"Think I'll come along too," said Hector as he briefly gave Geoff a look of suspicion behind his back before following them up.

"Her meds can only do so much, Tony," Allan answered. "Given the stress, it can't be too surprising that Xynthia has occasional episodes. It will pass." Allan led Xynthia to one of the couches and sat down next to her, cradling her in his arms.



Allan looked at Nephi and gave him a slight nod, a silent thank you for the support.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:15, Fri 31 July 2009.

Monica stepped into the first room at the top of the stairs, which turned out to be the doctor's studio, and peeked through the curtains at the scene outside.

There were two lines of zombies in the street, cutting access to all the vehicles parked there. None of them was moving, as if they were waiting a signal of some kind.

More zombies were waiting on each side of the front door.

Standing near a large, white vehicle that looked more like a garbage truck than an RV, there was the same zombie that Allan and Xynthia had met at the parking lot.

Being run over by a motorhome hadn't improved its looks, but it also didn't seem much worse for the wear: still mostly decomposed, charred from head to toe, and completely naked, with flesh looking more like molten wax than anything else.

"Damn. They've blocked the door and cut us off from the vehicles. Wish we had something like a fire hose to knock 'em down and push 'em back." She looked at the two men with her. "Any ideas?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:12, Tue 04 Aug 2009.

Geoff shuddered as he saw the charred mass.

"Should we try shooting it or do you think that would just tick it off?"

"Well move out of the way, yeh behemoth!" said Hector with humor as he playfully nudged Geoff massive form away from the window, so he could see.

"Well.......that's disturbing." said Hector after examining the situation for a minute, "I'm guessing Mister Burns over there is waiting for reinforcements to charge us; for now he's using what forces are at his disposal to keep us from our vehicles until then. This is bad guys, he's showing a keen tactical mind one doesn't usually associate with the mindless dead. We're talking serious intelligence behind all this."

"So how do we kill him?" Monica said, as she looked at the charred zombie. "My uncle Teddy always used to say, 'When in doubt, blow shit up', but I don't know if that would be the best idea right now. And he's not our only problem. We still have the undead army out there to contend with. There's too many to pick off with guns. We need to create some kind of barrier between us and them. Then we'd just have to worry about picking off the handful that slip through."

"What if we ask the Doc if he has any silver nitrate solution?" Geoff asked, "that way we could spray the crowd with it."

"Oh yes, the doctor managed to steal whole barrels of an expensive chemical compound from his labs which he conveniently has kept in his own home. Right. Next to the nuke, I assume." said Hector, dripping with sarcasm.

Geoff shrugged at Hector's sarcasm, "Silver Nitrate is the simplest of all silver salts, you should remember that from school, Hector. Given that the good Doctor has turned his house into a fortress, it's also possible, just possible that he stocked up on some of the best way of defeating the things he was defending against. Hell, given some nice silver cutlery and some nitric acid, he might have even cooked it up himself."

Geoff looked out at the crowd, "Now I'm not saying he'll definately have it, only that it may not be as beyond the realms of possibility as your tone might suggest. That being said, how do you suggest we proceed, Hector?"

"Geoff has a point. It's not like the Doc would have to steal it from his lab, anybody can get it. If I'd known this bug was lurking out there, I would've stocked up on some." Monica shrugged. "We won't know until we ask him, and it certainly couldn't hurt to ask."

"OK," Geoff said, "I'll pop down and ask him."

Geoff clattered downstairs and popped his head back into the room, "Uh, Doc. I know it's a long shot, but you don't happen to have any silver nitrate in the house do you?"

"That sounds good in theory," Replied Anton, "But silver nitrate is not that effective on infected creatures: you would need to inject them."

The older Doc S cleared his throat: "Unless you use a highly concentrated solution..."

Tony looked at his father and waved a hand dismissively: "Yes, yes, also good in theory, but dad, we are talking about a lot of silver nitrate - to say nothing of the logistical problems, like having to keep the water just below boiling point."

