Deadly Ground

Dawn was startled awake by the sound of assault rifles firing at close range.  Bullets pinged off the pavement and shed walls around her as she shook off sleep and drew her pistol.  With a sudden cry Traci yelled out and spun to the ground near the rear doors of the garage.  Dawn could see Jack sprawled out on the floor, he looked like he was still asleep.  She hoped he wasn't dead.
"Come out you bitch!"  A gruff voice barked and laughed.  "You killed two of mine, time to die!"
Dawn grimaced, but just kicked off her sleeping bag, aiming at the man at the front of car.  "

The next turn the survivors win initiative.  Dawn is already in sight to one ganger, and she starts by shooting him down.

Dawn shoots from the ground..

..and starts to even the odds!

Beckie watched Dawn shoot, she could hear the gangers moving around the car.  She knew this could be the end, and even as her bite ached, she knew she could help.  Racking her shotgun, She stood up and aimed over the car...

Beckie stands up

I make a bit of a meta-game decision for Beckie when she activates.  With her being infected, even if nobody else knows, she is more expendable.  I am going to take a chance and hope the car offers some protection in the shoot-out from triggering an In Sight check.  She should be able to catch two gangers, and with her shotgun she has a good chance for hitting both.

Beckie drops two gangers

Beckie wins the In Sight check, and scores well for shooting.  Too bad she couldn’t get more hits, or catch all three gangers.  Her attack drops two of the gangers and she has at least cover from the leader.  Unfortunately, his shooting is pretty good, and he knocks Beckie OOF.  That leaves Dawn alone to face the gang.

Beckie gets shot

The zombies activate, and move towards the gunfire.  There's not much to show, and John moves forward to finish off Dawn.

 

John moves towards dawn

“I’m going to kill you bitch!”  John yelled as he stepped around the car, looking for Dawn.  “You can’t hide forever!”  The darkness and shadows made spotting anyone difficult, but John could see the mess of sleeping bags where the group had been sleeping.

As John rounded the end of the car, Dawn replied “Who’s hiding?”  Gunfire shattered the quiet night again.

Dawn wins the In Sight Check

John moves forward on his turn (I pass 2d on his action check) looking to finish this with an In Sight showdown.  This was another moment of meta-gaming (hey, this is a tough scenario, I’m trying for all the angles!) as I purposefully had Dawn prone, which gives her a bonus to shooting.  She needs to make every shot count!

John falls!

Dawn manages 4 passes to john’s 3 and shoots first.  She hits twice, getting a kill shot and a knock down.  John has Hard as Nails, and changes the kill to a knock down result.  Rolling for the knock down, he passes zero, and is Obviously Dead.  Woot!

Zombies wander the streets

I haven’t been focusing on it much, but zombies have been spawning near the garage, and the undead are attracted to the sounds of shooting.  Dawn has plenty of work left if she is going to save her team.  She could easily exit the table and survive, but that would be the death of everyone else. 

Dawn protects Traci

Dawn drew her machete, rushing towards Traci as a shambling woman in a dress appeared in the garage.  Her machete sliced the things head in two, tumbling the corpse to the ground.  Dawn paused, squinting into the dark, trying to see if any more of the dead or gang was close.  She could hear the rumble of motorcycles getting closer. 

After a moment, Dawn checked Traci for signs of life and found she was just unconscious.  “Let’s get you into the car.” Dawn whispered and dragged her friend away.

Dawn drags Traci to the car

Dawn has some time to react, first up is taking down a zombie that was attracted to the rear of the garage.  Luckily it didn’t quite make it to Traci, or she would have been eaten!  I decide Dawn is going to try and pile everyone into the car and just get out of the area.  At the very least she can get everyone in the vehicle and not worry about random zombies walking up and eating them.

Sally and team encounter zombies

Sally heard the gunfire from the garage, she had heard John yelling before everything went silent again.  John didn’t yell the all clear, and she knew he wouldn’t be quiet unless he was hurt, or worse!  Leading her group through the ruins was slowing them down, but now as she could see the headlights from the motorcycles approaching, she wasn’t sure what to do.

“Hey, are we going or what?”  Dan asked.  “Standing in the road like this feels stupid!”

