Dawn caught a glimpse of the gang leader jumping
into the back of the Hummer. He was too fast for her to shoot at, so
she continued to fire rounds into the truck. She could hear the
occasional staccato from Jack as he sought targets
for his rifle. The thump of return fire impacting the house had faded
away, Dawn felt things may be turning out better than expected.
 |
| Shades gets his SUV running |
This is the continuation of the attack on the
gang. It is still day 81, morning, and the battle in the street is
raging. Dawn and Jack have managed to take down most of the gang, and
now it appears the surviving gang members are trying
to escape.
 |
| Not many zombies for a zombie game... |
Zombies have started to spawn, although they will not again
after this turn, as the turn started with the ‘No More Zombies’ random event. I rolled a 6 for one of the zombies during the spawning, so no more zombies from shooting. There
are still two PEFs which may be zombies, or more
gang members.
 |
| Zombies appear |
Mary stood on her barricade, watching the
carnage unfolding around her. She couldn’t believe poor Ned had been
killed so quickly by Shades. This day was going to be a grim one,
regardless of who won. The civilians in the camp huddled
near their tents or the back walls, looking like a frightened flock of
birds, ready to take flight.
Will clutched his shotgun and hid behind the
barricade. She knew he was out of ammo, but he held out hope of
reloading it someday. Mary waved at him to move back. “Will, stay with
the others. If people need to leave…” She was cut
off by a rifle slug hitting her in the chest. As she blacked out, Mary
hoped somebody from the camp survived…
 |
| Wow. Blurry. |
The last assault rifle armed ganger has a shot at
Mary, even though she is partially covered; she is still a pretty easy
target. He fires, gets a hit and knocks her Out Of the Fight. At least
she’s not dead. The ganger is out of the
line of fire from Dawn and Jack, as he is behind the second Hummer.
 |
| Shades gets moving |
With a rumble and a puff of dark exhaust the
Hummer Shades had jumped into fired up. That drew Dawn and Jacks
attention back to it. Neither could see the driver, but the truck was a
pretty big target anyway. Dawn fired a burst into
the truck, followed by Jack, they couldn’t seem to find anything that
would break.
“Alright!” Shades yelled from the backseat. Just back us up into that alley and we can get out of here!”
The scared driver did his best to move the
lumbering vehicle backwards while crouching beneath the driver’s wheel.
The patter of bullets hitting the hood and cracking through the
windshield was making him flinch and jerk the truck around.
 |
| SUV moving for the alley |
The SUV shades is in manages to get moving. He is
going to have it back up into the nearby alley, so they can either drive
away in cover or he can bail out and run away without getting shot by
the SAW. The first turn of movement goes
well, the Hummer backs up a bit and they are on their way.
 |
| Zombies moving towards Dawn and Jack |
Dawn saw the Hummer moving away, she
concentrated her SAW on the front of the truck, bullets shredded the
body panels, shattering a headlight and puncturing a hose that started
leaking. The Hummer accelerated, getting closer to the
alley and cover.
“Keep shooting Jack!” She yelled, sparing a glance at the other Hummer.
Jack Followed Dawn’s lead and fired into the
front wheel, finally something gave and the wheel jerked and tore itself
loose. The hummer careened backwards into the Dollar store. After a
brief pause, a fireball exploded from the SUV,
incinerating the wreck and everyone inside.
“Hell yeah.” Jack said with a smirk. “No problem.”
Jack stretched from his firing position,
checking his ammo. “Told ya we’d get ‘em.” He smiled as he looked
around. “Hmmm. Looks like the neighbors are out.” Jack finally
noticed the zombies closing in on the house they were using
for cover.
“You take care of them.” Dawn said, shifting her position. “I’ll try and take out the other truck.”
 |
| Truck goes BOOM! |
Dawn fires at the SUV again, finally getting a good
damage result versus the vehicle. Per the rules, it flips over and
explodes! The cars in ATZ must have been all 80’s action
movie leftovers. Rolling for the impact 4 hit, both the driver and Shades are killed. That ends that problem quickly.
 |
| The situation gets...Explosive. |
Dawn was surprised by the sudden fireball that
bloomed out of the SUV. She couldn’t believe the truck exploded just
from her shots and slamming into the store. She waited a moment,
watching for anyone escaping the wreck. Nobody came
out.
She glanced at the last Hummer, with the gang
members huddled behind it. She figured they didn’t pose much of a
threat right now. “Let’s clear out these dead.” She said to Jack, who
was already picking off the nearby zombies.
 |
| Zombies shamble towards the final gang members |
Dawn and Jack are in a pretty good position. They have the gang tied up behind the final SUV, and with Shades out of the battle, the gang is at the mercy of the NPC reaction roll. One zombie charges the SUV and tangles with the driver, who wins, but bails out and joins the others hiding behind the truck.
 |
| The gang has been decimated. |
Quite a few zombies have closed in on Dawn and
Jack, so they need to spend some time clearing out the zombies that are
moving in on them. Meanwhile, the gangers are stuck behind the SUV, one
can’t recover from duck back, and neither of
the others is going to step out of cover.
 |
| Here come the dead |
The zombies manage to score a turn where they activate and the gang doesn't. It's funny how the fight between the gang and the survivors took so much attention, and now here come the zombies to clean everything up!
 |
| Dawn covers the gang while Jack takes on the zombies |
Dawn turned away from the zombies gathering at
the house. Jack was taking them down as they slowly clawed up the
stairs towards the pair. Instead of concentrating on the dead, Dawn
focused on the second SUV. She started firing bursts
into the truck, trying to knock it out or flush out the gang members hiding behind it.
