Cosmic Surgery

Delta Green (Call of Cthulhu) -  RPG session.

Run by Chris (alcoholandaphorism)

Players / investigators;

Me – Brendan Woodowski – Postal Inspector

Jason (jymmijamz) – Stie Malloan – NCIS

Will – John Cominski – FBI

CHAPTER FOUR

Agent Stie Malloan has the vaguest feeling of having a couple of people standing over him.  He can’t understand what they are saying.  It is as if they are speaking in tongues.  He also has the vaguest feeling that someone else is lead in a bed near to him.  His vision comes and goes, but only of dim and blurry images.  He then hears voices; “We are loosing him.  We need some adrenalin.”  He then hears a scream and instinctively his hand goes for his gun by his hip.  Suddenly the darkness over takes him once again.  Nothingness.  Next he feels a pleasing and slick sensation in his groin area.  He knows that his eyes are closed shut, and the sensation is building up.  He is also aware of something hard clasped between his hands at his chest area.  There is also a sound of a woman moaning.  He is aware that it is fake but he doesn’t care, because he can sense the meditation rituals swirling around him.  He looks around the room and feels that the room is very familiar to him.  An odd thought he feels as this is his room in his mansion.  He then looks down and can see the hooker’s head bobbing up and down on his groin.  Closing his eyes once more he focuses back on the meditation ritual.  Thoughts swim through his mind, of how well his parties have been going, and how his potency has increased since doing these rituals.  It has given him a new found lease on life.  A twitch and urging pulses through his groin, vying for his minds attention.  A deep voice further breaks his concentration and he looks over in that direction.  A muscular man with deep blue eyes built like a body builder, black shoulder length hair, stands there and smiles at him.  A feeling of respect and camaraderie washes over him, and a thought of ‘Ronald Valiant, he is a good man.  He is the best.’ Springs to mind.  “Everything working out for you here?”  Ronald asks him.  But the only sound that comes from his mouth is a moan.  Ronald smiles a narcissistic smile and then heads out of the room.  Suddenly he is aware of the crystal between his hands, and that he has been badly distracted from the ritual and the energy that emits from it.  The bobbing at his groin becomes fast, and he feels like every part of him is on fire as he struggles to keep his mind on the ritual.  A thought enters his mind, ‘This is the ultimate thrill!’  And then everything that he is ends.

Stie Malloan kicks awakes screaming, a lingering thought filling his mind.  That of Larry Daniels last thought as the crystal’s fire and energy consumes him.  As he lays there in a cold sweat, his white knuckles still gripping the bed sheets, Stie is aware that he has just witnessed a man’s death.  The thrill and terror lingering in his mind and soul even now.  As his mind calms he becomes aware that he is in a hospital room.  A needle is attached to his arm.  Laid next to him in another bed is a man he recognises as a FBI agent.  There are still blood stains on the guy’s clothes, and his shirt as been cut open.  He looks heavily sedated.  Suddenly his eyes snap open and he pats himself down, looking for something.  His hand then forms as if holding a gun and he points it in to the air.  He then goes through the motion as if he is constantly pulling the trigger, and then a scream comes from his mouth as he carries on pulling the trigger.  He then drops the pretend gun and frantically pats himself for way he would have had a taser.  And with a snarl of triumph he grabs at the imaginary item and lunges forward.  A look of glee spreads on his face.  And then totally drained he slumps back on to the bed.  Agent Stie Malloan is alone in the hospital room, his colleagues are nowhere to be seen, just his sedated roomy.

Looking around the room and checking himself, Stie finds that he can move without any problems.  He then sees the room doors swing open, and a Steely eyed FBI agent walk in.  The agent has a few faint blood splatters on his pristine suit, and his holstered gun by his side.  He walks in the room in silence and turns to look at Stie Malloan, and then his eyes shift to the occupant of the other bed.  Then he walks over to the agent in the bed next to Stie with purpose, only pausing momentary as he looks down at him.  His fingers reach down to check for a pulse.  The suited FBI agent then glances back over to Stie Malloan, no expression readable on the agents face.  The agent then turns and pulls a spare pillow from under the bed, looking at it blankly in his hand.  He then thrusts it down upon the bedridden agent’s face.  And as the agent begins to kick and thrash for air the suited FBI agent turns to look at Stie once again.

Agent Stie Malloan forces himself up and out of bed, making a dash for the FBI agent’s gun.  As Stie does this the agent reacts life an (American) football player, shoving his hand out and barging Stie back on to his bed.  Then the agent places more pressure upon the pillow under his other hand.  No word or sound coming from his mouth.  Stie contacts with a glancing blow from his fist, aiming for the guy’s kidneys.  However the force seems lacking and the guy looks down at Stie and the area he was hit blankly, and then goes for his gun, drawing it and placing it against the pillow.  Shouts begin to be heard from down the corridor outside.  Again Stie throws a fist at the guy’s kidney, and this time the guy stumbles forward slightly.  Then suddenly Stie’s ears go muffled and an ear bleeding ringing resounds within his ears.  Blood splatters up on to the FBI agent’s clothes, and Stie feels a wetness on himself.  Behind them they hear the door to the room thrust open, and two orderlies rush in.  The orderlies freeze upon seeing the scene before them like startled deer in headlights.

Agents Cominski and Woodowski enter the door to agent Malloan’s room as a gunshot fills the room.  Before them are two frozen orderlies, and across the room they can see a tired Stie Malloan punching at a FBI agent that Brendan Woodowski recognises as the guy he helped to calm down earlier, and who was last seen sedated.  The agent is holding a smoking gun that is pointing at a fellow FBI agent on the bed beneath him, which was rushed in on a stretcher earlier.  Brendan charges in seeing the gun arm on the shooter as a target.  Cominski draws his gun and begins to shout.  However Stie throws another punch that lands square against the jaw of the agent, cold clocking him and he collapses across the bed.  Stie breathes a sigh of relief and slumps back on to his bed.  Things move with speed after this.  The cuffs are thrown on to the unconscious agent.  Stie catches his breath back, allowing his head to stop spinning.  While Brendan jokes to know one in particular, “We can leave him alone for a minute can we.”  Stie informs them what had happened in the room with the FBI agent just walking in.  Soon a couple of agents of Gaston’s walk in to the room.  They look around urgently until Cominski explains what had happened.  Brendan adds that it was probably due to the effects of the weaponised hallucinogens and the sedatives.  They reassure the agents that it was not his fault, and it would be best to keep him under supervision and secured.  Telling them that they will probably want to have a word with him later.

Agent Stie Malloan soon rush through signing himself discharged from the hospital.  And once outside Brendan fills Stie in on what has happened since his collapse in the hotel, informing him about what Gaston used as a cover.  Then Stie fills the Cominski and Brendan in on what he had seen and experienced, especially with his weird dream and the revolution on the identity of Ronald Valiant.  After this Brendan quickly contacts Gaston to fill him in on exactly what had happened, using a secure communication and updating him on Ronald Valiant.  Next Cominski and Brendan explain to Stie that they are going to head to the Unulsis local branch, as they have all the official paperwork to allow them entry to search the premises, under the Patriot Act.  This just came through to them as they were heading over to visit Stie in the hospital.

They draw up to the Unulsis local branch just as Sarah is outside the door and about to lock up.  Upon seeing the agents turn up she smiles and greets them, apologising that she is just closing for the day.  She suggests that they come back tomorrow and then they can all be inducted.  However Cominski, gently at first but then with more authority, informs her that she needs to re-open and allow them to enter and take a look around.  He does tell her that an explosion happened and mentions the Patriot Act to her.  Sarah’s face drops and stutters a slow response, assuring them that there will be nothing to see.  She unlocks the door and opens it for them to enter.  As they enter they are greeted by the same scene they saw earlier, however Stie notices the poster of the Deacon.  Upon a closer look he spots the guy as someone familiar to him, he nudges Brendan and darting his eyes back to the poster.  Brendan understands that Stie has spotted something they hadn’t and leads Sarah to the back room.  He remembers how friendly she was with him and takes the lead, suggesting that he sit her down and make a drink for her.  She leads him through the back door, in to a small corridor with three doors leading off.  One marked Presentations, one Private, and the other marked Storage.  She opens the door to the storage, it is a small closet that houses the cleaning mop and bucket, along with a small sink and work top with a kettle sat on top.  She fills the kettle and clicks it on, pulling up one of the small chairs and sits down.  She sits there uncomfortably fidgeting about, toying with her hands and looking up at Brendan.  He reassures her and tries to take her mind of the worry.

In the shop Stie leads Cominski over to the poster and points to the man in the picture, “This is the guy.  This is Valiant.”

“Valiant is the Deacon of the cult here!” Cominski states slowly as the thought settles in his mind.  As he looks at the picture he can barely tell the similarities to the photograph they had of him.  The only thing would be the guy’s eyes.  “This must have been a professional job.”  Once they finish setting the picture of Valiant in their mind, agent Stie goes over to the computer to have a look through, while Cominski goes off to take a look around.  Cominski walks in to the corridor and sees Brendan talking with Sarah.  He walks past and tries the door marked Private only to find it locked.  Appearing around the doorway, Cominski asks Sarah if she has the key.  She gets up and quickly unlocks the door, informing them that it is Dough Walters the Deacon’s room.  Though the Private marked door is a stairway heading up.

Stie busy himself operating the computer, he manages to find a secondary boot system that he manages to access and boot from, avoiding any security passwords and trolls the hard drive.  He finds that there is a link to the main Unulsis headquarters computer system, however he hits a wall here as it needs a secure password access that he can not avoid.  But he does find accounting data for the local branch.  With this he goes to have a word with Brendan, sticking his head in through the closet doorway.  They have a brief quiet word outside the closet and then Brendan instructs Stie to stay with Sarah while he takes a look at the computer.  Taking a look at the computer, Brendan is impressed with Stie’s handy work and spots what he had trouble with.  Brendan begins some traces and finds some ghost hosts and middle computers, making a bypass to access backdoor in to the headquarter computer system.  He comes up with more accounting data.  Not being an accountant he does spot that the two batches of data are a match except for the fact that the file sizes do no match.  He quickly makes back up copies of all the information, and then goes off to tell Stie and suggest to him to get Cominski to take a look at the data.

Upstairs Cominski enters in to an apartment.  He finds that all the windows have been painted over, but there are plenty of lamps dotted about, which he turns on when entering.  The light from the lamps reflect off several mirrors surrounding a large waterbed in the middle.  Every wall has a long white cloth drape hanging from ceiling to floor.  In the corner is a small weight training area with dumbbells, barbells and bench.  There are two doors leading off to a bedroom and kitchen area.  Near one wall by the waterbed is a wooden chest with a simple lock.  Cominski goes over and gives the lock a kick, opening the lid to take a look at the contents.  First there is a clean pressed military uniform, with a Sandinista flag folded on top.  There is also a large collection of military medals, around twenty to thirty.  The medals are for high rewards like exceptional bravery, even one that is sure only awarded posthumously.  As he looks through this he is joined by agent Malloan as he walks up the stairs.  “I think this Deacon is definitely our ‘friend’.”  Cominski holds up the uniform and medals.  As he looks over at Stie walking towards him, he spots one of the drapes flap as he walks by, revealing what looks like the bottom of a doorway.  Stie informs him that he & Brendan has found some data on the computer that he needs to take a look at.  Cominski agrees but first suggests that they take a look at this hidden room first, as he walks over to the drape and moves a stereo system out of the way, and then lifting the hanging out of the way.

Within this hidden room, and after turning the lights on, they are greeting by a massive TV system, along with Video and DVD players, even a Laserdisc player, and a large gaming and music system.  On one wall, and filling it, is a gun rack containing an AK47, M16, Spas 12 shotgun, and several sniper rifles such as a Dragunov and Light 50.  On the floor near this collection lays a diamond saw, and a gathering of dust and a pile of about fifteen crystals.  Under the entertainment system can be found a large collection of hand written camcorder tapes.  The labels are all of different female names along with a date, and also some sort of rating system.  Randomly taking a tape a putting it in the camera they are greeted by a scene of the waterbed in the other room.  On the bed is the man they now know as Valiant, who is knelt behind a naked woman and they are at it very vigorously.  He appears to be pointing and directing her towards the cameras direction, and instructing her in what to do.  Stie seeing what is unfolding before his eyes looks away in disgust, however Cominski carries on watching noticing that Valiant is being very controlling and manipulating, enjoying the dominance more than the act.  As the act progresses the requests become more unusual.  Not paying attention to the video, Stie looks through the tapes finding two tapes that are marked different.  One is marked ‘For the World’, and the other marked ‘X’.  There is also a tape with the name of Sarah, same as the woman downstairs.

Agent Stie Malloan stops and ejects the tape that agent John Cominski is busy psycho-analysing.  He then places the tape marked ‘X’ in to the camera.  A scene jumps to life of Ronald Valiant sat meditating on the waterbed, his toned naked body fully on view and fully aroused.  A woman walks in to view towards him, her head inclined to the side.  “I, love, you, Valiant.”  She slowly speaks, “You, are, everything, to, me, Valiant.”  She leans towards him stripping her clothes off.  “You, are, my, world, Valiant.”  She reaches out, her tongue touching his.  Her tongue extends wrapping around his, her hand grasping hold of his member.  She digs her nail in and scrapes it down and in to his urethra.  He bucks back in a mix of pain and pleasure.  She begins to melt on to him, literally melting over him as if she had no bones in her body, mixing with him.  Both Stie and Cominski have an odd feeling of ants under their skin from watching this, and their minds rebel at this scene playing before their unbelieving eyes.  They quickly stop and eject the tape, throwing the tape to the floor and breathing a sigh of relief, taking in sane oxygen to calm their minds.

After a brief moment Stie has popped in the other tape marked ‘For the World’ and pressed play.  This tape has a close up of Valiant’s face, sweat running down his brow.  “I need to tell everyone, tell everyone.  I am going to be a hero for this.”  Valiant quietly and hastily speaks out, almost excitedly.  “I going to tell, I am the only one who knows.  I am the only one who can stop this.  The Aliens, they’re here.  The Aliens are trying to take over all of us.  I can tell, I saw them.  I saw them.  They’re the leaders of Unulsis.  They are sucking us dry.  They created all religion.”  Here he names all the different religions of the world.  “They have infiltrated them all.  Even the Pope is one of them.  They drain our energy, that is why they are here, that is what they do.  That is why they got me here.  They are parasites, energy parasites.  They have attached themselves to races all across the galaxies.  They want to take me, take me but I won’t allow it.  I know, I know what they are doing and I know how to fight them.  I have the energy I have taken from them, and I am not going to stop.”  Here he begins to laugh madly to himself.  “I’ve tapped in to it.  Tapped in to their reservoir.  I’m going to use it.  They have sent a servant to take me out.  They sent hope to take me out.  But no I controlled her, she is my slave now.  She is mine and I will fight them.  I will steal all their slaves back from them.  I will turn it upon them.”  He then goes on to say that his store is not ready, he is not ready.  Saying that he needs enough power to get strong enough, to go to Tulsa and confront them there.  He states that he will lead a crusade to stamp out all the Aliens.  “I will take over their religions, and then…..then I, I will be the Messiah.  Humanity will bow before me.  I will be a Uber Mage.”  More manic laughter comes from his lips as he states that he will lead them all.

Both Stie Malloan and John Cominski feels skittish after watching those tapes, they keep hearing sounds like rats in the walls.  The shadows seem to be longer than they were previously.  They walk back down the stairs to meet back up with Brendan.  They take with them the crystals they gathered together and placed in a sack.  Brendan notices that both Stie and Cominski are both looking rather pale compared to how they look before going up stairs.  Cominski hands over the tape to Sarah, telling her that they hadn’t seen it.  Sarah collapses, crying ‘oh god, oh God’ as she holds her hands over her face.  “I didn’t want to do it.”  Brendan leads Cominski to the computer telling and showing him what they found, getting him to take a look at the data files.  As Cominski takes a look at these files he feels Brendan in on what they found up stairs.  Unfortunately Cominski struggles to concentrate on the files and figures before him, his mind keeps reverting back to the scenes on the tapes.  Brendan makes a secure call to Gaston, filling him in on what they have found.

The agents take pictures of the Unulsis premises, gathering up all the evidence of the tapes and weapons, along with the crystals and backed up data.  They load up the car and Sarah upon seeing all of this pleads that she didn’t know anything about any of it.  Brendan recommends to her that she may be best to not turn up for work tomorrow, and find another.  They decide to head to the local FBI secure lock up and unload all the evidence.  Cominski suggests someone stay behind and keep an eye on the premises for Ronald Valiants return.  Stie volunteers to stay behind while they go to the lock up.

