by HL TRUSLOVE
He points to the doors where you can see a piece of paper tacked up, and you also get the sense you’re being told to leave. You pull your pack on tight and scribble notes onto your map before taking your leave. The door is shut behind you.
END.
Add Priestly Encounter (E.7) to your character sheet.
Add The Library (Chapter 17, L.17), The Metro (Chapter 22, L.22), and The Base/The Offer (Chapter 18, L.18) to map.
Chapter 15
The Uranium Heist
15.1
You smell the raider base before you see it. In this grey wasteland, stretched out with the tang of death lingering in every nook, the scent of unwashed bodies sticks out like a sore thumb. You keep as low to the ground as you can in amidst the rubble of what’s left of the town – this will be easier if nobody sees you until you’ve scoped everything out.
This place was once probably bustling with life – neighbours coming out of their houses to say hello, pedestrians pushing past each other in a hurry. Now, it’s nearly empty. The only building that isn’t a hollowed-out shell sits in the middle of the street. Three storeys high with tall windows taking up most of the front, they’re so smudged with dirt it’s impossible to see inside. Once, perhaps, there was a garden on the roof, some sort of way to take in the sun, but now all that is there is a giant red flag that moves slowly in the wind. There’s a skull emblazoned on it, trying to warn anyone who comes near, ‘there are raiders here’.
Next to the flag are two armed guards. They sit on the lip of the roof, guns slung lazily over their backs. In front of them, on the pavement before the building’s heavy doors, a man talks animatedly. He has a cart full of lumpy hessian bags – a looter, probably. A guard lets out a sigh and waves the man in, and he enters, carefully avoiding the snarling Rottweiler that they have on the end of a chain at the front of the building.
You allow yourself a moment to wonder – what did this place used to be? Some sort of hub of the community, where people would gather for meetings? Perhaps it was just a nicer house than the ones by it, the residents gathering ire from other jealous citizens. They’d probably turn in their graves if they could see what had happened to it now.
You shake your head. No time for that. They’re dead and buried, and the raiders are here and a threat.
Search for vantage point – Turn to 15.2, Needs Sharpshooter.
* * *
Approach the guard at the door – Turn to 15.3.
* * *
Wait and watch – Turn to 15.4.
15.2
You make sure your gun is packed tightly against your body as you slowly crawl forward, taking the long way round to get to where you think you will have the best view. Each second seems to last a lifetime as you make sure you stay close to the shadows, hugging the edges of broken buildings to sneak into one of the ruined townhouses a few doors down from the raider base.
Perhaps you are over-worried. The guards don’t seem to be guarding very well. They’re probably just placed there as a deterrent for any commoner who gets too big for their boots and wants to challenge someone – a reminder that raiders have far more power than they do.
The building you settle in is in surprisingly good shape. At least, the stairs hold as you ascend them, and the floorboards don’t fall through with rot as you walk across them. Looking around, it’s just as you suspected – the whole place has been ripped apart and looted, so you’re left with the bare bones.
You get as high as you can, finding the attic has been handily left open and a little ladder can guide you upwards. Though it’s dark up here, weather has taken its toll on the place and there are a handful of holes in the roof – perfect for aiming through.
Cleaning up the debris around the edge of the room, you sit down at the largest hole, carefully peeling away some of the plaster to make it bigger. You have a good view of the side of the raider’s base. The windows are still dirt-thickened, but from up here you have a better vantage point, and the light allows you to see into their building.
From what you can see, it looks like there are maybe twenty people inside. Not as many as you expected, but still definitely trouble. It does seem like the only two guards outside are the ones positioned on the roof.
The only other thing that draws your attention is a room towards the top of the building. There appear to be a lot of people there, and looking through your scope you can tell they have chains around their necks. They’re making something – you can’t quite tell what – but there is a raider, tall and burly, standing over them. He has a whip in his hands which he fingers nastily, grinning at his charges.
Slaves, you think, fighting back the bile in your throat.
You nestle the stock up against your shoulder and put your eye to the scope. Time to make a shot.
Fire at the slaver – Turn to 15.5.
* * *
Fire at the guards on the roof – Turn to 15.6.
15.3
You steel yourself and begin to head towards the raider’s building. Hopefully they won’t give you any trouble if they see you aren’t armed. Perhaps you can trick them into thinking you’re a trader yourself, or looking to get into their gang. There’s no need to play this violently when you can play this smart.
