[headquarters]

That was that.No PC casualties ,a stroke of luck on some accounts.

I had a good time ,and enjoyed the many firefights quite alot actually.

I adda brief recap to explain were we start the next session - believe it or not in "down time mode" , for the first time in 3 or 4 sessions ( close to a year (!) )

"Down time " is a relative term though .The party is hiding in a dirty cellar in an abandoned farm somewhere of Interstate 5 not more than 50 km north of Kettleman city . ( Where you first saw the ghastly evidence that the NDP indeed have nuclear weapons - namely neutron bombs).All in all you have managed to get some 70 kms away from the Shandon bunker complex.

The whole county seems to be teeming with NDP patrols and checkpoints.Already you have had to shoot your way through three of these, and bluff through several more.

By now you are on foot after loosing three vehicles to enemy fire in the span of just a few hours.

All of you are hurt , Iron Man,DeCorba and Doc Johnson have all sustained lifethreatening gunshot wounds that require expert medical attention,pharmaceuticals,food,shelter,rest and care .

"Grease" Lincoln and Benito Tecumseh Pain are slightly wounded and stand guard ,tend to the wounded ,scrounge for supplies and firewood etc etc .All in all you have been moving at night and hiding in cellars by day for 8 days.So far you have gone only a few kilometers on foot eastwards from Interstate 5.

There is activity in the immideate area ,as discovered by Pain Jr when on guard - a 2,5 ton truck drives by one day, a couple of hundred meters away with a motley crew of shabby looking guys with mixed gear on the back.An unmanned road block has had to be passed on one bridge you crossed.And a hidden camp close to a road is found with the ashes in the fire still warm...No combat has taken place though ,as you are hiding as best you can.But Pain Jr has shot a corpse eating,dirty ,scrawny dog that came too close with his silenced rifle .

Everyone has had their gear riddled with bullets and everyone has crawled over 1000 hundred meters on your hands and knees and lower than that too.

The gear is tattered and abused,but in what little light there is in the cellars you mend what you can using scrounged sewing equipment,pieces of plastic tarp,gaffa tape and old clothing.You find old brushes and brooms and dust of everything you can doing careful work.

All the guns and the ammo in the mags are cleaned and checked.Broken stuff is discarded or packed for later use.
The kevlar gear is in bad shape for most of you ,it has taken too many hits .
Your electronics are all fried.Radios,NV gear,Ipods...

Luckily Doc Johnson is a trauma medicine genious.And providence has held its hand over you and spared DeCorbas "Happy Warlord brand" medkit.This saves the lives of at least three of you when infections starts to set in .The cold weather also aids in keeping infections down. It is bitterly cold during the day , when you dare not light a fire though.Those not working huddle on mattresses under old sheats,clothes,sheets of plastic and layes of old straw and paper.If it gets much colder ,the recovery of the seriously wounded could be jeopardized.

So far the party has been able to eat full rations every day.The MREs
( PainTek brand ) are gone .The scrounged canned goods/pickled eggs that were found are gone .The small sack of flour and the oil that were found are gone.Water is plentiful however,as the abandonded farms that you hide in have prewar drilled artesian waterwells that pumps to the surface with hand cranked pumps.Doc Johnson assures everyone that it is safe .

As day breaks the 9th day the weather starts to turn colder still.Snowflakes are in the air, and frost cover the withered and rotting crops in the fields.
There is nothing to eat except one thing..Pain Jrs secret recipe Dog Stew.
It actually smells pretty good by now.

Far off in the distance , a helicopter is making its way north along the interstate.

A dogs distant baying is heard on the cold wind. A murder of crows circle a rotting cadaver on the neighbouring field .

Other than that there is complete silence.

It really is getting uncomfortably cold now.