Day 012: Concussions And Hallucinations
Summary: A false alarm Grounder attack and hallucinating Delinquents with rifles.
Date: 20 May 2016
Related: Depot Delving and A Rough Lesson
Delinquents Silas Faolan Kai Layla Elias Mimi Grey Lip Quinn Alison 


The Grounds, The Camp and The Forest Surrounding Camp, The Wilderness

With the removal of underbrush and a half-dozen small trees, there is now a tiny clearing around the dropship. It has begun to fill with detritus from the ship, including all of the seating, padding, and removable plates or bulkheads.

Several tents have been set up within the clearing, set close together within the confines of the surrounding trees. A small collection of weapons sits under a parachute-cloth shelter by the door of dropship, open for community use. A three-holer latrine is set up downwind of camp in the prevailing breezes, and a rough wall stretches between trees at the edge of the clearing, dropship plates and felled tree-trunks stacked up and lashed together as best as the Delinquents can manage. There is a gate at the north end, a single panel that can be rolled aside at need.

The forest immediately surrounding the camp has been cowed into near-silence, but is still vibrant and green to a people used to stark metal bulkheads all around them.

12 Days After Landing

Dusk has fallen over the camp, with fires lit within the wall and guards walking along it, when a call goes up from the north end of the camp, outside the gate, "Grounders!" It's Brody, one of the Grounder-hating Delinquents who was friends with Joe, the teen who died during the Rescue. "They attacked Rawlins and Simmons." Another voice chimes in, "And Grey!" This voice is a great deal squeakier than normal, and it can soon be seen that both Delinquents are hobbling toward camp from the woods.

<FS3> Silas rolls Survival: Good Success.

Sitting near the stump he always sits at when he's doing something craftly, Silas is quiet and has a primitive tanning rack set up that he's working on. Unlike last time, he /actually/ decided to wait and let the hide he's fleshing soak. Having been at it for more than a few hours, Silas is finishing up with fleshing it out with a few odd spots here and there before the yell comes in. Silas stops, hesitating for a moment before he draws back his knife and tucks it away. Silas reaches around and grabbing his sword as he leaves the hide there, speed walking over to the camp entrance as the two come hobbling in as he calls out, "How are your injuries?!" as he runs over to get a look for himself and help them in.

The call of a grounder attack has Faolan jumping up from where he'd been half snoozing under a bit of canvas. He blinks groggily, blinking a few times before the noise of it all reaches him and gets processed in his brain. That's when he leaps to his feet with adrenaline rushing. His grounder sword is next to him, never too far out of reach, and he snags it and drags it free with a rough motion. While Silas is concerned about injuries, the tall ex-Cadet is shouting at the camp in general: "Grab weapons!" and to the guard on the wall: "See anything?!" And to Brody: "Where, how far away?!"

Darkness, usually a good time for Kai to skulk off to wherever it is she goes and come back, but tonight she aint so lucky. The lean ex-Cadet pauses in her stripping of the stalk in her fingers as she regards the approaching injured and Silas with marked disinterest. The stalk gets stuck between her lips as she loiters among the shadows, hearing, but not immediately responding to Faolan's call for weapons as she silently assesses the situation.

Brody and the newly-made soprano hobble up to the gate, with one of the Delinquents on guard hauling on it to roll it back. Brody's arm is wrapped around his ribs, but he manages to respond to Silas, "My ribs man, they hurt. And Eggers got kicked in the eggs." Eggers does not seem amused by this, squeaking at Faolan, "There were like…" he glances at Brody, then goes with, "…eight of them. Just back there." Since he can turn (just not walk or sing a bass line), he points back the way they came. The guard shrugs at Faolan from the top of the wall, "I don't know… there might've been some movement a little bit back, or something, but I don't think so…"

Layla has only just about come to accept that fact that any time she sees Mimi that the talk of her breasts is going to come up. She's just then resolving to go and speak with the poor concussed young woman, to just take a bra and say it was the right size whether or not it actually was, if only to prevent any more scenes like what she just endured.

Only… as she's doing so, Layla hears the cries that Grounders are attacking. Wisdom dictated that she should go hide, but most people her age aren't wise. Oh no, Layla decides to check things out.

Faolan frowns as he assesses Brody and Eggers, and its not hard to see him process the information and compared it to the Grounders he's fought so far. Arrows. Blades. Blood and mayhem everywhere. "Your fucking ribs hurt and he got kicked in the nuts?" He asks, slowly, still holding onto his naked sword but it drops just a little bit. "What kind of attack is that?" A hard glare. He's still all tension.