Cominski drives the car along the highway with Brendan in the passenger seat.  The evidence weighing down the back of the car.  It is getting late in the day and the sun is all ready going down behind the horizon as the sky begins to darken.  There is an ambulance with its sirens and lights on, racing up behind them on the highway.  Brendan recognises the driver as the large ill-fitted guy from the hospital.  He soon catches up and shoots passed them tearing along the road.  As the agents talks about the driver, a large eighteen-wheeler car transporter shifts lanes before them.  Suddenly a loud crash of metal draws their attention to the transporter before them.  A car bounces off from the back of the eighteen-wheeler and hits the tarmac.  Cominski reacts quickly and swerves narrowly avoiding hitting the bouncing car.  The transporter swerves and swings its back about, knocking in to other cars on the road, smashing in to one and sending it flipping down the road.  Sounds of horns and squealing of rubber as chaos erupts on the highway, the transporter near jack-knifing as it travels down the road before the agents in the car.  Brendan briefly notices a humanoid shadow moving between the cars on the transporter, just before two more cars fly off from the back.  Cominski again expertly weaves between the falling cars and other road traffic.  Looking in the rear-view mirror, many cars are beginning to pile up, lighting up the darkening sky.

A thump hits the roof of the car that Cominski and Brendan are travelling in.  Something heavy hits buckling the roof, forming a shape almost like feet and hands.  Brendan draws his gun and aims at the roof of the car, pointing it at the area between the limbs.  Meanwhile Cominski makes sharp moves to hopefully throw whatever is on the roof off.  A shout echoes through the car as a bullet fires through the roof between the footfalls.  Next a pair of hands slams on to the windscreen, sliding and slithering down the glass.  Then a face forms in the mass, looking directly at Brendan, a face of the ambulance driver that has long since pass, the eyes looking the color of flesh.  It reaches back with a clenched fist, throwing it forward and smashing through the windscreen, glass flying everywhere within the car.  The scene before Cominski’s eyes has shaken his mind once again, his knuckles turning white on the steering wheel, forgetting to concentrate on driving for mere short moments.  The form outside stretches and wraps its leg around the front of the car.  Again Brendan takes aim and fires, his bullet whizzing past at high velocity, looking like it would hit but disappearing in to the night.  The creature lunges forward in through the car windscreen.  Cominski concentrates back on trying to throw the creature off the car with frantic driving.  Unfortunately he side swipes a car in the next lane, metal crunching against metal, but luckily managing to keep control.  However the creature still hangs on without any problem.  Another shout explodes from the barrel of Brendan’s revolver, the bullet making contact at point blank range.  However the bullet goes straight through the entity without slowing and goes in to the night once more.  The entity turns ignoring Brendan and wraps itself around Cominski, the driver of the car.  It wraps itself tight around Cominski, pinning him against the seat.  A face forms next to Cominski’s.  A tongue comes out and extends, licking his face.  Brendan quickly grabs the steering wheel and wrestles the car to a controlled slow and stop.  The creature carries on squeezing Cominski, pressing its lips against his.  Thrusting its tongue down his throat and vomiting liquid.  Cominski’s eyes begin to bulge and roll up in to his head as he struggles to breathe and pass out.

The entity turns its face and smiles at Brendan, “I, have, to, stop, you, you, see.  You’re, hurting, the, man, that, I, love.  I, have, to, stop, you.”

“Bring it bitch!”  Brendan shouts back, grabbing a hold of Cominski’s finger and shoves it in to the cigarette lighter socket.  The entity recoils from this, but then Brendan notices that it seems to be more worried about the cigarette lighter itself, as this small item bounces across the floor towards it.  The entity quickly uncoils from Cominski and moves away.  Turning its attention now to Brendan, anger in its eyes it reaches for his throat.  Quickly Brendan dodges the grasping hand and dives out of the stopped car.  Smashing the car door open and rolling on the tarmac, narrowly miss being hit by other cars.  The entity pulls and forms itself up on top of the car.  Brendan makes a dash for another stopped, crashed car.  The entity begins to form tendrils, a sound of crackling static charges the air around its out stretch limb.  An electrical blast smashes in to the tarmac near Brendan, electricity dancing where his foot had been mere moments before.  He arrives at the car and reaches in past the dead man’s body, glasses broken on his face and glass embedded in his eyes and face.  Blood pouring down his face and from his ruined mouth.  Brendan presses the car cigarette lighter in on the dashboard, and rummage through the guy’s pocket, luckily finding a Zippo lighter, exactly what he was after.  The inscription on the metal case of the lighter reads, ‘World’s best Dad’.  The car cigarette lighter clicks and pops out again fully charged and primed.  Brendan turns with this in his hand to find the entity now directly behind him, formed in to a shapely woman.  Her long brown hair flowing behind her she looks at him and tells him, “You, really, shouldn’t, do, this.  I, have, to, do, this, for, him.  Don’t, you, see.”

“Well see this Bitch!” Brendan exclaims as he swings his clenched fist, the one with the car cigarette lighter in, towards her face.  She tries to hit him under the chin but seeing his intention, quickly splits and reforms after his strike, meaning that he missed.  “That, wasn’t, nice.  Don’t, do, that, again.”  She then wrenches a car door off and smashes it down towards Brendan’s head, but he manages to dive out of the way.  The door embeddeds almost half in to the tarmac.  Brendan turns to make a run towards the next pile of cars.  However the entity grasps a large shard of glass and melds it with her hand.  She swings and lunges straight for him, racking his back and digging in deep.  His clothes on his back split open, the Kevlar vest also splits open, and unfortunately his flesh on his back also split open.  Blood escapes from his body like water breeching a dam.  Brendan drops to the ground already almost dead but that doesn’t stop her, as she begins to disembowel him there on the tarmac.  His organs spewing forth on to the highway.  She then stands up and turns, walking away from her road art, bored and giving him no more thought.

The latest catch up

I have only just come back from a few days away in the city of York, or Jorvik as the Vikings called it.  I had bought a couple of things from there and thought it was best to add them along with the other things I had got since the last update on here.

First up is the boardgame that I had got not long after the last update.  It is one that I had wanted to purchase since hearing about it.

As you can see it is the boardgame for the popular Xbox 360 game Gears of War, and from what I have seen it is like I had mentioned before, very similar to the Doom boardgame (which I also own along with its expansion).  However I have still not read the manual to know how similar it is, but I can tell you from flicking through that they do have a Horde mode.

Next up is a few more dice that I had found in a local game shop in York called Travelling Man.  All that is except for the two small white dice in the front of the picture, these come from the Jorvik Viking Centre in York, and are Bone Dice.  The other dice are as follows;  Two white emote dice, two clear blue dice that contain smaller version within them, a D10 and D12, and a small crystal blue dice in the middle is a D3.

And finally on the last day I went back to the game shop and purchased this Roleplaying core book.  I have known about this book for some years now, and have even found it in a shop before.  However I have been debating whether to purchase it or not as I have enjoyed playing the original game that it is based upon.

This is a Pirate RPG based on the WizKids collectible constructible strategy game of the same name.  See here.

Dead Ends & Crystals

Delta Green (Call of Cthulhu) -  RPG session.

Run by Chris (alcoholandaphorism)

Players / investigators;

Me – Brendan Woodowski – Postal Inspector

Jason (jymmijamz) – Stie Malloan – NCIS

Will – John Cominski – FBI

CHAPTER THREE

The ambulance is tearing along the streets at a great velocity, but surprisingly it is smooth inside.  The siren polluting the ears of everyone in the immediate vicinity.  The two paramedics in the back of the ambulance are busy dealing with the unconscious agents, while their colleague steers them to the hospital.  Agent Brendan Woodowski just sits there and keeps out of the way, not wishing to delay them in any way.  Brendan realises that his contact in this city, agent Gaston, is flirting with Delta Green phone protocol, by mentioning ‘opera’.  Gaston draws Brenden’s attention back to the conversation on the phone by asking if he still has his ‘piece’ with him.  When asked where the opera is, Gaston tells him that it is coming straight for him.  “I’ll meet you at the hospital.”  Brenden pats his holster, checking his gun is still there and ready for action, but refrains from drawing it.

The paramedics spend the journey attending to the two unconscious agents.  Cominski seems to be humming some odd tuneless tune, something that is easily forgotten after hearing it.  However it seems to echo of something in Brendan’s mind.  Suddenly there is a screeching of brakes, and Brendan is tossed to the side.  The ambulance is lurched to the side and then swerves back again.  The paramedics mutter something, but they keep professional and carry on with what they are doing.  Brendan takes a look out of the window.  A man in a posh expensive sports car appears to have cut up the traffic, and is even now as the ambulance speeds away, people are throwing hand gestures towards the guy.  Also Brendan can see a second ambulance speeding through the traffic towards him, it’s own sirens equally ringing out as it dodges through the other road users.  He contacts Gaston to check on a report of this other ambulance.  Gaston tells him that he is getting un-confirmed reports still from the field, and will tell him more when they meet.  However there appears to be other agents down in the field.

Cominski sees a rust red vista before his eyes, little copper specs of dust within the air.  He can barely hear a discordant singing, well what his mind is telling him as singing.  It feels cold and empty around him.  He has a vague awareness of his body, but when he looks down it is not there.  And as the cold closes around him, the rust red landscape pulls further away.  Blackness wraps itself around him, and all he can hear is still that tuneless singing.  He then sees the rust red landscape roll away from him as a planet, pitted and broken.  Cominski begins to feel nausea rising in his throat.  And he has a feeling that if this planet knew he existed, then it could blink him from being without a second thought.  His hairs on his body he can not feel rise, and the singing gets louder.  He feels so insignificant as he stands there looking over the landscape, he feels something move around his feet.

Brenden looks over to see his new Delta Green colleague Cominski, writhing and moaning.   The paramedics quickly strap him down so as not to harm himself.  Looking back out the window, Brenden can see that the ambulance has now caught up with them, and he can see a bulky drive sat behind the wheel.  He looks like he can barely fit in his uniform, sweat dripping down his forehead as he concentrates on the job at hand as he speeds through the traffic.

It takes long minutes until finally the ambulance pulls up to a halt.  The two paramedics quickly push pass Brendan and push the rear doors open, hurriedly taking their two charges to within the hospital.  They take the two patients on the stretchers to the ER department.  A female Afro-American doctor in blue uniform steps before them, asking them questions as she pushes her glasses back up her nose.  She steps back allowing them on through, as she takes notes on her clip board.  As Brendan follows she steps in the way, telling him that he is going to have to wait in the waiting room.  Brendan explains to her that he is an agent and that he needs to be nearby he fellow colleagues.  She tells him that he is not allowed within the theatre, and that he can wait outside, but first she will have to get someone to deal with that, so he will have to wait in the waiting room for now until the person comes for him.  She then apologizes but she will have to rush off as she is needed in the theatre.  As Brenden stands by the doors he takes a look around and notices the other ambulance turn up outside.  A paramedic rushes in with an agent on a stretcher.  This agent is strapped down, blood pouring from his open toothless mouth, contusions around his neck, as he raves when they take him through the hospital.  As the agent is taken past Brendan, he spots multiple blood patches on the agent’s shirt.  He paws and reaches out to Brendan as he is taken by.  The agent screams but chokes as something blokes his throat, and as he gags he manages to scream once more.

Back out at the ambulance outside, Brendan walks over to see another agent still inside.  The pale looking agent is huddled within, almost in a foetal position, rocking back and forth and patting at his holstered gun.  From what Brendan can tell, from the smell mostly, that the agent’s gun has been fired recently, as there is a noticeable tang of Cordite in the air.  Two hospital orderlies approach to take the agent in, but he cower away shouting, “KEEP BACK! KEEP BACK!”  Brendan steps up volunteering to help, stating that he is one of his fellow agents, however one of the orderlies asks to see ID while the other carries on trying to talk to the agent.  Brendan explains that he had neglected to bring his ID with him as he was in a rush to get to the hospital, however an agent Gaston will soon be arriving who should be able to confirm his credentials.  They ask him to step back, which he does so and walks back to the entrance to the hospital.  The orderlies eventually manage to coax the agent out from the back of the ambulance and step in to the hospital.  But as soon as the agent steps in to the bright fluorescent light waiting room, he collapses to his knees and begins to weep.

A hospital orderly soon walks back to Brendan, accompanied by a very tired and weary looking Gaston.  A smile performs across his lips, but the smile is not reflected in his eyes.  He turns to the orderly, “This one is with me.  Yeah I know, a bit of an idiot not bringing his ID with him.”  Gaston then steps up to Brenden and shakes his hand in greeting.  He suggests to Brendan that it would best not for him to return to the hotel room.  He then lowers his voice to a mere whisper, “I had to break protocol and call in a friendly.  If you can stay out of there until they are done.”  He then asks Brendan what he knows so far.  Brendan looks around and suggests they go to a waiting room to talk.  Gaston tells him that he needs to get the agent through in to the hospital, and wonders if he wants to help.  Brendan agrees and manages to easily coax the agent in to a pale blue painted private room.  The agent gives his name as agent Cox and lies on the bed, while Brendan sits on one of the metal chairs and Gaston sits himself towards the rear, giving Brendan the free rain.  Brendan begins to ask agent Cox how he is feeling and gradually asks more of what happened.

Agent Cox whimper out his responses as he closes his eyes to what it was that he had witnessed.  “What was it?  We shot it over and over again.  It wouldn’t die!”  He explains that they had been joking about in the hotel room, told to keep away from the crystal on the floor.  He tells of a man in a bellhop uniform entering the room.  “Oh God…he ripped her face off!”  He carries on explaining that the bellhop was there, and then its arms had stretched out, and it had its arms wrapped around her throat.  He shares that they had shot and shot again at it, but all it did was to look at them.  “Her blood was just pouring from her face.  But she managed to get her mace out and spray it.”  Brendan carries on listening carefully to the agent, and every now and again gently teasing more information out of him.  Agent Cox explains that the ‘man’ then jumped back away from the mace spray that agent Babbage had managed to use.  He also gives the name of the other agent that was there, and was brought in with him in the ambulance.  An agent called Rolland, who rushed at the ‘man’ and carried on shooting at it.  However the ‘man’ just rolled up on him, looking like it was kissing him.  It was vomiting down his throat.  Agent Cox then lunged forward, his taser in hand.  He tasered the thing and it jumped away screaming.  It then just jumped out through the window and was gone.  He tells Brenden that it was then that he had noticed that the crystal had gone.  The description of the bellhop, before it stretched, is that of a short brown-haired guy, with green eyes and slightly chubby around the middle.

Gaston joins in at the end and reassures the agent, telling him they had experts in to inspect the room and found traces of a weaponised form of a hallucinogenic.  And there is a witness, a fellow bellhop, stating that he had seen a man with a motorcycle helmet, and Kevlar body jacket approach the room.  He explains to the agent that it was down to the hallucinogenic that had caused all the visions, and the Kevlar that stopped the bullets.  He reassures him, “You can get through this.  You’re strong.”  Gaston turns to Brenden and gives a hidden wink, acknowledging what Brendan had already suspected, that Gaston was covering what really happened.  A nurse comes in and applies a sedative to agent Cox, they then place the agent on a gurney and take him away.  Gaston and Brendan once left alone in the room talk some more.  Gaston explains that they found fifteen shell casings on the floor, and only three stray bullet marks, so twelve bullets had found their mark on the thing.  After checking what the progress is, Gaston then leaves saying he needs to get back to his friendly.

Brendan checks in with his fellow colleagues in the Postal department.  He stands outside and uses his phone to speak with his contact.  A temp worker called Jane Forthright who he has taken advantage of, knowing that she would not know all the protocols. He asks her about any unusual parcels or activity that had occurred at the Daniels’ address in the last few months, anything that may have been flagged up.  She checks the system and tells him what she finds on the address for the past few months.  The item of note is with a return address of Unulsis, within the same city.  A couple of sign for from this address.

While standing there he spots the driver from the other ambulance, the large guy in the ill-fitting uniform.  The guy looks over at him and gives a weak smile.  Brendan greets him and engages him in some small talk.  The guy explains that he has had a strange feeling of being watched, ever since he picked up the agents.  Like something has been following him, like something is crawling in his skin.  He has never had this kind of feeling before, and that he has only just began his shift.  “I could have sworn I saw this eye looking at me.”  He explains that it was while he was driving, and he thinks that it may be something to do with the strange drugs that he may have breathed in while he picked up the agents.

