week 2

[biteys]

WEEK TWO

After allowing the party some time to rest at the stadium, it’s time to get a move on again. As per your mysterious benefactor’s (?) recommendation, the party will be splitting up into two groups, with one group traveling west to a hospital, and the other traveling east to a mall.

if you chose hospital...

To get to the hospital, characters will need to venture into more densely populated areas of Los Angeles – and that means they’ll be coming into contact with a higher amount of zombies. The hordes that roam here descend upon any living creature that makes too much noise, so you might witness an unlucky squirrel or cat get hunted down by these roaming threats. The bad news is that they’ll sprint full speed at you if they happen to catch sight – the good news is that they’re not very coordinated at pack hunting, and you may be able to outsmart them by weaving through the streets.

In a stroke of bad luck, Shoko Ieiri attracts the attention of a horde, forcing the party off considerably off course. Temporarily, hopefully. Detour!

Thankfully, there are several methods of getting to the front door of the location – parkouring atop or traversing inside connected buildings, for example. The zombies aren't the only thing that can kill you, though, if you're not careful; while traveling to the hospital, Auch Aubrey slips and falls to his death off a building. Remember Dr. Bei's warning, about not getting too far away from each other? The party will realize if they get too far away from his body (specifically the bracelet), it'll start feeling like their own bracelet is burning them at the wrist. Better go back — and either lug his body around, or lop off the bracelet somehow....

The area this group will travel through has many tourist attractions – antique stores, the Natural History Museum, old-school theaters, for example. For our sword wielders, there are some dated ones among the antique stores and museums; they're dusty, but they'll get the job done. There are other cool artifacts to "borrow" at these places, too, not to mention some history of what the world was like before all this happened.

And at the theaters? There's candy, DVDs, and cardboard cutouts from a variety of movies that were out when the fall of society came. Maybe there are minions there.

Once at the hospital, the party will find that there are a massive amount of zombies that have been trapped inside. Many are former patients or hospital staff, so several are wielding things like scalpels or crutches, and they are just smart enough to attack with them. To get around the facility to find the medical supplies you need, you’ll need to find a way to either distract the zombies, stealthily make your way around, or, you know, eliminate all of them.

As for scavenging, the hospital is surprisingly well stocked, as the high zombie count has made it hard to raid. Characters will be able to find bandages, medicine, surgical tools, and more, if they look close enough.

Of this group, Satoru Gojo and Mark Grayson are infected.

if you chose mall...

To get to the mall, characters will need to travel underground through the subway tunnels. None of the trains are in operation anymore, so they won’t be at risk of getting flattened – but the aged husks of the vehicles are still down here, rotting away. In some tunnels, it will be impossible to go around them, and you know the saying: sometimes the only way forward is through. Inside the trains, some doors that connect the cars are operational, while others are too rusted to move, forcing characters to climb atop the train to progress to the next car. It'll be a taxing trial, made worse by the fact that in these train cars, there are both regular corpses as well as zombified ones. The unpredictable nature of the functioning or non-functioning doors will making escaping the zombies difficult — characters will need to either stand their ground, or climb up to safety if they find themselves at a dead end.

Exiting the subways leaves one last test for this group: the stairs are collapsed! The light of outside shines through what is essentially a giant hole in the ceiling leading to street level. There's about a one story gap between the end point of the subways and the upper ground of the street, so characters will have to get creative with getting everyone up — using train cables? Throwing each other? Human pyramid?

Once at the mall just outside, the party will find that while there doesn’t seem to be a massive horde, there’s another problem: the first floor of the mall, which is below street level, is completely flooded. They’ll have to swim across the distance to the escalators, find a way to get across using debris, or some secret third thing. There are waterlogged zombies floating about in the water as well, who will swim violently towards you once they hear ripples in the water — they’re not subtle about going after you, and will thrash and splash and immediately let you know where they are. They're like people sized piranhas. Scary!

At one point, Sigewinne is pulled underwater by a zombie, and comes close to drowning.

As for scavenging, once they’ve scaled the escalator, they’ll find the second floor of the mall has definitely had its fair share of visitors, but there are still many useful things to find. There are electronic stores that have batteries and walkie talkies, clothing stores (like Hot Topic) that have some extra clothes lying about, and of course, the food court, where you’ll find canned and preserved foods from a variety of different cuisines.

Of this group, Suzuha Amane is infected.

rendezvous

After several days apart, characters will be able to meet back up at a spacious park in the northern part of the city. There are park ranger staff cabins that can be converted into temporary shelters with effort — and the area has a lightly wooded trail, which will make camping outside slightly more safe than if you were plain out in the open.

