Chapter 2: The Survivors
Cloud and Tifa stood together outside the entrance to what was once sector five. Tifa held tightly onto Cloud's hand, as the full extent of the damage to the city became visible directly before their eyes.
During the battle between meteor and holy the immense energies fighting each other had brought down all of the plates. As almost all of Midgar was on or directly below a plate this had led to almost total destruction of the entire city.
The pair had come to sector five as it was the closest to where they had landed and they were familiar with it, but the scene before them reminded them of the fate that befell sector seven only a few weeks ago. A discharge of energy had struck the centre of the plate and it had broken into three pieces as the support column gave way. The area in front of them had been crushed by one of the falling segments. The wall that once ran around the perimeter of the city was somewhere under the rubble at this point.
"I don't think that there is any way in here," admitted Cloud. "Come on Tifa, we have to find another way in."
Cloud began to walk around towards sector four but Tifa remained standing where she was, stoically facing forwards. "Cloud," she mumbled. "All of the other plates also fell, we could see that from a distance while we were approaching the city. If the results are anything like this there could be no survivors…"
Cloud turned back to her and walked over. He put an arm over her shoulders to comfort her and began to talk. "Look Tifa, most of the people in the city saw that meteor was heading straight for them and left. When we were walking towards the city you saw how sector 4 looked; most of the plate had been torn of and thrown away from the city before the plate fell so only part of the sector had been crushed. The plate above sector 3 had been folded back on itself so only half of that sector had been crushed."
"And the rest?"
"I'm sure parts of the other sectors survived, maybe we should go and help some of the survivors who got out of the city at the last moment. There are plenty of people left to help, Tifa." He shook her gently to get her moving. "Come on."
The pair moved slowly, huddled together.
"Cloud," uttered Tifa suddenly. "The Shinra Corporation had bunkers built deep under the centre of the city during the Shinra/Wutai war, there could be people there too."
"Most likely Shinra executives."
"Yes but their company is gone, we have no grudge against them now. We can't let them die if they are trapped. Back when AVALANCHE was planning its first strike, Jesse was able to get the codes to open the bunkers. Barett kept them in his pack in case we ever needed them."
Cloud thought for a moment. "Those officials probably have enough supplies to keep them going for a long time, we can help the people out here first and deal with them later."
They carried on walking around the outside of the city.
~ ~ ~
Delvin Spanton pulled back the reins on his mountain chocobo and brought it to a halt. He felt the stubble already growing on his chin with a dirty hand; it had been a week since he had last shaved. The chaos that ensued in Midgar before the meteor event had upset his regular life.
The four riders behind him brought their yellow chocobos to a halt. "What you thinkin boss?" asked one of them.
Delvin took his hat off to run a hand through his short and spiky black hair, and then he pointed towards the village of tents in sector four ahead of them. "You see that?" he asked. "Those people are likely to have a lot of supplies to keep a community like that running. We should gather the rest of the gang and go in there."
The others looked at their leader. "If we get all the gang together that place should be a walkover." The five had all turned to lives as raiders for different reasons. For Delvin it had been the realisation that with Shinra gone there was no controlling force of law and order so he could do damn well what he pleased. He was one of the first ones, setting up his 'tribe' of raiders soon after the diamond weapon event, long before the fall of meteor. Now he was coming into his own, he felt that he was born to be a raider.
"We'll go in tonight under the cover of darkness, come on let's get moving." The chocobo riders turned and headed back south towards their camp where fellow raiders were waiting for them.
~ ~ ~
"It's no use sir, the door just won't open." The secretary slumped to the floor, her red suit stained with grease. "I'm no good at electronics, I cannot fix the problem. Unless we have some other plan we're stuck in here."
The assembly of Shinra managers, secretaries and other high-ranking people from the top of the plate all searched around them for some solution to the problem. They were all exhausted and worried. They could feel the battle going on outside but had no idea what had happened. Now the third security door was stuck, the electronics had failed and no one knew how to open the door. The heavy reinforced doors were designed to keep the people inside safe from any blast from the outside, now they were preventing them from escaping.
