Hawaii:Sessions:19910105:The Weird Increases
THE WEIRD INCREASES
At about 1:00 am while Brodie was in the lobby he heard someone bumping around down the upstairs hallway. When he got up there he saw the maid going weirdly down the hall and then going into an open room with her cleaning cart. Brodie snuck into the room, stole her keys, and locked her into the room, since she appeared to be dead. Milo, who was semi-awake, heard the noise also and came to check it out. Brodie explained to him what he had seen and Milo suggested capturing it alive. Therefore Brodie opened the door after Milo set himself just to its side. The thing lunged out at Milo and just missed biting him. After a semi-fierce struggle which awoke those in the room, Brodie and Milo managed to pin her up against the hallway wall. Darr had come out but did not interfere because of space. Because of this he was told by Milo to go get some rope to tie her up. Darr did so and then Brodie and Milo carefully tied her up and hoisted her from one of the gaslights in the hall. She would not talk. Milo, upon checking her out, found her to be dead. Milo then summoned over the hotel manager and a bellboy who had been watching this unfold. From him, they learned that the woman was the night maid. She had been okay when she showed up for work that night.
At Milo's suggestion they did a survey of the hotel. All guests that were on the ground floor were relocated to the second floor quietly with a false cover story from the manager. The team then proceeded to board up the downstairs windows and double-lock the doors. While this was going on Siobhan examined the dead woman. She detected that she was dead, but she also detected some sort of organism. Realizing that those injured by the Walking Dead might be infected, she checked out Darr. She detected organisms in his wounds. She cast a 'sterilize' spell to then kill the organisms. The spell did work but it also killed the top layers of skin down to the bottom of the wound, causing Darr to start bleeding. They then treated Tormac and Roberto. Once the work was done, about 2:30 am, the team settled back down to sleep. They arose in the morning at about 8:30 am.
Darr brought breakfast up to Tormac, and asked Siobhan what she wanted. She said 'anything but meat'. While heading down to start this process, Darr (and others) noticed that the dead maid (who had been completely dormant when they went to bed at 2:30 am) had been cut down. She had been covered up and put in the corner of the kitchen. When Darr was coming down the stairs from giving Siobhan her breakfast he heard a woman scream. When he got into the dining room, the day maid was standing by the kitchen door. She said that the dead maid was moving and had been coming after her. Darr said someone had reactivated the dead one. He drew his 9mm and told someone to open the door. When Brodie did so, the maid charged slowly out. Darr, with three shots, blew out her brains.
Before all this occurred, Tanisha, then Brodie, had gone outside to investigate the terrain. They found a dead man back behind the hotel near the trash bin. Tanisha also had found a boy sitting on the back stoop, and upon finding that he was a bellboy she sent him to the front. They had just returned from this when the maid got up to be blown away. They then went on to finish breakfast. Once finished, they convened upstairs to set up their battle plans. During the discussion Lara Lee opened the window to let her falcon out for a recon. Almost immediately her falcon was set upon by a flock of black birds. The falcon, with Lara Lee's permission to flee, came back to her. The falcon made it back safely, and the team was able to get the window and shutters closed. The black birds slammed into the window, smashing it, but the shutters held. It now appeared that they were trapped in the hotel until the birds went away.
The situation needed investigation. Doing a shape fire, Tanisha created a fiery umbrella, opened the front door, and grabbed a dead bird. She managed not to get hurt. Examination by Milo showed the bird to be relatively normal, except that it had a human eye in its stomach. Not willing to wait, Tanisha took on her fiery form, then went outside to deal with the birds. After several minutes she had killed many birds and managed to disperse the flocks. Darr and Brodie slipped out the back door and provided cover fire for Tanisha. They picked off several walking dead while Tanisha was dispersing the flock.
Because of this activity it wasn't until about 2:00 p.m. that they left for the wharf. They left on only one medium-sized carriage, which Tanisha and Brodie had found earlier on their first excursion of the day. During the earlier excitement the horse had been kept inside the hotel lobby.
