As in my earlier actual play reports, small green text indicates out of character talk, mechanics and other game aspects outside of the fiction.
Our main characters are:
- Gator (the Gunlugger) is an assassin and part-time bodyguard who wears customized scrounged armor made from Kevlar and ceramic inserts. Camouflaged for the jungle, his face was ruined in a fight with an alligator. His eyes are always sizing things up and his brutal life has left his body a hard sheet of muscle. He runs a a gang of mercenaries and is recovering from being blown up.
- Jarhead (the Savvyhead) is a thin African-American man with a short goatee, long dreads, and clothes covered in pockets and gear. Travelling around in an old news van, he repairs items for a living. He is investigating a device that can bend space and time. He has also obtained employees in the form of a young woman Allison and her brother Waters as well as a little girl named Memo.
- November Orleans (the Skinner) is descended from a family which left New Orleans before it sank. She is a beautiful woman of mixed heritage with dark eyes and skin, a sweet face and lush body. She dresses herself in a mix of scavenged clothing that somehow works together and wears a necklace made from rows of antique coins which jingle and shine as she moves. Her main profession is as a dancer, especially belly dancing, but she has a sideline business in cooking and animal training.
- Violet Jefferson (the Touchstone) is descended by survivalists and her clothing and gear reflects her origins. Plain looking but fit, she carries a pocket copy of the Federalist papers and founding documents of the United States of America, an idea she hopes to revive. Her followers are demanding her help putting on a mission to liberate Miami from a tyrant.
"So they will be decent people," November says.
"I think it’s a stretch for them to be considered decent people," I reply.
"For Apocalypse World, they would be decent."
An attack on the foundry left Jarhead a bit bashed up. Others are still wounded from the flight from the Autodoc. The current tally is Violet at 3 o'clock (1-harm), Gator and Jarhead at 6 o'clock (2-harm) and November fully healed.
Start of Session
We begin with highlighting:- Violet has Sharp (by November) and Hard highlighted.
- Jarhead gets Weird (by November as well) and Hot highlighted.
- November's highlighted stats are Hot (by Gator) and Weird.
- Finally Gator highlights Cool (by November) and Sharp.
Violet does well on her Fortunes roll with a 10. She gain 2-barter and +insight.
"Definitely good to catch a break," she says.
Taking the Autodoc
Allison and Waters move cinder blocks into place, slowly rebuilding the wall next to the foundry entrance. Jarhead does some last-minute work by the van, constructing a jack for raising a truck, the first step in building a working garage."I sure hope the people in the Autodoc are okay," Violet says a short distance away.
Shadow nods, hefting his spear as he throws his satchel across one shoulder. Krin walks up.“Yeah we need to take a look at that," the blood stained technician say. "I hope it's not another East Wing situation.”
”We all hope not,” she says leading the pair down the tunnel. They emerge outside the Music Bowl where Garber waits in Boo's yellow SUV.
"Is November coming?" I ask.
"Has anyone asked me?" she replies.
"I would," Violet says.
They find Gator directing his gang to press on without him. "Head out on foot."
“Alright we’ll cut across and meet you over there,” Morgana says, leading the armed mercenaries into the ruins.
The group loads up the truck, preparing for their expedition. Jarhead hobbles over and throws his gear in the back. As he climbs in, he finds Memo sitting in the back seat.
“Memo, go back to the foundry,” he says sternly.
“But they’ve put a hole in the wall,” she says cringing. ”It’s not safe here.”
“Well maybe you can go make it safe.”
“What if they run another car through the wall?” she says, her dark hair falling in front of her face.
“How do you think you can stop them from running another car through the wall?” he asks. “You are a clever girl, I bet you could rig it that spikes shoot out of the floor and stop the tires.”
“I guess we could do that,” she says, one liquid eye looking up at him.
“Doesn’t that sound like fun?” he asks.
I have him roll manipulate a person. He gets a 9 and marks experience.
“I guess. But what if we have to get out of there?” she counters.
“You’ve got the van. Tell the others I won’t deduct it from their...food I guess.”
”So you are leaving the keys with them?” I ask.
”I’m pretty sure they can hotwire it,” he tells me. “It saves me the trouble of fixing the damage afterwards. Plus if they steal my van they know I’ll come after them. It wouldn’t be good. Also I’m the only one trying to help Waters at all.”
