STRANGE DAYS
Chapter 258
See first chapter for disclaimers.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is another of the Adventures of Xander and Faith. Thanks to Storyseeker for beta-reading this. As usual, if you have any comments or preferences, please don't be shy. RandR.
The Deep & Camp Cretaceous
And now
BTVS And…?
What's in Store
"Huh?" Faith looked around, confused by their current surroundings. They had found themselves in odd situations before, and this wasn't even the first time that a portal had opened into someone's shop or even a person's home, but this place seemed deserted. There was no one in sight, and neither of them could hear voices, or even the muzak that some places insisted on torturing customers with.
"Looks like it," Xander agreed as he moved to the end of the aisle they had found themselves on, and looked both ways. "Big store. I can't see the end of the aisle in either direction, probably one of those warehouse stores or something." After their last couple of stops; a store, even one that seemed to be closed, seemed weirdly normal. As nothing was trying to kill them, at the moment, anyway, they decided to take things slow and catch their breath while they looked for the problem they were there to solve. There was always something.
Before setting out, though, they ran what had become routine checks. The bags of holding they had didn't seem to work, which meant there was no magic there, or it was of a very different kind. That was inconvenient, as it meant most of their weapons and supplies were out of reach. They had learned to carry a few things in ordinary packs, but it wouldn't last long. The weapons also had to be kept discrete for their more civilized stops. Police in most modern cities took a dim view of people carrying swords and battle-axes, and this looked to be a modern or modernish world.
After equipping themselves as best they could, the two set out. They traveled for some time without finding anyone. No employees. No customers. Also? No doors. No walls.
"Okay. What the hell?" Faith asked, looking around from the top of a bookshelf she had scaled to get a better view of their surroundings. "I don't see an end to this place." She scanned the horizon, something that she firmly believed there shouldn't be inside a normal building. After a few minutes of looking, she caught a movement in the near distance.
"I see someone. About five rows over." She jumped down and they made their way in that direction. Around several more rows of shelving units and endcaps with furniture care products, Xander noted the lack of dust on anything, despite the place apparently being huge and empty. It was just one more bit of weirdness. Hopefully, they would have some answers soon. However, on rounding the last endcap, they stopped and stared.
Shuffling down an aisle full of what appeared to be perfectly ordinary furniture, was a figure in blue pants and a blue and yellow striped shirt. While it had the correct number of arms and legs, those limbs were disproportionate for its size and would have better fit a mountain gorilla. In place of a face, there was a blank expanse of skin.
Whatever it was, it walked right past them without reacting to their presence or their attempts to speak to it, and kept going.
The two demon hunters traded baffled looks. Neither had ever seen anything quite like it. Aggression they were used to dealing with. Polite conversation, they could manage. Being ignored completely by the creature of the week was a bit outside their experience.
"Maybe it can't see or hear us?" Xander ventured, examining it without getting too close.
"Doesn't seem to have eyes or ears," Faith allowed. "Could try poking it, I guess."
"Don't do that!" a voice calling out from farther down the aisle caught their attention. "They get violent if you touch them." A man and woman were hiding at the end of a section of shelving a few yards away. The man was gesturing for them to follow.
"This is a bust," the woman said, sighing as the two demon hunters joined them. "The things just wander around." She looked at Xander and Faith. "Come on, it'll be dark soon, and it's not safe after dark. We'll explain what's going on when we get back to town."
"Sounds good," Faith nodded. "Which way's the door? This place weirds me out." The two strangers exchanged troubled looks.
"Ah…" The man broke off. "We'll explain."
OOOOOOOOOO
"So, we're stuck in here?" Xander asked to clarify as he settled on one of the many nice sofas scattered around their new friends' 'town.' It seemed strange to call a makeshift fortification inside the store a town, but given the circumstances of the residents, it fit. The place consisted of walls of flat-packed boxes and display room furniture. The walls, while improvised out of whatever-was-available, were high, thick and sturdy. Apparently, they had to be.
About 35 people from all walks of life called the strange fortification home, but there was room for more. Whether that spoke to planned growth or the level of aggression shown by the local monsters, neither hunter knew, and they didn't care to ask. There were carpenters, butchers, plumbers, cashiers, store clerks, and housewives. The closest thing they had to a doctor was a dental hygienist. The closest thing they had to a leader was a man named Chris, who, years ago, had been roped into serving as a deputy mayor of a small town, mostly because no one else wanted the job.
