Session 9 Synopsis

Real Date: May 14, 2012
In-Game Date: December 21, 2011

Session Title: Arms & Armor

In the relative safety of the M113 APC within the C-130 transport plane, the group was finally able to get some rest.  Only the occasional scrape against the plane or dull thud at the side cargo door interrupted sleep.

After several hours of sleep, Greg and Chet awoke and went to the front of the plane to see what the new day had brought.  A large group of Zombies milled about on the tarmac a few hundred yards in front of the plane.  In their elevated position in the cockpit of the plane, Greg and Chet figured they could take out the 70-90 Zombies before them.  Greg went to the back of the plane and grabbed a sturdy metal bar and attempted to break out a couple windows to use as shooting ports.  The tough glass proved to be a worthy adversary for Greg as he managed to pull a muscle before succeeding in breaking out a pair of windows.

Chet started the combat with a volley of .308 rounds taking out a few Zombies and drawing the attention of the remainder.  As the hoard lumbered towards the plane, Chet switched to one of the recently found M16s loaded up with .223 ammo.  Greg ran a few rounds through the MP5 and was met with marginal success.  The exertion of knocking out the windows obviously had an effect on his shooting abilities.

A large portion of the original Zombie force remained as they arrived at the plane and disappeared out of sight under the fuselage.  Occasionally one popped out long enough for Greg or Chet to peel off a shot, but it was slow going and the shots were difficult to make.  Colton came up from the cargo hold about that time and took a few shots as well, but eventually they all gave up and left the cockpit in search of an alternative plan.

Chet hopped in the M113 and began familiarizing himself with the levers, switches, and various gauges in an effort to figure out how to start and drive the machine.  The Zombies pounding on the skin of the plane did not contribute to a quiet learning environment, but Chet was able to get to a point where he thought he could get the APC started up and moving.  Greg and Colton searched around for how to manually lower the cargo door and eventually figured it out.  In an effort to minimize the chances of something terrible happening during the pending chaotic moments after the doors opened, Greg hopped in the M113 and prepared to batten down the hatches.

With a few seconds of anxious anticipation as the engine cranked over, Chet successfully started up the M113.  The loud rumble of the diesel engine covered the pounding of the Zombies and the exhaust fumes began to cover the decomposition of the corpses still remaining within the plane.  Colton manipulated the cargo door and it began to slowly descend.  He joined the rest of the group in the M113 and the hatches were secured.

Chet carefully put their new ride into gear and with a sudden lurch the machine pulled out of the rear of the plane.  Several Zombies began attempting to climb and pound on the M113 as Chet cleared the cargo bay and sped out onto the tarmac. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMrBihciO7I  (reference material for how the M113 drives)

The tracks of the M113 proved to be quite well equipped to run down Zombies.  Chet motored in large circles around the tarmac running down the remainder of the Zombies from the large group.  Figuring that worked pretty good, Chet and crew decided to run the APC around the main part of the runway to help clear out any roaming Zombies they came across.  Every once in awhile a Zombie found a hand-hold and was able to begin climbing up on the APC, but were met with the business end of Greg's shotgun.

1: C-130   2: Hanger/crater 3: Broken M113  4: Military Barricade

After several trips up and down the runway several Zombies were mashed into the cold cement.  As the number of visible targets dwindled, the group returned to the hanger with the grenade launcher Humvee they had spotted the previous day.

Investigation of the Humvee found it empty except for the mounted grenade launcher armed with two remaining grenades. Figuring that was better than the empty .50 cal currently mounted on the M113, the group was able to wrangle the grenade launcher off of Humvee, remove and store the .50 cal in the passenger compartment of the M113, and re-mount the grenade launcher.

The hanger contained a couple Zombies which had sustained significant trauma hindering their movement and senses.  After quickly dispatching them, the group then searched the otherwise uninteresting hanger.  Looking out the back door of the hanger, however, revealed a dark crater flanked by a couple heavily damaged buildings. 

Chet pulled around the M113 to get a better view of the crater as Colton and Kim went in to check it out.  Corpses were strewn all over the place - obviously caught in the blast.  As the pair investigated the carnage, a sound was heard from one of the damaged buildings.  Kim decided to investigate as Colton continued around the blast area searching for anything of use.  Chet and Greg looked on from 50 yards away from within the M113.