Memo nods haltingly and slips out of the truck.
We jump to mid morning as they approach the Autodoc.
November looks out the window as the yellow SUV rumbles along the sunken streets of Miami. The sun glares from overhead, momentarily eclipsed by aged palm trees or the occasional corpse strewn lamp-post.
As Garber weaves past another wreck, another lamp-post blots out the sun. Something metallic hangs below the desiccated remains. November narrows her eyes. A metal basket, bent in the shape of a sphere, rocks back and forth. Something dark hangs within it.
"Stop," Violet calls, pointing ahead at another basket. Garber brings the truck to a sudden halt. The survivalist gets out and cautiously approaches the nearest one.
Violet read a sitch and gets a 11. She also marks experience. "What should I be on the lookout for?" she asks.
Gator climbs on top of the truck and scans the ruins for anything that moves. Meanwhile Violet gets beneath one of the baskets. The sunlight reflects off a glass jar inside, the rays bent by a yellowish liquid inside it. Squinting she makes out a fungal stalk floating within, wires connecting it to some electronics.
"Are there any wires?!” November calls out.
Violet looks but the basket seems welded shut. “It doesn't look like a trap.”
She calls out what she sees.
“That peaks my curiosity,” Jarhead says, getting out of the truck. He joins Violet and scrutinizes the device.
Jarhead open his brain and gets a 9. He also marks experience and advances. He chooses Life Support which he will narratively get at the Autodoc. (His choice.)
His mind latches onto the Faraday cage around the fungus and peculiar arrangement of wires. The way it hangs there, it would make a good surveillance device.
Jarhead steps back suddenly, looking around for whoever is watching. “Everyone back away from those, we are not going near any of that. I think they might be able to pop them.”
“They?” November asks.
"Whoever put them up. There’s always a they."
"I can think of a few possibilities," Violet says, backing off. “Let’s not go near those.”
Gator calls out to the pair. Jarhead relays their findings. “Sounds like a surveillance system,” the assassin comments.
“But it’s the fungus that gets me, why have it?” the inventor says returning to the SUV. “Maybe it’s a deterrent system.”
“Think about it,” Gator says. “We are dealing with people who use spores. Maybe they are using the fungus to communicate.”
November looks up. “We thought White was using the climbers but maybe this fungus has some sort of powers.”
“Sentient fungus,” Jarhead says with a chill.
“Maybe it’s a transmitter into the psychic maelstrom,” the mercenary says, getting off the truck.
“If it has a mind maybe we can negotiate with it,” the dancer adds. “I think it’s a good thing.”
“If you say so...” Jarhead says getting back in.
I then ask my psychic maelstrom question. “What would make you stick around a lot of people? Like the Music Bowl?”
Jarhead says a working space and safe working conditions. “All of a sudden I’ve got employees and people who want me to do things. It’s a weird feeling. And it’s not boring yet. Once it gets uninteresting I’m done.”
”We just got to keep you doing interesting things,” Violet comments.
I add, “and at the end of it you get him to build a device to do what he does and not complain and that’s it.”
”Jerk,” Jarhead says.
”Sounds good to me,” Violet says with a smile.
“Okay, let’s not poke the fungus,” Krin says. “Let’s get to the Autodoc and deal with the potentially homicidal computer.” He frowns. “That sounded better in my head.”
The gang drives on.
They arrive in front of the Autodoc in the late morning. A low mist surrounds the structure while red lights continue to flash from inside.
We pause for dinner. As I get things prepared, the others discuss house hunting.
Gator decides it is too quiet. He rolls reads a sitch and gets a 5. He marks experience.
Gator steps out. He glances about the still scene, searching for danger. His eyes seize on a pair of metal poles stuck into the ground to either side of the main entrance. As he puzzles over their significance, Violet gasps.
A red dot appears on Gator’s armor. Without thinking she rushes forward throwing him to the ground.
Violet acts under fire and gets a 11.
A shot rings out, striking where Gator was a moment before.
November ducks for cover in the SUV, huddling with Shadow and Garber. Krin jumps behind the SUV, keeping low to the ground.
Jarhead gets out and rolls read a sitch. He gets a 6.
November opens her brain and gets a 7. She marks experience.
