Fall 2008 - Day 0

Metagame Translation: I went to the orientation at 6:00 pm on the Tuesday before the game started. There were manila envelopes with in-game information in them, and mine had a piece of paper in it. It said to come to Magruder at 10:00 and only bring those that I trusted. I told a few Nightcrawlers, some close friends, and the newbies that I trusted to do well. At 10:00 pm we began a joint mission with Goucher College in Maryland – I was on phone duty, calling their humans and relaying them locations while our humans went on a rainy scavenger hunt from the Sunken Garden to City Hall to KCOM (in 5 groups of 10-15 humans) to gather 2 clues each. They were puzzle pieces, and on the back were lyrics to Jenny/867-5309. Goucher humans gave us op.rebuildourfuture.com. McKenna Peters emailed op@rebuildourfuture.com saying, “Yes, we’ll help.” OP sent one back asking how they can trust us. McKenna messaged me on Facebook and I wrote a response for her to forward. OP thanked her for her support and suggested that we send them any potentially pertinent information.

Mark L. Thompson IV himself greets us as we enter the conference room for the regimented debriefing. My instinct, when shit goes down, is to pack heat – a Firefly assault rifle and a Nitefinder, the newest technology in palm-of-your-hand sniping. How much of it seemed necessary? Not as much as I’m starting to wonder.
We were introduced to Col. Victor Solomon, Maj. Lucian Freeman, and Dr. Kathleen Reinhurst. Reinhurst, I found, survived the events of Kirksville 5 years ago. She’s quiet on the details, but that’s not why we’ve been gathered. We were informed on the Ebola virus (they’ve finally started calling the sick ones “zombies”, just like Tarmo said) and how to defend ourselves. I’m a security guard, so I felt right at home – pistols, rifles and revolvers are all effective. Syrner is developing more heavy artillery and may introduce it if we need it.

A guy next to me (I think his name was Jeff) passed me a note. I asked him if it was from him and he said, “No, I was just told to hand it to you.” Of course, I opened it and found a startling message:

Magruder Clocktower Court Yard

10:00 pm

Bring only those you trust…

What the hell did this mean? The old saying goes, “Curiosity killed the cat.” They never said anything about zombifying the cat. Of course I showed up.

And I wasn’t alone. Over 50 other temporary soldiers showed up, just as confused. To add to the eeriness of the situation, there was a telephone with a speaker system, a phone number, a list of locations and a list of coordinates. The phone number contacted a group of people in Maryland, and the list of locations pertained to where they were. The coordinates were for City 17. Breaking into groups of 5, the other humans went to all 10 coordinate locations and retrieved clues while I manned the phone, feeding the other group locations such as “The Suicide Room,” “The Sundial,” and “The Old Incinerator.”

After an hour, we had everything - lyrics to a song from our clues, and a web site from the other group. At op.rebuildourfuture.com we found a password field, into which we typed 8675309 and got a cryptic message:

YOU FOUND ME

Listen to me if you want to live.

Not everything is what it seems in City 17.

Cpt Wayne is not dead.

In City 17.

Infected.

Cured.

Controlled.

Reinhurst doesn't know.

Not good.

I need your help.

Will you follow me?

op@rebuildourfuture.com

McKenna Peters sent a response saying that we’d help. She received a response – “How can I trust you?” and I wrote a letter for her to send back.

My head is still swimming… what does all of this mean? Greg Wayne is alive somewhere, and… can the virus be cured? Whoever the mysterious OP is, they’ll need our protection. And I plan on providing just that. Let’s just hope that, if they virus does break out again, that we both stay alive long enough to meet.

Until next time, this is John Mohr.