[Ic] Bug City, End of the World Options

[Sphynx]

It'd been one of those nights, Nine was wasted, and was being taken to a spare room that was yet being rennovated. It was a mean night and nobody felt like taking her home just yet, what with the black out and the gangs that seemed to be warring right outside the door. Gnat carried her over his left shoulder as Mike walked up ahead, rattling keys and shaking his head about elves thinking they could drink. He fumbled a bit with the keys before pushing the door open to the room within, and with a bit of ducking, Gnat brought Nine inside the room, despite her half-conscious comments about not being drunk. Mike grabbed a waste can, laying it at the foot of the bed while Gnat laid her down. "You suppose we should undress her... for comfort...", Gnat asked, though the look in his eyes indicated he'd be happy to undress her for any reason, however, Mike understood that Nine wasn't the only one who'd drunk a bit too much, and blew it off as he covered her with a rough feeling military blanket. "Let's get out of here before you actually start to think about that..." he comments with a grin which was reciprocated by Gnat. Together they left, Mike locking the door behind him then following Gnat back to the bar. The Telecom was still off, the static silenced automatically. The phone rang, a bizarre thing in itself at 3am, but Mike answered it as Gnat picked up where he'd left off on his current glass of nuclear waste. It was Joe, Mike's contact on the Lone Star side of things...

"Mike", Joe asked with a nervous sound in his voice, "we got serious problems... you probably ain't heard yet, but the city is quarantined, and the army has blocked us in, some serious drek seems to have gone down, and I need a place to take my family that's a bit more secure. Howza bout you let me hang at your place until this blows over, your walls are a helluva lot better than this drek place I'm in, whaddya say?", Joe being nervous was a bit unnerving in itself, of course Mike had no objections, and was quick to let Joe know that, but if it was enough to make Joe nervous, he'd better make some calls and get some of his old friends over here and stat.

Baker, Graves, and Locke were all called, and they seemed to all already know something was up, with the lawlessness that was hitting the streets in their neighborhood, and truth be told, lying up at Mike's place sounded alot better than current locale. To hell with the material stuff, living was more important, and the air was just wrong. Everyone living within a few blocks of Mikes, few being defined as less than 20, within the hour the friends were together, including Nick who'd come down from upstairs where he'd set up camp some months ago. Apparently the noise was a bit much for sleeping, and something was just wrong.

[ Spoiler ]

You are all together in the 'fortress', please spend your first few posts talking amongst yourselves to decide how you want to handle things from an In-Character point of view, and discuss friends and loved ones you want to bring in for protection. I said I wouldn't start the game til the 1st, so I won't post tomorrow allowing those that want to reply to the first post a good 24 hours to do so. Feel free to multi-post in order to 'discuss' things. I'll reply on Thursday. ;)

[Frater Inominatu...]

Eric walked into the bar, haggard and obvioulsy worn out. He walks over to the bar and nods to the bartender. After knocking back a shot, a rare thing for Eric, he turns and shakes Mike's hand. "Thanks for the invite. My neighborhood was getting scary. So, anybody know what's going on? I heard everything from some kind of disease killing thousands to a terrorist group threatening to detonate a nuke. Whatever is going on, law and order is out the window." Eris pauses, rembering the car he had passed on his way here. A man and his family had been slaughtered, their bodies burned to crisp black shadows and left like so much refuse. He shook his head, "Listen, I have to get my family settled in. Is there some place you have set up or do we crash where there's space?" The door opens and an attractive young woman carrying a sleeping toddler in her arms walks in. She scans the room until her eyes fall on Eric's back. She moves nervously across the room and touches his shoulder. "Eric? What's going on?" she says. Eric turns, kisses her on the cheek. "Steph, I'd like you to meet Mike Hennessey. He owns this place and has offered to help us out." She turns and smiles at Mike. "Thank you for your kindness Mr. Hennessey. Your generosity will not be forgotten." She move toward the door cooing to her child.
Eric watches her leave, for a moment whatever burdens he carries lifted from his shoulders. The door, hydraulic closer hissing, swings closed and Eric's shoulder once again droop under the weight of duty. He turns again to Mike. "Again, Mike, thank you. I'm going to find a corner to put my family." He shakes Mike's hand and leaves the pub...

