Chapter 3: Approaching the Unknown (everybody)

[Cotton]

Ray ducks down out of sight behind the car, but in such a way he might conceivably say he was checking the underside of the car or tires if caught by the people in the truck.

[evil_scientist]

Roll,Rolling against the lowest Luck rating in the group (60): [dice]0[/dice]

The Investigators duck and hide, and listen to the sound of the pick-up truck approaching. As it passes under the mound, it slows down. A few painfully long seconds later it picks up speed again. Peeking out from their hiding places, the Investigators see that the truck follows the road to the compound.

[Mr. Handy]

"Maybe we should get out of here in the car before they get a good look at it?" hisses Julie.

[HelplessBystander]

"There is a possibility that they noted down our license plates, it would be prudent to take some countermeasures against that the next time we come around. Also, I do believe we might need to get Nat out of there before they arrive...or is it too late already?" Tobias said, taking a drink of water.

[evil_scientist]

The Investigators' car is parked on a mound. From the road, the general type, color and make of the vehicle is discernible, but not the licence plate (especially that with the road conditions in this part, it is covered in dust). The church members didn't stop, just slowed down for a while.

Nat is currently quite far from you (the compound is approximately half a mile from your parking place). If you want to get to him before the truck reaches the compound, you need to zip over there, high speed, surely attracting more attention.

[Cotton]

Ray stands up, dusts off his clothes, and continues acting as if he is inspecting the car. He says, as subtly as possible, "No, no we'll stay here for now. We don't need to blow Nat's cover just yet. If Julie comes back to infiltrate this group we'll need another car for her however."

[aine]

Nat smiles, "Vegetarianism is getting popular these days; lots of people are into it. So if you don't raise cattle, what do you raise here? Apart from potatoes. They left you all alone to do the potatoes?" He grins.
"That's a swanky new barn you got there. I wish my Pa could have afforded somat like that; save us kids from a constant grind of mend this, fix that. You build it for anything particular?"

[evil_scientist]

Nat smiles, "Vegetarianism is getting popular these days; lots of people are into it. So if you don't raise cattle, what do you raise here? Apart from potatoes. They left you all alone to do the potatoes?" He grins.
"That's a swanky new barn you got there. I wish my Pa could have afforded somat like that; save us kids from a constant grind of mend this, fix that. You build it for anything particular?"

Sy's answer comes after a long pause.

"Potatoes are easy. Wash, peel, slice."

Another pause. Nat cannot understand, whether she is high on drugs, sick, or perhaps simply not a people's person, intimidated by Nat's stream of consciousness.

"It's for getting all together. For c-- council? Talking, eating."

She looks back over her shoulder. Nat too sees a car approaching in the distance.

[HelplessBystander]

"Reasonable." Tobias said, nodding approvingly, "Perhaps we should move the car? I feel like there is a possibility that since this happened to be the only road that leads into the compound, I would infer that others travelling down this road would at note the presence of our car, would be...suspicious, right?""

[aine]

"This your family coming back?" Nat nods at the cloud of dust on the far side of the enclosure. "Look, if he's anything like my Pa, he won't want you talking to strangers so I'd better vamoosh. But it's been fun chatting to you, I could run by another day if you like?" He nods encouragingly.

[evil_scientist]

"Nah, not like that -- " Sy makes a short pause, with her mouth open " -- is quite open to newcomers."

"Uh... sure, yeah. See you around."

She turns around and slowly walks back towards the trailer. She doesn't take back the cup from Nat.

The vehicle enters the compound.

[Cotton]

Ray nods and gets in the driver's seat. "It looks like Nat is about done with his recon. We'll move a little ways down the road and wait for him to catch up to us." He starts the car up after a moment and slowly drives just far enough to be out of sight of the compound.

[evil_scientist]

You slowly drive back to the road. Some time passes, and finally Nat appears from behind the dunes. He is covered in dust, and is seriously dehydrated... His raw natural strength helped him, but next time he has to be more careful. The desert here seems to be funnelling all energy and vitality out of people.

The Investigators are gathered. Time to make further plans!

OOC,Feel free to decide on your course of action IC or OOC!

[Mr. Handy]

"We'll need to get a second car for me," says Julie. "I can't be seen with this one when I go in, or they'll get suspicious, as they've seen it already."

[aine]

Nat collapses onto the rear bench seat and grabs a Coke which he downs in one.
"Bah, warm! We must get a cooler! I'm not as young as I was; that was hard! Still I met a nice young women called Sy. Actually she wasn't nice at all, pale and very uninteresting and pretty ill looking. And really spaced out - she was wierd!
Couldn't even talk properly, kept zoning out before she said anything. Anyhow, I reckon I can go back if we need, newcomers welcome apparently. And I still have her cup!" Nat lapses into silence and shuts his eyes to recover.

[evil_scientist]

Nat's new cup is not a really valuable "quest reward"... It is chipped and old, and wasn't washed properly: around the edge there are dark traces. They look like the ones left when a person with lipstick drinks from a cup.

[Mr. Handy]

"That's a thought," says Julie. "That cup is the perfect excuse for you to go back later, though it's best if we arrive separately and pretend not to know each other until we've 'met.' I just hope Elizabeth hasn't been changed by these folks, if that's how they act. Of course, maybe they're not all like Sy."

[aine]

"Yeah, let's hope so or Elizabeth's parents are not going to be happy!" Nat examines the cup, "Funny, these look like they might be lipstick marks but the commune doesn't strike me as the sort of place to attract that sort of girl." He passes it to Julie,

"Here, have a look, you probably know more than me about it." He winks. "Hey boss, what's the plan now? Dinner?" He calls hopefully to Ray in the front seat.

[Mr. Handy]

"I wouldn't be happy either," says Julie, looking at the cup to see if the shade of lipstick is anything she's seen her friend wear.

[HelplessBystander]

"I suppose it was an unfruitful investigation, no hard evidence and a near-close call with our target, perhaps not how I had envisioned our first encounter to go." Tobias said, deep in thought.