It’d be a good time to treat the wounded with the new medical supplies, and chow down on the food that’s been collected. Is there someone among the group who’s medical advice can be trusted? Is there someone who might be good at rationing or cooking the food? Everyone’s role in the party should start to become clearer.

There are probably a lot of things to discuss: what will you do with the infected? What's the deal with the bracelets? Reality of how dangerous this mission is will be setting in far too quickly.

Most annoyingly… after all that, some characters will find that moving north has caused their bracelets to inexplicably magnetize together at times, perhaps in response to everything that's happened. Due to this, you might need to help feed each other, or sleep next to a stranger. Hopefully you don't get stuck to someone you totally hate.

!

week two objectives

➤ scavenge for your assigned items!
➤ protect and fight for each other
➤ treat each others wounds
➤ eat tasty canned food

code

Comments

[parttimesoldier]

[A distraction is exactly the thing she needs—or at least, that’s what she’s convinced herself of. The rational part of her brain knows that she needs to take it easy after something like losing an arm, but if resting for as long as she had after the entire ordeal taught her one thing, it’s that idleness just led to her thoughts spinning into overdrive. Replaying events over and over, letting the icy cold grip of fear snake its hands around her neck with horrifying “what ifs.”

So, distraction it is. And since there’s plenty to scavenge through here and still be useful, it makes it all the more easy to rationalize it in her head.

What that means is she’s grateful for Leontuzzo’s willingness to leave her to this work, joining her without fuss. He’s right to take this cautiously. The last thing they needed now was for any of them to let their guard down when there’s no guarantee how safe and secure the interior of the mall might be.

She follows his lead, reaching down to quickly check that her own gun could be swiftly unholstered should the need arise. Satisfied that it could be, she opts to proceed without it in hand; she’ll prefer having the flexibility with only a single hand, choosing to believe that her reflexes would be sharp enough to draw should the need arise.

Pulling up behind him, she gives a silent nod. Time to see what’s back there.]

[rifare]

[ The experience of losing a literal part of oneself is one that Leon has mercifully been spared from in his life, but he's lost more metaphorical pieces of himself before. Work to do was a good distraction from thoughts that were threatening to turn stormy otherwise.

It's not the same situation of course, and he's not callous enough to make the comparison out loud, but he still thinks maybe...

Well, coddling someone who lost a piece of her body doing something heroic seems wrong regardless. So while he's relieved she's willing to let him slowly push open the heavy metal door and creep in first, he won't do anything to stop her from following as he quietly paces into the room.

Many of the boxes look like they've already been broken into, but then again they're surely not the only people still alive in this world, no matter how hopeless it looks. The important thing is that while knocked over and empty boxes might strewn the floor, there isn't that distinctive and unsettling shuffling sound of undead feet.

After a several prolonged seconds of slowly making his way further into the room, he lowers his gun. ]

Nothing in here we wouldn't want to encounter.

[ He pauses as he looks at a half collapsed box by his feet. ]

Let's just hope there's still something we do want to find though.

[parttimesoldier]

[One thing she’s beginning to learn is that she’s now proceeding through the unchecked parts of this place with an extra sort of tension than she might have prior to the entire ordeal at the flooded section of the mall. A healthy respect for the danger these monsters posed had been drilled into her with one fell swoop.

The thing is, it’s proving to be tiring to have her guard up so thoroughly for so long, and her stamina is currently a much more limited resource. It’s why she’s doubly glad to have the company of Leon taking point here; an extra set of eyes and ears to give the all clear, so she doesn’t have to second-guess herself unnecessarily.

Suzuha keeps her eyes locked onto the stillness throughout the room, hand poised just over her holstered gun. Shoulders tight, breath still, then slow. And when it proves to be free of any obvious threats, she can feel the energy poured into all that tension dissipate.]

If it were up to me, I’d say we’re overdue for some good luck. [Yeah, right. If only there were such a thing as that sort of karmic balance, she’d be owed a whole lot right about now. Still, it’s better to force a little optimism into things, even if she’s feeling almost a little too weary for it.] Let’s give it a good looking over. Could be something other scavengers missed.

[Her gaze drifts to one end of the room, where one of the supply shelves has fallen into a half-collapsed pile over broken boxes.]

[rifare]

[ If anyone here deserves some good luck for their good deeds, it's Suzuha. Whether he thinks whatever powers that be owe the girl that much, there's absolutely no guarantee that things are about to turn around for them. His thoughts mean little in this situation, though he'll do his best to shake off some of the pessimism that he's been wearing like a cloak this whole time. ]

It does look like the people that came through here were in a hurry. I can't imagine they did a thorough job.