I ask her, “About your family that you ‘abandoned’?”
”They knew, they understand,” she corrects me. “We are free gypsy-like people.”
”So who are you closest to?”
”I was closest to my Grandma. She was more of a stabilizing influence.”
”Was she still alive when you left?” I ask.
”Yes.”
November reaches out with her mind. As the gun shot fades, she picks up the odor of swamp water, decay, and something like ozone. Peeking through the truck’s grimy windows, she spots four more of the strange basket arrayed around the hospital. She feels hunted, watched. A sense of yellow eyes, barely human, floats in her mind.
On the other side of the truck Jarhead gets out, hoping to use it for cover. Instead he finds four armed men approaching from ruins. As they raise rifles to him, he shouts and rolls under the SUV.
Jarhead acts under fire to escape. Since he is spooky intense, he rolls weird and get a 7. He marks experience.
Two shots crash into the truck above him followed by a strange popping noise. As he rolls to safety, he feels a pain in his leg and finds a six-inch dart imbedded in it.
“Shit, shit,” he shouts, pulling it from his flesh and sticking it in a bag.
”There could be anything in that dart,” he explains.
Gator rolls to his feet, focused on a shattered window on the second floor. He fires once with his MP5. As a crack and curse come from the gaping hole, he rushes over the wide space in mere moments, clambering up a ruined ambulance and up into the room.
We have a battle.
Gator rolls Indomitable and gets a 12. Violet rolls as well and gets an 8. She also marks experience. Gator chooses to use two of his hold to cross the distance to his foe and kill/disable/ or maim him.
He finds the sniper wrestling with a broken rifle. The lanky warrior drops the broken gun and pulls a knife. Gator snorts at his crude armor of recycled tires and ridiculous combat stance.
Gator goes aggro but rolls a 6.
“Get down on the floor, hands behind your head!” Gator shouts as he trains his MP5 on him.
I'm stumped for a moment for a negative consequence.
As the man glances from the gun to his knife, the PA system turns on. "Contaminant detected," a female voice announces. "In. Section. B. Deploying. Surgeons.”
Back on the hospital side of the SUV, November steps out and begins to slowly and sensually to remove her clothing. She can feel those intense eyes focused on her, frozen by the beauty of her motions.
Another use of arresting skinner. She exempts her friends.
Violet meanwhile twists behind the SUV and pulls her rifle. Spotting the approaching band of men, she takes careful aim.
The four warriors pick their way through a tumble of bricks that was a convenience store. As one reloads his dart gun, the other three train their rifles on the yellow truck. Violet recognizes the lead figure, Fuse.
He reaches for the grenade launcher duct taped to the barrel of his gun. He shouts to the others, "Get him."
I use up my hold from my custom move: when you enter a new settlement. Fuse is from the Big Ship. He hates her preaching about democracy. In fact they all look like they are from Big Ship.
Violet uses her Indomitable hold to maim/disable/disarm him.
Violet fires once. Fuse grunts. He looks down to a growing red stain on his stomach. He stumbles backward, letting the rifle swing loose. He grimaces in pain and slumps against a tilted lamp posts, sliding slowly to the ground.
"He's probably going to die and it's probably going to take a long time."
The other three immediately return fire. Violet swings back behind the SUV. She pops back out a moment later firing back in quick succession.
Violet realizes she gained an advancement and takes +1 Cool.
She then seizes by force, she gets a 11 and marks experience. She chooses to suffer little harm, dismay her foes, and inflict terrible harm.
I am momentarily distracted by November's sheet. Her hot stat has light beams emanating from it. Since she is Radiant.
Garber blasts away with his shotgun and soon the pair leave two attackers in pools of blood with the third fleeing into the ruins.
Violet suffers 2-harm from the rifles +1 since they are a small gang -1 for little harm. She uses her second hold from Indomitable to negate it. She inflicts 2-harm for her rifle +1 for terrible harm -1 since they are a small gang. Since their leader is down and they are scared, they flee.
Jarhead scrambles from under the truck. He point to the man fleeing with a tranquilizer gun. “After that guy! I need him!”
