An invitation to a party appears on various university billboards inviting people to the Kappa Alpha Frat house located in the mostly finished Castle Commonwealth mall on the edge of town. The notice instructs people to follow the access road at 67 Lost Nation drive and enter through the back door and promises that signs will be posted to guide people to the party itself.
Joss resists the urge to go for the knife in her boot. It's probably fine, she's just being paranoid. "We have company," she says instead. "Heading back towards us if Rex is right."
Alice tenses slightly and plays with the hem of her dress. "Can he smell if they're people you know?"
"Don't worry so much. They're probably just more partygoers like us." He moves to stand slightly behind Alice.
The boy has his arm around one of the girl's shoulders and is gesturing grandly as though he's explaining something.
The other girl spots them first, and throws out an arm to stop her two friends.
"Hello," she calls.
"Yes, something like that," this girl steps past the warier one, and moves close enough to offer a hand. "Miriam. These are Arla," she points at the other girl. "And Dan," she points at the boy.
Joss makes a discreet and obscure gesture down by her hip, clicking her tongue twice, eyes fixed on Arla.
Zahn accepts the handshake. "We understand a little but we still don't have an answer as to why."
Dan offers his hand as well. "And that 'why' really is the question. There isn't anyone else here that we've seen."
"We did come out here pretty quickly," Arla points out. "It's not a small place. We could've missed someone." (Her and Joss do appear to be having a staring contest of some description.)
"There's another member of our impromptu group that decided not to come exploring but other than that we haven't seen anyone either. We think the different codes sent people different places. We all used the red one."
"It seemed likely but we don't really know how big this place is, or how to find the people who used the other colors."
Alice tears her attention away from the staring contest. "I'm Alice by the way, I came here with Zahn and we met Joss and," she pauses for a moment, "Rex."
"We had Tamaris with us as well," Joss adds. "She's not much for outdoorsy stuff unless it involves a sun lounger and a drink."
She pauses. "Anything interesting?"