Ok, so I like where you've put us, though google fails to find the Joseph Lougheed Dam ;-) We're in June already, so this story needs to be moving towards some kind of conclusion soon so I'm assuming that whatever has caused this has either started at the Dam, or this is the epicentre for this particular breakout (I quite like the idea that this is either a national or global issue but that there are small hotspots for each outbreak. So the heroes can wipe out hotspots and keep areas clear, at least for a while). So I've provided a chance for our protagonists to catch their breath and start investigating -- but feel free to take them away from here and to somewhere else if that's what you have in mind.
Hmm, this might have been one post, but with the exposition above, it's not. Sorry :-/
Mine The wind was blowing away from us and there were some pretty tall (and pretty) trees on the approach, which probably explained why, if either of us had actually noticed the three thin, twisting spires of smoke lifting into the air we hadn't noticed. Well, that and being exhausted by a two-day hike, whatever the hell was going on out here, and dreaming of a hot shower and coffee. Or even a hot shower of coffee; that would work for me right about now. Anything, in fact, than the fires, the wreckage and the sheer disaster that the Joseph Lougheed Dam visitor's centre had become. "What the--?" he said, biting off the swearword in disbelief. He didn't swear much, but it was almost always justified when he did, and I felt it was probably justified right about now. "Drive on," I said. "This can't be any better than where we just were. There'll be more zom-- shamblers. People with a drug problem. Jesus, I'm too tired to deal with all this right now, just drive on." He slowed the car and we ambled towards the visitors' centre still. After a few seconds I looked over him, rubbing my eyes. I hadn't realised how much I wanted to sleep, and now the shock of the scene was wearing off, the weariness was closing in on me like a weighted blanket. "Drive on," I said, spoiling my determination a little by ending with a jaw-cracking yawn. "I don't think I can," he said, and I looked more closely: he was ashy and his hands were gripping the steering wheel with a death-grip. "I... I need a break. And I can't see anyone moving here." "Taking chances isn't a great i--" Another yawn cut me off.
"And you're not in much better shape," he said. "Look, maybe you could sleep while I drive and then we swap, but at the moment neither of us can drive. Let's see if we can at least park up somewhere out of sight. Anyone coming by here is going to drive past--" "Like we should." "Or they're here to help and them finding us will be good news." He acted like I'd not interrupted. I thought about it. Well, I tried to, but my mind was just fuzzy and my eyes kept trying to close. "Ok," I said, though I knew I didn't have much choice. I was going to fall asleep and he was going to do whatever he pleased since I wouldn't be contributing. "Ok." I must have fallen asleep then as the next thing I remember is him gently shaking my arm and feeling like I'd been lying on lego for an hour. Everything ached or was stiff, or was complaining that it had been held in the wrong position for too long. I came too slowly and smelled... was that coffee? He was sat in the driver's seat looking... clean! He looked showered! And he was holding a paper cup of coffee that smelled like the Rapture. "Wha?" I managed, being the eloquent conversationalist that I am. My lizard brain took control and seized the coffee -- the cup was hot -- and I started drinking it. The taste was a little bitter but it was still the best thing I'd had in a while. "We're round the back," he said. "You fell asleep so I just looked for as much cover as I could find. There was a track marked employees only so I drove up that -- car got a bit scratched running over the chain that was supposed to block it -- and it went through a small grove of trees and came out here." I looked out the window but night had fallen and there was little to see. I could see a rectangle of yellow light that looked like a window and the promise of civilisation. "Employee block. It's completely empty. There's a small shower facility, a kitchen, a couple of beds, and the keys to all the doors are... here!" He held up a key-ring and jingled it happily. "We can get our breath back before we move on out." "But what happened to the rest of it?" I asked. The coffee was helping a lot but the idea of that shower was a siren song in my head. "No clue," he said. "But I figured we can take a cautious look around in the morning before we get away from this madness. Though... we're going to need a petrol station as well if this isn't localised to this area."
Greg - hi. No, I haven't forgotten about this. Yes, I like this as at least a somewhat permanent location for the remainder of the story. But we shall see what happens, as I really have no plans in mind.
