[right][color=lightgreen]Monday, June 1[sup]st[/sup], 2111[/color][/right][color=wheat]
	A thin, blue-gray plume of smoke twisted from Elijah's pursed lips as he watched the anthill stir in slightly managed chaos. Only, these ants buzzed and grunted and yelled. The habitual cigarette found its way to Elijah's lips and he took a long, steady drag. He wasn't even sure if the damn things calmed his nerves anymore, perhaps he was just [i]that[/i] well trained by his brain to smoke them. He'd likely snap and become a psychopath without them—The thought was enough to turn the edges of his mouth up as he exhaled. The laborers were busy loading the last truck, and they were certainly working hard for their share of the meal tickets despite a payment that was substantially less than what the crew heading outside the walls would receive. Or should he say could? [i][color=lightgray]'Somebody's going to die,'[/color][/i] Eli thought to himself, [i][color=lightgray]'Somebody always dies.'[/color][/i] Eli hitched his thumbs into the waist of his pants and let the cigarette dangle loosely from his lips as he resigned himself with a smoke-polluted sigh. He didn't try to deny it, death was just another fact of life. One that was all the more common in today's new, dreary world. A fact that would be true for everybody if they didn't make it to the safe house before dark.

	"Stop dragging your asses!" Eli called to the loaders, "Daylight's burnin' boys!"

	"Interesting approach to motivation," A familiar voice critiqued.

	Elijah sighed once more and forced his eyebrows to relax. "Ah!" He began, turning and spreading his hands wide in a showy flourish, "Mayor Guzman, I didn't expect you down here among the peasants." His sarcasm was met with a small, amused smile, though it looked more judgemental beneath Guzman's sharp nose and ruby red lipstick.

	"I see you're in high spirits this morning," She commented, almost idly. She was a practised speaker, but Eli was more about sarcasm, wit, and charm.

	"Only at the prospect of receiving a parting kiss from my dearly beloved," He mused.
	
	"I-.." Guzman started, her all-business persona cracking for just a moment. She let out a sigh, "Straigh to the point then, I'm pulling Sullivan from this operation."

	Elijah's joyous victory at cracking her facade slipped away instantly, "You want to take one of my best off of this near suicide mission?" A moment passed, before Eli nodded a tad solemnly to himself, "He's the only one who could really replace me at this point, huh?"

	"Always the intelligent one," Guzman said.

	Eli tapped his cigarette and watched the chunk of ash fall to the ground. The mood pressed down around him, heavier than any burden he'd ever been asked to perform for this struggling community. Mayor Guzman felt it too, and she let herself slip once more as she took a single step towards him, her hand barely raised from its position by her hip as if to comfort him. "You'd take care of them? Right?"

	"You know I will," She confirmed.

	"Good..." Elijah replied before shaking the mood off, "Now if you don't mind I have the world's greatest suicide-mission-speech to give."

	Guzman watched him go as he delved deeper into the hive. He wondered when all of these people had shown up. Half of the damn community must be here. They probably knew how important this was. The denizens of Refuge were burning through their stockpiles at an alarming rate. They'd run out of food long before the farms gave them anything, and the immediate surrounding area had pretty much been picked clean by smaller missions and braver souls heading out solo. It was a show of patriotism, he decided. Those who weren't looking to help were here to see them off. It reminded him a hell of a lot of the military, actually.

	He took a gander at the swelling crowd as he approached the front of the convoy. It was a bit longer now, he'd decided they needed a second pickup truck for a few extra guns. People were flashing their credentials to enforcers and making their way into the preliminary stages of this mission. He also heard a few angry shouts, from different areas of the crowd—Hecklers and doomsayers. An enforcer was breaking up a scuffle right as Elijah strode past. Apparently somebody owed the woman a cigarette or something... what a petty thing to fight over. 

	"Hey Elijah! May I join in on this today?” Yet another familiar, female voice asked, “And is it true we are going out to The Commons today?” 
	
	"Hey Liss," Eli greeted, stopping to give the bleach blonde a once-over with his eyes. She was cute, and a good scav too. He'd worked with her before on a few closer operations, she was pretty dependable and had a good knack for finding goodies. "Grab some warm clothes off the table over there and hurry back, I've got a fancy speech or some shit to say before we start," He directed while grabbing a bundled roll of meal tickets from a vest pouch and stuffing it into her hands. She didn't need to be explained what incentive pay was. He moved on and made it about two whole steps before a shout caught his attention.

