Overgrown: Below the Surface

[Katelyn]

Subsurface 1 - Texas

The Players:
Sergeant First Class Nathaniel "Nate" McKinley
Abigail (Abby) Parker

NPC's
Corporal Jonathan Thomas
Vince Porter

Locations (WIP)
Subsurface 2 - California
Subsurface 3 - North Dakota
Subsurface 4 - Virginia
The Surface

Gear and Apparel
Gas Mask
XM8
Colt M1911

[101 Scout1]

Name: Sergeant First Class Nathaniel "Nate" McKinley
Age: 37

Appearance:




Brief History: Nate was born on the surface, and lived there until he was twelve. He lived on U.S. Army bases all over the world, but he was born on one in Germany. He grew up speaking both English and even German, though it isn't something he uses often anymore. At seven, he moved back to the states with his parents when his father was restationed. At such a young age, he wasn't very aware of the world outside of the Army base, but he knew that times were growing harder. When he was born, Nate's father was Captain McKinley, but when he was nine (when his mother died), his father was a Colonel. Mrs. McKinley's death was hard on the whole family, as well as the others on the base. From a young age, though, Nate's father had taught him to be a fighter, to cope with emotion and play with the hand he was dealt. The two carried on, and Nate was an only child. After that though, his father was always so concerned with his well-being. He learned how to physically fend for himself, despite his age. At twelve years old, he was one of the first to go underground, as his father was given a high priority status. Still a Colonel at this point, McKinley had thought about retirement... but the move had given him something new... The man was a 2-star General before he died. Watching him go was one of the hardest things for Nathaniel... It was so slow, and it started with mental deterioration, the dark life and lack of at-the-ready fresh air got to him... He was deemed unfit for service and retired, but they were well supported. Nathaniel was twenty-two, and a Sergeant when his father died.

Mostly, at this point, the military planned, helped expand tunnels, and watched over the security of the cities in the large caverns that mankind came to know as civilization. The police force became less used, just as the Navy and the Air Force merged with the Army, as they became unnecessary branches in the underground. Nathaniel was a natural law-bringer, guard, escort, and leader. He had a natural talent for using what he was given to improve a situation. He was confident, respectable, and carried himself in a way that made it very easy for him to put him in a position of command. So many of his superiors wanted him to go to Officer's Training, but he didn't want that... He liked to be directly involved with his men, not to be giving orders from higher up and be detached, crunching numbers... He was a frontlines kind of person. A few months ago, Nate was chosen to be part of the squadron headed to the surface with a scientist to find a new fuel source, headed by a Lieutenant and four other Enlisted men, leaving a total of six soldiers to accompany a scientist and her assistant. Quite honestly, the man was both honoured and questioning... In his mind he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being given the opportunity of a lifetime to either save the world... or die trying... was death really worth it? It didn't take him long to decide that yes, it most certainly was.

[Katelyn]

NPC:



Corporal Jonathan Thomas - 24 years old

[Katelyn]

Abigail Parker - 30

Abby remembers very little of the life she once lived above ground, being only five when the government pulled them from their families and pushed to save the future generation of the human population. Her older brother should've made the cut, but with his disabilities, they decided he would remain above during the great devastation. Once the government had everyone settled below ground, the children were assembled into orphanages and tested for dexterity, IQ and creativity, those scoring the highest being pushed harder in school and molded into the top professions for the government's needs.

Abby ranked in the top five percent each time a test was given and thus was trained in multiple disciplines of science and medicine, her life one book after another. When we graduated from her trainings at nineteen, she was given the opportunity to help people or to seek answers for future solutions. She chose science over medicine and worked in her lab for the next ten years with her small team, trying to mainly keep to herself. The idea of getting close to anyone ever again only seemed to excavate the horrors of losing loved ones that lingered around the memories of her childhood. The council of elders, the central component of the governmental body selected her for her knowledge and past research work on sustainable energy as their representative to go on a special mission above ground. This would test not only her hypothesis that the earth was able to be harvest and reused as a place of inhabitence again, but that life wasn't created, but evolved.

[101 Scout1]

NPC



Vincent Porter - 26 - Research Assistant for Abigail Parker

[Katelyn]

“Abby, I just don’t see the point in sending so many of those gorillas. You know they are going to just get in the way. Isn’t one ape with a gun more effective then say five?”

Vince’s whiny voice usually didn’t bother her much, but today with all of the thoughts running through her mind, the excitement – the fear, it was grating hard on her nerves. She pushed past a group of teenage boys, her words apologetic as they moved to let her through, not giving Vince the same courtesy. She turned and chuckled at them as they moved to block her assistant’s path, their hands in their worn-down blue jean jackets, slight smirks on their young faces.

