"Sarge, you have a light?"
You gonna pull off your mask and have a quick puff?
...breathing heavily into his mask...
Masks are fogging up a bit.
You gonna pull off your mask and have a quick puff?
Sam finally gets abit of a handle on herself and pipes in, "so what the hell was that? What kind of freaking disease can do that to a man, huh? This is some bio-engineered military sh!t, that's what this is. Some fncker in a lab let it loose and now we gotta pay the price. What the fnck man, what the fnck!. Thos damn ar seholes are gonna be the death of us all." Her voice steadily gets higher and more hysterical as she goes on with her rant untils he has to once again lean back against the wall, this time sliding down to sit in heap, and start breathing heavily again.
You gonna pull off your mask and have a quick puff?
"Sarge, you have a light?"
No. I intend on torching the place.
Patrick keeps giggling, a painful whimpery giggle at that.
"Oh Sam, this isn't natural. I don't know what this is, Judgement Day, the return of the Elder Gods, or an alien invasion, but there is no way the lab rats came up with THAT."
Patrick giggles again, then rips his mask off and blows massive chunks all over the ground. He looks up as Johnnie asks for a light.
"I don't think lighting fires in a penthouse is going to help us bro. You want we can gather the bits up and burn them, but I'm thinking a non-contained fire would be a bad thing."
By the way, Cord, while you were away, I moved you up with the rest of the group.
Cord:
Cord ensures his mask is still securely in place after he recovers from the horror of the monster on the bed. "Jesus Christ!" is all he can splutter out in his shock.
After he recovers a bit he turns to Patrick, "Actually we could get a controlled fire going in here that would burn itself out with out risking the rest of the building, there are some flammable spirits down in the bar that would act as an accelerant and the doors and walls are fire proof, we could even wait until it burns itself out then douse the room?"
He looks around at the others confused, "Why did we hear the phone earlier, but then it moved? Should we try the phone again?"
"Wait, shouldn't we find Anna first?"
Judd nods at Mike through his clearing mask. “Yeah mate. That’s why we’re here.” He looks at the others. “Look, I’m sorry I dragged you all into this hell-hole … I had no idea things were going to be this bad. But I came here to get my friend. Now with all this, I can accept the fact that it’s increasingly unlikely she’s … well, you know. But we came all this way, let’s finish the job. Let’s find out for sure one way or another.” He takes a deep breath.
“After that, sure, I’m all for burning that thing in there … for all the good it’ll do if there’s more of them around … or, god’s help us, all the friggin zombies in this city are going to start sprouting tentacles … but for now, let’s go upstairs. Oh, and good idea about the phone mate.”
He turns, dials Anna's number and starts up the stairs, keeping an eye out for trouble, the phone to his ear.
A phone rings downstairs.
“Scew that.” Judd hangs up. “We’ll look for it later. Let’s check the roof,” he glances through the window into the pool, and the floating body, “while we’re here.”
Taking up his pistol again, he jogs up the stairs to the roof.
The door is unlocked.
There's is something big on the other side.
You push. You put your shoulder into it. Sarge helps.
It's something really big - the door doesn't open.
Judd rubs his shoulder, looks annoyed. “Lift?” he asks Sarge.
He heads back down stairs towards the elevator. “Could be a good sign,” he says reflectively on the way. “Maybe they’ve barricaded the roof against the things down here…”
Back down to the elevator.
When Judd pushes the button for the roof a light reads "LOCKED".
At the door that is barricaded, Cord has a look to see if he could chop the hinges out of the door. [ooc]I am guessing it opens out on to the roof, so the hinges will be hidden on the outside, but it is worth a try).
Cord also calls out, "Hello? Is there anyone out there?"
He repeats the call a few times while listening for an answer.
Anyone who can see his face, will notice that he is wide eyed, and sweating heavily.
“Huh.” Dave looks at the controls for a moment. “Anyone think they can finesse this?” he calls, turning, then sees the pool again, through the window. “I wonder how tough that glass is …”
Patrick looks about for anything amiss
The horrid image of the mutating old man still shorts out Patrick's brain. He hums to himself
"I'm a tumor, I'm a tumor ... oh oh oh I'm a tumor."
“I wonder how tough that glass is …”
Sam is listening to what's going on while sitting against the wall composing herself. Hearing Dave mention the glass, she holsters the Sig and pulls out the Beowulf, calmly walking over and standing a metre or so from the glass. She raises the gun, bracing it and turning her head away, fires at the glass.
“Whoa! Whoa, Sam, do-“
Judd prepares to dive out of the way of the wave of water that’s going to come through the glass.
Patrick looks about for anything amiss
The horrid image of the mutating old man still shorts out Patrick's brain. He hums to himself
"I'm a tumor, I'm a tumor ... oh oh oh I'm a tumor."
"Sarge, get a hold of yourself! Remember your training!"
She raises the gun, bracing it and turning her head away, fires at the glass.
She raises the gun, bracing it and turning her head away, fires at the glass.
She raises the gun, bracing it and turning her head away, fires at the glass.