"There's food and water," Faith summarized the information they'd been given, "monsters in store uniforms that are quiet during the day, but go nuts at night, and an endless supply of moderately-priced, ready-to-assemble furniture?"
"Yep." Chris nodded. "I didn't believe it either, at first."
"This is a new kind of weird," Faith sighed in aggravation. She thought for a time, then glanced at Xander. "How long, you think?" She didn't want to offer the people stuck there any false hope, but she knew they could offer them a way to escape to somewhere else. Whether that somewhere else would be an improvement, or at least a bit safer, was anyone's guess. Her partner just shrugged.
"No telling. Just wait and see and be ready." It wasn't hard to guess what she was thinking, and he was all for offering the stranded people a way out, but like her, he knew the risks and potential limitations of the help they could offer.
"I know it'll take time," Sarah, the woman they had first met, said, as she joined them, taking a seat next to Chris, and offered the new arrivals a plate each of what looked like meatballs, "but we've all been through it. The disbelief, the searching, and finally the adjustment to living here. We'll all help as best we can."
"Kind of necessary," Mark nodded. "We all rely on each other for survival on a near daily basis."
"I can understand that," Xander replied. "Faith and I have gotten in and out of some prickly situations because we were able to trust each other completely. Given what you've said about those weird things out there, no one person or small group is going to last long without a fortified base and a lot of cooperation with other people."
"Exactly," Mark said, glad the newcomers were so quick to understand the situation. "Everyone does their part, and we get by. No one'll complain if you want to leave to try and find an exit, but some of us have been looking for years. I've been here nearly six months."
"You said there are other towns," Faith asked after a few moments of eating quietly and thinking. "How many?"
"Who knows?" Mark shrugged. "We took in a group of survivors a while back from a place that got overrun. Between us, we know of…maybe 20?"
"That's nuts." Xander shook his head. "How do so many people go missing with no one noticing?"
"Well…" Mark trailed off, but continued after an encouraging nod from Sarah. "I've got a theory, but it sounds pretty wild."
The two demon hunters traded bemused looks, and Faith grinned. "Bet we can top you, but go ahead."
"I think we don't all come from the same Earth." He watched their expressions and noted the lack of surprise. "I've talked to a lot of people both here and from other towns. Some have never heard of the statue of liberty. Others didn't know about the international space station. Not everyone here lived in the same city, either, but each and every one dropped by their local store." He shrugged. "It's the only thing that makes sense, really."
"Hundreds of people vanish into one store, people take notice," Xander nodded. "One or two from dozens of different stores on dozens of different Earths? No one notices, let alone thinks creepy other dimension."
"Exactly," Mark said emphatically, pleased to find such ready acceptance of his theory. "I can't think of anything else that makes sense." He paused. "Okay, that might sound weird given that none of this makes any sense."
"So," Faith said with a frown, "this is some sort of pocket dimension with openings to multiple realities?"
"Guess so?" Mark shrugged. "I just know the basic theory from watching too much sci-fi as a kid."
"Makes as much sense as anything," Faith allowed. "We know that alternate realities exist, but..." she trailed off, not sure where to go with that thought. "None of that makes any sense to me."
"It'll be dark soon," Mark said, dismissing the odd statement for the moment. It was nice that someone accepted his theory without calling him nuts, regardless of the fact that they had no better answer. "The attack will likely start soon. The last one was a bit rougher than usual. We should get ready."
"Okay. Uh, incidentally, since we're inside a building, sort of, how do you know when it gets dark?"
"You'll know," Mark assured him. "Either of you know how to use a spear or an axe?"
"As it happens?" Xander smirked. "We do."
OOOOOOOOOO
"These things are strong, yeah, but they go down easier than vamps," Faith commented as the first wave of faceless things was repulsed, and they were able to catch their breath. She had been using a fire axe from the top of the wall, while Xander had stabbed them with a makeshift spear made from a broom handle and a kitchen knife.
"Actually creepier, though," Xander said. "They're so polite while they're trying to dismember you." Faith rolled her eyes, but couldn't really argue the statement. The things' polite requests to exit the store while they attacked were just another notch on the weird-shit-o-meter, as far as she was concerned. The slayer didn't let it distract her.
