A Stop in the Country (Part 2)

Jack took a last swig from the can, savoring the warm beer, letting out a small burp.  Tossing the empty can into the kitchen sink, he scattered the various bottles, cans and other junk he had found in the room.  "Nothing good." He muttered, checking his SMG.  Gunshots from the front of the house had slowed, and he glanced out the front door.
"Jack!  Any day!"  Dawn shouted from out front.
He could see everyone shooting in the road out front.  "YEAAHH!"  he shouted as he ran towards the front of the house

Zombies close in

On the next turn, the survivors win initiative.  Jack is coming out of the house, adding into the fighting this turn.  The group moves towards the intersection, I'm trying to get them with open fields of fire, I'd like to make it easier to move around and take down the zombies.

Dawn steps up and shoots

Beckie fires her shotgun at the crowd in the street

Traci runs out and finishes off the crowd

Jack ran down the hallway towards the open front door.  Gunfire echoed from the street and as he ran through the doorway, Jack could see most of the zombies were down.  To his left he could still see one zombie moving in the nearby intersection.  Using the momentum of his run, Jack hopped up and slid across the hood of the red station wagon parked on the street.  As he slid off the hood, he fired twice from his pistol, killing the last zombie.

Throwing a wink and a grin at Dawn, he laughed "That didn't seem too bad."

Dawn shook her head and pointed just past the nearby stop sign.  "It's not over yet."  She replied.

Jack jumps out and adds his fire to the group

With everyone out, they have a great round of shooting, and clear the table of zombies.  It's a rural area, so more zombies appear on a 6 from noise.  Four more appear at the end of the turn.

More zombies appear

Apparently all that shooting was too much for the survivors, as they don't activate the next turn.  The zombies get closer and then win initiative the next turn!

First they move closer...

...and then they charge!

The zombies manage to charge both Dawn and Traci, with three of them attacking Traci.  Traci fires as they approach and kills two with her SMG, leaving just one for her to face in melee.

Traci face down a zombie

Traci fired a long burst into the zombies on the road as they shambled towards her.  She could see another coming towards her from her right, but made sure to concentrate on the two in front of her.  Once they were down she swung the SMG around and clubbed the third zombie just as it's rotten hands brushed against her right arm.
"Yuch!"  She said as the head split open and blackish goo spilled out over her shoes.

Dawn faces a lone zombie

Dawn and Traci handle their zombie opponents in hand to hand.  Once again the table is empty of zombies.  Beckie decides to investigate the station wagon, she finds two zombies inside before she can search it further.

Beckie finds two zombies!

Her shotgun takes care of one

Beckie opened the driver's side door, startled that two zombies started to crawl towards her across the front seats.  Quickly she leveled her shotgun, blasting the drivers head apart in a spray of red-brown gore.  As she pulled out her knife to finish off the second zombie, she felt a pain in her arm as the zombie grabbed her.  She struggled, lashing out with her knife, slashing the zombie across the face.  The zombie kept coming, the two struggling and slowly moving into the road.  Finally, Beckie jammed her knife down into the head of the zombie, dropping it lifeless to the pavement.
"Are you okay?" Dawn asked as she glanced at Beckie covered in gore.
Hesitating just a second, Beckie shook off a chunk of gore onto the ground.  "Yeah, I'm fine."  Beckie replied, looking at her scraped arm, already feeling a burning in her wounds.

Beckie is infected

Beckie wins the combat, but does loose one round.  She fails the infection test, and is slowly turning into a zombie.  I decide to make it a horror movie moment, Beckie doesn't tell any one.  I give everyone a savvy check to tell if she is infected, and will each time she gets worse.  Beckie will roll here people skill (4 dice) and everyone will roll their savvy.  Whomever scores the most either figures it out or hides it.  (Hopefully this makes sense.)

This will make the game a bit more interesting...  Using the new rules from Fade To Black, the infection will spread each time doubles come up for initiative.  It may happen quickly or slowly, depending on how often doubles come up.  While it requires more tracking, I rather like the feel of this rule, versus just d6 turns.

