Real Date: November 22, 2013
In-Game Date: December 22-23, 2011
Session Title: Around in Circles
The group quickly made the rest of the way to the APC (1) and dumped the repair parts down next to the broken track. Chet further assessed the damage and came to the realization that there is no way they were going to be able to fix the track before the oncoming hoard of Zombies was upon them.
After a brief deliberation, it was decided to retreat back to the C-130 (2) and see if the hoard would pass them by. As they neared the plane, a few Zombies came out of the woods and followed the group to the aircraft. Chet, with the help of Greg, figured out how to manually operate the rear lift where they previously drove out the APC. Colton lent a hand and was able to get the gate lifted about half way before a couple sets of rotted arms came from below and tried in vein to climb up after their meal. The group agreed to avoid any unpleasant accidents and just continue cranking up the gate and let the massive door clip off the one remaining arm at the elbow. Black ooze drained out as the fingers twitched their last as Zombie groans resonated from behind the plane.
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| Light Blue - walking route Dark Blue - driving route |
Greg kept an eye out for any Zombies which may have moved in as he moved towards the cockpit. Sure enough, a Zombie lumbered out from behind a set of crates, but Greg dispatched it with his trusty crowbar before it could attack. Chet also searched around, but missed noticing a legless Zombie which took the opportunity to bite at the meal passing by. Fortunately Chet was able to dance out of the way and destroy the Zombie without further incident. Greg knocked out the rest of one of the cockpit windows and drug out the two corpses from inside the plane and tossed them out. Unfortunately, he and the cockpit windows still didn't get along and he cut a gash in his forearm on a remaining chunk of glass in the window frame. He quickly patched himself back up and decided to just avoid the cockpit all together from then on.
Several dozen Zombies could be seen approaching as Greg and Chet looked out from the cockpit. Chet helped rig up one of the side doors of the plane so it would only open up enough for Colton to shoot out. Colton began firing off rounds of one of the silenced MP5s while Chet did the same from the cockpit. Most of the Zombies around the plane were put down, but a few remained under the plane and out of sight. From the cockpit, a large section of the Zombie hoard could be seen coming around and through the treeline in the direction of the APC. The group decided it was time to move out and all headed to the aft of the plane.
The group prepared their charge as the large end gate was lowered once again. Greg began blasting with his shotgun as Chet and Colton blazed away with MP5 and .357 respectively. Only the Zombies in their immediate escape round were targeted and the group quickly made it to the treeline. A tiring run through the woods with Zombies in tow led them to a service runway which they headed northwest on until coming to a trio of fire trucks (3). Chet and Colton both shouldered MP5s and began taking out some of the Zombies which were pursuing them. Although finding it increasingly difficult to catch his breath, Chet was able to keep up fairly well with Colton in headshots on the ever increasing numbers of Zombies.
Greg went over to check out the fire trucks to find that two of them sustained significant fire damage while the third seemed mostly intact. Investigating the inside of intact truck, a Zombie grabbed onto Greg from the back seat. Due to Greg's awkward positioning or perhaps the Zombie's fire hat, Greg had to avoid several bite attempts until he finally made contact with his crowbar and ended the surprise attack. Unfortunately, the intact fire truck's batteries seemed to be totally drained and it wasn't going anywhere...
Zombies continued to trickle out of the woods as the group made their way towards a building hoping to find temporary shelter (4). Kim shined a flashlight into the already open (and broken) door and spotted movement. A second later a dog bolted from the doorway and with a yelp, headed into the woods. Chet went in the building with Kim only to find a couple vehicles in various states of repair. Those outside engaged in melee combat with the Zombies, but with the increasing enemy numbers everyone decided it was time to run.
The group fought their way out of the clutches of the undead and once again ran into the woods. Initially starting off at a quick pace, everyone could see that Chet was having a tough time keeping up and even Greg was getting a bit winded. Everyone decided to go into stealth mode and slow their pace. Unfortunately, the Zombies did not lose the trail and the group found themselves with Zombies on all sides (5). A few grueling hand to hand combats later, the fast pace was once again picked up as the group headed east through the woods. Chet managed to stick with the group after handing his pack over to Colton as his endurance began to dwindle.
The group eventually came back to the service runway (6) and saw a stream of Zombies flowing to the northwest of their position - apparently following their trail. Sticking within the cover of the treeline, the group pushed on tot he south and eventually peeked out through a chain link fence into a clearing to the west. A solid brick building (7) looked intriguing so Greg decided to get out the bold cutter and open up a hole in the fence for the group to crawl through.
The front doors were all found to be locked and before going around to the front, it was decided to have Kim climb up to the roof of the lower portion of the building to survey the area. Only a few Zombies could be seen a hundred yards or so to the west so the group continued around the building. The front windows had been broken out, but access was restricted due to piles of office furniture piled up from the inside. Similar to the windows, the front door was broken out and barricaded.
Sliding along the west side of the building (7a), a large open door was found to reveal what looked to be a shop outfitted to repair military ATVs. Greg decided to knock on a closed metal door leading further into the building. Several seconds later, banging and scraping on the door replied. Chet noticed a large floor jack and thought it would be a good alternative to hacking at the door with a fire ax or other noisy option.
