Grant enters the underground garage beneath flickering fluorescent tubes. Cpl Bawer stands beside a shuttered exit, while a slim middle-aged morgue technician grips a crackling handheld radio, his stained white coat hanging over dark work clothes.
the morgue technician
The signal is from another survivor group. They need a convoy brought through, now, before the entrances are sealed.
Cpl Bawer
You keep calling it a rescue message. I hear a script. Proof first, then I open this shutter.
Static spits from the radio, followed by a distant voice repeating the same route details and timing with unnatural precision. No call signs, no names, no changed information.
the morgue technician
They cannot give names over open air. Every second we wait brings more infected down here.
Shapes begin pressing through the garage entrances above and below, drawn by the radio and the living voices. Their footsteps multiply across the concrete ramps.
Cpl Bawer
Nobody touches that shutter until we know who is on the other side. Grant, we need a call.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish a trustworthy passage for the convoy
“I study the radio and listen for any detail that breaks the repeated script.”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled +0)
Grant studies the handheld radio while the garage fills with approaching footfalls. He watches the morgue technician’s fingers, the frequency display, and the pauses between each repeated transmission.
Grant Dunn
The words repeat exactly, but the background does not.
On the next cycle, a loose metallic clatter follows the route instructions. Beneath it comes a brief cough, then three soft knocks, spaced unevenly.
Cpl Bawer
There. That was different. Did you catch it?
the morgue technician
A vehicle door, perhaps. Or interference. The message itself remains unchanged.
Grant catches the altered detail again: the knocks fall after the final timing mark, not within the recording’s loop. The repeated script is being rebroadcast beside someone listening.
Cpl Bawer
Then someone is alive on that channel, or someone wants us to think they are. We verify before opening anything.
✓ Quest Accepted
Confirm the identity of the survivors on the radio
“Can the live listener answer a question the recording cannot?”
NO (Likely, rolled 86)
The next transmission rolls through the garage unchanged. The three uneven knocks return at the same point, but no voice answers when Cpl Bawer calls across the channel.
Cpl Bawer
Nothing. Not even a repeat. The listener cannot answer us.
the morgue technician
Then the knocks are part of the rebroadcast. A cue, perhaps, or simply another recorded layer.
The conclusion settles over the concrete with the approaching footfalls. Whatever is transmitting the route can imitate a live exchange, but it cannot respond to a question.
Cpl Bawer
That makes the message bait, not a convoy request. We do not open the shutter for bait.
Above them, something strikes the garage ramp barrier, and the radio hisses into another perfect cycle. The shutter remains closed as the infected draw nearer.
“I barricade the garage and silence the radio”
SUCCESS (Good Strength, rolled +0)
Grant moves to the shutter controls and drags a steel maintenance cart across the garage lane. Its wheels shriek over concrete as he braces it against the closed barrier.
He adds a stack of tire chocks and a chained tool cabinet, locking the chain through the cabinet handles. The barricade holds, but the effort scrapes his knuckles raw.
the morgue technician
Quiet, Sergeant. They heard that from the ramps.
Grant reaches the handheld radio before another cycle begins and twists the volume down, then removes its battery. The garage loses the repeating route and the false knocks.
Cpl Bawer
Good. Now we can hear what is actually coming.
Without the broadcast, the infected footsteps become distinct across the concrete levels. The barricaded shutter stays closed while impacts shudder through the upper ramp barrier.
the morgue technician
You stopped their invitation. If someone is watching this frequency, they know we refused it.
“I ask Bawer to find another exit”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
Grant Dunn
Bawer, find us another exit.
Cpl Bawer
On it. Technician, stay with Grant and keep that radio dead.
Cpl Bawer crosses to a concrete service corridor beside the shutter. She checks a fire door, a freight lift, and a sealed utility passage while impacts thud overhead.
At the corridor’s end, she finds a narrow personnel door hidden behind stacked maintenance bins. Its crash bar gives under her hand, opening onto a descending stairwell.
Cpl Bawer
Exit found. Stairs lead to the loading docks below the south block. The door is clear, and it opens from this side.
the morgue technician
The docks connect to the old ambulance bay. If the lower gate still works, we can get outside without broadcasting.
Another impact rattles the upper barrier. Bawer returns to the barricade and points toward the open stairwell, while the dead radio rests silent in Grant’s hand.
“I inspect the loading docks for a safe passage weapons up people”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled +1)
Grant leads down the personnel stairs with his weapon ready. The loading docks smell of diesel, damp concrete, and old disinfectant, while the garage impacts fade above.
Rows of delivery bays stretch beneath the south block. Grant checks sightlines, open doors, parked vehicles, and shadowed corners before advancing past the silent freight platforms.
Grant Dunn
The dock doors are shut, but the ambulance bay has power.
At the far end, an ambulance-bay gate stands raised high enough for a person and equipment. Beyond it, a fenced service lane runs toward daylight with no movement visible.
Cpl Bawer
Clear lane. I see tire tracks, but no bodies, no fresh damage, and no infected inside the bay.
the morgue technician
The manual gate controls are beside the ambulance doors. We can lower the outer gate after the last person passes.
Grant completes the inspection with weapons trained on the empty approaches. The route through the ambulance bay is open and safe for the group to move.
Quest Complete
Establish a trustworthy passage for the convoy
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Good→Great