 	"Hey man!" It was a man this time, with a telling accent. Footsteps drew up behind him and Elijah turned around slowly. "Look, I heard of this scavenging trip and just want to sign up. I'm a damn good shot, and I can kick quite a bit of ass even unarmed. I also know how to distinguish at least some good shit, medicines and agricultural stuff. I just have one thing to ask.." The man paused his rapid-fire spew of words. It must not have been an easy thing to ask. "..If it is possible to get you guys to help recover a ghoul. A live one.." Another pause, "Look dude, it's the only way to test a whole lot of things on them. You know I'll more than pull my weight, just help me out with this eh?" he said.

	"Hmm... Absolutely not, and don't ask again. If you ever bring a live ghoul into this community I'll throw you off the wall.." Elijah threatened, and he wholeheartedly meant it too, "That being said, you're welcome to come along but you know ghouls are never alone. You wanna take on a pack of them to maybe get one alive, you can do that alone, me and my boys will not have anything to do with it."

	Eli spun on his heel and walked away briskly, his posture and demeanor in full on leader mode. His stiff resolve was softened a bit however as he passed right by that two-headed gal Sully had meantioned earlier. She.. They?.. They had a fine ass indeed.  In another few steps Eli had reached the first humvee, though he had to dodge a train of tools as the workers prepped the second pickup. His hand twitched, but he fought the urge to smoke AGAIN and busied himself with climbing up onto the top of the humvee. Most of the people here knew him by now, and what he did, and risked for them. Still, it took a few minutes for the crowd to quiet down completely. Eli waited until almost all eyes were on him before he began.

	"Listen up," He boomed, before resuming in a lower, but still loud and firm, tone of voice, "I'll squash the rumors and tell you right now that yes, we're heading out to Federal Way. I'm not an idiot, and neither are you. We're running out of food and it's about time we face reality and venture out further. There's a high possibility that you," He turned towards those gathered for this mission, "will die. At least, if you fuck up. If you heed my orders, and keep your eyes peeled, we may all just make it back alive. In the event of death, We will ensure any family you have is taken care of, especially if they depend on your income. That being said, you're not just here because this is a lucrative opportunity, but it's to help ensure the survival of this community. Just by showing up, you're all heroes to me. You volunteered when nobody else did, but to be fair some of you," He said, turning back to the crowd, "Can't really help us. Especially you Cogner."

	"Whaaat?" An elderly voice called from the crowd.

	"Exactly," Elijah muttered. "Anyways. The pay for completion will be two and a half of your incentive, which should have been about thirty meal tickets." There were a few soft gasps and murmurs from the onlookers in light of what a large payout this mission was giving. All together that was probably about a month of meal tickets, which was useful because you could by far more than just meals with them by trading to others.

	"We're heading out to Federal Way," Elijah continued, "That's about 9 miles from here, but with all that green bullshit out there it's going to take us the better part of the day to navigate through it. We have a safe house established, we just have to get there before nightfall." The loaders had finished by this point, and were also standing around listening to Elijah's award winning speech. "I have four operatives watching over the safehouse, and they are keeping eyes out for our arrival. I won't lie, the way is extremely dangerous. You all should have been issued weapons at the table with all them warm clothes. If you didn't, well, you got about five minutes."

	With that, Eli hopped down off the humvee. There was no cheering, no applause, and definitely no award. It had been a grim telling, outlining the dangers of this mission, but at least it had some small highlights—Like money, well, today's money anyways. Eli tapped the shoulder of a familiar fellow before he could slip away back to managing the crowd, though they seemed pretty docile now.

	"Speaking of volunteers, Alex TreVayne," Eli started ominously, "Welcome aboard. We need good shooters, and you're it." Eli couldn't force the normal populace to join him, but Alex was an enforcers and pretty much Refuge property. He could absolutely draft him into the mission, and the thought of Alex watching his back made him feel just a bit better. He already missed Sully though.

	"Also!" Elijah called once more to the crowd, "Now that you know the likelyhood of your eminent death... Who wants to be a Scav?" He pulled out several rolls of meal tickets as he asked this. Most of the onlookers became very active at the mention of this, and quite lively as they tried to be heard over the others. Elijah smiled ruefully. The world was once controlled by money, now it seems to be controlled by a dingy old printer and barcode algorithm.

	Elijah looked back, one foot in the humvee, and smiled. His sisters had come to see him off, and Aiyana had even dragged her class along. She was also the only one waving, other than a few random preteens. Joanna just kind of glowered at him with smoldering eyes, as if he were a deliquint sneaking out in the middle of the night. He grinned, waved back, and slid into the Humvee to study a wrinkled map of the area. 

