Day 7: "Dining Out" (Part 2 of 2)

Sorry for the delay all, with holidays and all I've been busy. Not to mention finishing up the Fall semester and grading tests. To paraphrase the movie Clerks, "...this job would be great if it wasn't for all the damn students!" :D

* * * 

Turn 4

Survivors: 3 Zombies: 6 PEFS: 1 Gangers: 1

Doubles mean another Random Event (8); the civilian Neeva firing at shadows outside, generating 0 zombies.

There are 3 zombies inside the building as per the I Zombie rules. Normally (in those rules) there are areas 2-10, but I'm giving 3 chances for zombies in the front area (Dining room) of the building, as it's by far the largest area of the building. Despite this, only 1 zombie is in the front of the restaurant. Another is in the rear hallway leading to the back door, and the last is in a storeroom located to the left entryway of the rear exit.

I'll assume that the person in the storeroom was a restaurant employee that was bit by the zombie in the hall, and was hiding in the storeroom; but later died from the wounds and turned.

It's a narrow hall, so Michael and Sebastian are the only ones who can shoot in the doorway. The hallway zombie is Knocked Down (KD), but still kicking.

Jennifer pushes by the two guys and fires her SMG, with 2 of the 3 being hits with more KD results

Outside and at the front of the structure, the Ganger group attacks the front door, easily overcoming its Defense Value (DV). So, 2 Gangers enter and attack the zombie in the dining room with 2 Out of the Fight (OOF) results. The spray of gunfire generates 1 zombie, emerging with the horde gathering in front of the apartment complex.

The last PEF moves through the woods and enters Line of Sight (LOS) of the Gangers, resulting in a false alarm. Pity, a distraction to the Gangers would really have helped the survivor group right about now!

Turn 5

Survivors: 4 Zombies: 2 Gangers: 5

Lisa and Kaylee enter the hallway, melees the prone zombie and kills it with a rapier thrust.

Neeva moves to the kitchen doorway to keep a watch out for the Gangers...and possibly more zombies.

Outside, the zombies follow the sound of automatic gunfire in the restaurant dining room, as its closer and certainly more than the one shot in the back of the building. A horde is gathering.

The leader of the Gangers moves into the building and kills the prone zombie in the dining area.

Turn 6

Survivors: 6 Zombies: 2 Gangers: 6:

Doubles rolled YET again means one more Random Event, but the result of 11 applies only to moving vehicles, so there is no effect. The survivors are busy splitting the group in two in order to check the office/break room and storeroom of the building.

The zombies continue their plodding movement toward the building's front doorway and windows, blocking the Gangers within the restaurant.

Turn 7

Survivors: 3 Zombies: 2 Gangers: 1

The survivors split up to check office and storeroom. Find a total of 6 units of food...and the zombie! Jennifer is guarding the back door, Sebastian & Michael enters the storeroom and fire at the zombie in the crates. Lisa and Kaylee search the office, and Neeva continues to keep watch on the kitchen.

The resulting volley of fire results in Sebastian getting an OOF and Michael (finally!) gets to kill a zombie. The gunshots generate 1 zombie outside, moving toward restaurant from south; being placed 12 inches to the east thus near burned out building.

Which brings up a question... What happens in ATZ when the location of a generated zombie places it off the table? I resolve this by moving it east and have it at an angle rather than a straight line...but I need to remember to ask others how they handle this.

Meanwhile, things are really getting ugly out front, with the zombies getting thicker and thicker on the ground. I'd hoped to search multiple buildings but I think we're going to be lucky to get out of the restaurant alive and with supplies.

Two zombies charge the gangers standing just inside the doorway.

One ganger succeeds and snap fires at the charging Z's, the others go into melee (3 gangers total. The snap fire misses horrifically; guess he was spooked! In the resulting melee, one ganger is killed, and his zombie attacker will feast for 4 turns. Several gangers are now in range of the feeding to take the "See the Feast" (STF) test. Three of them end up forced to take the sanity test. All 3 are stunned and must take the STF roll again next turn.

Finally, the ganger turn arrives. With 3 of them stunned, the other 3 shoot at the zombies in range. The non-feeding zombie is KDed, though 2 zombies are generated by the gunfire. A result of boxcars means the two generated zombies enter the game from the apartments (west). What is this? A Zombie reunion?

Turn 8

Survivors: 5 Zombies: 3 Gangers: 2

The survivors don't move...perhaps they are busy packing food in backpacks?

The horde arrives. Five zombies burst through the doorway in the front, 2 in the doorway itself and the other 3 crash through the glass windows. Window zombies fall upon two of the stunned gangers, and the two in the doorway move for other prey. The Knocked down zombie stands up. So, we have 7 zombies inside, with one feasting for 3 more turns. The end is drawing near for the gangers I suspect!

