#dehqevent005

the first night of the storm had not settled well with santiago. they were stuck in one of the many vaults placed around north america to house whoever they deemed most worthy to survive the fallout of the mess they created. the they in question was easily represented through the military presence, along with both the mayor-governor and dr. felix estrada himself.

he wasn't able to get much contact with lindsay, dante, or any of his other family which worried him, even if he knew that gus, his madre, and tia were in safe hands with dante and lindsay. not to mention the other silver lining members at the community center. he'd yet to hear from his other siblings, the three youngest, and he can only hope they are somewhere together but all the unknown and things out of santiago's control made him deeply uneasy.

needless to say, santiago had been developing a plan to get back to burnington since before the snow trapped in the grooves of his boots got a chance to melt.

then, to make matters worse, when going through the supplies that they could find ( the place was well ransacked ) it was announced that there was only enough food to feed a little over half those trapped in the bunker for around three days. after that? they didn't know what would happen. so santiago talked with his siblings and then went into the overseer's old office where there were a few maps of devil's elbow santiago had been updating and charting since he found them, trying to make sense of things.

where: the afterglow compound!

ade was precisely where she did not belong. perhaps it was something intrinsic, being in a place they knew was wrong. or maybe, it was simply that she missed tomas, the comfort of being snowed in somewhere she could make a warm beverage and wait until there was a break to go out and run in it. there would be none of that here! the serious tone that settled over those in charge made that clear enough.

"how long do you think— until we can leave?" her estimations were, much like she, always the most hopeful they could be. a few more hours always seemed possible, no matter the amount of snow falling. "i hate to be the pity party." or anything that leaned negative,given the expressions on the people's faces around them. "but, i've only got the one deck of cards."

It had taken a while to manage to get his frostbitten skin to heat up to the point of healing, but with the generator having been fixed—though he's still not clear what made it go in the first place, information has been conflicting—has helped the process quite a bit. No offence to the capabilities of Ursula's thighs, naturally.

With the warmth having come back into his fingers, however, so has come the pain, the unending throbbing and pins and needles that has made it incredibly difficult to sleep, or really do much of anything. Rafe has yet to approach any of the people with any sort of medical expertise for pain relief, for the simple facts that, first, he doesn't know half these people, and trust is hard to find in this world, and second, they're dreadfully overtaxed as is, most of them.

No, despite the fact that the place isn't what one would call a sauna, Rafe finds himself clammy with sweat as his body is trying to heal and process the pain as it continues to throb, having taken on a corner near a radiator to keep his hands near; it's starting to blister now, and while that's good news, a sign that he'll make a full recovery, and perhaps quickly, it's not appetising to look at, and it means that until the blisters heal, there's very little he can really do with his hands.

He glances up as he senses a presence close in, and he narrows his eyes as he tries to place the face—one of Afterglow's employees, certainly. "Yeah, love? Somethin' I can do ya for?"

with the winter storm that rages through devi's elbow showing no sign of slowing down any time soon, citizens already have begun to settle into the three designated emergency shelters in the region. no severe weather-related injuries have been reported as of yet, but that doesn't mean that sheltering in place is easy for anyone.

after a thorough inventory of the supplies remaining in the bunker, it has been concluded that they've only got enough food to sustain half of the current population taking shelter for the current projected length of the storm. if supplies are not swiftly and carefully rationed, the bunker will run out of food in three days.

with half of wder's radio team taking shelter at the community center, getting the radio tower working to broadcast updates to everyone else in the region was a top priority. the good news? they got it working! the bad news? in doing so, the generator was blown. until someone can fix it, the community center has no power.

anyone sheltering at the compound likely heard the massive crash that echoed through the property even from hundreds of yards away. an entire tree was felled under the weight of the snow, collapsing the wall that protects the compound in that area and leaving it vulnerable open to unwanted guests, both human and animal.

This was a situation alright, being stuck in the compound itself after dedicating half his life here was not a good feeling, and yet it was also sickly nostalgic, Ash hated that conflicting feeling. But most importantly they got here safely, better here than stuck in his car in between the city and the compound, death would sooner find them than anyone else, so he really can't be picky. He found familiar enough faces to feel better about their predicament, faces he could trust even. Jasper was one of those faces. "Hey, got us at least something warm to drink," Ash came back to his friend, who was helping looking after Dawn for a second while Ashton sought out the compound's game plan for emergency shelter protocols for the non residence stuck here.

