The World's Tears

## Overview

The World's Tears is the first Silent Earth event. It follows the I-35 Group's division in half in the attempt to search for Saturne Booke in San Antonio.

## Plot

The event begins with Doyle Shallows informing Caden Surge about the struggle to find Saturne Booke. Caden, however, is more concerned about a storm that he feels is impending. A man by the name of Jacob Smith introduces himself to the group, disrupting Doyle's conversation. Doyle then goes off to break up a fight between Giffy Mia and Oz Hansen. The group points their guns at Jacob, and only Mike Nelson shows sympathy for him, and gives him a can of beans. In the midst of confronting Jacob, a large portion of the group has already left to northern San Antonio. Leaving only Caden, Sterling, Doyle, Mike, Doctor Oz Hansen, Giffy Mia, Father Barlos, Helen, Keplar, Phillip, Laura Rose, and Albert to deal with Jacob. A large storm then begins to set in, and they retreat to set up shop in the record store that Cade Whitehead was brutally killed in, which Doyle remarks as "a bad idea". Soon after, they receive knocking at the store's door. Mike opens it, to reveal nothing but a cassette tape on the ground with "PLAY ME" written on it. Doyle heads outside to get a breath of fresh air, and discovers a black hummer driving up the interstate, heading North, at high speed. Rodriguens trail behind very slowly, and are not able to catch up with the hummer. Doyle is brought to being physically ill after seeing them for the first time. Giffy Mia and the others hatch a plan to kill the creatures with a combination of fireworks and gunfire, which eventually works. Sterling vomits after inspecting the Rodriguens closer and determines that they were once human.

The group eventually finds and plays the tape, which is an ominous monologue by someone who identifies himself as 'Kog'. Kog talks about how he won't accept Atrophy or the group settling in the city. Shortly after, the Breeder that killed Cade returns, which Doyle dubs, 'Cadekiller'. They rush off, and realize that the rain is causing the floaters created by Cadekiller to coagulate with the water and form a sort of 'acid rain'. Albert King takes control of one of the group's half-tracks and drives them to the side-route to northern San Antonio, which Barlos and Sterling object to.

Rushing forward at high speed, and with the rain and fog obscuring his vision, Albert drives directly into a military quarantine barricade wall, which causes Keplar Beape, who was sitting on the turret spot, to fly forward and gruesomely get killed as the impact caused his head to quite literally explode. The vehicle, and everyone else, is undamaged. A distraught Albert drives towards Barklin's Convenience Store, where the group sets up shop. A few hours later, Albert King has gone entirely catatonic along with Helen Brooklyn. Doyle and Sterling discuss plans for the future when they suddenly run into a man hiding behind a counter, who reveals himself to be Jeremy Whitehill, the convenience store clerk.

Doyle, Sterling, and Jacob all become acquainted with Jeremy while the others sleep. Jeremy then offers to take them to where he survived. They get in a van and drive to a news station, where Jeremy indicates he's been hiding behind a stack of monitors for up to two weeks. As they attempt to leave, they run over police road-spikes that Kog's group left for them. Carter and Elipe then ambush them with their truck, blasting rap music, and open fire on them. A fleeing Kim Ootla is struck by the truck and is thought dead. Jacob shoots the barrels on the back of Carter and Elipe's truck, which causes fuel to leak. Sterling then throws an incendiary grenade into the back of the truck, causing an explosion which kills both of the attackers. Seconds after this, Jeremy picks up a radio signal from an unknown source, presumably broadcasting to the world. He is only able to hear the name "Big Fish" before the signal cut out. Giffy Mia carries a mortally wounded Kim Ootla back to Barklin's Convenience Store along with Sterling, Doyle, Jeremy, and Jacob. Doctor Hansen attempts his best at medical procedures, and saves Kim from death.

The rest of the group wakes up and rests in the store for a few hours, starting a controlled campfire inside. Father Barlos and Doctor Hansen then start up a conversation about life, meaning, and cause of the apocalypse with Jacob, Jeremy, Doyle, Sterling, Mike, Caden, and Giffy. Hansen theorizes that the apocalypse is a transition from life to the afterlife, but notes that dying while already dead is a bizarre notion. Father Barlos lectures about how God would never create such horrors, so it must be the Devil's judgement day. Jacob asks Barlos what caused the apocalypse, which is when he talks about his experiences working for Atrophy. Jacob then theorizes that they have to hack into the satellite defense grid as their best bet of ending the apocalypse, which Barlos calls highly unlikely with their current state.

The night ends with Albert King pulling a pistol to his head and pulling the trigger, but the gun jams. Father Barlos then interprets this as a holy sign, and constructs a crucifix and nails it to the wall.

As dawn approaches, Doyle shuts off the store's power supply. the group has a discussion about future plans when a man knocks at their door, who is Jack Rose, a mechanic. After some debate, they let him into the group. Jeremy picks up a signal from Big Fish, which tells of an insane man named Tegmine Ex Nihil, acid rain phenomena across the USA, and a QM Breeder. Caden Surge then begins to hallucinate that Doc Mike is still alive, and with the group. While Doyle and Phillip try to rationalize with him, a floater produced by Cadekiller seeps inside and attacks Jacob Smith, forcing Albert King to amputate his leg at the thigh. Doyle burns the floater with a flamethrower while a panicked Sterling shoots an incendiary grenade at it. Father Barlos is quick to attend to the scene with a fire extinguisher. The group takes notice that a piece of shrapnel has entered Giffy Mia's left eye, and he tries to persuade the group to focus on Jacob's leg injury.

