THE SINKHOLE [Nolli; Shade; Haze; Kyna; Riley, William; Connor]

Nolli awoke slowly, soaking wet and incredibly dazed. He was lying on his stomach, his legs still submerged in a body of water. Wuh... Where was he? In an attempt to push himself up, a jolt of pain shot through is rib cage. "Ow, fuck," he flopped back down, barely managing to roll onto his back. At least now he could see what was around him. He couldn't see anything. He rubbed his eyes. Nothing, it wasn't that his eyes weren't working, it was that it was pitch black. Craning his neck, he could hear the sound or rushing water at his feet. He felt around him, rock. Am I underground? Just what the hell had happened?

The events prior to his current situation slowly started to be made clear through the fogginess of his brain. He'd been working at a semi-crowded park in South District. Today, he was assigned to pick up litter. And then... he was falling? It was as if the ground had fallen out beneath him. Seeing as how he was apparently underground, the ground did fall out from beneath him. I must've fell into that river, and then it must've carried me to wherever this is. Nolli lightly fingered his aching ribs. He flinched, they were incredibly tender. Shit, he craned his neck to look down again, and then put his head back down realizing he couldn't see. Though the water had probably saved his life, the impact still left what felt like a huge bruise on most of the right half of his body. Nothing feels broken at least, that's good... He snorted, way to be optimistic, Nolli.

He lay with his eyes closed for a few seconds, trying to think. He opened his eyes remembering something. I have a flashlight. City workers were required to carry around a small flash light along with a bunch of other miscellaneous items. God, I hope it survived the river... He dug around in the pockets of his uniform until he came upon a familiar shape. Ah, he pulled out the light and switched it on. The light flickered, but finally stabilized into a weak beam. Good it works, kinda. Nolli turned it off again to save power.

Someone had to have seen this, something this big can't just go unnoticed... could it? I mean, the entire park collapsed, didn't it? The city had to be sending rescue workers soon... right? You can't miss a giant sinkhole where a park used to be. Nolli came to a disheartening realization, if the river had carried him far enough, it might be impossible to send rescue workers to where he was currently located. Even so, Nolli pulled out his phone. He'd suspected the river killed it, and he was right. Well, it was worth a try...

Then it occurred to him, there were definitely others in the park, some of them had to be down here with him. Nolli called out, "Hey! Can anyone here me? Is anyone else down here?" His voice echoed around the cavern. I, or we, are definitely in a cave of some sort.

Holy shit, I’m still alive. How am I still alive. Holy, freaking, shit.

Riley coughed, a weak and tired sound escaping from his lips. He hadn’t moved an inch since he first woke up with his cheek pressed against gravely earth, not even to crawl further up the bank of what seemed like a river, instead leaving his lower half of his legs in the shallow water. It felt as though he had gotten a beating; everything was sore, and he could feel parts of his arm stinging horrendously from scrapes and cuts he had collected. His jeans were torn in some places, though he couldn’t get a good feel for any injuries – the cool water had a numbing effect on him.

Coughing again, he steeled himself for the inevitable pain before pushing himself up. His arms shook in protest, but he managed to turn himself over so he could at least sit up. From there, he scooted back as carefully as possible. His feet were just out of the water when his hand came in contact with a rough stone wall. He leaned back against it, trapping his now waterlogged backpack between him and the rock as he tried to draw comfort from the surface. He couldn’t exactly see anything else, but with a wall to his back it was one less thing he had to worry about.

He leaned forward to massage his legs, trying to get some warmth back and hissing under his breath whenever he accidentally pressed against a bruise, as he tried to remember what happened. He’d been in the South District, right? He’d finished an errand for someone and had been spending some of his spare time at a park, keenly interested and amused by the pigeons there. Something scared them off, and he remembered being confused by their sudden flight when he felt the earth give away from beneath his feet.

Now able to feel his legs again – and unfortunately all the dings and scrapes he had on them as well – he twisted around and removed his backpack, placing it on his side and hooking an arm back through one of the straps as he examined the contents. All of his papers – random flyers and maps he’d kept – were completely destroyed, and he did his best to separate the pulpy mess from the rest. He wouldn’t throw it away, though; if worst came to worst, he’d probably end up eating it, as disgusting as it was. There was no telling how long he’d be in this horrible, dark place. The granola bars seemed to be in decent condition, though, as their packaging had saved them from a watery demise. He couldn’t say the same for his pathetically small first-aid kit. Apparently he had forgotten to seal the zip-lock bag that had contained Band-Aids and sanitizing wipes. The latter was in the best condition, also due to their packaging, though the former was soaked and useless. The final item – his inhaler – was thankfully undamaged, at least from what he could feel. Unlike the first-aid kit, he had actually sealed the zip-lock bag. That, at least, was a huge relief. His phone, though. Where was his phone? As soon as he thought about it, he realized it must have fallen into the river, since he couldn’t feel it in his pockets.

