Sarge heads off south, realizing before long that he can't swing Charlene. Well, she's still good for stabbing....
Sarge:
You give up trying to hear anything other than the scrape of your own boots, the click of your air filters, and the clatter of equipment. Sound seems to get all bunched up in a single hollow din.
You pass another access room after 150 meters. Opening above. Judging from the map it leads into Kester Grant College.
After three hundred meters you come to a T intersection. You must be under the road north of the hospital. Opening above.
The dim confines of the sewers tightens up Sarge's attention
Sarge
“Who wants to do the honours?” asks Judd, looking up the ladder at the hatch above. “I’ll check it out if you like…”
Sam keeps her eyes glued to the back of the person in front of her the entire journey down the passage, her breathing staying steady at 'highly elevated'.
“Who wants to do the honours?” asks Judd, looking up the ladder at the hatch above. “I’ll check it out if you like…”
You can also go left or right.
Cord:
"Whatever we do can we do it the hell soon? This place is seriously freaking me out!"
Perception Check DC 15 (5 if someone shines the Flashlight on her)
You notice Sam is shaking. Not much, but something is definately not right about her.
Patrick points to the footprints leading the other way. His discovery blinds him to anything else occuring.
"Guys either we have a bad Z problem down here or some folks escaped this way. Either or, let's keep our wits about us, yes?"
"One of these tunnels will lead to the hospital," Cord shrugs, "who ever is feeling lucky choose a direction"
Cord seems to be spending a lot of time scanning the floor and walls with his flash light, he is looking for blood or hand marks that will indicate that the infected are down here.
Cord seems to be spending a lot of time scanning the floor and walls with his flash light, he is looking for blood or hand marks that will indicate that the infected are down here.
Judd shines his torch onto the map, studies it for a moment before stuffing it back in his pocket. “Left I reckon,” he says, shining the torch down the tunnel in that direction. Then shines the torch onto the floor, looking for the footprints that Sarge and Cord have seen, seeing if the direction of the prints seem to come from the left fork.
Judd
“Looks like we’re going against the flow,” Judd mutters. “Ah well. Let’s go.” He hefts his crowbar, shines the torch down the left fork again, and then heads off in that direction.
"Whatever we do can we do it the hell soon? This place is seriously freaking me out!"
Perception Check DC 15 (5 if someone shines the Flashlight on her)
** spoiler omitted **
"You alright?"
“Yeah, c’mon Sam, keep it together man. We’ll be out of here soon.”
"Stay on target Sam. The insurgents'll get you when you get distracted."
Patrick looks a bit distracted himself, eyes twitching back and forth and his sword out in front weaving.
He mutters sotto voce
"Man I'm waiting for an orc to wander around the corner."
Judd moves ahead, toward the east out of the T intersection.
Sam's respirator is clicking rapidly. One wonders, in this narrow space, if she has her safety on.
Your boots scuff the floor. Charlene clangs on the wall as Sarge starts moving in behind Judd.
Voices. Maybe whispers. Or something vocalizing on the other side of a wall.
Judd turns, finger to lips. “Shh.” He puts his ear to the wall and listens.
You move forward a little more.
Ear to the wall.
No.
The sound is insinuating itself through the tunnel...
From ahead.
“Something up ahead,” whispers Judd. “Sarge, you want to get up there and go medieval on it?” He presses himself up against the tunnel wall so that Pat can take the lead again.
You come to an access room.
The sound is louder. Like the whispers of many.
On your left, the north side of the access room, under the trunk line of power and water pipes a man in black combat fatigues is slumped under the pipes. He has weapons. His eyes are open and he's looking at you. He has a grenade in his hand.
On your right a short hall going south into the hospital complex, ending at a steel door with the words "VG2A: Authorized Access Only" stenciled on it. A heavy steel pipe is jammed at an angle, keeping the door from opening. The whispers are loudest at the door.
Four needles of light pierce through the darkness from the manhole cover above you.
Patrick grins wildly
"Sure thing. Lemme work my Cleave skills."
He advances down the tunnel, alert for trouble
Judd stops short, seeing the wounded man over Sarge’s shoulder, He takes in the tableau. Looks at the grenade. At the guys face.
“We’re not zombies,” he says, trying to keep his voice calm, low. “Can we help?”
<His arm is bound - the one holding a grenade. He has a suppressed assault rifle and pistol.>
"They're calling for me."
<The hand on the grenade shakes...>
Johnnie
The tremors in his arm are a sign that the change is close.
