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| Outside Gainesville, The Wilderness |
| In poses. |
| 12 Days After Landing |
Day 12 After Landing dawns cool, with an on-and-off-again drizzle that has most of the Delinquents staying close to camp. There are a few expeditions, however, including one led by ex-Cadet Samantha Quinn. The party heads south, climbing up and down hills and fording little streams here and there. It's four hours of hard walking, at a brisk pace, but the end goal should be worth it, a pre-Apocalypse Civil Defense Supply Depot buried north of Gainesville. It's not until the group comes out into a little clearing atop a hill and they can see Lake Manassas down below that they realize they've actually reached Gainesville. Of the city that once sprawled out before them… there is no sign. Quinn has coordinates for the depot, and a rough map of the area, but nothing more to indicate where the entrance to the underground depot might be.
Max follows along, having brought along what makeshift bags he was able to gather to stow things in. He keeps his eyes out on the area around them, keeping an eye out for unfriendly critters, people, plants, ominous rocks. But the journey is long and he keeps a steady pace, following along with Quinn and the others. He's been quiet most of the trip, saying little, though occasionally whistling as he walks. When they come to pause and look out over what used to be Gainesville he takes a deep breath and lets it out in a whoosh. "Well.. any landmarks we can triangulate from?"
As they move through the terrain Quinn stops every so often to check the map, then have someone else double-check it. She's not so foolish to not second guess herself at the moment, but when they get to where it should be she pauses, "There should be a quarry, and that's where the entrance should be."
Alison carries with her a few of the salvaged tools, some water, and her weapons, a curved knife and a spear. As they stand on the high point, she scans the lake and horizon. She has a satchel for things, but for now, she just takes a moment. "It really is beautiful, from space, you think it is a huge gem. From here, you see how much more vast and intricate the beauty is on Earth." A glance to Quinn, then a nod as she covers her eyes with her hand to look for a 'quarry.' "Okay." She comments, back to work.
Four Hours. Four Hours of listening to Lip talk. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea for him to come along, after all. Either way, at least he's managed to swindle himself into heading out for something that may not be as dangerous as the last time he ventured somewhere. Hopefully, there won't be any panthers or anything else violent and trying to kill him. "… so that's when I was like: you'll never take us aliiiive! and shit, right? I'm telling you, we had those Guards scared. But eventually they got us away from the door and we ended up Box'd. For some major bullshit, I say." Lip pauses in both his steps and his mouth movement to look around when Quinn's dropping some knowledge. "So, and I know I've asked this a couple times before…" Like fifty. "… but are we there yet?" He then looks from one Delinquent to another and so forth. "… the hell is a quarry?"
<FS3> Lip rolls Survival: Success.
<FS3> Alison rolls Survival: Good Success.
<FS3> Quinn rolls Survival: Success.
<FS3> Max rolls Survival: Good Success.
Looking out over the trees and around the lake, Max squints into the distance, and then back into the surrounding trees. He notices Alison looking in the same direction and asks her, "Do you see that over there? Space in the trees, kind of a drop over there, too. Think that might be it? Could be another pond.." He starts looking around to see if he can see any other depressions nearby and gaps in the trees that are similar, just in case.
"It's the right direction." She thinks. Quinn glances back at the map, then she folds it up to tuck it into her pocket, glancing towards Max and then Alison for a moment before she starts in that direction. It seems like it's good enough for her, unless someone stops her.
Alison glances across the horizon, nodding thoughtfully and pointing towards the depression in confirmation. "Well, here is hoping. Best choice I see." Then she starts carefully striding downward toward the forests in the valley. She checks her torch, and her rope (a twenty foot cord from one of the parachutes.) "Almost, Lip, closer than my last almost."
The trees and brush grow thicker around the depression, requiring chopping or serious pushing to get through them. But once past that resistance, the hollow opens up into a space of about an acre, a low spot with sides softened and sloped by erosion, filled with large rocks, piles of gravel, and what might have once been a dump truck but is now just a smear of rust and a twisted pile of metal the size of a sedan. Over it all, a low haze of vines and underbrush softens every corner and hard edge.
