[GURPS 4e, IC] The Dying of the Light — Infection

[Inglenook]

STEVE

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Pause until Maxwell acts.

---

1
TAL

You continue down the stairwell, passing Deck 02. There is no smoke coming from the door here, but behind it you can hear the sound of pounding coming from very close by.

The stairwell ends on the lowest level of the ship: Deck 01. The door here—the sign on it reading: DECK 01, MAINTENANCE TUNNEL 12—is slightly ajar. Suddenly, you hear that sound again, still a good distance off but slightly closer now: a mechanical groan. And then, another sound that at this distance you are able to recognize:

Voices. Too far away yet to make out what they're saying, though.

The mechanical groan continues as you make your way down the maintenance tunnel. Along the way several other tunnels, some lined with pipes, others with large bundles of wire, branch off at 90*�° angles to the left. Small paper signs are taped crudely to the walls near each offshoot tunnel: "WC", "STOR", "COM" and "MED". But you know that the tender boat loading doors are along the bulkhead, so you keep heading straight, following the curve of the bow.

At last the end of the tunnel comes into sight. It terminates in a door, which has been thrown open. And just through the open doorway …

Two men are struggling with something just out of sight, set in the bulkhead past the edge of the doorway. It scrapes and groans with the force of their combined effort, and then comes an unexpected sound: the lapping of waves.

"**** yeah, almost there!" one of the men cries. He pulls off his baseball cap and wipes his brow with his sleeve.

The other, a short Indian man with tousled hair and a short goatee, opens his mouth to reply—but suddenly spots you.

"Hank!" he yells, his eyes widening. The other man, Hank, simultaneously turns and pulls a large wrench from his belt, raising it defensively.

Spoiler

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Hank and the Indian man are roughly twenty feet away, just past the open doorway at the end of the corridor.

[Inglenook]

ESE

The lifeboat itself appears to be descending normally, now that you look. It's swinging on its cables a bit more than it should be, considering there's no wind at the moment. From the lifeboat you hear wailing and screaming; something very bad appears to have happened to the people inside.

Below the lifeboat and a bit further out from the side of the ship, you see Steve and the black-haired man standing on a life raft very similar to yours (although the vinyl canopy appears collapsed).

They seem to be staring at the water just in front of their life raft. You can't really make out what they're looking at from this distance, however.

[Inglenook]

MAXWELL

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Actually, have a look at the underwater combat rules that xen0 posted in the OOC thread, and use those instead of the ones I linked. Adding in the part I put about defenses, though.

[xen0phile]

Uncertain if there is really anything he can do to help the others at the moment, Ese ducks back into the raft, explores the interior with his flashlight, and begins rummaging through the emergency supplies.

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I assume I find the same supplies are in my raft that Steve found in his.

[Inglenook]

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Same contents, yep.

[Stegyre]

Raising his hands defensively and stopping where he is, Tal speaks: "Woe! It's alright. I'm not one of them; I'm healthy," he pauses as he considers how he must look, "for certain definitions of 'healthy,' that is.

"I got separated from the captain and a group of others who were letting down the lifeboats on the port side of the ship." He glances toward the open doorway. "I'm a little turned around. Is that port or starboard?"

[Inglenook]

TAL

Hank lowers his wrench slightly but eyes you with hesitance. When he speaks, his accent is a thick Texan drawl. "You sick at all? He suddenly shakes his head. "****, not that it matters. Datta here's not looking so hot himself." He motions toward the Indian man with his wrench. "Can't even get the damn door open."

"I'm fine," Datta protests. "It's just nerves. And the door is heavy."

"Yeah, well, who can tell with your ass anyway? You're jumpier than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, and that's on a good day," Hank snaps back. He turns back to you. "And you're at port side, fella. Give us a hand, huh?"

As you pass through the doorway, exiting the tunnel, you enter a large-ish lobby, which you recognize as the loading/unloading area for the tender boats. Set in the bulkhead to your right are two of the large doors just above the waterline, one which Hank and Datta have managed to crack open about six inches, the other (at the far end) still completely shut. On the starboard side of the lobby are two identical doors, both shut.

