Apocalypse children - for worthallthis

[musicdied]

There's an alarm sounding somewhere in the compound, harsh and urgent and ignored, and somehow still less jarring than the occasional creak of metal. Beneath that, voices sound, quick and quiet and tense, the pitch entirely wrong for any technicians, any handlers, anyone who belongs in this room.

"...sure you did it right?"

"I entered the sequence exactly like I was supposed to!"

"Then why isn't it--"

The first voice cuts off at the hydraulic hiss of the cryo tube opening. The inrush of air brings with it the smell of smoke, and the acrid taste of heated metal, and the sound of nervous gasps and small feet on grated metal flooring.

Outside the cryo tube stands a group of girls, the oldest somewhere around twelve or thirteen, the youngest perhaps four, clinging tight to the leg of one of the older girls and peering at the tube with wide-eyed fascination.

The girl who positions herself at the front of the pack - and they are a pack, all but the smallest fierce-eyed and wary - doesn't look like the oldest, round-faced, blonde hair straggling loose from her braids, clothing and skin streaked with blood and a bruise darkening beneath one eye. She lifts her chin, and looks with bright defiance at the man she and her sisters have just pulled from the dreamless grip of cryo-stasis.

"Winter Soldier," she says in clear Russian, and despite her fierce air, there's something like hope in her voice. "Can you understand me?"

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[musicdied]

It isn't the swiftest process. It's still efficient enough that it's not quite noon when they herd the girls in to have their last meal in the relative - if haunted - safety of the facility. It's still swift enough that they're done, packed and ready an geared up, before the automated notification crackles over the speaker system threaded through the bunker.

Lockdown ending in 10 minutes.

[worthallthis]

Brother feels a little more ready to face whatever is left of the world, with his tac vest and combat boots and plenty of guns and knives strapped around him, mask on his face in case the air outside is bad. The goggles are on a strap in his belt, ready in case he needs them, but going completely faceless in front of the girls feels wrong. He's even got all the grenades and spare ammo in the back of the truck.

"Alisa, Sofia, Rose. Into the truck, passenger side," he says. They're the three littlest, and the ones least likely to manage walking in the snow. Also, all three will fit easily and still give him room to drive. "Everyone else, on foot for now. We will see how far we can get today."

His hope is they find a town or at least a farmstead where they can hole up for the night, maybe for a couple days while they scout.

[musicdied]

Alisa scrambles readily into the truck, claiming the section of bench closest to the driver's side. The other two take a little coaxing from the older girls, nervous now that it's time to leave and face the unknown, both the threat of disaster and the prospect of a world outside the Red Room's boundaries.

The three eldest girls confer quickly, and sort themselves and the remaining children into ranks.

"We'll scout ahead," Yelena says, indicating herself, Katya, and Irena, and a trio of slightly older children, between ten and thirteen. "Rotating pairs, an hour at a time. In case the road is blocked, or there is trouble."

[worthallthis]

Brother frowns, but then nods. It's a sound strategy, and they do need to know what to expect before the more vulnerable children reach it.

"Be careful," he says. "Do not be seen. And if you start to feel sick at all, come back to rest." He doesn't know if there will be any kind of radiation or dangerous dust kicked up, but better safe than dying, in this case.

Not that resting in the truck will do anyone much good if there's pervasive radiation. Not all of them can be Brother with his enhanced healing.

[musicdied]

"We will be careful," Yelena promises. It's not just a child's platitudes to a concerned adult. They're well-trained, and have long had it drilled into them that detection is death - if not at the hands of their targets, then at the hands of their masters.

It makes for a long day, slogging through ash-stained snow, advancing and circling back. It is, at least, also a quiet day, though that perhaps owes more to the remoteness of the location than the nature of any neighbours. It's late afternoon before a structure comes into view - an old, dilapidated farmstead, spotted and reported back by one of the scouting pairs.

[worthallthis]

Brother has Katya and Irena stay with the truck while Yelena takes him to the farm. He'll investigate for anyone living there, or anything living there in case wolves or bears took up residence, and Yelena can run back to the truck and the other girls if anything happens to him.

Not that he doesn't expect he can handle a bear or wolves. But having a contingency plan is always best. He prefers to have multiple, but in this case, there simply isn't need for anything too complicated.