Sally shot him a hard look.  “Just wait a sec.  We’ll go when Scott and the bikers are ready!”

Sally's team facing zombies

Luckily for Dawn, the NPC movement rolls for Sally have her waiting more than charging.  Add in zombies moving towards her group, and they don't move much.  This break will give Dawn a chance to not face all the gangers at once.  Dawn spends the next couple of turns getting everyone into the car, and taking Beckie’s shotgun for the inevitable face off coming up.

The bikers arrive!

With a roar the four bikers drove into the area.  Scott pointed to the right as the group passed a pickup truck, and the the group pulled their bikes over.  Their headlights illuminated the area, showing zombies wandering the roads and several feasting on fallen gangers.

"Let's clear them out!"  Scott yelled.  "Where the hell is everyone!"  He continued as he parked his bike, looking for John.

More gangers!

The bikers arrive, and bring more zombies as well.  They have an idea where Dawn is, and move towards the garage, shooting the undead as they approach.

Gangers move towards the zombies

Scott racked his shotgun as his team crossed the road.  "Clear those things from our guys!"  He yelled and took aim at the feasting zombies ahead.

"There's zombies everywhere!"  Eugene yelled, looking around as he loaded his machine pistol.  

"Calm down you pussy!" Scott yelled.  "We've faced more before!"

The gang clears the doorway

The gang lets fly and clears out a bunch of zombies.  Eugene manages to go out of ammo, but otherwise the shooting goes perfectly for the gang.

Dawn moves around the car

Dawn set Beckie in the back seat of the car.  As bullets pinged off the car and the garage around her, she picked up her shotgun.  "I think I'm going to need this more than you for now, Beckie." She said and moved behind the car, waiting for the gangers to get close.

Dawn gets everyone in the car, and I have her grab Beckies shotgun.  The extra firepower is going to be handy.  I have her move around the rear of the car, I'm hoping to limit the number of gangers that can see her when they come in.

I almost forgot - the zombies go.

Zombies close in

Zombie grabs Dan from behind

The zombies crash into both groups of gangers.  Scott shoots his way clear, but Eugene has problems...

Scott clears the horde

Dan is killed

The next turn starts with doubles (Beckie moves to infection level 2) and then the zombies go first.

Zombies swarm the gang!

Two zombies attack Lola!

The zombies attacking Lola have a tough time.  She shoots and knocks one down before melee, and hacks the other in melee easily.

Lola handles the zombies

Scott looked at the undead closing in, they were shambling out of the darkness, in a seemingly never ending stream.  Almost in a panic he started firing his shotgun, yelling at the others to shoot as well.  A choked scream from Eugene told him not everyone was going to make it through tonight.

"Shoot and Scoot!  Towards the garage!"  He yelled as gunfire rippled through the night.

Eugene is down

The gangers activate, shooting and then moving towards the garage.  Scott goes out of ammo (not a surprise from the shotgun) and everyone moves towards the garage.

The gang shoots the zombies

Lola finishes off the zombie nearest her, and Sally once again rolls zero successes, and decides the best course of action is to hold in the road.  Dawn activates last, and I decide it's time to got for encountering the gangers!

Dawn moves up and spots the gangers!

Dawn made sure her shotgun was loaded and ready, and slid along the car to the garage entrance.  She could make out three men, one looked like he was reloading his shotgun.  She bumped the car as she stood for a clear shot and the men spun on her.

"Kill her!"  Scott shouted, desperately trying to load his shotgun.

The In Sight test goes Dawn's way

Dawn fires and manages to hit both gangers who can fire.  One does get his shots back and gets a kill on Dawn, which changes to a knocked down.  She passes 2d and will be able to carry on next turn.

Two more gangers down

Dawn felt like she had been hit with a sledgehammer as the large caliber pistol round knocked her down next to the car.  She was amazed that the road leathers and the ballistic vest still held up to the gunshot.  Grunting as she righted herself and started to stand, she momentarily thought that just a few months ago she never would have considered shooting other people, even as she saw two downed forms in the road in front of her.

Dawn faces off with Scott

Leveling the shotgun on the last ganger, Dawn yelled out “Drop the gun!  I’ll shoot!”

