Play@YSDC

Dr. Bonnie MacLean

Once more you looked at the sample through the microscope. Once more you saw nothing to encourage any hope of a cure. Hell, you couldn’t even identify the virus, let alone begin work on an antiviral to deal with it.

No matter how often you checked, you observed the same cell multiplication as before. Whatever the virus was it not only destroyed healthy cells at an extraordinary rate, but replaced those cells with multiples of…something that you don’t recognise. It was being labelled as an unknown strain of influenza, and sure it had the trademark cough and fever of the flu virus, but there the similarities stopped. That was just the initial symptoms, first there was a cough and chills, then the cough became more intense and the chills turned to a raging fever which no matter what you did just increased.

Eventually the patient died from massive haemorrhaging. Like the Ebola virus the insides just seemed to liquefy, though it most certainly wasn’t the Ebola virus or any derivative strain. One thing that was certain was that this virus had a 100% mortality rate, there was no recovery if you caught it you died, and its infection rate was unbelievable it spread faster than the common cold and if anything was even more infectious.

With the back of your hand you wipe your itching, tired eyes. Turning your head slightly you glance at the wall clock, it reads 3:38pm, you smile at 4:00pm you begin your shift on the wards until midnight when you get to go home for a few hours rest prior to beginning all over again at 06:00am tomorrow. The ‘influenza’ outbreak and the rapidity of its spread had overcome the speed of the cities medical responses which had led to its medical staff working long hours just in an attempt to keep their heads above water. Still at least your sister might be home when you got there ready to give you the latest on her on off relationship with Steve. Gee that was something to look forward too.

Coffee, your head screams, and you continue your turn towards the coffee pot on the desk; empty, damn wouldn’t you believe it. You become aware of being watched and from behind the glass observation panel of the isolation room, the intern Pete Maxwell grins and does that thing with his eyes. Jeez, you think, he has really drawn the short straw today having the job of harvesting the latest sample from a recently desceased female. At least they’d given her the dignity of having a sheet pulled over her face; dignity in death, but death from this virus didn’t allow dignity. There wasn’t a lot of dignity in coughing up your insides in a stream of frothing blood.

You take several steps to the desk and pick up the empty coffee pot and wave it towards the intern while mouthing “I’m getting a refill”. He nods and it is that movement which draws your attention to the empty bed where a blood stained sheet has been tossed in a heap. For a moment you are transfixed, where the…what the?

Then you spot her. Naked and covered in black blood the subject, the dead subject, is about three paces behind the unaware intern. Pete continues smiling and doing that thing with his eyes while just behind him a dead person walks disjointedly toward him, her hands out and fingers curled into grasping claws…

Dr. Bonnie MacLean's face blanches with horror when she sees the dead woman rise. "Look out behind you!" she cries, pointing at the woman behind Pete.

For a split second Maxwell contnues to do his funny routine, then obviously noting the look of horror on your face he begins to look around.

It all seems to be happening in slow motion, Pete's head swivels on its neck, his hands begin to come up as if in reflex. From over his shoulder you watch in horrified anticipation as the grasping hands of the recently deceased subject reach over Pete's shoulder and pull him towards her open mouth. Instantly the humourous look in his eyes are replaced by a look of hurt amazement as with a sudden burst of real time speed she sinks her teeth into his nack and in a spray of bright arterial blood tears a large piece of flesh free.

Even as he collapses floorward, followed by the now blood covered subject you know he is dead. No one can survive a trauma such as that. Blood trickles in wide rivulets down the glass, not enough however to deny your eyes the sight of a person belived to be dead slowly tearing large chunks of flesh from the neack and face of Pete Maxwell.

Your mind raced trying to make sense of what is going on, but the worst is yet to come as the subject turns slightly and you see where here skin has been peeled back to allow acess to her lung from where a large piece had been surgicaly removed to provide the sample that now sits beneath the microscope...

