Evil Dead - Versus the World [CONTENT WARNING]

[HellFencer]

Skunk manages to find a box of staplers, containers of staples, and tape rolls of double sided tape. Nothing else he finds is new to his impeccable vision and foresight. Except that Jack seems to be slowlying slipping into his own dark little world. A world filled with nightmares and small rooms that smell of the jungle. That deep pungent scent that emanates from everything. And, for a moment, Jack realizes he is back in the war; can hear the bombs exploding overhead, and the screams of his men dying. The pain in his shoulders translates into that of hot metal slugs, eating their way into him.

[Twilight]

Skunk
Eyes adjusted, he steps over to where Jane is and hands over two of the box cutters. "Give the other one to Jeff or whoever wants it. I'm going to go and make use of this one," he says as he waves the curved blade of the knife he retained.

Jane
Jane look mildly horrified until she realizes that Skunk means that he will be cutting some boxes open. The relief is visible on her face as her features relax back to her calm demeanor.

She walks back to Jeff in order to return the penlight and to offer one of the sharp cutters.

[Logain]

Jeff
As Jane walks into the (now lit) managers office, she'll find Tom and Jeff looking over the lock box. Jeff will nod to her as she comes in, "Hey, we just found this- it might have the keys in it."

He'll take the penlight back, switch it off, and stuff it into his pocket with the boxcutter. Once that's done, he'll go back to the lockbox. After a few seconds of looking at it, he'll look at Tom and ask "Hey, didn't Skunk open the door into this place? Maybe he can unlock this too."

[Twilight]

"I'll go get him... I saw him wandering off."

She steps out of the office and walks towards Skunk's last known location.

[GazMania]

Tom

Tom nods at Jeff's question. "Yeah, he did, didn't he..." He looks back at the wreckage of the door with a rather embarrassed look on his face, "Maybe he could have opened that too... Ah, too late now.." With Jane out of the room looking for Skunk, Tom drops his voice so only Jeff can hear him. "So whats gonna happen now then? We dunno who else is in this place with us... Or if there's more of them..." The last word clearly meant the monstrous guard lying, hopefully, dead in the other room.

[Logain]

Jeff

At Tom's whisper, Jeff drops his voice low as well. "Well, the guard said they had locked him in here with the crazy thing. Maybe they did that to keep the rest safe. Maybe they're alright. We just need to get our stuff and move on- you and I promised Ed that we would check in on his girlfriend."

Raising his voice, he turns so he doesn't shout in Tom's ear "HEY SKUNK! YOU ANY GOOD WITH LOCKS?"

[HellFencer]

Jane makes it back out into the main room, halfway to Skunk, and is about to address him, when Jeff's voice bursts through the silence again. Jane is clearly annoyed he didn't do that in the first place. Probaby as annoyed as Skunk is, having heard such an obvious, at least to him, question.

[Twilight]

Jane's brow creases lightly when Jeff's voice rings out.

She mutters: "Yeah...what he said..."

She glances in SKunk's direction to see if he's going over to the office and then turns towards where Ed and Jack are located so that she may go and check on their status.

[WhiteKnight777]

Jack

Jack growls deep in his throat, like a wounded wolf. His lips draw back in a snarl... his hands fumble for his rifle, but he seems to have lost it in the chaos... and everything's always chaos around here. It's not a real war, there's no glory here. It's just men not even in uniform killing each other in the dark and the heat and the horror. Jack groans slightly... something feels wrong.. this isn't right, is it? no.. no he came back from here, didn't he? or was all that just a fever-dream?

Will Save - (1d20)[2]

No.. no damn it.. he's still here. it never ended. Jack tries to force himself up against the wall, muttering to himself, but he's too weak.. he collapses back down, sighing to himself as he does so, weak and shivering in pain.

[Twilight]

Jane

As she walks back towards Ed and Jack, Jane glances around in the hopes of spotting a blanket or two. In the movies people who have lost blood feel cold...and right now Jane can only think in such surreal terms.

She does not let go of the box cutter or of the chain. In fact she grips them tightly if inexpertly. Jane feels less jumpy now that the lights are on but she doesn't think that she can ever go back to her old ways.

This is not a Brave New World it's the same old one...just weirder, more dangerous. I hope this monster thing was an isolated incident...but somehow I doubt it.

Blankets...or jackets...or first aid kits. Maybe in the office where Jeff and Tom were...

[HellFencer]

At a glance, and even peeking back inside the office, Jane does not find what she is looking for. There are no blankets or jackets anywhere to be found. However, as she pokes around behind the office, she notes a small first aid box on the wall of the breakroom. She rushes to it, and flings the door open to find a miniscule amount of supplies. Nowhere near the amount the group would need.

