Aberrant: Dead Rising - Chapter 9a: Portents

[Mr Fox]

Fox shrugged, "You're the scientist. Just let Ger know and he can arrange however many assistants you need to do what you want. This project is priority 1 since it's survival related. That ranks above building thing. Just try and keep the issue quiet since we don't want to start a panic. Once we understand fully whats going on then we can tell the people and give the the whole picture instead of giving them speculation."

[Dawn OOC]

Ger was nodding. "Yeah," he said wearily. "Whatever you need." Fox had never heard that tone in Ger's voice before, and he took a closer look at his security head. The man looked sapped in a way that he never had before; despair shone in his tired eyes.

Gerald Hoffany was muttering to himself; anyone who listened heard the cadence of prayer. The pastor was holding on to his hope, but only through his faith.

These were good indications of how the rest of the enclave would react to the news. Ger was a steady man, a hard man to phase, but there was an air of loss to him now that indicated he'd been shaken to the core. Still, he was trying; hoarsely, he asked, "What equipment and labor do you need, Dr. Shattuck? I'll try to organize it ASAP."

[SalmonMax]

Despite her often brisk demeanor, Myfwany was a fairly good judge of mood. She caught the shift in Gerald, and went over to him to put a hand on his arm and meet his eyes directly.

"We'll get this figured out. We'll be all right. Look."

She pointed down at the little circle of crops she'd brought out of the ground.

"It'll take me some time, but I can make them grow. We'll have food enough to last until we know how to fix this. I promise you."

[Mr Fox]

Fox nodded and sent a little energy into his voice as he added, "Don't worry. We caught this in time. It is another of lifes little annoyances, but nothing more. With the Doctor's help it is barely an issue and now that we know of it we will resolve it. But there is good news too. I've learned a new ability. I can open gateways to other places, anywhere on Earth in fact. We aren't limited to scavenging just what is in the immediate area, we can get supplies from anywhere, so supplies are not an issue. As long as we need to scavenge we won't have any problem doing it. So you see, things aren't so hopeless, in fact despite this little set back, things are looking brighter than they did yesterday."

((Fox activated awe-inspiring and persuader, he's trying to give hope.))

[Courier]

Still overjoyed to have his eyes back, James wasn't depressed at the thought of the coming crop failure. *Ba. Fox is right and would be even without this new ability of his. I'm not going to go hungry. Jo/Jill/Jen/V too... and maybe the rest of the community too.*

James asked, "So do you want me as body guard right now, or do I have a day to go out on a resource raid first?"

[Mr Fox]

"Where would you like to make that resource run? I can put you anywhere that I've been before for sure, which includes most major cities in the US as well a few in Asia, Europe and the Middle East." He chuckled, "I might even be able to go places I haven't been before. I just haven't tried that yet."

[Courier]

James replied without hesitation, apparently he'd been planning this for a while, "I was thinking the Lowes in Ardmore. That's only like 40 k away. If it's been stripped, which I doubt, I might have to go to Norman."

Unspoken was the problem with going to Norman. It was four times as far and 4 times bigger than Ardmore, i.e. it was a real city.

[Mr Fox]

Morgan frowned, "I don't know, I'd think one in a big city is less likely to have been looted. The smaller the town the more accessible, so the more likely to have been looted, besides there at the end when things were really going to crap and the survivors were realizing that there wasn't going to be a recovery they started getting the hell out of dodge as fast as they could. That's when the easy stuff got hit hard. Of course there were looters in the big cities too, but by the time people were seeing the hand writing on the wall, most just wanted to get out as fast as they could."

[Courier]

James nodded in agreement and said, "OK then. Norman it is. There's at least 2 and probably 3 there."

[Mr Fox]

Morgan looked around and shrugged, "Well, no time like the present, might as well get started." He'd been to norman many times so there was no doubt could remember good places to open his gateway to. Concentrating for a moment he pushed his power outside himself and forced point A to meet up with point B. The swirl of energies was still a new sensation and just a little unnerving, but it worked and right in front of the two men there was a 3 meter hole in reality opening to Norman.

"Let's go."

[Courier]

James extended his blade and stepped through the portal. He then looked around, trying to get his bearings.

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany watched them go through the rippling gateway, speechless. Power like that...where would it end? The thought was troubling, and she distracted herself from it by focusing on the task at hand.

She exerted her own power, and around her feet green shoots appeared as she coaxed the fearful seeds to life.

[Dawn OOC]

By the time that Myf was out of juice, she'd gotten half a hectare done. At this rate, it was going to take her a couple of weeks to get all the crops growing, but it'd be worth it, she knew. Wearily, she went back to the clinic, intending to check up on her few patients and check up on the small amount of paperwork she had. She held to her resolve to check her patients, but once in the office, she found herself picking up the journal again.

Quote:

November 15, 2007 - She was gone this morning; she left a note: 'Gone to seek Death, will be like Old Mister Johnson's yellow cat, don't keep a light on. Be the camcorder you must be.' I have no idea what it all means, but I wonder if I'll ever see her again. If she's seeking death, I'd say it's damned unlikely.

Saw some zombies today. They were circling wide around the house, but I took the shotgun out and put them down anyway. One used to be my neighbor, Wilma Hartgrove. I wasn't sure I could shoot her, but my need to survive overwhelmed my horror at shooting a friend.

I think she's only the first familiar face I'll have to put a bullet in.

I burned the bodies, though I burned Wilma's separately. I took her ashes and drove over to her house, and buried them in her garden. Then, God forgive me, I took every ounce of food in her kitchen, and all the canned vegetables in the cellar. I hid her valuables in the house; if her family finds their way here, they should get her jewelry and heirlooms. I did take her shotgun that she got for killing snakes and all the ammo I found for it.

Bizarrely, her chickens followed me to the car and stood around clucking. I held the door for them, and they hopped into my backseat. After I got them back to my place, they hopped out and moved into my barn. Damnedest thing I ever saw, next to the zombies.

Addendum - Went to do some star-watching, and saw the North Star disappear. I think it was atmospheric interference... that lasted for an hour.

Hell if I know. At this point, I'm just going to write this stuff down. Maybe someone else can make sense of it later.

She fell asleep at her desk, reading again.

[SalmonMax]

When Myfwany awoke, she saw the journal there under an arm and stood up, feeling a little ashamed. How many times was that now she'd fallen asleep in her clothes in her office reading? There was a weird, obsessive quality about the thing that she wasn't sure if she liked.

Still, after a shower and a hearty breakfast, she realized she'd left her morning open. Unless there were emergencies, Singh had the morning shift at the clinic. She would need to head out to grow the fields around noon, but for now...

Myf set her watch alarm to make sure she didn't lose track of time, and settled in to read a bit more before she had to go work.

[Dawn OOC]

Quote:

November 16, 2007 - More dreams about the fox. This time, it screamed after the car hit it. And the car was driven by a zombie.

It's not bad enough the world has gone mad - now I gotta lose it, too. Maybe it'll be easier to survive this world if I'm mad.

Shot two more neighbors before lunch. Burned them and took their ashes to their houses. Zombies still won't come around the place.

Had egg salad from eggs from Wilma's chickens. They were delicious.

Not sure if this is the kind of stuff I should record, but here we go.

• Saw a horse walking backwards in circles. It finally stopped and bolted toward the north - running forward, luckily for it.
• The petals on my black rose have faded to a gunmetal gray.
• I was watching some birds - acting normally, thankfully - while studying a map. Drew a 'V' on it that had it's point on my house. Not sure what it means. Think I need a bigger map to get a better idea what's up.

I'm getting a bit lonely. I should find a dog.