Bleed It Out (Conclusion)

Dawn caught a glimpse of the gang leader jumping into the back of the Hummer.  He was too fast for her to shoot at, so she continued to fire rounds into the truck.  She could hear the occasional staccato from Jack as he sought targets for his rifle.  The thump of return fire impacting the house had faded away, Dawn felt things may be turning out better than expected.

Shades gets his SUV running

This is the continuation of the attack on the gang.  It is still day 81, morning, and the battle in the street is raging.  Dawn and Jack have managed to take down most of the gang, and now it appears the surviving gang members are trying to escape.  

Not many zombies for a zombie game...

Zombies have started to spawn, although they will not again after this turn, as the turn started with the ‘No More Zombies’ random event.  I rolled a 6 for one of the zombies during the spawning, so no more zombies from shooting.  There are still two PEFs which may be zombies, or more gang members.

Zombies appear

Mary stood on her barricade, watching the carnage unfolding around her.  She couldn’t believe poor Ned had been killed so quickly by Shades.  This day was going to be a grim one, regardless of who won.  The civilians in the camp huddled near their tents or the back walls, looking like a frightened flock of birds, ready to take flight. 

Will clutched his shotgun and hid behind the barricade.  She knew he was out of ammo, but he held out hope of reloading it someday.  Mary waved at him to move back.  “Will, stay with the others.  If people need to leave…” She was cut off by a rifle slug hitting her in the chest.  As she blacked out, Mary hoped somebody from the camp survived…

Wow.  Blurry.

The last assault rifle armed ganger has a shot at Mary, even though she is partially covered; she is still a pretty easy target.  He fires, gets a hit and knocks her Out Of the Fight.  At least she’s not dead.  The ganger is out of the line of fire from Dawn and Jack, as he is behind the second Hummer.

Shades gets moving

With a rumble and a puff of dark exhaust the Hummer Shades had jumped into fired up.  That drew Dawn and Jacks attention back to it.  Neither could see the driver, but the truck was a pretty big target anyway.  Dawn fired a burst into the truck, followed by Jack, they couldn’t seem to find anything that would break.

“Alright!” Shades yelled from the backseat.  Just back us up into that alley and we can get out of here!”

The scared driver did his best to move the lumbering vehicle backwards while crouching beneath the driver’s wheel.  The patter of bullets hitting the hood and cracking through the windshield was making him flinch and jerk the truck around.

SUV moving for the alley

The SUV shades is in manages to get moving.  He is going to have it back up into the nearby alley, so they can either drive away in cover or he can bail out and run away without getting shot by the SAW.  The first turn of movement goes well, the Hummer backs up a bit and they are on their way.

Zombies moving towards Dawn and Jack

Dawn saw the Hummer moving away, she concentrated her SAW on the front of the truck, bullets shredded the body panels, shattering a headlight and puncturing a hose that started leaking.  The Hummer accelerated, getting closer to the alley and cover.

“Keep shooting Jack!”  She yelled, sparing a glance at the other Hummer.

Jack Followed Dawn’s lead and fired into the front wheel, finally something gave and the wheel jerked and tore itself loose.  The hummer careened backwards into the Dollar store.  After a brief pause, a fireball exploded from the SUV, incinerating the wreck and everyone inside.

“Hell yeah.”  Jack said with a smirk.  “No problem.”

Jack stretched from his firing position, checking his ammo.  “Told ya we’d get ‘em.”  He smiled as he looked around.  “Hmmm.  Looks like the neighbors are out.”  Jack finally noticed the zombies closing in on the house they were using for cover.

“You take care of them.” Dawn said, shifting her position.  “I’ll try and take out the other truck.”

Truck goes BOOM!

Dawn fires at the SUV again, finally getting a good damage result versus the vehicle.  Per the rules, it flips over and explodes!  The cars in ATZ must have been all 80’s action movie leftovers.  Rolling for the impact 4 hit, both the driver and Shades are killed.  That ends that problem quickly. 

 

The situation gets...Explosive.

Dawn was surprised by the sudden fireball that bloomed out of the SUV.  She couldn’t believe the truck exploded just from her shots and slamming into the store.  She waited a moment, watching for anyone escaping the wreck.  Nobody came out.

She glanced at the last Hummer, with the gang members huddled behind it.  She figured they didn’t pose much of a threat right now.  “Let’s clear out these dead.”  She said to Jack, who was already picking off the nearby zombies.

Zombies shamble towards the final gang members

Dawn and Jack are in a pretty good position.  They have the gang tied up behind the final SUV, and with Shades out of the battle, the gang is at the mercy of the NPC reaction roll.  One zombie charges the SUV and tangles with the driver, who wins, but bails out and joins the others hiding behind the truck.

The gang has been decimated.

Quite a few zombies have closed in on Dawn and Jack, so they need to spend some time clearing out the zombies that are moving in on them.  Meanwhile, the gangers are stuck behind the SUV, one can’t recover from duck back, and neither of the others is going to step out of cover. 

Here come the dead

The zombies manage to score a turn where they activate and the gang doesn't.  It's funny how the fight between the gang and the survivors took so much attention, and now here come the zombies to clean everything up!

Dawn covers the gang while Jack takes on the zombies

Dawn turned away from the zombies gathering at the house.  Jack was taking them down as they slowly clawed up the stairs towards the pair.  Instead of concentrating on the dead, Dawn focused on the second SUV.  She started firing bursts into the truck, trying to knock it out or flush out the gang members hiding behind it.