[Reign Maker]

"Come in, Come in, Corporal Nick Hagvas, Knight Errant Fast Response Team Bravo 43g2, badge number 5543FRT43 over. Come in...." Nick's voice trails off as he heads upstairs.

Nick is back down again a few minutes later still wearing his Ares Predators urban brawl jersey and a pair of jeans carrying his combat vest in his hands and his Predator III in its tactical holster strapped to his shoulder. He strides to the bar and leans over to make sure mike has at least his baseball bat. Nick Grabs a beer grins over at Mike "Hey its my night off!" And then stands next to the entrance to the pub. He seems very apprehensive and twitchy his wired reflexs obviously on.

[HeySparky]

03:12:12 Tuesday 08 June 2064 - 134 S Wabash Ave, Mike's Pub - 1st Floor - Tavern

It hasn’t been more than a couple of hours since she was put to bed when a chime sounds and the elevator doors. No one appears. A groan issues from the dim box and Ana stumbles into the common room looking like the tail end of bad luck. But on her, even that looks good. She seems more than a bit inebriated still, her casual grace a little too casual, her tail working obviously harder to counterbalance soggy steps. She winces at the brighter light of the bar’s dim downstairs common room and shades her brow with a long-fingered hand until she can trigger the manual override on her flare compensators.

“Damn regulator,” she mutters, her cool purring voice a little sloshy sounding around the edges. “Wouldn’t let me sleep this off.”

She collapses into a chair and holds her head in her hands trying to mentally work her way back through the evening, piecing together disjointed memory fragments into some kind of sense. Eric walks in and Ana raises her head. Her breathing halts momentarily as the tension crackling in the room finally registers. Eric’s pretty wife comes in cradling their baby and her gut twists.

She shakes her head, trying to focus and clear her bleary mind. It’s no help. She stands, slowly and nods a greeting to Eric. Nick enters, the burly orc is twitchy and it sets uneasy synapses firing in her hind brain. Which, sad to say, does nothing to sober Ana up.

She looks around at the room various folks crouched over piles of supplies and gear, folks she knows and folks she doesn't. She looks at Mike, “What’s going on, Hen? Why does this place look like a cub scout jamboree?”

Her jaw drops as the news of the quarantine sinks in. She lunges for the trid remote, instantly regretting it as her unnatural augmentations struggle with the sluggish relay of her brain’s impulses. She shakes her head again and thumbs the remote.

Static.

“I wasn’t asleep for more than a couple of hours…” her hand drops to her hip, and gun savvy folk can see that it’s the reflexive move of a person checking a hip holster. She looks down.

Where’s my piece? Dad, Kate. My grandparents... She can barely bring herself to think of the child out there who doesn’t know she’s looking for him. She has no right to be looking for him. She turns to Mike, “How much of the city is closed in?” She slots a pair of chips one each in of a pair of datajacks at her temple and moves back to the others, still sloshy, but struggling to maintain focus.

[ Spoiler ]

Ana is slotting the Pullman Project chip and the software overlay that allows her to view different manipulations the data. She is going to make a new layer that she'll be updating as they get more data on the CZ. She's going to take what they currently know and add that to the new layer.

[mallet]

Mike shrugged, "Sorry, hon. Haven't a clue." He keeps wiping down the bartop with his old rag, not really because it needs it, more out of nervous habbit.

"But I wouldn't worry. They must be going hell bent for leather to straighten this whole mess out. It couldn't last more then a day or so right?"

Thinking about it a little more he gets out from behind the bar and walks over to the front door and opens it. Peaking his head outside he takes a quick look up and down the now quiet steet. Off in the distance, between the buildings, he could see the glow of fire and his hightened hearing could pick up distant gunfire.

