The walk towards their camp was as quiet an affair as you would expect. I felt a warped safety in the numbers of the group, knowing that if alien beings came it would no longer be me and a bird standing to fight them, but in truth my eyes just shifted from the potential threat afar to the one right next to me.
I was posted in the middle of the pack with Daniel and Aaron the blonde and black men respectively on either side of me, the pale sickly person standing behind me not having yet said a word or told me their name. Grace led the way forward head most on a swivel. I couldn't yet decide whether the formation was for their safety or something more malicious but I stayed cautious anyway.
The Camp as they called it revealed itself to be a toppled apartment building, remarkably intact for how hard it must have fallen over but it wasn't complete scrap like most of the other buildings. "It was an old vanity project of some politician, 'safest apartment ever, the thickest walls you'll ever see'" Daniel whispered to me, noticing my questioning stare. His words made me feel like less of a prisoner.
Grace led us towards a blocked window close to the ground that had a large wardrobe blocking it off. She knocked three times in a rhythmic pattern provoking an eye to be held up against a hole in the wood. A whispered discussion took place followed by me being waved forwards.
"What are your powers?" the eye in the wood asked me. I didn't quite know how to answer considering that I barely knew what my powers were. I answered on the cautious side, not revealing the potential that lay within my book, luckily I had a very handy spell that I doubt would work against me as an explanation of the whole. "I can make organic things grow, just give me a seed and I can make a plant grow instantly." The group seemed in equal parts interested and surprised. "What about the bird?" Aaron asked, "That's Rain, he's a child who gained powers of his own and turned into a bird."
The group glanced across at each other before seemingly coming to a conclusion. The wardrobe moved away and I was welcomed to the sight of a lobby lying on its side, dead potted plants piled on two of the corners where the pots had fallen, most of the walls were unhidden steel making the inside seem more like a lockbox than the entrance to some homes. The wardrobe man looked me up and down before shutting his ward behind the rest of the group.
Rain looked about the place shuffling across my head, I didn't know what he thought of the place, whether glad to be in some shelter or worried about the lack of blue sky. I didn't have enough time to figure it out before Grace drew my attention pointing and saying "There's the heads, as promised."
I followed her finger to indeed find the macabre war trophies lined up at the reception counter, Alien heads. The sight chilled me, reminding me of the horror of the beasts before following with a small bit of reassuring warmth. At the very least we seemed to be fighting the same enemy and that would have to be enough. "We all have to play our part here but it seems like your role is ready made, having someone to help with food supplies is a fortunate gift, scavenging is getting harder." Grace continued.
The rest of the group needed no indication as they headed of to whatever parts of the building they called home. "Let me give you a quick tour."
Grace led me through the different parts of the apartment building turned camp. Its strange layout due to having fallen on its side led to a weird experience but the layout was simple enough. Different floors were set up as different zones, most being living areas with the occasional one for stockpiling planning, a small armoury area with a distinct lack of guns and seemed closer to a garden shed.
We eventually reached the floor that I'd be working at, a stockpile zone for food with a 'cafeteria' and 'kitchen' the next floor over. In truth the cafeteria was just a group of apartments emptied out and filled with chairs and tables, and the 'kitchen' the apartment with the most intact appliances. Primarily just a grill hooked up to propane tanks and a fire in th furthest room from the grill it was hardly anything resembling a working kitchen.
"You won't have much to do until our scavengers pick up some dying plants and seeds, so for now we probably have you in here", she gestured to the room.
Our final stop was an apartment building near to the top, if the building was still right side up. A place of my own. Grace explained "Most of the items in here are yours to keep, anything important was already found but there are still some interesting knick-knacks. In any case I'm glad to have you here, welcome officially to Camp Hope."
She left me and Rain to settle in and look about the place. One bedroom, one bathroom and one room for everything else. It was a mess of toppled furniture and strewn about items, but realising that my thoughts were leaning towards the idea of cleaning made me suddenly stop. Looking out at the window to the balcony I found myself surprised. The glass made the view seem suddenly different.
"Camp Hope huh," I whispered, a chirp come from my head. "We can certainly do that."