WEEK 1

[biteys]

WEEK ONE

❝Don’t panic. You’re waking up somewhere unfamiliar, but try to relax. You aren’t dead, and I don’t have any intention to harm you. You’ve just been selected for a very special mission. A delivery, I guess. I’d do it myself but… let’s just say I can’t travel in the state I’m in. Take the blue container I’ve left to where I’ve marked on the maps within eight weeks, and you’ll be able to go home happy. More than, really. Any time or place you want to go… I can send you there. It's kinda my thing. Think of it as your payment. Everything else you need to know, I’ll tell you in time. Know that I’m sorry that I had to resort to this, and I’ll pay for my sins in Hell.❞

!

the beginning of the end

That’s what’s playing on repeat on a tape recorder, when the survivors come to.

Characters will find themselves in a humble, American townhouse, which other than being a bit dusty, is still mostly clean. All characters will be sprawled out on the floor and furniture of the living room, in front of what looks to be a giant portal. Characters will also notice they have a seemingly indestructible silver wristband around their wrists, and they have nothing with them but the clothes on their back.

Take a look around, and you'll realize that everyone in the room is likely a stranger. Aside from the tape playing, there's little explanation or proof that what's being said to you is even true. For all you know, one of the people in the room could be responsible for you being suddenly taken here.

Exploring the house's many rooms will reveal that there are small stockpiles food, water, weapons (a few guns, a few bats, a few knives), and maps, along with a large, strange container of blue liquid. The maps all chart a route from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and sport detailed recommended time stamps on them. Strangely, the recommended path occasionally diverges into two separate routes.

Upon searching the house, Haru Okumura finds a set of notes, while Leontuzzo Bellone finds a separate set. They are free to keep these notes to themselves, or share them with the group.

Nothing has anyone's names on it — not the notes, and certainly not the supplies. Everyone will have to compete for the same things. Or maybe all of you can be civilized about this, before anyone goes hoarding weapons and food? Maybe you can even introduce yourselves, while you're at it. For some strange reason, every window and door in this place is locked (and impossible to break), and will be for at least 72 hours, as if someone wanted you all to be cooped up together for a time before heading out.

Most interestingly, in the deepest basement of the house, there's a room with a large, heavy dresser shoved in front of it… and a low moaning and banging emanating from the other side. The door’s slightly ajar, and a closer look reveals a zombie is the source of the sound. Context clues around the basement, like the PhD in interdimensional travel hung up on the wall (for a Dr. Bei), hint that the woman inside is whoever left you this cryptic message - the woman who brought you here, allegedly. But she's long long gone, only this monster left in her wake. It seems she was smart enough to lock herself away to prevent you from being harmed, at least... and it'll give you a preview of the threat that looms outside.

sewer diving

After 72 hours have passed, one and only one door unlocks – in the very same basement that the zombie of Dr. Bei can be found. It leads down to a dark, dingy tunnel that connects to the sewers. Not only is the smell awful, but (non-infected) rats scurry about, keeping to the shadows – but the smell of any of the food you've taken from the house will attract them. Careful!

The party will need to create some light to navigate their way out and keep the rats at bay, or they’ll be bumping around in the dark for quite a while. Now might be a good time to share if you have some matches, or a special talent for being a lantern. Mercifully, there's only one exit that actually opens down in this labyrinth, as if it's a route the Doctor designed to take all the time.

At one point, Puppy falls into the sewage, and loses something they brought from the house.

oh! that's a baseball

Once characters make it out of the sewers, they’ll be a day’s travel to the first mark on the party’s map: “Dodger’s Stadium.” The road they’ll have to hike to get there is winding, curvy, and uphill, which will give the party a good overview of the now dilapidated Los Angeles, along with the many abandoned buildings and cars that litter the place. The stadium itself looks to have been cleared of threats and fashioned into a safe spot a long time ago, as all entrances but one have been completely welded shut. The high walls keep zombies out, and the winding path up here deters most of them from even approaching.

Inside the stadium, there’s some baseball merch (and equipment) to scavenge, not to mention some really old peanuts! Delicious. Maybe there are even some old fireworks laying around this place. Setting up camp here won’t be very comfortable… but at least it’s very safe. A luxury the party won’t have for much longer, if the map is anything to go by. You'll be heading through the city, next, so rest up while you can.

!

week one objectives

➤ make acquaintances with your fellow travelers
➤ decide what to do with the zombie of dr. bei
➤ arm yourself with what you can find
➤ scavenge some portable food from the house and while traveling
➤ make camp at the stadium

code

Comments

explore the basement;

[insinnerate]

[Ninety-Nine pauses at the top of the stairs, her body weight settling low and guarded as she listens.]

It doesn't sound like one of you.

