[2-8] The Campground

[Hiro Protagonist]

Tossing and turning on his comfortably makeshift bed, Hiro barely heard Barry creep downstairs. He'd drifted back to sleep and was just about to reenter a wonderful dream when the bartender came charging up the stairs. "Hiro! Hiro!"

-THUMP-

At that, the samurai sat bolt upright, frantically looking around in the darkness and scrabbling for his goggles. He grabbed them off the nightside tabld, staggering to his feet, and strapped them to his face. The darkness was banished by a friendly green tint, which allowed Hiro to see Barry standing by a large, dark box. Also, he could see he'd put his goggles on upside down.

"There was someone here just now. Something wet and huge. It....it came up the stairs, and dropped this...thing...here." Barry wiped nervous sweat off his brow and started pacing, visibly shaken. "I say we get oit of here, man. Load up on provisions, and try and find somewhere else to make outside contact."

The hacker replaced his goggles the right side up, and taking a minute to get his bearings, activated a full spectrum scan on the box. It turned out to be a chest, heavily waterlogged, barnacles growing on the sides. Deterioration patterns placed it at a least a hundred years old, and the best part: it was unlocked.

Hiro knelt down, fingers wedging into the slightly ajar lid, algae staining the tips of his gloves. Barry muttered and puttered off across the room, stuffing a few of the star charts and some provisions into his pockets while his companion investigated the mystery box.

The creaky, dripping wood lifted easily and peering into the chest with nightvision enhanced sight, the hacker made out two separate things inside. Two more boxes, each with a small tile fresco on the top of them, rested on the floor of the chest. Each box had a keyhole as well, which was odd. One lone brass key also lay in the chest.

Picking the key up and staring at the frecoes in puzzlement, he chanced a glance back at Barry, then at the box on the left. "No....no, that doesn't seem like a good thing."

He stuck the key in the box on the right and turned it. 

-snap-

"Goddamnit."

Barry just looked back in the hacker's direction and snorted. "I can't believe you're messing with that. Just leave it, and let's go." Hiro pulled the second box out and opened it to reveal.....nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Tossing the empty box back into the chest with a frustrated sigh, the disappointed swordsman stalked over to his compatriot to fill his own belt pouches with provisions. "Yeah...you're right. Let's just, koff, get....get a...hhuurgh...hack....ahhh-hkk!" 

Hiro started coughing, thick and wet, doubling over as his ribs ached fron the force of the expulsions. His head swimming, he could see Barry similarly incapacitated. A salty, iron taste hit his tongue, and the phlegm that came out of their mouths was much looser and darker than ordinary mucus. They were coughing up blood.

Unable to do much to help themselves, the two expelled gobs of thick crimson on the floor. Just as suddenly as the coughing fit had come on, it stopped. Both the Prime and the secondary exchanged glances, Barry's a bit more accusatory. Hiro wiped blood from his lips, his head spinning, and reached for a bottle of water with a shaky palm, twisting the lid off and sipping slowly. His throat still hurt from the bloody coughing, and he passed the bottle over to Barry, breathing slow before he spoke.

"Okay...hhuhk....okay. You were right. Fuck this place."

The two gathered as much food and water as they could and set off down the spiral stairs, leaving thick splatters of blood and an uneasy feeling that something horrible had happened behind.

Something has Happened....

Hiro has taken 2 Points of Damage.