Real Date: March 26, 2012
In-Game Date: December 16, 2011
In-Game Date: December 16, 2011
Session Title: Fatties, birds, and theories.
Memorable QuoteGreg: "Anybody know how to drive a tank?"
Chet: "Its just like a big truck isn't it?"
A restful sleep was met with a chill in the air from the mid-December morning. The group wasted no time getting on the road and were soon traveling back east towards their Home Depot. As nobody was sure where the Zombie hoard was, Chet diverted from the interstate to the back roads.
Perhaps it was the stress of the gunfight the day before which clouded their minds, but somehow the caravan found itself on a different set of back roads than their previous course. Greg and Chet discussed briefly at several different intersections as to which direction to take and decided that as long as they were going northeast-ish, they would make it back up to the highway with a good chance of bypassing the hoard.
Other than an occasional abandoned car, these back roads were much the same as the day before. As the group enjoyed their peaceful country drive, a lone figure was seen walking through a grassy pasture. Greg snatched up a pair of binoculars and was pretty sure it was a Zombie. Since it was a couple hundred yards away from the road and seemingly oblivious to the caravan passing, Chet drove on and the caravan peacefully carried on down the road. A few miles later, more Zombies were spotted near a set of hog confinement buildings. Although the buildings were not very far away from the road, the plan was again to just bypass them and keep on going.
That plan was suddenly interrupted by a gunshot heard from one of the buildings on the farm. Since the gunfire didn't seem to be directed at them, Chet pulled the semi into the driveway to investigate what was going on. Several more Zombies ambled around the corners of the buildings as they heard the semi approach. Seeing that they were outnumbered and in danger of being overrun, Chet turned the semi around and headed back to the road in hopes of luring some of the Zombies away from the site. As they were driving along the driveway, a white cloth being waved from a loft window in what looked to be a machine shed was spotted by Greg. In the process of getting in and out of the site, several Zombies met the end of the front spike enhancement of the semi. Scraping them off with the more recent enhancement of the hydraulic spike cleaner left a wake of pierced Zombies writhing on the ground.
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| 1: Gunshot & Survivors 2: Semi parked and scores of Zombies taken out Red Dots: Zombies Green Line: Semi Path |
Sure enough, about 40-50 Zombies followed the slow moving semi down the road. Once led a bit down the road, Chet stepped on the gas to pull ahead of the herd a few hundred feet. Chet pulled out the AR-15 (apparently left there by Kim as her and Colton drove the RV ahead to safety) and Greg borrowed Chet's rifle. Chet took to the AR-15 like a pro and slaughtered dozens of Zombies as Greg fumbled with the bolt and made a few awkward shots with Chet's .308. Soon, Chet had emptied the first of two 30 round clips and was into the second. Greg then decided that his efforts would better serve the two by putting down the .308 and just reloading the AR-15 clips for Chet. Soon, the herd was thinned to its last couple stragglers which were quickly finished off.
Heading back to the hog site, several more Zombies were spotted coming from the confinement buildings. Chet pulled up to the window of the machine shed lining up the crow's nest under the 2nd floor window of the loft. A few Zombies began climbing the semi's cage, but were put down by Chet as Greg helped the pair of legs emerging from the window down into the nest. A frantic young woman, later introduced as Samantha, stood nervously awaiting the rest of her friends to make it out the window. A shout from a man's voice inside the building was then heard: "Yvonne ain't gonna make it out that window! Her ankle is hurt and she is just plain too big!". Just then, Chet and Greg noticed some additional Zombies lumbering out from the nearest building. These were different...their bodies were extremely bloated and they walked a bit slower than their 'normal' counterparts.
[gross alert - do not read if eating or plan to be soon and have a weak stomach...]
Although slow, the building was not far away and one made it to the cage of the semi and threatened Chet with an open mouth. Regurgitated meat oozed in chunks out of the Zombie's open maw as it pressed itself against the welded bars of the semi. Reeling from disgust of the sight and smell of the beast, Chet lifted his 9mm and blew a large hole in its head. Falling to the ground, more chewed meat was extruded through what remained of the jaw.
