Riley helps Dallas back to his feet and keeps an arm around him for support. He looks oddly fragile and more human out of his power armour and in his jumpsuit. Suddenly Dallas didn't seem like the muscle of the group anymore. He was all vulnerable and squishy like a hermit crab out of its shell. The old earth hermit crabs, not those big fuckers who hide in old vans. The crossfire dies down enough for Riley to take him over to Dustyn. With mutants and raiders on the loose, they really should be getting out though. "Look, Dusty's OK," he says as reassuringly as possible. Dustyn is far from OK but he's alive at least. Gunfire and screaming continues from outside the door and Riley, Billy and Erich stand around Dustyn and Dallas, waiting to escort the couple out. They seemed like high priority.

Dustyn immediately wraps his arms around Dallas and clings onto him like a sloth. While he's certainly not back to his usual self, Dustyn has a little bit more life injected into him now that his boyfriend is here. He takes a moment to just sink into and appreciate the embrace. There was a point when Dustyn thought they were as good as dead and that he'd never be able to see or hold his boyfriend again. "I...I don't like this world, Dallas..." he says in a shaky voice, holding back his tears. While it's perfectly understandable to bawl after his intense ordeal, Dustyn knows there is no time for tears. They've got to move and get out of here. He'll cry later in the safety of his own home...hopefully.

Deneil slings a bag over his shoulder, filled with stimpaks and ammo he has looted from the corpses. Sayyid does so too. The raiders in here might be dead but god knows how many flying bullets they'll endure on their escape from this hell. Supplies are heavy but a necessity in this case. "Fam, I'm ready to get the fuck out of here. Hopefully none of you cunts get hurt. I could get a good few caps for these stimpaks. Might even be able to afford a place in Diamond City," Deneil quips, stepping over some dead raiders.

"Diamond City?" Sayyid asks with the raise of an eyebrow. That place wasn't his brother's style at all. "I thought that place was too pretentious for you?"

"Yeah, it is. Filled with yuppie cunts and a pompous mayor..." Deneil is cut off by Joshua shouting across the room at the mention of Mayor McDonough. It sets him off.

"I hate that guy!! There's something up with him. I'm always challenging him and he's always threatening to kick me out of his beloved city. Overblown asshole." Joshua hates the man and thinks he should be removed from office. Not much has changed.

"Yeah...a-alright Joshy boy..." Deneil says in forced agreement, not really giving two shits about politics in this day and age. He just doesn't want Joshua to ramble on. "I just want security, bruv. Diamond City has that. I'm not afraid of a fight but shit like this? Not doing it on the regular. I'm a human with one arm. I'm a walking meal in this world. I don't want to do this shit anymore, fam. I'd gladly spend the rest of my days eating noodles served by a robot than move around from prefab to prefab, sleeping with one eye open out in the wilderness."

Oscar steps out of the room and is taken aback by what he sees. "Holy shit...". He expected this to be on the ground level. With the sheer height of the roof above them, it seemed like they were in some sort of warehouse and it was a solid structure on it's own but that's not the case. Opening the door reveals a long corridor with several others coming off it both on the left and the right. This place is a maze and bigger than anticipated. Getting out is going to be trickier than it already was with the mutants and raiders. "Which...which way?!"

"I love you too" Dustyn says as quietly as possible as if out of fear of being overheard by another potential threat. He just wants to lay low and get out of here as quick as possible. No time for dramatics and dwelling. Dustyn wraps himself around Dallas and tries his best to climb up on him. There's no way he'll be able to run after all the abuse he suffered so being carried is his only option. It's not the best way to leave an enemy filled place as he's a target for stray bullets and stops Dallas from defending himself properly but he hopes that with great fighters like Erica, Nina, Billy, Joshua and Riley around, it won't matter.

Deneil gives a fake sigh, pretending to be reluctant about sharing his stimpaks. He throws over a couple of them to Erica and then struggles to zip the bag. It's hard with one arm. "That's all you're getting. Make the best use out of them," he jokes, still fighting with the zipper on the bag. Sayyid eventually steps in to do it for his little brother. There are much more serious and pressing matters going on at the moment but Sayyid still doesn't like to see his brother struggle. While Sayyid fixes the bag, Deneil ponders over the Hotel Rexford offer. "Hmmm...I'll keep it in mind. Just as long as you tell that guy who works downstairs to stop asking for HalluciGen canisters. I went in there once to check the place out and he was asking me to go get toxic gas for him. Not even a "hello". Rude."

