tushanshu_logs | Event | Console Crash Chaos

Event | Console Crash Chaos | Phase One

Characters: ALL!
Date: April 17-30, 2014
Location: Keeliai
Situation: In an unexpected and bold attack by Malicant, the console system is completely shut down while food and supply locations all around the city are targeted by bombings.
Warnings/Rating: Explosions! Possible descriptions of related aftermaths, injuries, death, etc.

Shortly after eight in the morning of the 17th, the consoles experience a strange glitching effect. They'll display 15-20 seconds of static, interrupting anything being done on them at the time, before going utterly dark. No power, no signal, completely offline even to detection of their normal bio-mechanical signatures. No amount of energy influx will get them going again, though taking them apart (or trying to) will still cause them to melt into goo.

Within minutes of the console shutdown, explosions will begin ripping through Keeliai. The bombs are all timed as close to simultaneous as coordinating a city-wide attack can be, with many going off within seconds of each other, throwing the thriving morning rush into chaos. They tear into businesses and across public spaces, collapsing walls and blowing piles of debris into the streets. Places of high traffic quickly become evident as prime targets: marketplaces, hospitals, schools and cafes. The streets take only moments to fill with panicking, screaming kedan trying to pull their injured fellows out of harm's way. All told, the explosions take place across approximately a 10-minute stretch and their explosive yields are fairly high.

In addition to the bombs that cause destruction through their blasts, smaller bombs are going off around the city that specifically target food and water supplies, particularly where large stocks of it were kept such as grocers, produce markets, and the like. Rather than cause mass damage, these explosions spray out a fine mist of spores. Any perishables in their immediate area that are splattered develop an oozing black mold within minutes, eventually breaking down organic substances that turn to foul smelling rot and release their own mist, perpetuating the cycle. While skin contact with the mist doesn't harm, inhaling or ingesting it will produce shakes, fever, vomiting with a cumulative effect that has the potential to be fatal. It is much slower to infect the water supply but the sheer volume of rotting perishables will eventually put enough of the spores to taint water sources, approximately 6-8 hours after the original bombings.

The police force are out as soon as possible and within the hour are helping move the injured to safer locations with Evandau in charge, right in their midst and shoulder to shoulder with his subordinates. Not being stockpiles for any of the apparent targets, many of the Foreigner residences have been left undamaged and, wary of putting them in further danger by collecting large groups in public spaces, Foreigners may even be asked to take in a few individuals or a kedan family.

Despite the number of explosions, there are far more reports of injuries as opposed to casualties. The person or persons (or That Bad Guy) responsible for this were, for this attack at least, more intent on damage than on death.

LINKS
Fire Sector | Earth Sector | Metal Sector | Water Sector | Wood Sector
Treating the Injured & Safe Houses | Investigations | OOC Plot Post

OOC NOTE: Remember that the consoles and network will be completely offline for the duration of this aspect of the the plot running April 17-23, though Foreigner tech is not affected. Plot questions can be directed to this comment. Have fun!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He steels himself against the sound of Tess' gut-wrenching screams. He has to. He hefts her up into his arms, braces himself again, makes certain he's got a proper hold on her by hefting her even more securely in his grip, and then he's off the moment she's grabbed onto him.

He tries to run as fast as he can; the most he can manage with Tess in his arms is a brisk walk, made cumbersome by having to accommodate for her weight. His eyes dart here and there wildly for some clue as to where to go, where the fuck a hospital might be or a clinic or even some kind of triage or-- anything. A couple of times, he comes to a lumbering stop, turns aimlessly on the spot to look around, swings back around to look the other way, lost, before he takes off again.

By the time he's certain they're clear out of the spores, he staggers into the first alleyway he sets his eyes on that isn't packed with people and chaos. He's panting hard, the muscles in his arms burning, as he crouches down with a grunt of effort and carefully sets Tess on the ground. He rips off his gas mask; his face is flushed, sweaty, and there's a wild worry in his hard eyes.

"Tess," he orders, setting his gas mask on the ground beside him. He snatches her face in his hands again, makes her look at him. "Tess, look at me, look at me. Where's the hospital? Or-or a clinic?"

