Fallout: The Long Haul (RP)

Doctor Windsor reached out, grabbing Daniel's hand. With a quick movement he pulled the injured man to him. Without thinking he grabbed pieces of rebar and wire quickly crafting a splint (medicine check successful). "I know your type, no Med-X" started Doc Windsor, "but you can't just sit here acting tough. This is a very strong amphetamine, it blows jet, psycho and slasher out the water." Without warning he wrestled Daniel's arm over, swiftly found a vein and injected the clear liquid into the man's vein. Daniel's eyes opened wide, pupils reacting with lightning speed. His mind went red, blood pounded through his head. "This is a steroid for your lungs" The doctor explained shoving an inhaler into Daniel's mouth, then punching him in the chest to force him to inhale. "We have 4 hours until he collapses from his body working in overdrive!" the young doctor announced to the group. "If we can get to a safe place by then I can actually treat his leg, he broke his ankle just then!"

Before Gene could even give a reply to Wade, he dashed off only to see the other team land themselves into trouble.

Wade's plan was extremely similar, if not the exact same as what they planned to do initially before the assailants ruined their plan. Who was it again who said insanity means doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results?

The other team comprising of the mercenary, doctor and the Appleseed man stopped. It was quite a distance away but both Gene and Wade could see that they are in trouble. Wade's plan hit a snag. How should they continue if one team is downed?

As soon as Wade stopped, most likely to make sense of what was happening, Gene spoke,

"Don't worry about them. They've got a doctor, they can take care of themselves."

"Leapfrogging sounds like a more proper plan to me. However, these buildings are too dangerous for my liking. Once those buggers surround us, we will be in a tight spot, unless we can somehow jump from building to building.

"My boy, you may be too young to know this... Have you heard of a subway?"

Vic broke open the shotgun, ejecting the smoking, spent shells. He rummaged around for two fresh ones and inserted them into the breech with practiced fingers. Vic was beginning to see just how stupid of a move he'd made. There were too many centaurs and not enough ammo. Even if he had enough to go around, God knew what else was between them and the cache. He backed up, keeping his gun trained on the nearest one. He waited until it was in range and fired the first shot, but it wasn't enough to take it down. He squeezed the trigger to give the thing another taste of lead, only, nothing happened. His gun had jammed again.

"No good piece of shit!" He gave it a good smack and pull the trigger again. Nothing. The centaur was getting closer. Vic gave more ground. His feet caught on something, and he went down on his ass, shotgun slipping from his grip. He backed up, searching for his gun and keeping a nervous eye on the centaur looming over him at the same time. His hand knocked away pieces of rubble and not much else. Shit, shit, shit! Centaur mere feet away, his hand landed on the shotgun's grip at last. He brought it up and got off the second shot, taking the ugly bastard square in the head. The corpse toppled over, landing at his feet.

"I'm not getting paid enough for this crap," he muttered as he fished out two more shells. Getting hold of them took longer than he liked. He was definitely running low.

There was a yell behind Vic. He turned to find the doctor hunched over Daniel. Was he hit? The doc was messing around with his leg. Vic didn't need to be a medical expert to know they could very well have some dead weight on their hands soon. In any case, retreating seemed a good move. Vic started making his way back to them.

Wade took position as he planned, only realizing the worsened situation of the other team. He offered support in the form of controlled machine gun bursts he fired from the base of the building, the broken down cars provided ample cover for the centaurs but he had hoped for something else.

(Luck check passed)

A sudden flash of light came amidst the crowd of centaurs and a plume of dust and smoke among other things flew about from it. It was the result of a taxi's nuclear reactor exploding, taking out about three or four of the mutants in the blast. Wade had to muffle a laugh, in this situation he needed to maintain composure. Spotting Daniel's team was in check, he nodded and bursted more rounds towards the remaining centaurs.

As he did, he noticed Gene had caught up to position. He listened to every word, grimmacing at the worsening situation, but turned his head in intrigued and surprise at the last sentence. "New York had one of those?" He had experienced the ruined subways of the Capital and interstate rails but didn't occur to him that there would be one here as well.

There was a pause between his realization and processing before he finally spoke again, "What the heck are we waiting for?"

"Now you are learning how to be ruthless."

