Young Writers Society

Briar moved silently to the newly discovered doorway. Hidden passages, especially ones leading down, never led anywhere good in her experience.

But this wasn't her home. This was a bunker of some kind, built for survival. Though, it did say something about the place that everyone inside was dead. So far, anyway.

She addressed the group, "Some of us should stay here and ensure the door stays open."

Without waiting for a response, she began scanning the area for a transportable light. If there was one thing she knew about being in the hidden lower layers of structures, it was to always have a light.

"I'll stay up here," Lust offered. Gluttony was still fast asleep on her lap, but she managed to slip out from underneath him without the other homunculus waking up. She joined the group by the door. "Gluttony could use the sleep, and I don't want him to wake up with me not here."

Ryder peered down into the darkness.

"I'll go with Briar," he volunteered.

Briar nodded, "We won't want to go down without a light," she said, stilling looking for that particular item. It had occurred to her to use the flames, but she didn't really want to risk it. the last thing they needed was uncontroled fire.

Well, Nubes had been worried about finding a light, but the problem solved itself the moment he waved a paw into the stairway. Lights embedded into the ceiling flickered to life over his head. They weren't quite like the torches and candles he was used to; they hid behind translucent glass, burning at a constant brightness. Enough of a brightness to highlight the metal walls and floor, which looked about as pristine as the room behind him.

"I'm armed," Nubes said, looking back at Briar and Ryder while he tapped the handle of the sword on his back, "So I might as well accompany you."

"And I can heal people, so you can count me in," said Lasan.

Briar nodded at each of them in turn, acknowledging them before turning back to the opening. She had never really needed assistance in combat situations, at least, not in a long time, but she appreciated Nubes's backup anyway. Never deny a safety net, another rule.

She would still prefer to have some sort of light to carry with her, but she didn't really want to waste time looking for one. Despite her instincts to prepare for any possibility, she stepped down, taking her gun out to hold one-handed as her other hand held her steady against the wall. She looked back and waited for one of the others to take the lead.

Ryder readied his knife.

Without being asked - or the decision even being discussed - he took the lead and started to enter the passageway.

Deciding that it'd be best for the people who could force a door open to take the lead (though Ryder could handle that on his own, somehow), Lasan squeezed past Briar and followed Ryder down the stairs. The leopard quickly fell into step behind the lizard, who was just warm enough to trust himself to take the steps two at a time without tripping. It was nice to feel awake again.

The group reached the bottom of the stairs quickly enough. Testing the handle, Lasan wasn't remotely surprised when the door wouldn't budge. He looked over at Ryder - their unofficial leader could have ideas, or wouldn't take as long breaking the lock.

Briar followed behind the group. It wasn't exactly honorable to let them be the first to run into danger, but, to be entirely fair, she did appear to be the most fragile creature biologically speaking. Of course, with her training, it would be a horrible mistake to call her 'fragile' by any means.

Either way, she kept out of the way so the others could take care of the door. Yes, she could pick the lock easily enough if she modified a couple of the pins holding her bangs out of her eyes and had a minute to do so, but no one else seemed at all concerned with how they left this place. The owners were dead, after all. Then again, that lock may be useful later if they needed a place to hide.

"If the thing in the snow is a threat," she said, "having a lockable door between us and it might be a good thing."

"Do you know if we can do that without breaking the lock or the hinges?" Lasan said. "We could always try propping things against the door, but I'm not sure that'd stop it."

"I can pick the lock," she offered, "It will take a few minutes, but it will leave the door intact."

Lasan moved out of the way (a little complicated, since the bottom of the staircase was a tad crowded, but he made it work). "I think it'll be worth the wait," he said, gesturing for Briar to head over to the door.

She nodded and took two pins from her hair, bending one into a sort of handle and snapping the other in half. She stored the half pf the pin she didn't plan on using in her pocket and knelt before the door, inserting her makeshift lockpicks into the lock.

The pins on the inside were easy enough to find and push upward carefully until she felt the slight give with the small handle she'd constructed. She found the next pin, and so on until the lock opened.

She opened the door and gestured for the others to go ahead of her.

Peeking out past the door, Lasan craned his head to the left and right to peer down the metal hallway in front of him. Doors made out of a slightly darker metal, spaced along one wall and at both ends of the hallway, looked back at Lasan. Probably safe to bet that they were all locked as well.

The lizard stepped out into the hallway. "Looks okay?" he said, staring up at the lights placed into the ceiling. No signs that anyone else had been here before - no blemishes, no dents, no marks. Just as spotless as the staircase and bunker they'd come from. Which wasn't creepy at all.

"The wind's a bit louder now," Nubes said, joining Lasan. The leopard pointed to the row of doors in front of him. "Somewhere past these."

"This is ominous," Ryder muttered, looking at the row of presumably locked doors. He had no idea which one they should try opening first. He turned to the rest of the group. "Should we go through each one of them, or try to find the one that the wind is most likely to be coming from?"

Briar stepped through the doorway and examined one of the doors up close. All of the locks were pretty standard. Nothing here would pose a challenge to her if they decided to pick the locks. Of course, the others may be satisfied with a singular layer of protection should things get unsavory upstairs.

She looked to the others, "I say we find the source of the sound first. The rest of these doors have lasted long enough for a body to fully decompose at least, that's roughly fifty years if the conditions in the bunkers haven't changed, they can wait a while longer."