Fission | Ground Zero

☣C H A P T E R | F I V E☣

"Light, damnit!" Hugo insists, a grunt in his voice as he knocks his knife on a stone above a small pile of cardboard and styrofoam. It was hitting night, and each corner of the dark room was only getting darker. After a few more strikes, each angrier and more ferocious than the last, a spark twinkles atop the kindling before it ignites. He lets out a gallant "yes!" before sitting himself behind the fire, and Emily watched as he and Brick, alongside the man in the plague doctor's mask, sit around it, each with their eyes plastered to the windows. Jonah had still stood posted at the door, awaiting any new arrivals and keeping an eye out for dread. Other than Hugo's thwacking at the stone, everyone stayed silent, for fear that one wrong noise could send them barreling into death without a moment to realize they'd made a mistake.

Just as Emily was about to nestle herself into the warmth, standing to emerge from the dark corner where Lloyd had left her and stretching her limbs upward with a yawn, someone else, beckoned by the large man guarding the door, sprinted through the doors with a lantern in hand. She was probably about Emily's age, and just a smidge taller than her. Each of them looked at each other, befuddled, after almost an hour of sitting there in solace with no hope in sight, that she had even survived getting there.

The girl shakes off her nerves, blowing humming raspberries to herself and shaking out her short, unkempt hair, the motion forcing it to stick out in multiple places. "Well golly, I didn't expect to see so many people here. Are you guys alright?"

Emily was hardly listening as the conversation droned, sitting herself by the fire and feeling the longing nudge of sorrow bumping her as if someone were touching her arm to get her attention. All she could think of in that moment was of her parents– were they dead? Where could she find them? Thousands of questions swirled through her head, until she heard, almost in the background of her conscious, a question that caused her to regain focus on reality.

"So.. who are you guys? And where are we?"

Her accent was thick, British and slightly slurred. Her eyes were as dark as her hair, it being almost too obvious that she didn't exactly trust them.

Hugo speaks up first, a smirk on his face and a toothpick between his teeth (where he'd gotten it, Emily was unsure of). "You can call me Hugo, mi amiga. But don't ask for my real name, I ain't telling you."

The girl's eyes widen and she nods, sighing outward, "Code names, duly noted."

Hugo nods, "This is Brick." He nudges the man sitting beside him, "We been friends since before this, he ain't the talkative type." Brick shrugs, but nods, agreeing and adding a quiet, "Nice to meet you."

"I'm– Uh–" She thinks for a moment, groaning. "Ah, code names are hard. Call me Luffy, it's my nickname since I was chubby in grade school."

"That— doesn't make sense," Hugo notes.

Luffy puts up her hands in defense, "Hey, tell my parents that, not me." She then turns to the plague doctor, who hasn't said anything the entire time and has made no move to get to know anyone. "And you?"

There is a small scoff from behind the mask, and a moment of silence before the beak quivers, the man turning his head and possibly looking at all of them from behind the goggled eye-pieces. "Oh... you ver' serious?" He sighs, "V'hatever, and fuck ze's code names. I am Doctor Ed'vard Godfrey. I am a brilliant scientist, far superior to any of your minds. And I vill not tolerate not being called Doctor."

Luffy pauses for a moment, lips spread into a thin white line, "Duly noted." She quickly pivots to look at Emily, "And what should I call you?"

"Poppet." She says simply, her voice small and trailing off into the darkness, "Nice to meet you."