Some time had passed since the world had gone quiet before the survivors began to wake. The place was dead quiet and while it was freezing cold, it was a strange, piercing chill that penetrated their jackets...even the blonde's band uniform, which she'd always complained was too heavy. Skeletons littered the ground around them as did the ruins of what once was Kenner City Park. Remnants of broken, dirty lights hung limp off of rotting, broken wood; tattered cloth floated in the occasional, weak breeze. Various instruments; broken, dented, rusting and dull were scattered along the ground as well. Some of them still had their owner's severed, bony hands attached. One skeleton loosely gripped a baton, still dressed in the suit meant for that night's performance though it was dry-rotting off of the body. The only thing left intact was a tie depicting some musical notes on a staff.. Hair was still attached in tufts on some skulls, and perhaps you could recognize the skeleton of the lady you were once standing next to just what seemed to be a few hours before. What the hell had happened?<br/><br/>A tall blonde girl still clutching her flute lay curled up on the ground. She sure seemed dead, but unlike the other bodies, she was whole and if she had died, it was only a few minutes ago. Not even a few seconds had gone by before her hand twitched...once, twice...her body shifted completely then. A groan escaped her vocal chords as a hand slowly crept to her throbbing, screaming head. Slowly, she sat up quite stiffly, for she had not moved in... really, how long had it been? Her joints ached, muscles tight and refusing to move, and that all was without her heavy decorative coat restricting her! Somehow it had remained a clean white and black. Strange...the other few uniforms that managed to survive the blight were nearly black with grime.<br/><em><br/>Wait.</em><br/><br/>There was a shriek, the flute dropped into her lap as the girl suddenly took in her surroundings. Dead people, dead people, and more dead people. Forgetting about the silver instrument for a moment, she crawled over to a long skeleton with bits of what could be recognized as a suit. Running her hand over the tie she’d given the owner just yesterday during school, recognition settled in. This was sickening, maddening, even! Shock began to subside as she removed the baton from the former director’s hands and slipped it inside of her coat before rising to her very shaky feet, not before picking up the instrument she dropped a moment prior.<br/><br/><em>Nobody's left alive but me... This is crazy! What happened?! Wait...Seren!?</em><br/><br/>Heather gave a yelp of delight, nearly throwing the flute from her half-gloved hands again as she rushed over to the still foggy form of her best friend. “Seren!? Seren!!!” She called, shaking the boy roughly, “Seren!! Please tell me you're still alive!!”<br/><br/>--<br/><br/>The Castiel was a large ship; not huge by any means, and certainly not cargo class, but it was certainly not a favored ship for those who called themselves bounty hunters. Most of those chose small crews, small ships, and hardly became attached to said crew at all. The Freeborn however, were different. They always had been a big group, even back in the old days when Irea's crew and Cid's crew had merged. To accommodate, there were two bases; one on the ship and one on ground, and this even remained true today. Though few others than the senior staff were allowed on deck at any point in time, the ship was reminiscent of a small flying community where everyone's role was quite vital to the function of their little society.<br/><br/>The senior crew consisted now of three people. Three people doing the jobs of six. It wasn't so hard, especially not for Kara, and the newer captain had been trained to do his job well. The alien on board...he just seemed to pick things up quickly and learned the ship inside out in record time. If anything had gone wrong inside, at least Kara was sure as she could shoot a gun Seven could find out what it was. Perhaps she was over glorifying his ability, though. When it came to the...alien...she tended to do that. There was plenty he didn't let on about, which really,<em>really</em>should have creeped her out.<br/><br/>“Distress call from Sector 146011 Quadrant C. ...That sounds familiar.” It was a sudden announcement.  The professional tone in Kara's voice faltered toward the end of her report. Suddenly, she also sounded less tired. “....Really, it's not a distress call, it's more...Life signs have all but disappeared. Guys, we've got another S&R. Been a while, too...” Leaning back in her chair, the woman began to twist a few pale locks of her bangs around two of her slender fingers. “I don't like this. Decorus has been idle for...what, three, four months? What would possess her to stop and go like that?” The chair swiveled back so she could see the rest of the senior crew. “...Whatever. We haven't much time, if any at all. If there's anyone left alive, they won't be for long if we don't move. Setting coordinates;  Ettie, take us on out. We're actually not very far away at all!”<br/>