"You did it anyway...and you managed to squeeze 400 caps out of him for it," says Sayyid with a roll of his eyes. Deneil just chuckles.

Reuben inches back in closer to Nina and Erica after all the raiders have been killed. He did a good job helping to clear them out but after that little outburst of gunfire and bloodshed, he's starting to come back down to reality and wants to recoil behind the fearsome ladies with the guns. "Hello!" he says with a cheery smile, showing that he's OK after the ordeal. He holds up and shows off a pistol he nabbed as if to say "looky what I got". It's not the most jaw dropping weapon but it's something he looted from a body and then killed with so it's a big deal for Reuben.

"Oh those two might actually end up with kids one day," Billy says in response to Nina's remark about Joshua and Piper. "I've seen the sexual tension before and I've heard that you've been seen sneaking out of the Publick Occurrences building at bizarre hours of the night." Joshua just smirks and turns his head, starting to blush rapidly. He usually always has something to say but his silence speaks more than ever on this subject. They're banging.

Oscar leads the way out of the room. He takes Erich's advice and proceeds straight down the corridor but looking to his left and right, all the other corridors look similar. It really is a maze. The only thing he's grateful for is the fact that this level appears to be quiet. The battle is downstairs, wherever that may be. "What on earth is this place? Seems like a huge old headquarters of some firm. Why does Blake need such a big structure?" Oscar asks, looking around, seeing all sorts of doors and old office spaces.

"He's overcompensating," pipes up Joshua.

Riley is at the back of the group as he's arguably one of the strongest. If anything sneaks up on them, it won't have much of a chance against Ri. He's from Leeds. He turns around, looking back down at the room they were held captive in. Scott's torched body is still in view. He gives it one last look before following the others. This would be the last time he'd see his old bandmate. His body would just be left to stay and rot here forever. No funerals. He looks down a side corridor and sees the beginning of a stairwell. The stairs only go down so they must well and truly be on the top floor. "Guys, I think this is the ticket."

"You certainly didn't have that problem earlier, did you?" Billy says with a chuckle in response to Erich's story about the bitter woman. He's glad they can joke about willies and sex once again. You really take things like that for granted until you're locked up in a cage by a madman and are forced to select one of your group to crucify. He puts an arm around Erich and gives him a little hug. "Imagine if after all this, Karoliena turned out to be a rouge synth? I'd totally hate you," Billy jokes while resting his head on Erich's shoulder. Even though he's joking, there's a part of Billy that doesn't doubt it. Crazy things happen in this wasteland and things very rarely go smoothly.

Oscar leads the way down the stairwell very carefully. He isn't really a natural leader but he's running on adrenaline and wants to get out. "Staying up here is an easy option but if they return, we're trapped. The only way is down." Oscar lowers his voice as the sounds of gunfire and yelling amplify. They certainly are heading down closer to the action. After heading down the first flight of stairs, things are still deserted but the ruckus grows louder, meaning that it must be the floor below. "Is everyone ready?" he asks with the raise of his gun as he stealthily descends the next set of stairs.

"Is everything OK?" Reuben whispers to Nina, not really sure what's going on. It's a tense enough moment as it is, awaiting possible ambush, but to only have 20% hearing makes everything all the more unsettling for him. He can see the apprehension on Oscar's face and can feel the vibrations and muffled sounds of the conflict going on in the building but that's about it.

"I want to walk..." Dustyn says quietly in Dallas' ear. It might not be wise considering his injuries and the fact that they're about to enter the belly of the beast but it has been preying on his mind since he climbed into his boyfriend's arms. He doesn't want to be a hindrance. Everyone else is doing their part. Erica has a severely injured arm, Oscar's best friend sold them out to Blake, Deneil only has the one arm and Reuben is deaf yet they're still pulling their weight. "I'll be OK, I promise."