Skunk yells back to Jeff, "YEAH I'M GOOD WITH LOCKS. WHO DO YOU THINK GOT US IN HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!?" clearly annoyed with such a question. He goes back to grumbling and looking for more supplies before realizing Jeff probably needs help.

[Velvet Elvis]

Skunk

Tiring of sifting through boxes of pure mundanity, Skunk flips one the bird and heads off toward the rest of the misfit clan.

"On my way! Can't find anything worth a crap in here, anyway. Unless you guys need some staples or paper clips."

A brisk walk, making his way around the now illuminated floor area where the guard had so selfishly spewed its innards, he hits the turn and heads into the office from where he'd been called.

"Okay, Jiffy Lockpicking at your service. What're we lookin' at?" As the words flow, his hand is fishing for the leather wraparound that houses his various tools of illicit entry.

[Logain]

Jeff
Jeff watches as Jane sticks her head in, steals the first aid kit, and then leaves without saying anything. He's about to offer to help when he hears Skunk's response. Before he shouts something sarcastic and kind of annoyed at Skunk, the punker heads over to the office. When the washed-out punker enters the office, Jeff gestured to the lockbox.

"Actually, we're hoping the keys to get into this place are in here."

Jeff will nod at Tom, and quietly ask "Hey, can you stay here with him? I'm going to go check on Jane, Jack, and Ed. Hopefully they're all still hanging on."

With a smile more enthusiastic than he feels, Jeff slaps Skunk on the shoulder, and says "Dude, I'm sure you can get it open! I'm going to go check on the others real quick, and then I'll be back."

That being said, he'll leave the room, drop the smile, and check on Ed and Jack (and Jane, if she's around). In a low voice not meant to carry to Tom or Skunk, Jeff will ask her "Hey, Jane. How are they doing? Anything in that first aid kit that can help?"

Jeff will also kneel near Ed, feeling for that faint pulse again. He'll wrack his brain for anything else he can do for the struggling, dying man.

Spoiler

Show

Treat Injury Check: (1d20+1)(+2 Action Points, for an extra 2d6)
for a total of (1d20+2d6+1)
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1003421 (Result: 26) That should do something good.

[HellFencer]

Jeff checks Ed carefully, and with what little supplies he has available, manages to patch him up nicely. Using some smelling salts from the first aid kit, Jeff gets Ed to a somewhat aware state again, though he uselessly bats away at the heavy smell. In fact, it brings a tear to his eye and he looks strangely at Jeff. "Where are we?..... Ugh... this really hurts... I need some painkillers man..."

With as much effort as he can, Ed lifts himself to his feet, though he looks reminiscent of a doll without its master in control. After a moment or so, he stumbles around without help and seems to be doing alot better. Still quite pale, he smiles at Jeff and says, "Thanks man..." before leaning against a wall near the door. "I guess this is locked, or we'd be through it already?"

In the office, Skunk sees the box Jeff motioned to and finally gets his lockpicks out. Tom eyes the punker warily.

[Velvet Elvis]

Skunk

Skunk offers a "Yeah, uh huh," to Jeff as his shoulder-clapping hand follows him out the door.

He glances over at Tom as Tom watches him. "What? Man, yer givin' me the creeps doin' that," he says as he collects the object of his intent.

Shrugging off Tom's suspicious glare, he mutters mostly to himself, "Oookay. A little box...shouldn't be annny problem. If it won't pick, I'm sure we can convince it to open some other way." If he'd had a wrench handy, the box would understand better.

For now, a pair of carefully selected lockpicks are applied to its keyhole mouth.

"Open up and say ahhh...."

OOC

Spoiler

Show

Disable Device at +6, until I open it. More exciting than a take 20. :)

Significant results: 1st attempt: 24, 5th attempt: 25 -- the rest were all less than 25, nothing lower than a net 10 until 14th attempt which was a 7 (a natural 1).

If I opened it at all, it was either within 1 round for 5 rounds.

(rolls)

[HellFencer]

A half a minute passes as the punker tries, mostly in vain, to unlock the box. Sweat drips down his temple as the temperature seems to climb. His eyes fixate on the tiny hole, and he begins to curse in his mind. Click after click, comes from the lock until finally making a small popping sound. The lid of the box creaks open as Skunk retrieves his picks.

[Logain]

Jeff
As Ed regains consciousness, Jeff tilts his head back and thanks whatever powers let him stick around. As Ed gets up and starts wandering around, Jeff begins to worry. "Dude, I don't think you should get up- you've lost a lot of blood, and I think it's probably a good idea for you to sit down for a while. We're looking for keys, and once we have them, we'll figure out some meds and stuff for you"

Carefully guiding Ed back to sitting on the ground, Jeff is going to glance at Jane and look over at Jack. "Hey- Jack... Buddy, how are you feeling?"

