The Traci Situation (Part 2)

Heat was starting to rise as the day wore on.  Traci watched as rising heat from the road made the air shimmer.  Behind Kevin she saw a business-suit clad zombie shamble past a car wreck.  Gunfire was attracting more and more zombies to the area. 

Traci started to say something when Kevin whirled around and blasted the zombie with his shotgun.  “We should get off the road, or at least out of the open.”  He said, watching the zombie tumble to the ground.

Nodding, Traci agreed.  “Chad!  Let’s move towards the building!”  She yelled, and started jogging down the road, not even checking to see if Chad followed.

 

Kevin blasts a zed in the street

This is part 2 of the Traci side story.  The group is moving towards the office of the RV dealer, hoping to find a working RV they can use as a base.  At the very least, if the building is empty, it will make a decent camp until they can get an RV working.  Chad has been bitten and infected; he will see the infection spread on each doubles that come up for initiative, succumbing to the infection when the level of infection equals his Rep (3).  It’s been a bad day for Chad.

They are getting closer to the building

Traci fired a burst from her SMG, killing the construction worker zombie as it crawled from the wreck in the road.  She braced herself against the low brick wall, waiting for Chad and Kevin to head for the door.  Chad was lagging behind, clearly feeling the effects of his zombie bite.  She was worried he might just die right there in the road.
As if he could read her thoughts, Chad yelled "I'm still okay!  Just keep moving and I'll catch up!"
Kevin gave Chad a hard stare, nearly imperceptibly shaking his head.  "Yeah, let's keep moving."  He replied.

Zombies keep appearing as the survivors keep shooting

The group keeps moving, getting close to the building, shooting as they go.  Chad is basically just a zombie magnet, he can't hit the broad side of barn thanks to poor rolling and his lowered Rep.  Doubles come up on the next activation, Chad is now one step away from dying...

Of course.

Luckily (?) Chad is the one who has to check.  In theory, it should kill him outright, but I roll a 6, his full Rep is 3, and he would have normally been okay, so I keep him going.  Hopefully he can still die well.  I should try and minimize shooting, even with a 6 for zombie spawning, they are showing up much too often.  Traci is okay, but the guys are not going to just drop their guns, so I guess we'll try and shoot our way through this.

The survivors attack

Kevin's shotgun thundered next to Chad.  A zombie in the road shredded from the buckshot at close range, slumping to an ugly pile in death.  Kevin swore and struggled to reload, pulling shells from his pockets.  Chads vision blurred and snapped back to clarity as he wiped his brow with a nearly black left hand.  Traci ran past, stopping and firing her SMG at an unseen zombie.  Her reaction told Chad she had missed.
"Chad!  Just hang on!  We'll get these cleared out!"  Traci yelled, checking her aim.
Chad looked from Kevin to Traci, his body felt like it was on fire and his arms ached, although frighteningly he couldn't feel his left arm any more.  Chad lurched upright, bracing his rifle and ran around the corner into the road, firing at a zombie he could see trying to cross the street...

Zombie charges Chad

Chad is in bad shape, I admit I don't want him in the middle of Kevin and Traci, it's just going to be trouble when he turns, so I am going to move him out as much as possible.  He fires and misses (Traci does as well, apparently the delivery zombie is hard to hit) and misses his shot as the zombie charges him.  Going into melee, Chad has a decent chance - he is still alive, so he does get one bonus success and rolls 2d6 (1 for rep and 1 for brawler) and gets two successes.  The zombie only gets one, and Chad kills it!

Kevin reloads and zombies get closer

Traci spun around, hearing a crash from near the building.  Zombies were stumbling from around the side as another zombie stood up near the fence across from her.  It seemed they were coming from everywhere!  She took aim at the closest zed, firing a tight burst that smashed it's head.  "Stay close to me!  Shoot those zombies by the building!"  She yelled.
Kevin glanced behind him, seeing the undead coming around the front of the nearby sedan.  He didn't need any further encouragement to move.  Stepping next to Traci he turned and fired his shotgun, getting a couple of shots off before it clicked empty again.  One zombie was down, it's leg shredded from the blast, but the last zombie was still on its feet.
"YAAAHH!"  Chad yelled, running past Kevin, stumbling to a crouching position, he brought his rifle up in a solid firing position.  His rifled fired and the second zombie spun around and crashed to the ground.  Chad coughed and spat out a blackish bloody chunk of phlegm.  "I ain't dead yet!" he yelled at the zombies writhing on the pavement.

Chad gives it his all

It's a mediocre turn for the survivors.  Traci kills one zombie, Kevin hits one, knocking it down and going out of ammo (again!), leaving just Chad.  I have him move up, so he is closest and fire on the last standing zombie.  He rolls 3 sixes, and I just can't help but give him a chance, so I treat his shots as 'pathetic shots' and he gets a chance to hit - which he does with one.  It just knocks the zombie down, but I'll take it.  Chad at least hits something!

Unfortunately, doubles come up again, we get a random event and Chad expires from the zombie infection.  At least he went out fighting.  Apparently he hit more than the zombies when he last fired...

Not exactly a PC car, but it makes sense...

Traci watched in horror as Chad spat out another bloody mess.  Echoes from his rifle shots still sounded as he doubled over in a coughing fit.  With a gurgling scream he half raised up, and suddenly fell silent as he fell face first to the pavement.  Blood slowly pooled around him as he gave a single shudder and fell silent.
"Damn."  Kevin said, pausing as he reloaded his shotgun.  "Tough way to go."
Traci shook her head slowly, shock hitting her.  She watched as the two zombies slowly stood near the car, their arms still reaching for her and Kevin.

Those are some fast zombies!

You know, when things go good, you hardly notice, but a couple of turns of bad dice can make a whole game change.  The zombies get a free turn and then manage to win the initiative on the next turn after that.  The two stand up and charge Kevin, who can't shoot due to his shotgun being out of ammo.  I wish the bad luck stopped there.

Yeah, that's a bad day.

Traci felt like she was underwater, unable to move quickly enough to help Kevin.  She watched him swing wildly, his shotgun bouncing off the shoulder of one zombie.  Before he could recover, a zombie in a tattered camouflage slammed into him, bouncing with Kevin on the road.  Almost immediately, Kevin was unconscious.
The two zombie turned almost simultaneously towards Traci...

To be Continued...