"I like what you've done with the place," Jan says through laboured, cold breaths. "Don't think it's quite got the summer holiday look yet, and seems it could do with a few touches here and there to get it just right. But it looks good."

Hell, anything was better than the fuselage of a dead plane surrounded by all those bodies. And this building obviously had a road leading to it, judging by the path they had followed, so it must lead somewhere.

Having given his phone to Bob yesterday, and not retrieving it from him earlier, Jan was without a light so allowed Allison to enter, but acknowledged Kirsti holding the door, "Why thank you," he said touching his forehead, offering her his imaginary cap as way of thanks. He entered the building with a sense of relief mixed with trepidation. He hoped that there was something obvious that the girls had missed that would explain this place, and offer them a better sanctuary than the plane provided.

Alison followed Jan in and took off her snow shoes as she explained, "This is how we found it. Like they left one day, expecting to come back, but they didn't.

"Didn't even clean out the refrigerator. That's how we figure it was seven years ago based on the expiration dates."

Given their promise to look, Alison began going through the cabinets once more for coffee and any other amenities that may have an unlimited shelf life. Twinkies would be a jackpot find.

The room has a number of round tables with chairs as well as a couple of couches against the side walls.  The back wall of the room is dominated by a long counter top and refrigerator.  A coffee machine, toaster oven, and microwave can be seen on the counter top as well as a sink.  Cupboards below and above the counter top are white with chrome handles.

There is also a short corridor off the back of the break room that leads into darkness.  Presumably, to the mystery elevator.

Kirsti stayed outside to clear snow from the rest of the windows for more light inside. She planted her spear near the door in case of a random bear attack.

Alison was able to find a sealed jar of both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee.  One of the drawers has a selection of sugar packets and substitutes as well as a few dozen sealed creamer cups.

She found a box of individually wrapped salt crackers, but no Twinkies or other edibles.

Jan Silently curses that he left his phone with Bob. He doubted the man would ever be able to use it, and he needed it's light now.
"Are there any torches or light sources?? Did you find a generator or means of powering the house??" he asked. "I mean, I know you said the lift wasn't powered but that may be on a second power source."

He needed to do something, so Jan started searching for signs of a power source - light switches, electric cables, portable lanterns or torches, anything. He just needed to be busy, to do something, to feel useful.

"Nothing like that jumped out at us the first time we were here," Kirsti said as she locked the broken door so it wouldn't blow open in the wind. "There are a few light switches, but they didn't do anything."

She leaned her spear against the wall nearest the elevators and helped Alison rifle through the rest of the cabinets. Kirsti hoped to find some mugs or more substantive soupware for their meals.

"If we did find a generator that hadn't already run out of fuel," she pondered aloud, "wouldn't the gas have gone bad after seven years. That's a thing, isn't it?

"People nitpicking The Walking Dead were always on about gas and car batteries wearing out or something."
This message was last updated by the player at 23:45, Sat 25 May 2019.

Jan looked through the cabinets and drawers himself and found what he might expect in a well appointed break room suited to any white collar company.

He finds coffee supplies, tea, microwave popcorn, a single case of Ramen Noodles in various flavors, plastic utensils, napkins, paper towels, paper cups, drain cleaner, window cleaner, sponges, dish detergent, and plastic garbage bags.  Stacked besides the refrigerator are about two and a half cases of bottled water.

Apparently, they had no need for candles, flashlights, or lanterns in the break room.

Kirsti left the others to their search and moved down the corridor to examine the elevator.  She pulled out her phone and used it to look for any plaques or notes on the door or frame.  She was hoping it had some kind of maintenance wording on how to open in the event of an emergency or power outage.

She also stepped back and snapped a photo of the elevator.  Documenting their journey sounded like a good idea.

Kirsti finds no nomenclature or directions for use on the elevator.  The only button points down and it has no indicator for cab's location or the number of floors.  It doesn't even seem to have a manufacturer's name anywhere that can be found.
This message was last updated by the GM at 02:39, Mon 27 May 2019.

As seen on TV, Kirsti attempts to open the elevator doors by prying them open with her fingers.  It's a token effort as she suspects it will take all three of them to succeed.

