Juan, Chris K

"Not a chance we're passing this up," Chuck says with a hand motion, as if physically waving the concept away. "Whatever we want, we'll find it in there. Heck, it's probably the reason we've found nothing good so far! We're going in."

"I don't have a gun," Leslie tells Juan, raising her voice to be heard in the other line.

"I left mine with my wife," Thomas adds, hefting the ball-peen hammer. "I can't shoot straight anyway."

Though they don't speak up, Juan sees a couple other scavengers with no guns: Gloria, standing just behind Vivian, and the crowbar-wielding woman at the end of Chris K's line.

The blond man, at the back of Chuck's line, looks at the collected vehicles and then back at the school's entrance. Frowning, he pats a hand down on the shoulder of the boy at his side. "Stick close to me, Seb."

"I know," the boy says, annoyed.

Juan, Chris K

"Lotta folk lookin' like they drove here today," the blond man says, gesturing towards the vehicles. "So why don't we see anyone?"

"That's a good point." Juan said. He got his chain ready, and started to move towards the vechiles in question. He might be able to notice if there where any tracks leading somewhere...

Chris Stood up quickly, as Juan moved off, as if about to say something to him, but then thought better of it.

He looked at Blondie and said "Good point. Could be a trap. Or just full of biters instead of shoppers. I think we should treat this like the scavenging. Some of us go in to check it out, some of us stay out here on watch. Chuck, you guys take watch. Make sure one of you is covering that guy " he gestures towards Juan

He motions to his group "I think we should check out the vehicles as well before we go in, ok? Same order as before. Thomas - your up."

Chris waited for Thomas to move forward towards the vehicles, then followed him, his weapon readied. As well as scoping this time, he was listening for any noise.

ooc

08:15, Today: Chris K rolled 25 using 2d10+5.  Scoping and listening.


This message was last edited by the player at 08:16, Mon 29 Oct 2018.

Juan, Chris K

"Hold it!" Chuck stops Juan as soon as he starts towards the vehicles. "We move when I say we move."

He glances over at Chris K before turning to the line as a whole. "No one go wandering off. That's how we get separated, lost, and dead. We keep this tight and we all get home alive, right?"

"Mm-hmm," Vivian answers non-noncommittally, while Gloria looks away and mutters something indistinct. The blond man in man just looks unimpressed.


"Right," Chuck nods, then turns back to his group. "Let's run the perimeter, see if there's anyone around back while they check that out. Juan, you want to take point?"

Thomas leads the group towards the vehicles, ball-peen hammer at the ready. Instead of keeping an eye on anything in the distance, he focuses on the visual cover closest to him, as if he expects something to pop out and rush him.

As a group, the vehicles look varied and disparate. If this is a trap, they devoted an awful lot of resources to simply having empty vehicles here. There doesn't seem to be anyone inside. There's not much obvious here; it would take an in-depth search to learn more.

Chris stopped Thomas and calls back to Chuck "Check out the vehicles thoroughly too, ok?" he waits for a thumbs up or acknowledgement and turns back to the Thomas "Ok Thomas, we'll head for the main entrance."

He glances over his shoulder at the others in his group and gives the thumbs up before he pats Thomas on the shoulder, "Ok move out"

Juan looked back at the man after he was told to stop. He shrugged and did as instructed. He kept his chain handy however, just in case. More importantly he kept Vivian in his field of view.

Juan

"You got it," Chuck nods at Chris K. He looks back at his line and motions towards the vehicles. "Let's go!"

As they near the vehicles, Chuck speaks up again. "Don't open anything yet - just peek in the windows. Don't move on 'til you're sure it's clear! And check underneath, too, so you don't get your ankles bit!"

He starts pointing to individual people, and then to sections of the parking lot. "You, you, and you - " he says, pointing out Juan, Vivian, and Gloria, " - check these here. You, you, and you..."

Juan, Vivian, and Gloria are directed to a corner of the lot crowded with over a dozen cars. The market must be popular - the vehicles are really crowded together, some double-parked, and even here they range from cars to vans to trucks to farm equipment. Some of them have clearly been modified for dealing with walker hordes, either with tougher tires, reinforced bumpers, or just having been jacked up several inches.

Gloria peeks over her shoulder, then speaks quietly to Juan and Vivian. "So what do you think of our fearless leader?"

"Sure keeping us idiots on a short leash," Vivian mutters.


Chris K

"Aye-aye, Cap'n," Thomas grins, then leads the group to the school's front entrance. No one hails them as they get close, and Thomas walks right up to the front doors without any response. He pauses at the entrance, checking to make sure the others are behind him, before he tries the handle. The door is unlocked.

