Jarease: (audibly depressed)
"Pretty much..."

Amelia puts her hand on Jarease's shoulder, says:
"Honestly Jarease; you worry me sometimes.
Whatever it is that's bothering you, no matter what it is; you can tell us.
And telling us would probably make whatever your dealing with easier."

Jarease:
"It would; but... It would also just drag everyone down; make them feel bad for me when I don't deserve it."

Amelia:
"Listen, you deserve to be supported.
And even if it can't be changed; we're here for you."

Jarease:
"I know; and you keep telling me that, but it would change nothing."

Amelia:
"Even so; it would be best to get it all off your chest, if not to the family; then to me at least."

Jarease looks at her:
"Really? Even... After being such an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for... I've forgotten how long?"

Amelia:
"Yeah, because you are my sister; and nothing will ever change that."

Jarease starts to tear up and leans in, hugging Amelia; Amelia holding her in return.
Jarease wipes her eyes, trying to avoid crying.

After a moment; she lets go and leans back.

Jarease:
"Thank you... Amelia."

Amelia:
"No problem sis, when you are ready; come tell me, okay?"

Jarease:
"Okay."

Jarease starts to smile; wiping the tears from her eyes.

Jarease: (sounding less depressed and more hopeful)
"Thank you."

She stands up and walks out of the room; quietly closing the door behind herself.
Amelia; processing what just happened, lays down on her bed; letting out a deep sigh of relief.

[scene change]

Scene shows the sun in the mid afternoon position over the temple; casually moving to the late afternoon position.

Meanwhile; clouds and birds fly past.

[scene change]

Amelia and Vanessa enter Jade's room; the smell of herb instantly hitting them.
They cough and fan away the smoke with their hands.

Jades room is much like the standard spare room; albeit with a few notable differences.

She has a leather; improvised "bean-bag" chair and a short coffee table made from logs in the middle of the room; placed on a Jaw Head skin rug.

Jade is sitting on said "bean-bag"; smoking a joint.

Her brick of compressed herb sits on the table with her smoking equipment; 1/3 clearly having been smoked; next to Amelia's radio.

A male voice on the radio says:
"-on the 7-o-clock news; alarming developments in the capital, its utter madness!

Not only is the military now backing the death squads; but its chaos!
The people are fighting back; and fighting one another over food and resources-"

Jade sits forward, turns off the radio; sits back; and takes a puff.

She has 2 mattresses laid on top of one another; a wider bed; wider blanket; and multiple pillows.
A shelf on the front side of the room, covered in various boxes, bags, and small animal skulls.

A larger side table next to the bed with a Lowl Kara'sar skull on top; green glowing mushrooms growing across it.

Several animal hides of various size are hung up on the walls.
And the window has a curtain rail; and improvised curtain made of animal hide.
Said curtain pulled back; allowing in sunlight.

Vanessa:
"Jade; do you want to get the-"

Amelia interrupts:
"Hey Jade; came to check on you-"

Vanessa interjects accidentally; looks at Amelia, and says:
"Oh sorry; I'll just wait outside, let me know when your done."

Vanessa steps out of the room; closing the door behind her.

Amelia looks at Jade; continues:
"Sorry about that; Vanessa wanted to ask you about something too.
Anyway; how are you holding up?
Are you still... Upset about when your boyfriend died?"

Jade looks at her; a slightly sad expression on her face:
"Honestly... I'm mostly over it now.

Like, don't get me wrong, I do miss him sometimes...

They way he would hold me, love me; the times we spent smoking and just... having silly fun together...

I do miss it; yeah.

But; its in the past; nothing I can do.
And we have more important things to worry about now anyway."

Amelia:
"Okay, that's good; but what about your smoking?"

Jade:
"I'm trying to stop.
Going to slowly cut back until I don't want it anymore.
This and 1 more today; is all I'm having."

Amelia:
"That's great; and hopefully with effort, you'll get there."

Jade:
"Thanks sis."

Amelia:
"No problem.
I'm just glad your feeling better."

Jade:
"Thanks... I appreciate it."

Jade smiles at her.

