"That'll certainly be nice. It hasn't been long enough that I've wanted to shower very much but the other option is basically having shifts."

"And having an 'occupied' sign for the whole place would be cumbersome."

"Definitely, especially now that there's more than four of us."

"Gonna be more. There was a Facebook group for this 'party' with like a hundred 'accepted'. Hope we got enough rooms. Are we going to need to elect an RA or something...?"

"I think I want to see the computers," Dale decides. "Mind showing me which room that was?"

"There's at least one supposed 'apartment complex' in the white section of this place so I think we can find a way to manage. I'd be happy to take you. Before we realized there were more people coming we claimed three of the four 'jobs' that the computer is offering, the last one is for a medical technician, do you think anyone in your group would be well suited to it?"

"Not really. I might be able to study for it. Or perhaps we'll get a med student in the next hour or two."

"Yeah, that's what we were thinking. If it becomes important we can cross that bridge, apparently both Zahn's Janitorial position, and my security position let us supervise simple medical care in the medical room."

"What, will it not even give us aspirin without that? Seems a bit iffy." He's looking around suspiciously at everything.

"I'd assume you can find Asprin, and probably harder stuff in one of the drug stores in the mall. The medical facility will do things like treat serious injuries or diseases."

"Hm. And I guess you three will keep your jobs even if someone better qualified comes along 'cause you got here first?"

"Well, as far as I know there's no way to quit the jobs once you take them. We can look into it if someone is is especially qualified as a Janitor but the interface really liked Walta as a Gardener and me as a Security Guard."

"I see. Alright. Let's just try and make the best of this..."

Alice finishes walking him to the library and shows him how to use one of the computers. On the principle of not leaving anyone entirely alone, she sits down at another computer and accesses her own training classes.

He tilts his screen away from her.

Alice rolls her eyes, but settles into learning about sci-fi security systems. After she finishing her lesson she looks up the stores a couple of the mentioned items are sold at.

At one point the guy tries to call someone on his phone, but scowls. "Right, no signal." He runs upstairs and returns with Grace, and they talk quietly, pointing at the screen.

When he's distracted again, Grace makes eye contact. Irritation and apology. 'Dale's response to shit like this is growling at everyone, he's trying not to break down, doesn't mean it really.'

Alice returns a feeling of exasperation, which morphs into understanding. This is hard for all of us She breaks the link, "I just remembered since the four of us were together when we first saw them but we should show you the symbol guide that's in the computers. Some of them seem less important like water, advancement, or garden but there are also symbols for lethal and moderate danger, as well as one for one way doors. You should probably memorize those last three."

"Oh, wow. Should make a cheat sheet and put it around. Are there printers? I like linking, at least. It's, like... I don't know I like it."

"I haven't seen a printer but we might find one in the mall. I think there's at least one computer store, if nothing else there are definitely notebooks so we can write down cheat sheets. I think Walta copied it into her notebook."

"She said there's art stuff over there somewhere. I used to do art. I could do nametags and cheat sheets on all the first floor exits, on the ramp downstairs. Anybody we miss upstairs sees them..."

"That sounds like a pretty good idea, there's definitely tape and paper, I don't know if there are nametag, but maybe we could make lanyards or something."

"I meant for, like, claiming bedrooms. But yeah." She shakes her head. "Arch will be... I dunno what Arch will be. He's a mystery sometimes. But he's definitely not playing in the tournament next week at this rate."

"No, I don't particularly expect we'll be out of here that quickly. I hope we will be, but I don't expect it."

She sighs a bit. "I can try to keep Dale chill. Don't know that it'll work, but..."

"I expect we'll all have our hard moments in the next few days. As long as, none of us break something important or hurt someone else badly, I think we deserve a bit of slack."