There are also two sets of stairs here, one on each side of the lobby. Both lead up to Deck 02, you recall … but both are sealed by roll-down fire doors exactly like the ones you triggered on Deck 10. You can hear dim pounding coming from behind the starboard stairs.

As you exit the tunnel, Hank and Datta can't help but stare.

"Damn, they did a number on you, huh?" Hank says, his gaze sliding from your face to your hand. He holds up his own left hand, which is covered in a blood-soaked bandana. "One of 'em got my finger pretty bad a little bit ago. Among other things." He shoots a furious glare at Datta; the Indian man looks away quickly, his eyes filled with regret.

Up close, you notice how badly Datta's hands are trembling, fingers clenching spasmodically and then uncurling several times per second. He is drenched with sweat, causing his shirt to stick to his body.

"Anyway," Hank continues, "I can't pull as good with one hand, and this guy's useless. Think you can help him get the door open enough for us to slip through?"

[Inglenook]

MAXWELL

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Modbotting for Maxwell's action, since he hasn't been around. I'll take xen0 and dekova's advice to hit her with the gun and then try shooting if that doesn't work.

Swimming Roll to use DX weapon skill (ESL6): (3d6)[14]

And let's say it functions as a light club, but suckier (sw-2). Won't subtract the extra 1 for reach, though, since this is probably Close Range. Damage if Hit: (1d6-2)[4]

Despite the fall, you've somehow managed to keep hold of your pistol. You tighten your grip, swinging it at the woman's head—but movement in the water is far too slow. The woman evades your blow easily, but her attempt to claw at you misses as well.

[Inglenook]

MAXWELL (CONTINUED)

Guns will fire underwater, right? It's time to find out. Your lungs burning, you raise the pistol, aiming for the woman's head.

But as it turns out, firing it won't be necessary. As you take aim, the woman's eyes suddenly roll back in her head and her body shudders. A great gout of pink vomit suddenly spews out of her mouth, directly toward you.

You struggle away from the vile cloud that surrounds her, trying to make it back to the surface.

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Swimming Roll until success: (3d6)[8]
Swimming Roll: (3d6)[12] — if you don't make this one, you take 1 more FP for drowning again, then 1 FP every round until you succed.
Swimming Roll: (3d6)[13]
Swimming Roll: (3d6)[14]
Swimming Roll: (3d6)[11]
Swimming Roll: (3d6)[10]
Swimming Roll: (3d6)[5]

You can feel your body beginning to shut down for want of air, but you continue to kick upward. Below you the unconscious (or dead?) woman descends into the darkness, a thin trail of blood and fluids following her downward.

At last you break the surface, spluttering and gasping.

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You are down to 4 FP, but the woman is gone.

[Inglenook]

STEVE

You wait anxiously at the edge of the raft for someone—either Maxwell or the woman—to come up.

Maxwell surfaces at last, coughing violently and gagging as he fights to expel the seawater from his lungs.

[dekova]

"Grab hold!"

Steve extends the oar out to Maxwell, leaning far over the edge of the boat if necessary.

His eyes dart back and forth, trying to find a trace of the infected woman.

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Intent is to pull Maxwell into the boat as quickly as possible, then asses the situation with the lowering lifeboat and the raft that he saw the flashlight signal.

[Inglenook]

MAXWELL & STEVE

The infected woman is nowhere to be seen.

Maxwell grabs the oar, and once he's right beside the raft, Steve pulls him in. Maxwell simply lies facedown on the raft's rubber floor, heaving up water.

You glance toward the stern, where you saw the light a few moments ago. The light appears to have disappeared, but—no, wait! There it is! It's moving around inside one of the covered rafts, glowing bright orange as it shines through the vinyl.

The lifeboat continues to descend, and at last slides smoothly into the water less than five yards away. The open door is on the other side of the lifeboat facing the ship, so you can't see inside. But you're close enough that the sounds are clear:

The groaning and crying of the injured. Panicked babbling in a language you can't understand. A woman's voice, clipped and anxious: "Keep her still!" And then the woman who was screaming earlier, sobbing almost incoherently now: "WHY WON'T YOU HELP?! NO, DON'T TOUCH ME!"

[dekova]

Steve gives Maxwell a quick once-over to make sure he's breathing on his own, then turns to Éric.

