Empty Streets, Chapter Two: Silent Dream

[Rutskarn]

PROLOGUE

December 26th, 2010.

Time seems to blur on the subway. The midnight hour, the steady ache of lurching travel, and the lifelessness of your fellow subway-travelers combine to form an almost oblivion-like state, one which the mind retreats reflexively from. You are lost in your thoughts; you watch, detached, as the lights of the tunnel walls fly by like ghosts fleeing from the stretches of tunnel the train greedily devours.

Perhaps it was because of this limbo state that you can’t remember much of what happened. There was light, and the sound of brakes. The subway began to screech to a stop, and your reverie was rudely jerked away. You remember the force of the train slowing, the impact of sudden deceleration knocking you to the floor, the first harsh mutters of panic rising from the startled passengers, a deep voice from the driver’s cabin yelling for everyone to remain calm, and the lights grew brighter…

December 27th, 2010.

Haziness. Your forehead feels wet, and you feel pain. You’re not in the tunnel anymore. Where you are is bright, and harsh, and cold, and you hear voices all around you, urgent, frantic. You lie on your back, feeling rough fabric. You are lifted, like a soul being raised to heaven…


CHAPTER ONE: COLD AWAKENING

?? ??, 201?

It is dark, cold, and deathly quiet.

You have awoken.

Beneath you lies a cot, rumpled and stained with dried blood. You yourself are dressed in a clean white patient's dress, wrinkled but unsullied. To your left and right are sets of medical equipment, all of which are silent and inactive. A tube runs into your arm, but the bag attached is dry as bleached bone.

The room is filled with shadows, thick and impenetrable. The only light is that afforded by a very dim lantern, lying on the ground in front of the row of beds which you occupy. The light of the lantern reflects off a pair of long windows on the wall opposite you, reflecting the cold and motionless tableau. There appears to be a door between them.

You are not alone. In the four other hospital beds lie four other people...awakening, just as you are, to utter silence.

[rubakhin]

Oddly enough, the first thought that floats through Jordan Sullivan's brain is as follows: I can't afford this.

He was pretty sure that at some point the other night he had quit his job in an ecstasy-addled haze, which meant that his health insurance package was gone. Goddamn, there's the cost of the ambulance ride, at very least ... that's hundreds of dollars that they just don't have. Maybe he could beg, get reinstated ... no, that was beneath him, no matter what.

Well, he's technically indigent right now, when they come around to make him fill out payment paperwork, he'll just give them some fake address. Unless they've already got it. He tries to remember whether or not he had an ID on him that showed his address. Makes Jordan sick thinking of his sisters and his dad getting a hospital bill in the mail after the way he disappeared like that.

Then he realizes that he's half naked, he's got a stick in his arm, and there's nothing he can do but lie here and wait. He calms down and starts looking around. The lantern thing's beyond strange, what's the matter with regular lights? (Maybe this is a free clinic and they just can't afford them ... talk about your Irish luck.) He looks at the other people waking up around him. Were they all in the crash too?

[Warpfire]

"Oh ****."

That's the first thing out of David's mouth as soon as he regains awareness. A hospital. This was perhaps the worst place he could be right now- unable to move, unable to run. It was only a matter of time before that crazy bastard figured out where he was and sent a couple of his legbreakers to finish the job the crash had started.

The utter panic turns to confusion as David looks around the room. The lantern, the inactive equipment, and the empty bag...what kind of hospital was this? Something weird was going, that was certain. Still, David didn't have time to dwell on the oddities of his hospital room.

"Gotta get out of here..." David starts pulling lightly on the tube in his arm, mostly to try and gauge how hard and painful to remove it would be rather than to actually tear it out.

[Rutskarn]

The tube feels as if it would slide effortlessly out of David's arm.

[MrEdwardNigma]

"Huh? Who? What? Xanathorb?" the old man shouted as he woke up. He looked about the scene, eyes open wide in surprise and astonishment. He ached all over, but then again, he always did. Such was the effect of dragging his old bones through the streets day in day out. Sleeping in a soggy box didn't help his backaches much either.

"Where's my coat? And my cane? This is an outrage! Nuuuuuurse!"

He quickly reconsidered, hushing himself too late. He checked under the robe for any significant scars.
"Oh, thank god, I've still got my liver... Wait... My stuff... The compass!"

The old man's bony hands felt his throat, but they found no necklace.
"Bastards..." he mumbled, his face going red with anger.
"Thieves!" he cried out, jumping up from the bed and removing the tube from his arm carefully. He stumbled over to the lantern, picking it up and shining the light on the other men.
"Do any of you gents know where they took our stuff?"

[Adlan]

Lieutenant Wherry
Saul awoke, on automatic. Hard Bed beneath him.

He reached for the sheets and woolen blankets over him. Only to find they were not there. As he blearily sat up, he realised he wasn't in barracks, there was pain in his left arms, and as he felt for it, he realised he was tugging on a cord, going to an empty bladder, whatever it had once been filled with gone.

Hospital, he realised, as he began to remember the last events of his waking knowledge.

'A crash?'
Was the first thought to cross the young soldiers mind.
'I hope I haven't missed movement'
Was the second.

Then, other thoughts as he took in the room, it's delapidated state, the lack of good lighting, and the other shapes to his right, other people in the beds, now awake and moving.

Saul reached over, and gingerly removed the tube from his arm.

He stood up, equally as gingerly, and was surprised to find that he felt pretty good. Apart from the twinge in his arm, and the fact he was dressed in what appeared to be a rather draughty nightie, and he was on the wrong continent.

'Blimey, I'll never complain about the NHS again' he thought, but this musing was interupted when another patient spoke. At first mumbling, but then louder. The other figure grabbed the torch and shone it at them all.
Saul shielded his eyes to protect his night vision.

"Do any of you gents know where they took our stuff?"

'Not a Clue friend' Saul replied to the old man's question, though with the latern light as it was, saul couldn't see much detail of the other figure.
He went to check his watch, for the date, and found it wasn't there.
then he went to check his stubble, to try and guage how long he'd been asleep, save that he realised he didn't know if he'd been shaved by a doctor or nurse while asleep.

'I say, were you all on the underground carriage with me? Saul asked, his english accent most noticable compared to the older gents Southern tones.

[rubakhin]

"I think so," says Jordan, to the British guy. He tells the older man, "They usually put your clothes or whatever in bags and lock them away somewhere." He frowns, as he begins to get his bearings and a firmer grasp on the situation. It's beginning to dawn on him that something here is seriously off.

He starts thinking aloud. "Hey. Somethin' strange is going on here. They wouldn't bother stripping us and taking us to a private room unless something was wrong with us. But none of us look hurt. And there were other people on the subway. Where are they?"

[Rutskarn]

Suddenly, there's a faint crackle from the ceiling near the door.

For a moment, a tiny green light flicks on. You can barely make out the illuminated form of a now-activated security camera behind it.

Slowly, it arcs back and forth. Then the light flicks off, and once again, the lantern is the sole source of illumination.

[Warpfire]

David quickly slides the tube out of his arm and jumps out of bed. Upon noticing that his clothes were gone, he curses. That had been a nice suit...but there was nothing for it. He takes another look around, barely hearing the words of the others.

"I was on the subway too, yeah," David responds to Saul's question, adding his panicked Irish voice to the list of accents. “But more importantly, where the hell are we now?”

Noticing the security camera turn on, he curses again. Now they knew he was up. Time to get out of here. David hurries over to the door and tries to open it.

[Rutskarn]

David approaches the door. The window on the door is somewhat musty, but on the glass you can make out Quarantine 2A, written backwards across the glass.

The door handle turns easily, although you can make out only darkness beyond it.

[rubakhin]

Jordan furrows his brow and removes the tube from his arm. "So we're in quarantine. Could there have been biological weapons on that train? Was that a terrorist attack?"

He goes for the lantern on the floor. The hallway doesn't seem to be lit.

