Play@YSDC

Julie finds herself in a strange, alien city. There are no shades or gradients: everything is of a single distinct color. White buildings - tall, monolithic slabs - reach to the sky. The ground is black, pitch black. Faceless people move aimlessly about the streets, without speaking or interacting with each other. But Elizabeth must be here, somewhere. A woman leans in and whispers: "Are you afraid of separation?" Julie sees a long thread stretching behind herself, connecting her to an unseen point in the infinite distance.

Julie follows a girl, who looks and walks like Elizabeth... Julie makes her way through the dense, shifting mass of people. The crowd dissipates, and the girl leads Julie out of the city and into the deep desert. Finally, the girl (Elizabeth?) stops on the very edge of a canyon. Julie calls out to her - "Elizabeth?", but to no avail. Julie steps forward - and the girl steps forward too. For a second, she is suspended in the air above the void.





Julie wakes up in cold sweat. It's still night. She goes back to sleep, but there are no more dreams.





In the morning, the Investigators have breakfast, and make some final preparations. Julie puts on the wire. Then Tobias drives Julie out to the desert on his car. They stop some distance short of the compound, check the equipment one last time, then split up. The other Investigators have taken Nat's car, and drove to look for a hiding place in range of the transmitter. Probably somewhere in the rocky desert to the west of the compound.

Julie covers the remaining distance on foot.

It is only 10 in the morning, but the temperature is already rising. The air vibrates.

Key,[list=1][*]Not a proper building, just a tin roof on rows of posts. There is some old farming equipment (ploughs etc.), and crates covered with tarps. [*]A single-storey house, made of pre-fab elements. There is a narrow enclosed porch with windows and a door facing the center of the compound. It has a hinged roof, with a small window on the short side: it probably has a small attic. [*]Outhouse. [*]A single-story brick house, with an open porch along the long side facing the center. It looks like the oldest building in the place. Two windows on the left side of the front wall are boarded up. [*]The newly- built hangar or barn. It's entrance (a double gate, currently closed) is facing the center of the compound. [*]In this area, the earth is ploughed, and there are some things planted - tomatoes and the like. It's all haphazardly worked. [*]A rusty trailer, a leftover from the 1950s, propped up with bricks. The pink paint is peeling of the side. Adjacent to the trailer, a tarp is stretched out to provide shade.[/list] North is up.

The compound looks quiet enough. The gate of the chain link fence is open. Julie sees the pick up truck parked next to the buildings, but not the red sedan.

The only person visible is a woman, scraping the ground with a hoe between the barn and the old trailer (6). She is working slowly, dreamily. She is wearing denim overalls. She hasn't noticed Julie yet.

OOC,Mr. Handy, please note when Julie switches the wire's transmitter on/off! If she wants to manipulate it while others are watching, make a [b]Sleight of Hand[/b] check.

While she's not being observed, Julie flips the switch to turn on the transmitter. She approaches the open gate, stopping just outside it. "Hello!" she calls to the woman, with a smile and a wave.

A few seconds pass. The woman finally stops whatever she's doing and looks in Julie's direction. Then lays the hoe on the ground, wipes her hands against her trousers, and starts walking towards the gates. Her movements are slow and fluid. She stops a few steps away from Julie.

The woman is young (a couple years Julie's senior), short, of a sinewy build. But instead of leanness, her appearance gives a sickly, desiccated impression. The denim overalls are hanging, suspended on bibs on her shoulders, like on a scarecrow. She is tanned, but in some places she looks more sunburned, with the skin flaking, coming off in patches. Her long, thin straw-colored hair is gathered in a ponytail.

"Hi! Can I... help you with anything?"

"Hi," says Julie. "I'm looking for Elizabeth Sandoval. Do you know where I might find her?"

The woman first gives Julie a blank stare, then finally a realization comes.

"Elizabeth... Oh you mean Eli? She's around here, yes."

She looks behind her shoulder, towards the houses.

"I think she is resting.

"Why are you looking for her?"