Billy briefly strokes Erich's hand, holding it for a second before letting go and continuing about their mission. He didn't want to make a grand gesture in front of the group plus he has no idea if Erich would be cool with it or not. They've definitely seen (and felt) a lot of each other but that doesn't mean they're at the PDA stage. "Ghouls get big willies, eh? Let's just hope you don't suffer from ghoulism then or I'd be in serious trouble." Billy smirks and winks before his eyes drop to Erich's crotch. They had a LOT of fun back in Covenant. He was actually going to make a joke about Dustyn first but realised that a trouser remark would not be suitable given what happened to him earlier.

Dustyn shuffles to the middle of the group, holding Dallas' hand as he does so. He may want to walk it out but it doesn't mean he wants his boyfriend any further than a few inches away. Dustyn, in all honesty, does seem to moving rather slowly and has developed a limp, not being able to put much pressure on his left leg. Thank God he has all of this support because if he was out on his own like this, he'd be walking Cram. He whimpers a little as he walks down the steps but he soldiers on in his usual Dustyn fashion. Dallas probably will have to lift up again at some point but he'll have to use his initiative and figure out when the right time is because Dustyn will not admit it.

As they descend closer to the chaos, it is apparent that the floor they're about to enter is the one where shit is going down. It going just be one of many floors but the fact is, they need to be ready to fight now. This is going to be their biggest test as a group and as fighters. While being in the cage was traumatizing enough, it didn't really involve combat and even afterwards when they slayed some raiders it was exactly that. Some. This is an army of them fighting with a pack of mutants and their hounds. Not to mention the fact that Blake is still on the loose with his dagger. God knows where he is lurking in this dark maze. Bullets will be flying, blades will be swinging and bodies will be dropping.

Oscar takes the first leap of faith and hops off the last few stairs, swinging around to his left and drawing his gun but it was the wrong move to make as a supermutant comes from the right and charges him with his board, sending Oscar flying a couple of feet. Sayyid quickly draws his shotgun and gets a few headshots on the green menace. It doesn't kill it but it certainly does damage to it's brain, knocking it totally senseless. "I'll finish off this one!" he says, coming down from the stairs and into the action.

Deneil scurries ahead, now at the front of the pack. With the two enemy sides fighting, he thinks that there's a possibility to just cut through it all but he gasps and scrambles to get his gun when he's at the top of the next descending staircase. "Holy shit!!" he yells, firing off a few rounds with his only hand and backing away. Two mutants and a hound were coming up the stairs towards him. It's now clear that they've stormed multiple levels. A hound pounces him and knocks him on his arse. "Ughhh, ugly fuck!" Deneil grimaces at the snarling beast and full on punches it in its grotesque face.

With carnage already breaking loose and more mutants and raiders in the area, it forces the group to disperse a little and head either up side corridors or into rooms as their original route of the stairwell is now blocked. Riley guns down a few raiders but he finds himself backed against a wall. Joshua now has a bloodied nose after being whacked with a supermutant's arm. Deneil is trying to lift a dead mutant hound corpse off of him with one arm. Oscar is struggling to get back onto his feet after being knocked senseless by that mutant. Reuben is sticking close to his beloved Erica, giving her an extra hand when it all becomes too much for them. Sayyid is near Nina, fighting enemies and helping her out when she needs it. Billy is on the floor, wrestling around with a raider. He takes out a knife and shanks the side of his head. Ouch.

Dustyn freezes on the spot and turns to Dallas, all teary eyed. "Dallas...h-he....he was one of them..." he says, tilting his head over towards a raider in caged armour at the bottom of the corridor. Dustyn didn't need to elaborate much as Dallas knew what he meant and was there to witness it. That guy was one who seriously abused Dustyn. While Dusty would love to kill him, he just can't. He doesn't want to look at the guy let alone enter combat with him. Dustyn turns his head and let's Dallas do what he has to do.

ooc: This is a big response but I'm just setting up a new scene. The gang have now been split up and I've used a different paragraph to discuss each new group and highlighted each member in bold to hopefully make it easier and pain a better picture of who is with who now.

---

Dustyn looks on as Dallas beats on one of his abusers but he doesn't actually watch. It's like hearing but not actually listening. He is so detached from it all. Everything around him plays out in slow motion. Dustyn thought he could brave this but seeing one of the raiders who abused him really set him back. He's lucky that everyone else on this floor is occupied as he's the perfect target, just standing there totally disconnected. When his boyfriend is finished beating up the piece of shit, he takes his hand and just lets Dallas lead the way.

