(Gamma World) This is Not a Test #30 - Coffins for Hissers

 Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, assisting the Hissers of Notex with the sky falling....

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Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  Recovering from his injuries from the Glow near Ulmin.

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with trusted Restorationist ties. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.  Recently "gave birth" to a litter of sentient earthworm babies.

Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend.  He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters.  Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does. Looking for trouble in all the right places.  Recent jousting champion of Fair-Town and has been awarded... a peacock he has named Chambray.

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With a full night's sleep, a belly full of grub, the De Facto Explorers met up with the Hisser elders.  The general consensus of the villagers was that they were prepared to leave if things continued from yesterday.  Yesterday had been the first attack that killed someone, and unless the party had a solution, there was no way to defend against the falling objects.   The Explorers encouraged the Hissers to evacuate the area short-term.  Hopefully in a few days, things would be remedied, if no sooner.

As the villagers began packing their worldly possessions, the Explorers re-entered the facility entrance.  They were still debating which direction they would take when they still wandered into the stairwell.  It was another five minutes of rather loud debating for a marching order going down the concrete steps. 

One flight of steps down and the concrete changed to all-metal steps, about three-quarters the width, with only superficial rust.   Four more flights of the metal stairs, and the group found themselves on solid ground.  A quick look saw dozens of plastic containers, each about as big as one man could carry.  scattered to and fro.  Some were still stacked atop each other, while others were tossed about.  

With Sonny holding a torch, Lathar went through all of the bins, finding all of them empty.  Pete insisted that they seemed like great inventions to lug stuff around.  Added that they were stackable, they took two stacks of three and hauled them back up to just inside the main door.  

"So long as we don't end up selling these as Hisser coffins, I think they'll work out fine," was all Squiggles could say as he climbed the steps with one bin.  

"Don't forget the lids," was all Sonny could add to the discussion.

Completing that task, Pete suggested taking the main hallway before heading back up.  

Working down the hallway, the sunlight from the outside door gave way to darkness, which Lathar's lantern took over.  

There were no other doors until the end of the hallway,  two silver doors were side-by-side, with a panel of some sort.  In front of it was a human skeleton, in some greenish uniform.  Outside a green access card, snapped in half, and a crumpled-up white coat of some sort underneath, there were no other clues.  

The doors opened with just a touch of the panel, opening one of the magic lifts, similar to the ones they used at Level A.  The green key card did not work, as expected, but the orange card they had allowed them to select "1, 2, or 3" on the panel inside the lift.  

Pressing 3, the doors shut and the lift moved upwards.  The doors opened on a new floor.  It was dark, with open, and two signs on the walls in front of them.   The sign on the right hand an arrow pointing to the right and "SCIENCE" above it.  The sing on the left had an arrow pointing left and "MEDICAL" above that.  

As they turned towards in the direction of Medical, they were alarmed by the carnage just outside their view.  Bodies in uniform were strewn across the floor, and the burn marks on the walls, probably from weapons fire.  It appeared that there should have been bodies and blaster marks in front of the elevator, but someone/thing cleaned them up.  

The Explorer searched the bodies, but found a lot of empty energy cells, plenty of spent bullet casings, a full syringe of some sort of liquid, three casters for an office chair, and a single grenade.  The grenade was in a skeleton's hand that let it go when the body was rolled over, a stream of a white cloud sprayed out of the grenade, quickly filling up the hallway.  

The mutant animals and Lathar immediately began to choke, their eyes water, and vision completely obscured.  Sonny was less effected, but still felt a burning sensation over his body and was disoriented.  They scrambled for the doors, but they all appeared luck.  Sonny tried the orange card to access the rooms.  The rest of the group stumbled back to the elevator, and despite traveling back down with a good dose of the smoke, they made it back down to the main level.  Squiggles stumbled over the crates as they emerged out the entrance and back into much-needed fresh air. 

Beyond the humans/animals emitting every type of bodily fluid/secretion out of every orifice, Sonny's leaves were covered in brown pit-marks.  

No one was checking on them, so they regrouped, ate lunch, and decided to explore the unsearched level 2... but SMART.

When the doors opened on level 2, it was a somewhere between the immaculateness of the lift area on level 3, and the carnage of bodies around the corner.   They walked around the floor, counting doors and making note of three of them.  One was damaged.  One had a ticking sound behind it.  One had reinforced window and human eye-height... and a familiar mess hall on the other side...

Next: #31 - Lathar Gets His Green Card