The unstunned ganger Rep 3 fires and misses the incoming doorway zombies, while the two Rep 4 gangers spray at full auto towards the zombies. 6 shots, and 4 hit their targets. One zombie is Obviously Dead (OD), and the other is KD. The remaining zombies inside broken windows melees the nearby Rep 3 ganger and gets an OOF. Dinnertime! Meanwhile the gang leader and guards (Reps 4 and 3) make there being charged test and fire 6 shots, with 2 KD results.

Oh boy...15 shots for Zombie generation??? This is gonna suck. It does, with 8 zombies generated! 2 arrive from the north, 3 from the east, 2 from the west, and 1south.

Turn 9

Survivors: 6 Zombies: 1 Gangers: 2

I guess the survivor group is still packing up foodstuffs. No move this turn.

As for the gangers, the two near the door open fire on the in a vain attempt to hold back the horde. the Rep 4 ganger shoots once, and the Rep 3 ganger fires full auto; 3 shots. Both get 1 hit on a zombie, with the results being one zombie OD. The gang leader with his homeys knock 1 zombie down, kills another.

Again, 7 shots generate 4 more zombies; with 1 from the west, 1 north, and 2 from the east.

For their turn, the outside zombies continue to congregate and mass in front of the building. Inside, 3 zombies stand up. The feasting one only has 1 turn left.

Turn 10

Survivors: 4 Zombies: 3 Gangers: 1

Everybody finally gets to move! The survivors begin to gather back into the hallway, though Michael takes over Neeva's guard position in the kitchen. He moves further inside to see if he can find anything useful in the kitchen itself.

Out in the dining area, a zombie starts feasting on the OOF ganger, noshing for 2 turns. Two other zombies charge the gang leader and his bodyguards, and the two stunned gangers retake the "See the Feast" test; with the result they are both Stunned again. The charge melee ends with 1 zombie KD and another ganger OOF.

Turn 11

Survivors: 1 Zombies: 4 Gangers: 3

The zombies move en masse into the building. The KD zombie crawls over to the OOF ganger and begins feasting for 5 turns.

The other feasting zombie finally finishes his meal and rises to attack the gang leader. The gang lord gets KD, but the zombie is shot by the remaining bodyguard for a OD result. The earlier reps 3 and 4 who were stunned are now hunkered down. All gangers open fire, with 4 shots killing 2 of the zombies entering the restaurant but one shot missing the feeding zombie.

The survivors (sans Michael) start moving out the back door of the restaurant and gather outside the back of the building. Curious about the noise, Michael moves through the kitchen to check what's going on inside the dining room...only to see the carnage inside! Despite all common sense, he decides to take a shot at both of the hunkered down gangers and gets a OD and a KD result on them. These two shots generate 2 zombies, one from the east and the other....you guessed it, south; right in front of the gathered survivors! Thanks a LOT Michael!

Turn 12

Survivors: 4 Zombies: 3 Gangers: 2

At last, Michael runs like a scared old woman out the back door. Sebastian takes a shot at the surprise zombies to the south and misses yet again. Jennifer opens up with the SMG (only 1 shot) and gets a KD result. Lisa draws her rapier yet again and gets an auto-kill on the prone zombie. I think she's killed more zombies than anyone this game!

Apologies for the blurry pic but we only noticed it after the game.

Back to the zombie horde, one Zombie jumps the ganger Michael KD'd and begins to feast for 3 turns. More zombies move into the building, with over 24 (!) in crowd.

Deciding discretion is the better part of valor, the Gang leader and his remaining homey run into the kitchen.

Turn 13

Survivors: 2 Zombies: 1 Gangers: 1

Yet more doubles mean a Random Event: 5+4= only valid in a vehicle, so no result.

The survivors run off the board! Here's hoping they can all fit into the SUV; or that the vehicle is still where they left it. ;)

One Zombie is generated from gunfire from the east, but game is over.

- GAME ENDS -

Damn! All that time generating the board and my group only searches one building! Much like Whiteface noted in his Battle Report, the same thing happens to me only we got out without any casualties. Still, I'd been tempted to hang around and pick up some of those assault weapons left by dead gangers, which was why Michael originally went to the front of the building. Maybe I'll take another cue from Oliver and have game 5 a return bout to the same neighborhood.

This is the game where I was faced with the idea of zombies rising from a dead human; most notably the dead gangers. So, as noted earlier I came up with this house rule:

@@@New House Rule: Unless there are more zombies at a feast than the victim's rep, at the end of the feast the victim gets up as another zombie. If there are more zed's than the victim's rep, its assumed not enough of the victim is left to rise.

Zombie Chow

He's not dead yet....He's getting better!

Sorry for the delay in part 2 of the BatRep....Had to go out of town and now that I'm back finals and research papers are piling up. I'll try to at least get part 2 up in the next day or so. After that....it might be a bit before I can update here. After Christmas most likely.