"Dallas!" calls Riley's gruff voice when they're walking by. Riley holds up a double barrel shotgun that he's nabbed in a fight and tosses it over to Dallas after seeing that he didn't have a weapon. "You'll be needing that!". Riley then elbows an attacking raider in the face, knocking him out cold before heading in the direction of Dustyn and Dallas. Little Dusty needs as much protection as possible. With a BoS paladin and the Minutemen general by his side, Dustyn should feel a lot safer.

Billy and Oscar, who very rarely see eye to eye, seem to have teamed up and have each others backs as they beat up and share the same victims whether that be mutant, hound or human. All the drama and disagreements of the old world seems redundant now. They've already lost one Weekend member to this world, they don't want to lose another. It's nice to see them finally bonding albeit over literal dead bodies.

Sayyid and Deneil rush over to Nina's aid when discovering that she has a severe head wound. Deneil offers some stimpaks while Sayyid tries his best to examine her on the move. "I've stitched gums but never heads...Oscar is Diamond City's doctor though. How bad does it feel?" Sayyid is no real doctor but he knows that a head wound can be quite serious. "Yeah can we play doctors and nurses when there's less bullets flying, bruv?" quips Deneil, sticking close to Nina and his eldest brother.

Reuben is smacked in the mouth by a female raider with the worst hair (ever heard of conditioner?). He contemplates for a second, holding his mouth and wondering if it's OK to hit a woman in this circumstance. His mouth is stinging like a bitch and she'd probably try to kill him any minute now so he swings back and belts her across the face, knocking her on her ass. He doesn't have to do much else though as she takes a bullet to the head courtesy of Billy.

Joshua runs over and snaps the neck of a raider who was sneaking up on Erich while he was playing around with the dog corpse. "You can thank me with a Tarberry Pie later." Joshua smirks and drops the raider corpse to his feet. "Seems to be less mutants around." It is a case of famous last words, however. His ears prick up when he hears something in the distance, growing louder and more irritating by the second. It's a constant and incessant beeping. Not one but TWO super mutant suiciders are marching up the staircase. "Run!!"

A bunch of raiders at the top of the stairs try to fight them off with hopeful shots but it's too late. They erupt and due to the close proximity and power of both of their bombs, the damage it does to the already decaying structure is devastating. Parts of the floor gives way, ceiling tiles fall, pillars collapse and an almighty dust cloud and deafening ringing consumes everything else. The fighting dies along with most of the enemies but now the group is split and injured. Riley, Dallas and Dustyn are the only people still on the same level. They had moved up one of the corridors and were furthest from the blast. Their old route is blocked off though and the only way is forward, further into the maze. Dustyn clutches onto Dallas after the explosion. He can't hear properly and is glad he wasn't killed in the blast but his friends? They were all down at that section.

Sayyid had bailed himself, Nina and Deneil down the abandoned elevator shaft when he first saw the suiciders approaching. It was a huge risk and a sore drop but the chances of survival were higher than running head on into a makeshift bomb. They find themselves on top of the defunct carriage which is thankfully stuck just below a floor. Light from between the doors can be seen. It will just take some prizing to open fully. Deneil lays down in pain, clutching his stumped arm. The wound has opened and he is heavily bleeding after landing on it from such a height.

Reuben, Erica, Billy and Oscar have fallen down a level after the floor gave way. They find themselves in a much darker and dingier setting - a room filled with old desks and blown out terminals. Looked like a once busy office back in the day. Now it lays covered in all sorts of dust, rust, mould and everything else. It's clearly not a room Blake and his goons use. Oscar screams out, holding onto his arm as he lays on top of office cubicles. He has dislocated his shoulder. Billy immediately hops to his feet looking panicked as he's now separated from Dustyn, Erich and his two brothers.

