Zafehouse: Diaries

[Hottentot]

Has anyone tried this? I only heard about it when GOG released it a while ago and it certainly seemed pretty interesting. I tried the demo and against all odds it didn't turn out to be horrible either. So I thought asking here if anyone had any actual experiences of the full game?

The concept seems cool. The demo only had three survivors instead of the full game's five, but I already liked how their relationship with each other changes the gameplay. Though It feels a little exaggerated that they all pretty much hate each other: when you are one of the only survivors after the zombie apocalypse, you'd think it would be smart for a while to at least try working with the others and not hating them just because they happen to be, you know, women or black.

I didn't get very far yet, but barricading my safe house against the zombies and scavenging supplies from the nearby houses had the right kind of survival feeling in it. Then I tried assaulting a factory full of zombies with my three brave survivors armed with baseball bats. It didn't end well, but it's not like I had a choice: I hadn't seen a single gun, let alone ammo for one after the initial 9 rounds for the handgun had been shot.

The interface is pretty smooth. I like how the game basically revolves around three menus and is completely text based. That ensures that the survivors actually feel like fallible human beings who mess up every now and then, instead of many other "survival horror" games where the player takes the first person view of a character and single handedly slaughters everything that moves.

This definitely seems like something to keep an eye on.

[Red October1984]

Text Based Horror Game?

Ah...no thank you...

[Hottentot]

I don't see where you got the impression it's a horror game.

I think it looks very intersting!
A welcome and more casual alternative to the always used ego-perspective...

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by Red October1984

Text Based Horror Game?

Ah...no thank you...

What's wrong with that? Some of the greatest games of all time are text based.

Anyway, the game looks interesting and pretty deep. I might try it sometime, but right now I'm kind of burnt out on the zombie thing.

[Stealhead]

Seems interesting to me.

Look though the game screens over at GoG the 10th screen it shows the game stats under combat: "Rarest zombie killing blow:thought"..... Ouch.The preferred weapon was a golf club.

I like that idea to me spraying down zombies with uber gats is boring.

[Dowly]

Looks quite interesting. Must give it a try.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

"Rarest zombie killing blow:thought"..... Ouch. .

Yeah that was supposed to be throat not thought.

[Hottentot]

I bought the full game after some consideration. Will try to post some sort of review in this thread later.

[Hottentot]

Warning! A wall of text ahead! I suppose this is more glorified first impressions than a real review, but here it goes anyway.



A HANDFUL OF FOOLS

Ladies and gentlemen. I present you the last hope of humanity: five randomly picked imbeciles dragged screaming and kicking from the street. We had to convince them that it's safer here in the house rather than in the middle of the street where everyone else seems to be a brain eating zombie these days. A baseball bat helped in that. Can these five brave souls make their way through the city infested with the walking dead and gather enough resources to get out of there alive? Actually, scratch that. That's the optimistic scenario. A far more realistic question would be if these five poor bastards can get across the street without maiming each other.

Zafehouse: Diaries is an open ended strategy game set in a nameless city that has suffered a sudden and unexplained zombie apocalypse. The city is generated individually each time you start a new game, so each time will be somewhat different. It gives you the control of five randomly generated dudes who somehow managed to find each other and are now trying to get out of the city alive. There are two different ways for this, each featuring their own game mode. In the classic mode the survivors must find clues indicating when and where a rescue chopper will come looking for them. They also need a radio and the right frequency to contact the helo when it comes. In the Road Kill mode they need to find a vehicle, enough spare parts to fix it and, weirdly enough, a map so that they will know where to go (you'd think "anywhere but here" would be good enough). Each of these modes offers different challenges. On one hand the classic mode only requires you to have the radio and the frequency and be in the right place at the right time. But if you miss that, you're done for. The Road Kill mode has no time limit, but you still need to find all the stuff needed for escape. And fixing the vehicle may be somewhat challenging with hundreds of zombies swarming around. Both game modes still revolve around the same basic concepts: explore the city, scavenge supplies, find the vital stuff and (hopefully) survive long enough to make use of it.