Amelia:
"Again, no problem.
If you need help; just ask.

Alright; I'm gonna go see what Jarease is up to, see if she has any good books on her.
see you around."

Jade:
"Bye."

Amelia turns around and exits the room; closing the door behind her.

A moment later; Vanessa enters, closing the door behind her.

Vanessa says:
"Yeah; I wanted to ask if you wanted to get the alcohol production started tonight?"

Jade puts the joint in her mandibles.

Jade:
"Depends; what did dad say?"

Vanessa:
"He promised me, well us; via telling me; that he wouldn't relapse.
He still gets cravings sometimes; but I trust him to have control over it."

Jade:
"Okay; lets do this then."

Jade stands up; stretches her arms up, and slowly lowers them.

Vanessa:
"Oh by the way, which fruit are we going to use for this again?
And will the type affect the alcohol content?"

Jade:
"Different fruits will affect how much the mushrooms produce.

But regarding what we'll use, its simple; the same Giant Yellow Ball Berry ones we found the brewers growing on; which luckily; I have plenty of saved up right here."

Jade walks over to her bed, reaches under it; and pulls out a large sack.

Vanessa:
"How did you even get all of this?"

Jade:
"When I go out for mid day walks after lunch; I take a sack with me and pick up what I can."

Jade picks up the bag; placing it on her shoulder.

Jade:
"Alright; go down stairs; get a 2 thirds full, metal barrel of rain water; and set it up outside above a fire to boil; we need sterile water for this to work.

Meanwhile; I'll prepare the ingredients."

Jade smokes the last of her blunt, takes the filter out of her mandibles and crushes it up in her hand; extinguishing it.

Vanessa:
"Got it."

Vanessa leaves the room.

[scene change]

Scene shows the sun in the late afternoon position over the temple; sluggishly moving to the early evening position; the setting sun casting various beautiful colours over everything.

[scene change]

Vanessa is sitting at the bottom of the ramp outside; near a barrel of steaming water; stood atop a set of bricks; a fire burning low below it.

Meanwhile; Jade rolls another barrel out from behind the temple and towards her; her legs stained with yellow juices and bits of fruit; holding an improvised ladle.

After a while; eventually reaching Vanessa; she stops and sluggishly stands the barrel up; looking tired.

Vanessa:
"You okay?"

Jade:
"Yeah just... Tired after washing and mashing all of these fruits...
Is the water ready?"

Vanessa:
"It finished boiling and has calmed down quite a bit since then; but is still steaming."

Jade:
"Well; could you put the fire out, let it cool; then lid it; and get it off the bricks?"

Vanessa:
"Sure."

She stands up; picks up the lid; and walks towards the river.
A bit later; she comes back with the lid; covered with water; and throws the water on the fire; extinguishing it with a fizzle."

They both sit down; waiting for the water to cool down.

After some time; Jade stands up and feels the barrel; its just about warm to the touch.

Jade:
"Alright; lid it and shift it."

Vanessa puts the lid on the barrel; clicking the latches into place, opens her wings, flies upwards, grabs the top; and with all her strength, carefully lifts the barrel into the air, floats back, and lowers it onto the ground.

Jade:
"Alright, now we need to take these both inside; get the ingredients in; and set up the bubble filter."

Vanessa:
"Got it."

Both grab the barrel; carefully lay it on its side using most of their strength; go to one side of it, and at a crawling pace roll it up towards the Temple; pushing hard against the barrels weight.

Reaching the top of the ramp; pushing becomes easier; the barrel simply rolling straight on towards the doors.
Getting in inside; they roll it towards the statue and stand it up.

Tired; both stop for a moment, catching their breath.

Jade, between breaths:
"Don't... worry... next one is much lighter... its basically half... empty..."

After a while; getting their breath back; they turn around and walk back.
Reaching the second barrel; they lay it down, roll it up the ramp; and into the temple with little issue.

Bringing it to the first barrel; they stand it up.

Jade takes the tops off both; and lowers her ladle into the fruit barrel; taking out a scoop.
The fruit is all mashed up; intermixed with brewers mushrooms.