Joshua and Erich have also fallen throw the floor in the blast but haven't been as lucky as the other groups. The amount of rubble and debris that has fallen with them has covered the pair and they now find themselves trapped in a nest of concrete. Everything is dark minus some natural light coming in from some window...somewhere. It's enough for them to see they're in deep shit. A pillar has fallen across their legs, pinning them down and possibly breaking multiple bones. There is no clear way out or sense of direction. It's like they've just been placed in the centre of a building demolition. A huge shard of mirror dangles above them, threatening to fall and impale them at any second. Joshua coughs and wipes his face. A mixture of dust and blood smears onto his sleeve. He looks to his left and sees Erich. "Are...a-are...you...you OK?" he asks in a hoarse voice before dry coughing and almost choking on all the dust.

Riley pats himself down after the blast making sure he's got all of his bits and pieces. "I'm intact," he says before doubling over and coughing. The dust really is killer. The place wasn't in the best shape to begin with after all the years of radiation and neglect. It's not nice breathing in the nasty particles caused by the blast. Riley takes a rag out of his pocket and covers his mouth and nose with it. He's always had difficulty with his breathing so he's not taking any chances walking through these dust clouds.

Dustyn cuddles into Dallas, visibly shaking. He's been through a lot today. Let's add surviving an explosion and the potential loss of the majority of his friends to the list. "We'll...we'll find them, right?" he asks, looking up at Dallas with his emotive blue eyes. It's not so much a question. He wants to help find them and be given false hope. The last thing he wants to hear is that they're all gone even if it is highly likely.

Riley looks at Dallas, giving an empathetic expression. He knows that Dallas just wants to get out of here and that's the smart thing to do...but Dustyn wants to find his friends. "Your call..." Riley says, hoping Dallas knows what's best for Dustyn and their new mini group

---

Billy walks over to Oscar in the most nonchalant manner, slips a hand under his back and applies upwards pressure. Oscar's shoulder pops back in with an almighty crack that fills the room. He screams out in pain, understandably while Billy walks away like it was nothing. "Stop being a baby, Oscar. We've got bigger problems here." Billy is back in leader mode. He has to be a little colder and shut off. If he thinks about his brothers and his best friends too much, he'll just break down. Although they're niggling on his mind, Billy does his best to suppress it. He walks around the room, kicking and touching random items and just getting a feel for their new location. He then looks back and surveys his team. Erica is a strong fighter, Oscar has a great shot and Reuben...is cute and has nice hair. "OK, we need to find the others and we've got a good team here. Normally the plan would be to get the fuck out but this isn't an ordinary fight or looting scheme. Erica, Nina is still somewhere in this building. All my friends...my brothers...Erich, who this whole journey is for...they're still somewhere and might need our help."

"Are you sure? Billy that blast was pretty..." Oscar begins, holding onto his arm which doesn't feel like it belongs to him due to the numbness.

"I know!" Billy cuts him off. "I know it was fucking bad. We survived though, didn't we? We were the group closest to the blast. Believe me, we're not the only survivors."

Reuben is just sat on the floor with white dust and powder all over his fluffy hair, totally in his own world. He snaps out of his daydream and looks over at Erica, holding up the gun he still has and smiles sweetly.

---

"Deneil?" Sayyid asks, crouching down and running a hand through his youngest brother's hair. He hadn't even given his fragility when he forced his brother to take the plunge. All that was on Sayyid's mind was to survive and he had no time to think things through. He sees the deep puddles of blood oozes from his brother's stump and from under him. Sayyid looks and sees that Deneil landed on a jagged piece of metal on top of the elevator carriage and it had impaled the bottom of his spine. "Deneil...I'm sorry...." Sayyid's voice starts to break as he realises that Deneil is bleeding out and it's from being pushed down the shaft.

"I'm...I'm fine fam..." Deneil says in a quiet voice with his eyes closed. He knows he's not fine at all. Deneil just doesn't want Sayyid to worry and hate himself. "You...you go...I'll...I'll just...rest here for a bit..."

Sayyid turns to face Nina, not sure what to do while holding his dying little brother in his arms. "Nina!! I don't...I don't know what-....I can't!!" Sayyid cries and panics, holding out a hand that's entirely covered in blood to show the severity of Deneil's wounds.

