Young Writers Society

Samara, Day one--3:04pm:

I joined Rose and the newcomers, looking up at the sky. Large, dark, heavy-looking storm clouds were building up in the distance. Interesting, seems like we're in for a storm tonight, I thought, turning my attention to the woman's things. One was what appeared to be a metal something or other. I shrugged and looked around. We were nearing the underground section.

"I'll be right back," I said and ran over to the guard hut nearby. Strangely enoguh, it appeared to be empty.

I glanced back over at rose and the new people. They were busy waiting. I grinned and ducked inside, heading for the radio. Picking up the receiver, I called downstairs. All I got in reply was static. I frowned.

"Samara to the Boss," I repeated. "You there?" Static again. "What the hell?" I muttered and called again. Nope, static. Something was definitely wrong.

I slammed down the receiver and went back over to Rose and company.

"I"m going to have to talk to Paul," I told her. She blinked and looked up.

"Why?"

"Can't say," I muttered, glancing towards our current company.

"Hey," the woman said, turning towards me. "Where's this Paul guy?"

"He's busy. I'm just about to go get him," I said, trying not to sigh. "Can you wait a little longer?"

She nodded and turned back to the man. I overheard something about Hong Kong, research and death. I tuned out, not wanting to her the rest.

Nodding to Rose, I turned and ran back to where I last saw Paul. He was still chewing out Gatlin about the stupidity with the raptor..

"Paul!" I called as I reached him. "There's a problem with the radio. Either that, or no one is actually downstairs."

Paul paused, looked around and pushed Gatlin away, giving him a stern don't you dare go anywhere yet look.

"What?" he asked. I looked around again, noticing Gatlin watching my legs. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him.

"I just tried to call downstairs," I began and took a deep breath. Paul waited patiently, arms crossed. "All I got was static. I swear, that's it. No reply, no background noise or anything. Just static. I think something is wrong."

"Are you sure?" Paul pressed, glancing back towards Gatlin.

"Positive. I called down like four times. Still nothing."

"Could be a faulty radio," Gatlin put in.

"Was I talking to you?" I snapped, shooting him a glare. He just stared right back at me-well, at my chest anyway. I sighed and turned to Paul. I resisted the urge to whack Gatlin over the head. "And those newbies are waiting on you." I waited, watching Paul.

"You're still on Chantry duty, Gatlin," He said and uncrossed his arms. Paul looked kinda pale but sighed and motioned for me to lead the way.

Gatlin, Day 1 3:13 pm

"...And you'll be dusting the organ every day, polishing the ivory on the piano, and the only thing you'll be guarding will be the holy wat-..." Like a miracle, Samara cut Paul off.

"There's a problem with the radio. Either that, or no one is actually downstairs," she said, and sighed Samara-style and flipped her bangs from her face. Paul grew tense, suddenly, and Gatlin began to wonder himself. But, it was all probably paranoia.

"Probably a faulty radi-..."

And she cut him off. He wanted to snap back, but the sudden pain of raptor rash hit his hands. Gatlin looked down at the scruffed, red streaks from the raptor's scales on his palms and cringed. But behind his hands rested what should've been in his hands. Gatlin's short-lived fantasy jolted itself into reality when he suddenly realized...they were gone.

Gatlin jerked his head up and followed after them, keeping his left hand on his taser's charges, just in case. He sprinted up to them after they had joined Rose and the newcomers, but Paul turned his marble eyes on Gatlin's and no one said a word.

Everyone seemed to stare at him like a homeless puppy with a missing ear. Paul didn't say much; he didn't have to. "Church."

Gatlin swallowed the defiance in his throat and took one last glance at Samara's figure from her empty taser gun to her loaded ches-...

"Now, Gatlin."

He turned, baring his teeth down on his bottom lip as he slowly wandered towards the church. One of the philosophers stopped him at the door and gave him a double-take. "Gatlin Nash? In the InGen chapel?" The guy--Marty "Moses" DuFresne--was a top-of-the-line ass. When his nose wasn't in the book of Revelation, it was stuck higher than the lightning rod above the church. Needless to say, he wasn't good company.