SOAP OPERA: THE ZOMBIE EDITION

When I say that the last hope of humanity is five randomly picked imbeciles, I mean it. These people are not heroes. They are carpenters, musicians, bartenders, cleaners and various other professions. And just because they happen to be in the middle of hundreds of hungry zombies doesn't mean they like each other. Oh no. In fact, they bicker, argue, taunt each other and may even start fighting with each other. Is someone they don't like slowing the team down on the way to another location because a zombie bit that guy's toes off? Too bad: the rest of the team is totally going to leave him behind and see if he can get there on his own. These guys have about as much idea of teamwork as an average Counter Strike playing brat on a public server. And there is nothing you can do about it, because "you" don't exist. You don't even make an avatar for yourself. You just try to guide these morons through this situation as much as you can. But ultimately what they manage or fail to do depends on them and while they are not exactly bright, they can and will also come up with ideas on their own. You can be as über skillz zombie killah as you want in the other games, but here you are not.

Therefore a major part of the game is to make the best of what you got. One of your first tasks is to make these guys like each other if you can. There are a few ways for that. You can, for example, spread rumors about one of them once per day, which may make some other survivors see the person in question in better light, but might as well backfire on some other survivors. You can also try making sure that the survivors who don't like each other are not forced to do things together, so they'll have more time to concentrate on the task and less time to argue. Whereas teaming the survivors who like each other might be good for the team spirit. But then, even if they like each other, they might get frustrated because the other survivor might be inefficient at the task and slow down the other one. The game is thankfully very helpful in planning this. First of all, it shows you the relations of the survivors when you are about to put them on tasks, so you don't accidentally mix people who want to kill each other. Each survivor also has his or her skill in each task rated by stars, so you don't end up mixing a master chef and a bachelor who can't even boil water. But nothing still stops you from doing this and sometimes you will have to consider the pros and cons very carefully.

All in all, what you get in the beginning of the game should be studied carefully as it will have a critical impact on your playthrough. And there are times when you just are in trouble. For instance, there were once three women on my team and then a gay man who didn't like women. And the other man didn't like gays. And I'm not even going to mention all the problems the ladies had with each other. It was a mess that would have made the Bold and the Beautiful pale in comparison. On the other hand, some other times I have had very clear teams and much easier time with managing my group.

The survivors also have skills based on their profession and their personality. All of these are crucial but again, they are as random as the survivors are. You will have teams where no one knows how to build barricades. You will have teams where no one knows how to cook. Teams where people are absolutely marvelous at spotting zombies, but can't search locations for supplies if their lives depend on it. There will be awesome aces and there will be useless idiots. I mean, what good is a musician who literally isn't good at anything else than making lots of noise and thus attracting zombies? There are only so many times I can feed her to the undead so the rest of the crew can escape. One of the challenges in the game is that you will have to find use for these people too. After all, having at least someone spot the zombies while the rest of the team is searching the location is better than having no one at all. That way they will get an advance warning when the undead eat the screaming spotter. And again, the relations play important part here: you may have two people who are excellent at something and can't stand each other. Do you make them work together to achieve results faster or have just one of them on the task so they won't fight with each other?



SURVIVAL STRATEGY FOR DUMMIES

The game is turn based and advances one hour at a time. At the beginning of each turn you assign a task to each survivor or leave some of them idle. In between the turns they will carry out the tasks as well as they can and you'll be briefed of what happened at the beginning of the next turn. There are various tasks, but none of them feels useless and in fact it is sometimes difficult to decide what you should prioritize. Should you be building traps and barricades to your current location in case the zombies find you, or should you be modifying your equipment to make it more efficient at killing the undead? Someone should probably be cooking meals too so you won't starve, but then you should also have someone scout the houses nearby for cooking ingredients. And of course, someone should always be at least watching for the zombie movement outside or better yet, patrolling the area and trying to figure out if you are being surrounded. The zombies aren't any smarter than you'd expect them to be, but if they find out where you are, they will come for you.

