Coraline turned in the direction of the scream, fan out and rapping nervously against her thigh.  She pursed her lips as Gabby started pulling at a section of the cave, one brow lifted as it came away without raining rubble down on them all.

As Gabby felt at the wall and began to pull at it with his weathered but strong hands, the canvas and plaster began to peel away easily, falling to the ground. As the false wall came away, a hallway was revealed that went twelve feet down before opening into another area. The area at the end of the hallway was well lit, if not brightly, and lamplight spilled into the newly revealed passageway.

The local law man checked his gun one more time. It seemed to be a habit for him, as if ensuring that he had ammunition would solve all his problems. "Alright," he said quietly. "I think it's time." He pressed forward down the hallway making as little noise as possible, but with the gunfire that had come before there was little chance of this being a surprise.

At the last, he rushed into the room, putting his back against the wall and leaving room for the others to join him, pointing his gun outward. In between him and everything else in the middle of the room were six dead men with shards of ghost rock embedded in their foreheads...and the large monstrosity that had almost taken Jenny Linkous from the train.

In the center of the room on an operating table, the man who had been on the train just moments before lay there looking bewildered, strapped down and clearly helpless. He screamed again. "Help me! He's going to kill me"

At the same time, an older man with long gray hair stood at the back of the cave next to a table with a large device on it that seemed to be buzzing. In the middle of the device was a large glass chamber within which a large hunk of ghost rock could be seen. Connected with some cables to the device was a sort of helmet with goggles on it that covered the man's eyes though he looked right at the chamber near where Phelps stood. "This isn't the way I wanted this to happen, Marshal."

The sheriff looked shocked "Doc Hodges? What the hell are you doin' to that man?"

The greying old man at the back of the room didn't respond to the law man, but issued a simple command. "Kill!" he yelled, and the six dead men began to meander over towards the entrance.

Still last in file, Darling stops in the doorway, taking in the scene. As the dead men begin to stir, he sweeps aside the tails of his black duster to grip the gatling pistol slung there.

Gabby's a bit taken aback by the whole scene, but came up with a plan as the deadders began to lurch towards them. Whatever Hodges or Radcliffe or whatever his name was looked to be doin' wasn't kosher, and needed to be stopped.

So he ran, screamin' like a banshee, toward the table with the device on it. He racked a shell into the chamber of his gun, pressed the muzzle against the glass where the ghost rock core burned, and screamed, "DIE, DOOHICKEY! DIE!"

Then he pulled the trigger...

At the blast from Gabby's shotgun, there was a loud sound and a spray of broken glass, a broken machine, and a hunk of ghost rock broken somehow into five nearly identical pieces.

The cable connected to the machine was ripped away as the scientist reeled with what looked to be sudden impact. Wordlessly, he pulled back into the corner of the room and ripped off what he had been wearing on his head, tossing it to the ground. He looked around the room, taking in the scene again but said nothing else.

With his trusty blade in hand, Daniel walked toward the mass of dead flesh that had risen. He hoped that his comrades could take care of the rest of the mess.

With a quick swing of his sword just above neck level, Daniel carved one of the undead heads into a top half and bottom half. The former fell to the ground just as he rounded on another one. Unfortunately, that particular swipe sailed a miserable inch above its intended mark. He realized too late that this particular target was shorter than the others.

The shotgun blast didn't take him by surprise entirely, but he didn't expect the old man to go charging in and pumping his weapon into the machine of all things. As the blast went off, those things with the stench of death washing over them and black shards in their heads seemed to lurch for a moment before returning to normal. Daniel's wetwork was indeed impressive, almost mesmerizing, and the law dog was almost unable to look away. But he did eventually as something he saw out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

The large monstrosity of a man was moving towards him, and he didn't know quite what to make of what he was seeing. "Zachary? Zachary Hanover?"

Growling it made for Phelps, but as he spoke, it seemed to stumble and stop. Stunned into silence, as if awakened by something it just stood in place, staring at him.

For an instant, Morgan was stunned by the scene before him. Despite all that he had seen over the course of that long day, it seemed he still could not completely get his mind around the reality of dead men walking the earth again. However, as Daniel and gabby sprang into action, Morgan quickly shook off the fog that clouded his mind. Raising his Colt, he snapped off a shot at one of the group of advancing dead.