Anyway. Here I go, before July disappears.
Mine:
Dawn arrived with a red sky in tow. As I observed the light from the employee's quarters I found it difficult to appreciate its beauty. What was it old fishermen said about... right.
Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning.
Shit.
"Top of the morning to you."
I looked over to find my partner in the survival horror my life had suddenly become smiling from the other side of a steaming cup of coffee. Without bothering to check to see if he had one of his own I snatched it out of his hands and started drinking.
"Right," he said with a wry smile. "First coffee, then talking."
I grunted in his general direction then returned my attention to the outside world. There were no signs of movement. No signs of life at all, really. I couldn't even hear any birds greeting the dawn with song.
"This place gives me the creeps," I said after draining the cup.
"Yeah," he agreed, taking the empty cup and starting to refill it. "But it's a lot better than the parking lot."
I scowled but decided to wait for my second caffeine hit before trying to argue with him. It didn't help knowing he was right. But this was only better because we hadn't found any... shamblers yet. There very well could be a small army of them lurking somewhere out of sight.
I shuddered.
"Have you looked around at all?" I asked, unsure of how long he'd woken before me.
"Not really," he replied. "I've only seen between here and the car. But we should check things out properly. Carefully, but properly. This could be our best bet to ride this out... whatever this is."
"You want to stay?!" I hadn't meant to raise my voice. I clamped my free hand over my mouth and listened hard, only relaxing after a full minute of further silence.
"If there's nobody here to bother us? Then yeah. If there's a connection to the internet? Then hell yeah. But we have to make sure it's only us. Otherwise we try our chances on the road. Not that I want to risk the nearest gas station being full of weirdos with an appetite for human fl-"
"Okay, okay," I said, cutting him off with a (not frantic, totally calm) wave of my hand. "Fine. But how do you propose we carefully look around?"
"Simple," he said with a smile that I did not care for in the least. "With these."
He stepped aside to reveal a small table covered with an assortment of tools and weapons. Wrenches, carving knives, a fire ax, a frying pan.
3 comments:
Ok, so I like where you've put us, though google fails to find the Joseph Lougheed Dam ;-) We're in June already, so this story needs to be moving towards some kind of conclusion soon so I'm assuming that whatever has caused this has either started at the Dam, or this is the epicentre for this particular breakout (I quite like the idea that this is either a national or global issue but that there are small hotspots for each outbreak. So the heroes can wipe out hotspots and keep areas clear, at least for a while). So I've provided a chance for our protagonists to catch their breath and start investigating -- but feel free to take them away from here and to somewhere else if that's what you have in mind.
Hmm, this might have been one post, but with the exposition above, it's not. Sorry :-/
Mine
The wind was blowing away from us and there were some pretty tall (and pretty) trees on the approach, which probably explained why, if either of us had actually noticed the three thin, twisting spires of smoke lifting into the air we hadn't noticed. Well, that and being exhausted by a two-day hike, whatever the hell was going on out here, and dreaming of a hot shower and coffee. Or even a hot shower of coffee; that would work for me right about now. Anything, in fact, than the fires, the wreckage and the sheer disaster that the Joseph Lougheed Dam visitor's centre had become.
"What the--?" he said, biting off the swearword in disbelief. He didn't swear much, but it was almost always justified when he did, and I felt it was probably justified right about now.
"Drive on," I said. "This can't be any better than where we just were. There'll be more zom-- shamblers. People with a drug problem. Jesus, I'm too tired to deal with all this right now, just drive on."
He slowed the car and we ambled towards the visitors' centre still. After a few seconds I looked over him, rubbing my eyes. I hadn't realised how much I wanted to sleep, and now the shock of the scene was wearing off, the weariness was closing in on me like a weighted blanket. "Drive on," I said, spoiling my determination a little by ending with a jaw-cracking yawn.
"I don't think I can," he said, and I looked more closely: he was ashy and his hands were gripping the steering wheel with a death-grip. "I... I need a break. And I can't see anyone moving here."
"Taking chances isn't a great i--" Another yawn cut me off.