You can of course keep moving. Contrary to the game's name, there isn't any designated safehouse in the game. Instead as you move from building to building you can choose to start fortifying any one you want. Some buildings are better for this than the others. For instance, large buildings with many windows and entrances are not ideal, and the game at least claims to keep track on these things when it calculates the combat results. Bunkering down is still optional and might sound useless, but there is a catch. The catch is that your very limited supplies don't go into any magic extradimensional bag where you can store anything you want. All the supplies you want to have with you will have to be carried by the survivors from one place to another each time you move. And since these are no super heroes but ordinary human beings we are talking about, there is always something you will have to leave behind. So: shotgun or rifle? Or perhaps both, but then you can't take the frying pan to make food. Perhaps you will find one at the next house. Or then not. How many rounds of ammo should you take with you? How about medical supplies? And you need tools to build barricades and modify equipment. Flashlight would be useful for searching in new dark locations. When faced with choices like these, having a safehouse where you can store supplies suddenly starts feeling like a smart idea.



SINCE WHEN DOES SPLATTER HAVE A STORY?

Every now and then you will get an event where you will have to make a decision. The events are somewhat random, but also depend on what is happening in the game. For instance, if you are treating an injured survivor, you can catch a member of your crew stealing painkillers from the supplies. Either you let it go or confront the member about it. Both decisions will have pros and cons. Some of the events will have huge things to consider. One of your team members may, for example, get infected in a fight against the zombies. Noticing the infection, you can try to stop it, let it be, or decide to kill the survivor. None of those sounds exactly pleasant. Fortunately the events are still rare enough not to become an annoyance, but they can still ruin your day and well planned strategy. From what I've seen on the forum discussion, some of these events are still pretty poorly balanced and might get tuned in the future.

The game's storytelling is fairly laconic. As the name would imply, the story is tracked through a diary as it develops. After each turn a few more entries will be written based on what happened on the last turn. These can be single lines saying "Hottentot found a flashlight in the basement" but on some occasions also go into more detail like saying "Hottentot smashed the zombie's head with the butt of his shotgun after first blasting the undead's right leg". If the survivor didn't do anything, the diary can still say "Hottentot played solitaire". It also takes time to describe the locations visited, so no two buildings will be exactly the same or just generic "houses", "hospitals" or "stores". Every now and then pictures will be added as well. For example, if you searched for a house and found a hammer, there might be a picture of it at the beginning of the entry. The chosen style fits the game nicely and it feels like I'm reading a logbook written in haste. It also leaves a lot of room for the imagination. After the game is over, one way or another, the diary can also be exported to your computer and studied or edited with the diary editor that comes with the game. It's sort of an automatic AAR feature like in the King of the Dragon Pass, but of course can't match a real AAR.



TOO LONG, DIDN'T READ

All in all, this is a decent little game and takes a fresh view on the otherwise used zombie survival genre. When the survival doesn't depend directly on you as the player anymore, it actually starts feeling like a survival game. It's no longer about your own personal skills, but more about using your brain to make the best of what you have been given in a pretty much hopeless situation. If you want to beat the game, you have to care about your survivors and think if the risks are worth the (very uncertain) rewards. Once you grasp the basic concepts it's easy to get by, but by no means simple task to survive. All my attempts so far have ended in my team being eaten. That, in a game like this, is a good sign.

[Mud]

Nice review Hotttentot, got the game on my wishlist after reading this

[Hottentot]

I think I'll use this thread to post this mini-AAR I wrote. Be warned in advance: it's a side project and not your usual light comedy Hottentot style. Turn back now if you are suffering from severe textophobia!

Okay, you have been warned. Let the splatter begin.

- - - - - - -


Sunday, February 17, 6am. The message wasn't hoax. The house at 3 Helen Place really was a meeting point. No idea how many people got the message, but it seems only five of us made it here. The rest might still be out there somewhere. Or worse.


It's easier not to think of it too much. Must focus on the current moment. That isn't terribly helpful either, seeing that right now the current moment is five of us surrounded by hundreds of zombies and possibly a few more stragglers here and there. They might as well be zombies too. The standing order is shoot anything that isn't us and ask questions later.