Back at the hospital Gator leaves the man to his fate. He jumps from the window, landing on the ambulance with a crash. As glass splinters out of the one remaining window, he takes in the scene. Three men down and a fourth fleeing. He squints as the runner, recognizing Jarhead. "Typical." He then looks lower at November stripping. As the screams and sounds of electric blade echo from inside, Gator sits down and enjoys the show.
Violet meanwhile clambers a top the SUV and draws a bead on the vanishing figure beyond Jarhead. She fires and he falls forward.
Violet rolls go aggro and gets a 11. She also marks experience.
Jarhead cries out in shock. He jogs over and tries to slow his breathing. He finds the man dead, blood spilling from his head. He quickly grabs the dart gun and the three unused darts.
Rushing back, he asks the dying man on the ground, “I can help you, but what in these?”
Jarhead rolls manipulate a person on Fuse. He gets a 13 and marks experience. Thanks to November’s Radiant move this makes Fuse an ally.
”For as long as he lives,” I comment.
”Hey we are at the Autodoc,” November says.
Fuse coughs up some blood. “Fuck it, they weren’t paying enough anyway.”
“Damn right they weren’t. So what the hell is in this anyway?”
“I don’t know for sure. I know Winona wanted us to shoot anybody we thought was interesting with it. She said it would give her leverage.”
“I know I’m really interesting but damn it,” Jarhead mutters. “Wait! Who?”
Violet pipes in. “She’s one of White’s. She’s a technomystic. She accesses the psychic maelstrom with tech.”
“Oh,” he says with dawning realization. He looks down at the dart and the glittering solution within it.
Jarhead rolls things speak and gets a 11. He also marks experience.
I assure him it will not give him the climbers.
First he asks, “what has been done most recently to this substance?” He follows up with “What is wrong with this and how can I might fix it?“ and ends with “Who made this?”
The device seems to hum on a mental level, flickering with the feel of someone else’s mind. It seems custom-made, not an artifact of the Golden Age. They have a hold on me, he thinks, a way into me, leverage to inflict pain.
I tell him he will either need to wait it out or get dialysis. They are basically implant syringes for brainer tech.
Lastly Jarhead chooses Fuse to be a guardian (for his ally type).
Jarhead looks back at Violet. “What do you know about this guy?” he says pointing at Fuse.
“He’s kind of a jerk,” she says stowing her weapon.
“Is he a jackass or bully? Or he swarmy?”
“Jackass,” she says heading back to the truck.
Jarhead turns to the bleeding man. “I’ll save you if you protect me.”
“Okay,” Fuse grunts. “Hope you get back soon.”
Meanwhile, November finishes her show and reaches out with her mind to whoever is watching her. She feels the inhuman yellow eyes searching her intensely. The presence is near, emanating from the basket things, somewhere within the hospital.
She rolls open her brain and get soft hit.
I ask, “the circus you ran away with, did it have a name?”
”The midnight carnival.”
Then she asks, “since I have that connection now can I reverse Lost and go to them?”
”Not by the rules but I like the idea.”
November reaches out to those eyes. The echoes of the recent gun shots fade away. The sun blazes down on her. The heat surrounds her, burning around her head. A chill rushes up her spines as a whispering of voices surround her.
“We can show you the way,” they say rising to audibility, “if you do us a service. Listen to our offer this evening. That is what we ask.”
November nods and starts to pull her clothes back on. Across the lot, Gator gets up, his lip turned into a slight frown. The screams above him grow distant and stop. The mercenary climbs down and joins the others as they regroup.
Jarhead comments on the sniper, “sucks to be him.”
Gator rounds the SUV and finds the dying man clutching his gut wound. “That sucks,” he tells him coldly.
“Push here,” Jarhead tells him more helpfully.
As Fuse grips his wound, Gator tells the others, “the Autodoc is still trying to kill people.”
“I can hear that,” Violet says. “I think the best thing for us to go shut it down.”
November rounds the vehicle, donning the last of her clothes. “I established a connection to whoever hung those basket things. I think I can lead us to them.”
“You can do that?” Jarhead says looking up. “That’s pretty cool.”
“Yeah thanks.” she says. She blinks as a mental map appears in her mind. “I think they are this way.”
“If you know the way,” Gator says.
Violet interjects.”We should leave someone outside to keep watch.”
“My team should be here soon,” the mercenary says, as he busies himself gathering the gear of the fallen.
