Gomez: Rescue and Reevaluation

Gomez had to admit it. He was completely and utterly lost. True, he knew he was on the promenade and the emergency hatch to the engineering decks was somewhere along it. True, the promenade was roughly four miles long and a quarter of a mile wide. True also that it was at the best of times a maze of shops, boutiques, food courts, restaurants and novelty photo booths (his favourite was the one where they'd dress you up like a cowboy and take your picture in black and white), but Gomez had to admit that the place had changed beyond all recognition in the three millenia he'd been frozen in time. For one thing, he didn't remember there being Simulant death squads patrolling the area or mutant rodent gangs living in the bombed out remains of Claire's Accessories. Gripping his laser pistol tightly and zipping his jacket up for extra warmth in the dark, he proceeded further along the promenade into the darkness.
He'd been walking for nearly an hour now, and the psi-scan he'd found in a storage locker along the way was providing no help. No matter how far he walked, he seemed never to get any closer to the hatchway. He was quickly coming to the conclusion that the psi-scan was broken and was as useful as a cocktail umbrella in a thunder storm. Just as he was about to give up hope and head back toward the stasis deck, he heard a woman scream.
Dashing quickly through the debris, he ducked down behind an overturned vending machine and saw a group of people - a dark haired woman and three men, one of whom was sat in a shopping trolley - surrounded by a group of Huzards. Reaching for his gun, Gomez aimed and at the Huzard nearest to the group and relased a volley of shots into its chest. The second it hit the floor, one of the men pulled up the laser rifle slung over his shoulder and took out two more of the creatures whilst the woman and other man had picked up fallen swords and spears and dispatched another one between them. The man in the trolley just stayed put, looking equally scared and indignant. As the remaining Huzards fled back into the darkness, Gomez jumped out from his hiding place and ran over to the group.

"Eet is not safe here, we must flee!" he told the group.

"Yes" said the man in the trolley "but where to? You might not have noticed, but this area is about as safe as Glasgow on a Saturday night. Who are you, anyway?"

The woman scowled at the man. "There'll be time for formal introductions and caviar later, Seymour" she said, "For now I say we head for Argos. We can hole up in there until we figure out a plan of action."

"Who, wait a minute guys!" said the man with long brown hair. "Gotta go grab something, I'll be two seconds". He dashed across the promenade and into Parrotts, where the crew heard a smash before he came running back out.

"What were you looking for?" asked the man in the trolley "A gun? Or maybe some spirits to use as incendiaries in case we're attacked again?"

The man shook a small cardboard box at him "Nah, had to go grab some fags. Come on, let's get out of here!"

A short time later, the group were hidden in the store room of Argos. Gomez had explained his mission to them and the group were taking stock of what to do next.

"I for one am all for Senor Gomez's plan" said Seymour "if we can get the power back online, we can activate the ship wide defence system and deal with our, er, infestation problem."

Jay mulled the idea of heading down to the engineering decks over in his mind. "The way I see it, it'll be tough going. I think we should get out off the promenade quickly and find an alternative route. Perhaps we can make our way there easier by going through the botanical gardens?"

"Oh, capital idea, Captain Courageous!" sneered Seymour. "Let us walk right into the lair of the Huzards. I'll go back to my restaurant and get the fine china, I'm sure their leader would rather my head and genitals served up on that rather than some tatty old piece of tin!"

"No, Jay is right" Cassandra said "we can deal with those creatures easier than the Simulants. At least they can be reasoned with. Besides, last we heard, Davie was down that way and he might need our help."

"Hang on, maybe they've got that Main Access Key thing those Simulant blokes were talking about" said Alex, steadily smoking his way through a three million year old packet of Rothmans, he drew heavily on his cigarette and exhaled. "If we can make our way down there safely we could have a look for it and, I dunno, trade for it or something."

"Oh, capital idea" said Seymour. "I'm sure we could march right in there and trade some of our valuable jewels? Maybe pay them in gold from our treasure vaults."

"Senor Nipples, if you do not have a better idea, I theenk we should make a move now. The seemulants and leezards will have regrouped by now and be looking for us. If we do not leeve now, we might run into trouble."

"Gomez is right, lets move out people" said Jay, picking his rifle up and holstering it over his shoulder. With Gomez pushing a sulking Seymour, the group made their way out of Argos and onto the promenade, moving towards the Xpress Lift that would take them down to the botannical garden.

<TAG - Jay/Cass/Seymour/Alex - Will they run into more trouble or make it to the Lizard Kingdom unharmed?>