Alex, Matt and Ryder land on the shore nearest what's left of the electronics warehouse. The damage to the building is obvious. Most likely a bomb landed directly on the roof. Despite some damage to the walls and windows, most of the structure seems intact. In fact, the minor damage to the outside of the building actually provides several entrances into the warehouse itself. That being said, there are no walkers moving about. At least none of them the crew can see. There are many bodies however-laying still. From what you know of the hungry dead-they do hibernate when no living flesh is about. It is difficult to tell one corpse from another. Other than head trauma, it might as well be impossible.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:09, Thu 18 Apr.

Getting from the Nancy to the ruined shore of the customs station takes both less effort and less time than Ryder imagined. The bay is once they are out of the swell of the bigger boat, and the dinghy glides across the water with only a light touch on the tiller. All of which means, of course, that it is almost no time until they nose onto the beach.

Ryder jumps from the dinghy, hitching the tether rope to a fire-twisted stanchion. Away from the ocean breeze, the smell is stronger. Decaying flesh, the sickly sweet smell of barbecue, metal. Like a flavor in the air. And up close, there is no escaping the horror of what happened. Ryder stands transfixed by the piles of dead. Industrial scale terror.

He gained some idea of what had happened from prison. Newscasts, with their almost prurient glimpses of civilization's collapse bracketed high on the canteen's walls, or stories shared around the yard after almost frantic calls to family or friends. And he's seen much on his journey from Detroit: death, inhumanity, tragedy aplenty. But nothing on this scale. This is economic death, this is efficient death, this is to do list and checkbox death. The ultimate corruption of the means of production to ending life. Nothing like it has been seen since the Holocaust, he suspects.

"I don't know what we're looking for guys," he says at last, when the sickly fascination has slipped its grip. "We'll need to stick together so we don't miss anything."

He unlimbers his AR-15, chambers a round and clicks the safety off. "I doubt there'll be any survivors living in this hell, but I've seen some weird shit before now."

He stares at the ruined warehouse, its surroundings, shielding his eyes with his palm. "You see anything moving in there, Alex?"

---

OOC: +1 to Alex's scout roll if you make one.

Matt follows Ryder out of the boat and waits to assist Alex before turning to observe the warehouse. It doesn't look very inviting, but an electronics warehouse should have solar panels, and possibly a few other bits and bobs that Juan can put to use. He takes a deep breath, hoping that today goes better than the last excursion. There's no sign of movement, but the scattered corpses are a concern.

He unslings his bow and draws an arrow from the quiver, "You take point," he whispers to Ryder, "we're right behind you. Keep it quiet if we can. Don't shoot unless you have to."

---

OOC: another +1 to Alex

The closer they get to their target, the more convinced Alex is that she'll be sick and completely disgrace herself.  The decay is almost palpable, hanging in the air, and even with her shirt pulled up over her nose she can almost taste the stench.  But in other ways it seems unreal, something out of the darkest of horror movies.  Maybe if she tries to think of it that way, that all this is an illusion, that will help her get through this.  It seems a dangerous road to go down too often, a guaranteed way to lose all the humanity she's trying so hard to cling to, but for now, for this  mission, maybe it will get her through.

Following Matt's lead, she falls into place next to him, trailing behind Ryder as he asks about any signs of movement.  She raises the binoculars and quickly scans ahead.  Now it's even more of a struggle to pretend that these heaps of rotting flesh weren't once living, breathing human beings, as she catches odd details here and there: a still-recognizable booted foot, a baseball cap that didn't entirely burn.  Strange relics of all the lives that ended here.  Again she feels ill, struggles to steady herself.  Movement, she tells herself.  Just look for movement.

OOC: 19:07, Today: Alex Martin rolled 47 using 12d6 with rolls of 3,6,6,1,2,2,4,3,6,5, 4,5.  Scout +2 Binocs +2 Help.  Three successes.

There is not a lot of burn damage, as whatever hit the roof was more raw impact. As a result Alex moves more inside the building to get a better look via one of the many holes. She sees at once the place is not sound. There are creaks even as the wind just blows through the place. There is a risk of collapse if something loud and impactful enough happens. As you don't have any explosives you should be ok...maybe.

Alex as notices the hole in the roof goes all the down to the basement. There she can see the basement did not take as much damage as the rest of the place. She also sees a variety of things stored down there in boxes. However, its not clear how to get down there, due to the elevator shafts and stairwells may have been collapsed. She find any at the moment.

And of course, there where bodies everywhere...

Ryder steps up beside Alex as she peers through the gaps in the wall. He stares for a while. There are plenty of bodies, but none are moving. He licks his lips. Not yet anyway.

Which is more than can be said for the building. The whole structure looks like a strong breeze would bring it down on their heads. But there's no denying that there's something in it. In the basement, at least.

Ryder knows nothing about the kind of thing Alex and Matt will be looking for. He imagines he'd recognize a solar panel if he saw one, but otherwise... Even so, Alex doesn't have to say anything for him to know she and Matt will want to look there, in the basement.

"Anybody think to bring rope?" he asks.

He could probably clamber down there. He's definitely climbed in and out of worse places in the past. But there isn't much point in looking if they can't bring anything out.

He turns around, looking amid the devastation. Nobody bugged out of this place. Whatever happened here, everything they brought or had with them is still here. Somewhere. And in who knows what condition. They probably had a shit ton of stuff before hell came to town.

"Maybe there's a ladder around here?"

---

OOC: not sure if that's enough to give +1 to a survival roll for scavenging.

In reply to Ryder Hudson (msg # 6):

OOC-You can use that post as a +1 to someone's mobility roll to get down to the storage area.

As horrific as this place is, as hard as it will be to shake off the effects of it, just a fraction of the supplies in those boxes might still make it all worthwhile.  The creaking is certainly ominous, though Alex knows that most modern structures are designed to hold together in the face of quite a lot of damage.  If they're quick and careful they probably won't have to worry about the building collapsing.  Probably.  But Ryder's got a point -- without rope or a ladder all they'll be able to do is look, and that might be worse than not knowing what's down there.

"Maybe... maybe if we can get down there, we can set up something with stacks of boxes to get back out again," she suggests, now looking around the edges of the hole for a spot where the boxes might already be near the top, to make the descent easier.  "Or maybe there's a stairway we just can't see yet."  Now she starts searching for any signs of a ladder down below, perhaps, or an indication of where stairs might be.

OOC:  Mobility is not Alex's forte, so she's trying to Scout for the things mentioned above instead.  14:31, Today: Alex Martin rolled 2 successes using 8d6 with the Target Number system with a target of 6 with rolls of 4,3,2,2,6,6,3,1.  Scout.  Two successes.  Also, perhaps this can count towards help for someone else's mobility roll, if she spots a safer way down?

In reply to Alex Martin (msg # 8):

OOC-You have already scouted. You can add +1 to someone's mobility roll as a help action if you wish.