"I'm her friend Julie," she says. "I haven't seen her in a long time, so I thought I'd drop in and visit her."

"I see. I don't want to wake her up if she is asleep. But..." she drifts off mid-sentence. "...let's go and check."

She wipes her hands against her trousers once more, and slowly walks over to the pre-fab house (2). She stops before entering the porch. "Just wait here, okay? I don't want to wake the others."

OOC,I changed the dialog color, because it was the same as Julie's ;)

"Sure," says Julie, just loud enough to be picked up by the microphone so as not to risk waking the others. She stops outside the porch and watches the entrance.

The woman enters the house, and closes the creaking door behind herself. Julie catches a glimpse of a narrow corridor, bisecting the house. There are closed doors on both sides. There is a single window and a ladder leading up at the end of the corridor.

Julie patiently waits. The enclosed porch is full of junk: old boxes, dusty crates, a broken bicycle.

After a minute or so, the door opens. The woman comes out first, then steps aside, revealing Elizabeth!

"Eli, this girl says she is here to see you," the woman says.

"Eli..." The name rings weird to Julie. Elizabeth was always Liz, or Lizzie, but never "Eli"! And how different is the person now standing in the doorway!!!

Elizabeth is thinner than ever, almost malnourished. Her cheekbones are protruding. Her lips are parched, and surrounded by sores. She looks tired. Her eyes are surrounded by dark circles. The skin on her arms and shoulders and neck is alternating between tanned and red sunburned sections.

She is dressed in a t-shirt and torn jeans. Julie recognizes the shirt: Elizabeth got it on a school trip to the Mesa Verde National Park. The shirt's faded to pink, the picture of the cave dwellings worn unrecognizable.

Elizabeth smiles at Julie. It's a strange faint half smile... maybe moving her damaged lips is painful?

"Hi!" she says. She waves, but doesn't move in for their traditional friendly hug.

Julie has no such hestitation. While Elizabeth may not seem like herself, she knows that her friend is still in there somewhere. "It's good to see you, Lizzie!" she says, moving forward and embracing her. "I've really missed you. How have you been? I can see you've lost some weight."

"I'll let you two catch up," the woman says, and exits the porch. From the corner of her eye, Julie sees that she slowly heads towards the other building (4).

"It's good to see you too," Elizabeth says, and lets Julie hug her. Elizabeth has been sweating in her sleep. Her body and shirt are still wet. Up close to her friend, Julie senses strong body odor. For a moment, Julie also catches a whiff of something else: the smell of soot? Burning?

"I'm working a lot," Elizabeth says. "Working on myself."

"Working on yourself?" asks Julie. "What do you mean by that?"

Elizabeth sits down on a crate. She turns her face away from Julie, and stares at the empty courtyard.

"I want to help others. You know that. But I cannot help others if I cannot help myself. I have to become stronger."

She turns back to Julie and smiles.

"I know, I know, I don't look strong. But this is just a stage."

"A stage towards what?" asks Julie, concern on her face. "What's supposed to happen next?"

Elizabeth turns to face the courtyard again.

"My rebirth," she says. "But I cannot talk about this, I'm sorry. I'm not supposed to talk about it."

"I don't understand," says Julie. "Why can't you talk about it?"

"Well, exactly, you wouldn't understand!" Elizabeth says, with a hint of annoyance in her voice. Then she takes a deep breath, and reverts to the dreamy state she was in before. "At that stage, words fail us. Words cannot describe what's to come."

"I want to understand, Liz," says Julie. "Could you show me, walk me through it?"

Elizabeth hesitates for a bit, then shakes her head.

"No. I'm sorry, but I cannot. There are steps... stages... one cannot be revealed without the other."

She covers her mouth with her palm and coughs. It's a strong, phlegmy cough.

"I need some water."

She stands up and steps inside the house.

"Do you, uh, want something? I can't really offer you anything, really. Water. Maybe there is some coffee."