Merry X-Men all, and a Happy New Mutants! ;)

Zombie Chow

Day 7: "Dining Out" (Part 1 of 2)

Game 4: "Dining Out!"

This game is my first use of the Shotgun Diaries inspired rule “No One Gets Left Behind!” found on an early blog post. It seemed to work well, but you be the judge.

This scenario is a Discover mission, with Michael, Lisa, and Kaylee looking for more food as while the grocery store in game 2 was a success, more is needed. Scenario occurs in the morning; I rolled a D12 for the time being 8am. The sky is clear with much of the smoke from the smoldering building in Section 9 not inhibiting visibility.

It's Day 7 of the outbreak, and police forces are collapsing but the military hasn’t been mobilized yet. This is important as you’ll see later in the Battle Report.

The map is laid out as follows:

Section 1: Two buildings/Trailers

Section 2: Third trailer

Section 3: clear

Section 4: Apartment/parking lot

Section 5: Clear (Road Intersection)r

Section 6: Woods

Section 7: Clear

Section 8: Restaurant

Section 9: Burned out building

I ran out of complete buildings so I put up a roofless frame and said it burned out. I rolled a D6 with results being 1-3 fire is out; 4-6 fire still smoldering. I got a 4, so still smoking

Our trio of Michael, Lisa, and Kaylee will come in on foot from Section 7, on foot walking down the road towards the restaurant.

Three Potential Enemy Forces (PEFs) are generated. The first one is behind the apartments in Section 4 (Reputation 2), The second PEF is placed behind the trailer park in Section 1(reputation 3) and the last PEF lands in the clear section 3 (Reputation 3) but is in the southern part north of the Section 6 woods.

Cars on the board are generated randomly. I rolled 3 cars (from Random Vehicle Table posted earlier in blog). One is a sedan in the apartment parking lot, the second is a SUV located in front of Section 1 trailers. The last is a fire truck in front of the burning building. No firefighters though, nor bodies. Curious…?

Zombie placement is now 5-6, and 3 are generated. Lots of 3’s coming up this game! The first is in Section 1, second in section 4, and the last is in section 5; right in the crossroads!

Turn 1

Survivors: 3 PEFs: 3 Zombies: 6

Doubles means a Random event is rolled with result of 7, building on fire, which I will take as the smoking rubble in Section 9. Its fate!

Survivors move 8” toward restaurant west side.

PEFs: The Rep2 moves around the apartments into the parking lot its full 8” toward the group and enters line of sight (LOS) of the survivors. The Rep3 PEF between the trailers moves to Section 4 but out of LOS and behind the apt. Complex. The Rep3 PEF north of woods (Section 6) moves into the trees and remains out of LOS.

The PEF in LOS at the apartment parking lot is rolled for on the PEF resolution tables and is resolved as an NPC group, an equal number to the survivors so that would be 3 figures. The group rolls as 2 women and one man. Man (Rep3) is Police, one of the women is police (Rep4) as well, and the second woman is a civilian (Rep4.)

Michael gets 2 pass dice on the In Sight test so the survivor trio isn’t surprised. NPCs only get 1d6 pass so the survivors get the drop on them.

Michael goes for the “Meet and greet” roll, and rolls 5 dice (he gets +1 dice for being having the Born Leader attribute.) Policewoman gets 1 dice while Michael gets 3. Next roll-off leaves the Policewoman with 1 dice and Michael now with only 2 dice! The final roll leaves Michael the victor with 2 dice! These three join the survivor group.

Welcome to Sebastian a Rep3 Policeman with a BA pistol, Jennifer a Rep4 police with a submachine gun, and Neeva a Rep4 civilian with a shotgun. We just quadrupled our firepower!

Busy turn 1! But why would they join so readily? The Chain Reaction system reveals all next turn!

Turn 2

Survivors: 3 Zombies: 2 PEFS:4

PEFs, Rep 3 moves into the parking lot (and LOS) while the rep3 in the woods remains stationary.

The PEF is resolved as gangers! Seven hostiles no less. Their leader is a rep5 and takes an Awareness test. Others are 3 Rep3s and 3 rep4s. All armed with assault rifles??? This is bad!

Going for his or her guns, Michael uses a “No one gets left behind!” die for this test. Both ganger leader and Michael pass 3 die the first roll. Second he gets 3 pass dice while Michael gets 2. Finally the ganger leader gets 0 pass while Michael gets 1 pass. Good thing I used that die; though things could still get ugly real quick.

The Gangers fire and then duck to cover, but no one is hit.

Among the survivors, nobody gets their In Sight test so move along. Survivors move toward the rear of the restaurant and open back door.

