The Twisted Earth (Post-apocalyptic Role play) (Started - Closed)

[Tips_of_Fingers]

"People try to kill me..." Blake stated matter-of-factly to Gear after observing the man tinker some more. "Even the people who claim to be my comrades." Blake trailed off, remembering his old gang, the split and resulting mutiny that left almost all of them dead.

Just you wait Rico... He silently vowed for the betrayers slow and painful death.

It was at this point that Delrath entered the truck again, blood smeared across his giant frame. Blake ignored him for now, not wanting to cause more of a stir after seeing what the hulking mutant was capable of. He's more dangerous, more savage than the other Pebble-dashers I've seen. Better to be cautious.

Stretching his arms, Blake turned back to Mortis and tried a different tactic: "So how'd they do it?" He smirked, "make you, I mean."

 

[Emurlahn]

"Yeah.." Gear mumbled out in the air, mostly thinking loudly rather than addressing someone. "People try to kill the rest of us too." His voice trailed a little "And yet we live on." He ended in s sigh before continuing his work.

When he had finished the bags of gunpowder he turned towards the M16. He picked it up and looked at it. Took out the mag and the bullet in the chamber. Then he started to examine every little bit of it, after changing to the magnifying-lenses again. He then found some tools and started picking it to pieces.

After carefully picking apart the gun he put a selection of parts beside him, and let the rest fall to the floor, including most of the main body. Then he took a strange looking gun out of his rucksack. The gun was about two foot long. The main difference from normal guns would be that it had a reel, and the handle was on the top, which was just a normal horizontal handle at the middle, and a foot behind was two round leather bands, with adjustments. The barrel mouth was about as thick as a small finger, and was followed by a small box all the way to the mouth. At the end was a rest, to put against your body as you held it. Bellow the barrel and the box was various chambers and fittings, and one big box where the reel was connected, at the side of this box where a small hatch.

He opened some parts of the gun, and started taking out pieces, and putting in new pieces, and putting old pieces back in. The insides of the gun was made mostly of steel and brass, while the outside was made entirely of brass. The work did not take very long, and after putting some oil into the thing he put it back together again. Then he took one of the bullets from the M16, put in through the hatch, turned the entire thing around a few times, and it feel out of the barrel-mouth, backwards. He opened again, changed a few things, and tried again. This time it came out the right way. The bullet was slightly smaller than the barrel's drilling, but not so much that it would wiggle about inside the barrel. The he turned a switch, and did the same, this time the bullet didn't come out of the barrel, but fell out out the "bullet chamber" when he opened the hatch again and turned it.

Gear looked quite satisfied with himself. He looked at the others. "So, anybody want to see what this baby can do?" He said with a grin.

 

[tobi the good boy]

Mortis relaxed in his chair and let the stale winds of the waste flow over him. He watched as a man who knew nothing of science tried to grasp what Mortis truly was, if only for the sheer goal of flinging feeble insults.

However, Mortis noted that behind his antagonistic guise lay some form of genuine curiosity. Now all Mortis had to do was simplify DNA gene structure and Genetic manipulation for a zealous, knife wielding brute.

"Did you know that people are made up of tiny things called 'cells' and inside these cells are even smaller things known as 'Gene's'. and inside of those we have 'alleles'. And finally inside of those we have molecules called 'amino acids'." Mortis pointed at himself with his thumb.

"I was made from these amino acids upwards by men wishing to create improved humans. But I'm sure you're more interested in my Mutation and whether or not I'm a threat to you."

Mortis clapped and flung his arms out wide as if addressing a crowd.

"The people of my community, in the simplest of terms, replaced my blood with a new and improved version. Aside from keeping my cells alive, it assists in reattaching my limbs, circulation and seals wounds."

Mortis, after after a brief but uncomfortable pause leaned back in his seat once more.

"Now that I answered your question, would you be kind enough to answer mine? How did you get that scar?"

 

[Tips_of_Fingers]

"Interesting," Blake mused, rubbing his chin. Despite his crusade against mutants, this one was a genuine intrigue to Blake. This ragged, patchwork man sat in front of him, challenged almost all of what Blake believed simply by existing. Did Grant know anything like this was possible? Or even happening?

Blake concluded that it was unlikely that his former mentor, leader and adoptive father had any idea about the likes of Mortis. He doubted many people did. Blake made a mental note to find out more...

"As for this," He addressed Mortis quietly, stroking the deep scar along the left side of his head. "An old friend gave it to me after a small disagreement." He gazed out of the window, hard eyes piercing through the desecrated landscape. "I owe him a debt, and I fully intend to repay him for all the things he's done."

