Along the northern edge of the living site, a small strip of stores run side by side. The strip includes a convenience and grocery store, a pub, and a small gym. Each of these is still partially stocked with necessary products and equipment, and because of the effort that went into their construction, they all look fairly presentable. There is a parking lot off to the side, directly adjacent to the convenience store.
"Home sweet home," Logan said as the convenience store came back into sight. He made his way to the back of the store, knowing that the front had been barricaded and bobby-trapped.
"This'll be great, to get back into the safety of," he trailed off as he neared the door. Only then did he remember that the door back here didn't have a handle.
"Guess one of us is going to have to brave the front entrance if we want to get back in."
((The convenience store is ours once again ))
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A wave of relief swept over Rebecca at Logan's cheery tone. The thought of a safe location where she could rest was definitely welcome. If Logan and Jessica had been here and were happily coming back, maybe things were finally looking up. Any form of bed would be incredibly welcome after the night they spent squished together like a tumble of puppies. The reassuring warmth of other bodies was off-set by the enforced intimacy with somewhat strangers.
Rebecca raised an eyebrow as Logan veered off and bypassed the front door. She hesitantly followed, confused. "Brave the front entrance? Um, Logan? Sweetie? Is there a reason we're not going in the front door? I mean, why not just go in instead of standing out here?"
Craning her neck to look towards the front, she thought back to some of Logan's 'creations' back home. Doubt began to creep into her mind. "How worried should I be, Logan?"
"Very," Jessica grumbled, simultaneously feeling a memorial twinge of pain in her lower back... as if her body wasn't in enough pain in general. "We trapped the holy hell out of the front, blockading it and crap, so nobody could come in and kill us. We left out the back, but..."
She gestured towards the back of the store in defeat. "That door only opens from the inside. There's no handle on the outside, and we shut it behind us because we're idiots. I guess the good news is, as long as the blockade out front's still good, we can guarantee there ain't anybody else in there. It's just... y'know, who goes in first?"
"Not it," Logan asked with a roll of his eyes. The beginning of his sentence was overridden by Rebecca's enthusiastic "Not it!" Clearing his throat he started again. "Honestly, it's mostly just wrestling displays out of the way and fighting off the tent. It would be cruel to send Rebecca in she has no idea of the layout we set up. And I do owe you, for the trick with the oil. Although now that I think about it, that'd be a good thing to add to our defenses."
He took a step towards the door and pushed it lightly. When it didn't move, he pushed a little harder not wanting to shatter the door. He pushed a third time and heard the shelves inside move slightly.
"You know there are several other stores on this strip, we could always try one of those. What do you say?"
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Rebecca felt rather foolish, standing there with her finger on her nose. Especially since she was the last to do it. She exhaled in relief as Logan put forward the idea of not making her break into his little group's lair. One they had booby-trapped to boot.
Although...she couldn't really fault them on setting up countermeasures against intruders. That was what they had been attempting when....
She willed herself to stop thinking about Yaz and to pay attention to the here-and-now. "Wait. What oil thing?" Rebecca looked at Logan, then at Jessica while Logan tried the door.
It was silly, but she was disheartened when Logan turned and suggested that maybe they should look for another location. It wasn't as if she had any kind of attachment to this place. And the people should be more important than a location, right?
She looked at Jessica to see what the other girl had to say.
"I'll..." Jessica grumbled, fighting the good fight to avoid needlessly shouting at anybody. Most of all, she wanted to shout at Logan for giving up after just a few nudges to get into the store. A bit of thinking, a bit of logic was all it took to determine that the guy wasn't exactly at fault or anything, but there was logic and then there was fucking EMOTION, and right now every emotion inside Jessica was screaming 'frustration'.
"I'll tell you about the oil thing when we get into one of these buildings. ANY building. Actually, scratch that-" Jessica looked both ways, then pointed. "We ransacked the shit out of the gym and it looks way too accessible. Let's try the bar. I bet there's lots of junk inside to barricade, probably an emergency back door to get the fuck out of dodge if we need it..."