The gangers are the only humans in sight now so the Zombies converge on them. The Zombie from in front of the apartments charges one of the gangers. Zombie goes down in melee, though all 7 gangers fired at it before the melee. Which means more zombie generation rolls! Four zombies are generated. 2 from South (following the road from 7) and 2 from the west; from inside apartments.

Turn 3

Survivors:3 Zombies:4 PEFS:6 Gangers: 2

Zombies converge on the parking lot

Survivors move inside the back door of the restaurant.

The Gangers pass their insight test and follow their leader in pursuit of the two place and their new friends. Deciding to cut the survivors off they enter the front of the restaurant.

End Part One

Those Who Remain Journal

Hello All,

In order to facilitate the publishing of Battle Reports I've decided to create a support blog just for the fiction. I'll be importing the already written stories over there during the coming week so if you're a fan of the fiction then future stories about Michael, Lisa, and Kaylee will be found at:

http://thosewhoremainjournal.blogspot.com

The Game 4 BatRep part 1 will be up tomorrow!

Zombie Chow

Zombie, Run!

     Just ran across this planned ultra-immersive game that you play while actually running for exercise. Its on preorder now for $12 and season 1 covers up to 30 missions.     I think I'll be getting it...so long as I don't have to actually buy an Ipod or Android to play. I like my Sandisk, thanks!

Check it out at:

http://www.zombiesrungame.com

Zombie Chow

Considerations about Fiction

Hello,
     Happy Halloween, and here are some thoughts on the Those Who Remain blog. Game 4 isn't up yet because the fiction is taking a lot longer than I thought. So, what I'm considering is starting a fiction-only blog that will link to this one that gives the fiction for a given game there while here I give the All Things Zombie BatRep. This way, I can keep BatReps coming and not have everything grind to a screeching halt because my writing muse is on vacation.
     What do the readers think? Would you prefer the fiction jumped over to another blog to keep the BRs coming? Do you prefer the combination style that has been done in the past? Is the fiction worthwhile?
     If not (and I haven't gotten much feedback on the fiction) I can just dump it and go for straight ATZ goodness. No hurt feelings here, as this blog is as much for my followers as for my own pontifications. ;)

Zombie Chow

To PEF or not to PEF

     I've been busy writing up my Game 4 fiction and slowly getting towards publication. While passing the time I've been reading other battle reports, including Vampifan's at his site located in my "Reported Outbreaks" list below. Look for the "ATZ Campaign" label to read them; they're great in describing how ATZ works in detail.
     Anyway, I found something else I'd been doing wrong. Instead of having both starting zombies on the table as well as PEFs (Potential Enemy Forces) you're supposed to just have one or the other. Which brings me to something Oliver/Whiteface says on his blog (also below in the Reported Outbreaks blog)
     Basically, its whether or not PEFs are good or bad for the game. Originally I really liked them (they're in game 4 too) but I'm beginning to become concerned about how rough they are on play. Like Whiteface, I too ran into some problems in game 4 with them. Though they did provide some recruits they also caused some serious problems. For instance, I set up the 4x4 foot table and I only got my team into one building before having to run off the board! It was quite an action packed building to be sure, but still.
     I'm beginning to wonder though if I should go back to 'original' All Things Zombie and just have encounters within buildings and random Z's on the street. The idea of changing the PEF table was suggested on the THW yahoo group as another option. Perhaps reducing the number of PEFs to 1 or 2 might help as well?
     Has anyone else had these problems? If so, how did you fix them? Granted, Ed says in the books that there are games where you just can't win and have to run; and I'm cool with that. But I'm just concerned with the increase in danger the PEFs are creating...and I'm not even through the first week of the Zombie Apocalypse!

Zombie Chow

Zombies Arise?

Hey all,
     Sorry for the delay in posting, but a combination of factors (putting together game 4 BatRep, keeping my wife from turning into a zombie-she's sick, oh yeah-work, etc.) has kept me busy.
     To keep all occupied, here's a house rule for All Things Zombie I'm considering adding in for the future.

Zombies Arise!
     When a human is killed, two dice are rolled and his/her Reputation are subtracted from the total number. If the resulting number is positive, the body stays dead. On a negative or 0 result, the body stands up as a zombie. The number of turns before the new zombie arises is the difference between the body's Rep in life and the final number result.
     If a body is the victim of a Zombie Feast, the number of turns the feast lasts is subtracted from the figure's Rep in life. If a positive number, it stands up at the end of the resulting feast; with the assumption that such is why the feast ended because the body was now a zombie. If the number is a 0 or negative, not enough of the body was left to stand up in the first place and should just be considered meaty chuncks.

What do you all think? Too lethal for Survivors?
Zombie Chow

Determining Random Vehicles in ATZ

Like in Sunday's post to randomly generate buildings, the below table is for generating vehicles found on the tabletop.