Agent Cominski hears a beeping, a very low beeping, almost like a heart monitor where the heart is about to fail.  “He’s going under! He’s going under!” Cominski hears voices around him.  Cominski moves about in his bed and grunts, and as he looks around the room he is in, all he can see is a hospital orderly.  The orderly looks down at him and smiles, he then checks the notes at the end of the bed and informs him that his colleague Woodowski is outside waiting for him.  He tells Cominski that they need to keep him in for a further forty-eight hours for observation.   However Cominski begins to get himself up out of bed, “Sorry I have no time.”  He tells him that he will sign whatever is necessary to be discharged from the hospital.  He is also told about agent Malloan, being told that he is still in the theatre and things are going well, “but not out of the woods yet.”

After all the legal pen pushing has been done, agent Woodowski is shown to Cominski’s room.  Brendan Woodowski is looking a little pale and shaking, but all in all he seems fine and healthy.  He instantly asks how Cominski is feeling, and they discuss what had happened.  Brendan does for now give him the story of the hallucinogenic, but offers a sly wink.  He then suggests that it best for them to go outside and gets some well needed fresh air.  Once outside and the coast is clear, Brendan fills him in on the details of what had really happened to him, then the details of the other agents and the progress so far.  While they discuss where to go with the investigation next, checking on Neil Beagly and not getting anything of worth, Cominski receives a communication on his phone.  The message is from the force with a request from an Angel O’Rourke, detailing that she may have information that could be of worth.

Agents Brendan Woodowski and John Cominski go back to the penitentiary to pay a visit to Angel O’Rourke.  Once again she is full of colourful language, stating that they took their sweet time.  And before giving them the information she checks that the meant what they said about helping her out.  She explains that Valiant used to rant and rave when he was punching, mentioning his dad every now and again.  He mostly said, ‘He never came for me.  He always denied me.  Even when I was caught.  He had always got someone else to do the job.  He would never admit I was his son.’  She then gets verbal when they tell her that they will need to check out the information before they pay out.  This upset her, calling them paranoid and suggesting that they should just leave their money on the table when they leave.  Cominski passes over a packet of cigarettes for her, which pacified her for now.  “Fuck! That’s what the ‘F’ stands for isn’t it?”

When the two agents check on the details of a father for Valiant, it comes back with father unknown on the birth certificate.  Nor anything showing up on the bail records.  After coming to more dead ends with regards for any further information on Valiant or his heritage, they decide to go and pay the Senator another visit.  And once again when the agents walk in to the private hospital where Anthony Detore is resident, the doctor Chichester spots them and shakes his head.  “I can’t believe it.  You’re here to bother him again!”  He explains that he hasn’t got long left, and they are just running him through the documents, “Then you will not be able to harass him again like this.”  Then with a tone in his voice he tells them that he will let the Senator know that they are there to see him.

With a weary look upon his face as he sees them enter his room, Senator Anthony Detore offers them a Pear.  Cominski happily takes the offered fruit which pleases the Senator.  Cominski then explains to the Senator that the case is developing in to a murder investigation as well, due to finding the woman near the stolen car.  He assures the Senator that they will be doing their best to try and keep his name away from this case.  So with this they begin to question him once again about the party and what had gone on.  Then they turn it over to a guy called Ronald Valiant, asking if he had been at the party.  But once again he denies every seeing the guy at the party.  Next they shift on to what he knows of the Unuliss group, whether he or Daniels was a member.  They are told that he (Anthony) was not a member, but Daniels did do the rituals and their crystals.  He explains that the crystals excited him in way that he had not been for a long while.  “Quite re-invigorated him so I hear.”  He confirms that Daniels got his supply of books and crystal from the Unuliss group.  “He followed the rituals as it allowed him to ‘perform’.”

They leave the Senator Detore to finish off his paperwork ready for his discharge from the hospital.  They sit outside in their car discussing what they had or hadn’t spotted with the Senator and what he had told them.  They then receive a message on their secure phones.  All it gives is an IP address.  They do know that it has come from their group’s cell structure.  Brendan opens his laptop and performs the secure procedures to access the address.  After a while a CIA file fades in to view on the small LCD screen.  The file references a request that had come through in 1987, regarding a Ronald Valiant and his capture.  It tells of a bribe that was paid to the jailers, allowing him to escape after his six long week imprisonment.  It was a slightly unusually request as it was on the behalf of a Larry Daniels, who was a known aid at the time for Senator Anthony Detore.  The request was to be paid by a favour in hand.  When asks why this was happening, Daniels reluctantly admitted to Valiant being his illegitimate son.  As the two agents sit in their car discussing all the information they have and where to go next, they hear a car engine start up and see Senator Anthony Detore be driven away.  The Senator looks at them and waves as he passes.

The two Delta Green agents decide on going over to Delmar Boulevard to visit the local Unuliss branch.  On the street the branch is surrounded by coffee shops and book stores, in an upmarket part of the town.  The branch has a glass front covered with posters of people meditating with crystal in hand.  Pictures of clouds with a man flying over the mountain range and a crystal hanging from his neck.  All very professionally made.  Inside there is a large open area with mats and rugs scattered around the floor.  There is some sort of typical new age atmospheric music playing in the background.  There is also a large black and gold tapestry hanging on one wall, depicting two cupped hands holding a crystal.  Along the walls and counters there are many pamphlets and leaflets, along with videos and compact discs and cassettes.  A cash register on one of the counters near the back.  Two young ladies enter from a back room as Brendan and Cominski step in, one long dark-haired and the other a short light-haired lady.  Both wearing light and colourful pastel clothes, each with a crystal hanging around their necks.  The taller and dark-haired lady greets them with a calm and delicate voice, welcoming them to the Unuliss.  Each has a name badge, and the one who spoke is called Diane while the other has a badge with Sarah.  Cominski informs them that they are there investigating a case that had happened at the Larry Daniels’ home, and he asks them if he was a member of the group.  Again Diane does all the talking, and states that they have never seen or heard of this fellow who they mentioned, and that they also keep all their member’s details and membership in strictest confidential.  The two agents can see that both of these young ladies are very open and friendly, they even mention their new Deacon who is called Walters.  There is also a picture of the Deacon on the wall.  It depicts a young fellow in his mid twenties, with shoulder length black hair, and soulful blue eyes and strong cheek bones.  A look on his face as if he is looking straight through you and understanding your soul.  Sarah walks up to them as they look at the picture and she tells them when asks, that he has been with them for three years now.  He was the assistance before, but the previous Deacon was mugged and shot and then Walters stepped in and helped out.

Brendan small talks with Sarah about the Deacon Walters, and then moves on to mentioning how lovely the crystals look to his eyes.  That they seem to talk to him and his soul, almost like they hypnotize him.  He eventually begins to ask her about the crystals once he shows how interested he is.  She tells him that they come from their headquarters in Tulsa, and that they are a unique crystal that have the correct configuration, and that any others would possibly contaminate your soul.  She then leads on to the rituals and meditations, and Brendan asks for literature and Sarah shows him the books.  Brendan takes this opportunity to see if the books match those that Daniels had on his bookshelves.  Amongst the books are ones that Daniels did have on his shelves.  Cominski on the other hand talks with Diane and asks her about the meditations and rituals, and she explains why and how they help people.  As Cominski and Brendan thank them for their time and begin to leave, the two young ladies ask if they would like to be inducted, and offer to take them through to another room to take their first meditation, of course once all payments clear.  However the agents explain that they are on duty and have plenty of work to be getting on with, and may come back later.  As they leave Cominski notices that the door the young ladies walk back through enters in to a corridor with doors leading off, and one door is marked as ‘Private’.

Once back outside and in their car, the agents discuss again what they should plan to do next, wondering where the other half of the crystal they found at Daniels is at?  They check in on the trolling of the local gyms and everything has come back with a blank.  They soon have another secure call come through, and again it is from a very tired Gaston.  He tells them that the Senator has now left the state and gone back to Washington.  He also tells them that they have footage of him stopping off and made a telephone call.  The telephone number is a fake mobile number.  Not traceable and has now been discarded.  However they have managed to recognise several words that had been spoken over the telephone.  “He mentioned both of you by name.”

Looking for Clues

Delta Green (Call of Cthulhu) –  RPG session.

Run by Chris (alcoholandaphorism)

Players / investigators;

Me – Brendan Woodowski – Postal Inspector

Jason (jymmijamz) – Stie Malloan – NCIS

Will – John Cominski – FBI

WARNING this post contains strong language!

CHAPTER TWO

Before the three Delta Green agents up and leave the hotel they are staying in, they grab a bite to eat for breakfast, and agent Stie Malloan contacts agent Luis Gaston.  He asks him and checks if there is a guard on the door of the Senator’s hospital room, and makes sure that they can be trusted and to not allow anyone in.  Gaston assures him that it is all in hand, and a couple of FBI agents are on door duty around the Senator’s room.

After finishing their rushed breakfast, and checking over what they plan to do today, the three agents head out to the rougher side of town, to East St. Louis.  Taking the FBI car that was given to them, and go to investigate the missing Mercedes car that belonged to Larry Daniels.  The area is definitely the grubbier side of town, with run down buildings.  As they pull up to the scene they can already see scorch marks around the car.  Well what is left of the car, it is more like a metal skeleton than a car.  The bonnet is still up with most of the engine missing.  The doors are either left open or missing all together.  And as for the tyres or wheels, well there is none left as it is just propped up on bricks.  The seats are stripped out, and no stereo left within.  And there appears to be an attempt to burn the car after the effect but to no avail.  As for the surroundings, there are many different alleyways leading off here and there, many of them in deep shadows.  Even the three agents can feel the unease of being in this neighbourhood, your average Joe Blogs would need a very good reason to be here.  Bags and garbage thrown up against the walls, with over flowing bins and dumpsters.

The agents have work to do so they climb out of the car and being to investigate the scene.  First they go take a closer look at the car.  It looks like the usual sort of work of opportunists, stripping parts from the car that they can use or sale on for money.  All hastily taken from the scene as quickly as they can.  There is no unusual activity, or any cover up for forensic purposes.  The failed attempt to torch the car was purely a bad job done wrong and it never took, hence only finding scorch marks and nothing more.  Stie bends down and takes time to study over the car using his forensic skills to see what he can find.  However he finds nothing of use, anything of use has been stripped, and he keeps dislodging fibre and dust all over what he is studying.

While agent Stie is busy scrutinising the car, agent Brendan Woodowski takes a look around the immediate area for any clues.  Looking around carefully Brenden spots some marks on the nearby wall, a little ways down one of the alleyways.  As he takes a closer look he can see hair fibre and blood stains.  It is half in shadow and has to use his torch for a better look.  Taking a careful look around the floor near this Brendan spots a few more marks on the floor, which also turn out to be blood stains.  And so he follows these, and it leads him to a nearby dumpster.  Brendan beckons agent Cominski over to inform him of what he found, and to stand guide for when he opens the lid to the dumpster.  Cominski stands near by and hold his torch like a clumb, ready to strike if anything jumped out.  Taking a deep breath, Brendan steadies himself and then thrust the lid open with a quick movement and steps back slightly.  Only a fetid aroma and a couple of broken bin bags tumble out, one tearing open and displacing its contents all over the floor.  Half cooked and rotting meat rolling across the floor, along with putrid vegetables, and several sanitary products.  All tumbling to the agent’s feet.  After nothing else happens, Brendan steps forward and takes a look in.  Another bag within dislodges to reveal something like a face hidden in the shadows.  Using his torch and moving more bag, Brendan’s torch light rest on what can be loosely described and once being a human face.  There is a mess of blood and broken bone caved inwards, not many of the teeth left within the mouth.  From what can be seen it appears to have been once a female, her hair long and matted with blood.  They move more bags out of the way to reveal more of the female.  The female body has no shoes or lower under garments, only the dress still remain on her body.  The two agents make sure not to touch the woman and call over Stie to take a look.  Then Brendan reports his findings to agent Gaston, and to ask him to send a team to cordon the area off and have a forensic team come in to see what they can find.  In the mean time Stie takes a few pictures of the body before he begins to take a closer look for any clues.  The woman has no other possession on her person, no ID or anything that could trace her.  There are fragments of brick within her face and hair, which match with the wall where Brendan found the blood first.  It looks like her face was impacted with great force from behind on to the wall.  Repeatedly!  Eventually Stie manages to find a partial print from the base of her neck.  It looks like the person had attempted to do a complete wipe down and missed a spot.

Gaston informs Brendan while he was on the phone, that they have the information regarding Valiant, and ask for a secure location to send it.  Brendan gives him his secure email address.  Brendan also asks Gaston to try and get a positive ID for the woman they have found.  While they wait for the police and forensic team to arrive, they take a look at what the information Gaston had send over.  There are files from St. Louis Police force, and from the United States Marine Corp.  There are also notes that Gaston has amended and added to the files, stating that there is more information out there but he hasn’t been able to get his hands on it, and suggests that they may try if they have any pull.  It appears to be state department records that are being held up.  Stie puts a call in to his contacts back at NCIS to see what they can drum up for him on their end.

The information they have so far now consists of Valiant’s full name, a Ronald Valiant, his blood type is A, hair blonde and blue eyes, and a full finger print set.  Date of birth is April 11^th 1963, and born in St. Louis Massouri.  Mother was Catherine Valiant, who is now deceased, due to cardiac arrest.  Father is unknown.  There is a juvenile record listing crimes such as, multiple arrests for shoplifting, vandalism, theft and burglary, grand theft auto, and finally possession of marijuana.  The police records show that he is known to them, especially from the drug dealing scene in 1989.  He had been bringing uncut cocaine in to the city, and known to sweeten the deal with automatic weapons, believed to come from central American wars.  He was a very successful runner, who had several street level operators.  The military hardware made him a very popular guy.  His reputation on the street is that he is a hardcore ex-marine, ex-contra, ex-CIA agent with a hair trigger temper, and an ear collection. And he had the street name of Prince Valiant.  There is also a long list of his known associates.  The interesting one that pops up is a name called Neil Beadily, the guy who also died at the Daniels mansion, a known pimp and drug supplier.  There is also a name that pops up that could be useful, and ex partner of Valiant, whose name is Angel O’Rourke.  She was sentenced three months ago at the local county jail, for trying to steal a tourist’s wallet during an attempted exchange of money for sexual favours.  The information on Valiant’s military career seems to be very minimal.

Final point of note that the police have on Valiant is that in September 1992, Valiant killed a rival dealer known as Martin Nash, by injecting him with heroine then burning him alive with gasoline.  The police went after him but unfortunately he had completely disappeared, and has not been able to get any information on him since October 1992.  About eight years before the current happenings.

Eventually two police cars pull up at the scene, and one large policeman and one short step out.  The short one has an open pizza box in his hand.  He walks towards to the open dumpster, and through a mouthful of pizza he turns and asks if that is the dumpster.  Then carries on to the dumpster after the conformation, still chewing on his pizza.  He takes a look in and exclaims ‘Bloody hell!’  He then closes his pizza box and puts it down.  He states that they will cordon off the area and see what they can get from the scene, and will send over any information they can get to them.  During this time agent Stie Malloan studies the partial finger print he lifted from the dead woman.  It takes so effort to manually go through these prints, and eventually comes to the conclusion that it seems to match with those they have of Valiant.  With this information Stie reports back to Gaston and tells him, and suggests that this would be a perfect excuse for him to now be on the investigation.

Now that the police have arrived and seeing to the scene, the three Delta Green agents decide to head off to see Senator Anthony Detore in the hospital.  While they travel over to there, Cominski decides to take a closer study over the books they got from Daniels’ library.  Most of the pamphlets and books seem to refer to solo or group meditation use with a crystal, nothing sinister or untoward about them, more of a self help, healing and centring of self.  And the information about the meditation seems to point to the guy found with the crystal in his hand at Daniels’ was in the position listed in the literature.

The three investigators from Delta Green eventually arrive at the peaceful and secluded hospital.  The place looks like it must cost a lot of money to stay, with lush acres of grounds before arriving at the main building.  They pass a few different people jogging around the grounds.  The main double doors in to the reception are large glass doors.  A tanned and fit male doctor in his fifties, and wearing his white coat, walks up to the three agents as they walk in.  He greets them, introducing himself as Doctor Cichester, and asks what he can do for them.  However as soon as they mention the word Senator, the Doctor begins to claim the privacy and security of his patients are most important to him.  Even when Cominski introduces himself as an FBI agent, Dr. Cichester implores that they leave him alone at the moment as he needs the rest.  Eventually Cominski convinces him that they should see the Senator straight away, soon winning the argument.  Quoting reference numbers and articles.  Doctor Cichester reluctantly steps aside but stating that he will make an official complaint.  He leads the three agents in to the hospital and to a very large and lush room, with who they presume to be the Senator lead in the bed.  A fruit bowl beside his bed, he face showing signs of over tiredness with down turned face and bags under his eyes.  The Senator looks up as they enter his arm still in a caste.  He looks a little over weight, and his eyes tighten as he spots the agents, knowing the situation.  He asks the doctor to leave, and then offers a fruit to the agents.