[Not "one of us." Suspicious and watchful as she's been, she can't say that she's seen anyone else come down these stairs. Someone might have been able to sneak by, but the noises are all wrong. She looks back at Henry.]

You don't look very tough. [ok we're just going to say it] But that doesn't always mean anything. Are you strong?

[normalness]

[He starts, turning around to glance up at this rather intimidating-looking woman. Her verbiage already sets him on anxious edge — one of "you"?]

Uhm.

[HELP she's right but she doesn't have to say it]

I guess that depends on what you mean by strong... If it's something dangerous, I can do my best to keep it at bay. Buy you some space.

[Maybe this is very hilarious, this little noodle teen saying this to her.]

[insinnerate]

No... If you can't take it, then just stay back. [This, too, would be easy to interpret as an insult, and isn't made any better by her grumpy features and intimidating posture.] Leave it to me so you aren't hurt.

[Ninety-Nine continues the descent into the basement, the bat she secured from the stockpile dragging down the steps behind her. The trail of clanks that follows is equally intimidating: She isn't trying to sneak up on anything. If there's an enemy down here, she clearly wants it to know what she's coming.]

The smell down here is worse.

[normalness]

[He nearly takes it as an insult, and one that he wouldn't be able to counter. After all, just look at her — she seems infinitely more capable at fending off a physical threat at first glance. Yet the addition of, Leave it to me so you aren't hurt quells a couple of those niggling, bad feelings at being just dead weight. He nods, swallowing.]

If it has a spine, I can probably take care of it.

[Helpful? Worrisome? Both?

But his footsteps are far lighter as he follows down the steps behind her. He wrinkles his nose, making a face.]

It smells like something's rotting.

[insinnerate]

[Pretty worrisome, for a normal person! Ninety-Nine simply doesn't understand what one has to do with the other, however, so she meets the declaration with a simple,] I don't understand.

[What has that got to do with anything? She wonders if it must be some kind of met a four, those things people say to mean other things that she has always found somewhat annoying ever since she learned it was a thing people do.]

That door. There's something blocking it.

[The others are silent, though that doesn't mean they don't have dangers lurking behind them. Her senses aren't picking up on anything but the vaguely-human-but-not-quite sounds of movements emanating from the smell of rot.]

[normalness]

[When met with bluntness, Henry goes quiet for a moment longer. But her nature is strangely reminiscent of his own, even if more flatly delivered — she speaks plainly, straightforwardly, and he does, too. Sometimes. When he's failing at social interactions.

So he offers a bit more of an explanation:]

I mean that I can break bones. Snapping someone's neck is quick and clean if I have to, but I don't...

[Really want to? Who would?

When they reach the basement, he takes note of the dresser in question. There's only one reason he can think of a large piece of furniture blocking any entry or exitway.]

You think there's something trapped in-

[THUD. The dresser shakes with some unknown force pummeling the door behind it.]

[insinnerate]

[It's good to be able to kill quickly, she thinks, but if it was always too easy, then the fights would be over way too soon. There's a part of her that was made to enjoy violence, not just carry it out.

The thud doesn't startle her; if anything, it invigorates Ninety-Nine's hot blood. The bat spins in her hand, flipping into an upright position.] We're not totally alone. Be ready for anything.

[Of course, the zombie is barricaded in pretty efficiently, in a way that makes it difficult to either enter or exit the room where it's trapped. There's a shadow half-hidden behind the barricade before its true form can be completely perceived.]

A person...? [It's not right. Its footsteps are too erratic; she can't sense the rhythmic roll of its breaths. She flings her blackened arm out because there's no telling if he'll believe the truth in front of his eyes.] Not anymore.

[normalness]

[Henry feels a shock of adrenaline shooting through him, and it pairs well with his general sense of buzzing anxiety, but fear doesn't quite stick its claws into him, either. That emotion is starting to grow distant these days, and maybe that really does mean something's wrong with him, but he's thankfully for that "courage" in times like these.

He finds himself caught between two equally worrisome sights: the shuffling shadowed figure beyond the dresser and the door, and Ninety-Nine's... arm.]

What... [Don't stare, Creel. Focus on the actual potential danger at hand.] ...What is that thing?

[The thud thud THUDDING continues.]

[insinnerate]

[She lowers the arm blocking him once it seems like he won't keep moving forward, though she keeps the bat raised.]

A monster. [Her voice is deep and firm about it, with no wavering or hesitation present in her tone at all. As much as the clamoring creature on the other side of the barricade resembles a person, that part of it is gone now. Its humanity has vanished and left something more sinister to puppet the shell. When the zombie catches wind of them and starts fixating on them, a starving animal with a piece of meat, Ninety-Nine doesn't flinch.]

Looks like the door's blocked on the other side, too.

[There's nothing else moving in the room. After the doors and the windows caused her so much trouble, it really seems like keeping as much as possible from getting in or out was by design.]