Vanessa:
"So; how does this work if were using whole mushrooms?"

Jade:
"When the mushrooms are in an environment of high water content; or just water; they don't bother growing into regular mushrooms; instead they act like a algae of sorts; or fermentation agent if there is enough sugar; living in the water in a different form but still metabolising food the same way; producing alcohol; which in this case will be excreted as a waste product; into the water."

Vanessa:
"How do you know this stuff?"

Jade:
"My former boyfriend was into this kind of thing."

Vanessa:
"I see...
Speaking of which-"

Jade:
"I'm fine, forget about it.
Anyway."

Jade drops the scoop into the water; pausing for a moment.

Jade:
"It's going to be easier to just tip all of this in; help me lift it."

Jade hangs the ladle on the water barrel and steps around the fruit barrel; Vanessa standing around the other side of it.
Both grab and lift; tilting the barrel towards the water.

The top side of the barrel meets the water barrel with a clank.
They lift the bottom, keeping a steady grip on the vessel.

As they raise the barrel; the broken up; chunky, moist fruit mush mixture slides down and slops into the water with a continuous splash.

After a moment; the splashing stops; and they lower the now empty barrel.

Jade looks into the water barrel; and sees the fruit is now intermixed with the water.
She grabs the ladle; mixes the water with the fruit to stir it up; and puts the lid on.

Jade:
"Alright, now we need 2 more things; an exhaust tube; and a water barrel for bubbling out the carbon.
Luckily; there is a few rain water barrels over there at the right side of the room; so no hills to go up.

You slide one over here; I'll go get the tubes."

Vanessa looks to the right side of the room; and sees 6 barrels of rain water.
She looks back; says:
"Alright."

Vanessa walks towards the barrels; while Jade opens her wings and flies up stairs.
Vanessa grabs a barrel, tilts it on to its edge, and rolls it towards the setup.

Reaching the setup; she sets the barrel down with a thud; and waits.

A bit later; Jade flies down the stairs and over to the setup; landing carefully; holding a pipe connected to a modified tap; plumbed straight into a metal barrel lid.

She takes the lid off the fruit-water barrel, replaces it with the new one; opens the rain water barrel and lowers the pipe in.

Vanessa:
"Why is this necessary?"

Jade:
"I'll explain why.
This is a bubble setup; when the fungus reacts with the sugars in the juices; it will produce both carbon and alcohol; the carbon gas waste getting bubbled out through this tube; the water denying any air, or contaminants; getting in.

This is necessary; because if its a sealed thing; it will just explode."

Vanessa:
"I see.
So; how long will this take?"

Jade:
"A while; especially this much.

Anyway; I'm going up to bed, see you soon."

Vanessa:
"Yeah, me too."

Both open their wings; fly across the room, and float up the stairs.

[scene changes]

Jade enters her bedroom; sluggishly walks over to the window, closes the curtains; darkening the room greatly, walks over to her bed and climbs in; snuggling up under the leather sheets, resting her head on the pillows.

[End of chapter 6]

Amelia stands in the town centre outside a north facing, 2 floors tall stone house; the front of it having been remodelled into a store front with a decorated, painted wooden front door; covered in various patterns; and a large wood framed window, the window pane being made of clear plastic sheets crudely held together by bolts.

Through the window Amelia can see various artworks painted on leather; nailed on to wooden frames; sitting on stands on display, the artworks being of various things; animals, landscapes, plants, weapons, abstract paintings, patterns, etc.

A painted wooden sign sits above the window, decorated with various coloured patterns; it says in a refined, decorative font "Mia's Murals".

The once dead fountain behind Amelia is full of water, cleaned and functioning again; water shooting up into the air, landing back into the basin.

A group of 4 small children of varying ages and their parents are sitting on the ground near it; enjoying the warm sunlight of the cloudless sky above them; some of the children eating an unknown, pre-packed lunch from small bags.

Meanwhile the parents silently communicate to one another about something, sometimes reacting to the conversation with shoulder, head and arm movements.

The wooden doors and shutters of the stone houses around her have been restored, replaced with new ones.