Almost from the time they left, they picked up an escort of walking dead. The team was easily able to stay ahead of them. Relatively soon they reached one end of Wharf Street. Lara Lee, who had been driving, parked the carriage and remained on top. Roberto kept the injured Tormac company in the carriage. Tanisha levitated herself up and fell back to check the rear. Milo strung two ropes across the street. Darr took up a spot on the right side of the street. Brodie took up a position in the middle of the street in front of the ropes. Milo took up a position on the left and placed his maglight on the street aimed at Brodie, and since this was below the fog it lit up Brodie, letting him be seen better. Darr, now able to see better, took aim in front of Brodie at the point where a riding man's chest would be. They then started hearing hoofbeats. They began speeding up. Brodie tried to dash behind the ropes, but found himself 'glued' to the spot. Brodie slipped out of his shoes and slipped out of the way. The man then hit Darr's aiming point and he fired. Darr hit the man dead-on, knocking him back and off the horse. Tormac chose that point to release a blast from his Uzi, which led Darr to seek the ground. The horse hit the ropes and broke through them, but not before popping the gas street light off, causing a fire to start. Darr rolled out of the way.
Meanwhile, Tanisha had encountered the walking dead coming up from behind. Using her 9mm and high position she began picking them off with head shots. However, they began piling up. She made a quick trip back to the carriage to get Roberto's M-16. After the rider went down and Brodie and Milo went to investigate the body, she informed the group of this. Darr rushed to her aid. With her and Tormac firing from the carriage, they managed to halt the flow for some moments.
Milo and Brodie found armor with a skeleton inside. The 'body' was wearing a necklace. Using the thing's sword, Brodie picked the necklace up and took both. Then, as the walking dead kept advancing, the party was forced to leave. Lara Lee advanced the carriage, with Tanisha and Darr providing cover fire. They picked up the rest and proceeded on down Wharf Street.
From inside a warehouse the team heard children. They stopped the carriage in front of it to check it out. At Darr's suggestion, Lara Lee parked perpendicular to their travel direction so Tormac could fire back down the street. Then Darr, Tormac, Milo, and Roberto kept firing on the walking dead that approached, while Tanisha scouted the warehouse. She floated up to a high window and looked in. She saw a pigtailed girl about four years old, a seven-year-old boy, and an older girl playing. For a couple of minutes Siobhan, Lara Lee, and Tanisha discussed if they should try to take the kids away from the warehouse. The pressure from the walking dead was getting worse, so they had to move. Since the kids seemed safe where they were, they decided to move out without them. While getting safely back to the hotel, each armed member of the team used over 120 rounds of ammo. They got back to the hotel at about 5:00 pm.
The number of people at the hotel had grown. Milo asked how many of the people knew how or were willing to use weapons to defend themselves. Six men stepped forward. Milo then organized a trip to a nearby gun store. Milo, Brodie, Darr, and two of the men made up the party. They found a small store and loaded up on guns and powder. On the way back they also stopped at an apothecary, where Milo picked up some more stuff.
Just after they got back to the hotel, Brodie brought out the amulet for Tanisha and Lara Lee to examine. It didn't register as magical, although the sword did. The thing looked like a part of some sort of machine. While touching it, Tanisha felt something brush her mind. Then it got much worse, and she saw something very horrid just before she broke contact by dashing the necklace to the floor. Tanisha was so shaken up that she headed upstairs to recover. Siobhan went with her. Brodie and Milo began setting up explosive traps. While this was going on, Lara Lee and Tormac stood guard in the lobby. They were told to not let anyone touch the necklace. While Milo set up traps outside in the street, Darr stood guard over him. This set-up took until about midnight. Just before the watch started Tanisha came down for a little bit and noticed two of the children from the warehouse in the lobby. She warned the others. Milo then placed the amulet on the chandelier. The team decided on one-hour watches to be held, with one of the six volunteers in each watch.