"Yeah, Moses. Paul put me under Father Gordon's supervision... Says I need to get right with Jesus before I ride my next raptor."

Marty sighed and put an old, wrinkly hand on Gatlin's shoulder. "Well thank heavens you are unharmed, son."

Gatlin withdrew, losing his perma-cool quicker than Paul at the mention of Havard. "Fuck off, Moses. You're not my father."

Gatlin pushed Moses away and continued swearing until he passed through the foyer into the chapel. "Gordy, you here?" he called, taking a gander around the stained-glass windows. The whole place smelled like moth balls and each floorboard creaked under Gatlin's boots. Minutes passed before he heard footsteps back behind the choir loft, in the baptismal. "Gordy?"

Gatlin drew closer, trying to quieten his creaking footsteps. The noise suddenly halted, then began again, louder than before. Instinctively, Gatlin grabbed his taser, creeping up onto the stage and over the seats in the choir loft. Slowly, almost fearfully, he peered over the glass barricade into the baptismal, his eyes enlarging at what he saw before "Brother Nash!"

Gatlin siezed, firing off an electro-charge into the organ's E-flat pipe. The thunder resounded in a chapel-esque reverb. "Gordy... You scared the sh-... goodness... out of me."

The old chaplain grinned, wiping his hands of a light red stain. "Oh, no need to fear me." He tossed the stained chemical wipe onto the front pew and sat in a deacon's chair. "What brings you here, brother?"

I kept my eyes on his flabby face, swearing that I smelled blood in the air. "Paul discharged me from Sentry duty... Said this'd be a nice break."

"So he did..." He chuckled in a low, self-righteous hum. "So he did."

Gatlin nodded over his shoulder towards the baptismal. "Where's that door lead to back there?"

"Oh, the one back there?" He pointed, shaking his head. "Just a storeage room where we keep all our blankets and, uh, things we need to serve the public."

Gatlin slowly nodded, peering back down at the rag. "Interesting."

Paul, 3:10pm -- Day 1

For once Paul calm reserve was gone and he knew Samara could see it, "When was the last communication from our leader?"

"I'm not sure. I wasn't the last person who checked and the guard's hut was empty."

His agitation was showing, something was amiss, he wracked his mind desperately for the information. Samara looked a little more alarmed seeing him totally out of it, "Jesus Christ, it was two months ago!" he said.

She replied under her breath "Ah, crap." fidgeting she then continued, "How did no one notice this?"

Paul shook his head, surely, his calculations were wrong, this can't be right, but it's been so calm and Gatlin been his usual annoying self, so days flew by, and Sofie, he'd been playing with her a lot recently. Then there was the rescue operations, shivering he answered, "Gatlin... Sofie... everything... time just flew by and it wasn't rare for no one to come out?"

"I really don't know, Paul," Samara murmured. "I honestly don't know. I didn't notice either... I think we were all busy, distracted. Whatever." she threw her hands up in the air.

"Okay, is there any chance we're overreacting?" Paul replied trying desperately to calm down, though it was evident he was failing.

Samara looked grim. "I doubt it," she muttered. "No answer on the radio pretty much says there's no one in the downstairs guard's office. I sure hope they're not dead or something."

"Gather everyone, including the newbie, we need to gather the council. I hate Gatlin but he relieable and trust worthy also get Rose in. I know we've not had council in ages, but everything, just everything." Taking a breath he continued, "Make sure none of this gets out. I'm relying on you Samara, get my wife to come to. Something makes me think this is only the beginning."

"Yes sir" she walked off.

This wasn't good. Lets hope we can all avoid this if we prepare now. I don't know what for. But we better do that. He thought.

Samara, Day 1-3:11pm:

I waited for Paul to calm down a little, get it together and to stop talking. Waiting is a boring thing to do. Your mind wanders, gets bored, wanders again and then you start to get restless. Finally, Paul stopped giving me orders.

