Ainsley walks up with a start to the sound of footsteps high above her head. She knows she should not be able to hear these footsteps through the concrwte ceiling of the bunker .... Alarmed and frightened, she casts Produce Flame, and she sits there in the flickering firelight until her heart stops racing and her breathing slows. 

Eventually, as her eyes adjust, she lets the flame go it. When she feels calmer, she casts Conjure Animals, conjuring 8 small spiders. She leaves the room quietly, and has the spiders quietly follow her along the ceiling, slinking along unseen in shadows. She and her spiders head towards the lounge area

Patrolling the halls, you don't notice anything out of the ordinary, or hear anything other than the low hum of water pipes and electrical appliances. You take a minute to pause, figuring that you could try and see what was making the noise. You take a few deep breaths, and focus your senses to the ground around you. Thomas stands guard next to you as you do this. You feel yourself slipping away from your body and into the space around you. Looking for the source of the sound, you find it after a few minutes. The footsteps are now running away from the bunker, but you don't recognize the running pace or gait as a creature you're used to tracking. It's unfamiliar. Suddenly, you notice Ainsley walking past you, on her way to the lounge.

An eerie quietness follows you as you and your posse of 8 spiders slink along the hallways to the lounge. On your way there, you see Valkas, with his eyes closed and his face almost trancelike, and Thomas standing guard beside him. He notices you and does nothing, but quickly looks at the ceiling to where the spiders are, hidden in darkness. He huffs once, but lets you all be. You pass by Valkas silently, not wanting to disturb him---he might be sleepwalking, for all you know, and you never wake a sleepwalker--- and head to the lounge. The quietness is almost deafening now, and you can only hear the sound of your footsteps on the tiled floor. The lounge is dark. You can't see very well. What you've seen so far isn't any out of the ordinary; nothing's been changed since you turned off the computer and left the lounge a few hours before. 

Ainsley makes her way to the bunker door, spiders trailing after her. 

(Ooc: is there any way for something small and tiny to creep through the bunker door and see what the footsteps belong to? (Possibly should have asked that before I conjured them, whoops lol))

"this is strange. . . what kind of creature is this? one that i don't know. . . i feel this is not wright, if we leave the bunker we will need to be extra cautious. at least apparently it doesn't want anything with the bunker. . . " he yawns, the sleepiness of only a few hours of rest caughing up to him. "where is ainsley going? i better follow her for a bit, to make sure she's ok" he says, patting thomas before silently following ainsley. he knows bad things tend to happen when we are alone. . . and it may be even worse in this apocalyptic world

(ooc: Yes, there is! I'm going forward, assuming you'd want your spiders to go to the other side and see what they can find.)

Once you're all at the door, the spiders crawl down to the wall in front of you, anticipating orders. You bend down to their level, and with a quick whisper, you instruct your spiders to try and find a way out the door and to see if they can find the source of the sound. They scuttle away, eventually finding a suitable gap to go through. They disappear into the crack, and after a few minutes, they come back through the same crack and return to their positions in the shadows of the ceiling. Right as they return, however, you notice Valkas---accompanied by Thomas---has followed you up the stairs and into the doorway. He's facing you, and you don't know how long he's been there.

(ooc 2.0: If you choose to talk to Thomas, now that you two are together, title the spoiler with her name on top so she knows that you're talking with him and so he can see the spoiler as well!)

You walk into the lounge after Ainsley. You notice she's passed the lounge entirely, and has begun making her way up to the top floor where the bunker's exit is. Following her, you see she's crouched and is whispering something at the door. She straightens herself out and after a few minutes, you see a few dark dots making it's way from the seams of the door to the ceiling. She turns, finally noticing you, and faces you directly.

(ooc: If you choose to talk to Ainsley, now that you two are together, title the spoiler with her name on top so she knows that you're talking with her and so she can see the spoiler as well!)

"excuse me, what are you doing this late? . . .and who where you talking to?" valkas asks. the event with the footsteps made him suspicious of his suroundings. and the fact she was apparently talking with something outside the bunker increased his suspicion

(ooc: do i know what the spiders saw? I believe not, right?)

Just as she notices the spiders begin to return through the crack in the ceiling, she sees Valkas and Thomas walk up through the hallway.

She tells him about what she heard in the night, and what she sent her spiders out to do. 'There! They're returning now,' she says.

She casts Speak with Animals and asks them what they saw out there. She also asks what the weather's like, about the general environment, etc. 

(ooc: I'm assuming, Ainsley, you're giving Valkas permission to look at your previous spoilers? If not, then here's the gist: Ainsley cast Conjure Animals and conjured 8 spiders to accompany her. She then sent them through a crack in the bunker's exit door to see if they could find out where the footsteps were coming from---the same footsteps you, Valkas, heard. 
And Ainsley, your assumption is correct. Speak with Animals works perfectly, though!)

You cast Speak with Animals, and as you do, you notice all 8 spiders are aglow with a bright green aura. You ask them your questions, and they wait patiently until you finish to respond. 

"The only thing I could see was movement in the bushes. Nothing else."
"Well I saw a bunch of moss!"
"No one cares, man. I couldn't get a good look, but what I did see was someone's sleeve. It was too dark to see anything else."
One spider was visibly trembling, animated with fear. "I saw a bird. I swear it was looking right at me!"
"Terrifying." Another spoke up. "Everything's in ruins, there's concrete everywhere, broken glass, big boulders of stuff all around. There are some sprouts around, fast-growing weeds and wildflowers and other things. All of the bigger plants have died though, they were smothered, crushed, burned you name it. I saw a single jackrabbit that dug into the ground; I didn't hear any big predators like wolves, though."
"It seems safe to go outside. Looks like there used to be a lot of dust, but a majority of it has settled and is just covering a lot of the rubble. It's clear out, which is surprising. The sky, though... You'd just have to see it for yourself. It's ridiculous."
"...Same as everyone else," another one mumbles. The last spider stayed silent. 

(ooc: I'm not sure if Speak with Animals only targets one creature or if you can target multiple at the same time, but for the ease of RP (and to keep you from having to cast it 7 more times) I'm gonna say it targets all 8.)

"oh, i also heard it. i think it may be caused by a new kind of species. . . maybe one that developed after this apocalypse. i mean, it's possible right? at least it didn't seem to mind our bunker, or didn't notice it." the halfling looks at the spiders, surprised with them 

'Maybe,' Ainsley says. 'I'm not sure what it is. And neither are my spiders.'

She tells Valkas about the desolation outside. 

(Ooc @scourge you can read my spoiler above to read more about it.)

'I'm getting hungry for breakfast,' she says, and starts heading back towards the lounge. 

Ainsley leaves two of the spiders just outside the bunker to keep watch for the next hour in case the strange footsteps return; she instructs them to return to her if they note anything unusual.

(Ooc: i'll fix the formatting when i get to my computer next; i for the life of me cant turn off the bolded on my phone)  

"i see. . . so it's safe to go out there, maybe we should explore sometime. oh, i am too. then let's go" he follows ainsley to the lounge, with thomas following behind

'Yes, that might be a good idea,' she says.