Max approaches the area, looking over the rocks and gravel, the twisted pile of rusted metal. "So.. I guess we should start looking for a structure.. or a door in the ground maybe.. if it's underground." He starts a slow wander out into the depression, "Look for a lump I guess in the underbrush?" That's his plan, anyway, and he seems to be sticking to it as he starts to wander the area, taking his time and watching his footing, seeking some sort of lump, hill, or depression that doesn't seem to match the sloped sides of the edge that might indicate a door or structure.
"It's supposed to be underground, so a door…" Quinn replies, brushing some of the underbrush off her leg where it clings to her, then she starts to move to a different area than Max to start searching. "Everyone…keep your eyes open, not just for doors….sing out if you spot anything."
Alison moves out, poking about with her spear, "Let's see what can find. And watch out for things too." She comments, scanning the ground, and a few times the air. "A cave might be it too."
Barely catching up with the others because he was focused on himself for the longest time. He just gets himself back up to the rest of the group and takes a second to toss his curly hair. "When is a door not a door?" Lip grins a little bit as he starts glancing around to see what's up or what he can figure out. "No, seriously, not a riddle. I'm seriously asking." Pause. "Wait, what're we looking for again?" Lip is all about the random wandering around (but staying close) to see if he can find this place. Or whatever it is. He honestly doesn't even know why he's out here. WITHOUT A WEAPON.
<FS3> Lip rolls Alertness: Success.
<FS3> Alison rolls Alertness: Great Success.
<FS3> Max rolls Alertness: Good Success.
<FS3> Quinn rolls Alertness: Good Success.
Max is never without a weapon, not since the ambush at the river. But for the moment they remain at his hip and in his boot. He makes his way around toward one wall of the hollow where there appears to be some remains of a structure and begins to poke around at it, trying to figure out if it is intact or not. But there's a rock. A big rock. Crouching down, he checks to see if there's some way to wriggle around it.
Quinn glances towards Lip, shaking her head, "Door, looking for a door." She responds with an exasperated sound before starting to look around again. About the same time Max finds something she moves towards the same direction, "You think this is it?" She glances behind her, trying to signal Alison and Lip to come over as well.
Alison looks around, following her own advice about caves, and the unspoken fear it was buried. She rubs at her ankle, kneeling down to adjust her boot. The green eyes glance up the cliff wall, guided by the motion of Max moving towards the rock. "I think that fell, we might be able to climb or boost over it." She says as she stands, nodding to Quinn, "Looks like it." Using her spear tip as a pointer. "There seems to be something of a structure or metal behind it." She moves to join the pair, waiting on Lip. "Want to see if you can help Quinn up, I know you do, Lip." There is a smirk to the young man.
"OH ZOD WHAT THE HELL IS THAT KILL IT WITH FIRE—" by the time Lip has realized that what he was looking at wasn't going to kill him he's nowhere near it. He peeks out from behind whoever he ended up behind and peers at the rock he was close to. A damn lizard. "So. Don't worry about that lizard over there, guys. It's harmless. I recognize it from old books or something. Whatever you'll believe right at this exact moment." Lip almost immediately dives into Alison's words. "Up and at 'em, Q'tie Pie! I swear I'm stronger than I look." He's even trying not to look like a creepster for this particular moment.
<FS3> Max rolls Brawn+brawn: Failure.
<FS3> Lip rolls Brawn+brawn: Good Success.
<FS3> Quinn rolls Athletics+1: Good Success.
<FS3> Lip rolls Stealth: Success.
<FS3> Quinn rolls Alertness: Failure.
Max moves over to give Quinn a hand up and over the rock along with Lip when Alison makes the suggestion, but he doesn't manage to catch her foot quite right to give her the boost. Fortunately, Lip is there to help. He winces a little and says, "Whoops," hoping that she doesn't fall, and looks relieved when she doesn't, as well as apologetic.
With the boost up Quinn drags herself up and over the rock that seems to be blocking something, "So…there's a door!" She calls, moving close to try and turn the wheel that is affixed on the front of the door. And hopefully if something is going to go wrong, it's just her.
Alison watches, taking her rope and getting it ready, "Quinn, if you have a way to secure the rope on that side, we can toss it over and use it to help." She states as she looks at the rock, then the gentlemen, "You okay, Max?"
