Z-Day USA

Game Master Patrick Curtin

Not being a military trained fellow, I will not be running towards that commotion, "Damn. Looters are starting early this time around".

I seek out an exit in the other direction from the gun fire but not an elevator.

"WHOA! Someone must have taken parTICular exception at having their temperature taken.

Ya, let's be somewhere not here."

Having the same idea, Brian is moving in the same direction as Dennis.

"Hey, y'all seem pretty cool," Brian opens, the inclusion of the word 'y'all' being ubiquitous for someone with a military history, as all the training forts seem to be in the south. "I should get your number. We can get some beers and check out chicks if the planes get grounded," he says, opening up his Contacts on his cell.

Dominicus looks around taking in possible avenues for snipers, and nods.
"Somewhere NOT here sounds good! Preferably some block of concrete between us and that noise!"
Seeing that Dennis does not look around, but Brian does he follows Dennis carefully.
"Looters bad here? We had some stockpilers, but fortunately no looters in quite some time."

"Sure", I give my number to Brian and I head away. As Dom follows I shake my head, "I am just visiting so I am not sure how bad the looting gets down here but if this is not looters it may well be armed robbery with those gun shots!"

The gunshots come from where the subway entrance was and the National Guardsmen. Farther down from the food court is a set of stairs that leads up to a second floor of seating and an entrance facing ground level. There is also a stairway leading down marked ‘Parking Levels’

I hit the stairs leading down, up is not generally the best way to exit a building. I head there in a zig zag pattern in case the gunfire erupts in this area before I get out of it.

As Dennis moves toward the stairs going to the parking garage, Nick slowly follows.
"You have your car there?"

"No car there but I know if there is a garage, there is another way out down there".

Both engineering and combat share some basic rules. One if them is that when something changes, gather all the data you can before assuming and proceeding.

Brian quick-steps up up up to get to the big window and have a quick look-see at the top out onto the ground before making his next move.

Brian sees a set of doors leading out. They seem to have been locked, and there is a big “CLOSED” sign hung on them. Outside is a Washington street, four lanes wide with tall buildings on the far side. There seems to be a .... brawl? Going on on a nearby street corner. A half dozen people lash at each other. Brian sees one rear his head back and bite another on the neck, ripping a sizable chunk out of the other man’s flesh

'Whoa! Must be some kind of riot against the oppressive government temperature-takers!' Brian thinks as chaos embodies itself in a microcosm.

'I better get out of here, and in a way that is not that!' he thinks in a characteristically Whedon-esque manner.

He thinks he saw that Dennis guy head down, and that seems like the smart play now.
He double-steps it down down down heading for the parking garage.

'Probably no dice on getting a johnny-cab' he thinks, substitution his pet name for the auto-cabs with a Schwarzenegger-influenced movie name. 'I'll hafta to hoof it away from the riot until the natives get calmer. Maybe I can grab a coffee in a local bistro until things calm down. Then I can text my supervisor and tell him DC is OFF this list of jobs because dey be cray-cray.'

Looking left and right Nick keeps his hand close to his backpack. The pistol he had "found" was burning in it, but... he felt safer with it.
"What do you see?" he asked the huge biker.

Dennis makes it down to the first level. There is a line of Automus cars parked here on their charging platforms, about 60% are missing, presumably taken by commuters. A collection of security vehicles are parked here as well: Three SUVs and two small trucks. There are stairs down to another level, with a sign saying “Private vehicle parking”. Dennis heats a thumping coming from one of the parked security SUVs, but he can’t see what is causing it. The windows have cop tint on them.

Brian and Dom make it down the stairs and see the suit guy looking at a parked SUV. It makes a thumping sound, like something is inside

"Well, we can grab an Automus and head to the airport. I hate the damned things and I'm not stealing a security SUV as there are cameras everywhere down here I bet. I don't need a criminal record.

I think this is where we part ways. I'm going to Reagan and you to Dulles".

When Brian appears down the stairwell I nod to him, "Where are you headed? There are enough of these self driving cars for each of us".

Brian double-times down the stairs and sees that he's caught up with the bros he met earlier.

"Oh hey, what up do'," he says in greeting, the odd phrase rolling off his tongue, obviously the way he greets familiars.

"Nah, this whole thing is lookin' to fubar my plans. I gotta get somewhere I can have clear reception and some quiet so I can tell my employer that apparently DC is having a riot and see what they think.

Uh, I saw some kind of a gang fight outside? Like, there were about a dozen people in some mad scrum, and one guy gotten biten on the neck? Now that's just wrong. Sock a guy in the mouth or the cholas, yeah, of course, but biting is out, and on the neck is out. I thought Chicago had bad manners but you guys...."