OOC:   Please Roll a Guts roll Roll 1d6 (Spirit) and a seperate d6 (wild dice) The Target Number is 4 so a 4 on either dice means a success if you roll the max on either dice roll that dice again and add that number to your successes. Every 4 points over the TN is called a Raise sometimes it is important to nknow just how successful you have been. More information here viewtopic.php?f=251&t=4652

Bonnie is horrified, but not overwhelmed. What she sees looks impossible, but she knows that there has to be a rational, scientific explanation for it. She just has no idea what it is yet. "Help!" she shouts to the intern and anyone else close enough to hear. "The patient just killed Pete! She's...she's eating him!"

Horrified doesn’t really do it justice. So far in your career you’ve seen all kinds of horrors; trauma injuries to make even the strongest stomach heave, surgical procedures that have left many running for the sick bucket; but never before have you seen a dead body, or supposedly dead body, get up and eat someone. You feel slightly nauseous, a little warm and a sudden explosion of bright coloured dots in your vision warn of imminent feinting. With a hard swallow you pull yourself together.

At the far end of the research laboratory, temporarily constructed in the light of the epidemic, you see Martinez one of the research assistants, the lack of response to your shout, would seem to show that he’s listening to his i-pod again. For Martinez the world turns on, full of whoever he's listening too at the moment.

Behind the glass partition, liberally smeared with Pete Maxwell’s blood the presumed dead woman subject continues to tear huge chunks of the interns, now dead, flesh forcing it into her throat with gusto.

Suddenly, the sound bringing you to your senses with a start, your pager bleeps…

Bonnie snatches up her pager and checks it as she runs down the length of the lab to reach Martinez, fear spurring her on.

The pager is telling you to contact the desk on Ward 11 it is telling you that it is urgent. You are some ten feet from Martinez when he, as if following some sixth sense, turns towards you. For a moment his eyebrows rise questioningly, heavy eyebrows in desperate need of plucking you think. Then obviously reacting to the look on your face he rips the earpieces of the i-pod from his ears. “Que pasa?”

From the dangling ear pieces comes the sound of an old Nirvana classic, you recognise the lyrics to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ the volume almost, but not quite masks a distant flurry of gunfire…

"The patient killed Pete!" wails Bonnie, fighting back the tears. "She came up behind him and bit open his carotid artery! She's eating him..." She pauses to catch her breath and calm down, and she hears the gunfire. "Someone's shooting! And I've just been paged - there's an emergency in Ward 11."

Martinez gives you a strange look, as if you are going crazy, "What? Where?" He looks around, goggle eyed, then the sound of further muffled gunfire makes him jump. "Whose shooting? Eating him? Paged? What the hell are you on?"

At that moment his pager beeps, he takes it from his lab coats pocket and glances at its display, "Switchboard, now what the hell?"

He moves towards the wall telephone and picks up the receiver, "Martinez, yup"

Suddenly there are more shots, closer now and sustained, someone is firing an automatic weapon. Also from behind you comes the sound of breaking glass...

"Oh, God, she must've broken the window," says Bonnie, glancing back over her shoulder and dreading what she'll see. Almost unconsciously, she pulls out her Glock from the holster underneath her lab coat. She had originally bought it and gotten a concealed carry permit for protection. She'd never had to use it outside of a firing range and never desired to, but now it seemed that it might be necessary, considering all the gunfire nearby.

Martinez is listening intently to what the person on the switch board is saying. Every now and again his eyebrows arch, "They what?" He flashes a smile, that isn't a smile in your direction.

From the other and of the room the sound of breaking glass continues without signs of anyone using the window to gain access to the lab.

However now the window is broken the sound of gunshots is muck louder and you guess they must be coming from the corridor byond the ICU obseravation room. Now you are also hearing screaming.

