"As part of Ivy Raines W-Hot Action News crew we had followed some tips to a small city SW of Pittsburgh called Dumont...expecting some boring legwork we were instead plunged into danger as a tanker truck after a collision crashed and rolled, bursting into flames and placing the city in peril..."

[Day 1 Philly] This time  the crew has Emergency Enviromental protection suits..

$45 for Militia ("I have guns so you pay") Toll road

In Dumont: Tanker truck from Remington Trucks [owned by Dow Chemicals, a subsiderary of Dupont], crashed and burned - and ended down a hill. "Rescue efforts" by team spark good reactions from onlookers, and get us the drivers log-book. [Illegally earning unrecorded overtime past safety limits since Logbook has him in Philidelphia on rest and Down time.] Lots of Great footage of exploding truck and dramatic rescues... [2 minutes worth slow-sent to station for directors attention]

"Rent-A-Wreck" Motel: (paid for by truckers who are fans of Ivy and the Show)

[DAY 2 in Dumont]

During night - Radio Station (local repeater station) pulled off the air, though power still on in town...And the rumble of military trucks fills the air.

Quarantined!!!! (Andromeda Strain/Outbreak style) [tanks, helicopter Gunships, barbed Razor wire etc.] Filming (& Jack's "accidental Computer sneaking") earn us an EMPed video van [mini pulse generators do exist here] with the loss of most of our Crash video and a visit to the "Man"...

(2 star general) Commander Jackson Flagg (Strategic & Tactical) and cheerful (dis)Information & PR Captain Nelson (young & Very Handsome)

Foster blurts out the Toxic waste dump story & Flagg seems surprised. Flagg claims Army there as precautionary measure because of the Chemical spill...If the blood tests have positive results for anything interesting that person will be sent to Philidelphia to a respected civilian doctor named Moore (Obnoxious Dr; Jack, Foster & Ivy know from Morgue scrub down)

Good News: (sarcasm mode) Flagg after reading driver's logbook " Ha, no reason to worry, everything is OK. According to this he's in Philadelphia."

Good news: Chick Martin WWEN ("He's there When it Happens") was arrested for breaking into the military computer system.

Good News: The Army gave us replacement Vid Storage cubes (1/2 capacity and slower data access than our - Now fried - newer Pro model "cubes")

As News professionals we get picked/volunteer to make calming broadcasts for the sealed off town of Dumont. {Blood tests for people exposed; children, old people moved to hospital for their protection and testing. People with certain diseases put white flags outside of house for attention, Remain calm etc.}

Local TV Station (gets feed from Channel 5 - Pittsburgh) Local Tech school (that the station will Not hire from, 5 year old equip.)

TV Producer Tom Michaels [late 40's /Balding/ heavyset] helps us produce the Calming info spot (with skill and speed) and gives us some local colour.

[Next month is local Giant Carnivorous Plant fair. 5,000 extra people come to town for the event. And there is even a 40 year old 6' tall Giant Carnivorous Man-eating Plant in the lobby of the town hall.]

After the Info spot is completed (in time for the Normal local news, if there was some to broadcast) Kelley receives a phone call from our PR hero - Capt. Nelson. Through scientific deduction & analysis the material in the opening Exploding truck scene was either:

A) Liquid Fertilizer     -or-

B) Growth Formula for Giant Carnivorous Plants [or waste from its production].

Both highly flammable, the exact composition involved is unknown due to the small size of the remaining pieces and the intense heat.

Short interlude at tech school trying for VideoVan electrical repairs for Foster & Jack (Not letting any students or even the teacher help - but using WHOT credit cards to soothe egos) whilest bemoaning primitive tech in the wilderness.

Interrupting repairs; the Mop-up Squad? Very armed men with Special Forces berets and unFriendly attitudes (crunching Sheridan's video data cube because it had a short 5 second glimpse of them arriving at the Tech school) just to bring the group to their HQ (time to hastily memorize our notes again before they get destroyed "One More Time...." when the goon squad reaches the TV station where Ivy & Sophia are/were preparing for a later broadcast on the "Quarantine" (and still the original "Illegal Toxic Waste Dump" story)).

More uniforms: Col Livingston (though who would presume?) wearing his Army Special Forces beret without even Commander Flagg's plastic smile. Livingston admits his dis-information interests and says the Dump site falls under his jurisdiction; thus he will "make us a deal"....

Deal: before the barriors come down in the morning, we will get first shot (errrr.. rephrase that) first chance at the Dump site (4 hours), then for 6 hours the site will be open for any others then it will be Totally destroyed. [We will be allowed to film/take notes etc. of the barrels that will say who dumped the stuff originally; then those barrels will be destroyed before the next group will be allowed in. Thus we get a scoop & a lead on everyone else.]

Our part? We will owe him a big favour [Typical reporters we make any deal Necessary with any Devil]. Foster weedles and deals an extra bit however. When Chick Martin ["WWEN - He was there when it happened"  *G*] gets transferred by the US Marshals we will be permitted to film this telegenic tidbit.

[DAY 3 in Dumont]

And that happens... A dawn trip under guard, a bit of CM Lensing, then off to the Dump site.

There hidden beneath camouflage tarps in what appears to be an abandoned municipal swimming pool built against the side of the mountain/large hill; a nasty -wear-your-suit-at-all-times- collection of rotting leaking noxious barrels/55 Gal drums... still guarded by over eager soldier hidden around, we film several mini spots for later use and do a video survey.

On the only legibly labled drum we see "16-35 -------" "NorMark Chem Corp", the rest are too rotted and corroded to read more or manufactured Blank! (at least from our angle, though even mini-manufacturers codes seem absent as well). (our skilled film crew is able to produce hours of usuable footage in a mere two, enough for several news specials) Our "joy and pleasure" is increased by a post dump meeting at army HQ with Ivy's "good friend" Dr Moore...

Back to Civilization!!!

  Our director (WHot news) T.J. Hull is very pleased with the results [10 AM after broadcast], and when we ask to arrange for Tom Michaels [Dumont local TV] a feedback for his local news at 6 PM, TJ says since Pittsburgh 5 is at 5 {"Five at 5 for all the News!"} we can do a cut in to their live feed at 5:02 PM (to better make them look like chumps).

Toxic Waste Dump Expo - PreSold broadcast nets us both solid ratings! and Cash Bonuses! [Ivy Raines- $25,000; Sophia Savary- $20,000; Kelley & Sheridan $15,000 @]

[2 XP to all (half point extra for Sophia's dual note taking, another to Sheridan for his record keeping)]