---

"You get to spend your last moments with me. Shame they don't do the whole tombstone thing anymore. You could've had that engraved on it," Joshua says in his usual dry manner. Even in the face of death, he remains witty. Joshua looks up at the serrated mirror that dangles a good 20-25 feet above them that threatens to fall at any moment. "Great. I really am going to be killed by my own damn reflection. Own worst enemy and all that shit, right?" Joshua chuckles but soon winces and grits his teeth as he feels the pressure of the rubble on his waist. Everything below his navel area is covered in concrete and all types of debris from the blast. "No, I just genuinely like tarberry pie," he says in response to Erich. Joshua tries his best to turn his head to face his fellow trapped friend. "You know...it wasn't my place to say it publicly but...I do think Billy really liked you. I could see it in his eyes. I thought, for a short window of time, we'd all get out of here and you two would make a go of things." Movement in the building causes more dust to fall from the ceiling and sprinkle over Joshua and Erich. The usual dry coughing ensues again.

Riley looks around, guns at the ready, trying to get his bearings. After the blast, he has been confined to deadly quiet corridors alongside Dallas and Dustyn. They had agreed to find their friends even though, in the back of Riley's mind, he believes the results won't be pretty. Of course Riley loves his dear friends but this is a suicide mission as it is. Storming the building as just a trio with the limited ammo they have left...not the wisest idea. Riley takes a deep breath and turns on his heels, making the decision to move forward. "Onward, I guess. Well...that's the only way, I guess" he says, looking at the rubble that's blocking off the section they once stood in with their friends.

Dustyn holds Dallas' hand, squeezing it tightly for a second before letting it go. His man will need his hands free in combat. He can't be a clingy bitch at a crucial time like this.

At the end of the corridor, they're presented with a locked door yielding a terminal. Riley sighs and tampers with the device for a few seconds. "Well at least it works but we need to get around it. I hate these things." Riley fiddles around and hacks into the terminal, being presented with a screen of different numeral combination. "Jesus, this is difficult. Usually it's letters we're dealing with. Blake's got this heavily encrypted..."

"Try 020412...if that's an option..." Dustyn says sheepishly from the back.

Riley shrugs and does as he's told. The terminal beeps in approval and the deadlocked door open. On the opposite side of the door lay a plethora of catwalks overlooking old machinery from back in the day. Riley, Dustyn and Dallas step out and look over the vast space around and below them. Several dead raiders and mutants lay in the underbelly of machinery. The area seems cleared out. Holding onto the railings and looking down at the chaos, Riley asks Dustyn, "How did you guess that password?"

Dustyn clears his throat and scratches the back of his head. "Um...it's a date. It's uh...it's when Blake and I first met..." he says softly, not wanting to bum Dallas out. The fact that Blake uses something Dustyn related as his password takes it beyond obsessive.

---

Down in the lower parts of the building, Sayyid holds onto his bleeding brother for dear life. It's wishful thinking that a hug and some love will make Deneil better but he's bust. He's already missing an arm, the wound has opened up again, he has fallen God knows how many floors down an elevator shaft and landed on some mental shards. He's done. With his eyes closed, Deneil starts to speak in a groggy voice. "Just....just go..I'm...I'm just gonna chill here, fam...". Obviously he knows he's dying but doesn't want to be morbid around his inconsolable brother.

Nina nor anyone has ever seen Sayyid like this. He's bawling like a baby, his face is all cut up and covered in blood and dust, his perfectly styled hair is a riot, he's...human. Sayyid usually gives off a very suave, materialistic, perfect Instagram model vibe with not much depth to him. He always seemed somewhat uppity and appeared as if he looked down on his more "common" brothers. Now, in the face of death, it's clear just how much his brother means to him. "Nina...what...what are we going to do?" Sayyid says, sobbing into Deneil's hair as he holds him from behind. It's going to be tough to separate them and they need to get out of here.

"Is...is that a way out?!" Dustyn blurts out in the happiest he's sounded in years, leaning over and almost falling from the catwalk as he points to two very large doors down below them in the junkyard looking area. It appears as though those doors were once used as a means of entrance and exit for large delivery trucks when this factory had its original purpose back in the day, whatever that was. "But if we leave...we leave everyone behind...and then it's all the way back to Diamond City...just the three of us..." Dustyn says slowly and quietly as the reality sets in. This day just goes from worse to worse. Can they survive as a trio? Will he be able to live with himself if he makes it back home while he left his friends to die?