Gator says, “we killed people, did they drop weapons and stuff?”
”And gold pieces,” I inform him, “but you don’t know what to do with that stuff.”
Violet nods and scouts the perimeter. She finds the loading bay sealed up and a hole in West Wing. From the spray of brick, it looks like a grenade blew it open from the inside.
A few hours later Gator’s team arrives. The assassin instructs them on their task. “We are going in, keep a perimeter.”
“We’ll keep an eye on it,” Morgana says, her eyes scanning the landscape.
With that November leads the rest of them into the hole in the West Wing. They find a stripped out bunk room and the Militia’s old base of operations. Everything of worth is gone. November continues down the hall and up a staircase. Once they reach the second floor, she takes them down hall and down another set of stairs. It’s then that they hit a sealed security door.
“I think it’s behind here,” she says, pointing ahead.
Gator spots a keypad on the right side of the doorway. “Anybody knows the code?”
Krin steps forward. “I think so.” The technician punches in a set of 4 numbers.
A red light glows.
“It was the code,” he says.
“Can I try?” Jarhead says, pushing him out of the way.
Jarhead rolls things speak on it and gets a 11. He marks experience and asks “what is wrong with this and how might I fix it?”
The technician looks over the panel. 4 digits, 10000 possibilities. That could take forever. He feels around the box, finding the seams. Then he glances up. A security camera swivels to watch them.
The best way would be to move Gator behind you, pop open the panel and hack through. This way the computer can’t see you.
“Hey Gator can you stand right...here?” Jarhead says positioning the large warrior. “Cool. Thanks. Don’t move otherwise we all die.”
Garber mutters, “I wonder if my dad’s okay.”
“I hope so,” Violet says.
Something thumps against the other side of door. Gator pulls his sidearm.
“Okay ready to open it,” Jarhead says, pulling on some wires.
“Go,” Gator says.
Jarhead triggers it and dodges out of way. As the doors slide open, two nurses push through the growing gap.
“We gotta get out,” one shouts. “Pilot, we can get out!”
The pair collapse in front of the group. “We got stuck inside,” they babble. “What took you so long?”
“What’s going on in there?” Gator asks. “Is the machine in charge?”
“I don’t know anymore,” the younger nurse says. “It had us in lockdown to do decontamination. We were all sticking together real close. We didn’t want to get separated. You never know what’s going to happen. Then things got weird. The lights started flickering and others said they saw strangers in the hospital. Then people started disappearing.”
“How many are left?” he asks training his weapon on the hallway beyond.
The gray-haired nurse answers, “we left to look for our friend Rice but most of the survivors are down in the cafeteria. There are ten of us down there.”
”How did you escape?” Jarhead asks.
“We just did!” the younger woman exclaims. “The computer finished decontaminating us after six days and then five days ago the strange stuff started.”
At this point we paused for my birthday cake that my wife made. The other players had to enjoy just the display for G+ cake. Also ponies.
Gator also reads a person, he gets a 12 and marks experience.
Jarhead relaxes, reading the fear and relief in their eyes. There’s nothing hidden here.
“What do want us to do?” Gator asks them.
“You need to get the others out,” she says. “They are healthy. You need to get them out before something happens to them.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“We just want to get out of here,” the other nurse answers.
“Can you tell us where to find the computer?” the mercenary says.
“I know where it is,” Krin says from behind him.
Violet steps forward and quickly tells the nurses how to get out. “Gator’s team should look after you.”
November then resumes leading them deeper into the hospital. As they come to a junction, Gator asks, “don’t we want to deal with the cafeteria?”
“We need to shut this place down first,” Violet says.
“It will be easier to get them out once the AI is down,” November adds.
Minutes later they reach a long white hallway deep in the center of the Autodoc.
Krin points down the corridor to the large white steel doors. “Okay this is pretty close to the mainframe. In fact this is almost as close as I’ve ever been. There is a terminal through that door at the far right and that big door at the end is a security door. It’s got a six digit password. I don’t know it. No one knows it. But the mainframe is behind there. Behind yet another door.”
“So I could either manually hijack it or hack it,” Jarhead says stroking his goatee.
November closes her eyes and references her mental map. She opens them and points to the door on the far left. “Where does that door lead?”
“That’s a closet,” Krin says.
