The Collapse -- Roleplay

[Lunark]

4/28/2028 - Ethan Clark

Ethan had been dreaming about a large country, with gold and food aplenty. He had just begun exploring the palace when he was woken to a blinding light. The sun had just to the horizon, and he was staring right at it. He blinked it away and sat up. He could just see a few clouds through the branches of these rather tall trees. He began looking over his things, 'Backpack, check. Knife, check. Blanket, check.' He continued listing everything he had. Once he was sure he had everything, he began packing up his backpack. He swung it over his shoulders, and began walking what he believed to be East. He passed several rusting cars, and buildings with broken windows. The road had cracks running all along it, and several small daisies had decided to take root. It was soon midday, and he stopped at a fairly large building to rest. He sat on the crumbling curb, and listened to the birds chirping. He then paid some attention to the building. It was about the size of a warehouse, with a few, large windows. Then he realized. It was a warehouse! He thought it would have already been raided, but to make sure, he went inside. It took him a minute for his eyes to adjust to the dim light.

[Lunark]

4/29/2028 - Ethan Clark

Ethan was sitting down on top of an old mattress, looking over what he had found in the warehouse, 'I gotta say, whoever decided to raid this hadn't taken the most important things.' He knew he should get out before someone else comes, but he wanted to search the rest of the warehouse before he had to go.

[Aegonian]

4/29/2028 - Rowan Beggarsworth

As Rowan left an abandoned shack west of London, he dropped a piece of paper torn from his book.

Fragment 17 -

The abandoned shack was useless. I found two dead bodies, but they had already been looted. The cupboard in the kitchen, the only container that hadn't burned down, was empty too. I found some fresh, but inedible leftovers, though: I guess someone was here no more than a day before me.
Outside, there were some footprints in the ash. I will follow them, and see where they lead me. If I can find the one who raided this shack, I might get myself some food and other supplies. I just hope the guy doesn't have any weapons, or at least, doesn't know how to use them. My last encounter with a stranger didn't end too well, so I wish to avoid fights until I'm fully recovered.

[Lunark]

4/30/2028 - Ethan Clark
Dark. It was very dark. The fact that it was a new moon did little to help. Ethan had woken in the middle of the night to the sound of footsteps. He quickly grabbed what he could see and ran to a dark corner of the room, gaining a stubbed toe and knocking down a stack of empty boxes along the way. There was some shuffling, and he heard something wooden get turned into splinters by a sledgehammer. He was blinded for a moment by a flare. 'They're building a fire. Great. That means they're going to stay here all night.' With the fire, he was able to see better. He slunk over to get a better view of whoever created the fire. He wished he hadn't. There were a total of five people at the entrance. Two of which were obviously beaten and tortured. Not only that, they were children. They were being tied to one of the shelves by a balding man. 'Slavers.' There was one more man who was holding a shotgun, and one more person he couldn't see. The one he couldn't see passed a bottle to the man with the shotgun. Ethan then noticed the bald man was done tying up the children, and began to search the warehouse. 'This is going to be a long night.'

[Aegonian]

4/30/2028 - Rowan Beggarsworth

The night was dark, the lands were silent. Rowan, having followed the footsteps all the way up to a man sleeping car wreck, was able to silently climb into the car, and grab his folding knife. Carefully, he approached the sleeping man, brought the knife to the man's throat, and slit it. Rowan took all of the food and weapons stored in the car's trunk, dropped another note, and left.

Fragment 18 -

I knew it: the footprints were fresh, and they would indeed lead me to some supplies. I found a man sleeping in a car wreck, and slit his throat. He went without a sound.
The car's trunk was filled with goodies: I found food, water, a gun (no bullets, though) and a map of London. I'm sure all of those things will be useful to me.

I guess I'll pay the city a visit soon.

[Lunark]

4/30/2028 - Ethan Clark

Ethan had been following the bald man. He prepared himself to strike the man with his machete. Before he mustered the courage, something hit him and he crumpled onto the ground. He fell into unconsciousness.
---
When he came to, all he could feel was the pain in his head. He groaned. He heard someone say something, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. He opened his eyes to see the man with the shotgun looking down at him. He looked annoyed. He said something again, but this time he grabbed Ethan's shirt collar and roughly pulled him off the ground. Ethan finally realized his hands were tied behind his back. He looked around and saw the two children looking at him sadly. Someone pushed him over to the children, and he caught himself before he fell towards the ground again. They were being herded out of the warehouse. 
Ethan whispered to the children, "Who's the client?"
One of the two looked around fearfully, and whispered back, "Some man in London."
London...? No, I can't go back there...