[Rutskarn]

(Samedi, the old man, has the lantern)

[drum-n-bass]

Dr. Professor Bjørn Von Burghausen

Bjorn silently watches the precarious situation unfold before him. He woke before the rest, but that is always the case. He actually liked the idea of being in a place where he had no idea of what was going on and where he was at. After deep thought Bjorn realized this to be similar to The Matrix, but then again he always finds that the case. He could have been always living like this but never knowing. He smiled, silently laughed, and squirmed with joy at the thought of something like that happening. Plus it was like a vacation from work, which is always a good thing. Seeing everyone else removing their tubes, he follows suite. He then asked the question Does anyone know what the hell is going on and why we are here? I have some reason but it comes from the Matrix trilogy....... He then laughed to himself again because no one probably had any idea about what he was talking about. Also he may be talking in one of the many languages he knows.

[Warpfire]

"I don't care if they unleashed the second Black Plague on that train, I need to get out of here."

As David peers into the darkness of the hallway, he realizes he's going to need the lantern. He turns around to look at the old man holding it.

"Hey, you're the one wanting to get your stuff back, right? If you can get that bloody lantern over here maybe we can start looking around this hallway and find it."

[MrEdwardNigma]

"If we're in quarantine, and there's no-one tending to us, or stopping us, this bodes ill indeed" the old man said, "Mark my words, the dark one has a hand in this mess"
The old man looked quite ghastly saying this, holding the lantern under his chin.
"I don't know about you gents, but I'm following Mister Innahurry out of here"

The old man has a look at the medical equipment, in the vague hopes of finding some stuff he can sell on the street, or some morphine to shoot into his veins on those cold lonesome nights.
"Might need a weapon. A scalpel or such, if those bastards try to stop me... mutter, mutter... grumble"

Dark Sam continued to the door after stealing anything that seemed of use among the medical equipment, and shone his light into the hallway.

[Adlan]

'Hold hard friend, slow up' Saul said, as the fellow at the door started to explore on his own.

'We need to stick together. We're all in this together, there's only one lantern. And it's plain the electrics in this place are on the fritz.

He thought of his pack, with it's water bottle, dried food, a change of clothes... his bow.

'But You are right. I want to find my stuff as well.'

He walked over to the door, and peered out into the darkness.

Look, If we are stuck, the hospital's had a power cut or something, we should at least know each others names'

He held out a hand to the man who didn't care about the 'plauge'.
'Wherry, Lieutenant Saul Wherry'

[drum-n-bass]

Dr. Professor Bjørn Von Burghausen

Bjorn grumbles to himself at not being noticed. He then proceeds to remove his IV. After that he turns around in his not very comfortable bed, and gets up. He then stretches out to get his joints moving again. Hearing the bit about the name he says I am Dr. Professor Bjørn Von Burghausen of Princeton University. I am of philosophy of mind, and of literature. He then silently walks behind everyone else outside of the room, noticing the quarantine sign.

[MrEdwardNigma]

The old man grabbed the hand, ignoring that it wasn't meant for him, and shook it heartily, squeezing tight. His hands felt leathery and worn, almost sharp enough to cut yourself on.
"Name's Samedi, Lieutenant, but on the street they calls me Dark Sam, and I'd appreciate if you lads did the same"

Suddenly the smile on his face faded and he stopped shaking Wherry's hand. He pulled his hand nearer and shed light on it with the lantern.
"Oh... That doesn't bode well" the old man said, "Looks like these are the hands of a warrior... Gonna be blood on 'em soon, son... tsk, tsk"
Sam let go and entered the hallway carefully after making sure the coast was clear.
"I'd better find my stuff and get out of here soon..."

[Rutskarn]

The dim light of the lantern illuminates a narrow hallway. The floors are coated with a fine layer of dust that seems to dance in the air, unsettled by your movement.

To the left, you see a row of doors, continuing off into shadow beyond the pale glow of the lantern. On the nearby doors, you see Quarantine, and then ascending numbers and letters. All of them are shut. Disturbing the sterile, white appearance of the hallway are the fact that each door has been bolted shut, the white paint on the doors and walls peeled away around the crude holes that accommodate the steel locks.

To your right, you see a staircase leading up further into shadow.

The sterile odor of the hospital room seems to give way to a very faint smell of burnt material, perhaps with a very indistinct earthy odor to it.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Dark Sam walked out into the hallway and peered into one of the windows in the other doors. He then put down the lantern between his feet and wrapped some gauze around his knuckles.
"Me fingerbones is gettin' cold" he said, laughing and showing his brown teeth.

Sam picked up the lantern again and gave the others some light by the door.
"Are you gents all done in there? Cause I ain't waitin' much longer"

[rubakhin]

"Jordan Sullivan," says Jordan Sullivan, to no one in particular. He goes out in the hallway after the old man. He doesn't bother pointing out that normal hospitals have generators and there shouldn't be this kind of power outage - not to mention that normal hospitals have an abnormally active janitorial service and there shouldn't be this kind of dust, either - but this clearly isn't a normal hospital. Jordan furrows his brow. At best, it's some kind of containment ward, a holding cell. At worst, they're in the goddamn House of Leaves.

[Warpfire]

"David Foley," David introduces himself. "And I'm with Sam here on the subject of waiting. Come on!"

[Adlan]

'Sounds good to me' Saul agreed.

When he came out into the hall, his bare toes curling on the cold floor, He tried one the doors, if at first, it would not give, with a good shove of his shoulder.

[Rutskarn]

Saul approaches the door opposite yours. Through the dusty window, he can see empty cots, sitting side-by-side.

He tries the door. Locked. He puts his powerful shoulder to it, and it doesn't even rattle. The doors are locked securely.

Those who have entered the hallway note that your door was similarly locked, but for some reason, the lock does not appear to have been in place.

[MrEdwardNigma]

"David Foley," David introduces himself. "And I'm with Sam here on the subject of waiting. Come on!"
"That's Dark Sam to you, sonny boy!" Sam said, smiling, and then cleaning out his ear with his finger.
"This hallway seems to be a dead end, doesn't it? There's just those stairs... We seem to be in a basement of some sort... Strange that"
With these words Sam walked off, scaling the stairs.

[Warpfire]

"Yeah, okay," David replies to pretty much everything Dark Sam said in an offhand, distracted manner.

He follows Samedi up the stairs, partly because it seemed the best way out and partly because he was the man with the light.

[Rutskarn]

The staircase is short. The weak light from the lantern is cast almost immediately on a large, sturdy steel doorframe. The door is ajar, pulled away from the staircase, and on the door is marked MAIN FLOOR SCRUB AREA in red letters.

Soft light falls on the musty room beyond. The room is square and cramped, with rows of lockers to the left and shelves of brushes, dry buckets, and steel drums of chemicals to the right.

A few of the lockers are ajar. Inside them, you can just make out pale, dusty teflon suits. The suits look like Hazmat suits, rebreathers and plastic visors adorning a built-in cowl.

[Adlan]

Saul made it up the stairs, and swiftly made a cursory search of the room.
When he looked in the cupboard, he saw the suits.

'Hey, clothes. Check some of the other cupboards. What I need more than anything, are a decent pair of boots.

He felt the suits, rubbery teflon over suits, not really suitable for wearing over their flimsy patient wear.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Dark Sam wandered over to the chemicals and inspected them briefly, hoping he'd find something of use, or at least something he'd be able to sell on the streets.
"What is this place, the janitor's closet? And if these people are so insistent on cleanliness, why is there dust all over the place! Damn cheap clinics..."

Sam held up the lantern and looked around for an exit of some sort.

[drum-n-bass]

Silently walking along the dust ridden floor, he grumbles to himself. He keeps quiet as no one seems to care that much about him. He tries to pry open some lockers to see what is inside of them. He would rather go around in his gown then in a hazmat suit.

[Rutskarn]

Several of the lockers are locked. However, a few were either a crack ajar or, for some reason, already unlocked. Inside these lockers you find:

A total of 6 hazard suits
7 pairs of heavy-duty boots
5 air filtration masks
1 small, worn supply key
1 gleaming new supply key

The only exit appears to be the ajar steel door ahead.

[MrEdwardNigma]

"Hot-diggity! Those boots actually look better than my last pair!"

Dark Sam slides on a pair of boots and a filtration mask ("Ya never know what kinda fumes are about this place") and stuffs the keys into the boots together with his feet. The more keys he has, the more places he'll get to loot. In fact, the first thing Sam tries is opening the lockers with the keys.