"Pull up on the lifeboat, they need help."

He starts to row.

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When they get close enough, Steve leaps aboard and inside to do some triage.

[Inglenook]

STEVE

Maxwell's breathing sounds pained and he is wracked with wet coughing, but he'll live.

You leap aboard the lifeboat. One of the vinyl doors is right in front of you, but you immediately see that it won't open easily—The weight of someone falling against it when the boat was upturned appears to have severely dented the latch.

You instead cross over the top of the lifeboat to still-open doorway on the far side. As your feet scrape across the metal roof, you hear someone inside yell, "There's another one on top!" There is the crack of a gunshot from behind you, and a popping sound. Spinning, you see that someone has shot upward through the broken door you just walked past, putting a small hole in the vinyl.

[dekova]

"It's Steve! It's Steve! It's Steve!"

He instinctively dives forward across the boat, as far from the new bullet hole as possible.

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He's doing a dodge and drop (pg 377) which should put his dodge target at 6+3+3 = 12. (3d6)[11]

He'll continue shouting his name until it's clear that the folks on the inside get that he's Steve.

[Inglenook]

STEVE

"Stop, it's Steve!" a voice from inside the lifeboat cries; you recognize it as belonging to Yolanda.

Then another voice, the one you heard earlier, terse, anxious, yet calm: "Steve, I need your help now.

You notice a large smear of blood on this side near where the lifeboat crashed against the side of the ship. You vividly remember seeing the crumpled form a small boy falling into the water right after the crashing …

As you drop over the side of the lifeboat and into the doorway, you take in the gruesome scene inside; it's like something out of a horror film. Everyone is battered and bruised to some degree, but some are far worse off than others.

Several of the newcomers—the blonde woman in the robe who was with Éric, one of the other blonde women (college-aged), the Asian man with the camera still around his neck, the older woman clutching the little boy—are sitting near the stern; they appear to be okay, although the boy is crying inconsolably.

The older woman is trying to rouse the short, round-faced Asian woman who was with her. "Yayah, wake up! Come on, please!" Yayah—if that is the Asian woman's name—leans heavily against the wall, her eyes open but unfocused, staring at nothing. Her glasses have snapped at the nose piece, and each half dangles uselessly from one of her ears.

Yolanda and Speck sit near the broken door on the other side. Yolanda is staring daggers at Speck, who is holding a smoking pistol and looking both abashed and resentful.

The bloody woman appears to be, well, catatonic—no real change there. She is sprawled across Jamie and Sarah, who appear to be otherwise unhurt.

Harmon is cradling his arm, looking pale and grim. Beside him is Jud, who looks a bit dazed; large scratches, similar to those sustained by Brenda earlier, run under his jaw.

Owen, by himself near the bow, is clutching his shoulder and looks mad enough to chew nails and spit rivets.

The other man who was with Éric, the one with a friendly face who was holding his arm, is now gesticulating wildly and yelling in a foreign language to no one in particular. On the arm he was holding earlier is a large, painful-looking burn. On the other arm is a bloody bite mark—clearly from a human.

Lurch sits beside the doorway, white as a ghost. His eyes are bulging and his hands are clasped over his mouth; rivulets of bright red blood trickle through his clenched fingers.

A man lies facedown in a spreading pool of blood near the doorway. Because his clothes (chef's whites?) are so thoroughly soaked in blood, it's hard to tell what injuries he may have sustained. Except for his head, of course, because they're not much left of it. Standing over him is the third blonde newcomer: a beautiful woman with a proud face, strong jaw, and vivid blue eyes. She holds a heavy, metal pipe which is covered in blood and hair and tiny shards of bone.

In the middle of the lifeboat, Brenda lies on her side on one of the metal benches, facing you and twitching weakly. A sharp point of metal protrudes from her stomach, and blood pours from the wound. Anna is knelt over her in the blood, her face stony. "Steve, I need you to hold her still. We can't—"

"HELP MY DAUGHTER, YOU *****!"

Behind Anna is the Carvers. Adam is incredibly pale but unhurt, and he stares numbly at his parents.

