It's All Good! (Game Topic)

Sam: Try to find the Winthropes inside. Someone needs to ask Maizie what else she dreamed, and the parents should be the first to know.

Augustine Larson (Jagdgescwhader) - Retired Veteran

This is a dream.

Larson shakes his head, trying to convince himself that he’s in a weird dream. The couple only stares at him, concerned. Try as he might, the visions don’t disappear; he concludes that if he is in a dream, it’s one that he can’t wake up from easily.

“Are you alright?” The young man asks. “Sir?”

Desmond ‘Des’ Warren (Desert Sleepy) - Unemployed

The Vagabond picks up a rock nearby and throws it directly forward. The rock strikes an invisible wall and bounces off. He spends a few minutes trying different objects to the same resolve. Gaining a bit of courage, Des places a hand against the wall and feels a solid surface in the middle of the thin air.

A firefighter or two is watching him, curiously. One of the curious firefighters walks towards the wall and slams a fireaxe into it with all his might, only to have the weapon bounce off. The area of impact seems undamaged.

Lewis Beck (Flasktoss) - High School Student

"Hey, Lionel, we're definitely going to get help from the authorities. Dad's right, this is something new, so the government is probably already sending people here to check it out."

Lewis looks up at the dome, at the rain cascading sideways through the air, and grimaces slightly.

"But maybe we should head back inside for now?"

“Good idea, son,” his father echoes.

Inside, Lewis’s younger brother announces that he doesn’t feel well and is going to lay down. His concerned mother follows at his footsteps to Lionel’s room. The oldest Beck child and his fatherly figure sit down in the living room, quietly for a moment, before Leonard breaks the silence.

“Listen, son. I’m sure you’re right about the military going to fix everything, but just in case...”

He trails off for a moment, searching for the right words.

“What is it, Dad?”

“In disaster situations, the leader of a community has to implement rationing... you know that, right?”

“Of course.”

“We have a large supply of preserved food under our feet right now. If the authorities knew about it, they’d surely force us to hand it over. It’s incredibly important that you keep our cellar between the Beck family. You understand, right?” Without waiting for a response, he continues, “I know what you might be thinking. ‘What if other people are starving? What if there’s not enough food for them?’ But listen to me, this family is the most important thing to me, and it should be to you. Understand? It’s us or them.”

Leonard concludes, “I’m only being overly cautious. Give it a few days, a week tops, and this dome is going to be down. But just in case... I need to know you’re on my side here, son. Do you understand?”

Samantha Hightower (Nickisanenigma) - Preschool Art Teacher

Samantha notices as she walks in that the hospital seems much more devoid than expected. She figured that there would be dozens of people with various injuries and complaints due to the highly peculiar appearance of the dome. In reality, the hospital seemed rather empty, or at the very least, below average population. Gathering in the emergency lobby, she notices that nurse was behind every desk, but very few patients were waiting for attendance.

She asks the nearest nurse if a little girl with her parents recently entered the building. The nurse responds, “Oh, yes, the family with the poor little girl with a headache. They rushed her straight back to see the doctor.”

“May I see her?”

“I’m afraid not, hon. We don’t let anyone past immediate family into the emergency room, especially when we’re dealing with people who have had head injuries and may be confused.”

“Oh...” A thought runs through her mind, “Say, why is this place so empty?”

“Oh, well, we are... or were under a tornado warning. Most of the patients stuck in bed and the people who didn’t need immediate medical attention were shuffled into the back hallways and the basement. Since the warning hasn’t technically been lifted, we have to keep them back there.”

“But... haven’t you seen outside?”

“Yeah... we all peeked outside. Nothing short of a work of God keeping us safe.”

Samantha was about to object to her statement when Mr. Winthrope exited a room marked “5” past the receptionist’s deck and walked toward her. “Ms. Hightower! I’m glad you’re here.” Up close, Samantha could tell his face was pale, with a slight shade of green. “Sorry we didn’t wait for you. We kind of...panicked.”

“Is she okay?”

“She’s awake, sweating like a pig. She’s running a bit of a fever, nothing crazy. The doctor’s running a few tests. They were going to disrobe her and get her fitted with a gown, so I stepped out.”

“Has she mentioned her dreams?”

“Well,” he shifts uncomfortably. “She mentioned a dream in which she tried running away from Prineville, only to slam into a wall or something. She started crying and no one came to help. She started babbling, and crying, and the doctor asked her to stop talking about it...”

Mrs. Winthrope exits the room and motions to her husband. He waves back in recognition.

“Listen, Ms. Hightower, I have to go. You don’t have to stick around if you don’t want to, but if you want to wait here I’ll come and get you as soon as the doctor says she’s okay.”

