'Wow… is this place ever trashed.' Paul said.

Everyone nodded in silent assent. Needles and old bottles littered the floor, relics from the city that was gone now. No longer were there homeless living in this dark theatre- there wasn't a living soul for miles in any direction, for all that there were buildings stretching out beyond the horizon. The city was old, dead…. empty. New Orleans was long gone, had been for nearly 5 years. The last Great War had seen to that.

'The blueprints say this thing was built like a bomb shelter, walls three feet thick on the outside. Like some old world thing, built a couple of hundred years ago.' Jack said. He looked up from the worn documents to the high ceilings, barely visible in the fading light of the day. The storm had all but taken away the last few hours of light that they were promised.

CRACK!

Lightning struck some tall part of the structure, and all the working lights in the room momentarily flashed on, blinding the group. Bats flipped their wings open and fled, terrified by the sound.

'Who knew bats could survive where humans can't?' Josef sighed, and then dropped his bags. 'Oh, great leader, tell us what to do. We have food and batteries and lights enough for a small army, maps of this gargantuan place, from Apollo's Lyre to the deepest catacomb. Where do we go first?'

Hope sighed. 'Oh, I suppose we could find the outermost dressing rooms, clean those up for now and set ourselves up for living in those. Tomorrow we can handle the big stuff, like having power restored to this place.'

Remy raised an eyebrow. 'You really think your mother is going to restore power to this giant old building? I thought that plant she found was half-destroyed from the war!'

'Half destroyed is still half usable.' Marguerite, speaking for the first time in several hours, piped out. She moved to stand by her closest friend, Hope, and smiled.

'Shell is a kind woman. She'll indulge her daughter in the one thing she can now, I think.'

Hope smiled at the thought of her mother. 'And besides, she thinks of it as an experiment. If the power works, and we can get this old place working, we can help loads of people! Turn this old stage, this place built like a bomb shelter, into a place full of life.'

Josef laughed bitterly. 'Once, this place was full of life. Full of great musicians, divas of the stage and virtuosos on the played note.'

'This place has been closed down for fifty years or more, long before the war, Josef. No musicians have been here for as long as any of us have been alive.' Alex's sad voice made it evident about how he felt on this matter- he and his sister, Elizabeth, were raised to understand and enjoy such things as the stage. Ah, to live that life again.

'No matter. Let us continue on to… where were we going, Hope?' Elizabeth moved to stand beside Hope, who had the second copy of the blueprints.

'The first wing of dressing rooms. Closest to the outside, easy access, fairly roomy. We can clean those up and settle for the night, I suppose.' She pointed at the place on her 'print, and then lead the way.