Setbacks

[Namira]

((Bryan continued from Assignment to Catastrophe))

Today had been difficult.

The initial rush of pride and excitement at the newfound sense of purpose had subsided quickly, replaced by as much determination as Bryan could force himself to muster. This new approach was never going to be easy, and he had to steel himself for disappointment. It was just...well, he hadn't expected that a lot of the disappointment was going to come from an angle as simple-yet-frustrating as not being able to find anyone to try and talk around.

There had been folks around the town, for sure. Bryan and Ashlynn had seen them more than once, but either they'd been far enough away that by the time the two of them got close, they were gone, or they'd been fighting and still distant enough that it was over before they could intervene. Too many times, that'd happened. He'd called out a few times, but Ashlynn had shushed him, making the point that whilst it was just the two of them, they couldn't really afford to bring too much attention on their heads. He didn't like that she was probably right, but the flipside was that they had to take a risk sooner or later. There were folks out there who'd say no with violent intentions, but they'd be doing that now or later. The convincing was the same. So okay, right, they could put it off for now, but not forever. Definitely not forever.

He'd managed not to get too demoralised, so long as he didn't think too hard about what wasn't going right and what could go wrong. Ashlynn helped with that by talking. A lot. She had ideas, ideas on other ideas, plans, embellishments. How they could bring people together, whether it was best to find a base and hunker down, or have multiple spots to be able to stop, prevent disruption by danger zones. Whether the go-around-the-place strategy was best. It did make Bryan think, even if it was a lot to process just initially. He'd been thinking about his plan for a little while, but hadn't had the opportunity to fully sort through all the different things that might happen, cause it to go wrong or change. Ashlynn didn't really give him the chance for that, though maybe that was best; how were you gonna find the problems in the plan if someone didn't look around poking the holes in it?

Didn't feel great though.

Bryan did have a couple of thoughts, though one would involve some equipment they didn't currently have, while the other would take a lot of manual work. Option A, get a megaphone, get some means of amplification, go somewhere central, and call out to others. Yeah, it had the risks Ashlynn mentioned earlier, but the reward was huge, and the risks were limited by reaching so many more people at once. Option B, that involved leaving signs and signals, big arrows out of branches, daubing buildings in mud, route people towards their spot. Both could work. Both had issues. That was the kicker, nothing was ever clean.

Thoughts for tomorrow.

They'd hunkered down together in one of the buildings, exchanged some encouragement that felt a little more hollow after today's lack of success. Bryan stared at the ceiling.

Lot going on in his head right now. Things to think about. Not the plan, other things.

The chances were really high that he died either trying to pull this off or in the process of pulling it off and he... he didn't really know what to do with that. Never going home again, never seeing Otis, Eric, Charlotte again. That was what he was staring down the barrel of right now. Against that, it was hard to think about getting that gun back, or following through on this plan. Against that, it was when Bryan could maybe for an instant glimpse why folks got their knives out and threw their morals away. Could he do that? Take away someone's life for the sake of seeing his family again?

It only took a second to say 'no' and that still felt too long.

Okay. It'd look better in the morning.

((Bryan continued in Valediction))