Norbury At Night

[yockenthwaite]

Florence readies her torch as well, although she doesn't turn it on yet, because Irene's should provide good visibility through the open trap door. She peers down through the opening to see what she can see. "You can hear multiple people?" she asks Irene. "At least that means they are still alive. Can we get down here do you think?"

[aine]

John goes to get his bag from where it fell earlier. He dusts it off and looks down into the dark hole, "Here Miss, better let me go first." He gets out his powerful torch and switches it on, it's one with a base so he can use two hands for work. "I'll put it on a table or something to light the area." He mutters that the bomb must have cut the electrics down there.

[dormire]

William moves up amongst the group to get a better look into the trapdoor.


Looking over John's shoulder, he gets a bit queasy. It's quiet down there. Too quiet.

[Mr. Handy]

Irene stands aside so that John can take the lead. "Getting down there shouldn't be an issue, Florence," she says, also squinting into the shelter. "Getting out again might be if there's damage to the stairs, though. I did hear more than one person, screaming in terror, but they stopped when we dug through to the trapdoor. I guess they know they're safe now."

[yockenthwaite]

Florence nods in response to Irene, having also moved aside to let John through. "Well the more people trapped the more important it is for us to get down there. Thank goodness we've cleared the rubble already."

[dormire]

William pipes up, "My leg may be gone, but I do know some battlefield medicine." He looks inquiringly at John. "I think can manage the stairs if you want me with you. Name's William Cray, by the way."

[royya]

Doug stands in the back, watching the adults speak on what to do next. He takes his jacket from the floor and decides that going down is probably safer then staying in the street.
The name is Doug.
He says to the air as he follows after John.

[Laraqua]

The silence seems almost deafening after the explosions and screaming. Surely any survivors would have heard their voices by now? Surely someone would have called out to them? The stairs themselves look reasonably undamaged, though this is the emergency entrance and the ordinary entrance may have taken the greater part of the hit.

The woman looks around nervously and grips onto John's arm as he positions himself at the top of the trapdoor. "My father must be down there...."

Her movement disturbs one of the broken bricks which drops onto the stairs and thuds its way all the way down to the floor with that eerie silence, leaving a trail of blood as it went. All eyes turn to where the brick had lain and they see that in the darkness they had moved aside the rubble and had luckily kept their hands clean from the chunks of matted fur and bloody dog meat that had been pulverised by the bricks. Her dog must have been knocked out of her hands by the blast and into the bricks as they fell, leaving it in portions of furry meat strewn across the bricks.

"No," she whimpers, the back of her hand pressed to her mouth.

[royya]

Oh...gross...
Doug calls and quickly takes another brick from the pile of rubble to cover the dog's body again so they will have not have to look at it again.
It's better that way.
He says to her in a firm voice.

[aine]

"Poor mite, at least it was quick for the blighter. Come on Miss, I think we'd all be safer down below; the raid hasn't finished yet. John Brooks, electrics and munitions." He holds the torch in one hand, puts his bag over his shoulder and twists around to climb down the steep stairs. He is very tall and it takes a while before his head drops below street level. Gravel and small stones skitter down into the gloom and the torch casts striated dusty beams that bounce off the angled walls. Eventually, "Okay I'm down. I'll light up the steps so you can see your way." The stairway is lit up and drops into a dim pool of light. Beyond that, behind John, it is pitch black.

OOC,If the stairs are not safe then, obviously, he doesn't get down so easily...

[dormire]

William follows John down the dust strewn steps gingerly, leading with his cane. He listens hard for any sound of movement ahead in the darkness and looks hard for any signs of past injury (blood) on the floor.

OOC,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3639391/]Listen = 53[/url] [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3639392/]Spot Hidden = 92[/url]

[Mr. Handy]

Irene carefully descends the stairs into the shelter, following the others.

[yockenthwaite]

Florence follows Irene, taking care as she descends, unsure how steady the stairs are.

[Laraqua]

There is a smell of brickdust and fear to the air as well as something else like stagnant water. The steps themselves creak beneath their feet but while they were likely never in good condition they're dependable enough. There's a metal ladder behind them. Odds are there are a number of elderly people in that nearby building and so an enterprising fellow built in emergency stairs over the emergency ladder. There's no sign of any blood as John Brooks comes off the bottom step, his light flashing around the shelter briefly. The shelter is broken into three segments with an open doorway in each part. As Irene comes down, her own light flashes off the rubble at the far end of the third segment, revealing that the floor itself has been shattered, breaking a hole into some tunnel below. In this segment there are three bunk beds sunk into the concrete on either side with two benches back to back in the middle. The rest of the shelter is likely the same.

[Mr. Handy]

"Careful, looks like a sinkhole must've opened up," says Irene. "Either that or a bomb penetrated the shelter, but if it had there'd be a hole in the ceiling." She cautiously approaches the hole and shines her light into it.

[yockenthwaite]

"I'll have a look in this middle part of the shelter here," says Florence pointing to the middle segment. She turns on her torch and shines it in through the doorway, looking for any survivors.

[aine]

John sets his torch up on a bunk so it lights up the central area and no one can fall down the hole by mistake. He peers into the hole and wonders if it could be medieval or even roman ruins, he's come across them before as London is built over many earlier versions of the city. But Norbury is a long way out from the old part of town. Then he looks around for the power supply to the shelter, hoping to fix it.

Spot hidden(25%),[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3640912/]1d100=57[/url]

[royya]

Doug is the last to go down, he place a brick near the opening so no one will be able to shut the trap door. Hopefully the Germans will not bomb the same place twice, trapping them under a pile of new rubble.
Doug checks the ladder to see where it leads to before joining the others near the hole.

[dormire]

William moves over to the hole, as well. Following the beam that Irene shines within it. "Hello," he calls. "Is anyone down there? Are you hurt?"

[Laraqua]

The one ladder in the shelter would have led back up to the trapdoor but there's currently a poorly made wooden set of stairs right there that makes it a tight fit to get into that segment's bunk beds. The rubble from the other side is probably from where the pepperpot entrance building collapsed under the blow of the bomb blast, but that doesn't explain the hole. To the left and right of the middle segment, obscured in the gloom, stand separate male and female day rooms, fitted with more bench seats and chemical toilets at the very end. The sleeping areas with their triple-tiered bunks hold handbags and emergency bags (likely containing ration cards, I.D. cards and spare clothing), and each bunk bed has its individual lamp holder, hooks and hand -painted numerals. For some reason, none of these lamps are on although they should have been turned on by the occupants. Perhaps there's a way to check if they were recently used? There's a flask of whiskey, freshly spilled, lying sidelong on one of the benches, having spilled its alcohol onto the floor next to a couple drops of fresh blood - still bright red.

The light pierces the darkness of the hole and reveals that its only a six foot drop into some sort of maintenance tunnels. Pipes run along both sides of the concrete tunnel and there's some spatters of blood on the floor, though not a great deal. Perhaps those who have keen

eyes and ears,roll Spot Hidden and Listen

could learn more.