The entrance is mostly glass, making it easy to tell that the section immediately past the doors is empty. Thomas steps inside; his hammer hangs at his side, but the way his fingers twiddle nervously at it makes it clear he's ready to bring it up at a moment's notice. Nonetheless, nothing happens as he steps into the school.

A sizable lobby gives way to multiple locker-lined hallways. Near the ceiling hangs the school's name and motto, but the bulletin boards in reach of the floor are covered with hand-written signs and ads, usually on A4 printer paper. Signs are papered over the hallways as well, though they're not readable from the entrance. Off to one side is the entrance to the principal's office.

Aside from Chris K's group, there is no one to be seen and nothing to be heard.

Chris looks around and mutters "I really don't like this"

He tries to make out if any of the corridors look clearer than any other - less dust, or rubbish about, which suggests its been used more.

He motions Mason up and says to him "You stay here with Fran, Leslie and Lauren. Me, Clyde and Thomas will check the principals office is clear.  Might be a map of the school in there before we move off. Ok?"

Assuming Mason is ok with that, Chris will move up with Thomas and Clyde. At the door he says

"Ok. Thomas you open it from one side, Clyde you be ready with your bat the other, I'll stand just back from the door but most visible, so anything coming out will see me. Ok, when I say Thomas, open the door." Chris slings his M4 and takes out his nightstick. He moves forward and listens at the door.

ooc
15:03, Today: Chris K rolled 13 using 2d10+5.  Checking corridors.

15:02, Today: Chris K rolled 18 using 2d10+5.  listening.

In reply to Snicker (msg # 19):

Jaun stashed away his new gear, most of it in his new duffle bag. The five throwing knives he kept in a inner pocket of his leather jacket for quick use. Before he went over to scout, he even did a few practice throws-and was deadly as even. More importantly, they where very quiet.

OOC:
11:12, Today: Juan rolled 17 using 2d10+7.  Practice knife throwing.


He gets the blade back from the nearby tree he test-threw at. Nodding, he then did as instructed and rejoined Gloria and Vivian.

"Well, he takes this seriously. That means he gives a shit at least." He shrugged in response to Gloria's question. He does look at a few of the cars and wondered if any of the car alarms still worked. "Stay clear of this stuff, it could be rigged." He gestured at the vehicles.

Juan

"Rigged?" Vivian looks up at Juan with a raised eyebrow. "Like, to explode?"

Gloria looks up, surveying the cars as a whole, then gives a shrug. "Eh. Lots of sickos out there. It could happen."

Vivian looks dubious nonetheless, but refrains from putting her hands on any cars, as does Gloria. This reduces all examination to peeking through the windows, and even a thorough check does not take more than a minute. Before long, the three are on the last cars, when Vivian suddenly rears back from hers, a station wagon with heavy scratches in the paint on each side.

"Shit!" Vivian exclaims, her lip curling in distaste. "That's just..."

With another sneer of disgust, she turns away from the car, fuming. Gloria saddles up to the window and looks inside with a frown. Inside is the corpse of an emaciated dog in the back seat, ribs straining against its flank. The windows are cracked open an inch, so it didn't suffocate or overheat; all evidence suggested it starved to death.

Chris K

If anything, the corridors are unnaturally clean, as if someone is still sweeping the floors. it's difficult to tell how recently they were used, but none look any more or less traveled than the other.


"You're the boss," Mason says nonchalantly.

Leslie is a bit more disgruntled. "All the girls stay back where it's safe, huh?" she mutters to Fran and Lauren. "I came here to be get away from that crap." Fran looks over at Lauren with a she's right, you know look - which is so overt that it might be tongue-in-cheek - but Lauren ignores both of the others, her eyes watching the hallways.

Thomas and Clyde take up position on both sides of the door, while Chris K listens. After a few moments of silence, he picks out the quiet sound of movement - something fast, but low, almost certainly not human or walker. His best guess from sound alone would be a rat or squirrel, or possibly a cat or small dog. He definitely doesn't hear any people inside.

In reply to Snicker (msg # 22):

Juan moves over to Vivian and lightly touches her shoulder to make sure she is ok. Upon seeing what she was looking at, he shakes his head sadly. "Belive it or not, this is actually a good sign." He says. "Those things would stick close to any source of meat. Even one they could not reach. That means this place was clear of them of quite some time."

Stepping back, Chris lifts his night stick and nods at Thomas

Juan

"You sure about that?" Gloria asks in her Missourian accent. "I don't think they eat anything they didn't kill themselves. I seen them walk right past the fresh body of a guy with his brains blown out."

