Chapter 24: Distorted

                                    

                                          
Y/n Pov
Mantle
6:45 AM

After about thirty minutes of walking, we got the group to the Crater. I expected it to take longer, but after a while, people fell into a natural pace. No Grimm too, so that 's a plus. The place was already overflowing with what had to have been several thousands of people. It was like the whole city relocated into the Crater. 
After Joanna got on T.V, people clearly flocked to the Crater despite the dangers. That means that we can expect to only be finding stragglers rather than hundreds of people actively needing our help. Its a load off of everyones back. Taking the industrial elevator down to the Crater floor, the group all filed out and started looking around for somewhere they could use as shelter. There wasn't much, but there was enough, albeit barely. Joanna and Fiona walked out of their tent and saw the group coming in. Neither saw us yet. I took off my mask as we continued towards them. 
Joanna: Where's this group coming in from? 
Yang: That would be sector seven. 
Joanna and Fiona looked in our direction. They were clearly impressed that we managed to clear it in a few hours. There wasn't a whole lot of people still there in the grand scheme of things. I'd estimate about forty or so people, including the kids. 
Fiona: You managed to clear sector seven already!? That's great! To be honest, I wasn't sure how you would do without all of your teammates. 
Yang: Well as you can see, we're doing just fine, thanks. 
Y/n: Yang, she didn't mean anything by it. 
Yang glared at me and crossed her arms. Fiona hit a nerve apparently. Knowing Fiona, she definitely said it out of concern, not malice. Something that Yang clearly didn't care to understand. That was when I noticed that Ren fucked off somewhere. Probably after Fiona said what she did. Oh well. 
Oscar: Where are you putting everyone? 
Fiona: We're working to get most of them settled in houses or other shelters. A large portion of the community is also trying to get some of the old mine shafts into a livable condition. 
Y/n: ...Um... Centinels... 
Joanna: Don't worry, we're keeping a eye on them to make sure they don't piss something off. 
Fiona: Besides, I doubt there's anything in those mines. 
Joanna: We've got a lot of people to keep warm. Looting the SDC refineries is our best source of Dust. Fortunately, no ones getting arrested during the apocalypse. Just knowing those Grimm are circling out there doesn't feel good... 
Jaune: No, I can't say that it does... 
Joanna: What are they waiting for...? 
I've got a few ideas. Namely queen bitch is too preoccupied with trying to figure out the Relic. Assuming that she doesn't know how to use it already. I think it's safe to assume the worst and just say that the Lamps already been used. That would be par for the course at this point. I just hope that they haven't done anything to Neo. I don't want another repeat of Vernal... I can't say letting her die was something I was too proud of...
Other than that, maybe she's too busy fucking with Atlas at the moment. We haven't ran into any airborne Grimm so that may very well be the case. But then, why haven't we heard any distant fighting? I don't know and it doesn't matter. As long as Salems occupied elsewhere, Mantle has a fighting chance. Before anyone could continue the conversation, the old man that we picked up with Oscar came running out of the mine. He stopped short of us, completely out of breath.