A tall man with grey/white hair and wearing a black suit crossed his arms. "We have to open up the weapons stash, we need to find something that we can use to break out. After all these doors are designed to protect from the outside, not the inside."
"An excellent idea Mr. Saldana, I'll get to it myself right away," reacted a secretary.
"We can wait a while longer, after all we are alive. We can go out there and help to rebuild the world. The Shinra Corporation will rise again!" The crowd nodded, eager to please the highest-ranking executive among them.
Mr. Condra, head of the mako reactor maintenance team was a weedy fellow who had spoken little during their time in the bunker. He had the air of a small mammal about him, always edgy but not threatening. Now he spoke up. "Sir, we will probably have to fix the reactors when we get out as quickly as possible, our reserve power is running low. Can I have your permission to organise a team now?"
Saldana looked at the faces that had turned towards him. "Am I to take it that I will be the leader of this new Shinra Corporation?"
"Of course, president Saldana."
~ ~ ~
Iona heard a low moaning sound coming from inside the ruins of a building. A two-story house had partially collapsed leaving the front half almost untouched but the back half as rubble.
"Hold on, help is coming," she shouted. Iona walked into the house to find it very dark. "Hello?"
"Help me, please," pleaded a voice from the darkness.
"Where are you?"
"My leg…it's trapped under a wooden beam…it just fell and pinned me down…I've been here for hours…help…" the voice sobbed. "My husband…my child…they're both gone."
"Light!" commanded Iona and her yellow materia lit up the room. She could see how the other half of the quaint house had fallen, half covering a dinner table where some food was still laid out. 'Obviously intended to be some sort of last meal for the family,' thought Iona. It had been for two of them. The woman lay on her front, tired and bloody from various small wounds. Her eyes were wide with despair and her shoulder length brown hair soaked in blood and tears.
"Don't worry, I'll have you out of there." With two swipes of her sword Iona cut the beam up so that the segment over the woman's leg was loose and could be rolled away. "You look injured," commented Iona. "Hold still for a moment. Cure3!"
A green light filled the room casting double shadows with the light from the 'light' materia. The wounds on the victim were healed up but her appearance and clothes were still a mess. "So what is your name?" asked the crimson hared rescuer.
The woman stood up, shaking as she did so. "My name is Jezzibella Meredith, but everyone calls me Jess. Thank you ever so much for saving me, let me repay the favour somehow. You can see I have nothing left here. What is you name kind stranger?"
"Enough with the flattery already, my name is Iona Versalis I'm going around the city helping people in need. Would you care to join me?"
"I'd be more then happy to." The pair walked out of the ruined house and walked over to a corner shop that looked untouched.
"I'd bet you're hungry," commented Iona.
Jess nodded feverently. "You bet." "Then stand back." Iona used the blunt end of her sword to smash the glass window on the door. Finding it locked; she used the other end of her sword to hack a hole big enough to walk through to get inside.
"Is this what the world has come to?" asked Jess. "Are we all scavengers now?"
"Unfortunately we are, until we can become self-sufficient as a community again."
"Community? What community?" inquired Jess.
"I've just come from Neo-Midgar in sector 4. We are all survivors trying to rebuild something. I am here to save more people and help us build something new and better and to try to redeem myself."
Jess looked hopeful. "So there are others! That has made me so glad." After a moment of silence Jess asked, "What are you trying to redeem yourself for?"
"I'd rather not talk about it." Iona stared towards the floor.
"Okay, if that's how you feel. So tell me about Neo-Midgar." Iona's mako eyes lit up again as she talked about what she had achieved and her hopes and dreams. They grabbed some food and Iona continued her story as they walked down the road. She was interrupted by a quiet sobbing.
"Sounds like we have work to do."