Commonly Found Vehicles By Area

***Urban
Roll Vehicle Type
2 Big Rig
3 Bus
4 Motorcycle
5-7 Pickup Truck
8-9 Sedan
10 Sports car
11-12 SUV

***Suburbs
Roll Vehicle Type
2 Big Rig
3 Bus
4 Motorcycle
5-6 Pickup Truck
7-8 SUV    
9-10 Sedan
11 Sports car
12 RV

***Rural

Roll Vehicle Type
2 ATV
3 Big Rig
4-5 Motorcycle
6-8 Pickup Truck
9-10 SUV
11 Sedan
12 RV

As with the buildings list below, I've set the tables for the North/East Texas area as to frequency of vehicles in a given area. Feel free to change the bell curve at need.

Zombie Chow

Random Buildings (Updated)

All Things Zombie: Better Dead Than Zed has a lot of great information, but one thing I found lacking was a way of randomly generating of building types. The random terrain tables certainly tell you the number of building on the table, and where they are generally located, but not WHAT they are.

   As with much of ATZ and Two Hour Wargames in general, Ed simply says "Use what you've got, its easier that way!" Quite true, but if you've got several buildings its hard to decide!

    So, I made the below tables. I broke up the grid as I'm not sure how to post tables. Still, it should be readable and feel free to steal it for your Zombie Wargames at need!

Buildings In Encounters

 

Commonly Found Buildings By Area

***Urban

Roll  Location

2 (1-3) Apartments

  (4-6) Hotel

 3 Church

4 Media

   (1-2 Newspaper office

  (3-4) TV station

   (5-6) Radio station

5 Gas Station

6 Hospital or Clinic

7 (@1-3) Office Buildings

  (4-6) Retail store

8 Restaurant/Fast Food

9 School

10 Supermarket

11Warehouse

12 Law & Order
(1-3) Police Station

(4-6) Fire Department

***Suburbs

Roll  Location

2 Clinic

3 Church

4 Gas Station

5-6 House

7 Restaurant

8 Retail Store

9 School     

10 Supermarket       

11 Warehouse

12 Law & Order
(1-3) Police Station

(4-6) Fire Department

***Rural
Roll  Location

2 Clinic

3Military Base

4 Church

5 Gas Station

6-8 House

9 Strip Mall

10 Diner/Restaurant

11 School

12 Small Supermarket  (Grocery)

I based the tables on my opinion of frequency of buildings in North/East Texas, though it probably should have a higher frequency of churches. Depending on where you live, you might play with the bell curve to make certain types of building more frequent depending on where you are running your ATz game.

Zombie Chow
(Edited for text mess)

New Zombie Wargaming Forum

For those interested in talking about Zombie stuff; be it Wargaming, RPs, board/card games, or just Z-media in general chec out a new forum Shelldrake started at:

http://boardofthelivinglead.proboards.com/index.cgi

Its small yet but we're already chatting up ideas from ATZ to the podcast We're Alive to Plants vs. Zombies!

Zombie Chow

Game 3: On the Way Home (Part 3 of 3)

Turn 8

Survivors: 3 Opposition: 5

Michael and Kaylee enter the Master bedroom to see a man standing in the doorway to the bathroom He is ashen colored and making snarling noises. Further, he is trying to get to a woman within the bathroom, who is crying and screaming for him to stop.

*    *      *

Michael saw the back of a man, staggering toward a bathroom. He seemed to have forced the door open and a woman was inside begging him to stop it. “Hey!” Michael shouted, bringing his weapon up to his shoulder.

The figure turned around, and stared at Michael with milky eyes. His grayish face was expressionless for a moment, then with a snarl he staggered toward the two in the doorway; unconcerned with the carbine pointed at his head.

“That’s all I needed to see.” With that, Michael fired at the creature at point blank range. The bullet went into the zombie’s right eye, but at an angle and exited out the right temple. Dark red blood spurted from the wound and knocked the thing over to the ground. Michael realized with one look that the creature was still active, and so walked toward the former person and raised the weapon to his shoulder, aiming it at the man’s forehead.

*    *      *

Michael made his “Zed or no Zed” test back in Day 1. Kaylee however makes her roll and fails so she is uncertain and doesn’t act this turn. Michael shoots at the zombie and gets a Knocked Down result, knocking the zombie to the floor but not killing it.

The zombie takes his activation to return to a standing position while the woman inside the bathroom screams at Michael to leave her husband alone. She charges him and hits him with her bat. She gets an Obviously Dead result, but since she is a lower Reputation (Rep 3) than Michael (Rep 4) this is dropped to an “Out of the Fight” result. Michael goes down for the count!

The above gunshot generates no zombies, which is a good thing as the only team member with a firearm is now KO-ed.

