The sizzle of static, unlike the usual dead air that is present when the military isn't broadcasting, cuts through for a few minutes at a time. Soon however a small voice is capable of being heard “Uh hello? Hello? Steven could you [zzzzt] No you [zzzzzt] There! There! N[zzzt] Ba[zzzt] Okay… Okay I think we got it. Hello? Is anyone out there? My name is Nathan! Me and my friend Steve are trapped up here! We need help. There are bandits everywhere, we can’t get out. We have plenty of food. Please, anyone who can rescue us! We need help!” The sounds of gunshots are heard “Steve! ST[zzzt]”
Day Three
GhostThe sky is steel grey, with streaks of inflamed pink across it like a scab on skin. The drizzle gently pours down as you approach the corporal on guard at the fence. He's got an M16 and looks thin enough. His eyes look at you with a weariness you wouldn't expect from such a young face.
"What do you want?"
You hold up the meat you have, offering it to him, then taking out a ration and motioning to it. He squints, then seems to get the point. [13-2 = 10] He tosses you a ration card then grabs the meat, hungrily eating it. You walk away, eating the ration. That's your food gone for today. Later that day, you crawl under the fence's hole and under the cover of fog make your way out of the Green Zone. [13] The army's flashlights cannot penetrate the fog, and you easily make your way out.
As you walk along in the suburbs, you see a trail of blood leading to a large hole in the ground. Looking down, you see it's an old maintenance tunnel. You climb down carefully, and approach the bottom. There is a splash as your feet enter the murky water that fills this place. Everything smells like pond scum, and up ahead it's dark. In the water, you can see blood floating in it. You follow the trail as best you can. [20] [12] Lying against the concrete wall is a dead scavenger, lying face down in the water. You turn him over, and see that he's slightly mutated: he has three eyes surrounding his original two. You don't recognize him, and you vaguely wonder what happened to him. You check his backpack and find a few cans of beans and a few bottles of water, 4 day's worth. You stand up and wish you could apologize to him, even if it is a meaningless gesture.
[5] There's a loud rumbling sound, and you can hear a distant howling as if from another life. You can see two blue searchlights staring at you. You realize the howling isn't from some sort of an animal, it's the howling of air raid sirens.
Suddenly you're there again. The Disaster. There's people running all around you, air raid sirens in the distance. Before you can ask what's happening, you can hear the sound of missiles being launched. You stare at the trails in the distance with horror, flying against the blood-red sky despite the fact it is neither dawn nor dusk. Then you look down at your feet, and dead eyes stare back at you. You see a missile suddenly streak down towards you, and there isn't an explosion as it smashes into a building, but a loud clicking sound. A green gas is released... and then the dead start getting up. You run for your life, towards the subway, to escape the madness.
That's when you snap out of the memory, or the dream, whatever is it. You raise your bow at the searchlight, then fire. [16] [10] You fire an arrow at it, and it hits one of the searchlights, smashing it. The sirens slowly fade away, along with it's lights, and you are left in darkness. You blink, and when you blink again, you're outside of the subway, holding a baby doll with a symbol carved in it's belly: an eye.
Heath 10
Hunger 5 (fed)
Doll Idol
Map
Ration Card
Recurve Bow
2 Arrows
12 Portions of Food (Enough for four days)
Alexis JadeWithin the Deadlands, you either adapt to the situation or you leave the Deadlands, either on your two feet or in a bodybag. Anything could happen out there, and it often did. At least, unlike the city, you had 360 degrees of vision rather then being constricted by rubble and buildings. Your wolves are a few meters away, sniffing for anything living, while you keep a look-out for anything yourself.
[8] [17] [7, 15] You spot a dead housecat (That looks more like a lion then a housecat, with it's size) on the ground, with not all of it's meat gone. You walk over and remove the rest of the meat, ending up with five portions. One of the wolves runs over with a dead crow in it's mouth, which you take out and get three portions of meat out of it. You begin to walk home, having had a pretty fulfilled day.
[5] There is the sound of a truck slowing to a start. You duck behind a tree and peek out at the direction of the sound. The steam-driven truck is back, with a bandit getting out and walking towards you. Despite this, you're pretty sure he can't see you. He's getting closer and closer... You shush your dogs. You need to do this quiet. As soon as he goes behind the tree, you grab him and try to choke him out. [3+3=6] [3] He stabs you in the stomach, but you manage to smash his head up against the tree. [19] You hold in the gasp, and then crawl away quickly. You hide in the long grass and see them investigate. They do a brief search, then drag him back to the truck. After an eternity, they finally leave, and you stumble back with a lot of wounds.