We know that there is a rescue operation on the way. Someone should come looking for us, but we have no idea when and where. And even if we did, we have no means to contact them when they come. It looks pretty grim, but angsting over it doesn't change anything. Must stay positive. Must keep of the team spirit.





Speaking of team, we aren't exactly comfortable with each other. Our unofficial leader is the man who seems like the least unpleasant one, a carpenter named Willie. At least Fernando and Claudia seem to get along with him, but he on the other hand has something against Raymond and Marissa. He says he doesn't trust wealthy people, coming from poor neighborhood himself. If anything, he isn't taking the leader's role willingly.





Then there is Raymond, the oldest of us. An engineer who likes eyeing Willie far more than Marissa and Claudia. They have some sort of triangle drama going on with Fernando and Marissa with Raymond not really liking Fernando, Fernando not liking Marissa and Marissa not liking Raymond. They can hardly even start doing something together without breaking into an argument.


Since Raymond seems to be the least popular one around here, but still a skilled engineer, fixing his relations with Willie and Marissa would be helpful. A rumor is started that he used to be an activist for carpenters and cleaners. It's a white lie, but whom are they going to interrogate to verify it in a situation like this?


Even with that fixed, Fernando and Claudia are still somewhat wild cards. Fernando is an athlete and Claudia worked as police officer. We need fit and experienced people like them to protect us from the zombies, but how to protect them from each other first?





That we will have to see. Right now there is a whole city out there waiting for us and we can't just rest on our laurels. We will have to search the missing information on rescue operation and the means to contact the rescuers before they come. Or before the zombies come for us.





The first order of the day is to assign everyone a task. Since we don't really know much even about our meeting point, Claudia and Willie will scour it for anything useful. Marissa will act as a sentry and make sure the zombies won't surprise them. It seems fairly quiet outside, but you never know when the horde comes.


Fernando and Raymond, on the other hand, form a team and move into the neighboring house at 2 Hanson Street nearby. We can see it from here and it seems quiet. If there are any zombies, it seems likely that they can take them out together. Perhaps shedding some blood together will make them like each other more.





Sunday, February 17, 7am. The orders are carried out and the rumor is spread. It worked as expected and Willie and Marissa now see Raymond in a little better light. That should hopefully ease the tensions in the team for now.


The search team could hardly prevent themselves from screaming from excitement when they found out that the house at 3 Helen Place contained information on the rescue operation. We now know that it will happen somewhere on the Golf Place, a street nearby. But still no idea where and when exactly. Still, this is definitely a good start and the people are feeling much better already!





Sunday, February 17, 8am. Fernando and Raymond reached the house at 2 Hanson Street. An old and battered cottage with no zombies outside turned out to be the home of several undead when they got inside. A family, very likely. Raymond and Fernando prepared to take them down. Armed with a golf club and a handgun with one clip, they kicked down the bathroom door and took the groaning shamblers by surprise. While Raymond hadn't ever played Golf in his life, it turned out to be fairly easy to hit the zombies' head with the club. They looked at each other with Fernando. Both were covered in blood, but it was that of the zombies' and not their own. The house was silent.


Meanwhile the searching efforts at 3 Helen place resulted in some more equipment. Most of it is junk, but we can definitely make use of the baseball bat, golf club and sledgehammer we found in the basement. The spanner should be useful too for tinkering.





Sunday, February 17, 9am. Seeing that the house at 3 Helen Place is now most likely scavenged from everything useful, the team moves to 2 Hanson Street to continue the search. Willie goes first and starts searching the place while Fernando moves the corpses away and searches them for anything useful.





Sunday, February 17, 10am. Marissa conducts an armed recon alone at the warehouse at 4 Leland Road. While she doesn't have much supplies, at least she can hopefully estimate how many zombies there are and maybe take out a few of them by surprise. For once we all agree on something: looting a warehouse definitely sounds like a good plan. We don't know what is stored in there but seeing that we are out of everything, anything goes.





Sunday, February 17, 11am. The searching at 2 Hanson Street has turned up some useful tools that we can definitely use later to improve our chances of survival. While the rest of the team is busy looting, Marissa scouts the warehouse at 4 Leland Road. She reports taking out one zombie on the courtyard and not seeing more than one inside. The warehouse seems like a safe enough next target.