It didn't have food, most likely, but she held her tongue on that last one. They had plenty of overly stale chips and canned food that may or may not still be good left over from raiding the store packed away in her bags. So that was two pros, zero cons.
"No complaints about the bar, then?" she asked, suppressing more sighs.
Almost on instinct, Joseph found his finger on his nose like a child would. Don't take yourself too seriously. People will think you're weird. Joseph let out a long, half-forced laugh, mainly in self-disbelief.
"H-heavy lifting aside, I think that would be an alright idea." Joseph said mid-bout. The prospect of moving somewhere else wasn't so bad, he thought. The only real reason they had set up shop in the store to begin with was that that was where they had really all met. Surely he saw some sort of store more inherently defensible than the one they had boarded up, right? He supposed he was about to find out.
Social situation aside, Joseph was pretty happy to be back at the store after a day of macguyvering and frustratingly awkward tents. "I suppose that moving things to a better location will be easier now that we have four people," he said looking towards the red head, "Though this will be a bit of work to do."
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Logan turned towards the group. It seemed Joseph had managed to catch up with them. When had he suddenly become leader of their little band? Seriously, if he suggested they jump off a bridge, would they consider it.
"Wow, what a bunch of followers you've all turned into," Logan chided lightly. "You totally called my bluff. I'm not strong enough to move the barrier. I was hoping one of you would volunteer to help, without having to confess that. But it's out there now. We can move if you want, but I thought the whole point of coming back here was to reclaim are already fortified location."
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And there was the snippy and occasionally caustic Logan she had come to know and adore. Although it was hard not to be a follower when only one person had a plan. She smiled wryly in acknowledgement of Logan's point. Better the devil you knew than that one you didn't.
"Okay, so if it's too heavy for just one of us to move, what if two of us try it?" Rebecca raised an inquiring eyebrow at Logan and Jessica. "It can't be *that* hard to get in, can it? I mean, it's not like you guys mined the place or anything." She laughed, trying to lighten the mood.
There was no way they had actually done something crazy like that. No one would have been insane enough to give untrained teenagers explosives. Except they were stranded on an island by terrorists who had provided all manner of insane weapons. Weapons they had been using on each other for days.
Her laughter trailed off uncertainly as she looked at the trio. "I mean, you guys didn't mine it. Right?"
"Damn it, Logan," Jessica muttered angrily when Logan revealed his foolery. Or at least, she tried to do it angrily, but it was plagued by weak giggling. She figured to self-interpret it as her no longer giving a fuck. Yeah, not giving a fuck anymore. Seemed about right.
"We didn't mine it," Jessica assured Rebecca. "We just put a ton of crap in the way so if anybody tried to do what we did, right now, then we'd have enough time to mosey on out the back door and book it. Sooooooo..." Jessica moved to the door and sighed. "I don't think I'll be much help forcing this through, but once you guys get it open enough I should be able to slip through and..."
"I'm right here," said Joseph, with an annoyance that he was feeling less and less motivated to hide. He walked the few feet remaining between him and the front windows with record pace as he began pushing. Within several seconds of combined force, the shelving gave way to a small gap. He didn't want to try that, though it was probably a large enough gap for someone to maneuver themselves through. He moved aside for whoever the someone may be.
"So, the bar, then?" Joseph said midst catching his breath, "That... sounds fine, I suppose." He wasn't exactly heads over heels for the idea of packing everything up to move to the bar, but was he one to argue? Everyone else seemed dead-set on the idea, and he tried not to be one to break the peace.
If you could really call it that.
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"Where have you been," Logan teased. "We don't need to go to the bar now that we've gotten this open. Now all we need to do is get inside, fight off the tent, open the back door, and then move the shelving back in place. Seems simple enough."
He looked at the door and figured if he turned sideways he could probably squeeze through with little effort.
"Why don't you guys go around back, I'll be there shortly to open the door and just ignore any squeals okay," he said as he began sliding through the door.
He soon found himself entangled in his own "weapon," as the trap they'd set earlier worked perfectly. Logan thought that he should have suggested they leave someone in the front to time how long it took him to free himself. After a some cursing and collecting a few bruises from running into the shelves Logan freed himself. He folded the tent neatly and crossed the store to open the door.