The once sprawling vines and foliage along the buildings now absent or greatly reduced.
The old metal street signs, repainted and restored.
And the cobbles below her feet now filled in; devoid of open dirt spaces.

She walks towards the decorated door, pushes it open and walks inside.
Entering the building a bell rings out; meanwhile she closes the door behind her.

Amelia looks around at the interior of the building.

At the back left is a counter; made from wood and logs; a wooden box full of paints and a radio sitting on top near the end.

A voice from the radio talks about the weather forecast; "Looks like its going to be sunny for the next 2 days, followed by sparse rain over the north of Kartrol."

At the back right is a set of stone and wood stairs; leading to the second floor.

The ceiling is made from solid stone and has 4 electric lights illuminating the room; cables from them leading along the ceiling and out through the back wall.

The walls are covered with various artworks of different sizes.
And the stone walls under them are painted with ornate decorative patterns.

A moment later; Mia comes down the stairs carrying a medium sized painting.
Her body not as thin as it once was; more filled out, almost normal.

She walks over to the counter, sets it down and says to Amelia:
"Alright; Here's the painting you ordered."

Amelia approaches and inspects the painting, its of a jaw heads skull on a black background, the antlers forming into tree branches; decorated with many bright flowers; the main skull topped with glowing fungi.

Amelia: (Impressed)
"Wow, this is amazing."

Mia:
"Thanks, also; on the way home, can you hit up Kyle the electrician for me?
Lights in the bathroom are dead again."

Amelia:
"No problem, do I owe you anything else for this?"

Mia:
"No; if anything I owe you, and your family a lot-"

The radio crackles loudly, interrupting them; followed by a news broadcast, saying:
"Now for today's morning news, starting off with something strange; across the planet we are seeing bizarre reports; odd stories of-"

Mia turns off the radio; says:
"Anyway.

If it wasn't for you and your family helping me, Richard, Charlie, and Abigail settle in; helping us set up; along with the others here.

I don't think this town would be anywhere near as stable."

Amelia:
"Thanks Mia; that means a lot."

Mia:
"No problem.

Also; thank you for getting my equipment back during the last city scavenge.
That really means a lot."

Amelia picks up the painting carefully, says:
"Its fine, we needed more canned food anyway; and your place was close enough.
Regardless, thanks Mia."
Turns around and walks out; leaving the store.

Exiting the store and entering the town centre; Amelia heads north-east towards the Temple; and down a street.

The street on both sides having various changes.

The overgrown vines and plants are now cut back or dead.
Some older, more damaged buildings have been dismantled, their bricks and parts organised into neat piles.

Some have been renovated and repaired; or remodelled.
A few of such being remade into stores.

The rest of the buildings remain largely untouched; except for the removal of rotten doors and shutters; which have been replaced; and the stone bricks being cleaned.

And power lines; connected to the tops of tall wooden poles on the left side of the street; run along the street and to some of the buildings.

As she walks; 2 people, a man and woman with green wings; exit from a small wild game butcher shop on the left, the sign above saying "Marty's Meats"; the woman holding an improvised, stitched together animal hide bag, the contents round in shape but unknown; both walking down the street and past Amelia.

Meanwhile; she continues walking.

[scene change]

Amelia enters a bedroom in the temple; the layout different from a standard bedroom.
The bed, side table, table, and chair are on the opposite sides.
The window is covered with an improvised curtain.

The left and right walls have book shelves, covered with various old books of different topics; many of them made of different materials.

Immediately noticeable ones being refined bone, metal, leather, plastic, paper and wood.

The middle of the ceiling has an electric light; a wire from it leading to a light switch near the door; then up into the ceiling.

And in the middle of the room, sitting on the rug; is a large wooden table with 4 chairs.

On the table sits rolls of leather, pots of paint; improvised writing and drawing tools; and a large sheet of rolled out leather; covered with complex equations Amelia can't understand, and technical drawings.

Jarease is sitting at the table; writing on said leather with a small, paintbrush like tool; the handle being a hollow glass tube filled with black paint.

Amelia; holding the painting, says:
"Hey, Jarease, I got that painting for you."