She tries to stay conscious - part of her recalls that she needs to, but it's difficult, despite the pain and all the jostling that makes her cry out with it. She's almost as out of breath as Joel is, her stomach churning and her head pounding.

Tess is only barely aware of what's going on, though, until he's taking her face in his hands again, and she can't quite handle that look in his eyes - her own eyes skim away from his as she coughs again, trying not to retch more.

"Should at least - buy me dinner first," she mutters, possibly the shittiest attempt at a joke she has ever managed, even taking into account her bad sense of timing. But he asked her a question, and now she needs to remember where she is - not home, not Boston, not even the Earth sector where she usually confines herself.

Water. It requires quite a bit of effort to bring up the mental map she's got - Tess made a point to learn the layout of the city very well, as one of her first projects when she got here.

"Two blocks - north, three east," she finally mutters, pointing vaguely in that direction. A clinic that she remembers, just a small one, not a hospital, nothing that would be terribly crowded except maybe in the immediate aftermath of a bomb. Because that's what it was, wasn't it? A bomb.

"Maybe later," comes his quick, breathless throwaway comment because, damn it, he needs to know where the hell the damn hospital is. Or the clinic. Something. Why the hell is she even making comments like that at a time like this, anyway? Typical Tess, always determined to downplay how freaked out she is, even despite how much she'd been screaming in terror back there.

And were it not such a dire situation, he'd feel relief that she's being a little more typical because at least that means she is calming down - sort of. But he's about to give her a shake anyway, demand her to focus, damn it, c'mon focus, Tess, otherwise he's going to have to leave her and run for help, ask someone for direction, when she finally mutters directions that he desperately commits to memory.

Two blocks north, three blocks east. Two blocks north, three blocks east. Okay.

He swipes up his gas mask, twists around to hurriedly clip it back to his backpack. And then, he's bracing himself to gather her back into his arms. "C'mon. Hold on tight. I gotcha," he grunts with effort as he's pushing himself back to his feet with Tess anchored back in his hold.

Two blocks north, three blocks east. Two blocks north, three blocks east. Okay, he can do this. He's gotta do this. Lurching back out onto the street, he takes just a moment to gather his bearings, work out which way is north. Okay, he's got it. He swings past a huddle of terrified people, pushes his way through another, angrily yells, "Move it," to someone else blocking his path.

He finally makes it two blocks north; he stops on the corner, breathing hard with the coppery taste of breathlessness raw in his throat, makes himself think through the rush of noise and chaos and Christ, it's like that night the infection broke out. The terror that had rampaged through the streets, the people screaming, the smell of smoke and fire and burning flesh, him running as hard as he could with Sarah in his arms--

Sarah. Fuck, fuck. He's gotta-- Shit.

Keep it together, Joel, he tells himself. Keep it together, fucking keep together.

He looks down at Tess, panting. "We're almost there, almost there. Just-- hold on." And upon making himself focus on which way east is, he's heading off as fast as he can, his arms burning with strain, his legs feeling shaky, adrenalin pushing him to keep going, keep going.

"Promise," she mutters with a huff of air that might have been the start of a laugh, except she's just in way too much pain to really bother with that. Frankly, it's all she can do to hold on to him and keep conscious as he moves again. Christ, he smells like - well, like burnt hair (or is that her hair?) and ash and smoke - but he also smells like Joel, and she keeps wavering between remembering where she is and thinking she's back in Boston.

After a while, as though to keep herself grounded, she tilts her head at him carefully. "The girls?" The last thing she said to him was go see your goddamn daughter so she has no idea if Sarah even knows he's here yet. He has to have checked on them first, though, right?

And just like Tess can read his damn thoughts or something - she brings up the girls, and there's another surge of panic in him that he instantly squashes back down on as fiercely as he can. For just a second, he almost stops in his tracks and swings back around to run - fuck, he doesn't even know where to begin looking for the girls. The treehouse, that's where he's gotta get to once Tess is somewhere safe. The treehouse. As for Ellie--

Fucking damn it, he told that girl she weren't to leave his place until he'd figured out some plan to get them the hell out of this crazy place, and she sure as hell weren't there when the bombs went off. If he finds her - no, shit, when he finds her, he's going to go off his damn nut at her about wandering off.