[end gross alert]
As Chet tried to pull his eyes away from the horrific scene laid out before him, Greg pounded on the roof of the semi and yelled "Let's move!" as he saw several more 'fatties' approaching from the buildings. Samantha, thinking they were leaving her friends in the shed, began yelling "Don't leave them! Don't leave them!" as she dramatically clung on to Greg trying to keep his balance while trying to push her away with one arm and wield the shotgun in the other. Between the lurching of the semi into motion and the frantic flailing of Samantha, Greg lost his balance and fell out of the nest onto the ground as the semi's rear tires rolled past his head. Samantha gasped, while somehow managing to cling on to the roof, at seeing Greg go over the edge in what she realized could have been a deadly accident. Chet caught the motion of Greg falling off the roof in his side mirror and quickly brought the semi to a halt. Greg scrambled to his feet, scooped up his shotgun from the ground next to where he fell, and took a quick aim at an approaching Zombie. Before firing, however, he changed his mind and decided to jump on the semi rather than stand to fight the growing numbers of Zombies around him. Chet shifted back into gear and continued out of the driveway.
Once down the road a bit, still within easy sight of the machine shed refuge, Chet popped open the cab and took a few more shots with the AR-15. Greg gathered himself a bit, but still gave a good piece of his mind to Samantha as he shooed her down into the cab.
With the area temporarily cleared out, Chet hopped back into the cab and pulled back up next to the shed holding Samantha's friends. The flow of Zombies from in and around the confinement buildings continued to hamper the rescue mission. Chet was able to keep them at bay as Greg wielded the fire axe to chop a larger 'window' for Yvonne to get through. Without too much trouble, the tin and 2x4 window frame yielded to the axe. A man in his 70's in blue overalls pushed down the newly chopped tin and formed a makeshift ramp onto the top of the semi. He held on to Yvonne's hand as he and Greg helped her get into the birds nest.
With the roof of the semi sagging a bit due to being grossly over crowded with Greg, Yvonne, and the man who was quickly introduced as George, Chet put the rig into gear and pulled away from yet more 'fatties' as well as several regular Zombies following along. With some navigation help from George, who turned out to be a farmer from the area, the group was soon back on the interstate and heading back towards the Home Depot.
After a very welcomed uneventful drive 'home', the new survivors were introduced to the rest of the Home Depot crew. Yvonne was taken to the makeshift infirmary and Greg assessed the situation with her ankle. The broken ankle had festered after going untreated for a couple weeks and the prognosis was that amputation was needed. Fortunately the infirmary was fairly well stocked from the supplies and equipment collected from a nearby clinic in the weeks prior by the Home Depot survivors. Greg was able to perform the surgery after narrowly escaping the unfortunate mistake of taking off the wrong leg [he rolled a 1 on his medical skill, but fortunately had a Survivor Point to use to re-roll]. Yvonne had some ups and downs in her recovery, but with the help of antibiotics and Greg's care, she was able to stabilize over the next couple days.
As Yvonne was recovering, Chet, Greg, and Kim talked a bit about rigging up the semi with an extra fuel tank and making up some makeshift napalm to spray from the bird's nest. With that idea in mind, they decided to go over to WalMart and pick up some supplies and get a tank off one of the semis in the parking lot. Immediately after parking the semi near the side entrance to WalMart, the group knew something was wrong. The door with the sign on it stood ominously half open. Cautiously, the group approached to investigate the situation and immediately found John behind the counter slumped to the side in his chair with a bullet hole in his forehead. The pool of blood forming on the floor next to him had partially dried hinting that he had been dead for at least a couple days.
Kim, a bit shaken over the loss of John, decided it would be best if she went back to the cab and stood guard in case anyone - or anything - was still around. Chet and Greg decided to take a look around for the supplies they needed and to check for Zombies or the murderers still hanging around. As the two moved quietly through the dark aisles, shuffling was heard from somewhere close by. Coming around the corner, the two were suddenly came face to face by a Zombie - arms extended and mouth open. Between the two of them, they were able to beat down the Zombie as well as a second one that quickly descended on the noisy scuffle from a couple aisles away.
