My Kingdom For A Book - RPLOG
From Flexible Survival
Participants
Date
12/12/2014
Log
The area around the group remains unchanged, except that the Zephyr agents are no way out of range. The marker of previous civilization, that is the highway, remains in front of the group. Beckoning for them to traverse its neglected surface
Vari shook her head. "Yeah, this place is desolated. And I don't wonder why that is. I am more worried about what could await us inside of the library. Even if it was blockaded, it still would provide shelter. And shelter means possible inhabitants." She began to walk towards the said town. "Don't loose your heads, because here, wounds that you neglect can end up fatal for you, and I can heal only so much."
Fenris grunts as the container is loaded on his back and secured to his bell strewn harness. "Perfect!" he says, shifting around a little to make sure the container is secure before he starts clopping along toward the library. "There isn't much outside the bubbles anymore," Fenris explains as he walks, "But then, there are some things out here that we have lost." The tanuki turned reindeer goes into tour guide mode for a moment. "The nanites in the bubble break down most organic and technological stuff," he explains, very technically, "And that means that they eat books. So Zephyr has been making this push to retrieve and digitize what books we can. Everything from Seuss to Shakespeare to Hawking!" Even though he is talking, the reindeer remains alert, his ears swiveling from side to side, though his happy smile never fades.
Lochlan double-checks the ropes on the harness, then answers Fenris "I know about the paper preservation project. Me and a certain fox were planning to raid less-obvious places for survived paper, not necessarily books. We were thinking that something could have stayed untouched in sex-shops or places that sell journals. You know how they sometimes wrap them in shrinkwrap or put them under the counter somewhere..." He draws his laser pistol then looks around the scenery "Guys, I'll go scout a bit if you don't mind. We need to check what goes on here."
Indra drums her fingers on the hilt of her saber as she looks around, her tails waving closely behind her as her ears swivel around on her head. "I don't mind if you do, though shouldn't you wait until we finish what we came here for?" Indra asks as she follows along behind Fenris.
As the group traverses the rundown highway, some of them could spot two figures in the distance. The figures, a couple of hundreds of meters away, are rather large, bulky and obviously furry. The two wolfish beasts are right now busy hitting on a car, they seem to have not noticed the group yet.
The arachnid looked ahead, spotting the figures, wolfish. In a lower voice, she said to Lochlan: "I told you about being reckless. Scouting ahead alone can be your death. Don't forget that the nanites can't heal you properly right now...see those two? What if there are more around?" She shook her head. "No it is best if we keep together. Since they are bashing that car, I am not too sure if they will greet us with the same hospitality we would want. And Fenris here...I don't think he would be efficient in battle right now, and I am in no form capable of fighting. I am here to patch up injured people. I vote on staying away from them, not wanting to risk a fight. After all, we don't need a thing from them, as we have our goal, and except for manpower, they couldn't provide us with more."
Fenris listens to Vira, that infuriating little smile unaffected by the raging wolf beasts. "Around it is," he says cheerily, then jingles his way off the road, opposite the direction of the wolves, "Just keep me moving in the right direction!" The tanuki-deer has no doubts that he could handle a couple of mutants, but not with this thing on his back.
Lochlan gives a glare at the arachnid. "We have jingle-bell Rudolf, and a self-proclaimed non-fighter, but you still call scouting reckless? Sure, let's just go in an ambush..."
Indra shakes her head at Lochlan's apparent anger. "So long as we don't get distracted, we should be able to notice an ambush." Contrary to her words, Indra is a little unsure about that. Still, she continues to follow behind Fenris, making sure they don't step into a hole in the road every so often. "Any idea how much this container might weigh if we fill it entirely?"
The group manages to avoid the wolf beasts, who none the wiser move in an opposite direction of the agents. After an uneventful trip, the group finally reaches an area near the highway where a small road diverges into an obviously small and abandoned town. The whole town could be seen from their position, a dozen or so houses strewn around, a grocery shop and other mercantile enterprises to the west side of the town, a gas station on the side road leading to the once habitat of humans, and a really large building in the middle of it all, towering above everything around it. That building is obviously their desired destination. If the group decides to approach the town, then it will become quite obvious that this place where people might have lived is now nothing more but a ghost town, the old sounds of children laughter and people going about their work replaced by an eerie silence and a melancholic air.
As the group stood at the edge of the town, Vari got an eerie feeling. No, she didn't like silence at all. She remained alerted, but all she could hear was her own mind racing, and her heart beating. She looked around, nervously. "Yeah...easy task this is, alright." She whispered. "I've had surgeries which were more fun than this." She shook her head. "No, being here feels way to oppressive. I can't wait to get to the library." She said, as she started heading towards their goal.
Fenris seems unfazed by the scene of desolation, and even less affected by Lochlan's disparaging remarks. It is sad that the people are all gone here, but he has seen Tanuki's realm and hopes that with the recent incursions by his adoptive people there will soon be a renewal here as well. The tanuki reindeer plods steadily along toward the big barricaded building ahead. He will be glad to get this thing off his back. "I think I am more of a Prancer than a Rudolph, really," he says absently, humming an obscure Christmas carol into the silence.
Lochlan tilts his head again. The stillness of the scenery doesn't really make him feel that depressed. Paranoid on the other hand... "Guys, is there someone with a better nanite collector than me. We really need to find out what's with the nanites here. It can't be just two wolfbeasts"
Indra sighs and shakes her head at the devastated town. It was beyond sad that such a thing had happened, but the most they could do now was try to rebuild... She looks up at Lochlan; they had raised a point though. "I'm not sure how nanite collectors work, I haven't been able to get one... but you're right, shouldn't we have seen more than just two wolf-beasts?" Just what, if anything, might be waiting in the other parts of the town? In the library itself? Once again, Indra set her hand on the hilt of her saber, just in case.