She walks down and pulls it open. There is a click as a trigger is pulled.
”What do you do?” I ask after announcing the click.
”Dive to the side,” she says and rolls acting under fire. She gets a hard hit.
She twists out of the way as a shotgun blast tears through the wall behind her.
“How about you don’t open doors from now on?” Gator says peering at the trip wire rigged to an ornate shotgun.
“Is everyone alright?” November asks pulling the gun free of its mounting.
And changing playbooks and picking up her battlebabe weapon: an ornate armor-piercing shotgun.
“No more doors!” Jarhead says.
The others look into the room and find the shelving torn out of the far right corner. A narrow duct leads through the ceiling and back into the area behind the security door.
“How about I check this one out,” Gator says.
He clambers up and looks inside.
He rolls read a sitch and gets a 12. He marks experience.
”What should I be on the lookout for?”
”Whoever been this way,” I tell him,” is interested in getting to mainframe. If she did then she has compromised the computer and can mobilize the internal security against you.”
”What’s the best way in?”
”The duct is trapped and in the tight confines hard to avoid. You could use the rocket launcher to blow up door.”
Gator drops back down. “Here’s what I’m looking at. There’s going to be something in there and we got to watch out for more surgeons. So I think the best way in right now is the rocket launcher.”
“But the Autodoc could be destroyed,” Jarhead says.
November graciously reads a charged sitch and fails.
The PA system turns on. “Intruders detected! Intruders detected! Dispatching. Surgeons.”
“I think we need to break that door now,” Violet says.
Jarhead ducks into the closet with November. The others pile in as Gator strides into the hall. As a whirring echoes down the corridors, he pulls out his rocket launcher, aims and fires.
Gator rolls acting under fire and gets a 7. He marks experience.
The blast blasts a hole in the security portal and knocks the doors off the opposite side of the revealed chamber. As the smoke clears, Gator looks through the charred chamber into a sterile room filled with pristine white towers.
The computer is still active as is Winona.
Violet rolls to read a charged sitch. She mark's experience and gets a 10.
”What should I be on the lookout for?”
”Winona,” I tell her.
”What’s my enemy’s true position?”
Violet and Jarhead dash into the server room. Violet’s sharp eyes pick out a shadow crouched atop one of the towers. She twists around bringing her gun to bear.
At this point I realize things got too complicated and so I draw a map.
November also reads a sitch and gets a hard hit.
”What’s my enemy’s true position?”
”Coming around the right corner.”
”Which enemy is most vulnerable to me?”
”They are equally vulnerable. These are not combat robots and not armored. There are exposed components and you could do a lot of damage by stabbing in right places.”
”What should I be on the lookout for?”
”Don’t let them drag you away.”
Back at the server room Violet shoots Winona and so does Jarhead.
Violet rolls seize by force and gets a 10. She chooses to suffer little harm, take definite hold, and inflict terrible harm.
So she deals 2-harm for her rifle and Jarhead’s pistol +1 for terrible -1 for Winona’s armor +1 for a small gang (i.e. Jarhead). Winona takes 3-harm and dies.
As Winona jumps down, Jarhead and she fires. The freaky eyed woman tumbles back into the tower, her hand reflexively clutching at a vaguely gun shaped device. As her eyes glaze over, a mental scream rips into their minds.
Winona’s pain wave projector deals 1-harm ap -1 for little harm (+1 for Jarhead only due being tagged earlier). Violet is fine, Jarhead not so much.
As their nerve endings light up, Violet grits her teeth and pushes through the pain. Jarhead screams and grabs his head. He falls to his knees as Violet checks Winona’s vitals.
Assured that her threat is finished, the survivalist turns to helping Jarhead.
Gator uses his last read a sitch hold. “Who is the biggest threat?”
The surgeons.
Outside, November takes cover in a doorway and aims down the hall. Gator drops the empty tube, turns and slowly retreats into the control room, firing at the waves of five foot tall metallic columns sliding towards him.
After some discussion, Gator rolls to Seize by force at +4 for reading a sitch and his +3 hard. November chooses to help and gets a soft hit on her roll. With the extra +1 he gets a 16!! He has this move advanced so he chooses to double down on taking definite hold.