"Here they come again," Faith sighed turning back to split the head of a taller than average monster before taking two shuffling steps to the right and removing the hands of one that was trying to climb over the wall of boxes. The fire axe wasn't an ideal weapon, but like many slayers, she had learned to improvise lethal weapons from almost anything. She recalled Buffy using a hubcap once to behead a vamp in Cleveland. That gave her an idea, and she called to a ten-year-old boy that was running messages and supplies to the defenders.
"Get me something to throw. Plates and butter knives will work fine if you've got 'em."
The boy looked confused, but he ran to where the dinner dishes had been piled, and quickly returned with everything he could carry.
"Thanks. Hand 'em up." The kid set down the stack and began handing up the heavy plates, three at a time. They were mostly used as decoration for dining sets, but quite a few had been collected. When done, he ran off and came back with several decorative metal plates, usually as wall decorations.
He was astonished to see her throwing the plates like discusses and the silverware like throwing knives in a ninja movie. Each of her weapons brought down an enemy. Several of the nearby defenders saw their attackers go down with missing heads or limbs or with bits of silverware sticking out of them. Those that were no longer so pressed began retrieving the throwing weapons they could safely reach in order to return them to her.
Slowly, the tide began to turn.
OOOOOOOOOO
The carts were heavy, loaded down as they were with dead monsters, but they rolled fairly well. Xander and Mark pushed them through the aisles to a designated dumpsite. There was already a mountain of the things there, as several towns apparently used the same dump site.
They emptied the carts as quickly as they could and headed back, making way for others to dump their loads. The rest of the residents were busy making repairs and fortifying the parts of the wall that were nearly breached. There was a lot to do and not much time. Faith wanted to check the bodies, having noticed that they didn't bleed, even though they went down as easily as a human that had received a fatal wound. There wasn't time, though. It didn't really matter. She rather doubted that doing an autopsy on one of the things would tell her anything they could actually use.
Fitting the boxes together and securing them was fairly easy, especially if what was inside was solid and heavy. The display furniture that was used as part of the structure was more problematic, but the long-term residents had lots of practice. They managed to get rid of the monster corpses, really weird corpses Faith noted, when she sliced one open out of curiosity, and get the walls back in shape by the time the lights went out for the night.
Mark had been right. There had been no difficulty knowing when it got dark. With a massive electrical thunk, the store's lights had all shut off at once.
"I really miss watching the sunset," someone among the residents was heard to grouse.
OOOOOOOOOO
The attack on the second night was worse than the first, much worse, but they managed to hold their own, and while there were a few injuries, no one had died. The fortifications, however, were wrecked.
Chris, the nominative leader of the small community, shook his head as he surveyed the damage to their town. Xander felt for the man. He said he'd been there for years. Still, there was only one real choice. "Maybe if we hurry-"
That wasn't it, Xander winced as Faith turned on the man.
"No." The slayer shook her head, her tone firm but not unkind. "This place is done, and you need to accept that. There aren't enough of us to fortify the defenses and haul away the bodies. We need to go. Now."
"Everything we have-" Mark tried to protest.
"Can be replaced," Xander cut in. "Get everyone together and grab any food and weapons you can find. Load the wounded into the carts. No one gets left behind."
There was a second's hesitation from the residents, but Chris nodded sadly.
"He's right. We have to go." He began issuing orders to the residents. They set to work.
OOOOOOOOOO
"That's weird," Faith muttered.
"We're in an endless furniture store with monsters in staff uniforms. The store also seems to be a hub of multiple realities, and you find the way they name their towns weird?" Xander rolled his eye.
"They call the place Pot," Faith pointed out. "Think we could get a doobie, or maybe a brownie?"
"It's actually 'Pots,'" one of the guards commented, without taking offence, apparently having heard every variation of that joke, "but the sign got damaged."
"You were spotted coming in," the other guard got straight to the point. "You have injured?"
"A few," Xander nodded grimly. "We got hit pretty hard last night, and had to abandon the town."
They opened the gates and ushered them in.
"We got no doctors, but Zack was a paramedic out in the real world," one of them offered. "I'll get him." He headed off, deeper into the town of Pots.
"We also need to check whatever you brought with you," the other said as the group filed in. "Even the smallest piece of one of those monsters draws others. A finger no one notices gets into a box of supplies, and it's all over."
Chris winced as he considered that, quietly berating himself for a fool.