While he's waiting for an answer from Jack, Jeff looks to Jane and raises an eyebrow. "How are you doing? Good? Any ideas what to do with these guys while we wait?"

(Jeff is wearing a jacket, but has no idea that Jane was looking for them earlier)

[Velvet Elvis]

Skunk

In a near whisper, once the lock acquiesces, Skunk says, "There. Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Slender picks returned to their wrappings and the whole affair slipped into its, now pointless, hiding place at his hip, he sets the box upon the desk and, with both hands, pops the lid to take stock of the bounty within....

[Twilight]

Jane examines the contents of the First Aid Kit carefully. I didn't know that they still put smelling salts in these. She shrugs to herselfs.

When Jeff addresses her she looks up and gives him a small smile. "Yep. As fine as I can be considering the more than bizarre events of the past few hours. I'm unhurt. That's always good."

She looks wide eyed when Ed stands up. "Impressive! Are you a doctor Jeff? Can I do anything to help? I don't have any training but maybe I can hand you stuff."

[HellFencer]

Ed refuses to sit down, complaining that he's fine for the moment and just needs to get the numbness out of his legs. In fact, he becomes slightly violent and gets loud should Jeff persist. And at that point, he gets pale again and slowly slides down the wall he's leaning against.

Skunk has a much easier time with his situation, finding an empty box save for a coil of three keys. None are marked, and all look rather used. The rest of the box is empty compartments and unmarked hooks for multiple keys.

As Jane sifts through the contents of the kit, she realizes that this is more of a conglomeration of first aid supplies, some old, some new. Its definitely not a regulation kit, and is probably something the staff put together until some arrived.

[Twilight]

Jane

Jane closes the First Aid Kit and wonders about the relative merits of keeping her makeshift weapons close to hand versus holding onto the medical supplies. Then she remembers her backpack and elects to slide the kit into it once Jeff is done with Jack.

That's when Ed gets a little weird and sits back down. Jane tries not to wonder too much about her own safety and goes to sit next to him.

She speaks softly so as to avoid putting him on edge.

"Hey. It'll be ok Ed you just need to hold on, ok? We'll soon get into the main store and find you some painkillers... In the meantime you gotta hold on just a little longer."

She glances over at Jack who hasn't responded to Jeff yet. She hopes that he hasn't gone into shock. His breathing does seem a bit shallow, like he might flip out at any moment.

She leans over to get nearer Jeff and whispers: "Be careful...I think he's still holding onto his gun and he looks a million miles away from us."

[Velvet Elvis]

Skunk

Skunk exits the office with a self-satisfied smirk painted across his face. Coupled with the dark circles that perpetually rim his eyes, he looks a bit like a feral clown.

Upon one extended finger hangs a bundle of three worn keys.

"We got us some keys. Who's ready to try 'em out?" He glances at Jane, knowing she's the de facto spokesperson should jawing with the rabble in the store be the plan; then to the others. He also pockets the box cutter in favor of drawing his slick M50 pistol, holding it at bay to his side.

He wiggles his eyebrows in anticipation of the first words of reply.

[Logain]

Jeff
(Is the slide locked back on Jack's gun, or is there any other way we can tell if it's empty?)

Looking from Ed, a little shocked by his miraculous recovery, to Jack, apparently lost in his own little world, Jeff smiles to himself. "You know, there was a trick my dad taught me," he says, and then warns her, "You might want to be prepared- this is going to be loud."

Just as his loving military father taught him, Jeff gets inches away from Jack's face before shouting "SOLDIER! WHAT IS YOUR MALFUNCTION? I ASKED YOU A QUESTION! REPORT!"

[GazMania]

Tom

Tom appears to be in a world of his own as everything happens around him. He managed to open the door, but that was pretty much where his usefulness ended, at least in his own eyes. So he stood there, eyes glazed over, as the others got to work around him. He watched idly as Skunk opened the box, grunting away his paranoid words. He barely notices him leave and would have quite happily continued in his dream-like state if the booming sound from Jeff's mouth had not disturbed him.

Shaking his head to try and clear his muzzy thoughts, Tom steps out of the office and into the other room. He was surprised to see that Ed had moved, not quite sure how he had done it in his current state, or at least the state he had last seen him in. He was more surprised however to see Jeff yelling at Jack. With his current lack of knowledge, Tom decides that it will probably be best to just stay out of the way and leave the others to it.