[Aegonian]

4/31/2028 - Rowan Beggarsworth

As the night fell, Rowan walked into the once great city of London. As he walked through the ruined streets, one building grabbed his attention: an old police station.

Fragment 19 -

An old police station: perfect. I'm sure there will be quite some loot in there. I'm no fool though: I won't be the first to have thought of looting this place. I'll sneak in, see if anyone else is around, grab what I can, and leave.
Luckily for me, I found four unused bullets on my way to the city. If anyone spots me, and tries to steal my stuff, I'll be more than able to defend myself.

[thunderpants]

31/4/2028 - Cyrius Spark

Cyrius had been lucky to be camping out in the small camping shop, but it'd already been looted and all he could salvage was another toy car, some more batteries, some Kendal mint cakes, and some dynamo torches. That and a larger backpack to accommodate the loot.

However the camping store could no longer give Cyrius anything of value, and he must head off to further safety. London was dangerous to an individual, and Cyrius wanted a new safehouse. Perhaps one of the maintenance rooms above the city blocks, could offer the protection he needed.

With that desicion in mind, Cyrius picked up the fire extinguisher to wield as a weapon and set off.

[Aegonian]

01/5/2028 - Rowan Beggarsworth

At dawn, Rowan left the old police station, wounded, bleeding.

Fragment 20 -

When I saw that man in the station's basement, I knew I had gotten myself into trouble. He was huge, larger than anyone I had ever seen before. His arms were like the trunk of a tree, and yet he held a knife. Not some ordinary knife though: it was one of those machetes, like the ones from my father's stories. Unfortunately for me, there was no way back... the door was locked behind me, so all I could do was to try and sneak past the giant. I was able to hide behind a long desk, and until I was half-way to the other exit, he did not notice me. But then, just as I left the desk's cover, he turned towards me, his machete ready to cut me down. I tried to make a run for it, but he was too fast. His knife hit my left arm, and I lost my lighter. But that's the least of my concerns now: my arm is bleeding, and these old wraps won't be able to keep me me from bleeding to death. If only I had a med-kit, or some proper bandages...

[Lunark]

01/5/2028 - Ethan Clark

They arrived in London. His captors were arguing about how to split the money up. Ethan looked for a way to escape. He looked down an alley when the balding man pointed out someone running down the road. He was obviously bleeding and in pain. Using the distraction to his advantage, Ethan ran into an alley.

[Aegonian]

01/5/2028 - Rowan Beggarsworth

Rowan was still losing blood, and he was weakening. Walking became nearly impossible, and it wasn't long before Rowan decided he had to hide: if he would collapse on the street, some low-life bandit would find him for sure. As such, Rowan, now unable to properly walk, crawled into a nearby car wreck. He heard some men yelling in the distance, and, as the yelling faded, so did his sight. The last thing he saw was a human silhouette, seemingly female, before he slipped into unconsciousness.

[thunderpants]

01/5/2028 - Cyrius Spark

Cyrius had managed to ascend a building, climbing up some rusty scaffolding, jumped across the narrow gap between it and the top floor of the roof above and then forced the door to the rooftop of the taller building. This place was deserted and hard to get to, with 2 air conditioner outlets and a maintainance room. It was a god-send of a safe house, and still had some hammers, spanners and brooms, all of which where also useful. More importantly it appeared to still have some cheese and crackers within the cupboards, obviously the relief of an ex worker who used this place as an office.

Cyrius unpacked some of the things, and started peering off the tower, to see what he could see. Mainly it was nothing, but he picked some movement out. He rummaged through his new safe house and found a pair of binoculars. Using these he could more clearly see the movement was an injured person and someone standing over them.

Cyrius wanted to help but decided to see what happens next before acting.

[Lunark]

01/5/2028 - Ethan Clark

Spoiler:

Ethan had continued running until he was out of breath, and out of sight of his captors. He stopped for a moment, and realized he was lost. He looked out of his hiding spot, which was the empty doorway of an old deli, and only saw empty buildings and forgotten roads. He thought about going onto the roof to take a look around, but chose not too. 'It would bring attention to myself anyways.'