The surgeons have armor-1 but we ignore this since both combatants have ap rounds. They are so dead: 3-harm base +1 for bloodthirsty/merciless +1 terrible harm.
The robots return with 3-harm close (medical saws) -1 for little harm -2 for armor. I let one stab November with a needle as her fallout.
The pair fire with their high-powered weapons, cutting down the machines as they race forward. Only at the very end do the multilimbed surgeons manage to get close. The saw blades spray sparks off of Gator’s armor while another manages to stick a needle in November’s arm before its power cell cuts out.
Gator looks over the devastation, turns and blasts the main power cable in the ceiling. The servers go quiet as the AI shuts down.
Jarhead complains but I point out it is a trivial fix.
Gator walks into the darkened server room. Winona stares blindly up at the ceiling, blood pooling around her cooling body.
As everyone calms down, Violet heads for the cafeteria closely followed by Garber.
“While you help the people I’m going to get some medical equipment,” Jarhead calls after her. He presses a bloody rag to the side of his head and wanders off.
“I don’t trust yellow eyes here,” Gator tells the others. “Let’s drag her out and burn her.”
Krin nods and the pair drag the remains outside. November follows them outside but everything begins to look crooked. She reaches for one of the nurses they rescued.
“Could you look me over?” she slurs. “There was something in that syringe.”
“It could be a sedative,” the older woman says peering into the dancer’s eyes. “I can run some tests.”
“I need you to do that now,” she orders.
Nearby Gator digs in Winona’s pockets. He pulls a tube filled with shiny specks in a liquid and syringe for delivering them. He also pries loose the device she used and grabs her kevlar lined coat.
“All that’s left is Cougar,” Violet says leading out Boo and his son. A few nurses also come out, blinking in the afternoon sunshine.
“Jarhead maybe you could look at this gun thing and these vials,” Gater says as the tinkerer wheels out a cart of medical supplies and machinery. “And take this coat for protection.“
“I’ll take care of this,” he says grabbing the vial and holding it up to the light. “So much work to do. This is amazing.”
Jarhead throws the stuff on the cart and then crouches over Fuse. The pale bandit looks up at his weakly. “We need to stabilize you pronto. Garber can you drive me to the Music Bowl real quick?”
“Sure,” the youth says unevenly.
“Okay, this is what I’m going to do,” Jarhead tells them. “I’m going to take this stuff to analyze and take the med stuff back to the foundry. I’ll deal with Fuse and then I’ll be back to fix the Autodoc.”
Violet nods. “Okay.”
“I guess I can take a look at what we got until then,” Krin says looking up from the kindling for the pyre.
November watches as Jarhead drives off. Her vision blurs and she struggles to stand. Blindly she grabs a nurse. She collapses into her and is gently lowered to the ground. Gator hurries over.
“It seems the hospital sedated her,” the woman tells him. “She’ll be fine in a few hours.”
Violet spends the afternoon surveying the air ducts. The area has been scrubbed clean. As she heads back to the others, she passes a recovery room. Lying in a glass tube is a thin but breathing Joshua.
“No way!” she says pressing a hand up against the window.
Violet rolls to open her brain to see if he is infected. She rolls hard since she knows her enemy and gets an 11. She advances.
I ask, “way, way, way back we established you and Gator fought side by side.”
”Yeah!” Jarhead says.
”You weren’t there,” I tell him. I return to Violet. “Where was that?”
Violet explains she has visiting a couple of cousins in Brunswick, Georgia. They have a distillery. There was some kind of trouble outside the settlement. She was part of the party sent out to fix it. A rival hardholder was invading and her group ended in a tight spot. “But someone from our holding commissioned Gator. He showed up at the nick of time. We fought back to back.
”And sent the Colonel’s forces running,” I add.
”We fought 10 or 20 people on our own,” she adds after Gator corrects an earlier lower estimate.
Her eyes search the weakened man. He breathes easily. No scratches on his skin or feverish movements. Nothing removed except the disease.
“He didn’t even get any brain damage,” I add.
”You sound so disheartened by it,” Jarhead says.
”The virtues of golden age medical skills,” I continue.
“Joshua, you damn lucky son of a bitch,” she mutters.
Later.
November blinks her eyes. A dreary white ceiling beams down at her. As she groggily gets up, she recognizes the white room as one of the recovery chambers at the Autodoc.