~ ~ ~
Two chocobos, one blue and one gold, sped over the grass near to Corel. Nanaki and Barret were holding on to their chocobos for dear life. They had parted ways with the others at Costa Del Sol, Vincent stopping off to begin his assignment. Now it was time for these two to part too.
"I'll see you back in Midgar in a day or two Red." Barret managed to utter as he vainly tried to get his ocean chocobo to slow down.
"Good Luck at the Gold Saucer, yikes!" Nanaki's Chocobo had jumped over a boulder and he had almost fallen off in the process. "I've said it enough times already, paws are not designed to ride chocobos!"
Nanaki could hear Barret cursing as the large black man disappeared off into the distance.
"Wark!" went Nanaki's gold chocobo. "Yes, I'm sure. Now please get me to Cosmo Canyon with as few surprises as possible." The chocobo then began to run up the side of a mountain.
Barret continually swore at his bird until it deposited him in Corel. "WAARK!" it screeched and then it pecked him. "I shouldn't o' made as much fun o' Cid as I did. Those things are nasty." The chocobo looked at him with a look of superiority on its face and trotted off towards a puddle for a drink.
Barret rubbed his shoulder where he had been pecked and dusted himself off before walking towards the waiting crowd. "Hiya foo's, look we're needing ya help."
"What's going on Barret? You can see that we're not capable of helping much, but tell us what happened?"
Barret rubbed his head. "Well I could do with some volunteers to go up to the gold saucer with me and then make our way over to Midgar, or rather whatever's left o' it. Anyweh' dis is what we've been up to…"
Later on Barret led a team up to the gold saucer. The cable car assistants had been surprised that anyone was going up to the gold saucer. When they got there they found that most of the lights were off and the usual fairground music wasn't playing. "What's goin' on up here?" asked Barret.
Dio himself stood by the entrance looking worried, no one had ever recalled Dio looking upset before (except for that one time when his museum was robbed). He caught sight of Barret and the others and quickly walked over to them. "Customers!" he cried. "I'm so glad to see someone here, this place is almost empty. All of the money used to come flowing in from the Shinra people, but first Shinra went and then Midgar! Now there are few people rich enough to come here, we're going to have to…CLOSE DOWN if things don't improve soon!"
Barret looked the eccentric man in the face and tried to think of something to say. Dio continued before Barret could. "The world economy is in tatters, but what does that matter to you? Enjoy your time here at the Gold Saucer! Ha ha!
"Um, Dio. I'm afraid dat were not here to spend money, we're here to ask for your help. See Midgar is in trouble…"
~ ~ ~
Olton sat down in front of the main fire. The leaders of the community had all gathered for dinner.
"So," asked Olton. "What did our salvage teams find today?"
A boy who looked about 15 replied. "The main items of interest we found today were some proper tents. One of our teams found the ruins of an outdoor pursuits store. Now our people can rest properly tonight."
"Not a moment too soon, the first night is closing in." Olton nodded towards the sun that was beginning to hang low in the sky. "It's only been a day since the meteor event but our lives have changed so much. When Iona gets back we really have to thank her again for all that she has done, perhaps we could call her the mayor of this little town."
"Ha ha, mayor Versails. That sounds like a good one."
"Oh there was one other thing we found today."
"Oh yea? Spit it out kid."
"Another one of our teams went up to have a look at the no.4 Mako reactor." Several people in the group shuddered at the mentioning of the reactors. "Well we found that the reactor was only slightly damaged, if we got someone who knew what they were doing and looked at the other reactors for spare parts we could soon have an electricity supply again!"
There were murmurs of agreement from the assembly. A power supply was one of the basic utilities of modern civilisation; they would be well off if they could get a reactor working. Soon Neo-Midgar would be a proper town and the world would return to normal for them.
"An excellent idea, but we would have to find some of the technicians who used to work for Shinra."
"I'll start asking some of the townspeople tomorrow."
The group then finished with business and settled down to their meal, aware that supplies were running low.
