Session recaps

[Enric]

In this part of the world, there isn't a lot left. There's Monk's place, Watertown, a decent-sized hardhold surrounding small lake, not much more than a few partially-standing buildings, an old subway station, and a makeshift shanty town. If you want drinking water that isn't blackened with poisonous shit, though, and you don't want to take your chances with collecting rain, this is where you've got to go. There are roads around Watertown, you can even drive on some of them, but most of the city that was once here has been flattened. If you're looking for city, well, you've got to take the bridge across the bay into The Ruins. But honestly, I don't recommend it - Monk's a hardass, but she's fair and keeps her word. Now in The Ruins, I've heard there's nothing but marauders and flesh-eater hardholds. Most of those that cross the bridge don't come back. Some do, though...

Our story starts with the gunlugger Apple Jack and a few of Monk's guys bringing Joe's Girl into Watertown. Joe's Girl works for Mercer, one of the hardholders in The Ruins, and Monk wants to know what they're up to. To soften him up, Monk brings in Garvey, the brainer, and believe me, when Garvey's done with him, Joe's Girl's ready to spill whatever Monk wants to hear.

Later, Monk sends Rat, the kid, to fetch Fish, the angel that's passing through with Shigusa and Mox - the three of them run an ambulance together. Monk wants Fish to check on Joe's Girl and make sure he's okay, but when Joe's Girl comes to, he loses his shit and makes a run for it, because he sure doesn't want Garvey fucking with his brain anymore. Before anyone can do anything about it - well, Dremmer tries, but he just gets fucking shot in the gut for it - Joe's Girl is gone, and Monk is pissed. She sends Apple Jack and Garvey and Fish out after him, and the three of them, along with Shigusa, drive the ambulance out to the bridge. They ask Twice, one of Monk's folks that guards this side of bridge, if she's seen Joe's Girl, but she hasn't. Apple Jack does, though - climbing out of the bay on a utility ladder on the other end of the bridge. From there, things get a little wild. Apple Jack pops a sniper hiding in the girders of the bridge, while Fish tries to make his way over to Joe's Girl and Garvey moves in and out of this creepy fucking trance. When Apple Jack and Garvey get to Joe's Girl, he's right between them and a couple of weird-looking fuckers from The Ruins with their heads wrapped in black cloth. Garvey does... something to them, though, and they make a break for it. Joe's Girl wants to, too, but when Fish says they can do something about what's going on in his head, he gives himself up....

[Enric]

A few days later, Joe's Girl is sick as shit, and Monk sends for Fish to take care of him. Joe's Girl rants and raves about "The Broken," the creepy fuckers with their heads swathed, and how he's about to become one of them because he's got the bug - it comes from the fucked-up water in the bay, and he's got it bad. Fish does some research in his infirmary, and he figures he can come up with a cure, but it's going to be risky: he'll be exposed to whatever this shit is, and he's going to need some tech that he just can't get in Watertown.

Fish tells Monk to keep Joe's Girl in quarantine, and to get a crew together to search The Ruins for the stuff he needs. Along with Shigusa and Mox, Monk gets Apple Jack and Garvey, as well as Omie and Dog Head, a bit of the local muscle, to help Fish out. When the plan changes, however, and the crew decides to drive around the south end of the peninsula, rather than risk an assault across the bridge, Dog Head stays behind.

On the way down, Omie tries to convince the others in the back of the ambulance that Monk's not making a strong enough show of force, and that the hold is slipping through her fingers, but Garvey does some weird shit to him and he shuts up fast. Later, the crew is almost ambushed by some marauders with an IED, including Newton, but Apple Jack makes short work of them - and has the first of several unsettling visions of Parcher, a man that he'd killed on Fish's behalf.

At the edge of the ruins, the crew comes across a roadblock overseen by Rice and his family, but when Rice hears that there's a medic around, he offers them passage in exchange for taking of his lady, Krin, who's been ailing. Fish operates on Krin and manages to removes whatever toxin inside her that was fucking her up, but at the cost of her ever having children. Still, Rice honors their deal and lets them pass into The Ruins.

Once inside, the crew can feel eyes on them. Apple Jack spots one of The Broken on the roof of a nearby building, and not long after that, they're spotted by some of Mercer's guys on bikes. Fish tries to make a break for it, but crashes the ambulance, and in the ensuing battle, Omie is killed. Apple Jack handily tears the bikers apart, but not before one of them gets away...

[Enric]

Knowing that they don't have a lot of time before more of Mercer's thugs return, the crew decide to make a break for it. Before they've even made it a block, though, they run into Tum Tum, a kid who's been just barely getting by in The Ruins since leaving Mercer's hold. Apple Jack makes a deal with Tum Tum: if the kid will take them to The Hilltop, which is what remains of the local hospital, the crew will help him get out of The Ruins.

Together, they decide that the best way up the hill is through the old train tunnels, though they'll have to be on the lookout for The Broken. Along the way, they also discover that Tum Tum has whatever Joe's Girl's got, and Mox in particular is pissed that they're taking chances with that kind of shit. Tum Tum tries to run off, but Apple Jack chases him down and talks him into coming back, but the rest of the trip is pretty tense.

At the top of the hill, things are eerily quiet, all untouched buildings and atomic shadows. As they approach the hospital, there are unsettling whispers from the maelstrom. Inside, they find the place swarming with Broken, but Fish finds the shit that he needs. On the way out, though, all hell breaks loose - Shigusa accidentally clips Garvey as they make their escape, and Mercer's bikers are covering the bottom of the hill. The crew breaks through their line in a newly-acquired ambulance, but not without getting shot to shit. With Twice's help, they make their way back across the bridge...