Randolph steps to the side so that Daniel's not in his line of fire and swings the Gatling pistol up to level it at the deadmen on the right of the group. He presses the trigger and unleashes a burst of bullets.

Somewhat behind the group, Coraline flicked open her fan and reached beyond space and time and into the astral plane for a demon to wrestle.  Phantom cards appeared in her hand and then faded into nothing, twice over.  Pleased with the draw, she let her magic fly, sending two blasts at the creatures that had been ordered to kill them.

Suppressing a shout of satisfaction, Randolph shifts his aim to the next deader as it shambles forward and unleashes a second burst from the Gatling.

Two of the walking, wounded dead that still remained lurched forward, their heads not quite leaking blood, though their leathery flesh had been ripped apart by bullets aplenty. One flung itself uselessly toward Coraline, and another at Caleb. A third, threw itself not forward, but backwards, further into the room.

Seeing things starting to fall apart, he wasted no time on villainous speeches and instead made straight for the entrance, hoping to get by in the fray. As he neared the walking dead, one turned around and struck him a staggering blow in the face as he approached, causing him to reel slightly, and take a step back, clasping a hand to his face as the creature's claws had raked across his cheek drawing a few streams of bright blood.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:03, Fri 09 Nov 2012.

Gabby turned, ready to chase after the gray-haired scientist, but when he sees the madman's creations turn against him, Gabby decides it's time to let the man's karma catch up to him.

Instead of dealing with the scientist, Gabby hustles to the chair where Wilder sits. "Well, now, let's get you out o' here," he says, and tries to figure out the restraints.

Coraline had taken an involuntary step backward as the creature advanced on her, but the ineffectiveness of the attack bolstered her confidence.  She let loose another ghostly white stream of light, blasting the creature with magic.

Randolph pointed the Gatling pistol at the back of the thing attacking the older man and fired a burst.

As Gabby undid the straps binding Wilder to the operating table in the middle of the room, the clawed little detached hand the old miner had almost shot earlier slipped in and began helping to undo the man's bindings, resulting in profuse thanks to the both of them.

Another burst spewed forth from Randolph's Gatling pistol. Two bullets buried themselves in the thing that attacked the aging scientist that it had just struck, though it seemed not to be affected by the volley of gunfire striking its back. It was the last thing standing so far.

Morgan took a few steps, circling Radcliffe in case the older man tried to bolt once the dead man attacking him had been stopped. As he moved, the marshal tried to take aim at the dead thing's head, firing when he felt he had the shot.

Daniel looked about, satisfied at the number of reanimated bodies that were becoming re-dead. The remaining one avoided his first swipe at its forehead, but Daniel's second swing lopped the thing's head off at the neck.

He then turned his gaze toward Radcliffe.

The unnaturally large sewn together man that Phelps had called Zachary Hanover seemed to be half crouched and ready to spring, half cowering in fear of something, his face twisted in a mask of pain and rage that obscured even the most acute attempts to gauge his temperament, save that he seemed unhinged and ready to either explode in violence or collapse in pain.

The greying scientist, seeing he was outnumbered, seemed to back away a few steps, particularly from Caleb.

"The hell's goin' on here, Hodges?" asked Phelps. His tone showed none of the respect or deference he'd used while talking about the man earlier in the night.

"His name isn't Hodges - it's Radcliffe. Vinton Radcliffe, and he does terrible things to people, even his friends! He has no friends, and no conscience," sputtered Wilder.

"You're the one who taught me how to do what I do, and I did rescue you from the clutches of Hellstromme's goons. They were going to kill you, you know,"
they greying scientist replied.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:38, Thu 15 Nov 2012.

"Yeah, 'cause he oughta thank you for attackin' a train full o' innocent folk with dead folk given unholy life and then stickin' him in some sort o' brain-suckin' machine." Gabby spits at Radcliffe, hoisting his shotgun to cover any sudden movements the giant thing that had ripped the roof off a train car might make. "Maybe you oughta' start explainin' things. I bet you have a real good explanation fer all this."