OVERCAST: The Convicts

[Lorsh]

The tenseness of the women increases when you remind them that they have become mere pieces of property, but they seem surprised, then somewhat relaxed after you tell them that they have a chance of eventually being set free- and all without having to be subjected to any form of sexual servitude. The women appeared to have assumed that they were to be treated as carnal objects, as implicated by the fact that they were probably only spared on account of being female.

The sergeant takes a deep breath, before exhaling. She seems to be relieved, albeit still slightly skeptical. "Well, aren't you a fuckin' miracle worker, then. I'll take it, though... but what about Bobbi?" She nodded over at the private with the bandages wrapped around her eyes. "Are you just gonna look after her? Because I'm not sure how she's gonna repay the two hundred whatever-the-fucks you bought her for."

 

[Pat]

"She'll repay what she can with her mind or hands, through knowledge or through simple menial labor. As you'd expect, unless she's useful, it'll take her longer than you two to gain her freedom unless you contribute what she's missing." Kid revealed. "While we're on the subject, any of you have any skills aside from being soldiers? Know how to make things? Know how to instruct and teach what you've learned in the service? Know where the Provos are the weakest? Know where the Buffer Zone is the thinnest? Answers in both word and deed to those types of questions can go a long way towards getting out of my employ as quickly and as pleasantly as possible."

 

[Lorsh]

The blind woman nods. "I, uh... I'll try to do my best. Thanks," she says as she looks in your direction.

The sergeant scoffs when you mention the prospect of having them provide you with strategic information on the NPA. "We don't know much. And if we did, we wouldn't betray the CZ to a bunch of dirties," she tells you. If she's from the 'clean' zone, then that makes you 'dirty', apparently.

The other private glances at her and shrugs. "Err... yeah. But... well, there isn't a buffer zone anymore, anyway."

"What do you mean by that?" Joshua asks her.

"It's broken down. The rebs and dirties filled it with too many holes. The infected can walk in from wherever they want. The river's still there, but... the zombies don't need bridges, since they can walk underwater. At least the dead ones," she shrugs.

The sergeant keeps quiet when the private provides you with that tidbit of information. Apparently, that was just common knowledge- not tantamount to betraying her comrades. She speaks again, addressing your earlier question when it comes to skills. "Well, I can train people. Patricia is a farmgirl, and Bobbi worked some desk job."

 

[Pat]

A spark lit behind Kid's eyes at the insult, his now raised voice becoming oddly hollow yet pointed in his anger. "I've never done more to people than what was necessary, and even the old Boss never revelled in what we had to do to survive in the early days, something I know your government can't honestly state the same. If you think we're dirty for keeping ourselves breathing, girlie, Warlord Tom's boys would be filthy to you. Count yourself lucky they satisfied their thirst for Provo whores to screw until death mercifully takes them." After his little speech, the warlord lowered his voice again to be heard only amongst present company and spoke quickly. "Never be afraid to speak openly so long as you're ready for the reply. Once your time is done with us and you return to wherever you call home, know that the day is coming fast, and soon it will be past, that there'll only be one zone to live in. When that day comes, know that there will always be a place for you amongst us." With that said, Kid and Joshua returned to the ATV and departed with the old man, his men, and their girls in tow back the way they came - to the town of Wolton.

 

[Lorsh]

[sorry, have been busy lately helping with a move]

[also i'm changing the CPA to NPA. they're the National Provisional Authority- which was their original name anyway.]


Calling your kind 'dirties' seems to have simply become common parlance for the Clean Zone inhabitants, for the sergeant looks rather confused when you go off on her. The sergeant maintains a blank expression as your brief tirade finishes, though there may have been a flicker of amusement in her eyes due to the fact she managed to upset you in some way. The private who also used the offending word, however, looks more bashful and fearful about the prospect of being turned over to Tom, and looks towards the ground.

The trio of prisoners listen to your parting speech. "If the rebs win, then you'd be right. The CZ would become part of the abyss," the sergeant says, almost painfully. The three captives shuffle back over to their partial-owners, and you travel with the party back over to Wolton.


While passing through the ruins of the old town, the crew observes one of the cult symbols you and Joshua evidently missed. Joshua briefly dismounts the ATV and walks over, going to spray over it quickly. The old man scratches his beard. "Some weird death cult symbol, we saw it in Darven. It's overrun by the dead, coincidentally enough. A fuckload of soldiers got turned into zombies, so we couldn't even risk getting any gear. They had been fighting someone else before it all went down, probably rebs or some of Tom's guys... they're all reanimated now too. Guess they're finally on the same side, eh?"