She reached into the crowd of them and grabbed ahold of Vince’s jacket lapel, pulling hard to move the bodies that stood between him and her. “Behave…” She said patronizingly slow, a smirk on her pretty face. The boys parted and chuckled, pushing at Vince a little. He was less than pleased.

“How ridiculous was that. I swear everyone that was born down here is nothing but trash. They have no concept of humanity because this place is fit for animals. Animals I tell you.” He ranted and raved as they continued down the dark dusty streets, people lining the sides selling everything from food to trinkets. Eyes followed Abby as she moved, some due to Vince and his loudness, but others because of curiosity.

She brushed her long chestnut locks behind left ear and smiled at each person that looked her way, her white lab coating giving proof that she was from the education few in subsurface one. People were curious as to who she was and what business she had being at the ground level. The mob mentality had not grown past these people and where Vince was a little put off by the idea of personal body guards, she wished in earnest for a few at present.

“Shut up,” she whispered and slipped her hand into his bent arm, clinging to him and pulling him closer and she picked up the pace. “I know you have no fear of getting beaten to death, but I do and you’re pushing us closer and closer to the edge of making that very much a reality.”

Vince looked down at her and laughed sardonically, pulling his arm from her grasp and opening the door to the Welfont building where they’d been summoned for today’s meeting. The council of elders had finally made the determination that it was time to send a team up to the surface to not only test what awaited them, but to see if the other locations held survivors and better yet – renewable energy.

“Just keep your lips shut while we’re in here and don’t speak unless they speak to you. Got it?” She growled at him as they walked up the stairs, soldiers lining the path as if protecting something beyond precious, vital almost. She shook her head and continued the accession. Something good was to come from this – she just felt it deep within her. It had to. They were running out of power and soon death would follow the awakening darkness.

[101 Scout1]

Nathaniel stood up after having finished tying his second boot to look at himself in the mirror. He liked to look presentable when he was wearing his uniform, as he knew each soldier represented the entire military. He pulled his rifle, an XM8 (the project was finished several years after coming to the underground), over his shoulder, leaving it strapped across his chest. The strap could easily be readjusted to remain firm against his body, or loose for effectiveness if a zone became hot. It had a foregrip and a fully-loaded magazine in it. He left the safety on, as he wasn't on a mission, but soldiers were actually encouraged to carry their weapons on them wherever they went nowadays. Holstered on his right thigh was his pistol, which, like his rifle, was basically the Colt M1911 from before the move to the underground with the adjustments that didn't change much. However, he left the safety on his pistol off, for easy access.

After one more quick look up and down himself, Nathaniel moved to his door and left his apartment, locking it behind him. He rode the elevator down and when he finally reached the door to leave the building, a man from outside joined him. "Corporal Thomas reporting, sir," said a voice from beside him. Standing still, eyes forward, was the very corporal who was to meet him outside his home that day.

"At ease. Good morning, Jonathan," Nate said as the man relaxed and joined him in his walk.

"Good morning, sir. Might I ask, do you know what this meeting is for?" Asked the curious corporal beside him, looking up.

Nathaniel sighed, giving a small laugh and looking over to the less-experienced soldier. "If they haven't told you, Mr. Thomas, perhaps it isn't your right to know," He said, clapping the man's shoulder. "But no, I was not given much information myself. In fact, I'm fairly sure that the Lieutenant doesn't even know, but what I do know is that it has something to do with a scientific expedition. Dunno where it's goin' or what for, but I know we're the escort." The corporal nodded, readjusting the rifle across his chest in order to make it slightly more comfortable. Nate had one hand resting on the pistol-grip, the other along the top barrel of the gun, holding it securely to keep it from bouncing around or getting in his way.

People moved out of the way for the two as they passed. Their fatigues were enough to part the sidewalks, but the fact that one of them was high-ranking only reinforced the fact that they weren't to be messed with. The soldiers almost always traveled in pairs or trios, if not larger groups, to prevent being harassed or being provoked into an irrational response to that harassment. The older soldier looked over to his corporal with his brow furrowed, "You know, you could easily be one of the guys watching us walk in, yes?"

"Yes, sir, I am."

"Good. But don't ever forget why I chose you over any of the others as my personal battle buddy. You're crackshot and you work well under pressure, you're not an average soldier. That's why you're not with them," Nathaniel informed him as they pushed through the doors to the Welfont building. The duo walked down the line of men guarding the area. A woman in a lab coat was walking with a suited man up the stairs as the two soldiers walked in-step down the line. He was fairly sure that they were the team which would be part of, or heading, the expedition. Nathaniel and the corporal climbed the stairs in silence.

