This is a writeup from the first session of an improvised Pen and Paper. Enjoy!
It was a cool, dusty evening on the mining planet. The miners and townsfolk had finished their day’s work and many were returning home to relax after the hard labor and stifling heat of the day. The rest were making their towards the town’s solitary bar, which, as any storyteller will tell you, is where all adventures begin.
It was a normal night so far for all the townsfolk, and Joseph, Kiva, James, Scotty and Aaron were all sat in the crowded bar, well content with their own company. Outside, the driving winds were gradually building into a cacophonous storm, sand and dirt being turned against building and unfortunate soul alike. Even at this early hour, Joseph, the town’s medical practitioner, had driven himself to a drunken stupor, consuming many glasses of the home-brew alcohol that was the only spirit in this backwater town. A faint bang rose above the lashing storm, and a few heads turned towards the door as a middling man, eager to leave the maelstrom of stinging sand, forced his way into the crowded tavern.
The group resumed their drinks, either in solitary silence or chatting quietly among one another. But it wasn’t long before a shriek went up from the back of a crowd. The group turned only to see a younger woman, scarcely above thirty years, spattered with blood and with tears trickling down her dirt-streaked face.
“Please,” she begged, “Please, someone has to help.. my.. my husband.. I…”
One of the group stepped forward, asking her to calm down.
“Please.. I.. he.. he came onto me… he.. he was gripping me tight… he was hurting me. I asked him to stop.. but he kept coming.. and those eyes.. the eyes… I.. didn’t have a choice.”
By now, most of the room was silent, their attention rapt on this traumatized woman.
“..I.. I shot him. He collapsed and.. and.. I came here. Please… I need.. I need a doctor!”
At this, Joseph stepped… nay… Joseph stumbled forward, holding up a hand. “Nurse!”, he slurred, “Get me 40ccs of Thorazine!”
“Please.. please..”, the woman sobbed, “You’ve got to help! He isn’t normally like this! I swear! Just… please.. please help…”.
“NURSE!”
It took a good few minutes for James to convince Joseph that Aaron wasn’t a nurse, and even longer to get his attention dragged back to the matter at hand. At long last, it seemed as though Joseph had regained some element of his focus.
“Right!”, he hiccuped, “TAKE ME TO THE WOUNDED MAN!”.
At this, the woman ran into the night, followed by all save Kiva, who remained within the tavern, comfortable on her own.
The party arrived at a large dormitory building, built from wood and metal on the far edge of town. The woman charged without a thought into the lobby, closely followed by the confused group. In the middle of the floor lay a young man of similar age to the woman, his shirt and face saturated with blood which continued to seep from a solitary hole in his abdomen.
“IT’S ALRIGHT! I’M A DOCTOR!” Bellowed Joseph, as he knelt down to examine the man.
“Hrrm… he seems to be bleeding from a stomach wound… and have hemorrhaging of the lungs…”
The man’s eyes snapped open and, with unnerving speed, he clasped Joseph’s collar and began to haul himself up.
“Oh, righty-o sir! You’re alive!”
The man pauses for a second, his distended pupils gazing into Joseph’s eyes.
“Hrrm. We really need to get this fellow to a hospital!”
The man let out a guttaral moan, and opened his mouth to reveal a bloodied orifice missing several teeth.
“That’s not good sir” stated Joseph. “You need a dentist as well!”
“Move Joseph!!” cried Aaron, as Scotty grabbed the back of his shirt and hauled him away.
“Oh goodness! Earthquake! The entire world is moving!”
As Joseph was pulled from the man’s grip, the man dropped to the floor and, ignorant of his wounds, tried to push himself back to his feet.
“Well… that isn’t normal.” muttered Aaron.
After a short discussion, the group rapidly came to the conclusion that the man was affected by some sort of bioweapon. In order to check, Scotty jumped on the man’s back, pinning him to the floor while Joseph began checking his pulse.
The woman, distraught, stumbled backwards into the corner of the room and dropped to her knees, sobbing. After a moment, Joseph suddenly shouted.
“NURSE! Get me my zombaid!”