Sunday, February 17, 12pm. We take whatever weapons we can and move to the warehouse. Marissa shot the last bullets during his recon trip, so the handgun is out of picture, but we have fortunately already scavenged a few potential melee weapons. Time to get messy.





On the way to the warehouse we see the strangest thing. It's a woman with...a shopping trolley? She has packed it full of bandages, painkillers and splints. And she claims she wants to trade them for our tools. Approaching carefully and clutching to our weapons, we take one step at a time. And then it happens...





Fernando snaps and hits the woman in the chest with a sledgehammer. We can't help her as she slumps on the ground. Claiming there is no way that woman got past hundreds of zombies with that trolley, Fernando swings again, smashing the skull of the poor woman into tiny pieces. There is blood everywhere.


Marissa and Claudia try helping the poor old lady, but there is nothing they can do. An argument breaks out, but Willie stops them from killing each other. Reasoning that we can't dwell on it if we want to survive ourselves, he barks at them to go clean the warehouse of zombies and starts looking at the woman's supplies himself. There are plenty of medical supplies in good condition. He takes what he can. Then his hand hits metal. Grasping it quickly, he pulls it out of the pile and can't believe is eyes: a functioning radio! If only we knew the frequency, we could use it to signal the rescue crew that we are here. Things are looking up again!


Willie stays outside to watch for zombies while the rest of the team is inside. By 2pm they have cleared the place of the few former employees that were still there. The place is all ours to loot.





Sunday, February 17, 6pm. Finally time to write again. We got attacked at the warehouse several times. Apparently the zombies were attracted to the place by the sounds of fighting. By now it seems quiet though and we have some time to spare again. Claudia and Willie have found lots of useful equipment in the warehouse. Mostly tools and food. Raymond is using the tools and his skills as an engineer to modify our equipment into performing better. His latest result is an amplified flashlight that burns much brighter than an ordinary one. We need it. It's getting dark outside and the zombies are getting restless. We can hear them from the distance.


The best news for the evening, however, is that we finally found a gun. It's just an old bolt action rifle and there isn't much ammunition around, but man, even with such piece of junk our chances of surviving the night feel much better.





Sunday, February 17, 8pm. The attacks continue. There is a small mob gathering outside and they know we are here. We are not working as a team properly. Splitting up when a fight occurs and not having good tactics has already caused some really close situations. Fortunately injuries have been avoided so far. The warehouse has finally been searched.





Seeing that the warehouse is empty, we move on to our next planned target, a house at 7 Leland Street. A simple house should be much easier to storm than a warehouse and with any luck we can also slip away from the zombie horde under the cover of darkness. Or get ambushed by them. But that's a risk we will have to take.





Right now we at least have some decent supplies to take with us. Still, a lot has to be left behind at the warehouse too. Marissa and Claudia insisted that we would take as many medical supplies as possible while Fernando was more concerned about weapons and Raymond wanted tools for engineering. Willie finally managed to get the group to make a compromise.





Sunday, February 17, 11pm. The electricity is out. There are no lights other than our flashlights. What we can't see we can more than clearly enough hear. You'd think adults wouldn't be afraid of the dark anymore. You'd be wrong.


The house on the 7 Leland Road turned out to be almost unoccupied. Only a few zombies were around. One was wearing a suit. The other had a fine skirt. They were like a twisted joke, dressed so finely, yet covered in the dried blood of their latest victims whom we also found. Fighting in the dark proved difficult. Willie almost hit Claudia with a baseball bat and our famous rifle was good for nothing else than bashing skulls.


We are spending some time in the house. While searching, we came across a machete and some other useful equipment. It is clear, however, that this is only a temporary relief to catch our breath. The zombies are still on our heels and we have already agreed on our next target.





Namely the town's police station situated in 4 Shadow Creek Way. Claudia used to work in there and knows the place. She says the armory is well stocked with guns and ammo. Seeing that the zombies don't know how to shoot, having everyone armed with even small arms would give us an edge in the fight.