"And you're not in much better shape," he said. "Look, maybe you could sleep while I drive and then we swap, but at the moment neither of us can drive. Let's see if we can at least park up somewhere out of sight. Anyone coming by here is going to drive past--"
"Like we should."
"Or they're here to help and them finding us will be good news." He acted like I'd not interrupted.
I thought about it. Well, I tried to, but my mind was just fuzzy and my eyes kept trying to close.
"Ok," I said, though I knew I didn't have much choice. I was going to fall asleep and he was going to do whatever he pleased since I wouldn't be contributing. "Ok."
I must have fallen asleep then as the next thing I remember is him gently shaking my arm and feeling like I'd been lying on lego for an hour. Everything ached or was stiff, or was complaining that it had been held in the wrong position for too long. I came too slowly and smelled... was that coffee? He was sat in the driver's seat looking... clean! He looked showered! And he was holding a paper cup of coffee that smelled like the Rapture.
"Wha?" I managed, being the eloquent conversationalist that I am. My lizard brain took control and seized the coffee -- the cup was hot -- and I started drinking it. The taste was a little bitter but it was still the best thing I'd had in a while.
"We're round the back," he said. "You fell asleep so I just looked for as much cover as I could find. There was a track marked employees only so I drove up that -- car got a bit scratched running over the chain that was supposed to block it -- and it went through a small grove of trees and came out here."
I looked out the window but night had fallen and there was little to see. I could see a rectangle of yellow light that looked like a window and the promise of civilisation.
"Employee block. It's completely empty. There's a small shower facility, a kitchen, a couple of beds, and the keys to all the doors are... here!" He held up a key-ring and jingled it happily. "We can get our breath back before we move on out."
"But what happened to the rest of it?" I asked. The coffee was helping a lot but the idea of that shower was a siren song in my head.
"No clue," he said. "But I figured we can take a cautious look around in the morning before we get away from this madness. Though... we're going to need a petrol station as well if this isn't localised to this area."
Greg - hi. No, I haven't forgotten about this. Yes, I like this as at least a somewhat permanent location for the remainder of the story. But we shall see what happens, as I really have no plans in mind.
Anyway. Here I go, before July disappears.
Mine:
Dawn arrived with a red sky in tow. As I observed the light from the employee's quarters I found it difficult to appreciate its beauty. What was it old fishermen said about... right.
Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning.
Shit.
"Top of the morning to you."
I looked over to find my partner in the survival horror my life had suddenly become smiling from the other side of a steaming cup of coffee. Without bothering to check to see if he had one of his own I snatched it out of his hands and started drinking.
"Right," he said with a wry smile. "First coffee, then talking."
I grunted in his general direction then returned my attention to the outside world. There were no signs of movement. No signs of life at all, really. I couldn't even hear any birds greeting the dawn with song.
"This place gives me the creeps," I said after draining the cup.
"Yeah," he agreed, taking the empty cup and starting to refill it. "But it's a lot better than the parking lot."
I scowled but decided to wait for my second caffeine hit before trying to argue with him. It didn't help knowing he was right. But this was only better because we hadn't found any... shamblers yet. There very well could be a small army of them lurking somewhere out of sight.
I shuddered.
"Have you looked around at all?" I asked, unsure of how long he'd woken before me.
"Not really," he replied. "I've only seen between here and the car. But we should check things out properly. Carefully, but properly. This could be our best bet to ride this out... whatever this is."
"You want to stay?!" I hadn't meant to raise my voice. I clamped my free hand over my mouth and listened hard, only relaxing after a full minute of further silence.
"If there's nobody here to bother us? Then yeah. If there's a connection to the internet? Then hell yeah. But we have to make sure it's only us. Otherwise we try our chances on the road. Not that I want to risk the nearest gas station being full of weirdos with an appetite for human fl-"
"Okay, okay," I said, cutting him off with a (not frantic, totally calm) wave of my hand. "Fine. But how do you propose we carefully look around?"
"Simple," he said with a smile that I did not care for in the least. "With these."
He stepped aside to reveal a small table covered with an assortment of tools and weapons. Wrenches, carving knives, a fire ax, a frying pan.
"You've got to be kidding me."
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