"Yes, sir," I said and took off. Who to get first? Ceilia, obviously. Who else? The medical staff, the weapons experts. Rose and company... The Priest...and Gatlin. Lily... Gotham, that weird bodyguard guy that no one knew about. Was he still here?

I headed for Paul's home first, looking up at the storm again. Was it just me of were the clouds a lot darker? I sighed and shook my head. I was probably just seeing things.

When I got to Paul's place, I knocked on the door and was very surprised to find Ceilia home. I told her about the meeting and to keep it quiet. She just nodded and led Sofie out of the house, heading towards the council hall. I smiled to myself and went to get everyone else on the list.

Running around really took a lot of you. I'd found everyone needed but Gotham, and was just heading back to the underground entrance when I remembered something. Gatlin! The Priest. I had to go back to the church.

Swearing under my breath, I turned and headed back towards it, looking up at the sky again. There was definitely a storm brewing. As I watched, a brilliant flash of light lit up the sky followed closely by a thunder about a second later. We were in for a storm tonight.

Somewhere outside the compound a chorus of roars and noise started up. The dinosaurs were startled by the storm.

I reached the Church just as the ran started powering down and pushed open the door, now thoroughly soaked. Gatlin looked up from cleaning...something and stared at me.

"What're you doing here, Ms. Drummond?" asked a voice from my left. I looked towards the priest. He was hard to miss. We all knew who he was. "Samara, you're soaked."

"I know," I said. "Um, you and Gatlin are needed in the Council hall. We have to go now. It's urgent."

Gatlin didn't hesitate to join me by the door. I know he was checking me out again but ignored it. I was cold, wet and shivering. Definitely not in the mood for a fight. The priest just sighed.

"Alright," he said and ushered us towards the door. "Let's go."

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled and then the priest was outside, pulling the door to the church shut. A few moments later and we were rushing back to the council hall during a storm.

Sienna - 3.15 PM, Day 1

"Why do I get the feeling that coming here is just as stupid as allowing ourselves to get eaten?" Drake muttered.

Sienna said nothing, only holding the briefcase closer to her chest. There was something wrong about this place. It wasn't half as sophisticated as Hong Kong, but it would have to do.

Mr. McClonian was looking very pale and he repeatedly spoke to his radio, desperation written all over his face.

Why was he so panicky already? Sienna closed her eyes. Asher didn't panic, not even when the dinosaurs broke through the walls. He kept his cool, putting her on the helicopter and even remember to kiss her goodbye. She counted to ten, hoping that when she opened them she'd be back in Hong Kong, sleeping beside Asher.

But no, when she opened her eyes she was staring at Mr. McClonian making a big fuss out of what undoubtedly was a small problem.

Sienna's eyes narrowed and she walked over to him. "Is there something wrong?"

"Downstair's not responding," he said.

Her heart hammered in her chest. "Downstairs? What's down there?" Something important. Or maybe someone important. Their leader? Their government? "What, you left your leader alone or something?" How could they leave their government officials alone? Leave their leader defenseless? Were these people even sane or had living in this world corroded their brains?

She searched his face. Yes, he was stupid. He didn't take good enough care of his leaders. She was in the company of idiots.

No - no. She would not let it end like this. Her research would push through, and she was not going to jeopardize her life with whatever fucked up rescue mission these guys were planning.

She stepped in front of Mr. McClonian, holding the briefcase with one hand and shoving him away with the other. "You are not dragging Drake and I along on this stupid rescue mission of yours. We are staying here, above ground, and continuing our research. Do you understand?"

He was not going to make her do anything that would hurt this research. Because God knew none of these morons would be able to understand her notes, her research, the importance of this mission.

Rose Banks 3:15

"You are not dragging Drake and I along on this stupid rescue mission of yours. We are staying here, above ground, and continuing our research. Do you understand?"

Rose only watched her shove Paul backward, continually jabbing him in the chest as she spoke.

Paul nodded, holding his hands up. "Of course, you're our guests."

Sienna straightened, content with his response. "All right, then. Now, about that meeting. My research will not be put on pause, no matter what."

Paul nodded again, his hand fiddling with the walkie talkie on his belt. "Right. Rose, you're coming too."