A flash of light caused him to look up, but it vanished as soon as it arrived. Still, though, it meant that other people were down here with him, and the short (and irritable) conversation afterwards solidified that idea. From what he could tell, though, they were quite a bit away.

Drawing in a slow yet shuddering breath, he tried out a single sound – his favorite: the cooing of doves, though it was amplified louder than most birds for the purpose of testing the echoes of the cavern. Like with the voices earlier, it bounced off the earthen walls, getting softer and softer, confirming his suspicion about the size of the area.

Yeah, grouping with the people over there sounded better than trying to navigate this place on his own. Using the wall for support, he pulled himself onto his feet, digging his fingers into the grooves of the stone as the soreness in his muscles bit into his nerves, causing him to sway. Alright, just walk it off, it’ll feel better when you get some use out of them. Slinging his backpack over a shoulder (ow) he took a few steps, easing his weight onto each leg carefully before gaining a bit more confidence that his knees and feet were stable enough. “You’ve got another person over here; where are you guys?” he called softly into the dark, though his voice echoed anyways. He would do his best to shuffle over to where he had seen the flash of light and heard the first voice, stumbling now and again but managing not to trip and cut his face open.

William was achy everywhere. He just didn't want to move. He took deep, gulping breaths, eyes closed to the darkness, mostly relieved that he'd stopped being thrown around by the water current. Stillness was bliss.

He almost wished he had been knocked out- making a guess about the sounds around him (he'd assumed he'd been alone, until he'd heard the soft sounds of breathing, and now, the louder sounds of people getting up and was that a pigeon?) the others had all fainted or been hit on the head maybe. Miraculous, really- he wondered if anyone was dead. His headphones were certainly dead. And his mp3 player, and his phone, dammit. He wasn't sure whether to be grateful or depressed that the long drop (god, it was long- the debris everywhere, the light of the sky quickly vanishing into a pinpoint speck, and the sounds of screams, then the sounds of rocks and dirt hitting water, and then hitting the water himself) ended in an underground river.

Then it was sputtering and gasping for air, before being pulled under by the current, though tunnels. Grasping for nooks and crannies in the wall had left his hands bruised and stinging, and being battered around had given him a thorough bruising. After he'd washed up, he'd coughed and gagged up water, and then collapsed to recuperate.

he didn't know how long they'd been down here already. If everyone was getting up, maybe it was a good idea to get up too.

He just didn't want to move at all, though, jesus. He hugged his toolbox tightly, the thing still attached to his belt god bless, and he shivered, feeling thoroughly stubborn and grumpy.

And then somebody stepped on his stomach, and he 'oofed' loudly, coughing again and bolted upright, holding his middle instead.

"Mère de dieu watch whehre you'hre going!" He croaked hoarsely, coughing again. God, his throat did not appreciate this. Now that he was up, he got to pulling off his jacket (what a relief), blinking in the dark and frowning. He had a torch light in his toolbox, and several glow sticks. Wringing out his jacket and tying it around his waist, he stood up, taking a few careful steps away from whoever it was who had stepped on him, muttering under his breath. Will fumbled for his toolbox, and took out the first thing he found (a glow stick), snapping it.

There were more people than he'd thought- great. Just great. He hoped nobody would slow them down.

((GEEZ RILEY, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING /shot /also got permission for that uvu/))
((also excuse somewhat rambly writing asldkf OTL))

Connor had never been a morning person.

As consciousness slowly started to seep in and grab hold of his senses, he fought it as best he could, trying to get back to sleep. Five more minutes. He was in the middle of a wonderful dream about…nevermind, he’d already forgotten what it was about, he just knew he was enjoying it. It was something to do with sandwiches, he thought.

Something in the back of his mind registered voices talking—probably his family outside his bedroom door. Except they sounded closer. And not like his parents or sister. He also thought he heard a pigeon cooing. Were they perched on his windowsill again?

Wait. That wasn’t right. He heard the pigeon, but he didn’t understand it. He always understood what they were saying, whether he wanted to or not. But this time it was just a bird call with no words. Something was wrong.

