This Broken City Sky

"I don't...know..." Frank grunted, and turned the key in it's place on the generator, "We've been here a bit longer than we expected." He sighed as the machine roared to life, and he stood up straight. It was nearly six in the morning, about when the sun was just coming up over the horizon. Gerard shrugged as they began to drag out of the room.

"We need to actually like....try...to get out of here. We haven't done anything. It's been almost a month man." Gerard gave his friend a sideways look as they made their way out through the front desk, and into the lobby. It was quiet, and mostly dark now that they'd cut off the power. The group had been going down every morning in pairs to shut off the generators, after they'd been left running all night. Everyone had reasoned and agreed that it would make the most sense to leave turn the generators on during the night because during the day, the sun provided enough light for them to live by. It was also vital that the power worked at night, because the weather was finally beginning to get cold.

"What the fuck are we going to do?" Frank asked, as they began to jog up the stairs in the lobby. Gerard pursed his thin lips, and shrugged.

"I don't know..." He said when they reached the landing, "Think we should make...Signs?" He raised his eyebrows at Frank, who frowned in speculation.

"That say what? 'My Chemical Romance is alive in here, save us, we're important people'?" Frank chuckled sarcastically, looking toward the door at the end of the hall that lead to a stairwell. Gerard scoffed, and smiled.

"Not exactly but we should like...Let someone know we're alive." He elaborated with a gentle shrug of his shoulders.

"Someone?" Frank laughed again, "Who?" He pushed the stoorwell door back hard, and stepped through it.

Back in the rooms, the other six people were awake, either sitting on the end of their beds, eating a meager breakfast of junkfood, or changing their clothes. Kat was sitting by the window of her room, smoking a cigarette and picking apart Oreos while her brother changed into a different shirt.

"The power off or can I make coffee real quick?" Lily poked her head into the room, one eye squinted closed against the sun that streamed in the window. Mikey held up the full pot of coffee silently, and Lily smiled a sleepy smile.

"It's off, I'm one step ahead of you." He took a sip of his own coffee cup for emphasis as Lily wobbled into the room. She sat herself down in front of Mikey, and started fixing a cup.

"Wheres your cousin?" Kat asked absent-mindedly as she exhaled the smoke out the window, but kept her eyes on Lily, who shrugged.

"Mmm," She sipped her coffee, "Looking at herself in the mirror, acting strange."

Indeed, in the other room, Dylan frowned at herself, and at the slowly changing reflection in front of her. The diet of mostly junk food they'd all been forced into was taking a bit of a toll on Dylan in particular. She had gotten rather sick last night, but nothing serious. As she began pulling her messy hair up, the door opened to her room, and Frank walked in, followed by Gerard.

"Feeling better?" He asked, not really caring about the answer. They'd been getting along, but he was just being civil; he still thought she was stuck up, even if he thought she was sort of pretty.

"Mhm..." She mumbled, gave herself one last look, and slipped her feet into a pair of slippers.

"I smell coffee!" Gerard raised his eyebrows at Dylan, and Frank perked up a little as well. The three filed into the adjoining room, drawing everyone's attention to themselves. Everyone mumbled a good morning to one another, and if they didn't already have one, fixed a cup of coffee. Dylan sat on the arm of Lily's chair, and turned her tired gaze out the window.

"So," Frank spoke up out of a momentary silence, "Gerard thinks we should make signs to let people know we're alive in here." He finished, and unwrapped a snickers bar. Lily raised her eyebrows a little, and brought her cup to her lips.

"Out of what, to put where....blah blah blah." Dylan rolled her wrist in a circle. Anymore, these were the questions. Why do anything? Is anyone out there? Those kind of questions were getting old.

"Well, I figured we could use sheets. I don't know what we'd write with really...I guess we could look for markers or..." Gerard mumbled the last part mostly to himself. Frank laughed at his friend, and tapped the ash of his cigarette into the ash try he held on his knees.

"You've been thinking about this for a while, haven't you?" He grinned a little wider, and everyone looked back at Gerard, who was sitting on the edge of the bed closest to the window. He held out his hands a little, and nodded faintly.

"I just want to get out of here, some time." No doubt everyone else could agree with that sentiment. After a wide yawn, Kat sighed, and motioned to Gerard.

"Is there any like...Touch up paint in the utility closet?" She asked when she looked at Lily, who shrugged.

"I wouldn't doubt it. We can go look." She nudged Dylan in the back, and smiled. Dylan looked back at her, then slid off the arm of the chair.

