Play@YSDC

Z-Day - 10:49 PM Mountain Time - Warren Air Force Base, west of Cheyenne, Wyoming
In the parking lot-
Emily, Kathryn, Lauren, and Kyle emerged from the back of the Stryker first. Billy Roberts then helped Derek Morrison climb out, and finally Cynthia and Ho emerged. They found that the other Stryker was parked behind theirs, and Joey Milano and the others had gotten out of it. They found themselves in a large parking lot surrounded by two rings of razor wire, except for a narrow gated corridor. Warning signs were posted indicating that land mines were placed between the rings. The building before them was much larger than any mere house. The main entrance had no doors, and concrete overhanged the area in front of it. Figures in orange Racal suits who were toting M-16s were also standing guard in front of it.

People in orange Racal suits were also coming outside from the main entrance. Lieutenants Sara Evans, Oscar Gomez, and Barbara Ellison had come outside, along with Airman Marcus Winters. They saw the motley groups that were getting out of the two Strykers. One of the people was already wearing a Racal suit. Another wore the uniform of a Staff Sergeant and was very badly wounded. The rest were civilians. One was a big, strapping young man with blond hair. With him were a pretty dark-haired girl in her late teens, and a woman who looked a lot like her but twenty years older. All three had cuts and bruises, but their injuries didn't seem too bad. Accompanying them was a beautiful young blonde wearing a red halter top and black miniskirt. Her left arm was bandaged. Behind them were an older man who looked to be from Southeast Asia and a lithe, gorgeous young lady. Five tough-looking men had gotten out of the other Stryker. One looked handsome, with Italian features. Another Italian-looking man was scarred, though his injuries were anything but recent. There was also a mean-looking Hispanic man, along with a very good-looking, charming man in his forties. There was also a nervous-looking man with glasses who looked very out of place among the rest of them.

In the intake area-
Captain Kelleher and the others remained in the intake area while the nurses and Airman Winters went out to meet the civilians.

"Keep me updated," said Johansen's voice on the radio.

"Will do, Captain," replied Major Stone. "Stone out."

Winters approaches the group of civilians and begins to assess the injuries of the group, particularly the Staff Sargent.

"My name is Airman Marcus Winters, I am a medic and I will be assisting you. If you can walk on your own power, please move to the main entrance. If you have any serious injuries or other medical concerns that are not immediately obvious, or if any of you have come into direct contact with the infected, speak up now!"

Ho nervously moves towards the main entrance. I get escalade back, right?

Sara Evens helped guide the group to the main entrance

Kathryn lets herself be lead inside.

Emily grabed the hands of Kyle and Lauren and walked with them towards the enterence.

In the parking lot-
Marcus saw that Staff Sergeant Derek Morrison had by far the worst injuries. They were not life-threatening, though they probably had been at one point. He had already been given very good treatment, and there appeared to be little else that could be done for him. All of his injuries looked like they were caused by the helicopter crash, and he showed no sign of having been bitten. The group of four people that had emerged first could certainly use treatment. The lovely blonde had already had ample aid. He wouldn't be able to tell what the nature of her injuries was until her bandages were removed to change the dressing, but that would be the responsibility of the female medical personnel. The other two women and the big man with her had various cuts and bruises. The handsome, suave Italian man had a gunshot wound, as did the man in his forties, but both had been thoroughly treated already.

"The Escalade is mine, remember," Joey told Ho. "You left your truck back at your store. I'm sure it's in much better shape than my vehicle."

Lauren and Kyle went inside with Emily and Kathryn. Lt. Sara Evans and the other nurses helped them, the other civilians, and Derek inside. Only Marcus remained outside with the SF troopers guarding the entrance. They closed the rear hatches on the two Strykers, which pulled out and headed for the gated corridor leading out.

In the intake area-
The new arrivals took in the large room around them. It was divided into three sections. A narrow section led all the way to the back of the room, where there was a pair of swinging double doors. This section was separated from the sections on the left and right by long curtains, though someone could easily pull the edge of a curtain aside and enter one of the two other parts of the room. Three women and one man in orange Racal suits stood in the middle, and there were also four women and three men in thin white hospital gowns.

"Women, please move into the curtained area to your left," said Airman Catherine Rourke, one of the orange-suited people. "Men, to the area on your right." She pointed at each area as she mentioned it.