Voices. Maybe whispers. Or something vocalizing on the other side of a wall.
"Oh sh!t, oh sh!t... we need to get out of here... I gotta get out. We need to find a manhole cover and get out of here." Sam's voice rises in pitch as she continues to talk, even after Judd "shushes" everyone.
They come to the room and as she sees the manhole cover, she immediately rushes for the ladder and starts to climb, oblivious to everything else around her.
EDIT:
Patrick lowers Charlene to a rest position.
"Easy soldier. Who's calling you ?"
He tenses, waiting for a bad move from the proto-Z
Sam bolts up the ladder before she can even get a look at the man.
"Easy soldier. Who's calling you ?"
"Them. The dark ones. They followed us. I stayed, I was bitten."
Strength Check. (1d20+1=11)
Sam pushes the cover up a few inches, then her hold on the ladder gives.
A clang resonates through the access room.
Sam pushes the cover up a few inches, then her hold on the ladder gives.
A clang resonates through the access room.
Sam grips the ladder tighter, then rips her mask off down around her neck and presses her mouth up to one of the holes in the manhole cover, breathing in the fresh air from above, oblivious to what is going on below her.
"Easy soldier. Who's calling you ?""Them. The dark ones. They followed us. I stayed, I was bitten."
Sorry to her that soldier. That grenade got a pin in it?
Sam grips the ladder tighter, then rips her mask off down around her neck and presses her mouth up to one of the holes in the manhole cover, breathing in the fresh air from above, oblivious to what is going on below her.
You hear something scraping above you.
Sorry to her that soldier. That grenade got a pin in it?
<His feet are shaking. His breathing is shallow.>
"I don't want to go. I don't want to change. I pulled it."
You hear something scraping above you.
Sam jumps and bangs her forehead against the cover, opening up a small cut above her eye. As the blood starts to well, the scratching above her increases and it looks like something tries to poke through one of the holes.
As the blood starts to well, the scratching above her increases and it looks like something tries to poke through one of the holes.
Sam
“F*ck it Sam, get down,” hisses Judd, grabbing at her unsuccessfully as she dashes past him. His attention is split between Sam, the scratching from above, the door, Pat, the guy with the grenade. He’s frozen by momentary indecision.
“Think you can talk him into handing you that grenade really f&cking carefully Sarge?” he breathes softly, half to himself.
"Sh!t!" Startled, Sam suddenly jerks back and loses her grip on the ladder, plummeting to the ground below her and landing on her arse.
Damage for falling on her Arse. (1d6=2)
She stays down on the floor and starts to rock, wrapping her arms around her knees, the Beowulf tinking on the floor behind her with each backward sway.
Sam has taken her mask off.
Judd watches Sam fall in slow motion. He can’t easily get to her past Sarge. He tenses himself to leap backwards should the grenade go off.
In slow motion.
"Oh f%&!, this is f*$#ed. Mister, you don't need to blow us up, you need to save us."
<Anna moves up next to Sarge>
"Guys, this dude is from the Joint Task Force, he's like a super commando counter terrorist soldier. Or something like that."
"Please Mister."
Judd squeezes past Sarge, into the access room, and after a quick glance at Miles Dyson there, runs over to Sam, kneeling down next to her. He finds her mask hanging around her neck and pulls it back over her face. “You need to keep this on. Keep it together. Remember your police training, or your karate training or whatever the hell sort of training lets you deal with freak outs!”
He takes her hand, tries to bring her up to her feet.
Sam calms down a little as Dave takes her hand, managing to slow hr breathing down enough to speak.
"There's... more of them up there... one of them stuck it's finger through the... holes in the manhole cover. It just startled me is all." She gets up as Judd pulls her to her feet and she rubs her arse gingerly. "Damn that hurt like a b!tch."
She looks around for the first time and takes in the scene. "I'm sorry guys but I really need to get out of here. Him," she jerks her finger at Dyson , "I'm not so worried about. It's them," she points at the door and the manhole, "I'm not happy with."
"I don't care whether we take him, let him blow himself and those things up or dance a jig, as long as we leave this fraking tunnel!" Her voice is starting to take on a hysterical pitch again.
“Shhh, it’s alright, keep it together Sam,” Judd tries to sooth her. “No-ones blowing anything up, ok? We don’t want to be dealing with zombies in here too ok?”
Privately, Judd is half inclined to let Dyson blow himself up, as long as they are all a safe distance away, and try to get up through the last manhole they came too. But he waits and sees if anyone can talk the man away from the grenade first, as he half carries Sam back to the western tunnel.