It was early in the morning, but the city was alive, waking up second by second under the strange purple clouds that had rolled in during the night.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:05, Wed 11 Feb 2009.

Betty arrived at the club and greeted the desk staff with a smile, stopping briefly to empty her mailbox of notes and letters before hefting her bag and striding off to change for work. There was a buzz among the club's members about the weird sky outside and she had to agree.  She wasn't sure what it was, there wasn't any more information on the news about it.  The local radio station's newscasters were as stumped as their listeners.

 Glancing at her mail as she sat down on the bench in the staff change room she sorted out what had to be done at the club that day, what could wait, and what was destined for the recycle bin.  Changing her clothes she pulled a pair of nylon pants over her tights and body suit, covering her top with a matching jacket.  She had a class to teach in an hour and would spend the hour prior to it in the lifestyle centre helping members and warming up herself....

Dr. Anton Szczedrzykowicz, M.D., Tony to his friends, Antek to his parents, was an early bird - very early in fact: at the age of 23, he had had his medical degree for almost five years. It was so that, while he was waiting for his 21^st birthday to get licensed, he had been offered to teach one semester in the nursing school where Betty was finishing her course.

While he wasn't exactly imposing from a physical point of view (standing at 5'6", he was a full inch shorter than Betty, and not quite as fit), he made up with his smarts and natural charm. Although he wasn't muscular, he didn't have any extra fat on him, and was generally on the good-looking side.

For a time, he had considered the idea of asking her out but, while he had never been stricken speechless by her looks like so many other guys, ethical constraints had prevented him from doing so while he was her teacher

Then the roles had reversed, as he had become her student, and while the ethical constraints were much more lax in a fitness club setting, he still didn't think it would be appropriate, so the thing had kinda been put on hold. Instead, he had started more and more to appreciate her as a friend.

So it was that, a couple of years after their first encounter, Tony was smiling at Betty as she entered the room. He was practically the only one of her students who got there before she did, and the only one to do so consistently - but then again, he had always been an early bird...
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:47, Wed 11 Feb 2009.

"Well look who's here," Betty smiled at her only consistent male student in the step class.  "How's Dr. Tony today?" she smiled, dropping her gym bag at the side of the sound system's cabinet.  She listened politely for his answer as she removed her jacket and pants and stuffing them into the bag. "Funky sky out there today eh?" she mused to him, suddenly in the mood for a cardio-funk cd and placing it in the cd drawer of the sound system.  Finding the headset she pulled it onto her head, pushing the microphone from her lips while they chatted...

With an appreciative look at Betty's figure, Anton  nodded: "You can say that again... I was having coffee with a friend this morning, a Physics major. He  had an interesting theory on destructive interference and high-atmosphere refraction that basically boils down to this: 'we have no idea what's going on but we'll pretend otherwise'."

He grinned broadly, which to Betty was an indication as to the amount of coffee that had been involved: Tony's humor was closely related to the quantity of caffeine in his system - word was that people should know better than to talk to him before his second or third cup in the morning...

"No doubt," Betty giggled shaking her head in disbelief. He was certainly reved up! she mused inwardly.  "It's really is weird out there," she sighed, wondering where the rest of the class was.  She glanced at the clock checking the time.

Just as Betty looked at the clock, a couple of girls walked in. "Sorry we're late, the traffic is unbelievable. I think going on foot would have taken less time. The radio said something about drunk car-jackers or whatever..."

"What?!" Betty exclaimed almost in disbelief.  "That's horrible!  Are you guys alright?" she asked with concern, glancing at them before ascertaining they were.  "I hope that no one was hurt!" she frowned.  "Must be crackheads, who would be drinking and driving at this hour?"she wondered aloud.

The girl, a short brunette by the name of Sandra, shrugged: "We're fine, it's not even that close to here: the gridlock takes several blocks, and the police can't seem to help matters much."

Her friend Andrea (Betty remembered thinking was her sister at first, they looked so much alike) nodded in agreement: "The news said they were having a field day, or maybe a field morning."