Pete and Danielle both appear to have taken hard blows to the face. Pete's jaw is visibly swollen. A small cut on his forehead causes blood to trickle into his eye, but he doesn't seem to even notice. Danielle is even worse: both eyes are already growing puffy and bruised, and blood pours from her nose and her split lip.

In her arms is Emma. The young girl's neck is tilted at a strange angle, and her eyes are wide open and unseeing. On her face is an expression of hurt, slightly puzzled surprise. A tiny bit of blood leaks from each nostril. She is very clearly dead.

Pete puts a hand on his wife's shoulder, but she turns on him like a wild animal, snarling and spitting. "I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!"

Danielle holds her daughter out to Anna, pleading. "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HELP HER! LOOK AT ME, YOU *****!"

Anna's mouth tightens until it's almost disappeared, but her head moves not an inch. She continues on as if nothing had happened. "We can't remove the knife or she'll bleed out. We need to bandage it and keep her still until we get to a hospital."

[dekova]

Inside the lifeboat, Steve's gaze darts from person to person until it locks on Emma. His eyes well up and he opens his mouth as if to speak but says nothing.

Danielle: "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HELP HER! LOOK AT ME, YOU *****!"

Steve flinches a bit and looks down at Doctor Holm.

Anna: "We can't remove the knife or she'll bleed out. We need to bandage it and keep her still until we get to a hospital."

Steve nods, still in a bit of a daze and just stands there. Then the realization that he's needed kicks in and he tries to snap out of it.

"Uh.. yea.. uh.... Yes Ma'am."

He turns to Yolanda briefly: "Yolanda, Eric's in a raft out there with two others that need help. You're in charge of grabbing a couple people and getting them aboard."

Then he turns in place, looking desperately for his canvas bag.

"There's a canvas bag with a first-aid kit in it. Anybody see it?"

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Since first-aid is a skill that suffers from penalties for lack of equipment, I don't want to screw things up by working without one unless it can't be helped.

If Anna already has one of the first-aid kits out, I'll scratch that last IC bit.

Don't know how fast you want to run this, but...

1. Steve will work to help/triage/etc as directed by Anna.
2. When he sees Yolanda, Eric, and the others are on the boat, he'll put Eric in charge of seeing what's up with the signalling from the other raft.

He's going to avoid putting his back to the door, he's a bit edgy.

[Stegyre]

Looking meaningfully at Hank, Tal responds, "I expect at this point that any or all of us may be infected. But I spoke with the ship's doctor within the past hour, and she says it takes days before the illness takes hold and turns you into a maniac. When that happens, it's going to be pretty obvious. Until then, we all need to help each other out, if we're to get out of this.

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First, he looks over the doors for any locks, releases, or buttons to open them automatically (or to release the machinery to allow manual opening.
Perception: (3d6)[15]
Assuming there's nothing there to make the task any easier . . .

He considers the gap and tries wedging his body into it, where he can push with his legs, arms, and back, without having to use his injured hand. 'Pull! There should be rafts out here, and we want to be on them before anything comes through those fire doors."

[xen0phile]

Ese pockets the jackknife, grabs an oar, and then returns to peering out of the canvas shelter.

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Perception check:
* is there anything happening above him (anyone climbing down ladder, any rescue boat coming down)
(3d6)[13]

and
* what's happening at the bow now
(3d6)[8]

[Asherion]

Maxwell looks about groggily and assesses his situation, still choking a bit.

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All right, 4 FP, what am I down to on HP now? I had myself current when I hit, I think, but then I took another blow or so, I think. Thanks for botting. Help me get back into game here, Maxwell is 'disoriented'.

Maxwell will get up and, if the lifeboat seems to be easily accessible, will climb up / into it, unless he is needed elsewhere. God, all that **** I just drank... I'm a goner, have to be... Christ.

[Inglenook]

STEVE

Yolanda nods and leaves through the open door.

At your request for the canvas bag, you hear someone quietly say, "Is—Is this it?"

It's the blonde girl near the stern, one of the newcomers. She's in her early twenties, very pretty, with straight blonde hair that falls just past her shoulders. Her skin is pale and she looks like she could possibly faint, but her cheeks are flushed with color. She holds out your canvas bag uncertainly.