[Hottentot]

Monday, Februrary 18, 2am. We have conducted a few armed recons on the police station at 4 Shadow Creek Way and taken out over 20 zombies by baiting them outside for melee and using out sparse bullets to shoot through the windows. Claudia is acting calmly, but you can see it on her face when she thinks no one is watching. These were all her former colleagues and friends. Marissa tried comforting her. Claudia says she doesn't want to talk about it.





Deciding we have enough intel on the station and have thinned the zombie population there enough, Willie makes the decision: we are taking everything we can and relocating in there. Or die trying.



Monday, February 18, 5am. The police station at 4 Shadow Creek Way was silent, but faint groaning could still be heard in the interview rooms and the cell block. It took us three hours to sweep and secure the building, but finally the sounds of gunfire, shrieking and groaning ended. The silence fell over the place. And everyone was just expecting it to break again. We could hear each other breathing. Us, or a corpse that wasn't quite dead yet. Marissa finished one half dead zombie with a head shot, but not before it tried to grab her leg.


Willie and Claudia searched the building. Claudia led Willie straight to the armory and the two cracked it open with the tools we had brought. Inside was a sight that made them both sigh with relief: whole rows of gun racks, mostly empty but still holding rifles, shotguns and packets of ammunition. The most awesome discovery was a well maintained automatic rifle used for riot control. Claudia said she knew the officer who owned it. And that's the last thing she said.





Monday, February 18, 8am. Honoring Claudia's fallen comrade, Raymond takes the rifle and goes on a recon trip on another warehouse at 6 Golf Place. Since the dawn is breaking and the gun is in pristine condition, he feels safe enough to do it alone despite of the city centre being most infested with the undead.





Monday, February 18, 9am. Returning from the recon trip, Raymond takes Marissa with him to break into a nearby apartment complex at 3 Austin Court. Meanwhile Willie, Claudia and Fernando stay on the police station. Seeing it's in the middle of the city and we can't move the whole armory with us, we are turning it into a temporary base from which we conduct raids around the city. Willie, Claudia and Fernando start breaking down furniture and building barricades around the station to slow down the horde's attacks.





Monday, Februrary 18, 11am. First blood. Ours, that is. Raymond and Marissa were well armed for their attack, but got reckless in a fight. A zombie managed to wound Marissa before she could blast its head off with her shotgun. Marissa's wounds are not serious, but the pain slows her down. We need to make sure to have painkillers with us even after we patch her up.





Monday, February 18, 1pm. The police station is secured. Claudia and Fernando stay to guard it and build traps for the zombies while Willie joins Marissa and Raymond in attacking a house on the edge of the city at 3 Grumman Road. While we are now well stocked with most basic supplies, we still have almost no information on the rescue operation and no radio frequency. The supplies are worthless if we can't get out of here and the clock is ticking. Fernando claims he heard a chopper flying somewhere already and is gettinf anxious.





Monday, February 18, 4pm. The house at 3 Grumman Road was more difficult to reach than expected by Willie. The looting team had to turn back several times and attracted a large mob of undead after them. They barely managed to hide in the house once they finally found it.


The house itself was easy to clean, but that didn't undo their previous mistakes. Marissa was tired after running for hours and fighting back the undead. The team tried to search the house for anything useful, but nothing could be found. Marissa started blaming Willie for leading them on a wild goose chase. Willie himself couldn't take it anymore and tried throwing Marissa with a chair. Fortunately he missed, but then they both grasped their guns.


If it wasn't for Raymond getting in between them and shielding them from each other with his body, someone would almost surely have died. Raymond managed to convince them to be quiet and avoid attracting the attention of the zombies outside.


Meanwhile Fernando and Claudia are still hiding in the police station. They are trying to keep low profile, observing rather than engaging. It appears the zombies haven't yet sniffed them, but it could be just a matter of time before they do and attack with force.





Monday, February 18, 6pm. Having concluded that the house at 3 Grumman Road is empty, the looting team moves back to the police station at 4 Shadow Creek Way. The sun is going down. They decide the return to base while they can still find it.





