69. THE DOCTORS OFFICE

Every neighborhood, even in the Zone, has the creepy house everyone avoids, and the creepy neighbor that causes people to say a prayer if they see him.  The Doctor is that man for the Gauntlet, and his office is that house.  The Doctor is an aged man pushing his 80’s now.  Addicted to opiates and embalming fluid.  His body shakes, but as long as he has had his fix his hands are steady.  He talks in a low, hoarse whisper.

His office is actually an old bunker, built after the Colorado Strike, when fear of all out war between the US and the EU was at an all time high.  On top of the bunker sits an abandoned brownstone, virtually no one goes there, even the most desperate of homeless… at least no one who has ever been seen again.  The entrance to the bunker is down the long narrow alleyway on the western side of the building, down a small flight of stairs.  The stairs lead to a door, which opens into a narrow corridor about 20 feet long.  Hidden surveillance cameras are placed in the alley, inside the building, and in the corridor.   He charges 100 EB, cash, per person, just to be allowed in the clinic.  Once inside they will be greeted to a virtual arsenal of firearms, both carried by the doctor, and hanging from pegs on the walls.  Bullet casings litter the area behind the door, which has a small gunport where he can deal with those who waste his time.  His prices for surgery and recuperative drugs are low, but so is the quality.  No one dares risk coming to the doctor with anything less than a mortal wound or infection.

A hidden door in the floor of the office leads to his secret lab.  It is here that the Doctor stores limbs and organs, and cyber, selling the ones he can on the black market.  The doctor pays well for fresh undamaged organs, and many seedier gangs and individuals in the Zone take advantage of this.

1.Corridor 2.Cameras 3.Door 4.Lead lined concrete walls 5.Waiting Room 6.Office 7. Operating Room

(The Doctor and his Office originally appeared in Chasing the Dragon from Atlas Games.)

Written By Deric Bernier, Images from Atlas Games

For questions, complaints, criticisms and suggestions, e-mail the author:wisdom000@gmail.com