Gaia

[DJDeMiko]

Tim

Tim just tries to stay hunkered down with Cliff.

"Is the audience running from fear or something dangerous," he wonders in a coldly calculating thought. "Either way being pressed in with that mob sees far more dangerous."

He notices Cliff begining to cry and slaps him on the face.

"Calm down man!," he shouts over the roar, "Your a man of thought, put your emotion behind you, if we want to survive this we need to keep our heads about us!"

[painintheear]

The sting of Tim's hand oddly shocks Cliff more than any of the trampling people running over him.

It, quite literally, *knocked* some sense into him. Tim was right, the two of them needed to outlast the storm of people blasting over their heads.

[gardenphilosoph]

OOC: Sorry, really busy weekend and upcoming week. Will update when I can.

[gardenphilosoph]

Private Biscuit
Freddy rushes to the door, keeping along the wall to avoid the dozens of people pouring into the sunlight outside. The air is damp and smells musky, the wild scent of nature pouring into the sterile air of Waits Stadium. Taking up a position amongst the former entrance guard, Freddy grips his assault rifle and keeps an eye out for danger.

The entrance is still blocked by bodies pouring outside. The stadium is quickly emptying.

A man in surplus army garb, but clearly not military, forces his way through the crowd to land against the wall beside you. You make eye contact, and notice that he has blood stains on his hands and chest.

Caleb Maxon
You forge your way to the crowd, eventually pushing through to a wall on the left side of the entrance, where a group of soldiers lean against the wall, in combat stance and clenching their assault rifles.

You make eye contact with the Private you saw before, and quickly become aware of the fact that your hands and your torso are marked with the gunshot victim's blood.

Tim Braderville & Cliff Clyde
The two of you hunker down and hope to survive the rushing torrents of people. It seems like minutes, but eventually the surging crowd is reduced to a couple meager stragglers, confused, scared, and alone. The military presence in the stadium is in chaos, and soldiers rush around clenching their assault rifles, clearly disorganized. The latter half of the stadium is almost clear of civilians now. The crowd has moved on to the entrance, crowding around the entrance and doing their best to get out, while the military stand by guns ready and fingers drawn to triggers.

You spot the Private you tried to talk to before, along with the twitchy man in the army surplus. They are standing by the left side of the entrance amongst a group of what used to be the entrance guard.

[DJDeMiko]

Tim

Carefully approaches the group.

[Kuma Da]

Caleb

"Aw, ****. It's pandemonium in there. I don't suppose you could tell me what in the sam hill is going on?"

Caleb glances at his hands, then wipes broad scarlet streaks down the sides of his fatigues.

[Blockhead]

Freddy Biscuit

"I wish I knew, the power was supposed to come on, but it didn't and now the crowd's gone crazy over something I don't know about. Are you ok?" Shouted Freddy, pointing to the blood stains.

"****! These people were secure in the Stadium, now who knows what will happen to them?! Where will they go? What will they do? Idiots!" Shouted Freddy to no-one.

[Kuma Da]

Caleb

"You reckon they'd all come back if we got the power back on? Nobody liked waitin' around here, thumbs up their *****, under heavy guard by people who wouldn't tell 'em spit. I suppose it's better 'n whatever the ****'s out there, though.

If you wanna go check on the generators, I could lend a hand. Jus' tell yer friends not to put a round between my eyes."

[Blockhead]

Freddy Biscuit

"What would be the point? Everyone's leaving! ****! Who knows what's out there!" Although the question was a rhetorical one, Freddy knew what was out there. Not only had fought off the cockroaches just minutes before, but he had seen the damage caused by other creatures and even seen some before being assigned to the stadium.

[Kuma Da]

Caleb

"That is, after a fashion, exactly my point. Better the devil you know than the one ya don't.

In here we've got greed, cowardice, pride, hatred. Human evils. Out there, we've got...well, I ain't sure what we've got. I've heard stories of everythin' from the smallpox virus to armadillos the size of minivans. Dogs eatin' men and men livin' like dogs.

It sounds to me like what we've got out there is hunger, and that's a damn sight scarier than a few men in uniform who think they own the world. Present company excepted, a'course.

So I say we should be gettin' the lights back on. Givin' us all a safe haven in case the world outside gets nasty."

[DJDeMiko]

Tim

"I do believe that it got nasty a few weeks ago."

[Kuma Da]

Caleb

"It got nasty here a few weeks ago. It's worse to the east."

[Blockhead]

Freddy Biscuit

"You can check on the generators if you want, if you run into trouble, tell 'em I sent you and they can radio me. But I'm staying here trying to cover the damn entrance." Replied Freddy.

[Kuma Da]

Caleb

"Wait just a minute. When it comes to patchin' up things that ain't people, I don't know my own *** from a hole in the ground. Not to mention nobody's told me where these generators are. If you're stayin' here, I'm stayin' too. I jus' think it'd be smarter to get the lights back on."

[painintheear]

Cliff Clyde came too... he must have passed out.

Spoiler

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sorry, been gone

Upon first looking he saw Tim and some army sergeants, but no mass of people. The lights were out, but everything seemed okay. Maybe, he thought, everything blew over while I was sleeping.