On the positive side, the car has 2 units of fuel and the keys are in the ignition.  At least we get that out of dealing with the zombies.

One zombie appears from the shooting

On the next turn, I test out this system with a random event.  At least the random event works in the survivors favor!

That will help a bit

Beckie rolls three successes for 'hiding' her condition.  Nobody manages to match that, so Beckie hides her infection.  Thanks to the event, there won't be any more zombies appearing from gunfire.  That should make the rest of the game a bit easier.

Dawn shoots the lone zombie

Beckie searches the ruined van

They find nothing in the van, and move onto the yellow hatchback.  There is a lone zombie inside, which Traci takes care of. 

Checking the yellow car

They don't find anything of interest in the car, beyond the zombie they kill.  Moving on, they check the red SUV.  They manage to find a unit of food.  Nice to get lucky with some searching for once.

The SUV is empty

This is getting boring.  Dawn and Traci head into the church.  Finally something interesting happens...

Oh, hello.

"Hey, just take it easy there."  A young man said from behind the altar as Dawn and Traci entered teh small church.  "Let's not kill each other here."
Dawn and Traci covered him as he stepped out, holding his pistol low and away.  Both women cautiously lowered their weapons as well.  "Well, cutie, what's your story?"  Traci flirted with the stranger as Dawn sighed and shook her head.
"I've been trying to find a place to stay as far away from the FEMA camps and the military.  You guys passing through?"  he asked looking out the doors at Beckie and Jack.
"Yeah."  Dawn answered. "We're heading east, to a farm I have friends at."
Traci flashed him a smile.  "We could use more help, if you want to come along!"  Traci asked in her best bubbly voice.
"Sure!  The name is Ethan."  He replied.  "I'd love a place to go."

Entering the church, we find a Rep 4 survivor, armed with a pistol and with the attractive attribute.  The meet and greet goes well, and Ethan joins the group.  There is one more building to check out, and then we can move on.

Approaching the garage

"Hey we may be in business!  Check out those fuel tanks, I bet we can get gassed up here."  Jack said pointing at the fuel tanks just outside the garage.
"Open up the door and let's see what we can find."  Dawn said pointing at the large roll-up door.  Ethan stepped forward to grab the door when they heard movement from the roof.
"Stand down!"  A voice called from the roof.  "Step back and drop your weapons!"
Everyone looked up and kept their weapons ready as two soldiers appeared on the roof, armed with assault rifles.  Dawn yelled back "We'll leave, but we're keeping out weapons!"
The two soldiers glanced at each other, whispering about orders and missions.  Finally one of them gestured towards the road and yelled out "Just move along!  Stay away from the area and away from the military patrols!"

Military patrol?

An odd group to find, but the garage has two military personnel inside.  They are on some sort of mission, and from the meet and greet, they advise the group to move on.  I briefly consider walking the walk, outnumbering them 5 to 2, even though they are both rep 5, makes me at least consider it.  I figure they will tear up the group pretty bad even if Dawn and the team survive, they won't get that much out of attacking them.  Instead the group gets the station wagon and gets the fuel from the black sedan, before leaving the area.

Driving on east

The group decides to stick together, while it was mostly a successful mission, it is considered a failure for Beckie and Dawn.  Everyone manages to stay together on keeping it together, with Jack and Traci not needing to check after the next game.

The car rumbled to life, the stench of death slowly getting better as they drove with windows down.  Jack checked the radio, finding a CD still loaded, someone's idea of a road trip mix started up, and Jack smiled as they drove along the highway.  "Not bad!  Sometimes life is pretty good, right guys?"
Ethan shifted a bit uncomfortably in the middle back seat, but replied "It's better than walking!"
Beckie shivered in the seat next to him, the summer heat lost to her as what felt like broken glass pumped through her veins.  "Sometimes..."  She mumbled.