We Sons Of Daley [Manhattan Blues]

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Deep in the dark of the forest, things move in the underbrush. You see a rat walk by.

It's a little different from how rats supposedly used to look, but that's not that unusual. It's almost halfway up your calf in size if you had to take a guess, but that's not that unusual either. What sets this particular rat apart is that it seems to have extra LUMPS IN ITS SPINE. It seems to scurry away when you spot it, almost like it had some idea that you seeing it WASN'T A GOOD IDEA.

Hm. Peculiar. But you don't have much time to worry about it now, you have a cave to return to.

When you arrive back, there's some sort of PLASTIC SUITS that weren't there before, as well as a note:

Stay put. I'll be back soon. --Alice

You get to smoking the fish on the IMPROVISED HIBACHI while you wait, skewering them and letting everything cook. Shouldn't be too long, you suppose.

Indeed, she arrives with a few cans of AMMUNITION, you guess, and a pair of BATTLE RIFLES.

"Good to see you again, Alice."

"Hm. I was going to spend the afternoon getting FOOD, you seem to have it taken care of."

"What's with the iron?"

"Some building manager, if I had to guess. Used the BASEMENT as his personal STORAGE."

"Right, so what's with the patrols? They're getting sort of close to-"

You hear the sounds of GUNFIRE not too far away. Alice nods. "There are four LOCAL BOSSES that are all fighting over the scraps of MANHATTAN. It doesn't help that with the SUBWAY LINES and FOUNDATION PROBLEMS, most of these buildings that haven't PARTIALLY COLLAPSED already are THREATENING TO. So they squabble, and send people to fight, and generally try to be dicks to each other as much as possible while respecting the fact that if they're too MUCH of a dick, they'll get STOMPED by the other three BOSSES working together."

"What's so great about Manhattan itself?"

"By itself? It was the densest building area of the densest city in America. There's more RAW MATERIAL here than anywhere else. Speaking of... There's these, and then there's the GLOCKS. I'm going to go get those, and some more AMMO, and we'll have lunch."

>_