After a short spell of pleasantries and introductions, Cominski stating he is FBI, Woodowski not stating which agency, and Malloan flashing his ID card that states he is NCIS, as he introduces himself.  Seeing the NCIS credentials, the Senator’s eye narrow again.  They explain this off as there being plenty of different agencies involved in the investigations, and saying that a marine is now involved in the incident.  Senator Anthony Detore visibly tenses to this subject to both agent Stie and Brendan’s eyes, he seems to clam up but also try to push to know more from them.  Cominski carries on to share that they are investigating the incident, and that they will try to keep things as discreet as possible, and begins to ask the Senator about the night it happened.  Senator explains that he was only visiting his friend, but can not remember much due to the bang on his head.  Agent Woodowski volunteers that the security cameras will have everything recorded.  The Senator continues to state that he can’t remember what time he arrived, or anything of a party.  Stating that he was only visiting his friend and it was purely a social visit.  Cominski turns to telling the Senator that he is hoping to keep this all discreet, but if he has to investigate deeply than he can’t help what will happen after.  Senator Anthony Detore eventually opens up a little and admits to being at the party, and being friendly like a good guest should.  He admits to not remembering much, but just remembers falling, falling from a balcony where he was talking to a young woman who was another guest, and then it all went dark.  He also admits after a pause to knowing that Daniels was in to the Unuliss cult.  “Especially after finding that it helped aid his failing virility.”  He finally claims to knowing only of all the guest that have been accounted for, to being there at the party, he knows of no others.  “I can not help you any further.”  Both agent Malloan and Woodowski can still see that he is being so very cagy in all of this questioning.  Even when Woodowski brings up the name Valiant, the Senator claims to know no one of that name.  He also claims to know nothing of the rituals.  He soon asks them if that is all as he wishes to have his rest.  So they soon leave him to his secrets…for now?

Back in the car agent Stie Malloan receives a ping on his secure phone, informing him that he has some files to download.  The information is that of the marine Valiant.  Most of the information they already have, however three pieces stand out unique.  One is his full marine corp. record.  He joined in 1980, immediately after graduation.  He had repeated disciplinary problems, spending a total of nine months in the stockade for various acts of insubordination, violation of marine corp. code of conduct, and several brawls (with his own colleagues and severe).  He was discharged in 1984 for being unsuitable.  The next is information from the State Department records, demanding an apology from the Sandinista Government of Nicaragua for the US sending in its air spies in to the sovereign territories of Nicaragua.  The air spy in question was R. Valiant, a drug runner whose plane got shot down of Nicaragua.  No apology was forth coming by the State, but it was shown that he was just another drug runner.  There are also several news articles that tie up with this e.g., in 1987 a plane was shot down and crashed, with only Ron Valiant bailing out and surviving only to be jailed.  It was claimed that he was a CIA agent, but the CIA made no comment, nor did Valiant.  This soon faded as there was no proof, and there is no evidence of Valiant ever being released.  At the end of the information there is a foot note from Stie’s contact suggesting to try the CIA as they clammed up and would not give over anything.  Seeing this and knowing that they can do nothing more regarding obtaining this information, the agents send a request up the chain, asking for any more information of Valiant from any of the CIA operatives.  The email they send is encrypted and send to a secure inbox, which after about five minutes disappears and any signs of this ever being there or any contact with it ever existing.  Moments later a secure phone rings and on pick up only three peeps can be heard and then nothing, the call terminates.  (This means that the message has been sent and received.)

Next the three Delta Green agents decide to go and give Angel O’Rourke a visit.  So they head off back across the heavy traffic in town to the other side once more, and go to the penitentiary.  As they pull up they can see that it is not a high security facility, and the guards spot their badge and wave them in, one obviously busy scratching his crutch.  Once the facilities governor knows of their purpose, he allows them in to the visiting room.  A phone on either side of a bullet proof glass which divides the two sides of the room.

Soon a scrawny looking woman steps in on the other side of the glass.  Bleached blonde hair roughly tied up.  Her orange facility overalls loose fitting, with her sleeves rolled up revealing a rose tattoo on her arm.  There are also obvious faded track marks down both arms.  She looks pale and has bags under both eyes, and as she spots the agents she scowls at them.  She drops in to the chair and picks up the phone on her side. “Wha fuck da you wan?” she demands cutting straight to the point.  Agent Stie Malloan takes the lead this time holding the phone and introducing them to her.  She looks nonplussed by this, “Fucked if I care!”  The introductions do not go so well with her busy saying fuck this and fuck that to whatever they have to say, pleasant or otherwise.  They soon get straight to the point and ask her if she has seen her ex, but this doesn’t go well as she asks them (with a fuck in the sentence), who they are referring to as she has many ex.   But as soon as the name Ron Valiant enters the conversation a reply quickly comes back.  “Fucking cunt!”  She explains that he had disappeared.  It was shortly after he was bragging about torching the dealer, saying he was going about telling everyone.  She tells them that he didn’t care whether people talked about him or not.  She also shares that he took steroids and cocaine.  She tells them that he pissed many people off swinging his big fists about.  Valiant, or as she preferred to call him, Fucker, spent all his time body building, he was a self obsessed ‘prick’.  Always showing off and saying that he was a big time CIA trained mercenary.  “He would have shagged himself if he could.  He loved himself.  He would have fucked himself daisy style around the room!  If he could he would have fucked every hole in every room, filling the house with just him fucking himself.”  Angel doesn’t know where Valiant disappeared or how.  And she says that it is a pity when they tell her that he appears to have resurfaced.  She tells them that no one she knows hold an elegance to him, only that he was very useful to have around.  When asked she tells them that Valiant never told her where he got the drugs from or even the country.  She also basically confirms that Valiant sold the guns to street gangs to help him get on their good sides, but none more professional than that.  He had a lot of people working for him and then he just disappeared.  She knows nothing of the group called Unuliss, whether he may have sold guns to them.  When told what sort of group they are she states that he would not have had anything to do with them, that he didn’t believe in God.  “One time he pointed to his own head and said that this is the only God I worship.”  As the conversation comes to an end she asks them what they can offer her as she helped them out, asking if they could give her some cigarettes.  Cominski gives her his half a packet of cigarettes, and then he asks that if she should hear anything about Valiant, then they may be able to help her some more.  “No promises.”

After this long day of going back and forth across town, it is now getting late in the day and they talking about any of the possibilities from what they have learnt, as they drive back through the city of St. Louis.  They feel that Valiant would be vain enough that he may well be busy visiting a gym still, so they ask the local police to go around the local gyms near where the car was abandoned.  The police also tell them that they managed to get prints from the scene, but none of them match those of Valiant.  But none of the prints were obtainable from useful areas.  It had all been well wiped down.  The police confirm the print that match that Stie managed to pull, and that they also got some DNA from the very small sample of sweat they found.  The sweat is stated as being that of a type A blood group, and they also found some blonde hair fibres.  The police also confirm that the analyse of the crystal has finished, and also the autopsy of the woman’s body over at the morgue.

The three agents rush over to the university to see what can be found from the crystal.  So again they head back across the city.  They drive in through the campus.  Many students are walking about.  Amongst the group of students handing papers in, three undercover FBI agents can be easily spotted.  It is Brendan who spots them and informs both Stie and Cominski.  The three undercover agents look very out of place and uncomfortable in their casual clothes, but there is also the tell tale sign of weapons in the bulges of their clothes.  As Brendan, Cominski, and Stie walk out, a slightly overweight guy in heavy Thai dyed top, thinning pony tailed hair, and glasses perched on the end of his nose approaches them.  Looking a little irritated he asks “Are you the ones that asked me to look at this crap?”  He then goes on to complain that he has his hands full already, and has no time to waste on tat.  He then asks them to follow him and go on through.  He then introduces himself as Professor Travis Archer.

“I am sure this is important to you, but I don’t get it.  Why have you sent this to me?” The professor asks puzzled.  They explain to him that they need to know what it is, and he tells them that it is a plain and simple quartz crystal, nothing more, nothing less.  The professor, Travis Archer’s shoulders drop and an annoyed look spreads across his face.  “Look I am busy and you need me to explain this to you.  Right I will make this as simple and straight forward as possible.”  He explains to them that it is a pure quartz crystal, a common crystal through out north America, nothing special about it what so ever.  It is two inches long and cylindrical, possibly someone who created it had a phallus obsession.  It is rough hewn, with a diameter of about a quarter of an inch.  Only odd thing is that it is smooth on one side, and been cut down the middle with a hacksaw on the other.  He then holds it out to show them, demonstrating the smooth side first, and explaining that side is professional and clean.  He then flips it over and asks them to feel the other side.  “It seems like someone has roughly cleaved it in twain.  And that is all I can tell you.”  He keeps clarifying to them a few times that it is a common as much crystal that can be obtained from anywhere in north America, nothing special.  The agents thank him for his time, and Travis Archer places the crystal back in the bag and hands it over to them.  Brendan asks to have all the documentation on the study, and apologies for wasting his time.  (A very thin and short few sheets of paper.)

As they leave, Cominski gives the three undercover FBI agents a nod.  They then walk over and one gives Cominski a handshake, asking if he has secured the item.  Cominski confirms this and the FBI agents state that they had better head back and report in.  Then all three of the Delta Green agents leave the university campus as well, heading back to their motel, taking the crystal and notes with them.  Once more they go back across the city and through the traffic.

The three agents spend some time within one of their rooms, looking over the crystal and notes, seeing that this seems to match exactly what is mentioned within the books that were on Daniels’ book shelves.  They debate on what could be so special with this common or garden item.  Maybe it has been hacked off from something bigger?  The crystal just sits there out on top of it’s little evidence bag, the notes sat beside it on the table.  It looks nothing special and they wonder whether this is a false line of investigation, another dead end?  They talk about what they should do in the morning, and agree that they need to get straight to the mortuary and take a look at the report on the woman they found.  Then to take a look at what the local police have found out so far regarding the gyms.  They all go to their individual rooms and rest up for the night.

The following morning they once again meet up in one of their rooms.  Not long after meeting up they receive a call from Gaston.  He wants to check that they have the crystal still, as it was reported that they had picked it up yesterday but had not heard anything reported in.  He only wanted to check if there have not been any problems.  They tell him that it is just a normal crystal and nothing special came from it.  He also tells them that nothing has come back from the gyms yet.  No one is recognising the picture.  They tell him that they are heading over to get the autopsy this morning, check that he has not yet got it himself.  He shares that he is beginning to be worried on this case, as everything seems to be going cold, and that they needed to get a move on with this case.

While they are talking on the phone there is a thud sound behind them, and as they turn they see agent Stie Malloan collapsed on the floor.  He fell over on to the table that the crystal was on, knocking both it and the table across the floor and now he as joined them on the floor.  Brendan rushes over to his fallen colleague to check on him, and takes a look around for any evidence of bullet holes or something.  Cominski places Stie in to a recovery position.  He finds that when he touched Stie, that he is deadly cold to the touch.  Brendan stands back up and walks over to where Stie was stood, taking a look around for any clues as to what just happened.  Turning he looks over to see that now agent Cominski has fallen backwards to the ground, and is lying still on the carpet floor.  Site Malloan’s body begins to shiver and shake as he lies on the floor, cold shallow breath coming from his mouth.  He looks like he is possibly about to go in to shock or have a heart attack.  Brenden quickly grabs and tugs the blankets from the bed and chucks them over Stie, making sure that he is fully covered.  He then goes and grabs some more spare blankets, using these to cover Cominski before he turns cold too.  Taking a look over at both Cominski and Stie, Brendan realises that they both need immediate medical attention.  He picks the phone back up and calls Gaston, telling him without waiting what the situation is and for him to send the emergency service straight away.  Once that is done and Gaston confirms to Brendan that the emergency services are on their way, Gaston asks and Brendan shares with him what exactly had happened.  Gaston tells Brendan that he will also send three agents over to keep an eye on the room, while Brenden goes with his colleagues in the ambulance.  Brendan tells him to leaves everything as it is and to be very careful, as he could not find any cause for what has happened.

It seems to take long moments, where both Cominski and Site’s breathing becomes very shallow, waiting for the ambulance to arrive.  He begins to hear a kind of voice, a laughing, the feeling of thrusting and pleasure.  A feeling of intoxication and then Brendan gets a feeling of utter loneliness, of being in outer space, there is something.  But then Brendan passes out.  Next thing he knows is waking up in the ambulance with both Cominski and Site.  He is sat there at the end of the bench, and two paramedics are busy trying to keep both Cominski and Stie alive.  A mobile ring tone begins to echo through the back of the ambulance, eventually Brendan realises it is his and he rummages through his pocket for his telephone.  Answering it he hears a very tired Gaston on the other end of the line.  “Opera fans?”  Gaston enquires.  “Opera fans.”  Brendan replies.  “Things just got worse.”

Spherical Mystery

Delta Green (Call of Cthulhu) –  RPG session.

Run by Chris (alcoholandaphorism)

Players / investigators;

Me – Brendan Woodowski – Postal Inspector

Jason (jymmijamz) – Stie Malloan – NCIS

Will – John Cominski – FBI

Previously;

We return to a slightly diminished team with both Stie Malloan and Brendan Woodowski being the only survivors from the previous mission.  The other two now deceased, one in combat, and the other in what appears to be a gang based shiv in prison, where she had been sent for leaving military grade ammunition casings at the scene.  It was but a mere month ago since they had been on the previous mission, where they went to a small town in regard to a strange matter being introduced in to the water supply.  The matter had been causing unusual behaviour.  They had eventually been lead to a small barn where they discovered small odd grey creatures.  The investigators where set upon by weird and small flying chitinous creatures.  This being the cause of death for one of the team.  After this and leaving the barn, the remaining team was confronted by a military team that burnt down the barn.  The military team knew of Delta Green and treated them with disdain.

After everything that had happened, the team took their part in covering up what had really happened in the now severely depleted town.  Most of the people had died due to the odd substance, and the team took their part in killing a journalist.  The team have since found that they are classed as the ‘F’ cell, and only have contact to the cell above them, the ‘E’ cell.  And their contact is an agent Echo from the cell above.  They have also since found out that the Delta Green is not an officially recognised group, as they where originally told.  Delta Green was officially shut down not long after a raid on a small fishing town called Innsmouth.  However since it had been shut down it had carried on working.  The official shut down was something to do with what happened in Rosewell, but no further information on this.

Delta Green confirm having dealings with the greys before the teams discovery, and have started to circulate the teams findings.  And also understand that the greys have been dealing with creatures that are native to the planet, believed to be these chitinous creatures.  The team is also told of another group known as Majestic 12, which are believed to have been infiltrated by and working with the greys.  Majestic 12 believe the greys to be aliens and are working with them to cover up their acts.  It is also believed that the death of the team operative in prison was in fact engineered by Majestic 12, as retribution for Delta Greens presence in the operation in town.  Unfortunately Majestic 12 are still classified as being officially recognised.

The team have since been on the look out for a new replacement for the team, and have spotted a guy amongst the FBI.  A twenty-seven year old male agent called John Cominski.  The agent had shown a good balance of enthusiasm for violence, and to keep his mouth shut, after and during his involvement with an incident at a doctors and possible greys.  And during the past few days they have invited him in to the Delta Green team.  Where during his first mission with them, they need to keep a close eye on him.

And now;

Brendan Woodowski finds himself out in one of the more rural small towns of the mid-south.  He is there to investigate one of his drop boxes that he has set up.  This is a more recent set up, and he has placed a small innocuous, but potentially unwarranted and against the rules object within the box, just to test the viability of his new drop box.  And now he has turned up in town to see if he can retrieve the object without incident or awareness from the post office building, seeing if anyone would flag up the object.  The office is a very small building with only two people who work there, and as he walks in he can see that the place shares its space with tourist trinkets and souvenirs on polished wooden shelves.  Maps and leaflets about location etc.  It is the only postal store servicing the town.  An attractive young lady with long blonde hair, dressed in the blue uniform of the postal worker, looks up and greets him with a big smile as he approaches her.