You take the bag from her and fish out the gauze and bandages. They look so paltry compared to the severity of Brenda's wound …

Danielle has collapsed weeping to the floor of the lifeboat, leaving you and Anna to work in (relative) peace. Keeping one eye on the door, you kneel and gently hold Brenda's shoulder to keep her from moving. She stares up at you with her bulging eyes, sobbing weakly. When Anna places the gauze around the knife wound in her back, she lets out a weak, birdlike scream.

"Put gauze around the exit wound," Anna says without looking at you. "Then take the bandage when I hand it to you and help me wrap it around."

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I asked SJ Forums about collaborating for skill rolls, and while there's a rule specifically for assistants during full-out surgery, there's no RAW sweeping way to deal with other skills. However, someone mentioned a house rule for such things that I like pretty well. If everyone's okay with it, we'll use a modified version of it (adding in small pieces of GURPS Action and GURPS Bio-Tech) for such collaborations in the future. Only when such a thing is applicable, of course.

In short:
- Many players can work together to possibly increase their chance of success at a skill roll.
- The primary skill user is the "leader", and the rest who are using ancillary skills are "assistants".
- The players involved in the collaboration don't necessarily need to be using the same skill (e.g. someone trying to infiltrate a base using Stealth could receive help from his partner who uses Fast Talk to distract the guard).
- If the players are all working on the same skill and there is no need for a leader, then for the purposes of the roll the leader will be the person with the highest SL.
- Each assistant will roll. For each assistant:

• On a success by a range of 0–4, +1 is added to the leader's ESL. On a success by a range of 5–9, +2 is added. A critical success adds +3.
• For a failure by a range of 0–4, -1 is added to the leaders ESL. On a failure by a range of 5–9, -2 is added. A critical failure is an automatic failure for entire group!
• The maximum modifier the leader can attain this way is +6 or -6.

- The leader will then roll for success using the modifiers given to him/her by the assistant(s).

It may need some tweaking; you vets'll have to weigh in on this.

But assuming Anna is leading the First Aid roll:

Steve assisting (+1 for the first aid kit) = ESL14. (3d6)[12]

---

1
MAXWELL

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Updated all the character sheets. Right now you're at 8/10 HP; you only lost the two from the fall, and none of Ponytail's attacks managed to hit you.

As you sit up, you see the small Latina woman—Yolanda?—walking across the top of the lifeboat. She hops down into the raft and offers you her hand. "Steve said you guys needed help?"

Looking around, you see the black-haired man holding an oar, and the man who was with Harmon and Speck—John?—lying unconscious beside you.

You wave Yolanda off; John looks worse off than you at this point. The black-haired man, meanwhile, addresses you.

"You should go to the lifeboat and sit down. We can take care of the other guy."

Still coughing and wheezing, you jump over to the lifeboat and climb inside.

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The view is mostly unchanged from when Steve entered. You may rest (while talking to others, thinking, whatever) for 10 minutes to restore 1 FP, or you may do something else if you'd like.

---

1
ESE

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You now have the jackknife, and are wielding the oar.

Still, nothing seems to be coming down the ladder, nor has the rescue boat been lowered that you can tell. Where could Morten be?

At the bow, the lifeboat now sits in the water, lined up next to the raft that Steve and the black-haired man were on earlier.

As you watch, the black-haired man and that Yolanda woman appear to be attempting to carry an unconscious (or dead?) man off the raft. Yolanda is struggling with the weight, and after a few moments the black-haired man simply throws the unmoving body over his shoulder instead, carrying the man by himself. The three go inside the lifeboat, and a few moments later the black-haired man emerges again.

He suddenly looks directly at you and appears to spot your head sticking out of the raft. "Hey!" he calls out, cupping his hands to his mouth. "Are you okay down there? Come this way!"

[Inglenook]

STEVE (CONTINUED)

As you and Anna wind the bandages around Brenda's torso, Maxwell staggers in, followed by Yolanda, then Éric carrying the unconscious John Smith easily over one shoulder.

"How about that, Richard?" you hear Harmon say, nudging Speck with his good arm as Éric lays John down on one of the benches. "He survived! I told you this was a good idea."

"He lost his rifle," Speck sniffs disdainfully.

At your instruction to investigate the light in the life raft amidships, Éric simply nods and leaves again.