"That could be just what happened," he allowed. "We did a supply run a couple of days before the attacks started getting bad." He thought a moment. "We'll check what we were able to salvage, but most everything got left behind."
"Happened here a while back," the guard, who introduced himself as Julio, said. "We caught it in time, though. Now, we do careful checks on everything that comes in." The checks didn't take long, and fortunately, nothing was found.
It turned out Pots was larger than the first town that the two demon hunters had come across and had more people, close to 100, though the number fluctuated as there were three smaller towns, ranging from a couple of hours to a day's walk away, in different directions, and they all traded with each other.
"Wonder how long we'll be here," Xander commented as they settled in for their first night on watch. It had taken time to get everything sorted out, but the unwilling residents of the weird dimension pocket weren't inclined to waste time or resources. They quickly assigned the two seasoned fighters to patrolling the walls at night, watching for the faceless monsters.
"No telling. Could be minutes or weeks. You know that." She looked around. "This could be like the train. Maybe we're supposed to help these people get home or something. Though how? I got no clue. They all come from different earths. Just get 'em somewhere safe-ish, maybe?"
"How do we talk to them about it?" Xander asked, a bit frustrated. "If we wait till a portal just appears, a few might be willing to walk through, but not all of them."
"I've been wondering about that, myself. No brainstorms, yet." The two continued their patrol in silence for a time. They saw a few of the monsters in the distance, but none of them came too close. Neither was sure what that meant. Perhaps proximity was important? They weren't interested in experimenting.
OOOOOOOOOO
Three days passed, during which Xander asked a number of questions of the residents, and made a few suggestions, fully admitting that he didn't know the full situation and they might not be practical. Chris and the leader of Pots, Dalia, agreed to hear him out.
"If the primary difficulty in trading and sharing supplies and info is the distance, would it be possible to set up waystations between the towns? Small places a few people could hide and rest during the night?"
"Possible, but if they were attacked at night, there wouldn't be enough people to fight back. No one's going to volunteer to take that risk." Dalia nodded, agreeing with Chris' assessment. Then she had a thought. "Supply dumps between the towns might be doable, though."
"There is another option," Xander offered. He had felt out some of the residents over the last few days and found most accepting of the idea of alternate worlds and different dimensions. Afterall, they were living in one. "It has to do with how Faith and I got here, I'm just not sure anyone will believe it."
"Let's hear it," Chris said with a shrug. He had been able to make himself useful to Dalia, and she had been happy to unload some of her responsibilities onto him. Integrating the new group had had a few hiccups, but overall, it had gone much smoother than either of the hunters had expected.
Xander explained their circumstances as well as he could. The two listened patiently, but were uncertain whether to take him at his word. Even given their current circumstances, it sounded crazy. Faith demonstrated her abnormal strength, and they began to take the pair's claims a little more seriously. There was, clearly, something different about the two.
"If and when this 'portal' of yours appears, I think a lot of people would be willing to risk it, especially if there's sunlight on the other side," Chris offered. Dalia nodded, thinking that she likely would.
"So, how do you open this portal?" Chris asked.
"We don't. Whoever our mysterious tour guide is opens it when we've done whatever he sent us here to do. We've been world-hopping for…" He trailed off and glanced at Faith, who just shrugged.
"No idea, really."
"Long time then?" Chris winced sympathetically.
"We started out finding ourselves on a world with talking animals. A talking lion said we weren't supposed to be there and sent us on our way, just not home. The next place looked like an ordinary suburb, till one of the houses uprooted itself and started stomping down the street." Xander shrugged. "That seems like ages ago, though, and it actually got weirder after that."
"Weirder?" Dalia asked, not sure she if she believed what she was hearing but enjoying the story.
"We've met comic book characters, been on fictional spaceships that were all too real, and literally been down the rabbit hole."
"Don't worry about offendin' us if you don't believe it," Faith offered. "Sometimes we don't believe it either."
"It is a lot to take in," Chris offered diplomatically.
"Hopefully," Xander replied, appreciating the gesture at least, "you won't have to wait long for proof."
At their host's urging, the two shared a few stories, unintentionally drawing an audience.
OOOOOOOOOO
The next day, an hour after lights out, another group arrived. There were 15 in all, and they were running for their lives. There were at least 20 of the local monsters behind them. Faith sounded the alarm and began sniping at the creatures. Thrown weapons dropped a few in the front ranks, slowing the rest, if only briefly. This gave the exhausted refugees the time they needed to reach the gates and hurry inside. The guards barely got the gates secured in time.