As Kim climbed over the remains of a broken wall, she was met with a pair of Zombies walking out of the rubble.  A quick hack with her axe took out one of the beasts and she moved back out into the crater area.  Several more Zombies shambled out of the ruined building and joined in a terrifying chorus of groans.  Colton joined Kim in close combat and Greg spotted more Zombies moving in from a treeline just south of his comrades.

Fearing damaging the M113 in all of the rubble, Chet and Greg disembarked and headed towards the combat.  The quickest Zombies from the new group viciously engaged Colton and Kim before they could finish off the Zombies which emerged from the building.  Several daring shots were taken by Chet and Greg as they fired into the melee in an effort to make a hole for the group to escape through.  A couple shots whizzed past Kim's head as she hacked away at the Zombie attackers. 


Chances of running back to the APC diminished as Chet and Greg were met with yet more Zombies coming from around the damaged building and cutting off the escape route.  Many close calls later, the group stood among a pile of Zombie corpses - each with one or more holes through the head.  Several one-eared Zombies were among the destroyed due to a few near-misses by Chet's .45. 

1:  Crashed Humvee with Grenade Launcher  2: Hanger  3: Crater next to office building (bottom) and steel door room (top)  4: Disabled Crawler

With all things quiet again, Kim headed back inside the building this time taking Colton with her.  Greg and Chet stood watch near the crater and did some digging around as they waited.  Most of the building was in shambles, but one room seemed to still be intact.  Colton checked the door and finding it locked, he knocked.  With no answer after a few seconds, Kim began hacking at the lock with her fire axe.  After a misplaced hack into the steel frame of the door, a chunk of the fire axe's cutting edge cracked off in a grand display of sparks.  The axe seemed to still be usable and she was able to finish off the doors locking mechanism allowing the door to swing open freely.

Chet and Kim opened the door the rest of the way and were surprised by a pair of Zombies springing out of the room at them.  A few hacks later, the pair beat down the Zombies and the dust began to settle.  Taking a closer look at the Zombies, Chet saw that they were in military dress and had a large amount of dried blood streaking down from their ears staining their shirt collars.  No wonder they couldn't hear the knocking...

Searching the room resulted in finding a few bottles of water as well as some food in the form of a MRE.  One of the corpses contained a M9 in holster complete with a few rounds of ammo.  Other than that, nothing much of interest was found in the room.

Another nearby damaged building appeared to be offices.  Going through it quick didn't turn up much except for a M1911 .45 handgun stored safely in a top desk drawer.  The firearm appeared to be quite old, but in mint condition.  A clip filled with 7 rounds sat neatly next to the weapon. 


Searching the remaining area behind the buildings turned up a single Zombie crawling along the fence line with its only appendage being a single arm - obviously a 'survivor' of what ever created the crater.  Kim quickly put the beast out of its misery and returned to the rest of the group.  Between the crater and the fence a motor pool was found containing several Humvees in various states of repair.  None of them contained any armaments so the group left them and returned to the M113.

Chet turned the APC around and headed back out onto the main runway.  A few more Zombies had made their way out onto the tarmac which Chet took a few sharp turns towards in an effort to run them down.  Eventually the APC approached a large barricaded area complete with the Abrams tanks as seen in their previous scouting fly over.  Zombies occupied both sides of the concrete and metal barricades and some of which were drawn towards the group.

Once again, Chet mowed down several Zombies as he steered the M113 around the tarmac.  After running down the last of a small group, Chet and Colton heard a 'ping' from one side of the APC accompanied by a small jerk of the steering mechanism in Chet's hands.  Chet immediately slowed down and began heading back to the C-130 to check out what happened.  Suddenly another 'ping' was heard followed by a series of 'clanks'.  Chet halted the APC and shut down the engine.  Popping out of the hatch, Colton did a quick scan around before climbing down.  Taking a quick look at the left side of the M113 instantly revealed that they had thrown a track.

The group took their essentials and headed on foot the rest of the way to the cargo plane in search of parts.  Without further incident, the group quickly moved out of the open tarmac to the warehouse area and finally back to the C-130.  After 15-20 minutes of looking through crates, the group had gathered up what they thought to be replacement pins & tread sections and headed back towards the M113.

As the group approached the APC, several Zombies - actually LOTS of Zombies - were spotted approaching from the trees on the north side of the runway.  Rushing back the remaining couple hundred yards to the APC, Chet and the group started to assess the situation and try to figure out how to repair the track before being overrun by the oncoming hoard...

