Perception - (+0 wis, +4 ranks, +3 CS) = +7
Cord follows Pats movements, his hand gripping the hose real starts to ache and he extends and clenches his fingers trying to promote circulation.
Judd:
Slowly, quietly, except for a few crunches and clatters, the zombie hunters move northeast to room 475.
Blood, toppled chairs, equipment, and other apocalyptic scree litter the floors. A few notes are pinned to the walls with unfamiliar names on them... left no doubt by people who foolishly believed rescuers would come.
Sarge stops outside the outer door of 475, which though intact is decorated with some bloody fingerpainting. Sarge listens.
Sarge:
Judd:
In the north ICU room you think you see something small skitter along the floorboards. Must be a rat. Just... a little fast. Just a streak. Then again you might be seeing things... could be stress, right?
Sam:
“Zombie rats on speed,” Judd whispers to himself. “Do not want.”
He blinks a few times and has another look around ... and stays away from anywhere like the underneath of the nursing station counter, where something might leap, scuttle or grab out at him.
Judd leans forward a few feet and peers around the counter endpiece and glances under the long nurses station counter. Open leg spaces below computer consoles alternate with short sections of floor cabinet. Looks clear.
You hear two helicopters fly low past the building just to the east. It sounds like they're flying south.
Cord cautiously continues down the corridor, peering into both windows as he moves to T17 and peers around the corner, he realizes he has been holding his breath and lets it out slowly.
Cord cautiously continues down the corridor, peering into both windows as he moves to T17 and peers around the corner, he realizes he has been holding his breath and lets it out slowly.
The doors at W9 lead into a large cargo sized elevator. From there you stalk to T17 and peek around the corner and find emptiness but for a few blood splatters and some bloodied hospital bedding.
Just across from you through doorway T21, in room 417, are the signs of a some kind of fight. The glass panel to the right side of the door is shattered.
Sam follows Patrick along the corridor, but every so often she stops and c o c k s her head as if listening for something. Each time she stops, she looks up. You can see that she is definitely getting agitated and if you look very closely you can see that she is trembling ever so slightly. Stress right...
Perception Check:
Sam:
The sound of helicopters fills Patrick with a faint bloom of hope.
He thinks to himself
Trying to calm himself, Patrick leans over to listen at the door
Perception:
Perception: 15
Sarge:
Wondering what might have caused Dave's reaction (and hoping to whatever Gods might still be out there listening that it wasn't what she thought it might be), Sam moves across to stand next to Dave and whisper, "can you hear it too? I don't know what it wants with us upstairs, but I really don't want to go up there and find out." She glances back towards where she last saw Cord. "Do you think Cord might be convinced to not go up there?"
Patrick gestures to the others to be quiet. He points at the door and mimes opening it. He makes sure everyone is prepared, and he tries the knob, balancing Charlene with one hand.
...He makes sure everyone is prepared, and he tries the knob, balancing Charlene with one hand.
The knob does not turn. Door is locked.
The knob does not turn. Door is locked.
Nothing happens.
... "can you hear it too? I don't know what it wants with us upstairs, but I really don't want to go up there and find out." She glances back towards where she last saw Cord. "Do you think Cord might be convinced to not go up there?"
<Looks over at Dave. Twirls her finger around her temple in the universe sign for 'insane'.>
Sam is too busy concentrating with Dave to see Patrick give the 'open door' signal, but when she hears the rattle of the handle she whirls around, gun raised and ready to pop a cap in something. Can anyone say jumpy...
Patrick backs off and whispers
"I don't really want to, but I have to see what happened to my aunt. We need to crowbar the door as quiet as possible. One person to crowbar, all the rest waiting for whatever pops out, kay?"
Cord:
Sarge:
Wondering what might have caused Dave's reaction (and hoping to whatever Gods might still be out there listening that it wasn't what she thought it might be), Sam moves across to stand next to Dave and whisper, "can you hear it too? I don't know what it wants with us upstairs, but I really don't want to go up there and find out." She glances back towards where she last saw Cord. "Do you think Cord might be convinced to not go up there?"
“Huh?”
Dave was leaning forward to look over the counter fronting the nurse’s station, and was just about to walk in there when Sam sidles over and whispers to him.
“No, I thought I saw something,” he whispers back, gesturing vaguely into the nurse’s station. “Rat … probably.” He firmly pushes mental images of crawling disembodied hands and slithering free-willed internal organs out of his mind. No. “Who do you thinks upstairs?” he continues absently, still looking about. “Your hearing’s better than mine, I can’t hear anything moving about up there. Footprints on the bloody ceiling, fnck …” he shakes his head and looks at Sam.
“Look, just … we don’t know what that was, those marks might not have been what they looked like. Just … don’t freak out, ok?”
Sam turns back to Dave when she sees that it's just Patrick playing with the door.
"Not footsteps. You mean you can't hear that voice?" She looks up at the ceiling. "It knows we're here and it wants us to come up there." She shivers, as if something just walked over her grave. "Never mind, let's see about your rat problem hey."
She takes a step into the Nurse's Station and looks around behind the desk, although she seems preoccupied about something.
Perception Check:
“Look, just … we don’t know what that was, those marks might not have been what they looked like. Just … don’t freak out, ok?”
