| NEW MEXICO COPS a Cyberpunk 2020 game run by Gary Astleford |  |
THE CROSSROADS POLICE STATION This file details the jailhouse and its myriad rooms. The place was abandoned during the Collapse, since there was no money coming from the state to keep it supplied and its officers paid. The police who utilized it previous to the Collapse stripped it of all valuable equipment (tools, weapons, desks, chairs, etc), locked it up, and left it to the elements. Since then, several scavengers and passing nomad gangs have broken in to search for anything useful. This is the station as it was the day we arrived in Crossroads: no power, no water, and no phones. ON THE OUTSIDE The jailhouse, from outside, is a nearly square, sheetrock building that measures 72' wide x 78' long x 20' tall. It was, at one time in the distant past, white-washed. The paint has since faded and chipped. The building has no windows. The only ways in are the front door, situated on the east wall, or the garage doors, which are on the south face. The garage doors, remarkably, have survived relatively intact. They are made of heavy aluminum and framed with steel, and are of the "roll-up" variety. They were never meant to be lifted by human arms, since they are too heavy. When the building was still a police station, they were electronically operated from the inside. All such garage-opening equipment was taken when the station was abandoned. The front door was steel-reinforced, but has since been smashed inward by a car or some other vehicle. It will need to be completely replaced.  The main office is a room measuring 28ft x 28ft square. The floor, especially near the door, is littered with garbage, dirt, and a stray tumbleweed or two that found their ways inside. A DIFFICULT Awareness roll will reveal very old blood stains on the floor near the western door. There are five doors leading out of the office : (Clockwise) the main entrance to the east, an open door to the southeast, an open door to the south, an open door to the southwest, and an open heavy steel door to the west. Searching through the garbage on the floor will reveal nothing of interest. This room was once the CO's office. There is absolutly nothing in the room at all. There is a brass plate on the door which reads "Captain Sutherland". This 6' x 6' room was the station's rest room. There is a sink next to a urinal, and a single stall containing an old toilet. The urinal has an old, crumbly deodorizer in it. The toilet, however, has some very old fecal matter which has since turned grey. It will crumble into dust if touched. All metal pipes in the room have been removed. Why he thought we'd want to TOUCH the contents of the toilet is beyond me, I guess there's no accounting for what players will do. The office's western door (the really heavy, steel one) leads into a hallway walled by barred doors, all closed and locked in place. Each cell contains a bunk bed (no mattresses) and a single commode. This cell differs from the rest in that it holds the remains of a person who was possibly trapped within. The body is slumped in an upright sitting position against the northern wall, out of reach. Decay has been lessened by the dry atmosphere, and the corpse has been nearly mummified. Further examination will reveal the body to be that of a male. He is dressed in a t-shirt, faded, tattered blue jeans, leather cowboy boots, and a leather gun belt. A cowboy hat sits on the bottom bunk. In his right hand he holds a black revolver, and the back of his head has been blown out. It can be concluded that the person committed suicide. We later determined that this guy was probably examining the holding cell for some reason, and was trapped within when the door slammed shut behind him. With no key and nobody around to free him, he took the quick way out. The empty room is spotless. It was at one time used to interrogate suspects. The door to this room is of heavy steel reinforcement. It looks like someone, long ago, tried to get the door open without success. The door itself is dented in several spots as if it was shot at close range. If anyone is able to open the door, they will find that the efforts made to open the door were in vain, anyway. The walls are decked with empty gun racks and shelves. In the south-eastern corner is a stack of old newspapers. The one on the top is dated August 14th, 1996, and the headline reads "MARTIAL LAW IMPOSED". The papers will tear easily, and if anyone handling them isn't careful, they will crumble into fragments. This is another empty room that once served as sleeping quarters for cops between shifts. It is bare of anything except for some old, burned rags in the center of the room. It looks like someone tried to start a fire there. Empty, except for the shelves lining the walls, and a can of tomato soup (the expiration date reads "March 2001"). This room is littered with empty oil containers and a few, empty, dented gas cans. A poster on the wall, if examined, is revealed to be a 1996 calendar -- the picture is that of a sexy blond in a revealing bathing suit, posing with a power tool. In the years since the station was deserted, someone has scrawled lewd pictographs on the poster with a magic marker. The lockers, built into the structure of the room, are still present, but each of the doors has been forced open by a crow bar. They are empty, for the most part. One or two contain faded photographs of loved ones. This room is completely wall-to-wall tile. A near-mummified corpse is lying face down in a pool of dried blood. The body is clothed in a tattered flannel shirt and faded black Levi's; his boots have been stolen. If examined closely, it can be found that the cause of death was stabbing. All visible metal pipes in this room, as well as shower heads and knobs, have been removed. The first thing we did after examining the rest of the building was to bury this guy and his suicidal buddy (the occupant of #4a). Visitors to the station can still see the slightly sunken area marking the grave. We threw 4a's hat in with him; thinking back on it, I wish I'd saved it to hang on Maitland's office wall. Ah, well. 11's body is still marked as an open murder case in our files, and we planned to investigate it if we ever got any leads. A green chalk board covers the western wall. Pieces of brittle chalk are still in their holders on the wall. Further searching will reveal a foam eraser in the southeast corner. Someone has written on the board in yellow chalk: Only the free have disposition to be truthful,W.H. Auden. This quote opens Lt. Maitland's character file. Several old brooms and mops are propped in the southwest corner. The shelves are empty. An old burned-out light bulb hangs from a wire in the center of the ceiling. The floor in this immense room is marked with old oil stains. The room is almost entirely empty except for some plastic parts piled in a corner. The parts consist of old wires, distributor caps, spray paint caps, and the like. Back To New Mexico Introduction |