"I'm going to finish my coffee first, come on..." Lily chided, and Dylan just sighed.

"Let me know when you're done." The brunette mumbled tiredly, and dragged herself back into the other room. Kat spared Lily a small smile, and stamped out her cigarette on the window sill. As silence settled on the group again, the bathroom door opened, and Ray stepped out, the ends of his wildly curly hair still dripping water.

"Morning, He said lightly, and looked around at everyone. They all mumlbed, and watched as he walked further into the room, "What's up?" He asked, noting the quiet demenor that had settled in the room. The others looked to Gerard, but it was Frank who spoke up.

"Gerard wants to make signs." He smiled, glancing at Gerard fleetingly. Ray cocked an eyebrow, and looked over at Gerard.

"What for?" Ray asked, his voice hinting at sarcasm. Gerard sighed a little, getting a little fed up with everyone's opinions about what he had said.

"To let the outside know we're alive in here, but if it's such a big fucking deal we won't do it, it was just an idea..." Gerard snapped, as Ray thought about it for a moment. Meanwhile Kat frowned at Gerard.

"No one said it's a big deal Frank's just giving you shit. Relax, it's a decent idea." She said forcefully, but without malicious intent. Gerard sighed indignantly and stared at her for a moment before looking over at Frank, who raised his eyebrows quickly.

"Sorry bud." He smiled mischeviously while Ray sat down next to Gerard, draping his towel around his neck.

"I'll go down to the utility room in a sec. We can use sheets, Lily said in a gentle tone, and, after taking another drink of her coffee, set her cup down, "We'll be back in a little while." She finished, pushed her chair back, and stood up. Gerard nodded, and watched as Lily left the room, to retrieve her cousin.

In the utility room, there were a few cans of grey paint left behind from when the hallways were painted that color. So they took two cans of paint each back to the room, where they regrouped with their six companions, and devised a plan of what exactly they were going to do. Then, when reasoning was over and done with, they retrieved a few flat sheets from the rooms on their floor and made their way up to the roof. Not only was there enough space there for all of them to paint, but there, some signs could be seen from the air. So they set out their sheets, two people to one sign with one can of grey paint, and began their work.

It was slightly tedious, working on their hands and knees, and no paint brushes. In lieu of brushes, or even rollers, they used their hands, and it was a mess.

"I have an idea," Ray said, after a momentary silence in the group. He dipped his hand into his and Franks can of paint, and walked over to their last letter 'L' of 'Alive Inside', "Lets play a game," He smeared the paint onto the sheet, "It's called 'What the fuck would I be doing if I weren't in this god damn hotel.' We'd be on tour, Lily, your turn." Everyone chuckled at Ray's bland, and clearly irritated tone. Lily smiled, actually quite enjoying the time they were having. She ran her hand over the sheet to fully paint a letter.

"I would be climbing Everest with my boyfriend." She grinned, still looking down at her work.

"Fuckin hippie." Dylan joked, but everyone else stayed quiet.

"You're messing around right?" Johnny asked, stopping his work to look over at Lily. Kat was sitting back on her haunches, and flicked her lighter rapidly as she held a cigarette between her lips.

"Nope." She answered simply, and no one would argue it. Lily hardly ever exaggerated. Dylan raised her eyebrows as she submersed her hands in the grey paint.

"I'd be trying on friggin wedding dresses...And eating cake, damnit." She said ruefully, and lay her hands on the fabric with a wet splat, "Johnny's turn."

"I'd be out with Ella. Orrr....No, that's it. Kat's turn." He looked over at his sister, who was taking a few drags of her cigarette before going back to work. She sighed smoke, and squinted her eyes at the building next to them.

"I don't know..." She said a little defensively, "I don't know um...If I knew this would happen? Are we playing that way?" She asked, raising her eyebrows a little. Dylan sat back, and had to push a strand of hair away from her face, smearing paint as she did.

"If I knew this would have happened, I would have gone home and lived with my dad." She said, looking over at Kat, who arched a questioning eyebrow.

"And I would've asked Chris to marry me." Lily added, sitting back as well. Johnny looked back at his sister, waiting for her reply. They all watched Kat expectantly, temporarily abandoning their task at hand.

"Probably spend the day with my best friends," She grinned wryly, her eyes sliding sideways to look at Johnny, then Dylan and Lily to her right, "Jack and Captain Morgan."