Then, they both turned to look at Tony, and in perfect unison smiled and said: "Hey, Doc."

"Oh wow;" Betty remarked.  She glanced at the clock again calculating how many of her class might be caught up in traffic and whether she should begin without them.  The club's rules stated 3 students and classes go on.  With Anton here she was sure the other 2 weren't about to volunteer to skip class.  "Well we'll give people a few more minutes then get started," she announced as her class chatted amongst themselves and she wondered what was going on out there if the sky was affecting the day...

Within ten five minutes, half a dozen more people had arrived; there were still several missing, but at least it wasn't just three people.

One of Betty's mor irascible students, a heavyset woman by the name of Donna, arrived just as the lesson was about to begin, sporting a black eye.

<red>"Oh Donna!  Are you alright?!" Betty called at the fresh injury that was so glaringly obvious that it could not be ignored.  Refraining from cranking on and up the music, Betty retrieved an ice pack from her bag and strode across the hardwood studio floor with concern.

Donna shrugged: "You should see the bitch who did it to me."

That was even more surprising than the black eye itself: Donna was normally a very tranquil woman, not really prone to outbursts of violence - if anything, she was way too passive...

Betty's eyes widened with surprise."What is going on out there?" she asked, stunned by the revelation.  "Does it hurt?  And how did you get into a fight?" Betty asked her questions coming out as quicky as they sprang to mind.

Donna waived her hand dismissively: "I'm fine, don't..." *COUGH* *COUGH* </orange><orange>"Don't worry about it."

Giving her student one last look of concern, Betty returned to the front of the class to turn on the CD and her microphone and begin her class.  She cast glances at her coughing student from time to time, ready to assist her should she prove to be in more distress than she was acknowledging.

The lesson continued for about half an hour, with Donna's cough becoming more and more insistent, Betty more and more concerned, and Donna more and more dismissive.

Eventually, Donna had a fit that laster much longer than the others: midway through protesting that she was fine, she fell to the ground and lost consciousness.

"Doctor!" Betty pointed to her unconcious student as her hand smacked the power button of the studio's sound system.  Not bothering to search out her first aid kit from her bag, Betty just scooped the whole thing up and sprinted the few strides across the floor to where Donna lay.

"Someone go to the desk and have them call 911, tell them we have an unconcious woman who was having difficulty breathing and come back and tell me what they said," Betty directed, her eyes meeting the small crowd beginning to surround the fallen student.  "Hurry" she urged before turning her attention back to her patient.

While Andy bolted for the desk, Tony was right next to Betty, checking Donna's heartbeat: "Pulse is weak and rapid. Make room ladies, let her breathe! Someone bring me my jacket."

The jacket was promptly brought by Sandy. Tony retrieved a pen flashlight from a pocket, and shone it in Donna's eyes. "Pupillary reflexes normal." He reported donna's condition in a steady, busnesslike tone.

Donna's breathing became deeper, and raucous, as if she was snoring.

"Stertorous breathing, pulse slowing down and weakening. If the ambulance isn't here within ten minutes, it won't matter if they take an hour."

Seconds became minutes, but finally Andy came back: "911 is not answering... Looks like the lines are down."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:43, Tue 03 Mar 2009.

Tony frowned: "Great... Betty, I don't suppose you have an emergency room on site?"

Taking Donna anywhere was going to prove problematic: not only was Donna definitely on the heavy side, but by then traffic was normally starting to peak.

"I dont' know where we can take her," Betty remarked her mind racing in thought as she knelt next to the doctor.  "Do you think the blow to the head from that punch is what's causing this?" she gestured to the woman's unconcious form.

Tony nodded: "The symptom seem consistent with a head trauma, although without any tests that's an educated guess at best. Not that a diagnosis helps her any, if we can't get her a neurosurgeon and an equipped O.R." He cursed under his breath: "Any ideas?"

Right then, Donna stopped breathing.