Rose's brow furrowed. "You need me? A... council meeting?"

Paul was beginning to look like a bobble-head with how much he's been nodding. "We haven't had one in a while, but we can't avoid them any longer."

Sienna eyed him suspiciously. "I hope you're not the leader."

"He's not," Rose quickly assured.

"Good. Because a leader wouldn't be keeping secrets about these sorts of things from fellow council members," Sienna explained coldly.

Paul opened his mouth to respond, but Rose had a deep desire to leave this discussion on that wonderful note. She said, "Mr. McClonian, perhaps we should go inside. It looks like a downpour of rain will arrive any minute now."

Paul pursed his lips. "Right. This way, please." He turned and started walking. Sienna and Rose exchanged looks before following.

Gatlin, Day 1-- Too dark to tell

"Jesus Christ," Gatlin muttured, watching the flashing thunderheads above. Gordon coughed subtly, but Gatlin paid him no mind. "Paul wants us to do what?" I stopped dead in my tracks, eyes squinted through the rain at Samara. "No. I refuse to be a pawn of his."

Samara eyed him suspiciously, keeping her hand over her eyebrows to keep the rain from her face. "You can't just commit mutiny, Nash." She had a point-- even in Gatlin's book, mutiny had to be highly justified.

He fumbled for words, tripping over what he knew was the truth and what he had been told to say. "I..." Gordon turned, staring painfully at Gatlin for a long moment, but Gatlin pushed through. "Samara... I just won't go." A lump was forming in his throat, his mind screaming within to tell the truth. About Havard. About everyone below.

Gatlin swallowed heavily and shook his head, drenched black hair covering his face. Samara slowly nodded, almost like she understood. Gordon hesitated, but continued on without the two of them. Samara stood still, statuesque and solemn. "He knows what happened, doesn't he..."

Gatlin waited, almost to time his response between claps of thunder. "Yes," he said in a quiet, hushed tone, "He does."

Samara placed a hand on her bicep, dropping her gaze to the soaking wet ground as a streak of lightning shot down the lightning rod beside them, illuminating the area like Christmas. A low rumble followed, and then the gentle hum of generators beneath the chapel shut off. One by one, lights inside houses shut off, finally closed by thousands of sparks flying off the electronic gates. "Oh God..."

Gatlin grabbed Samara by the wrist, sprinting back to the church while fumbling around to turn on his wrist light.

Clumsily, he pushed over a stack of old, dusty bibles and crawled over the threshold into the baptismal. "In here... Gordon says it leads to the power plant."

"And what are we going to do there?" She asked, fumbling blindly behind him.

"We're going to save the fucking day." Gatlin held up his wrist light between them, getting a good look at her eyes.

Samara grinned, trudging forward through the exposed hallway. "I dunno... Raptors seem to make good pets for you."

Rose Banks - Too dark to tell

They finally reached the council hall, and everyone shook off the raindrops they had unfortunately been hit with. Dripping wet, Rose pulled out the rag from her back pocket and tried to wipe off as much water as she could from her arms. There was some grease smudged on the rag, which in turn smudged her arms, but she could handle grease a lot better than water.

Sienna wiped off her briefcase with her sleeve. Rose held out her rag. "It's more dry than your sleeve, I'd bet."

Sienna eyed the filthy cloth and shook her head, pulling her suitcase back away from Rose. "I'll take my chances."

Rose shrugged and stuffed it back into her pocket.

At that moment, the lights flickered. Rose looked at the lights, then quickly to Paul. She'd give anything to go check that out. Fortunately for her, Paul was looking straight at her. That was the last thing she saw before the lights completely failed.

Rose heard Sienna stomp her foot. "This isn't funny, Mr. McClonian."

"Rose, go check that out." Paul turned on his flashlight, and Rose could see the faint outlines of their party. "You all can follow me, and we'll wait for everyone to show up. Rose, you let me know if anything happens," he added, holding up his walkie talkie. Rose could tell he wanted the visitors to remain perfectly calm, as much as he wanted to fix this problem as well. Rose could just barely detect jealousy in his facial expressions, from what she could tell.