[Rutskarn]

The keys look about the right size, but are unsuccessful.

[drum-n-bass]

Grumbling to himself again about not getting the keys first, he slides the boots onto his feet and grabs a mask off of the locker shelf. He then says Where are we off to next then?

[MrEdwardNigma]

"There's only one way to go, lad" Sam says, leading the way to the steel door and kicking it open with his newly acquired boot.

[Adlan]

Saul
Having had to try several pairs of boots to get one that even half fits his feet, saul lengthens his stride to catch up with the older fellow.

'Hold hard... er Sam... dark sam, hold hard, let us youngsters lead the way'


He said, then, realising that might be insulting, added placatingly.
'You command from the rear. Can I have a look at the key's?'


((OCC: Saul would check for make, number, any identifying feature on the keys, and if they matched or had any correlation with any of the locks he's seen so far))

[rubakhin]

Jordan slips the outfit on, feeling a bit like an idiot. He's got a sinking feeling that maybe the suits aren't meant to protect them. Maybe, just maybe, they are there to protect others against us.

They were, after all, the ones in the quarantine ward. But now he's getting paranoid.

Time to find out just what the hell is going on.

[MrEdwardNigma]

He said, then, realising that might be insulting, added placatingly. [COLOR="Green"]
"Whenever you spot a lock, lad, you just give me a yell" Dark Sam said.
"That reminds me..."

Dark Sam backed up through the door again, and went off downstairs with the lantern, forcing everyone to either stay behind in the dark or to follow him down. In the quarantine ward he started checking if the keys worked on any of the locks on the doors. He also held the lantern up to every window, in case there was something inside worth stealing and breaking down the door for.

[Rutskarn]

For the first few long minutes, you continue down the hallway, trying the keys on each lock. Each time, you are unsuccessful.

However, as you reach the end of the (very long) hallway, you see that one door on the end is open, just as yours was. The lock lies on the floor, opposite the door.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Dark Sam goes to the door, figuring he can try the rest of the doors later.
"Hello? Is anyone there? Doest the darkness call back?"

[Rutskarn]

Sam peeks into the room.

Inside is a room exactly like the one you vacated, with soiled cots, ruffled sheets and dry-IVs. It is eerily still, with nobody appearing to occupy it.

You notice, however, that there is a paper sign posted on the door. It reads

DO NOT OPEN FOR ANY REASON

In scrawled handwriting.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Sam rips the paper off the door, stuffing it down his boot.
"Nice and warm"

He seems to have neglected to read what was actually on the paper, because he walks in and starts searching through the medical equipment.

[Rutskarn]

There appears to be nothing of value in the room, only bloodstained sheets and inactive medical machines.

As you step beside on of the beds, however, your boot crunches against something, like sand, on the floor. You see pale, yellowish grains lying on the floor, scattered thinly between the two beds. As they are crushed under your boot, the smell of burnt substance grows stronger.

[rubakhin]

Jordan steps in after him, very cautiously. He begins poking around the beds and examining the medical equipment, seeing if he could figure out what the missing patients were in there for. He also checks the medical equipment for any kind of distinguishing mark - maybe the manufacture could give some hint as to their location, maybe it was stamped as government property, etc.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Dark Sam backs out of the room.
"I think I smell the burning cinders of hell, gents..."

Since there was nothing in the room to loot anyways he moved on with the lantern, checking the doors he hadn't checked yet.

[Rutskarn]

Jordan can't find anything to distinguish the medical supplies. As far as he can tell, they're ordinary hospital issue.

Dark Sam cannot find any doors that accept his keys.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Having looked through all the windows in all the doors, Samedi decided to go upstairs and check out what was behind the steel door.

[Rutskarn]

The steel door swings soundlessly open.

The lantern illuminates an intersection of hallways. You enter from one hallway. Ahead is a hallway leading to a row of doors, some of which are open, some of which are not. It tunrs left.

The hallway to the left continues down and takes a right. No doors are visible.

The hallway to the right is a mirror of the one to the left.

On the wall at the intersection is a sign, the glass pane covering it reflecting the lantern light. The sign appears to be a map of the hospital.

The area to the left appears to be some sort of security office. The area ahead is a sprawling network of offices and patient wards, leading to the entrance. The area to the right appears to lead to the administrator's office.

The area you leave is marked Emergency Quarantine-Authorized Personnel Only.

The air seems mustier here, and you can almost taste a strange flavor in the air, like burnt leaves or charred earth. There is still utter, utter silence, and no sources of light save your lantern.

[Warpfire]

David walks up to the sign and examines it. He looks for any offices or areas that are labeled as some form of storage and thus might have their stuff.

"Well, if we just want to get out of here it looks like straight ahead...not sure where our stuff is, though."

[Adlan]

Saul Wherry
'What in the name of...? Of Anything happened?
Saul looked around, up and down the hall. No sign of any living being apart from his fellow 'patients'

'I really don't think we were just in a crash you guys. Something seriously bad has happened. I reckon, if we wanna find our stuff, we shall just have to search everywhere. Maybe we'll find our kit, maybe we'll find out what happend.

He looked around at the others.
'Sam, you found anything unlocked by those keys?'

'David, Jordan, you help me search these offices? Prof?

[drum-n-bass]

After scrutinizing the map, he is quite surprised at the fact about how big and empty the building is. His only hope is that he is able to make it to the entrance to leave this dusty building. Yeah I will join you. Rather then sit around here in the dust.

[MrEdwardNigma]

"It's Dark Sam, sonny" Samedi said, "Didn't anyone teach you to respect your elders?"

Sam shook his head, put down his lantern and put one of his boots on his hand. He then smashed the glass covering the map with the boot, removed the shards, put the boot on again (after making quite sure no glass had fallen in) and took the map.

"I'm sure no-one'll miss it" Sam said, and strolled into the security office with the lantern.
"Strange that everything seems to be so abandoned around here and this lantern here was on when we woke up. Almost as if we were visited right before we woke. As if someone planned all this"

[Rutskarn]

Dark Sam strolls down the dark hallway, map clenched in one fist, lantern in the other. The security hallway is short. There are two doors: a locker room to the right, a command center ahead.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Samedi wandered into the locker room and started trying out his keys.
"These bloody things must have some use? Why knacker them if they won't open a shiny coffer full of gold?"

Sam hummed the Marseillaise, but that was probably just a strange coincidence.

[Rutskarn]

You stride into the locker room, keys in tow.

The locker room looks ransacked, locker doors open, detritus scattered about.

On a table lies a set of notes, each one written on crumpled legal paper. Next to the note paper lies a handgun, two spare clips adjacent.

The lockers appear full of ordinary security uniforms and street clothes.

[drum-n-bass]

Following behind Dark Samedi, Bjorn looks into the locker room. Seeing the clothes he tries to find some that fit him before telling the others There are clothes in here that we can wear instead of these gowns.

[Warpfire]

Hearing Bjorn, David heads into the room and is about to start looking when he spots the gun. He wasn't a great shot or anything, but he'd used guns a couple times before and if any of that crazy bastard's goons came after him it'd come in handy. He grabs the gun and one of the clips, then with his free hand starts rummaging around for some clothes that at least somewhat fit him.

"Wonder why a guy just left his gun here..."

[Adlan]

Saul

Saul picked up one of the Magazines for the pistol, and looked at the rounds inside, 9mm, same calibre they were issued as standard, though in the sand box, unorthodox weapons were more tolerated. He realised something that made his skin crawl.

'David...' Saul said slowly and carefully. 'Would you be so good as too slowly, and carefully put the gun down?'

David looked at Saul, with his finger on the trigger of the pistol, as was natural most people, unless they drilled not too.
Saul wasn't too familiar with the GLOCK firearm system. but he was pretty sure that the saftey was off too.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Samedi walked over to the table, placing the lantern on it and ignoring the man with the gun.


There are clothes in here that we can wear instead of these gowns.

"Great idea. Looks better than my old vestments too, though I doubt it'll be warmer"

Samedi undressed and started putting on one of the security uniforms. It was pretty much an appalling sight. He then put on some regular clothes on top of the security uniform, realising how cold the streets of Scranton got on a winter night.

