The Water
About
The only clean water source for miles started tasting wrong three days ago. Not poisonous, not yet, but something metallic and sharp that wasn't there before. The settlement of Millbrook depends on that river, and the people who drank from it on the first day are starting to get headaches and nosebleeds. They hired you to trace the river upstream and find the source. Two scouts went up the river before you. The first came back confused, couldn't remember much of the trip, and said the landscape 'didn't make sense' past the old bridge. The second hasn't come back at all. The river runs through scrubland and pre-war ruins for about half a day's walk before entering a narrow canyon that the settlement has never had reason to explore. The water is getting worse, Millbrook's reserves won't last more than a week, and whatever is upstream has already swallowed two people.
Setting
Millbrook is a settlement of about forty people built around a pre-war gas station and a cluster of salvaged buildings. Sheet metal walls, a water tower connected to the river by a hand-built pump, vegetable plots in old tires. The river runs east through scrubland before entering a narrow red-rock canyon. Beyond the canyon, nobody in Millbrook has been. The air is dry, the sun is hot, and the only shade comes from the ruins.
Lore
- The war ended generations ago. Most people in the wasteland have never seen a working pre-war facility.
- Clean water is the most valuable resource. Settlements live and die by their water source.
- Pre-war automated systems still function in some places, running on geothermal or nuclear power. Most are harmless. Some are not.
- Memory loss and confusion in the wasteland are usually blamed on radiation exposure or tainted food. The compound in the water is something nobody has encountered before.
Locations
A settlement of sheet metal and salvaged timber built around a pre-war gas station. A water tower stands at the center, connected to the river by a hand-built pump that hasn't been turned on in three days. Cora's office is in the back of the station, behind a door that used to say Employees Only.
The river runs through dry scrubland, wide and shallow. The water has a faint green tint that gets stronger as you walk upstream. Ike's trail markers are scratched into rocks along the bank, neat at first, then erratic.
A concrete bridge from before the war, cracked down the middle but still standing. The water beneath it is visibly discolored. Dead fish float in the shallows. Beyond the bridge, the scrubland gives way to rocky terrain and the canyon entrance is visible ahead.
Red rock walls close in on both sides. The river narrows to a stream running through the center. Pre-war signage half-buried in rubble: faded warnings about restricted areas. The air feels different here, thicker, and the light plays tricks on the walls.
A concrete doorway set into the canyon wall, reinforced steel frame, blast-rated. The door is open. Inside, fluorescent lights flicker in a long corridor. The hum of machinery vibrates through the floor. A faded sign reads: REGIONAL WATER RECLAMATION — AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.
A cavernous space full of pipes, tanks, and processing equipment, all running. Green liquid flows through transparent tubes toward the river outlet. The machinery is loud and the air smells sharp and chemical. Catwalks connect different sections. Security turrets track from ceiling mounts.
A glass-walled room overlooking the factory floor. Banks of monitors show readings in formats two hundred years out of date. An intercom speaker hums with the AI's standby tone. Dale sits in a chair near the console, staring at a screen she can't read.
Characters
Fifties, iron-haired, runs Millbrook from behind a desk made of car doors. Direct, unsentimental, and visibly worried for the first time anyone can remember.
Young, usually sharp, currently confused. Repeats himself. Keeps touching his temples. Genuinely trying to be helpful but his memories are scrambled.
Normally steady, competent, the person Cora sends when something needs doing right. Currently wandering the factory in a fog, lucid in moments and lost in others.
Speaks through intercoms in a calm, professional, pre-war corporate tone. Uses project designations and technical language. Helpful within the bounds of its programming.
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