Brendan greets the lady and informs her that he has come to check on his PO Box for an item that may or may not have been delivered there.  She smiles at him again and states that he must be new in town as she hasn’t seen him before.  He explains to her that he is, and is in town for business, hoping that the item has arrived as he needs it for a business meeting.  She leans forward towards him, placing her palms under her chin and smiling up at him, her cleavage now more visible than before.  She then asks for his name, and he gives her a false name that he had used for the drop, not his real name.  She runs the name around her mouth a few times, toying with the name on her tongue.  Then she stands up and turns around, looking back at him over her should, telling him that she will just go and retrieve the keys for the box.  Her hips moving rhythmically within her tight skirt as she walks on her heeled shoes, her calf muscles controlling her movement with well rehearsed precision.

She soon returns with the keys.  However there is now an unsightly small globe of mucus on her upper lip beneath her nose.  The mucus slowly dribbles down her skin from her nose.  She appears totally unaware of it presence.  Brendan politely coughs and rubs his upper lip at the same location, drawing her attention to the unbecoming problem.  A shock comes to her face, and then she rubs her upper lip.  After pulling her finger away she apologises and begins to pat her nose with a handkerchief.  However this seems to have made the situation worse.  Now her nose begins to stream with a milky white substance.  She quickly turns away from Brendan and gives her nose a hard blow.  She then turns back and once again apologises to him.  Brendan can now see a trace of blood beneath her nose now.  And again she pats her nose.  Her eyes begin to roll up in to her head and back.  She then looks down at her arm where her handkerchief was placed.  A thin line begins to open up, blood coming to the surface and a thin white substance oozing out.  The young lady looks at this for a moment then turns back to Brendan puzzled.  “Sir!” and then after a short pause, “Sir!”  Blood begins to seep from around her teeth now.  The teeth then begin to loosen and drop from her mouth.  An expression of utter horror spreads across her face, looking pleadingly at him, blood starting to ooze from her mouth and then corners of her eyes.

Brendan looks around quickly at the rest of the store, seeing no one else there he jumps over the counter and grabs her around the waist, dragging her out to the back.  He can feel her waist give easily to his touch all squishy, and then she collapses to the floor coughing.  A lump of black heavy matter splats to the ground, its vague shape is that of some organ.  And as she looks down at it, it dissolves in to the carpet.  She then turns and looks up at Brenden, white liquid oozing from the side of her eyes.  And both of her arms are now weeping this white liquid.  Kicking the door closed to the back room, Brendan looks down at her.  He can see that the hair on her head is beginning to fall out.  And again she coughs and heaves.  A long black tendril dangles from her mouth, swinging back and forth.  She begins to choke, unable to breathe and another black mass hits the carpet.  Then more tendrils begin to reach out from her mouth, and ascend towards Brendan.  Her hands start to melt in to the carpet like the black mass did previously.

Kicking down at her to force her away, Brendan draws his gun.  But as he does so he notices his hands are all featureless and rubber like.  The gun falls to the ground, and liquid begins to run from his hands.  He becomes aware of a welling around his eyes.  Brendan tries to get a grip on himself, convincing his brain that this can not be happening.  He then pulls his radio out from his jacket pocket to communicate the situation is coded form.  However as he speaks he has to shout to force his voice over a mass that is rising up his throat.  His eyes begin to have a white sheen wash over them.  Thinking quickly, Brendan turns to look for the bathroom.  He charges in to the little room.  Looking in to the mirror, and seeing that the white substance is dripping from his eyes, ears, and even his teeth.  A faint distant ringing he can hear in his ears somewhere.  His skin begins to melt from his body, dripping from his arms and revealing his veins beneath.

Brendan jerks awake screaming, just like he has many nights before, ever since that time in the barn with the proto-matter.  The same reoccurring dream haunting his supposed restful slumber.  Once the echo of his scream recedes he becomes aware of a ringing.  As his minds clears he notices that his mobile phone is vying for his attention.  Shaking his head clear from the last grasp of Morpheus, he stands and goes to answer his phone.  His voice rasps a greeting, and he coughs and swallows to sooth his throat.  A recorded mechanical voice plays a message back to him, unperturbed by any greeting from the recipient.  “You…are…cordially…invited…to…a…night…at…the…opera.  Arrangements…have…been…made…for…you…to…meet…your…escort… at…Lambert…Airport…St. Louis…Missouri.  Be…seeing…you.” Clunk

Stie Malloan and John Cominski both received the same message at around the same time.  Stie received his by a fax, where as John got his through email.  When all three of them report in for work, they all find that arrangements have been made for them to be available on detached duty.  They also find through internal post that each of them have been given flight vouchers for St. Louis.  Brendan spends his time getting ready keeping an eye on all news reports, to see if anything is mentioned of the St. Louis area.  However nothing comes up in the reports, which could bode well as this means someone is on top of the situation.

The three agents come together at the airport.  They are waved through allowing them through without incident, carrying their various items.  While the general public have to wait in line to be patted down and checked.  Stie is a six-foot two, athletic, square-jawed guy with mousey hair.  A former high school running back that looks a little out-of-place in his black suit.  John however is a mid twenties, Polish/American citizen with black hair.  He has a nervous edge, but looks well-built from all the time he spends at the gym.  Brenden is the looker of the three guys.  He has short but not cropped black hair, and is wearing a very smart but casual clothes.  He has no fat on his body as he keeps himself fit from all the cycling he does.  However he seems to have a permanent five o’clock shadow around his chin.  The only remarkable features otherwise is his inch thick purple birthmark, that runs down from behind his left ear to his shoulder.

As the three pick up their luggage, they are approached by a besuited man with slightly greying hair, of an Afro-American descendant.  He rubs his black moustache as he watches them, before he approaches and offers his hand.  Bags visible under his eyes.  He shakes each of their hands as he introduces himself as Louis Gaston.  He tells them that he will be the escort for the evening’s opera, and then asks them to follow him.  As the three follow him they spot two other large agents, possibly FBI bleed from the crowd.  Both wearing long black coats, that seems to have an abnormal bulge.  They clear a path through the crowd for the four agents, and lead them to the taxi ranks where a limo awaits.  One opens the back door and Gaston stands next to it allowing the three agents in.  While the two nameless agents climb in to the front.  Inside the back of the limo, Brendan sits near the window, followed by Cominski in the middle, and then Stie next to the other window.  Gaston climbs in last and sits before them and in front of a partition glass, which is situated between the front and back.  Once the door is closed nothing can be heard from outside, or from the front seats.  Once the limo pulls off, Cominski notices that several other cars suddenly appear and follow them.  He notices that they seem to have government plates too.

Cominski looks about then his eyes meet Gaston’s.  He asks politely if they have an escort following.  Gaston smiles back at him and informs him that he has good eyesight.  “We have a few with us.  We got a fair amount of forces in on this.  This is why we called you three in.  I’m far too close to this, and you don’t shit where you eat.  So I needed someone external to do the poking around.”  He then explains that they have reasonable cover for each of them to be there.  Cominski from the FBI has been pulled over to investigate due to skills that could be handy.  And is told that he will be the primary contact in this case, and that if they need to talk with Gaston then it must be through Cominski.  He is to act as the lead agent.  He then turns to Brendan, checking that he is the Postal Inspector.  He informs him that as they will soon see, they have a very hedonistic style, and have planted evidence that the supplies have been coming in through the postal services.  “It is not a very strong cover but it will do for now.”  Finally he turns to Stie, “I believe you are from the NCIS?”  He apologises and states that they could only give a very temporary cover, pretending to have got the line mixed up, and that they should have had someone in from the air force not navy, due to the involvement of an air force general.  “You need to get some better cover, and fast!  A reason for you to still be here.”

Gaston explains that they are now heading to the opera house.  It is the home of a man named Larry Daniels.  The air force general mentioned previously.  And since retiring from service, is now a member of the board of directors at a company called MacConnel Bayless.  A very lucrative and secure aerospace company to work for.  There have been a very large amount of interesting eyes on this case, and have been struggling to keep the press away.  The home is a mansion near the university city district.  And they have been called in because of what happened at one this morning.  The reason for the FBI involvement is due to the explosion at the mansion.  The case is classified as terrorism, so he explains that they have the driving seat in the case.  Unfortunately it got interesting about six hours ago when the forensic team threw their hands up and gave up.  Apparently the explosion was not possible.  Upon their questions Gaston explains that it will be easier to show them than to try to explain.  Gaston carries on with the explanation.  At the time of the explosion there was a party being held.  A private party with evidence of drugs being involved and strong evidence of sex.  There are nine fatalities from the explosion, Larry Daniels in one of them.  The other important figure, and the reason for their strong belief of sex involved, is a man called Neil Beadily.  He is well known for the procurements of refreshments and entertainment.  The third important figure is a man called Stanley Cable, St. Louis’ city commissioner.  And the remaining six people on the list are presumed to be girls hired for the night.  Gaston shares that there are also some survivors from the night.  First there are the servants, who apparently were not invited to the evening suarez. And were at the other end of the house.  The only other survivor was an Anthony Detore, a democratic senator for Missouri, and chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee.  The only thing that seems to connect them, is that Detore and Daniels knew each other a long time back.  Gaston then pulls two files, one for Detore and hands it over to the agents, and the other file is for Daniels.  The Detore is a very clean file mentioning a divorce and no children.  And since the divorce has had a serious interest in party girls.  A photo is attached of a slim wiry man with dyed brown hair.  He currently has a broken arm and unconscious with many bruises in the St. Louis hospital.  Gaston then hands the Daniels file over.  Daniels has an exemplary career as an air force administrator.  He was never a pilot as bad eye sight prevented him from doing so.  There are notes that he often admin’ed on black ops.  There are also notes that he was expected to rise higher in the ranks, but after his twenty years service he left to join the contract company he was currently with.  With his knowledge it made him invaluable to them.  There are also suspicions that after he retired he was involved in arms brokering in the Iran Contra affair, but there was never enough evidence for it to be taken further.  Neither files mention any connection to Stanley Cable.  Gaston leans back in his seat and informs the three agents that is everything they have on the case.  He reminds them that they have the case down as a terrorist act, however there is no evidence of a man-made bomb, no trigger device, no bomb casing, nothing.  “Even the explosion pattern is usual.”

By this time the limo cavalcade has made it to the grounds of the mansion.  They are still a few miles away and there are acres of land between them and the building.  The vehicles have just gone through an eight foot tall security fence.  They can see in the distance, and surrounding the main building, a swarm of blue flashing lights.  There are many different vehicles such as forensics, FBI, police, and emergency services.  Soon they draw up next to all the other vehicles and step out in to the chaos.  Stie notices a vehicle tucked in amongst all the others.  It is a military air force plated Sedan.  And when asked Gaston informs them that as Daniels rose high in the air force, there may be sensitive information about.  “Play nice with them.  We do not want inter department feuds.  It is bad enough trying to keep you all here as it is.”  The group follow Gaston up the stairs to the main entrance.  He flashes his badge at the two cops on the door, and Gaston then waves the three agents on through.  Once inside they notice that there are no local police within the building only federal agents.

They walk in to a wide open foyer.  The lights are off, and there is a heavy smell of smoke in the air.  The walls are stained and damaged from the sprinkler system.  There are burn and scorch marks on the walks in there, and Gaston points to them stating that to the best of their knowledge the fire wasn’t caused by the explosion.  It was some electrical short out.  He then hands them a torch each, the same as the other agents are using.  There are two large and wide staircases leading up to the floor above and a balcony.  Above them are the shattered remains of a chandelier.  Just below and to one side of the balcony is a white chalked outline.  The limps of the chalk figure are at odd angles.  Gaston then points with his torch up the stairs and towards the balcony.  As they go up Gaston points back to the outline and informs them that it was where they found the Senator and his escort.  Gaston shines his torch on the outline as he mentions the escort.  He believes that the explosion probably blew them off the balcony.  The Senator broke his arm while the escort had broken her neck.

Once at the top of the stairs they open the door to the balcony and take a look inside.  It is not a large room without any furniture.  However there are fragments of furniture and music equipment within, and the back wall has not been breached.  Gaston stands by the door allowing the three agents to take in the scene.  When asked about the rest of the furniture, Gaston tells them to follow him and walks out.  As they walk along the corridor and through a large ballroom type of room, they can see further fragments of furniture and glass.  And the faint smell of burnt wiring.  There is also a heavy dense smell of something that could only be described as smelling like vomit.

As they are about to leave the room, they hear photographs being taken in the room to their right.  And when asked Gaston informs them that it is another scene.  “You can look if you like, but it is not a pretty scene.”  Brendan tells him that they need to see it all.  Cominski takes a deep breath then enters followed by the others.  There are several investigators pointing the cameras towards the ceiling.  As the cameras flash the agents get glimpses of an odd shadowy form hanging from the ceiling.  Getting closer the agents point their torches up to see a horrific scene before them.  A woman hanging from the ceiling.  She is swinging back and forth, with her left arm reaching up, and horrid tearing and contusion around her shoulder.  And as they follow her arm up, they can see her hand and bones fused in with the ceiling, and this is how she is hanging there!  Again there are fragments of furniture within this room too.  None of it matches the intact furniture within this room.  Gaston leads them all up and to the ‘main event’, he leans and holds on to the door handle, turning to them and asking if they are ready for this.  The agents steady themselves and Gaston swings the door open, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The first thing they see within this new corridor is a girl partially clothed, reaching out through the wall, her face bent down on to the ground, hiding what must be a horrid expression of pain upon her face.  The wall bulged out smooth and almost spherical.  The girl is half hanging out from the wall itself.  There are also many fragments of glass there too.  The agents steady themselves upon seeing this, Cominski slightly less steady than the others.  As the glass crunch under foot, Gaston leads them on, “We are almost there now.”  He then leads them around and to the room entrance.  Within they can see that all four walls, plus the floor and ceiling are all bulging outwards in a spherical manner.  The partitions are all warped smooth but not shattered, the room now taking on an almost perfect spherical shape, and the epicentre being the dead centre of the room.  There is a strong smell of alcohol and a lot of broken bottle about.  The carpet is sticky under foot from the mix of liquid from the bottles.  And it appears that all the fragments originate from this room.  Gaston walks to the centre of the room, standing in a pooled puddle of mixed liquid, telling the agents that this was where they found Daniels body.  He also tells them that they found Daniels in a kneeling position, his hands cupped around a small quartz crystal.  The body was almost mummified with heat, yet there is no mark of heat anywhere in the room.  “This is why I called you.” Gaston turns and looks up at the three agents.  When asked by Cominski, Gaston informs them that the crystal is now at a local university to be analysed.  Brendan asks if anyone has checked the security footage yet, and when told that no one has done that yet, Brendan heads off straight away to do just that.  Gaston then leaves the others to investigate how they see fit, telling them that they have free roam of the house.  Cominski states that he will go off to Daniels study to see what he can find and then walks off.  Stie mentions that he will have a look around the house and see what the air force are up to, see what they are looking in to.  As Stie, the last to leave, is about to leave the room he spots two FBI agents, hacksaws in hand, walk up to the girl within the wall.

Stie has a little look around, keeping his torch low where necessary due to all the forensic teams about.  He eventually spots two smart dressed gentlemen with air force insignias.  He can see that they are heading towards the study, so he follows in behind them acting like he is heading the same way and looking about, shining his torch here and there.  The two men are quietly talking amongst themselves, and they have the captain insignia.  Of which they are the air force officer special investigations, can be seen upon closer inspection.  The two men soon become aware of Stie’s presence and give him a curt nod in acknowledgement, before heading on in to the study, that seems to be part library as well as a study.  There appears to be quite extensive looking bookshelves with many read and non read looking books upon.  The two air force gentlemen head straight to the computer and begin to search about, rummaging through the desk as well as the computer.  Cominski sees the two gentlemen walk in followed by Stie.

As Cominski is busy taking a look around the study, he happens to move close to where the air force investigators are positioned.  One of them coughs politely and asks if Cominski could move and give them some space to finish their investigations, and then they will be able to get out of his way.  Cominski apologises and asks for the guy’s name, which is given as Captain Pickton.  Cominski gives his name and informs the two air force that he has been given the authority to look around.  Captain Pickton states that they will be happy to let them take a look at the information once they have looked through it.  This then begins a debate that almost becomes an argument about authority and who has the right to do what, with Cominski stating that he has the right to take a look now, and the air force investigators claiming security and clearance, with a need to keep a top of what is viewed in case of sensitive information.  This back and forth goes on for a time before the air force officer special investigation team getting their way for now, and Cominski backs off allowing them to use the computer.

