Despite racing against the rain on your way northwards, the storm finally caught up with you in earnest and with it the night has fallen, abyssal black and riven by lightning. Conditions on the rain-swept road force your speed down to a virtual crawl so that your head-lamps can pierce the gloom and keep you on the path. The only thing certain now is that the weather behind you is worse than that which surrounds you, driving you onwards. What should have been an eventless journey has become something dangerous and unpredictable....
Luther places an appreciative hand on Thomas' shoulder as he appraises the man's patchwork on Billy.
"Well done Mr. Furman." he says, "It may be worthwhile to address Ms. Webb's wounds as well while we have the li--"
At that exact instance, the lights cut out in the tiny diner plunging them into lightless limbo once more. At mention of the lights return, Luther squints towards the window curious to affirm or refute whatever it is he thought he had seen earlier.
Spoiler:
Luther - Hard Spot Hidden - 35%
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Despite his best efforts, the prim claims investigator can only make out the blackened treeline churning angrily in the wind. He turns his attention back to the shaken Billy before him, considering the boy's nonsensical ramblings.
"Easy now Billy." he whispers, "You said old man earlier. Are you speaking of Ms. Webb's grandfather? Doctor Webb? Did you see him? Is he alright?"
Tobias,gets nothing from Emilia apart from the usual mumbled reference to a grandfather and a light. It was something in the waitresses, Mary Laker, voice that leads him to think she is holding something back.
At the old ladies exclamation he had quickly turned in the direction she was indicating. There may have been something, but the glimpse was to short to be sure. A faint luminescence perhaps, one moment there then gone. But if he had seen the light the old lady had been on about she may have been right it was across the road and to the north, Bolton direction, of the diner.
Neither Lance nor Luther saw anything beyond the blackness of the window. However at the mention of the Doctor, Billy had turned a dead white, “Old man…the box…Goddamn light, gotta get away from here it’s coming!!” he finishes by trying to struggle to his feet. The panic in his voice has an immediate effect on the big farmer, who rushes over to the front door and rips it open, to admit a blast of wind and rain. “I’m outa here” is the last words you hear as he disappears into the storm. “Jesus H, shut the goddamn door” screams Keelham as the wind smashes the glass paneled doors open with horrendous force…
OOC: For those interested it is probably fifteen minutes since you arrived at the diner, some twenty since you encountered Emilia on the road and the storm shows no sign of abating
We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin
Thomas takes a chair from the diner,
Puts his full force on the door to close it and tries to put the chair under the handle to prevent the door from opening again.
Despite Thomas’ quick thinking, the glass in the door had fallen victim to the storm and now the blinds merely thrash around in the wind like crazed animals. Tobias drags Emilia to the relative cover of the counter.
In the limited light of the flashlight things look strange. Odd shadows are thrown everywhere, moving with the light and the wind.
Barty, sitting frozen by the turn of events, turns his face to the door to the kitchen, the recent source of their latest visitor, from beneath the table at which he sits comes the ominous click of a revolver being cocked, “If anything comes through that door…” voice shaking with terror he never finishes that sentence.
From outside the front door, loud above the howl of the wind and rumbles of thunder comes a female voice, “What the hell is going on in there? Sam…Sam Keelham, you in there?”
A shuffling noise and Keelham rises to his feet, even in the flashlight you can see the fear in his face, “That you Doreen? Something odd is going on. Storm has taken the lights out, and the glass in the doors. We have two injured kids in here and it seems the docs missing…”
“Right open this door now, or I’ll go round the back to the kitchen”
OOC:Sorry about posting delay, down with flu at the moment
We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin
Luther's own leery gaze hovers on the kitchen door for a moment longer before turning towards the ruined front door. Shooting Tobias an appreciative nod for dragging the girl from danger, he brushes past Thomas and pulls the door open, using the opportunity to scan the rain-swept road for any sign of Jake's whereabouts.
Luther pulls the door open assisted by the wind. And a rather distressed looking middle aged woman in a drenched raincoat pushes past into the diner, “Well Sam Keelham are you going to tell me what’s happening?” she raises a oil lamp and by its light looks around at the diner, “So? And why did I just see that big idiot Burns running toward his truck as if the devil was hot on his heels?”
From her manner you get the feeling that this lady is not to be trifled with. When the light hits the figures of Emilia and Billy, it stops. “Emilia by all the saints, what the heck has happened girl and wheres your grandpappy? And Billy Esterhouse too, but I don’t see Clem anywhere.” She lifts the light up until the waitress can be seen, “Mary where’s that no good Clem Miller it aint natural to see Billy without his friend”
Mary shrugs, “Aint seen Clem for two days or so, Billy neither until tonight”
Luther,You can just about see the errant [b]Jake Burns[/b] in the cab of his truck, as you watch you hear the whine of the trucks starter motor – once, twice, three times it turns without sparking the engine. You are just about to turn back inside the diner when you hear a scream from the trucks direction…
As Luther turns to close the door, you all hear a sharp scream that seems to cut through the noise of the storm. A scream so terrible that it almost freezes your blood. Barty's voice rises in a nervous pitch, "Dear God what was that?"