The bursts from the automatic weapon were like a
ringing dinner bell to the undead. More shambled towards the broken
house and slowly they crawled up the stairs, only to find Jack waiting
for them. Gunfire continued to ripple through
the town.
 |
| Zombie snack! |
One zombie manages to charge the nearest ganger. She rolls no passes on her charge check, and the zombie wins with its one pass. She fights as if unarmed for the first round, and looses by 1. It takes a couple more rounds of fighting, but in the end the ganger falls to the zed.
 |
| Maybe the zombie will flush out the gangers |
Janet watched as the zombie tore down Sally. In horror, she watched as the undead clerk turned his attention towards her. Panic took over and she ran down the street, not waiting for anyone to help. She had to get away!
 |
| Ganger Janet runs away |
The next turn the zombies activate first. The one nearest the gangers charges the ducked back ganger, causing her to run away. He moves on to the last ganger, armed with a rifle. He turns and deals with the zombie easily.
 |
| Charging the rifleman... |
 |
| ...ends predictably. |
Dawn watched the ganger run from the zombie. She considered, momentarily, gunning her down. Shooting someone running away, in the back just didn't sit well. The chatter of gunfire from behind the SUV, and the dead body of the zombie flopping back into the street told her the last gang member was still there. "I'll watch the gang. You got the zombies?"
Jack laughed, "No problem. You take care of business with them I got us covered back here."
 |
| Jack is charged |
Jack is charged, but shoots the zombie as it tries to get to him. He moves up afterwards and kills the next two trying to crawl up the stairs.
 |
| Jack takes out zombies |
The battle is starting to wind down, and finally the last PEFs move out of their buildings. We still don't know what one is, but the other comes out in sight of Dawn...
 |
| This PEF moves out of sight |
 |
| What comes out of the store? |
Dawn watched the SUV, waiting for a shot at the hidden rifleman. She heard Jack firing behind her, trusting him to take care of the zombies while she used the SAW to finish off the gang threat. Suddenly, the doors to the dollar store burst open and three people ran into the street.
She paused, not wanting to shoot some other survivors. The trio were waving around with their weapons, trying to find a target. As Dawn watched, she could tell they were talking to the rifleman.
"Jack! More Jackals." Dawn swung the SAW towards them. "I got 'em."
 |
| Dawn spots the gangers |
The PEF resolves as three more gangers. They chose the wrong time to appear, as they are armed with pistol, machine pistol and BAP. Dawn goes right to in sight check and opens fire.
 |
| Dawn guns down more gang members |
 |
| Ducking back from the SAW |
The last ganger from the trio ducks back, and next turn fails her recovery roll and runs away. Not much support for the gang there. The last PEF moves up through the nearby ruined house. Jack and Dawn are ready for it - the last rifleman ganger just won't leave or attack (I keep rolling 1 pass for him, he just stays in cover!)
 |
| Dawn and Jack are ready... |
Dawn turned her attention to the nearby ruins. Both her and Jack could hear something moving in the rubble. Her shoulder hurt from the jackhammer recoil she suffered through during the day. The ringing in her ears nearly obscured the sounds from the ruins.
"You ready?" Jack asked, leaning on a damaged support beam, aiming his rifle towards the oncoming sound.
"Ready enough." Dawn replied.
 |
| The last PEF appears |
 |
| Three gangers! |
Three gangers appear, armed with pistols (2 of them) and a machine pistol. We go straight to in sight checks. Dawn gets three successes, the gangers best is only 2. The SAW opens up on the group...
 |
| In Sight checks |
 |
| Ouch. |
To be fair, Dawn only takes down two of the gangers. Jack takes out the last ganger, who manages two shots but misses. Not exactly a major threat. The last rifle man decides to finally attack, moving out and triggering In sight with Dawn, which he wins!
 |
| Dawn gets 2 successes |
 |
| The rifleman gets 4 successes |
Bullets thumped into the ruined house, several others buzzing the air around Dawn. Turning quickly, Dawn saw the last rifleman had stepped out and was firing at her. She quickly brought the SAW around, flinching from wood splinters as a bullet hit her nearby cover.
"Watch out!" Jack yelled, unable to see the gunman.
 |
| Well, he tried. |
Dawn returns fire, and gets a kill result. The gangers on the table have been eliminated, Dawn and Jack have several OOF gangers to deal with. They also meet the camp, again. Time to decide if they take on the rest of the gang or try and get away.
 |
| The gang looses this round... |
Dawn and Jack manage to take out the gang members on the attack. They make contact with the camp, again. Scoring more successes than the civilian or the last standing survivor, Will. Dawn and Jack have to figure out what to do next.
Dawn approached the older man treating Mary's gunshot wound. It looked like she would pull through as far as Dawn could tell. The man looked up as Dawn stepped closer and said "Well, you've certainly made a mess of things."
"Excuse me?" Dawn said, incredulous.
"The gang will just come back with more." He said, wiping his hands on a towle.
Jack laughed. "We hit them pretty good, I can't believe they'd want any more of this."
The man shook his head. "I am Doctor Chapra, formerly of FEMA. We've had a tense time here, but the gang has kept their bargain." Dr. Chapra continued calmly. "I have had this same discussion with Mary here. She never understood either."
Will shook his head. "You just wanted to surrender and hope the Jackals would leave you alone."
Dawn nodded, understanding. "Well, Jack and I want to stay alive, so we either finish this with the gang or get moving."
Everyone looked at each other, trying to decide what to do...
I am not sure if the group continues to try and attack the gang or just get away at this point. Dawn and Jack won't get another ambush like this, they need more people to help! With Zomtober kicking off, I am going to take a moment to decide what course for them to take. Any ideas?