"Sure, thanks," says Julie, following her inside and looking around. "Coffee would really hit the spot."

Elizabeth leads July into the house.

Inside, it's musty and stale. Dried mud "adorns" the laminate floor near the entrance.

There are two doors on each side of the narrow corridor, all closed. A small plastic crucifix hangs between the doors on the left.

Elizabeth opens the second door on the right. It leads to a small kitchen. The window opposite the door is open, leading in some fresh air. The furnishing are sparse: an old fridge, a table, couple of chairs. There is a sink by the window. Elizabeth opens the tap, but doesn't bother with a glass. She just gathers some water in her palms and drinks. She fills the kettle. A camping stove lays on the floor. Elizabeth kneels down, fiddles with it, but she just can't get the fire going.

The table is covered in stuff. Leftovers, small, colorful boxes of food, empty bottles. Ants march in line back and forth.

"Here, let me help you get the fire going," says Julie, coming over to the stove and bending low. "Don't they ever clean up around here? There are insects all over the table, eating the leftover food there." She deliberately gives the details so that the others can hear her description over the wire. She's relived that the water is going to be boiled before it goes into the coffee. She wouldn't trust it otherwise, considering the state of this place.

Julie gets the stove going.

"The fridge isn't working anyways," Elizabeth says. Probably meaning that the ants save the food from spoiling?

She finds a clean mug, scoops some coffee into it from a tin box.

The water boils. Elizabeth reaches for the kettle, and Julie sees that the girls fingers touch the hot metal - but she doesn't even flinch. Just goes on, pours the water on the coffee grounds, and hands over the mug to Julie.

"Here you go."

"Thanks," says Julie, accepting the mug and sipping the coffee. "Are you okay? You touched the metal part of the kettle. Did you burn your fingers?"

"Oh!"

Elizabeth looks at her hand. There are fresh blisters on her fingers where she touched the kettle.

"It happened too fast, probably. I didn't even feel the pain."

She looks more surprised than concerned.

"Here, let me help you," says Julie, taking some cool water to soothe Elizabeth's fingers and looking around for something to use for ointment. Butter might work in a pinch, if they even have any.

Elizabeth lets Julie take care of her finger, hold it under running water, smear it with some oil.

["So... are you, uh, staying in town?"

"Yeah, I am," says Julie. "I'm here for a while yet. I haven't seen you in so long, and I want to spend more time with you, like we used to. How are things here? Is everything all right?"

"Like we used to..." Elizabeth echoes. "Those times... it wasn't that long ago. But it seems to me that it was all a dream. I was... not aware of myself. I was just drifting. Without purpose. Pointlessly wandering in a faceless crowd. I needed an anchor."

"I live a simple life here. I think you would find it boring. Work, meditation, prayer. Sometimes alone, sometimes together... Communion. We learn."

"It's never boring when you're around, Liz," says Julie.

"Thanks. You are always so nice to me... I miss that, sometimes. The other people here are nice, too. But everybody is tired to be friendly. We have a connection, but it is not about friendship."

Julie hears a car approaching.

"You're welcome," says Julie. "Sounds like someone's coming back. I wonder who it is."

The gravel in the yard crunches under the car's tires, and the vehicle stops. The car door opens and slams shut.

Elizabeth suddenly becomes more animate.

"Oh! It must be---" Is Elizabeth making a pause here? "Our teacher, the leader of our community," she explains. She takes a few steps towards the exit, but then stops and hesitates. "You know, it's been some time since we've had any visitors. We welcome everybody, of course, but I'm not sure... But maybe it's alright that you are here..."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," says Julie. "You'll vouch for me, after all. Anyway, I like meeting new people."

"Yes, yes," Elizabeth says, but with a hint of anxiety in her voice. "I caused some trouble, you know, some time ago. Had a moment of weakness... Lost faith in myself and my path. Called my parents. It was stupid. I just had to get through a rough patch, and everything was back to normal. Nobody punished me or anything," she is quick to add. "But I'm still afraid a bit, that you being here will get me into trouble."