The elderly couple start to sing in their best go to church voices, "What a friend we have in Jesus..."
We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin
Luther throws a forearm across his brow in an attempt to shield his eyes from the rain and catch sight of whatever catastrophe might've befallen Jake.
"Will this madness never end?!" he gasps before turning back towards the diner's interior. "Mr. Furman! Mr. O'Connell! We must help Mr. Burns! Mr. Carter-Smythe, keep an eye on Ms. Webb!"
Without awaiting a response, he sprints from the diner's entranceway, slowing only to tip his hat to Dorothy as he brushes past.
In a flash of lightning Luther rushes past the newcomer and into the rain and wind. Footsteps slapping in the puddle forecourt behind him tells him that at least one of the others followed. With the wild wind tearing at his clothing and the hurled raindrops stinging his face and limiting vision, he forges on towards the looming shape of the truck, where moments before he had seen the blurry outline of the big farmer, Jake Burns. Then had come the scream, perhaps it had come from the truck, it was difficult to pinpoint amongst the noise of the storm, but one thing he knows for sure that since the scream there had been no movement within the cab of the abandoned truck…
Lance followed close. Ahead of him he could see Luther’s destination, a black shape against the deeper blackness of that treeline. The abrupt flash of lightning did little to help apart from destroying any night vision that was available. Increasing his speed he soon was running abreast of Luther and together they reached the truck…
From within the relative peace of the diner the others watched as the two disappeared in the storm filled darkness. The last they saw of them was a moment of lightning filled illumination as they headed towards the truck that the farmer, Burns, had abandoned on the road.
Barty looked grim and pale faced into the darkness which had swallowed the pair. Maybe he should have gone with them, after all he does have a gun, but then he hadn’t come all this way across the Atlantic, to die unremarked on some out of the way road in Massachusetts.
Luther and Lance,Your run to the truck comes to an abrupt halt near the cab, feet skidding in the wet mud that the truck had thrown onto the road when Jake Burns had lost control earlier. The drivers door still hung open although not as wide as earlier, and moved slightly in response to the wind.
The cab looks empty, with no sign of the farmer. In the darkness you can just make out a shape on the floor of the cab something tube shaped about a foot in length…
We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin
"Mr. Burns!"Luther bellows into the tempest, the whipping winds quickly carrying his voice away. He turns to Lance with a look of fearful uncertainty. "I'll check the other side of the truck!"
He skirts the truck's front end and stands face to face with the ebon treeline which he scans for any sign of the errant farmer.
Spoiler:
SPOT HIDDEN - 70%
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However the darkness and deluge of rain conspires to conceal any such indication of Jake's whereabouts and Luther jogs back around the vehicle to rejoin Lance.
"There's no sign of Mr. Burns!" he shouts through cupped hands. "Were there any clues in the cab?"
Tobias had stood up to see Luther before looking at the girl, kneeling down to be eye to eye with her, "Now, you stay right here, sweetheart. Don't come out until we tell you its safe."
He walked around the counter and went over to the other two men, "Whats happening?"
CrowTheAlmighty wrote:Tobias had stood up to see Luther before looking at the girl, kneeling down to be eye to eye with her, "Now, you stay right here, sweetheart. Don't come out until we tell you its safe."
He walked around the counter and went over to the other two men, "Whats happening?"
OOC: I presume you mean Thomas and Barty as Tobias and Lance have as yet not returned from outside?
We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin
Lance,At the abndoned truck, Lance, searching the empty cab finds a long black rubber flashlight. Turning it on it emits a powerful beam of light, turning it to the ground outside the cab he can see footprints in the soft mud. They seem to be leading into the trees. That they are recent can be seen by their freshness not yet having been marred by the rain.
Luther,A sudden beam of light fashes from the side of the truck were Lance is. Looks akin to a flashlight beam.
Tobias and Thomas,
Inside the diner most peoples attention seems to be focused on the obscured shape of the truck. Thomas looks on as if mesmerised by the rain running down the windows, while Barty continues to mumble to himself something about the war.
With a sudden shout Keelham points at a sudden burst of light near the truck, "My God, is that it?"
OOC: Apologies Crow, got my characters mixed there I meant Luther and Lance are outside
Billy turns his face towards the newcomer, "Old man...Box...Clem...Light chase me". Awareness suddenly flashes over his face, "Gotta go must find Clem and the Doc"...
We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin
Tobias stayed in the diner, since Emilia was still behind the counter. He could not leave her in the building alone but the others were leaving too... He sat at the counter and began to think quickly