Instead of hanging around, he went inside the deli and looked around. He noticed a rusted, but fairly-sharp knife laying on a table. 'Perfect,' He thought. He walked over, turned around so that his hands could reach it, and grabbed the knife.

It took him nearly thirty minutes to get the knife in a position that he would be able to use to cut off the rope. He began cutting.

[Aegonian]

01/5/2028 - Rowan Beggarsworth

Slowly, but surely, Rowan regained consciousness. When his sight finally returned to normal, he immediately looked at his arm: to his surprise, it had been bandaged properly. His body still hurt, but the wound had ceased to bleed, and Rowan was still able to move his arm. He sat up, and found that he had somehow ended up on an old mattress, next to a wall in some old room.
The room was small: it was no more than three metres in length, and about two and a half metres in width. The roof, which was made of nothing more than a few rotten planks, was about two metres above Rowan's head. Next to his mattress stood an old cabinet. Its drawers were broken, and empty. Next to the cabinet lay a few rounds of bullets, on the wall was some semi-automatic rifle: Rowan had seen soldiers with these guns when he was still young. On the floor lay a few piles of junk.

The second wall held the closed door, which seemed quite sturdy: it had a holes in it, but most of those had been covered by thick wooden planks. There was no-one else in the room.
Against the other wall stood an old, broken desk. There were some loose pieces of paper on it: they seemed familiar. Rowan, unable to get on his legs, picked up a thin wooden plank, and tried to pull a piece of paper towards him. When he was able to read it, he was shocked: it was one of the fragments from his book.
Then Rowan heard approaching footsteps: someone was heading for the door of his room. Rowan grabbed the thin plank, and waited for the door to open...

[Lunark]

01/5/2028 - Ethan Clark

Ethan had managed to get his hands free nearly an hour ago. He had lost many of his valuable belongings to his captors, but he certainly wasn't going back to get them. Lucky for him, the deli not only provided him with a somewhat-effective weapon, the rusty knife, it also gave him at least two cans of soup and three candy bars. He searches the deli once more, decides there's nothing left to scavenge, and leaves the deli.

He looks one way only to see the empty road and abandoned buildings. Only thing of interest being an old tower. He then looks the other way to see something similar. Seeing it was safe, and that there was not a living soul to be found on the deserted street, he began walking along the sidewalk. He held the food he found to his chest, as he had no way to carry it since he lost his backpack. He looked for a house that might possibly contain more treasures to be found.

He chose a house with green shutters and walked inside.

[Aegonian]

01/5/2028 - Rowan Beggarsworth

As the door opened, Rowan prepared to strike with the wooden plank. Then, the figure appeared: a young female, probably around Rowan's age. She wore improvised clothes, full of stitches and patches, a pair of military boots, and a dark cowl. Her face was covered in dirt, and on her back, she wore some sort of rifle.

"Wow, calm down! I'm not gonna hurt you!"
"Who are you!?", Rowan yelled.
"Lower that plank, would you? No-one needs to get hurt here. Some respect for your saviour wouldn't be out of place", the girl smiled.
"You... you brought me here?"
"I couldn't just let you bleed to death out on the streets, certainly not with all those bandits around, now could I? I brought you to my little hideout, took care of that wound, and brought us some food: you like candy?"
"I guess..."
"You guess? Come on, cheer up a bit! Getting that candy wasn't easy, you know!", said the girl, while grabbing her backpack. "There was this other guy, who took most of the deli's candy. Luckily for us, the fool didn't check that pile of rubble before leaving. Fancy a bar?"
"Thanks."
"Now, you stay here, all right? I saw a rat when I entered, and If I can catch it, we have some dinner!", she smiled, turned around, and left the room before Rowan was even able to utter a single word.

[Lunark]

01/5/2028 - Ethan Clark

Ethan walked out of the house with green shutters. All he managed to find was an old bed sheet. It was faded-blue and had plenty of holes in it, but it would function as a temporary sack to carry his stuff for now. He noticed that the sun was low in the sky. 'Only about two or three hours before sundown,' He thought.

