Young Writers Society

The thought hadn't even crossed his mind. It was only when the blankets were extended towards him that he realized he should act more bothered by the cold; he had been so busy trying to figure out what was going on that he had forgotten that part of his act.

He nodded.

"Thanks," he said, taking the blankets from Lasan's hands and wrapping them around himself. "I think we should go - we need to figure where we are and how we got here."

Lasan nodded. Lifting Mal off the ground, Lasan let the lion slip back into his coat. The lizard waited a couple seconds to let Mal get comfortable before buttoning his coat up.

"You can lead the way," Lasan said, slipping blankets and rugs on as he moved towards the stairs.

Once the blankets were on in a way that didn't restrict his movement too much, Ryder began his ascent up the stairs. The noises he heard - or lack of them - supported his earlier conclusion.

He reached the top and opened up the hatch, taking a step outside once again.

Well, at least it'd stopped snowing.

Lasan set a piece of wood over the metal strip where the hatch had been. In the case the winds picked back up, it wouldn't hurt to have some way to get back to their bunker. But, as he looked around, he wasn't sure if he'd be coming back.

Gray clouds littered the sky, matching the color of the snow that fluttered around in a soft breeze. Which was odd. He hadn't spent a whole lot of time in snowy places, but he was reasonably sure snow was supposed to be white. Lasan crouched down; he hadn't noticed it before, but the snow looked like it was covered in ash. Black specks mixed with the white powder, trying to float into his snout and make him sneeze.

Other than that, it was quiet. The clouds overhead didn't look like they were going to break up anytime soon, but Lasan could see clearly enough around him that he didn't think there'd be another storm for some time. Which was good, because he got the distinct feeling that they were surrounded by hatches. Wheels and rusted metal poked out of the surface at regular intervals, half-covered in snow. They extended out as far as he could see, vanishing into the mist in the distance.

"What do we do?" Lasan said. He stood back up and placed a paw over his snout. "Can we even open these things? I don't feel like they were made to be opened from the outside."

He wasn't getting a good feeling about this.

He surveyed the scene before him with the calmest expression he could muster, but he had seen "snow" like this before. It hadn't been for a long time. Part of him wondered if he was just jumping to conclusions; maybe this wasn’t the result of some major disaster.

He glanced at the rusted metal.

...If it wasn’t a disaster, why did it look like this place hadn’t been touched in a very, very long time?

"I don't think we want to open them," Ryder quietly said, staring at the nearest hatch. A nauseous feeling settled in his stomach. "If there's someone inside, they..."

He faltered.

"Didn't you just say that we need to figure out what happened?" Lasan said. He walked over to the nearest hatch and crouched down, brushing snow off of the wheel. The lizard grabbed the wheel and tugged at it; he heard a few pops. If he put enough muscle into it, he could probably break the hatch open. "I've seen enough dead bodies that I think I can handle it. Mal too. You can always stay outside, if you need to."

Ryder had seen death. How could he have not? Both as himself and as Ryder Salvai, he had encountered death countless times. But that didn't mean it made him anymore comfortable with the idea of seeing a dead body affected by whatever disaster had happened here - if anything, it made it worse.

But he was supposed to be a leader - even if neither one of them were part of his resistance - so he joined Lasan over by the hatch. "No," he said, "I'll come in, too. I can handle death."

I think.

When the hatch opens, there is indeed a body, but in the dim firelight, Eleanor is visible as well, sitting atop a crate and seeming entirely unbothered by the corpse. She looks up a the sudden light, blinks, and wordlessly studies the newcomers.

Setting what was left of the hatch on the snowy ground, Lasan blinked. "I guess I was wrong about them being dead?" he said, peering down at the stranger sitting on one of the crates by the fire. Hmm - he could spot a skeleton in a white coat next to her, bones sprawled across the floor. Perhaps she hadn't survived whatever disaster had struck this place, but was in the same situation they were.

"Can we come down there?" Lasan said.

Ryder didn't even wait for an answer - he was already heading down the stairs toward the skeleton on the ground. He knew there was someone else there, but skeletons really weren't all that scary. He had known a few before. It had been a long time since he had spoken to any of them, and this was the nonliving kind of skeleton, but his fears of a horribly disfigured body were thankfully unfounded.

He stopped beside the skeleton. A white coat suggested that the skeleton belonged to a scientist - an ominous sign. Science could be used for good or bad, but it was hard to tell what was the case here.

"Who are you?" she asked in way of an answer as she watched Ryder carefully.

Walking carefully down the stairs and keeping a firm grip on the railing - he didn't want to trip and make things worse for Mal - Lasan nodded at the stranger. "Lasan," he said, then nodded his head in Ryder's direction. "And that's Ryder. We showed up here not long ago - did you get dumped here like us?"