"No..." Vivian mutters, turning back to the car, her teeth tightly grit. "Not after it was dead. Look at it. It must have been trapped and alive for days, just...abandoned, dying slowly of thirst and hunger. He means nothing came by for all of that time, or they'd have gone through the window and eaten it. But they didn't."

She crosses her arms with a scowl. "That would've been too quick and easy."

After a moment, she looks up at Juan out of the corner of her eye. After a few seconds, she asks in a strange tone of voice, "What do you think is a worse way to die, Juan? A quick, violent murder? Or a few extra hours or days of suffering?"

Chris K

Thomas nods back, then turns the knob and mule kicks the door open hard enough for it to swing around and whack against the wall. Thomas slides around the doorframe, hammer at the ready, and cries, "Fresh meat! Come and get it!"

Clyde is in a moment after him, weapon at the ready, but with no one-liner. Nothing jumps out at either of the men, but frenzied scratching at one corner of the room moves to another corner, with Chris K glimpsing a couple of rats before they disappear into a hole in the wall.

It's difficult to tell how much of the principal's office remains of its original design, and how much was rearranged by the school's new owners. A pile of useless computer towers, monitors, and keyboards has been pushed into one corner, while all the desks are covered with pens, pencils, and papers. A look at the papers suggests that most are ledgers or inventory lists correlating to room numbers. They seem to be clearly dated, with the latest ones dating to approximately three weeks ago, assuming Chris K hasn't drastically miscounted the number of days since the dead rose.

In reply to Snicker (msg # 25):

"I dont know anymore." Juan shrugged. "Yeah, back in the day the quick death sounds better...but if it ment turning into one of those things? And you dont know how much of the person is left inside that rotting skull? I might do the slow painful way if it meant I did not have to come back as a murtoe."

Chris took a sharp in take of breath when the guys moved in. Not what he meant to happen. He'd have to explain better. It had been a while since he'd had a team, he'd forgotton how people interpreted plans differently.

Looking at the paper work he tried to make out, which rooms, if any, were still occupied at the last date, and if there were any storage rooms noted down. He also quickly scanned the office walls to see if he could find a map of the school.

"This stuff could be useful" he said to the other two. "Thomas - can you look for a map in the desks?Or anything else might be useful? And Clyde - let Mason know its all clear here please, and then keep watch on the door."

ooc
Trying to decipher room contents.
09:58, Today: Chris K rolled 12 using 2d10. + 1/2 Int? so +2? = 14 total

Juan

Vivian frowns silently for a moment, so deep in thought that she almost leans on the car before she catches herself. After a moment, she shakes her head.

"No, there...can't be anything left of someone in there. Brain damage starts after three minutes without air. You're already losing personality. And they don't rise for...an hour at least. Right?"

Vivian looks back at Gloria, who shrugs. "I've seen them get up real quick. Fastest was...five minutes, maybe? And their arms and legs still work, so maybe their brains don't go like they did before."

"That..." Vivian crosses her arms and grits her teeth. "That doesn't matter anyway. There's no way the slow, painful way will stop you from coming back. There's only one way to stop it, and that's pretty quick. You know?"

She looks up at Juan grimly, then pauses. "Wait. Do you know? That everyone comes back?"

Chris K

"Aye-aye," Thomas calls, striding among the desks. He runs his fingers along the length of each one as he passes, eyes scanning over the documents.

Clyde looks at the door, then back at Chris K, then back at the door. "Sure," he says, then moves to the doorway and says "All clear," to someone outside. With that done, he leans against the doorframe and crosses his arms.

"No, he wants me here," he says to someone Chris K can't see, but is presumably the same person he was talking to before. "Guess he doesn't trust you guys to hold the line."

Chris K looks through some of the documents, getting an idea of what passed through here. Whoever was running this operation kept meticulous records. He barely has time to check a few before Thomas is striding up to him, paper in hand.

"Found a map!" he says eagerly, then lays it out on the desk in front of Chris K without asking. "It's even got who was doing what where."

The map appears to show the floorplan of the school. Many of the rooms are marked with names and a bulleted list of what's being sold. Classrooms look like they were given out to individual sellers of large or specialized products, such as bricks, lumber, or farming equipment - apparently, the people of Lonoke faced the apocalypse with unusual industriousness. The teacher's lounge is simply marked RED LIGHT, with no further explanation. The library and gymnasium, however, appear to have both been converted into bazaars, with multiple sellers of hot sellers like food, medicine, and firearms.

Chris looked at Clyde, when he spoke and thought "Dick", but said nothing.

When Thomas came up he looked at the map and his face lit up "Excellent Thomas, thats the jackpot we need." and clapped him on the back.

He located the Principals office on the map, and then worked out a route to the nearest location likely to have food and water.

