When the Dust Settles

[Korts]

The Only Rule: keep it relatively realistic, or it'll auto-fail.

They've dropped some bombs around here, and they won't be coming back to look for them. You live, for want of a better word, out of sheer luck, insofar as it is luck to be able to breathe dust and grow tumors. The ruins are pretty nice, though. Like in a nifty video game. You can imagine a cool first person shooter among scenery like this; unfortunately, all you have is a brass knuckle against the scavengers.

You are standing in the middle of a street. The road is cracked and chunks of asphalt lie around. There are remains of buildings on the two sides, and a couple crushed cars. There is half a bus on its side on the sidewalk. A door is lying in front of you, a two month old newspaper lying on it.

>_

[Pentadragon]

Walk north.

[wolframnhart]

scrummage around the bus, looking for metal debri to use as a weapon.

[animorpherv1]

read the newspaper

[Cybele]

Weep not for me, for I am dead.

[Vamparific]

*enters one of the buildings and searches fr weapons/food/medicine*

[Korts]

Walk north.

You go into half a building. The ceiling is missing, there's a stairwell going up, and bricks are lying around the remains of walls. There's a collapsed bookshelf by the entrance.

The Frenchman is here, reading a book.

You are slightly hungry.

scrummage around the bus, looking for metal debri to use as a weapon.

You find a small cast iron statue of Mussolini, a doorhinge, and a small fork.

read the newspaper

The headline says "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish". There is a picture of a mushroom cloud on the front page; there's an article about "Fucking Idiots at the Country's Helm", another about "The Army Out Cold", and a third with the title "Wasted".

>Search bus for rations, weapons and anything else useful or removable.

You find a very stale loaf of bread, a handful of armor piercing bullets, and a radio playing "My Funny Valentine," the Miles Davis version. There is also a young woman with her mouth open sitting in one of the front seats.

*enters one of the buildings and searches fr weapons/food/medicine*

You go into the safest looking building; the ceiling is still intact, more or less, and most of the walls are only dusty. Unfortunately, you can see the signs of scavengers having been here already; you don't expect to find anything of particular value.

The door to the kitchen is in front of you, the door to the living room to the left, and two flights of stairs leading upstairs and downstairs on your right. Behind you is the way you came.

[Cybele]

Weep not for me, for I am dead.

[wolframnhart]

i go east

[Cybele]

Weep not for me, for I am dead.

[Pentadragon]

I carefully climb the staircase so I can search the upstairs for anything of use.

[BlakAdder]

Too late to join in? If not, I'd like to
Look through the town for somewhere that is likely to have food.
EDIT: Noticed a minor typo and fixed it.

[animorpherv1]

I leave the bus and go to the nearest grocery store.

[Korts]

I walk up to the woman, and check to see if she's alive or conscious. I do this by following these steps (in order): I take a basic look-over for any obvious signs of death or injuries, I try greeting her and watch for a reaction, I check for a pulse, and check for breathing. As soon as I can ascertain her status, I stop. (don't want to cross any boundaries... )

You approach the woman, and notice that she's not wearing a gasmask. If she's alive, she won't be for long. Upon closer inspection, you see that her mouth is filled with dust (how the heck it got there you don't have any idea) and there's a note in her hand. Also, there's a pretty wide knife wound across her chest, by the way.

"Uh, hi," you say. Surprisingly, she doesn't reply. You check for a pulse, but, alas, to no avail. Neither is she breathing.

I think you stop right about here. No boundaries crossed yet

But she won't be screaming, she's all yours.

i go east

You go along the street, clutching Mussolini, until you reach a square. Three streets meet, from the west (whence you came), from the southeast and from the southwest. There is a molten statue in the middle. You recognize a horse's hindquarters amidst the molten metal.

The Doc is sitting beside the statue, obviously waiting for something.

I carefully climb the staircase so I can search the upstairs for anything of use.

You start ascending. One of the steps almost collapses under you, and several cracks are visible. You're clearly out of your mind, says the Frenchman. There's nothing up there, he adds. Possibly a nice view. He shrugs.