"Oh no;" Betty exclaimed with some anxiety.  "I'll get a breath mask from pool." she declared, rising from the hardwood floor and sprinting out the door and down the length of the hall to seize the large first aid kit in the health club's pool office.  It was only a few seconds that she returned, her breath a little quicker with the sudden exertion of her sprint.  "Here it is," she declared, having unsnapped the steel box and pulled the clear plastic mask from the inards of the box.

ooc:  http://www.wholesale-direct-fi...mages/M-573-AMBU.gif

Anton checked Donna's pulse again: by the time Betty got back with the mask, she no longer has one: "I just lost her pulse. Give me a hand..."

He and Betty set out to perform CPR. Despite he presence of a doctor and a trained nurse on the premises, it was clear that Donna's hopes were scarce at best...

Long minutes of valiant efforts, and several more failed attempts to call for help later, Anton sighed and looked at his wrist watch: "Time of death: ten twenty-four. I'm sorry, Donna."

After asking the remainder of the class to leave the studio and for one of them to fetch the club's general manager, Betty's heart nearly stopped at the sound of moaning from the woman so recently pronounced dead.

"Donna?" Betty questioned tentatively, her eyes fluttering with a mixture of disbelief, hope and relief.

"Betty stay away from her!" Suddenly, Anton's tone was sharp and alert.

He approached the woman warily: "Donna? Can you hear me?"

More moans came from what he had pronounced a dead body scant minutes earlier. "Donna what's my name?"

"What?..." Betty asked, edging only a step closer the wave of the doctor's hand enough to keep her cautious, the tone of his voice reinforcing it.  "What's happening?" she asked her eyes wide with disbeilef.  She looked over at the figure of Donna not quite comprehending what was happening but feelign the little hairs on the back of her neck beginning to stand on end in warning.

Tony kept his eyes on Donna: she was trying to stand up, but it looked like she was re-learning to use her muscles. With much difficulty, she managed to get on all fours.

He moved closer to Betty, glancing at the door: "Betty, do you have the door keys?"

"What is going on?" the blonde demanded almost rhetorically, snatching up her bag at the dumbfounding sight of the woman who only moments before had been declared dead.  Her pretty face creased in a grimace of a wariness as she searched for the key in her bag, glancing from it to the scene before her and back again.

OOC I will have her expend a luck point.

Anton smiled as Betty fished the keys out of her bag. "Great! Then all we have to do is..." He looked at Donna, who was now standing up and apparently had remembered how her body worked: "Get past her."

The-thing-that-used-to-be-Donna moved a first- staggering step toward them.

Betty slung her bag over her shoulder regarding Donna with wariness.  Then glancing about in thought she took a step back to the corner where some of the karate class's weapons leaned.  "Here, take one of these," she offered tossing one of the staves in the doctor's direction before taking one herself...

Anton grabbed the staff Betty had tossed to him. Though not exceedingly skilled at it as he was in general martial arts, he still felt he was much better off keeping the-thing-that-used-to-be-Donna at bay with a long piece of wood rather than his own hands.

"Thanks! Go for the door, I'll keep it busy. It should be slow but you never know... Be ready to lock the door it when I get there."

Gripping the staff with one hand Betty gripped the keys with the other before making a dash towards the door, wary of what Donna had become and the danger she posed.

Donna turned to look at Betty, and for a moment seemed to lunge at her... But she got hit in the head by Anton's staff: "Focus, will you? You are supposed to be attacking me..."

It worked. Perhaps even a bit too well: the creature stepped forward, cutting Tony's escape route, and tried to grab him.

Betty dashed for the door, holding it open and shouting for Tony to hit her and run.  Her green eyes watched in a mixture of desperation and fear at what was impossible but happening anyway.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:55, Wed 15 Apr 2009.

Tony followed Betty's suggestion, hitting Zombie!Donna with the staff straight in the solar plexus.