Inventory:
Lantern
Flask of Alcohol
Map of the Hospital
Gauze (wrapped round fists)
Filtration Mask (equipped)
Security Uniform (equipped)
Street Clothes (equipped)
Heavy-Duty Boots (equipped), holds:
[1 small, worn supply key
1 gleaming new supply key
1 piece of scrap paper]

[Warpfire]

"What's your problem?" David, actually, doesn't currently have his finger on the trigger. Mainly so he can use all his fingers to keep a hold of the clip, too. He takes a moment to check the safety. Then he looks up to see Samedi changing and swiftly turns around.

"What the hell are you doing?"

[MrEdwardNigma]

Samedi zipped up the last vest he'd put on.
"What, you didn't expect me to walk around in that shoddy little gown, did you? My arthritis couldn't take that, and neither could the pain in me joints"

Samedi walked over to the table and idly rifled through the paper, checking if any of them were important. If they weren't, he'd stuff them down his boots. They were about two sizes too big, but that's how the old man liked it.

[Adlan]

Saul
'Well, for one thing, I knew a bloke. Blew his head clean off, 'cos he didn't check his pistol. You know if that things loaded?' Saul said to David, rightly concerned about someone he didn't know, picking up a firearm in a manner that broke every rule he had had drilled into him.


Saul caught sight of dark sam undressing, and also turned his view away.
But interjected after David's comment.
'Be fair, I'm gonna get changed out of this drafty thing too.'


'But,' he said in a louder voice, so Sam could hear 'I think I'd get a bit more priavcy to do so'

Turning Back to David.

'I don't know you friend, you don't know me. For all I know, you're a whiz master at this stuff and can shoot rings around me, but right now, you're setting off all my alarm bells for gun saftey. I know you yanks have them like teething rings, but just put it down, check the chamber, and unload it. Please.

[MrEdwardNigma]

"Privacy? Well, you're a man who eats his porridge with a silver spoon, ain't cha? Alright, yer majesty, yer word is my command" Sam said, making a surprisingly deep bow for a man who complained so much about the pain in his joints, "But I'm taking the lantern with me. I'm not gonna stumble around in the dark with the ghouls and the grue just so you'll be able to put your shirt on with the right bit facing forward"

Samedi picked up the lantern again and went to the command centre.

[rubakhin]

"Hey, the human body is a beautiful thing," says Jordan. "Let him be." He throws on something normal-looking. He's had to change backstage at concerts and musicals enough times that it doesn't bother him too much. At least there aren't two dozen gay theater guys standing around staring at him.

Jordan's been hovering behind Sam and his lantern all this time, feeling like a damn moth. Contrary to his words, he's losing patience with him, but the way he grew up, he had respect for his elders drilled into him (a common trait among punk rockers) and it would take a monumental force of will for him to do anything other than grudgingly tolerate his eccentricities. He tries to come up with something that would make putting up with him a little easier. At least, he thinks, he's being pretty calm about all this. Probably not going to lose his head entirely.

He heads towards the command center, hoping that a computer or something would be powered up (after all, that security camera did blink on earlier ... ) or there were some drawers to go through, looking for files, notes, something, anything that might indicate where they are and why. Or at least something useful. Preferably a flashlight or two so he doesn't have to follow the old guy around like this.

[Rutskarn]

Samedi zipped up the last vest he'd put on.
"What, you didn't expect me to walk around in that shoddy little gown, did you? My arthritis couldn't take that, and neither could the pain in me joints"

Samedi walked over to the table and idly rifled through the paper, checking if any of them were important. If they weren't, he'd stuff them down his boots. They were about two sizes too big, but that's how the old man liked it.

Dark Sam leafs idly through the notes.

They read:


Note to all security personnel:

Remember that as security officers, your job is not only to combat violence, it is to create an atmosphere of protection and ease. We cannot afford to have high-strung, panicking doctors at this juncture, and urge you all to endeavor to create a reassuring presence.


--Roland C. Matherson


Note to all security personnel:

We have had reports that items from the quarantine patients have gone missing. Unfortunately, since none of the staff members have made headway in finding said items, we are forced to consider the possibility of looters.

Please, if you see anyone acting suspiciously, report it anonymously. Theft of patient property is a serious offense, and if the perpetrator continues to act in this manner, we will deal with them harshly.

--Roland C. Matherson


Note to all security personnel:

Keep in mind that, given the general state of the city, there will quite possibly be attempts to steal hospital property, such as medicine or prescription drugs. We would like to remind all security personnel that many of said offenders will be unarmed, and that they should be dealt with nonviolently. Should they seem hostile, you may use nonlethal force.

Also: we understand that many of you are unused to working in a hospital environment, but remember that we have patient safety to consider. Do not take any course of action that could endanger the lives of patients.

--Roland C. Matherson

[MrEdwardNigma]

Dark Sam put the lantern down in the command centre and sat down, quite preferably on some sort of chair. He took off his boots, stuffed the paper in them, and took out the keys, shoving those in his pockets instead for easy access.
"Y'know," he said to Jordan, " 'Cording to these little slips of paper here, our stuff might have been looted. Now, I personally didn't have a lot of things one might want to loot, except my compass, but I'd prepare not to find anything at all back if I were you"

Sam sighed.
"I really need to get that compass back. Took me ages to find in the first place"

[rubakhin]

"Great," Jordan says dismally. "I had these Doc Martens ... It's going to take ages to find boots that nice again. What did else did those notes say? Can I see them?"

[MrEdwardNigma]

Samedi shrugged.
"Sure, as long as you give them back afterwards. I have to keep my feet warm somehow"
He took off his boots again and handed Jordan the now crumpled, smelly bits of paper.

[rubakhin]

"Yessir," Jordan says. He looks over them, frowning. The state of the city? Hell could that mean?

[MrEdwardNigma]

"It bodes ill, is what I think! Ah, if only I had my tarot cards with me..."

[Warpfire]

"What did you just call me?" David replies, looking extremely angry. Apparently Saul just hit a nerve. "A yank? I'm an Irishman you idiot! What, you think I pulled this accent out of me arse?"

Well, now he's gone and pissed off the man with the gun (which now has the safety on, whether the safety was on from the start or was turned on when David checked). He's not waving it around as he rants, so he's not completely clueless. "Anyway, the safety's on for the gun. Honestly, you Brits and guns..."

[Adlan]

Saul
'This is not a Brit thing. This is an Army thing. Please just put the thing down. I don't want the Bally thing. Who do you expect to meet? look around. Something seriously wrong happened. and from the smell of things, it happend a while back.'

'This might sound strange comming from an Artillary Officer, but the last thing we wanna do to any we meet is shoot them' He smiled at David.

'I'm sorry for calling you a yank. I didn't twig the accent, but then, I've met a fair few plastic paddy's who sounded more County Mayo than my Uncle Keith. I suppose you draw them like flies out of the woodwork?

[Rutskarn]

You all finish searching through the lockers and such. There appears to be nothing else left of interest. ((Thinly-veiled bump post for the win.))

[Warpfire]

David seems to calm down a little bit, at least not glaring at Saul anymore.

"I want it because something weird is going on. I don't know about you, but I'm going to be prepared for anything. Even if everything's normal, I got plenty o' reason to stay armed..."

He seems pretty adamant on this issue. As there's no light in the room anyway, he goes ahead and sticks the gun in a jacket before changing into it and the rest of the clothing with it. Despite the darkness, he manages to get everything on alright. He grabs the remaining clip and leaves, joining Jordan and Samedi.

"So what's going on?"

[rubakhin]

"The old man here found these notes to the security team. They don't sound too good." He reads the more worrying passages aloud to David. "Hell if I know what's going on. Zombie apocalypse maybe." Jordan looks up at him. "Hey, do you come from Boston? You sound like you come from Boston."

[MrEdwardNigma]

The old man seems to be having a hard time figuring out what the room looks like.

"Damn bloody narrator"

[Rutskarn]

(Point taken)

The room is small, cramped, and (unsurprisingly) dark. There are a few rows of lockers in the middle of the room, most of which are open and emptied of clothes. Near the door is a table, on which the gun and notes rested. Other than that, there is little of interest here, besides a few items of garbage (such as a crumpled can of Coke kicked under one of the lockers.)