Marcus follows the arrivals in, relieved at the relatively minor injuries. He had some concerns about the bandaged woman though- the wound location certainly would be prime for a bite or scratch.

He enters the men's section and prepares to help in any way he can, awaiting further orders.

Kathryn turned left and let the women nurses do their thing to her arm. Part of her glad to get away from the looks she had been given by some of the males out there.

"Is it bad? It´s shrapnel from a grenade I almost evaded. It´s all numb, now." She asks the nurse treating her. "I´m Kathryn McCoy. Former air traffic controller from just outside Kearney."

"We'll see you when we are all looked over, okay Kyle?" Emily said. "Don't worry, we'll see you again in just a few moments."

Emily gave Kyle a hug and then walked with Lauren to the women's area.

Ho winces at the mention of his store.

Keith approached the closest airman: "What can I do to help, sir?"

In the intake area-
Lt. Ellison examined Kathryn's arm in the women's area. "A grenade?!" she said. "How did that happen? I'm Barbara Ellison. It's very nice to meet you, Kathryn. Your arm doesn't look too bad. It looks like it's already been treated well. I'll need to remove the bandages to take a closer look at it, clean the wound, and change the dressing, but it's nothing a good night's rest or two won't fix. Your friends look like they're in worse shape, so I'll treat them first." She turned to Lauren. "Hi, what's your name?"

"Lauren Montrose," she said. She indicated Emily. "This is my mom. She's a psychiatrist, but she's also pretty good as a medic. She helped with Kathryn's arm." Lauren beamed with pride.

"Well, let's get you fixed up." Barbara did a swift and spectacular job of cleaning and bandaging her injuries. "What happened to you?"

"Wow, you're good! Oh, our truck flipped over when we ran into a zombie near the base. I'm lucky I wasn't in the back. Poor Victor...He was mean and all, but he still didn't deserve what happened to him."

Meanwhile, Lt. Sara Evans took a look a Emily. "I'm Lt. Sara Evans, ma'am," she said, patching her up well enough. "You're going to need a little more work." She waved the female doctor over.

"My name is Captain Claire Kelleher," she said. "I'm in charge here. Yes, that's going to need stitches." She began sewing up the wound, starting to restore Emily to full health. "I'll do a more thorough job after you've all been decontaminated." She raised her voice. "First, I need all of you to take off your clothes. All of them, underwear and shoes included. Just put them in the biohazard waste bags that the female civilians will bring around." She waved to Zorie, Amanda, Lisa, and Melinda to start doing so.

"What are you going to do with our clothes?" asked Cynthia.

"We're going to burn them, ma'am."

In the men's section of the intake area, Lt. Oscar Gomez examined Kyle first. "That looks pretty bad, sir," he said. "I'm going to need a little help with that." He signaled for Senior Airman Roger Coltrane to join him.

"Yeah, it hurts, mister," said Kyle, "but I'm plenty tough."

"You've been through a lot, it seems," said Coltrane, who looked very nervous. "Did you see any aliens?"

"No. I always wanted to, though. Aliens are cool."

"Not these aliens. They unleashed this plague on us. They want to destroy us all!"

"Try to focus on treating his injuries, Senior Airman," said Gomez.

Roger Coltrane got down to work and did it adequately, and Kyle was soon almost fully healed.

"We'll finish a little later," said Gomez. "First, we need all of you guys to strip down. Take everything off, even your skivvies. You'll put your clothes in the biohazardous waste bags that we'll be bringing around."

"You can help collect everyone's clothes," Gary Simpson said to Keith. "After that, you can make sure the machines are in working order. We've got defibrillators, heart monitors, all sorts of medical equipment. I'm sure the medic can show you what you need to know about it." He indicated Marcus Winters.

In the womens area -
"Nice to meet you, Lt. Evans" Emily said as she began to strip. "As my daughter said, I am a psychiatrist and trained in medicine. I've happy to help in any way I can once we are all set here."
Emily put her clothes into the biohazard bag.

In the mens area-
"Will do" said Keith. He moved about the room picking up the bags as they got filled up.

Kat replies to Ellison as she moves away to treat Lauren "A crazed National Guard Corporal abducted me and..Then he got... injured. So, have you had many visitors from the surrounding areas?"

