In a building nearby...
Observing the events unfolding two stories below was a small group of supply runners currently situated within a nearby firestation. They had near made it back to the refuge of the former business district of Azure Heights, but an unexpected and forced detour had left them making the decision that it was safer to wait out the night until morning rather than to press on through the dark.
The well fortified building had offered them a relatively secure place to hole up for the night, and came with the fortune of scavenging up some much needed first-aid supplies. The night's stop wasn't as fruitful as a hospital might have proven, but even basic first-aid kits had spiked in value since the fall of the city and provided a pleasant enough bonus to their trip beyond the security of the District.
With dawn yet to break its way across the horizon, the commotion outside had roused them a good hour earlier than planned and their position on the second floor of the building offered them a good vantage point of what was going on below.
"Those anomalies don't look to be stabilizing," Vanora observed with a frown.
Their near proximity to the rifts below was unsettling to even the most hardened of scavengers. There was no telling what may spill through from beyond. Or what damages might be wrecked upon the immediate area.
"We should pull back and put some distance between here," Loban recommended warily.
"What about them?" a third individual, Dryden, asked as he gestured towards Pyotr, and the woman hiding nearby.
"That one has the look of a soldier to him," Vanora noted. "And looks a lot less like 'trouble' than the ones coming out of the anomalies. He could be a valuable asset to the District."
"Well if we're staying, we need to stabilize the fuck out of those anomalies before more shit spills out," Loban added. "Dryden?"
"I can try," Dryden answered.
The trio had the cohesion and even look of an organized team that knew one another's strengths and weaknesses. Vanora appeared the most grizzled of the lot, with one arm entirely replaced by a cybernetic appendage. She had been around the block a time or two even before the city fell, and she bore the scars of her years to show for it. Pushing forty years of age, she was visibly the eldest of the trio. The other two proved younger - mid twenties at best - though no less hardened given the weeks that had transpired. Terrans proved tough by nature, and the fall of Westeria City had only culled those that remained down to the hardest - or the luckiest. Loban and Vanora were both armed with side-arms and rifles, while Dryden seemed unarmed. All three made use of tactical gear and light-weight body armor scavenged from abandoned police stations though.
The fourth of their group was the odd one out; a recent addition to replace one of their own lost only a week past. They were familiar with one another by reputation, but had yet to build the trust and cohesion necessary to work fluidly as a single unit.
"Alright, Dryden you try to stabilize the anomalies. Loban, be prepared to cover us from up here. Slim, you and I are heading below. Our priority is the soldier. We extract him and fall back to the building here. If we can avoid this turning into a shoot-out we will, but if things go south this building can take the heat."