#may 22nd.

Chaos reigns as people shout and yell and move, move, move. Hauling ass and supplies down to the basement as the fucking roof starts being stripped away. The high-pitch screech of the storm and the metal bending to its will is sharp enough that Jo’s teeth ache and the hairs on her arms stand up as she grabs another pile of supplies. She stampedes down the concrete stairs to the basement level, intent to get as much down there before the entire godforsaken building is torn apart. She’s not too keen on staying down there but with the river far enough away from them, she holds out hope that it won’t flood. The soldier is moving fast, too fast really, but they all are – or they all should be. But she ends up nearly running someone over and swears, half at them, half in annoyance and only trails off when she sees who it is.

The storm rages outside and everyone inside the hotel holds their collective breath. It's like they're all balanced on the edge of a knife. The din of rain on the roof and against the windows, and the steady thump, thump, thump of debris hitting the building doesn't help. 

But Mara can't sit still, years of experience pushing her to action so that she and Nele come up with a plan. Ordinarily, she'd prefer not to get the enforcer's permission but she needs her support. Especially if she’s taking Vincent with her. Alexei’s nephew might not seem important to some, but she knows that if anything happens to him on her watch (or Nele’s), there’d be hell to pay. And all Mara wants is to get to Teddy and Felix, wherever they are.

So she plays by the almost irrelevant rule book and gets approval from the enforcer to head out. Before she does, the doctor scans the crowd of restless individuals. People huddle together in pockets of two or three as the wind whips and howls around them and she looks at each cluster of people, searching for Ophelia. When Mara spots her, she tucks hands into her thread-bare scrubs and makes her way over. Resting a gentle hand on Ophelia's shoulder, she tries to garner her attention. "Hey, can we talk?" Mara doesn't want to worry her colleague but wants her to remain alert while she treks outside. Just in case.

“Here,” Mara says as she tosses Vince a scarf and any other time it might’ve been strange to hand someone a scarf in the middle of May (and a particularly balmy one at that) but not today. “You’ll wanna wrap it around your mouth before we get outside.” The wind howled like a wild thing outside, debris hitting the side of the hotel with more force than she cares to dwell on, rain pelting windows along with dirt and rocks and who knows what else. They’re going out into the very storm in a matter of minutes. The din of voice around them has ebbed and flowed the past half hour after they’ve decided on a plan. Mara and Vincent would head out to inspect the damage to the generator and power grid, reset it and hopefully get radios and comms back online. 

When the power cuts out and the radios fall silent, an eerie silence fills the hotel. The sirens have stopped their screeching and she can see the group growing restless, the din of panic slowly swelling around them as people begin to harass each other for information, out of fear and concern for loved ones still outside. Mara doesn’t blame them, her mind humming loudly with thoughts of Teddy and Felix, but she knows what happens in times like these – when people give into hysteria, they need time to calm down and find balance again. And yet, she doesn’t see that happening and knows Nele won’t have a choice but to act if they get out of hand.

She hates standing still, idle hands itching for something to do. Not for the first time, Mara’s grateful for her spirit, the one that prompts her to walk up to Nele and clear her throat, already formulating a plan she’d need help with. Glancing at Vincent standing apart from the crowd of people, it crystalizes. “I need a minute,” she says, gesturing towards a corner with a window that hadn’t been completely covered up by dust or rain. It was still too dark to really see past it but it was enough. “We need to get comms back up and running unless you want an uprising you’ll have to put down.” It’s the truth. Plain and simple and ugly. As much as Mara hates to admit it, even she knows that order is essential at a time like this. And restoring it was of paramount importance.

Mara glances over at Nele, “Do you remember when we had that electrical storm in ‘42?” It had been nothing like this hurricane but lightning had struck the hotel twice close succession, short-circuiting its power grid. “They had to do a hard reset since the breakers weren’t working.” She only knew this because the tech who’d gone had cut himself rather badly on damaged metal which had been charred and mangled from the lightning strike. She looks back out the window now and presses her lips together, shifting from one leg to another before voicing her idea. “We need those radios back.” She’s sure Nele knows that, given her position, “So I can go.” She nods as she says it. It’s not ideal but with how on edge everyone was, she doesn’t predict they’d be calm enough to head out into the storm and accomplish what they need to do. But Mara? She’s always thrived under pressure. “I can reset it.”