Akkad heads back to his vehicle, opens the door, tosses his pack onto the passenger seat, and puts down his gun. As he searches his pockets for the key, a shadow falls across his face. Akkad looks up.
He watches through the windshield as a gray tidal wave spreads across the sky, moving in from the east. The clouds are moving very fast - the wind up there must be intense. Strange, considering that he feels not even a slight breeze.
Within the space of a few minutes the clouds overtake the blue sky completely. The once-clear day turns rapidly to overcast, and now Akkad feels the wind. It comes from all sides at once, lightly rocking his vehicle and howling like an angry beast.
---
Yara stuffs the searchlight into her backpack, which along with the skull of meat is full near to bursting. She straps the wheels to the exterior of the pack, shoulders its considerable weight, and heads for the stairs.
Dominic picks up a pistol receiver and affixes the slide to the top of the weapon. He checks the magazine before slotting it into the pistol's grip - ten rounds. None of the surrounding wood or corroded metal looks worth the trouble of lugging it back to the surface, so he leaves it be and begins the climb back aboveground.
Burt assembles the remaining twelve pistols and places them in his backpack, carefully ensuring that the safeties are engaged. Then he follows Dominic up the stairs, leaving the ruin behind at last. He stops in the dirt-covered room to collect Turbo's magbike - the key is still in the ignition, and he walks the bike back out of the cave.
The party steps out of the cave and are immediately buffeted by strong winds. It had been sunny when they descended, but the sky is now covered by foreboding clouds. They duck down and hold tightly onto their equipment as they trek back to the vehicles. Burt loads Turbo's magbike into the bed of his truck and straps it down tightly. There's still a fair amount of room in the vehicle - enough for a second bike or a considerable amount of gear. Dominic opens the door of his wasterunner and places his gear on the back seat.
The clouds above dance with strange shadows, like those cast on a wall by a flickering fire. But these have no discernible shape, changing and reforming like the clouds themselves. The wind picks up, and thunder booms in the distance.
Something sparkles in the sky. A tiny object, glinting in the last vestiges of sunlight filtering through the clouds. It spins as it falls, casting reflections in every direction until it lands with a
thud in the grass nearby. It's a blue teardrop, no more than an inch long and made out of some sort of... resin? There seems to be metal in the center of the teardrop, and tiny lines of circuitry cover its surface. Those nearby feel a faint mental tug from the object - Dominic recognizes it as the same energy emanating from his map.
There's rain in the east. The party can smell it coming, approaching as swiftly as the clouds. And something else, along with it. A faint sound. Rumbling.
############################################################################
HealthyModifications:
Embedded Hotwire
Inventory:
Double-barrel Shotgun(90%/S-Range)
Semi-automatic Pistol(80%/S-Range)
Fragmentation Grenade x2
Incendiary Grenade x2
Flashbang Grenade x1
High Explosive Grenade x1
Backpack
Shotgun Shells x59
Pistol Cartridges x10
120 Platinum chips(Currency)
15 Arasti Silvers
Flashlight x2
Headlamp x2
Hunting knife x2
Tissue Repair Injections x10
Roll of bandages x2
Day's worth of travelling rations x14
Roll of string
Dirt-filled Aluminum Can x4
Prosthetic Leg
Cybernetic
Almond-scented Vial
Healthy
Modifications:
Arasti Monocle(+5% Accuracy)
Inventory:
Semi-Auto Rifle(90%/M-Range)
Mutated Wolf Hide
Backpack
60 Platinum chips(Currency)
Flashlight
Headlamp
Hunting knife
Tissue Repair Injections x5
Roll of bandages
Day's worth of travelling rations x7
Rifle Cartridges x54
Semi-automatic Pistol x12 (10 pistol cartridges each)
Mutated Wolf Skull
Healthy
Modifications:
Gray Walker's Eye
Inventory:
Flechette Rifle(95%/M-Range)
Laser-sighted Revolver(95%/S-Range)
Backpack
Flechettes x44
60 Platinum chips(Currency)
15 Arasti Silvers
Flashlight
Headlamp
Hunting knife
Tissue Repair Injections x3
Roll of bandages
Day's worth of travelling rations x7
Skull of Mutated Wolf Meat
Lockbox containing Almond-scented vial x1
Site 452 Executive Keycard(Blue)
Modded Magbike Wheels
Vehicle Spotlight
Healthy
Modifications:
Prosthetic Leg
Inventory:
Sub-machine Gun(90%/S-Range/Automatic/Multi-target)
Backpack:
60 Platinum chips(Currency)
Flashlight
Headlamp
Hunting knife
Tissue Repair Injections x5
Roll of bandages
Day's worth of travelling rations x7
Pistol Cartridges x200