Day 6: Interlude

Agent Sculder and Agent Kay take turns watching while the other catches some sleep.  When they are rested the question before them is what to do next?

"I don't know, Kay, I don't really fancy heading into the woods on foot," Sculder mused.

"Well, I don't either, slick," Kay retorted, "but we need to find where these things are coming from.

"Do you really think they're coming out of the woods?"  Sculder looked at him curiously.  "What do you think we'll find out there?  A secret government scientific underground research facility?"  He shook his head.  "Between the two of us, one of our agencies would know about it and inform us, don't you think?"

Kay paused for a second.  "Well, maybe, but do you think there are that many people still alive at either agency to worry about informing us of anything they might know?"

Sculder had to nod his head in agreement.  "If we're going to pursue this deeper into the woods, let's at least take the truck as far as we can."  He gestured towards the SUV parked outside the cabin.  "Maybe we can take it all the way through, and it will save us having to walk through the woods with those things out there."

"Of course," Kay said, indicating it was the obvious decision.

Sculder hesitated, staring at Kay.  "OK, so when are we going?"

"Let's wait for the sun to get up a little higher.  I'd rather be out there in the sunlight, than in the dark with those things, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes, I would," Sculder nodded.

"OK, then.  Let's give it another couple of hours."  Kay laid back on the bunk again.  "Let's try to get a little more sleep in the meantime.  Your turn to watch."  He closed his eyes and drifted off.

Day 5b: The Rail Siding

Bob arrived at the rail siding in the afternoon after crossing the field without incident.  At the siding, though, the zeds began to take notice of him.  This was a long game.  I realized halfway through that I was playing it wrong.  In Better Dead Than Zed, it is clear that when rolling for new zombies to appear, you roll once per shot.  I used to use 1st Edition rules, which weren't so clear and the hive mind determined that I should roll once per target rating.  For a shotgun that's 3d6!  I almost always replaced a killed zombie with an active one every turn.  The other mistake I was making was that in Better Dead Than Zed, when shooting zombies you use the shooter's Rep to determine the results.  Since Bob is a Rep 5, I should have been killing way more zombies that I was.  Ah, well, it's been a while since I played...

Apologies for the sideways pic, but at the start of the game Bob was in the middle near the green freight car with a zombie on three sides.

Turn 1: Bob didn't activate so the zeds moved into the position shown in the picture.

Turn 2: Zeds not active.  Bob moves out of zed movement range and shoots, getting an OD, but spawning a new zed.

Turn 3: Zeds not active.  Bob moves to one zed and fires, getting a Knock Down and spawning another zed.

Turn 4: Zeds not active.  Bob pops the weasel on the zed on the ground.  No new zeds.

Turn 5: Bob's not active.  The zeds close in.

Turn 6: Doubles.

Turn 7: Bob activates first.  He backs off and fires, getting two hits for an OD.  The zeds continue to close, but no new spawns.

Turn 8: Zeds not active.  Bob backs out of movement range of the zeds and shoots, only getting a Knock Down.  No new zeds.

Turn 9: Bob's not active.  Zeds close.

Turn 10: Zeds not active.  Bob backs off again and shoots, getting an OD, but spawning two new zeds (remember I was playing this wrong).

Turn 11: Doubles.

Turn 12: Bob's not active.  Zeds move closer.

Turn 13: Zeds not active.  Bob climbs onto a freight car and continues to fire from there.  He gets two hits for a Knock Down.

Turn 14: Doubles.

Turn 15: Doubles.

Turn 16: Bob's not active.  Zeds move to the base of the freight car.

Turn 17: Zeds not active.  Bob gets three hits, but only one OD (remember, I was playing this wrong).  Two new zeds spawn.

Turn 18: Doubles.

Turn 19: Zeds activate first.  The continue moving to the freight car, appearing almost as regularly as Bob kills them.  He fires, getting an OD, but spawning a new zed.

Turn 20: Doubles.

Turn 21:  Oops!  Another sideways picture.  Bob activates after the zeds.  He gets two hits for one OD and one Knock Down, but spawns another zed.

Turn 22: Bob activates first getting an OD but spawning a new zed.

Turn 23: No one activates.

Turn 24: Zeds not active.  Bob fires for no hits.

Turn 25: Zeds not active.  Bob gets two ODs with no new zeds.

Turn 26: Zeds activate first.  Bob gets one OD with no new zeds again.

Turn 27: Bob's not active.  Zeds just move to the freight car.

Turn 28: Zeds activate first, but nothing left for them to do.  Bob fires, getting three hits for two ODs and activating one more zed.

Turn 29: Doubles.

Turn 30: Zeds not active.  Bob climbs down off the freight car to go after the last zombie.

Turn 31: Doubles.

Turn 32: Zeds not active.  Bob finally ODs the last zombie with no new appearances.

The zeds really didn't stand a chance once Bob climbed on the freight car.  It was like shooting ducks in a barrel, especially after I realized that I should have been rolling against his Rep for the effects die roll.  Bob didn't really find anything useful in the cars, but it gave him some ideas for moving forward.  Refrigerated food, obviously, would be bad, but finding canned goods and other non-perishables would provide plenty of food.  He got back to the motel without incident and started thinking more earnestly about his next move.  In thinking about the situation, he didn't know if he could trust people knowing that they would fight for resources that were left, but if he could find a couple of people without friends, he could build a new team.  He had some ideas about places to go where they could survive relatively easily.  If they hadn't already been staked out, that was.

Day 5: Interlude

Editor's Note: It's been 5-1/2 years since my last post.  When we left our heroes, Bob was the last of the original group still standing.  He's at the motel at the crossroads, trying to decide where to go from here.  Somewhere along the way, I lost the gray paper that made up the parking lots at the crossroads.  Hmm, I guess I'll have to do something about that if Bob's going to stay here much longer.

Bob stood by the highway looking up and down, trying to decide what the best plan would be.  There were a few zeds off in the distance, but they didn't see him and they were shambling off in other directions anyway.  For the moment it was peaceful in the early morning sunlight.  The car was packed in case he had to abandon the motel in an instant, even if it meant leaving the trailer behind.  Heck, he could have even taken Ted's car if he had to.  He recovered the keys from Ted's body after the zeds got him.  

'Dang!  No point going back to the city,' Bob thought to himself.  He had heard the newscast the previous day and it was looking bleak for the people there.  'There's food and gas here - at least for the time being.  I have some security in the motel, though I do wish it was more isolated.'

The highway stretched off into the distance.  Beyond the buildings at the crossroads, the terrain was back to farmland and light woods.  Behind the motel, Bob noticed an open field and in the distance, a railroad siding with an abandoned train sitting there.  He decided to explore the rail siding later in the day.  There might be some equipment there that he could use, and if nothing else, he might be able to turn a boxcar into an impromptu shelter if he had to. 

He of course knew nothing about the turmoil the agents encountered at the cabin.  For now, he was only concerned about his own needs, but frequently wondered how his friends - the two who were still alive - were faring. 

He went back into the motel, closing and locking the door behind himself.  He even went so far as to put the chain on the door.  He stretched out on the bed and closed his eyes, just for a few minutes he thought.  He just felt tired.