Gene cracked a smile once more, a smile that Wade would in all likelihood not enjoy. He drawled in a frustrating manner, as if not affected by the gunfire, the yelling and shouting and the pride, pomp and circumstance of an inglorious guerrilla non-war.

"If you could turn your attention to that block about a few hundred yards away from us, you would see a what was once a ruined stairway that leads somewhere underground.

"I ain't going to bet that these underground holes aren't going to collapse but it is much better than shooting at mutilated horses and ugly corpse-peasants as if we were English royalty!

"Now, boy. Don't look back. Don't fire any more shots. You and I make a dash for it and we will be underground before I can say, "I have five lifetimes worth of experience."

If Wade did not understand what Gene meant by 'learning how to be ruthless', he would now. What Gene Smith was suggesting to do is to leave Daniel Townes, the 'Appleseed sniper', John Windsor, the rather reticent medic and Victor Fulton, the young mercenary to the mercy of the creatures attacking them.

"Come on, make a run for it boy. I will be right behind you."

(Daniel is experiencing the effects of Doc Windsor's hyper-amphetamine. +5 STR, +2 PER, -5 INT, +75 Melee, +50 Unarmed, -100 Repair, -100 Medicine, movement speed +50%)
Daniel's lungs expanded as more air than had ever occupied them flooded in. He wasn't himself, he knew that somewhere in the back of his mind, he was thinking loud, primal thoughts. Aggression, violence and above all else, survival. Reaching down he picked up a twisted piece of metal, gripping it with white hot intensity, got up and sprinted toward the nearest centaur. With a sickening snap the metal bit into the flesh, wrenching the skull from the spinal cord (melee check successful). The once human creature fell back and collapsed leaking blood and grey matter from the newly inflicted wound. Ripping the instrument from the dismembered head Daniel looked up at a sprinting Gene. Gene knew this place, he knew where safety was. Unthinking he took off after the ghoul. Pain shot from his ankle, tendrils of burning, shocking and stabbing sensations raced toward his nearly checked-out brain. It didn't matter to him, heart beating at capacity, lungs greedily sucking up air Daniel raced toward the New Yorker. Nothing could or would stop him. Another centaur barrelled toward him, and gripped him with its tongues. He knew he didn't have time for this. In an instant the metal found itself deep within the chest of the abomination, tearing through ribs, lungs and back again to reappear through the creature's back. After a moment of thrashing wildly the tragic being halted, releasing Daniel from its grasp. "Follow him, he's only able to think of survival right now, and in his state he's going to try to get somewhere safe." Doctor Windsor shouted, himself having taken to following Daniel's path of carnage. He knew that Daniel, with his years of honing his survival instincts, had a subconscious plan to elude most harm. I ought to take some notes on him when we stop, he's already gotten this far and hasn't succumb to cardiac arrest. I bet his heart is larger than most, or at least thicker,.. Note to self, get deep tissue adult stem-cell culture from him, maybe I can coax it into developing into a transplant ready heart.

By the time Vic got back to Daniel and Windsor, the marksman was doing better. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the doctor had given him something in addition to the splint around his ankle. Whatever the hell it was must have been powerful stuff. Daniel grabbed a chunk of metal and brandished it like a club. He sprinted after the centaurs, connecting a hit with one that took it down instantly.

Vic whistled. "I could use some of that myself."

"I advise otherwise unless you absolutely need it," Windsor said. "He'll crash later, and when he does, it won't be pretty." Vic nodded, taking a potshot at a centaur. [Gun Check Failed] It did little to slow it down however.

The doctor was right, of course. Daniel couldn't continue on the way he was for long. Not that any of them could fight hordes of mutants for hours on end. Brute force would not get them out of this. They needed a new plan. They needed . . . The zombie suddenly broke from his spot, making a beeline for the tunnel entrance. Vic wasn't the only one to notice. Daniel took off after him. Windsor followed suit.

"Follow him, he's only able to think of survival right now, and in his state he's going to try to get somewhere safe," the doctor shouted.

That's one way of saying, "He's abandoning us," Vic thought. Vic went after them, cursing under his breath. "Wait 'til I get my hands on that fucking zombie."