He sat down beside Jasper handing him a cup of tea that he knew where to get, too familiar with the compound. The German shepherd curled up by their sides, calming down since this morning's instincts now that they were in shelter. "You okay? It sounds like they're still sorting out arrangements but.." Ash trailed off with a shrug, "who really knows how long we'll be here. Rather the shorter the better."

Tomas had somehow settled into a rhythm, as nervous as the rhythm may be, to help where he could in the community center. The mousely man had quietly started working like clockwork, hoping the bread from Barley and Rye will be helping in food to get through the day, or two. Hopefully max two. It'll just be two days right? Right?????? ...who knows. Tomas tried not to think about it lest he started having a panic attack. Ade wasn't even here and he had not been able to settle knowing family was not safely here with him either.

They had a pick up point for the bread today but by the end of the day he had also gone around giving it out to those that haven't gotten anything to eat yet. He saw a woman alone with no food in her hands and it was in his innate nature to make sure she does. Tomas gently places a pack of bread in her hands, "um.." he took a short breath in to work up the courage to take up space, "you- didn't have anything to eat yet right? We had.. we had bread from the bakery and uh- they were gonna go bad either way-- I mean! Not that they're bad now, just.. they were baked this morning before the snow and.." he trailed off from the soft flurry of words, ending with a shrug, "you're not allergic to anything, are you?"

It'd been sheer luck that he'd come across Bash in this goddamn maze, who'd immediately lead him and his sister to his old place. He'd heard Bash talk about the bunker before, but this is the first time Sue actually has seen anything of it—nothing that warranted taking him out this way, and it seemed sort of morbid to go exploring a place that had become something of an unfortunate grave for Bash's people. There are lines that even Sue doesn't care to cross.

But now he's here and he's been going in and out to try to memorise the unfamiliar surroundings—in case of emergency plus, he'd told Sullie. It just won't do to be caught with your ass out if something worse happens, and regardless of the fact that Bash knows where he's going, Sue feels uncomfortable putting all eggs into a single basket, no matter how cute that basket might be.

It's this exploring—avoiding half the occupants of the bunker for the bad vibes radiating off of them—that ultimately leads him to Joni. He doesn't say a word as he comes up beside her, grabbing her hand and tugging her flush against him. "C'mon, Jones, I got somewhere relatively safe," he murmurs in his friend's ear, before his hand reaches up to cup the side of her face, not so much as pausing as he kisses her.

Pulling back again, Sue nods his head sideways, keeping his arm wrapped around her waist as he starts leading Joni back to where Bash and Sullie are. "Don't make eye contact, just look straight ahead, okay?"

When your car gets stuck in a blizzard so strong that it's like to push you off the road, you make the responsible decision and stop driving. Ripley had all but intended to wait this freak weather out, imagining it might be as short as it were sudden, but the radio warnings had quickly told her something different. The army had moved in quick, ushering citizens to the nearest shelter, which so had happened to be the compound.

The high tech of the facilities reminded her a lot of Lost Angeles, just... less seedier. Or perhaps its rot is a bit more polished than the city is. Either way, with the fact that Ripley had only just come to the Elbow, there's very few people to contact, to worry about—the majority of those she would she'd purposefully left behind or were no longer living. And you can't be more safe than dead, right?

No, after reaching out to Dixie and Ros, Ripley decided to take this opportunity to... well. Snoop. After all, in the midst of a crisis, surely Afterglow couldn't continue business as usual, and she certainly hopes that its security is far too busy to worry about a bit too curious techie looking to hone her crafts through, perhaps, a bit of intellectual theft.

Especially now what with rumours of an animal loose in part of the compound.

She'd been on her way, trying to look as casual as she can, when a hint of electric blue catches her attention out of her peripherals. O'Brien. Not too odd, the past month, to see those chilling eyes looking at her, though the O'Briens she's dealt with thus far—mainly the two oldest—had been largely respectful to her.

Of course she'd heard stories about them back in Lost Angeles.

It's why her friendship with Deirdre had come as such a surprise, certainly not anything what she'd excepted from what the underbelly of Lost Angeles—or perhaps that was just the majority of the city—painted them as. But Deirdre had left. Not just that, she'd left without a word, without a trace, and Ripley, at the time, hadn't had the time to ask after her or look for her otherwise.

But she's here now. Alive, certainly.

Taking a few strides to close the gap between them, Ripley grabs the younger woman by the upper arm to spin her to face her. "Deirdre!" she says, tone sharp, slightly disbelieving. "You been hiding in Devil's Elbow this whole damn while, girl?"