Airman Winters goes about his business setting up the medical equipment. When Keith finishes with the clothes, he calls the man over.

"Alright, I'm going to give you a quick run through of each machine and what it does. I think you should probably learn a few things about First Aid while you're working with us as well. We need every pair of hands we can get."

"Sounds good, sir" Keith says. "Operating and repairing machines are my bread and butter. Repairing humans, not so much, but I'll do all that I can to help, sir."

Ho nervously turns his back on the group and tries to undress with some semblance of dignity.

In the intake area-
Captain Nils Johansen and Senior Airman Tom Wu entered from the double doors leading to the operating room. They saw that the men's and women's sections were curtained off, and they could hear voices from both sections. They entered the men's section.

In the women's area-
"But I like my clothes," complained Cynthia. Still, she undressed and put her clothes in her bag.

"My mom's got her own radio show back in Chicago called 'Ask Emily,'" Lauren told Sara Evans. "Well, she had one, anyway. I'm sure once this is all over she'll be able to start up again, and in the meantime she'll be a great help." Lauren took off her own clothing and placed it into the bag she had been provided.

"I'm glad to hear it," said Sara. "It's nice to meet you too, Emily. We can use all the help we can get."

"We have a shortage of medical personnel here," said Captain Claire Kelleher, "especially those trained to deal with mental health issues. We've had more than our share today. I'm sure you'll be a welcome addition to our team."

Barbara Ellison looked at Kathryn with compassion and read between the lines. "I'm so sorry, Kathryn," she said to her. "I can help you. I'm a highly skilled counselor, and my specialty is helping women who have been through the sort of thing you have. Right now I need you to take off your clothes so we can decontaminate you, but I'll be here if you need to talk."

"My dad saved her from that maniac," Lauren said. "He was so brave. He...he died not long after that, protecting Kathryn from the zombies." She lowered her head.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Lauren. Your father was a real hero." Barbara turned back to Kathryn. "We have had quite a few civilians try to get into the base, but most of them weren't allowed entry. Beth here was part of the first group that was let in." She indicated a young civilian woman with long dark hair.

"Hi," said Beth. "I got here in the early afternoon with my friend Robert and an old man we met along the way, Simon Crane. Simon died while he was here and rose up, and all sorts of madness followed."

"That's how we lost two of our doctors," said Barbara. "The only other group granted admittance came shortly before that happened, and I don't think they'd have been let in if they hadn't had Air Force personnel with them. Zorie Spooner and the other civilians here were part of that group." She indicated a woman who looked like she was from India or thereabouts in an orange Racal suit, as well as a woman in her sixties and two younger women with her.

"I'm Amanda Deeds," said the old woman. "I'm a nurse with decades of experience going back all the way to Vietnam. My son Keith is over in the men's section, and this is his main squeeze Melinda." She put her arm around one of the younger women, this one with red hair. "And this is Lisa Crow, the love of my other son's life." She put her other arm around the other one. "He didn't make it. Neither did my husband." She looked at Emily with empathy. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Can everyone please move to the far wall once you finish taking off your clothes?" said Claire Kelleher.

In the men's area-
Joey Milano and the men with him also took off their clothes and put them in bags, as did Derek Morrison and Kyle. After they finished, Captain Johansen and Senior Airman Wu arrived.

"Thank you," said Lt. Oscar Gomez. "All of you, please move back against the far wall so we can decontaminate you." He saluted the captain. "Good to see you on your feet, sir."

Airman Gary Simpson picked up the end of a hose and stood ready.

Billy Roberts stood off to the side so as not to get in the way.

In the womens area-
Emily looked down with tears welling in her eyes: "Thank you. He was a great man and he will be missed...... Thank you for letting us in. I can't imagine if you hadn't...." Wiping away the single tear that rolled down the her face she straightened up and put on a brave face. "Come on Lauren, sweetie, let's get cleaned up." She walked with Lauren over to the wall.

In the mens area:
Keith scooped up the bags of clothes and disposed on them.

Kat gets rid of her clothes and put them in one of the bags, leaves it and walks over to the other side. "I´ll get back to you, Barbara. Got to get cleaned up. And I mean I really got to." "I wonder if clean is the right word. I need to be made new. Be born again. This shower better be good." She faces the far wall and leans against it with her elbows and palms flat against it as she waits for the water to make her anew.