He got to the door, and then realized that, for the moment, he had the store entirely to himself. A brilliant idea came on that thought, and he quickly retraced his steps. It took only a few moments to set his plan in motion, and then he was back graciously opening the door.
"We should get our traps back in place," he suggested stepping out of the way.
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Rebecca blinked in surprise at Joseph's grumpy tone and brusque behavior. 'Well, someone has their britches in a bunch', she thought with a sniff. It wasn't like he wasn't going to benefit from them getting the door open so she wasn't sure why he was having such an attitude about having to help. Maybe he was grumpy that she was with them?
As Logan wormed his way inside, Rebecca followed his directions and headed for the backside of the store. "Okay, I'm incredibly curious now. What, exactly, did you guys do inside this store? All I know right now is that is somehow involved a tent. How did you guys MacGuyver a tent into a weapon?"
With a half-hearted grin, she patted her bag. "I have to admit, I did not luck out in the weapons department. All I got was a pack of those Sharpie minis. I haven't even had the chance to try them out." She walked backwards so she could look at Jessica and Joseph. Years of dance training should have allowed her to do this simple thing without mishap.
However, it looked like luck was not on her side. When she stepped, something in her knee...slid and caused her to stumble. Arms pinwheeling for stability, Rebecca fell backward and landed hard on her rear. "I'm okay," she brightly announced as she tried to hide her wince. Blushing over her clumsiness, she scrambled to her feet as quickly as possible.
She tossed off a quick prayer that Logan opened the door when he did.
"Ohmigosh, Rebecca, you okay?" Jessica asked, taking a couple quick steps to try and help the girl up. Alas, she was too far and Rebecca was a bit too fast, because she was back up on her feet and dusting herself off like nothing ever happened. Well, it totally did, but they could all pretend. It's not like anybody saw. Just them. And cameras. Lots of cameras.
"What were say-... right, the tent," Jessica said with a short sigh. "The answer is lots of rope, sweat, tears, and a little bit of guesswork. Or a lot of guesswork. To be honest, I didn't even think it'd work until Logan did the impossible and got his ass tangled in it." That was a fun sight to see through the dusty windows just to the side of the door. For the structural weakness they served in their little fort, they made good on letting her see Logan be a fool. That was about the last she saw of him, though, before they had all walked to the back of the building waiting for the door to open, and where Rebecca had fallen. Who knows what other stuff he'd set off.
She couldn't help but smirk at the thought of him getting to fall on his own ass. Karma, motherfucker.
Speaking of Logan, he was kind enough to actually open the door and not make them all say pretty please. A little slow, to be sure, but he opened it at all, which was nice. Worse than it could have been. As Logan stepped aside, Jessica wasted no time in stepping in. "Well, we did disarm most if not all of them, so... yeah, probably a good idea. But can we sit down first?"
"Yeah, I agree with Jessica." said Joseph. "I mean, we have just arrived, and I would like at least some time to regain footing before we go and set up defenses in the bar." From what he had seen there during his search for supplies two or three days ago, it would be a better place to hold out. Joseph couldn't help but note Logan's gaffe with the trap that he himself had set up. He tried not to smile. While he couldn't quite say that he wanted it to happen, he couldn't help but feel a sort of schadenfreude. It probably wasn't healthy.
Once Logan opened the door, Joseph looked around a moment (to make sure he hadn't dropped anything) and entered the convenience store again. Home sweet home.
He hesitated to call it that, of course. But anything was better than the tent he'd been forced to hole up in with three other people he wouldn't have to have otherwise. It was just... awkward. The convenience store almost seemed like a mansion in comparison.
Joseph sat down, by a corner in which he had distinctly remembered sleeping by two nights ago. Nobody seemed to be in a rush with setting up defenses for the bar or store, whichever, and he wasn't going to complain about it. For now, he was to focus on relaxation; something, which, admittedly, he hadn't had enough of.
This is an archival account used by staff to port posts belonging to the handler ChainmailleAddict. While this handler hasn't been around in quite a while, should they return and wish to take custody of this account and/or its posts, they are welcome to do so by contacting staff.
))