Elias hears the call of 'Grounders!' from within his tent and he immediately hangs his head. After cursing under his breath, he stands up and exits the tent. With a short burst of speed, he moves out into the camp proper and immediately swings his gaze left and right to look for someone 'in charge' as it were. Spotting Faolan then, he starts heading rapidly in that direction. He's weaponless at the moment, but does keep his eyes out for where they might be kept. He doesn't bother asking Faolan what's going on, but does give him a concerned look. "Where?" he asks quickly, pausing on his way to the communal armory. There is another pause then as his attention then falls on Brody and Eggers. For the length of the exchange between them, he stays silent and watches, following Faolan's cues if necessary.

Silas quickly looks over Eggers and Brody with mere glances before his gaze is thrown over to look to Faolan. "I'll get them inside- can you take a look just in case there are Grounders before we start trying to interrogate them?" asks Silas as he moves to not entirely gently escort- clearly sharing Faolan's doubts with the situation. "Careful with yours eggs, Egg."

No blood, no dangling guts? No cries for mommy? Well, maybe Eggers had squeaked for his ma when he found a heel crunching up into his…Ah, you know. Layla's mouth tugged downwards into what appeared to be a disappointed frown. There was little for her to do, it seemed, and Silas had the two boys well in hand. Still, "It might be a feint," she suggests to Faolan.

"And Rawlins and Simmons…" a glance from Brody to Eggers, and then Brody is looking back to Faolan, "..And Grey. I think he broke my ribs." He blinks, then adds, "You know, the Grounder. s." Eggers collapses down to the ground just inside the gate, looking up at Silas and whining, "It hurts, man." He's also not speaking all that well, like his throat hurts. "When was the last time you got kicked in the nuts?" Brody insists, "They're still out there! Rawlins and Simmons… and Grey."

Mimi steps out of the dropship carrying a bow and arrows. "We are under attack?" She pauses looking around. No..shouts of pain. There is a sincere lack of death. Or fire, or other nasty things flying about. "Have we been confirmed to be under attack?" she asks of no one in particular. She walks slowly towards the middle of camp "Do we have a medical emergency?"

"If a Grounder wanted to kill you, he'd just fucking stab you," Faolan tells Brody. "Or shoot you all full of arrows." He glances at Layla, grunting. "Or a ploy to lure us out. Malcontents from the Grounders trying to shit on the summit." His fingers ripple across the grip of his sword, clenching and unclenching it. He shakes his head at Silas. "No, we interrogate them now. Learn everything now, then we move out in an armed group together. These two can still talk." And he cuts his hard eyes at Brody and Eggers. "Describe the attack. Where, what happened. What happened to Grey and the rest? Did you just run, or did you look?"

Kai smirks slightly to herself, perhaps it's the sight of Elias moving off in the direction of the armory, maybe something else, but she elects to make her unhurried way in the direction of the armory, too, taking the stalk from between her teeth and flicking it off to the side as she goes.

Having begun to lean down to try and simply drag him further inside, Faolan's words stop Silas during his movement as he looks over to him and then back down to these guys, listening to him before he gives a nod and reaches around, grabbing and steadying his grip on his sword as he moves to glance outside the gate before looking back to them. "I'll keep watch, then." he says with a nod to Faolan, before hunkering down and watching outside the gate for any movement. Just in case.

"Brody and Eggers say there's been an attack by Grounders, some other kids are still out there," Layla says to Mimi when she arrives on the scene. She motions for the other girl to come closer, "Faolan's going to figure it out. I don't think you should be handling a bow right now…what with your injury." Because maybe Mimi /was/ a mathematical genius, but right now Layla thought she was just loopy as hell.

Elias drags his feet to a stop near the armory and turns his head back towards the direction he came from. False alarm? The question is fairly obvious on his face. For the moment it seems like it's all clear, at least. In that pause, his eyes focus on Kai and his expression falls to one of mild annoyance. "Great," he attempts to utter under his breath, though it comes out just a bit louder than intended. He turns back to the armory once again to mull over the options he has there. Anything to avoid eye contact with Kai.

Brody spots Layla, "Oh! You're one of those baby-docs!" Apparently, he didn't get the memo to stop calling them that. "I think I got my rib broke. And Rawlins got knocked in the head." He shrugs helplessly at Faolan, "I'm telling you, man, Grounders. A bunch of them. Big dudes. Punching and kicking and then they totally just left. I think it was like, a message, man. To warn us to stay away." Eggers points back to the north, "Back that way, a little off the path to the west. Like, thirty meters out there. They were all down when we saw them last."

Mimi moves to Layla's side when she's called over. "I am just about as good with a bow now as I was before the head injury - which is to say not very good at all." She considers the situation. "If Grounders attacked us it is unlikely that they are the grounders that you think. There is a third faction of which we are unsure of. Tech-saavy ones. The grounders have no reason to attack us currently. That means if we were attacked it would not have been by them, but they may be a different faction of grounders."