He trails off as he sees the odd scene unfold at the security SUV. "Um, how long has that been going on? What is he staring at? Do your cops normally just look at their cars when they've obviously got someone -not- under control and in cuffs?"

His eternal curiosity having overridden all other brain functions, he wanders up to the suit guy. "Hello, sir. Might I ask what manner of criminal you have in there?"

He'd elaborate on WHY IS SOMEONE BANGING ALL HELL ON THE INSIDE OF YOUR CAR AND YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT!??!?!? but the situation seems to speak for itself.

"Hey, don't look at me, I didn't put him in there and I'm not letting him out either. That is not my SUV.

Well, it's been real but I am getting out of here". I approach one of the Automus cars. If I can't get one open, I'll just walk on out...

DM, is there are over-ride for the self-driving cars?

Nick looks at the van points."It could be a child, or a dog. We should recsue it! Or will I be shot for breaking a car in this country?"
He asks in his thick german accent, really unsure for a moment.

"From the shake of the vehicle it looks like a big pissed off guy and he's in a security vehicle. I believe in guilty till proven innocent but I'm not going to spring someone who is being held and is in a frenzy. No you won't be shot but you might end up right next to him if you get caught".

"Hey, don't look at me, I didn't put him in there and I'm not letting him out either. That is not my SUV.

I just want to liberate myself from this situation, if the cops locked him up, he can sort it out himself.

Biting people? Geez, I remember hearing those stories even back in 2020. I guess when you can't fight you bite.

Well, it's been real but I am getting out of here". I approach one of the Automus cars. If I can't get one open, I'll just walk on out...

DM, is there are over-ride for the self-driving cars?

There is a terminal where you can swipe a credit card and unlock one. It can be reparked at any other terminal, or you can get out and it reparks itself (although you still get charged for however long the parking trip takes). These cars are solely AI driven: There is a manual drive function, but only an Automus employee with the proper key can engage it

Dennis takes out a card and taps the terminal. Typing in his needs, there is a *Chime* and a bland Siri voice speaks out

“Thank you for choosing Automus for your transportation needs. Car number 26 is now synced to your iGlass. Have a pleasant trip!”

The small vehicle parked under a 26 plaque chirps and flashes its headlights briefly

How many people could squeeze in?

Eloise wanders around the Pharmacy, but all of the things that she might need have already been taken. Upon hearing the gunfire, she glances over at Chelsea. Chelsea had the same idea and motions her head towards the door. They both walk back out towards the food court and notice some of the other patrons moving towards the ground level. They follow, not wanting to head back towards the checkpoint and the gunfire.
Coming out onto the street, they look at the different cars available. Gazing longingly at the nicer security cars, they head towards the Automus cars, apparently having the same idea as the other people from the food court.

How many people could squeeze in?

It’s a four-seater, with options to rotate the seats to a conference style or the traditional car seat pattern.

Brian and Dom make it down the stairs and see the suit guy looking at a parked SUV. It makes a thumping sound, like something is inside

Wait, who's the suit guy? I assumed there was a cop by it keeping guard?

Dennis is the suit guy. Guy in a suit. You have yet to be introduced.

Flash the cars are in an underground parking level. I’m going to adjust your actions

Eloise and Chelsea head down the stairs. They see a few of the other people from the food court already there. A man in a business suit is procuring an Automus from the line of AI cars. There two other men watching him. Eloise suddenly heard a loud *THUMP* from one of the parked security SUVs nearby. It sounds like a large dog might be trapped inside. Chelsea looks over at Eloise

“I’m gong to check out that SUV. Someone might have left a guard dog in there!”

Chelsea walks over to the SUV, drawing out a small pistol from an ankle holster. She approaches the driver side door , pulls the latch and steps back, gun at the ready. The door rings open wide, and a man vaults out of the SUV. He looks crazed, his mouth covered in foam and specks of blood. His fingers are bloody, the ends raw. He is dressed in a security guard uniform, with a baton and pistol holstered on a wide utility belt along with what looks to be an old-fashioned walkie-talkie and a MagLite. Chelsea screams and her gun goes off once before the man plows into her, howling gibberish. They both hit the concrete floor in a tangle of limbs

I'd like to attack. Can I just roll or do you want to do initiative?

"See this is why I don't open random doors that aren't mine".

Nick will, if it is his turn, draw his spade and bash the flat side of it against the attacker.

You may attack. The security guard and the woman are in a tangled mess on the floor. The guard seems completely focused on the woman

Dom: Now you get to roll your Fighting die, and then also a d6, called the Wild Die. Also, a shovel weighs 5, and so does a heavy club, so maybe go with Str + d6 for damage? Also! For every -other- attacker, past the first one, locked in melee combat, there is something called a Gang Up bonus, wherein -everyone- in combat adds +1 to their fighting die, for each other combatant. Hence, with three people beating on the foaming attacker, we all get +2 to our fighting roll.

