by HL TRUSLOVE
Turn to 17.18.
17.16
“Excuse me…” you continue. The man jumps as if he didn’t expect you to speak again. He watches you warily as you go through your pack to find the papers you took from the office of the powerplant. “Can you translate these?”
The man gingerly takes the leaves and goes through them. His eyebrows rocket up.
“Where did you get these?”
You explain your story, going to the plant and coming across the documents. He looks at you with a mixture of pity and admiration.
“Well, they look like they’re just information about radiation levels. This was printed at a time when the radiation levels were safe. Before the bombs dropped. Before we knew the full danger.” He sighs and gives it back to you. “There’s nothing useful there, kid. Only lingering memories of the past.”
He walks away from you before you can ask him anything else. You crunch the papers up in your hand.
Add either Resolve or Instability to your character sheet.
Remove Power Plant Files from your inventory.
* * *
Turn to 17.18.
17.17
You find the book towards the centre of the room, a bit damp but in surprisingly good condition. It’s a slim little thing, but its cover still shines brightly in the pale sunlight that lights up the building from the cracks in the ceiling.
Opening to the first page, you see the book shows a stylised layout of the old-world settlement that once stood here. The pages are full of pictures of a happy and vibrant town, with cheerful people pointing at striking buildings. As you run your finger over the colourful illustrations, you try to recognise which sites you’ve been to, and which you haven’t but may still stand.
It’s strange, you think. The homes and public buildings collected together in this map paint a picture of peace and happiness which defies your understanding of the Old World. The reality of bloodshed and chaos which defined the era doesn’t seem to be reflected in their daily lives.
Add The Metro (Chapter 22, L.22) and The Radio Tower (Chapter 25, L.25) to map.
* * *
Turn to 17.18.
17.18
The sun is getting low. The light has gone from a pale yellow to a dusky orange, and it lights up the building in a way that almost seems like it’s on fire. People are beginning to leave now, but others seem to be settling between shelves to continue their reading or stay here themselves.
You head back into the main dome. The pillars and windows of the old library cast a tangle of long shadows which leave strange patches of angular light. They creep slowly across the floor with the setting sun.
You notice there’s a desk area that you passed over when you first entered into the building. You must have been so interested in the signposts you totally overlooked it. It’s wooden and hasn’t rotted – you can probably set up a lean-to if you can’t be bothered to get out your whole tent.
You’re doing just that when you notice something tucked away in one of the sturdy wooden pigeon holes of the bureau. It’s a large, folded piece of paper, which unfolds in your hands as you pick it up. Your eyebrows raise when you find it’s a map of the local topography – no buildings, per se, but definitely information about the surrounding natural areas, and scribbled notes over the top of it.
Staving sleep off, you compare your map to this new one and mark down any interesting locations. You consider taking it with you, but decide against it. Instead you leave it tucked back away for any other souls who come along and need some help.
END.
Add The Battlefield (Chapter 26, L.26) and The Caravans (Chapter 24, L.24) to map.
17.19
You return to the ground floor, your legs aching with the effort of traversing the stairs. Your options now are to go upstairs, or into the library proper.
Whatever else is in the basement is best left forgotten, you decide.
Go upstairs – Turn to 17.3.
* * *
Go to the main library – Turn to 17.4.
* * *
Examine the mosaic floor – Turn to 17.20.
17.20
Taking a few steps back, you attempt to take in all of the mosaic at once. It’s quite incredible – thousands upon thousands of little pieces of ceramic, all arranged to form something much bigger than the sum of its parts. It is, of course, dusty and dirty, and leaves have fallen in from the outside, but you find it doesn’t take away the marvel of it.
Depicted across the vast hall of the floor is a woman in a floaty robe. She clutches a harp and has a serene look on her face. There’s a pile of books by her feet in the picture, though it doesn’t show any titles. There’s a line of script circling around her, but you don’t recognise what it says – it looks like it’s in Latin. Latin was a dead language before the war started, and after? Well, there was no need for something that wasn’t used. It became long forgotten.
But it still adds something grand, you decide. It is a very splendid mural. The Old World did a good job here.
Go right – Turn to 17.2.
* * *
Go left – Turn to 17.3.
* * *
Go forward – Turn to 17.4.
17.21
You bring down one of the boxes from the shelf to the floor and carefully open it. There are old, old pieces of paper in there, but when you touch them you find them far too brittle to pick up; they crumble in your hand.
