Leaving Town (Part 1)

Dawn moved forward, trying to move quietly.  She could see several zombies wandering the streets ahead.  "No need to draw attention to myself."  Dawn thought as she watched the undead shuffling aimlessly.  Cautiously Dawn moved forward to a low brick wall, pausing before entering a rubble strewn alley.

Dawn starts behind a handy brick wall

It is daytime, day 41, in a suburban area with an ER of 4.  Dawn has a primary objective of exiting the board opposite her starting side.  If she can find a vehicle and fuel and drive off the edge of the table, that is a complete success.  All the buildings can be searched (even the ruins) all of the vehicles that are not burned out can also be searched, vehicles can possibly  have occupants, as determined by the Risk and Rewards deck.  any zombies found in a vehicle are trapped (seat belts, etc) on a 4-6.

The first turn, Dawn doesn't act.  The zombies wander about aimlessly, and one of the PEFs moves up next to Dawn.  There may be more action than I expected right away...

Is something out there?

For the next turn, the zombies return the favor, Dawn acts but the zombies do not.  She steps around the corner, revealing the PEF.

Contact zombies!

Dawn heard the shuffle and crunch from the opposite side of the wall.  Checking her SMG, Dawn stepped around the wall, face to face with a pair of zombies.  Glancing around, Dawn sprinted the opposite direction, running for a nearby ruined house.  Pausing at the corner, she raised her weapon and fired on the zeds...

Dawn turns and fires at the zombies

Dawn fired three times, and only managed to run out of ammo.  Sigh.

Out of ammo and zombies nearby...

Dawn passes 0d the next turn and reloads her SMG.  Under the very tight ammo rule, you roll versus the max target rating of the weapon.  Thus, the higher the target rating, the less likely you are to fail, and so passes result in out of ammo.  The SMG has a rating of 3, which makes the check a 'normal' pass/fail.  A BA pistol has a rating of 2, a SAW has 4, so the pistol still has ammo on a 3+, the SAW on 5+.  I found the rule to be a bit confusing until I used it.

Once she has reloaded, Dawn moves to the middle of the street, getting distance from the zombies.

Dawn keeps moving

At the start of the next turn, I get a random event.  The zombies 'pause'.

Can we take a moment?

Dawn fires, killing one zombie and runs into the nearby ruined house.  The zombies pause...

Just keep moving around

Dawn crouched in the ruined kitchen, watching through the front windows as zombies shuffled through the streets.  As Dawn watched, she could hear the drag and crunch of more zombies in the rubble strewn streets around her position.  Dawn paused, wondering what her best course of action was.

For the next two turns, Dawn doesn't activate.  She finally activates and goes second as the zombies approach the ruined house.

Done waiting yet?

Dawn stepped out of the rubble and triggered the nearby PEF.  It turned out to just be 'nerves' and was nothing.  As there wasn't anything at the PEF, Dawn runs onward to check out the nearby SUV.

Dawn checks the SUV

Dawn ran past the rubble wall, approaching a blue Explorer.  "This could be a good ride."  She mumbled as she opened the passenger door. "At least it doesn't look like it burned..."
A snarl and snapping teeth greeted her as the door opened.  Dawn backpedaled from the door as two zombies stumbled out trying to bite her.  A third thrashed in the back seat, still buckled into its seat.

Dawn faces two zombies from the SUV

Dawn found three zombies in the SUV, one of which was still strapped in and unable to attack.  Dawn moves away (as if she had just entered a building) but the two mobile zombies charge after her.  Dawn decides to handle these in melee, no need to attract more.

Dawn handles the two zombies

The next turn the zombies go first, and the zombie Dawn had knocked down jumps up to try and kill Dawn again.  I decide that the lone zed in the SUV is making enough noise to attract the wandering zombies, but not to spawn any more.  The zombies close in on Dawn as she finishes off the zed in melee.  She does a shoot and scoot - firing at three of the zombies and heading for the nearby intact house.

Zombies spot Dawn

Dawn gets to the trees

Dawn fired her SMG as she sprinted for the treeline.  With some satisfaction she saw two zombies collapse to the shattered pavement.  As she entered the brush, Dawn paused hearing a rusty creak from the wrecked sports car nearby.  A lone zombie pushed its way out of the wreck, reaching out at Dawn with dead hands.

A zombie appears near Dawn

Dawn doesn't activate the next turn (it's like all I can roll are 6's today) and the zombies close in.  The closest zombie manages attack Dawn in hand to hand.

Dawn faces a lone zed

Dawn handles the zombie easily, and looses initiative.  The zombies close in and Dawn fires and kills one before running through the hedge into the front yard of the house.

The zombies don't quite catch Dawn...

...and she runs into the empty yard.

Dawn paused next to the topiary, its overgrown shape still recognizable as a spiral.  She held the SMG tight to her shoulder, ready to shoot the zombies as they stumbled through the bushes in front of her.  Branches snapped and broke as the undead started pushing through the undergrowth.  Each snap and crack made Dawn wince, how many were there?

A crunch of gravel behind Dawn made her break her concentration and glance over her left shoulder.  A zombie stumbled past the overgrown shrubs at the edge of the driveway.  Dawn started to turn and face the nearby zombie when she heard the under brush crack and the thud of a zombie breaking through.  "I'm surrounded!"  She thought, feeling panic creep in.

Dawn is surrounded

Yet again, Dawn doesn't get to act.  At least the zombies are far enough away that they can't get to her this turn.  Hopefully Dawn can activate on the next initiative!

To Be Continued...