He then began searching for a place to spend the night. He looked on both sides of the street for a house that would bring him the least amount of trouble. After his encounter with his captors, he decided he would be smarter for where he would spend the night. He might have been a bit paranoid about it. 'Not that house, it's too well preserved... The sign up front of that one would surely get someone's attention... Nope... No... No... No... Not that one...'

Eventually he arrived at a small, boarded up house. It was most likely abandoned before the war, and he could understand why. The building seemed to be on the verge of collapsing, there was a hole in the roof, and there was shattered glass all around it. 'I doubt anyone would think of going in here... But what if they were thinking that-' He shook his head. 'No, stop. This is the perfect spot to rest.' He looked around to see if there was anyone around, and then walked towards the house.

Since the front door was boarded up as well, Ethan walked around it to find another entrance. Luckily, the back door wasn't boarded. He opened it up, and went inside.

[Aegonian]

01/5/2028 - Rowan Beggarsworth

After about half an hour, the girl returned to Rowan's room, holding a something in her left hand.

"Hey, I got us that rat", she said, showing Rowan the dead beast. "You have some matches in that backpack of yours, right?"
"You've been looking through my stuff?"
"I thought you wouldn't mind, so I took a quick look while you were sleeping", the girl smiled, "I'll go toast this rat, okay?"

'Weird girl, that one...', Rowan though to himself. 'I still don't get why she'd help me.'

Some twenty minutes later, the girl returned to the small room, holding a piece of the toasted rat in each hand.
"Here you go." The girl handed a piece to Rowan.
"Thanks."
"You're a silent one, you know? Something wrong?"
"I'm no talker. Never really been one."
"You do seem to like writing, though. Those notes of yours are fun!"
"You've been reading them?"
"Some of them, yeah. You've no problem with killing, huh?
"Nope. I'll do whatever it takes to survive."
"Then we have something in common here! Hey, you haven't told me your name yet, right? Mind telling me?"
"I'm Rowan."
"Nice to meet you then, Rowan."
"And your name is...?"
"I'm Serah. Serah Summerfield."
"Nice to meet you too, Serah."

After finishing their meal, Rowan went back to sleep: he was still a bit weak due to his loss of blood. Serah went to stand guard in the old house's hallway.

[Lunark]

01/5/2028 - Ethan Clark

It was dark in the house. The boarded up windows hardly helped to lighten up the place. He began feeling around and found a staircase. He walked up those to a hallway. He walked forward and ran his hands along the walls to try and find a door. Eventually, he found one that opened up into a small bedroom. There was a mattress in it.

Ethan smiled and went to lay down on it to sleep.

[Aegonian]

02/5/2028 - Rowan Beggarsworth

Rowan wake up just before dawn: the ceiling was leaking, and small drops of water fell down onto his face. Rowan had not yet fully recovered, but he was able to get on his feet. Carefully, he walked towards his room's door, and opened it.
Rowan quickly discovered that his room was actually a storage room in an old, ruined house. Most of the roof was missing, and many walls had crumbled: other than his room, only the hallway and the kitchen were still intact. The house seemed abandoned: Serah was nowhere to be found.

After searching the house for about twenty minutes, Rowan returned to his little room. He took his backpack, grabbed the rifle on the wall, and left. He decided to explore the immediate surroundings of the old house, looking for Serah.
The house was one of the many in an old London street. This seemed to have once been a wealthy neighbourhood: the houses were large, and the cars, though broken, still looked luxurious. The street seemed deserted.
Rowan decided to check the back of the house. He found a large garden. There was a a swing, a trampoline, and a large, dead tree right in the centre of the square garden. Serah was still nowhere to be found.

Rowan left through the garden's gate, and found himself in a narrow, deserted alley. He looked around for a little while, but couldn't find anything of interest. Then, when he was just about to return to the old house, Rowan heard people yelling and screaming nearby. He readied his rifle, and went to investigate.

[Lunark]

02/5/2028 - Ethan Clark

Ethan nearly jumped when he heard screaming outside. It was a whiles away, but he could hear it clearly even through the door. He had already eaten, and was about to head out the door when it started. He knew if he would be caught by someone, he wouldn't be able to defend himself much, as he was only equipped with a knife. He debated with himself for half a minute, and then ran out the back door. He held on to his knife in anticipation. He did not dare head out into the streets, but instead walked along the alleys.