[drum-n-bass]

Bjorn doesn't care about the gun, nor anything else. He simply wants to get out of this hospital and back home. Where are we anyway? besides a hospital. He says starting to think about things.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Apparently Sam had still not made it to the command centre he'd been walking to for quite a while now, unless it looked exactly the same as the locker room. He makes another effort to shine some light on the room.

[Rutskarn]

(Where, exactly, did you say you were going to the command center?)

Dark Sam begins to stride out of the room, turning down the hallway and proceeding to the command center door.

The command center is about as large as the hospital room you awoke in. On the upper walls, there are many banks of black, soundless monitors, seeming like ghosts watching cautiously down on you. In front of one cluster is a large desk, on which are several blank forms, an order slip of some kind, and a blank computer monitor. The CPU lies still beneath.

Towards the far right of the room is a wastepaper basket, filled to the brim, a paper bag of some sort on top. Next to it is a billboard, completely blank--not even any thumbtacks on it.

There appears to be some sort of grubby machine lying on the floor near the CPU banks.

[MrEdwardNigma]

(Where, exactly, did you say you were going to the command center?)
Why, right here:

"Privacy? Well, you're a man who eats his porridge with a silver spoon, ain't cha? Alright, yer majesty, yer word is my command" Sam said, making a surprisingly deep bow for a man who complained so much about the pain in his joints, "But I'm taking the lantern with me. I'm not gonna stumble around in the dark with the ghouls and the grue just so you'll be able to put your shirt on with the right bit facing forward"

Samedi picked up the lantern again and went to the command centre.

Sam kneeled down, groaning, and took a closer look at the machine. If it was just rubbish he'd move on to dig through the bin. If there was one thing his years on the street had taught him it was that one man's garbage is another man's treasure.

[Rutskarn]

The machine in question, a small, green, rusty contraption, appears to be a portable gas-powered generator. It appears to be activated by a starter key, which lies already placed in the slot.

The fuel levels, however, seem low.

The generator looks connected to the computer through a set of converters.

[MrEdwardNigma]

"Bugrit, millennium hand and shrimp, it's all just rubbish, innit?" Sam muttered, turning away from the machine and instead inspecting the bin. He knew next to nothing about machines, but he knew a whole lot about garbage.

[Rutskarn]

Sam begins rummaging through the bin.

The paper bag on top is empty. It may have contained someone's lunch at some point. You notice it has been torn along one corner, as if to maximize the amount of the wastepaper bin that can be covered.

Beneath that is scraps of notebook paper, forms, office pool announcement sheets...some of them with thumbtacks still stuck in them, some with thumbtacks loose among them.

All of these scraps of paper have been marked with a black marker, handwriting scrawled across them. You see such messages as "WHO CARES, WAKE UP", "ITS THE END YOU IDOITS", " "WHY? WHY? WHY????" and "I CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE".

Directly under these scraps is a worn sticky note. It appears

Further down in the bin is what appears to be a pawnshop claim ticket. It reads:


MIKE SANDAL'S PAWN-N-GO

Thank you for your business, James Andrews! Your claim number is 32, for a sum of 114 dollars and 0 cents. Claim expires: June 29th, 2011.

(Mike Sandal's Pawn-N-Go: Located at 112 West Wrigley Street. Financial Relief is Just a Visit Away!

At the very bottom are: several paperclips, a black Sharpie, a rubber band.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Dark Sam smiled broadly. Garbage, it never let him down. He stuffed some more paper into his boots until his feet were nice and cosy and then put the pawn shop ticket in his pocket. He figured it was always a good idea to have some credit in a pawn shop. He had no use for the paperclips, but pocketed the marker and wrapped the rubber band around his wrist.

"Any of you gents wanna come down here and take a look at this computer? There ain't enough of those things out under bridges for me to have learnt how to work one properlike" Sam called out into the hallway. He then set to looking through the drawers of the desk. sam was having a field day. He'd most likely find stuff of more value here then everything he owned put together, and not a damn soul was stopping him.

[rubakhin]

Jordan's eyes light up when he sees the machines. Finally, here was something he could work with. He takes a gander at the generator, wondering if it was still working and how he could fix it if it wasn't, calculating how long they might have if they turned it on. He double-checks the converters and the wires and makes sure that nothing is going to explode or break down before turning the key.

[Adlan]

Saul

Having changed a little more modestly than Sam into the scavanged clothes, and finding cold comfort in them (though much less draughty), Saul catches up with the others.

He's still a little uncomfortable about the unknown in the equation, the gun in Davids pocket. But starting a real argument isn't worth it. At best, a negligent discharge would make the guy realise guns wern't magic wands, and they needed attention. At Worst, one or more would end up dead, on purpose or by accident.

Either way, trying to brawl over the gun would be silly.

He caught up with the others as Jordan turned the key in an engine.

[Warpfire]

"Boston? Boston?" David throws his hands up in the air in frustration and walks off. "Can nobody here recognize an Irishman when they hear one? For ****'s sake..."

[Rutskarn]

Dark Sam leafs through the drawers. He finds a stapler, a case of staples, a pocket calculator and a small, half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels. Other than that, not much.

Jordan examines the generator. It appears fully functional, if a bit old, but doesn't look particularly powerful. At best, it could sustain power to the computers for a minute or two, give or take.

It's also warm. It's probably been used recently.

[MrEdwardNigma]

"Oh shiny!" Sam shouted, overjoyed. He took the bottle of whiskey out of the drawer, ignoring everything else, and waved it around.
"Look, I found me some sweet nectar!"
He then reconsidered and eyed his fellow travelers suspiciously, hugging the bottle close.
"You ain't gettin' any. I found it, fair and square. Anyways, I need it more. I'm a senior citizen, and an addict"

Dark Sam quickly unscrewed the top and took a drink.
"Hits the spot. Suppose this stuff is drinkable?" he asked, grabbing David's shoulder and showing him the flask of alcohol he'd picked up downstairs.

[Warpfire]

"It's American whiskey, of course it isn't drinkable," David chuckles. "Then again, I could really use a drink..."

[MrEdwardNigma]

"Not the whiskey, fool! That's more than drinkable, that's... divine. I'm talking about this here! The medical alcohol!"

[Warpfire]

((Whoops, should have paid more attention...))

"Well of course you can't drink medical alcohol. Don't be crazy."

[MrEdwardNigma]

Sam grumbled. This meant less alcohol to drink.
"What use is it then?" he mumbled, guzzling down some more whiskey to digest this unfortunate discovery.

[Warpfire]

David shrugs.
"Well, it's good for preventing wound infections."

[rubakhin]

"Hey, lay off the Gentleman Jack," Jordan says. "By the way, this generator. It's warm. It's been used recently. Someone was here. Now shush up while I turn the computers on and see what's going on. We've only got maybe two minutes of power."

[Rutskarn]

The computer flickers into life, and the monitors above you crackle as they're activated.

The monitors are mostly blank, showing nothing but darkness. A timestamp at the bottom seems to imply that the monitors are for surveillance purposes, but the timestamps themselves are filled with gibberish numbers and letters. A few of the monitors occasionally crackle into static.

Only one security monitor shows anything--the monitor in the command center, showing the activated monitor and huddled figures.

The computer monitor takes a moment to register anything, before displaying Restoring... and cutting to a main menu of some kind.

What appears to be displayed is the archives from the security footage. You can select any time period between January 1st, 2011 and January 17th, 2011, and the footage from the various cameras will be displayed.

Strangely, there appears to be an entirely separate archive, only three seconds long, underneath the longer archive.

Estimated time left on computer: 1 minute, thirty seconds.

[rubakhin]

They've been out for almost a month? Jesus, Joseph, and Mary ...

Jordan decides to go for the last archive first, seeing as how it stands out. If it's nothing, at least he didn't waste too much time.

[drum-n-bass]

Bjorn finds his way to the computers and watches the tapes with Jordan. He seems to ignore everything else as no one has answered anything he has said or recognized he even exists.

[Rutskarn]

The footage takes a second to load, and the screen goes blank.

