Sleep

In the morning, you are shook awake by Kenji. He looks better than he did the night you met him. He's already moving around before all the others. He gestures to the ladder and points up. You follow him out, quickly finding the morning to be frosty and unforgiving.

"I know you're up for it, so if you try to get away from this task I'm not going to like it," Kenji started. "So I'll get right to it."

You follow him further out of the building and make it over to a hill overlooking the structures that once represented air travel. The airport, even at this hour, it doesn't look all that natural. "Alexandra spotted a small group of traders travel in there one night, but never saw them left."

"You want me to kill them?" You ask, surprised.

Kenji laughs. "No, of course not. I...I think they're already dead. That airport was...wasn't really in good condition when we went through it. If I had to guess, they probably killed themselves somehow. Fell through the floor or ran into some kind of animals. Bears, cougars? I don't know. I just need someone to take whatever is left over."

"Can't ever have enough ammo or food, I guess. Why did you wait so long?"

"Haven't had the manpower to do it properly. I've worked Alexandra on a lot of other tasks too, she's all worn out and tired - she needs rest. Scarlet does too, but I need her for something else."

Your face twists, the idea of going into the airport alone doesn't really settle with you, but you're up to what is being asked of you. "If you think it's for the best, then I can do that for you."

Kenji sniffs. The cold air that brushes against his face makes him groan and cover. “Sorry to do this to you, but now that I’m healthy (?), I’ve gotta find Amari and make sure she’s not getting her brains painted over some fence.”

You sniff too, the cold air is all around you. You didn’t take this cold morning all that well either. ”No, I get it. I just expected Scarlet to be involved since I was her partner…?”

“Scarlet has to come with me. We’ve been working Alexandra to the bone, so she needs a break. I'd suggest Flora, but she is the closest thing we have to a medic so—“

“— no, I get it.” You cut off Kenji. It didn’t seem Flora lost much sleep. All in all, she was in the best of shape when compared to anyone else. Rested, fed, and pampered. If she’s the only “doctor”, they probably have her rolled away and protected most of the time.

"I'll be embarking before long. Searching the airport will be dangerous, so be careful. Take a flare with you and tell Flora when you're leaving."

"I can do that," you tell him. A sense of odd dread washes over you. "Anything I need to look out for?"

"Ah, yeah it's probably nothing, but I'll mention it." Kenji takes a deep breath. "We found strange markings in there from another group. Looked like a cult ran through that place and looted it before spending a few weeks in there. Again, it's probably nothing, but there we saw a lot odd markings all around the basement and old terminals. We never found anything, but it just a weird find. They're all gone now, the people that left the markings... The biggest threat is you falling through the floor and getting hurt somehow. Animals too, obviously."

More dread. Your chest tightened and your mind spun a little. Something didn't feel right. Kenji wasn't lying, but what he told you made your senses tingle. Nonetheless, you were going to follow your "orders". So you geared up and went off early. Perhaps going before they left would be better than waiting. If you did run into something bad, alerting the others before they all left would be better.

When you returned to their underground hide-out, Flora was awake, but wasn't doing anything - you told her what you were doing, she offered to join, but you knew she wasn't supposed to, so you declined her offer as kindly as you could, which was against your better judgement. You got ready and headed towards the airport.