Kai's smirk broadens at Elias' reaction, swaggering the last little distance to deliberately push past him and claim one of the swords. He might not want to look at her, but she's got no similar qualms as she drags it off the table to make her unhurried way towards the gathering at the gate wordlessly.

Faolan squints at Brody, frowning, still running it all around in his head. Then he shrugs and releases the other delinquent from his frown. "Layla, you're coming with. Might need your skills." Medtech ways and all. A glance around tries to determine who have grabbed weapons. He looks at Elias and Kai by the armory, and Mimi and Silas, and any other delinquents. Kai in particular gets a nod, you know, the ex-C to ex-C nod. "Let's go, then, together. Careful of a trap, and get ready to withdraw if we have to."

Silas quietly looks back from outside the gate and looks back to Faolan as he hears his speak. He stares and returns the gaze he's given, nodding before his gaze goes around to follow Faolan's glances to the others before he looks out once again. When the word is given to go, Silas shifts as he steps over and out the gate somewhat, waiting to move out with the rest of the group when they're ready. "If there are ball kicking grounders out there, I'll be pretty fucking upset."

Mimi looks to Faolan as he's about to depart "Be careful. In this land we are the invaders. If you come across grounders who are watching us - which you very well may, our armed group could be seen as violent invaders from their point of view. Remember this viewpoint before action is taken."

Layla looks to Brody with something like annoyance, as if he were greatly infringing upon her valuable time. Yet no sooner than the young woman is about to begin examining Brody to discover whether or not he is truly as damaged as he professes to fear, than is Faolan ordering the group to gather together. She offers Brody a shrug, and says, "You don't seem to have any difficulty breathing. I'll check you more thoroughly when we recover the others." Or, in other words, toughen up, buttercup.

That said, Layla falls in line as the group gets ready to venture forth. All in the center-like, because she's the healer and all you tanks are meant to protect her, duh!

Elias glances at Kai from the corner of his eye, but otherwise just takes one of the spears for himself and moves to double-time it back towards Faolan. The spear is gripped in both hands and carried crossways with the point safely up. As he closes distance back to Faolan, he gives the man a wide-eyed nod before looking past him. "I'm following your lead, boss. I'm not gettin' skewered tonight."

Brody and Eggers gratefully remain behind as the group departs, slinking deeper into the camp. It's not a long walk out into the darkness, even without knowing exactly where they're going, but soon the flickering light of torches reveals the hulking Rawlins and his more slender compatriot Simmons unconscious on the ground between a couple of trees. Rawlins has a bloody gash on his head, and Simmons is curled up around one side. Oh yes, and an unconscious Grey, tied up to a nearby tree with his arms pulled behind him and several bruises around his face, including a bloody nose and split lip.

Kai gives a chin in Faolan's direction, for all that she looks about as disinterested in going anywhere. Elias and his spear merits another slow and sardonic smirk for all that she apparently elects to follow Faolan's lead, too.

"They and their viewpoints can go float themselves," is Faolan's succinct opinion of the Grounders and all the various attempts that have been made to see it from their side. Even if he was one of the delinquents who released their prisoners without asking the camp at large, and started the whole summit business. "Just stay in the second line," he tells Elias. The shaky member of their crew. He's seen everybody else hold their own at some point. When they reach the injured Delinquents, he curses. "Dammit." Looking around the whole time expecting an ambush, he still moves to cut Grey down as the first point of business. Silas having been their scout the last time they tussled with the Grounders, he asks him: "Can you read any trails? See where they went?"

<FS3> Silas rolls Survival: Good Success.

Kai isn't particularly moved to go help the injured when they find them, for all that the ex-Cadet's comfortable watching their surroundings as Faolan moves to take care of Grey she's content to prowl and watch for something to try and sneak up on them. However in this she can't help but pass by Elias to remark to him snidely,"Do try not to stab yourself with that thing." on her way past.

Back with the second line he stays. While Elias is uncertain, he does hold the spear tight and prepared in case he needs to take advantage of its reach. Kai's smirks and glances are largely ignored, but occasionally caught by the boy. When she makes the remark to Elias, his eyes finally meet hers. With a smirk of his own and a terse upwards nod to her, he speaks a quick and sarcastic reply. "Wouldn't want to ruin your night." He holds with the second line for a moment or so, but finds himself stepping just a bit closer to the unconscious delinquents. This provides a better vantage point to watch the investigation, at any rate.

Whether or not Layla is moved to help someone is neither here nor there. She's one of the baby-docs, and there are three people in need of attention. One of them she even views as not completely awful, but as to just who that may be is between her and whatever dark spirits still roam this malcontent earth. She kneels first at Grey's side, followed by Rawlins and then Simmons, muttering aside to Faolan, "Why did they only tie him up?"

<FS3> Layla rolls First Aid: Good Success.