[Katelyn]

Abby avoided the stone-cold gazes of the soldiers as her heels clicked up the hard confines of the stairs, her head turning slightly to catch eyes with one of the two men that adjoined to the back of them. She assumed they would be escorting Vince and herself to the conference room and leaving, but making assumptions had always been bad form and as such, she cleared her mind and just focused on the task at hand. She was more than ready to rise to the occasion of going to the surface, no matter the cost or associated damage it would afflict on her, she wanted this. She glanced over at Vince, his eyes strained on the floor in front of him, his breathing a bit off. She reached out and slipped her hand back into his arm and moved closer to him, her voice low and quiet.

"You don't have to agree to anything in here today. You hear me? This is your call as an individual and they cannot make you do anything. Period." She felt her teeth grind against one another as her angst bled out into the air around them. She calmed a bit as Vince relaxed under her touch, his fingers running through his short hair as he looked over to her.

"I appreciate that and am well aware of my rights, but you and I both know I'm not going to sit back and let you get all the glory, you bitch." He chuckled and she couldn't help but smile.

"Dammit... I tried." She released him again and stopped directly in front of a small conference room, the only one with candle light billowing from its frame. One of the soldiers to the left of the door stepped up and opened it for them, nodding slightly.

"Ma'am, Sir..." He spoke to the soldiers behind them as well and ushered them into the room, a large chestnut table set out before them with three elderly gentleman seated around its birth. They stood as the four entered the room, walking around to make introductions.

A white haired man, tall and stout, voice deep like a bass singer stuck out his hand, his smile warm and face welcoming. "You must be Abigail. We've heard so much about your abilities as a scientist, young lady. I read your dissertation on renewable bio-energy and molecular deviation when you graduated from our program. We've had our eyes on you for quite some time." He moved back and introduced himself to the rest of the room as Harold Goodearle.

Abby turned to let her eyes move over the two soldiers that had entered the room with them, one seemingly more distinctive and older than the other, but both fair to the eyes. Vince caught her gaze and shook his head in a warning as she rolled her eyes for only him to see. She was saved by the second elder touching her shoulder and extending his hand.

"Martin Schultz. I'm a bioengineer and helped to design the living facilities that we all now inhabit. I'll be briefing you and your team on the varying locations of other subsurface shelters and will help plot out a mapped journey for you to assist you in being efficient and getting back to us. Very nice to meet you all."

Abby's heart constricted at the very thought that perhaps there were more shelters such as this one. Her first inclination was to inquire of those who were captive in the others - were the young like this subsurface containment or were they of all ages? Could it be that her parents had actually made it below the surface somewhere? Her older brother? She contained herself for the moment knowing that this wasn't the place or the time for such a conversation, but she would have her moment before agreeing to anything.

The possibility of them being alive meant everything to her. If there was a chance to find them along with the other tasks laid on her, she'd give her life if deemed the consideration needed for such an opportunity.

[101 Scout1]

Nathaniel watched the woman enter the room with the other man behind her. As he approached the door moments later, the soldier standing beside it nodded, "Afternoon, sir." He said politely, allowing Nate to open the door for himself. He stepped inside, his corporal heel-toeing right behind him. The Colonel stepped forward to greet the SFC, who saluted.

"Sergeant First Class Nathaniel McKinley reporting, sir," He said, his hand at his forehead as he stood attentively, gazing straight forward. Jonathan did the same thing right beside him and the colonel waved them down.

"At ease, men," He started with a smile, looking at Nathaniel. "Wow... You know, you look just like your father, Nathaniel," He said with a nod.

"Uh... Th-thank you, sir," the soldier said, caught off-guard, but grateful for the comment anyway.

"No problem, now... let's get down to business. Nathaniel, Jonathan, this is Abigail and her research assistant Vincent. They're going to be part of an expedition to the surface, we need to find out how living conditions are and make contact with some of the other settlements underground. Martin here will be mapping for you gentlemen, but from there you will navigate yourselves," He informed them as another soldier stepped forward. "This is the First Lieutenant and leader of the escort group, Jason Cortz, he'll be your commanding officer for this mission. There will be three others joining you gentlemen, but you, Nathaniel, will be Jason's second-in-command."