He was glad that he had already droped the steel shutters across the windows earlier, and now he reached up to the hanging wire and pulled shut the metal grid that covered the doorway. Locking it he closed the door and bolted that too. Sadly he reached up and flicked off the power to the "open" sign. He turned and looked at the collection of friends and family gathered around the room,

"Drink's are on the house..."

[Reign Maker]

Nick seems to untense the instant the click of the bolt is heard. "Hell Mike, on the house you said?" Nick walks over to the bar and starts searching.."Mike where is the REAL rum at?"

He then finds a seat at an unoccupied table and starts to drink. Every so often he mumbles to himself obviously trying to talk to someone on his head ware radio.

[ Spoiler ]

Im using my comlink to keep searching radio channels the Knight Errant channels, Lone star channels, hospital channels, try raising the metro plex guards channel. After that phone call to fathers nursing home.

[HeySparky]

04:48:32 Tuesday 08 June 2064 - 134 S Wabash Ave, Mike's Pub - 1st Floor - Tavern

Ana nods at Mike, smiling weakly as she dials her father’s number. Kate answers, her thin voice clipped and proper. “Hello… Ana! I’m a wreck! We’ve been trying to reach you!”

Ana closes her eyes and sees the blinking message light in the corner of her vision. Oh. Her head gives a gloating throb and she bites back a groan.

“Are you alright?” Kate’s voice is urgent and brittle.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. How’s dad?” Her face sharpens in alarm as she listens to Kate shrill into the phone and then softens visibly, “Yeah, put him on.” She pauses, eyes flicking across the bar, she slips into a flowing lilting speech that is pleasant to listen to despite the tension of the brief conversation. Sperethiel. The connection cuts off and she stops abruptly. "Hello? Dad? ...Hello?"

She looks at Mike as the steel door drops and quails at his offer of free drinks. “My folks were visiting my grandparents," she looks up at Nick and a look flickers between them, "Bunch of old people, virtually no security…”

“Give me a minute.” She calls to Nick and heads upstairs muttering under her breath in something that isn’t English. She’s back down stairs in a moment, satchel slung crossways across her chest, tail still working overtime to stabilize her wobbles. She thrashes at her hair with both hands and it falls in a fine, ruffled flare around her face. Gun savvy folks can now spot that she’s moving like someone carrying a piece of death on her hip.

She shakes her head and the wisps settle in a neat mess, just so. "I'm ready. Let's roll." She bangs on the door and looks expectantly at Mike.

[Reign Maker]

"Well hell Ana , I was gonna wait for daylight," of course Nick would never live it down if anything happened to any of those old people because he waited,"Yeah give me about 5 minutes myself better put the uniform on definitely get less trouble wearing that."

Nick heads up to his apartment, and in 5 minutes is back down wearing his uniform (full security armor, helmet in his hand) His shotgun must have been left upstairs but he is carrying the large riot shield and has his baton, cougar fine long blade and plastisteel restraints dangling from the combat vest his predator III still in the shoulder holster.

"We Walking or SOMEBODY want to give us a ride?" He searches the bar for any other volunteers.

[Frater Inominatu...]