Daniel continued onward, leaving the scrap embedded in the centaur. As he closed the gap between him and Gene more centaurs flooded between the two. Moving on instinct, Daniel narrowed his eyes, his peripheral vision was only a distraction now, he knew he had to focus on what was directly in his path. Yet another abomination shambled its way in front of him. With a sickening squelch it reached out with its tongues and grabbed Daniel by the throat. The tongues held tight, crushing down on his trachea. Unthinking Daniel raised his hands to the Centaur's throat and gripped the thick-skinned, calloused neck, squeezing with all his might. His vision started to fade, he could feel his grip begin to relax. In that instant, just for a moment, his normal self surfaced over the intoxication. Rebecca, he HAD to get back to her, she needed her father, and he needed her. His eyes began to bulge, his face burned hot red as capilaries were strained from the monstrous being's assault. Gritting his teeth he gripped tighter still. He pulled back his head (unarmed check successful) and rammed his head forward. For a split second the centaur loosened its hold, long enough for Daniel to lean in, murderous intent burning in his eyes. As he gasped for air, he pushed back harder on the centaur (STR check successful). The abomination was slowly releasing him. Harder still he continued to crush down on the centaur's neck. Veins bulged, flush with blood, eyes nearly escaping their cranial prison the centaur desparately thrashed. His fingers sunk deeper into the centaur's neck, crushing down, until it stopped moving. With an animalistic gesture Daniel threw the tongues, which had only a moment prior seemed to be within an inch of ending the man, off of his collar.

((OOC: How do I perform a luck check?))

A horde of not-bears are chasing two groups of people. One group stopped to pump drugs and steroids into their bodies so that would run faster. Why did that group do that, knowing full well that they would not be able to outrun those monsters, no matter how much dope there was in their systems? The answer was, they did not need to outrun those monsters, all they need is to outrun the other group.

The rendition of that overused joke summed up the situation that was facing both groups. Gene wanted the other team to fall behind so to serve as a distraction to their assailants. Seeing that Daniel Townes and his team are sprinting towards him much more quickly than him and Wade, Gene started to curse under his breath and made a futile attempt to run even faster.

He thought of abandoning his weapons that slowed him down and then changed his mind almost immediately after thinking about the monsters that roamed underground. It was then Daniel's team was slowed down by the faster centaurs and it looked as if Daniel was about to succumb to their attackers. Good! All the more reason to run faster and all the better too since those monsters would be too busy with the other team to care about Gene and Wade.

The stairs leading underground were 300 yards away from Gene with Wade a little further from him. It would take around at least 2 minutes for Gene to get there. Would Daniel's team buy enough time for to get underground? None of Gene's business if they perish in the process though.

Shrugging off the last attack Daniel let a pained groan escape from his vocal cords. Adrenaline, amphetamine and steroid pushing his physique to its physical limits. He could feel his muscles aching, his bones at their limits, he was breaking apart. No, it can't end like this. His mantra, his strength, his body, they were beginning to wear. Staggering for a moment Daniel gathered his reserves. Not yet he thought. Drawing in a sharp inhale he felt the burning sting from ribs cracked, but not yet broken. Bruising began to form around his neck, dark circles were growing under his eyes. Move, he commanded his body, and sluggishly his body responded. Still running, every step was agonizing, every breath excruciating, his eyes couldn't focus. The world was hazy, blurry and darkening. He felt the pain I'm his leg amplify with each footfall. "Daniel you need to run! Just a little further!" Doctor Windsor shouted, unsure if he could even make it. The punishment his body endured would have killed other men, the trauma was immense. Daniel gritted his teeth, lowered his head and ran on.

((Someone stop me if they don't like what I did here.))

All semblance of order had fled. The time for finesse was gone, and it was every man for himself in the mad dash for the tunnel entrance. At least, that's the way Vic saw it as he overtook the doctor and didn't look back. A centaur encroached on Vic, but he ran up and met it halfway. He put the barrel of his gun to its head ans squeezed the trigger sending blood and bits of meat flying through the air. If that wasn't the definition of a clean kill, Vic didn't know what was.

He caught up to Daniel and the two exchanged a look for the brief moment that they ran side by side. Vic had to admit. He hadn't pegged the guy as the survivor type back when they first met at the warehouse. Vic passed him up and was coming up on Wade's back when he heard something that sounded suspiciously like a person collapsing behind him. Vic stopped. Even when every part of him screamed to forget it and pick up the pace, he turned to see the Daniel struggling to gain his footing.