Doctor Hansen cauterizes the wound and cleans up the blood on the floor, while Jack Rose, Albert, and Jeremy Whitehill attempt to provide medical aid. Caden successfully removes the shrapnel from Giffy's eye.

Oz Hansen tells the group about Mike Nelson's discovery of a truck with medical supplies, explosives, ammo, food, and water. Along the way to the truck, Albert recruits a former member of the air force named Tybereus Daniels. The group arrives at the scene of the truck, only to find it's dangling off an apartment building. Mike, Caden, Albert, Helen, Phillip, and Tyberious make it to the roof of the apartment building. Mike tells everyone to give him room as he foolishly jumps into the drivers seat. He attempts to safely drive it off, but it instead triggers an explosion, killing him.

A man named Leo Bim drives up in an ambulance after seeing the explosion. He introduces himself, and joins the group. Phillip is angered by the amount of death present in the world, and vows a "no body gets taken apart by colonies" policy. He takes Mike's charred corpse and puts it in the back of the ambulance. The group stages a mini-convoy to bury him, and along the way, they pick up the headless body of Keplar Beape, and bury both of them by a lake.

Phillip and Father Barlos organize a miniature funeral on the spot, and after everyone says their goodbyes, Phillip and Leo bury the two bodies. Seconds after this, however, they come under attack by sniper and machine-gun fire. Caden successfully shoots one of the snipers, which causes the other three to retreat. One of them, Hausen, throws a grenade at them, which Phillip kicks into the lake. Albert notes that they were heading back to Barklin's Convenience Store, so the group follows in pursuit.

They arrive to find three men: Hausen, Ray, and Phil with Kim, Giffy, and Brooklyn as hostages respectively. Hausen reveals that the individual they shot was a man named Harry, who was part of Hausen's squad. Hausen then tells the group about how he works for Atrophy, which incites mild fear in Father Barlos. The attackers question Caden on the whereabouts of Davis Lanchester, who Caden tells has died.

Mid-sentence, Hausen is stabbed to death with his own knife by Kim, which incites Albert to shoot and kill Ray. Phil pleads for his life, but is shot to death by Caden.

Hours later, water has accumulated into a flood in the streets of San Antonio. The group scavenges for supplies until Leo Bim is attacked by the 'Cadekiller' Breeder, which pulls him up into its central mass. The group starts an all-out assault on the breeder. Using Giffy's fireworks on the central body and burning the tentacles with flamethrowers, along with various other techniques. Sterling is hit across the face gently by one of Cadekiller's tentacles, and it rips off some of his skin on his face. The group continues to attack it for the next two hours until it's finally entirely engulfed in flames, and crashes into the edge of the city. The waters continue to rise, and the group retreats into a partially flooded workshop / garage.

They are forced to clamber onto anything that isn't underwater, including debris and over-topped shelves. An interloper, and several calcifiers, floaters, and speed demons are all under the water. The lights in the garage start changing colors as ATROPHY's voice clicks in through a radio on a shelf. He tells them that Kog and his two men remaining have utilized the military quarantine gates to seal off the city, which was a factor in the flooding, and that if they want to get out, they have to somehow make them open the gates. Several Rodriguens and Walking Faces come into the water, and begin a massive skirmish with the spores. This gives the survivors the chance to escape. Almost ironically, Laura Rose is attacked by a walking face, which latches onto her and contorts itself to resemble her facial area. Caden attempts to shoot the creature from the side, but ends up shooting Laura, and killing her.

As they leave, they realized the city has gone even more underwater. Doyle states that *"This is no longer a city, this is a sinking submarine."*  their main route to high-ground has been sealed off by debris, so Doyle leads them through a mall, which has water pouring in from all areas of the ceiling, and is flooded by seven feet. Doyle then becomes ensnared on an underwater bear-trap that is somehow attached to the floor. Eight Rodriguens then begin to approach, which causes Doyle to dismiss the rest of the group to keep going. A single gunshot is heard.

The group heads onto a fallen overpass, where they encounter Dan, one of Kog's men, and Rick Jones, a San Antonio survivor. Dan threatens them, and Caden immediately responds by shooting him in-between the eyes with his rifle. The survivors navigate over Dan's landmines, which have been set on the overpass, only to find Nat, another one of Kog's men. Nat, however, does not threaten, and merely surrenders, telling them that if they give him more food than Kog is giving him, he'll join them. Caden gives him food, and lets him lead the way. They finally run into Kog, who shoots Tybereus twice in the torso, Jacob once in the right arm, and Rick once in the left leg. Caden tackles Kog and exchanges in a fist-fight with him before Jacob shoots him in the head.

The group then sets up camp at the tunnel where Albert King ran into a military blockade, and incidentally killed Keplar Beape. They tend to their injuries and discuss various things such as supplies, search parties, and the possibility of other survivors in the city. Caden comes to the consensus to send Albert, Nat, and Jacob to unlock the flood gates. Nat then tells Caden that it will take a full day for the gates to actually open. The three set out, and Nat directs them to a mostly-submerged bank, which he says is the location of the activation panel. As they walk across some rooftops to get to the bank, a bar ceiling collapses in from Nat's weight. He suffers a few scratches but gets back up on his feet in little time.

They swim the rest of the way to the bank, and break inside. More water spills in through their entry, and floods it enough to where a table flips over and pins Nat to the wall. Jacob saves him, and they head into the bank vault, where they activate the panel, and swim back out.

The three reunite with the main group, and they start to relax. After a day, the group finds a stash of FEMA boats, which they use to carry themselves and their supplies out of the city. The event ends with the survivors locating Doyle, who has a gangrenous infection on his foot.