With a resounding sigh, Aaron stepped over to the woman and took her revolver without resistance. He stepped back over to the man and, leveling the revolver, pulled the trigger. The man’s brain and skull mixed and together spread across the ground at Joseph’s feet. Scotty climbed off of the still corpse, looking with disdain at his clothes.
“Yeah… you might want to burn those.” Aaron muttered.
“Well then you owe me a new set.” came the quick response.
It was at then that another moan echoed about the entryway.
It was then that another moan echoed about the entryway, followed by a hollow thud as a woman stumbled and fell down the stairs. Scotty pivoted and, sprinting, delivered a sharp uppercut to the woman’s jaw as she stagged to her feet. She fell back against the stairs and began to moan as a booted foot rammed her forehead, her neck snapping with sickening *crack*. Turning slowly he and the group headed out into the furious storm.
Kiva, meanwhile, had organised a lift, which was now slowly pulling up in front the Tavern. A large, bulky, orange vehicle, the crawler was vaguely reminisant of an arctic snow-plough, repurposed for use in this harsh terrain. Without a second thought, Kiva entered the vehicle, slamming the door shut on the driving sand and signalling for the driver to move off.
The group, now heading back to the tavern, caught sight of the crawler as it began to pull away. Aaron began to shout, calling for the crawler to stop and pick them. As screams began to become audiable over the sounds of the storm, he lifted the woman’s revolver and loosed a shot towards the vehicle. The round smacked square into the rear plating, but was deflected harmlessly into the ground. As the crawler pulled away, slowly vanishing behind the buildings, the group slowed to a gradual halt and stopped amid the deserted street.
Devoid of transport, they turned and headed for Aaron’s gunstore, aiming to gain some defense against the creatures. This plan went off without a hitch, and the party soon found itself in possesion of a number of rifles and revolvers, as well as more than adequate supplies of ammo. Declining to give Joseph a gun due to his drunken state, but feeling more comfortable among themselves, they decided to head for the starport, some few hundred metres away from the town.
The crawler though was nearly there. But as Kiva sat, her hands rested calmly on the top of her pencil skirt, the crawler lurched, swerved to the side and stalled. A low, crackling groan came from the front of the cab, as two calloused hands reached towards the back from the front seat. Kiva rapidly hammered at the door release button and, with a faint whirr, the door opened, spilling dirt and sand into the transport. Without a second thought, she pushed herself from her seat and fell onto the shifting ground. Gathering herself, she began to force her war through the oncoming storm, heading for the starport.
The group however was not far behind. They saw as the crawler swerved and stopped dead in the sand and altered course to head towards the vehicle. It didn’t take long for them to reach the open door and peer inside, seeing only a dim interior filled with dirt and coarse sand. Slowly and cautiously Aaron climbed in. He barely had time to glance around when two hands reached and grasped from the front seat, accompanied by that low moan. He loosed at shot in the rough direction of the moan before rapidly exiting out of the door. But as the companions began to discuss the possibilities, a *snap* and a *twang* come from the front of the crawler and the seatbeat fell limply out of the door. The man in the front seat suddenly appeared from the front of the cabin, dragging himself with his hands towards the open door. Aaron levelled his revolver again and, taking careful aim, loosed another shot. This shot went wild, either poorly aimed or caught by the storm. It grazed the creature’s cheek as it continued advancing.
Scotty, tired of this charade with the guns, charged at the creature, jumping and kicking out as hit boot neared the creature’s head. The sides of its skull collapsed outwards and, in an instant, the top of the skull crushed the remains of the man’s head. Grabbing the corpse’s arms, he heaveed and pulled and dragged it from the crawler, dumping it unceremoneously in the twirling sand. Wiping his hands and boot on the man’s clothes, Scotty entered the crawler, closely followed by the rest of the group. As James entered the driver’s seat and shut the door, Joseph turned to face him.
“Look.. I’m..feeling more sober now. But I swear I’ve seen this before. Head to the hospital. I think I have a cure.”
James replied with a simple nod and, pushing the pedal to the ground, accelerated the Sandcrawler back towards the town.