As she suspected, Kirsti is able to get the elevator doors to move a little, but is unable to open them.

Alison loaded up a plastic bag with the two containers of coffee as well as four mugs if she could find them. An assortment of sugar packets and creamers were selected and added as well.

"Coffee is ready to go," she announced, setting the bag near the exit door.

Thinking of their next adventure, she filled another bag with three bottles of water, three soup bricks, and three paper cups. In a pinch, they'd have a picnic lunch.

Unable to find any light sources in any of the drawers or cabinets, Jan joined Kirsti at the elevator door to help her pull the doors apart.  It revealed an empty shaft reaching down further than the light of Kirsti's phone.  They did, however, see a set of rungs built into the side of the shaft, presumably for maintenance or emergency.  They were within easy reach and were probably safe?

OOC: Alison was able to put four mugs into the bag destined for the plane.

"I think we should wedge these doors open," Kirsti suggests. Looking around, she didn't see anything she liked and would regret using her spear. "I'll grab a stick from outside."

Kirsti went back out into the snow to find a stick long enough to span the width of the elevator opening. She'd trim it with the multitool on site.

While Alison and Jan examined the merits of the elevator shaft, Kirsti had little trouble finding an appropriate stick to prop open the doors.

OOC: Assuming folks are going to leave their snow shoes at the door unless otherwise noted.

Alison checked her phone charge and looked into the blackness of the elevator shaft.  Their exploration was going to be limited by how long the phone batteries lasted and she wanted to make sure she they turned back in time to make it out with at least one light source.

"We should save one of our phones to get back out," she suggested as she tied her plastic supply bag to a belt loop in her pants/skirt combo. She also unzipped her jacket. It was still cold inside, but not nearly as bad as it had been outside.

What they really needed was a better way to carry the phone lights with both hands free for climbing.

"Hold on a minute, I have an idea," she said over her shoulder as she went back to the kitchen.

Finding the cabinet with the clear trash bags, she opened one up, turned her phone onto flashlight mode, and dropped it into the bag.  She lay the bag on a table and positioned the phone on the side of the bag facing out before rolling the bag up from one side so she ended with a long plastic headband with the light facing out in the middle. She tied it around her head with the light out, making a headlamp out of her phone.

"How's this?" she asked, returning to present her invention to the others. She handed each of the others a plastic bag as well. They seemed to come in handy.

"That definitely frees up your hands to climb," Kirsti said of Alison's creation. "I'm trying to figure out how to carry a spear and climb safely. I don't want it to get caught on anything."

She bent down to jamb her stick between the doors, trimming as necessary.

"I think I'll use this garbage bag and tie it to my belt.  Tie the bag to the spear, then the bag to my belt.  Should work."

Alison's light source seemed secure and works as advertised.  Kirsti's spear tie off drags along the ground, but should work on the ladder, however, it probably wouldn't go well if she needed to jump or suddenly run somewhere.

Alison took one of her cloth strips to tie onto her spear as Kirsti had the plastic bag and attached it to herself as well.

"I'll go first with the light," she said, reaching out to the steel rungs inside the shaft. She'd taken off her sock mittens for safety and the rungs were cold. "We should conserve our battery power and try to only use one at a time.

"If you want to look at something, let me know and I'll flash it in your direction."

She'll test out the rungs for strength and then start down.

Alison reached out and climbed onto the rungs in the elevator shaft.  She began carefully making her way down.  There didn't seem to be anything special about the shaft other than it didn't seem to have any doors where she expected the next floor down would be.  The dark shaft extended further than her light could reach.  Looking up showed the top of the shaft and the various cables and apparatus to move the cab.

Alison got far enough down not to get hit in the head by a dangling spear and looked up with her light for someone else to climb out.

"So far so good," she called back as she waited for the next person.

Taking a breath, Kirsti reached out and stepped onto the rungs to follow Alison.  She made sure her spear wasn't going to get in the way.

"I'm on," she said, hopefully.

Alison watched as both Kirsti and Jan climbed safely onto the ladder.  She then started down the ladder into darkness.