Riley looks over, holding onto the rails as he surveys the doors down below. "They seem bolted but they're wooden. Shouldn't be too hard to get through. Anyone else just think this seems too good to be true?" Just then, a bullet pings off of the rail a few inches from Riley's hand. "Shit!!". He recoils to avoid any further fire as he readies his own gun. From down below, a scantily clad female raider emerges from behind a disused conveyor belt and starts shooting at the group with her pipe pistol. Riley stands back up, ready to take his shot before he screams out in pain and falls sideways, almost knocking Dallas over. "FUCK!" he yells, holding his bicep which is bleeding courtesy of a bullet. While distracted by the initial shot, a male raider managed to sneak up and onto the walkway, getting a shot at Riley.

"Don't fucking move and nobody else gets hurt..." begins the raider, inching closer towards the group while keeping his revolver aimed. "We need to get out of here and to do that, we're gonna need your guns," as he speaks, three other raiders emerge from behind him as back-up. It's an ambush.

---

"Sayy...come here..." Deneil begins, pathetically trying to raise his hand to gesture to his brother to inch closer. "You-you're doing good...you've done so much for me. I know...growing up we were a bit estranged but we got there in the end didn't we, bruv?" Deneil coughs while Sayyid cries silently, holding his baby brother. "You looked after me when we entered this shithole of a world. You really fucking stepped up when I lost my arm. You did good, fam." Deneil says in a croaky voice, trying his best to put Sayyid at ease. He knows that Sayyid is blaming himself for this and that's not true. While pushing him down the shaft is what ultimately killed him, it was with the best intentions and had they not moved, all three of them would have gone up with the suicider mutant. "You've been strong as fuck all this time....and now is not the time to be a soppy fucker. Go check to see if it's safe out there for you and Nina."

"But Deniel I'm not leav-" Sayyid starts before being cut off by his brother.

"Sayyid, go. I'm right here. Hardly gonna run off to Ipswich am I?" he jokes, still trying to find humour in things. "Make sure the coast is clear. We didn't come this far to be gunned down by a rookie raider." Deneil reaches his hand up to meet his brother's squeezing it as tight as he can. "Go, Sayy."

Sayyid nods and sniffles, rising to his feet and gently resting Deneil down. "I'll be back in a minute, I promise." Sayyid looks up above, trying to control his tears before looking back down at Deneil. "I love you."

"And I love you too," Deneil says with a genuine smile even through all the pain. "Now, go. Keep that chin up...all three of them." Deneil says with, what will ultimately be, his last laugh.

Sayyid shakes his head and pulls open the elevator doors, stepping out into the unknown for the first time since the drop. After a couple of moments, Deneil looks down at Nina's pipe revolver. "Make it quick..." Deneil says quietly before looking off into the distance. Any eye or real human contact will make him want to cling on to life. It's best to be swift and cold about this. Sayyid is out the way and he knows he's just going to bleed out in pain anyway. He doesn't WANT to die but at least he can be in control of it this way. The Khans like to live by their own rules so they might as well die by them too.

Dustyn raises his hands in surrender immediately. He doesn't want to get shot. It looks really painful what Riley is going through. Dustyn is too small and cute for that. "Don't hurt us...we all just want to get out of here..." Dustyn says, edging closer towards them with his hands still raised. After what had happened to him, he isn't seriously considering joining up with the Raiders to storm the place...is he? "I don't want to hurt anyone. There has been enough blood spilled today! Look down there at all those people. I think I lost pretty much all my friends too!" Dustyn says, almost manically like he's unraveling by the second. By this point, he's in among the raiders, pacing about like an enthusiastic lecturer.

Riley watches Dustyn in confusion and then in amazement as he starts to piece together what Dustyn is doing. Not many people can hold of raiders from firing but Dustyn is cute and charming. He's tiny, unarmed and not a threat and it's exactly why he's doing this. He's not a threat and the raiders are starting to drop their guard around him, turning their backs on Riley and Dallas, the ones with the guns. Riley subtly raises a hand to Dallas, gesturing that he shouldn't charge in and make any rash decisions. He thinks Dusty has a plan.