Unfortunately, zombies do not need to breathe, don't feel plain, and have no automatic reflexes. When a 140-pound guy tries to push a 200-something-pound walking corpse out of the way with a stick, the results are... Shall we say suboptimal?

As Tony stared at it in a perfect "oh crap!" moment, Zombie!Donna lashed out at his face, missing it, but managed to grab hold of his arm.

"Tony!"  Betty cried out in alarm as she saw her friend seized in the raptor-like grip of her former student!  "Let him go!" she cried, seeing the back of Donna's head perfectly vulnerable and as big as a basket ball to hit.  She swung at her target with the length of staff.

OOC:
15:48, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 20 using 4d8. damage.
15:46, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 9 using the Unisystem system (1d10+2) with rolls of 7. hit her in the head with the stick

Despite a loud CRACK, the blow didn't seem to have much of an effect on the creature.

It wasn't very strong, but it was pretty much unrelenting; at that range, and with only one free arm, Tony's staff wasn't that useful either. "The back, hit it in the back."

Betty felt the force of the blow through the shaft of the staff and hesitated only a moment before changing her strategy, if she couldn't stop her with such a hard blow to the head, then she would stop her from being able to move.  Swingign the staff around in a technique she had practiced many tiems before she swung for the side of Donna's knee, it would not take much to break it and that woudl send her ot the floor...

16:44, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 16 using the Unisystem system (1d10+5) with rolls of 10, 6. hitting her in the side of the knee .
This message was last edited by the player at 21:02, Sat 18 Apr 2009.

Betty delivered a very precise and effective blow to the creature's knee. The result was, in some way, magnificent, like seeing an ancient tree topple.

However, the zombie's grip didn't loosen: when its knee gave, the creature fell sideways, dragging Tony down.

He landed on top of the dead body, and the staff slipped from his grasp. He quickly recovered from the fall, narrowly avoiding another bite, but then the creature grabbed him by the neck with the other hand and started to choke him.

With one of the creature's hands around his wrist, and the other around his neck,  it was all Anton could do to use the free arm to avoid being pulled in for a quick snack.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:28, Mon 20 Apr 2009.

Betty watched her work send Donna to the floor but was stunned that she only snarled and began to chock Tony.  "I said let him go you bitch!" Betty screached swinging the staff again, this time on Donna's arm, with a viciousness that would have suprised her in any other circumstance.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:49, Thu 23 Apr 2009.

The staff hit with excellent precision, and with a loud CRACK the arm gave way. On the flip side, Tony's neck was now sporting a brand new set of bruises and scratches.

Half-choked and battered, Tony still managed to pin the zombie's broken arm to the floor with his free hand. He tried to speak, but the effort only managed to make him cough.

Betty's face scrunched up in disgust at the sight but her moment of observation only lasted a split second before she swung at Donna's head again with the staff, hoping to end this quickly.

OOC15:31, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 10 using the Unisystem system (1d10+5) with rolls of 5. attack 2.
15:31, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 11 using the Unisystem system (1d10+5) with rolls of 6. attack.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:31, Sat 25 Apr 2009.

***CRACK!!!*** ***CRACK!!!*** The zombie was not looking any prettier in the aftermath of Betty's handiwork, and yet it didn't seem to matter: a broken arm, a cracked skull, a shattered jaw, none of those seemed to faze the creature in the least.

"Won't... Work!" Tony finally managed to croak. He cleared his throat with some more effort and continued: "You have to break its spine, or at least cripple all four limbs."

Growling in frustration and a sense of primal self preservation, Betty swung at the arm of the hand still gripping Tony, since Donna's spine was not available as a target...

OOC 18:25, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 13 using the Unisystem system (1d10+5) with rolls of 8. attack 2.
18:25, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 9 using the Unisystem system (1d10+5) with rolls of 4. attack one.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:26, Sat 25 Apr 2009.

The last blow weakened the zombie's grip for a few moments, just enough for Tony to escape. He stumbled back and almost fell down, while the creature flailed around looking for someone to grab.

