Hunt
The temperature was still freezing when they gathered outside the following morning. Their breath came out in puffs of cold air as they huddled together to discuss their plan for the day.
Lance was flipping through pieces of paper and chewing on the very end of a fairly ancient pencil. Pens were useless, the ink froze solid.
Joey walked over to Lance and dropped an arm around his shoulder. "So, what we looking for?"
"Pencils, paper, wire, grease, more bandages, clothing."
"Hrm. Wire'd be down around the docklands. We should check there first. Might even find grease there too."
---
There was a clatter from behind a pile of boxes and Justin swore, sucking his bleeding finger. "Fuck. Ow. I found some wire."
There came the sound of tin cans rolling across rough ground. Chris stuck his head through the door. "And I found some grease." There was a cough from behind him and he smiled, "Jayce and I found some grease, that is."
---
Lance looked over the result of the hunt, where it lay spread across the main room's floor in neat piles, and frowned. "We're still short."
Joey looked up from the other side of the library table and grimaced. "Fuck. Underlands?"
"It looks like it. It's too late to go now, we'll have to wait until tomorrow."
Joey nodded and said, "Yeah. I don't really want to go down into the tunnels right now, might freeze to the tunnel floors and that wouldn't be pretty."
JC spoke up, "Plus, they have patrols on the lower levels now."
Justin looked up curiously from his seat and asked, "How do you know?"
"I have sources. People talk a lot when they're about to die."
"Oh," said Justin and Chris nodded.
Lance rubbed a hand across his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Great. Tomorrow, Joey and I will go and barter then?"
"Guess so."