The Journeyman from Ryu-Kyu

[Brian]

It is, in fact.  And the door to the house opens up enough for a large German Shephard to slip out before it slams shut.  The dog begins barking like it's an army come to route the interloper as it rushes you.

[RangerShade]

Thinking quickly, Death grabs the stone knife and smashes the driver's side window in, then reaching in to unlock the door. Then twirling the polarbear skin to wrap around his arm as a buffer, Death prepares to deal with the dog.

[Brian]

Reacting quickly, you use the blade of your stone knife to smash through the window of the car.  It's easier than you thought. Hey, that wasn't so bad....

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Germen Shephard Attack!
<Chibi-Suu> Them bones was tossed for Brian ... : 3d6 attack {6}
Lucky Bastard Dice:
<Chibi-Suu> Them bones was tossed for Brian ... : 2#1d6 --> {2} {6}
...and the dog lunges, firmly sinking its teeth into your cloak.

Either it doesn't like the cloak's taste, or something else upsets it, because it lets go and snarls at you menacingly.

[RangerShade]

Death slowly uses one hand to open the car door while keeping his knife hand ready between him and the dog.

[Brian]

Oooh....  It doesn't like that.

This time it lunges:

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Attack roll:
<Chibi-Suu>Them bones was tossed for Brian ... : 3d6 --> {12}

...and misses.  You manage to get into the car while it's on the ground.  It begins to back away, as though gearing up for a jump.

[RangerShade]

Death pulls out a concrete lump and throws it at the dog's face. Death gets ready to stab it if it tries to jump in, ideally aiming for its throat.

[Brian]

The thrown rock repells the dog, leaving you alone with the car, an the broken glass.  So ... now what?

[RangerShade]

Death does a quick look for some keys in all the usual hiding places, dashboard, shades, in those little pockets in the door, etc.

Failing that, and if nobody comes from inside the house, guess its going to be  good old hotwiring the transmission.

[Brian]

No spare keys in the car.  Shades, though.  Going to have to do this the hard way....

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Electronics skill roll:
<Chibi-Suu> Them bones was tossed for Death ... : 3d6 --> {10}
This is harder than you had thought ... luckily, this is an older car, and it's possible.  The newer ones have all sorts of strange security, but this one (once you crack open the ignition with your swiss army knife) is the old-school style.  You take a brief, minor shock, but the car roars to life.

Look out, ladies, Ta-chan's got himself a Datsun.

[RangerShade]

Death checks out the fuel gauge before taking off on a roundabout route back to the building where the rest of his gear is.

[Brian]

You're looking at about 3/4ths a tank.  You cruise in your stolen car back to your illicit lodgings.  This seems to have turned out rather well, all things considered.

[RangerShade]

Death proceeds to quickly load the stuff from the house into the car, logs and pipes first, then his backpack and laptop last, after that, time to drive over to where Death saw the truckers and tail them to where ever they go.

[Brian]

This is easy.  Once you enter the city proper, it shows some more signs of life, but not many.  You see occasional people wandering the streets, but they look up at you as though a passing car is an irregularity.

The earthquake damage is also much more visible from this range.  Splits run through many of the buildings, earthquake retrofitted or not.

There's a small number of stores still open, almost all mom-n-pop type places.  No chains, except for a bleak looking Chevron.

The trucks are all heading out of the city in the same direction, along a route that also seems to be bearing the only other 'normal' traffic you've seen so far.  A few construction workers line various points along the route, supervising the movement of rubble into trucks to be carted off.

And that appears to be what it's all about.  The rubble drop-off point is about fifteen miles east of town, where they've set up a conversion factory to pulverize the cement, extract any rebar or non-concrete scraps, and then grind it back up into powder.  This powder is then (from what you can see) stuffed into large sacks, and loaded onto semis headed out somewhere east.  About the same time you reach the processing plant, you hear sirens and see flashing lights behind you.

[RangerShade]

Death checks the rear view mirror.

[Brian]

It's the fuzz, and they're coming up behind you, lights and sirens on full.