Lip is all with the helping. He can't believe he actually did something close to helping. "Woo! Did you see the skills? Recognize, baby!" Lip takes a moment to do his patented Fish Outta Water Dance move and then he's seriousing back up because he probably should be serious for what's going on. "Hey, Q! Don't do nothin' until we get up there! Somebody has to have your fine ass back!"
Lip then goes for keeping those hands ready to help the others up. "Lip's Elevator Service! Going Up?"
<FS3> Max rolls Athletics+2: Failure.
<FS3> Alison rolls Athletics+2: Success.
<FS3> Lip rolls Athletics+2: Good Success.
<FS3> Quinn rolls Brawn+brawn: Good Success.
<FS3> Lip rolls Brawn+Brawn: Good Success.
The rock does indeed have a door behind it, with only enough space between rock and door for two very friendly people. There is an enormous wheel on the outside of the door, like on a bank vault, with the spokes bent and twisted. The rope can easily be anchored to the wheel, but it takes some effort to get Max up, leaving he, Lip, and Alison precariously on top of the rock and Quinn on the door side.
Perhaps that leg is still giving him a bit of trouble. It's taken some abuse after all, because Max manages to slip in his attempt to scramble up the rock and land roughly on the ground with a grunt and some scrapes on his hands for his trouble. Fortunately, his friends are more agile than he, and manage to haul him up on top of the rock. He coughs a little bit, embarassedly and rubs at the back of his neck. "Thanks," he mumbles.
"I can't spin the wheel myself." Quinn informs them when they all are on the top of the rock, "And I'm not entirely sure how to get in otherwise…" She tucks herself into one side of the opening, moving so that she can look upwards at them.
Alison looks down at the little space, "You got that, Quinn. Want Max to help? Maybe you can lever it with something between the two of you?" She offers, but gives one of those worried looks, "Maybe you can secure the rope on the right, Lip and I can try to pull too?"
<FS3> Alison rolls Science: Good Success. (Physics)
Lip just looks around because he's not sure what the hell is going on. He's not smart. "Did you try pushing it?" That's all that Lip has to offer. He knows there's a wheel and stuff but if the door is push and not pull he'd feel stupid if he didn't, at least, mention it.
"Take a bar, and cross it with a spoke, maybe a spear to lever it. Secure it to the side, then take a wet cloth, twist it like a tourniquet, thingie, that should break the seal." Alison offers and lends a hand to Max to help him down.
Max takes Alison's hand and lets her help him down and then says, "Alright.. I think I get what you mean." He examines the door and then looks around for what they have to use to get that kind of a thing accomplished. He pulls out some of his water and uses a little bit of it to dampen one of the cloth makeshift bags he has. "Okay, got the cloth."
"Oh…kay." Quinn doesn't seem to be very good at visualizing just what Alison means, but Max seems to have some idea of what she means. So she just waits for Max to take the lead on this, and helps do what she can.
<FS3> Max rolls Brawn+Brawn: Good Success.
<FS3> Quinn rolls Brawn+brawn+3: Good Success.
Alison just tried to carefully explain her confusing theory to the others. "Yea, like that.. Ah, move that a little lower and left, perfect!" The mutters, "I hope." A wince and waiting for, "Yea, great job!" She cheers then leans to Lip, and softer again,"Damn, it actually worked."
It is not without strain or effort (or brilliant mechanical advantage), but after a minute or so of straining, there is a shift in the wheel, and then it begins to spin. It takes even more straining to actually pull the door open, triggering a sharp hiss of indrawn air. Evidently, the outside air has not been inside in… a long time.
<FS3> Max rolls Alertness: Good Success.
<FS3> Alison rolls Alertness: Good Success.
<FS3> Quinn rolls Alertness: Failure.
<FS3> Lip rolls Alertness: Good Success.
Apparently the effort used to open that door was enough to wind Quinn, and make her head swim. She leans against the rock, trying to slow down the pounding of her heart as she takes a deep, slow breaths.
