Inside the crawlspace: Kim, Johnny, Hale, Weiss.
Getting inside: Collins
Collins manages to jam the plate back with brute force. It´s crooked but will stay up unless someone tugs at it. The cables lead upwards and that´s the only way to go. When the first crawler gets up on the ceiling space, the wires and tubes head in four directions. A number of roof hatches can be seen by using the flash lights. These have wire mesh guards and are too small to exit through.
TVblog The soul trembles before emptiness and desires contact at any price. Doctor Glass
"It is invigorating, being asked personal questions." "Makes one feel desired." Luv (BR2049)
Over the radio comes, "We´re moving down to the subway, probably drawing them with us." Crawford pants.
"Roger that," replies Larsen. "I'll try to slip out into the garage and follow once they move past my position. Hale, what's your location and status? Why haven't you responded?"
Getting some room to maneuver Hale responds. "Larsen? Status - plus two civilians. One director from the hive and one mechanic. We´re crammed in the ventilation and wiring space. Just under he roof. Nowhere near the subway. 37 minutes and ticking..."
TVblog The soul trembles before emptiness and desires contact at any price. Doctor Glass
"It is invigorating, being asked personal questions." "Makes one feel desired." Luv (BR2049)
Collins follows along and says on the radio, "We're in a ceiling crawl space, accessed through a ventilation system. Doesn't look like any of the infected followed us."
Off the radio, he says "While you all figure out where we're going next, I'm going to run some quick health checks on everyone. Don't mind me." He operates his medical scanner over the two newcomers first, then each of the squad members.
Kim submits herself to the scan, "I feel fine, I'm really just a little confused - care to share what the hell is going on?" Her comment, aimed at Collins, is a little barbed but she grins with it to take the sting slightly.
"Terrorists... chemical and biological warfare, I'm afraid," Collins lies, avoiding her eye contact. "We're trying to put a stop to it before it spreads." He keeps working his machine.
Collins' eyes dart from Kim to Johnny, and back to his instruments as he said "I really don't know. Wasn't given all the details... they don't tell us grunts anything."
"There are snipers ready to take out anyone going on the roof," replies Larsen. "You'll need to make your way down to the garage, and fast. The only ways out of here are either the sewers or the subway leading to the Hive. Crawford, C.L., and the other civilian are heading for the subway. Good job on finding the director alive. That will also help if we need to enter the Hive."Larsen comments.
"Reached the subway. Over." Crawford reports from down below.
Collins analysis of the newcomers gives the following:
Weiss looks at Johnny in the light of one of the flash lights. "What´s your clearance and what´s your branch, director?"
Kim orients herself...
Spoiler:
...and deduces that they might be able to crawl all the way to the west stairwell and exit through a similar hatch at that end. It will take a good part of ten minutes to get there. And they have no way of knowing if there are customers waiting there. Up top on the roof are a couple of exit points. One is the ventilation tubes to the climate hub. They should be able to bust open or cut open with a metal cutter or something. That would get them all in a secure location without any customers. Maybe Dunn is still up there?
Airbornexo, did you read the post about the garbage shute and exit via the building next door? Just get to the garage and find the right door. Voila! Outside the sealed off perimeter of the police. (Backtrack the posts and a description will be in a spoiler.
TVblog The soul trembles before emptiness and desires contact at any price. Doctor Glass
"It is invigorating, being asked personal questions." "Makes one feel desired." Luv (BR2049)
"Ah well," Collins says, tucking his medical scanner away. "You're all good for the next few hours, at any rate. Let's get moving. Which way from here?"
"If we follow this way we can get to the stairwell leading to the roof" Kim points ahead along the vent. She considers for a moment, "we could get into the climate hub if we had some cutters, I left mine in my truck in the parking garage unfortunately. Do you have a plan to get our of here?" She directs this to no-one in particular.
Collins continues at the rear, trying to make heads or tails out of the scans he just took... and examining if he's showing any signs of infection as well.
19;16 Collins is all OK, however he´s feeling stressed at their situation in the maintenance area. Reading the scans over again, he decides that having the vaccine Dr Smith had with him according to Sanchez would save both Kim and Peter. The objectives are surely outplayed at this stage, but saving the civilians might be a personal objective to Collins?
On the other hand, should the team evacuate and escape the SWAT team outside and get in touch with someone at UC who isn´t the enemy, they could get a vaccine that way.
As earlier, the state of the civilians should be unmodified for up to five or six hours. The mall is about to blow up within one hour according to C.L.
Following the directions of Kim, Collins move to the air vent leading up to the climate hub. The vent goes down also, as Collins deduced. He uses the axe to whack the coating open and pries two sheets of plating apart. The feat reveals a slide going three or four floors down at 90 degrees angle. The shaft is three feet wide. No rungs or grips are present...
Hale checks the situation. "We could get one floor up, by using our bodies as scaffolding for one person who climbs. We can use our knives to create grip holds...We have three that makes it possible to get far enough. When at the hub we can come up with a plan how to get past the snipers... Unless you like to take the plunge and slide down to the bottom?"
Peter remembers how the police had been waiting for him, and they hadn´t hesitated to shoot. They would not expect anyone to exit from the climate hub.
Weiss hands his switchblade to Hale. "If I´m crawling through that thing, I need the mobility." He unfastens the cord of rope still attached to the suit and drops it next to him and starts to unzip his suit.
TVblog The soul trembles before emptiness and desires contact at any price. Doctor Glass
"It is invigorating, being asked personal questions." "Makes one feel desired." Luv (BR2049)
-Yeah, the guys who tried to shoot me. And believe me, they knew I was alive. Makes me wonder, how they prepared so fast this system. Means they were a lot of time ago ready to such a disaster.
Collins ignores the talk about the snipers, asking Kim "Any idea where Dr. Smith might be at this moment?"
He points down the shaft and says "I think down is our best option. We need to reunite with the team. Even if we manage to get to the roof, we still have to find a way to get off this building before the explosion. The sewer system will allow us numerous exits, hopefully, outside of the blast zone." He saw Weiss' rope he dropped from his carried items and said "There... we can lower everyone down one by one safely. The only real question is how does the last guy get down." Glancing around, Collins looked for something sturdy to tie the rope off to. "If we can tie it off, the last guy can climb down. No big deal."
ooc,With Nohman out of commission, who is squad leader now?
"Would it be easier to go to the garage and leave using the garbage shoot? - it deposits into a dumpster outside I think. If there are people up there trying to shoot us couldn't we just stay out of their way?"
OOC - Is the garage easily accessible from our current location?