Silas quietly looks over to Faolan as he moves out in the front, his sword at the ready as his eyes glide back and forth as he heads out to where he last saw the duo hobbling in. When they come upon the scene, Silas purses his lips and immediately goes to looking around. He looks back and over to Faolan, listening to him as he asks about trails and looks down, furrowing his brows as he looks and spots their tracks and nods. "Yeah," he says, pointing over to the evidence of a scuffle and a fight. "Everything happened here, so it looks like these guys didn't go anywhere." he says with a motion of his head to the injured delinquents. His eyes look around for a moment before he spots some tracks coming from the north, his right index finger pointing towards the tracks. "Looks like someone came down from the north, and then the fight happened. Only one person, it looks like- so they were lying about these two big grounders or whatever they came up with." he says with a blink, looking back to Faolan. "There were four people here to begin with, and one came down from the north." he mutters to himself, looking around a bit before his eyes catch a blood splatter around the right height to have some unfortunate guys head smashed into it. Silas steps over and looks it over for a moment, before he looks back to Faolan. "They definitely didn't fight any grounders." he says, his eyes glancing over to Grey. "These guys probably fought amongst themselves. And I'm willing to bet it was the four against our trade mark musclehead." he says, pointing over to wards Grey as to make sure everyone knows just who he's talking about. After all, we've got a lot of those, right?

Grey slumps down when the… parachute cord… holding him onto the tree is cut. He's unconscious, with at least one blow to the back of his head, and by the way he flinches as he's moved, several deep bruises — or worse — to the back of his ribs. He groans softly, but still seems pretty out of it.

"So," Faolan says as he with a frown sheathes his sword, working out Silas' words. "Grey out hunting, comes home without nothing. I swear I should be in charge of hunting. These two and the other two assholes ambush him. If he'd just gone crazy on them chilling, they'd not call it a Grounder attack." He nods his head as if that makes sense. He frowns at the parachute cord in his hand. "And.. they tie him up and blame the Grounders, then limp back. Let's get everybody back, then have a second talk with those two. See if that hypothesis is accurate."

"So here's what I'm thinking. With these items that we have found, I feel as though this is a clear sign that we are meant to be here. Working together has proven to be both beneficial and rewarding. Not in a selfish manner in the least, I dare say. No, I speak more of the shared victory that we have come unto. It is through companionship and peer motivation that we shall overcome the trials and tribulations of reclaiming earth. If we continue to work together we will, undoubtedly, frame the future in our image. And that, my friends, is something I am quite looking forward to."

Is that… is that Lip? The Voice of Treason leads the way! While he doesn't seem to be carrying anything that's actually worth anything, which is to say that he's not carrying anything at all, Lip is walking backwards and doing what could only be described as Supervising In Motion. He's got both of his hands up and is waving them in a manner that may be more like an air traffic controller than anything else. "Steady, Friends. Steady. Watch your step." Lip takes a moment to stop and smile as he looks around the area that leads back to the place that they've all worked hard on making livable. Or, at the very least, survivable. "Let us continue on. We're almost home." Lip may or may not be wearing a blanket as a cape. Figures.

"They beat Grey pretty bad," Layla says, her expression somewhat disgusted. "They were kicking him while he was down," and she indicated that which told her as much, though she suspected anybody even somewhat familiar with harming others would be able to recognize that as well. "We're going to need to send someone to jog back for some stretchers and extra hands. Simmons does appear to have a broken rib or two, and Rawlins has got a nasty gash on his scalp, but nothing worse than that." Her dark eyes slide back to Grey, where they linger. She shakes her head.

And then there is Lip, and really, not much else need be said.

"Why don't you make yourself useful." this from Kai to Elias with a nod in Layla's direction to indicate maybe he ought to go fetch. But with the prevailing opinion that it's an internal matter she subsides to finding somewhere she can lean against, not particularly opting to do more than supervise herself for the moment.

"You could also help." Quinn's voice is sharp, less excited than it was hours ago, but she's also helping Alison and Max haul the tubs and a barrel….while Lip directs. Or, she was helping them haul things when she takes a step, and it looks like she's going to step up onto something and there's nothing but air beneath her foot and she pitches forward onto her face.

Elias gives a brief snort of laughter for Lip's antics, but the news of how badly Grey is hurt has Elias instantly in motion at the expressed need for a stretcher. Kai's comment earns her a hard look, but he doesn't argue with her right now. Instead he gives a nod of his head and takes off back towards the camp quickly. "I got it," Elias calls out to Layla and Faolan on his way. There is something else uttered in regards to Kai, but it's awfully faded by distance by the time it leaves his mouth.