Breathing heavily, he nodded to Betty: "Good job. Quick, the door!"

Anton and Betty ran for the door, closing and locking it in a hurry... And then waited, for a zombie with a broken leg is not going anywhere at speed.

Betty let out a long sigh, leaning against the heavy door she looked at the doctor.  "What just happened?  What is going on?"  She looked at him with a mixture of alarm and bewilderment.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:34, Thu 30 Apr 2009.

Tony leaned against the wall, lost in thought: "This is insane... Those things should not be here!"

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and continued: "The thing in there, in Donna's body? It's a parasite. A colony of parasites, more accurately: they feed on decomposing bodies, and sometimes to replicate part of the functions of the original hosts cells. The result is a walking corpse. Worse, since the parasite needs to feed, the animated corpses attack anyone on sight. The parasites were first discovered back in the seventies, but the incident was kept quiet... You can imagine why."

"What?!" Betty responded in shock.  "Where did you learn about this? - I don't remember even hearing about anything like this, much less read about it in any of the texts.  So what do we do now?  Could she have caught it from that woman she said she was in a fight with?  Are there more cases in the public?" The thought blanched the young woman white for a moment in fear of the thought a epidemic might be lose in the streets of her city.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:01, Mon 18 May 2009.

Tony grimaced: "Yeah, when I said 'kept quiet'? 'Classified as a national security risk' would've been more accurate. My father was on the original group of researchers. A couple of years ago, he managed to get me into a new team created to study-" He stopped abruptly as the realization hit him: "That must be where the parasite came from! If those things are loose in the city... We gotta talk to my dad."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:08, Thu 30 Apr 2009.

"Where is he?  How do we get to him?  Can you call him?" Betty asked in rapid succession, her eyelashes fluttering with urgency.

"Well, the house isn't far, but we probably won't get there before the afternoon... I think I know why the phones are overloaded." Tony contemplated for a moment the scenario of a horde of living dead causing riots, taking over hospitals and police stations, and plunging the whole city into chaos.

He shuddered: "We need to go." But then, stopping abruptly, he asked: "What do we do with the others?"

"First of all we have to let the club manager know what is going on and to quarantine that room.  The next person that happens along doesn't need to find out the hard way what Donna is now," Betty remarked grimacing, struggling to avoid information overload.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:01, Mon 18 May 2009.

Tony nodded, then took a deep breath: "I'll try to find a way to explain this to the others. It won't be easy, but... I'll give it my best."

Betty had seen Tony turn on his charm a couple of times before - during particularly hard and boring lessons - and knew that "his best" was quite impressive.

It was sort of supernatural, really: people listened, believed, and agreed with anything Tony said in a way that was almost scary - it made him look more like a preaching prophet than a teacher.

Then again, he didn't do it very often, possibly because that had invariably caused a significant portion of the female student body (and part of the male one, as well) to seek him out for "further explanations" on the subject matter: he had spent a large part of the following days turning down requests for "private lessons"...

Betty quickly raced to the head office and found the manager was not there.  An inquiry with the staff put her in touch with the manager.  She explained that a very contagious virus had been released in the area and it was the reason for all the traffic problems.  She explained that the virus made its carriers very aggressive and that it would be best if she locked the doors and kept the club's guests inside.  She didn't hesitate to add that she had quartined one of the members in the aerobics studio after she had become aggressive and homicidal, attacking another student.  Finally she mentioned that with her medical training she was going with one of her former teachers to see if she could help, before dashing off to the locker room to stuff her locker's contents in her bag and add a few energy bars and bottles of water from the employee lounge in for good measure.  Barely breaking a sweat she arrived at the exterior firedoor looking through the rectangle of wired glass to see Tony at his car before bodly pushing forward to meet him...

Tony was about to say something about Betty's overstuffed bags, but after a moment's thought he just nodded: "Put them on the back seat. We'll stop at my house for a moment, I have something to take too."

