Cold, howling wind.  Creaking, settling metal.  Echoes of all those sounds bouncing off the walls.  And the periodic falling stone from the dilapidated ruins.  That about matched up what anyone on the surface would hear, constantly.   And all they saw during the ‘day’ was dull grey thanks to the clouds,  and the deep dust that fell like snow from them.<br/><br/>Nate was unsure on if he should hate it all, or love it all.  In all the times he had been up here in the ruins of the city, he had learned that he always had to look over his shoulder, and always pay attention.  A mutant, or even worse a Demon could sneak up on you at any moment.  If you weren't at the top of your game.  Paying attention for the slightest change in the surroundings for anything sneaking up on you, and listening to the signs of any approaching mutant.  They weren't exactly silent.  He hated it up here for all that.<br/><br/>But even with all the dangers, this place was still so quiet, threats you can see an hear coming, and no people with all their veiled threats, and their pure evil of those who survived.  It was calm.  Peaceful.  That was the least that being up here felt like.  In comparison to the metro that was true at least.  He loved it up here for that.<br/><br/>That is why he volunteered to usually come up here alone, why he worked alone so much.  It gave him the chance to spend even a little time up here alone to relax while his filters lasted.  If only he wasn't up here for the reasons he was.  Running from his home, specifically his superior officer.  Though the woman that was the reason for him running was definitely worth it in bed, Aleska had not told him she was married, and to his superior officer.  It sucked learning about that and knew it wouldn't stay quiet for long.  Thus him going off on a solo mission to find a supply cache or something he could bring back that would make his officer forget about his wife cheating with on him with Nate.<br/><br/>He was almost as far from Polis as he could get, just looking for an entrance to get him to Elco.  The map he had gotten from those bandits had said it was in this area.  Maybe a few streets over.  Right now Nathaniel was looking inside a building that was supposed to be an old Spartan outpost from early in the life of the Order before it had been overrun by mutants, around some of the first encounters with mutants.  There should be some supplies left over.  Especially filters and maybe some MG bullets.<br/><br/>He pulled a spare filter off one of the corpses inside the building before looking at his watch.  It was under 30 seconds left.  Breathing in and holding his breath Nate removed the old filter, and replaced it with the new one he had pulled off the corpse.  Breathing out he reset his watch for a new filter.<br/><br/><span style="color: green">“Ahh, better.  Now then my friend.  I am sorry what happened to you, but please forgive me for scavenging.  Your old stuff can help me survive this hell.”</span>Darions said before silently praying for the dead men he was going through their bodies.  He pulled about 15 MG bullets off them all, adding them to his 40 he already had, and then pulling the magazine out of his Kalash.  This one he pulled the dirty rounds from one of the dead to fill the half empty mag before putting it back in his rifle.  He then replaced an empty mag with one of their full ones.<br/><br/>Off the rest of the corpses he pulled pistol rounds and rifle rounds from them all, and put as much as he could carry in his backpack.   Lastly he pulled the small orange box off one of the dead Rangers, opening it to find 2 of the small hypos of god knows what.  That small orange box he put in the empty pouch on his armor and Velcroed it down to hold the box in.<br/><br/>It was around that time that he froze, hearing the echoes of first a Kalash, then a loud shotgun.  He didn’t even bother speaking up as he didn’t want to give anyone a clue where he was, but Nate did move over to the window and looked out from the shadows.  There was no one in the street nearby, but the gunshots had sounded like a street over, through that line of buildings.  From across the buildings he had seen shadows moving in.  From across buildings he had planned to avoid.<br/><br/>Hearing those gunshots though… He had to see who it was.  Curiosity, a very deadly thing he had yet to break himself of.  If it was a conflict between the reds and Nazi, he would walk away… but if it was some innocent bystander defending themselves… they could use some help.<span style="color: green"> “Shit…”</span><br/><br/>With that, Nate began to move, exiting this old outpost, with what he had scavenged.  He of course watched the street for a moment before sprinting across to the shadows of a doorway in the line of buildings.  He had to get into a position to see what was going on, but avoid whoever those shadows had been.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>