[u][b]Steve Miller - Dock Entrance[/b][/u]


As Steve and Corrine approached the docks, he noticed a small crowd had accumulated at the head of the stairs, where a pair of harbormen blocked the path. They parted immediately to let Corrine through, then just as immediately closed ranks to stop him. 

"Docks are closed right now, Outsider", one of the men said. "This is none of your business."

Corrine abruptly stopped descending the stairs and wheeled about and came back. 

"He's with me", Corrine said to them curtly as she reached between the two harbormen to take Steve's hand and pulled him forward bodily. 

"Oh", replied the Harborman with a shrug. "I guess it is your business then, Outsider." The pair made no further attempt to obstruct him and he began to descend the stairs as Corrine let go of him and dashed ahead.   

"Doc, I'm here, what is it?" Corrine exclaimed as she approached the throng at the end of one of the docks, then began trying to wedge her way closer to whatever they were surrounding. "I said, I am coming through, could some of you just -- ". 

She never completed the sentence as she tripped and fell face-first into the center of the mass of people. Steve picked up his pace to catch up to her, and help her up if needed. 

"Wh-what..." she breathed, her eyes widening. "What is...but he just..." Corrine clutched her stomach and spun around, grasping one of the harbormen by the arm. "What happened?"

Another man charged past him, a elderly but formidable looking man in a pea-coat. Steve recognized him as the man Corrine had been arguing with when he got tot to town earlier. 

"Teddy, just what the hell is all the commotion about?" the man bellowed as he came down the steps past the curious onlookers, who parted before him like moses parting the Red sea. He stopped in his tracks as the opening in the crowd revealed a dead body, a man who looked vaguely familiar. 

"Oh.", the man said simply.

The harborman next to Corrine, presumably Teddy, gestured for the man to approach. At the same time, Corrine waved him over so steve joined them. 

"Right now everyone is thinking he drowned", teddy whispered once they had drawn close. "But I examined him, and he didn't die from a long dip in the ocean. He was dead or dying before he even hit the water. Someone sliced his throat almost to the bone. I thought it best if we didn't tell everyone just yet...don't want to start a panic after all. People start thinking there's cultists all around, and folks are paranoid enough as it is...we don't want to give them more cause to lash out at people."

"Can't keep that up forever Ted," the old man said sternly, "Folks got a right to know."

"I know...I know," Doc Wright said shaking his head, "But its just temporary. Just until we can figure out what..."

"LET ME THROUGH! LET ME THROUGH GODDAMNIT!" The angry voice of a woman broke through the crowd and shortly afterward, a tough looking woman sprinted down the stairs towards them. the Doc looked ready to stop her, but the Old Man waved him off, curtly mentioning that she knew the victim. 

The woman kneeled nect to the slaim man, regarding them sadly. She then stoop up, angrily stamping her foot with enough force to crack the board her foot came down on. 

"Bastards...", she said, her voice filled with fury, "I knew it! I knew they were here somehow. They must have tracked us from The Commonwealth. Tracked us the whole damn time."

"Who's here?" Doc Wright asked, clearly taken aback. 

"Something a lot worse than those cultists," the woman snapped back, "The Institute."

Corrine exchanged a look with the Old Man, Doc Wright, and Steve, then finally, at the woman. She reached out and gently touched her on the arm. "Listen. I know he was yer partner and things didn't go so great for y'all on the island. Why don't we all -- " she made a point of making eye contact with Longfellow, and the Old Man once more -- "head back up to the Plank, have ourselves another drink, and you can tell us about this 'Institute' and what makes it so bad. Leave the doc here to do what he needs to do for yer friend." 

"Yes", Steve added, "We should discuss this and what it means before the rumor mill gets ahold of it."