The trip wasn't nearly as easy as Tony had planned: three times they had to go around accidents that completely blocked the road, and once they turned tails after spotting a slow-moving crowd.

Eventually, they managed to arrive at Tony's house safe and sound.

As they left the car in the garage, Tony turned to Betty and asked: "How good are you with guns?"


This message was last edited by the player at 18:40, Mon 11 May 2009.

"Well I'm a fast learner," Betty responded to the question as they locked themselves into the house.  She glanced around before setting down her bag.  Reaching into her bag she withdrew her nylon training pants and drew them on before checking out the windows discretely.

Tony nodded: "Good. I'll be right back."

"You see, I am something of an arms collector..." Cam his voice from another room.

When he came back in the living room, Tony had a .30-06 on his shoulder, and was carrying a box of ammo.

He set the box down and carefully held the rifle for Betty's perusal: "This is one of my favorite rifles, an M1 Garand. I think it's the best for a neophyte: it's a semiautomatic, so you won't have to fumble around with a bolt in the middle of a firefight, and it chambers eight .30-06 rounds, which means a well-placed hit will drop anything that moves. "

"Well that's nice to know," Betty giggled with a nervous feeling.  She was about to glance about for someone to understand her feeling but there was no one to acknowledge it.  "So what do I do?  How do I load it and aim it?"  she asked, taking a seat and crossing her legs reflexively, trying to remain casual about the whole affair as the world was falling apart outside the house's confines.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:00, Mon 18 May 2009.

Tony gently lowered the rifle down on the small living room table, and set down three pieces of metal next to it.



"These are called 'en-bloc clips'. Each of them holds eight cartridges."

He opened the ammo box and showed Betty how to load an empty clip.



"Now, loading a full clip is the easiest thing in the world..." Tony put the rifle's butt against his thigh, and showed Betty how to load the clip into the rifle, simply pushing it down with his thumb.

Then he quickly moved his hand out of the way as the bolt snapped forward, closing the opening: "There, see that? Normally you want to avoid that, else you risk getting the infamous 'garand thumb' - and believe me, you only need to get it once to remember it for a lifetime. Now, the proper way to avoid that is this..."

He showed her how to unload and reload the rifle a couple of times, pointing out that a round was automatically chambered each time, then handed her the rifle and an empty clip: "There, try it out, then we'll see how to shoot it."

Betty tentatively picked up the metal clip and examined the bullets as she picked each one up and carefully placed it in the clip.  They were so big.  Finishing she snapped it into the rifle as she had been shown before looking at Athony expectantly.


12:02, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 13 using the Unisystem system (1d10+3) with rolls of 10, 5. intelligence test.

Anton smiled at Betty: "Well done! Remember to disengage the safety before firing. It's hard to forget, since it's directly in the way of your finger, but still."

He loaded the other two clips and gave them to Betty: "I'll load some ammo and stuff in my trunk before we go for some target practice; I only have a couple more spare clips, so if..." He stopped and frowned: "You know, I'm such a bad host: inviting a girl home and never offering her anything. Where are my manners? Would you like a coffee? Not my weapons-grade one, don't worry, just normal coffee."

"I think water please," Betty requested in reply.  All of the excitement had left her a little thirsty and the coffee would only make her thirstier.  Having a moment to stop and think she looked about the room and wondered where they would go for target practice.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:00, Mon 18 May 2009.

Anton came back from the kitchen with a large glass of water, after putting on some coffee for himself: "I guess you are wondering where we are going to shoot. I don't think we have the time to go to the range, so we'll have to make do. I don't think anyone is gonna show up to charge us for shooting within city limits anyway..."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:31, Mon 18 May 2009.

"Wont' all the noise attract attention?" she asked, lifting the glass of water and taking a long drink, finishing with a satisfied sigh of relief from the quenching of her thirst.  "Thank you." she responded belatedly as she set the glass down.  "How many bullets do you have for this thing?  I had to hit Donna so many times that it will take a mountain of bullets if the parasite is that infectious.  - Speaking of which what is the prevention other than not to exchange fluids with someone who's infected?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:36, Wed 20 May 2009.