She hesitates, then finally makes a decision.

"Okay, let's go. I will introduce you After all, nobody said I'm not allowed to have guests. Just let me talk to --- first."

Again, with that weird pause mid-sentence!

Elizabeth walks out of the house, but signals to Julie to stay on the porch or in the dim corridor (as she wishes).

Julie sees the red car parked in the middle of the courtyard. A tall man gets out from the driver's seat. He is dressed simply, in jeans and a black shirt.

Maybe it's because of the excessive heat outside, the vibrating air, but for a few seconds Julie just cannot make out the man's face. Like looking through a broken camera, that cannot focus any more. But soon this sensation is gone, and Julie sees a handsome face, almost something from a fashion magazine, with clean cut features, straight nose, dark arching eyebrows.

Elizabeth exits the porch, and goes straight toward the man. If she wasn't so tired, she would be running and skipping, it seems to Julie. The newcomer notices her, and opens his arms. Elizabeth stops before, and the man closes his arms behind his back, locking her in a tight embrace. After a few seconds, he lets go.

Elizabeth starts talking. Her voice is weak, and Julie cannot hear her properly. But Elizabeth is talking about her friend, her visitor, and gestures towards the house. He looks at the house, trying to catch a glimpse of Julie. He doesn't say anything, just lightly touches Elizabeth's shoulder, and starts walking towards the house. He moves slowly, but not in the sickly, malnourished way some of the other inhabitants of the compound walk. Rather, he cuts a powerful, slightly menacing, charismatic figure.

Julie notices the two people heading towards the man and Elizabeth from the side of the other building. One is the woman who met her, and the other is a long-haired young man dressed in a flowing white robe, hippie-style.

Julie stands out on the porch. She waves and smiles at the approaching man. "Hi, I'm Julie," she says. "Elizabeth's friend."

Elizabeth stays behind, standing in the middle of the courtyardin the blazing sun.

The man approaches Julie and extends a hand.

"Hello, Julie. I'm Malcolm. It's nice to meet you."

Now, up close, he seems less menacing. His voice is pleasent, calm, and the uneasy feeling of not seeing his face before has passed.

"A friend of Eli is, of course, always welcome. Do you need a place to crash? I brought some food from town, so later you can join us, we usually eat after sunset, when it's not so hot."

"Thanks, I would like to stay," says Julie. "We've got a lot of catching up to do. Why do you call her Eli for short? She's always been Liz or Lizzie to me."

Mr. Handy wrote:"Thanks, I would like to stay," says Julie. "We've got a lot of catching up to do. Why do you call her Eli for short? She's always been Liz or Lizzie to me."

"To you, yes," Malcolm echoes Julie's last phrase. "And Elizabeth to her parents. And Eli - to herself. Names are strange creatures. Their variations reflect both the person named, and the name-giver. Naming yourself gives you strength, I think. But I'm sure you have your own opinion. And your own reason to call her Liz or Lizzie."

There is a soothing, almost hypnotic quality to Malcolm's voice.

"In any case, you two will have plenty of time to catch up. We will only whisk her away from you in the evening, for an hour or so, when we have our prayer and meditation session."

In the background, the two Church members quietly converse with Elizabeth-Lizzie-Eli. They seem to exchange only terse, short sentences.

Julie feels a strange sensation. The wire tap is starting to get warm against her body.

"Thanks," says Julie. "Is there a bathroom around here? I haven't gone in a while."

"Sure, there is one outside," he says, and points to a small cabin between the two buildings.

OOC,If you scroll back to the map, it's marked number 3.

"See you around!"

He rejoins his disciples, and the four of them head over to the elongated second building (4). They enter.

The outhouse is a small tin roofed wooden cabin. A barrel is standing next to it, probably with water. Inside the cabin it's extremely hot, but at least the smell is bareable.

If Julie checks the wire, she finds no visible changes. Its temperature is hard to gauge inside the cabin. The little light is blinking, so theoretically the device is still transmitting. One can only hope that the other Investigators are doing fine and listening!