In a groggy voice the professor asked the military man, "Can we go home yet?"

[gardenphilosoph]

OOC: Just to let you know, December is a very busy month for me. I got a seasonal job as a chocolates warehouse guy, so the Christmas season is very busy indeed. It's crazy awesome pay for lifting boxes and the like, so I'm working a fair number of hours, not to mention the seasonal fits of holiday debauchery and school. My games will probably slow down, so I'd like to warn all you guys first of all.

[DJDeMiko]

ooc - do they need extra help :P I'm in grad school and my savings were largely in stocks and such :)

[Kuma Da]

OOC: No problem. I'm used to slow games, and I'm impressed by the pace most of yours have been moving at so far.

[gardenphilosoph]

The crowd, bursting outside, had finally started to calm down a bit. The hordes of panicked people loosened and spread out in the spacious parking lot, marveling at the changed world around them.

A few weeks ago, when they had gone in, the world around them was very much the same that it had always been, with the added humidity, heat, and of course, army presence. The entire world had been a bit more green, a bit more feral, but not entirely different. Moss blossomed on concrete walls and weeds sprouted out of sidewalks, and the screeching calls of cats and birds were unusually frequent.

Now, things were chaotic. The parking lot was an untamed mess of concrete and foliage. Moss grew in thick clumps on almost every available surface, and primordial weeds sprouted out of cracks in the ground and walls, the silhouette of roots clearly visible by the upraised concrete. The once flat gray plain of the Waits Stadium parking lot was now more like a jungle clearing, light shrubbery formed by weeds and plant growth.

The greatest change was the skyscrapers around, towering over the urban jungle. The gigantic buildings dripped with moisture, and a dense mixture of vines and moss grew out of the windows and on the walls, giving the appearance of giant cubic gardens. Things weren't completely overgrown and occasionally patches of aged concrete could be seen in between the overgrowth, but the city of Wise was changed.

The sun shone down on the parking lot, making everyone sweat and pant. The air was so much more humid, so much rawer than the sterile air of the enclosed stadium. In the distance, the calls of birds sounded. The noises were exotic but not unpleasant.

Aside from that, it was silent.

[Blockhead]

Freddy Biscuit

"It's quiet. Too quiet." A moment later Freddy grinned to himself at the realisation at what he had said. Freddy began to move out from the stadium, keeping his gun level with his eyes, staring down the sights in case anything non-human came into view. He moved in a wide arc around the scattered citizens, keeping an eye on the folige.

[Kuma Da]

Caleb

"I don't exactly like this either," murmurs Caleb as he follows the marine, but he doesn't take the silence as anything out of the ordinary. Nature has a habit of going dead quiet when humans show up.

[painintheear]

The silence did seem to almost penetrate the stadium, which was now much less populated with people - only birds could seem to be heard. In his early days of college Dr. Clyde had taken classes in bird calls... he wondered what these species he was hearing were, but they were so faint. He cupped a hand over his right ear and peered (with his ear!) into the distance... listening (d100)[6]

[gardenphilosoph]

Sunlight beaming down from above and humidity coalescing on skin and hair, the experience was almost serene, if it were not for the transformed city in front of them.

Several minutes passed, and still, nothing happened. The soldiers and military were as stunned as the civilians. All had been expecting something gruesome or dangerous, but were now faced with an overgrown city, nothing else.

Quiet murmurs were exchanged, and most of the civilians separated into groups and vanished into the overgrowth, the sound of their footsteps fading into the distance, crushing vines and splashing puddles as they went.

The parking lot was soon empty, save for a handful of citizens that were either alone or had no where to go. The soldiers began whispering amongst each other, and guns relaxed.

[DJDeMiko]

Tim

"This is no good, no good what's so ever," Tim said. "All those people just going out there. It's way too dangerous. We need to stay somewhere safe, we need to study the situation."

[Kuma Da]

Caleb

"Amen to that. There's guns and food here, though. They'll come back. We just need to stay put."

[Blockhead]

Freddy Biscuit

Freddy radios his commanders, if they are not already outside. "Outside seems clear. I'd even go as far to say peaceful. The citizens have nearly all split up and have headed their own ways, we are not attempting to follow them. Some citizens still remain in the parking lot. What are our orders?" He said, easing up.

[painintheear]

Spoiler

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Did I fail that hearing check? I meant to hear not only the birds but anything else going on too... just using the birds as a guise.

[gardenphilosoph]

Alright, I think I am back and ready to resume this game. I apologize for my complete absence, it's been a rather insane month involving a trip up to the interior of my province, severe dehydration, a dislocated right shoulder, and a run-in with the cops. Insanity abounds. Anyways, it's completely my fault, and I'm sorry. I know play-by-post games are fickle creatures, and long absences do them no good.

So, who is still here and up for it?

[Kuma Da]

Spoiler

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I'm still here. I think Blockhead might've left, though. Not sure about the others.

[gardenphilosoph]

OOC: Right, so we have you present. I've PMed the rest. DJDeMiko has replied with a no, and I'm still awaiting the others. I will do this with a minimum of two players, or I can also do a one-on-one if it comes down to that. Also if its wanted we can always recruit others to fill the empty shoes of missing players.