Eric and Stephanie walk down to one of the rooms near the end of the building. He peeked in, looking to see if it was occupied, and nodded toward the door. "Looks like this one's empty." And walks in. The room looked to be in good repair, if small for Eric's family. Maybe Mike has bigger rooms. I'll have to ask later, when things calm down.
"How long are we going to be here?" Stephanie asked. She walked around the room, ubviously unhappy. It wasn't home. It wasn't hers. Eric looked on sadly as his wife probed the boundaries of her new universe. He left, eyes welling up, and walked back where his mother and his in-laws waited. Pull the cars around here, the last two doors are ours. He pulled his '59 around and began unloading it. Twenty minutes, a few bruised finger, and much sweat later, Eric and his family were settled in. Not the Ritz, but it'll do.
There was still a lot to unpack, but that could wait for tomorrow. "Steph, I don't know how long we will be here. But it's not so bad. Mike is a good guy, I mean he called US remember? This will blow over and we can go back to our lives. But right now we have to be patient. Go get some sleep." Stephanie's eyebrows shot up like a spring loaded trap. "What about you? You need sleep too. Come on, come to bed." She dragged at his arm. Eric shook his head. "I can't. If this is as bad as I think I have a lot of work to do. The others will have families and I don't think they are all here. I have to help if I can. Go to sleep and tomorrow we'll try to make some plans." His kissed her softly and walked out the door.
His father-in-law was standing on the roof of his car when Eric walked by. "What can you see, Ed?" He said. The man looked much older today than he did yesterday. He climbed down and looked at his son in law and sighed. "I haven't seen a single police car since this morning. Eric, I don't mean to question your decisions but how well do you know this guy?" Eric smiled. "Mike is a good guy, Ed. He and I have some history." Ed nodded, understanding he meant extra legal history, and left it at that. "Ed," Eric began "I have to do what I can to help. Keep an eye on them for me." Ed bobbed his head, too emotional to speak. Eric stopped at his car and pulled the pistol concealed under the seat.
He strapped the tactical holster to his hip and walked back to the pub where he found the door locked. He rapped on the door with the back of his hand. "Mike, Mike it's me Eric. Open up!" He nearly jumped out of his skin when someone banged back...

[scoundrel]

"...Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression
No expression

Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow
No tomorrow..."

The hauntingly enchanting rendition of the song echoing around the bar is briefly interrupted by the sloppy sound of the vocalist guzzling down another mouthful of beer.

"...And I find it kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very very
Mad world
Mad world
Mad world
Mad world..."

Gnat blinks several times in succession as he stares blankly at the empty glass sitting smugly on the counter before him. He discovers with shocking suddenness that he no longer remembers his own name. He could feel something vaguely important lingering on the foreign borders of his consciousness, tugging and snatching at his mind, trying to seize his attention with little avail. The young man tries to focus himself, but his thoughts swim together and dissolve like sugar particles in water. Gnat snarls and points an accusing finger at the empty mug on the counter.

"This is all your fault."

The mug sneers with contempt and sticks out its tongue at him. Gnat growls. His hand arcs down to his waist and snaps back up with his pistol in tow. The muzzle of his gun blazes once, and the empty beer glass explodes into a thousand glistening shards with a shrill death scream. Gnat holsters his pistol and grins lopsidedly, bleeding from a small cut underneath his left eye where a rebellious piece of glass shrapnel grazed the skin.

"That'll teach you...you..."

Gnat's declaration of victory is cut short as his consciousness suddenly flees him without warning. He topples off the stool he was sitting on and sprawls across the dirty floor of the bar. A few moments later, he begins to snore softly.

[nick012000]

A large ork turned up at the gates, a crying human girl riding piggyback on his shoulders. He is wearing some very heavy security armor and carring an assault rifle. He will bang on the gate, shouting "Come on, Mike! It's Locke, let me in!" If that doesn't work, he will use his signal locator to try to find any radios in the building, and then broadcast the message to them.

[gobogen]

Joe arrives at Mike's place with his wife Connie and daughter Charm in his red Honda 3220 ZX - a car he loves. He parks his car and gets inside.

Joe is a short man with strong shoulders and a large jaw. He has short black hair and deep brown eyes and he must be in his thirties. He's wearing a Lone Star Security Armor at this time, with the helmet off. You also see a holstered Predator at his belt and a holstered rifle in his back. His lovely wife is slightly younger than him and his daughter must be about 8.

"Hello Mike, thanks for letting us stay here. I see a lot of people I don't know here, but I'm looking forward to meeting all of you.

"From what I've gathered, I fear that the situation is quite bad and getting worse. Most people I've been able to talk to were implying that this quarantine might last for a while, although I have no confirmation yet. I know who to call to try to find out exactly what's going on."

Again, Joe seems quite nervous. You can see that he is very worried for his family and that he's very serious and focused.

