Starting West (part 2)

"I'll take a look behind the wrecks!"  Mark yelled as he ran towards the bridge.  Rounding the back of a blue car, he ran into a pack of zombies.  "Zeds!  Coming across the bridge!"
The rest of the group spread out behind Mark, bringing their guns to bear.

Zombies!

Picking up where I left off, Mark moved up towards the car wrecks, triggering the final PEF.  It turned out to be 7 zombies lurking behind the cars.  Luckily I had won initiative, and the rest of the group moved up behind Mark.

Firepower thins the zombies out.

Gunfire echoed across the river as the decayed zombies lurched forward.  The bullets shredded them, bone and rotting flesh spilling onto the gray pavement.  One zombie, shot through at the shoulder, stumbled through the storm of bullets and grappled with Mark.
"Great shooting!"  He yelled at the group.  "One of these should be no problem!"  Mark kicked the zombie in the left knee, crashing it to the ground.  Smashing down with the bat, he ended the threat.  "Looks like a couple more coming!"

Mr. Zed attacks Mark

Two more zombies approach

Mark charges the newest zombies

Allen steps up to finish off the last zombie

So I did handle the zombies a bit wrong, they acted after I revealed them from the PEF.  The last zombie shouldn't have moved until the next turn.  Minor point, and one I didn't pay much attention to until I was writing this up.  It didn't really change anything, so no big deal.

With no more zombies appearing, the table was again clear.  The groups spent two turns with the wrecks (I ruled a chance for a zombie in each on a 5-6, but they were empty) and managed to get the red car to a point it could be pushed out of the way.

Searching the wrecks

"Well, the wrecks are clear.  It's pretty quiet."  Horace said as he climbed out of the ruined Subaru.  "Nothing in these but bad memories."
"That looks like a car repair shop on the corner.  Maybe we should look through there and see if there is anything useful."  Dawn suggested.  "Those other folks looked like they had grabbed stuff from the drug store, I wonder if they hit the other places earlier."
"We are going to need gas, and who knows, maybe there is something else we can use."  Allen added.
Stretching out with the bat, Mark simply said "Let's check it out."

Ignoring good advice to just pack it up and get across the bridge, I decided to have the group check out the service station.  Any loot and occupants would be random, but the group does need fuel, and they are not going to find it without searching various places...

Approaching the service center

Two zombies!

The door opened with a creek, and a ringing bell.  Mark led the way into the darkened interior of the shop, dusty light filtered from the open door and front window.  Dawn and Horace followed close behind, weapons at the ready.  Allen held the door with his hip, holding his pistol with both hands.

"Maybe its empty."  Horace barely whispered.

A heavy sliding sound startled the group and two human forms lurched from behind a display of wiper blades and car cleaning accessories.  Gray hands stretched out and the jaws of the zombies chomped in anticipation.

"No luck there!"  Mark shouted.  "Shoot 'em!"

The zombie surprise roll goes very well, and Horace and Dawn each shoot and kill a zombie each before they can act.  Hey, that was easy!  The group proceeded to loot the store, coming up with two luxury items and one unit of food.

Looting the store

Let's check the garage!

Seems quiet

The group entered the garage in the same way as the store, but spread out a bit more.  Four zombies were inside, and the surprise roll went better for the zeds.  Horace couldn't fire, Dawn did manage to kill two, but Allen just knocked down one with his BAP.  Mark elected to go straight to melee with the last zombie.  He only managed to reach an evenly matched. 

This could be a problem

Mark wrestled with the zombie, barely avoiding the bloody jaws as they snapped at his face.  "Crap!  This one seems strong!"  
As the echos of the gunfire died away in the bloody smelling garage Mark continued to fight the zombie.  A second zombie staggered back to its feet, its lifeless eyes staring down the barrel of Allen's pistol.  "Boom."  Allen said as he pulled the trigger, shattering the zombies head.  Headless, the zombie fell to the floor like an empty sack.
A sickening crack came from where Mark finally completed a full swing of his bat.  The zombie he had been fighting crashed to the floor, its head caved in.  "Finally.  I thought that thing was going to rip me apart."

Time to search the garage

Looting the garage gave me 2 units of fuel, a machete and a grenade.  What the...?  What an odd mix of stuff to find together.  This gave me a bit of an idea for the campaign...

"Look at these two corpses, they are in fatigues.  They don't have regular markings though - where are the name tags?"  Mark asked as he looked at a couple of the bodies.  "Something bad happened here."
"You got that right brotha."  Horace said coldly, hefting the grenade he found duct taped to a can of fuel.  "Did you see the remains of this zombie?  Its hands are duct taped behind it's back, and the legs are covered in bites and cuts."
"Who would do this?"  Dawn barely breathed out.  "Did these two let the other get bitten?"
"This is some messed up shit, man.  Are they related to that other group we saw?"  cleaning off the machete Allen asked Mark.  "I say we get our truck and get the hell outta here."
"I think that might be a good idea..."

Get to the truck

Hey this might have fuel

Mark and Dawn grab fuel from the dead SUV

Allen gets the truck into position

The group ran out of the garage, and I decided to to check the SUV I had parked near.  I rolled, and it had 2 units of fuel but no keys.  Mark and Dawn spent a turn gathering the fuel and Allen started moving their SUV into position to push their way through the wreck.  With the SUV running, zombies started appearing...

Zombies approach the wrecks

Finally the wreck moves

Zombies move in closer

Allen gave the SUV a bit more gas, the engine revving up with a dull rumble.  The sports car wreck finally moved back, thumping into the bride rail.  "Looks like that's all the farther it will go."
"We've attracted some attention!"  Horace said, looking out the windows "I think the gap is big enough, swing onto the bridge and let's go!"
Allen twisted the steering wheel, gunning the powerful V-8 and shifting into high gear.  The plastic front of the car shredded as the SUV clipped it with its grill bars, scattering debris onto the bridge.  Allen drove down the middle of the bridge, avoiding a zombie swaying along the right side.
Dawn stuck her SMG out her open window,  firing a long burst that splattered the zombie, tossing it into the river.  "Looks clear now!"

Almost across the bridge

The zombies fall behind

The group got across the bridge, and on their way towards Allen's family.  They didn't get a ton of loot, but have enough fuel to cover two areas of travel now.  After finishing this, I made rolls for keeping it together, and everyone is going to stay for at least two more scenarios!  Mark rolled 4 successes, and doubled up everyone else.

When the group looted the garage, they found an odd assortment of gear, and it got me thinking how could this have all come together?  Finding a grenade meant a military (or para-military) group, and the fuel and machete?  I have been watching too many 'evil government agency' shows for my own good.  I very quickly thought of a cover up for a botched operation of some kind.  Looks like I need to paint some "evil" soldier/contractor figures...

Now, is the group moving away from this sinister group, or further into their territory?