At one point he thought he saw someone holding a rifle head towards the commotion as well, and he hid behind a trashcan until he thought whoever it was was gone. He then continued walking.

[thunderpants]

02/5/2028 - Cyrius Spark

Cyrius had woken up early, and used the daylight to help him better search through the room he was staying in. It was cramped, and old, but was obviously well-treated by it's previous owner, and had various things which caught his eye. One of which was a toolbox which he quickly rummaged through picking out most of the tools to keep. Another was a wall mounted first aid kit, which appeared to have a hip-flask stuffed into it - probably not for medicinal purposes. Both of these things brought some reassurance to Cyrius, as he was sure he could treat minor wounds which would otherwise, weaken him resulting in his death.

He spent the morning tinkering with some various broken electronics, using a large battery he found, some duct tape to make a strap, and a now useless mobile phone, he created a weapon to defend himself. It was a very primitive taser, but it would provide him an edge in close quarters should he have to fight.

He was almost lost for things to do until he heard the screaming. It prompted him to stash his stuff away in his hideout and carefully picked his way down and out of the building, armed only with his makeshift taser, and a torch.

[Aegonian]

02/5/2028 - Rowan Beggarsworth

Rowan carefully approached the scene: he hid behind a small wall, trying not to get detected. Then he recognized a voice: it was Serah's.

Rowan made the quick decision to intervene, and stood up. He could see two bandits, one male, the other female, attacking Serah: they were trying to take her backpack, and threatened her with knifes. Serah's rifle lay on the ground, just a few metres away: she must have dropped it when the bandits suddenly attacked her. Serah was trying to flee, but she didn't stand a chance against the bandits. Rowan quickly aimed for one of the bandits legs, and fired: the man fell down to the ground, screaming in agony. In the confusion, Serah managed to put some distance between herself and the other bandit. Rowan then aimed for the other bandit, and fired again: the bandit was hit just below the knee, and fell to the ground, screaming.
Not wanting to waste any bullets, Rowan ran towards one of the wounded bandits, picked up the bandit's knife, and stabbed her. The male bandit managed to crawl away and hide behind an old car, but left a trail of blood. Rowan quickly found the man, and slit his throat.

Not wasting any time, Rowan hastened himself to Serah, who was still lying on the ground. She had a cut in her left shoulder, and several scratches on the face. He helped her get back on her feet, and assisted her on her way to her rifle, which still lay on the ground.

[Lunark]

02/5/2028 - Ethan Clark

Ethan looked around a corner. He watched as two bandits were attacking a girl, who was possibly in her twenties. They were threatening her with knives. He noticed a shotgun nearby. 'If I could run to tha-' A shot rang out and interrupted his thoughts. He watched as the man went down, and his accomplice soon after a second shot. He watched the man crawl away. He then watched as another male, who appeared to be the same age as the girl who was attacked, finish off the two bandits. The male then ran over to the injured woman to help her up.

'Looks like they could handle it...' He sighed. He searched through the makeshift pack made from the old bed sheet until he found his last can of soup and a candy bar. 'They'll need these more than I would.' He placed them outside of the alley in plain sight, and stood up. He stood there for a few more seconds, in indecision between whether or not to go and meet these two, but finally decided that it was time to move on.

He walked away.

[Aegonian]

02/5/2028 - Rowan Beggarsworth

After retrieving Serah's rifle, and getting her to a safe spot to rest for a few minutes, Rowan started looking for any bandits that might be lurking around. One thing quickly grabbed Rowan's attention: just outside the alley, there was a can of soup and a candy bar simply lying on the ground, in plain sight.
'These weren't here before...', Rowan thought to himself. 'I'd better take them. Serah could probably use some food now'.
Rowan took the food, and started heading back to Serah.

"Someone left these lying about just up ahead: they looked almost like a gift, not hidden, just lying there in plain sight."
"Perhaps someone's watching over us", Serah smiled. "I guess you didn't see the one who left it?"
"I took a look around, but there was no-one around. Oh well, it might have just been some fool being careless with his stuff."
"Probably, yeah. Could you help me get this bandaged?"
"Sure."

Together, Rowan and Serah ate the candy bar, and started heading back to the old house. Rowan still had some matches in his room, which he could use to start a small fire and warm up the soup a bit.

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