- Tiggum
- Oct 24, 2007
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Your life and your quest end here.
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we have stealth and we wish to use it
California Countdown posted:You ease yourself out of the driving seat and take cover behind the trunk with Rickenbacker.
‘You go left,’ you whisper, ‘and I’ll go right. Circle him, OK?’
‘OK,’ comes your partner’s terse reply, and then he moves off, using the scrub to cover his approach to the bridge.
You adopt the same tactic and close in on the bridge until you can see the man clearly. He is crouching close to the tent, his thin, bearded face twitching and awash with sweat. Then he catches sight of Rickenbacker and he panics, throwing down his shotgun and taking off across the bridge at a run. You chase after him and bring him down near the middle of the bridge with a tackle that would once have earned you a try-out with the L.A. Raiders. It slams him to the ground and empties the air from his lungs.
‘Don’t … hurt … me … ’ he gasps.
‘I’m not gonna hurt you, bud,’ you reply, and pull him to his feet. As you are bringing him back across the bridge, Rickenbacker approaches from the scrub.
‘OK, wise guy,’ he says, pretending to be angry. ‘Who are you and what are you doin’ here?’
‘My name’s Brent Jaeger,’ he says, and tentatively offers his hand in friendship. Rickenbacker hesitates, and then shakes it, and at once the man seems to relax, as if a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.
‘For a minute there I thought you two were clansmen,’ he says. ‘You can’t be too careful in these parts.’
‘Where you from?’ you ask.
‘I’ve made my way up from Panama, mostly on foot. I’ve got the blisters to prove it, too. I was working on the canal when HAVOC pulled the plug. I was lucky; I found a safe zone in the jungle and waited there for spring to come around again. It’s sure been a long time comin’. Since things have settled I’ve been making my way north. I’m lookin’ to get back home to San Francisco.’
‘You’re lucky you’ve got this far on your own,’ you say.
‘There were three of us when we started out, but the heat and the clans did for my friends and now I’m the only one left. I’m gonna make it, if only for their sakes.’
To avoid the sun, you and Rickenbacker accept Jaeger’s offer to share the shade of his makeshift tent while he continues his story. ‘I heard about the scene in California from some survivalists I stayed with for a while, down in Alamos. Sounds like they’ve gone an’ turned the state into one big fortress. The army’s in charge and they’ve got things locked down tight. They’ve kicked all the troublemakers out into the desert and slammed the door. In the south, I hear they’ve drawn up a new state line, from Pine Valley to Banning. All the old roads in and out are guarded and I hear they’ve got real picky ’bout who they let in.’
He reaches over to a tattered denim jacket lying on the ground, and takes an equally tattered map from an inside pocket. ‘I plan on going in here,’ he says, pointing to a part of the map that is so worn that it has become almost illegible. ‘It’s a place in the mountains, north of Lake Henshaw. I figure that the army can’t have enough men to patrol that area too well. If you two’d take my advice, you’d think ’bout doin’ the same.’
You tell Jaeger how you survived the post-holocaust years. You also tell him that you are acting as scouts for a convoy that is equally determined to reach California, only they are now so short of food and water that, unless fresh supplies are found soon, few of them are likely to survive the 400 miles that separate you from the Pacific.
‘Man, you guys have got problems,’ he says, shaking his head slowly from side to side. ‘And you’re headin’ slap-bang into even more. Ain’t you heard—Yuma is a clan base. And believe me, the guys that are holding that city are heavy-duty bad news. If you’re thinkin’ of crossing the Colorado River there, forget it. You’ll never make it. They’ll blow you off the road.’
Concerned by what Jaeger has said, and anxious that he tell everything he knows about the clan base at Yuma, you ask him to return to the convoy with you. After some thought he decides that at least there is safety in numbers, and agrees to join the colony. When you get back to Dateland, Macy and Langdon are shocked to see three people squeezed into your roadster, but you soon explain Jaeger’s background, and they offer to transport him in their Trans-sol, which at least has the luxury of rear passenger seats. During your absence they have managed to forage some food, which you divide between you before you return to the convoy at Aztec.
On your return to Aztec, you find that Cutter’s crew of mechanics have repaired the damaged vehicles and that the convoy is ready to leave. The appearance of a new face causes a stir, especially when the news breaks that Yuma is a clan base. Jaeger is questioned at length and reveals one piece of information that is of special interest to Pop Ewell. He knows the exact radio frequency used by the Californians at their Pine Valley outpost. Pop tries to make contact with them, but the signal is too weak to make any sense of their reply.
As you are handing over the food that was found during your scouting mission, Cutter voices the colony’s fears about what has become your most pressing problem—water. In the fierce, daytime heat, there are many, especially the children and the wounded, who have already begun to suffer severe dehydration. During your absence, a small group led by Avenal was sent to the Gila River to try to fill the spare water containers. However, they found what little there remained of the river water was so polluted that not even a ten-fold dosage of purification tablets could neutralize all the toxins. One Tucson colonist, crazy with thirst, drank some and died an agonized death.
Cutter and the other convoy leaders are gravely worried. Morale within the colony is at an all-time low, and unless a new water supply is found quickly, discipline is likely to collapse with disastrous consequences. It comes, therefore, as a welcome surprise when Jaeger provides, quite off-handedly, a solution to the problem.