Not seeing what they were looking for on the shelves, Chet and Greg decided to head to the back warehouse area of the store. Heading through the door to the loading docks, their nostrils were assaulted by the wretched smell of decomposition. The source of the smell was quickly spotted - a pile of corpses stacked along the wall. Nothing of interest was immediately apparent so the two left the room and back to the surprisingly refreshing smell of the stagnant air filling the main part of the store.
Joining Kim back at the semi, the group drove out into the parking lot and found a semi with an exposed fuel tank that looked relatively easy to remove. After a couple hours of work, they were able to get a tank free and secure it temporarily on the back of the semi.
With that, the group decided they should think about looking into the missing radio team that was dispatched to the tv/radio station. None of them liked the idea of trying to drive there and walking sounded like an even more dangerous option. Another air-recon mission was met with unanimous agreement so the group headed back onto the highway towards the small airfield they had previously flown from to initially investigate the refugee camp.
The trip to the airfield was, again thankfully, uneventful. As they exited the highway onto the surface roads leading to to the airfield they chuckled as they gave a friendly wave to the bikers who had tried to gather a toll from them during their last visit. A short few minutes later, they were pulling into the airfield and were met with a few armed men coming out of one of the buildings.
Kim, Greg, and Chet filled in 'Rich' who appeared to be the leader of the group with their successful trip to and from the refugee camp. They also mentioned their 'mission' they were sent on to rescue a group of Chinese military/technicians that were responsible for the radio/tv transmission. Rich accepted the request and asked a couple of the guys around him to make sure the plane was fueled and ready to go.
Again, the conditions were fairly windy, but Greg had no problem getting the plane airborne and on track to where they thought the radio station was. Using the map that was given to them by Wu Chang, they were able to get into the general area and spotted the radio tower and satellite dishes without much trouble. Greg was able to skillfully guide the plane in for a fairly close pass by the area to give Chet who was on the video camera a couple good minutes of footage as they circled. It was obvious to see what the problem was...the place was overrun with Zombies. At least a couple hundred of them and the area was cluttered with vehicles, buildings, and trees. There was evidence, however, that survivors could still be within the buildings given the pile of corpses outside the walls and lack of broken down doors/windows. Adding an interesting twist, three Humvees painted in desert camouflage were spotted parked near the radio/tv station. One appeared to have a .50 cal mounted to a turret on the roof. Zombies milled around the vehicles, but other than that no signs of human life could be seen.
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| 1: 3 Military Humvees Red Dots: Zombies |
Greg pulled the plane back up to a navigable altitude and headed towards what he thought might be an interesting sidetrack. Dobbins Air Force Base was shown on his paper map and he figured it would be a good place to check out. Kim and Chet agreed and after a few minutes of flying, the large airfield was spotted and the Cessna was brought into a circling pattern. There was obviously once a large battle vs the Zombies here given the rows of barricades and corpses littering the parking areas and around the buildings. Several tanks sat in silence as a dispersed hoard of Zombies aimlessly meandered around the entire airfield. Although much less densely positioned around the airfield, the numbers of Zombies were similar to that of around the radio station. One, actually two, items that particularly caught the group's attention was the presence of a pair of Blackhawk helicopters parked near one of the large buildings. Corpses as well as mobile Zombies littered the area in and around the birds, but they appeared to be intact.
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| 1: Blackhawk Helicopters (blue squares) 2: Tanks (blue dots) Red Dots: Zombies |
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| Air Recon Path A: TakeOff/Landing B: TV/Radio Station C: Air Force Base |
As the group continued to develop the plan, Rich was asked if he had any theory on how this whole mess started. He said they believe it had to be some type of terrorism - probably by the Chinese themselves. "Their products manufactured on their soil including toothbrushes, drinking glasses, and kids' toys using who knows what kinds chemicals, are touched and used every day. Now, suddenly they have their military-run camps all over our country?" Although coming off a bit like some sort of conspiracy theory and a bit far fetched, the group certainly had something to ponder...
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