He looked up at Clyde and said "Clyde can you step outside and call all the guys over, please. We'll have a huddle outside the door"

Once he had finished checking the map Chris stepped outside to join the others.

He spread the map on the ground in front of them, and asked them all to gather round.

"Thomas hit the jackpot, here. That map" he pointed at it "shows the layout of the school and who was selling what where. For now we'll just head to the nearest location"He knelt down and pointed at the map "Where theres likely to be food and water. And weapons. We can come back for other gear later."

He picked up the map and stood up, and looked at them all "Everyone ok? We'll move out as before, same order, but keep a bit closer. Thomas - make sure you check all corners, and doorways. If theres any rotters in side rooms we'll ignore them, unless they're a threat. Our goal is to get some supplies, enough for a couple of days and then head back."

He clicked his teeth "dammit. I forgot to see how many people we need stuff for. Any of you guys have an idea of how many people came with you? My guess is maybe 30?"

In reply to Snicker (msg # 28):

"They gotta bite you, right?" Juan replied. He paused. "It happened to some of my gang. One guy got bit, he got a fever, and then he died...and turned into one of those things."

He looked at Vivian, what she was saying hitting him suddenly. "Are you saying everybody comes back!? No matter what!?" He looked like he did not belive her...or did not want to.

Ooc-is Chris K interacting with my group now?
This message was last edited by the player at 11:08, Thu 08 Nov 2018.

ooc
Nope - meant the rest of his group outside the office, but in the school

Juan

Vivian frowns sympathetically, then glances at Gloria, who shrugs.

"No, the bite just kills you," Vivian says with a sigh. "But you come back anyway. Everyone who dies, for any reason - everyone I've seen, anyway - comes back. No matter what."

"Unless you take out the head!" Gloria adds, tapping the side of her skull for emphasis.

"Right," Vivian says. "So if you don't want to come back, better get someone to shoot you in the head after you're gone. Or, you could always put the gun in your own mouth, but..." She gives a very mirthless smile. "...kind of a waste of your last moments, huh?"

Gloria looks at Vivian. "Hey, you think people who died before this came back too? Like there's been people in graveyards thumping on the insides of their coffin for a couple of months?"

Vivian grimaces. "I really hope there's nothing left of you when you come back."

Chris K

Clyde looks back out the door and makes a hand motion. "Whoop! Break camp, everyone. Move in."

A careful inspection of the map with the rest of the group suggests that, while there is a little crossover between individual suppliers, most of the food and water dealers were placed in the library and most of the weapon dealers were placed in the gymnasium, and they're located in different wings of the school. The school's layout is uncomplicated, with pretty much one path from one end to the other and the principal's office in the middle, so if they want to load up at the first location they go to, it'll probably be food and water or weapons, not both.

No one seems to disagree when Chris K draws a path to the library. They have plenty of weapons to go around, but no one arrived with any food.


The group glances at each other, some members making vaguely affirmative noises but no one committing to a number. Lauren and Fran simply watch the others expectantly.

"We don't know how many are going to stay," Mason says after a few seconds. "The military personnel, in particular. But we can approximate thirty."

In reply to Snicker (msg # 32):

Juan raises an eyebrow. "Well, this conversation is getting a little too...cheery for me." He shook his head. "And if it gets anymore like this I am gonna need beer. Which I have not had in months."

He wanted to ask about Vee's big secret she seemed to think made her the most horrible person in the world. However Gloria was right there, which meant she would not speak about it. "How about we check some of the other buildings? Might be soemthing worthwhile in there..."

Juan

Vivian looks up at the nearest buildings. "Could be. They might've used this place to store - "

"Y'all done here?" Chuck strolls up, most of the team at his back. Behind then, Juan can see a few car doors hanging open; either they were lucky enough to avoid any car alarms, or someone in the group knew how to avoid or disable them before they started opening up the vehicles.

Chuck along Juan's section of cars and doesn't wait for an answer. "We're going to check out the rest of the perimeter. It'll be good to have you in front again, Juan. Everyone get back in position."

Chris nodded at Mason. "Ok so we'l assume thirty and get more than that if we can."

"So moving in here we'll do things slightly different, and stagger our selves on each side of the corridor, that way we should be ok from both sides."

He gets everyone to form up and then gives Thomas the nod to move off

In reply to Snicker (msg # 34):

Juan nodded. "Gotcha hefe." Of course, Juan wanted Vivan behind the 'front lines' of his postion. He could rationalize it by saying she was better with guns than hand to hand, but the truth was it was less risky for her.

He also did not want to infantilize her, which might insult her. However, Chuck could take the blame for that.

"You watch my back, ok? Let me go ahead, like the bossman says..." he said to Vee.