Taking control of the situation, Lucas splits the group into ten groups of five people per group. "To the south is an office building, We can make that our temporary shelter for now." Lucas points at the twenty-story building in the distance "I'd like groups two and three to search for supplies like food and water. You could probably find something at the supermarket over there. Try checking any convenient stores also."
Lucas directs them at the build buildings in the east.
"I'd like the other groups to split up and search for any intelligent creatures in the vicinity. When the sun reaches the highest point in the sky, we'll meet up at the base."
Separating from the group, everyone got busy doing their tasks. Following Lucas were Silvia, Dilla, the old blacksmith, and a few other girls, too weak to do much else for now.
Approaching the Office building, there was a beautiful plaza just outside, with only a couple of cars crashed into some road blockade pillars. Not a single sign of life could be seen down any of the crossroads.
Pushing open the double glass doors The lobby was beautiful in a way, The front wall they came from was utterly glass windows up to the ceiling. In the center of the hall was a fountain that contained some murky water and small plants floating.
At the far end of the room were a couple of broken escalators leading up to the second floor, covered in vines that grew into the cracks. Back towards the center of the room, Besides one of the many benches, there were potted plants that grew quite tall, One of which outdid the others and grew into a towering tree in the lobby and even up to the 2nd floor between all the balconies.
Satisfied with the lobby. Lucas led everyone to settle down beside the fountain. "I think this is a good spot, for now, I'd like you two girls to see if you can find some wood nearby to start a fire here. Silvia and I will check if there's anything upstairs."
Without waiting for them to respond, Lucas went upstairs with Silvia, and even Dilla following behind him, noticing Dilla. Lucas started to get a headache, seeing her with that dependant and helpless look on her face.
Up to the second floor, there were no more escalators. Around the sides of the story, there were a series of small restaurants, and other little stores were workers in the office probably had lunch and enjoyed their off time.
Seeing a little boutique clothing store, Lucas immediately pulled Silvia over, with Dilla following. Seeing all the amazingly colorful clothing, Silvia felt like she was in another world once more! Since when had she ever had more than one or two sets of clothes?
Setting her up with a pair of blue jeans and a pure white short sleep T-shirt, Dilla searched on her own as having many different kinds of clothing was normal for her.
Spinning in front of the mirror, Silvia gave off a dazzling little smile. "How do I look??" She asked in a bashful tone.
"You look great!" Lucas said with a warm smile.
"...I also have new clothes... How do I look?.." Not wanting to be outdone, Dilla asked in a bit of a depressing tone. But Lucas chose to ignore her as he was not about to forget what she did before.
following behind Lucas with her head to the floor, Dilla must have been contemplating about her life choices or something similar.
Pushing open the door to the fire escape stairs. The smacking of the door echoed up and down the darkroom. Wedging some debris under the entry for light, Lucas climbed the stairs with Silvia and Dilla to the top floor first.
Upon opening the door, Lucas was met with what was once a secretary desk, or maybe HR.
Walking down the hall, Lucas and Silvia opened one door after the next where a series of offices were presented. All about the size of an average bedroom.
At the end of the hall, on the right side was a room with walls of full glass on two sides, one exposed to the outside, the other to the building. It must have been used for office meetings as there was a very long table with many comfortable leather chairs surrounding it. Moving on, Lucas found the president's office, which not only presented a large room with three couches for small meetings, A large desk at the far end of the room facing away from the large window overlooking a lot of the city. There was also a small side room with a bed that must have been used for working overtime... or if he had something going on with his secretary.
Feeling happy with his choice. "Silvia, for the time being. This will be where we live."
A look of jealousy was on Dilla's face, which Lucas also saw. "You'll have to stay in one of the rooms next door." Lucas rolled his eyes at her.
Looking out the window in the distance, "Look, Silvia! There's smoke; someone must be over there!"
A small pillar of smoke was rising in the distance behind several buildings.
Although Lucas might have found people, he was in no hurry to establish contact with them without preparing themselves for the worst.
Coming back downstairs with Silvia and Dilla behind him, Lucas found the last team was arriving.
"This place is good for a temporary base If anyone wants a private room. There's plenty of offices upstairs... I think within the next few days, we should also block off the lower windows on the first floor to prevent attacks.." Lucas expresses his opinion.
"That can be done; There were a lot of those metal scrap things out there laying around, I believe you called them... car?"
"Yeah, We could drag a few to line up along the windows for tomorrow. Did you find any food?"
"The Supermarket was a mess.. and we didn't find much food. Luckily we could a few four-legged creatures eating grass on the way over." Pointing at the tree, Lucas saw the carcasses of three deer that were already gutted and hanging from a rope.
"Venison should be good... One other thing, from the top floor, I managed to spot some smoke rising in the distance. We may not be the only ones here!" Lucas says in a severe tone.
Looking at the few cases of bottled water. "These definitely won't be enough, Can't even have a bath at this rate. I feel so grimy. " Lucas complained to Silvia.
"What's... a bath?" Silvia looks at Lucas in a confused manner.
Baffled by her response, Lucas spat on his hand and started rubbing her cheek and was a bit disgusted with all the grime that came off; Her skin was pure white underneath. Like a piece of paper. Although her scales were still various shades of grey.
"Well, I heard there was a river going through this city, so I'm sure we can figure out something."
"Ok"
That night they the city was pitch black, except for a particular office building where the smell of cooked venison and the glow of a campfire escaped the windows.
-------
Early in the morning, Lucas woke up to the sun shining through his window. Already used to the weight from Ellie, Lucas looked down and saw a mess of white hair and a pretty little face drooling all over him.
"Morning..." Lucas muttered through a yawn, lightly waking Silvia from her comfortable sleep.
"Mmmmm..." Not entirely awake, She mumbled in a half-sleeping state.
Making sure not to wake her up, Lucas left and made his way downstairs, where he found most of his people already awake and going about their day. A few girls were cooking some leftover Venison from last night for everyone's breakfast while Lucas and Rex went about planning their day.
"I'd like you to take a team out in search of food again, and more bottled water. I want to try going out alone to investigate that smoke from yesterday."
"You shouldn't go alone; We need you to lead us. If something were to hap-" Rex said with deep concern before Lucas interrupted him.
"I know, Don't worry. I'm not that weak; I can handle myself." Lucas smirked and flexed a bicep with scapes popping out of his skin along his arm, trying to make an impressive image.
"Haha, I never doubted that! In any case, Make it back here in one piece!" Rex slapped Lucas back with enthusiasm and great brotherly concern.
Looking around, Everyone was not dressed in new clothes from the abandoned stores. Of course, some had to be modified; For example, with Rex's four arms, he ended up expanding the already existing armholes in a sleeveless shirt. Smiling at everyone's progress from the prison till now, Lucas was ready to start a new day.