[center][h3]• Later •[/h3][/center]

	The humvee rumbled beneath Eli, who was currently tuning a radio to the proper frequency, as they rolled through the large, patchwork metal gates. Thick chains rattled as two teams of two worked to pull them open by hand, but Elijah's driver was a little to impatient and had decided to squeeze through. Beyond, the clear stretched for hundreds of yards. A large lot bulldozed to nothing but piles of rubble and debris broken only by the stubborn green sprouts of nature. There were a few faces out there, shielded by hands held over their eyes as they stared at the vehicle column with more than just a little wonder. Those would be the clearing teams, the landscapers, tasked with fighting back the daily encroachment of growth towards the wall. There were several more teams inside the walls managing the very same thing. Without them, Refuge would have been buried beneath foliage long ago.

	They rumbled north, along the road and towards the dense jungle. A perpetual wall of green and brown that towered eerily above them. Some of those snaking trees were so tall Elijah would collapse from exhaustion before he could climb to the top of them. He had been entertaining the idea ever since Sully asked if there were coconuts up there. They crossed into the threshold and the day immediately became a lot gloomer as the thick canopies overhead filtered out much of the sunlight. Elijah's ears were greeted by the sounds of birds twittering and bugs droning over the noise of the engine. Neither of those sounds brought him any comfort. Not when a flock of birds descend down upon a single person and shred them apart like a cluster of flying piranhas with beaks full of what were basically tiny, triangular scalpels. He didn't even want to think about the bugs. Especially not furry spiders the size of a full grown mastiff.

	Worse thoughts drifted through his mind as he stared out ahead. Vines slapped against the vehicle as they drove through a drooping tangle of them. They literally slapped at the humvee, like thick angry worms reeling back and hurling themselves at the metal carriage of the lead vehicle. A large, oval mouthed plant turned towards them with its maw opening up menacingly. Elijah could easily sleep inside of its mouth, with enough room for a second person. The plant screeched and hissed as the thick tires tore into it as they drove right through it. Thirty seconds in and nature had already tried to kill them twice. Eli glanced in the side mirror and watched the crews in the back of the two pickups jab at the vines with sharp metal lances. Everytime a lance pierced one of them, the whole cluster would shy back and tremble in pain, and probably rage. Eli wondered if the vines were sentient.

	Probably.

	That was pretty much their journey through the first couple of hours into the jungles. Killer plants crushed beneath wheels, and glimpses of beady eyes staring out from dark recesses. At one point they had witnessed a flock of colorful, and beautiful birds descend down upon a six-legged pig like creature that Eli had no idea what the fuck it was supposed to be. For two minutes they had swarmed around it in a bat-like frenzy, which in turn held up the entire process as they waited for the birds to leave. When they did, there was nothing but a skeleton with ragged flaps of meat and skin left. Eli was pretty sure he had seen one of the birds flying off with the entrails—A snack for later, obviously.

	They had to stop twice more before they came to their first real hitch in the rode: Once for a huge beast that looked like an elephant crossed with a moose, and about five stories high with antlers large enough to have thick, ropey vines dangling from them; And once more for a sinkhole that left the sewer system exposed. Eli planned to stay far away from that area, that would be a guarenteed ghoul den. Now he sat reclined back in his seat, blowing smoke out and window and tapping his fingers impatiently as the clearing crew worked to clear a path large enough for the vehicles to squeeze through. A building had finally given out and toppled over into the road, which it had then been overrun with floral growth. Currently, the clearing crew were using their metal prods to exterminate a horde of baby snapping plants, like the kind that had run over earlier but much smaller. He watched the sun glide across the sky all the while, at least, when he could. 

 	"What time is it?" The driver, Roland, asked, smoking his own cigarette and exhaling smoke with the crisp, minty scent of menthol.

	"About Noon," Eli replied off-handedly, he was focused on the clearing crew once more.

	"And the ghouls come out at..?" Roland trailed off as one hand fell protectively to the handgun holstered at his hip.

	"About nine at night, just after sunset.. though in this jungle the light begins to fail much earlier. Depends where you're at really, it could grow dark as early as six, maybe five if it's really thick."

	"Oh.." He answered, sounding entirely ungrateful for the information.

	Eli finished his packaged cylinder of cancer inducing plant-matter and rolled his shoulders until they relaxed a little, "I guess we might as well have some lunch."

	"Now that," Roland said with a smile, "I can get in on. what's on the menu Chef?"

	"Protein block, Salmon edition."

	"......Oh....." Roland replied sadly.

	Eli quirked an eyebrow at him. Roland didn't sound happy at the prospect of a bunch of fish, herbs, vitamins and necessary minerals ground up into a dark paste and pressed into a firm block. It was like a post-era protein bar, with perhaps a bit of odor to it, and maybe a slightly funky taste.. and weird unidentifiable chunks. They were so good you could buy two of them off of a single meal ticket. Now that's a deal.

	"Frankly, I like them," Eli said with a shrug. He was rewarded with the most absolutely flabbergasted look from Roland, who was making soft choking sounds.[/color]