Airman Winters patiently waits as Keith disposes of the contaminated clothing. When the man returns, Winters leads him over to the equipment they will be working with.

"Here we are. This is our medical equipment. I'm going to give you a quick run through on what we have and what each machine does, then you can give them a look and make sure everything is in proper working order."

He then begins rattling off information on the various machines, monitors, and electronics that they are equipped with. He demonstrates how each is used and their purpose medically.

Captain Johansen returns the salute. What's the situation, any wounded?

Ho moves to the wall, sheepishly covering himself.

Keith listened and watched intently as Airman Winters showed him all the equipment. After he was done, he looked over the machines. "These all look good to me" Keith said.

Melinda was thinking that people were actually nicer than the other team. But being nice wasn't a very good weapon against the creatures...

In the women's area-
Barbara nodded. "We'll talk later," she said to Kathryn.

"You're very welcome, ma'am," said Sara to Emily.

"You should thank Lt. Colonel Carmichael," said Captain Claire Kelleher, "when you get the chance. He's the one who convinced the top brass to let you in after all the chaos that resulted when the last group was admitted. We're not taking any chances this time. We've really stepped up security here since then, so we'll all be safe here."

"It was Lisa Crow here who got through to him when we needed to get in," said Amanda Deeds. "Her speech really moved him, and I think that's why he argued so strongly in your favor too."

Lauren went with her mother to the far wall, and Cynthia also joined them and Kathryn there. Captain Kelleher nodded to Airman Catherine Rourke, who took up a hose, pointed it at the four women, and turned on the water. The jet washed over their bodies, rinsing them clean. The force of the water was strong, but it was also soothing in a way. Kathryn tried not to think about what she had gone through earlier today, though the shower couldn't help but remind her. She knew she would never forget her ordeal, but perhaps she could get to the point where it didn't come to mind and her pain would be dulled. Reaching what felt like safety would help, as would Barbara and being here with her friends. It might not happen overnight, but she now had real hope of recovery. She may never be the same again, but she could be better.

After a while, the water turned off. The nurses distributed towels to the women, along with thin white hospital gowns. "Dry yourselves off, ladies," said Claire, "and then get yourselves dressed. We'll give you a full health screening."

In the men's area-
The bags with the clothing were set aside. They would be taken to the incinerator later, but for now everyone needed to stay here.

"Staff Sergeant Morrison was severely wounded, sir," said Lt. Oscar Gomez to Captain Johansen, "but he's already received expert treatment." He indicated Kyle. "This young man has only minor injuries, but a couple of the others look like they've received gunshot wounds." He glanced over at Joey Milano and Duncan Jergens. "They've already received treatment as well."

Gary Simpson hosed the men down, running the powerful stream of water over them to make sure they were completely cleaned. When he finished washing them off, he shut off the hose. Then he and Lt. Gomez handed out towels and hospital gowns. "Get yourselves dried off and dressed, gentlemen," said Oscar Gomez. "Then line up for screening."

Kathryn accepts the proffered towel and dries herself methodically then lets her skin dry in the fresh air of the room. She puts on any clothes provided by the staff and waits for directions to go from there. "How many people are here? And what´s the plan to end this nightmare?" She asks the staff surrounding the women drying themselves. She can´t help it but this place seems to have a solid chain of command but the movie Chindler´s list keeps coming up in her head as she puts on her new clothes.

Emily dried off with the towel. In a weird way, the shower, despite being rather rough, was soothing and nice to have.

"I'll be sure to 'THankl' Carmichael when I see him. Is he around?"

In the women's area-
Lauren and Cynthia put on the provided hospital gowns too. They were made of thin white linen with a V-shaped neckline, comfortable enough if a bit flimsy. They didn't leave much to the imagination, but Cynthia didn't seem to mind one bit.