Alison wears an oversized, inside out ACU blouse over her normal clothes. The red haired woman pushing a black fifty gallon drum, rolling it along. Clearly it has been a long trip, and the barrel slowly thunks along implying something within. At Lip's cheerful leadership, she gives a shove, not enough force to roll it into him as Alison might have planned. The slender girl wobbles, mis-stepping, and nearly falling. "What!?" She yells as Quinn falls, a quick motion grabs at something dark hanging under her shoulder. "What was that?" She says, lifting what appears to be an assault rifle, because it is. The barrel is waved up at the sky, and she drops behind her steel drum, "Freeze." She demands, "Surrender! Stop humming!"

Grey groans softly in the forest duff, his eyes flickering open for a moment, then squeezing shut again at the flickering light of the torches and the shouting. One hand shifts, trying to come up toward his face, and he hisses in pain.

Faolan hears the noise, recognizes the voices, and absolutely wants to find out what the returning party got out of the depot. But he doesn't wait around. "I'll send some more people back to help carry." With Elias. "And have a word with Brody and Eggins." By the way he says 'word' he means something else. His fingers clench and unclench into white knuckled fists. He starts off at a jog.

Silas quietly brings around his sword and sheaths it under his belt, bringing his arms to wrap around his chest with a quiet breath and a sigh. "I know I got in a fight here and there, but this is pretty shitty." he says, looking over Grey and then other two delinquents. He looks over his shoulder to listen to Lip, blinking for a moment before he turns and lets his hands slip down to hand at his side, looking over in time to watch what at least looks like Quinn falling which almost brings another figure he's not too familiar with. Staring for a moment with furrowed brows, the young man listens and ponders going over to investigate the words he hears before he looks over to Faolan as he begins to slip off. Silas stares for a moment or two with a blink before he looks to the others. "I'll leave Grey to you guys," he begins, shrugging his shoulders. "I've gotta get back to finishing that piece of hide- so when Grounders actually attack we will have some form of armor." he says, moving to head off in the direction of the camp as well. "See ya'." he says, walking off.

"Yeah," Layla says to Grey, who may or may not actually hear her, "You're not going to want to do that." Her hand reaches for his wrist to gently push his own away from his face. She watches Faolan depart, and her lips thin ever so slightly. When the extra help does arrive, Layla will direct them to first see to Grey before getting either Rawlins or Simmons if neither had come to by that time. She says to the group at large, "It looks a lot worse than it really is, what with the blood and such."

Faolan is gone into camp. At some point there might be some noise, commotion, the hooting and hollaring that tends to accompany fighting in the camp. Boyle and Eggins were hurting when they came into camp. Anyone who might later talk to them will find bloodied faces and worse.

"Oh, good Heavens! Many apologies! I merely assumed that you were quite capable of handling things upon your lonesome! I shan't deny you any longer! Allow me to assist with whatever you need!" Except in the middle of his words, Lip has managed to realize that there are things going on that don't involve what is happening with the squad. "Hark! What darkness falls upon us like prey in the night?!" Lip turns and runs up towards a rock that's big enough to leap onto and he plants his fists against his waist. "Tis I! The Incredible Lip! Show yourselves or I will vanquish you with my might!" He doesn't even know if or when or how close they are to anyone else and such. He's trippin'. Hard.

"All the world's a stage," comes Layla's dry remark to Lip's introduction; exclamation; threat? "It is we, Delinquents not quite three - Myself, and Kai. Wounded they lie are Grey, Rawlins and Simmons, with help on its way." A pause. "I'm done trying to rhyme. Anyway, there's been a fight, Grey was knocked about pretty badly. I need to get them back to camp as soon as possible so I can get them cleaned up."

Grey turns his head away from the lights and sounds, either not fighting Layla's gentle push or aching too much to do so. His lips move with no sound, he winces, and then he tries again, whispering, "Ow." The poetry certainly isn't helping things, and he starts to roll over from his side to his back, only to hiss sharply and roll onto his side again, "ow, ow, ow."

Kai at least seems to be sticking around, not that the ex-Cadet's likely to be needed, or seems to be terribly motivated to do anything other than lean up against the tree. Likely she heard Lip coming, given the way she looks in the direction of the arriving squad, but doesn't appear motivated enough to respond even so much as by unfolding her arms from in front of her but instead looks back to Layla with silent expectation.

Alison braces against her black drum, assault rifle (An M-16 variant) aimed outward and shifting back and forth. The rifle barrel tip pointed upwards, aiming in the trees. "Lip, down.. Quinn, they are in the trees. The leaves, they are blocking my vision!" She readies and glances to Lip. "Watch out, the LEAVES! Get down." She slips her finger to the trigger, "Fssht, Fssth, fssth!" She screams forward. Nothing comes out of the rifle, but Alison 'fires' again. "Boosht, foosht, fooshta!" Maybe, with an exception imagination it might sound like auto-fire.