"God fucking damn it!" Vic ran back. "Give me your arm," he said to Daniel. By then Windsor had caught up. "Give me a hand here. He won't make at on his own at this rate."

Surprisingly, the doctor didn't argue. They each took one of Daniel's arms, and together, they began crossing the remaining distance between them and the tunnels.

((OOC: sorry for late post, was out of reach these past days, ps happy new year))

Wade's mind had wondered, from that moment he had dashed for the subway, he was in a whole other world. The urban ruins had been replaced with wide autumn field, his drabby attire replaced with khaki uniform as he valiantly charged through dispersed mortar shelling and whizzing gunfire. His whole being exhilarated by the rush of what seemed to be a scene from one of the propaganda holodisks he had watched in his younger years.

His mind drifted back, pulled in from the shouting of Daniel's team as they struggled to outrun the centaurs. His eyes open and the splendor of the Russian steppes, the men in khaki uniform and the triumphant choir faded. "Fuck." he muttered to himself, realizing how dire his situation was. Ahead, he noticed Gene running at fast pace, clearly holding no concern to the fate of the second team, his words resounded in his head.

Wade scowled and furiously shook his head as he approached the stairway, stopping just at the entrance and readying his machine gun once more for battle. Waving his arm in a motion to head inside, he let loose his rifle at the pursuers of five or so centaurs. It hailed bullets on the mutants as the vanguard collapsed in a bloodied head of meat and bile, the followers quickly charging over the carcass. Wade ensured Daniel's group had gotten inside before retreating in himself, taking out one more as they closed in.

Reaching the base of the staircase, he closed the security gates behind him though he didn't know how well it would hold against the centaurs. Taking a deep breath, he caught up to the rest of the group, they were either catching their breath from the sprint or attending to the wounded Daniel. He smiled, content with having the whole team survive the ordeal but it quickly disappeared as the seriousness of the situation came to light. "This doesn't look good." he said noting Daniel's ankle, "Doc, how long to treat it?"

"I need to look him over, but to get him moving, at least at a decent enough pace to have us covered, 12 hours. I only need one person to stay with him and I here. I'm not trying to take on any leadership role here, but I suggest the remainder scavenge for food. I'll stay up and treat him as best I can, everyone else should rest. If Wade can set up an early warning system everyone else can rest. I wasn't fighting so I'm less tired. I'll wake you if you're needed." Doctor Windsor announced to the group. He didn't like being in charge of a group unless they were less trained physicians or patients, but the situation called for it, plus Daniel has already proven to be an anomaly of sorts. Finishing his thought he turned his attention to Daniel's ankle. It was badly swollen and the skin was pressing on the rebar and wiring splint hard enough to split. Skillfully he removed the splint, administered a tetanus vaccine, drained the swelling, sterilized the wound, reset the bones, sewn up, and placed a new, padded brace on Daniel's leg. He began the laborious work Daniel as the remainder of the party discussed the next steps of action.

Once they were in the safety of the tunnels, Vic removed Daniel's arm from around his neck and rounded on the zombie. He wrapped a hand around his scrawny, decaying throat and put his shotgun to his head.

"Are you out of your goddamn mind!?" the zombie said.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't blow your brains out," Vic said.

"Whoa!" Doc Windsor stopped fussing with Daniel for the moment. "We do not need this right now."

"What we don't need is this freak. You saw what he did. He left us for dead back there. Who's to say he won't stab us in the back down the road?"

"You misunderstand, flesh-lips," the zombie said. "I was only leading the way. After all, where would you be if I hadn't made my move? Still up there fighting for you life?"

Vic didn't take his eyes off him. His finger was really itching to pull the trigger.

"Fact is, we need him to get to the cache," Wade said. "You put a bullet in his head, I'll put a bullet in your head. Is that incentive enough for you?"

Vic liked to think he was fast, but no one was that fast. There was simply no way he was capable of blowing Gene's head off and turning to shoot Wade before the scavenger got his gun off. Even if he could, he'd be down to a doctor who wasn't much of a fighter and a guy who wasn't in any condition to fight in mutant infested territory. Not very good odds.