The door beyond Martinez bursts open and a hospital security gaurd, pistol drawn, looks in. He nods at Martinez and yourself,
"You'd better get outa here pronto. All hell is breaking loose, literally all hell" From beyond him the sound of firing is extremely loud, as are screams, of pain, horror and panic.
"Get to the stairs Hamilton and Preston are holding them, Get to the roof and hope the emergency chopper is still there"
With his left hand, from which blood drips, he tosses you a black plastic radio, "Here, take this you might need it. Its tuned in to the emergency channel. Good luck, I think you might be needing it"

OOC:   To reach the stairs, you need to take the corridor behind the gaurd then take a left towards the main entrance. There is a fire door half way along the corridor on your right marked 'Emergency Exit' this gives access to stairs that lead to the roof and the ground floor Fire Exit

"Thanks, let's go!" says Bonnie, snatching the radio. Not wanting to waste any time, she leads Martinez past the guard and down the corridor. She isn't sure what is going on, but she knows she doesn't want to be anywhere near it.

With Martinez following close and the radio filled with intermittent voices, other sounds you prefer not to attempt to identify, and the ocasional sounds of gunfire, you leave the guard behind as you race down the corridor towards the door accessing the stairwell and the fire exit.

Reaching the fire door with its toughened glass window and red 'Fire Exit' sign with its accompanying admonishment to 'keep closed at all times', you halt momentarilly in your flight to open the door, noticing as you do a crowd of strangely lurching figures at the opposite end of the corridor where the nurses staion was situated. Some wear hospital uniforms, others a mismash of bed attire and street clothing, but they all move towards you in the same disinterested fashion, as if movement were a simple expedient. As they grow closer you can see that whatever their clothing they all bear multiple splashes of blood and bear horrendous wounds, making the idea of movement ridiculous.

You pull the heavy fire door open.
"What the hell, no one can walk carrying those wounds" Martinez cries as he pushes you in an effort to speed up your progress, "Jeez, for Christ's sake move it"
You glance back ready to make a retort, just in time to see the helpfull guard swamped by a small group of patients, a group that seems to include both the subject patient and Pete Maxwell who you had last seen in the observation room.

Before you the first flight of stairs beckons towards the above floors and the roof where the emergency hellicopter is stored. Opposite the stairs there is another door marked 'Exit' which you know allows escape to the rear of the building and the staff carpark. Momentarilly you look towards it, but a sudden heavy banging from outside leaves little room for doubt that someone is outside and wants in.
Martinez, pushing past you, rushes towards the door...

"Wait!" hisses Bonnie. "What if whoever's out there is like the others? That group downstairs slaughtered that poor guard."

Martinez swivels his head towards you as he continues to the 'Fire Exit' door, "So you say but I aint seen shit. If your right and something's happening then there might be folks out there needing to get in" With a grunt of effort he releases the lock and swings the heavy door open.

Immediately the door is pulled from his grasp as several people push each other in a rush to grasp the white coated laboratory assistant. The last thing you see of Martinez is as he disapears beneth a flood of bloodstained and torn figures, the last you hear of Martinez is a gurgled scream "Please...No!!"

Suddenly your options are extremely limited, you glance down at your pistol and realize that there are more targets that you have bullets. The only way is up the stairs, and hope that the hellicopter is still there along with the pilot.

Further up the stairs you can see several frightened faces peering down at you questioningly, patients and staff...

"Quick, head to the roof!" calls Bonnie, racing up the stairs, her lab coat flapping. She doesn't have time to fully explain the situation, and it would sound impossible anyway. "There are mobs going berserk and attacking people!" Her eyes swell with tears, and this time she cannot stop them. I couldn't save Pete, she thinks, full of sorrow. I couldn't save Martinez. I don't know if I can save any of these people either. There's not enough room on the chopper, even if it's still there, but if they stay here or go down they have no chance. At least on the roof they might be able to get away down the fire escape.

By the time you reach the roof quite a sizeable group is with you. Many look like hospital staff, others patients and more than a few obvious visitors. All seem to bear the same haunted look, many have clothing that bear blood stains and rips, some drip blood from open wounds.

Amongst the crowd you spot several men wearing security uniforms and carrying pistols, you also spot one guy, an obvious visitor, still clutching a pathetic bunch of flowers as though his life depended on it.