Eventually Elias and company come back double-timing it with a stretcher. He's carrying the front of it while one of the ones who accompanied him carries the other end. They bring the stretcher through the darkness and into the torchlit area before setting it down near Grey and Layla. And what a thing to come back to. There is a brief hint of amusement there, but concern over Grey's well-being seems to be paramount. He eyes Lip and Alison for a moment before exhaling a sigh and just shaking his head. "Seriously," he utters before moving into a kneeling position near Grey and looking to Layla for direction. "Alright. Should we be…" Elias' gaze flicks over to the clearly not-well-off Grey. "moving him?"

The medic's epicanthic eyes widen slightly at Alison's antics, her expression closing off and transforming into its more well known mask of utter disinterest, although, all things considered, in this case it may seem as though it's a lot more like utter annoyance. Her attention snaps to Elias upon his arrival with the others, however, and at his question she gives a curt nod.

"It will be fine to move him, though he's no doubt in a great deal of pain," if those owes meant anything at all. "He hasn't sustained any serious injuries that would make me hesitant in moving him to the medbay. You two," she snap points at the others Elias brought, and then gestures to the others. "They're coming 'round. Get them to their feet and back to camp. Preferably some place where they understand if they leave Faolan may have a thing or two to say to them." Emphasis added on say with a show of her fist.

Getting to her feet, Layla sighs. "Another concussion - like Mimi's. He's going to need to rest or he'll risk worsening the condition."

"Oh dear! Oh me! Oh My! We shall help with all that is needed!" Lip leaps from atop his rock and grabs his blanket cape. He lands in the most Batman style he can manage without knowing what the hell Batman is. He pops back up and takes off in a quick run towards where those that may be injured are. He slides to a stop and plants his hands on his hips again. "There are criminals afoot. In the trees. I will protect you." Lip points at Grey with an extended finger. "I will move him. Give space! The Incredible Lip will save this day, yet!" This is probably not going to end up well. "Fair Alison! Cover us, my dear!"

It took Kai a moment, usually she's faster on the uptake, but really, it was at once so common, and so unexpected a sight. The procured sword from the armory finds itself left tip down in the ground for the moment, because Alison? Has a rifle. Which is what finally motivates the ex-Cadet to move, ignoring Elias and the wounded in favor of prowling over in the direction of Alison and the drum in her usual unhurried way.. hell, perhaps even a little /more/ cautious than usual, just to be on the safe side. Lip barely gets a look, half her own lip curling in a silent sneer as she passes.

One of Elias' new friends nods at Leyla's words, "The Box then?" That would be the top floor of the dropship that can be locked from below, where they kept the Grounder prisoners.

Grey is slowly coming too, for all that his pupils are like pinpricks and every loud noise (oh hi Lip!) makes him wince. In fact, when Lip comes close, he flinches back, "Oh god… my head feels like it's splitting. Where the hell are those bastards?" His words are still quiet, barely more than a grumble, "And… Lip? What the hell are you doing back? In… a… cape…?" He probably shouldn't be as surprised by this as he is. Blame the concussion.

"Don't touch him!" This rather sternly from Layla, who likely hasn't the height on Lip at all. She's pointing, and there was even something of a foot stomp. Then, in an effort to direct the young man's exuberance…elsewhere without perhaps making things worse, Layla suggests, "I would be ever so grateful if you would, instead, focus your great talents in scouting the way, and alerting the others in camp, who are so sadly ignorant of the, uh, criminals."

"Got it," Elias replies to Layla, his gaze ticking to the 'ow'ing' Grey. When Kai moves past him, the dark-haired youth looks up. "Kai! A little help?" he calls back after her. With the others that he brought with him busy getting Simmons and Rawlins, he's left with little left to get Grey onto the stretcher. As she follows after Alison he squints his eyes towards the redhead and the rifle she's carrying. His gaze lingers a moment longer on her before it shifts once more to Layla and then to Grey. "Heey, buddy. I have bad news. You're going to need to bail on the beauty contest tonight." He makes a wincey face at him before looking back over towards Kai to see if she's coming back.

"Hurry, Lip, Quinn get down. Watch the LEAVES!" The normally calm redhead screams, eyes following to Lip, then Grey, "He's down.. Watch out! Medic!" She screams as if Layla weren't there. When Kai starts to close, the rifle is snapped around towards her. Then she raises the barrel safely higher. "Come on, take cover.. The trees." A hand leaving the rifle to point at the tree. Another round of fake fire, "FOOST foosht, foosht."

"Flush it, Elias." Kai doesn't even bother to look at him because her attention is totally on Alison, or well, at least, the rifle Alison's holding. Wisely she stops when that barrel swings towards her, but when it moves again so does she,"Heeeeyyyy…" she's trying, alright, with that smile plastered on to her face,"Yep.. the leaves.. definitely.. how about you hand that to me, yeh? I think you got them."