"It's more than a good theory, Antek." Replied Doc S. somewhat sheepishly. "If you go down in the basement, you'll find is a 25 gallons barrel: it contains about 500 pounds of silver nitrate solution. you'll have to warm it up, of course, but..."

"Are you kidding me?" Tony did a couple quick equations in his mind: "That's enough to buy another house!"

The doctor scoffed: "Oh, Antek, don't be so overdramatic... Yes, yes, perhaps I could have bought a new car with the money I spent on it, but what help would a brand new car be right now?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:19, Mon 19 Oct 2009.

'What a convenient turn of events... thank you.' Karen thinks to herself thanking whatever merciful omni-present authorative entity came to mind first, most likely god. "But doc, do we have any means of dispersing the silver nitrate effeciently?" Karen asks as she looks around the room before looking back at the dock, "Like maybe a preasure washer or chemical sprayer?"

The doctor looked somewhat embarrassed: "I... Never really thought I would actually need it."

"Well, that's still good news... Now all we need is some old pipes, a blowtorch, and an A-Team montage." Smiled Eddie. "But seriously, you said this thing has to be hot when we spray them. How hot, exactly?"

The doctor thought for an instant: "Well, the hotter the better, but anywhere around two-hundred will do."

  "Well don't I feel like a dumbass" said Hector, despairingly, to Monica after Geoff left,"I hate it when my childhood education, or lack there of, shows it's ugly head. Fucking Peru..."

"That's ok, hon. You've got other kinds of skills that are just as important." Monica looked out the window once more. "In this new world we've got happenin' around us, nobody is gonna care if you can name all the state capitals. Knowin' how to survive when the shit hits the fan, that's what's gonna keep us alive." Monica walked over and caressed Hector's face with her hand. "Don't be puttin' yourself down. I kinda like you the way you are." She leaned in and gently pressed her lips against his.

And so that famous tongue of Hector's made its appearance in Monica's mouth again, and it was just as fun as last time.

Monica was tempted to linger in Hector's arms, but she knew the sooner they got out of here, the better. Every minute that they wasted gave the horde outside time to attract even more infected. She broke the embrace as suddenly as she had begun it. "Let's see if the doc's got anything around here that might be useful." She started to search the study, like a cop looking for evidence.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:58, Thu 13 Aug 2009.

"Good news guys..." Announced Jane, entering the studio, then she looked at them suspiciously: "Am I interrupting something?"

Monica gave Jane a sly smile. "Not yet, but give us time." She winked at Hector before returning her attention to Jane. "What's the good news?"

Karen watched Jane sneak up stares to where Monica and Hector had disapeared to, as she herself grew a little ansty about what the circumstance was outside. With an inner sigh, Karen followed, hoping to hear some more good news. Once upstairs however, Karen watches the scene play out before her eyes before interrupting. "So how are things outside? Do you think we can hit this boss zombie, the reverend mentioned?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:01, Thu 13 Aug 2009.

Jane looked from Monica to Hector and back, and grinned: "Good! Keep up te good work! Anyway, turns out Doc has a load of silver nitrate down in the basement. If we find a way to spray it on those things outside... Well, the eggheads downstairs say that's gonna make some difference."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:07, Thu 13 Aug 2009.

Nephi considered following Karen upstairs as well, but decided against it.  Monica and Jane are up there, and would castrate Hector if he tried anything funny.

"Cool," Monica said. "Let's go check out the doc's basement, and see what else he might have." She headed for the stairs.

As they came back to the living room, Eddie tool the other two cops aside, and asked for a quick report; after ascertaining that things were indeed as grim as Xynthia had predicted, he stroked his chin pensively and said: "OK... So we have plenty of bad news to go round. Listen, I keep hearing this (censored)messed up stuff(/censored) about blessing bullets or whatever. You've seen this guy do that before right? Does it really work?"