Jarease pauses; turns to look at her, smiles, and says:
"Thanks; just put it against the wall for now."

She sets the painting down against the wall, not far from the door; and looks back at Jarease.

Jarease:
"Thank you, also, can I talk to you?"

Amelia:
"About what?"

The smile fades from Jarease's face, she replies: (nervously)
"About... Whats been... bothering me...
I think... its... time to talk about it."

Amelia:
"Alright, sure; but not now.
I need to head down to the docks as soon as possible, there should be a fresh catch of fish coming in today; Helga needs some for tonight's dinner; and we need some for long term storage."

Jarease: (less nervous)
"So, after you get the fish, we can talk?"

Amelia:
"Sure."

Jarease:
"Okay, see you later."

Amelia leaves the room.

[scene change]

Amelia floats down the stairs and lands at the bottom.
The bottom floor of the temple having several changes.

A pair of simple, metal, wood burner heaters sit on both sides of the statue; exhaust pipes leading up through the ceiling behind the statue; moderately sized piles of firewood sit near the heaters.

The brewing system has been moved to the right side of the room and scaled up to 4 times the size; 4 barrels around 1; the middle barrel acting as a bubble filter.

The planters are absolutely filled with mushrooms.

The ornate carvings of plants, birds, and various animals along the inner walls have been painted with nicely paired and contrasting shades and colours; bringing new life into the once bare stone.

The pillars are decorated with painted on vines.

The lights on the ceiling have been replaced with new ones; devoid of dirt or rust; a new light switch near the stairs having a cable leading up the wall, along the ceiling and to them.

And the statue in the middle of the room has been cleaned; now devoid of any moss or dust.

She opens her wings, flies across the room; lands at the front doors, opens the left one and walks out; closing the door behind her.

[scene change]

Amelia stands on the beach, in front of a long, wide dock made of bricks; extending out a fair bit into the ocean.

The dock is surrounded by a set of wooden supports stuck into the sand; and crossing wooden supports between them; further holding the bricks in place.

Amelia slowly walks along the dock; meanwhile a boat in the distance casually approaches.
She comes to a stop a fair bit from the end and watches as the boat grows nearer.

Standing, she feels the warm sunlight of the cloudless sky on her exoskeleton; its soft, almost comforting; as a warm, gentle breeze passes along and through her hair.

The distinct fresh yet fishy smell of the ocean carrying on the wind.

Some time later; the boat comes to a stop next to the dock; slowing itself rapidly as it parks up a moderate distance from the edge.

The boat shape wise is wide and long; the front of the hull pointed in shape; painted dark green with spots of rust and barnacles.

The hull; height wise; is taller than Amelia by a notable bit.

On top, 2 thirds towards the front; sits the captains control room; its white, lightly rusted, round in shape; almost cylindrical; with one window around the whole shape.

Behind the control room is a pair of sleek, lime green, mechanical crane arms with large nets; both folded up against a central mechanical system.

The back of the ship has a third, smaller, blue arm partially extended over the back; hanging out over the water.

The end of it holding a large metal T shaped mechanism; the cross beam covered with several cage boxes hanging from cables; which feed along a winch system, down to a spool behind the base of the arm.

Seconds later; an anchor audibly slides out from the opposite side; crashing into the water.
And a metal ramp extends across the water, and down to the dock from the top of the hull; landing a short distance ahead of Amelia.

She steps back a bit; giving good clearance.

A few seconds later; Fiona, wearing her waders steps down the ramp; each step an audible clunk as the metal reverberates; holding a full, large, leather sack on her left shoulder with her arms.

Reaching the bottom of the ramp, she looks at Amelia; gently puts the bag down in front of her, and says:
"Alright, here's the fish."

Amelia:
"Thanks sis; much appreciated.
Also, how are you holding up? Enjoying work?"

Fiona:
"Wish I could stand around and chat; we have fish and hard shell meats to unload, but in short, yeah; quite a lot actually.
Beats unblocking drains by a long shot.

Plus, its not like the town would really need much of that anyway.
The towns sewage system just isn't built for sewage workers."