After being introduced to a few of Mike's friends, Joe asks for the best place to put the car and where his family and himself will be able to stay. They brought quite a lot of stuff from their home and so they move it in from the car up to the second floor where there should be a free room for them. The room is quickly filled with a bunch of more of less useless stuff they thought they'd use. It's obvious that they are planning to stay here for a long while.

[ Spoiler ]

Is there a safe place for the car under or near the building of Mike's bar?

Later on, sitting at the bar and drinking a beer, Joe calls Commissioner Donald O’Connor on his cellphone to ask him what the frag is going on. Strangely enough, he has decided to keep his armor and weapons on for now, just in case.

[Reign Maker]

Nick jumps at the sound of Gnats thunderbolt. Thank you lord for giving me the foresight to turn those fraggin wired reflexes off! I promise I'll make it to church this week.... ok some time this month... well maybe just on Easter and Christmas. He walks over to Gnats now crumpled body laying in the puddle of beer on the floor. I wonder if he thought he got the beer in his mouth? He easily picks him up and moves him into one of the booths in the corner. "Mike if you give him anything but soycaf when he wakes up I swear to god.... I think were gonna need him tomorrow."

Nick hears the banging and yelling at the door and looks for approval from Mike. Upon receiving it he lets the others in. "Are the streets ok?" He ask each newcomer as they enter, "Ana and I are planning on making a short trip."

[mallet]

Hearing the banging on the gate Mike makes his way over to the door and, after a quick check to see who it is, he unlocks the door and gate and pushes them open.

"Come on in... Glad you guys made it ok." He gives them a hand with their things and introduces himself to the family members he hasn't met. "Make yourselves at home. Drop your stuff anywhere right now, we can sort it out later or in the morning."

"Joe, can you try the radio behind the bar and see if you can pick up any of the stations. Maybe some of the out of town ones. let's try and find out what's happening before anyone starts to panic."

He jumps as Gnat shoot's the glass, "Fraggin' hell. Will somebody get that bastard's gun away from him before he hurts someone, or so help me I'm going go and get my Bessie and tap a number on his skull." He watches as Gnat then passes out and falls off his chair, "Or maybe I won't have too... Someone go pick him up." He shakes his head in disgust.

He takes a hard look at Ana and Nick as they walk up ready for action, "And where do you think you guys are going?"

[scoundrel]

In the dream, he is shooting. Bam! Bam! Bam! He pulls the trigger once more only to be answered by a soft, sorrowful click. His fingers move fast as he ejects the clip and slaps in a new one. He continues firing away with deadly precision, and his enemies continue to die as his bullets punch through their carapace to tear at the black lifeforce hiding inside them. But there are so many. For every one that drops, three more scramble over the corpse to come at him. Eventually, his pistol runs dry again, and he reaches for another clip to find that he has no more. And still, they keep coming, stoic, persistent, ruthless.

He runs.

[Sphynx]

Discussion seems to revolve primarily around familes as the night drags on into the wayward hours of the morning. Even Gnat awakens in time for most of the discussion, and all the family members agree that the most important thing is family and provisions. The streets, by morning almost seem civil, and there is no doubt that the early morning is the best time to get provisions. Attempts to contact family members have thus far failed, and it's unlikely that anyone is where you expect them with the violence of the night. First priority is to get some supplies so the weaker links in the group, the families, can defend themselves. A local hardware store, or sporting supply store (or both) seem to be the preferred spots for the 'team' to hit. Supplies right now are paramount, even if it's nothing more than hunting bow and arrows.

[nick012000]

When he's let in, he will hoist the child off of his shoulders and tells her not to go outside. When asked about the nature of the streets, he replies "No, they're not. My ex-wife, and the mother of my daughter, was killed by gangers on the way over. That was the last mistake they made."

[Frater Inominatu...]