"We've got a few dozen people here at this clinic, including snipers on the roof and perimeter guards," said Claire Kelleher to Kathryn. "If you mean the base as a whole, we have a few thousand personnel, but that number includes civilian employees and relatives of base personnel, so we're not all combatants. Still, we can all do our part. I don't know if there's any plan to end all this. Warren Air Force Base is now completely cut off from the outside world. Our helicopters can do aerial recon of the area, but we've already lost a few of them today. We used to be able to communicate indirectly to various locations by means of an old Cold War communications outpost nearby. That primitive network was still functioning, but it failed early this afternoon. There was a scientist there who had some theories about what's going on and what to do about it, but I don't know what's become of her. Right now our first job is to survive. We'll worry about saving the world after that." To Emily she said, "Colonel Carmichael isn't here, he's in the operations room in the base's headquarters. You might get to meet him tomorrow, depending on if you can clear quarantine and what your assignment is." She then addressed all of the women. "Okay, everyone. Time for a full medical and psychological evaluation. The nurses and I will get to each of you in turn."

Claire Kelleher headed over to examine Emily, while Sara went to Lauren and Barbara rejoined Kathryn. Another orange-suited woman approached Cynthia. "I'm Tech Sergeant Jessica Valdez," she said. "The others will need to give you a medical exam, but you don't look like you've been injured, and I can handle the psych portion of the exam."

In the men's area-
The men donned their hospital gowns and lined up to be examined. "There's only a few of us capable of doing the exams, sir," said Lt. Oscar Gomez to Captain Johansen. "Airman Winters is qualified medically, but I don't know how he'll do with the psych evals. We have more male patients than we do females, and less staff. Who should we examine first?"

In the women's area -
"Nice to meet you, Sgt. Valdez" Emily said, extending her hand. "Let's get on with it. Once I am cleared, I am sure I can help as I am a trained psychologist."

Huh, males first. Get the majority out of the way. Captain Johansen addresses the assembled men in the room. Attention, we will be taking you off to be screened for any injuries. The more severely injured first.

Ho dons the hospital gown and shuffles his way into line.

Kathryn sits down with Barbara for a talk. The fact that the base personnel had divided the men from the women made her feel more at ease than if they hadn´t. Still, the sense of labour camp lingered in the back of her head. Intellectually, she knows that with all the things going on outside the base, there was no real threat here. But then again, wherever men roams, trouble also rooms. "So, hi again Barbara. I´m a certified traffic controller and could probably be of use in a comms room or similar. I also know my way around photo equipment. Surveillance detail, maybe? I gather you assign the civilians who seek shelter to tasks, right?" She leans closer to Barbara. "I´d prefer not being teamed up with any men at this point. I´ve had my share of that kind." She corrects the ill fitting garment and relishes in the cleanliness of the fabric and her own skin. Like being newborn, she decides. A new life.

"Shortlived", her pessimistic angel snickers and brings her back to the psych evaluation.

In the women's area-
"I'm not the one who actually assigns anyone," Barbara told Kathryn. "Lieutenant Colonel Carmichael will probably be the one to decide that, since he's the Operations Officer. My guess is that you'd be assigned to work in air traffic control. Some of our controllers have broken down today, and you seem to have held up extremely well considering what you've been through. I understand how you feel about not wanting to work with men, but there may not be any choice. More than half of the personnel on this base are male, and we have to work with who we've got left. Casualties have been heavy, and this has just been the first day." She slid the gown off of Kathryn's shoulder to examine her wound, removing the bandages, cleaning the wound, and then putting on a fresh dressing. "There's nothing more I can do for your arm, but it looks to be healing well. You should be fit for duty after a good night's rest. Don't give up on all men because of what one of them did, Kathryn. There are good ones out there."

"That's true," said Cynthia. "I thought Richard was the right one for me, but he didn't make it. I won't stop looking, though."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Jessica told her. She was getting a good feel for the dancer, but there was something on which she couldn't quite put her finger. "I think we've all lost someone we cared about today."

Lauren nodded. "My dad was a good man," she said. "He was the best."

Sara put a comforting arm around her. "I know how you feel," she said. "I don't even know if my parents are alive or dead. There's someone on this base I care about, and I don't even know what's happened to him." She looked Lauren over. "You're going to be just fine."

Claire smiled at Emily. "You're holding up better than I am," she said. "You're in good physical shape too."

After several minutes, the examinations concluded, and the medical staff conferred. "I'll examine you myself in a minute, Cynthia," said Captain Kelleher. "The rest of you have clean bills of health, both mental and physical. If you like, you can stay here until I've had a chance to finish with Cynthia. Otherwise, Barbara can take you back to the women's ward now with the rest of the civilians."

