Attempts at Building

Who: Andre, Ben, Bob, Dan, Nic, Sarah, and Zania
Where: Outside the Chapel
When: 6:30 am and onwards

The first thing Zania took note of was the twelve two-person tents, not nearly enough to fit everyone in the house. Even if everyone took three people per tent, she was pretty sure they would still be short. People could sleep in the chapel though, in the pews, or in her case, under them. She knew for a fact that was where she'd feel safest. But she'd signed on to build shelters, regardless of the fact that they might not be for her. Though the tents were an easy choice, there was surely some tarp in the shed, or at least down at the boat dock. She remembered seeing tarps covering the boats, protecting them. Those could be strung up to at least create shade, even if they didn't need it now, or maybe a very simple tent. "We've got our work cut out for us," she muttered to Sarah, wondering just where they should start. Maybe the tents...

Andre wandered out of the chapel, tying his robe around him. Why'd it have to be so damned cold, anyways? "Good morning, ladies," he boomed, trying to hide the fact that he really had no fucking clue where to begin. "I guess the first thing we gotta do is figure out what we're gonna do here." He looked at what he had to work with. Not much. "Now, I'm wondering here. I know we got these tents, but we can't fit everyone in them. I think privacy's probably gonna have to be the first thing to go. So what I'm thinkin' is, we take the tents and use those to make one big tent." Yeah. That wasn't a bad idea. Make one of those things like they had on MASH "Course we still gotta get some wood to hold the thing up or something." He wondered what would be easier- going into the woods and cutting down some trees, or taking something they already had here apart. Hmm. That shed don't look too sturdy anyways.

Zania, for her part, looked at Andre as if he was insane. Camping was the one thing her family had done a bit of when she'd been young. Tents, as she remembered them, were best suited as tents. "I say we build the tents. That will shelter twenty-four. Some can sleep in the chapel. There are tarps down at the boat docks, maybe some in the shed. We string those up with rope, wood, whatever is necessary. It's good to use them against trees. Always make sure there's a slant, so if it rains, it doesn't pool on top." She paused, looking at the areas, then nodded to herself. "We should stay close to the chapel, but maybe build in a circle? Then we can put a fire in the middle. We'll need fire wood... eventually." Right now, they had a whole house to light up the sky. That was good enough for her.

Andre was impressed. The crazy Italian bitch knew her stuff. Of course, he'd never let her know he was impressed, but still. She sure sounded like she knew what she was doing at least. He looked at her and nodded. "Yeah, that might work too. Circle the wagons, in case the injuns show up or something." He rubbed his head. It was too damn early for him to be dealing with this crap. He should still be in bed right now, dreaming of large women.

Sarah was following along, mentally tallying up Zania's suggestions. Her eyes shifted along the area they had to work with, but she couldn't help but think that everything was gone. Everything. Her sketchbooks, her family photos, her damn epinephrine injections. Though she doubted she'd be coming into much contact with nuts. And what was going to happen when they had to sleep outside and the fire died out and it was pitch black? She hated the dark. And wolves...weren't there wolves running about? Sucking a deep breath to try and keep herself from having a flat out panic attack, Sarah looked to the others. "Tents sound good," she agreed, tugging Dan's shirt down anxiously. Because everyone would probably end up wanting to kill each other if they had to share one big space. "We should get an extra tarp to place over the supply of firewood too..." Duh. She was certainly Queen Obvious, though even the simplest things were sounding complicated right now.

Zania nodded in agreement with Sarah. It wasn't raining now, but it had rained plenty in the past few days. The last thing they needed was to spend time collecting firewood, only to have it rained on and ruined until it dried. "So, where do we want to start?" Zania asked. "We can build the tents first, then fetch the tarps and work on that. We're getting sunlight, so it's not like we'll have to wander around in the dark. But I think people will want tents first." If for no other reason, so that they could escape and pull themselves together in private. That was what seemed so hard right now, was that there was no sense of privacy whatsoever.

"I guess it's the tents then." Andre looked around. There was plenty of room to set up, it was just a matter of putting everything where they did the most good. Zania seemed to know her stuff, maybe he'd better let her take charge, although it killed him letting a woman tell him what to do. Still, good of the tribe, and all that shit. "I guess I'll run down and get the tarps, if you want, let you ladies and-" Where the hell was that hippie, anyways? "whoever shows up get started on the tents and figuring out where you want everything."

Ben had found it difficult to even set foot outside the chapel following the fire and the head-count earlier, instead preferring to cling to his guitar like a life preserver as people grouped up and set about their respective tasks. But eventually, even as he regretted the burst of mental clarity that had prompted his volunteering, he peered out the chapel doors with the hardcase strapped uncomfortably tight over one shoulder. In lieu of his medicine, its' presence was the most soothing thing Ben could hope for. "Gimme shelter," he muttered over at the large black man who'd spoken up before, "Richards, Jagger, heroin. We building?" Both hands shoved into his pockets as Ben's eyes darted between Sarah and Zania, then dipped back to his feet. More strange women, great.

