Apocalypse RP #3: The Vanishing

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Nobody understands exactly how it started, or when. People go missing every day, after all, never to be seen on the face of the Earth again. It was a few months before anyone even realized it was a problem, between the stalled police investigations and the increasing frequency of the occurrences. Spouses awoke in bed, alone save for the impression left by their other. Children got off the bus and skipped, blissfully unaware, into empty homes.  People you'd know all you're life, people you had taken for granted that they would always be there, were not. Tensions bubbled under societies surface as the public clamored for answers, whether from science, government, or god. Panic was building up, like surface tension at the top of a glass, waiting to spill over and flood the world.

The day the president vanished was the day everything broke down. After that, it was every remaining human for themselves.

You don't know which of you suggested stocking one of your basements, but thank god for them whoever they are. That's where you've been for the past seven months: in the cramped, one room, cement shelter under one of your homes. You spend most of your day watching one another, willing the others to not just up and disappear on you. You heard that being seen can prevent it. You sleep in shifts, two staying up to watch one another and everyone else between them. Sometimes you heard people, at least you hope, stomping around upstairs. They never found their way down.

It is in this manner that you waited out the apocalypse. The only excitement came about halfway through your seclusion. The.... abilities crept up and caught you completely off guard. They were subtle at first, but from the meager experimentation possible in this cramped space you could swear they are growing by the day.

Perhaps it is emboldening to have the sort of power that you only ever saw in comic books, perhaps it's not being able to stand the these four walls for just one more day, perhaps it's because the static on the radio has resolved itself into a broadcast for a group calling themselves "The Army of One," making promises of shelter and safety from the Vanishing.

Also, you're out of food. That may, in fact, be the deciding factor. Whatever the reason, the stairwell beckons.

(As Myself traditionally said "I declare this RP open! " I'll close this if no one is interested.)

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Benjamin James Archer wrote

Today is the day. Today I leave this cement tomb and step back into the world we left behind, whether the others follow me or not. We have no food left, I ate the last of the peaches last night, if we are going to survive we must leave.

Nobody knows what's up there beyond those steps. There's no way of telling. No way of seeing without stepping outside. It is a gamble, a gamble we may lose. But it must be done.

I leave tonight.

Ben sat at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at the solid door that stood, strong and still at their peak. He knew it was the only chance of survival outside this room, but the mystery of what lie beyond scared him. He'd packed his few belonging last night and placed the bag beside him as he sat, building the courage to leave. He hoped desperately that his power might save him from whatever might lurk outside.

The radio crackled with static, one of the periodic breaks from the constant broadcasts of the Army of One. Maybe they could help. If they could be found that is.

As he thought to himself, Ben looked over his shoulder at the others and watched them.

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Nanami stared at the wall, listening to her various anime songs that cycled through her iTouch, let out a sigh and glanced quickly at the others. They were all so different, but at the very they all could work together if the past few months had been any indication, though boring. She just didn't want to disappear like her family had... good riddance for that though, they'd been utterly useless and she hadn't even seen her mother in years.

Looking back at the wall, Nanami raised her hand up and let a few sparks fly between her fingers. When they'd all discovered that they'd gained powers, she'd been delighted to find that hers were just like her two favorite characters: Misaka and Jupiter. It had been fun to play around with them for short periods and she'd been able to keep her iTouch powered, albeit with limited functions and a few damaged electronics in the process of learning, not to mention her companions getting... minorly shocked. Now, she waited for the others to make a decision on whether to leave or not. She  didn't really care either way.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Anxiety colored Tyler's face, as he looked to either side of him. Not a single shelf had a scrap of food to eat. True enough, that girl Nanami had the ability to help keep her iTouch going--and Tyler's Nook, too--but without any proper Internet up and running, there was nothing good to keep him distracted from the world outside.

He let out a sigh.

"How bad do you guys think it is up there?" He asked, "I mean...even with our powers. Do you think we stand a decent chance?"

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Ben sighed, "There's no point in wondering. We've no choice but to go out and see for ourselves. We have no more food. We'll die here if we stay."

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

Nanami leans back and looks at Ben upside down, an even more bored look on her face than before. A liiiitttle prank should be fine, right? It's not like it would hurt anyone... and the serious talk was annoying and boring too.

"Would it be more likely for us to disappear first or die?" Nanami asked as she began to use her power to play around with the radio's settings from afar, switching it from the FM/AM range to the range around which TV shows were broadcasted on.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

The radio squeals, making a load whirring noises. Amid the static, you can just barely make out words.

".....make......life...le....world.......zero........my of one.............altation...."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Ben jumped at the sudden burst of garble words from the radio, knocking over his bag which had been propped against him. When he reclaimed his senses he glared at the radio and then at Nanami. It had her signature all over it. He began to yell but stopped, his face softening. He couldn't stay mad at her.