 

[Pat]

Reaching the roadside camp, Kid hands over three hundred more rings to complete the deal and asks a parting question of the traders before they go after they hand over the three women, then pressing onwards to the prison complex for a status report on the annexation of the protectorates. "Should your leader be interested in the the prospects of the arrangement we discussed, when and where would we hear from you again?"

 

[Lorsh]

You reach the camp, finding it all but deserted. The relocation of the survivors, presumably, was a success. Just cinders from an old campfire, a few cigarette butts, and a discarded, ratty teddy bear were left behind.

The permanent structures have all been left behind, though they're mostly just old wooden shacks that the survivors built. They packed up their sleeping bags and the smaller tents by the looks of it. By now, the newcomers should be back at the prison. Presumably, the camp in Townston was successfully annexed as well.

The old man accepts the payment, and gives his name, Harold. He then relinquishes the provo slaves, before giving you his group's radio frequency to discuss possible future meeting locations with his boss.


After Harold and his men depart, you return back to base and are given a report on the annexation by 'Buzz' Duan.

 

[Pat]

Kid sends Patricia to the courtyard and rooftop gardens to see if she has enough insights on potential improvements to them or possesses skills appreciably above that of an average worker as a former farmhand to warrant her not becoming a marauder. If she would serve more usefully as a marauder, she is sent to join the crew of either 'Lord' James or 'Stammer' Marrick, depending on which loses the coin toss and doesn't have a full crew of six total.

Kid sends Bobbi to 'Doc' under the watchful guard of a base crew marauder to alleviate the loss of her eyes with available knowledge and medicine. Once done, she becomes a worker and is assigned to particularly easy and safe tasks appropriate for her condition within the prison compound.

Kid sends the eleven newcomers willing to be marauders to replace: 'Lord' James, 'Stammer' Marrick, 'Dizzy McDonald, 'Smooth' Beadle, 'Cob' Johnson, 'Blondie' Pendergast, 'Tripper' Turnbul, 'Minty' Marsh, Norris Wick, 'Chatter Vanette, and Dick Laverty of the base crew. Ringleaders 'Lord' James and 'Stammer' Marrick form two new crews out of the nine other marauders also getting replaced, flipping a coin to see who gets the ninth marauder in their respective crews. With two ringleaders leaving the base crew, Kid selects out of the most competent marauders remaining within it, new or old, to become ringleaders in the wake of their absence from the security detail.

Kid orders the Provo Sergeant to begin improving the training of crews 1-8 (the last two being the newly formed ones).

Kid queries what if any vehicles are capable of making the journey to Paxton directly from Marsden Penitentiary, bypassing Tulip Valley entirely.

Kid queries about the progress of the rooftop gardens and assigns the new workers to the guarded work shifts involved in constructing them (now to be protected by the base crew and the currently training crews), chopping down trees for materials, and bringing in aged skeletons of infected to be used as bone meal fertilizer for the prison's agriculture.

Kid queries about the feasibility of and what resources it would take to produce what type of firearms, explosives, ammunition, and armor.

Kid queries with 'Boss' and 'Doc' if it's possible to use trace amounts of zombie blood and tissue to unnoticeably taint alcohol, making it infectious, and if it's possible to use infected blood and tissue to make nail bombs capable of rapidly infecting those who are wounded but not killed by them via contact with contagious shrapnel.

Kid queries about what suggestions there are to improve the defenses of the prison compound from human attackers.

Kid queries whether or not Warlord Tom's men would be able to notice cars heading to Piketon or Spitnuk.

Kid queries about the easiest and safest ways of contacting Warlord Tom.

 

[Lorsh]

Patricia turns out to be reasonably knowledgeable when it comes to gardening and general botany, according to the observations of your other workers.

Bobbi, the NPA private, is inspected by the prison physician and has her bandages replaced with clean wrappings.

A few of your marauder ringleaders say that they worry about the provo sergeant, Atkins, training recruits improperly on purpose.

Buzz, your quartermaster, tells you that three assault rifles were also found in the Townston camp, and have now been added to the armory. He says that they must have been hidden, since most of the survivors' heavy armaments were taken away by your crews a long time ago. Still, he doesn't suspect anything along the lines of them having stored weapons for use in an insurrection- they probably just kept them in case of a particularly bad zombie attack, and didn't want them confiscated.

The infection has the capacity to be waterborne, but if the infection were added to liquor, the alcoholic content would end up killing it. You heard stories of people getting doused with jugs of disinfectant during the initial outbreak in order to kill any trace of the infection on them. Unfortunately it doesn't work for bites, since the virus ends up in the bloodstream almost immediately. The idea of infectious nail bombs does seem like it may have some feasibility, however. Your handyman, Fixit, says he'll see if he can work something up.