Alexis:
Health 3
Hunger 5 (Fed)
Wolf One (Name not yet chosen)
Health 7
Hunger 8 (Fed)
Wolf Two (Name not yet chosen)
Health 9
Hunger 8 (Unfed)
2 portions of food
Old Man LeeYou rub your chin as you look at your remaining farmland, as one of your chickens digs a tentacle growing from it's stomach into the ground in order to absorb nutrients from it. You never really needed to separate the chickens and the farmland, since you already had a fence. However, ever since those idiots in green decided that your prime farmland would be much better as a minefield rather then, you know, a farm (Clue's in the name), you can't really expect the chickens to not peck at the remaining ground you have since there's no barrier.
You decide it'd be for the best to make a fence. You have plenty of scrap wood laying about, and there could be tools in the shed. You limp over to the shed and open it up, and start searching for tools. [20] [16] You find a power drill and a screwdriver. The power drill still has batteries, so that's perfect. [Combined, +3 to building stuff] You walk out of the shed and gather up scrap wood, then start nailing them together and pushing them into the ground. [6+3=9] You make a fairly crappy fence. You never were good at home economics. You sigh and start planting the seeds behind the fence, hoping that maybe the chickens won't try breathing on the fence. It should take three days before there's any sign of growth. For now, you go back to your bedroom and read books until the day is through, then you go to sleep.
Health 10
Hunger 5 (Fed)
2 Rations
2 Pills
3 portions of food (Enough for 1 day)
Wade Blue"No. You are not going to make me aid looting." The army woman frowns. "That is the exact opposite message we're giving out. It'll make me look like the most corrupt soldier out here!"
You tell her it'll help the economy along.
"No."
You tell her you'll only do it once.
"No."
You tell her that the looters are going to keep looting no matter what: they knew the job was dangerous when they got it. If you get the looters on your side, though, you have a skilled group of scroungers who could get equipment from highly dangerous areas you can't secure without the equipment within. It is entirely possible that letting the looters work for you would actually help this thing along.
"[8+3=11] ... Fine. If this gets linked back to you, though, you're on your own because I am not involved. I can arrange a break when the guards switch between evening and night watch. It'll be for thirty minutes max and you'll need to keep it quiet. You can get outside the Green Zone, but your guys will have to use their own initiative to enter it again. I want total silence on this: if one of your guys gets caught, I don't want my name dragged into this. Got it?"
You nod, then leave the office. You have the approval. Now you just need the people.
Wade
Health 12
Hunger 3 (Unfed)
2 Ration Cards
1 Utility Card
Emily
Health 10
Hunger 4 (Fed)
Edgar WinterNo-one's really questioned the cybernetic hand yet. You don't think it's a case of knowing it: they do look fairly weirded out when they see it. You think it's just a case of politeness. You did get a few shouts from the rowdier people along the lines of "tin can", but no-one's really actually tried to ask you where you even got the damn thing or what it's meant to do.
[6] The second one would be a good question, as you still can't figure out what it's meant to do. You can guess it can go fairly limp, as it doesn't seem to possess bones, but other then that it's just there. You decide it'll serve it's purpose in time, and move on from it. You decide to head out of the Green Zone for some food: everyone guards their food rather defensively within it. You find a conveniently cut part of the fence, then scurry under it, then move from building to building away from the Zone. You hope you don't get shot by the military patrols.
[7+1=8] [12] Your hopes are dashed as a flashlight passes by you, then focuses directly on you. Before you can react, you hear a gunshot, and fall to the ground just as a bullet passes by. You quickly crawl away out into the abandoned suburbs before the bastard takes a few more potshots at you.
You move on from the suburbs and into the commercial district. Tight streets and tighter alleys make you nervous as you creep along in the dead silence of the night, with only the stars to guide you. The rooftops above you make you vulnerable to an attacker above, and the corners make you an easy target for a patient foe.
[11+1=12] You press yourself against the wall as you hear something moan down the alleyway. You hold your breath as something human-shaped that smells vile shuffles by you. It seems to ignore you, and after a few minutes it seems like you're alone again. You continue skulking along, eventually coming across a large mall. You step through the shattered glass and walk into the abandoned plaza.
There's a few corpses laying here and there, signs of a large battle. Spent cartridges and fallen clips lay all around, and there's a lot of bloodstains. You kneel down over one corpse, clutching a radio. You see his finger's still over the transmit button. Must have been that "Nathan" on the radio. You search the bodies for something to eat.
[6] [11] You find two packets of Crunchy-D-Lite, in cheerful red packaging. Chocolate bars aren't so good, but you're satisifed with it. You head out of that mall of death, and head back to your home.
Health 10
Hunger 5 (Fed)
Toolbox
2 food portions
Unidentified Cybernetic Modification