It looks like the writing would be too faded to read anyway. You inspect a couple of other boxes to test this theory and find the contents the same in all of them. It’s frustrating, and you put them back where they were with more force than necessary, all the while being flooded in that strange blue glow.
Inspect the machine – Turn to 17.5, Needs Engineering
* * *
Return upstairs – Turn to 17.19.
* * *
Hunker down for the night – Turn to 17.18.
Chapter 18
The Base/The Offer
18.1
Every part of you is screaming that this is a bad idea. Even the weather seems to be echoing your thoughts, the slate-grey sky overcast and heavy with the possibility of rain. You suppress a shudder and keep going forward, trying to keep each footstep sure of itself, even when you aren’t.
The raider base looks about the way you expected: daunting. It seems to consist of a group of squat buildings, each made from corrugated iron and concrete. Watchtowers sit on each corner, and knitted between them are high, barbed wire fences. There are warning signs hung all over the chain links, but they aren’t recent ones – judging by the peeling metal, these were made pre-war. This place was dangerous even before the raiders got here. Then again, you muse, maybe that’s what attracted them to the place.
The entrance is an old, cracked tarmac road with little green wisps of weeds sticking up through it. It ends at a sturdy gate where two raiders stand guard with sturdy rifles in their hands.
Maybe you should turn back. Then again, this place is full of curiosities. You wouldn’t have come here unless you thought there was something to uncover. And maybe, just maybe, your group passed through here.
Survey the area – Turn to 18.8.
* * *
Attempt to sneak in – Turn to 18.2.
* * *
Show the letter from the boss – Turn to 18.13, Needs Dagger’s Letter.
* * *
Set up a vantage point and shoot – Turn to 18.3, Needs Sharpshooter.
* * *
Read the signs on the chainlink – Turn to 18.16, Needs Old World Language.
18.2
You’re lucky the guards haven’t spotted you yet. You keep close to the ground and crawl prone along the dirt and crisp grass until you find a natural dip in the land. You slide down and lay on your back. From here, you have a decent view of the facility, without being too on display yourself. You’re wise enough to know to wait until nightfall to make an attempt to sneak in. You do, h
owever, spot a hole in the fence; with a bit of wiggling, it would be plenty big enough for you to manoeuvre through. You store that titbit of information away and continue your watch.
Knowing you have a while to wait, you try to make yourself as comfortable as possible, digging your back into the soft peat. You observe the facility at length to see if anything of note happens. As the day goes on, the guards seem to relax, resting their guns at their sides and leaning casually against the wire fence. Every now and then a peal of laughter rises up, though you miss the joke that elicited the reaction. You wonder if it might be worth getting in a little bit of sleep, when something catches your eye.
Something dome-like begins to rise up from the base. No, not dome-like… circular? It takes a few moments of watching for the information to filter through into your mind. It’s a balloon. You’ve not seen many of them, balloons not being a huge commodity back in the vault; they were at a couple of birthday parties, but that was about it. But this, this is nothing like those little decorative rubber things… this balloon is vast, the size of a small house at least. Though it rises into the air like the sun, it’s somehow odd and foreboding. The guards stop their conversation and watch it take flight with a silent respect, dropping their earlier professionalism to observe.
It occurs to you that this might be a good opportunity to steal past them. Keeping low to the ground, you crawl out from your hiding place and skitter over to the weak point in the fence. The hole is smaller than you thought, and you’re worried your legs will get snagged, but after shoving your pack through you kick the metal until it gives way and allows you access.
You run, not slowing your pace until you get to the side of the building, and duck behind a pile of empty crates. High above you, the vast balloon is beginning to descend and from this distance you can hear the odd whirring sound it’s giving off. Apart from that, the camp is silent.
Add Balloon Sketch (F.18) to your notebook.
Add The Balloon (E.21) to your character sheet.
* * *
Sabotage the base – Turn to 18.7.
* * *
Search the base – Turn to 18.19.
18.3
You’re far enough away from the base that the raider guards haven’t been able to spot you. Needing higher ground, you find yourself ascending a hill. You keep yourself close to the ground and crawl. You aren’t sure if this will be quieter. The prickly, dry grass keeps rubbing against your nose and threatening to make you sneeze, and that’s the last thing you need.
It’s worth it, though. This vantage point gives you a full view of the complex. From this distance, the figures patrolling the site seem tiny, defenceless and weak. And you’re a good enough shot to know that you can hit them something fierce.
You set up your gun and look through the scope. The guards are still by the gate, chatting idly, a stark comparison from their behaviour earlier. They have no idea.