In the men's area-
"Sir, Captain Kelleher wants us to examine everyone here," said Lt. Gomez. "Nobody goes back to the wards until they pass the initial screening, and only in an emergency do we bring someone to the OR. This gentleman is the worst off." He motioned to Staff Sergeant Derek Morrison. "I'll examine this one." He went over to Joey Milano. "Airman Winters, see to that fellow." He pointed at Duncan Jergens.

Captain Johansen examined Derek Morrison. The helicopter crewman had been very badly injured in the crash and was lucky to be alive. His poking and prodding caused the sergeant pain and reopened one of his wounds, but he managed to stop the bleeding. Derek seemed all right mentally to him.

Oscar Gomez inspected Joey's leg wound and cleaned and redressed it. "Definitely a gunshot wound," he said. "How did you get it?"

"Some asshole name of Richard Saxon took a shot at me," he said. "It was completely unprovoked. Luckily Alfredo here was quick on the ball and plugged him before he could finish me off."

"You seem okay enough to me. You'll be all right, sir."

Airman Winters looked over Duncan Jergens carefully. "Did he shoot you too?" he asked.

"No," said Duncan, "that was Marcus, this big bruiser that worked at the store. When the shooting started, he opened up. He's just lucky Joey wanted to let him live. Later he ran off on his own, the big coward."

He shrugged. "My name's Marcus. Hope you won't hold that against me."

"Nah, you seem all right to me."

After a while, they had finished examining the three men, but several others remained.

OOC,[b]Captain Johansen[/b] and [b]Airman Winters[/b], you may each choose another patient to examine. Please roll Medicine and Psychology. The men remaining to be examined are [b]Kyle Perkins[/b], [b]Ho Nguyen[/b], [b]Alfredo Bocelli[/b], [b]Harvey Bennish[/b], and [b]Hector Salazar[/b].

Marcus moves to examine Kyle Perkins, medically at least.

In the women's area
"Thanks" Emily said to Clair with a warm smile. "It's hard, but I have to do it for my kids." As tears brimmed in her eyes, Emily looked down, wiped them away then looked back up: "So, now that I have a clean bill of health, how can I help?"

In the mens area:
Keith stood around, waiting. 'Let me know if there is anything I can do, sir"

Kathryn gets up and looks out a window. Moving away from Barbara she says, "Thanks for the kind words. I´ll look for the good apples out there. Somehow, it´s hard to judge on the fly."

In the women's area-
"It sure is," said Barbara to Kathryn with a smile. "I still haven't found Mr. Right, but I'm sure he's out there somewhere. There's a lot less guys to choose from than there were yesterday, though."

There were no windows in the intake area. The only exit was the doorway through which Kathryn had entered, and she had to peek around the curtains to see it. The orange-suited guards were visible just outside, but she couldn't see much else.

"I think the best thing you can do right now is get a good night's sleep, ma'am," Claire told Emily. "We'll bring you back to the women's ward with the other female civilians here. There's one woman still back there, Lt. Rebecca Doolittle. She was a helicopter co-pilot whose chopper crashed. She survived without getting injured too badly, but she's pretty shaken up by her whole ordeal. She wants to get back into the air as soon as she can, and we can use qualified pilots, so all of us want her in peak condition ASAP. She's probably asleep right now, but maybe you could talk with her in the morning. Other than that, just help any of the women who need you. It's quite possible some of them will have trouble sleeping. We have sedatives available if needed, too."

Claire went over to Cynthia next and gave her a complete exam. "You look fine to me, ma'am," she said. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I guess," said Cynthia. "I mean, I've seen people die and nothing will ever be the same again, but I'm still alive, and I'm safe at last."

Claire nodded. "I think you're going to be fine. Okay, ladies, let's all go to the women's ward. Please follow me."

In the men's area-
"I don't think there's anything we really need you for at the moment," Lt. Gomez said to Keith.

"Captain, maybe I should start taking the men who have already been cleared back to the ward," suggested Airman Tom Wu. "The other civilians who were here before could come with me too if they want."

Marcus could see that Kyle Perkins wasn't too badly hurt, and he was able to finish patching the youth up. Kyle was in excellent health otherwise, very big and strong, and showed no signs of having been bitten or anything of the sort. He was sad due to the loss of his parents and was a bit disturbed after his experiences, but who wasn't? He seemed to be holding up okay, however.

