Escape to Utopia - YA Global Pandemic

A playtest of young adult soldiers in a global pandemic

This story was told by Alex and Camilla.

I had set up a playingcards.io room so that we could play remotely, and that worked quite well.

It is a YA tale of a global pandemic. Markus Fletcher and Ellen Myers are newly enlisted soldiers, just turned 18. He has short blonde hair and his fatigues are a bit large for him. He tends to squint and is highly focussed on rules and regulations. She has buzz-cut sides and a braid on top. Athletic and wiry, she scowls a lot, but laughs at Markus’ jokes.

Alex wants to see the ‘Enemies to Lovers’ trope for Markus. Camilla would like to see ‘Rebellion against Authority’ for Ellen.

How the Apocalypse Started

• Nobody realised at the time, but the first harbinger of the apocalypse was an amazing superfood created by a GMO mega-corporation called Sanmonto. It grew quickly and spread rapidly. Priced for early adoption it soon dominated crops worldwide.
• It was worrying to hear news out of India that there had been some kind of mutation which was causing the plant to create some kind of poisonous spores, and hundreds of people had started to succumb to it.
• More worrying when the deaths started spreading across Asia, Europe and America. There was reticence to call it a pandemic… nobody wanted to cause a panic.
• Markus and Ellen are stationed at a medical outpost when people suffering from the plant disease start becoming admitted. They are able to see first hand patients with tiny fibres sprouting from their eyes, nose and ears. It is worrying.
• Then one day, someone leaves the medical tent panicking and thrashing about. It is one of the medics, wearing the latest in PPE, but it hasn’t kept the infection out. In minutes he is dead. There is screaming from inside the tent and Markus and Ellen decide to escape to somewhere safer.

Beacons

Markus is hoping to find a place where he can settle into the rule of law again. Ellen is hoping to find her best friend Yan. They are going to try to escape to utopia.

Act 1 - in the urban area

Scene 1 - Overgrown City Square

Grass is breaking through the pavement; empty or stagnant fountains; old protest signs, abandoned food truck

• Threat - K - Infection Erupts (threat 26)
• Played - KS, KC (total 26)

All of the planters in this city square are filled with the Sanmonto plants, and they start erupting with pollen and spores. Ellen quickly gathered vital supplies and broke into the abandoned food truck. Markus knew how to Hotwire the van, and quickly got it going, off to the hospital to pick up more medicines.

Scene 2 - City Hospital

Signs of desperate actions to save people; power still on from the emergency generator; drugs and surgical tools scattered; old blood dried.

• Threat - 9 - Gangs Scavenging (threat 18)
• Played - 5C, 7H (total 12 +4 weapons, +2 food)

Looking for medical supplies in the hospital, they are surprised by a gang of youths who were also raiding. They fired first, but Markus returned fire accurately with his old M16, causing them to dive for cover. Ellen calls out to them and offers them a cessation of hostility and food. It turns out they are about 14 and starving… they are happy to take the food and retreat.

Markus hears a banging from a walk-in fridge, and opens the door releasing Sandra, a heavy-set ambulance driver who is furious - she wants to tear the children limb from limb but is talked down. She is invited to travel with them, but she balks at the idea of Markus continuing to drive — she considers him a young idiot who can’t be trusted, and he bristles at the accusation. She drives them off to a Mall, to collect some more tools.

Scene 3 - Mall with Shattered Glass Ceiling

Broken shop windows; vines creeping across mannequins; eerie muzak still playing

• Threat - Q - Infection takes hold (threat 24)
• Played - 5D, 6D +2 from Sandra (total 13)

Looking for good quality tools, Markus knocks something over onto a body hidden behind a county, and a huge spray of spores erupts up over him. Ellen quickly finds disinfectant and rubbing alcohol, and he tries to clean himself off, but he is worried that some spores might have got into an open wound on his arm.

The threat has not been beaten, Markus decides to take a ‘dead man walking’ token.

That evening Markus tosses and turns, suffering nightmares of a terrible infection.

Sandra tells Ellen how stupid and clumsy Markus had been. The next day Sandra drives them off into a rural area.

Act 2 - into rural areas

Scene 1 - Empty Gas Station on a Back Road

The pumps are bone-dry; the canopy is rusting; there is graffiti on the walls.

• Threat - 7 - Traps left by locals (threat 18)
• Played - 2C, 10C, +2 from Sandra, +4 weapons (total 14)

The pumps are dry and they are going to have to abandon their transport here. The graffiti on the walls is anti Sanmonto, and Ellen looks on approvingly. Inside the gas station Markus notices someone bound and gagged, with booby traps set up around them. Ellen uses the last of the gas to drive their van into a side wall, and Markus is able to haul the bound person free before explosions rock the building. They have rescued Rob, a kind-hearted medic from Sanmonto. Locals took an instant dislike to him because of his corporate logo on his uniform, and left him here as a trap.

Sandra is impressed by Markus’ prowess in rescuing Rob, and gives him a friendly punch on his arm. As Markus turns away rubbing his arm, we see him grin, and he is thinking new thoughts about the powerfully built woman in her late 20’s travelling with them.

Scene 2 - Faded Roadside Diner

Booths still set; an “OPEN” sign is dangling; maybe the jukebox is still working?

• Threat - 9 - Airborne virus (threat 22)
• Played - 7D, 8S, +4 from supporting characters, +3 tools (total 22)

Some way down the road they find a faded roadside diner, and to their delight find that the jukebox is still working. As the tunes blast out, they start dancing with one another, gathering a moment of relief amidst the horrors they have seen. Their fun is short lived though, as the dust that is kicked up by their gyrating contains some of the lethal pandemic spores! Thinking quickly, Ellen switches on some desk fans near the counter and moves everyone to the safe side of them. Markus uses a Tupperware container to collect some of the spores for future research.