Vic lowered his gun and stepped away from Gene. The zombie breathed a sigh of relief. Without warning, Vic brought his gun back up and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. It had jammed again.

((I am not familiar with NYC subways. I am assuming that there is some place to store janitorial supplies, chambers to control the power and so on. Do stop me if you are not happy with this entry. ))

Gene was somehow threatened with death twice within a span of one minute. The other team catching up wasn't the best outcome for Gene. The horde of mutants now have a good idea where they were. The security gate that separated these monsters from Gene's company was not exactly indestructible.

What is more, there is a more-than-petulant and trigger-happy mercenary was more than eager to blow his brains out after the little adventure of theirs is over.

"He has to go," Gene thought as that mercenary was manhandling him. Keeping his head while being physically assaulted was a skill that he had developed in his five lifetimes of experience, most of it spent being at the receiving end of ghoul discrimination.

There were long disused chambers in the network of subways used to store items like brooms, detergent and other items in the janitor's armory. It is a good place to bound and gag someone up and leave him to rot and while not the best of places to treat the downed sniper's wounds, it would serve as a safe house.

That ought to be where they were going next.

"Who's to say he won't stab us in the back down the road?" cried the young mercenary before Wade intervened. After a few moments of more inane yelling and shouting and melodrama whilst monsters are beating at the security gates some distance away, the young mercenary whipped out his shotgun, attempted to fire at Gene's head but to no avail.

Within a split second, definitely much faster than saying, "I have five lifetimes worth of experience,", the mercenary felt the full weight of yet another shotgun belonging to what he called a zombie on his head.

Though Gene Smith was weak and scrawny, he made an attempt to knock out Victor Fulton, that young and fiery mercenary.

Hours passed as the young doctor slaved over his patient. Getting Daniel back to 100% would take weeks, possibly months, but luckily his role didn't require 100% fitness, good eyes and stable hands could suffice. After ten.hours he was confident Daniel could at least walk at a moderate pace and carry his own gear. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do. Exhausted from the effort, he collapsed next to his patient. "The procedure is complete... Wake me in two hours." Doc Windsor managed to say before sleep sunk in and took him away. He felt proud as he slipped away, a small smile appeared on his face. (Medicine check (x8) successful.)

(since combat has ended, it is time to distribute skill points. Daniel has met 10 skill checks and improves Guns skill by +3. Doc Windsor improves +3 medicine. Only Victor qualifies for +3, Wade needs to meet 3 more and Gene has to make 6. I accounted for automatic checks, if I didn't ask to edit your post, consider it an automatic check.)

For the second time in a row, Vic woke up with a blaring headache, though both times were for entirely different reasons. The first was a loud speaker just over his head. The second was the result of being clobbered over the head.

"That zombie is so dead," Vic groaned. He tried to stretch to take the knots out of his back only to discover his hands had been bound behind him. Perhaps I'll just go back to sleep instead, he thought. He couldn't manage to drift off though. Whatever hole he'd been tossed in was damn uncomfortable. Vic sighed.

He slipped his hands out under his legs to get them in front him and padded himself down. He found his razor almost immediately. "Seriously? Did they even bother to search me?" Vic was free minutes later. He rubbed at his sore wrists. He folded the razor and put it back in his front pocket.

Finding his way out of the room was tougher than breaking out of the binding. It was pitch black. He had to grope around until he found the door. The knob was stuck. Something had been likely shoved against it on the other side. Well, that was that. There was no way he'd be able to get out without alerting the others. However, if they were going to kill him, they would have done so already. Wouldn't they? Vic had seen some fucked up things in his life. Sometimes people liked to play with their prey.

A dreadful thought entered his head. What if they planned on selling him to slavers? Vic's previous brush with the scum had ended up being brief, but he remembered it well. All he had to do was close his eyes (not even so in the case of utter darkness) and he was back on the march, explosive collar around his neck and no idea of what beatings the next day would bring. Vic knew the answer. He'd rather die in a botched escape than become a slave.

His options were limited. If he wanted any chance of escaping, he'd have to wait for them to come back for him. Vic settled down by the door, razor ready to take the first person to enter by surprise.