With the hiss of air there also comes another sound from inside and Max holds an arm out toward Quinn as though motioning for her to wait as he tilts his head, "Something's dripping in there. Might be water.. might not." He leans forward to take a sniff of whatever funky air is in there, and then glances over at Alison. "Want to shine some light in so we can see what we're going in to?"
"Queen Quinn? You alright?" Lip can hear the dripping of water but he's worried about the team more than he's worried about the door. "Hey. Be careful with that door. I've seen enough old movies to know that behind every hard to open door is usually something that wants to kill whoever opened the door. Or a monster." Lip hovers a hand over Quinn's shoulder. "Take a second, yeah? Breathe. Need water? I got water." Lip pats himself. "I don't got water." He turns to look at the other two. "Who has water?!"
Alison reaches around and gets her torch, "Here, Lip, see if you can light this and slip a peek in." Alison lowers her water skin to Quinn, "Sip it slowly." That said, Alison crouches on the rock for cover, just in case. "Give it just a second before you light it, let the air calm." Duck.
"I'm fine." Quinn assures them, giving a shake of her head before she straightens up, glancing past Max's arm beyond the entrance, "What else could it be if it wasn't dripping water?"
"Fuel? Depends on what they stored down there.. and what breaking the seal also shook loose. Just, you know.. being careful," Max says with a slight shrug of his shoulders and then gets out of the way as much as he can so Lip can shine a light on the situation. "Besides, I'd kind of like to see where I'm going to not fall in anything."
When the torch is lit, it's flickering flame reveals a metal catwalk running through a concrete tunnel, sloping gently down into the shadows. There are pipes beneath the catwalk, and now that sound of dripping water can be heard more readily. Fifty or sixty feet down the tunnel, the passageway splits. To the left, the sound of water dripping is louder, and the smell of damp is strong. The tunnel in that direction angles back to the right, out of sight. To the right, the other tunnel dead-ends in another metal door.
Alison readies her spear, holding back behind the group a tiny bit. She wedges a rock in the path of the door behind them. Getting locked in would severely such. "Look for placards, the government was very fond of labeling things. And be cautious." It is more the tone of helpful reminders than taking charge.
"Sure…placards." Quinn replies, pulling out her sword before she starts to edge in the direction of the entrance, "Stay behind me…and if anything leaps out to try and kill us, I want you to run for the door and close it behind you."
Alison frowns at the suggestion she'd seal Quinn in with some lurky thing. A faint sigh, "There should be weapons, I hope, but nobody try power switches. If there is power, good.. But flipping things on could be bad." The smooth voiced red head states, as the electrician and computer tech, that one comment is made with a hint of authority.
Max looks around down the tunnel and then nods, "Well, let's head on down and see what we can see." He takes up a spot behind Quinn if they need to go one by one, or next to her if there is room on the catwalk, which there likely isn't. He keeps his eyes out, and listens for any changes in the sound as they get closer to the divide in the tunnel.
Indeed, at the split in the tunnel, there is a placard, and it's in English. 'Welcome to the Gainesville Civil Defense Supply Depot.' Underneath that, in smaller text, it says, 'No Unauthorized Personnel. For Use Only In Emergency.' The empty corridor to the left plays host to dancing shadows in the light of the torch, while the left shows the door, including a dead keypad beside the door.
Without any real idea how to get the door open, Quinn tilts her head to the right instead. She doesn't talk, in case there really IS monsters down here..Then she starts to move forward, shifting her grip on the sword in her hand.
"Most door locks unpowered revert to unlocked." Alison offers and looks over the door itself. The she examines the keypad, "First try it, then see if their are magnets.. Then, well, then it gets complicated again.. And maybe we should try a different way." About the time she gets that out softly, she realizes Quinn is already going the other way. A tug to check, if it fails though, she moves to catch up.
Max waits about halfway between Quinn and Alison to keep an eye on Quinn's progress while waiting to see if the door opens. If not, then he follows on behind Quinn. "Perhaps if it doesn't.. we'll find something to get it open with further down." He checks on Lip every so often, just to make sure everyone's still okay and together as they move.
<FS3> Max rolls Alertness: Success.
<FS3> Quinn rolls Alertness: Good Success.
<FS3> Alison rolls Alertness: Success.