Stie spends the time looking over all the books on the shelves.  There are many ‘classic’ books on the shelves, the ones that are supposed to look good on any well stocked book shelf.  Very tellingly the spins of these books are unbroken.  There are also large selections of military books that look very well thumbed through.  Also there is a section of new age material. With such titles as ‘120 Days of Sodom’ by Marquis De Sade, and ‘The Book of the Law’ by Aleister Crowley.  There also appears to be many newly purchased books that look very well read, regarding crystal rituals and crystal magics.  One of note is a book by Hurbert Price called ‘The Living Power of the Unuliss Foundation’.  And what caught Stie’s eye is the inscription in the centre of the book, ‘To Larry for more than I can write. Ron. June 12^th 1994’.  There is also an old photograph slipped within that page too.  It is a picture of a person in a marine green suit, with his arm around Colonel Daniels who is in a tropical suit.  The uniform name tag on the person in green is illegible, and the scene seems to be that of a typical tropical area.  There is also a well read copy of a book called ‘Inner Science: A Guide to Modern Reality’.

Brendan spends some time looking through the video footage that was recorded the previous evening.  Looking at the visitors that turned up and any footage left off what happened during or after the event.  Unfortunately the security system seems to have been shut off for when the guests arrived, however luckily it was on at the end of things.  Brenden spots a Mercedes leave approximately ten to fifteen minutes after the incident was believed to occur.  There appears to be two figures within the vehicle, but that is all that can be made out on this low resolution system.  The car seems to go from the main garage and head out of the ground with haste.  The number plate can’t be made out, but as it came from the main garage, Brendan assumes that there should be some records of the vehicle.  So with that he leaves the security room and heads down to the garage.

The garage is a four bay affair.  Three cars still parked within, and a fourth space empty.  Looking outside Brendan can see a few FBI agents questioning all the house staff.  He studies the staff crowd, looking for one of them that he could question.  His eyes rest on a guy whose fingers look a little green.  The guy is that of a Korean persuasion, not elderly but probably in his late twenties.  Brendan goes over to the agents and informs them that he wishes to question the gardener.  The agents agree, allowing Brendan to take the Korean gardener to one side.  Brendan talks to the guy, introducing himself and asking how he is.  The guy greets him back giving his name as Henry Kim, and telling Brenden that he is a little shaken up by all that has happened.  He tells Brenden that all the staff was instructed to keep to the far side of the estate, and to not interfere with the festivities.  And shares that he and the rest of the staff are shocked to hear that they are all dead.  Brendan begins to lead Henry Kim through to the garage as they talk, leading him back in to the kitchen of the house.  Henry shares that Daniels was always a fair and kind employee.  They did hear the stories of what he got up to, but this was never brought in to the interaction with the staff.  He also tells Brendan that Daniels was never like the others, especially like the guy that was close to Daniels, a guy who was big built guy.  He always complained if anything was slightly out of place, and took a lot of steroids.

As they walk through the garage, Brendan carefully notices and mentions about one of the cars being missing and asks Henry if there was a car there.  Henry is shocked to see the car missing, stating that it was there earlier when everyone had turned up.  It was a Mercedes that Daniels always used, as it was his main car to drive around in.  Brendan carries on leading Henry in to the kitchen and makes him a cup of coffee.  Calming the guy down and trying to assure him that they will do all that they can.  Brendan then carries on asking about Henry’s boss Daniels, and whether he had noticed anything untoward about him.  Henry tells him that there were tales of his kinky behaviour, some sort of S & M, but that had changed in recent times.  And that he had been getting in women every week.  “It was like he had become this sort of stud.  It was like he was twenty again or something.” He pauses as he takes a sip from his coffee, “It was never parties like this.  This was a special do this time.  Usually it was just him and the girls.”  Another sip from his cup, “But then there was the thunder clap.  The house just shook and then…then this happened!”  And when asked Henry corrected Brendan stating that there was no thunder storm, it was just the thunder clap.  “The air was clear outside.  And I guess there was a flash too.”  He explains to Brenden that it was all he had heard or seen of the party and explosion.  And Henry apologises that he could not help any further.  None of the staff was involved in anything to do with the party, no drinks or food from the house.  Brendan thanks him for all his help and shares that he wants to help as much as possible., and if anything should come then to please contact him, and he hands Henry a plain contact card with a telephone number.  Brendan mentions the car once more before finishing, and Henry offers that he could get the information about the car to him as they keep all the records.  Again Brenden thanks him and leaves, heading back to the main building to meet up with Cominski and Stie.

The three Delta Green agents meet back up at the foyer of the mansion.  Brendan arrives there first.  Gaston is already there and walks up to him.  He hands Brenden a set of keys, informing him that they have a local FBI car for him to use, and that they have them booked in to a local motel for the next few nights.  Brendan shares with Gaston that he has discovered one of the cars missing and fled the estate, not long after the incident.  He checks if Gaston knows if all the guests are accounted for.  Unfortunately there is no list of who was at the party, and there is only one live person found at the scene, and he is unconscious at the moment.  Gaston assures him that he will tell them if this changes as soon as possible.  Brendan asks if Larry Daniels was positively identified as dead.  Gaston assures him that they had to identify him by his DNA, and this came back as a hundred percent Daniels.  Eventually both Cominski and Stie walk together back in to the foyer.  And they share all that they have found out so far.  Soon Gaston leaves to go about his business, leaving the three agents alone in the foyer, he agrees that he will keep his force and the local police, on the look out for the vehicle and contact them as soon as it is spotted.  They decide to wait longer until the air force officer special investigation team leave, and Brendan suggests that he could try to take a look at the computer to see what may have been on there.  Unfortunately after the air force eventually leave and they go back up to the study, Brendan operates the computer and does not find anything left for them to look at, it doesn’t even fire up, it just turns on and can find no boot disc.  However while they are up there they decide to take the original books that Stie found, to have a look over at a later date.  Cominski takes a photograph of the bookshelves before Stie takes the books.

The three Delta Green agents leave the Daniels mansion behind and head over to their motel.  They get the chance to freshen up and grab a bite to eat and drink, relaxing for the rest of the evening before turning in for the night.  They do however still discuss what they have seen and found in the Daniels mansion, being careful of anyone over hearing them.  They do also get the ball rolling on some of the information, sending in details to their contacts, like the photograph.  Where it was taken and when, and who are the subjects.  They also ask for more information on the author Herbert Price.  They also did a search on their laptops to see what came up on the public domain.

Herbert Price used to be a sci-fi writer, who wrote a book called ‘Inner Science’, which Daniels had on his bookshelves.  And he later found the Unuliss Foundation, a kind of philosophy self help group.  That he later registered as a religion in order to become tax except.  The group released a lot of magazine, tapes etc.  There was an IRS investigation later on and suddenly the group was paying tax again.  There was also unconfirmed talk of Herbert Price hiring in people to look in to other groups such as the IRS.  Herbert however soon disappeared after one of his recruits tried to purchase an automatic weapon from the ATF.  The Unuliss group was eventually taken over by a new member called Jean Dowling, and this lead the group more down the philosophy self help route.  A student of this is a master of their own destiny.

The three agents have a peaceful night, and awake the next morning ready for the information they will hopefully receive.  However before they even get a chance to have their breakfast, they receive a barrage of information.  They receive a folder on Herbert Price with all the same information they find out on the public domain, as well as some interesting extra.  There is great detail on the sting that caught the weapon purchase. There was a group called the Steward, a faithful Unuliss sub-group, which was trained by private security groups.  The sub-group was used to investigate and dig up dirt, intimidate and threaten Unuliss rivals and critics.  They were even used to infiltrate news groups, cult awareness networks, groups in competition, and even the IRS.  There was even mention of mercenaries being hired to protect Hebert Price.  The membership dramatically dropped after the scandal, but since Jean Dowling took it over it now has over one hundred thousand members.  And as recognition, the title of ‘The Living Power’ as been given to Jean Dowling on behalf of Unuliss.  Next they have an email in regards to the photograph they sent in.  The picture had been taken in San Jose, in the Plaza De Cote to be exact.  The name tag on the uniform is ‘Valiant’.

Next they get a call from Gaston about a spotting of the Mercedes, on the East St. Louis early this morning.  The local police had radioed it in.  The car had been pretty much stripped, and the forensic have been called in.  He tells them that it is still in the location if they wish to have a look themselves.  Also he tells them that he got a message from a Doctor Chechester.  Apparently Detore, the only survivor, is awake and moving.  By the time they arrive he should be ready to be interviewed.  Brendan asks Gaston if he could pull some footage off the traffic cameras in the area.  However Gaston warns him that he may not be able to get anything, as the car is in a bad area and the cameras do not work.  Cominski calls his FBI contacts and asks them to look in to any information they may have on a marine called Valiant, possible Ron, who serviced at the time and place in the photograph.  He was told they will look in to it and get back to him.  After all this they decide that they had better rush over and take a look at the dumped car, before heading on over to the hospital and meet with Anthony Detore.

The Island – final part

The Escape (Chapter 4)

Jacque turns around in the drive’s seat and puts his feet up on the dash, while pulling his cap lower over his eyes, shielding against the bright day.  He still has not noticed anything happening in the street.  Richard is still in the immediate reception area looking for the gurneys.  And as for Malloy, he is stood still looking at the scene before him of two dead people gorging themselves on a fellow human.

Malloy slowly steps backwards on tip toes, keeping his eyes focused on the feast.  Slowly he goes back through the double doors, and allows them to close as quietly as he can.  He then uses his metal rod to bar the doors from opening, placing the rod through the handles.  The room was a back-room for the staff, with several tables and chairs, plus catering odds and ends along the side.  The walking dead and victim are all wearing the uniform of the hospital.  Malloy hastens away as quickly and quietly as he can so as not to disturb them.

Richard walks out to the minibus, taking the two gurneys he managed to find down the side corridor near the reception area.  He knocks on the door of the bus and tells Jacque that it looks like they are on their own to get out of there.  He then looks up and spots several people shuffling their way down the road towards them.  Looking in the direction of the walking dead, “Looks like I will be needing some time to operate on these two patients.  So if you could keep those busy for me.  You know rev the engine and make a lot of noise.  Drive around the block or so.”  Richard suggests to Jacque.  Jacque disembarks the minibus and helps load up the gurneys with Richard.  Malloy soon arrives outside at the minibus and tells them what he found.  Richard tells him what had happened on the phone, and points out what is coming down the street.

Malloy and Richard wheel the two patients on the gurneys back in to the hospital.  While Jacque keeps a more alert eye on the walkers coming down the road.  He starts the engine up and waits ready for action.  Both Malloy and Richard once back inside the hospital, begin to look for the way to the operating theatre.  Richard pushing one patient on a gurney while Malloy takes the other.  It is not as well signposted as most other hospitals, but they do see the way with the odd sign and head that way.  No colored routes just regimented and official signposts.  They travel deeper in to the hospital before arriving at the elevator which takes them down one floor.  The buttons in the elevator show two floors above ground and two floors below.  Malloy gets the sense of being at home here.  It feels very military to him, some sort of governmental facility.  Richard seems to be muttering complaints to himself, something about how badly designed the hospital is.  As they come out of the elevator, they just push the gurneys up the corridor and soon arrive at the operating theatre.  The room is a compact room with one operating table, and plenty of tools and equipment around the room.  There is also an anti-room adjoined to the operating room, this being the scrub up room.  A door leads to both the corridor and the operating room.  Malloy leaves the gurney he was pushing in the operating room, and leaves Richard lost in his preparations, and goes off looking for something else he could use as an improvised weapon, while he goes back to barricade the front.

By this time, outside Jacque waits until the last moment, watching the walking dead walks ever so slowly nearer and nearer.  He can see as he watches that some do not walk in a very straight line, veering here and there.  Others are dragging broken or mashed legs along the road.  Sometimes they bump in to each other, paying no attention to each other as they focus their attention before them.  Once near enough Jacque revs the engine, drawing the attention of the walking dead, the heads turning and focusing on the bus.  Jacque spots a gap between them and heads for it, passing through them and drawing their attention to him even more.  He knocks one of them into another, while he spins yet another around and it falls to the floor.  The walking dead turn and begin to walk towards him once more.  Jacque doesn’t accelerate away, but just enough speed to keep ahead of them and encourage them to follow him.  At the cross roads at the end of the street, Jacque makes the decision to go straight over, leading them further away and deeper in to town.

Malloy easily finds plenty of things to use as debris to barricade the front doors.  He uses the tables and chairs, and any shelves and cabinets he can get his hands on to block the doors from opening.  Towards the end he begins to be aware of a door rattling sound coming from the general direction of the corridor he had been down previously.  Once he stops and listens, he pinpoints the sound coming probably from the room he locked up with his metal rod.  Malloy stamps, kicks and levers a leg from a table to use as a weapon, then quietly walks towards the rattling door.

Richard finds what is left of a surgeon on the floor of the scrub room, the surgical mask still over its face.  Its arm torn from its body and intestines hanging out from a large hole in its abdomen.  There is blood all over the floor.  Richard grabs a surgical steel spike and taps it in to the brain of the dead man, just to make sure!  As the cold steel touches the skin on the forehead, the man’s eyes spring open and the stump of its missing arm tries to move.  The blood now creating a sticky substance that is making movement a little difficult for it.  Quickly Richard swings the surgical hammer and a metallic ring echoes in the room, just as it was beginning to move its other arm.  After catching his breath and relaxing a little, Richard suddenly notices the door leading out to the corridor from the scrub room.  He looks around and moves the waste bin over to block the door shut, and also thinks that he should block the observation windows, which he does.  Next he then remembers the double doors leading in to the operating room, and goes to secure them too before finally relaxing to the task at hand.  He scrubs up and walks back in to the operating room with a calm peace in his mind and heart.  He turns on the little stereo in the room and some Latin Jazz caresses the air, he nods to himself turning the music down more than he would like, but due to the circumstance he thought it best.  And begins to prepare the first patient, the one that as been getting steadily worse and not stirred since rescue.

Jacque carries on leading the walking dead further away from the hospital, noticing that more of them seem to have joined the procession.  After a while of more or less going straight, except for a slight turn to the right, he comes back to the main road at a t-junction.  Every now and again he had to stop and rev the engine to keep their interest.  Turning right on the main road, Jacque begins his loop back.  And once he spots the walking dead are on the main road and following he puts his foot down on the gas pedal.

Richard gets lost in the music and art of his surgical operation.  He feels extremely pleased with how well it is going, it is like his best works ever, and took no time at all to finish.  He feels that she will be very lucky and pleased with how well operated on, that she is Richard Moore’s work of art.  He feels so invigorated.

Malloy heads towards the room he was in earlier, and finds that the door is being rattled from within.  But the door is not moving fast, only a slow back and forth motion against the barred doors.  Malloy stands looking at the doors and contemplates what to do next, when he hears a sort of answering sound from further in the hospital.  He turns and hears towards the new sound, making sure that he always has an escape route handy, and not become cornered.  The sound leads him down corridors and pass closed rooms.  Finally coming back to the area where the elevators are situation.  Opposite the elevator doors is a door to a stairwell.  Malloy carefully opens the door, to find the stairs lead up, so up he climbs slowly, all the while listening carefully for the sound.  About half way up he hears the sound again, and it is the familiar sound of a pained moan, coming from the next floor up that he is climbing towards.  It sounds like only one but he is not sure.  So with this in mind Malloy goes back down and out from the stairwell, hiding himself behind where the door will open so as to ambush if necessary.

After standing still and looking at his masterpiece for what seems like awhile, Richard realises that he has another patient to attend to.  So he moves this one to one side, and then heads off to clean up once more and begin his next surgical art.  Before beginning, he double checks the perimeter, making sure the covers and barricades are still intact and secure.  This time around the operation took more time than the previous one.  It was still a great job done, especially under the circumstances, but Richards was not so happy.  However he did accomplish what was needed to help the tour guide.

Jacque has travelled on down the same main road they had gone before since leaving the gas station, however he spots an earlier turn off to the right that peeks his interest.  Knowing that he had lead the walking dead away, he turns off the main road on the right.  The road twist one way and then the other, but soon he sees the coast coming in to view before him.  He soon makes it back on to the road they had travelled on that lead them to the hospital in the first place, so Jacque turns right at this junction and goes back to the hospital to check up on how things are.