Jason and Nathaniel shook hands with a nod, but didn't speak while the colonel was doing so. Meanwhile, Martin was speaking with Abigail and Vincent so that the colonel could finish his briefing. "This mission will be completely confidential, understand, gentlemen? Nobody is to know until you return, otherwise we'll have a riot on our hands. Now I'd like you to listen to Martin, as you guys are going to have to navigate on your own through unfamiliar territory," He said with a nod. The three soldiers moved over to Martin, who had just been explaining exactly what Abigail and Vincent would have to be doing on their expedition, their own mission briefing, before talking about the map. As the three men joined, he looked up without moving his head and pulled over the map.

"Alright, gentlemen, here's where we are," he said pointing. The map was not divided into the states, it was just a land map of the U.S., showing roads and terrain and water, all kinds of different things. "We'd like you to start off west, somewhere near, but not on, the coast is another place that was founded like ours. It's where California used to be, but we're not sure how they held up... Could be any number of things, really, because before we went underground, there were reports of riots and protests against who was allowed to go down. It was already packed over capacity as it was, seriously overpopulated from their reports. However, we need you guys to check them out first, if they're still running, maybe they fixed some of their population issues and can help us with ours, or they can provide some research help top-side to see if conditions are going to be liveable. From there, you're going north-east, toward the south-eastern border of where Washington once was. We got very little information from them on how they were doing, but I don't think they were having population issues. From there, you're going quite a ways east and partially South," he said, explaining each detail of the trip. It was all outlined in marker on the paper: paths, routes, roads, stops; the works.

"We've got a few copies of this, but be careful, if they're lost, they're lost, and you're shit out of luck."

[Katelyn]

Abby turned her attention to the Colonel as he spoke of the soldier’s father, her ponderances turning inward to contemplate what it must’ve been like to have one’s family down there in the subsurface with them. She wanted to ask Nathaniel if his father was still alive, if he spent time with him, if he appreciated the gift he’d received – the gift of time.

The Colonel broke her thoughts with his brief introduction of the soldiers to the scientists. She extended her hand and smiled warmly at each of the men, their grasps strong, hands rough. Abby extended her hand to Jason as well, wondering how many people were going to be assigned to this expedition. More people meant more mouths to feed and at some point they’d safely arrive at the law of diminishing returns.

Martin moved beside them and smiled. “Let’s go over here and we can talk science while they talk strategy and direction.”

Abby moved toward the large table again, leaning over the various flowcharts and hand-scribed documents, some of them seemingly scraps from her own research on bioenergy and biogenetics. She reached down and pressed her finger to one of the pages, sliding it toward her as her other hand pushed back her long dark locks.

“I remember this. I wrote this forever ago and yet without the ability to test my hypothesis it felt like a futile exercise in the world of academia.” She looked over at Vincent as he rolled his eyes, a joke between the two of them over working up everything in a lab and never getting to push it through the various phases to actually call it a successful discovery of sorts.

Martin laughed and nodded, “I understand completely, although I remember a time when life was different.”

“What exactly are we looking for, Mr. Schultz? I can imagine what’d I’d be in search of, but this is your expedition, so tell us what our commissioning is.” She stepped back from the table as the soldiers joined them, standing a bit behind her.

“We’re looking for several things. One being a sustainable energy source. We are running out of fossil fuels that we’ve harvested down here and we need a new bio fuel. Bring back options and samples. Secondly, we’re looking for samples of the earth to begin our testing on the possibility of it sustaining life again. Living down here will not ensure future generations the means to survive. We’ve estimated that we can continue doing this for thirty to forty more years at most. We don’t know what’s going to happen at that point.” He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.

“Lastly,” he looked over at the soldier, “we want to know if there is life in our other shelters. We need to know how many humans are left in the northern continent. You will need to take a census of sorts. There are ruling councils such as ours that were initially set up at each location. Meet with them and determine how many people are still in existence.”

Abby nodded and reached into her pocket to remove a small pad of paper, making a few notes for the trip. A map was laid on the table and more directional information was given, but Abby was lost in her own mind at that point, contemplating the opportunity to work in the field. She turned toward the crowd again when the men were done.

“Why now? I understand the energy crisis, but why do you think we will find anything?” Her gaze fell on Martin as he tugged at his shirt.

“We have roots growing from the earth above into certain sections of the sub-shelter.” He said and coughed softly as if telling her to move away from the topic.

“I’ve never seen them,” she said, chill bumps breaking out on her skin.

How long had the council known that life was emerging above them and yet they said nothing? Why would they keep that to themselves? What was there to gain by having the human population live amongst the moles and earth worms.

“And you never will,” he said without emotion as he gathered his belongings, wishing the team luck and leaving with the other elders in the room.

Abby grumbled and turned to Jason, “When do we leave, Lieutenant?”