Up close, a placard by the door to the right can be seen, reading '616 Division.' When Alison spins the wheel and gives it a little tug, it too opens with a hiss, but this time, the pressure wave comes outward, pushing the door the rest of the way open. The flame of the torch sputters, goes blue for a moment, and then straightens up once more, burning more fitfully than it did a moment ago. Within the room, those low flames reveal moldering bales and crates of long-ruined items that look like they might fall apart at the slightest touch. There are also several sealed drums, and one that has fallen over and cracked into the corner, its contents not visible from the doorway.
When the door gets opened, Quinn halts her movements, waiting with her breath held before she starts to move back towards the others. She peeks through the door before she starts to ease into the room, checking the items that are closest to the door before she seems to zero in on one of the crates. She slides the sword away before reaching for it to try and pry the top off.
"Sorry." Alison mutters apologetically as Quinn moves past her. With the flame flicker, she reaches for a piece of cloth, wetting it and covering her nose and mouth. "Careful." She comment, slightly muffled, following behind after a moment.
Max waits until Alison gets the door open and then allows she and Quinn to enter first if they seem to want to before joining them and poking around through the ruined things, seeing if there might be anything salvageable in one of those drums. He pokes about carefully, reading anything he can, leaving behind the ruined items, but still moving them around to see if anything might be hidden beneath.
<FS3> Quinn rolls Resolve: Good Success.
<FS3> Alison rolls Resolve+1: Good Success.
<FS3> Max rolls Resolve: Great Success.
The air in the room feels heavy, too dense, and the light of the torch flickers again, guttering and nearly dying. When Quinn pries at the top of the crate, the entire crate falls apart, small objects tumbling out to bounce and scatter metallically across the concrete floor. It takes a moment, as the Delinquents' vision swims, and Quinn is the first to recognize them. Bullets, as long as a finger. The overturned barrel sits in a sticky puddle of sludge, but as Max approaches it, there are metallic or hard plastic objects jutting out of it. It's unclear what they are, but they're long and thin, shaped vaguely like paddles, or… rifles.
Quinn glances back towards Alison when the flames sputter, but seeing as how they end up alright she turns back to the bullets that are rolling around, "Well, we've got ammo. Anyone spot anything that might hold rifles? If there's none here, we might find some deeper. We also need to find the medical supplies ASAP."
Alison squints as her eyes blur and become bloodshot from the fumes. She keeps the cloth in place, reaching out the spear hand to steady herself. Still, she smiles beneath the cloth, "Groovy." A hesitation, "Take what you can carry. But, it is a long walk home, only what you require." She offers and blinks a few more times. "Medical would be good, as would suits and such for protection.. And tools, but you did well."
Max's vision swims. That's not a good sign. He can see things sticking out of the barrel and goes over to grab what he can and then tries to make his way back out of the room and into the air of the tunnel. "Don't stay in there long," he warns. "Grab what you can and come out." It's only once he's back out of the room to pause to see what he managed to drag out with him. "We should check the other tunnel for other supplies."
<FS3> Quinn rolls Resolve-1: Success.
<FS3> Alison rolls Resolve-1: Good Success.
Max's hand strikes something greasy, oily, slimy. If he persists, he gets most of an assault rifle, with a few pieces cracking off and falling apart after long exposure to the air… and to whatever fumes ride in it. The air is better in the corridor, but not much, the feel of it still heavy and greasy on the nose and throat. Inside the room itself, it is even denser, vision growing fuzzy, blurry as the two women look about at the nearly-rotted-away crates, long-squishy bundles that used to be something besides semi-organic sludge, single overturned drum, and the four sealed drums.
There's a moment where Quinn looks like she might fall face first into the crate, but she doesn't. Instead she grabs a few handfuls of bullets to shove into the pockets of her coat before she starts to make a quick, and somewhat shaky exit from the room.
Alison stuffs her pockets with bullets, then grabs a sealed drum, tilting it to try to roll it out. More coughing, and pushing herself to clear the room.
<FS3> Alison rolls Brawn+brawn: Failure.
Max drops the broken assault rifle outside the door and then turns back to help Alison and Quinn out of the room, "Come on.. back to the entrance.. and air. We can come back for it after we get our breath."