[Philote]

Nicholas, or "Nix" as most people called him, sat in the back corner of the cellar trying to gain a couple moments of rest. His insomnia was beginning to take its toll, and the paranoia brought on by recent was only making it worse. The static and conversations coming from the other side of the room would make sleeping impossible at the moment though, so he decides get up and see if he can manage to be sociable again.

Nix was still wearing his gray pajamas from the first night he had set out for this basement. His relatives had contacted him late that night, rousing him to make a mad break for the safety of this shelter without even the chance to pack first, making his shoes the only sensible thing he had with him. Nix had made it to the shelter, but none of his family had arrived.

"What are you guys going on about?" he says, coming off more grouchy than he had intended.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"We're going out, apparently." Tyler fumbled through his pockets.

What he was looking for...it wasn't there.

He reached for his backpack, fondled its contents, and picked up the flashlight he'd been looking for. Concentrating on it for a second, it slowly fell from his hand as five flashlights.

"Anybody else need one?"

He dared not eye anyone. It had already been a point of contention that he'd failed to use his power on the food and other resources before they all ran out. Still...flashlights were something, right?

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Ben grabbed a flashlight, stuffed it forcefully into his bag and stood up straight in the middle of the room. He looked at each member in turn. Over their incarceration in the shelter he'd come to know them well. Too well. He couldn't stand it here another minute.

"That's it! I can't take the waiting anymore. I'm leaving. Whoever's coming, let's go!"

With that, Ben spun around and headed for the stairs. He marched up them, mentally counting them one last time as he did. As he neared the top he waved his hand and the door swung open. The brightness of the world outside glaring in as a wall of white. With a deep breath, Ben stuck his head cautiously outside the door.

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

And it's at that moment that Nanami sneaks up behind him and says in a (deliberately) somewhat silent whispery voice, "Iiiii've cooooome fooooor yooouuu...."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Terrified by Nanami's prank, Ben leaped a foot in the air, spun around, smacked his head on the door frame and fell backwards out the door into the world beyond. He gasped for breath as he tried to calm his racing heart.

[Philote]

Nix grabs two flashlights from Tyler, sticking one in each pocket of his pajama bottoms.

"Would of been better if you duplicated them with some edible parts" he says under his breath, with just the right level of grouchiness, as he walks away from Tyler.

At this point Ben makes his move up the stairs of the basement. None of them had dared to even draw close to the door until now during their confinement and the act serves to distract Nix from his insomnia fueled mood.

"Well....can you see anything up there?" Nix says with a quiver in his voice. The fear in his voice surprises him. He had not been a cowered in his previous life, but now just the idea of traveling outside was chilling his bones.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

From the door and from the floor, Ben and Nanami find the small kitchen/dining room. It looks like it's been ransacked. The door to the backyard swings open carelessly, the fame and floor ruined from water damage. The table has been flipped over against the cabinets. The fridge stands open, whatever was not taken left to become the mossy white mold that now spreads out of it onto the floor, like a tongue. The smell is disgusting, but with the ventilation in the room it's not nearly as bad as the hole you and your non-showering companions are now crawling up from.

All the world is silent, save for the cross-breeze blowing through the house. Outside the door, you can see that the back yard of this suburban home has been overgrown with weeds without anyone to care for it. It's about mid-day, from what you can tell.

There is another doorway next to the fridge, leading to the darkened interior of the house.

You can feel the wind. You can see sunlight. From where Ben lays, sprawled on the floor, he can feel it on one of his hands.

Welcome home.

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

"I'd thay we need a new pad it anything," replies Nanami, holding her nose in obvious disgust. "Whoeber came though here ruined eberything."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Ben rolled over onto his stomach and stood up slowly, his eyes never leaving the scene before him. It was a huantingly beautiful thing to behold. The ruined home that had once been so familiar, now a foreign landscape ravaged by neglect. The bright sun once a constant that had been absent for so long was a miracle to see and feel.

Ben stepped slowly trough the room in a daze and stepped full into the sunlight spilling in the room. He took a deep breath and for the first time in weeks, he felt at peace.

[Zaleramancer]

Sascha blinked and fidgeted slightly, emerging from the smooth flow of variables and if-thens that had been occupying her attention.

The room had suddenly become a great deal less full of people. A creak of a door echoed down the musty stairs.

With a stifled groan, the young woman raised herself upwards and joined the others on the stairs.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

From where Ben stands he can see more clearly out the door into the overgrown backyard. The picnic table has fared better than the interior wall, but you're not sure you'll be getting the deposit on that patio furniture back. You can see the grill, tipped over among the weeds. There used to be a garden back here, but you can't see it.

There's a hole in the back fence, near the bottom. Like an medium sized animal had burst through it. Beyond the fence the trees of the small wooded area between this suburb and the next sway in the wind.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Tyler jogs up behind Ben and looks down at the hole in the back fence.

Running a hand through his hair, he says to no one in particular, "So, are we going under or over?"