An instant later, you can see a variety of thumbnails, each displaying a different monitor. Most are black, except for two--

One shows a hospital room, several occupied beds, frames illuminated by ghostly lantern light.

One shows the command center, but the image is full of noise and static. It flashes briefly into clarity.

In that moment, you see a black, tapered shape, the size of a human, standing in front of the computer. Its outline is jagged and indistinct, but almost seems like a hooded cloak, looming wordlessly over the desk.

The head turns, and you see a hooked thing, like a wickedly curved beak, jutting from the face.

The images turn black. Archive exhausted.

You have roughly 1 minute, 25 seconds remaining.

[rubakhin]

Jordan doesn't say anything, just furrows his brow. Whatever that was, it was not pleasant.

He goes through the archives, beginning with the earliest date, skimming as quickly as he can through the footage until he finds something interesting. Maybe get some idea of how this place went all to hell.

[Rutskarn]

Jordan begins the archives at 12:01 AM, January 1st, and begins dragging the footage slider through rapidly.

What he gets is a time-lapse animation of pure chaos.

Figures race through the halls of the hospital, lights dim, shadows everywhere. Guards blink in and out of existence, gurneys hurtle past mobs of doctors and patients alike. After ten seconds of this nightmarish scene, Jordan sees something that could be of interest--a fight breaking out. He may stop here and view this, if he wishes.

[rubakhin]

"What the hell is this?" he says, in Bjorn's general direction, without taking his eyes off the screen. He slows to watch the fight.

[Rutskarn]

Through the camera near the quarantine rooms, a man and an orderly appear to be wrestling. The orderly is trying to pull him away from the reinforced door, and the man is struggling, appearing to shout something.

A security guard races around the corner, grabbing the man and aiding in pulling him away. The man looks ready to break down into tears, screaming and trying to make his way towards the door.

Eventually, they drag him out of that hallway and out of that camera's range. He reappears later, near the entrance, being throw roughly outside the hospital by the two of them. Through the glass doors, you can see police officers racing towards the man, seizing him and dragging him out of sight for good.

[rubakhin]

This is getting weirder by the minute. Jordan sifts through as much of the remaining security footage as he can, keeping an eye out in particular for places they could get into which might be of use to them, and how to get there if they can.

[Rutskarn]

With only about 45 seconds left, Jordan begins to race through the remaining footage.

January 7th through January 10th, fights continue to break out all through the hospital, with at least one incident occurring near the quarantine room. The place seems like a madhouse, people milling thick as rats through the halls. It is difficult to imagine a more disturbing sight.

And then, January 11th through January 15th, such a sight is furnished by reality. The mobs begin to thin, with patients draining slowly out, some still in hospital scrubs...until there is absolutely nobody entering or leaving the hospital at all. Doctors dart from ill-lit hospital room to ill-lit hospital room, seeming rarely to retreat to the on-call room or even sit down.

January 16th, you see a black car pull up to the front. A pair of suited figures come out, and enter. If Jordan wishes to play this segment, there is probably about thirty seconds of power left.

[rubakhin]

He bites his lip. Okay. Last one. Hopefully, there are going to be some answers.

[Rutskarn]

The figures stalk into the hospital, and another man, overweight, wearing a lab coat stained with unidentifiable substances, hurries out to meet them. They seem to speak for a moment, then the three of them leave.

A moment later, another lab-coated figure walks out of the main hallway towards the entrance. He walks towards the doors, seeming to be looking for something--then pauses.

After another instant, he races towards the doors...and cannot open them.

He pounds against them, slamming his palms, his arms, and then his shoulder against the thick glass. Each time, he is rebuffed, and each time, he tries again. After a full ten seconds of this behavior, he slides down, his back to the camera, shuddering as if weeping.

More doctors begin to file into the room, pace slow, what expressions are visible appearing shocked.

The computer has 10 seconds of power left. You can continue watching or fast-forward to the end.

[rubakhin]

Jordan keeps watching.

[Rutskarn]

The doctors seem to be shouting to one another, most of them confused. The one at the door turns, and he says something, expression frozen in what looks like horror.

The doctors fall silent for another few moments.

One of them reaches into his coat. He's holding a handgun. He lifts it up, pointing towards the door...or perhaps towards the man leaning against it.

The generator sputs to an abrupt halt. All of the lights instantly go out, save Sam's lantern.

[rubakhin]

Jordan hisses between his teeth. He picks up the generator and gives it a once-over - figure out what kind of fuel it's got in it, maybe see if he could jury-rig something. Turning it over in his hands. Distracting himself from the little movie there, trying to make this whole thing become a mechanical problem, a logic puzzle, with an eventual solution.

"So what did you make of that?" he asks the other men.

[Warpfire]

"Well, I can't really make any sense out of it, except that..." David hesitates, his tone troubled. "...it looks like we might be stuck in here. And if the man with gun did what it looked like he was about to do, I don't think the entrance area's going to be a pretty sight."

[Adlan]

Saul
'The ****, has well and truly hit the fan.'

Saul said dryly.

'Looks like we're the only one's here' and it wasn't clear if he ment the hospital, or maybe more.

'If we can trust the time stamp's, we've been out for nearly a month. I reckon we should secure the entrances and exit's, and see what food and water we can find in here. He almost starts slipping into military mode, mentally preparing a harbour map, and going for the SOP when in hostile ground.

Except, there wasn't any friendly ground. Unless he could find a plane and a pilot to England.

'Then, when we know what we've got, maybe even find our gear, we can try and find out what's going on.'

'I'll check the Entrance's if other's don't want to. I don't mind bodies' which was a lie, but Saul didn't show it.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Saul
'Looks like we're the only one's here' and it wasn't clear if he meant the hospital, or maybe more.

Sam shook his head.
"No, no, son, what you mean is we're the only people here. Someone turned on that lantern just before we woke, and someone watched us from here. There was a camera in the quarantine room, and it sprung into life when we woke up. This has all been very carefully calculated. They're playing us like marionettes in a macabre puppettheatre"

"Now, to me it seems those first couple of seconds we saw were images taken only a few minutes ago, exactly as we woke up. Whatever that thing was was what was watching us, and what left us behind this lantern here, that seems clear enough to me. It's intentions however, that's the real mystery. I fear it may well be wicked, a creature from the very bowels of hell, no less, for if it were to be trusted it would have surely spoken to us straightforwardly, instead of all this subterfuge. No, they have dark plans, and we're their pawns, whether we like it or not"

He took another swig.

[rubakhin]

Jordan heaves a deep sigh. "I'm praying that pointy bit was just a mask, then." He wipes off his hands on his jeans. "Let's get on with it, then. I want to see if I can find some tools. There might be a toolkit somewhere, in a janitor's closet maybe. Might be able to work open the entrance or, I dunno, pop the air duct covers off like they do in films. Maybe even get the power working." He glances thoughtfully at the light fixtures.

It's a weird defense mechanism of his, but the more frightened he gets - and he is damn good and scared right now - the more he starts acting as if somebody's just asked him to change the oil in his pickup or do another equally tedious mechanical chore. Must be some kind of weird denial thing. He doesn't dwell too much on it. He's just grateful he's not prone to freak out.

"I'll go with Saul. Probably better if we all do. Never works out too good in horror movies when the group splits up."

[MrEdwardNigma]

"I guess I'll go with as well, because you'll need the light, but the way I see it you gents might want to take a gander at the plan first, or you'll get totally lost"

Dark Sam pulled the plan out of his pants and laid it out on the desk.

[Rutskarn]

The nearest supply closet seems to be off towards the administrative wing.

[rubakhin]

"Hokay," Jordan says, squinting at the map. "I'm going to the supply closet. Think it would be the best course of action to head that way first, before we check out the entrances. We're pretty much empty handed here as it is. Sound good to y'all?"

[MrEdwardNigma]

"Supply closet it is!" Dark Sam cried out, grinning widely. He stuffed the plan back in his pants and led the way to the closet.

[Adlan]

Saul
'Thanks for volunteering Johnathan' Saul smiled, and it was clear that the young officer was finding the whole situation a bit tricky to get a handle on. What with a slightly unhinged bloke leading the way, who, as far as could be guessed, was a homeless man before the... event.