"I've been thinking, all of a sudden things are growing in Midgar. Perhaps we should try to set up some farms in the area, we could grow our own food."
"We'll talk about it tomorrow. Hopefully Iona will be back by then."
~ ~ ~
Yuffie shook her head and was sick over the side of the chocobo again.
"God ^&*$in damn it Yuffie, keep your stomach away from me!" yelled Cid after his chocobo was forced to take a detour due to Yuffie.
"Sorry Cid, but you should, like, know I get motion sickness from anything moving too fast, and this chocobo is known for being one of the fastest in the world, I mean like gawd."
Cid grumbled something under his breath and kicked Shera lightly in the side to make her go faster. 'At least I've ridden on these things a few times before,' thought Cid. 'Heck, I've even won a few races down at the gold saucer. The other poor fools in our group must be doing worse then us.' He was trying desperately not to think of the fate that befell his beloved Highwind. He had been overjoyed at finally having his hands on a proper large airship but after the frenzied escape from the northern crater after Sephiroth's defeat, the battering from the battle of meteor and holy and the forced crash landing, there wasn't much left.
"What you thinkin' about now?" asked the off-colour Yuffie.
"Damn you girl, I'm tryin' not to think about the Highwind!" Yuffie herself wasn't that bothered by the loss of the group's airship. She had always felt very ill when riding in it. Slowly however, she realised that now they would have to travel everywhere by chocobo.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" she wailed. "What's up with you all of a sudden?" game the gruff response. "Why you acting like you suddenly give a $&*%?"
"Hey I do care too. It's gonna be, like, a lot harder to get around now and take a lot longer on these stupid birds!"
"Shut up and quit yer whining."
As the mismatched pair neared the top of a mountain they could see the plains spread out beneath them. A cluster on the horizon marked Rocket town. The usual distinctive rocket was gone, of course. Cid looked at his hometown and felt pride at what they had achieved. He had been one of the first people in space, along with that spiky hared dumbass Cloud, his girl Tifa and of course Shera.
"Hey anybody there?"
Yuffie was waving her hands in front of Cid's face to snap him out of his trance like state. To do this she had to manoeuvre her chocobo into a rather uncomfortable position. "Ah ^%$*," was all he could say. His sudden movement surprised Yuffie who then fell sideways off of her chocobo. She grabbed the chocobo's neck on her way down, causing it to panic and trip as well. Soon the two were lying in a heap a small way down the side of the mountain.
"Can't you go five minutes without making a fool out of yourself girl?" Cid moved his chocobo over to her to make sure she had taken no serious injuries. Once he saw that she was all right he said; "I'm off now so look after yourself, you can't always expect us to look after you, you know."
Yuffie looked up at him from under one of the wings of her chocobo. "Shut up you *$$&!%^, I've been looking after myself for a long time before I met you lot!"
Cid glared down at her. "I'll see you back in Midgar ninja wannabe."
"Come back here, I'll, like, tear you limb from limb!"
As Cid disappeared down the side of the mountain, Yuffie sniggered to herself. "Heh, heh. I've got so much of their materia now, that they won't know what hit them!" She said to the world in general. She opened a pouch on her pack and checked to see that it was all there. "It's a great pity Cloud wouldn't give these to me, especially after I asked so nicely. Oh, well I guess he got to keep his favourite summon 'Knights of the Round.' I looked everywhere and I couldn't find it. I wonder where he hid it?" Yuffie's chocobo stood up and shook itself off before glaring at her. "What? Don't look at me like that! Wait, what are you, like, doing? Wait, stay back, no, NO!"
The chocobo began to peck her repeatedly on the head.
~ ~ ~
Five of the six chocobo riders had reached their destinations that night. They had all talked to mayors and officials with varying degrees of success. As night began to fall over Neo-Midgar a small army of chocobo riders assembled.
End of Chapter 2.
Are there too many new characters? I may put up a list of my characters on part three.