The drum stubbornly resists Alison's pushing, not falling over. It's definitely not empty. Once the trio are out in the corridor, it becomes easier to breathe, and the torch regains some life… and only has flickers of blue flame around the edges. It's still not easy to breathe, and the pressure on the temples is perceptible, but no one is likely to pass out there by the fork in the tunnel.
"Ugh.." Quinn makes a bit of a face once she's out in the tunnel, glancing towards Alison, "We'll come back for it…let's find the medical supplies first.." Or go get air, she's open for both.
Alison slips out into the corridor, even on to the crosswalk, holding her back with one hand and leaning down for deep breaths. "Damn." She mutters, glaring at the fume filled room like it had consciously stopped her. "You are right. We'll figure something out.. I am good, lead on." She says after a few more huffs she straightens and readies to follow Max and Quinn.
Max goes back to get another breath of air at the entrance of the corridor, taking a few deep breaths to clear his lungs before opting to try the other tunnel and see what there might be down in that direction. "The barrel's heavy. We can come back and try it again." He seems to be in agreement with Quinn that seeing if they can find medical supplies should come first.
"Yeah…later." Quinn agrees, taking the time to breathe and get rid of the dizzies, then she straightens up, "Let's go…" She waits until they are both ready before she starts to head deeper into the tunnels.
Down the other branch of the concrete tunnels, the floor continues to slope down. They go twenty, thirty, forty feet in, and the drip of water begins to get louder. And then there's another door, this one one their left, with a little placard that says 'Division 314,' another wheel, and another dead keypad. This door, however, is open just a crack, and the smell of mildew within is strong. Rusted metal shelves fill the room, each with plastic crates sitting atop it. Many of the crates are molded over, and most — if not all — of them are open, revealing nothing but green and white growth within.
"I doubt there's anything usable in there." Quinn ventures once getting a good look at what is inside the second door. She glances over at the two of them, "Deeper?"
Max takes a minute to squat down and gather up some grit/dirt from the floor near the entrance by the rock and uses it to rub at his hand, to soak up the nasty or at least sandpaper it off as best he can. Sure it will leave his hand covered in grit as well, but that stuff be gross, yo. However, there's little time for doing much more than that for the moment, and so he follows off after Quinn and Alison. "Well shit," he says when he looks over the moldy things within and sighs. "Continue on and see if there's anything further in?" In for a penny, in for a pound.
Alison nods, her eyes scanning the room. She taps at some of the stuff with the butt of her spear, "Yes, as far as we can." Alison confirms after a moment, then she is ready to trail them.
<FS3> Alison rolls Alertness: Good Success.
Alison's prod with her spear knocks one of the boxes over, the entire rusted shelf collapsing in a clatter and… squish. As the group continues down the hallway, always at a slight slope downward, it becomes apparent that water has gathered in the space beneath the metal catwalk. And then it becomes apparent that as they continue forward, it's getting deeper. Soon, it reaches the bottom of the catwalk, and the open space ahead of them appears to shrink going forward, water apparently filling the lower levels of the depot.
"Shit…" Quinn hisses a it becomes clear that water has filled the lower levels. She closes her eyes briefly, glancing upwards before she sighs, "I can go deeper, see if any of these doors might have saved the shit inside from water."
Alison stops, seeing the hallway ahead is flooded. "We'll have to figure a way to get underwater. Not this time, lets deal with what me almost have." She's crazy right. "Need electric lights too. Unless you know some way, Max?" She turns about, moving back to the last store room, "I need to check on something in that store room." That said though, she heads back to fish through the pile containers.
Max shakes his head and says, "Even if you could go under and look for doors that are closed.. if we open them they're just going to fill with water, wrecking whatever's in there. We're going to need some way of.. I don't know, preserving whatever we might find. But from the looks of all of this…" He sighs. "I want to find something, but I don't know how much luck we're going to have. We have no light to see under water." He nods in Alison's direction. What she said.
"You think we can like…pump the water out?" Quinn glances over at Max, her brows arching a little with the question before she shakes her head, turning on a heel to start heading back the direction Alison went, "I feel this was a waste of fucking time…Maybe that barrel has something useful."
