Disaster Report Diaries (Raw Danger!) Part Three

This is my exploration of the Disaster Report series where I will chronicle my playthrough like a text-based Let’s Play. Now let’s continue Raw Danger!...

A handful of people had managed to survive the initial flood, so Joshua Harwell was fully intending on helping Stephanie McMurrough reach the station to evacuate…

It was 16:16 (two hours since Mayor Goldstein’s reception), and our elevator had stopped moving just below street level, but it appeared so had the water level, so we clambered up (I helped the older woman from earlier) and found somewhere to rest for a while. While we considered our next moves, the Head Chef pointed out a large screen on a building which featured a BR News broadcast. There was an update about the Hudson River flood, including evacuation orders to leave all areas west of the river. There was then a list of three people in critical condition, Jim Beam, Will Nelson and Claire Wyatt, who were being treated at the Mission Care Center. That was followed by an alert about a fugitive murder suspect who had escaped when the ground around the police station had caved in: 5’ 6”, wearing handcuffs and a pink jacket.

Stephanie said something about it being her fault that “she” was there, which sounded like she knew the fugitive. However, she meant that she knew one of the critically injured people, Claire Wyatt. I said that she must be worried, and suggested that we go to the Mission Care Center, we shouldn’t stay where we were in any case. The Head Chef, upon hearing me say it, repeated that we shouldn’t stay there, and said that we should get to the station to the north.

There was a recycling bin nearby which I found that I could keep items in (though it was empty), so I decided to store my D Battery there. It may have some use later, I reasoned, as would my Adhesive Tape. No sooner had I closed the lid when we spotted a blonde in a pink jacket hiding behind an overturned car, and a police detective approached us. He was Richard Trapp of the Geo Police Department, and was looking for the fugitive. So, I pointed her out immediately, hiding not five metres away. She protested her innocence as he took her away, but honestly my reasoning was that being handcuffed in this disaster was so very not ideal in any way, she would have better luck surviving with the police than avoiding them.

A nearby store had a shutter not quite closed, so I crawled under and found a Garbage Bag which I picked up, as well as a Yellow Umbrella. Upon exiting, I opened the umbrella and went back to the bin to retrieve my Adhesive Tape, then combined it and the Garbage Bag to create a Makeshift Coat, which I equipped.

Back at the store’s main door (not the side door I had used) was a Survival Point and a Backpack Compass. I nabbed that, then warmed up before going inside the store where I found and equipped some Knit Gloves that were actually mittens. I also found a Toy Flashlight which took up less space in my Knapsack than the other one, a Silk Hat, and a Heating Pad. I decided to drop off the hat and my Good Flashlight in the bin, then went looking for Stephanie.

I found her near some road that was too high to climb up, and she wouldn’t take the Yellow Umbrella from me. She did, however, want to climb on me to get up to the road and carry on to the station — I told her that it was a good idea, and let her do it. To get me up, however, she needed a rope and I didn’t have one, so I had to go looking, which led me back into the store where I found a jewellery store being looted by someone that I hadn’t noticed before. I told her that she had to evacuate but she ignored me, so I repeated myself and she told me to go away. I wasn’t going to report her for theft when I had literally just stolen a fancy hat and some gloves…

Heading back towards the elevator, I spotted a Whistle on the ground, then noticed that there was some of the construction yard that I hadn’t explored, so I went to do so. An electrical wire was in some water, so I carefully walked on some raised ground to reach a worker’s cabin which had the required Rope inside. There was also a Raincoat, so I grabbed that and swapped it for the one that I had made. I was unable to grab the Heating Pad and Tomato Soup that were also there.

Outside, I spotted a Holiday Tree Compass and then climbed onto and over a fallen beam which returned me to the elevator. I stored the Makeshift Coat in the bin as well as a Heating Pad, then went to return to Stephanie — when a crane tower fell and almost crushed me!

Stephanie tied off the rope and I climbed up, and I tried to give her the umbrella again only for her to turn it down again. I found some Tennis Shoes and equipped them, then we followed the road where I was suddenly knocked down by a cascade of water, and had to push against it to get through while avoiding trash. A helicopter went overhead and Stephanie seemed to recognise it as we went up the ramp to a higher section of the city.

It was already 18:23 (four hours since the reception) and people were being told that they couldn’t get on the helicopter. It had been sent by the McMurrough Group — Stephanie’s father’s company — to render aid and cater to the injured. I agreed that the injured should be seen to first (mainly as I didn’t see us getting on the chopper in any circumstance), which Stephanie agreed with, and they wound up taking off. While looking around, I spotted stairs down to a metro station that had been sandbagged, so I went down for a look and found a store with some Chicken Noodle soup which I grabbed, and a closed shutter blocking the rest of the platform. There was no handle to raise it, either, so I headed back to the surface.

Approaching the main train station entrance, a rush of water seemed to come out, even though I would shortly learn that was impossible. See, as I approached a member of staff, they made sure we saw the metro train which was almost vertical sticking through the floor. A bus replacement service was in operation, so we were told to go through to it.

Stephanie said that she was worried about Claire as she couldn’t walk, so I asked if she meant a lot, but she seemed unconvinced that they were close. The station staff member hurried us along, so Stephanie ran ahead and I warmed up at a Survival Point and picked up some Chicken Broth and an issue of DR Sports. It mentioned a racehorse named Goldrush being a favourite in a race, a real waste of time reading it.

Going to catch up with Stephanie, the floor gave way and almost sent me down! Worse, it did send her down, leaving her unconscious and where the metro station used to be. I nipped into the security office next to me and picked up a Lighter and a Speed Handle — no doubt that would let me raise the shutter I had found earlier. Unfortunately, to fit it in my knapsack I had to use a Heating Pad. I ignored a Pot, but did pick up the Station Journal which said that on 23rd of December they saw 198,273 passengers, and that everywhere was decorated for Christmas.

Rather than head straight to the shutter, I instead went down the escalator next to the office and found a Backpack which I equipped (then went back and picked up the Pot). Once I had made my way back to the shutter I used the Speed Handle (after equipping my Toy Flashlight to see it), and then discarded it once the shutter was raised.

Water violently streamed below me as I carefully walked across a perilous beam and picked up a Heating Pad. Then, I had two options: the first was walking down and around some ventilation ducts then back up to Stephanie, the second involved moving an iron bar that was blocking my way and would be easy to remove. I opted for the first option, because a flimsy metal bar just really seemed like the one thing holding these ducts and train cars in place, given how things had been going so far.

For an added bonus, the penultimate part almost dumped me into the water, and the final section had an extra water hazard spraying out through the wall. But, I reached Stephanie and had the option to sniff her — that would have been weird though, so I just shook her to wake her. We went upstairs and I found another bin to put things inside, though I was dismayed to find that it wasn’t one of those bins that lets you take out things you put in other bins…

After storing my Cheap Shoes and Knapsack, as well as one of my two Pots and a Heating Pad, we got on board the bus. The nightmare was finally over, and nothing else could possibly go wrong now…