"We-we're almost there," is all he repeats in a gasp to Tess because he can't bear to think about what has happened to the girls, whether they're hurt, if anything bad has happened to either of them. "Just hold on."

One block down. Two more to go. His body is screaming with stress and fatigue but he keeps pushing on. Pushes past people, tries his best to not jostle Tess around too much, though there's not much he can do about that. Two blocks finally down. He's dripping with sweat now; there are wet pit stains under his arms, his shirt is clinging wet to his back and to his chest.

"Oh, no," comes a hushed, short-winded exclamation of dread. "Nonono." He comes to a sudden stop, staring at the bottleneck of people and debris and bedlam blocking any path into the next and last block he's got to get through.

She can feel him tensing up and she wants to yell again - scream and fight and push him and get away and go find them herself because goddammit Joel -

But she can't. All she can fucking do is hold on to him for dear life, like a helpless baby, and try to stay conscious so that she's not just dead weight in his arms.

Tess can feel it when he reaches the place, when he encounters the obstacle - she can't quite make out what it is, except that it's clearly in the way. her stomach threatens to lurch again, and she twists her head away so she doesn't retch all over Joel's shirt, her eyes watering.

"Home," she mutters weakly. "Just... home. Rest. Don't need -"

"No," he says over the top of Tess, "no."

There's gotta be a way around this. His eyes skate this way and that, looking for some way he can get around-- He's barely paying any attention to the way Tess is retching again. He's seen and heard and smelled and experienced far fucking worse than being puked on; if she does end up puking on him, whatever, he'll deal with that when he can.

He swallows down any residual panic trying to claw its way back up his chest about the girls. He can't just leave Tess, and he sure as hell ain't going to take her back to her home where there's no adequate medical care. Get Tess to this clinic or hospital or whatever it is that she's given him directions to, then go and find the girls. That's the only plan he's got.

His eyes land on a narrow alleyway. He's taking off again, hefting Tess closer to him in his tired arms, hoping to god that alleyway leads somewhere and isn't a dead end. It isn't, he realises with swelling relief when he comes to it. Okay, good. That's something, at least.

He barges into the claustrophobic alleyway, leaving behind the sounds of pandemonium and panic festering about on the street. The stale smell of old brick and mildew fills his nose the deeper into the alleyway he takes Tess. There's another small alleyway that cuts off to the right, heading east; he throws a quick glance over his shoulder back towards the street, and then he's plunging into that alleyway. And that, to his huge relief, has another alleyway at the end that branches off either way. He cuts another right, sees the street up ahead and soon, he's staggering out onto it - and sees the clinic just across the road. Oh, thank fuck, thank fuck--

The relief of seeing the clinic gives him renewed strength: he charges towards it, swings around when he reaches the door, shoulders it open with his back and his elbow, and bursts into the clinic.

She just wants to go home. She just wants to lie in her bed and sleep and not have strangers poking and prodding her and trying to make her better. She wants dark, and quiet, and privacy. Tess has convinced herself that if she can just have that, she can somehow sleep this off.

Sleep off a broken leg, and some kind of poisoning. Yeah, right.

In the clinic are some bright lights, and a weird mix of kedan and foreigners, all vying for attention from the mostly-kedan medical staff. The foreign population has been around long enough that most of the local clinics are familiar with human anatomy, so it shouldn't be a problem for one of the kedan doctors to take a look at her - if they even have the space. If they're not totally overwhelmed by the explosions happening throughout the city.

I see how it is, you're gonna leave me here all by myself while you go running after the kids, she almost wants to say, but aside from the fact that he'd just get pissed at her for saying it, she can't formulate sentences that complex right now. So mostly what she just ends up muttering is, "Leave me... the girls..."

God, the clinic is like-- Well, nothing can ever compare to the triages that were set up around Texas that Joel found himself quarantined in when the outbreak first happened, but the sights and the smells and rushing chaos takes him back. Just seeing a functioning clinic is enough to take him aback. He hasn't seen any such thing remotely close to it for years.

"Help," he calls over the top of the derealising noise going on around him. "Somebody-- help."