"Right, sir," Rose responded. She saluted Paul and the visitors respectfully, then bounded off toward the generators. Let's get this sucker fixed.

Samara, Day 1--Too Dark To Tell:

I laughed and followed Gatlin, stumbling over a box. It was way too dark to see but I could spot the flashlight Gatlin had. He hadn't replied to the raptor comment yet.

"Gatlin," I called. He turned back, shining the light in my eyes again. "What, exactly, is that priest hiding in here?"

Gatlin turned away as I joined him. We were now crouched outside a door.

"I don't know," he muttered and started to pick the lock. "But whatever it is, I doubt it's a good thing."

I sighed and waited for him to keep picking the lock. After ten minutes of swearing and no open lock I pushed him out of the way.

"You're hopeless," I muttered. "Let me try."

I pulled a hair pin out of my pocket and took a closer look at the lock, telling Gatlin to shine the light on it so I could see then I got to work on picking it.

Two minutes later the lock clicked open and I reached up to turn the handle.

"Shall we?" I asked, looking towards Gatlin.

He grinned and pushed the door open. We stood up and he slipped through the door and into the darkness beyond it. I followed him in and pushed the door shut behind us. Neither of us knew what we were getting into.

Paul, Day 1--Too Dark To Tell:

Looking around Paul tried to remember where the dynamo was in here, it was only used in an emergency and times he been down were few. It was impossible to see anything through this damn darkness, remaining composed he spoke authoratively, "Okay there one dynamo down here in the dark. It used in absolutes emergencies and it's hidden well, but it can light up whole room."

Sienna scoffed but said nothing.

"Hey, if something used in emergency why hide it so well, huh?!" Drake demanded.

Paul wished his wife would step in, but he'd not heard her for a while. He knew she was here, but he also knew she was pissed off. Yes, he trusted Samara more than her, so what. He was a evil bastard at one point.

"Ouch! Hey, what's this?"

The lights switched on, beginning to dim again just as soon."

"Wind it up!"

Drake grumbled before going on to switching on power inside the room.

Placing his hands on table Paul annouced somberly, "Ms Afton, I'm sorry you couldn't come under better circumstances, our head of science was also down here. I realize you think we're inept, but I wish to remind you that we're one of the few human enclaves still around."

"I'm still not impressed." she replied.

Paul ignored, "Okay, this is sector 1 it's where the guard office is. But that's further down, and until power returns no exploring. I will not lose anyone due to fucking stupidity!"

"can I stop winding?"

"Yes!"

Sighing Paul sprawled down on chair nearby him, turning on his walkie talkie he spoke quietly into it, "What's the situation? We've kicked in dynamo power to council hall and we're all still here, over."

Samara, Day 1-Church, Too Dark To Tell:

I grabbed the torch off Gatlin and took a look around. This was just a storage room. Where was the power plant?

"What is this?" I asked. "A storage room?" I turned the light on Gatlin to see him grinning at me. I rolled my eyes at him. He was such an idiot sometimes.

"It's through a trapdoor," Gatlin replied. "Which is around here...somewhere."

We moved forward at a slow pace until I yelped with I kicked something. I swore and glanced at Gatlin.

"What?" he asked startled.

"Remember the priest?" I asked. He nodded. "What was he doing when you got here?"

Gatlin frowned and then turned to me, wincing when he also kicked something.

"Wiping his hands?" he hedged. I blinked and pointed the light at the floor, looking down. Gatlin followed my gaze.

I screamed and dropped the torch. In the rolling light we saw the smashed in face of some poor man laying on his side on top of the trapdoor.

"We're going to have to move it, Sammy," Gatlin said, winking at me. I glared at him. He expected me to move a dead body with him? What the hell was wrong with him?

"Fucking hell," I muttered and together we moved the body off the trapdoor. I scanned the room for any other doors first but there didn't seem to be any.

Gatlin lifted up the stained trapdoor to reveal...a wine cellar.

"Oh, real smart," I hissed at him and climbed down into it first.