"Here's the skinny: the parasite is not normally a pathogen - it usually takes only an hour or so for the immune system of a healthy person to completely get rid of it. The only symptoms are a slight disorientation, sometimes a mild fever, and other minor effects. However, if the person dies before of other causes before the infestation is taken care of, the parasite will be able to reanimate the body."

He sighed and passed a hand through his hair - Betty had noticed he sometimes did when something bothered him - before continuing: "What worries me is the way Donna got infected, and the way 911 never answered our calls... I think I know what's going on, and if I'm right we don't really have to worry about somebody reporting our training session."

"Maybe we should turn on a tv or radio to find out?" Betty suggested, gesturing with her hand for emphasis.  "-Then we might have a clue of what's going on further out?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:37, Wed 20 May 2009.

Anton nodded: "Good idea..." He opened a cupboard with darkened glass doors to reveal a fairly expensive home theater system.

He pondered for a moment: "Will you try to find out what's going on? I'll have to start loading the trunk: it's gonna take a while."

Smiling ruefully, he continued: "See, I kept buying guns and ammo, thinking, eventually, I'd find the time to go to the range and have some fun. Then I met these friends who are into paintball... Well, let's just say I have moer than enough bullets for our little trip."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:52, Wed 20 May 2009.

"This is not good," Betty mused, a look of sadness on her face as she shook her head in disbelief at the reports coming in.  She flipped around searching for local news to see what the roads were like, if there was a helicopter in the air even reporting about such things....

"This is much worse than I thought..." Said Tony, catching the end of a newscast. "Those things seem to have spread farther than anyone anticipated. We need to find my dad."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:54, Sun 24 May 2009.

"I think it would be a good idea for a few practice shots with this thing before we go back out there," Betty said, gesturing to the rifle.  "I want to be sure about it..." The blonde looked at him emphatically.

Tony closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and forced his body to relax: "You're right, of course. There is no point in giving you the rifle and not showing you how to use it. Come..."

He lead Betty to the back yard, where a tall concrete fence separated the small garden from the neighboring house.

After smearing grass on the white-painted concrete, leaving a green spot as big as a fist at about the height of a human torso, Anton looked back and smiled: "Sorry, I'm all out of fancy cardboard shapes, but it should do."

He walked back to Betty, and helped her assume the correct stance, hold the gun the right way, and take aim.

Finally he took two steps back as simply said: "Shoot!"

Betty held the gun as instructed, looking down its barrel before squeezing the trigger and feeling and hearing its report as it went off.  She looked at the target then at him expectantly.


18:14, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 8 using the Unisystem system (1d10+3) with rolls of 5. strength roll.
18:14, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 8 using the Unisystem system (1d10-1) with rolls of 9. dex roll.

Tony ducked instinctively as the bullet bounced off the wall at an odd angle. Fortunately it didn't hit anyone and harmlessly embedded itself in the house.

"OK... We're not gonna do that again, I think. It was... Fine. Just, take more time, next time, to aim carefully: it's a powerful rifle, but it won't do you much good if you miss." He smiled at her, passing a hand through his hair.

Betty flushed with embarassment and nodded before lowering her face to the rifle again and closing an eye to aim at the target again before squeezing again.

14:24, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 8 using the Unisystem system (1d10+3) with rolls of 5. str roll.
14:23, Today: Betty Pemberton rolled 3 using the Unisystem system (1d10-1) with rolls of 4. dex roll.

"Whoa, Calamity." Said Tony as the second shot went even wilder than the first, bouncing off the top off the wall and getting lost somewhere: "Seriously, that's enough. I don't think there's anybody around, but..."

He gently pushed the rifle down: "And be careful after you shoot: the barrel can get very hot, you could get a nasty burn, or accidentally start a fire."

Once again, he ran a hand through his hair: "Okay: time for a family reunion..."