We Sons Of Daley [Manhattan Blues]

Innate Area Scan. Seems like a good way to not get caught off-guard.

Done. While you're at it you get rid of your Increase Ability Innates, for now. No need, really.

>Sloppy Makeouts

Augh no! No no no. Don't be stupid, you just met her that would be dumb sure you saved her life and she saved yours but that's no reason to go around kissing people I mean come on you thought you'd gotten over this tsundere bullshit when you were fifteen.

Hit the hay<

Either/or/and

With the sun set, Alice sets a fox-fire to guide your way as night falls. It's one of many like it in the city, perhaps left over from lost souls, or SWAMP GAS, like you heard one of the EDUCATED PEOPLE say once.

STABLE DOME CAVE

This is a cave made out of a stable dome of rubble and debris of a fallen TENEMENT BLOCK. The bad news is, there's no more central heating. The good news is, you're pretty sure it's RENT-CONTROLLED.

"You got some FOOD in that pack of yours?" Alice asks.

"Not much more than a days' worth for the both of us. We'll have to live off what we find. If we can kill it."

"... Are you SERIOUS?"

"What?"

She pulls out some METAL SHARDS from some pocket, you're not sure WHERE. "Arlington, I want you to tell me what kind of steel this is."

It takes you a long moment of staring at the shards intently. "Looks like about an inch of TANK ARMOR. Pretty thin for a tank..."

"That's what you were PUNCHING THROUGH."

"That? With my BARE HANDS? You must be joking." You start gathering up some WOOD for FIRE, and cook what remains of your RATIONS.

It's not very tasty, by any standards of the term, but the CANNED MEAT and CANNED VEGETABLES are better than nothing. Alice seems to be reading SOMETHING ELSE as you start prepping for bed.

"Notice you have a few BOOKS." That's actually PRETTY RARE, nowadays.

"Yeah?"

"What are they?"

"This one's CHEMISTRY, actually. The atlas. And the journal is my GRIMOIRE."

"The grimoire of Alice, huh..." You look at the third book, and the smallest in appearance of the bunch. It is bound in GREEN LEATHER. And laid in GOLD on the cover is, indeed, the word ALICE, in what can only be termed big, friendly letters.

"Don't bother reading it, I don't think you'd understand it anyway." She produces something out of THIN AIR- it looks like a sleeping bag- and curls up in it. "We have a lot of work to do tomorrow to make this place livable and find useful items, so I suggest you get some sleep now instead of later."

Sleep when you can is the old rule...

**************

"He's gone. AWOL, boss."

"No, no," The FIFTH MAN, RICHARD WU, says. "If he were AWOL, we could track him. He's obviously DEAD."

"What about the survivors?"

"Eh, let them leave. We have DENIABILITY."

"So if he's dead, who killed him?"

"You saw her yourselves. Alice, the LADY OF NIGHTMARES."

***************

And it was evening, and it was morning, a first day.

***************

You are in the cave. You have very few supplies, and fewer ideas on how to stretch them, particularly AMMUNITION. Once you have supplies, you can probably live on Manhattan Island INDEFINITELY, but for now you have to figure out a way to SURVIVE. You could forage, or hunt, or any of a number of other ideas, but you might need to come up with something in short order. You know from your TRAINING that you need WATER first, then FOOD. Other than that the area seems plentiful enough.

>_