The view is indeed nice, as you sit down on a pile of debris on top of the roof. There is a pack of cigs and a lighter here.

You're still slightly hungry.

Too late to join in? If not, I'd like to
Look through the town for somewhere that is likely to have food.
EDIT: Noticed a minor typo and fixed it.

You look around. You're in the middle of the street. There is half a bus lying on the sidewalk, several crushed cars, and remains of buildings around. You can faintly hear the Miles Davis version of My Funny Valentine. One heck of a trumpet solo. There's no sign of food, but you're not all that hungry anyway.

I leave the bus and go to the nearest grocery store.

You recall a grocery store that had been just around the corner a couple months ago. You head that way.

You reach the storefront. The window is broken, a gasmasked body in an apron is lying on the windowsill with a knife sticking out of its stomach. No service here, apparently.

[animorpherv1]

I steal some food, seeing there is no service.

[Lord Gurgi]

I put on a hat in a hard boiled way.

[Pentadragon]

I stare out at the landscape visible from the pile of debris I am sitting on and try to remember how this whole mess started and what my life was like before it happened.

After that, I take the cigarettes and lighter. I walk carefully down the stairs and offer one to the Frenchman.

[Snix]

I follow the road.

[Cybele]

Weep not for me, for I am dead.

[wolframnhart]

i wait for cybele to reach me, safety in numbers after all

[flashstorm]

Light the newspaper on fire.

[Korts]

I steal some food, seeing there is no service.

You look around, but there's nothing much left other than some rat poison and a handful of tubes of toothpaste.

I put on a hat in a hard boiled way.

You search around for a hat, but failing that, you remove and re-don your gasmask in as hard boiled a way as you can think of. You say "sweetheart" and "toots" a couple of times just to be on the safe side.

I stare out at the landscape visible from the pile of debris I am sitting on and try to remember how this whole mess started and what my life was like before it happened.

After that, I take the cigarettes and lighter. I walk carefully down the stairs and offer one to the Frenchman.

You sigh. The landscape looks like some thick fog has settled on the city; the taller ruins poke out of the milky surface of the settling dust, and the weak light of the afternoon sun pierces the grey clouds. You go back in your memories.

You remember watching the television when the first bombs fell. You had been sitting in the waiting room to a dentist, you had just been administered anaesthetics. The ground had shaken suddenly. You had thought you were hallucinating, and you tried to force your mind to stop imagining the ground shaking, in reply to which the window blew open and a thick smoke billowed in. You could hear general commotion outside, and shrieks of shock. Strange, you thought, that people don't recognize that you're just imagining all this. Then you thought, strange, why is it happening to others when you're the one imagining? Then the dentist grabbed you by the arm, shouting something, and dragged you down a flight of stairs. You remember seeing shelves of supplies: conserved food, gallons of water, matches, gas lights. And then you passed out.

You take the cigs and lighter, and go back down. You offer the Frenchman one. He says, they're mine anyway. You can have it all, but the lighter's spent, so good luck with that, he adds.

You wish you had something to eat.

I follow the road.

You follow the road, and some shadows seem to follow you. Further down there's a crater in the middle of the street, surrounded by some half-rotten bodies.

I read the note. Following that, I put the loaf of bread in one pocket, the ammo in another, and follow wolfram east.

The note says, "beware of the shoulderpads". You take the note and put it in your pocket along with the loaf of bread and the ammo, and then you join wolframnhart.

i wait for cybele to reach me, safety in numbers after all

You watch as Cybele climbs out of the bus, and slowly catches up with you. At least it's two against the world, now.

Light the newspaper on fire.

With what? You search for a lighter or a match in your pockets, but you don't find anything. You stand helplessly for a while.

[Cybele]

Weep not for me, for I am dead.

[wolframnhart]

I approach the Doc with Cybele, as she talks to him i look around the area for any more supplies and/or useful items/information.

[animorpherv1]

I morph into a bird, and fly around the city for a while, and look for a way out, or another survivor that looks firendly.