Anna looks up at you as you finish with the first roll of bandages. "I need to go look at some of the others." She glances quickly at Lurch, who is swaying dangerously on the bench beside the door, blood still pouring from his mouth between his clasped fingers. "Can you keep dressing her wound? Maybe find something to keep her warm?"

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Brenda regains 1 HP.

Anna wants to know if you can perform the 10-minute version of First Aid, improving the bandages and making sure Brenda is as comfortable as possible.

If so, roll for both success and amount healed.

[Inglenook]

TAL

Looking over the door, you see no sort of button or latch that would automatically open it. The only thing is a latch to unlock it, which Datta has already done.

The door is about eight feet wide and sits on a grooved track in the floor. It's meant to be pulled, rolling inward from the bulkhead about six inches, then sliding out of the way to the right. Between Datta's shakiness and Hank having but one useful hand, they've only managed the "rolling inward" part. There is a six-inch gap through which you can see a sliver of dark sea.

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(3d6)[15]
(3d6)[6]

If your sense of direction is correct, the lifeboat should actually have landed very close to this door …

Assuming, of course, that it landed at all.

There are several grips along the left edge of the door. Hank grips one, Datta grips two of the others, and you try to wedge your body into the gap, pushing and straining with your entire body to get the door open.

It's very heavy, but with three people you are able to slowly slide the door along the track until it's open two feet—easily enough for all of you to fit through.

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If Maxwell and Steve both take their ten-minute options, they should be caught up! If not: short pause.

[dekova]

Steve nods to Dr. Holm. "Yes Ma'am."

Looking around the interior, his gaze settles on Harmon.

"Sir, see if you can back us off the cruise ship twenty feet or so until the captain joins us."

And then to Speck.

"Can you keep watch outside? Shoot any infected trying to drag themselves on board. Better we catch them outside then when they come through this door."

Turning back to Brenda, he looks her in the eye and takes her hand briefly.

"I'm going to do my best to take care of you and make you comfortable, okay? I just need you to stay still and stay tough."

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IC text above assumes that this lifeboat has an engine and some controls.

Spoilering the rest of this because I dunno how it plays out.

1. Don't know what the lighting situation is on the boat. If it's not good, Steve clips the battle lantern to something and gives the flashlight to Dr. Holm.
2. He's going to look for an equipment stash like there was on the raft and grab whatever he feels will help Brenda (space blanket, etc)
3. He's then going to do the extended first aid on Brenda. Skill is 13 +/- whatever modifiers you see fit. (3d6)[11]

[xen0phile]

Ese reaches for his rosary, then gingerly feels his throat in the process.

I am being a coward, hiding away like this when those people need help; but, my God, I can barely breath.

He unfolds the oar and begins to weakly paddle toward the bow.

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Should I make a HT check to stay conscious even if he is paddling very slowly?

[Asherion]

Maxwell sits, and will rest until it appears that he's needed or is acted upon. He will, if the situation seems more calm in the boat, dry out the gun as best as he is able, and check rounds again to ensure that he has the number he needs, and that they are also dry.

[Inglenook]

MAXWELL

You sit one of the benches inside the lifeboat, leaning back against the bulkhead and resting.

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1 FP is restored. You can't do anything more strenuous than reading or talking, but if you wanna do the gun-cleaning bit you can do so here in a moment.

---

1
STEVE

Harmon frowns. "I think my arm may be broken." He flexes his right arm and gasps slightly. "I don't know how to pilot a boat anyway, if I'm being honest. I'll try asking some of the crewmen, though; maybe one of them can help." He winces as he stands and walks over to several of the newcomers.

Speck look put off as he complies with your request, leaving through the doorway to keep watch outside the boat. But of course, he seems to always look put off.

Brenda doesn't say anything, but there is acknowledgment in her eyes when she looks up at you. As you continue to bandage her, you can feel her trembling like a leaf under your hands, and you're aware of just how thin she is.

"Here," says a voice from behind you.

It's the blonde woman, the one who killed the chef with the pipe. She has a thick Slavic accent. In her hands is a folded metallic package that you recognize as an unopened mylar blanket.

"I found it in the boxes," she explains. "This woman needs to be warm, yes?"