"Come here." Alison calls out, "Some of this stuff is good, and some of the open boxes can work too. Help me gather this, then we make another try for a barrel." She is grabbing and tucking some actually still sealed containers. "It is fine, it had to be checked, even without a rifle, the gunpowder is useful."
At a closer look into the room, the plastic tubs are around three feet by two feet by one foot, and some of them still have 'Good Until 2210 US Army Corps of Engineers' bands around them. There are probably a dozen tubs that are still sealed, and even those which are open and have become filled with dank mold are still intact… just that their contents have long ago rotted out.
"Okay.. let's see what we can get out," Max says, moving over to help Alison, "We should probably see if we can get what? Four tubs out? If we stack them and carry them between us in pairs? Then throw a couple of empties on top just to have more containers? Then see what's in one of those barrels. My guess is the barrel's going to be full of guns and grease just like the broken one. Now that we know where the place is, though, we could come back with more folks, a bigger group, maybe build some sort of litter to toss things on and carry them.."
"Maybe…depends on what she found." Quinn observes, turning to go help out Alison, which just leads to the question, "What did you find?" She can't seem to see much beyond the living mold colony in the room.
Alison nods to Max about carrying the items, "We will check them in the outside light, "Get them to the exit first. I want another crack at one of those drums, when we get some fresh air… Then we come back with help. After the second drop ship being stripped.. I want to try." The red head says, starting to move the containers as best she can as Max suggested.
The tubs are not particularly heavy. Hefty enough to make it clear that there is something inside, perhaps cloth, or some light packaged food, or even loosely-packaged paper, but not heavy. They are easy to move except for a few that stick to the rusted shelves and require some pulling, but even these just require a little tugging to remove them.
After the tubs are gotten, Quinn starts to help cart them towards the front, "We'll have to seal the door back up behind us, no reason to let any more shit get in when we leave." Goal…entrance. Then there's the barrel problem once more.
Alison nods, taking the containers on out to the light. Then she nods with Quinn, "Lets give the barrels another shot, rinse a cloth and cover your mouth and nose. It helps a little." With that Ali is ready to go. "If we get a barrel, we can drain the oil. Actually with a little luck roll it as its own cart."
Max helps to get the tubs out to the front and whatever else they are taking, then he turns back with the others toward the room but doesn't go in. "Alright.. we go in, we all try to work it through the door.. if you start getting dizzy and stuff, just get out and we can try again. No point passing out in there."
<FS3> Quinn rolls Resolve: Success.
<FS3> Max rolls Resolve: Good Success.
<FS3> Alison rolls Resolve: Failure.
"No telling what'll happen if we do." Quinn points out before she does what Alison suggests, wiping her hands on her shirt before she finds a cloth to get wet and wrap around her face. Then she heads back towards the room, waiting to make sure everyone else is ready before starting for the barrel.
<FS3> Quinn rolls Brawn: Success.
<FS3> Max rolls Brawn+brawn: Good Success.
Alison crawls out in the hallway, coughing and breathing roughly till she can stand again. "Sorry." She calls back to the pair, "Give me a second, I'll try to help." Cough, "A.. few seconds, maybe a minute or two."
Max manages to get behind the barrel with Quinn and they get it tipped over and rolled out of the room, "Stay there. I'll come back and help you out in just a sec." He then works with Quinn to get the barrel to the end of the hall before heading back to help Alison get out as well.
Quinn helps Max the best that she can, which is admittedly not a whole lot, then she waits near the entrance when he goes back to get Alison. She tugs the cloth down from her face, "We'll rest once we get outside."
With the barrel in the hallway, it is the work of a couple minutes to pop the top off. It drains of an oil, revealing the glistening butt stocks of six assault rifles in the M-16 family. Getting the other three intact barrels out takes another half-dozen trips into the toxic atmosphere, but they eventually have two tubs of fatigues, ten of blankets, twenty-four assault rifles, and a tub partially full of scattered rounds from the disintegrating crates in what now appears to have been an armory or security office. Just what the four Delinquents will do with their haul is up for them to decide during their four-hour (probably at least six now, loaded down as they are) walk balk to camp.