Seeing ze german rush into fisticuffs, Brian is likewise moved to action.

All but unthinking, he reaches across to his shoulder and grabs his multitool, quickly flipping it open to a high-grade knife.

"Get off her!" he yells, running and stabbing at the drug-ranged felon.

Fighting!: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8
WILD Fighting!: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Fighting Damage!: 1d4 + 1d4 ⇒ (3) + (3) = 6
If an 8 is a RAISE over his PARRY:: 1d6 ⇒ 2

My eyes open wide in shock as the two fellows he came downstairs with start attacking the security guards with weapons. I don't just want to drive off but I don't want to be involved in something not my problem either.

I look around for security cameras shaking my head at how sideways this day has turned.

Ahhh cool sorry I must have misread their actions, I thought they'd gone to the street and the cars were there.

Eloise looks stunned as the crazed man jumps out of the car and attacks Chelsea. She debates pulling out her gun or machete, but figuring that the gun would be too hard to aim into the scuffle, she draws her machete from it's pouch and steps forward to attack the man. Apparently she isn't the only one who had this idea as she sees two of the other men step forward as well.

Atlas, I believe drawing your weapon and then attacking incurs a -2 penalty to your roll for multi-actions (p.66)
Attack with Machete: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 (d8+3-2)
WILD: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
So I belive that means I take the 7

Damage: 1d4 + 1d6 ⇒ (2) + (3) = 5
RAISE Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

With a smack Nick smashes his shovel into the leg of the security guard.
Usually he would use a submission hold, but touch a bleeding person was a no go!
Fighting: 1d8 ⇒ 2
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 55+2-2=5
Shovel: 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (4) + (6) = 10
Exploding: 1d6 ⇒ 6
Exploding: 1d6 ⇒ 2=14 damage

Flash is right. Drawing a weapon gives a -2. Good catch

The three descend on the security guard. They all hit, Dom’s shovel cuts almost cleanly through the man’s thigh. A gout of blood sprays out as his femoral artery is severed. The man’s movement slows and he groans and collapses

The Security guard had just a 2 parry, so if I am reading the rules correctly, you all hit and dealt a massive amount of damage

Chelsea starts screaming

“Get him off me! GET HIM OFF ME!”

Alphonso

"Great. Now I am a witness to a murder. Albeit one that could be considered a defensible one".

"Normally, I would say we should call the police about this but there is an active shooter upstairs. I think it is time to go and when the authorities track us down, we can claim that the security guard attacked her.

If you want to go, let's get in the Automus. This garage is not a 'safe space'".

"He -did- attack her! All she did was open the door," Brian shoots back at Dennis as he rushes forward. Still unsure of what he just saw here, he pushes the would-be rapist off the woman and helps her up. While doing that he introduces himself. "Howdy ma'am. My name's Brian. It's okay now. Hey, that's a nice machete you have there," he says to her friend. "You get that at Big Lots?

I think the cops are gonna be a bit overwhelmed."

"He was clearly locked in there for a reason as he was raving like a lunatic. Who opens a door with someone thrashing in a vehicle like a lunatic? It's a job for the authorities not Johnny citizen cause we don't live in a forgiving society anymore. Carrot and stick and a hell of a lot more stick than carrot. Been terrible for 30 years and even worse the last 10.

He's bleeding out so fast no way we can get an ambulance here in time to even save him, assuming we want to. If we want to, I'd better make that call right now".

He wasn't thrashing. All you had heard was an occasional thump. With the cop tint it was impossible to see who or what was inside

The woman takes Brian's hand. She looks shaken, but not particularly harmed, no cuts or blood. She wipes some of the guard's saliva off her face grimacing

"Thank you! That will teach me to be impulsive"

She blushes

"I'm a big animal advocate. I immediately assumed it was a dog trapped inside. I mean, a human would just let themselves out, right?"

A tall, well built good looking weathered man comes around the corner from a side hall marked exit his eyes darting back and forth to the group attacking the security guard and he says listen I don't care what your doing but finish doing it because people are going crazy. If you get me out of here I can get you to a spot no one goes with plenty of farmland and food. By the way that fella has got a gun and he ain't using it.

Brian feels a calming warmth flow through him at the woman's touch as little butterflies float in his stomach. 'Down boy, we don't have time just now.'

'Yeah. They guy must've been tripping balls on something. Maybe he got the party started just before they called him in for overtime and the drugs kicked in hard? Anyway, yeah, happy I could help!"