"...Never mind, let's see about your rat problem hey."Perception Check: 9
Sam:
And then you snap back to reality.
“What voice?” Dave looks alarmed and inadvertently glances upwards. “There’s no voice Sam … now you’re freaking me out,” he continues in an urgent whisper. “Look, think logically, if there was some boss zombie up there that knew we were here, it’d just come down to get us right? Or send its hench-zombies or whatever. There’s no voice.” It sounds like he’s trying to convince himself as much as Sam.
<Starting to look really freaked out.>
"Well. Some of them did come to get us. Back there. Around the corner? Right? We killed them."
Sam's eyes go wide behind her mask as she glances back at Dave and she stumblingly backs away, swinging the gun in her hand around to target him. "What the fnck just happened? What the hell are you and what did you do with the real Dave?"
She continues to back further into the Nurse's Station, the gun still trained on Dave and her head swinging frantically around from side to side.
<Starting to look really freaked out.>
"Well. Some of them did come to get us. Back there. Around the corner? Right? We killed them."
Dave shakes his head very slightly at Anna. “Maybe …”
Then he hears that Sarge is preparing everyone to get the door open. “Hang about mate,” he says softly, coming over. “I’ve got a crowbar, but we might not need it. The map back in the stair made it look like all these rooms are connected … well, there’s a broken window around the corner between the nurse’s station and the intensive care room, and a door. We might be able to get through that way?”
Dave thinks about adding, ‘and you should be prepared for finding that your aunt didn’t make it,’ but he doesn’t think Pat will want to hear that … maybe seeing the mess around the ICU will give him the grim picture though.
… but before Sarge can answer, Sam freaks out on him.
“Sam! What the fnck?!” he hisses. “It’s me! Put the gun down Sam … ask me something, it’s me.”
"I saw you... I saw you... you weren't there... except for your brain... it was there and it was looking at me... looking at me with those eyes."
She puts her hands to her temples and shakes her head. She crouches down on the ground and starts to rock back and forth, with her head still cradled in her hands (which are still holding her weapons) as she starts to cry.
“It’s ok Sam,” says Dave, trying to keep his voice soft and calm, keeping his eye on her weapons. “It’s alright … you’re just … it’s getting to all of us. Hey, don’t cry …” He let’s go of the colt, letting it hang from the shoulder strap, and walks towards her slowly into the nurse’s station, empty hands splayed out in front of him. But he’s glancing around as he goes, doesn’t want to be surprised by anything.
Sam looks up at him and he can see that her eyes are red rimmed and bloodshot beneath the mask. They narrow as he starts to walk towards her, but his words seem to calm her down enough to let him reach down to her.
Dave stands in front of Sam for a moment. “Um, I was going to hug you, but I’m kinda scared you’re trying to lull me into a false sense of security so you can clock me,” he tries to make the comment sound light-hearted. He reaches down to her with one hand, palm up and open. “Want a hand up?”
She hesitates for a moment, glancing at the gun clutched in her right hand and then back up at Dave. Blinking a couple of times to clear her vision she reaches up with her left hand and lets him grasp it around her tonfa, allowing him to pull her to her feet.
"This is whispered speech..."
and
"This is her internal monologue..."
“Shhh, Sam, it’s ok,” says Dave softly. “I should have listened to you, ok? You heard a voice … well, there’s a lot of weird sh*t going down here, so maybe you did. Was it, like, in your head or did you hear it with your ears? What did it say, exactly? It wants us to go upstairs?”
"Tell me quietly..."
Dave glances through the adjacent glass wall while he speaks.
Dave glances through the adjacent glass wall while he speaks.
Looks clear.
"Right behind you guys," Johnnie whispers. His speech is a bit slurred. Perhaps he has taken a bit of a nip at the medical alcohol?
"Right behind you guys," Johnnie whispers. His speech is a bit slurred. Perhaps he has taken a bit of a nip at the medical alcohol?
12
Johnnie:
"Whazzat?" Johnnie aims his weapon at the baseboards in the ICU room just behind Judd.
"Whazzat?" Johnnie aims his weapon at the baseboards in the ICU room just behind Judd.
“What is it? Are you ... drunk? And that better be a f*cking silenced gun dude.”
"Tell me quietly..."
Sam glances up at the ceiling an leans into Dave. "It's like a whisper. First, in the stairwell it told me that it could see me then just now it told me to bring you all upstairs. And I could... I don't know... FEEL things upstairs. And then you... you..." She starts to tremble and then pulls herself together. "Then you melted before my eyes and all that was left was your brain and you eyes looking at me."
Sarge listens to the good advice
"OK. I'll try knocking."
He walks back to the door and raps thrice softly
"Aunt Terri? Are you in there? Aunt Terri? It's Patrick." He says, trying to cup his hands at the door to make the sound focus into it. He repeats it thrice, or until someone answers.
<Quietly.>
"Patrick?"
"Aunt Terri! We made it. Can you open the door? I have a group here."
Sarge feels a wave of relief.
"Wait a minute. My doctor is here too."
*sound of furniture moving*
"I thought we were dead."
<The door opens.>
Everyone stands dumbfounded as a kindly woman and a dignified but slightly scruffy looking doctor peer out of the office.