Pathologic - The Army Arrives

*Spoilers*

I talked with the leader of the people in the Apiary, who happens to be a 6 or so year old girl, and she agreed to grant me access to the Abattoir if I brought her a toy that had been left in the original shelter house (the one that was consumed with infection when I arrived with food stocks many days ago). I quicksaved outside the house and did a bunch of daring runs until I was able to get the toy (and some other goodies in the drawers) and get out without getting infected. Let me tell you, dodging those roving clouds of infection, which head straight for you, in a cramped house, is really difficult. But man, I pulled it off.

The Abattoir opened up late, real late, just an hour before midnight, but when I entered, I was beaten up by the Butchers inside (well, they did warn me that it would be dangerous to go in there). And to my surprise the army arrived and saved my butt. I came to (I guess) in the General's makeshift headquarters (in the Town Council) in the afternoon of the next day (!), and without even my exhaustion reduced - in other words, I not only missed half the day, I didn't get a good night's sleep, either. What I did get was a bunch of notes from people in the town telling me to visit... Looks like another busy day.

The General is intimidating, I don't know if I can trust him, and he and the Inquisitor don't like each other one bit, it appears. Lara Ravel, who formed the shelter house, apparently doesn't like soldiers, and is plotting to assassinate the General. Anna Angel is the one to supply Lara with a gun (using me as courier, of course), although it's really a toy gun (Lara doesn't know any better). Meanwhile, Julia wanted me to tell the General that she was the one behind the assassination plot (she has her own reasons, and she won't tell me what they are; that woman frustrates the hell outta me), and to plant a seed of information that would lead the General to believe that when Lara does her thing with a toy gun, that it's just a ploy, a symptom of madness, and that she shouldn't be too harshly punished. Honestly, I can't figure out who's covering for whom, nor what any of their true motives are...

So I'm uncomfortable getting into the middle of all this, but the upside is that Anna and Julia both gave me their Panacea, which they got earlier from Young Vlad (so now I have 3!). After telling the General about Julia's faux assassination plans (of course, I didn't tell the General they were faux), just as Julia instructed me to, he placed a personal guard at her house. I went back to pick up my reward from Julia, and the stupid guards attacked me! And they've been following me around all over town ever since! It's like I have my own personal guard, except instead of protecting me, they want to kill me! Well, they might just have a use yet.

Speaking of guards, the whole town has been occupied by soldiers - riflemen, and flamethrower-wielding Hazmat suits. They're way more effective at keeping the 'peace' than the town guards were who fought with their fists. And yet, the town still swarms with hazards. I discovered that you can't kill rats with a gun. Unless my aim is really that terrible, they are apparently impervious to bullets. Firing a shot anywhere near them does scare them off, though, which can be a handy trick if you get tired of running away from them. I also discovered that not all rats are infected, thank god. I still wouldn't take my chances getting bitten, but it's a slight relief.

The Kains are all in a huff, talking about sacrifices and whatnot. I learned (although I probably should have already known) that the kid who plays the ambassador to the juvenile gang hiding out in the Polyhedron is actually Victor Kain's son, Kahn (although he sometimes calls him Caspar?). I may be mistaken, but I'm getting subtle hints that maybe it's the children who have the real authority in this town... Well I thought I went inside the Polyhedron once before, but that was apparently just the antechamber. It looks like I may get a chance to actually go in, but the kids want 5 rifles for defense, in order to keep the General's armies from trying to storm their base. As for how to get those rifles, Kahn's suggestion was stealing them from the soldiers. Which inevitably means killing the soldiers I steal from. Which means taking a hit to my reputation. Unless there's some other way. I'm thinking maybe those guards that have been hounding me might be for just that purpose. But I'm not certain yet.