Smoker stuck his head out the window and looked around for an alternate route to the smokestack that didn't involve death-defying leaps.

Peter looked to see what was going on - and there were several different things to take in. He immediately discarded Trask as Trask seemed to be in one piece and relatively safe for the moment. He looked up and saw Jason, and then a spray of blood. He peered upwards but let out a small growl of frustration. "I cannot see what is up there with him and I am unsure of my ability to shoot and not hit him!"

He looked for something, anything, to help them. He looked for a way to climb up after Jason.

Jane cursed and looked around.  "Don't these things know that hospitals are suppose to be a neutral zone?  They are too close.  We might hit the Jason."

Jane looked around for alternatives to shooting into the melee.  She really knew that there wasn't such a thing as a neutral zone for many things but she still liked to think that hospitals were.

 Jason's hand slick with his blood found it hard to continue holding onto Tizona. Somehow he found the will to make horribly ineffectual strikes at the thing that has eaten his foot and a good sized portion of his leg. He manages to croak out "Kill.....i....t.....!!!"

Smoker growled with frustration. The only ways he could see to get over there safely were going to take far too long, and he knew he wasn't capable of making the leap.

Jane braced herself.  She didn't like her odds and she didn't have her SAW which she would have delightfully emptied into the beast.  She had her side arm though and so that was what she used.  She knew that it wasn't the best but if she aimed past where Jason's foot was, hoping that she judged it right.

"Don't blame me if I hit you!"

Jane took aim and dug down deep inside herself to ignore the fact that she might hit Jason and fired.

In reply to Jane Guin (msg # 302):

Fading in and out, Jason knew his time was short, perhaps seconds at most. He had no regrets, if this was his day to die then he'd done it defending a friend from some nameless horror of the Weird West. He began to feel cold as his blood drained out and his sword felt so damn heavy.

Taking the safety off and setting the select-fire pistol to single-shot, Jane steadied her HI Thunderer by bracing it on the windowsill. She couldn't see the critter that was devouring Jason but she could see the tentacle that was binding him. She fired once, shifting her aimpoint to strike it in the side so the round wouldn't overpenetrate and his Jason. The 9mm caseless round zipped across the intervening space. It struck the cable-like pseudopod binding him! It started to recoil but didn't let go.

Trask hung onto the side of the scaffolding, chest hurting, struggling to draw a breath. He drew his snubbie revolver, tried to aim past Jason up to the critter that held him but it was impossible. All he could see were teeth, and a maw chomping on Jason's leg, spraying blood down into Trask's face. He decided to aim at the tentacle binding Jason instead and fired. The .45 Long Colt round also hit, and this proved too much for the beast. The tentacle (really, as Trask saw, probably its tongue?!) let go of Jason and slithered up into its mouth. It rapidly disappeared up into the Steel Sky, being able to somehow climb up sheer metal surfaces.

Jason's lifeless body thumped down onto the boards of scaffolding surrounding the incinerator smokestack. His sword was still clamped in his grasp.

Trask let out a breath and the holstered his revolver. He then looked for a way to get up to Jason, handholds and something for his legs to stand on as he climbed. Once there he would begin first aid by using a belt or shoelace to tie off Jason's severed leg and hopefully stop the bleeding.

"Alright mate you owe me a drink for this."

Trask did what he could, applying pressure with a tourniquet to the stump of Jason's right leg. The blood flow slowed but didn't stop. He needed some more help!

Finished with her visit to an unconscious Schaeffer, Rowan took the elevator to the roof. This was where Fred Biletnikoff said he would be talking to the Posse.

She met Dakota at the top floor elevator lobby. He was slumped in a wheelchair and looked in poor shape, not from wounds but from the old illness he was fighting off. Weakly, Dakota pointed towards the old psych ward wing. "Go that way. Some kinda... trouble. I'm just gonna wait here. Rest a bit. Just get so tired... you know?"

Nodding in agreement, Rowan sprinted off down the trash-filled corridor. She came across Fred, who was waving her down. "That way! Jason's hurt bad. Not in this building, but across the way. He needs help, badly!"

She could see through the window Trask hanging on to scaffolding surrounding a smokestack 20 feet or so away. He was aiming his revolver up at something that was holding Jason upside down, and Jason was minus a leg. Blood from the stump rained down on him. He aimed up and fired, Jane also fired. Rowan knew there was no way could she make that jump unless she was extremely lucky!

OOC: At this point Peter's leap, if it happens, is not yet resolved. So whatever happens with him will be incorporated as necessary in the narrative.
This message was last updated by the GM at 09:54, Wed 01 Mar 2017.

