Dark Days I

"Hello?", called a voice distorted by speakers. It was framed by the noise of fast moving rotor blades, while some helicopters flew over the dark ruin of a city. They swept the surface with harsh white light. "Hello? Is there anybody?", the voice kept on calling tirelessly while blank carcasses of destroyed buildings towered as if they were seeking help. "Hello!" Nowhere was a single sign of life. The bright lights just discovered debris. "Hello?" The helicopters moved along slowly. No one of their crew knew, what lied quiet beneath the boulders. Between stones and cement metal trap doors were hidden. Entrances into an underground labyrinth made of countless hallways and rooms without windows. The walls were covered with colourfull graffiti, Forbidden graffiti. In one of the rooms was a group of five people. They gathered in front of a small rusty ladder beneath a slightly opened hatch and listened intensely into the darkness. No one dared to breath while the cold lights wandered over the hatch above them. With a painful slowness the noise of the helicopters faded away.
One of the group closed the hatch and another one lightened a small candle. The group consisted mainly of teenagers, the oldest of them was somewhere in his twenties. The youngest member of the group was a little boy of about 13 years. All members of the group wore tattered clothing. "Why're they doing that?", the girl holding the candle asked whispering. "No idea. Maybe they think someone's stupid enough to answer.", the oldest of them answered. His name was Dreg. The second girl of the group shrugged her shoulders. "What a waste of energy.", she said. "Better they waste it that way than hunting us down", the fifth member noted. A whispered discussion was about to take place, when Dreg hushed them. "Shut up! We go out!", he commanded hissing. He opened the hatch and climbed out. The other four followed him. The last of them was the girl with the candle named Myst. The other members of the group were called Mäss (he was the youngest of them), Vice (the other girl) and Sicko. Mäss brought some improvised torches which were lit with the candle. They didn't really shed light, it was more a dim glow, but it was good enough to find a way through the debris. The group split into three and vanished in the ruins. They were searching for anything that could be useful to them. When they met again at the hatch, the loot was poor. They hadn't found anything that contained even a tiny bit of electricity. the only exception was Vice. She had been lucky and found some unused glow sticks. They hid the rests of their torches and climbed through the hatch back into the underground.

Beneath the ruins of the city, the former tunnels, cellars and sewers still formed a complex (and for most parts intact) structure. It was just slightly modified by its recent inhabitants. Of course there were a lot of problems concerning fresh air, food, light and hygiene. Therefore, there was no way a big community could survive for long there. Instead, the underground was occupied by several smaller groups. They occasionally helped each other and there was something like trade among the groups, but most of the time, each was busy surviving. There once had been fights among the different groups. Now they weren't living peacefully together, the situation was more like a more stable truce. The dwellers in the undergrounds had to face enough troubles without brutal gang rivalry. There were the problems of the daily life and also troops trying to get rid of them. Where the ruins ended, a wasteland began. It separated the city ruins from an intact city. A city with energy and wealth. The inhabitants of the ruins and their underground named that bright city just "Gem". Their own home was simply called "The underground" for obvious reasons. It was no rarity that desperate people tried to break into Gem. The common raids in the ruins by the troops were "clearing operations" to make sure no one was living close to Gem. Everybody knew, that the troops were playing cats-and-mouse with the inhabitants of the underground. The rules were simple: In fact, there was just one: They killed everybody in their sight, but just searched the surface, It wasn't a real rule, just the way they played the game. No one ever said it was fair. Sometimes there were hunting parties. During a hunting party, some troops entered the underground and forced people onto the surface. Then the hunting began. It was a cruel slaughter just for the sick fun of some bored Gem citizens or troop officers. Those huntings took place very irregularly, so there was no way to predict them before it was too late.
Dregs, Myst, Mäss, Vice and Sicko returned to their home. It was mainly a former basement garage, where something similar to private areas were made out of garbage. The community that lived here contained about 16 people. They named themselves "Crasht". There was a leader, though she tried not to rule the others. She called herself Ragtag to illustrate this attitude. Some time ago she was elected by the Crasht and since then the majority never called her back. So Ragtag stayed in command.
When Dregs and his friends returned home, he went to Ragtag's place. He wasn't the only one wanting to report her. Four others already waited there. There was no need to form a line. Everyone knew everybody. As long no one has been really lucky on his foray or had important information to share there was no need to jump the queue. There was a muted discussion about the helicopters going on when Dregs arrived.

"I'm sure of this.", one of the four said when Dregs joined them by saying: "Hi folks." "Oh, hey there Dregs. Your timing is just perfect. Cala spread some fresh fear. Do you want some?", a man with the chosen name Tramb greeted grinning. Cala wa the short term for Calamity and the name of the woman who just had spoken. "Ah, you know, I can never have enough of that. So what's it?", Dregs asked jokingly. With slightly sour face, Cala repeated her opinion on the helicopters. She thought, the troops were preparing for a hunt. But she had no idea, why they kept on shouting. The other two people there were named Ded and Scum. "I'm still convinced that they were searching for someone.", Scum said, when Ragtag showed up. She was accompanied by a guy named BOOMerang. "Did anyone find some food?", Ragtag asked and ended the discussion. Only Tramb and his son Rascal did. It wasn't much, three unopened cans. One contained mushrooms, the other two peas. "It's always better than nothing at all." Ragtag used to say. BOOMerang left and went back to his pregnant girl-friend. While collecting the goods, it began to show that this had been one of the better nights. All in all, they had gathered some cloth, glow sticks, food cans, a pack of partly charged batteries, two old books and a long expired calendar. The last one was still useful to the Crasht, mainly because it helped to keep track of time (the real date was irrelevant). Scum once had a watch, but it broke some months ago. Because today a new calender was found, it was declared to be January 1st. Of course, every community of the underground had their own way of counting the days.
"What do you think about the helicopters?", Ragtag asked afterwards. Cala started to tell her opinion, but she was interrupted by Tramb. He was "a rude, old bastard", at least he said it about himself and eventually everyone had agreed at least once. "It differs a lot.", he said. Ragtag shrugged her shoulders and said: "So what? I still want to hear it. What your friends think, too." Cala used this opportunity and began: "I believe, the troops prepare for a hunt." "But that doesn't make any sense. why would they be calling then?" Ded disagreed. Ragtag's face showed no expression except for being thoughtful. "Ded, do you think we're in danger?", she asked after a while. "Well... I think they searched for someone. Just like Scum said earlier. They could come down here to find out if we know anything." Ded responded. He didn't need to add anything else. It was common knowledge that troopers never asked kindly. Brutally was a more accurate word.
Tramb snorted. "Paranoia is a good thing in order to survive, we all know that.", he said. "But I don't see why the troops should bother to come down here. A hunt won't take place when we're alarmed. They are not stupid. Helicopters with lights and loud calls? They know we noticed them. I think, they want to scare us. Make us panic. Maybe it's a new tactic. When we're afraid of the outside, they have some peace and quiet." "So what do you suggest we do?", Ragtag asked. She still showed no emotion at all. If the Crasht knew poker, Ragtga would have been unbeatable. "We do nothing. Just keep on with our daily life." Tramb just said. Cala, Scum and Ded disagreed. Dregs did not say it aloud, but he had a bad feeling about those helicopters. He couldn't bring it up, though. Ragtag relied on common sense and not on a single person's intuition. Not even on her own.