*    *      *

“Leave him alone!” came a scream from the doorway. Michael glanced up just in time to take a baseball bat to the side of his head. The carbine’s stock and his right forearm took some of the blow, but it was still enough to stagger him. With a grunt, he dropped the carbine and fell near the creature. He moaned and held the side of his head in obvious pain.

“You leave my husband alone! He’s sick!” the unhinged woman screamed at her husband’s shooter and raised the bat for another strike.

“Stop it!” Kaylee exploded into action, shouting and using her own baseball bat to knock the woman’s aside. “Your husband’s not just sick, he’s trying to kill you!”

“No! He understands me!” The wife of the undead monster staggered back but retained hold on her own bat. “You want to hurt him too! I won’t let you!” She charged the younger woman with a screech and the melee was joined.

Meanwhile, Lisa was grinding her teeth in frustration. Despite circling the block she returned to the house only to find that the infected had turned around and were walking back toward her first location in front of the little girls’ house. As she pondered what to do, Maggie looked up from her pop tart wrapper and said “Hey, those freaky people are coming back.”

“Yes…” Lisa replied in a forced calm voice. “They are…so, we’re going to go back the other way and try to lead them down the street.”

‘What about mommy and daddy?” Jilly squealed from the back. “They might come out and we’ll be gone!”

Lisa performed a highly illegal U-turn in the street and then glanced in the rear view mirror again to make sure the zombies were moving toward the van. ‘Great.’ She thought to her ‘Now Michael has me doing it.’

The return of the van did seem to catch their attention again, so Lisa moved slowly back down the road. Unlike last time, she kept the van moving at a crawl to keep their attention. This time she would wait until well down the connecting street before speeding up.

*    *      *

Turn 9

Survivors: 2 Zombies: 5 NPCS: 1

Lisa continues the drive around the block.

Kaylee and the wife go into baseball-bat melee, only on Pay-Per-View! After several tense moments as the dice pools become smaller and smaller, the wife goes Out of the Fight. Kaylee wins!

*    *      *

“Stop it! Ducking behind a TV stand, Kaylee’s shouted attempts at reason were getting nowhere. The lady was obviously nuts! So, with some reluctance she waited for the guy’s wife to overswing again and then lunged in with a solid smack to her head. She’d been aiming for the back of her head but instead she took it full on the side. With a coughing moan she staggered and fell between Michael and what was once her husband.

*    *      *

Turn 10

Survivors: 3 Zombies: 3

Random Event; 8 again! But the only figure with a firearm is OOF so I’m going to ignore this result.

Lisa returns to the front of the house. Will those zombies walk off the board?

A zombie generation is called for by the van’s engine, which generates 1 zombie outside. It appears in the path of the 3 walking toward the board edge….with it join them?

As two people are down, I give a Challenge roll to see whom the zombie in the bedroom goes after first; Michael or his wife. Michael rolls 4 successes and wife rolls 3; he goes after wife…so much for matrimonial affection! Feast lasts 4 turns.

Kaylee takes a “See the Feast” test, with only 1d6 pass she has to do it again next turn.

*    *      *

That unfortunate was staggering to his feet. When it saw his wife fall down, he fell upon her and started tearing at her flesh.

Kaylee stood horrified as the man started chewing chunks of meat from his gurgling wife. Michael was still disoriented, but had enough presence of mind to skitter back and fumble with his carbine. Though he did get ahold of it, he couldn’t bring it up to aim at anyone or anything.

*    *      *

Turn 11

Survivors:5 Zombies:1

Zombie inside the house keeps on munching, while the Zombie Soul Train moves closer to the van…12 inches. Lisa must be furiously trying to think of another plan.

Another engine noise roll for zombies, which generates no new zombies; which is nice that this is suburb and early days otherwise 4 would have been generated!

Turn 12

Survivors:4 Zombies:2

Lisa backs van up in an attempt to get them to follow her again but only one zombie does, the other 3 start moving to the house.

Kaylee makes another See the Feast” roll again and this time makes it with +2 successes.

She attacks the zombie and gets a Knocked Down result, putting the creature back on the ground.

*    *      *

So, the blonde shook herself out of her stunned horror and swung the bat as hard as she could down on the zombie’s head. There was a sickening crunch of bone and he fell over the body of his wife. Though one of his legs continued to twitch, he seemed to be out of the fight. Still, Kaylee smashed his head again to be sure, then drug him off the wounded woman beneath him.

She was coughing up blood and bleeding profusely. Jesis!’ Kaylee thought frantically. ‘What do I do?’ As she glanced around for something to staunch the blood flow, the torn woman gave a final cough and collapsed on the floor. She didn’t move, and her eyes stared unblinking, fixed on the ceiling.