 

[Dectomax]

The sun was rising slowly, lighting up the wasteland. The heat had just started to kick in as the rays baked the Earth. Marcus turned the engine on and the truck roared into life, with a shudder. Marcus turned to look at everyone. "You all ready? Glenns not much further now. Lets get moving."

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

"I think we're good... how much further is it now anyway?" Ashe had never been to Glenn but heard some things here and there about it. From what Ashe heard it's a popular place for scavengers but it used to be a small city anyway. There was another tale about Glenn that Ashe heard but wasn't quite sure that the others would know about it.

 

[Dectomax]

Marcus drove the truck close behind Ford, Rumbling across the broken tarmac. "We're about ten minutes out of Glenn. You should see it on the horizon now" And true enough, the ruins of the town could be seen from the trucks location. Little more than rubble and dirt, the town was just a through-fare to the other settlements on the river. The trucks came to a stand still just inside of Glenn. The town was just like any other back country town, a few houses and what appeared to be a church at the end of the road, all reduced to little more than rubble, in one of the houses a stone chimney stood, like a grave stone to the house it had once heated.

The road turned into a T-junction, to the north lay Coleman's village and the whereabouts of the crashed airship, to the south other ruins lay scattered along the rivers edge, spanning many miles of terrain.

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

"Then I'm wondering if any of you have heard of the Glenn Ghost then?" Ashe asked everybody as they got closer to Glenn. Of course Ashe wasn't really sure if the story was real but everything that she had heard was there. The houses, the church, and the gravestones, everything. Ashe now wondered if these people would be willing to hear a story.

 

[Emurlahn]

Gear turned to look at the girl. "I've hear a variation made to scare small children, but never the entire thing, and probably not the "real" story either." Gear turned around again, looking at the gun. "And then there's that old guy running around Crux rambling about it all the time, but he never says anything clear or useful, I think his mind broke somewhere along the road." He tinkered with it a little before he started turning the reel. It made a buzzing sound, hardly noticeable through the sound of the truck. "Would be interesting to hear the entire thing though." He said offhandedly, while he put the mouth of the gun outside the window of the vehicle. He then put four bullets into the chamber, and looked the safety on.

 

[Chaos Incarnate]

"Ghost?" another word Delrath was unfamiliar with, regardless if what it was Delrath could not understand why someone would be fearful of a story, unless it was a warning. He shifted his neck sideways and it made a soft popping noise as his neck cracked.

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

Ashe hopped out of the truck and looked around the place before speaking. She had only heard the story twice before but it was hard not to forget a story like that of the Glenn Ghost.

"Back when Glenn still had people living around here off the traders that used to come through to use Coleman's landing there were two scavengers. I think their names were Samuel and Harry Hallas, they were brothers just searching for some loot like any scavenger when in the ruins nearby they stumbled upon something big. A door to a vault was poking out among a huge pile of stone. Each day they dug out the vault entrance one stone at a time for at least several weeks. Using explosives on the door was out of the picture for them and not only that but they kept it a secret to everybody around here.

Then one day Sam ran back to the town with a frightened look on his face and his hands bleeding. The townspeople got the local doctor to help Sam to a bed but two steps from the bed Sam fell down dead. The doctor looked him over and said that Sam had died from Cardiac Arrest. It's like your heart suddenly stops from beating too much or just stops without warning. The townspeople got nervous and rounded up a group to look for Sam's brother. The Hallas brothers built a shack around the vault entrance and once the group got there the shack was a mess but most importantly the vault door was pried open. Soft cries were heard from the vault and one brave man named Henry entered. What he saw drove him insane.

There was something in the vault with big red eye the size of plates looking at Henry. There was little or no light and Henry could see was it's big red eyes. the thing stopped it's crying and looked towards Henry then it leaped at him like a hungry dog. It bit Henry with its teeth and scurried back into the darkness. He got a good look at it and he claims that it looked human but the bite marks said otherwise because it nearly bit off his entire hand. Henry stumbled back into the light and was taken to the doctor. The shack was rigged with dynamite in case whatever that thing was decided to take to the surface but shortly after the entire incident people began seeing big red globes of light in the darkness. Always after the sunset and in the pitch black darkness they saw it. Some people even claim to have come face-to-face with that thing but I don't believe them, most of the time.They say that the location of the Hallas' shack is somewhere along the rivers but more people say that it's more north." Ashe breathed in the gust of wind that passed through and Ashe looked to the light that still remained.