He followed Dark Sam though.

[Rutskarn]

You all make your way through the twisting hallways, navigating the darkness with the help of Sam's map. Finally, you come to the janitor's closet. It appears to be locked, but one of the keys opens it.

You find:

A toolbox containing one toolbelt, a hammer, a pipe wrench, a small box of nails, a tape measure and a portable crowbar.

Two brooms.

One mop.

A crate of disinfectant.

A bucket of white paint.

Miscellaneous cleaning supplies.

[MrEdwardNigma]

"Oh, sugar!"
Sam greedily picked up the item that was of most interest to him: the crowbar. He'd always wanted one of these babies. He heard these things really opened doors for you. In Sam's mind, just about any door could use some opening. He wrapped the toolbelt around his waist and hung the crowbar from it.

"Suppose it's fair to share. What do you gents want out of this veritable treasure hoard?"

[Adlan]

Saul
'Anyone here a , what you yanks call it, Handyman? if not, I'll bring the toolbelt, might be useful.

He picked up the Broom. It had a stout wooden handle, affixed to the plastic head. The Plastic Head came off with a good wrench and a little bit of twisting.

'Any one else want a Staff? Good for all manner of poking and proding, and even fighting.'

[rubakhin]

((OOC: You have no idea how long it took for me to figure out how to phrase this without telling the entire board how to make high explosives. If the DM wants the materials for Jordan's specific recipes just for fact-checking, he can PM me, but they're very common and there's no reasonable reason why they shouldn't be there.

Also: why do I know this? :smallannoyed:))

Jordan's eyes light up. He starts sifting through the supplies muttering something about flammables and oxidants.

"Okay, men. Now we can take out just about any door."

[Rutskarn]

((I'll take your word for it.))

[MrEdwardNigma]

Saul
'Anyone here a , what you yanks call it, Handyman? if not, I'll bring the toolbelt, might be useful.
"You're gonna steal it from my waist while I ain't lookin', are ya? I'll be keeping my eye on you, ya scunner"
Samedi shook his head at the sheer insolence of the man. It was as if he was on the streets again, people spitting at him for asking for some coin, and then acting surprised and offended when he spit back. Sam could produce some mighty thick, brownish spit. He called it a talent.

"Well, we'd better not hang around here for too long. This place reeks of death and brimstone"

Samedi checked the map again, looking for possible exits.

[Rutskarn]

The only exit appears to be the main entrance. There appear to be no service entrances, back doors, or other exits of any kind.

[MrEdwardNigma]

They'd hung around long enough at that dusty old cupboard, and all these people watching his every move were making Sam nervous. It was high time they left this place. Samedi led the way to the entrance.

((Could I have some details on what's on the map?))

[rubakhin]

Jordan trails behind with his arms full of pipe bomb supplies.

[Rutskarn]

((The map shows the hospital--the (short) security wing to the left, the administrative wing to the right (a few offices, the administrator's office) and a sprawling network of hospital rooms, all of which are clustered around a main hallway leading to the entrance.))

You begin trudging through the dark, cold main hallway. On either side are doors, some shut, some hanging open a crack, only shadow beyond. The hallway is long, and you begin to feel as if the white doors of the wards on either side are lurking, watching you silently as you proceed through them. The smell of burnt air, of moldy leaves and charred earth, grows stronger and stronger as you approach.

Finally, you come to a door marked Lobby. You can see only your own reflections on the glass doors, what lies beyond appearing merely shadow.

[drum-n-bass]

Bjorn slowly opens the door before entering in. He seemed to have disappeared earlier but now reappeared when they found the door.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Sam wiped his nose on his sleeve.
"If we find the way out, can you wait for me by the exit while I go and get some stuff, gents? The place seems awful strange, and I'd hate to be caught on them empty streets we saw on the picture-box alone"

[Rutskarn]

The door slowly swings open.

Beyond it, the light from your lantern illuminates the lobby. The lobby is stark and white, smoothly tiled floors gleaming even in the dimness. Ahead is a desk, cluttered with papers, a blank CPU monitor lying flat and knocked over. There is a desk chair behind it, sitting motionless, casting long and spider-like shadows over the floor. Lying in the center of the floor is a crumpled-up sheet of paper.

You can see the front doors up ahead, but they're completely covered in what appears to be brown paper, inside and (as you can see from the few places where the paper is torn) out. There are a handful of windows that are similarly covered. However, the paper in the door flutters slightly--there is a breeze beyond.

A pale, thin light shines from the cracks at the bottom and top where the paper covering does not reach.

There are also doors to the right and left, leading to the administrative and security wings.

[rubakhin]

Jordan frowns in disappointment. "So. We can just leave." Shrug. "Oh well. At least we can still make a pipe bomb. Never a bad time to make a pipe bomb."

He sets his stuff down on the desk and studies the papers. His earlier fear hasn't totally subsided. The image of that figure on the screen is still making his skin crawl. But now that they've been making progress at grasping their situation, his confidence is boosted considerably. He's curious more than anything else now.

[Rutskarn]

The papers all appear to be notes, written in the same rough hand. They are written in black pen.

They read:


State of city: unknown.

Sent to a quarantine mode a week ago--building wasn't breached anywhere. Does the government know something we don't?

Matherson--Administrator. New. He got out first--men in black coats, they were there a month ago.

Windows seem breakable.

Checklist:

Food
Weapons (Nobody can use--leave it.)
Medical supplies
Water
Fuel (any kind)
Maps

Military base to the east--quarantined there too?

Strange smell--NOT COMING FROM HOSPITAL. Chemcials? LEAK SOMEWHERE.

Can't afford to let the quarantine patients out. We don't know what they have...nothing seemed to work.

What to do with Carlson???

[MrEdwardNigma]

((Might be interesting to check that handwriting with the notes we saw earlier))

"I don't much see the use of making bombs myself. Once the legions of hell are after you no amount of fire and chaos is going to stop them"
Sam shrugged. He tore down some of the brown paper to create some light for the others and then walked off to the hallway.
"Before we leave I'm going to check out the administrator's office. You boys have fun while I'm gone. Try to get that computer working or something"

Dark Sam left for the offices alone, with the lantern. He would first head down to the administrator's office and then he would loot whatever seemed worth looting in the other offices.

[Rutskarn]

He makes it to the administrator's office, whose door is fully open.

Inside, the office looks ransacked. There are drawers lying on the floor, forms and paperwork scattered everywhere on the floor, potted plants smashed onto the tile.

Lying in the center of the room is a framed portrait of the man you saw leaving the building in the last few minutes of the security tape, smiling. The frame appears to have been heavily damaged, and the glass is cracked irreparably.

There is nothing of value in this office.

In the other offices (similarly ransacked), you find:

Two black staplers
Assorted office supplies (pencils, thumbtacks)
A few books on medicine (although the shelves are mostly vacant, a few tomes on subjects as esoteric as gum diseases and Tay-Sachs disease remain.)
A small box knife

[Adlan]

Saul

Saul read the notes, and examined the papers at the door ways.

'Looks like we're in a quarentined buildings. I got told about this, RSM was in Malaysia when fungal disease broke out, they stoppered up the hospitals with brown paper and paraffin oil.'

'I reckon we got summit. Maybe a Biological attack in the undeground? Maybe thats what got us put in this place?'

'Whatever it was. They sealed us up. Maybe it's infectious?'

A thought crossed his mind, and not a pleasent one.
'do you think the reason we're left alone is because we're dangerous? Plauge carriers?'

An even less pleasent one crossed his mind
'Or, do you think we're left alone, because we are alone. They made some pretty nasty biologicals, I know that for a fact. Damn Russians and Yanks both kept them.'

He glanced up at the others.

'I wonder who Carlson is... or was.'