“Ohgod” Kaylee said, and tried desperately not to be sick. She looked away, and saw her companion pushing himself to his feet, by leaning on the doorjamb with his shoulder and using the carbine as a cane. His eyes looked dilated and he didn’t seem to be able to concentrate on anything in his vision.

“G.g..gotta check on her.” He mumbled, gesturing weakly at the woman on the floor.

 “No way guy” Kaylee said, glad of something to do other than look at the corpses on the floor. “What we’ve got to do is get you out of here!”

“No…gotta make sure..” Michael swayed and Kaylee caught him under the arm and turned toward the door. “C’mon let’s get going. Nothing left for us around here Mike.”

“But, but….” The man on her shoulder kept trying to speak but seemed to lose track of a thought again. Only when they were in the Den he said. “S-she was bit, she might become…”

A cold fear gripped Kaylee’s chest. That’s right! Anyone bitten by those things just might… She suddenly turned toward the door and Michael nearly fell over with the movement. Absently she put him against the wall and stuck her head back into the bedroom.

Dead eyes met hers from the floor. The woman was starting to sit up, and as her filmed over eyes met Kaylee’s she tried to moan. Instead, only a wet gurgling sound came from her ruin of a throat. This didn’t seem to bother the walking corpse, as the once-protective wife shoved the body of her husband off her legs and started to try to get to her feet.

Kaylee couldn’t deal with another one. Not this soon, and not someone she saw alive not five minutes ago. Nearly leaping out of the doorway, she grabbed the semi-coherent Michael and dashed to a back door.

*    *      *

Turn 13

Survivors:3 Zombies:6

Lisa keeps on trying to goad the zombies after her, and Kaylee attacks the downed zombie again. Zombies don’t activate this turn so Lisa just bides her time. Kaylee gets an “Obviously Dead” result on t

*    *      *

 “This is ridiculous!” the van’s driver shouted in exasperation. Lisa had driven the van very slowly around the turn. So slowly that a couple of times the creatures nearly caught the van in their grip. But she managed to draw them around and once on the side street parallel to the house she hit the gas and speeded back around. So fast, she nearly hydroplaned on the parallel intersection and had to slow a bit to return to the house her boyfriend was somewhere within.

What awaited her was that same group of zombies once again coming around the corner, backpedaling once again toward the house. In fact, they’d apparently even gained a convert as the small group was now four in number.

“What is this? Zombie MENSA?” Remembering her passengers, Lisa kept her language from becoming more colorful and instead decided on a change of plan. This time, they’d drive right past them while the were still at the corner and make the trip a complete circle. Or square. Or whatever. Then repeat the block but this time leading them further down the side street.

Fortunately, the two children seemed to enjoy the speeding up and slowing down of the van. They even squealed with delight at the hydroplaning, blissfully unaware of the danger they had been in. ‘Once more unto the breach, dear friends…’ Lisa thought sardonically as she gripped the steering wheel and aimed the van for the group.

*    *      *

Turn 14

Survivors:3 Zombies:4

Lisa is busy leading the Zombie soul Train to the side street.

Kaylee killed the zombie inside last turn. However, I roll a d6 to see how long it will take for the dead wife to reanimate as a zombie. Ack! I get a 1 so she starts moving! She will stand up her next activation.

What will Kaylee do? Will she attack the rising zombie wife or grab Michael and get out of Dodge? A die roll results in her grabbing Michael and his rifle and bugs out. She drags Michael to the den (movement is halved due to carrying Michael) and starts moving to an exterior door.

A die roll will determine which door she takes; 1-3 front door and 4-6 back; I roll a 5 so I’m saying Kaylee remembers the zombies gathering outside in the front yard and so decides the back might be safer since she’s having to carry Michael’s semi-conscious self.

This time zombies outside again result in 1 fooled but 3 again turning back to house.

The car engine generates no zombies. Maybe they don’t like the rain?

*    *      *

Using her shoulder to open the back door Kaylee dragged the semi-conscious Michael out the door and into the garage. Kaylee had hoped that the door led to the back yard, but no such luck. She did see another door at the far side of the garage, maybe that led outside? Would Lisa notice them in the backyard? ‘Probably not, and if I left her man while I ran to the front to flag down Lisa she’d probably run me over.’ Kaylee thought sourly.

*    *      *

Turn 15

Survivors:6 Zombies:5

Nobody does anything. Kaylee must be resting from dragging Mr. Only-One-With-A-Firearm around.

Turn 16

Survivors:3 Zombies:3

Doubles means a random Event again, and I get a car alarm going off. Since the only vehicles on table other than the van are the SUV and Sedan in the garage, I roll for one of them. It’s the SUV, perhaps the key chain found in the bathroom had auto activation on it or something. It inspires Kaylee to head for it.

She uses the keys to open the SUV and turn off the alarm.

The zombie wife finishes standing up in the Master Bedroom and starts to follow Kaylee.