Zombie Destruction Totals Character Session All Time Colton 62 303 Greg 53 226 Chet 120 326 Kim 56 202 Total 1057

Human Interaction Totals Rescued Killed Session 0 0 Total 23 5 (Miles on M113: 21)

Session 8 Synopsis

Real Date: April 30, 2012
In-Game Date: December 20, 2011

Session Title: Behind Curtain #1...

Memorable Quote

  Colton: "Well, it sounded like a good idea..."

Just after noon, Colton and Greg continued talking with Rich at the small airfield and decided it was time to fly to the military airfield to the north as part of the plan to liberate one of the Blackhawk helicopters.  They accepted Rich's offer of lending them the suppressed MP5s and attached 100 round drum mags (full).  Those, along with several other weapons and ammo, they loaded up the Cessna.  After a quick taxi to the runway, Greg eased the plane into the air without issue despite the slightly windy conditions.

During the few quiet minutes of flight, the two decided what they would take with them once exiting the plane.  Greg would take most of the ammo for any of the guns they were bringing (which was fairly substantial), his shotgun, .45 handgun, MP5, a couple melee weapons, flashlight, satellite radio, and a couple bottles of water.  With that load he would be lightly encumbered, but leaving the ammo did not sound good to him.  Colton was loaded with his crossbow along with about 50 bolts stuffed in his backpack, his trusty hatchet, knife, flashlight, MP5, .357 all putting him at a normal encumbrance level.  Neither decided to weigh themselves down with any food as they expected to be back after a short time.

Before they knew it, the large expanse of Dobbin's AFB stretched out before them with its two mile long primary runway and several other secondary strips flanking it.  Zombies could be seen scattered around the tarmac and the surrounding brown grassy areas.  Fortunately, one end of the runway looked clear of obstructions (moving or otherwise) and Greg guided in the Cessna for a smooth landing.  After cutting the engine, the two exited the plane and headed quickly to some woods about 300 yards to the southwest.

1: Airplane Landing   2: Tree battle  3: Crawler  4: Crashed Humvee  5: Zombies in/around hanger  6: Bus battle  7: C130

Taking advantage of the cover of the trees, the two looked back to the plane.  Several Zombies had begun moving towards the plane and after a couple minutes it was surrounded by a dozen of them.  Not wanting to face them if they needed to make a hasty retreat, the two made their way back towards the plane, and once in range, Colton took a couple out with his crossbow.  Having no cover, Greg and Colton were easily spotted by the remaining 10.  All but one of them began moving towards Colton as they let off ghastly moans.  In a series of hasty fire and retreat maneuvers back towards the woods, Colton had taken out most of them.  Greg found himself quite winded after the quick sprints.  Whether it had been too much riding around in a semi and missing his what used to be regular workouts, or the stress of the situation, he could feel the endurance sapping out of him.

With the remainder of the pursuing Zombies dispatched, Colton turned towards the woods just in time to notice another group of Zombies approaching them.  Greg was oblivious to their approach as the sound of his heartbeat dominated his ears.  By the time the groans broke out, the Zombies were nearly on top of him.  Melee combat ensued and soon the small group of Zombies from the woods were beaten down to the ground.  Greg attempted to rest, but his nerves got the best of him and he was filled with tension.

While giving a rest a second try, both Greg and Colton heard the cracking of branches and crunching of leaves as a much larger group of Zombies moved through the woods towards their location.  The two decided to climb a nearby tree rather than run back out on the tarmac or into another unknown location.  Just as Colton finished giving Greg a boost up and pulled himself up into the tree, more than two dozen Zombies were upon them surrounding the tree and groaning in hunger.  They clawed at the bark in vain grasped for the lowest branch which was just out of reach of even the tallest of the group.  Colton braced himself in the tree and began targeting the beasts with his crossbow.  One after another they fell, but more lumbered in - attracted by the commotion - to take their place.  Soon the pile had grown to 2-3 bodies high around the base of the tree and the lowest branch was now in reach as the new arrivals stepped on the corpses of the fallen.  One of the Zombies was able to grasp the lowest branch and pulled itself quickly up, but failed to have the coordination to get to the next branch and fell back to the ground onto the others.  More climbing was attempted from below, but fortunately Colton's pack of bolts outlasted the Zombies in the woods below them.  The woods stood quiet and the two shimmied down the tree.