The first shot rings out across the landscape and one of the guards drops dead. Even from here, you can hear his companion scream. You slowly move your sights across the base and see more guards exiting a building, running towards the corpse which is heaped in a bloody pile on the ground. Your second bullet roars through the sky and through the neck of one of the reinforcements, sending an arc of crimson up into the air. Everyone who is outside throws themselves to the ground for protection, crawling towards anything that would give them shelter.
A third shot, and a fourth. Enough people have then scrambled away that you can’t find a good target, and an ominous silence falls across the landscape. Suddenly, from one of the buildings, a pair of figures emerge. There’s a raider, her eyes wide and wild, in her fist a curved knife pointed to the throat of the other. As your scope falls across the pair you recognise her captive.
It’s Gaia.
Her jaw is set in fierce determination, but she’s clearly terrified. Her face is gaunt and her eyes hollow and she struggles against her captor ineffectually. Two more raiders come out, rifles pointed at her back, and the first one pushes her to her knees. You see her eyes scan the skyline as she tries to see where you lie.
They can’t know who you are… can they? Can they be aware of Gaia’s connection to you, or is it random? Either way, she’s in danger.
Add Gaia Seen (E.10) to your character sheet.
* * *
Surrender – Turn to 18.4.
* * *
Open fire – Turn to 18.5.
18.4
You pack your rifle away and rise to your feet, trying to make yourself as obvious as possible against the skyline. Holding your arms above your head you make your way to the complex gate.
You’re met by a group of guards with weapons trained on you, all of them shouting loud and seemingly conflicting orders. You don’t look at them. Your eyes are on Gaia. She struggles until suddenly, she sees you, too. Her mouth goes agape and you think she’s about to say something when the raider keeping her captive slams her knife hilt onto her head, stunning her. The guards who had their rifles on her approach her lolling form and shove an arm under each of her armpits, dragging her off further into the camp.
“Your weapon,” says the female raider, far too calm for your liking. You pass her your collapsed rifle and she admires it. She gives a nod to the men surrounding you and they begin to roughly march you towards a building – the opposite way from Gaia.
Demand to see Gaia – Turn to 18.6.
* * *
Walk with them calmly – Turn to 18.10.
18.5
Your crosshairs hover for a moment between the woman and Gaia. She lets a little sob escape which seems to please her captor no end. It’s enough to make you snap.
You fire a round straight through her head. The raider looks surprised for a moment before she tumbles backwards, spraying blood as she goes. The two other guards panic and scramble, but it’s a simple operation to plant a bullet in each of them, too. They fall to the ground like ragdolls. Between them, Gaia shivers, clearly shocked. You let a sharp whistle out towards her, and her head snaps up towards you. You stand and beckon towards her. It takes her a moment but she begins to walk, then run, hurtling out of the compound. You scamper down the hill to meet her.
Gaia throws her arms around you. It’s closer than you ever were on the ship, but you return the gesture, holding her tightly. She’s thin. You don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve seen her, but clearly the time apart wasn’t kind to her.
“Are you all right?” you ask, checking her over and wishing you hadn’t. Her pale skin is covered in nasty bruises.
“Better now those fuckers are dead,” she says, and spits on the ground. You smile. It’s good to know her Gaia-ness hasn’t been dampened. The moment is short-lived, though, as a siren begins to scream out from the camp. Gaia grabs you by the shoulder desperately.
“We need to split up. If we stick together, they might get us both and we can’t let that happen, all right?”
You want to argue that you just got her back, but her tone doesn’t leave much room for argument. She shoves something into your hands: a piece of paper.
“There’s a radio tower near here. I’ll try and meet you there. Just be safe until then.”
She squeezes your hands in hers before she takes off in a run in the opposite direction. You consider going after her until a bullet whizzes by your ear – she’s right, you can’t risk both of you being stopped. You pull your pack tight and run as fast as you can, away from Gaia, but with relief washing over you that your friend is still alive.
END.
Add Radio Tower Coordinates (F.17) to your notebook.
Add Gaia’s Badge (O.22) to your character sheet.
Add The Radio Tower (Chapter 25, L.25) to map.
18.6
“I want to talk to her!” you scream, the volume and force of your own voice hurting your throat. Gaia, though still dazed, reacts to your voice, dizzily shouting your name. You pull against your captives, but they have you loc
ked tight in their embraces. The female raider rolls her eyes.
“If you comply, maybe the boss will let you see her,” she states. There’s not a lot in her voice that makes you sure of that, though.
Let the guards take you – Turn to 18.10.
* * *
Fight them off – Turn to 18.18.