Malloy patiently waits outside the door from the stairwell, and he hears the occasional moan come from up the stairs.  But after over five minutes of waiting he hears no more, no more moaning or anything coming down the stairs.  Stepping away from the wall behind where the door would open, he keeps his distance and looks through the little window in the door.  Now he is suddenly aware of a shuffling noise coming from behind him, and then he hears a door swing shut somewhere down the corridor.  Malloy gets a little annoyed by his situation, and mutters to himself that he should not allow himself to be surrounded.  So with that in mind he decides to head off towards the shuffling sound and go on the offensive.  Malloy soon finds the walking dead in a corridor and takes a swing at it with his makeshift club.  The wooden table leg hits it on the side of the face, splitting the wood in half and the rough end scraping flesh from off the jaw of the walking dead.  Its head snaps back and to the side as blood sprays out from impact.  The walking dead tries to grab for Malloy, but due to the impact it got hit off target and now its head is looking the wrong way, and its hands grab at thin air.  Malloy throws his full weight in to it and knocking it over like it is a sack of spuds.  Malloy lands on top of it pinning it to the ground unable to move.  It moves and tries to squirm under him, its teeth gnashing at him.  Malloy jumps to his feet and quickly stamps his foot down on to the prone walking dead.  He just manages to catch the head, stamping down hard on its face.  The bone of the nose audibly snapping, and a squelching sound from where the eye pops out under foot, along with cheek bone and jaw.  Malloy quickly looks around and checks in case something else is about.  He then feels a hand grab around his ankle.  And as Malloy looks down he can see the walking dead he just stamped on, is now trying to pull it caved in face towards his ankle.  Seeing this Malloy gives the broken stub of the table leg a little toss, catching it and slamming it down hard to the face of the thing.  However he miss times it all and manages to break the last of it on the floor next to what remains of the head.  The things pulls its head up to Malloy’s boot, its blood and mucous, along with an eyeball rubbing up against his leg.  Quickly with his other foot, Malloy gives the head a fast and sharp kick.  Malloy feels a brief resistance as his boot goes in to the cavity of the head before it gives way to the force of the blow.  A sickening sound resonates in his ears as his boot comes away with blood and brain mater coating his laces.  He gives it another quick final kick to make sure before walking off.

Malloy makes his way back through the corridors and down the elevator, back to the operating theatre.  He finds the windows all covered up, looks a little puzzled at this but then proceeds to the scrub room, only to find that the door doesn’t move.  Stopping he listens out to hear if there is anything nearby.  He hears no moans of pain or shuffling sounds, instead he hears a happy and joyful whistling coming from within the operating theatre.  As Richard, happy in his work, walks back in to the scrub room, he hears a quiet tapping on the door.  He stops whistling and quietly walks back to the doors to the operating theatre, which open up on to the corridor.  Silently he pulls the blockage holding the door closed and carefully opens a door looking out down the corridor.  Standing there he sees a familiar figure, that of Malloy with bloody boots on.  Malloy standing there is suddenly aware of someone looking at him and turns to see Richard’s head peer out from the door to the operating theatre.  “Get in.”  Richard indicates and opens the door wider.  “Perfect timing, I need someone to help me moves these two back out.”  Lifting one of his boots, Malloy answers “I just need to clean up a second.”  While Malloy is cleaning his boots as best he can, Richard mentions that he hopes that their friend has not had any problems outside.

They each take a gurney and push the two patients back in to the elevator.  After pressing the button and waiting for the doors to close.  Richard and Malloy both see yet another walking dead begin to shuffle its way down the corridor towards them.  As they stand there watch the walking dead slowly making its way towards them, the doors seem to be taking an eternity to close.  But eventually the doors close of the scene in the corridor and make its way back up one level.  Upon hearing the ping signalling the door opening, the elevator door opens to reveal another walking dead stood with its back to them.  So there they stand in the elevator, each with a gurney and a patient.  Stood before them and in the way of exiting the elevator is a walking dead.  Quick thinking, Richard presses the close door button and turns to Malloy.  “I see that you can handle yourself.  Let’s put both patients on to this gurney.  I should be able to handle it.  While you use that empty one to clear the way.”  After moving the patients, Richard hovers his finger over the open button and turns to Malloy, “Ready?” Ping the doors open once more to reveal the walking dead still stood there, but this time it is facing the elevator door.  Malloy charges pushing the empty gurney, however lady luck is not with him as an unwieldy wheel sends the object away and crashing in to the pillar.  The walking dead turns and reaches out for Malloy, who now happens to be stood next to it in the corridor.  It then grabs Malloy’s shoulders and begins to pull itself and Malloy together in a firm death grip.  Richard reaches in to his medical bag and pulls out a sharp scalpel.  He then lunges forward and plunges the blade deep in to the centre of its head, between the crown and fringe.  The blade is held tight in the skull, Richard unable to pull it back out.  The walking dead still pulling itself toward Malloy, spittle dribbling down from its mouth.  Luck is against Malloy at this time as he tries to wiggle from it grasp and fails.  So instead he thrusts his knee up in to its stomach, loosening the grip it has and Malloy just manages to slip away as the walking dead’s mouth closes on empty space, but still holding pieces of Malloy’s clothing in its hands.  Malloy gives himself a little space and then squares up towards it, standing in a boxing stance.  Then Malloy throws a heavy wide punch at its jaw, hearing the bone crack, along with spit and blood fly from its mouth.  He then gives his hand a quick wipe on his trouser leg.  Richard then knocks the walking dead up against the wall of the corridor with the other occupied gurney.  Malloy steps forward, grabbing a firm hold of the scalpel and pulls it out from its head.  Then he thrusts this blade deep it to the eyeball and socket of the thing, hearing the eyeball pop and explode on contact with the blade, and Malloy finds his fist thrust in to the eye socket.  He feels the blood pooling around his hand and fingers.

Richard and Malloy manage to move the two patients on to the other, cleaner gurney that wasn’t used against the walking dead, and make their way to the front doors of the hospital.  The doors have been well barricaded and secured.  They spot that the minibus is parked outside still, the engine is running and Jacque is sat within very alert.  As they are busy clearing the barricade and occasionally looking around for any danger.  Malloy notices that he seems to be doing most of the work, and spots Richard paying more attention to his patients, especially the female tourist, as if he is almost admiring something.  Haphazardly moving the odd small item from the barricade, his attention else where.  Malloy then begins to hear some more noises from down the corridor, and can still hear the barred door rattling.

Just as Richard and Malloy manage to clear enough for one door to open, they hear the clang of a metal rod hitting the floor, and the shuffling of feet moving up the corridor.  Quickly Richard picks up one of his patients and suggests that Malloy do the same.  And then they rush through the one door and bundle on to the waiting minibus.  “Mr Chen.  Step on it!”  Richard suggests.  Looking over his shoulder as they climb aboard, Jacque Chen can see several walking dead approach the doors of the hospital from within.  Turning back around, he settles in his seat and puts his foot down, safely accelerating away from the dead hospital.  Looking back in his rear view mirror, Jacque notices around six walking dead walk out off the hospital.  At the cross roads, at the end of the road they turn right and head back along the coast.

On the minibus Richard checks his patients to make sure that they are still fine, knowing that they should be with his masterful work he performed.  The road soon leads them back on to the main road and head on towards the coast and the harbour area.  They do spot the occasional walking dead walking about in the street.  Eventually they arrive at the end of the road as it terminates at a parking area for the harbour.  There is a jetty with several boats marooned upon or capsized nearby.  They also see that the walking dead they passed is walking down the road towards them.

Malloy grabs the supplies while Jacque and Richard push the gurneys, and they head off on foot down to the jetties.  They walk and look around the walkways looking for a usable boat.  With luck they soon find one that looks seaworthy and will accommodate them all.  It looks like a pleasure vessel with no place for beds.  It only has two seats up front with a longer bench seat stretched across the back.  They all climb aboard and settle the patients down, and once that is done and supplies secured onboard they begin to see how to get this boat going.

As the three survivors with their patients all on board take time trying to get the boat’s engine started and then figure out how to pilot this vessel.  While they are busy they notice that more of these walking dead start to make their way down the walk way towards them.  Richard has a bright idea and picks up a scalpel and shoves it in to the key ignition, ramming it in and giving it a twist.  However this only has the effect of snapping the blade off in to the hole.  Malloy gabs an oar, after untying the boat from the jetty, and proceeds to push the boat away from the walkway.  Now that they feels a little somewhat safer, their brains think that little clearer and realise that the keys to this boat is more than likely stored in a building up on shore.  However they also realise that a broken scalpel blade blocks the keyhole.  So they make the decision to try and get the engine started another way.  Malloy takes apart the cover around the steering column and uncover a few wires.  Picking by luck the correct ones he manages to hot-wire the engine and it kicks in to life.  With a heavy sigh, Malloy collapses in to the seat and relaxes.  The engine is happily purring to itself.  Richard takes over charge of piloting the vessel and off they set.  They set out and follow the landmass around heading first east and then finally down south.  More or less matching the contour of the island so as not to loose sight of land.

The journey takes them the rest of the day and in to the night to make it down south and see the sights of Port Blair come in to view.  They have had to empty their spare jerry can of fuel to make it this far.  As it is so late and in the middle of the night, they decide to drop anchor in the estuary of the cove and spend the night in relative safety.  They each take turns keeping watch over night, and are rested and warmed by the rising sun.  Malloy takes the emergency flare gun as Richard pilots the vessel in to the harbour at Port Blair.  They can now see that this part of the island didn’t escape the disaster either.  They can see destroyed and collapsed buildings.  There are boats half sunk or overturned, some even thrown ashore.

Richard manages to steer the boat to one of the jetties, scrapping the side of the vessel along the wooden walkway, and finally coming to a stop has it hits another vessel.  Jacque quickly jumps off and ties it up to stop it drifting off.  They all disembark from the boat and take the patients with them.  They begin to head in land looking for another vehicle to use.  They walk through a lot of debris, parts of boats and collapsed buildings.  However they do not come across any dead people.  Soon they come to a bus route and find a public transport bus that has crashed in to a lamppost.  The post is partially dented in to the front grill.  Some of the windows are smashed, and onboard they find people’s belongings but no people.  But they do see plenty of bloodstains.  Jacque jumps in to the driver’s seat, finds the key in the ignition and turns the key.  The engine does kick in to life, but it makes a squeal and a clunk as it runs.  Jacque puts it in to reverse and drives off the lamppost.  With some protesting and reluctance he manages to force the bus away.  Both Malloy and Richard load the patients onboard and off they all go, heading further in land to find the other hospital that Richard contacted the day before.  And as they travel Jacque is aware that one of the wheels of the bus is badly buckled and keeps trying to pull one way.

They travel many miles back in land along the main road, heading pass the airport as they had done many days before when they first arrived on the paradise island.  They begin to see some of the walking dead shuffling along the streets, and some groups crouched down around a meal.  Jacque manages to navigate his way to the Dhanvantari Hospital, fortunately spotting that it has been signposted as they got closer to the area.

As they approach the hospital they can see that there is many walking dead gathered around the entrance.  The doors as they can see when they draw closer, has been barricades by the looks of it.  Richard begins to shout out for anyone, the walking dead respond by turning their attention to the bus.  The road leads up to and around the hospital in a circular route.  Jacque takes a drive around without stopping the bus.  However Richard notices that a few of the walking dead pay more attention to the door to the hospital, trying to gain entrance.

Drawing the attention of the walking dead away as he did once before, Jacque slows the bus down enough to allow Malloy to jump off.  Unfortunately due to the poor condition the bus is in, and how much Jacque has to fight to keep the engine running, it stalls on him.  Malloy tries to be all sneaky as he moves from the bus, however this is not going so well as they have much attention on the bus that has now stalled near him, and some of the walking dead begin to pay him attention.  As Jacque fights to start the engine once more, some of the walking dead begin to scratch and claw at the door and windows of the bus.  Trying to get to the tasty meal within.  Malloy makes a dash for it, trying to lead the walking dead away and heads for the cover of the other buildings near by.

A gunshot rings out over the moans of the walking dead.  Richard dives for cover on to the floor of the bus, carefully taking a furtive look up and out.  Jacque hunkers down in the seat, but keeps trying to get the engine to start.  Finally after several attempts the engine fires to life once more, and Jacque puts his foot down.  He drives the bus straight up to the hospital, swinging it around and pulling up across the entrance doorway, hitting and squashing the several walking dead that was intent on getting in.  They use the bus as an extra blockade against the things.  Inside the entranceway, both Richard and Jacque can see fellow (live) humans moving about, a couple of them carrying guns.

Malloy easily keeps his distance from the pursuing walking dead. Dodging and weaving in and out of buildings.  However there are too many of them and the group pursuing him begins to grow.  So with that he makes a break for the school nearby, diving in to the entrance.

Back at the hospital, the people inside open one of the doors adjoining where the door to the bus is located.  Likewise Jacque opens the door to the bus.  They all greet each other, and Richard asks if they are all okay and if anyone needs assistance, as he is a doctor.  As they are talking and getting organised, everyone hears a loud horn sound across from the harbour area.  The sound of the large cruise ship that is due to land at the harbour within the next thirty minutes or so.

Malloy looks about the school and finds a science lab on the second floor and has an idea.  He sets up a fire hazard, making a lot of noise to draw as many walking dead as he can to him.  And as they eventually begin to file in to the room, drawn to the tasty meal.  He leaves it to the last minute then jumps out of the window, turning and firing back through the window one of the flares.  As he lands on the ground below impacting harder than he had wished, an explosion rips through and out of the windows of the second floor.  Flames reach out for any targets that may be hidden there, lapping at the edges of the room.  Glass shards, furniture fragments, and many body parts fly through the air.

As everyone from the hospital has loaded themselves on to the bus, which is now becoming a little more crowded.  They begin to set off, seeing and hearing the explosion rip through the school nearby.  And as they make it to the road between the two buildings, they see Malloy running away.  Jacque matches speed with him and Malloy jumps onboard as the door opens.

As the busload of survivors make their way nearer to the harbour, the loud horn sounds again, signalling that it has reached the dock.  When the bus eventually takes them all to the harbour area the engine finally dies on them with a billow of black smoke erupting from the bonnet.  They all clamber out and begin to run towards the docks, heading for the ship that has come, their escape from the dead island.

By the time they all make it to the docks, the ship as already began to cast their lines and put out the boards.  The crew look puzzled to find no help from the docks, only to see people running in panic towards them.  Everyone begins to shout at the ship at the same time, making it difficult for any on board to understand what is being said.  And as they begin to board, the captain comes to greet them.  Richard takes him to one side and begins to tell him a fabricated story.  A story about a virus, a disease that is spreading across the island, and that they need to set sail straight away.  He then points out the now walking dead that has began to walk in larger and large groups towards the docks.  He tells him that the victims turn to violence and the flesh begins to rot.  Suggesting that the captain takes a closer look through the telescope, but only after he has got the boat away from the docks.  The captain orders an emergency departure, and once at a safe distance, takes a look for himself with the telescope.  He scans the whole of the docks, seeing many of the walking dead standing there, some with limps missing, others with bloody holes.  But all looking towards the meal that got away.

The Island – part two

Making Progress (Chapter 3)

Jacque stands there looking at one of Richard’s patient, one of the first they picked up from the small towns they passed through.  This looked and sounded like they were on their death bed over night, and now this morning they are thrusting a hand out at Jacque.  The person is moaning in pain as it does so, so Jacque decides to kick out at it, sure that this thing is now one of them, the walking dead.  His foot finds its mark on the corpse, knocking it back down through the minibus as it bounces off from the chairs and smashes to the floor.  All the while Jacque shouts out a warning as loud as he can to wake the others.  Both Richard and Malloy awake to what seems like the screams of a woman in distress, until their senses clear the fog of sleep from their minds, and they are suddenly aware that it is Jacque shouting a warning.  They also are aware of someone hitting the floor hard.  The person looking a lot like one of Richard’s patients.  Richard stands and keeps his distance from the person on the floor and Jacque, giving his mind the chance to think clearly of the situation.  Malloy on the other hand jumps to his feet grabbing his trusty piece of wood.  The dead patient turns and lunges for Malloy.  Richard moves to his other patients who are still stretched out on the seats half unconscious.  Malloy keeps a seat between him and the walking dead.  As an arm lunges at him, Malloy swings his makeshift club at it as if he is back on the school diamond shaped pitch, trying to hit a homerun.  There is an awful crack as bone snaps, and the dead’s arm flops limp.  Jacque jumps the walking dead, tackling it to the floor.  As he pins it to the floor, the dead turns it’s head to him, moaning it tries to bite at Jacque’s face.  Malloy takes this opportunity to thrust his makeshift club at it.  Unfortunately he misses, hitting the floor and just misses Jacque’s head.  The hair on his head displacing with the force of the blow as it whistle past his ear.  This closeness of the blow puts Jacque off from his attempt to keep the dead pinned to the floor.  Instead his hand squeezes down on one of its wounds, forcing flesh and blood to ooze out and coat his hands in a slippery gooey mess.  With a quick thought Malloy stamps down with his booted foot, kicking the head a couple of times before finishing it off with a curb-stomp.  All the while hearing the bone cracking with the force, and finally giving way with the final blow as blood, flesh, and brain matter splatters across the floor of the minibus, coating Malloy’s boots and splattering on to Jacque.

