xp_logs | Day Zero - Team Alpha

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With night approaching and still unsuccessful in their search for the bomb, Team Alpha has no choice but to find a place to wait until daylight.

It would have been nice if the tracker's results had been more cut and dried, Scott thought. They'd searched for hours, and only managed to establish that the bomb was within a nine-block area. Still not moving, which was a plus.

The problem was that it was getting dark, and given the state of the city, it was going to get very dark. And we don't all have Kyle's night vision...

"Are you sure we didn't drop that thing in the water?" Kyle asked, somewhat grumpily. The smoke and dust smells weren't starting to get to him, they'd gotten to him hours before, he was long past caring if anyone was tired of him being grouchy. "I don't think we're gonna have time to search every farking building between here and there before it gets dark... er, and colder."

"He either dropped it in the water or the smoke and dust have gotten into it and fried the damn thing," Adrienne grouched in a similar tone of voice. "But I'm with you- once it's fully dark I won't be able to see a goddamned thing anymore so unless I trip over the fucking bomb I'm not going to be any help. I don't know about the rest of you," she added haughtily, "but I'm going to call it a night." The psychometrist knew the false bravado wasn't the best idea- she didn't want to be spending the night alone while the others kept searching- but she really couldn't be much help in the dark. And the possibility of getting separated and running in to someone unpleasant made her rather nervous.

"We run a hell of a risk, waiting until morning." The question was how much progress they could actually make in the interim, though, and the answer was probably 'not a lot'. Plus, if they fumbled around out here in the dark they risked drawing attention to themselves, and given what they were looking for, that would be a bad idea.

"All right," Scott went on reluctantly. "I think we've got to stop for the night. Sort of the least bad of our bad choices." He looked at Zanne and Kyle. "Check out the immediate area, see if you can find us someplace relatively defensible. And unoccupied. I'll stay here with Adrienne, see if I can't make the tracker speak to us a little less ambiguously."

Zanne nodded and quickly surveyed their surroundings. The street was a mix of older brick apartment buildings and newer glass and concrete offices. Selecting one of the least damaged looking ones, she waved to Kyle and began to make her way over to it.

Kyle was nearly right behind Zanne, doing his best not to crowd her, but sticking close enough that if he heard or smelled anything, that he could warn her without having to be loud about it. The front doors on the building were broken - all twisted metal and broken glass, with a nearly unrecognizable taxi on it's side in front of them, leaving only a barely big enough opening. "Should be pretty easy to block off, if this is the only way in..." he said.

Several minutes later, Zanne squeezed out of the building, and jogged back over to Scott and Adrienne, her footsteps crackling through fallen leaves and broken glass. "It's pretty empty in there, sir. Wildchild and I can't pick up anyone inside the buildings." They'd be able to settle in fairly comfortably for the night, but she wasn't sure how much sleep she would actually get.

"It'll do," Scott said. "I'll take the first watch."