As they see you approaching, the guards get to their feet. The one on the left raises his gun and shouts at you, a look of cagey anger on his face. His partner grips his own weapon and regards you carefully. The Rottweiler barks wildly, flecks of white spittle fired from between its sharp teeth.
One of the guards shouts behind him. Another tense moment passes before the doors at the bottom of the building open. Another raider walks out, a heavy machete swinging from her belt. She eyes you up and down before patting you down roughly, checking you’re unarmed, and more likely than not whether you have anything worth taking.
“I come in peace.” – Turn to 15.7.
* * *
Point to your badge – Turn to 15.8.
15.4
You manage to skirt your way through the shadows and into one of the nearby buildings. It’s been turned over – any furniture that was inside has either been relocated or ripped to pieces. The whole place smells of damp, and the walls are stricken with mould. It will do for a place to keep low for the moment; it’s not like you’re planning on moving in.
You try to make yourself comfortable by sitting on what remains of an armchair. The window has been mostly blown out, but the inside of this house is so drenched in darkness it would take an incredibly keen-eyed guard to spot you… which these ones don’t appear to be, you decide as one of them picks his nose when the other’s back is turned.
Time to stake things out.
The next few hours are spent waiting and watching, trying to get into the groove of the raiders. People come and go. Mostly they seem to be traders like the two men you saw earlier, humble and deferential. But some come with a more sinister cargo. You see one man pull up with another in chains, fighting against him but tired and skin rubbed raw under the metal cuffs holding him in place. One of the guards cocks his gun towards the side of the house and you notice something you hadn’t before – a cellar door, overgrown with wild weeds. The slaver takes his charge down into the depths of it and neither come back out.
As the night draws in the two guards at the door are switched out for one. The new guard yawns and rubs his eyes. Good. If he’s tired, he’s slow, and that will make things a lot easier.
Sneak through the cellar – Turn to 15.9.
* * *
Rush the door – Turn to 15.12.
15.5
You see the slave driver crack his whip towards one of the chained – you don’t know what caused it, you can’t hear anything from this distance, but you see the woman he aimed at recoil in pain. You see the look of sick satisfaction on his face as he watches.
Bang.
A trail of smoke rises off the barrel of your gun as you quickly bring it back inside the attic. The glass of the win
dow splinters and falls into the street below. The slaver clutches a hand to his chest and has just enough time to notice blood on his palm before he falls to the ground. The rest of the people in the room look around at each other, surprised and amazed.
It’s not just them who’ve been alerted, though. The guards at the top of the building stand to their feet and begin shouting, asking what just happened, but each as clueless as the other.
Fire at the guards – Turn to 15.11.
* * *
Rush the door – Turn to 15.12.
15.6
Best to take the easiest shot.
Two bullets scream from your gun, a couple of seconds apart while you reload. The first guard goes down hard, and his companion barely has enough time to register it before he’s down, too. Two less raiders for the world to be worried about.
You don’t have enough time to congratulate yourself because the shots have brought attention down on you. The building inside lights up with excitement and you can hear muffled shouts as the raiders move around, arming themselves. You hope they don’t have enough guns to arm everyone inside, otherwise this will make things a lot more difficult.
Hold your ground – Turn to 15.13.
* * *
Rush the door – Turn to 15.12.
15.7
“I come in peace!” you shout, holding your hands up to show you mean no harm. The guard with his weapon trained on you seems surprised, his eyes narrowed, not sure if he can take you at your word. But the raider searching you seems happy you aren’t a threat, turning to them and nodding before addressing you roughly.
“Get inside.”
Before you have a chance to comply, she takes you by the shoulder and forcefully leads you up the stairs and into the raider base.
The stench is thicker in here. Bathing is clearly a luxury these people either can’t afford or don’t care for; either way, it reeks. There doesn’t seem to be any electricity running in the building, so there are fires set up in metal pots and rubbish bins, thick smoke fogging up the room. More eyes fall on you, raiders and what seem to be slaves alike, as you continue this strange parade through their turf. There’s a little girl standing over a cooking pot in the corner, slicing carrots diligently and throwing them into the boiling water. You smile at her. She turns her head away and busies herself with her work.
You’re led into a large room, the most densely furnished you’ve seen since… well, since you docked in this strange land. There are expensive, worn-down bureaus and plush rugs with only a few bootprints on them. In the middle of the pomp sits a heavily decorated raider, his body covered in tattoos and gold chains. He’s in the middle of eating some sort of animal, stripping the flesh from its carcass with his teeth, when you’re marched in. He studies you for a moment, grease dripping down his chin and onto his large, bare chest.