Malloy spends a quick moment decontaminating his boots.  Jacque franticly cleaning himself up before feeling the bile stir in his stomach, but manages to keep it down.  Richard grabs a torch from the glove-box of the minibus and begins to study the bloody headless body on the minibus’ floor.  He then moves it away from the rest of the people in the minibus, and suggests that it will be interesting to find out more about the condition.  He pulls out his note pad and begins to take notes.  He soon gets lost in his examination.  Malloy jumps in to the driver seat, turning to Richard and asks if he could do that while they are driving.  He then turns back and turns the engine to life.  The tour guide wakes up all groggy, looking around and asking what has happened and where they are.  She then notices Richard deep in examining a headless corpse and screams, fainting where she lies.  “Can you keep it down slightly?  This is not easy at the best of times.  Plus I do not have the correct tools, and it does not help with someone screaming.  This is our best chance of finding out more about this ‘re-animation’ that is going one.  We can not become squeamish at this point.”

Malloy reverses back up the road until they can turn around and go back to the junction on the main road.  Jacque sits himself down next to the tour guide and looks after her, trying to bring her back around, and keep himself between her and Richard.  By the time they get back to the main road, Jacque is aware that she is awake once more, but is keeping her eyes shut and trying to block everything out.  Malloy notices that the fuel gauge is getting low once more.  When they make it back on to the main road they head left and travel in a northerly direction back up the island.  Not stopping in the now deserted small town.

The tour guide eventually braves it and opens her eyes.  She tries to look past Jacque shoulder towards Richard and the corpse.  Jacque moves slightly to block her sight and places his hands on her head to focus her on him.  She shakes her head and squirms and then closes her eyes once more.  “Will you please leave my patients alone?  That is not conducive to their healthy recovery.”  Richard tells Jacque without looking up from his work.  “And what you are doing does?”

“Yes it does, to all our benefit for that fact.”

“Look doctor, I think someone witnessing an autopsy is going to put that someone in to shock.”  Malloy turns in his chair and adds, while he carries on driving up the empty road.  Jacque moves the tour guide’s head away from the scene behind him.  However Richard abruptly stops what he is doing and walks up to Jacque, placing his hands on his shoulder, informing him to take his hands away from his patient.  The tour guide noticing Richard approaching, clamps her eyes shut tight and cringes away from him as a quiet squeal escapes her mouth.  Richard walks back over to his corpse and places a spare blanket over the body covering it completely from sight.  He then wipes his hands clean with some more scrap cloth.  Then he kneels down by the tour guide and tries to talk to her reassuringly, encouraging her to give a response to his questions.  The only response from her is that she tries to closer her eyes even tighter and move further away.  He asks her to just nod her head in response.  Eventually she does give a very slight nod of the head.

Soon Richard turns the subject of his questions to her being a tour guide and knowing the island.  By this time the minibus has arrived at the junction that turns off the main road and heads back up north to where they had started from.  The main road carries on in a heading north-easterly direction.  The tour guide gingerly opens her eyes, looking directly ahead of her and avoids looking in any other direction.  Malloy slows down at the junction, and they all decide to carry on instead of turning off.  They stick to the main road.  The tour guide eases herself up enough to look out the window.  She looks around to familiarise herself with the surrounding and then lowers herself once more.  The tour guide gives a quick look to the back of the bus, towards the covered up corpse, and then she shuts her eyes and curls up again.  She nods to Richards questions to whether they are heading in the correct direction.  She then gives no further response.  Richard gives her some water and then goes back to his corpse.  Once there he calmly apologises to Jacque for his actions, but he states that he was worried that she may go back in to shock if not careful.

After a few more miles they begin to see the occasional side road, which then turns in to more and more roads and the beginnings of buildings visible on and off the side of the road.  This appears to be the outskirts of a bigger town.  They can see that there are more sturdy buildings here, with some managing to stand up to the storm.  But there is still the destruction and debris everywhere.  They stay to the main road as they drive in, and they eventually spot a gas station up ahead.  Richard stops what he is doing and covers the corpse up once more.  Malloy checks the gauge again to find the needle down on the red.  He slows down and lets the minibus idle its way slowly to the forecourt of the gas station.  However a mere matter of yards away from a pump the bus stalls and comes to a halt.  The pump will not reach to the gas tank, so they climb out and decide to push it up to the pump.  Richard double checks under the minibus once he jumps out, just in case.

Richard climbs back in to the minibus and keeps an eye on the patients and up and down the streets.  While Jacque fills the gas tank of the minibus from the pump and the spare jerry can.  Malloy keeps a watch out with his trusty stick, staying close to Jacque.  Once they have filled up, Jacque asks Richard to turn the engine.  The engine turns but doesn’t fire, so Jacque pops the hood of the minibus and looks over the engine.  He soon finds the fuel filter and disconnects it.  The door to the garage clatters closed and Jacque spots a walking dead walking out towards them.  Malloy rushes up to it and swings his trusty stick.  Jacque takes this opportunity to walking around them and head on in to the garage.

With his quick wild swing, Malloy manages to just miss hitting his target.  The target has a lot of blood around its mouth and dripping down on to its chest.  However Malloy’s wild swing carries his body in a twist leaving his back exposed to the walking dead.  Mean while Jacque walks in to the garage to find a bloody scene.  There in the middle of the floor is a half eaten corpse.  Its arm has been eaten off and lay cast to one side.  The stomach and abdomen has been eaten in to, with its intestine pulled out and chewed upon.  Jacque collapses to his knees, grabbing on to a workbench to steady himself.  Bile urges itself up and out un-controlled.  Jacque covers the floor and his legs in stomach content.  The bile dripping down his chin, and his head feeling all dizzy.

Malloy feels the hands of death grab him from behind and start to pull.  The walking dead pulls Malloy towards its mouth, while at the same time moving its mouth closer to his head.  Richard sees this happening and begins to make a lot of noise in the minibus, banging against the sides and windows trying to distract the damn thing.  Inside the garage Jacque stands back up and wipes his mouth.  He then starts to take a look around for a replacement fuel filter.  Once he finds a suitable filter he then takes a tyre-iron to use as an improvised weapon, just in case.

Richard is aware that all his banging and shouting is not making any difference to the walking dead.  It seems more interested in the subject before its face.  Malloy desperately brings his trusty stick up and around, hitting the things square on the side of its head.  The impact dazes the walking dead for a moment allowing the grip to loosen and Malloy to escape.  Now Malloy is back facing the thing, he thrusts the end of his stick with force up and under the walking dead’s chin, burying the stick deep within its neck and up in to its head.  A sickening squelch invades Malloy’s ears as a final moan escapes the dead’s mouth.  The walking dead goes limp against the stick still in Malloy’s hand, so he twists to the side and lets it fall to the ground with a thud.  Once on the floor Malloy gives the head a further hit to make sure.  Jacque looks up and around spotting a door leading in to the shop of the gas station.  Cautiously he walks up to the door and pushes it open.  The door doesn’t open fully due to debris of shelves and goods knocked across the floor, but with a little muscle Jacque barges the door wide.  He takes a quick look within, finding no obvious sign of walking dead he steps in and begins to look around for food and drink.  Soon however Jacque soon hears a familiar moan coming from one of the isle, and decides to keep quiet and avoid that area.  However he also notices a noise that sounds like someone eating a steak rare with their bare hands, a tearing and wet munching sound.  Jacque grabs some plastic carrier bags from the till and begins to fill them with food items.  He soon comes to realise that the walking dead is probably right by the fridges where the drinks are stacked.  This in turns makes him aware that he can not hear any munching noises any more.  Freezing to the spot and catching his breath, Jacque strains his hearing to try and pin point where the things has gone.  He soon hears a subtle movement come from roughly the isle he had heard it in previously.  Jacque grabs a packet of food from a nearby shelf and throws to towards the back of the shop.

After a few more swings of his stick to the head of the now motionless dead, Malloy turns his attention to the minibus and pumps.  He walks around the bus and pumps making sure there is nothing else ready to surprise them, and fortunately finds nothing so with that he tells Richard that he will go check on Jacque.  Richard nods his head with an appreciative expression on his face, as he looks at this person who easily adapted to fighting these walking dead without a second thought.  After checking that everything is clear there, Malloy heads over to the garage and heads on in to find Jacque.

Inside Malloy is greeted by the same scene that greeted Jacque, the half eaten body of someone.  Malloy also reacts the same as Jacque, grabbing a hold of the work bench and vomiting on to the floor.  He then becomes aware that the body is not that of Jacque but a mechanic, and in fact Jacque is no where to be seen.  Malloy does notice the door leading in to the shop is open ajar.  Once composed Malloy looks for a new improvised weapon, especially as his trusty stick is looking worse for wear.  However he does find the metal pole attached to the car jack looks adequate for his needs and takes that.  He then heads through the door.

Richards stay put in the minibus outside, while both Malloy and Jacque have disappeared in to the garage.  He keeps a look out for any other danger, and keeps an eye on his patients.  Standing stock still, hardily daring to breath.  Jacque slowly moves his eyes to follow where he heard the sound of the walking dead move.  It is slowly moving towards where he had thrown the distraction, towards the back of the shop.  Jacque then spots Malloy ease open the door and step through.  As Malloy steps through he is suddenly aware of a walking dead before him, walking in his direction and spot him.  Malloy instantly raises his new weapon, a smile crossing his face and charges forward.  Standing side on, to give as little target for the walking dead as possible, Malloy aims a strike to the things head.  Jacque can see Malloy standing there before the walking dead, holding the metal rod like a baseball bat, ready to hit the homerun.  So with this Jacque turns his attention back to the chilling cabinets up against the wall, and begins to fill his bags with cool drinks.  As he pulls out each bottle, his eye turns to check on the situation with the walking dead, and then goes back to taking more drinks.  In what looks like slow motion, Jacque sees Malloy swing his large metal rod at the walking dead.  However probably due to the unbalanced and heavy improvised weapon, Malloy swings and misses straight past its head, and then dropping and hitting the floor.  The walking dead steps forward, unaware how close it was to having no head, and then reaches out for Malloy.  Luckily Malloy is more prepared and avoids the grab, side stepping, half due to his instincts and half due to the momentum from the improvised weapon.  Malloy swings one more time, and on the second swing makes contact with the walking dead’s head.  Seeing Jacque clearly now, Malloy can see him busy loading his bag up one bottle at a time.  Looking back down at the walking dead, Malloy sees it begin to move once more.  Rushing Malloy rushes over to the prone thing and goes mental on it.  He swings wildly at it, making contact with any part of it that gets in the way.  While this is happening the walking dead tries to grab for him, but it is unaware of how futile this action is.  Blood begins to fly everywhere, spraying over the floor and shelves as bone can be heard smashing and cracking under the pressure.  Lumps of flesh and parts of limps come away with each blow.  After several seconds of this Malloy is suddenly aware that the thing is moving no more.  “That’s it.  Stay dead!”  Before leaving it alone, Malloy pulls one of the shelves over and on to it.  Once done Malloy stands with his hands on his knees, the metal bar across his legs, and catches his breath.  Jacque carries on filling his bags all the while, and once he has finished filling them he ties them up and casually strolls out of the shop.

Malloy quickly follows him out and catches him up.  He takes a quick look in the bags to check that he has everything that could be helpful.  Most of the contents are of snacks and sweets, plus a lot of bottled water.  There are also some juice drinks and fizzy bottles, and there are a few health bars.  Richard on the other hand looks like he has been enjoy the relative solitude, keeping an eye out while to some stretches and breathing exercises.  He soon spots some movement some distance away down one of the streets, and walking towards their direction.  He can not tell whether they are alive or dead.  Richard steps out of the minibus and takes a cautious walk towards the people walking up the street.  While Jacque busies himself fitting the new fuel filter, and Malloy keeps watch.

Soon however Richard gets close enough to tell that the people walking in the street are in fact more walking dead, so he turns around and walks back to the minibus.  Once back he asks Jacque how much longer he thinks he is going to need, as there are more of ‘them’ coming, and that ‘quicker would be better’.  Jacque throws his dirty rag down on to the engine and snatches the filter back up, explaining to whoever is listening that he needs to find a better filter, and then promptly walks back in to the garage.  Soon Jacque comes back out with an arm full of different filter, less confident in his knowledge, and buries his head back in to the engine compartment without a word.  While things are being done to the minibus, the walking dead has grown in numbers, as they get ever closer to the band of survivors, they have now approached the junction to the main road they are on.

Jacque jumps back in to the drives seat and turns the engine.  After a couple of tries the engine fires to life.  A black belch of smoke shoots out from the exhaust, and a few backfires before the engine settles and runs smoothly.  Malloy and Richard jump back in to the minibus.  Richard checks up on his patients while Malloy keeps a watch out for any stragglers, and Jacque puts his foot down on the accelerator and speeds out of the gas station.

As they travel on along the main road heading even further in to the town, they keep a look out for anything that may be of use, or any buildings that could have radio or medical equipment.  There are many roads heading of here and there, going down industrial estates and housing.  The road gets more coastal as they go and Jacque spots what looks like an interesting building over in the distance behind a group of buildings.  Jacque tells the others and suggests it could be an ideal place to rest up and find some useful equipment.  The others nod and agree with him and they head that way at the next turn off.

Jacque turns off the main road at the next junction that heads to the right and travels along a coastal road heading southeast.  The road follows the coast for a while and they pass another road that turns off to the right.  Soon they draw near to the building and they can see that it look like a hospital of some kind, which pleases Richard no end.  Richard tries to bring his two patients out from their stupor and explain what is happening, and that they will be moved over to the hospital.

A road turns to the left at a cross roads, that heads directly to the hospital.  Once there Jacque pulls up and reverses the back of the bus to the main doors.  But stops at a safe distance from the doors just in case there may be any problems.  Malloy and Richard exit the minibus leaving Jacque to keep the engine running in case of an emergency, and leave the patients with him until they have had a quick look inside.

The hospital building looks like a standard hospital building, except that it doesn’t appear to be one that deals with the general public, more of a government building.  There is also a helicopter pad stationed outside.  Inside the large double doors they find themselves in a reception space with a small amount of seating/waiting area, and a reception office.  Richard heads directly to the telephone and checks for a dial tone and luckily finds one, then he dials a number listed there for Port Blair.  Eventually after long seconds of waiting for an answer, Richard was about to place the receiver back down when he hears someone answer.  Quickly Richard replies and finds himself talking to someone over at the hospital in Port Blair.  He explains that he is a doctor, giving his name, over at the Mayabunder Hospital, and that he has two injured patients.  He asks if there is a possibility of getting a helicopter over to assist him.  The person on the other end of the telephone explains that there is no helicopter as it was damaged in the storm, and goes on to explain that there is no way that they could get one from anywhere else.  He then goes on to explain that they have a major problem that they are trying to deal with.  Richard tells him that they have a problem too, having to deal with over fifty hostiles, and that the problem seems to be getting worse.  The guy then tells him that they are having problems with the dead coming back to life and attacking people.  There are not many survivors left and that they are grouping together and are waiting for when the next cruise ship arrives tomorrow to get off of the island.  Richard then explains that the hostiles he was referring to are the one and the same.  He is told that they are better off going to the harbour at the north-eastern peak of the town, and hopefully finding a boat they can use to get back to Port Blair in time for the ship.  Richard thanks him for the help and tells him that he looks forward to seeing him tomorrow.

Richard explains to the others that this problem they have is not an isolated problem, and it seems to be all over the island, “They have it bad down in Port Blair.”  He suggests that they had better bring the two patients in for him to treat here before they head off.  Malloy and Richard go back in to the hospital to find a couple of gurneys they can use to take the two patients in on.  They suggest that Jacque stays outside in the minibus and keep a lookout in case of a quick exit is needed.

Once back inside Malloy heads off in to a nearby room, while Richards takes a look down a nearby corridor.  Outside Jacque is busy looking back over at the hospital entrance, unaware of a couple of walking dead stepping in to the road about five hundred yards away.  In the meantime Malloy has his own problem.  He walks in on two walking dead who are both busy knelt down over a corpse, tearing off pieces of flesh and organs and filling their bloody mouths.