Jaeger is talking to Rickenbacker when he mentions that, only the previous day, he found a fresh-water well in the mountains, approximately fifteen miles southeast of the town of Mohawk. He offers to lead the convoy scouts to it, and assures everyone that the source is pure and uncontaminated. ‘An’ the best part is that the clansmen don’t know about it, either,’ he says, enthusiastically.
The promise of fresh, clean water lifts the convoy’s flagging spirits and renews their hopes of completing the long exodus to California. You set off at once and soon cover the twenty miles of open road that lead to the derelict town of Mohawk. Once there, you and Jaeger are chosen to go and find the well. A dozen empty, five-gallon water containers are loaded onto the back of a pick-up, enough for sixty gallons of water, the minimum the colony will need in order to reach California alive.
The thought of driving a pick-up truck into the mountains without roads or four-wheel drive fills you with dread. But you know that it is the only way you have of transporting such a weighty load. Once preparations are complete, you climb aboard and head out into the desert towards the Mohawk Mountains.
We roll: 3.
The route Jaeger took yesterday, when he hiked from the well in the mountains to Interstate 8, followed the dry watercourse of the San Cristobal Wash. For him it was a difficult trail to follow on foot, and you soon discover that it is even harder to negotiate in a pick-up truck. The broken ground is deeply rutted and littered with boulders, and progress is painfully slow.
Rather than continue in this direction, you decide to try a more indirect route that takes you west, away from the Wash, across an expanse of desert. By chance you happen upon the remains of a dirt road that winds southwards into the mountains. You stay with this track and, although its surface is far from perfect, you make good time.
At length you reach a ridge that overlooks the well. The site itself is located at the bottom of a bowl-shaped gully, shaded from the sun by two of the Mohawk’s highest peaks. A pump house stands beside the bore-hole, to which is affixed a sign that reads:
Luke Air Force Range
Garcia Well
US. Govt. Property—Keep Out!
Carefully you descend, following the dirt road as it zigzags towards the site. You are within a few hundred yards of your destination when you are faced by an unexpected hazard. You take a sharp right bend to find that a section of the road beyond has collapsed. You brake, but the wheels skid on the loose stones and the rear of the truck starts to slide out towards the edge. Frantically you fight to correct the skid as the truck slides nearer and nearer to the edge of the steep ravine.
We roll: 4 + 6 (Driving) + 22 (Endurance) = 32.
Expertly you bring the truck back under control and manage to avoid the damaged section of the road. Jaeger is impressed with the way you handled the situation and tells you so as you bring the truck safely to a halt beside the pump house. Then the two of you leave the cab and begin unloading the containers.
‘I had to draw the water up by hand yesterday,’ says Jaeger, nodding towards the bore-hole, ‘ ’cause I couldn’t get the pump to work. I reckon it’s OK—jus’ needs some gasolene, that’s all. Maybe if we could siphon some fuel from the truck we could get its engine running. It’d save us a whole lotta hard work.’
You search the pick-up and the pump house for some tubing with which to siphon some fuel, but your search proves fruitless. Resignedly you set to work drawing water the hard way, pumping it up from the well by means of a small hand crank. The crank was originally designed for obtaining small samples for scientific analysis, and it takes you nearly two hours of exhausting labour to extract the sixty gallons you require, and then load the heavy containers onto the truck.
Despite several rests and drinks of water, you lose 4 ENDURANCE points owing to fatigue. (If you wish, you may take this opportunity to refill your water canteen.)
Slowly you make the return journey across the mountains and reach Mohawk, and the expectant colony, late in the afternoon. The two of you are welcomed back like conquering heroes, and Jaeger is thanked especially. His help in replenishing the colony’s water supply has undoubtedly saved many lives.
A queue forms to draw water from the pick-up and, as you are first in line, you draw Kate’s ration and deliver it to her in person. She is still recovering aboard the bus, but you are relieved to see that she looks much healthier than when you saw her last during the clan attack at Sentinel. You stay with her and talk about your hopes for the journey ahead, assuring her that soon you will be safely in California and free at last from the perils of the road. (During the time you spend with Kate you must eat a Meal or lose 3 ENDURANCE points).
Sometime later, Cutter enters the bus to tell you that the convoy will be moving out in ten minutes. The colony leaders feel that Mohawk is too vulnerable to a clan night attack and they want to reach Wellton, a town twenty-six miles to the west, and set up camp there. You are not too happy about their decision, but you choose not to argue and, after saying a fond farewell to Kate, you join Rickenbacker, who is waiting for you in the roadster.
You resume your position at the head of the convoy, scouting two miles ahead of the column as it trundles west along Interstate 8. The sun is low on the horizon and the temperature is cooling to a comfortable 70 degrees as you approach the small town of Tacna. You slow down and check for evidence of clan activity but, like all the towns you have passed through since Gila Bend, this one is derelict and deserted.
You continue and, a short while later, you see the outline of Wellton in the distance, its buildings dark against the orange glow of the setting sun. The town looks empty and you approach without slowing. Fatigue, coupled with the ease with which you have passed through the previous towns, has filled you with a false sense of security. Unfortunately, your carelessness is punished when, within seconds of entering the town’s main street, your roadster comes under fire from someone positioned on the roof of a large building to your right.
Bullets ricochet off the hood and strike sparks in a line along the armoured plating that protects your door. Then there is a sharp bang and the steering suddenly feels heavy, warning you at once that one of your front tyres has been shot out.
Endurance: 18/27
Medi-Kit: 2/12
Water Canteens: 8/8
Stealth: 5/7
Meals: 0
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Apr 23, 2022 05:48