Despite their exhaustion, those that weren't taking up stations on the walls to drive back the invaders met the group and carefully searched them for any scraps of the monsters. They found none.
"Sorry about that," Dalia offered the tired, confused, and somewhat resentful arrivals. "We can't be too careful about bits of those things getting in here."
"I get it," one replied, clearly too tired to argue the matter.
"What happened? You're from Counters, aren't you?"
"We took in some refugees from another town farther out; Bedding, I think." He glanced at a young woman, who was rocking a crying baby. The woman nodded before turning her attention back to quieting the fussy infant. "They were hit hard and those that were left had to run. Counters was never very big, so it got a bit crowded. We tried expanding a bit, to accommodate 20 new people, but we got hit the next night, and then, again, the second, while still trying to shore up the damage. I think someone from Bedding may have had a little piece of one, or something." She trailed off and shook her head. "Doesn't matter now."
"Is this your entire group?" Dalia asked delicately.
"It is now," the woman answered bitterly. "We started out two days ago. Split up to increase our chances. Two different groups, there were 24 of us when we set out, 30 in the other. Don't know if they got where they were going or not."
Dalia didn't ask about their reduced numbers, as it was obvious what had happened. She looked over the ragged group and sent for food and water. They were running low, resources already stretched by the addition of the last group, but she wasn't about to turn anyone away or let them go hungry. The sounds of fighting gradually tapered off. Xander joined them after a moment, along with Chris.
"They're dead or leaving," Xander reported. He checked a clock nearby. "Long time till the lights come on. We got enough food and water for the new group?"
"Yes," Dalia said, "but we'll need to restock tomorrow." The others nodded, knowing how crucial it was. "I'll also want to send runners to the nearby towns with the news. Three towns falling in such a short time makes me worry that something else is going on."
Xander considered for a moment, reviewing his memories of his life in Sunnydale and later with the NWSC. He was forced to conclude she might have a point. "Does seem like a lot is happening at once," he allowed, somewhat reluctantly. "That usually indicates outside interference, in our experience."
Deciding there was nothing to do about it at the moment, even if Xander was right, Dalia and Chris began issuing orders. The minor damage to the walls was shored up. Extra lookouts were posted. Supplies were assessed, and plans made for visits to nearest sources of food and water, as well as detailing a party to haul away the dead monsters.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, but the number of monsters roaming nearby worried some of the longtime residents. They weren't dispersing as they normally did, or at least, they weren't going as far.
OOOOOOOOOO
When morning came, the residents found they had a problem. The wandering monsters were far thicker than normal in the area. This made the retrieval of supplies much harder, and the removal of the bodies of the dead creatures close to impossible.
Faith was able to solve one problem by moving nimbly along the tops of the shelving units, jumping over the oblivious creatures, when necessary, until she reached the restaurant. She loaded up on food and as much water as she could safely carry, and headed back. She made three such trips before running out of time.
The bodies were hauled as far away as was possible and dumped by people who could only pray it was far enough.
When night came, everyone was tense. Each one of them expecting the worst, the group of defenders on the wall and at the two gates, stayed silent, watching and waiting.
"Now would be a good time for a portal out of here," Faith muttered to Xander from her normal position to his left.
"Yeah, pity we can't make one when we want."
"What's our tour guide waiting for?" the slayer griped. "Doubt we'll gather more people than this, and if those things attack, we'll start losing those we have."
Xander didn't have an answer for that, so he didn't bother, knowing it was sometimes better to just let Faith stew. He wasn't exactly happy with the situation himself. He wasn't sure why he was surprised by the presence of small children, let alone a baby. Life went on, no matter where you were. It just complicated the situation for everyone.
"Here they come," someone whispered.
A small group was ambling their way from the direction of the temporary dump they'd established. Another sentry cursed under his breath.
"I knew we didn't take them far enough."
"Didn't have much choice," the woman beside him answered. "We did what we could."
The monsters slowly gathered, and began to pound on the walls while politely informing the residents of Pots that they needed to leave. Spears thrust out through openings deliberately left in the walls silenced some of them, but there were more behind them. Too many more.
The concerted pounding caused the walls to shake, and those on top were forced to retreat toward the inner edge, not the best position from which to stab down at the things, but it was better than falling into their midst.