Amelia:
"Well; I'm just glad your in a better spot.
Unblocking drains just sounds nasty."

Fiona:
"It was, but those days are behind me.
Speaking of which; what do you do now?"

Amelia:
"Nothing in particular, mainly just helping the rest of the family; and others where or when I can."

A pair of fishermen carrying a large crate from both ends step on to the ramp, walking down meticulously.

Fiona:
"Alright, anyway, I need to get going; need to help unload; see you later."

Fiona turns around and stands back next to the ramp; letting the men pass.
Meanwhile; Amelia grips the bag, pulls it; feeling the weight; and lifts it up on to her shoulder.

Getting its weight balanced with both hands; she turns around and slowly walks back; carefully keeping the sack in place.

[scene change]

Amelia enters the kitchen, sack of fish on her shoulder; the room smelling of fresh meat.

The kitchen interior is slightly different; the sets of sideboard cupboards now have doors.
The stoves old exhaust has been swapped out for clean copper metal pipes.
And an improvised metal door; with a wooden handle, now sits in front of the oven.

Helga stands at the centre table; taking meat from a leather sack and shoving it into a hand powered meat grinder while turning the crank; fresh ground up meat exiting into a metal bowl next to it; the sounds of meat rendering with each turn.

Opposite side of the table having 2 bowls of diced up mushrooms.

She stops and looks at Amelia; as Amelia approaches the table.

Amelia sluggishly and cautiously pulls the sack forwards; catches its weight with her arms, and lowers it to the floor next to the table; the bag touching the floor with a soft, wet thud.

Amelia:
"Alright... *takes a deep breath* here's the fish."

Helga:
"Appreciated."

Amelia:
"No problem, also, why are you grinding up meat?"

Helga:
"For tonight's dish, oven cooked whole fish; stuffed with ground meats and mushroom.
When the fish cooks; the fat will seep from the inner meat, pushing the flavours deeper into the fish's flesh, enhancing the flavour."

Amelia:
"Sounds nice."

Helga:
"The end result should certainly be."

Amelia:
"I'd hope so.
But anyway, I have other stuff to do, see you later."

Helga:
"See you soon."

Amelia walks out of the kitchen; closing the door behind her.

[scene change]

Amelia enters Jarease's room.
Jarease, like before, is sat at the table; writing on the leather sheet.

Amelia:
"I'm done with the fish, you ready to talk?"

Jarease stops writing, puts the tool down, stands up and says:
"I can tell, I can smell it on you.
But yeah... I'm ready."

She walks over to her bed and sits down on the end.
Without a word, Amelia knows what to do; walking over and sitting beside her.

Jarease looks at Amelia; Amelia looking at her.

Jarease, telepathically, says to her:
"But before I do... I'd prefer to keep this... non vocal, for privacy."

Amelia; telepathically, replies:
"If that helps you, sure; go ahead."

Jarease:
"And, I need to give some... context...
I've worked as a teacher for... years... mainly around kids as of recent...

And as you know, I've had many... failed relationships..."

A memory climbs to the front of Amelia's mind...

[flashback scene]

Amelia sits in her room at home in the city; drawing a sketch of a bird at the middle table.
Suddenly; shouting is audible from another room, a door slamming; footsteps, and barely understandable scream-shouting.

Concerned; she swiftly stands up and exits the bedroom.

Looking into the hallway; she sees a very angry man; grabbing his coat and storming out, leaving down the stairs; Jarease crying on her knees on the floor.

He says as he passes:
"I can't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stand you anymore, I'm done."

Amelia rushes out and over to her; picking her up.

Amelia:
"Are you okay? did he hurt you?

Jarease, crying:
"N-no... I... I messed up... again..."

Amelia holds her as she sobs and cries; tears streaking down her face.

[flashback ends]

She pushes the memory away; focusing on Jarease.

Amelia:
"Yeah, I know, I was there, supporting you every time a guy dumped you."

Jarease:
"I know but... there is a lot more to it... its all connected...
And Its because...

I know this may sound silly but...

I'm...
Infertile...

I can't have kids, Amelia..."