'Helm' Zadamov suggests digging trenches for ghouls to fall into, set up outside the walls. Unsuspecting human attackers may also end up falling in.

The rooftop gardens are mostly complete, and the seeds have already been planted.

Your deputies tell you that Warlord Tom may have scouts that would make a trip to Piketon or Spitnuk noticeable to him. Then again, his men can't be everywhere at once, so it's possible they would be able to slip by any watchers. Either that, or it's possibly that Tom's scouts simply wouldn't care if the number of cars were small.

Warlord Tom's frequency was given after the treaty in case you wanted to contact him or one of his higher-up goons. You can call him using your prison's stationary radio setup.

Your mechanically-inclined workers and marauders come up with a list of weapons that could be produced. Some of them are little medieval, but still effective. Others are bombs. A few of them include improvised, unique zip guns, as well as a few homemade versions of simple vanilla rifles.

Spoiler: Recipes of Death

Spear [5 wood, 1 scrap]
-Weapon
-Can be used to fish

Hatchet [5 wood, 10 scrap]
-Weapon
-Woodcutting tool

Longbow [15 wood, 1 scrap]
-Weapon

5x Arrows [2 wood, 1 scrap]
-Ammo

Firebomb [1 fuel, 1 alcohol, 1 scrap]
-Explosive

Pipe Bomb [1 fuel, 10 scrap, 1 component]
-Explosive


Zip Pistol [1 wood, 10 scrap, 3 components]
-Requires gunsmith and workshop

Zip Shotgun [10 wood, 20 scrap, 6 components]
-Requires gunsmith and workshop

Zip Rifle [10 wood, 25 scrap, 8 components]
-Requires gunsmith and workshop

Zip Rifle [10 wood, 25 scrap, 8 components]
-Requires gunsmith and workshop

Wasteland Rifle [10 wood, 25 scrap, 8 components]
-Requires gunsmith and workshop


Single-Shot Rifle [15 wood, 25 scrap, 8 components]
-Requires gunsmith and workshop

Varmint Rifle [10 wood, 25 scrap, 10 components]
-Requires gunsmith and workshop

 

[Pat]

The warlord assigns the two Provo privates to be workers. The sergeant, meanwhile, will be watched for any misleading tutelage by 'Boss' and the other ringleaders. As many infectious nail bombs as possible while are made or modified while Kid is away. After the rooftop gardens are done, every worker begins digging a north, a west, and an east trench outside the fences under the protection of the base crew that will be ten meter deep and ten meters across, that will be connected together to form a partial moat around the prison, eventually to be filled with the undead.

Kid departs for the Clean Zone with the sniper crew, the assault crew, the armored crew, the gunner crew, eight crews, and 'Doc', in addition to all available supplies for their expedition and spare guns within their armory. They head to a location south of Wicker and the Provo controlled River Outpost, then head east until they hit the natural boundary. From there, they search for a way across, be it a ford or a boat.

 

[Lorsh]

[not a full week delay this time. i am victorious.]

Work and production orders are set for your workers to complete during your absence. The roster has been updated to included the shifted squad positions, as well as the inclusion of the new NPA captives as workers.

Two new crews have been formed by ringleaders Stammer and Lord.

Once the supplies are all loaded up into the vehicles you are taking, you depart from the prison, leaving it in the hands of the Boss. When you are passing near Tom's territory, you see shapes in the distance- planes? Distant, periodic pops can be heard as well. By the looks and sounds of it, Tom might be getting bombed by the NPA's aerial units, possibly as a form of punishment or deterrence, since the NPA probably has no actual strategic interest in Tom's city. A few of your men show fear that the government may try to blow up Marsden and kill their families, but one of your lieutenants, Lord James, reassures them that the NPA is only focused on Tom because he has thousands of men, and says that the NPA probably wouldn't waste any more precious bombs or jet fuel on attacking Marsden.

As you push deeper into the southern sector of the DZ over the next few days, you pass through many abandoned towns. Sometimes your men report seeing grimy scavengers poking through the buildings or searching through trash, but they all flee when they see the faded orange jumpsuits and riot strap armor of your convicts. Zombies are thick in these parts, though you only lose Scottie Hutchins on the trip.

Occasionally, more strange symbols and skeletal setups are seen, but they are desecrated by your men after being encouraged to do so by Joshua.

Eventually, you pass Wicker and the River Outpost, before heading over to the river. You find a shallower part and manage to pass through onto the other side, although one of your sedans ends up sinking and you lose a few of your supplies, though it isn't anything substantial.

Once you are on the other side, you find yourself in a plains region without much in the way of buildings or roads. Though, you do know your rough location on the map; just south of River Outpost.