Venno gathered his audience once again.
"It was once again time for an assembly, but with seven projects on the go, nobody was interested in adding anything new. Instead there was a lot of disagreement about which of the seven projects should be worked on next. Jigsaw Jeff was very keen to get the museum finished in Puzzle Paul's honour, while Charlie Cube felt the school was a much higher priority. Meanwhile there was a lot of enthusiasm for the pigsty, not just because of the prospect of bacon to eat, but because the group from the Misty Mountains would soon be arriving to join their companions at the Prancing Pony.
But eventually it was Briktoria who was the grunt of reason, encouraging people to stop arguing and get on with some work.
Katin, still attempting to be nice to Silas, decided to do some more work on the school. Unfortunately she got distracted by a book the Chroniclers had left in the area, which seemed to be written in some strange language. Suddenly convinced that she'd forgotten how to read, Katin retired for a nap.
Lenny hoisted his shovel and went to work on the pigsty. He soon had all the holes dug for the fence posts, despite straining himself somewhat pulling up roots. Quin joined him, getting the ground prepared, but managed to slip over in the middle of it. All the same, between the two of them the pigsty was almost ready to go.
Silas got to work on the school, and determined to prove that he wasn't completely incompetant where staircases were concerned, got the front stairs sorted out. Zippo joined him, constructing the blackboard and other useful devices, but couldn't get everything where he wanted, much to his frustration. But the school was now close to completion.
Once again Katin found herself awoken by a commotion in the assembly area. Some time before dawn, Sundial Steve had seen the Misty Mountains group heading out of the Ark. It wasn't long before she found out what they were doing, when suddenly a hundred people showed up outside.
Katin went to spread the news, telling Silas first so he could tell the Elder, then going looking for Lenny to let Boss Marlotte know they were going to need a lot of tickets. Silas was intercepted on the way in by Jigsaw Jeff, who'd found another book in the Box of Lost Prophecies that seemed to relate to the one the Misty Mountains group had brought. It certainly featured a character with the same strange name: Asterix.
When he got inside though, the Elder already knew about the new arrivals. Briktoria had already been through, concerned about food supplies within the Ark with all the extra people showing up.
Katin found Lenny and passed on the news. Together they went in search of Boss Marlotte, where they soon learned there were not enough tickets available for a hundred people. Perhaps some of them would be family groups and only need one ticket? Lenny donned the official high visibility vest and picked up the official clipboard and got to work.
The two of them met up with Quin and Zippo on the way, and went to have a look at these strange people who didn't have things like beetle antennae, which they all thought was very strange. Lenny called for their attention, banging his shovel to make a noise, and managed to get most of them to listen. He asked about families, but they didn't seem to understand why they needed tickets.
"You also need to mind the gap."
"What gap?"
"When you get inside you will be shown the gap you need to mind."
They claimed to all be one family, which didn't make sense, because you couldn't have a hundred people on a family ticket. They claimed to be children of Adam. Who was Adam? He wasn't in the sacred books. Some more argument later, they split themselves up into twenty-five groups of four, which they could definitely work with. There were enough tickets for that. But the new arrivals thought it was very silly that they needed tickets to come and go from the Ark.
They suggested that if they were brought some grub and water they could just live on the surface. They offered a strange gun that apparently shot lights in return. The group discussed things. Quin didn't like it. She didn't trust them at all. Katin thought they were being really rude. Everyone else concurred. But they continued to argue, insisting that they needed a hundred tickets, and people started pushing their way in. Lenny's attempts to intimidate them, backed up by Silas, were not entirely successful.
Half of the group decided they were coming in anyway, buffeting Lenny out of the way. Silas started handing out anti-museum flyers, while Quin set Ork on them. Ork refused to bite anyone, however, apparently deciding that these people were friends. Quin made a note to have a conversation with Ork at a later time.
Boss Marlotte showed up, and was very unhappy with Lenny's performance, demanding the return of the official vest and clipboard. The others backed up Lenny, but there was nothing they could do to stop the people now. Katin tried to reassure Lenny that this wasn't all his fault, and they should leave it to Boss Johammed to clear up while they went out for a walk in the zone.
Silas had another idea though. The new arrivals were gathering around the Prancing Pony, and once Jenga Jeff had stacked up some boxes for him to stand on, he made an impassioneed speech to them about the importance of living according to the Ark's rules now that they were living in the Ark. Finally some order was restored.
Katin was still keen to get out and about though, and Lenny was also pretty keen to avoid the Ark for a bit, so the next morning they headed out for another expedition. Katin lead the group to the south, where they found a forest of dead trees. While hunting for bullets, she spotted a strange green shimmering light, and pointed it out to the others. Was there an elf about?
Quin sent Ork to investigate. He followed carefully, but whatever it was, he couldn't get close enough. The others joined him, trying to follow the light without getting too close, just in case it was one of the dead people from under the mountain in the third volume of the sacred book. Quin, Zippo and Katin managed to sneak up towards it, while the rather more conspicious Lenny and Silas stayed put to discourage it from moving in their direction. But after following it for a while, the light simply disappeared.
Zippo closed in on the spot where the light disappeared, but there was nothing there. Quin looked around but could only see leafless trees and hear the sound of the wind. Katin wondered if she could pick up a scent from it, but could only smell the other team members. Her nose seemed to have misfired.
They pushed on to the south, finding themselves in another unpleasant marshland. This had previously been good terrain to find snails in, and while Katin's nose didn't seem to be working, the others could still get to work, hunting out bullets and clean water in addition to some rot contaminated snails that Katin was sure she could clean up later.
They'd been out for several hours now, and while they could push on, they decided it would be better to head back to the Ark. A couple of hours later, Katin was happily barbecuing snails - at least until she accidentally breathed in some snail smoke and found herself dizzy and confused.
The group shared out supplies of food, water and bullets, got a night's sleep, and set out again. The push south to Old Ben was progressing at last. A quick walk through the dead forest and the marsh brought them to an area where houses still stood, in identical, ash covered rows.
What was in the houses? Katin had no idea. She didn't seem to be able to smell anything except barbecued snails right now. Everyone else noticed an odd smell though, and Quin identified it as animal faeces. A lot of it. Ork was very unhappy, and was backing away. Quin decided to try to get a closer look, sneaking her way up to one of the houses. She pushed on the door, but it was so rotten that it collapsed at her touch, crashing loudly to the ground.
Rats, thousands of rats, came pouring out of the houses. Zippo reflexively activated his mutation to scuttle his way up a building. Lenny grabbed Katin and retreated. Would they make it in time?"
Venno smiled to himself as the crowd erupted like a pile of rats as he left them hanging. They would just have to wait.
