IC-THRU-Beneath the Surface(Tsuba/Lisa Crow/Sue Newton)

[John Gaunt]

Catching Tsuba's eye and motioning with a nod of her head, Lisa surreptitiously follows the trail of carnage, her pistol clenched in both hands, pointed on a downward trajectory, her heartbeat pumping a furious staccato...

[Mr. Handy]

In the hallway-
Tsuba followed Lisa to the open door at the end of the hall. On the other side they saw what seemed to be a guard room. Nobody was in the room, but more carnage stretched across it to the open door at the far end. Another door was visible on the right side of the guard room. The room contained a pair of bunks, a desk, and a filing cabinet.

[John Gaunt]

Doing her utmost to move silently, Lisa pads through the wake of carnage across to the open door, but her shoes, despite her best efforts, make sticky, squelching sounds.

[Laraqua]

Sue follows along, not wanting to be left behind.

[Mr. Handy]

In the hallway-
"Don't get too far ahead," whispered Bill. "We still haven't checked that door on the left." He carefully crossed the hall to the door opposite the armory and looked inside. On the other side, he could see a dusty office with no other exits. In the middle of the room, facing the door, was a desk with a chair behind it. A table with more chairs was near the front of the room, off to one side. A filing cabinet was against one wall, and at the back of the room was a bunk, which had been moved aside. A ventilation grille was behind it, and it had been pried open.

Tsuba rejoined the women in the guard room and told them what he had found. "Looks clear to me," he said quietly. "Where should we check next?"

[John Gaunt]

"Straight ahead, Lover-man. Let's keep following the trail of dead."

[Mr. Handy]

In the guard room-
"Sure thing, sweetheart," said Tsuba. He crept closer to the door at the far end. "Looks like a long cell block with lots of closed doors on each side and another open door at the other end. Should we check out the door on the right first before we go this way?"

[John Gaunt]

"Couldn't hurt," said Lisa. "You check the ones on the right, I'll check the row on the left. Let's work our way down. Sue, keep your eyes peeled on the doorway straight ahead."

[Mr. Handy]

In the guard room-
"I meant the door on the right of the guard room," said Tsuba. "Should we check it out before going into the cell block?"

[John Gaunt]

"Sure, go ahead. You know I always got your back."

[Mr. Handy]

In the interrogation room-
Tsuba carefully opened the door on the right of the guard room while the women covered him. The room on the other side of the door had no other exits, and the only pieces of furniture were a table and two chairs. One of the chairs had restraints of some kind. There was also an empty water bucket in one corner, and a small, strange-looking electrical generator.

(Lisa and Sue, roll Idea.)

[John Gaunt]

Peering into the room, something occurs to Lisa.

[Mr. Handy]

In the interrogation room-
This room looked to Lisa like it was used to torture prisoners for information. They were probably restrained in the chair while the small generator was used to administer electric shocks to them. The bucket might have been filled with ice water and used to drench them.

[John Gaunt]

"Whoever owned this place before was into some way heavy, kinky shit! This place is creeping me out. Why are we down here again, Lover?" asks Lisa.

[Mr. Handy]

In the interrogation room-
"Looking for survivors, hon," said Bill. "Luke said a bunch of people went down here. We may also be able to find supplies to salvage down here. Ready to go check out the cell block?"

[John Gaunt]

"I was born ready, baby," Lisa winks.

[Mr. Handy]

In the cell block-
Bill and Lisa entered the cell block on the right and left sides respectively, while Sue went up the center with her shotgun ready and trained on the open door at the far end. The hall stretched out into the distance. Six doors were on either side, all solid steel. Each door had a little sliding panel at eye level, probably for the guards to look in on the prisoners and to check to make sure it was safe to open the door. From the second door on the right came a horrible smell, reminiscent of badly burnt meat mixed with gasoline.

Bill and Lisa began checking the cells. The doors were locked, but they could see inside through the little sliding panels. Lisa saw that the first two on the left were empty, and Bill saw the same thing with the first cell on the right. When he opened the panel to look into the second cell, he saw a rolled-up tarp in the middle of the floor that seemed to be the source of the odor. The shape taking up the bulk of the space inside looked familiar. He soon realized what it was. "There's a tarpaulin inside this cell," he said. "That's where the smell is coming from. It's wrapped around...a human corpse!" He managed to keep his lunch down.

[John Gaunt]

"Yuck! I wonder why the survivors wrapped it. What do you think?"
Darting her eyes forward to the open doorway, Lisa arches her eyebrows quizzically: "Should we press on?"

[Mr. Handy]

In the cell block-
"They probably wrapped it to keep the flames from spreading," said Bill. "The real question is why did they burn it in the first place? There are so many bodies all around, why burn only this one? Well, let's keep going." He and Lisa proceeded down the long hallway, and Sue walked alongside them covering the far end with her shotgun. The doors to the next two cells were also locked and empty, so they moved to the next pair of doors. Tsuba again saw nothing in the fourth cell on the right, which was also locked. Lisa slid open the panel of the fourth on the left and looked inside, meeting with a shocking sight. There was a dead body lying in the cell, a very old one by the look of it. The flesh was very badly decayed, but she could still tell that the deceased was male. The corpse wore the uniform of an airman in the U.S. Air Force. There were also three rats in the cell, chewing on the ancient flesh. This door was locked as well.

(Lisa, roll Sanity. Sanity loss is 0/1d3.)

[John Gaunt]

Lisa swallows hard at the distasteful sight but keeps it together. "Ugh. Rats!" she exclaims, turning away from the door and snapping the spy hole shut.

Question: Regarding the carnage, how substantial is the trail of the dead? A body every few yards? Corpses everywhere? What?