Amelia:
"Wh... what?
That's why?"

Jarease:
"Yes, and I know it sounds silly... but imagine yourself in my position.

Every day at work, having something you yearn for, deeply; right in front of you, and knowing that you will never have that.

Seeing the parents at the end of each day, and feeling so... empty, knowing you will never be as happy as them.

And even worse; never finding love.
Because every time you got with someone; the moment they found out you were infertile; they would see you as a dead end and ♥♥♥♥ off... leaving you alone and broken... over and over..."

Tears start to run down Jarease's face.
She takes a deep, shuddering breath and wipes her eyes; trying to not cry.

Amelia:
"Jarease... that's... not silly at all.
If anything, I understand why that would make you so angry.
Having to put up with that every day.

But bottling all this up, keeping it to yourself; and taking it out on others isn't going to help you.
It's self destructive, and i'll be blunt, gets me worried.

Does anyone else but me know about this?"

Jarease:
"No... And I'd prefer it to stay that way.
You... are the only person I feel like I can trust with this."

Amelia:
"And I appreciate you finale telling me about this; you don't need to tell anyone else if that helps you too.

But my main concern is; how do you feel now, having finale got this off your chest?"

Jarease:
"Honestly... better, but not perfect... far from it.
But I didn't expect letting this out to go so... smoothly..."

Amelia:
"What did you expect?"

Jarease:
"To be called stupid, be discarded; ignored, that type of thing."

Amelia:
"What? why?"

Jarease:
"Honestly its what I've come to expect from people at this point, guess that's what happens when your like me for so long..."

Amelia:
"I guess that comes from how you exes treated you?"

Jarease:
"Probably... and how the others don't even bat an eye to my... issues... anymore; and I don't blame them, I would be the same too."

Amelia:
"Regardless of them; you have me.
Your my sister, and I'll always be there for you."

Jarease starts to tear up again, leans in and hugs Amelia; Amelia holding her in return.

Jarease:
"Thanks sis... that really means a lot..."

Amelia:
"Its no problem, any time."

Both let go and Jarease sits back.
She wipes the tears from her eyes, calming down.

Amelia:
"But anyway, in summary.
Your angry and take it out on others because your infertile; envy those with kids; and because your infertility stops men wanting you long term?"

Jarease:
"Pretty much."

Amelia:
"Okay, to end this off; how are you feeling now?"

Jarease:
"Better, but not perfect."

Amelia:
"Which is a step in the right direction.

Anyway, how about a change of topic?
One we can actually use our voices for?"

Jarease, says audibly:
"Sure."

Amelia says:
"Okay, how about...
Hmm...
Oh, well, since you don't want to be a teacher, what do you plan to do now?
What about the long term?"

Jarease:
"Well, In the short term; I'm currently working on a design with Dad, Vanessa and Rachel; its on the leather over there; its for a new alcohol refining system.

Which has become necessary; because the one we currently have makes cider; which is not very efficient for making pure alcohol; albeit it does yield a good amount of sugar.

The plan is to basically; once Abigail's farm is producing a good amount of grain; use that and the brewers mushrooms to produce purer alcohol; which can be distilled into the straight pure stuff.

But we will still have the old system too along side it, for mainly producing sugar."

Amelia:
"Sounds useful, but where will it go?"

Jarease:
"Behind the temple, out of the way; probably in a shed."

Amelia:
"Alright, but what about the long term?"

Jarease:
"Honestly, not sure, might open a library in town somewhere if I get enough books to stock it with.

Speaking of which, next time someone scavenges the city, they should grab some from the nearest library, would be a shame to lose so much knowledge, which could be useful to us all in the long term."

Amelia:
"Sounds like a good idea-"

Out of the blue, Amelia hears Rachel calling out from somewhere outside:
"Amelia! we need to go hunting again, we need to stock up on more jaw head meat and check our traps!"

Amelia:
"♥♥♥♥, I gotta go.
But good ideas Jarease; a library would be good to have.
See you around."

Jarease smiles:
"See you later, thank you."

Amelia stands up and swiftly exits the room.

[scene change]