Mike pulled open the door only to be suprised, Eric stood about two meters from the door, gun in hand, looking for all the world a bull getting ready to charge. Mike's left eyebrow arched high over his eye, "Just what do you think you were doing?" He said levelly, doing his best not to laugh. Though Eric did work with the police department, Mike knew that the gun was mostly for show. Eric straightened himself, shrugged and replied "I heard a shot. I thought you might need help." Mike just shook his head. "I appreciate the gesture but the door is armored. It'd take a lot more than your buck and a half to take it down." Eric grinned sheepishly, holstered the weapon and followed Mike inside. As he crossed the threshold, secretly happy it was Mike that had opened the door (thus saving him some embarrassment), he heard Mike's voice "And where do you think you guys are going?" Eric stepped inside to see Ana and Nick, geared up and walking toward to door. "What's going on? Are you guys leaving?" He sees Ana's pained expression and knows. She has someone still out there Eric thought of his own family, out there, without him, and asked "Is there anything I can do to help?"

[gobogen]

"Sure Mike, I'll do that" Joe replies. He's trying to call people he knows from Lone Star and using the radio to listen to the frequencies generally used by Lone Star.

[Lindt]

Able walked down the center of the abandoned street. The reports of wide scale rioting and looting where true, but come hell or high water was any of it happening on CATco turf while he was still walking. The remaining members of his support team where scattered, many grievously wounded, all battered and beaten. In any case all of red element was dead, and no one from blue element was still with it enough to answer the comm. The smoke coming from the block that used to house HQ was just one more reason that the radio was dead. Flipping channels yielded mixed results, many being dead, or filled with desperate calls for help. Or the booming commands that no one was to leave the quarinteen area under penalty of death. The army was ringing the city with guns drawn.

The news coming in from the sorted sources was nothing but bad. Someone had detonated a thermo-nuclear device and it hadn't leveled the city, but had forced those... things, out. And those things where ripping though gaping sections of the citys population.

Able reached the end of the block, and turned to see one brave person picking a lost tire iron up with all intents of throwing it though the plate glass window of the RadioHut. The counter in the corner of his vision read single digits as his fingers wrapped around the grip of the standard issue Ingram. The draw was automatic, keeping close to the translucent riot shield strapped on his right arm, and two bright yellow streaks zipped into the body of the law breaker. The distinctive cracks of super velocity automatic fire echoed on the now empty street. The clip fell free and clattered to the pavement as the muscle memory kicked in as another long clip replaced it. The flashing zero was replaced by a green sixty. He only had 3 reloads left now. Able zoomed in and saw that the heat signature had spread in an area several feet behind the former suspect. "Code 4" he whispered.

They are all dead aren't they. No way Rat is still around, the sewers have to be crawling. Black? I heard his entire squad was ambushed. Sarah lived right on top of where they say the bomb was. Rachel's building was one of the ones that is defining the QZ, maybe she got the kids out...

It suddenly stuck him. He was going to die alone, and it was one of those things that was going to do what they did to Parker, King, and Lebowitz. He collapsed on a wrecked truck and broke down. This wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to get old and fat, and be the district sargent, and then get his gold watch and retire. Now he was going to die in a spray of blood and gore. Pull your ass together fuckwit. Get up, find a phone, and find cover. Go home, get food, get the gun, get more socks. And find someone to hole up with until this blows over. Survive first, then find Mary and Adam.

The apartment block was still there, but with no power. Twelve floors of stairs left his quads burning under the added weight of the security armor. He found his door still closed and locked, thanks mostly to the old fashioned dead bolt above the normal mag lock. His apartment was dark, the dawning sun sending little tendrils of light in between the smoke of the city sprawling across the floor. The gun safe in the hall had opened when the power failed, showing the silver of the suitcase that was his baby. It had cost him a month of overtime to get, and another month of careful arraignment to get in contact with. He left it, along with the ballistic resistant shield in the hall. He packed five days of clothes, and all the socks he had, slipping the photographs of his kids and ex-wife next to the one of his girlfriend in the soft center of the rucksack. He put his duty vest and dress blues on top of the pile. The duty pistol and badge went into the provided spots in the weapon harness and body armor. The little food he kept in the 3 room apartment was mostly left over take out. He drank the last Labats, ate the last slice of pizza, shouldered the pack aginst his harness picked, up the silver suitcase and the riot shield and took one last look at home.