[MrEdwardNigma]

The take was less good than he had expected. It wasn't even worth dumping those college boys that were tracking behind him. Still, Sam took some office supplies and the box knife and then returned to the lobby. He tossed some of the medical books he'd dragged along on the floor there.
"If any of you gents need something to read, or you need some toiletpaper, I brought you a souvenir" he said.
He looked at Saul. he'd only caught the last line of his speech but felt the need to contribute anyways.
"Carlson was just a crazy coot who worked here, and of no consequence whatsoever. I say we get out of here before they find out we're up and take the next train outta town"

Inventory:
Lantern
Bottle of Jack Daniels
Gauze (wrapped round fists)
Rubber band (wrapped around wrist)
Filtration Mask (equipped)
Toolbelt (equipped), holds:
[Portable Crowbar]
Security Uniform (equipped), holds:
[1 small, worn supply key
1 gleaming new supply key
Pawn Shop Ticket
Map of the Hospital
Marker
Pencil
Pen
Flask of Alcohol
Box Knife]
Street Clothes (equipped)
Heavy-Duty Boots stuffed with Scrap Paper(equipped)

[Rutskarn]

((You guys ready to leave, already?))

[rubakhin]

"So." Jordan picks up his stuff. "No point in sticking around. Let's get out of here, men."

He's not looking forward to seeing the rest of the city. He gets a sudden strange sense of claustrophobia, thinking about what they may find out there - blocks and blocks of dark buildings and dead streets, no people, nobody and nothing left but that thing on the monitor.

Well, he grimly thinks, at least he's got a pipe bomb.

[MrEdwardNigma]

"Well, we should off course make some stops before leaving, and, well, we haven't found our stuff yet. Say we try to look through the entire building? I had some belongings I didn't want to lose"

[MrEdwardNigma]

After looking through the entire building without anyone else lending some much as a hand Sam grudgingly decided the compass was no longer to be found in the hospital. He pushed open the hospital doors and went after his only other lead: the pawnshop ticket.

[Rutskarn]

The doors do not open, but in your pushing, a bit of the quarantine paper shifts. A pane of glass from the doors is missing, and exit can be obtained by tearing it away, emerging from the gap in the door like an infant crawling its way into the light and chaos of the world.

And although a sort of twisted, wrong-feeling serenity does exist here, you do indeed see light besides that of your lantern. Though the light may calm your frayed nerves, what it illuminates inspires only a dark, intangible dread.

CHAPTER TWO: SILENT DREAM

??, ??, 2011

It is close to dawn. Pale, dim grey light filters through clouds thick as wool, casting a silvery, unreal feel over the city. The streets are empty. There is no sound save the low, quiet whispering of the wind, trailing of buildings and signs.

The buildings, unfamiliar to you, look unnervingly unkempt. Refuse collects near them, unswept and left to rot. Several of the windows of the buildings (seemingly residential buildings) are broken, and the doors are boarded up. One tall building, looking like an apartment complex, has no door at all. Graffiti covers the walls, paint hardly eroded by time, overlapping itself.

The air is filled with a burnt odor, stronger now than ever, seeming to come from the air all around you. It is then, getting your bearings, that you notice something--coating the ground, nestled into corners, fogging up window panes and covering on every available surface, a thin layer of grey, ashen dust has settled. The source of the dust is not apparent, and it seems wrong somehow--it's not quite like any substance you've ever seen before, not lint or ash or simple city dust.

A thick, low-hanging fog prevents you from seeing too far in any direction, but off to the left of the hospital, you can see a faint orange glow from off in the distance. To your right, you see only darkness.

[Adlan]

Saul

'Anyone have any idea what this dust is?' Saul poked a pile of it with his finger, then slowly backed away from it.
'I really hate to say this, but I think this might be fall out'

Saul ripped away some more of the protective paper on the door, fashioning a crude filter, and he tied it in place with a scrunch of paper.

'if we've been down for a month, and no direct hits here, we should be fairly safe, just gotta wash it out when we can.'

'Anyone know where we are? I ain't local.'

[MrEdwardNigma]

"I'm as local as can be, son, but all this dust is making it hard to see where we are"

Sam tried to find his location on the elaborate map of the city in his head. He was a vagrant, he knew everything there was to know about the streets of this city.

[rubakhin]

"Do you know where we can find a library?" Jordan asks. "We could look up some of the names we found, or we can look through the news type materials, magazines, papers, microfiche. Whatever. Maybe figure out what's been going on. You know, there's probably newspaper dispensers around here somewhere ... " he adds, his voice trailing off in distraction as he starts glancing around.

[Rutskarn]

Sam looks around, looking for some landmark.

Behind him, the hospital looms, lit sign dark. You can read, "Emergency Hospital" in red letters--no other name or identification. It doesn't look familiar to you.

However, the apartment complex across the street does seem somewhat familiar. You appear to still be in Scranton, albeit a part you spent very little time in. This area is mostly residential, with apartments, small shops and delis. Libraries would probably be hard to come by, but newspapers might conceivably be found in the apartments or in the shops somewhere further along the streets.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Sam tried to find his way to a more familiar part of town, from where he'd try to head to the pawn shop. He wasn't giving up on that compass yet.

[Rutskarn]

Although you are vaguely aware that the street in question isn't more than, say, ten miles away, this area seems unfamiliar for some reason. The street-level fog isn't helping--you can't spot any familiar landmarks.

[rubakhin]

Jordan notices that Sam is getting lost. "Maybe we should stop and see if we can get into any of the buildings here," he says, heading off the street.

[Rutskarn]

((Now is the time for player input, guys))

[MrEdwardNigma]

"Rotten fog... Straight from Bilsy-bub's lair... Brimstone and ashes, I tells ya" Sam mutters as he continues heading in the direction where the pawn shop most likely is located. He knows Scranton better than anyone, so he should be able to find it. If he happens to come by a newspaper stand by the way, he'll pick up the most complicated newspaper he can find and some naughty magazines. Maybe some candy too, it's not like anyone will be charging him for it. If he comes across any city maps he'll try to see where he is, despite the fact that he's never had to do that before.

[Adlan]

Saul

'Where are we headed?' Questioned saul, using the light of the rising sun, now he was sure it was rising, to work out a rough north reckoning.

He also kept an eye out for any old vehicles, one of his squaddies was an ex-car thief, and this had proved very useful to once move a few cars out of the way of a convoy. If he rememberd right, the only way Hotwiring worked like it did in the films was on old cars, and so he kept an eye out for any abandoned vehicles. The USA was so big you had to get a car.

[Rutskarn]

Sam's deft pathfinding mind rolls into action.

Let's see. West Wrigley street...he knew that was north of the Fountain, where all the tourists wasted their perfectly good loose change. Far north, actually. Yeah, because West Wrigley street spilled into the area with the good butcher's shop that didn't mind handing out scraps to dogs and beggars. So he needed to head north. Which way was north? North was...towards the Creshnaw Appliances skyscraper. Now where the hell was that?

Okay, let's see. He looked to be in the residential area of that one suburb, didn't really go there much. Emergency hospital...hang on a minute. Was there a hospital there before? He remembered this street, but the hospital, not so much. Alright, forget the hospital. Yeah, this street continued out into...which was was west and which way was east? Wait, that army feller has the inkling that the orange tint through the fog was the sun, but that would mean the sun would be...there, and that would mean that the road would run northeast-northwest. He knew for a fact that wasn't the case.

Sam knew where he was going, and he even knew how to get there--he didn't need any damn map, that was for sure. What he needed was a landmark.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Sam checked the streetsigns to see where they were.

[Rutskarn]

((Sorry for the delay))

Sam approaches the end of the street, moving vaguely towards the orange light, in search of street signs.

At the t-intersection, you see a street sign lying broken on the pavement. A pair of signs labeled Crosby Way and Highland St. indicate the general direction that you could follow.

You have a rough estimation of where the pawn shop is from here--several miles away, however.

Near the street sign is an extremely tall redbrick building reaching up into the murk, the top not even visible through the ground-level fog. A sign above the doorway reads Cranders and Sons Apartment Complex. The door lies at the bottom of the stairs, hinges still hanging limply off the torn frame.

[rubakhin]

Jordan kicks the door open. "Come on," he says. "Let's check the place out. We might have to be here for a while. We could use a good place to squat."

[Rutskarn]

(Ha-BUMP in case you all forgot about this)

[MrEdwardNigma]

"You kids do as you like, but I'm going to a pawnshop"

Sam continued to the pawnshop, no matter how long a walk it would be. he had to get that compass back.