Quickly looking around you spot the hellicopter still on its pad. There is no sign of the pilot or any of the crew.

From behind you hear the first screams that announce the imminent arrival of the infected horde.

OOC:   You estimate that there are perhaps thirty or forty people on the roof with you. The hellicopter is a small rescue type with room, you think, for maybe five people. There is one exit from the inside onto the roof with a heavy fire door. The roof has a raised edge of brickwork that stands about three feet high, above this a two foot safety barrier stands between th roof and the long drop to the ground below. There is an emergency fire escape in the north corner, but you consider that it would not hold the weight of such a group.

"Is there anyone here who can fly a helicopter?" asks Bonnie as she hurriedly secures the fire door that gives access to the roof and looks around for anything that could barricade it. "Not everyone will fit inside, so we should take people who can't get around very well first in addition to a pilot. Everyone else needs to start heading down the fire escape now, but only a couple at a time. It'll never hold everyone's weight all at once." That has to be a fire code violation, she thinks.

OOC,I know Piloting is an Agility-based skill, but can Jack of All Trades help me figure out the basics of flying a helicopter, even though Piloting rolls would still be at 1d4-2?

As you secure the heavy fire door your question is met with shrugs. Other than a few willing helpers it seems the majority of those that had fled to the roof have sped towards the fire escape, while a smaller group, including the armed security guards have take a position near the hellicopter.

One of your helpers, a tall Peurto Rican with spectacles, nudges your arm and points towards the chopper. It would appear that the security guards, four of them, have found a pilot. He slips into the pilots seat and begins the process of starting it up.

As the rotor blades of the small hellicopter begin to turn, your attention is brought back to the door with a jar. From the other side a steady rythmic banging begins, someone or something is trying to force the door.

Realisation dawns, the security men and the pilot are about to use the hellicopter to escape the roof, leaving the rest of you to it.

Beside you the tall Peurto Rican nods towards the people rushing the fire escape, "That's not going to end well"

You glance around, if the door gives the roof is going to be full of those things. However, there is a small maintanence building near the roofs centre which will give access to the air conditioning and elevator mechanism

"Don't all go at once, it'll collapse!" calls Bonnie as she runs towards the helicopter. "There's a safer way down!" She points out the maintenance building. When she reaches the helicopter, she speaks to the security guards. "Excuse me, I'm Dr. Bonnie MacLean. We've got some sick and injured patients with limited mobility, and they should have priority as passengers in the helicopter. Besides, you guards will be needed to protect everyone who doesn't get onboard."

It would seem your warning is being ignored as the majority of the refugees continue to fight their way onto the fire escape.
Two of the security guards swing towards you as you approach, pistols held casually in front of them, but ready as they eye your pistol. The other two have already climbed into the hellicopter, but also turn their guns towards you.

"Really, well good for you doc. You've got a gun, you defend the roof... We are out of here"

Behind you there is a crash as the door smashes open to admit the first of the pursuing horde...

"You know full well I can't fight them all by myself!" snaps Bonnie. "It's not even in my job description, but it is in yours. If you're real men, you'll stay and protect the helpless, but if you want to be cowards, it's on your own heads." She rushes over to the maintenance building, waving to the survivors. "Follow me if you want to get down! The fire escape's not safe!"

OOC,Can I roll Persuasion?

Bonnie runs for the maintenance building, not wasting time to see how the men react or if the others on the roof are following her.

You make it to the door to the maintenance building, while from behind you hear the increased whine of the choppers rotors indicating its iminent takeoff.

Arriving at the door you find yourself accompanied by two others one a male nurse the other a female patient still wearing her hospital gown and wrist band tag, she wears one slipper, a tacky pink leopard skin pattern with a ridiculous pompom shaped like a leopards head.

She pulls the heavy metal door with its reinforced glass panel open, "This way?"

A horrendous screech of tearing metal shows the fate of the fire escape. Luckily you are out of veiw of the results, and any increased screaming is lost amongst the mayhem further along the roof near the main door, and the lift off of the hellicopter.