"How can I share the world with people like this?" Layla asks in a low mutter as she watches a pair of boys get Rawlins and Simmons to their feet, and carefully lead them back to the camp. "I'm going ahead to the medbay, to get some things prepared to tend to their wounds." This to Elias as she starts to walk back.

Alison nods to Kai, offering the rifle over. She looks to the trees, leaning close to offer in a hushed tone, "It is not loaded." her words very slow as if trying make the woman understand. Her hand shoves in to a pocket, and she presses some greasy rounds to Kai, "Here, to load it, I was just faking the sound, but they don't know." Her finger pointing at the evil leaves.

Kai accepts the rifle from Alison with only a minimal degree of grimace for the greasiness of it, only to have it followed up with rounds. There's a vague nod from her for the words from the other woman,"Sure." she agree's without really bothering to look at the leaves at all in favor of examining the greasy rifle,"I'll keep an eye on them." she doesn't even bother to make it sound like she means it, for all that she gives that smile at the other girl with a glance at the barrel,"Let's get this… happy little mess back to the camp.. before the leaves attack." in absence of Layla, or Silas, or Faolan she asks of the returning squad,"You guys get the barrel, yeh? Someone help what's-his-face with the stretcher." she wipes at the rifle with her tee, attention going back the way Alison, Lip and the barrel appear to have come from with a calculating air, but at least apparently deciding to stick around and at least try to be useful.

Grey grunts at Elias' words, "Screw that." His words are groaned a little spacily, "I'm still pretty enough for any two ladies. Arkers or Grounders." He lets out a breath, then adds, "So. Next self-defense lesson. If it's four-to-one… run."

Alison crouch walks off towards the ship. The 50 gallon drum is pushed off towards the guards.

A thin smile is given from Elias to Grey at his words. A couple of the other delinquents are waved over then to help him help Grey onto the stretcher. "Shit. Any three ladies. But right now we have to get you back to medical so they can make sure you live to see the future in which that never happens." Flashing a smile at Grey then, he helps to lift and hoist him onto the stretcher with as much care is possible. Up he goes then as Elias and one of the others lifts the stretcher. "So what happened after this morning? Slow day? Decided you needed to shake things up a bit?"

"Decided to walk home." Grey's words are still quiet, and he cries out softly as he's rolled onto the stretcher, and again when it's lifted, although the second time he clamps his teeth down to stifle the sound. "Apparently, this is a bad neighborhood." He blinks against the light of the torches and flops one arm across his face, "Too damn bright. Jackholes decided to… to…" he searches for the right word through the fog in his head, "jump me. Too soft on Grounders. Or the Ark. Couldn't decide which."

There is a brief snort of laughter from Elias. While his attention is on the path ahead as he carries the front of the stretcher, he does make it a point to keep the guy awake. He's sure he heard somewhere a person with a concussion shouldn't fall asleep. "Damn savages around these parts," he agrees. "Think this might be a wake-up call to start walking around with people who don't want to beat the shit out of you? Maybe even actively prevent this sort of thing from happening?" Elias blows a strand of hair out of his face as the lights from the center of camp starts to peek through the arm covering Grey's face. The ride is as smooth as they can make it, avoiding obstacles and such in their path. "We're going to have to deal with both inevitably," he replies on the topic of Grounders and Arkers. "We can't win in a fight against either much less both on a separate front. We'll have to deal eventually."

Grey sort of nods from under his arm, "Yup. Fuck or get fucked." That probably means something to his concussion-addled mind. "Didn't think they'd actually attack." He pauses, then muses idly, "I think one had a rock in a sock. Ark. Need to not…" He searches for the right word again, "break up. Split. Split." The second repetition sounds firmer. "Remember we're all Skaikru." Huh… he pronounces Trigedasleng better when he's concussed.

"Stay with me now," Elias says, turning his head back briefly to make sure that Grey can hear him. "We're almost there." And still they continue on, fast-approaching the dropship…assuming that's where medical things tend to get done. "Yeah, I hear you, though. I got my parents up there. Say we do broker peace with the Grounders, though. What are they gonna' do when they get down here?" There's a subtle shrug of his shoulders to that. "Hell. At this point, we have more experience surviving down here. If we can make a deal with them, we can at least find out if they know how to grow things in the soil."

"Two weeks." Grey mumbles the words, "Two weeks more experience. And they taught us." The main medbay is up on the second floor of the dropship, since a lot of Delinquents are still sleeping in the bottom floor rather than in tents. "But we're all valuable here. Not like the Sky. In the Sky, we're all a drain. Here we're all useful." He's still sticking around, even if his train of thought is a little jumbled and his words probably not exactly the ones he would have chosen otherwise. "Chan… Chanc… Jaha's still gonna have to make a real peace. We're just damned kids."