Then the...odd...newcomer came in and started. What? Taking charge? He just wanted a breather and time to call his employer to make new travel plans.

The thing was...Brian liked things. This one time he napped a whole 30-round clip of 5.56 rounds while on a training exercise. Illegal AF but it was cool.

Seeing as the cops were too busy to even watch a doped-up PCP fiend, it didn't seem like anyone was like to stop him now.

"Well, you make a fair point, sir." Brian says, needing little urging.

He leans down and, with the quick fingers of one familiar with the kinds of belts sec-guards wear, flips off the guy's belt and drops it in a quick-access flap on his engineer bag on his back.

Except the radio. That he flips on so he can stay abreast of events.

"Apologies, Dennis, I don't think the Automus is a good play right now. Back home, the first thing the crazies do is block up the highways. You've got a nutso gang fight, some preppers taking insult at the gov'ment, and, apparently, your security force likes doing drugs while on patrol.

Fast travel ain't in the cards, chummer."

He turns to the newcomer. "I don't know about holing up like some kind apocalypse scenario. I just need to get clear of this nuts-ness and call my people. But it looks like you prob'ly know the way -out- better than me, so I'll go as far until things stop being like a Jerry Brockhimer movie."

He turns back to the others, especially Chelsea, and gives them a lop-sided smile. "Care to come with us to safety?"

bump?

I’m just waiting a bit to see if anyone else wants to chime in. If I don’t hear anything I’ll push this along in the next day or so

Eloise stares down at the man they all just killed, then to Chelsea being helped up by Brian. "I... I..." she shakes her head to clear it. "What in the Hell just happened? Are you alright Chels?" She rushes over to her friend and hugs her. She notices the blood on the machete in her hand and pulls away. She looks around, but seeing nothing else handy, she wipes the blood off on the dead man's shirt. While doing so, she spies the belt, and it seems she's not the only one as Brian bends down and casually takes the whole belt off him.
After putting her machete back into it's case, she turns to the others.
"I don't know what happened here, but as he said" she points at Dennis, "we can all agree that that was self defence... or at the least trying to protect my friend, right?"
"I agree that we should get out of here, but I also think that we should call the police to report it. We should call them on the way. They may be busy at the moment, but reporting it now will save us a headache in the future." She cocks her head ever so slightly, the universal sign of someone accessing the phone on their Spex.

Eloise gets the number to the local police and blinks twice to activate it. She feels the familiar fan headphones deploy from her spex, and hears the old-fashioned ringing noise the police call center uses. After three rings an AI picks up, its voice smooth, calm , and soothing as only an algorithm-derived voice pattern picked to calm people can be

I’m sorry, but all lines are currently occupied. The Metropolitan Police Department apologizes for any inconvenience. If this is a real emergency, please disconnect and dial 9-1-1. If you are using smart glasses, a link is on your screen.

Eloise cuts the Siri voice off and blinks up the 9-1-1 link. That just rings. No one picks up for a full minute. No voice mail, no soothing Siri voice

I just came off the streets and I told you people are going crazy up there. I'd rather have us in a car then trying to Huff it by foot. We could grab a couple SUVs and make for the closest side road out. I thought at first I might hop a train for free and ride the top but have you heard any train come or go since getting here? That tells me all I need to know. It's getting bad, fast.

Nick leans down at the person he just helped to kill. It had not been his intention, but the results were the same. Carefully, using the shovel as lever he turns him around and inspects the old wounds.
Medicine: 1d4 + 1d6 + 1d6 - 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (2) + (6) + (6) - 2 + (5) = 17

Nick notices no old wounds, but he does notice that the man was obviously sick. His saliva is excessive and foamy, and there is a dried crust of it running down his shirtfront. His nose is chafed raw, and Nick notices something odd extending from the nasal passages. It almost looks like he has bushy nose hair, but the color is .... yellow. His eyes are likewise coated in a thick layer of dried mucus secretions. Aside from some scrapes and bruises, the man looks like he had no old injuries.

As Nick examines him, flipping him over to check for wounds, the body begins to shiver. Nick is not terribly shocked, corpses exhibit movement for hours, sometimes days after dying. He notices there are items in the man’s trouser pockets, and he has a large old-fashioned wallet in his back pocket as well.

We could grab a couple SUVs and make for the closest side road out....

Something about what the new man had said tingles Brian's curiosity, which, normally a juggernaut that needed little prompting, now had a full head of steam and would make its own road until stopped.

"We might have a perfectly fine one right here...." Brian murmurs, stopping and turning and sticking his head inside the car the dead man had so recently inhabited.

Notice!: 1d6 ⇒ 4
WILD Notice!: 1d6 ⇒ 5