Captain Johansen examined Ho Nguyen, who looked pretty healthy and seemed to be of sound mind.

Lt. Gomez looked over Alfredo Bocelli, who was not injured and appeared to be about as sane as anyone else.

OOC,[b]Captain Johansen[/b] and [b]Airman Winters[/b], only [b]Harvey Bennish[/b] and [b]Hector Salazar[/b] remain to be examined. Each of you, please choose a patient and make Medicine and Psychology rolls.

In the Women's Area-
"A good night sleep would be great" Emily said. "Once I find my daughter, Lauren, we'll head to the womens ward and catch some sleep."

In the Men's Area-
"Okay" said Keith. "Just let me know when I can help."

Captain Johansen examines Hector. The stress of the day was getting to him and though he managed the medical examination he couldn't ascertain his soundness of mind.

Winters moves over to Harvey Bennish, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow. He was a bit distracted while he checked over the man.

Kathryn waits for them to be brought to the women´s ward. She finds a chair and takes a seat beside Cynthia and waits. "We got here at last, Cyn." She looks the dancer in the eyes and checks for some hope.

In the women's area-
"I'm here, Mom," said Lauren, quickly at her mother's side.

Cynthia smiled at Kathryn. "Yes, we finally made it," she said. "At last we're safe, and we can start over." She walked arm in arm with Kathryn.

"This way, please," said Claire, leading all of the female medical personnel as well as the civilians past the curtain and through the intake area.

OOC,All female characters are moving to the thread linked below. Please stop reading the current thread at this point, and do not read any posts in the new thread above the one in the link. All male characters remain in the current thread.

Ladies' Night

In the men's area-
Both Harvey and Hector appeared to be of sound minds and bodies, as far as Captain Johansen and Marcus Winters could ascertain.

"That's everyone," said Lt. Oscar Gomez. "Shall we move the patients to the men's ward now, sir?" he asked the captain.

Captain Johansen nods. Let's go.

In the men's isolation ward-
Captain Johansen led all of the men through the operating room on the other side of the double doors and then through another set of swinging double doors on the left to the men's ward. There were eight curtained alcoves in a row, as well as several cots lining the hall that went through the ward. Each alcove had an empty bed.

"We don't have enough alcoves for everyone," said Lt. Gomez. "Frankly, we weren't expecting to have so many people show up. We've got these extra cots here for everyone else, though. Civilians and those with injuries have priority for the curtained alcoves. It's almost 2330 hours. All of you should get sleep while you can. We'll wake you up at 0600, and then breakfast will be served in the cafeteria. If you want something to eat or drink now, we can get you rations and water. If you have any medical needs, or if you just want to talk, we're here to help."

Ho Nguyen clears his throat. Can I get food and drink?

Keith watched the newcomer settle into cots and get comfortable before approaching Cpt. Johansen: "Sir" he said, " permission to get some shut eye too unless you'd like me to pull guard duty or some other task?"

In the men's isolation ward-
"No problem, sir," said Lt. Oscar Gomez to Ho. "Wu, go down to the mess and bring back rations and water. Does anyone else want him to bring back something while he's there? Captain, I think the civilians should get some sleep. Today has been exhausting, and tomorrow isn't likely to be much better. They're going to need the rest."

"Yes, sir," Tom Wu said to Lt. Gomez. He paused on his way out in case anyone else wanted food or drink.

Keith found a spare cot, or a patch of ground to pull up and he laid down to catch some shut eye.

In the men's isolation ward-
Tom Wu headed off to the cafeteria to retrieve water and rations for Ho Nguyen.

OOC,There's a very good chance that something interesting will happen later on, depending on what happens in a different thread, so I can't move things along here yet. You may need to wait a while for that. When I am ready to advance to the morning, that will mark the end of Chapter 6. Feel free to talk or interact with each other and/or the NPCs in the meantime.

Keith will sleep and get rest.

Captain Johansen nods at Gomez. Good idea. He addresses the civilians. Before you get some rest, however, I would like to ask you a few questions. We haven't had much contact with the outside of the base, what is the situation outside of the gates right now? Were there other military units operating, and does anyone know of a cause?