Gatlin followed close behind and we started prodding the bottles of wines and snooping around in the corners. I leaned against the only was not covered in wine racks and waited for Gatlin to stop drooling over a 1996 red.

Suddenly the wall behind me clicked and I fell over as it slid out from behind me. I yelped and sat up, rubbing the back of my head.

"We should call that body in," I muttered. Gatlin laughed.

"No point, Sammy," he told me and snatched the torch up off the floor, shining it through the new doorway. "Now this is interesting... Hidden doors? Fun."

"Um, Gatlin," I hedged. He glanced towards me. "Do you have a radio?"

"No."

I hesitated, biting my lip and then decided to just spit it out.

"I..er..don't have one either."

"Sam," he replied in a chiding tone. "The signal wouldn't get through in this weather anyway. And we're underground."

I reached for my taser and fumbled around a bit, trying to get it to work. It was better to be prepared then to go in without anything. I swore and then swore again. Gatlin looked at me, startled.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Empty taser," I muttered. Gatlin grinned and turned back to the new doorway.

"I know," he said, a smug smile tugging at his lips.

"WHAT?!" I yelled. Just then we heard a noise from upstairs. I swore and exchanged a horrified glance with Galtin. Please don't tell me that body came back as a zombie, I prayed.

Gatlin shrugged and grabbed my wrist. "Come on. Let's not stay here all night."

I sighed and let him drag me through the doorway. All that was beyond it was a stairwell... A pretty deep stairwell. Who knew the power plant was so far underground? Resigned, I let Gatlin lead the way down several flights of stairs.

Damien Black, Day 1-- 6:49 pm

Hour earlier, when the lightning had begun, he had cleared the guard towers and knelt at one of the sniper stations with a Gigawatt charge loaded into his rifle. Carefully, he aimed, breathed, and waited for the lightning. When it finally came, he fired off the rifle under the thunder's cloak. The lightning rod over the chapel flashed a violent blue, filling the entire city with light before everything shut off. Casually, he ran back to the Gate tower to 'get things under control'.

After an hour of static, Damien shut off the radio system.

After two hours of peace, he climbed down to the main gate, locking eyes with the small cult on the other side of the gate.

"The moment is opportune," a man whispered, his face covered in a dark, drenched cloak. "Everyone is distracted; let us in."

"You know the deal. Take only what we agreed on and give me the information about the Soma Cult."

A pale, scaley hand stretched through the dead-wired gate and Damien took the schematics, stowing them in his belt. He grabbed the large manual switch and the locks disengaged silently, opening as the cult entered as swiftly as the wind, spreading in all directions.

Damien grabbed his gun, loaded it, and closed his eyes as he shot at his own shoulder, throwing the gun through the gate. He then dashed off towards the infirmary, drenched in rainwater and the most solid alibi he could think of.



Gatlin Nash, The Chantry Tunnels -- ?:?? pm

Gatlin took a swig of the smooth wine, stowing it and some of the host in his pack before running after Samara. The two meandered through the flights of stairs for ages, finally coming to a hallway slowly filling with some sort of fluid. Gatlin sniffed and nearly vomited, absorbing the stench of fresh sewage. "Jesus Chr-" He gagged, voiding his guts into the sewage.

"The sewer valves must've blown their locks."

Gatlin glared at her, wiping puke from his lips and covering the taste in his mouth with another swig of wine. "No shit." He coughed, spitting the wine into the water below. "Let's go. The central generator can't be much further ahead."

Gatlin forced himself to get used to the smell, trudging forward through god knew what, pausing only when Samara lost control and puked. Before long, Gatlin looked up to the high ceilings of the Power Facility. "Do you know anything about these behemoths?" he asked, shining his flash-band at the power cells ahead. "It should just be a matter of applying a charge, right?"

"Err... I'd like to think so," she murmured, sounding as unsure as Gatlin. "Well... Only one way to find out." He grinned, analyzing the poewer cells for a long moment. He finally took out his taser gun and loaded it with a half-gig of power, turning to Samara and nabbing a quick, wine-and-puke kiss.