Colton reclaimed most of the bolts he had fired, as the two searched through the corpses that littered the ground around the tree.  Other than a purse slung on one of the shoulders of one of the fallen Zombies, no other bags, weapons, or other useful items were found.  Unfortunately the once fashionable purse did not even contain anything useful to the two guys.

Moving along the treeline after searching, Colton pulled out his binoculars and scanned around a bit.  One item of interest was a Humvee that had apparently crashed into a building across an open expanse of cement from them.  It appeared as though a 40mm grenade launcher was mounted on the roof turret.  Making note of that, they continued along the treeline until they heard some sounds coming from deeper into the wooded area.

Colton went into hunting mode as he crept through the woods and Greg followed close behind.  Soon the source of the cracking branches was spotted.  A Zombie which had experienced some significant trauma and was missing its left leg and large chunk of its side was pulling itself along towards the previous commotion around the tree.  With a smooth pull of the trigger, Colton put a bolt in the back of the head of the crawler.  This particular Zombie was dressed in a military uniform and upon searching, a set of keys was found.  In addition, Greg looked at the dog tags and the uniform to know this was once Sergeant Willis.

The treeline began a jog back and away from where they wanted to go so Colton did another scan of the area.  Five Zombies were spotted lingering around an airplane hanger next to the building that the Humvee crashed into, but other than that it looked pretty clear. 

Meanwhile, back at the Cessna, Kim decided it was time to get out of the plane and find the other two [Shelia joined the session].  Immediately outside the door, a Zombie which had at one time been severely burned on half of its face stood motionless.  Kim quietly opened the door, and quickly moved into position with her fire axe.  With a swift hack to the side of the head, the immediate area around the airplane was clear of Zombies.  Following the trail of corpses created by Colton to the treeline, Kim was able to find and catch up to the other two.

The trio began moving towards the hanger and the few Zombies hanging around beside it.  Colton unleashed a couple bolts to take down two as Kim and Greg moved in to finish off the rest with melee weapons.  As the group hid next to the hanger, some noise was heard inside.  Kim peaked around the corner and noticed several - perhaps a dozen or two - Zombies moving behind a set of long windows which provided a view into a walled in section of the hanger.  The closer of the two windows was already broken out so she ducked back around the corner to avoid being spotted. 

Looking out from a new point of view, a large plane was seen a couple hundred yards to the southeast.  Nothing was seen moving around it, but it did look like there were several corpses rotting on the cement around it.  Thinking it might contain something useful, the group decided to check it out.  Following along the grassy area next to the tarmac, the group neared the plane.  Before heading directly over to the plane, however, Colton noticed some movement in a small wooded area near them.  Moving a bit closer to to the woods, Kim confirmed that something was there and was, in fact, now moving towards them.  Kim, Colton, and Greg all readied their melee weapons and moved through the woods to meet what ever it was head on.

They found themselves face to face with several Zombies as they came through the small patch of trees to a road.  At first it was just a few, but more joined in at the sound of the the first group's moans of hunger.  Even more moved in coming from behind an olive green bus which was off to the edge of the road.  The Zombies swarmed around the group attempting to grab and bite each of the three survivors.  Many of the attacks, especially those directed at Greg, were far too close for comfort.  With the seemingly unending flow of Zombies, Greg and Kim both attempted to make an escape.  As they attempted to make headway and beat down the Zombies in front of them, others from the sides and rear clamped their icy hands around their arms and legs preventing the escape.  Fortunately, the group's teamwork pulled them through and somehow all three survivors still stood - un-bitten - amongst a pile of bodies.  Greg's nerves were shaken and his body nearly collapsed in exhaustion after the battle.  Over 50 Zombies were slain in this fray alone.

The group headed towards the bus to check it out.  One of the front tires was blown and had been running on the rim.  Corpses were laying haphazardly around the bus and concentrated at the doorway.  Greg couldn't take the smell flooding the area and decided to keep watch a few yards away, but Kim and Colton moved into the broken doors hanging by the hinges to check out the interior.  Upon entering, the foul stench of decomposing bodies was nearly overpowering.  Through watering eyes, several ammo boxes could be seen strewn around the aisle of the bus.  Kim made her way down the aisle past uniformed corpses.  Shell casings covered the seats and floor making it even more difficult to navigate the interior.  From all of the carnage, Colton and Kim were able to recover 3 M16 rifles, 12 M9 pistols, and a M249 machine gun.  No live rounds were to be found as they were apparently all expended on the Zombies littering the area around and along the road where the bus once traveled.  Looking out the rear windows of the bus revealed a long gouge and black rubber bits scarring the road marking the last efforts by who ever was driving the bus to escape the undead onslaught.

