Bodycount perks up at Snow's comment, looking around with renewed interest.
Maybe guards after all.
He trots up ahead of the others, sniffing the air carefully, his ears fully upright and his muscles tensing with the eager anticipation of a fight.
Squirrels. Where are they?
{The "quarry" can be found on the Google map on the Twilight Valley site; it's in the upper left quadrant of the Forsaken territory, above Alkali Flat.}
The property that the three uratha examine isn't actually a quarry (where they dig rock out of the ground) but a place where trucks once dumped stone to be used in construction projects. The grinding operations, part of an older setup on the same property, were dumping waste that was getting into the ground water. Shut down by environmentalists, the owners couldn't get a variance to change the local codes and they couldn't afford to buy the eco-friendly equipment to continue operations, so they shut down and abandoned the facility. Now, more than a decade after it was shut down, all of the rock-grinding equipment is gone, sold for what profit they could salvage.
The grounds are in terrible shape. An eight foot tall chain link fence with razor wire topping it blocks access to the property from all sides, though their actually meant to keep people off the railroad tracks that form the northern and southern boundaries of the property. Even the driveway is hard to distinguish from the railroad's service road. What was once a fine concrete parking lot is nearly hidden under dirt and rubble, cracked and weedy. The south and west sides of the property completely obscured the building from sight of 7th Street, D Street, and the southern railroad line. Towering piles of crushed stone and sand litter the property to the south of the building, helping conceal it from accidental notice. The northern and eastern sides of the property are protected by a wide open space of gently rolling ground covered in low scrub, with the occasional tree. Being the middle of winter in California, the land should be a rich green this time of year, but as with the Shadow the land itself seemed withered. The only exception is the giant oak growing incongruously lush and strong on the east end of the building. It has been there so long that the two utility poles rise from between its branches like extra trunks.
The only remaining building is a marvel of 1950's ugly practicality. A solidly built two-stories of concrete and steel, the once lead-white walls are now patchworked by rust and graffiti but still sound. Although the utility lines pass through the property, there is no power to the building. If it weren't for the uratha's heightened senses, the dark gray steel roof would blend into the dark landscape behind it. From this side of the building, a large rollup door that should open onto a vehicle bay can be seen to the west, with a smaller personnel door on the east end. Chicken wire-covered windows high up under the eaves show signs of cracking, but seem to have managed to survive the worst of the vandalism.
{I wanted to give everyone a chance to react before we go inside}
"It's lovely," Snow says to Keys as she studies the grounds. Though her words are sarcastic, she lets her finger tips drift over the Irraka's ruff and back as the urhan strides by excitedly, the physical touch acknowledging the good job Keys had done in finding the place.
"Let's walk the grounds once before we head inside. Something feels off to me."
She starts to circumnavigate the property.
Good for the dogs, Bodycount confirms excitedly.
At Snow's decision to walk around the place, he shoots off along the fence ahead of the others, but keeps enough presence of mind to stay within sight of them.
Keys was interested in the state of the Shadow here. She paces about, shifting her perception back and forth across the barrier. Something wasn't right, but it wasn't completely bad, either, at least not to her. Tainted by pollution or intentionally stripped? She sneezed and shook her fur out to refocus back in the now. It didn't matter to Keys. Things can only go up from here. I can make it better.
She startles a bit when Snow strokes her neck. She instinctively crouches, ears flat and her head tilted up and out, baring her neck submissively at the tone of the alpha's voice. When her mind catches up with the sarcasm and the approval beneath it, her ears perk up and her tongue lolls out happily.
As Snow moves off to begin the walk about, Keys even risks dashing up and pressing her head against the woman's thigh. As quickly as she moves up on her, though, she is gone, slipping away to position herself about ten feet further into the property from where Snow is walking.
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Nothing but days old squirrel droppings and the fence are around. The fence doesn't seem terribly well attached to the ground. In fact, it looks like some of the metal has been chewed through.
Snow notes the chewed sections of the fence. "Why are there so many droppings," she mutters to herself, though the sensitive hearing of her packmates in their wolf forms is likely keen enough to pick it up, "and yet no sign of any actual squirrels or even much in the way of trees?"
She glances toward the old, ominous structure, and she can't but feel apprehensive about the rusting building. She sighs.
"Let's go in." She starts toward it.
Keys follows Snow to the building, making sure to scope out the perimeter of the building before shifting back to her human form.
"All de doors be locked, but I tink de one on the south side be easiest to open." she tells Snow and Bodycount.
Once the rusted door is pried open, wan moonlight and the glow of city lights filters in through the clouded windows above. There is little to see; the equipment inside had been sold off as well, even down to the interior doors. The only remaining piece is one of the large funnel-shaped dispensers sitting in the middle of the truck bay. The east end of the building is a maze of small rooms, including a kitchen with a twenty year old stove, a long folding table with a twisted leg, and a jumble of mismatched chairs piled into the corner of a large dining room. A locker room off the kitchen holds a surprising number of lockers still bolted to the walls, along with four toilet stalls and a shower bay all containing fixtures that appear to be in working condition, even if they are caked in grime.
Steel stairs lead up to a partial second floor. The iron mesh scaffolding follows the outside of the second floor, gaping portals opening into areas filled with piles of discarded receipts and records. Following it around leads to a second set of stairs that lead back down into the truck bay. Chains hang broken from steel girders where rock moving equipment was once attached, and a single heavy-duty hook and winch system is caught on the edge of the rock funnel.
Throughout the exploration of the place Keys is like a kid at Christmas, eager to get from one room to the next to see what's in it and what can be done with it.
{Oh, and the building is 85x130 feet, making it about 11,000 square feet of space.}
Unlike her packmate, Snow moves through the building at a deliberate pace. This is in part due to her unease regarding the spiritual landscape, which she can still see. But she is also studying the building from a practical standpoint. Will it serve their purposes? Where will they sleep? Where will they work out and train? Can they defend the place? Each of these questions, and at least partial answers, run through her mind as she walks the length of the building.
"Its not bad," she says finally, after having explored every part of the building. "It will need a lot of work, but it for now at least it will do as a home den. Good job, Keishauna." She nods at the Irraka approvingly.
"Bodycount," she calls out, for she is not entirely certain where in the building he is, "it looks like we'll settle here. But could you try to find the source of that squirrel smell? Until I know where its coming from I'm not going to be comfortable."
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