Julie does check the wire when she's in the outhouse. It disturbs her that it got warm, and she hopes it doesn't get too hot. She also takes the opportunity to relieve herself while she's here, as it's always a good idea not to pass up a chance to do so, especially when going into a potentially dangerous situation. While she has privacy, she speaks quietly into the microphone to fill in the others about what she's observed so far, giving them the layout of the place and describing the people she's met. "I got a weird vibe from Malcolm," she says. "When I first saw him, it was like I couldn't see his face, but then it became clear a few seconds later. He's very slick and smooth, but also a bit scary at first. The wire got warm when I was talking to him for some reason. I hope there's nothing wrong with it, and that it doesn't get unbearably hot or anything. Talk to you later." When she emerges from the outhouse and washes her hands, she tries to see if it seems warm.

While Julie was in the outhouse, she heard briefly a car moving. Now the compound is silent and motionless in the awful heat. Malcolm seems to have retreated into the long house with Elizabeth and the other two. Nobody else is visible in the yard. The red car was indeed moved from the center of the courtyard, and is now parked alongside the church's pickup truck, between the house (4) and the hangar-like building (5).

"Someone moved Malcolm's red car while I was in the outhouse," says Julie quietly, but with enough volume that the microphone can pick it up. "I'm going into the old house now, where Elizabeth and the others went." She heads inside.

OOC,Sorry for the delay!

"...and rejoin the wider community, like Ro did yesterday. He was ready. I saw him shine like a beacon of life in the midst of the city of blank faceless crowds. And even if he doesn't change or save the world... Well, he already, himself, is a complete universe."

Julie catches the very end of Malcolm's monologue.

The door of the old house opens into a big room, which occupies most of the right half of the building. Some of the inner dividing walls were torn down to create such a space. There is absolutely no furniture inside. A group of six people is gathered inside, sitting on the bare concrete floor. Malcolm is in the middle. The rest are around, all facing him, listening.

Julie sees Elizabeth, right next to Malcolm. Her face is blissful...

A tall, thin, elfin girl sits on Malcolm's other side. She is pale, with deep set eyes. She nods at the end of Malcolm's speech, knowingly.

The long-haired young hippie is next to her. He looks more healthy, less malnourished than the others.

The desiccated woman who met Julie when she arrived, sits next to Elizabeth.

The sixth member of the group here is a shirt girl, almost bald - her hair is very short, perhaps recently buzz cut. Unlike the others (who sit in the Lotus pose or on their knees), she sits with her legs straight.

Some of them turn towards Julie, and greet her with nods. Sort of in a neutral, non committing way. Malcolm smiles at her.


The room has a door on the left hand side, currently closed. There is also a curtain, obscuring the far right corner of the space.

"Hi," says Julie, waving. "Nice to meet everyone. I'm Julie. Don't feel you need to stop on my account."

There are some murmured "hi's" in answer. There are some names as well, but Julie only catches the tall girl next to Malcolm introducing herself with one sound (not even a syllable!): "I'm 'N".

"We were just wrapping up, Julie. Take a seat! Why don't you tell us more about yourself?" offers Malcolm.

"Sure," says Julie, sitting down near Elizabeth and crossing her legs as the others do. "Liz and I have been best friends since we were little. We grew up together in San Diego. She's always been the smart one. Me, I was never very good in school, but I've always been athletic, and a bit of a tomboy. My favorite sport is roller derby, and I'm pretty good at it."

"Roller derby? Must be a great way to release tension, and to..." but here Malcolm is abruptly interrupted, as the girl with the very short buzzcut hair leans forward and throws up! Some members of the cult of the Church cough and scramble away, as the acrid smell of vomit fills the room instantly. The poor girl continues to make a retching sound.

"Oh!" cries Julie, going over to help the girl. At least her hair is so short that there's no need to hold it back. "That looks bad. You should see a doctor."