The stench of the area did not provide a very good place to rest so the group moved on towards their target of the big plane.  Colton and the others scanned the area at the edge of the woods as they prepared for the final move to the C130 cargo transport plane.  Seeing no movement, the group scurried up to and against the cold aluminum skin of the plane.  Stepping over the corpses littering the area, the trio positioned themselves around one of the side access doors.  Kim thought she saw some motion at one of the windows so Greg decided to knock.  The knocking was met with something pounding on the inside of the door.  Everyone stepped back as Kim began hacking at the door with her fire axe. 

After a considerable amount of effort (and noise), the door suddenly flew open as a Zombie pushed its way out.  Colton was ready with the crossbow and skillfully struck the Zombie down from its mid-air leap.  Glancing around, the group noticed several more lumbering shapes heading towards them from the woods to the south.  Greg, not wanting to be involved in any more combat, quickly jumped up into the plane as the other two guarded the open doorway.  The initial handful of Zombies was nearly dispatched when Greg's scream was heard from within the plane.  Ten Zombies had moved from behind crates and were attempting to dig into the new fleshy meal that had stepped into their tomb.  Noticing that more Zombies now approached from the hanger, Kim and Colton headed inside the plane to both help Greg and create a choke-point for the additional Zombies approaching. 

More close calls and failing endurance left Greg in little position to fight.  The other two knew they had to keep him alive - if not for his good company, his piloting skill was their ticket out of there.  After a few rounds of fierce melee combat only a few precious seconds remained for the group to prepare for the next oncoming threat.  Colton helped get the door closed as Kim jammed the fire axe to hold it shut.  Zombies were heard pounding at the door as the group began looking through the rest of the plane to make sure they had no other unwanted residents.

The cockpit area was accessed with Kim's fire axe revealing two decomposing corpses in civilian clothing adding to the wretched stench of the plane.  Judging from one of the cracked windows, it looked like they at one time had tried to escape.  They apparently failed.  Moving to the back of the plane, a large canvas curtain separated off the back portion of the cargo hold.  Pulling the curtain back revealed an armored personnel carrier as well as a four barrels of diesel fuel.  A .50 caliber machine gun could be seen mounted on top which enhanced the spirits of the group.  Unfortunately, no ammo for the big gun could be found in or around the APC.  Greg continued searching by popping open the crates in the holding area only to find various machine parts.

M113 Armored Personnel Carrier (Soldiers not included)

The incessant pounding on the door provoked the group into dealing with the situation outside of the plane sooner than later.  Greg stood to the side of the door preparing to remove the fire axe from the door while Kim and Colton readied the suppressed MP5s and set their sights on the doorway.  On the count of three, Greg yanked the fire axe out of the door and backed away as the door fell open allowing the Zombies outside to literally climb over each other to get inside the door.  Kim and Colton were able to dispatch of several of their attackers until one slipped through.  Greg was ready with his crowbar and dispatched it and was able to clear out of the way to let the other two continue with their MP5 assault.  After another dozen Zombie corpses filled the doorway and were being pulled out by the next set of Zombies, one more slipped through, but met its fate at the hands of Greg. 

After the frenzy subsided, the doorway was cleared out and the door again shut and barred - this time with one of the machine parts.  The group headed up to the cockpit to get a view of the area.  Several more Zombies milled around the opening to the hanger and the binoculars revealed that they were all severely burned.  Most of the clothing had been melted away and the skin was a bit charred.  Still, they walked and searched for where their fully-functional brethren ran off to...

Directing their attention back to the APC, Colton and Greg searched around for a manual fuel pump, but were unable to find one.  Kim joined the search and quickly piped: "Is this what you're looking for?".  Sure enough, they attached the pump to one of the drums and filled the fuel tank up by draining one of the drums. 

The group discussed trying to make it back to their Cessna, but Colton pointed out it was already after 6PM and didn't think it would be a good idea to try to fly as it starts to get dark.  It was agreed that they would try to get some rest inside the APC despite the terrible stench of rotting corpses scattered throughout the plane. 

Zombie Destruction Totals Character Session All Time Colton 97 241 Greg 33 173 Chet 0 206 Kim 51 146 Total 181 585

Human Interaction Totals Rescued Killed Session 0 0 Total 23 5