Screwing up his face a moment, he slowly opened his eyes to find it absolutely pitch black. Which meant one of two things; either it was really dark or he’d gone blind. The latter idea made his heart skip a beat and he abruptly sat up, which he immediately regretted because suddenly everything hurt. The wrist of the arm he’d used to push himself up basically folded up and fell out from under him, and he collapsed back to the…stone? It sure as hell wasn’t his bed. Then the sound of water joined the rest of the new sensations, accompanied by the realization that his clothes and hair were sticking to him and he was freezing. Connor was pretty positive he was head-to-toe drenched.

And that leaves the question of why. He tried to recall something, anything. It came in bits and pieces. An errand to run for his mother in the South District. Being nervous about riding the metro. Being nervous while riding the metro. Hiding in the very back seat. Getting off. Walking down a road, and cutting through a park because it looked safer. The pigeons following him around like they usually did, and Connor trying to tune out their constant shouts of , “FEED US! FEED US! FOOD PLEASE GROUND BOY!” Really, it was infuriating how simple minded they were…and then something changed. The birds started taking off, and their squawking became frantic and almost unintelligible to him. The last thing he remembered hearing was something like, “FLY AWAY! FLY! GROUND BOY, GET OFF GROUND!” And then there was a rumble, and suddenly he was falling. Then there was a sharp pain in his forehead (which was now returning as more of a sting/ache combo) and the next thing he knew, he was waking up here.

Connor had to resist the urge to be sick when he realized what had happened. A sinkhole. You have got to be kidding me. What the hell are the odds of that even happening?! Oh my God. Oh my—whatdoI—ohshitohshitohshit this. Is. Not. Good. He was pretty sure he was hyperventilating at this point, and focused all his efforts for a moment on just breathing. Get a grip, Connor.

“You’ve got another person over here; where are you guys?” someone’s voice echoed from what sounded like a ways away.

It was followed shortly by, "Mère de dieu watch whehre you'hre going!" in a different voice—was that French?

The solid realization that he hadn’t imagined the voices earlier and that there were, in fact, other people down here struck him as both a huge relief and another source of anxiety. I’m not alone, good. But I’m not alone, this is awful. After all, if he wanted any chance of surviving this he would probably have to team up with these other people. Which meant talking to them, as he couldn’t see much of anything, so relying on his usual gesturing wouldn’t help. Fuck. Okay Connor, you have to let them know you’re here. Just relax and say it. It’s not that hard. He swallowed, and took a deep breath. “H-hello? Who’s here?”

"Yes. There's several of us. And a little warning next time would be appreciated before you go blinding people. If everyone wants to hold still and not use any more damn flashlights, I can get you all."

“Hey, mind keeping it down? You’re making too much noise.”

“You guys ok?”

“You’ve got another person over here; where are you guys?”

"Mère de dieu watch whehre you'hre going!"

“H-hello? Who’s here?”

Listening to the voices around him, Nolli had a rough estimate as to how many people were trapped in the hole. Alright, it's clear I'm not alone, and whaddya know, I'm pretty sure I've met everyone here at some point in time except.... except for the french guy, that last kid, and that dove (probably Riley). He knew for sure, there was (fat) Haze and Riley, the two Nolli had done the Chameleon bounty with. He also recognized the voice of that one girl who gave him aspirin for his migraine that one time. And then there was the brunette who gave him a mango and helped him escape from the police.

Still lying on his back, Nolli mentally prepared himself for the agonizing task that was moving. Very slowly, and very painfully, he managed to pull himself up to a sit, using a nearby rock as support. Remembering aspirin girl's warning he called out, "Okay, I'm briefly turning on a flashlight so we can all locate each other more easily. It'd be best if we could gather around in one general area so we can discuss our next move." He'd made a point of making the last part sound like a suggestion, so he didn't sound too pushy. Stuff like this happens to me surprisingly often, he thought; thinking back to the time he was trapped in the Metro.

Nolli turned on the flashlight and kept the beam directed towards the ground so he didn't temporarily blind someone. Using the wall of the cavern as a crutch, Nolli gingerly came to a stand and started to make his way towards the largest mass of people.

"Is anyone or anyone around them seriously injured?" If anyone was severely incapacitated, they were either unconscious or dead because no one responded with , "Why yes sir, I believe I may be dying," or, "Why yes, I believe this chap right here is, in fact, coughing up his intestines."

Suddenly, the flashlight hit the ground with an echoing clatter as Nolli slid down the wall into a sit. An intense throbbing pain had started in his temples. Fuck, wonderful time to get a migraine. Locating his blood pressure meds (which, thankfully, had been spared by the child-proof bottle) in one of his back pockets, Nolli fumbled with it in his shaking hands until he'd finally managed to get it open. He downed one of the capsules, and closed his eyes willing the pill to take effect. Addressing no one in particular, he pressed his palms against his forehead and muttered something just loud enough for everyone to hear, "I need a minute."

