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Hurricane Adolphe

The Storm, by Theodore Roethke

2

Along the sea-wall, a steady sloshing of the swell,

The waves not yet high, but even,

Coming closer and closer upon each other;

A fine fume of rain driving in from the sea,

Riddling the sand, like a wide spray of buckshot,

The wind from the sea and the wind from the mountain contending,

Flicking the foam from the whitecaps straight upward into the darkness.

 

A time to go home!–

And a child’s dirty shift billows upward out of an alley,

A cat runs from the wind as we do,

Between the whitening trees, up Santa Lucia,

Where the heavy door unlocks,

And our breath comes more easy,–

Then a crack of thunder, and the black rain runs over us, over

The flat-roofed houses, coming down in gusts, beating

The walls, the slatted windows, driving

The last watcher indoors, moving the cardplayers closer

To their cards, their anisette.

 


 

STEAMLANDS UNION TELEGRAM

 

SERRA ANANSI WINTERFELL

MOSSEVENO TENK NEW BABBAGE

STEELCOBRA CALAMARI STEELTOPIA

TOTALLUNAR ECLIPSE TENSAI HILRA STEELHEAD

DESMOND SHANG CALEDON

PUMPKIN TRIPSA SERAPH CITY

VIOLET ORMENTHAL REMINGTON THURSDAY ARMADA BREAKAWAY

 

HURRICANE
ADOLPHE HITTING NEW TOULOUSE  RAIN STARTED EARLY YESTERDAY  CONTINUES
TO INTENSIFY  WINDS @ 80MPH & INCREASING  WATER RISING  FLOODING
EMINENT  ZOMBIES AND GATORS ON THE MOVE  SEND ASSISTANCE IF ABLE  ADVISE
HEAVY CAUTION RE: SHIPS & AIRSHIPS

 

GABRIELLE RIEL

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7 Comments

  1. Avariel Falcon Avariel Falcon September 25, 2010

    [Avariel Falcon is standing by with the portal generator, the portals can’t carry heavy cargo but could be used to transport some personnel and the sort of supplies one might sensibly carry in a backpack. Any zombie hunters looking for a quick ticket into the danger zone?]

    [Edit: For those who do choose to travel by portal, expect a terrifying/exciting experience that is not for the faint of heart. High voltage electrical fields make your skin tingle and hair stand on end, the aetheric fields and dimensional distortions cause disorientation and dizziness. Expect to be travel sick and have symptoms similar to a mild hangover unless you are hardened to this sort of experience in some way.]

  2. Avariel Falcon Avariel Falcon September 26, 2010

    I sent a small group of adventurers through the portal earlier, but they have yet to check in. Conditions on the other side of the portal look bad, heavy rain, high winds, flooding and twisters!

    I think I will stay at the portal controls and keep the gate open.

  3. Alexander Moonstone Alexander Moonstone September 26, 2010

    *the pages of the journal look like they have been wet but since dried*

     

    I ended up in this accursed place thanks to Avariel Falcon and her blasted machine, thanks to her and his machine my boots that allow me to fly long distances short circuited upon touching water in New Toulouse. I trudged around for awhile in the water, my socks soaked completely, holding my boots in my hands waiting for them to dry so i can leave. I managed to catch the trolley as it was still running for some reason. I laid down on the seats and relaxed as i tried to figure out a way out of here, and at the same time wondering just how close i am to being sucked up by the approaching hurricane. It was at this time i remembered Avariel saying something about zombies right before i step through that accursed portal of her and ended up in this wet hell. I quickly sat up and looked around, seeing nothing i laid back down, and as soon as i did the trolley was rocked with a powerful force, i sat up and spun around to see a zombie trying to derail the trolley. I grabbed my boots and took off down the nearest alleyway. The damn thing was relentless and chased after me through the alleys. I fumbled around on my belt for my pistol, it slipped from my hand and landed in the water, being powered by steam it didn’t matter that it fell in the water, but none the less the zombie was closing in on me fast. My hat fell off my head and landed in the water as well when i dived for the pistol. I grabbed and shot at the zombie as i laid on the ground. the bullet went right through his head and knocked him back. My head now soaked with out my hat on a breath deeply, my wet hair covering my eyes. I then picked up my hat and headed to the nearest dry place i could find and sat down and began to write this. I will right more as my hell continues, and to anyone reading this, don’t use that damn portal unless you know what your getting into. 

  4. Avariel Falcon Avariel Falcon September 26, 2010

    Avariel Falcon waved the lone adventurer through the portal with the reassuring words “Don’t worry! Its almost safe!”.