Later we see two groups - on the one hand Sandra and Markus are sitting on crates, drinking beers and playing poker together, while ribbing each other mercilessly. On the other hand Ellen is upbraiding Rob on the evils of Sanmonto, demanding to know why he was working for such an evil corporation.

They decide that they need somewhere safe to start sifting through clues they have been gathering.

Scene 3 - Mine Workings

Deep and dark; an echo chamber of danger; old gear lying around

• Threat - 3 - Tangled Undergrowth (threat 10)
• Played - AC, QH, +4 from supporting characters (total 17)

They fight their way through some tangled undergrowth and into the mines where they find a lot of useful tools and materials which they add to their toolkits in preparation for journeying out into the wilderness. They discover someone hiding in the cave - Angie, who was an office worker who was out in these rural areas on holiday and has been stranded here since everything kicked off. She is glad to see other people who are sane, and quickly joins them.

Sandra and Markus continue to develop their friendship, while Ellen and Rob continue to bicker about authority structures.

Act 3 - into the wilderness

Scene 1 - Emergency Government Bunker

This place contains classified documents, emergency plans, government response triggers and so forth. It could be used to communicate with surviving government forces about important insights, or to arrange a rescue of some kind.

• Threat - zone A - lost, apocalypse 8 - frightened mob (threat 20)
• Played - 2C, 3C +6 from supporting characters (total 11)

After struggling through trackless wilderness, they come across an emergency government bunker. As they approach a frightened crowd of people burst out. They have been stuck here for weeks, cut off and with only a fraction of the supplies which they were supposed to have. In an ill-conceived plan, Markus sends Angie to talk with them, believing that as an office worker she might put them at their ease. He was dreadfully wrong, and the frightened mob maul Angie to death while the rest of the party run in horror.

Ellen was able to grab up some papers and disks as they were hurriedly leaving the site of the bunker, hoping that there are useful secrets in them. Rob says that she doesn’t have clearance for those documents, but she stands up to him and states in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t have the authority here.

That evening Sandra is comforting Markus, explaining that it wasn’t his fault, and sometimes tough decisions have to be made. It’s the first time they have lost someone close to them though, and comforting hands become comforting arms, and then a comforting kiss and we see them embracing, taking comfort where they may in a harsh and unforgiving world.

Scene 2 - Nuclear Power Facility

Behind wire fencing is a nuclear reactor, still running even though it has been abandoned. Before being abandoned it has been put into a low power mode, but there might be an opportunity to start it up again to produce power or to force a meltdown with an explosion of some kind or another.

• Threat - zone 2 - fatigued, apocalypse 4 - coughing and sneezing. (Threat 12)
• Played - 4H. 9S, +4 supporting characters (total 17)

As Markus has grown more fatigued, he starts coughing and sneezing badly, and small tendrils of plant life can be seen growing out of the wound on his arm. Rob suggests that exposing his body to radiation from the central chambers of the power station may cure him, but Ellen thinks that is just the kind of rubbish a Sanmonto medic would spout and forbids it.

That evening we see Markus lying shivering and coughing, and Sandra curled up round him as the big spoon, warming his chilled body with her own.

Scene 3 - Shortwave Radio Station

A small base with a working shortwave radio transmitter and receiver. It would be possible to pick up messages from other survivors, transmit messages to them, share information, and co-ordinate activity

• Threat - zone J - survivalist group, apocalypse Q - Infection takes hold (threat 28)
• Played - 10H, JS, +4 supporting characters, +3 secrets (total 28)

They find a shortwave radio station at the same time as a group of survivalist fanatics. Markus spots some Sanmonto fruiting pods nearby them, and shoots at them causing a spray of spores across the fanatics, who then run for safety. However, Markus is in a bad way and collapses. Ellen can see the progress of the disease in his arm, and thinks that they could stay the progress by amputating his arm. Sacrificing an arm to save himself is a decision he is willing to make. Ellen takes charge, ordering Rob to perform the surgery while Sandra holds Markus down. His lower left arm is removed and dressed.

Ellen uses the shortwave radio to communicate with others. She shares all the intel that they have collected and gathered, and picks up information about a place where they can find refuge - and perhaps the safety of utopia which they have been hoping for.

Finale

We check the number of secrets they have against the YA genre, and find that we have an optimistic future and an end of the apocalypse is in sight. Across the world we see refuges where people meet in safety. Elsewhere we see scientists pooling all the secrets which have been delivered to them and have created an airborne retrovirus which rewrites the Sanmonto plants DNA, removing their deadly spores. It will take time to manufacture, and even longer to distribute, but hope is on its way.

Arrival

Our battered party makes its way to the nearest refuge.

(Markus has a dead man walking token. He makes a personal sacrifice and donates to Ellen. This means that Markus has a sad ending, and Ellen has a brilliant ending).

The beacon for Markus is the rule of law, of democracy and civilisation. However this refuge is run by the military under martial law. It is harsh and unfair. He despairs, wondering what they have even been fighting for if it just comes down to ‘might makes right’ in the end. He lives an unsettled life with Sandra, comforting each other as much as they can.

The beacon for Ellen is her friend Yan, who she meets and who seems better than ever. They throw their arms around each other, laughing and crying. Yan has already received the retrovirus cure, and can safely go out on scouting missions to find and rescue other people. Much to her surprise, Ellen has found herself the face of salvation from the apocalypse. Her voice on the radio had been heard and repeated many times, and she starts to be associated with the cure. History books will label Ellen Myers as one of the key people in the turning of the tide against the pandemic.

Here is our PCIO layout at the close of the game

• utopia