Lisa again honks the horn of the van in front of the house to again get the attention of the 3 zombies slogging through the front yard.

*    *      *

Suddenly the garage was filled with the sound of car honking and alarms going off! Blinking, Kaylee was momentarily surprised. What happened? What would set off the car alarm? Then she remembered, the keys in her pocket. She must’ve hit some button or something while pushing through the backdoor. She dug the keys out of her jeans and quickly deactivated the alarm. “Waitaminute…” She said to herself. “This just might do the trick!”

Gathering up Michael she unlocked the SUV with the remote and pushed him into the passenger door. He stumbled in, unable (or unwilling) to put his gun down so she just locked him into the seatbelt around the thing. She slammed the door and moved around the back of the vehicle to hear a crash against the backdoor. It had swung shut, but now was vibrating in its frame as something hammered at the door. It wasn’t locked, so it would only be a few minutes before that cadaver figured out the doorknob!

Not stopping to investigate if there was any kind of door key on the ring, she fumbled at the car door to get in the driver’s side of the vehicle. Having seem way too many horror movies, she checked the back seat before getting in. Nothing!

*    *      *

Turn 16

Survivors:5 Zombies:2

Zombies outside follow van yet again, and zombie in house moves to the back door into the garage. Kaylee must be having trouble putting the seat belt on Michael. Lisa could be explaining to the girls in the van why she’s actually TRYING to get the zombies to follow her.

The car alarm in the garage generated 1 zombie. It is generated to the west so is right outside the garage. I figure he’ll try next turn to attack the garage door as he heard the noise of tasty meat snacks in the garage.

Van engine still doesn’t generate any zombies? This luck is too good to last…

*    *      *

As she sat in the seat she heard the deep hammering noise of something at the garage door. It was one of the thin aluminum types and she could see dents forming where fists were banging on the surface. “Great!” she shouted in fury. “What now?” her luck held out though as when she started the SUV the vehicle purred to life immediately. A quick glance at the fuel gauge showed three-quarters of a tank! Now grinning, she put the car into drive and slammed on the accelerator.

*    *      *

Turn 17

Survivors:2 Zombies:5

Lisa moves around the block; again trying to keep her tail of zombies moving. Its like herding cats!

Kaylee packs Michael and the rifle in and starts the SUV. She makes the “Start the Car” roll.

*    *      *

The zombie outside the garage had been a utilities employee in life. He’d been killed while checking meter readings in the yard of a delinquent customer. When he rose, he staggered out into the world and did his unthinking best to spread his disease of undeath. One of his victims was Mr. Al Bailey, the former owner of this house. However, he was unaware of this and wouldn’t have cared if he had known. All he knew was there was noise behind this metal wall. Noise meant food, so he hammered his decaying fists against the surface of the barrier. If he could have thought, he might’ve been concerned by the sound of a car engine starting within, and the screech of tires on concrete. But he couldn’t so he didn’t.

*    *      *

Turn 18

Survivors:3 Zombies:6

Again the zombies fail to activate! Lisa comes back around to the front of the house to find that not one of the zombies followed this time and are instead beating on the front door of the house.

Kaylee throws caution to the winds and just blasts out the garage door, pinning the zombie outside under the doors. Squish!

*    *      *

It was in this state of blissful ignorance that his unlife was put to an end by a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee Rolling over the garage door, which was rolling over him in turn. Kaylee couldn’t hear the noise of the utility worker’s unlike coming to a crunching end, but if she had it would have only added to her whoop of glee as the SUV peeled out of the driveway and into the street.

The rain had almost stopped now, so Lisa could see the SUV barrel out of the garage of the house and speed up towards the van. Only when it was within 20 feet did the driver of the Jeep remember to turn their lights on.

*    *      *

Turn 19

Survivors:1 Zombies:5

Kaylee runs the SUV around to the front of the house and matches windshields with the van. After verifying everyone’s (mostly) ok they haul ass out of there.

Encounter ends

*    *      *

The Jeep moved to level the driver’s window with Lisa’s and with some relief she saw a grinning Kaylee at the wheel. Michael was next to her, apparently sliding his arms out of the seatbelt and putting them gingerly to his head.

“Oh my, are you two all right?” Lisa’s statement was to both of them, but Kaylee could see her eyes locked on Michael’s hunched form. “Its ok, Mikey took a hit to the head but its not serious. Let’s go back to your house…I’ll follow.”

“But what about…” Lisa cut off her sentence as she saw Kaylee glance nervously at the back of the van where the two girls continued to chatter away at each other. The blonde looked back at Lisa and mutely shook her head no. Nodding, Lisa rolled up the window and led the way down the street. Back home? Where it was safe? Lisa found herself beginning to wonder if anyplace was safe anymore.

-         The End –