“Didn’t think they had it right. Stranger walking right up to our front door. Well, what do you want, then?”
Add Grease Stain (F.4) to Map, anywhere you like.
* * *
“I want the uranium.” – Turn to 15.14, Needs Note from Dagger.
* * *
“I want the uranium. Give it to me, or everyone here will die.” – Turn to 15.15, Needs Hand-to-Hand Combat.
* * *
“I want the uranium. Hand it over and you’ll all walk free.” – Turn to 15.16.
* * *
“I want the uranium. Maybe we can trade?” – Turn to 15.28.
* * *
Say nothing; instead, leave and poison the food on your way out – Turn to 15.17, Needs Medicine.
15.8
The raider looks at the badge you sport. She narrows her eyes, pinching it between her thumb and forefinger and shouting something at the guards on the roof, something you don’t quite catch. They shake their heads and she turns back to you.
“Leave.” She uses her machete to gesture along the street, signalling you to be on your way. Her tone seems to leave little room for argument but if you don’t get into that building, the uranium deal is off.
Disarm her – Turn to 15.18.
* * *
Leave – Turn to 15.19.
15.9
The brightest light around here is the dim shine of a fire on the roof. The guard is warming his hands over it at the moment. There are some other dull glows in the windows suggesting there are fires there too, and every now and then, one casts a shadow onto the windowpane. It seems a lot quieter than it was before.
Now’s your chance.
You step gingerly out of the house, using a door in the back that’s almost burst off its hinges. Quiet and stealthy is your means of approach here. Although your eyes have acclimated to the gloom, you plan every step carefully to avoid treading on any of the debris scattered around the raider base.
The cellar door isn’t guarded and the lock has long since rusted through, unreplaced out of laziness. It creaks as it opens and you wince… but nobody seems to have noticed the indiscretion. You sigh in relief and slip down the stairs, closing it behind you.
The only thing lighting the cellar is a small flame trapped in an old lantern. It sits in the middle of the floor, desperately trying to illuminate the whole place. And the faces of those who are down here.
People. At least a dozen of them.
You wonder what they’re doing here before you see their hands and feet are chained to the floor in heavy, iron shackles. Most of them are asleep, curled in uncomfortable positions. One has opened his eyes to look at you. It was the man you saw before, the most recently brought in. The two of you stare each other down for a long moment until he leans his head back and closes his eyes, either too exhausted or too apathetic to care that you’re here.
Find the uranium – Turn to 15.20.
* * *
Free the prisoners – Turn to 15.21.
15.10
The leader snarls at you, clearly having had enough.
“Get this thing out of my sight. My hospitality is at an end,” he spits. Before you have time to react, the raider who brought you in grabs you by the scruff of your neck and hauls you back to the entrance, kicking you back out onto the street.
She laughs darkly as you land on your hands and knees, skinning your shin even from under your trousers. You bite back anger and stare down into the tarmac beneath you. You hate raiders.
END.
Add Resolve to your character sheet.
If you have Radium (O.27) in your inventory, add Return to the Base (Chapter 19, L.19) to map.
* * *
Go to Return to the base (Chapter 19).
15.11
You don’t give yourself time to breathe, reloading and firing again. It only takes one bullet – the first guard that you hit staggers back and grabs out to his comrade for support, but instead tips them both off balance, and they go plummeting down to the street. You try to ignore the sick sound of cracking bones as they smash into the floor. You watch them for a moment. Neither one moves.
The sound of fighting makes you look away from the guards. You turn back to the room that had previously held the slaver – it’s empty, but the surrounding rooms aren’t. You can see brawls breaking out and hear the occasional bullet being fired. Looks like those who were taken prisoner have started to fight back, you consider as another body is thrown out a window and lands on the pavement too.
Enter the building and search for the uranium – Turn to 15.22.
* * *
Continue firing – Turn to 15.23.
15.12
You find yourself at the front of the building, heart beating rapidly in your chest. There’s no time to think before you run up the stairs and barrel into the doors, shoulder first. They burst open at the impact, splinters flying into the room with you. There’s a sharp pain running up your arm, but there’s no time to worry about that at the moment – you’re met with a pair of guards who get to their feet, one man and one woman. They appear to be unarmed, but look angry and surprise
d.
Behind them, you see what they’ve been stationed to guard.
A room full of loot.
Bags full of unsorted items that traders and other raiders have been bringing in. Nestled in between everything is a sturdy, foot-long metal box, with worn out radioactive warnings plastered all over it. Uranium.