"Well, we're all that's here right now," Elias replies to Grey as they carry him into the bottom floor of the dropship. It's there that they start to hoist Grey up the ladder with plenty of extra help. "Anyone..tell you..you're not..supposed..to eat the rocks?" he asks Grey as he helps haul from above while the delinquent under him pushes. Finally they manage to get him up onto the second floor and to a makeshift cot where he will be presumably treated by Layla. "We still gotta' make the peace now if we can. Or it'll be too late by the time they get the cavalry down here."

Grey does his best to help out getting up the ladder, flopping his arms around, pushing with his legs… which probably means that he has to be steadied from above and below. It's not a bad concussion, but all concussions are bad sort of thing. It's embarrassing too, especially for a Grey, one of the asshole breed. Still, he gets bundled up onto the deck, and shortly afterward, onto one of the new blankets, "Yup. And keep Morgan from screwing it up for the whole Ark." The far-too-cheerful words are also probably said far too loudly, considering that there are plenty of rebel-types around.

"Shh," Elias says, putting a finger to his lips. "Keep it down. I'm not really prepared to keep you from getting your ass kicked again." There is a nod to the other delinquents that he's got it from here. Bad concussion or no, it doesn't seem like Elias is necessarily intent on letting him fall asleep just yet while Layla gets prepared to take over. "Eh. Easier said than done. Hopefully we can all manage to not die another day. Wrangling everyone and getting them to think the same, though…that'll take some doing. What things are immediately ahead of us that we need to take care of as soon as possible?"

Grey is silent for a long moment, but he drops his arm from over his eyes in the relatively dim light of the dropship, with its recessed panel lighting being used sparingly, "Supply depot." Apparently he didn't see the group returning, not really, "Wait… did I see Lip?" Blinking that away, he repeats, "Supply depot. Grounder summit. Worm fishing." That may make sense only to him. "Um… more hunting?"

"Yeah, they came back. I don't know about the Grounder summit, though." Elias cants his head a bit at Grey, sitting down a comfortable distance away from the other guy lotus style. "Actually, Alison had a gun with her. Kai took it away, but I have no idea what she did with it." Pinching the bridge of his nose then, he shakes his head. "Ugh. Things are antagonistic enough and now she has a gun. We should probably get it from her. Girl's kind of…" He waves a hand then. "She's the one that got me 'Boxed in the first place."

"Summit's… tomorrow?" He blinks, starts to shake his head, then winces and puts a hand to his temple, "Later. After healing." But then he mentions the gun, and Grey struggles to sit up, only to groan in pain as his ribs… well… there's a technical term for 'hurt like hell due to blunt force trauma,' but Grey doesn't know it. Slumping back down onto one shoulder, he gestures up, "Guns are dangerous. Should be up… up… locked up. Kai. Ex-C. Hot. Cold." He shakes his head again, struggling to focus, "Ex-Cs are the best to have them for now. Have to trust someone. Have to make them safe."

"After healing," Elias agrees and accompanies that with a nod of his head. "And hey, if you trust her…I suppose." He doesn't seem so convinced that the gun is in good hands. "I just hope it's not the knock to your head talking because I'm fairly sure she has borderline impulse control when it comes to punching me in the face." A short laugh is snorted out then and he settles his elbows on his knees. "Eh. She probably already locked it up." There's a resigned shrug of his shoulders following that statement. "Oh! Want to hear a secret, by the way?"

Grey makes a wavey, non-committal sort of gesture at the talk of trusting the other ex-C, "Trust is… trust is… trust is…" again, he's searching for the right word, "…hard." By his frown, that's not it, but he goes on, "Gotta trust someone though." The mention of the secret has Grey blinking, and he carefully looks to either side, as if he hadn't just been talking about trusting people and plans in a full and normally-loud voice. "Sure."

"Nah, maybe later when you're not so out of it," Elias says, laughing afterwards. "Come by my tent once Layla says you're good to be up and around and I'll show ya. I brought a little souvenir." The smile on his face broadens and his eyebrows give a quick wag. "Keep your voice down, though. You've seen me fight. You'd be a dead man if I'm all that's keeping people away." Falling quiet then, he considers the Ex-C guy for a long moment. "Well, I haven't fully committed to trusting anyone. I have my issues with the guard, the Ark..all of it. We do get a fresh start down here. I just hope we don't fuck it up like last time around."

Grey slumps back down onto the blanket when Elias teases him with the secret, muttering, "asshole…" There's not much heat to it though, and he nods a little at the promise to show him later. "No fresh start if we piss someone off and they kill us. Grounders or Arkers. Best bet, make everyone love us." Because that's worked so well for him. And then one of the medtechs comes by, studying Grey's eyes as an assistant turns up the lights in that area of the dropship, studying the response and then having the lights turned down again as Grey flinches away. The medtech notes, "I've got him now. Thanks for keeping him awake. We should make sure nothing's broken, in his head or anywhere else."

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