The attack grew worse as more people were forced to assist in shoring up potential breaches, and in some cases, simply leaning all their weight against a barrier that was threatening to give way until help arrived. Xander and Faith each took a gate and did what they could to hold the weak points.
When the breach inevitably came, the group fell back as planned, pulling down prepared barriers to stall the monsters. Less sturdy than the original section of wall, it wouldn't hold long. Xander had the defenders near them pull down extra barricades and pull back when he saw what was happening, and signaled Faith to do the same.
The furniture and boxes had been arranged to form a corridor inside each gate. This allowed them to easily retreat and reinforce the weakest parts of the town's defenses by pulling down the walls of the corridor. This left less room to fight, and proved less of a barrier for the monsters, but it was a necessary trade off.
Falling back into a secondary defense position that the town had hoped never to use, Xander looked around, seeing the mass of scared, desperate people. Now would be a really good time for a portal.
He took stock and rallied those around him with weapons, even as the first of the monsters made a slow, laborious way across the field of debris they had made. It fell to a thrown spear. The spear was just a long, sharpened dowel, but it did the trick. Two laboriously crafted bows twanged, and two more monsters fell.
"How many arrows?" Xander called.
"Eight left," one of the archers answered. "They're hard to make."
"Ten here," the other said, carefully taking aim.
"Make 'em count." Xander moved to Faith's side, taking in her situation at a glance. "Same problem at the other gate," he reported. The slayer nodded and threw another butter knife, burying it in the chest of an oncoming monster.
"We need a way out of here." Stating the obvious didn't help matters. The lights wouldn't come on for another 10 hours. Pots wouldn't last for half of that. On all fronts, they were gradually being pushed back. It was only a matter of time till they started losing people.
"What do we have to do?" Faith growled, "friggin' pray?!"
"Plenty of people doing that already," her partner answered.
Shouts of alarm and fear came from their right, and Xander rushed off to help. Faith cursed and ran toward another impending crisis. A small group of monsters had clamber to the top of the wall near her position. She launched herself off of a cabinet and into a flying kick that would have caved in a human's ribcage. She wasn't sure what it did to the thing, but at least it went down and didn't get back up. Two quick jabs with the carving knives she was using as melee weapons brought down the next two. She tossed the bodies, one by one, at the group pounding on that section of wall, bowling them over. The defenders, who had been close to being overwhelmed, thanked her and caught their breath before the assault resumed.
Their reprieve was short.
Gradually, they were pushed back on all fronts. Pots had a town square of sorts, where all of the non-combatants were gathered, including the children. Faith scowled as she all but beheaded one of the things with a carving knife. They were completely surrounded by this point, backed against one of the few remaining undamaged walls of the town.
Without warning, light flooded the area from the direction of the wall they had been backing against, making the monsters stumble to a confused halt. The residents of Pots and the refugees they had taken in looked around in confusion.
"Portal," Faith shouted. "Everyone, move! Go through!"
None of the residents knew what to make of the hole in the air with sunlight pouring through it, but they knew that very soon, anywhere would be preferable to Pots. People began rushing through, the best fighters, including Xander and Faith, holding the line in case any of the monsters decided it actually was night time, despite the sunlight.
It didn't take long for them to see the last residents through, and then, back through themselves. When the last person was through, the portal closed. The two hunters looked around.
"Any idea where we are?" Faith asked. Xander shrugged as he looked around the empty field. There were light woods to the south and foothills to the north, a prelude to what looked to be a mountain range in the distance. There was no immediate sign of civilization, but they could hear a river somewhere to the east.
"I think if we follow the river, we'll find civilization," Chris offered. "I used to be a surveyor for the Bureau of Land Management, and learned a lot about land and natural resources and such."
"Even if we don't find people," Dalia nodded, "we'll want a source of fresh water."
They took a little time to sort out what resources they had. There wasn't much. Xander thought to test his bag of holding and found it worked. He passed out food and what medical supplies he had to give to the group's medic.
Explaining the bags made for an interesting conversation, but the supplies did help relax everyone's nerves. Eventually, Dalia decided to get everyone moving, pointing out that it would be dark soon, and they needed a viable campsite.
The two hunters, having no idea how long they'd be there, moved along with the rest of the group, taking note of their hopeful smiles and rising spirits. Whatever awaited the refugees had to be better than what they left behind.
Right?
The End