Dawn had broken, but the streets where still empty, devoid of anything living. Able walked west, away from the smoke that used to be HQ, and carefully scanning for any traces of living people. Blocks passed before one looked like it still had power, and judging from the Red Honda parked out front, it still had people.

He walked to the door and swallowed his fear before knocking his gloved hand aginst the solid wood panels.

[Reign Maker]

Nick gives Ana a shrug of the shoulders. All the new arrivals have delayed their leaving and now the first rays of the morning sun are seeping through the high rise buildings around the pub and soaking the street in a loving light. Hiding at least part of the misery in the streets and providing a calm in the middle of the storm that is the containment zone. It seems like a good day to die. Hopefully I wont have to.

Nick waits for Ana to take the lead role in explaining their goal. He has never been one for public relations. And I know she uses some code name or handle when dealing with people she doesn't know, better not fragg her off by using it her real name unless she volunteers it first. To many unknown here. Glad Mike knows so many people but I wonder how many of them are trustworthy.

[scoundrel]

Gnat groans as a ray of sunlight from the cockcrow skyline slips in through the door as it is opened for yet another new arrival and releases its warmth across the side of his face. He slowly opens his eyes and sits up, steadying his mind to regain his bearings and sense of reality. A small wave of nausea turns in his abdomen and he jerks to the side to vomit, but his stomach merely churns maliciously and fails to make good on its threat.

"Oh shit!"

Gnat scrambles to his feet as the events of the past day suddenly return to his memory with full force. He quickly checks his belt holster to make sure that Jane is still by his side. Looking wildly around the bar, he sees many somber faces that he does not recognize, but they're the least of his concerns at this moment. Gnat pulls his cell phone out of a pocket and speed-dials his parents' home phone number. Nothing but static greets him. He tries again with his grandmother. More static.

You fucking idiot, why the hell did you go get yourself drunk at a time like this?

Some sort of military men had forcibly restrained him last night when he tried to leave the bar, but God help the arrogant pricks if they tried it again. Without even bothering to address any of the other people in the bar, Gnat walks to the door, yanks it open, and steps outside, his skin tinged orange as he, too, is caught in the sea of ghostly dawn bathing the morning streets.

[nick012000]

Locke follows Gnat, his HVAR drawn, and his eyes scanning the street for any danger.

"What the frag do you think you're doing?!"

[scoundrel]

"...Going to see if my folks are okay," Gnat replies distractedly as he looks around the street, wondering if he should hoof it all the way to his parents' house on foot or try to hijack a vehicle.

[Reign Maker]

"Calm down ... first lets get that little'un to a parental figure Ill take her up stairs," Nick puts on his best nonscary orc face, "and whats your name sweetheart? Do you like cookies? Im gonna take you upstairs and you can meet my wife... what little'un?... Oh her name is Kirstin . You two can make cookies and I bet there are lots of toys......" Nicks voice trails off as he walks up the stairs to his apartment. He is back down again in less then a minute.

"O.K. any other little ones with no parental types?...No good not trying to run a day care." Nick looks around.."I guess we are about to mount an impromptu rescue mission to a nursing home a few kilometers away." Nicks eyes become pleading," As it stands now its just me and nine, we been delaying all night with the arrivals that keep coming in. We'll take any help that any of you can offer. Be it an extra gun or just information. I suppose well try to scavenge a bit if we have time on the way back. And Gnat well be more than happy to swing round your parents way if you want to tag along."

After hearing what the others have to say Nick addresses Mike privately

[ Spoiler ]

"I got some channels set up this one secure 1 and this one secure 2 im gonna dedicate both to the pubs radio I want only you to know them since they are gonna be my lifeline while im out there. You feel like leaving the pub on this run old man or you gonna hold down the fort?"