A few minutes later, the door handle popped off and the door flew partially open as the undead from the other side pushed through. The few Zombies which had significant burn damage were easily hacked down. The room and its contents of ATVs were fairly burned up as well. Nothing of value was revealed during a quick search.
The door leading into the office area (7b) was ajar and Greg decided to knock on it to see if any more crispy Zombies could be drawn out. One lonely Zombie tripped on its way out of the door and then quickly put down. More fire damage destroyed most of the office spaces and nothing of use could be found. Two office doors leading to the barricaded window rooms, still fully intact, drew the group's interest.
Greg was able to pry open the door with his crowbar and two Zombies lunged out of the room. These two, dressed in semi-formal military uniform, were put down and the group entered the office. The wall between the two offices had a hole large enough for person to crawl through carved out of it. One room seemed to be the sleeping and general living area and the other was the restroom and garbage area. Neither room had any fire damage and it given the dozens of empty military MRE wrappers it looks as though the two survived in here for quite some time. Searching around, the group found two .40 handguns, one with 4 rounds remaining. Other than a keychain with several keys on it and a set of vehicle keys in a purse, nothing of much of use was found.
Six hours later, everyone got their legs back under them and were ready to get moving. The group headed out the back door under the cover of darkness and checked out a pickup truck in the parking lot. Greg tried the keys and found that they fit. He tried the aux position and it appeared as though the truck had fuel and a working battery. A four person ATV, different than what was inside, was parked next to the truck along with a fork lift. A trailer in the back of the lot was the only other thing parked in the mostly empty lot.
Using the keys found in the office, Greg was able to get into the trailer without any trouble. It revealed an assortment of supplies and tools to maintain ATVs. Most notable included a dozen batteries (of two different types), a small gas generator, and jumper cables.
After remembering what the group's mission was (clear the area so the chopper pilot could fly one of the Blackhawks out), a plan quickly came together. Chet began working on hooking up a half-dozen of the batteries up in parallel and organized getting them mounted on the ATV. The group then waited until morning and then set their plan into motion.
Kim drove the pickup and Colton manned the battery laden ATV. Greg and Chet piled into the truck and they headed south out of the ATV area. Their plan was slowed down a bit by the gate which was down and littered with dozens of corpses. While two of the group worked on clearing the road, the other two pulled out MP5s and took out the Zombies they had spotted the day before which had now taken notice of them.
With the way cleared, the truck and ATV continued down the road and back to the mostly intact fire truck the group found previously. Kim pulled up right next to the fire truck after successfully evading several Zombies which continued to flow around the runway. After screeching to a halt, Greg, Kim, and Colton began taking down the closest Zombies as Chet wired up the batteries on the ATV to the fire truck using a pair of jumper cables. In under a minute, Chet had things wired up and began searching for the correct switches to engage the lights and siren of the fire truck.
As the sirens blared and lights flashed, the foursome beat away the Zombies in the immediately vicinity of the truck and piled in. Kim hit the gas and ran back down the runway and took a road around to the east side of the runway. Another fence guarding the runway (8) slowed progress, but Greg was able to chop a hole with the bolt cutters large enough to fit the pickup through.
Looking down the runway, it appeared as though their plan was working. Most of the Zombies were migrating towards the ruckus at fire truck and only a few were near the Cessna (9) which Greg had landed a few days back (which seemed like over a year ago...). A few crossbow bolts later, the area was clear except for a growing population of Zombies which could be seen gathering on the main eastern fence of the air base.
Greg quickly hopped into the plane and got on the radio. A few minutes of uncomfortable silence was broken with a reply on the other end from the small air field. He proved to be not very helpful and finally was convinced to get Rich (the guy who initially gave them the idea to retrieve the helicopter). After some unproductive back and forth conversation, Greg finally convinced Rich to get the Blackhawk pilot on the line to answer a few questions. Unfortunately the pilot wasn't nearby and Rich said he would have the pilot radio them back in about 20 minutes.
The minutes ticked away slowly and the numbers of Zombies at the fence slowly increased. Abruptly, the sirens from the fire truck died. Chet and Colton theorized that the mob of Zombies around the fire truck must have yanked the jumper cables off... A couple minutes later, the radio crackled on and a man's voice who claimed to be the pilot began talking with Greg. He said to start the chopper they would need an the ignition key and, of course, make sure there was fuel. If they had they key, verified there was fuel, and the area was clear, they could radio him back from the chopper and he could be there in 15-20 minutes.
With that, the group wasted no time and got back in the truck and drove to the northwest side of the runway towards where they had spotted the choppers from the air (10). As they neared the choppers, forward progress was stopped by a barricade (yellow line) including razor wire, concrete barriers, and hedgehogs. Dozens of Zombies could be seen caught in the wire and writhing around trying to free themselves all along barricade line. Several Zombies could also be seen milling around both sides of the barricade - obviously it had been overran at some point.
Greg was able to cut away the wires with his bolt cutter and the group somehow managed to make a hole large enough to fit the truck through (10a). The group then drove up to the choppers (10b) and immediately noticed that the one on the right had suffered fire from large caliber rounds. Both choppers were searched, but no key could be found.
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| Blackhawk Helicopter |
The group pondered what to do next...
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