[ The smallest, littlest bit of hope as he starts to kneel in order to flip over one of the overturned boxes. Nothing in this one, but it looked more intact than some of the ones further back. ]

[parttimesoldier]

Probably rushed through in the early days of it all going down, if I had to guess.

[Outside of the flooded lower level, the place has been relatively calm. Any recent scavengers would likely have had less pressure to rush through. Back when it all started, though? She can imagine a wild rush of people besieging the place. Desperation would make it dangerous enough, but with any of the infected around? Pure chaos.

She nudges one half-crumpled box from a corner, disturbing the cobweb that’d gotten attached to it.]

It must’ve been crazy when people first started getting sick out here.

[rifare]

[ The assessment receives a curt nod from Leon. It's a decent enough guess, and it's what he's thinking too. The mall seems largely abandoned, which is impressive that none of the zombies decided to linger inside of it, but maybe people shut it down pretty quickly into the start of this...

Whatever this hell is. ]

It's hard to imagine.

[ But it would be hard to properly imagine what they're currently going through either if it weren't for the fact that they are, in fact, living it right now.

All the while Leon is picking his way through the room, nudging boxes lightly with his foot to see if any put up more resistance than an empty cardboard box would. ]

[parttimesoldier]

[Imagining hellish scenarios like this hadn’t often crossed Suzuha’s mind either, if only for the fact that she’d always been too busy contending with a different kind of nightmare world. When she had woken up here with the rest of the team, she figured she’d be equipped to handle it all thanks to that. The pathetic state she’s in now really shows how wrong she’d been with that assessment.

She sighs as she knocks her foot against another box, testing to see how empty it sounded.]

All the more reason we’ve gotta make it to the end here. If it’s really all in service of a cure for this… it would be nice to do one thing right, y’know? Make it so all of this doesn’t have to keep happening.

[Trying to fix a fucked up world? Now that’s familiar territory for her, at least.

She crouches beside one box, exhaling a little sharply at how unsteady even that little motion makes her feel, then nudges aside the cardboard flaps to peer inside. …some half-empty containers of plastic forks and knives. Not food, but maybe something they can put to use, at least.]

[rifare]

[ A whole world is pretty damn ambitious by Leontuzzo's standards, but it's not as if he himself isn't attempting to dismantle and rebuild a fucked up country into something better. He's uncertain of his future success at that though, even if he believes in his cause, and he's even more in doubt about their success at this.

He'd called Mark dangerously optimistic for his views on how this would all turn out earlier, and in some ways he still thinks that, but that optimism isn't necessarily a bad thing. If a single one of them had no hope at all, then they wouldn't have made it along this far with the rest of them, but more importantly than that...

When things seem the bleakest there's never a great reason to snatch away any comfort a little hope can offer someone. They're past their first week, and he's done feeling sorry for himself. He's got other people to concern himself with instead while he's here.

He doesn't really know how to respond to his words with the kind of hope she needs to hear right now, but he does have something almost as good as empty, reassuring words.

His foot meets resistance as he tries to nudge at the next box, and dropping down onto one knee to push aside the flaps. ]

We'll need to keep up our strength to do that then, don't you think? Come help me move these.

[ Can after can after can of beans. Maybe not the most exciting food in the world, but filling enough, and easy to eat even if they don't manage to make a fire somewhere. ]

[parttimesoldier]

[Suzuha looks up from the busywork of trying to consolidate those plastic utensils into just one of the smaller cardboard containers when he calls her over. The little box is set aside and she pushes herself to her feet to join him in checking out what he’s discovered.]

Oh, jackpot!

[A pleased little smile at the sight of those cans, even if the cheer she tries to summon here feels a little more hollow than usual. Discovering a bounty like this sure does a lot to tip things over to the more optimistic side of the scale, though.

She slips the backpack from her shoulder, setting it down lightly before joining him in a crouch beside the box. Eyeing the number of cans stored in there, she then starts to tug at the bag’s zipper. Probably could get a good few of them tucked away in there without it getting too heavy, at least.]

Looks like poking around in here was worth our while after all.

[rifare]

[ Losing what she did, several can of beans isn't going to exactly make up for the events of earlier in the day, but it might at least make this trip seem slightly less pointless. He can only hope that being the one to pinpoint the door does something to help her after all of this.

He hums in agreement as he starts to grab at cans. ]

How many do you think will fit in there?

[ Before the bag threatens to rip, or the bags capacity is reached. ]