Session 2 Synopsis

Real Date: December 12, 2011
In-Game Date: November 29, 2011

Session Title: To the Cracker Barrel and back again, and again.

Key:
1.  Thick green trail indicates the path used on the Cracker Barrel scavenging trips.
2.  Main hoard of 50-60 Zombies torched with gasoline and eventually beaten down
3.  Zombies encountered while scavenging cars in parking lot
4.  Zombies seen meandering around the semi(shown in orange)
5.  Secondary group of Zombies breaking into the southwest door
6.  Blue trail indicates the path taken to the Country Inn
7.  Zombies encountered in the entry area of the Country Inn


After getting a good night sleep from the Zombie mayhem the day before, the group awoke and poured over some maps they acquired from the Cracker Barrel.  Thoughts of heading to an airfield which wasn't too far away were discussed along with several other points of interest.  Since Chet wasn't feeling up to speed yet, the group decided to stick close to the hotel and to start by gathering up the rest of the supplies from the Cracker Barrel. 

For the most part the parking lot looked clear from the southeast doors the group planned on using.  There were only a couple Zombies lingering in the driveway which were quickly and quietly taken care of by Colton's crossbow.  Colton and Greg wheeled a couple luggage carts out of the south door and headed as quietly as possible across the parking lots and left them in the rear of the Cracker Barrel.  After heading through the front entrance and verifying the building was still clear, the pair opened up the back door and pulled the carts inside.  Soon both carts were filled with canned goods and other non-perishable items and it was decided that they would both work together to take one cart back across the parking lot at a time.

On the way back, Greg and Colton noticed a couple Zombies hanging around the semi which was still parked at the north entrance.  Moving a little more quickly, they avoided notice and safely delivered another 2-3 weeks of food to the survivors in the basement.  Deciding to head back for the second cart, the duo moved back to the Cracker Barrel quickly and quietly as they kept an eye on the Zombies spotted earlier.  Greg popped open a can of Crisco and preemptively greased up the wheels of the second luggage cart to quiet any squeaks.  Pushing it back to the hotel, a canned good fell off causing a bit of noise, but both individuals were too far along to see if they attracted any unwanted attention from the semi amblers.

After delivering the cart for the survivors to unload, Greg and Colton headed up to the 3rd floor on the north side and looked down at the semi below to survey the situation.  To their surprise there were an additional 50-60 Zombies milling in and around the semi!  Acquiring gasoline and burning them was the first thing that came to mind so the two headed back out the south door to a car in the Cracker Barrel parking lot.  Greg grabbed a couple empty 2 gallon pickle jars, a 5 gallon flat dish tub, screwdriver, and a hammer and headed to the car before noticing another pair of Zombies moving their way from the direction of the semi.  Colton took them down quickly allowing Greg to arrive safely at the car.  With a very fortunate hammer strike, Greg was able to puncture the fuel tank from under the car and began filling up the dish tub which was then used to fill the pickle jars which were much too tall to fit under the car.  With the jars full, Greg left the tub under the vehicle to catch what it could of what remained in the tank.

Once the pickle jars were rigging up using bed sheets, Greg acquired a lighter from one of the survivors below and went to an upper window on the southeast side.  The plan was to get the Zombie's attention and lure them away from the semi to avoid blowing it up as the jumbo molotov cocktails rained down from above.  The plan worked and the Zombies began beating on the side door breaking in the metal screen reenforced window.  Colton kept the Zombie's attention as well as monitored their progress through the door from the 1st floor hallway as Greg rained fire from above.

Unfortunately the fire was not nearly as effective on the Zombies as the pair had hoped for.  Although a handful did succumb to the flames due to their brains boiling, the bulk of them began pressing through the window and entering the hallway.  What ensued was a blur of hacked up Zombie parts, black ooze, choking smoke of burning flesh and gasoline, thrown hatchets and knives, a broken scythe, and several life or death moments.  As the pair began to get a handle on the Zombies at the southeast door, more pounding and glass breaking caught them off guard at the southwest door.  An additional group of non-burned Zombies began coming through their newly made entrance and Colton quickly moved to intercept.  Between the two of them, over 50 Zombies were laid to rest before things became quiet.

The hallway was a disaster area and the smell of burned flesh lingered after the smoke cleared.  Both Greg and Colton were a complete mess - covered in bits of Zombie and stunk like the dead themselves.  Neither had any desire to clean up the mess in the hallway and to cover the doors so Greg used his leadership skills and organized a cleanup and repair crew from the survivors in the basement.


As the pair had nearly finished up their showers, they noticed the water pressure had begun to drop significantly...  Not worrying about it too much and instead thankful to be washed and in fresh clothes, the two headed back down to check out how the hall clean up went.  They were pleasantly surprised to find the Zombie corpses had been removed from the hallway and the doors completely boarded over.  Now joined by Kim, the trio heard shuffling coming from the room adjacent to the southeast exit.  Peeking in the room, Greg saw about 10 Zombies milling around - the smell of burned flesh assaulting his nostrils as he quickly closed the door.   Colton, having just showered, had no desire to fight any more today.  Greg, however, was able to convince him that they really can't leave a bunch of Zombies inside their once safe haven.  The three prepared their attack and burst into the room after Colton started things off with a crossbow attack.  With fire axe swinging, Kim wasted no time in dispatching several Zombies along with Greg and Colton at her side.  The Zombies in the room were soon put down, but did require several key defensive moves to avoid their deadly bite.

With nobody in the mood to clean up, the Zombies were left in the room and the door was shut as they left. 