OOC,First Aid roll (50% skill) trying to help the girl: [dice]0[/dice]

Julie cannot do much, but the little she can is enough to at least "comfort" the sick girl. She is trembling, but stops retching. Julie holds her by the shoulders.

As she touches her, she notices that under the dirt, the girl's skin is flaking, dotted with rashes. From the distance, it seemed like sunburn, but now, up close, it looks more serious. Julie has a flashback: but strangely, not to the skating rink first aid instructions, but to the Civil Defense prep class back at school. A group of kids staring at a wall where the images of the horrible consequences of radiation poisoning are projected... But surely that cannot be? Julie is not certain, of course. With the blazing light out here in the desert, it might as well just be sunburns.

"Must have eaten something bad... Happened to Ria too a couple of days ago... We should really stop getting food from the dumpsters, go back to shoplifting," the girl called 'N muses.

"Do, Eli, please, help Sy. Take her back to her room, get her some water. I will bring around some pills soon," Cavendish says to Elizabeth and the hippie guy. "Me and 'N will clean up here."

"Here, I'll help you with her," says Julie moving to assist Elizabeth. She looks at the sick girl. "Those are some bad burns on your skin. How did you get them?"

OOC,Oh and give me a [b]Spot Hidden[/b], please!

The hippie guy (who goes by the name Do) is happy to let Julie and Elizabeth take care of the sick girl. He follows as you three leave the building, and lead the girl towards the trailer (7) on the eastern edge of the compound. "It's alright, Sy. You just need some rest," Elizabeth says.

"I'm sensitive to the sun... it's only getting worse, I get these rashes lately, they itch..."

Julie can feel the girl tremble. She is still very weak from the sudden, violent sickness.

"...shouldn't work in the sun... but I want the plants to grow..." she adds when you pass by the little garden.

The trailer is old and rusty. The wheels are missing, and the chassis is propped up with bricks. Inside, it's not much better. A cramped, dark room, a small kitchenette (crawling with ants, no doubt...), a narrow bed. The only spot of color is an assortment of green kitchen herbs planted in pots.

"...Eli, wake me up later... I don't want to miss anything..." Sy mumbles as you lay her down on the bed.

"I know what you mean, Sy," says Julie. "With my red hair, I turn into a lobster in the sun, so I always wear suntan lotion. I've seen my share of sunburns, and this doesn't look like that. It looks like descriptions I've heard of radiation burns. Is there an old nuclear test site out this way or something?"

OOC,Spot Hidden roll (45% skill) in the trailer: [dice]0[/dice]

Sy snaps out of her haze for a couple of second, but doesn't say anything, just stares at Julie. Elizabeth is shocked, too, and concerned: "Radiation burns? Nuclear test site? No... no, I don't think so."

She inspects Sy's rashes.

"I though they were from, you know... bad hygiene," she says. "Like some of the people had at the shelter. But they do look a bit different. Still... radiation?"

There's a knock, and Cavendish enters the trailer. He comes bringing a blister of pills. Elizabeth pours a glass of water from a water tank hanging next to the entrance. "Here you go, Sy, drink this up. How are you doing, sister?"

"She is very tired..."

"What are those pills?" asks Julie.

"Just some painkillers," Cavendish says, and flips the blister: Julie recognizes the brand as a commonly available pain medicine. "And some activated charcoal," he adds, pulling out a plastic tube from his pocket.

"Oh," says Julie. "What's the charcoal for?" She doesn't know much about medicine or science, but she wonders if perhaps it's to absorb the radiation.

"They say it's good against toxins, absorbs them in the stomach," Cavendish explains. "I don't know anything better. But I'm sure Sy's body will overcome this all. She is a strong young woman."

Julie doesn't remember activated charcoal in particular from the Civil Defense lessons as a radiation absorbent, although it's possible. The charcoal getting into the stomach and "tying" down whatever mess is down there sounds logical.

"That makes sense," says Julie. "You sure know a lot about medicine. A lot more than me, anyway. Where did you learn about it?"