"What the hell, Gatlin?"

"For luck." He grinned, leaving his boyish charm in the kiss before aiming his gun at the power cells and closing his eyes at the blinding flash that came as the cells ignited. His eyes grew wide, then, as his body suddenly filled with ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZapp! voltage.

A half-second later, or maybe it was a year, everything grew eerily black behind his eyelids.

Samara,Day 1-Beneath the Church-Exact Time Unknown:

Gatlin stole a kiss and turned towards the power cells.

"What the hell, Gatlin?" I asked, secretly stunned. What.. He..had just...kissed me.

"For Luck," I heard him say.

"You're such an idiot," I muttered and then he fired his taser gun at the cells.

I had to turn my face away as brilliant white light light up the room. I heard a zapping sound and looked back in time to see Gatlin falling over. Shit, had he just electrocuted himself?

"Gatlin!" I screamed and caught him as he fell back. There was a moment of panic as I realised that he was out cold. "Gatlin?" I looked up when a dull thud echoed down to us.

What the hell? Had someone locked us in down here? I looked around, holding up Gatlin's dead weight and frowned. We had to get back upstairs, or at least a few stories up.

I sighed and started hauling him back through the sewage towards the stairs.

Rose Banks - ?:??

She pulled out the crap-shooter she had just in case, her other hand already holding a flashlight. Ducking around corners, she carefully but quickly made her way toward the generators. There was a lot of commotion among the people, but she didn't have time to stop and chit-chat.

Turning around a corner, she nearly ran face-first into another woman. Her face was distraught, eyes puffy, and she put her hands on Rose's shoulders. Rose immediately felt violated and disgusted.

"Please! My daughter! She's gone! I can't find her!"

"All right, just calm down, miss," Rose said, gently pulling the woman off of her. "I'm sure she's around here somewhere. It's very dark, but once we get the lights back on, it'll be easier to search--"

"Hey, you're on the council, aren't you?"

Oh, boy. Rose turned around in time for a man to start prodding her in the shoulder, shoving her backward. "Can I help you, sir?" Rose said sternly.

"You better hope you can," he spat. He was much taller and very angry, but Rose didn't move. "Both of my sons have just up and vanished on me--and don't you go sayin' they're around here somewhere. That's just bull--"

"Please, sir. We're working as hard as we can--"

"Then why is my ten-year-old not by my side like he always is?" he nearly screamed. There was a crowd of onlookers now.

Rose furrowed her brow. "You're... ten-year-old?" Surely that was old enough to not wander away like an idiot. "Is there anyone else missing their children?" she asked the crowd.

She wish she hadn't. Nearly the entire crowd started shouting at her, but she heard enough Yes's to know that they had a problem. "All right!" she shouted. "Everyone shut-up for just a minute." She pulled out her walkie talkie. "Paul, we've got an issue."

Static.

"Paul! Are you there?"

More static.

"All right, then." Rose put her walkie talkie back on her hip, thinking. She had a job to check out the generators, but Paul probably should know about the children. Besides, she couldn't remember the last time she'd seen Sofie...

"Oh, no," Rose said and took a deep breath. "All right, we'll take care of the missing kiddies first then, I guess. Everyone just remain calm and keep searching if you can bear it, but this obviously is an issue. I'll go pass the word on to the others."

With a wave of thank yous and a "About time" from the man, Rose dashed back the way she cam, flashlight in hand.

Paul, Day 1 -- Roughly Just Going On To 7

That was a loud static reply when he tried to get through to them. That was it, situation was now completly out his control, and everyone had heard. Turning to Ceilia he pleaded silently for help but she said nothing, then he saw it.

"Oh god where's Sofie?!"

Ceilia stopped ignoring him and looked down in alarm, "She was with me when lights went out, maybe she's back home."

Paul shrugged, "Yeah, no doubt."

It was boring being here, but he had to do something, motioning to Sienna he offered her a seat, "So Ms Afton, last thing I heard was you came on here from Asia and may have found a solution to our woes, am I correct?"