The bursts from the automatic weapon were like a ringing dinner bell to the undead.  More shambled towards the broken house and slowly they crawled up the stairs, only to find Jack waiting for them.  Gunfire continued to ripple through the town.

Zombie snack!

One zombie manages to charge the nearest ganger.  She rolls no passes on her charge check, and the zombie wins with its one pass.  She fights as if unarmed for the first round, and looses by 1.  It takes a couple more rounds of fighting, but in the end the ganger falls to the zed.

Maybe the zombie will flush out the gangers

Janet watched as the zombie tore down Sally.  In horror, she watched as the undead clerk turned his attention towards her.  Panic took over and she ran down the street, not waiting for anyone to help.  She had to get away!

Ganger Janet runs away

The next turn the zombies activate first.  The one nearest the gangers charges the ducked back ganger, causing her to run away.  He moves on to the last ganger, armed with a rifle.  He turns and deals with the zombie easily.

Charging the rifleman...

...ends predictably.

Dawn watched the ganger run from the zombie.  She considered, momentarily, gunning her down.  Shooting someone running away, in the back just didn't sit well.  The chatter of gunfire from behind the SUV, and the dead body of the zombie flopping back into the street told her the last gang member was still there.  "I'll watch the gang.  You got the zombies?"
Jack laughed, "No problem.  You take care of business with them I got us covered back here."

Jack is charged

Jack is charged, but shoots the zombie as it tries to get to him.  He moves up afterwards and kills the next two trying to crawl up the stairs.

Jack takes out zombies

The battle is starting to wind down, and finally the last PEFs move out of their buildings.  We still don't know what one is, but the other comes out in sight of Dawn...

This PEF moves out of sight

What comes out of the store?

Dawn watched the SUV, waiting for a shot at the hidden rifleman.  She heard Jack firing behind her, trusting him to take care of the zombies while she used the SAW to finish off the gang threat.  Suddenly, the doors to the dollar store burst open and three people ran into the street.

She paused, not wanting to shoot some other survivors.  The trio were waving around with their weapons, trying to find a target.  As Dawn watched, she could tell they were talking to the rifleman.

"Jack!  More Jackals."  Dawn swung the SAW towards them.  "I got 'em."

 

Dawn spots the gangers

The PEF resolves as three more gangers.  They chose the wrong time to appear, as they are armed with pistol, machine pistol and BAP.  Dawn goes right to in sight check and opens fire.

Dawn guns down more gang members

Ducking back from the SAW

The last ganger from the trio ducks back, and next turn fails her recovery roll and runs away.  Not much support for the gang there.  The last PEF moves up through the nearby ruined house.  Jack and Dawn are ready for it - the last rifleman ganger just won't leave or attack (I keep rolling 1 pass for him, he just stays in cover!)

Dawn and Jack are ready...

Dawn turned her attention to the nearby ruins.  Both her and Jack could hear something moving in the rubble.  Her shoulder hurt from the jackhammer recoil she suffered through during the day.  The ringing in her ears nearly obscured the sounds from the ruins.
"You ready?"  Jack asked, leaning on a damaged support beam, aiming his rifle towards the oncoming sound.
 "Ready enough."  Dawn replied.

The last PEF appears

Three gangers!

Three gangers appear, armed with pistols (2 of them) and a machine pistol.  We go straight to in sight checks.  Dawn gets three successes, the gangers best is only 2.  The SAW opens up on the group...

In Sight checks

Ouch.

To be fair, Dawn only takes down two of the gangers.  Jack takes out the last ganger, who manages two shots but misses.  Not exactly a major threat.  The last rifle man decides to finally attack, moving out and triggering In sight with Dawn, which he wins!

Dawn gets 2 successes

The rifleman gets 4 successes

 Bullets thumped into the ruined house, several others buzzing the air around Dawn.  Turning quickly, Dawn saw the last rifleman had stepped out and was firing at her.  She quickly brought the SAW around, flinching from wood splinters as a bullet hit her nearby cover.

"Watch out!"  Jack yelled, unable to see the gunman.

Well, he tried.

Dawn returns fire, and gets a kill result.  The gangers on the table have been eliminated, Dawn and Jack have several OOF gangers to deal with.  They also meet the camp, again.  Time to decide if they take on the rest of the gang or try and get away.

The gang looses this round...

Dawn and Jack manage to take out the gang members on the attack.  They make contact with the camp, again.  Scoring more successes than the civilian or the last standing survivor, Will.  Dawn and Jack have to figure out what to do next.

Dawn approached the older man treating Mary's gunshot wound.  It looked like she would pull through as far as Dawn could tell.  The man looked up as Dawn stepped closer and said "Well, you've certainly made a mess of things."
"Excuse me?"  Dawn said, incredulous.
"The gang will just come back with more."  He said, wiping his hands on a towle.
Jack laughed.  "We hit them pretty good, I can't believe they'd want any more of this."
The man shook his head.  "I am Doctor Chapra, formerly of FEMA.  We've had a tense time here, but the gang has kept their bargain."  Dr. Chapra continued calmly.  "I  have had this same discussion with Mary here.  She never understood either."
Will shook his head.  "You just wanted to surrender and hope the Jackals would leave you alone."
Dawn  nodded, understanding.  "Well, Jack and I want to stay alive, so we either finish this with the gang or get moving."
Everyone looked at each other, trying to decide what to do...

I am not sure if the group continues to try and attack the gang or just get away at this point.  Dawn and Jack won't get another ambush like this, they need more people to help!  With Zomtober kicking off, I am going to take a moment to decide what course for them to take.  Any ideas?