[Velvet Elvis]

Skunk

In place of a rational, calm, cool reply, Jeff decides to scream at Jack. He says something to Jane first, but it went unrecognized by the punker whose hearing, when he wasn't concentrating, was less than stellar when it came to understanding--as opposed to simply detecting--low voices or whispers. A few years spent within ten feet of speakers taller than he was and set to max, made it a miracle he could hear at all.

The suddenness of the verbal assault caused Skunk's incompletely extended hand, upon which the trio of keys dangled, to jerk back. The keys fell a few inches before being caught--his reflexes, at least, were intact. He had to dodge plenty of things thrown towards him. They were all for the drummer, of course, but the small stages he was doomed to perform on were too small to be in front of anyone else. Learn or be knocked out every night--unwritten rule.

Fortunately, his gun hand was more steady and the finger that rested beside the trigger only twitched a tiny bit. Had it been on the trigger, Skunk might have needed a foot surgeon.

Despite the violence of the outburst, all he could say was, "Dude." And even then, at a volume about a thousandth that of Jeff's.

He eyes Jack as warily as he would a real skunk with its tail turned his way.

Though it went mostly under his mental radar, the essence of a philosophical point stating something close to, "screaming at a man with a gun is often not conducive to long life" floated by, popping from one synapse to another, but only the vague concept was detected. It resulted in little more than a pair of small unconsciously taken backward steps.

[WhiteKnight777]

Jack seems not even to hear Jeff for a moment. However, when he yells, Jack stands up, seemingly ignoring the wounds in his shoulders, though the sudden movement sends fresh streamers of blood flowing out of the ragged holes. With a thousand yard stare in his eyes, Jack barks out loudly

Enemies at all points of the compass, SIR! We are surrounded, SIR! Also, I am severely wounded, SIR! Both shoulders, SIR!

[Velvet Elvis]

Skunk

"Eep!"

He's flipped, alright.

Skunk watches Jack even more warily, taking moments to flick a glance at Jeff, as well. Which requires very little eye movement as they're close enough to kiss. Another frightening thing Skunk really doesn't want to see today.

[Twilight]

Before Jeff screamed, Jane had leaned over. Clearly she had not regained her balance yet when he began his tongue lashing because she nearly falls over onto Ed in her retreat.

She goes from surprised to stunned when Jack actually responds. She blinks a few times, seems to make her mind up and stands. (Now holding the med kit in a more rigid fashion.

She taps Jeff on the shoulder. "The med kit has arrived sir. Permission to tend to the wounded?"

She awaits her "orders" with appropriate poise.

And dad said that acting would never have any practical purpose...! I hope I'm convincing enough...

[Logain]

Jeff

Shouting had always been his father's way of showing love, and Jeff had heard from a few of the soldiers on base that shouting in a soldier's face was the best way to get them moving... Jeff was a little shocked that it had worked.

Honestly, he feels a little dirty shouting at Jack like that, so he nods when Jane asks if she can help with the 'wounded.' "Jack," Jeff says, hesitantly, trying to remember the guys last name, and then makes his voice tougher again, more like something Jack might expect to hear from an officer "Prepare for a field bandage soldier. We'll be moving with a group of civilians in two minutes, and I want you ready to walk out of here. Now sit, Solider, and let the medics work on you!"

Helping Jack back down to a sitting position, Jeff looks at Jane. "Is there anything you can think of to help him out? I only know a little first aid."

[Velvet Elvis]

Skunk

Jack's seemingly autonomic acquiescence to Jeff's gruff instructions finally brings the ruse to Skunk's doorstep. Ahhh...now I get it.

Skunk never saw any real combat, fortunately, and thus wasn't traumatized by it as Jack had obviously been. Even so, he had no real inclination to revisit the time spent at the academy. It was a little ironic, really, as he went in as a little dweeb of a loser with no idea why he even existed, and was eventually reformed into something resembling an actual purposeful human being, before...before, well, before, pretty much falling back into his original state, post graduation. The end product, though was a little dweeb of a loser that knew how to do things that made him more dangerous than ever, and one with an involuntarily effective mental prophylactic that allowed him to--usually--accept witnessing things that most would consider horrible, with the detachment of a hungry coroner grabbing a ham-and-cheese off the next table while he considers the next round of dissection to be applied to the John Doe lying already butterflied in front of him.

During the second or two those idle thoughts passed, Skunk decided he didn't want to play the game, even though it seemed to be catching on, as Jane's intervention indicated. It seemed to be working well enough without his help, and his immitation of Colonel Klink probably wouldn't go over so well, anyway.

He takes his keys, his now not as useful flashlight and himself off in search of suitable things that need keys to open them. Maybe doing some recon would be enough to be part of the game after all. He muttered under his breath, "Recon to three clicks, sir!" and began his trek through the jungle of metal racks in search of enemy doors.