Lonely City

The group had made it inside the cave with hours of daylight to spare, the temperature of the planet quickly dropping. Rosehip followed Moonbeam closely, flicking frost off of her whiskers along the way.

“Wow…” Rosehip whispered, viewing the wreck of a city in front of them, stones and boulders littered the streets with crumbling walls and ceilings to boot. As if on queue, the nearest building's wall collapsed, shaking the ground as it crumbled before them.

Rose grimaced, looking back towards Moonbeam and Goldie as they both shared a similar worried look, “There has to be something here, right?”

Moonbeam nodded, “People lived here, surely there’s /something/…” her voice trailed off as she descended down the cave into the city before them, motioning for the two to follow kit.

“It’s awfully cold, don’t you think?” Goldie mentioned, opening up a bag on her side to show gathered materials, enough for a campfire or two, “It might be wise to set up a campfire before we set off..”

Rosehip agreed, shivering for emphasis. She pointed towards a nice flat ground with an overhang of cave, allowing for a warm pocket to be created. Goldie handed her some materials, preparing a fire to light it with.

She glanced at Moonbeam, whom of which was staring off at the city, scanning the area for any sign of life at all. Rose smiled sadly, it wasn’t hard to tell how Moonbeam was feeling, often showing her emotion on her sleeve when deep in thought.

Stress and unease was pouring off of Moonbeam in waves, adding to the paranoia of the group, Rosehip distracted herself with building the campfire, slightly difficult with her smaller paws.

After placing the last stick in a secure spot, Rose motioned for Goldie to light the campfire, sighing in relief as the warmth filled her vision.

“Hey, Moonbeam!” Goldie called out, snapping Moonbeam out of kit’s thoughts, making her turn and look with wide eyes. “C’mon, we built a campfire, we can plan what to do next while we warm up.”

She made her way over, sitting down beside Goldie and immediately opening up about what’s next, “Clearly people lived here, many people. There has to be some sort of fuel here, something that could keep the people here warm and with power,” She continued, pointing to the large building in the back of the city, whose side wall had crumbled to bits, revealing a ladder, “I’m going to check out that area, you two should split up as well-”

“Wait! Why are we splitting up? That’s way too dangerous…” Rosehip muttered nervously, paranoia kicking in as she thought she heard some kind of movement in the city streets, although too dark to quite make out an actual figure.

“We don’t have all the time in the world, we have to get moving!” Moonbeam shot back, pointing out the lack of sunlight from the cave, “If we have any chance of escape off this freezing cold planet, we have no time to waste, we need to keep our heads up!”

Goldie, as unsure as Rosehip, sighed and nodded, agreeing with Moonbeam, “It’s much too cold to live here, this fire won’t last forever..” She mentioned sadly, to which Rosehip grimaced.

“At least let me go with you,” Rose argued, “It’s too dangerous alone, you don’t know what’s out there!”

“No, I’m much more efficient alone, go with Goldie, it’ll be safer for both of us.” Moonbeam argued, leaving no room for argument as she shifted her saddle bag and headed off towards the center of the city, “I’ll meet you guys back at the campfire, or the edge of the city, whichever is most convenient!”

As soon as she said that, she rushed off towards the city.

“Goldie.. I don’t feel great about this,” Rosehip muttered, looking towards the Guppymander for guidance.

“I don’t blame you, Moonbeam has a history for being stubborn… Hey, let’s go check out this little complex over here, it looks like it has some parts we could use” Goldie aided as distraction, pulling Rose with them.

- Fast Forward 30 Minutes -

Goldie yelped, a stray stone fell from the wall above them and nearly fell onto her, making her drop the parts she had collected from the complex’s destroyed generator and computer system. Clearly something dramatic had happened here.

She wondered about the cold weather, noting how the houses seemed to have weather protection, but not nearly significant enough to withstand the intense cold. “Hey… do you think something happened to this planet?”

Rose nodded, thinking deeply before answering, “I think so, the evidence of this city in ruins just seems like something catastrophic happened… Although I’m not sure what”

The two nodded and proceeded, their bags holding semi valuable parts to potentially repair the communication device that got decimated by Moonbeam’s rage. They carried on towards the dim campfire, the warmth having melted all the snow and ice around it. Rosehip sat down roughly, pulling out the communications device and prying off the back of it, trying to salvage the plastic the best she could.

As time passed, the lack of Moonbeam started to worry the two, it had been nearly two hours at this point, and not a single peep had come from the deeper city the entire time they were searching. Rose thought she could hear scuttling on the ground but chalked that up to her enormous paranoia.

Goldie sighed, worry etching their features as they stood up abruptly, looking off towards the city center, empty and almost like no one had been there. “Hey, let’s go check up on Moon, it’s been too long…”

Rose agreed, hopping up and walking up to Goldie, touching their shoulder gently, “I’m sure she’s fine, although it probably is best we check…”

And with that, the two set off into the city.