((I will do a bit of 'god-modding' since it is established that Vic is imprisoned by the team.))

Vic the mercenary went down surprisingly easy as Gene swung his shotgun with as much strength as he could muster which wasn't much.

Wade snarled at him, "Are you out of your god-damned mind?" There was a sense of deja vu. Those were the exact same words Gene yelled out a few moments ago.

Gene gave his trademark fanged smile, "You can't have angsty and homicidal teenagers throwing juvenile tantrums right now, can we?

Wade, the self proclaimed repairman, glared at him. It appeared that he was not too keen on the idea of having one of their teammates downed. On the other hand, the medic John Windsor paid little to no attention to the commotion with his attention fully on the de facto and near unconscious team leader, Daniel Townes. Astounding professionalism!

"There are chambers are not far from here where we can hide ourselves. If we are lucky we can find some wires to tie that angsty teen up. We have to leave Dear Leader to the medic,"

Gene appeared to have come up with new nicknames for Vic and Daniel over the course of the day.

In the heyday of those stations, these chambers, as Gene named them are rooms that housed janitorial supplies and served as power stations. Now, one of those rooms served as Vic's prison.

After binding him, Gene went out scavenging for food, if any food can be found in these concrete tunnels and anything that can be of use. There wasn't much he found though after spending hours in the tunnel, only more cables to tie Vic up.

He returned only to find the medic, John Windsor, picking at a lock belonging to the chamber that held Victor Fulton.

Five hours after he concluded his procedure, Doc Windsor awoke. Glancing over at Daniel he saw his chest rising and falling rhythmically. Good, he thought to himself. Looking around for a moment he saw the lights Wade placed around were still on, the early warning system hadn't been tripped and, perhaps most importantly, he was alone. He felt sluggish getting up, but slowly he gathered himself. Picking up a lantern he started walking around, tying the various doors in the entrance way. Vacant offices, empty workers lounges, ticketing counters, it was all void of life. Before he could venture further he had to wake Daniel and leave a note of some sort. He checked the sedative IV he placed in , it ran dry hours ago. Luckily for the young doctor, in the employee lounge he foundan epi-pen. It was going to be a sudden, slightly rude awakening, but considering the circumstances, bedside manners were a luxury that couldn't be afforded. He injected Daniel, gave him 2 saline flushes and waited calmly for the sniper to stir. Grabbing his notes he removed a page, hurriedly printing a note. 'Left to find other members, returning in an hour' it read. Coughing, wincing and gritting his teeth Daniel started to get up. "Huh? Doc, where are we?" Daniel asked, feeling as though he'd been chewed up by the planet and spat out on the hard, dusty floor. "Subway, between Victor, Wade and yourself we managed to get underground. We're safe for now, but everyone's been gone for at least 12 hours." the tired young man replied. He stood up, shook off the dust accumulated by 2 centuries of vacancy, and began to walk down the hallway, trying each door he encountered. A locked supply closet captured the doctor's attention. He began to massage the lock with a bobby pin and screwdriver. (Lockpick check successful) Unlocked the door, and stepped away from the it. He heard the unmistakable sound of breathing, not the shallow feral ghoul breathing, nor the deep, gasping breaths centaurs had, not even the deep, strong breathing of a Super-Mutant, it was human beyond any doubts.

((This is Victor's "prison"))

Vic had just about nodded off when his ears picked up someone messing around on the other side of the door. He pressed himself against the wall, crouched and ready to pounce. It could be only one or all four of them. He was about to find out. The door creaked open on hinges rusted with disuse. Light flooded in but not enough to blind him. There were two shadows, one at the door and one further back. The one at the door tensed, sensing something wrong. It was now or never. Vic jumped out and grabbed the guy. He spun him around so his back was to him and held his razor across his neck with enough force that it would have cut his throat open if the thing was as sharp as it used to be.

"Stop struggling," Vic said. His voice was raspy and he had to stifle a cough. He couldn't recall the last time he was so thirsty.

"Vic? What's going on?" It was Windsor.

"Shut up and move." Vic forced him forward, never letting his cutthroat razor drop. They left the room, and by now, the other shadow was well aware that something was wrong. It was Gene the motherfucking zombie, and he was looking none too happy about this turn of events.