Sarah glanced over at Ben. Just another face she hadn't seen before. There was a lot of them wandering around. "Yeah, we're building. Or, rather, talking about building." She looked back to Zania. "We need to raid the shed and see what we can dig up in terms of tarp and rope. We can all go, or I can go alone."

"No sense in all of us going," Andre said. "Two of us can stay here while the other two go to the shed. The people here can get started if they want." He looked over at Sarah. "I'll go with ya, whitebread. I doubt you could carry all that by yourself, but with the two of us, it shouldn't be a problem." He looked back at Ben and Zania. "Z, you and Rolling Stoned over there can get started on the tents. The faster we get this done, the faster we can get people out of the chapel."

Zania wondered if she was missing something, the slang and references making little to no sense to her. She caught the word heroin in there, making her not at all pleased to be stuck working with Ben. A little pot was one thing, but hard drugs was completely different. Course, he should still be capable of putting together tents. "Sounds good," she said, nodding in agreement with Andre. "Let's get started," she said to Ben, heading towards the first tent.

Nic and Dan were late to the group, but they were there - especially since Lina'd been all organisational and pointed them in this direction. Dan was letting Nic lead them, following on behind and just glad that they hadn't been split up for the working parties. He had no problem doing things, but he didn't particularly want to be separated from his boyfriend right now.

"Putting up tents?" Nic asked, as that looked exactly like what the group was starting to do. Or maybe not, as a couple of them now seemed to be leaving, one of them being Sarah. Nic ignored that for the time being, thinking it would be easier to get started with her gone than with her there. "We're here to help," he announced, as if it needed saying, then grabbed one of the tents for he and Dan to start putting together.

Twelve tents was more tents than Zania had ever imagined putting up at once, and she was willing to bet the rest of the group agreed on that. She made small talk with whomever was close while they worked, but for her it was a rather quiet process. It gave her time to think, to reflect on the fact that the sun was rising on their burnt down house. Maybe, once it cooled, they could search the inside. With the sun in the sky, there was an increased effort to get everything built, knowing that the afternoon sun would make the work all the more exhausting. Once the twelve tents were built, they started on the shelters made of tarps and collected wood, a process far less organized.

"Do we have any nails or rope?" Zania asked, spreading one of the tarps out, trying to see how big it was. It could be used for cover, if they could find stable things to hold it to. But how to attach it? She wasn't sure what else had come from the shed, aware that a large portion of the tools had been in the house.

"I think there was some rope that came out from the boatshed," Dan told her. He'd wandered off to look at the various piles that were forming around the place. He hadn't wanted to get too close to the boatshed though - being near the boatshed meant being near that big body of water that was the lake. Dan didn't do bg bodies of water. He didn't make a thing out of it unless pressed, but they scared the living daylights out of him.

"I'll run down to the boatshed," Zania said, looking down at the supplies. "I think we want to put one tarp up over firewood, in case it rains, and... We can just make others, in case people want a place to sleep or sit in the shade. If we all hang out in the chapel, it'll be... Well, I think we need it out here." She thought they'd go crazy in such close quarters. Having a place outside would definitely help. "Anyone wanna come with?" she asked.

Bob stood back, rubbing at tired eyes and stretching to work the kinks out of his back. Setting up the tents hadn't been too difficult, in fact, the tents the scientists had supplied went up much easier than the old canvas monstrosities he remembered from his boy scout days. Actually building shelters, though... That was something else entirely. Bob felt as if he ought to be able to remember something useful, but he was drawing a blank. It wasn't as if he'd been an Eagle Scout--nowhere close--and right now he was exhausted. Exhausted, dirty, smelly... and Lord, he could use a drink. Or some ibuprofen. Preferably both. But whining wouldn't do anyone any good. He mustered up a smile at Zania.

"I can come along and help carry supplies," he said, glancing from her to the others to see if anyone had any other ideas. Unskilled labor, that was about all he was good for in this situation.

"Thanks," Zania said, giving Bob a small smile in return. "We'll be back soon?" she said to the others. "Maybe you can figure out where things should go, you know?" It felt weird, giving any kind of guidance, but ever since she'd spoken up in the beginning, they seemed to listen to her. At least she'd attacked a task she knew something about, even if it wasn't much.

Ben had been standing by, withdrawing a touch more every time there was a new voice, a new face. He didn't try to hide so much as to pull tighter into his own space, muscles taut and anxious, neck corded as he listened to the more rational people around him formulate a plan. He'd had a retort for Andre's barbs, a comment that he was far from stoned, but it got lost in the jumble of his mind all too soon. "Tents," he finally muttered again, reluctantly moving to the frameworks they had to work with already to find where he could best lend a hand.

With Bob and Zania gone, Nic took to placing the tarps out where he thought they might go best, though they couldn't actually put them up without the rope. The whole process was somewhat chaotic, but it was looking better by the minute. Just having all the tents built made it look like an actual camp. They still had a lot of work to do though. It would have been nice if they'd had more tents, but he kept reminding himself that twelve was a lot to begin with. Maybe, when it was all done, the scientists would provide more, but there was no telling when it came to them. They'd just have to wait and see.