Charles McCarthy (FoundDa Kiwi) - FireFighter
Jacques Crecateu (ApocalyseWolf) - Photographer

The photographer and the band of firefighters, equipped with first aid gear and various tools of the trade, enter the town from the west end. Two police officers are urging civilians to stay within town limits, half-blocking the town exit with their police cruiser. One of the officers notices the band of disheveled public servants with the frenchman and waves them over. “Shouldn’t you guys have a truck or something?”

John shuffles about nervously, “We kind of, uh, lost it in the storm.”

The officer snickers, “Well, at least you ended up on this side of that... thing. How far down is it, anyway?”

Charles chimes in, “The truck? About a mile and a half from here.”

“So, the barrier is past it?”

“Yeah. Maybe another half mile.”

“What the hell is it?”

Jacques says, “We don’t know. Some kind of dome. Somehow it stopped the twisters from coming at the town.”

The other officer strides over and informs them, “We’ve heard of car crashes on the other end of town, less than half a mile outside the town. Apparently they just slammed against mid air... We’re staying here to make sure no one goes out until we know what’s going on. I’d recommend that you head back to the firehouse and get a new vehicle. There’s bound to be families that are going to need you guys.”

John turns to his friend, “I think he’s right boss. What do you want to do? And, uh, you too?” He says, gesturing to the photographer.

Desmond: "Well... God damn."

Explore the town, looking for anything peculiar or anyone who needs help of some sort.

Things seem different. It's not right, it's looks strange, it is real, but it's not right.

Jacques: "Despite my last comments of heroism and rescuing poor folk, I am in no realistic condition to be doing very strenuous tasks with you men. The only use I could be to you firefighters is to take pictures of you saving people, which in retrospect doesn't easily mask itself as productivity.
My plans are quite simple from here: Get to my home on NW Claypool Street and retrieve my son, along with my possessions. Afterwards I plan to head NE to the Central Oregonian; my place of employment, and retrieving items of relevance to me from there. Additionally, if I have help excluding my son, it would be ideal to head to any agricultural feed shop to retrieve seeds and feed, as this town isn't going to survive on canned goods if we are trapped in this dome long enough. The firestation is very closeby my destinations, so I will accompany you until then. And, as I have stated before, if I had help or if you men were willing to do it: it is paramount that we retrieve seeds & feed for agricultural product in the future."

Jacques minds himself until the departure of the firefighters.

Christian:

"Talk about lucky to be alive." He looks around at the tossed landscape there were tree branches littering the street, but unlike a normal storm, the darkness lingered overhead, and the remnants of black clouds hung heavy in the sky. Visible beyond it all was a transparent shimmering, that cut the clouds apart and stopped the rain from falling over Prineville--something illusory, or a strange weather phenomenon?

Maybe science fiction wasn't all that far off from the truth after all.

"What do we do now, Jim?"

He's not sure what possesses him to pull out his cell phone and send a text--to a new contact by the name of Frank Klotz--while he speaks and surveys the situation outside. "Hey, it's the guy from the bar. You make it somewhere safe?"

Lewis: "There are no sides, dad. It's our family, like always. Until someone pops this bubble, we have to keep ourselves safe, just like in any disaster situation."

Lewis stands up and shuffles around.

"Is this considered a disaster situation?" Lewis chuckles humorlessly. "We're bugs under a bowl."

Leonard smirks humorlessly.

And yet, the reality of that uncomfortable comparison begins to sink in for both of them...

Sam: "No, that's okay, I should probably go see if Mar- my fiance's alright." She fishes an old receipt out of her purse and an orange highlighter. "This is my number, please, keep me updated, I'd very much like to know if Maizie remembers anything or... just, here." She hands him the paper and walks off, heels clacking on the linoleum.

Outside Sam glances up at the sky again, hoping for one brief moment that she won't see the impenetrable black still domed around the town. It wasn't so much the enormity of the thing that scared her, just how clear it was, the purist form of absence. Anyone on the outskirts of town could have easily been bisected by it and never known. Rescue could come and they'd see it outside of town but they wouldn't be able to get in, they would be so close and when she was eight years old her dad took her to the pet store and they had beta fish in little glass jars and he just shook his head and said how inhumane that was to trap them in a space so small but she didn't think the fish cared or even knew and-

Samantha stopped herself, putting her hand on the edge of her car's hood. Sometimes she got off on tangents and it didn't seem like her brain would stop. "Mind like a runaway train" she distantly remembered, although she couldn't place who had said it to her. She took a deep breath

that's right Sammy start counting those breaths cause who knows how much air is left in here

and pulled out her keys. Got in the car. Marty, she had to get to Marty.