"There's a sequel to this story but if we have the time then I might tell you it... if I don't get bitten by the Glenn Ghost that is." Ashe said jokingly. "Because a bite from the Glenn ghost is all you need to turn into a lunatic..."

 

[Dectomax]

Marcus looked out from the door of the truck, scanning the horizon. The dead tree's littered around the area told of a once massive forest surrounding the town, now it was little more than an endless sea of broken stumps and toppled trunks. The morning Sun beat down on the land, casting long, thin shadows by the dead tree's.
"Ha, kid I've been up and down these wastes for a long time, never once heard of this. Them vaults are real though. People say the ancients hid in them, to survive the fire. Not sure what happened to them. There's one west-a-ways, people don't go there though, it's a bad place. Something wrong with the air they say, tasteless...stale. Still ain't got nothing to do with this, so hop back in. We need to head up to Coleman's landing as soon as we can." Marcus said, as he held out a hand to help Ashe in.

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

Ashe hopped back in the truck.

"Thanks I just needed to stretch my legs a bit..." Ashe said as she took back her spot on the truck. The Glenn Ghost was one of the stories that she remembered fondly throughout her travels in the wasteland. There were quite a few more stories Ashe had stored but there would be a time and a place for stories like these.

 

[Chaos Incarnate]

"If it bleeds, I can tear in half" Delrath said making a ripping motion with his hands, the idea of killing a powerful mutant and eating the remains appiled to Delrath perhaps some power could be found in the flesh or blood and could be passed to another. I could become invincible Delrath thought as a wild fantasy of destroying everything in the wasteland played out in his head.

 

[Tips_of_Fingers]

Blake ahd been quietly listening to Ashe's tale of the Glenn Ghost, his eyes closed to the rising sun. After Ashe had taken her seat again, Blake slowly opened one eye and grunted. "Ghosts, huh?" He mumbled, "just sounds like more damned mutants to me."

Shifting his weight, Blake fixed Ashe with a curious gaze. "Where'd you hear that anyway?" He flashed his teeth in a mock smile. "Something your momma warned you about before you came on this little trip?"

 

[tobi the good boy]

Mortis was listening to the tale quite intently. Through his wanderings he had concluded that superstition was strong in the wastes. However, every fable has a grain of truth behind it.

"It sound's more like some form of mutant'chimera' than a spirit. Red eyes indicate a low pigmentation with the blood vessels appearing closer to the surface."

Mortis moved his fringe and revealed the many specks of red in his eyes.

"And it's method of sending people insane sounds like some sort of venom used to incapacitate it's prey. Vaults were a hub of scientific discovery, genetic engineering could have easily lead to the creation of such grotesque creature-"

Mortis delved into deep thought at this point considering the necessary animals required to splice a creature that resembled what Ashe had described.

"I would have loved to dissect such an abomination" Mortis said as he finished with a small sigh.

 

[Dectomax]

Marcus laughed. "Mortis, that's right isn't it? I think we can guess that you'd love to dissect just about anything..." He steered the truck to the left and headed north. Following Fords battered truck along the dirt track. The forest of dead tree stumps began to thin out as they reached the river edge.

 

[Chaos Incarnate]

"I am chimera" Delrath asked Mortis puzzled pointing to his own red eyes. Many members of his tribe had red eyes but genetic traits were incredibly varied in his tribe leading to almost all possibilities.

 

[Emurlahn]

"Hmpf, just a children's story." Gear sounded slightly disappointed. He was still reeling at the approximately same speed, but the buzzing noise had changed slightly, just a subtle change that made the rhythm feel tenser. He turned the safety off reeled slightly faster, and just a second later there came a metallic "FLING", and a slight flash of electricity at the muzzle as a sign of the bullet leaving the gun. Two seconds after the same thing happened again, and then repeated two more times. Every time a bullet hit the ground there was another small flash of electricity

"Haha!" Gear exclaimed joyously. He turned around to look at the other. A big grin was covering his entire face, his goggles up on his forehead again. "Now THIS!" Gear gestured at the gun. "Is my kind of science." He turned fully around, and hit person besides him slightly with his elbow. A flash of static electricity jumped from Gear to the person. Gear cried out loudly. The shock was more powerful than a normal static shock, but luckily not enough to harm any of them.

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

"Never met my mother but I did hear it from my dad..." Ashe said with contemplation. "If there was one normal thing about him, he knew how to tell a story..." Ashe looked down at the floor of the car then looked back up. "That's all I have to say about him."

Ashe saw Gear's little experiment and grinned a little bit. That old man did have a way for making someone smile even if it was at his expense.