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Old 02-25-2017, 01:04 PM   #27
Icelander
 
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default In the Name of the Queen?

Taylor held Ms. Bell in his arms long enough for Dr. Anderson and Townsend to finish dealing with the patients and orderlies. Col. Burr and O'Toole tie the three captured guards up, taking care not to exacerbate Ball's severe injuries in the process. Col. Burr works with swift, sure motions, demonstrating calm competence with applying improvised restraints. After they've secured the guards, Burr and O'Toole stash them in the supply closet.

Dr. Anderson hoped that Taylor was restraining himself from making any sexual advances toward Ms. Bell from motives of sound judgment and professionalism, considering Ms. Bell's obvious proclivity toward manipulative behaviour, documented violent history and the serious situation which made it imperative to avoid distractions.

Unfortunately, judging from what Dr. Anderson could remember of young Chase Taylor from psychological evaluations at Project Jade Serenity, Taylor was rather more likely to have found some way to frame the situation in his own mind so he could feel guilty for his feelings. Outdated as Freud might be, that boy really exhibited a classic Oedipal complex. Loathed his father, worshipped all women in a creepy Madonna-Mother kind of way and inevitably came to associate sexual attraction with guilt.

O'Toole's analysis was more succinct and pragmatic. I'm stuck in a horrorshow Gothic asylum on an isolated island where the evil guards want to kill me, at best, if they don't want to eat me as well. The people on my side include a criminally insane narcissist who's got people convinced she's a witch and the lovesick murderer with Green Beret training she's manipulating so he'll do anything for her. Wicked pissah.

When Taylor notices that everyone else is standing around awkwardly waiting for him and Bell to join them, he lets go of Bell, clears his throat and wipes tears off his face before turning toward Col. Burr and Dr. Anderson.

Col. Burr: "We're going to need to discuss the accusations against Ms. Bell."
Taylor: "No, Colonel, we really don't. I done told you she was illegally detained and we ain't got time to care about whether the fascists who kidnapped her were happy with their captive."
Sherilyn Bell: "And they took my magazines away!"
Col. Burr: "I'm not talking about about that. I'm talking about mind-control."
[Sherilyn Bell puts her fingers on her temples and makes a buzzing sound]
Taylor: "Oh, please. You know as well as I do that for a unit to go this bad, it's never one thing. It's a few bad apples, it's festering resentment and rivalries, but mostly, it's poor leadership. A beautiful woman might cause jealousies and clashes, but there was obviously plenty wrong on Jewell Island before. Don't you go blaming it on someone who never should have been sent here in the first place."
[Col. Burr glares at Taylor, but lets it drop for now]

Dr. Anderson starts by admitting that he seems to have gotten his cellars confused. Supply closet, rather than armoury. It's been a long time since his residency here at Manhanock Asylum. Dr. Anderson can't promise that he can lead people to any armouries in the main complex. He is certain, however, that the guards will keep weapons in the armoury in their barracks. There is a short discussion about whether to continue with the plan of heading for the armoury, in light of this new information.

As Dr. Anderson claims that he knows a tunnel that leads to the cellars of the barracks, we eventually agree to continue as planned, but with a small adjustment. To reduce the odds that a large group of guards will be at the barracks, we'll leave some booby traps around to fix their attention on G Wing and make them reluctant to move around too fast while searching. Most of the survivors will stay in the cellars and tunnels under H Wing, but we'll take Vicente Berrocal with us in the wheelchair, because we were afraid the guards might kill him immediately if they found him. Now that we've seen his DHS ID in good lighting, we are aware that he's not an actual Special Agent, but in light of the fact that he might be working with Raul Vargas, he is an important witness.

We decide that most of us will leave immediately for the tunnel leading to the barracks, with Taylor remaining behind to rig traps. Taylor asks Dr. Anderson for some help with his pyrotechnic chemicals. After some consultation, Taylor starts rigging traps around the doors on the ground floor. Nothing lethal, but trip-wires that deploy the mixture that Dr. Anderson made, which should be pretty startling, if nothing else. Suddenly, there is a hollow tinny noise from a device on the wall. It seems that Warden Tyrrell has given up on radios and is speaking from the intercom.

Warden Tyrrell: "My faithful Knights. I regret to inform you that the traitors continue to elude us and some of our brothers may even have been treacherously slain. These traitors stop at nothing to steal that which is most precious to us, our beloved Queen. Their treason shall not prosper. Their perfidy shall be punished. We will save our Queen from the traitors who have stolen her. Your King expects every Knight to do his honourable duty. For our Queen!

Taylor rushes everyone into the tunnel and then goes up to the ground floor again, making sure that the traps are prepared. Then he presses the intercom button. Taylor: "What is your Gosh-Darned problem, Warden Tyrrell? We're from Homeland Security. Banks and O'Toole are federal law enforcement officers. And Ms. Bell left of her own accord. As she oughta been free to do at any time during the last seventeen years, 'cause y'all keeping her illegally detained, you jack-booted thugs."

Warden Tyrrell starts sputtering curses and threats of dire retribution. At the first break in his angry tirade, Taylor cuts in with: "You done? Or you got any more empty threats to make? You know where I am, if you fixin' to show you're more than just the jackboots."

Taylor then runs for the blast door in the cellar. He rigs the Mace can he took from Guard Roy so that if the door is opened, it will hit the spray button and hopefully hit whoever opens the door in the face. As he finishes, he can hear a door being kicked in and multiple men entering to shouted orders and footsteps from combat boots. Sounds like the guard force Special Response Team.

Taylor smiles wryly as he notes that they're entering from the other side of the building, not the one he trapped. If they search the ground floor, however, the odds are that they'll encounter the tripwires and pyrotechnic mixture, which ought to slow them down and make them cautious in any future searches.

Taylor jogs lightly in the direction that Dr. Anderson told him to take. It's not completely dark down in the tunnels, though the difference might be mostly academic to the average person. Probably Dr. Anderson could explain where some light is getting through, if Taylor gets a chance to ask him.

The way through the tunnels to the barracks is relatively straight-forward, though it does lead through a wider main tunnel that connects several smaller access tunnels to different wings. Taylor has no difficulty catching up to Cam Townsend and Col. Burr, taking turns pushing the wheelchair with Berrocal. He lightly taps Col. Burr's shoulder, causing Burr to jump slightly, and smiles re-assuringly to him and Townsend. Then he moves forward without speaking, smiling to the others as he passes them, taking up position as point man again.

Dr. Anderson guides them to a small service tunnel, where it's hard to move the wheelchair. It leads to another massive door. O'Toole starts working on it and gets it unlocked and unlatched with a series of clicks. Burr, O'Toole and Taylor take up position for dynamic entry and try to ease the door open. It moves a few inches, but then sticks.

After trying to silently budge it for a while, we decide that there is something in the way. Taylor removes his duty belt and takes a deep breath, making himself as small as possible. Then he squeezes into the small opening, dislocating his left shoulder with an audible pop. A few seconds later, there are the sounds of boxes being moved out of the way and Taylor opens the door (while doing his best to pretend that he's not in considerable pain).

The cellar is full of boxes. Tools, spare parts, survival gear, camping gear, canned food, MREs, medical supplies, night-vision gear, binoculars and everything that a platoon of survivalists might need for the end of civilisation. Everything but weapons and ammunition, but we hope that these are in the armoury, which Dr. Anderson says is located on the floor where we ate dinner with the guards earlier.
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Last edited by Icelander; 03-04-2017 at 10:02 AM.
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