“Ohmygod I am so sorry!” Riley leapt backwards, stumbling back several steps and cringing at the pain as the man scrabbled to his feet. At least the guy wasn’t dead, though? Stepping on some guy and possibly injuring him further versus stepping on a dead body…well, the former was probably still better. Especially in regards to the actual person.

He stayed as still as possible, listening and trying to get a sense of what the man was doing. Shifting wet cloth. Water hitting the (already wet) ground. Displeased muttering. Something opening.

And then a distinct SNAP and the area was illuminated – at least around them, as it didn’t exactly light up the world – in a strange green glow. He glanced away, trying to blink away an odd spot in his vision from the sudden light, as little as it was. Quickly realizing that it was futile, he looked back at the man he had apparently stepped on, letting his eyes adjust. From what he could tell, the man was definitely a number of years older than him, though not much taller. It seemed as though he had dark hair, though the green light made it difficult to make out the actual color of his eyes.

“H-hello? Who’s here?” The voice came from somewhere behind him (assuming that the wall he had felt earlier was still to his right, of course) and Riley turned slightly towards the sound, glancing back at the man in front of him several times to see if he was going to attack.

“Hey, it sounds like there’s a bunch of us down here.” He could just about see a scared looking teen a bit away, barely illuminated by the glow stick. “Mind coming a bit closer so I can see you better? ...don't want to lose anyone down here.” Considering how dark it was, it probably wouldn't be too hard to do so. The guy could be useful in the escape out of here…and if not, well, then Riley was just trying to help a fellow teen out. He didn’t sound or look like he was going to rip someone’s limbs off at the first possible moment, anyways, so no harm done right?

He backed up against the wall, still in the light of the glow stick, and beckoned to the teen as someone – Nolli, right? – turned on a flashlight, which had apparently been the light he had seen earlier. Riley listened as the conversation picked up again, trying to tell who people were. Nolli, Shade, and Haze were definitely down here, though he didn’t recognize the sound of the third female, nor did he recognize the two males he was currently standing closest to. Three out of six, that’s not too bad. Hopefully he could count on the ones he knew and not be left for dead in this miserable place.

He was about to respond to the unknown girl with his own name when the sound of something – the flashlight, apparently, according to the way the light was suddenly moving – hitting the floor interrupted him. Riley flinched and peered around the man with the glow stick, spotting Nolli sitting against a wall and not looking all that great. He started towards the man – they had, after all, gone after a bounty together, and he was decent towards harbingers – intent on making sure he wasn’t about to die. When Kyna, as her name was, beat him there to it, he turned and looked back at the man with the glow stick and the other teenaged boy, only a dozen or so steps away. “You two coming?” It probably wouldn’t be wise for anyone to go lone wolf in a situation like this, but if they wanted to he wasn’t going to stop them. Still, though, he would wait for their response before turning and heading over to where the others had gathered, glancing over his shoulder occasionally to see if they were there or not.

William ignored the man when he apologized, and only spared him a look when his eyes adjusted to the glow of the stick. Dark haired punk, he labelled the kid in his head. But at least he'd apologized. Feh, and now there was another kiddo coming out from the edge of the circle of light. How many people survived that drop, anyway? Will turned his attention away from the two closest to him, towards the other group with the second source of light.

There was general confusion. One man spoke outloud- the one with the flashlight? William held his glow stick aloft, in an attempt to get a grip of his surroundings.

"Is anyone or anyone around them seriously injured?" Flashlight man asked, and he got several answers. At least, this group seemed like they knew what they were merde, quel du fou?! The loud sound of something dropping on rock, accompanied by the sudden scattering of the flashlight, scared the living hell out of William-- he'd jumped visibly, staring wide eyed (and shooting a very disgruntled look) at the one who'd been holding it. Oh, well that wasn't disconcerting at all. Was he concussed or something? Well, they were all battered up here, Will wasn't going to spare anyone special treatment.

"Yeah, yeah, take all the time you need," he grumbled, mostly to himself and almost inaudibly. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, the freckled man glanced around at everyone again. People seemed to be getting their shit together. Finally.

"You two coming?" The I-step-on-people punk was already trotting over towards the rest of the haphazardous gaggle of people. Will looked over at the quiet boy one more time, before shrugging, giving an affirmative grunt before moving forward to follow the punk. "Of course I'm coming."

((apologies in advanced for botched french... |D;; ... and sorry for any choppiness, replying off the phone and flow is hard for me to manage when I can't read more than a couple sentences at a time))