I had a feeling the windows were underwater, but wasn't 100% sure. Wouldn't change what Sam did either way (although as I've said in hindsigt she should have stood further away **grumble. fricken' hindsight. grumble**).
Oh well, looks like more damage coming her way... Has anyone else even taken any damage? Methinks Sam is just a bit too impulsive and getting worse as the crisis takes it's toll.
Beowulf roars, everyone stops breathing when they hear the thud of supersonic lead cutting into water... not knowing what to expect.
Before even the .50 cal sized leak begins blasting water all over Sam, the ripple of shock creates a spider web of tiny cracks in what must be several layers of shatterproof glass.
By the time Sam turns back to the window she's soaked and being pushed back by the tiny geyser. The glass begins to sag into the room as the plastic laminates give under the awesome pressure.
Sam sees the spiderweb cracks appear and a look of comprehension suddenly dawns on her face. She turns and yells "RUN!" before herself dashing dripping wet towards the stairs, the Beowulf jerking wildly in her hands.
Never has anyone with a gunshot wound to the leg moved faster.
Even Judd is amazed that she makes the stairwell before him.
Everyone taking four stairs a stride up to the blocked roof door.
Sam sees the spiderweb cracks appear and a look of comprehension suddenly dawns on her face. She turns and yells "RUN!" before herself dashing dripping wet towards the stairs, the Beowulf jerking wildly in her hands.
"LET'S GET THE F+@~ OUTTA HERE!"
Mike begins to sprint towards the nearest exit. Preferably UP.
Amazingly, it takes almost 15 seconds before the laminates rip open....
One moment it sounds like a powerful hose - the next, whitewater through a gorge.
After that everyone sits back on the stairs and waits it out. With the water racing down the stairs and the gas masks on, if anyone wants to be heard they'll have to shout.
Dave turns on the stair where everyone is crowded around the top landing, and aims his revolver down the stairs … in case that corpse in the pool was not as dead as it looked…
After a while the corpse floats though on the lowering tide spilling through the stairwell doors. It flops down the stairs.
After a few more minutes the water level drops down to a deep puddle.
The gentle sound of dripping and sloshing replaces the earlier roar in the stairs.
Cord is merrily working away on the blocked doors hinges at the top of the stairs, preying that some manual graft will drive the image of the tentacled horror from his mind.
The cannon like gunshot of the Beowulf rings out, startling him, he starts to take a few steps downwards, assuming another infected has joined the party when Sam yells run and appears at the bottom of the stairs with the rest in toe.
"What the fu..." his explicit question dies on his lips as the first water appears.
"I am glad I am wearing waterproofs," he comments to break the tension.
Patrick scurries up the stairs with the others, still humming.
"I'm not crazy ...institution! ... You're the one who's crazy ... institution! ...You're driving me crazy ..."
Johnnie follows behind Sarge, concerned about the latter's mental health.
“Alright … seems safe – ha! – for now.”
Judd ventures warily back down to the top penthouse level, peers out at the damaged pool.
"Right behind you!"
“Alright … seems safe – ha! – for now.”
Judd ventures warily back down to the top penthouse level, peers out at the damaged pool.
It's still knee deep near the window were you to crawl through. But you could easily walk up to the shallow end and climb the ladder.
Meanwhile, Cord has hacked into and pulled into two of the hinges on the roof door using the pick of his axe.
Take your pick... so to speak.
"Hey lads, you might want to give the water a miss, I think I can get this door open and water is a real good conduit for transferring disease." Cord warns them in a horse whisper, "If this can be considered a disease now?" He continues his work on the hinges.
Sam's face looks white behind the mask as she whispers, "sorry, I just... thought... I don't..." then she flops down on the stairs, the Beowulf slipping from her fingers to clatter to the bottom as she puts her head in her hands. A soft sobbing can be heard and her body starts to shake in time with each sob.
Cord pauses in his chopping to look at Sam, "Hey, don't worry, I am sure their insurance will cover it." His grin is lost behind his mask, he then carries on his impression of Johnny.
Patrick scurries up the stairs with the others, still humming.
"I'm not crazy ...institution! ... You're the one who's crazy ... institution! ...You're driving me crazy ..."
"Hey, man, isn't that a song?"
Mike mimes putting a gun to his head.
"I think PTSD just kicked in."
At Cord’s suggestion, Judd stops just before stepping down into the water, eyeing it distastefully, imaging bits of grandfather’s gore and tentacles floating around in the stuff. “Good idea,” he mutters, and comes back up.
He was kinda pissed with Sam for blasting the pool without warning like that … but he can’t stay mad at a chick when they turn on the waterworks. He picks up the Beowulf from the stairs as he makes his way back up, and leans it on the wall beside her, pats her awkwardly on the shoulder. “Hey man, it’s ok. This is a crazy situation … we’ve all done things a bit … you know.”
He gives her shoulder one last pat, then continues up to see if he can help Cord with the door.
"Step back" Judd warns.
Cord shears the final hinge, sinking the axe an inch into the concrete below - shards flick your cheeks. At that Judd steps in and drives the crowbar into the crack, pulling the outside of the door out of the frame.
It falls inward onto the steps with a thud. A potted tree is blocking the door on the outside.
...
