SESSION ONE: Leaving Home

So, for our first session of Twilight 2000: Aftermath, we find our three heroes, no, our three survivors getting themselves out of Kalisz.

This is not D&D, so we have no heroes, only draftees and deserters, refugees and renegades, marauders and madmen.. You get the idea.

For the last few months Dr Layla Zahar (Mohammed) and Bill Wilde (Matthew) had been holed up in an abandoned gynaecological clinic in the south eastern suburbs of Kalisz, eking out an existence by exchanging Layla’s medical expertise for food and water and whatever else people in the war ravaged town were able to offer for the services of the good doctor from Egypt. The two had met when Layla was jumped by some marauders while out searching for supplies near her clinic. In an unusual moment of altruism Bill had taken a bullet for her and after the marauders fled, Layla patched him up back at the clinic and the pair had formed an unlikely friendship since then.

A little under a week ago the US forces in the area launched Operation Reset, an ambitious plan to push the Soviet forces out of the Kalisz area and take back a swathe of Polish territory. Unfortunately, despite some initial gains a large Soviet force counterattacked and smashed the US forces, causing many of the units to flee or disband entirely. Prior to the war, Private Harold “Hank” Brookbeck III had been a well-to-do American student in Paris, having received a scholarship through his rich parents connections. He’d been kicked out of university, mainly as he’d seen it as an opportunity to socialise and make some money selling drugs to the other rich students and had been travelling across Europe making a little money and generally doing very little, when war broke out. Hank was in the wrong place in the wrong time and the US 5th Mechanised Infantry drafted him into service on account of his US passport and he found himself put through basic training in Germany and then a few months later he was on the frontlines of Poland in Operation Reset.

A short time after the failure of Operation Reset and Hank managed to escape from the chaos of the US retreat, bedraggled, shell-shocked and desperate he came across Bill and Layla and after some uncertain moments, the trio decided to stick together and try to make their way out of the now dangerous Kalisz suburb. Plans were made to head south towards the forest and more isolation, their bright orange VW pickup was loaded with their spare fuel and personal belongings. A last search of the clinic revealed nothing but a bright pink My Little Pony teddy that Bill named ‘Christopher’ despite it being an obviously female unicorn.

As Bill brought out Christopher, he and the others noticed a black cloud approaching from the heart of the city. By the time the trio were in their positions, Hank driving alongside Dr Zahar and Bill stood on the back of the pickup with his Law rocket launcher at the ready, a cloud of ash had started to fall, blanketing everything in a grey shroud. Just as the group were about to drive off a group of refugees appeared out of the gloom, one old lady hobbling along on a makeshift crutch, accompanied by some younger children and other women.

Despite the protests of Bill and Hank, Layla couldn’t leave the injured woman and agreed to help before they left. Hank acted as interpreter as the women explained what had happened to the old woman and Layla took them into the clinic while Hank and Bill kept watch from the pickup.

While Layla patched up the old lady Bill and Hank passed the time, with Hank glancing into the rear view mirror from time to time and Bill scanning the shattered remains of the Kalisz suburb for sign of any trouble. And trouble did come in the shape of three marauders creeping through the rubble of a neighbouring street. Bill made a show of getting on the flatbed of the pickup and brandished his rocket launcher and a few moments later Hank tooted the horn of the truck to get Layla to hurry up, prompting the marauders to break cover and head towards the pickup.

Cries of “Time to go!” from Hank prompted Layla to jump in the van and usher the refugees away, though the doctor took her time making up her mind about leaving the women to the mercy of the marauders. Hank floored it as the van sped along the street, with the marauders opening fire as the bright orange pickup screeched round a corner and Bill had to cling on to the cab until they were far enough away to be safe from the trio of bandits.

Stopping to let Bill into the cab after a few kilometers, Hank drove the pickup cross-country towards the forest to the south of Kalisz, having heard some rumours that the remnants of the 5th US Mechanised Infantry had headed this way to regroup. Hoping to find help with these servicemen, the group headed in that direction. A few wrong turns here and there meant their journey took a little longer than anticipated and early afternoon gave way to early evening when the group came across a lone US Army truck, seemingly abandoned in the middle of the countryside a few kilometers from the forest edge.

Bill again took up a position on top of the pickup, covering Hank and Layla as they crept up alongside the driver’s side of the army truck. Hank discovered the body of the driver slumped against the steering wheel and the windscreen was shattered. On closer inspection it appeared that the driver had missed a large rock in the ground, most likely driving at night with the lights off and had broken his neck in the crash. The group found that the truck had been stripped of all useful equipment and fuel, though Hank had found the driver’s service pistol still in its holster and the unfortunate Private S. Phillips’ dogtags around his neck. Not to have wasted the stop, Layla (a surprisingly skilled mechanic as well as a doctor) stripped out some parts from the engine to use as spares for their own truck.

As night closed in, the group parked up on the edge of the forest and set about preparing for a night in the wilderness. Layla took her hunting rifle and went to look for something to bring back to the group for food while Hank and Bill made camp – or rather Bill put a few branches against the side of the rather conspicuous orange pickup while Hank stuffed his face with Poptarts ™. Unfortunately for all, Layla’s search came up empty with every step hitting a twig and scaring off any potential meal. As for Bill’s efforts, well, as the rain started to fall, everyone was forced to spend the night in the cramped cab of the VW.