Scott was trying to cram a shell into the shotgun, he had dropped three other shells to the pavement as he heard the blasts from Dawn’s shotgun take down his teammates.  “Screw that!  I’ll kill you!”  he yelled back in defiance.

Dawn shook her head and pulled the trigger, a cloud of lead engulfing the foolish biker.

Dawn finishes off Scott

Dawn wins initiative, stands up and steps in front of the car.  This triggers another In Sight check with the last ganger, Scott.  He is still trying to reload his shotgun, but Dawn isn’t feeling generous, and Scott doesn’t pass any dice in a check to see if he will throw down his weapon and surrender or flee.  Dawn kills him with a shotgun blast.

Dawn wins the In Sight

Sally finally passes her checks and moves her group forward.  We are going to get another round of In Sight checks!  

Dawn heard a gasp and the slap of feet on the road.  She whirled around to see Sally brandishing her pistol and looking shocked to see the crumpled form of Scott on the ground.  Behind Sally Gary aimed his assault rifle, surprised to see Dawn still standing.

“Where’s John?”  Sally yelled, facing Dawn.  Her hand had the slightest tremble as she took aim.

“I have no idea which of them was John.”  Dawn replied, holding her shotgun at the ready.  “Everyone who came in after us is dead.  Why don’t you just run away?”

With a yell, Sally started firing.

 

 

Dawn takes down Sally

 

 

 

 

Mike misses Dawn

Mike misses Dawn, but passes his man down check.  Dawn passes her received fire check and gets a rushed shot.

Dawn finishes off Mike

There are quite a few zombies appearing on the table.  This is going to be a problem, but Dawn can hopefully get in the car and drive away when she finishes with the gang.  Lola isn't close enough for the In Sight check.  She fails her man down check and is fleeing, if she can get away.

Zombies appear in hordes!

Dawn goes first, then the zombies, then Lola.  Two zombies are entering the rear of the garage, so she charges them.

Dawn attacks the zombies

Dawn takes down one zombie and is charged by the other, which she handles easily.  I figure if she is facing zombies, it is best to stay in melee to reduce more from appearing.  Lola and the downed gangers do not fare so well.

Zombie feasting begins!

Lola is swarmed

Dawn heard a scream from the roadway.  With grim satisfaction, she realized the last ganger had been killed by the zombies.  Slowly she moved towards the front of the garage, pausing when she saw the undead feasting on the downed gangers.

"Looks like I'm clear."  she mumbled.  Looking around at the gore nearby, another thought occurred to her.  Ditching the shotgun in the car, she hefted her machete and jogged into the roadway.  "Time to finish off the deadheads!"  she thought.

Dawn stands alone

I could end it here, but I decide to try and secure the area.  The zombies are distracted by feasting, so she can run up them and pop the weasel on most of them.  If she can expose the last two PEFs and clear the board of zombies, I'll take all the looted weapons and four units of fuel from the cycles.

<Cue a montage of action shots!>

Dawn wades into the zombies

Taking on zombies in the road

Checking the last PEF

Dawn runs across the board and reveals the PEFs.  Along the way, she gets doubles for for activation twice, which moves Beckie's infection along to level 4.  In the end, Dawn manages to get a ton of guns and the fuel.

 

She also notices Beckie turning, as I check to see if everyone survives...

Dawn opened the car and gingerly moved Jack and Traci back to their sleeping bags.  She checked their wounds, dressing them as best she could.  "Looks like you'll be down for awhile."  She said as she tried to make them comfortable.

Beckie coughed from the car, a deep rattling gurgle escaping her body.  Dawn looked at her with concern, worried her wounds were worse than they appeared.  Slowly moving Beckie back to her sleeping bag, Dawn saw dark veins crisscrossing Beckie's neck and arms.  

"Oh Beckie!"  Dawn exclaimed, checking Beckie's arm.  Slowly pulling back her sleeve, Dawn revealed a nasty wound slowly oozing a greenish pus.  A gunshot wound near the infected bite looked like a minor scrape in comparison.

"What do we do..."  Dawn mumbled and slumped to the floor, knowing Beckie was condemned to death.

Everyone manages to survive, though I rule Beckie will pull through just to cause more trouble for the team.  Does Dawn kill her before everyone else recovers?  I say no, for now...