She suddenly realizes you're not done. While you spend the next few minutes winding the bandages, the woman sits off to the side, watching your every move. Her eyes are like chips of ice, cold and hard, and you get a very strong feeling that this woman is judging you in some way.

By the time you've finished, Brenda appears to have fallen unconscious. Her skin is pale and waxy, but her breathing seems less shallow, and her bandage is much more secure now.

Without saying anything, the blonde woman stands and drapes the mylar blanket over Brenda. "The doctor needs your help, I think," the woman says. She nods down at Brenda. "I'll watch her for you."

Suddenly Éric sticks his head through the doorway. "Hey, we have more people!" Then he disappears again.

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Success! HP healed is 1d6 (-1 for the 1 HP already healed): (1d6-1)[4]

You treated Brenda for shock, healing 4 HP.

---

1
ESE

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Probably would need to make a HT roll, yeah, since even a weak paddle would require a decent amount of exertion considering that it's a pretty large raft.

HT11: (3d6)[8]

Your head spins as you slowly paddle toward the lifeboat, but you manage to stay focused and keep from passing out. Still, your progress is achingly slow; it's a pretty large raft, and one oarsman who is on the verge of collapse can't do much.

"You're almost there!" the black-haired man atop the lifeboat yells encouragingly. He's been joined by the skinny, sour-faced bald man—Speck—who is scanning the ship above for signs of movement.

Your arms shake with exertion, and your throat throbs in time with your heartbeat. You're roughly twenty feet away from the lifeboat when …

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See the next post.

[Inglenook]

TAL

Together, you, Datta and Hank manage to slide open the large metal door about two feet. The warm night air rushes in.

"Hot damn!" Hank cheers. Datta laughs shakily, sticking his head past you to peer outside.

The waterline is roughly six feet below the level of the door. Immediately below you is a large, covered, orange life raft. Sticking out of the canopy doors and leaning over the edge of the raft is a familiar form …

"Ese?" Datta says, sounding both surprised and happy.

"What?! No sh*t? Lemme see!" Hank yells, nudging Datta out of the way.

Ese halts his weak paddling and looks up at the three of you. Even in the low light you can see the damage to his throat; it's a solid mass of bruises, so dark that they're almost black. The very darkest bruises form a clear outline of outstretched fingers …

About twenty feet to your right is the lifeboat, sitting safely in the water. Floating next to it is another of those orange rafts, its canopy crushed in.

Atop the lifeboat is the black-haired man who was on Deck 07 with you earlier. Upon seeing you, he grins and waves, then suddenly jumps down into the lifeboat's doorway.

Speck also stands atop the lifeboat, simply staring at you.

---

1
ESE

Above you, you hear a sudden grinding of metal.

A door has opened in the side of the boat, and standing in the doorway are three people you know:

Tal, who met up with the group in the hallway of Deck 10. You can only barely recognize him; large strips of bloody, torn cloth cover his face and neck, and beneath his leather jacket you can see the bare skin of his chest and stomach.

Dattatraya, the second-in-command to the chief engineer. Short, pleasant and easy to get along with, although a bit neurotic by nature. He looks ill and exhausted, his face shiny with perspiration.

And Hank, the man who was supposed to replace you once your shift in the engine room was over. A young guy, nice enough but a bit stubborn, overconfident and smart-alecky. He had been on the ship for less than six months but had already been written up twice for insubordination.

"Ese, that you?" Hank calls down from above.

[xen0phile]

Ese sits for a moment, leaning out, staring up at the trio, mouth agape with both surprise and lack of breath. His expression turns to a relieved grin, happy to have some non-infected company. He weakly beckons for them to come down to the raft, and attempts to croak out of his throat, "Come. Down."

[dekova]

MAXWELL
Without saying anything, the blonde woman stands and drapes the mylar blanket over Brenda. "The doctor needs your help, I think," the woman says. She nods down at Brenda. "I'll watch her for you."

Steve nods and looks at her with genuine gratitude.

"Thanks, Miss. If she needs anything just shout for me, my name's Steve."

He stands up, wincing as his ribs remind him of the damage he's taken, and turns to find Dr. Holm.

Spoiler

Show

Steve's going to continue assisting and/or taking direction from Dr. Holm.