event: portal six | the wasteland

[mayfield_mods]

If you had thought that a charred nuclear hellscape couldn't possibly get any worse, turns out you thought wrong.

The sixth portal is located just a few yards across from the entrance to the Mayfield Dairy. The door to the Dairy is, as always, locked, but those of you who stare long enough at the drawn curtains might notice them fluttering slightly every once in a while- as if there's movement behind them. As if someone is watching.

Even just by glancing at the portal from the Mayfield side, you can tell it makes the desert portal look like a tropical vacation by comparison. The portal opens up to the interior of a ruined schoolhouse, its walls and floor caked with dust and ash. The hallways are bare and desolate, save for the occasional scorch mark. Inside the classrooms you can see small skeletons beneath the desks, curled up as if for warmth.

The world outside the schoolhouse is no better. Not only are the old hazards still here- pockets of intense radiation, air clouded by ash and smoke -but things have apparently deteriorated since your last visit. There are glitch pockets, as expected, but they're not sitting in place anymore: they're moving, slowly at times, quickly at others. And they're not moving at random, either: they'll come straight for you, as if they're hunting...

But glitch pockets aren't the only ones out for your blood. The roaming gangs of cannibal survivors are still here, but they appear to have been as changed as the landscape. Many of them bear the same deformities as the drones of the carnival- multiple or lacking limbs, two bodies fused together, mutated growths spreading up and down their limbs. Many of them are wearing scorched hazmat suits, patched together haphazardly. All of them are armed. None of them are friendly.

The sun hangs high in the sky, but you can barely see it through the thick brown clouds. This is a dead world, and unless you find that memento fast, you're about to become a permanent resident.

Comments

[electrowhipit]

[ Jolt's waited for far too long to get through a portal, and while this one certainly doesn't look inviting, it at least looks like it's leading to a room where he'll fit. In vehicle form, anyway.

The Volt slowly drives through to the ruined classroom, nosing desks out of the way as he does. He doesn't need to check to make sure Sideswipe is behind him- they agreed they'd be doing this together- but he pings the other Autobot anyway, just to be sure he's following.

This place feels so much like a war zone. After so long being absent from his own war, he'd almost forgotten what it was like. ]

[stabbywheelfeet]

[Never fear, Jolt. He's right behind you. Right behind you. He may have even knocked his bumper into yours once or twice from sheer proximity. Yes, they'd agreed to go, and yes... they would be together. But All Spark, if anything happened to the other Autobot...]

[He answers the ping, a little hastily, as a result.]

[It's not going to be easy driving here. But the sight of the blackened walls, the curled human corpses... it silences any quips he might have made about the cramped conditions.]

All Spark... Just like being back home, isn't it?

[And by that, he means Cybertron. At least here there aren't any corpses dangling from buildings. Yet.]

[electrowhipit]

... Yeah. [ That's all he cares to say on the matter, and quickly changes the subject. ] Let's find a way out of here. Not much we can do in a building.

[stabbywheelfeet]

[He nudges Jolt's back bumper. He's here. It's all right.]

If we can even do anything here at all.

[electrowhipit]

We do whatever we can, like always.

[ he has to force his way into the hall, but there really wasn't much keeping the doors on the hinges either. The hallway at least has a bit more space to work with, and he rolls off to the end, where it looks like the doors to outside are. ]

[stabbywheelfeet]

Like Prime would want, hm?

[And when Jolt has to force his way through, there's no reason not to give him a little nudge, is there? After all, he's sort of built to smash into someone from the front -- pushing is nothing compared to that, right?]

Oh you're lucky I like you.

[electrowhipit]

Are you sure you're not doing that because you like me? [ attempts at humor! ]

[stabbywheelfeet]

There are far better parts of my frame I'd like to introduce to your aft because I like you.

[And in return? Innuendo.]

Do you see an exit yet?

[mayfield_mods]

[There's a set of double doors up ahead at the end of the hall, and though they appear to have once been boarded up tightly, one is hanging askew from its hinges, and a glimpse of sickly yellow light is peeking through the gaps.]

[electrowhipit]

I'm going to guess this way. Let's take a look.

[ Jolt rolls up and nudges the loose door with his bumper, trying to get a visual while he reaches out with his scanners ]

[stabbywheelfeet]

Well, that's better than nothing...

[There isn't enough room for two cars in a hallway to sit side by side, so he hangs back. If he has to, he's more than willing to transform, and throw himself through the wall... but hopefully it won't come to that.]

[mayfield_mods]

[Looks like it wasn't held on by much at all. The door crashes to the ground, opening up a view to the landscape outside -- a burned-out wasteland, dotted with the ruins of buildings, figures in the distance, floating glitch pockets, and large craters.]

[electrowhipit]

[ Jolt backs up a bit, startled, when the door falls off. Sorry, Sideswipe. He takes moment to look around, then pushes his way through the ruined door and outside, where he transforms. His optics land first on the glitch pockets, but he can't really look at them too long.

Eventually the figures in the distance catch his attention. ]

Looks like we're not alone.

[stabbywheelfeet]

[He grunts, when he's backed into. But doesn't otherwise protest as he follows along behind the blue Autobot, also transforming.]

... What a charming place this is.

[He ends up shaking his head, also flinching away from the glitches, his engine revving unhappily.]

Where to next, my dear, fearless leader?

[electrowhipit]

Well, if you were trying to hide something in a place like this, where would you put it?

[stabbywheelfeet]

Probably somewhere heavily guarded. Either by living sentinels or in some kind of unreachable place.

[electrowhipit]

... Okay, if you were trying to hide something but still make it accessible, where would you hide it?

[stabbywheelfeet]

A vault? A... behind Ironhide?

[He spreads his hands.] I have no idea. If any building is standing, I'd think it'd be in there.

[electrowhipit]

I guess the only thing for it is to start looking. [ Back to being a car, then! Time to roll out. He's going to head towards the nearest crater to start looking ]

[stabbywheelfeet]

[Given the terrain, he's probably better off staying in robot mode. Not that it's going to slow him down any... So he skates after Jolt, keeping his optics on those distant figures.]

Here's hoping this won't be another Westport.

[electrowhipit]

I have to wonder if Westport would be an improvement, though. I mean, look at this place.

[stabbywheelfeet]

No.

It wasn't. That wasn't... better than this. You can actually use your intakes here. We're ourselves here.

[electrowhipit]

All right, all right. I was just wondering.

[stabbywheelfeet]

[Don't mind him, if he skates forward, to put his hand on the roof of your cab, for just a second.]

Don't worry about it. Let's... just get this over with, all right?

[electrowhipit]

[ That makes him smile- you know, inwardly- and he rolls on, looking for clues. Something. Anything. ]