With the door open you can see the machinery of the air con and the lift mechanism further in, something worries you but you can't quite place what...

Bonnie looks around for a way to gain access to the lift shaft or the ventilation ducts.

OOC,Should I roll Notice?

Both ventilator ducts and elevator shafts are easy to see, although closing the door has reduced the light slightly.

OOC:   Please roll notice anyway.

Bonnie observes her surroundings thoroughly, her eyes adjusting quickly to the dark.

You look around, taking stock of the surroundings. The door, fire door thick with a reinforced glass viewing panel has two large bolts allowing it to be locked from within. Several feet in front of you a platform, surrounded by safety rails is reached by a short flight of iron steps. The area covered by the platform looks like a maze of pipes, ducts etc. Including those you identify as being the ducts giving access to the air con. Small, but negotiable to a squirming person, you would imagine that using them would allow progress through each floor.
To one side of the platform are several elevator doors, with a notice 'Warning - Maintenance Personnel Only'.

A small, but bright, stud light with its protective frame, provides adequate lighting but due to its position, close to the door, creates many shadowed areas, especially amongst the pipes and cylinders of the platform area.

You also notice, at the same time as the male nurse, a sticky residue on the rails that border the stairs. He holds his hand aloft, inspects it, and turns towards you, "Blood?'

Bonnie quickly locks the bolts, then joins the nurse and examines the sticky liquid. "Could be," she says quietly. "Let's be careful in here." She flicks on her clip-on flashlight in the front pocket of her lab coat, using its light to pierce the gloom. "Climbing the shaft could be risky, so I think we should try the air conditioning ducts."

Both the patient and the nurse nod in answer to your suggestion. Other than the muted hum of machinery, and the heavy clicks as you slamed the bolts home, there seems to be no noise within the room.

For a moment you are reminded of having spent a couple of hours in a church crypt as a child playing hide and seek. You shake your head, that is a comparison you don't want to make.

The nurse, his name badge identifying him as Roger Erikson, points at the narrow airduct opening, "Taking off the grill will take a moment, after that its a long crawl. Now all we need is a screwdriver, there's bound to be some tools in here somewhere"

"All right, let's look around," says Bonnie, starting a systematic search of the maintenance area, using her light to pierce the shadows and reveal what they hide.

Bonnie searches the room with extreme thoroughness.

OOC,Invisible Castle is out of commission, so I'm using the built-in dice roller. I got a total of 9, so that's one raise. [dice]0[/dice] [dice]1[/dice] [dice]2[/dice] [dice]3[/dice]

With the added light from your torch you quickly locate a toolbox some three feet from where Roger is looking, Its presence being half obscurred by a shadowy junction of pipework.

He reaches into the shadows for the box, "Almost got it, just a little bit further..."

His words are suddenly swamped by a hysterical screaming from the direction wher the slipper clad patient is searching.

Responding immediately you spin and direct your torch towards where she is standing, rooted to the spot, hands raised to her face.

"What the fuck?" Roger withdraws his reaching hand like lightning as he turns also towards the screaming patient.

In the light of your torch you can see the reason for her screams. Some fifteen feet from where she stands a figure dressed in green overalls is crouched above figure. Undisturbed by your initial presence the figure continues merrilly munching on a handfull of blood covered entrails. However the shrill scream, quickly draws its attention to the source of the scream and it turns white dead eyes towards the unmoving, but screaming, female...

"Duck!" calls Bonnie, raising her pistol and trying to line up a shot at the walking corpse that wouldn't risk accidentally hitting the other woman.

Bonnie has never fired her pistol before except to practice at the firing range. She never wanted to harm another human being, but she knows that she has to do this to save someone's life, and that the attacker is already dead somehow. Time seems to slow down, and her instincts take over, her aim accurate as she squeezes the trigger twice.

OOC,Invisible Castle is back up. That ends up being a total of 8 (unless the +1 also applies to the bonus roll, in which case it's 9). The magazine holds 17 shots, so it has 15 left.