After another good night's sleep, the group decided to go back once more to the Cracker Barrel to recover another scythe for Greg and polish off the supplies that may remain.  After making sure things were all clear, the group wheeled over the carts and began scavenging.  It took over an hour to fill the carts to less than a quarter capacity before the group gave up and turned their attention to the cars in the parking lot.  Colton spotted what he thought was a gun case in the back of a truck.  After breaking open a window, he was greeted with a surprisingly loud car alarm.  He quickly popped the hood and unhooked the battery only to find there was some sort of battery backup on the alarm.  Fortunately he found the horn and smashed it thoroughly to silence it.  After the group nervously peered around looking for a Zombie onrush, they quickly went back to going through cars - breaking open windows, popping hoods, and chopping battery cables to disable alarms.  Various items were found including a few hunting knives, some groceries - some still good, a plumber's tool kit including a small hand torch, several sets of jumper cables, flashlights, and several other potentially useful items.

As the group was finishing up the last few cars, five Zombies were spotted coming out of the trees to the north.  The trio took up hiding spots behind the vehicles and waited in ambush as they monitored the approaching legs seen shuffling towards them.  As one of the Zombies caught the scent of the group it began heading quickly towards Greg who found his hiding spot to be sorely lacking.  Standing up to take the oncoming attack, he noticed another larger group of Zombies heading at them - also from the north woods.  The group decided to stand and defend their ground and everyone held their nerve as the Zombies closed into melee combat.  After yet another broken scythe, several near death experiences among moments of nail biting tension, the group was able to finally dispatch the group of 16 Zombies.  Kim noticed that one of the Zombies had a backpack with some supplies and 20 rounds of .357 ammo, but no gun was found.  Tired out and fearing the Zombie groans would attract more attention, the group quickly wheeled their luggage carts back to the hotel to get some rest.  

The next morning the group decided they wanted to make another outing and this time get across THREE parking lots to see if there were any survivors in the Country Inn which was visible from their hotel.  On the way a few trucks with trailers plus what looked to be a U-Haul trailer were spotted in the parking lot to the south.  Kim coaxed the lock on the trailer open only to reveal emptiness.  The other truck/trailer combinations proved fruitless as well so the group continued on their mission.

After mopping up a couple meandering Zombies along the driveway to the Country Inn, the group soon arrived and cautiously approached the front entrance.  Seeing about a half dozen Zombies, a quick plan of attack was made which was lead off again by a shot from Colton's crossbow.  The shot was right on target dropping the Zombie in its tracks and best of all none of the other Zombies took notice of the silent attack.  The second shot dropped another which did get the attention of the others so Kim and Greg charged in with axe and knife in hand.  After quickly securing the lobby, the group decided to clear the hotel before turning their attention to scavenging.  Most rooms were completely empty - even stripped of the bedding.  Two rooms were locked via the security bar, but were knocked open using the fire axe revealing two pairs of Zombies which were taken out without much hassle.  The only other room of interest was both dead bolted and secured via security bar.  No sounds were heard and there was no answer to Greg's knocking and calling out.  Although the door put up quite a resistance, Kim's fire axe finally won and the group began searching through the room.

With the main room clear, attention focused on the bathroom in which dripping water could be heard and strong smell of decomposition filled the air.  The group's flashlights revealed the shower partially filled with water and what appeared to be a body floating within.  In attempt to verify the corpse was not a dormant Zombie, Colton gave the shower door a few knocks which resulted in it popping open spilling out its gruesome contents.  Although a little difficult to make out, it appeared as though the corpse died from self inflicted injuries and had been in the running shower for a few weeks.

With all above ground floors accounted for, the group decided to give the roof a look.  'Picking' the lock to the roof access door, the group took a look around from a new vantage point. Several bedsheets laid out with a red cross painted on them were being held in place on the roof with the pea gravel covering the roof.  Some Zombies could be seen up and down the main road running between the Country Inn and the WalMart parking lot.   The group then realized they hadn't checked the basement yet, and headed downstairs.

Flashlights in hand, the group peered into the darkness of the basement, but spotted nothing.  The setup was similar to that of their all too familiar Fairfield Inn basement.  A main kitchen area, sleeping area, and a locked maintenance/storage room were the main points of interest.  Entering in to the kitchen area, Colton spotted several .22 shell casings.  Several dead bodies - most shot in the head - were scattered around the room.  Another body, which had some flesh ripped away on one arm, was inspected by Greg who found the cause of death to be a meat thermometer to the back of the head.

With no food or other items of interest in sight, the group turned their attention to the locked door.  Greg knocked and called out to anyone in the room and were met with the shouts of a crazed man demanding that they go away and leave him alone.  After several convincing rounds of speech from Greg, the chain on the door was unlocked from the inside, but the man still demanded that they leave or he would kill them just like he killed the rest of the people.  He also mentioned he had a gun and stood firm on his statements that everyone is going to die and turn into Zombies so he would kill them if he had to.  The group debated whether or not they would kill another human and although Greg and Colton decided they would if they needed to, Kim convinced them it wasn't worth the risk of getting shot and that they should just leave.  After finding nothing after a quick search of the bedding area, Colton and the rest headed up and out of the basement, did a scan for Zombie movement, and headed back to their hotel.

After the gruesome events of the day, even Colton found it difficult to get good sleep while being haunted by the incident with the floater in the bathroom.  The threat of the crazy man in the Country Inn also weighed on the minds of everyone not to mention the seemingly endless flow of Zombies.



A fun new statistic to keep track of is the number of in-game Zombie kills.  Although it will likely eventually get some character killed due to unhealthy competition, everyone seemed to be keeping a tally of kills on their character sheets anyway so I figured we'd keep track of it here too.

Zombie Destruction Totals
Character	Session	All Time
Colton	54	74
Greg	44	59
Kim	16	21
Chet	0	19
Total	114	173