The Tripwire [Closed]

[Finch]

    Caper dangled one leg off the side of the crate, while they folded the other up under themself. The crate had been one of their best finds recently; Well, they hadn't exactly found it, but a group of scavengers owed them a favor after they'd fixed up a boombox for them, and the crate was the payment. It didn't contain any food, if it had the scavengers certainly wouldn't have been willing to part with it, but it contained a rather sizeable collection of linens and pillows, which Caper considered just as valuable.

    "One of the legion kids, Matthew spotted them not far from our corner. I put the bear trap over there. Remember the one that the scavengers said would never work? Yeah. Hopefully the legion kid isn't dumb enough to stick his leg in there, but I think it'll be enough to ward 'em off." Caper spoke, somewhat absentmindedly, to the other fifteen year old that shared their quarters.

    Their corner, which was actually a stretch of monorail track, had never been exactly easy to defend. A rather severe storm had caused the roof to cave in on one side, making getting in or out from that end quite the ordeal. The other side, however, was simply open, except for the makeshift walls that provided them some privacy.

    It wasn't much, but it was their home. They'd torn up most of the tracks, leaving them with a dry place to sleep. It wasn't even close to the Aquarium, but, at least, there were no rules against Caper's traps here.

    "I can show you the trap, if you want. I think I made it pretty obvious. I think so, at least."

[spookcat]

Antic grins and stands up from the floor, calling his cat up to his shoulders.

"Yeah i'd love to see it! Would be pretty cool if you already caught something with it."

[Finch]

    Caper smiled, rather nervously.

    "Depends on what gets caught in there, I guess. I think if I got anyone's leg cut off, we'd get kicked out of here, too." It was a joke, yes, but the nerves were clear in their voice's undertone.

[spookcat]

Antic visibly cringes at the thought.

"God yeah that would suck. I don't even remember where the medical supplies are."

Antic sighed and picked up their bow and some arrows.

"Now that i think about it that's probably not a good thing." He muttered to himself. "I guess if anything did happen we could always find some cave to hole up in." He joked but it looked like he was seriously considering it.

[Finch]

    Caper gave a sweeping gesture to the surrounding tunnel.

    "I'm pretty sure that this meets the dictionary definition of being a cave. Then again, I guess we could run off and join the Legion or something."

    They hopped down from the crate, and hooked their butterfly knife into a jeans pocket. They had never actually used it before, and hoped that today was not the day where that would be needed.

    "Then again, if we got some legion kid's leg cut off, they may be a bit less amiable to the idea of us joining them."

[spookcat]

Antic snorted as he started heading out.

"Yeah probably. What about those pasture kids? Farm life could be interesting. Though i'm not sure if they'd let me be around anything other than succulents."

[Finch]

    Caper led Antic out of the open end of their base, and to the next section of track. This particular section had a platform of sorts, which had once been used as both an engineering station and an emergency exit, were the monorail to stop unexpectedly. No one lived there, as was evidenced by the absolute wreck that the space was. If they remembered correctly, some girls had lived there once, but their scavenging party had never come back.

   

    A steel door was embedded in the side of the tunnel, which Caper made their way over to. In the days where the monorail had still operated, it would have been used as a fire escape. Now, it simply led to a rather rickety construction of metal that may have once been a fire escape.

    "The cultists, you mean? I guess it couldn't be all that bad. I heard they have chickens." They giggled. "I bet they'd let Spy be a herding cat."

[spookcat]

Antic barked out a laugh.

"You're so right holy shit. She'd be the best herding cat ever to walk the earth."

Antic hops over a chunk of debris.

"I think if Spy is smart enough to break through every lock my parents put on the cabinets she is smart enough to terrorize some chickens into another area."

[Finch]

    "What about horses, though? The cult kids have horses, I'm pretty sure."

    Caper took a keyring from their pocket and picked through it for a moment, before choosing a rusted, silver key. She undid the padlock on the steel door, and put the keys back as they stepped through it.   

    The fire escape led into another building, some kind of terminal for the monorail. It was in there that the bear trap was placed, as it was the only entrance to the fire escape, and, subsequently, to the piece of the track where they lived.

[spookcat]

"Oh man the horses. Do you think we could gain the trust of the cult kids and steal some horses then ride across the lands as criminals on the run?"

Antic starts walking backwards while gesturing wildly as they enter the building. Spy disapproves of this action.

"Wait. Caper. Caper what if we become cowboys? Is that a thing we can do??"

[Finch]

    Caper took a moment to consider that. At this point, it seemed like a completely serious proposal.

    "Maybe. Maybe there will be less zombies if we can make it to the countryside. I heard some kids did that... We could live on a farm out there, maybe. Have real food. I guess it's a thought, if Seattle gets too bad."

    They began descending the fire escape, which creaked below their boots. They stopped about halfway down, wrinkling their nose.

    "Antic, you smell that?"

[spookcat]

"Huh? What do you mean-" Antic is suddenly cut off by Spy vaulting off his shoulders and darting off. This causes Antic to lose their balance and crash down the rest of the way and into the railing. Luckily Antic only had a few steps left to go.

"Ow-shit-what the fuck-" Antic hissed through their teeth as they scrambled to stand up. "Spy what the hell!?"

[Finch]

    Caper practically leapt out of the way, narrowly avoiding being toppled over by Antic. They approached their friend nervously, offering to help them up.

    "Cats have a better sense of smell then us. I can't tell for sure, but I'm almost certain that I can smell blood."

    They looked over the edge of the railing, scanning the landscape below. They hadn't been out in the city for a while. Far too dangerous. Though, despite it being the middle of the day, the area below looked completely empty of life.

    "I don't see any zombies, either."

[spookcat]

Antic groaned letting Caper help them up.

"Shit, you don't think we actually got someone hurt do you?" Antic warily eyed the door. "Maybe we just caught a really large rat and Spy's hungry?"

Antic stepped toward the door and hesitantly pushed it open, cringing when he noticed he could definitely smell blood.

[Finch]

    "Yeah, I'm sure of it." Caper nodded. "Even a legion kid would see a trap like that. I'm sure it's just some kid down there, some scavenger that got killed. That's all."

    They began, quite noticeably, fidgeting with their hands.