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Diamond Candy
efc942
You strip the police officer down to his skivvies, and don his jacket, pants, boots, and gun belt. By tearing off the patches, and forgoing the hat, you manage to avoid looking like an officer yourself.
You then fashion a head rap from the soiled scraps of your shirt. Too a person on the street, you'll look rather suspicious, but you'll blend right in among the filth that frequent the Thieves Den.
You suppose you're filth now too.
Then something occurs to you. You were shot.
In the haze of violence, and the following conversation with Crow, the injury had completely slipped your mind. On inspection, you find that the wound has closed up, and an angry red growth of raw flesh has formed in the laceration. It doesn't hurt, but it's still a little irritated.
Regeneration of that magnitude is entirely inhuman. You don't know what you are, but it's not human.
Whatever you are, you have a destination.
You begin walking towards the Docks, where you know one of the entrances to the Thieves Den is located.
The streets are empty; shops closed, houses locked. The only signs that London is still alive are the innumerable footprints left in the fresh mud.
On your way to the docks, you come across several human corpses. Some of them slain by fellow man; bullet holes, knife lacerations, blunt trauma inflicted with melee weapons, others killed by far more insidious forces; claw marks, drained of blood, organs eaten.
As you continue on, the situation becomes obvious.
This city is sick. It's festering gutters overflowing with blood and refuse, the people themselves numb to the violence and madness. And the monsters that prowl the streets at night, praying on the defenseless, leaving eviscerated corpses in their wake; the people are powerless to stop them. Too most, a bullet through the brain would be sweet release from this man-made hell.
Perhaps it is beyond saving. Perhaps these people don't deserve saving.
You pity them, you do. But you're also furious at them; furious that they just turn the other cheek, furious that these 'men' slink away with their tails between their legs when faced with an ugly truth.
But that's irrelevant at the moment. You refocus.
You're walking along the bank of the Thames, the river polluted with gods know what. An occasional body floats by, and several times you think you see movement under the water. The Thames was never a lovely sight, but this is an all time low.
You arrive at the entrance to the Den; under a bridge, on the bank of the Thames is a shack erected around a derelict cistern outflow tunnel from cheap wood and metal scrap. Several men stand outside of the structure, all obvious gang members, all conspicuously armed.
You approach the front door, and a very large man wearing suspenders and a bowler -as well as bearing a revolver in his waistband- steps in front of you.
"What's ya' business, westy?" He asks. (Westy being a derogatory term for those of privilege.)
You lean in close while placing a silver Cross in the man's palm. "My business is none of yours." You say.
The thug smiles as you lean out. "Oy, right you are, Sir. Enjoy your time here." He says, stepping out of the way.
You walk into the shack, and find the inside is little more than a tunnel opening protruding into the middle of the room. You descend into the cistern.
You enter a long, brick walled tunnel that leads downwards. There are no forks or branching tunnels.
There are also no light sources. It is dark, damp, and smells of trash. But you find you can see perfectly in the near pitch blackness.
Eventually, you emerged into what you immediately recognize as the Thieves Den proper.
It is an enormous cavern, the ceiling easily several hundred feet above you. Wooden structures are built all along the cavern floor and walls, stacked on top of each other, and leaning against one another. Some piles of structures reach so high as several stories tall.
Stalls peddle illicit goods, whore houses, taverns, and drug dens proudly advertise their services along the Main Street with signs and red lanterns.
Shady individuals skulk in the shadows, men walk the streets brandishing illegal military-grade weapons, and cloaks seem to be a staple article of clothing.
This place is a city all its own.
You need to prioritize your objectives.
For one, you still need medical attention. Though your gun-wound seems to be fine on its own, you are still suffering the effects of toxic chemicals.
There's also the matter of your clothing, you'll need to find new attire.
Then you'll also need a place to stay at least for the night, as well as finding food and drink.
And finally, though you are already armed with the officers revolver and cudgel, you may want to acquire some superior firepower.
You need to decide how to go about these tasks. This is a large place, and wandering blindly will likely get you a blade between your ribs.
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