Peter became a bit caught up in the moment, for some reason. Very uncharacteristically for him, he began to do something both very stupid and very dangerous for someone he wasn't on currently on the best of terms with. He took a few steps back and then charged forward with intent to jump out the window. But even as he did so he saw Jason's lifeless body fall and knew it was hopeless. So he tried to interrupt himself, tripping and shuffling, to catch himself on the window before he went flinging out. It took both hands but he was able to barely stay inside.

He let out a long pained sigh. "Dammit."

In reply to Peter Firecrow (msg # 306):

Rowan looked over at Peter as he steadied himself. "Careful, don't fall! Looks like Trask can't seem to stop the bleeding.

"Here! Trask! Catch!" Digging out a poultice, she wound up and fired it across the intervening space. "Put it on the stump!"

It looked like it was going wide. Trask would need to reach to grasp it!

In reply to Rowan Dawson (msg # 307):

It was a good throw, and although he fumbled a little Trask was just barely able to catch the thrown poultice. It looked like the ones Rowan used in the Down Below to stop the bleeding from the eye sockets of the medic Merc. All that was needed was to apply it to the stop.

Trask brings his arm down and begins to get the poultice ready to apply. He does not look up at Jason's face as he works putting on the poultice and hoping it makes a difference.

In reply to Increase Trask (msg # 309):

Jason felt like he was fading away. His vision blurred due to the loss of blood. At least being this close to death, the pain was receding. In fact, he never felt any pain at all from his severed leg although his throat felt like it was on fire from when he was being strangled.

Once the poultice was applied, Trask could see the flow of blood stop immediately. Jason still needed a transfusion, fast, but he still clung to life and consciousness.

In reply to The Marshall (msg # 310):

Inside the Hospital, Fred used a dusty but still functional phone in the nurse's station to call security and for a medical team.

"...up on the scaffolding around the smokestack on top of the incinerator. Something's up there, it bit off the leg of one of my friends. I can't tell much from here other than he lost a lot of blood, now hurry!"

Whatever it was seemed to be long gone before hospital security and paramedics arrived.

As the rest of the posse watched, four paramedics maneuvered a folding stretcher up to where Trask and Jason were. A 5-man security team armed with shotguns and SMGs climbed all the way up the scaffolding, then looked around at the Steel Sky. "Whatever it was is gone!"

A crowd began to gather, both hospital staff and patients, as Jason was strapped into the stretcher. They began to lower him to the ground.

In reply to The Marshall (msg # 312):

Trask follows the stretcher down and stay close, but out of the way of the medics and doctors as they do their job. He checks on his own wounds and at some point will alert a nurse to his condition if it is more then a bottle of whiskey will cure.

When they others from the group find him Trask will give a run down of what happened before adding. "There was something else, up there with us. Not the ropey thing, before on the roof I went down stairs and then I had my armour on and was taking to Colonel Phelps. Even though he was dead and then I jumped out of the window and was back here no armour and falling, I was able to get across through by the skin of my teeth. Must be something with mind control powers up there."

Trask shock his head a bit at the last statement he was having a hard time processing what had happened.

-

Peter gave a sharp nod to Rowan. "Good job. Your poultice seems to have saved him."

He then stepped back from the window and back inside to let the security and medical personnel do their jobs. He holstered his gun and began heading down so he could...well, he wasn't sure why really since he couldn't help Jason or Trask and would just get in the way, but he did anyway.

Jane looked out the window and nodded.  Once again Rowan was where she was needed.

"I'll go down with you.  That was close."

Jane didn't say anything else as she followed Peter.

Smoker followed, feeling particularly useless.

In reply to Peter Firecrow (msg # 314):

"I thank the Goddess!" She still looked a little worried as she followed everyone down to the ground.

On the ground floor they found the hospital in a confused crisis. Clearly something had happened but no one was clear on what it was. Security had locked down the entrances but they returned the Posse's weapons and let them exit.

Outside they met Trask. Paramedics rushed Jason in through the Emergency doors. He would be operated on immediately. Probably get a new leg!

Something wasn't right. Peter, Smoker and Jane felt it, so did Fred. (Rowan had left them to remain by Schaeffer's side.) Suddenly it hit them, where was Dakota? He never got in the elevator when they came down!

In reply to The Marshall (msg # 318):

Jane looked around and put a hand on Peter's arm.  "Hey Peter.  When did you last see DaKota?  I don't think he came down with the rest of us."  She then turned to the rest of the posse as they gathered and asked them the same question.  "Has anybody seen Dakota?"

"No..." said Smoker.

"When did you see him last?"

In reply to Smoker Nix (msg # 320):

"I saw him last when we were trying to help Jason.

"We should look for him. Or at least have hospital security look for him."