New Friends

Jocelyn woke around dawn to go for her pre-morning run, it was a ritual she adopted around ten, and she found that the silence of the early morning helped to prepare her for the day by clearing her mind; today, however, it wasn't working, flashbacks of the previous day kept running through her mind; Bernard coming to Chris' house to inform them about the looting in town, going to check out the damage just to find that the electronic store had also been looted with a bunch of TVs, game systems, and walkie-talkies being taken, and finally the assumption that she was wanting to have any responsibility in the decision making of what happened in this town. All she wanted to do was figure out what happened to her father, so she can go back to her regular life of stressing over whether she would get good enough grades to follow in her father's footsteps. She finishes her run around the town and heads over to Christopher's, since the vanishing of the adults, she had been staying with him and helping with Clara in the evenings when she wasn't with Anita. She also didn't mind having consistent company since she would have been all alone in her own house, otherwise. She was planning on spending the day with Clara at the park, where they could run around a little bit and forget what was happening for the time being.

Jocelyn heads inside to take a quick shower before grabbing Clara and heading to the park but before she makes it to the bathroom, she's stopped by Chris, who seems to be in a state of distress "Hey, I was wanting to run a few things by you, can you come to see me once your done showering and stuff." He asks her while passing by and gently brushing her arm causing it to spring up with goosebumps. "Uhm, yea, of course, I won't be too long." She replies, flustered, and quickly goes into the bathroom, closing the door and leaning against it to gather her thoughts. 'Get yourself together Jocelyn, what the fuck is wrong with you he's your best friend." She thinks to herself angrily before jumping into the shower to wash off the sweat from her body.

Done showering, Jocelyn headed to the living room where Christopher is waiting, accompanied by Samantha, Cameron, Richard, Bernard, and Chloe; automatically, Jocelyn had a feeling what they were all gathered for, so she decides to start.

"Let me guess, we need to make a plan to ensure we have enough resources to keep everyone fed until our parents come back." She says, taking a seat on the couch beside Bernard and crossing her legs.

"Yup, Terra and her band of thieves weren't the only ones who decided to go on a shopping spree yesterday. Last night the smoke shop, pharmacy, grocery store, electronic store, and toy store were all looted, and a lot of things were taken, we need to come up with some type of system soon. Hunger and thirst start more riots and violence among people than anything else in a disaster event, and make no mistake, it will come to that if we continue down that path without knowing how long we are going to be alone." Richard explains while turning to Cameron and Samantha and gesturing for them to take over.

"Okay, so, we were thinking, between the seven of us, we should know enough people willing to help with keeping things rationed so we will have enough food until our parents return. This means, those people that we do ask to help," Cameron starts.

"Provided they want to help," Samantha adds and Cameron nods in approval while continuing.

"Yes, provided they want to help; they need to be trustworthy and responsible, so make sure you think about whom you're putting forward. We were also thinking of perhaps gathering all who is left in town and seeing if we have any volunteers to help with looking for alternative sources of food, just in case we are here longer than we have food in the grocery store for; as well as an expedition party or something? We wanted to find out if the other towns around us are having the same instances and if so, if we can help one another figure out what is happening. At the very least, it would be nice to know that were not alone and that there are other people we can lean on. What does everyone think?" Cameron finishes looking around at each person sitting in Christopher's living room.

Chloe is the first one to speak up. "Well, my mom worked at the grocery store, and I used to go and help out all the time, I don't mind taking inventory of everything we have and then helping in finding a way to distribute it among the people of the town. I mean if you all are okay with that?" She explains while playing with a loose thread on her blazer.

"I'm sure that will be fine, right guys? Do you think you'll be needing some help? I'd be more than willing to help you out with the inventory!" Bernard speaks up while looking at Christopher who shakes his head in agreement.

"Yea, that sound's great, but I don't feel comfortable leaving you without communication of some type; Samantha, I heard you were looking for methods of communication, correct?" Christopher addresses Bernard, Chloe, and then Samantha.

"Yes, I am. Killian and I have been exploring different types of radios we can use, the only hindrance is the fact that certain radios work better in 'disaster situations' than others but there is a very limited amount of them available within the town. The other type is not that reliable over distances or crap weather..." Samantha responds.

"Okay, do you think we could spare one of the good ones to give to Bernard and Chloe while they're at the grocery store? I'd just feel better if we had constant communication with them in case anything pops off" Christopher asks her, and she thinks before responding

"Yes, but we will need to go to the HCSR for them, I have one of my own in my dorm, and the other is in the security hub. So, I can head over there and grab them and drop one off for them, did you want the other one? I'm not great in confrontations, so I wouldn't be the best person to contact if something did go down." Samantha explains and forces out a dry laugh.

"Uhh, yea, that sounds good for now, eventually we will have to think about finding others though because that's also something I'm not great at. The rest sounds good though, I'm guessing you were going to bring Cameron with you?" Christopher laughs and looks at Cameron, recognizing that the two seem inseparable; reminding him of his relationship with Jocelyn, making him smile and glance at her out of the corner of his eye.

With the plan finally made, everybody got up and headed for their respective places; Cameron and Samantha were off to HCSR for the Ham radios; Bernard and Chloe to the grocery store to start the inventory of all their food to manage their resources, and finally, Richard, Jocelyn, and Christopher were brainstorming ways to bring everyone together as one so they can start looking for answers and making alternative plans to surviving if they happened to be alone for long.