"From manuals, and a first aid course I did back when... well, a long time ago. I have to take care of my flock," Cavendish smiles. "Let's go outside, Sy needs to rest."

"...wake me up later... don't want to miss anything..." Sy mumbles as she drifts off.

Cavendish exits the trailer, Elizabeth follows him.

Julie leaves the trailer alongside Elizabeth. "What is it Sy doesn't want to miss?" she asks.

"Our prayer and meditation session," Elizabeth explains. "We hold one every other evening."

"That does sound interesting," says Julie. "I wouldn't mind seeing that myself."

"I'm not... I'm not sure that's possible," says Elizabeth.

Cavendish, who's a few steps ahead of you two, turns around.

"Sorry, Julie. The prayers, like everything we do here, are a communal effort. But, unlike the gardening, cooking, cleaning, or repairs, it is not something anybody can attend to straight away. There are stages you have to complete first," he explains. "You are free to stay on the compound as long as you wish. Perhaps you'll grow to like our way of living, work together with us. Work on yourself."

"Oh, okay," says Julie. "I might just stay here a while longer. It's be good to be with my best friend again and make up for lost time."

Cavendish nods and smiles in a friendly way, then heads off towards the direction of the old house. "See you later, Eli!"

Elizabeth leads Julie towards the smaller houses, where they first met.

"I'm tired," Elizabeth says. "I want to catch some sleep. Maybe you should rest too? It gets awfully hot out here."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," says Julie. "It is hot, and it's been a long day. Where does everyone sleep around here?"

"Yeah, I've got a bag of stuff," says Julie. "Which room is yours? I'd like one nearby."

Elizabeth and Julie enter the house once again.

There are two doors on each side of the corridor. There is a single window and a ladder leading up at the end of the corridor. The kitchen Julie already knows is the second door on the right.

Elizabeth opens the first door on the left side.

"This is me here."

There isn't much to show. The pink wallpaper is peeling. The room is void of furnishings. There are two mattresses on the floor, and a couple of cardboard boxes with stuff in them. Elizabeth grabs a blanket and offers it to Julie.

"The next room is empty, you can sleep there if you want. Or sleep on Ria's mattress for a few hours, she isn't around right now and she won't mind." She points to the second mattress in the room.

"Thanks, I'll just use her mattress for now," says Julie, accepting the blanket. She lies down on Ria's mattress and covers herself with the blanket. "Night, Liz."

OOC,Sorry for the delay! Can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post in this topic! :o

Like in the old days, when Elizabeth would stay over for the night, with her sleeping bag, on Julie's floor. Julie would listen to Elizabeth's slow, even breathing, and fall asleep to the rhythm. But now, here, in the dirty little room, Elizabeth doesn't sleep well. Her breathing is ragged, her body sometimes twitches. If it wasn't for Julie's tiredness from today's strange encounters, she wouldn't be able to sleep.

But she sleeps.

And dreams, and in the dream, she finds herself once again in that weird alien city.

The tall, monolithic white buildings are in ruins, toppled, half-sunken into the pitch black ground. Julie's skin prickles - an almost too real sensation in her dream. The faceless crowds are gone. There is only a small group of people, gathered in a the middle of a square. They stand in a circle. One of them turns into a beacon of light, and everybody else collapses to the ground... Julie, too, cannot resist, and falls forward --- she sees the black void closing in --- but wakes up before she hits the ground.

Elizabeth is already up, putting on her sneakers.

"You can get some more sleep if you want. We usually meditate for an hour or so. Sometimes a bit more, if---" short pause "---has a lecture. See you later!"

She walks out of the room.

"See ya," says Julie. She gets up and heads out of the room too, checking her watch to see what time it is. She intends to go to the outhouse first to get some privacy to turn the wire on and report in to the others before attempting to eavesdrop on the meditation ceremony. If she's noticed, she can just say she was curious - which is true.

OOC,Just to be clear, the wire was turned off while I slept to save the battery.