"I've had enough of people dying..." Dustyn continues, now having made his way to the raider at the very back of the group. "There are mutants out there and it's going to take a lot to get rid of them. Sure, mutants are dumb but they're big, carnivorous, strong and heavily armed. We can't be turning on each other. We have to be fighting the real enemy." Dustyn gets brazen and rests a hand on the raider next to him. "One thing I will give to the mutants though...they're not as dumb as you." Dustyn headbutts the raider and pushes him over the side of the walkway.

"NOW!" Riley commands, opening fire on the raiders who Dustyn caught off guard.

---

Deneil dies as peacefully as one could hope for with a bullet to the brain. It wasn't a pretty sight with his blood up the wall and the side of his head bust open but at least it was instant. There was no scream or prolonged pain. He had lived quite a colourful life; as a gay Asian rapper from the streets of London to a one-armed defrosted time traveler in post apocalyptic Boston. Dying on top of a rusty elevator is not how he imagined it would all end but it's better than choking on a chicken bone.

After the gunshot, Sayyid stomps back to the elevator almost instantaneously all flushed in the face and out of breath. "We need to move!! We're not alone!" he exclaims to Nina, not even registering what had happened to Deneil at first. It all happened so quickly and the trigger was pulled when he was already running back towards them. "Deneil?!!". Sayyid sees his brother and frantically pieces everything together. He knows he's dead and is distraught but has zero time to say goodbye or mourn as the snarling behind him grows stronger. "Run!" he yells, grabbing Nina's hand and pulling her along with him. Not two seconds later, two mutant hounds come charging towards them. With the speed of the "dogs", there is no time to get a perfect shot and the only way seems to be forward. Sayyid sprints down the corridor, Nina's grip in one hand and a pistol that has seen better days in the other.

"There are more than two. I saw a bunch of them feeding on some dead guy!" Sayyid says sounding terribly out of breath. He's used to a sheltered and fairly cosy life. Running from mutant dogs in the dingy basement level of an old factory is not something he's experienced in. As they run ahead down the corridor, the only option is through a set of double doors dead ahead. Where they lead to, who knows? Could be another maze, could be a way out, could leave them trapped in a small space with the hounds in tow. "Plan?!"

Dustyn rubs the top of his head and pouts at Dallas when he comes to his aid. "My head hurts," he says quietly as he tussles his dark blonde hair. He seems a little confused after the ambush and the burst of adrenaline. Something in him just took over and he's surprised at how quickly he came up with a plan. Now he's a little shaken and thanking his lucky stars that he managed to pull it off. "Did I do good?" he asks, looking up at Dallas while still rubbing his head. He's not really made for combat. He's lucky he has Dallas and Riley, the two beefiest members of the group with him. Dustyn looks over the edge and sees the guy that he killed. "Oh...I...I...he's...dead?". He's not used to killing people. It's starting to sink in that he ended someone's life despite the fact that he was evil and would've ended Dustyn's.

"Great thinking. Glad you used your head...literally," Riley says with a chuckle as he stumbles back to his feet while clutching his bleeding arm. It hurts like hell but it's going to take more than that to keep Riley down. "Think there is any more?" he asks, stepping over the corpses and making his way further down the catwalk. The group stay closer together and take much smaller steps unlike the confident strides before the ambush.

They head down clunky metal stairs which leads down to the ground in among the bodies, machinery and awful damp smell. There's not so much a floor as there is dirt and mud. "I don't think that door leads anywhere. You'd think those raiders would've used it." Dustyn says, stepping over a decapitated raider.

"Nope...I think the problem is that's it's tougher than we thought," Riley says across the way, tapping the huge doors. From afar it looked wooden but it's actually reinforced with metal framing and a blown out terminal. He turns back to Dustyn and Dallas. "Thoughts?"

---

Sayyid shoulders the door open, not wasting precious time fiddling about with a handle. On the other side of the door lays the second half of the corridor. This time however, it appears much more disused and dilapidated with hardly any lighting and "damp" and "rusty" being the only way to describe the area. By luck, there is an old water cooler by the door which Sayyid tips over and uses as a makeshift barricade to block the door. "This won't hold them for long but it'll do..." he grunts, pushing it against the door as much as he can. The dogs batter and shake the doors while Sayyid exhales and turns away, trying to stop himself from breaking down in tears. His baby brother just died and a set of mutant dogs want to eat him. "What a fucking night..." he says, running his hands through his hair.