Nobody seems to be paying any damn attention. There's too much going on. His arms are going to give out soon. Very soon. He can feel his joints shaking in his elbows and in his shoulders, almost numb with having carried Tess for so long while trying to run as fast as he can.

He ignores what Tess says. He's not leaving her until at least someone takes her in.

"Hey!" he nearly shouts at a doctor rushing past. "Hey!" The doctor stops in his tracks and takes one glance at Tess in Joel's arms, and almost continues rushing off to wherever he's rushing off to - and Joel, with rising panicked fury stirring in him, takes a fast step towards him.

"Hey, asshole! I got someone who's injured real bad here!"

"Told you," Tess says almost wryly. "Try saying please."

But it's then that she spots a familiar face - a kedan contact of hers who also happens to be a nurse, apparently. She waves the guy over and shoots him a glare. Even in all this chaos, and with the weird cultural boundaries, it doesn't take her much to indicate the universal sign for help me out and you'll be glad you did, don't help and you'll wish you'd never been born. Tess has sort of perfected that look over the years, and even in her badly injured, disoriented state she can manage it.

Making a few friends can be good for you in the long run. The nurse gets them to a bed surprisingly fast given how crowded the clinic is.

"Ain't got no time to be polite here," he shoots back distractedly at Tess, punctuating the sentence with a grimacing grunt as he struggles to keep her held in his arms.

He's about to swing around with Tess in wild search of someone else who might pay even a modicum of attention to Tess or even to him, when Tess is suddenly letting go of him with an arm to wave someone over.

He doesn't notice the look Tess is giving them, just says in a tight voice, "Please," he pauses to gulp, his mouth dry and his throat parched, "please, you gotta help us--"

And to his surprise, he don't have to say much more than that, because suddenly the nurse is ushering him and Tess over to a bed, which Joel gratefully swings around and lets out a long, grunting sigh of relief as he sets Tess down onto it. Oh god, his arms. His shoulders. Fuck.

"Catch your breath," Tess admonishes him faintly as she rests her head against the pillow. Christ, she doesn't want to be here - doesn't want to be like this, hates the idea of a bunch of strangers hovering over her and acting all concerned, and poking and prodding her.

And most of all, she doesn't want Joel to leave. But she knows he will - he has to, she gets it - he should be with Ellie and Sarah, not worrying over a grown woman who is apparently too stupid not to get herself blown up.

She eyes the kedan warily, as he starts examining her injuries. Then glances back at Joel. "Sarah's smart. She's probably home."

She can't necessarily say the same for Ellie, though, so she doesn't say anything. Except the occasional hiss of pain and she squeezes her eyes shut against it.

The moment Tess is safely on the bed, Joel stands up straight, makes himself catch his breath, and then leans forward again with a hand braced against the edge of the mattress near Tess' head, looking down at her.

"I'll be--" He'll be back. He'll be back later. When he's found Sarah and Ellie and once he's got them safe - he'll be back.

A vague, hurried shake of his head as he pushes away from the bed to stand straight again. He don't want to leave Tess here, but he's got no other choice. Even if he don't trust these nurses and these doctors, it's not like he can carry Tess around the sectors with him. Jesus, he doesn't want to leave her, he doesn't want to walk away from her like this, but he's got to. He's gotta find Sarah. Ellie.

"Just-- I'll be back," he's saying as he starts stepping backwards, half-turning away from Tess to leave with a hand outstretched for her to stay there (not that she'd be able to get very far if she did try to get up and leave). Stay there. Don't you fucking leave me again, Tess, comes the thought in his head somewhere amongst the thriving panic in his head. "I promise."

And then, he's turning away from her and hurrying out of the clinic, a kind of skip-jogging around the people and the crowds, throwing a cursory glance back at Tess with hard and worried eyes before he's throwing the clinic door open and moving as fast as his tired, shaky legs will take him back in the direction of the Wood sector.

"You goddamn better be back," she mutters as he walks away. He only remembers her leaving him, but Tess has been here a while.

He left her, once, too. Maybe they both need to forgive each other, learn to trust again. If they make it through this.

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Event | Console Crash Chaos | Phase One

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