As she followed the group back down stairs, Karen noticed Eddie take Geoff and Hector aside, curious to see what they were saying, Karen listened in as much as she possibly could.

"I can't give you a definitive answer, Sir," Geoff said, "the world seems to be messed up in so many different ways that it's difficult to sort out reality from perception. However, what I do know is that Nephi took an injured woman who was, in my opinion, beyond help and healed her enough that she's walking around now, that's Karen I'm talking about. He also took an injury I had and accelerated the healing, look at it," he showed his superior the scar, "it looks a couple of weeks old, Yeah? Well I took the injury a few hours ago. As for the blessed bullets. Again I can't give you impirical evidence, but before the rounds were blessed it took Hector and I two clips to drop one of those things, since then, we've been dropping them in one or two shots. Granted, we know where to hit them now, but either Hector's been putting in range time on the quiet and not telling me, or he's gotten really, really lucky, or there's something to this religious stuff."

Not having anything better to do while trying to figure out the next move, Nephi tries to listen in on the cops talking.

Monica bounded down the stairs and stuck her head into the living room. "Hey." She hesitated for a moment as she looked at the younger Doc S. "Tony, right? You said there's some stuff in the basement. How 'bout you show me."

Tony hesitated for a moment, then shrugged: "Yeah... Sure, this way."

"Antek," His father stopped him, "You are going to need the key."

"We lock the basement now?" Anton replied, surprised.

The older doctor smiled thinly: "With gasoline and silver nitrate down there, I thought it would be prudent, in case we had guests with kids or something like that."

"Oh... Yeah, probably a sensible precaution. Where's the key?"

"It's under the vase on the shelf next to the door."

Tony raised an eyebrow without commenting.

"It's not meant to be burglar-proof! It's just not to leave it in plain sight."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:20, Mon 19 Oct 2009.

"Anton, wait." Xynthia seemed to have regained her mental stability, but how long that would last was anybody's guess. "Speaking of keys... I need yours. For the briefcase."

"Briefcase?"

"The one with the assault rifle? You remember that, right?" Asked Xynthia, somewhat sarcastically but not aggressively so.

"Uh, it's a combination briefcase... 709-340."

"Thank you."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:59, Mon 24 Aug 2009.

Monica looked over to her friend, Jane. "You comin'?" Not waiting for an answer, Monica turned and followed Anton down the basement stairs.

Not certain if she was invited or able to gleam much out of the conversation Eddie was having with the other two officers, Karen follows Monica into the basement to see what they can find.

Realizing Monica wasn't coming back to the make out session Hector finally started down the stairs.

"Sure am." Smiled Jane. "Say, think we will find a rocket launcher or something?"

Eddie shook his head: "Whatever works, I guess." Taking his last full magazine of 9mm ammo, he continued: "Funny: I always thought prayers helped the ones on the business end of one of these..."

"I would be pleasantly surprised, but do you think it'd do much good against the big one out there?" Karen commented as she followed the other girls down into the basement.

"What we need is a plane, so we can take off and nuke 'em from the air." Monica smiled at Karen. "It's the only way to be sure."

She followed Tony down the basement stairs. It was musty and dark. Tony flipped a switch that turned on a bare, overhead bulb, casting everything in shades of gray. The walls were unfinished, consisting of whitewashed concrete. It looked like an ordinary basement, with dust covered boxes and other things that were being stored. Monica looked back at the two women who had come with her. "Am I the only one that kinda expected to find a mad scientist's lab down here?" Then noticing Tony, and remembering that the old man was his father, Monica gave him a half-apologetic shrug.

She spotted a trio of barrels along one wall, and went to take a closer look. "Looks like he's got some diesel fuel over here," Monica called over her shoulder to the others. "Lord knows, I like Hector." A devilish smile crossed her face as she turned to look at Jane. "You've seen the way that man's butt looks in his uniform!" Facing the barrels once more, she continued. "But if it comes down to me or them, I will set 'em on fire." One thing Monica had learned growing up the way she did, was how to be a survivor.

She stood up an continued to survey the dank room. Seeing a smaller barrel, marked with several warning signs, she addressed Tony. "Is that the zombie-killin' chemical?"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:44, Mon 31 Aug 2009.

Tony passed a hand on the top of the smallish barrel, removing the light layer of dust that had accumulated and revealing a label with the formula of the content: "That's it alright. Some thirty grand of silver nitrate..."

Tony smiled ruefully: "I guess this is a mad scientist's lab after all."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:21, Mon 19 Oct 2009.

"Hey, if this thing works, you won't hear any complaints from me." Jane looked around pensively: "But how do we bring it upstairs? Your father said it weighs, like, five hundred pounds... And how do we spray it on those things out there, for that matter?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:27, Mon 31 Aug 2009.

"Don't forget that you will also need to warm it up. It won't be half as effective if it's cold." Tony added. "And in case you are thinking about it, lighting a fire under the barrel is a bad idea."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:21, Mon 19 Oct 2009.

Monica moved a couple of boxes out of the way, to reveal an old electric water heater. "Hey Jane, take a look at this. Do ya' think we could jury-rig somethin' with it?" Looking at Tony, she added, "Maybe we could use this to heat that stuff up."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:01, Mon 31 Aug 2009.

"Now if only we had a water hose and a sprayer we'd be set, oh not to mention a pump too." Karen added as she thought out loud to herself, "As for what the doc said, I doubt we'll find any of those things down here."

Jane moved behind the old thing and knocked on it a couple of times: "Dunno, maybe... Hey, Tony? How long has this thing been down here? And how broken was it in the first place?"

Anton scratched his head: "Maybe five years... It wasn't broken, my parents just got a better one."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:21, Mon 19 Oct 2009.

Jane eyed the white tank critically: "Let's get the guys. I'm gonna see if I can make something out of it."

Meanwhile, upstairs, Xynthia had unlocked the large briefcase Tony had brought in, revealing exactly what the young doctor had said it would contain: a circa-1960 assault rifle... Or, more accurately, all the pieces required to rebuild the aforementioned rifle.

A foam padding had carefully been carved out and placed on both the top and the bottom halves of the suitcase to precisely accommodate all the pieces, plus the minimum of tools required for reassembly, a small bottle of oil, and the magazines Anton had mentioned: six of them, tied in pairs, so that after the first was spent the shooter could simply switch to its twin without having to waste time looking for one.

Xynthia took one of the paired magazines out of the briefcase, looked around for her purse, realized she'd left it in the motorhome, and sighed: "Would any of you happen to have some nail polish? I want to mark the one I bless..."

(At that, Doc S pinched the root of his nose between two fingers, as if fighting a headache.)
This message was last edited by the player at 08:20, Tue 01 Sept 2009.

Nephi felt slightly sick as Xynthia began doing whatever it was she was doing, but did his best not to show it.  "Sorry.  I don't have anything to mark them with."

"I'll go get them." Karen volunteered as she climbed out of the basement and looked for Hector and Geoff, "Guys, was wondering if we could get a hand down in the basement. Jane found an old water heater and thinks she might be able to use it for something." She said standing near the doorway to where she last saw the three policemen.

"No problem, Ma'am," Geoff said, heading for the basement, "I'm on the way."

He made his way down to the basement, careful not to bump his head, and looked around, "Hey," he said, "what do you have in mind?"