"Black Diamond" (An Alien Invasion RP)

[WildBill2015]

"Black Diamond"

(An Alien Invasion RP)

Currently open to new writers.
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1 February
7:17am:

Martin Howard was at the top of The Devil's Drop when the End of the World began. He was side by side with Vicki Lee, his current lover, when through the low lying clouds he saw the three almost simultaneous flashes in the directions of the nearest large cities.

Unaware of what Martin had seen, the joy filled snow bunny hollered out something in her native Lithuanian, then shot down the slope, expecting Martin to follow after her. He remained in place, though. He wasn't sure what was going on down slope, but he knew that it was unusual. As he waited, two more flashes from much farther away followed.

Over the next moments to minutes, everything around him changed: there was a sudden, unnatural wash of air passed him, swirling the white powder of the most recent snow fall; the clouds and mist vanished in a flash, an unexplainable result of the blast wave that had finally reached the mountain top some 90 miles away from the blast sites; and now, with his view unobscured, Martin could see the mushroom clouds rising above the distant valley cities.

His stomach turned over at the realization that the cities had been nuked. But by who? he wondered. There was a great deal of tension in the world right now, of course, but other than Russia and, maybe, China, no other country has the ability to deliver this many nukes to US soil. Did they?

He watched for several more minutes before turning and heading down a Black Diamond trail that would lead him on a more direct route to the Lodge. By the time he got there, a crowd was standing at the railing of the down hill facing deck, watching the dust, debris, and smoke rising above the distant, destroyed cities.

"Will everyone please return to the main entry way of the Lodge?" called out Brett Jacobson, who Martin recognized as the Lodge's General Manager. "Please, everyone inside."

The crowd was slow to move. Martin shed his own skis and went inside, too, disappointingly finding Vicki clutching one of her other current lovers, a woman with whom Martin had tried repeatedly to arrange and threesome but repeatedly failed. Martin found an open stool at the bar and listened to Brett explain what he did and did not know.

"It seems pretty obvious that there has been a nuclear strike upon the nearby cities," he began, his tone and cadence well controlled despite the fear and anxiety evident in the crowd surrounding him. "We don't know anything more than that at the moment. The Lodge's satellite feed is dead. We're getting nothing from the cell towers either."

Martin looked around himself and found a couple of dozen people staring at their cell phones, tablets, and laptops with frustrated expressions. As Brett continued, he pulled out his own phone, only to find that while it had power and loaded apps would turn on, there was no WiFi or broadband signal to be had.

"I think it would be best," Brett went on, "if everyone stayed inside, here at the lodge. We have food and water enough for a couple of weeks, maybe more. And if you are a movie goer, you know that the radiation cloud from a nuclear blast--"

"But we can leave if we want, right?" someone called out.

"You can't keep us here!"

"What about our families down hill?"

Soon, the entire room was in uproar as people asked questions, made comments, and shared warnings. Eventually, Brett was able to get everyone to calm down. "You can leave if you want. I advise against it, but ... you're not prisoners here. However, because we don't know whether the mountain is in any danger from a radiation cloud coming out way, we are going to enclose the entire building, to protect it and the people inside it. If you want to leave, you have until we wrap the building and secure the front entrance. After that ... you're stuck here."

Again, the crowd erupted in loud, anxious discussion. But this time Brett ignored it all as he walked through the milling bodies and up to Martin.

"Remember when we did the remodel...?" he asked.

Martin, who was the General Contractor on the job, knew what Brett was getting at. They'd been afraid the job of renovating the 150 year old lodge wouldn't be completed by the time the Autumn rains and Winter snows arrived, so they'd enclosed the entire building in a thick, translucent plastic wrap.

"It's in the Equipment Shed still, right?" Martin asked. When Brett acknowledged the man's question, Martin continued, "We'll need half a dozen people to get it in place. Take ... maybe three hours."

"Do it, and I'll get you more help than that!" Brett said confidently. He returned to the rock steps from which he'd been speaking earlier. After he regained control over the group again, he explained, "We need to wrap the building, and we need to wrap it now! Anyone who helps will be given sanctuary inside the lodge ... food and drink and a comfortable place to sleep and wait out this madness. Anyone who doesn't help..."

He looked toward the big windows, beyond which one of the mushroom clouds would easily be seen. He looked back to the crowd and finished, "You can take your chances out there."



Ten minutes later, Brett and Martin were at the Equipment Shed with two dozen Lodge guests, mostly men but women as well. Brett put Martin in charge, and soon the huge tarps were encircling the building and being attached to the lines that would raise them to envelope the structure.

As the crew worked, Martin couldn't help but notice how much smaller the crowd had gotten. When Brett began his little explanation of how things are gonna be, there'd been over two hundred people in the Lodge. There were now thirty or so helping with the tarps, another thirty or so standing around watching, and the remaining hundred-plus heading for or already in their cars, having decided that this was not where they wanted to spend their final days.

Neither Martin nor Brett pressured the onlookers to get involved. He had enough hands already, and any more would simply be in the way. But every once in a while, a man or woman would hurry forward to help when the need arose.



Less than an hour later, the lodge was totally enclosed and a much smaller crew was tightening the lines that would secure the wrap against the wind. (OOC: An example of what it might look like if it was a barn.)

Martin looked off to the sky above the cities. The mushroom cloud debris and smoke was nearing the vague division between the troposphere and stratosphere and was beginning to spread horizontally. It looked like they were going to get lucky: none of the clouds was expanding this direction. But that didn't mean that the winds couldn't change, nor did it mean that a unseen blast in another direction wasn't sending its product this way.

He was the last one to past through the door in the cover, attaching the Velcro seal behind him, then taping over it with duct tape. He found Brett on the stone steps again, with what looked like about 60 people sitting and standing about. Some were quiet and still. Others were obviously anxious, even pacing about. A dozen people were sitting at the lounge bar, eager to gulp down a drink or two in the hopes that the alcohol could make this all a fiction.

"I think maybe we should get to know one another," Brett began. He explained that he was the Lodge's General Manager, that he'd been an employer of the company for 20 years, and that he'd lived in the area for twenty before that. He caught Martin's eye, and said, "You wanna go next?"

Martin stood and joined Brett. He held out the tumbler of rum he himself had gotten from the bar and -- in his best interpretation -- said, "Hi, my name is Martin, and I wish I was an alcoholic."

There was a slight round of chuckles, after which he continued, "My name is Martin Howard. I am a General Contractor ... did the recent renovation of the Lodge, as some of you may have caught onto. As with Brett here, I know this building inside and out, so ... if you have any questions about it, feel free to come to me if Brett is busy."

Martin caught sight of Vicki and raised an eyebrow, then gestured as if saying your turn. She only shook her head. Brett saw it and asked the crowd, "Anyone else?"

^^^^^^^^^^^^​

If you are interested in this role play, PM me with your very basic character idea. I will send you a Profile Sheet to complete and PM back to me. Please, no OOC comments or Profiles in this thread.