Suddenly a chorus of whispers surrounds her. Voices echo the same words imperfectly. “We can help you get what you want November.”
"What’s that?" she mumbles sliding her feet off the bed.
“We can ensure you are never forgotten. That civilization returns.”
"Who are you?" she says standing up.
"We are the gods,” the voices say in synchronicity.
"Following you almost got me a shotgun blast to the face," she says crankily.
“We cannot see everything," they say. "Not yet.”
"So what can you really promise me?" she asks adjusting her clothes. "What can you deliver?"
“You seek knowledge. We possess all that you could want. You want fame. We can ensure all know your name.”
"What do you want?" she asks, her eyes searching the wall reflexively.
"We want you to be our Messenger," they intone.
Jarhead chokes.
"What’s the message?" she asks, settling on the door knob.
“You must lead the people of Willowtree to conduct the sacrifices we need," they whisper.
“Sacrificing doesn’t sound very civilized,” she comments.
"There are many forms of civilization."
“I don’t think our definitions gel too well. What form of sacrifice?"
“The gods require blood,” they say as one.
"Whose blood?"
“We leave that choice to you.”
November frowns slightly. “So you want me to lead them on a massacre. I think people won’t forget my name if I murder a lot of people.”
I'm editing this conversation down because it begins to circle and I’m bad at winning the gods' argument. And my wife (November) is very snarky.
“We want a new order," a voice says. "A new society building on the ruins of what came before," another continues. "One where the worthy are in charge. Those with the proper devotion," a third adds. "We will guide you into building their society. We will provide advice on where to grow crops, how to defeat your enemies, how to rebuild the ruins, restore the wonders of the last age.”
"How will you combat the climbers?" she asks.
"There is no need to worry about the climbers," a voice says.
"You are going to make me immune?"
"Yes if you accept the mantle."
"Are all your people immune?"
"Only those who have taken on the necessary level of responsibility," a chorus responds.
"What about Shadow?" she asks, gathering her gear.
"He has not shown himself to be useful to us."
"If I stop being useful will you withdraw your blessing?"
"Such is the right of the gods," they intone.
"Are you controlling the climbers?"
"We are all one."
"I thought you were going to choose Jarhead as Messenger?"
"So did I," Jarhead says.
"He is not strong enough."
"I do believe someone has been snubbed," Violet says.
"What about White?" she asks with some suspicion.
"White is not to be trusted," two voices speak together.
"Was he the first Messenger?"
"He has attempted contact," they say slowly.
"What makes you think I’m worthy?" she asks.
"We’ve been watching you," a voice says. "Remember that time you got lost in the woods. You called out," another says. "We’ve been watching a long time," a third says, "we’ve been watching everyone for a long time."
November asks me if she accepts does that give them hold over her.
"It gives them access to you."
"What of Violet’s revolution?"
"Democracy, it's been tried," the voice babble. "There are always forces that corrupt it. Men cannot be trusted."
November shares her suspicion that they going to infect everyone with the climbers.
November thinks for a minute before saying, "I will be your Messenger for as long as it serves both our purposes."
She feels a sense of approval as her skin crawls for a moment. Now to learn what they really are up to, she thinks.
New move: immune to the climbers.
Jarhead watches Garber drive off and gets to work. As he approaches the foundry, he notes the fortified door and tire spikes in the hall with a glint of approval.
With Allison's help he gets Fuse stabilized after a few hours.
"That enough for now," he tells her and head to the van to rest.
Before he makes it two steps a barrage of gunfire and shouting is heard from outside.
“Again? Already?!” Jarhead exclaims. He takes the stairs up to the top of the Music Bowl. From the ruined bleachers he sees a dozen vehicles circling the Music Bowl while a loud-speaker blares a high pitch voice.
“Surrender! Throw down your weapons and accept White as your overlord!”
End of session
Time to raise Hx!- Jarhead gives +1 Hx to Violet since he helped her out.
- Violet returns the favor by giving +1 Hx to Jarhead bringing it up to +1.
- Gator grants +1 Hx to November since they both stayed behind at Autodoc. This resets their Hx so he shares a secret. He reveals that the first person he killed was the hardholder of his home. He was supposed to keep Gator’s family safe.
- November gives +1 Hx to Gator.
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