Keith sits up in his bunk: "I'm not sure I know much, sir. My family and some others met up with another group of survivors as some of your Air Force personnel were being attacked at the motel. I've heard rumors that the folks at the motel were in contact with others cross the country who were experiencing the same attacks."

In the men's isolation ward-
"I've told you the cause, sir," said Senior Airman Roger Coltrane. "It's the aliens. They did this somehow, they must have."

"The women might know more," said Joey Milano. "Kathryn McCoy had a run-in with some National Guard types and salvaged some of their equipment."

"I met a couple of the good soldiers," said Kyle. "There was Alvarez, who only had one leg. Then he had no legs when he got killed. The other guy was named Flynn. I think he was a pilot. He's dead too."

"There was a corporal named Gardner that went rogue," said Alfredo. "We haven't seen any other military ourselves, and your guess about the cause is as good as ours."

"I was outside the gates in the chopper when it went down, sir," said Derek Morrison. "There were about half a dozen infected pursuing the civilians, but they were eliminated. The exploding chopper destroyed the gates and kiled most of the SFs guarding them, but they sent reinforcements to hold them and engineers to set up a barricade. Luckily most of the infected are coming from Cheyenne, to the east."

Captain Johansen nods as he absorbs the information. Just those few National Guardsmen? I'd expect more to be deployed. What about law enforcement or emergency services?

In the men's isolation ward-
"Law what?" asked Kyle.

"He means cops," said Joey. "And emergency services would be firefighters and paramedics. My group hasn't seen any."

"Me neither," said Kyle, "And there were just those couple of soldiers I saw." He furrowed his brow. "I think Kathryn said there were cops at the airfield where she worked."

"Maybe there were more National Guardsmen," said Duncan. "Maybe the rest of them got killed."

Keith sits up in his cot: "Has there been no other contact with other military in the US?"

In the men's isolation ward-
"Not that I know of," said Senior Airman Roger Coltrane. "I was at the communications post, and I know they talked to Diego Garcia and NATO HQ, but I don't think they connected to any military units or bases in the U.S., and we haven't had any communications since we left the truck stop early this afternoon. It's too bad we couldn't warn them about the aliens."

"Speaking of the aliens" Keith said, "someone needs to get the base prepared for when or if the worms show up here. If they show up, they will destroy the base and it's defenses. Once that happens, we are sitting ducks. Even if we kill the worm, the base will be destroyed and undefendable. Someone needs to organize a convoy and get it supplied and outfitted for a long journey in the event we are attacked and need to flee."

In the men's isolation ward-
"Worms?" said Staff Sergeant Derek Morrison, shaking his bandaged head. "What worms?"

"Huge, monstrous things," said Coltrane. "I saw one at the motel, but maybe there are more. It slaughtered over a dozen people before we finally managed to bring it down, but I think we'd have killed it much quicker if we'd still had our machine gunners. The base is really big, and we've got a lot more defenses here. If they attack us directly, I don't think they can destroy the entire base. The real danger is their mind control. That's why everyone should wear a protective layer of aluminum foil on their heads. I've got one lining the inside of my helmet."

"Mind control?"

"Haven't you noticed how crazy people have been acting today? It's mind control!"

"The base does have an evacuation plan in place," said Lt. Gomez. "When it hit the fan this morning, everything was set in motion just in case the base was overrun. Trucks and aircraft are all loaded up and ready to leave on a moment's notice. The road where you came in is part of the evac route. That's why those gates could still be opened and closed."

"Nobody's ever going to be closing those gates again," said Derek. "When my helicopter blew up, they got taken out. They've got engineers setting up a barrier there to replace them."

"So they are sealing up our escape route?" Keith said incredulously. "I've been out of the military for a while so I'm a little out of the loop, but that sounds like a bad idea."

In the men's isolation ward-
"It'll be a movable barrier, I'm sure," said Derek. "The brass aren't that stupid."

OOC,The story continues in the Gold and Sword sections of Chapter 7. [b]Kyle Perkins[/b] is moving to the following thread.

Broken Wings

OOC,[b]Ho Nguyen[/b] and [b]Regimental Sergeant Major Raymond Crew[/b] are moving to the following thread.

Nerve Center

OOC,[b]Airman Gary Simpson[/b] and [b]Airman Marcus Winters[/b] are moving to the following thread.

Best Laid Plans

OOC,Everyone else is moving to the following thread.

The Wounded