Athens

The lowest, retractable ladder that would give Owen and Shayna access to the fire escape-proper had clearly been snapped off in the scrum that was the first few days of the end of the world. Someone had used it to climb to street level, that much was certain. Two twisted chunks of metal remain at the top! Perhaps if the duo wanted to check beneath every abandoned vehicle on the block, they might find the greater part of the ladder wedged beneath.

The rope would provide a faster, though more tiring way to get to that first standable walkway. If nothing else, it gave Owen and Shayna an opportunity to practice their lassoing!

The thing groans beneath the sudden weight put upon it by the two survivors. You can’t help but feel that the thing hadn’t seen a maintenance crew in the almost two years since this all started. Given how lax safety could be, even in the before times, it occurs to you that it could have been far, far longer than just those two years!

Richard and Billie Faye watch as Owen fashions a grappling hook down a side street, whip it up onto the fire escape platform and then shimmy his way up! Extending his arm back down for Shayna, the wiry, young man helps the Doctor up onto the first flat platform.

It protests the intrusion, though feels solid enough. Solid enough for you to get the job done, at least. Best not to dilly dally!

The duo climb up the winding staircase, going higher and higher up the side the building. Legs start to ache and the wind starts to cut pretty bad about six or seven flights up.

On the eight floor, the fire escape door leading into the building is ever so slightly ajar. Presumably this is where the person who had clambered down, if that was indeed what happened, had come from. It’s impossible to see into the building, so narrow is the opening…

Hoping that the noise would signal anything barreling out of the eight-floor fire escape, Shayna and Owen climb higher!

Could walkers even navigate something like a staircase?…
The basic idea…
The top is a tumbled mess of a once-haven. Someone had clearly camped out here: Maybe Athens-folk, or someone before them. A slashed tent flaps furiously in the wind, but clings to the ground even still! Empty cans, they themselves rusting by now, litter the top! The insides have been mostly scraped clean, but some brown stains remain.

It was a useful spot to scan the city streets, but it was certainly no Athenian outpost. Scanning other rooftops in the area reveals similar camps dotting the surrounding area.

People had thought this would all blow over in a couple of days. Sit up on the roof until the army rolls through and then it’s back to real life…

Something about being up so high in the wind like this keeps Owen from really committing to scanning the area for very long! It was as if cutting off that peripheral vision would someone send him tumbling over the side, and splatting himself all over Billie-Faye’s bike…

He moves about, trying to find the best spot to see down the car-choked streets of Athens! Shayna grasps him firmly by the back of his jacket, as if to alleviate some of the unsteadiness of being up so high.

Then the searching can begin…

The road below is filled with abandoned cars. Some have their doors wide open, as passengers made split second decisions to try and hoof it on foot. A last gasp chance at survival! Others hadn’t been so lucky! The metallic snake is too densely packed and some people had clearly been surrounded and unable to get out in time. Owen sees them there, in the front seats, in various states of decay.

Some had been eaten through, and hadn’t come back to unlife. Others he sees faintly moving about below, forever stuck behind the wheels of the SUVs.

Something carries on the wind…

Or maybe it does, it’s hard to tell. A faint waaaoooooow… seems to ring out. But the sound is too similar to the mournful billowing of the wind, and so Owen cocks his ears to try pick the sound out again…

Awwwaaaaoooowww… he can hear beneath the gusts. Distinct.

Quick movement in the streets below! Something, no… Someone rushes across the intersection a few blocks down! A small shape, and carrying something on their front. Owen can just barely get a glimpse at the figure!

A moment later, and half a dozen dogs come through the same crossing, yipping and nipping at the small person on the run! Just before the disappear around the street corner, Owen watches as one of the larger dogs tries to aim its snapping jaws at the calf of the runner…

Another moment and another six or seven dogs, these ones smaller, injured but no less enthusiast for the chase follow the first half dozen!