    Watching the retreating figure of the adventurer she could not help but think he looked rather ill prepared for such an excursion, but he seamed really keen to go so off he went…

  5. Alexander Moonstone Alexander Moonstone September 26, 2010

    *these pages are a bit less wrinkled than the first ones, but they still look the same for the most part*

     

    I managed to fix my boots partly , i can now at least fly around, but going back to New Babbage is still out of the question. Right now i’m wandering why i used a portal made by a rabbit, there is a story about a girl who follows a rabbit down a hole, i can only hope i’m on some crack induced hallucination right now as she most likely was. And also why did i not think a talking rabbit was out of the ordinary? Ive seen a few more zombies but i have fared better than the first since i can stay above them. I wonder if Avariel would be willing to share the secrets of her teleporter with me, i’m sure i could some how put it to good use in a airship. And all these twisters, in the middle of a hurricane? i think there may be something besides just a hurricane going on here, but i have no proof of that, well besides the zombies and the twisters on the water. It may be possible to kill all of these zombies at once if i sent a large electrical shock through the water, but that would kill everything and everyone in it, and the zombies arnt my problem, ill let some one else deal with them, i just want to get out of here.

    *the next set of pages have a blood spater across them and look as if they have been held under water for a very long time* 

    I was sitting in the small cafe i had found to write in while i contemplated my thoughts about how to leave this place when sea otter of all things comes out of no where at take the papers i was writing on, the whole stack of them. The little bugger ran off with them and i chased him through the city until i ended up at the graveyard where i finally caught him. The graveyard was the last place i wanted to end up in in this hell. Naturally as you can guess it was filled with zombies, i pulled out my pistol and started firing off rounds, the sea otter escaped while i was doing this, but not before i got my papers back. One of the zombies had just recently been buried as its flesh was still a normal color. It was a young girl, maybe 7 or 8,  she had unusually long black hair, but her eyes were unmistakably dead “damn you, damn you whoever did this to her” i whispered to my self as i closed my eyes and took the shot, unable to look at her as i did it, the blood shot out everywhere and part of it got on these papers. I started to cry, as i couldn’t cope with it, i managed to take out a few more before flying off. I flew into the 3rd story of a hotel and barricaded the door before i sat down to write this. What caused these zombies? Nothing i can think of, and nothing i’ve ever read or heard about has the ability to bring something back from the dead. Things are suppose to stay dead once they are dead, its the circle of life. Who would do such a horrible thing to a little girl like that, she didn’t deserve that kind of final rest. Her face will haunt me until the day i too pass from this world.

  6. Alexander Moonstone Alexander Moonstone September 26, 2010

    *The pages are dry and look as if they haven’t gotten wet before*

    My boots are finally fixed and i’m about to head out, but before i do im going to recount the events that have happed since i last wrote.

    I had found a map of the city in the side table in the hotel room i ended up in, there was a automobile shop about 5 blocks away from the hotel, i went there in the hopes i would be able to find the parts i needed to fix my boots there. Once i got there i dug around until i found what i needed and then fixed my boots, I heard a scream in the distance and flew out to see what had happed. A stagger of zombies had gotten a girl that looked to be around 17, i pulled out my pistol and rapidly took out the zombies then rushed down to see if the girl was alright, she had the same face as the girl from the grave yard, the same long black hair, but she wasn’t one of the walking dead. “are you okay?” i asked her. “I…I…I think so” she managed to get out, she was bleeding from multiple places. I picked her up and flew her to the small local hospital i saw on the map earlier. I managed to clean her wounds and put some bandages on them, despite not having any training in doing such. “who are you?” i asked her, she said her name was Alice Narrieval and that she had been running away from the zombies for about 3 hours after she saw her sister, who had died earlier that week, walking around at the graveyard. “When i saw her i ran up to her and gave her a hug, she let out a scream and they pored in from every where, my sister…she clawed at me at bit me until i let go of her, i ran as fast as i could away from her” she says through her tears. I had decided not to say anything about the fate her sister had ultimately met. At this point i started to wonder if the zombies could turn humans that were still alive into zombies, as i thought about this i noticed that the Alice had stopped crying and sat there like a rag doll. Her eyes took on a glazed over look and then her head snapped up and she let out a blood curling scream and lunged for me, I stuck my cane out to defend my self and she impaled herself on it, but she didn’t stop, she forced herself further onto the cane to try and get to me, i fumbled for my pistol and finally managed to get it out and pointed at her, but i was using my left had which i couldn’t aim with, and i had to keep my eyes open as i made took the shot. Ill spare you the details of the scene i saw around me after that, but i will tell you i made the shot. I stood up as her limp body fell of my cane, i noticed she had a locket around her neck, i took it off of her and opened it, there was a picture of her and her sister “Alice and Sophie, Sisters for ever”. I closed the locket and put it in one of the pouches on my belt then walked out side, the Storm had stopped and the sky was clear, and not a zombie was in sight. I took off to New Babbage, My tears falling harder than any hurricane could produce. I vow never to return to that hell hole as long as i live, and even after.

  7. Avariel Falcon Avariel Falcon September 26, 2010

    [I have added New Toulouse to the control panel, the image below shows the settings of the controls to open the portal to New Toulouse.]

    [img_assist|nid=822|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=640|height=480]

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