It is 8 PM. The sun is already setting above the desert. Julie, the city girl, realizes just how used she is to the constant glow of street lights... Soon it will be dark all around here. Perhaps the moon will give some light, but as far as Julie remembers, it is in the waxing crescent phase. Just a faint, weak presence against the endless black void, peppered with blinking stars.

Elizabeth walks towards the big hangar-like building. Julie sees that one side of the double gate of that building is open, and a faint light glows inside. Some other people approach the building from the direction of the old house and the trailer. The Temple of Concordance members are gathering.

Nobody pays attention to Julie as she goes to the outhouse.

What exactly is she speaking into the microphone?

First Julie relieves herself, and only after that does she switch on the wire. "Hey guys," she says into the microphone, "I shut down while I took a nap to save the battery, but I'm back now. I guess I've got about fourteen hours of battery life left. I'm really concerned that that girl Sy has been exposed to radiation. If you haven't already, you should try to find out if there was some nuclear testing or something done in this area, or if there's a nuclear power plant that could be leaking. I seriously doubt they could be hiding a nuclear reactor here. There's some sort of prayer and meditation session about to start. I'm not allowed in, being new here, but I'm going to go try and listen in, and I hope you'll be able to hear it too. If I ever need you guys to pull me out, I'll say the word 'fiddlesticks.' If you ever hear me say that word again, it means I'm in big trouble and you should come get me. Wish me luck." She watches from the outhouse until there is nobody looking so that she can sneak over to the hangar and eavesdrop.

Julie feels the adrenalin building up in her body. This is just like the derby. Nothing new. She can deal with this, easily. She is good at this. But for some reason, this empty courtyard seems more scary and menacing than a race against the meanest, baddest jammer of the league.

Julie cautiously sneaks out of the cabin, crosses the compound, and is near the hangar. Both sides of the double doors are shut, but not tight. An open padlock hangs on the right hinge - Julie recalls it being locked during the day. Sounds of people talking can be heard from the inside, through the crack of the doors. Then there is a short pause, and only one person (Cavendish, by the tone) starts talking. The sounds are muffled by something.

Though she knows the microphone won't be able to pick it up, Julie doesn't want to take the risk of opening the door slightly for fear of alerting those inside. She relies on her superior perception to try to overhear what Malcolm Cavendish is saying, figuring she can always report it later.

OOC,Listen roll (40% skill) to hear [b]Cavendish[/b]: [dice]0[/dice]

Julie leans close to the hangar's entrance. As the doors are not closed properly, she can see a small fragment of the interior through the opening. Heavy curtains close off the space a few steps after the entrance. Possibly they muffle the voices. They seem to be covered with dense "oriental" patterns.

However, Julie does manage to overhear some parts of Cavendish's talk. He sounds... different. He shifted from his speaking voice to a strange, half-chanting tone. He doesn't speak, but rather draws out a long mantra, repeating the same verse over and over. There is also a constant drone: Julie thinks it might be the members of the congregation humming in unison.

"...he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. He found him in a desert land...."

As Julie attentively listens to her surroundings, another sound catches her attention:
a small noise, perhaps footsteps against the courtyard's dirt. Coming from the side of the right wall of the hangar.

Julie straightens up and moves briskly and silently away from the door towards the left wall of the hangar, hoping to round the corner before whoever is coming sees her, or failing that to at least be far enough away from the door that she won't be seen to be eavesdropping.

Julie swiftly moves into cover behind the left corner of the building.

For a split second she thinks she can hear a short, whispered conversation from the other side, but then nothing else.

Inside the hangar, the voices continue in the same manner.

Julie peeks around the corner to see if the person is still there.

Julie peeks around the corner. The faint light illuminates... Ray!

He is now eavesdropping at the entrance, just like Julie a few seconds ago.

Julie slips over to join Ray. "Don't be alarmed, it's just me," she whispers.

Ray is startled, but quickly recognizes Julie...

But what now?

OOC:   You can head over to Chapter 5!