Monday, February 18, 8pm. It's already dark when we find out that the zombies are not our biggest problem after all. No. It's the fact that we are running out of food. It might be possible to survive over night without anything to eat, but then we would be in weaker condition to get it in the morning. And the hunger certainly wouldn't make the sentries any more efficient.


No. After a short talk we all agree that we must get food now. Willie remembers there we lots of it left behind in the warehouse at 4 Leland Road. Fernando is told to stay at the station and guard our supplies, but insists that we need an athlete like him to carry the cooking ingredients back home. Marissa and Willie are wounded while Raymond might fall a sleep without anyone around him. And Claudia...well, it might not be smart to leave her alone at the station with all those guns around. We take the risk and go all together.





Monday, February 18, 11pm. After we let Raymond rest enough to be ready for the trip, we snuck through the streets with towards the warehouse. Only Willie and Marissa have guns. The rest took some light equipment to defend themselves, but the plan is to keep low profile and reserve all our carrying capacity for the food.


The warehouse wasn't as quiet as we left it. The zombies had sniffed we were there but couldn't figure out where we went. They were swarming it like flies around a carcass, groaning and drooling at each other. We heard them fighting over something as we prepared for assault. Then it started. Marissa opened up with her automatic rifle dropping two undead near the main entrance. Willie covered her with his shotgun as they moved towards the warehouse. The fighting in the main storeroom was intense, but Willie and Marissa managed to kill the zombies as they rushed inside from the smaller entrances. They got them all.


Following the two closely, Claudia, Fernando and Raymond stumbled over the corpses and grabbed everything edible they could find. We could hear the zombies closing in from the distance, attracted by the sounds of fighting, but were out of there before they could reach us. The only thing those things could dine tonight was their own kind. Which they without a doubt did.





Tuesday, Februrary 19, 1am. We made it back to the station. The zombies hadn't yet invaded it and we didn't need to cross our own barricades. The food was quickly taken to the armory and cooking equipment prepared. Fernando and Williw surprisingly turned out to be the best cooks in the team and started preparing a meal that would be enough for us all.





Tuesday, February 19, 5am. While the meal was being prepared, we had some time to spare. Claudia stood watch and tried killing any zombie that wandered too close to the barricades. Raymond started tinkering the equipment again. He says it helps him to stay focused. There were few attacks, but the barricades held. Marissa, however, wasn't as convinced as the rest and started building traps for the zombies in case they managed to breach our first line of defence.


Finally at 5am the meal was ready. Either Willie and Fernando really were great cooks or then we just were all hungry enough to eat anything. It's amazing how great simple things like minced meat, rice and vegetables can feel when you have been fighting for your life for the last few days.


This was the first real pause we've had since the beginning of the nightmare. For the first time we actually had time to socialize with each other. We could have all been best friends if we met in different circumstances. Old grudges were apologized and some positive feedback was given for things done what now feels to be ages ago. Everyone felt much better. We'll have to do this again some time. If we make it.





Tuesday, February 19, 6am. After the meal and some rest, we planned the next move. The library at 13 Helen Place seemed like a place to go for clues about the rescue operations. If there was one place where such information was to be found, we were sure it was here. Still, the library was at the center of the city and we didn't know how many zombies there were. So the first step was to lock, load and go find out.





Tuesday, February 19, 11am. Jesus, what a mess! Our armed recon trip was only a small taste of what was to come! While we took out the zombies lingering outside the library, we were not prepared for what was inside. Peeking through the windows, we didn't see that many and thought it was safe to enter. Turned out we were wrong and every single zombie in the vicinity had decided to come read today's newspaper at the same time. Only Marissa was spared from this chaos as we left her to guard the police station.


The fighting took hours and was not without casualties. We had taken with us enough firepower, but our tactics didn't work. The zombies managed to corner Raymond and almost ripped him apart before Willie and Fernando could come to his help. He was wounded pretty badly but worst of all claimed the rest of the team had almost left him on his own to die. What seemed like the beginning of a friendship during the early morning's meal quickly turned into a bitter argument.


The zombies kept coming from all directions. The looting team hastily bunkered down inside the library and tried holding them off. Claudia used all the spare seconds to desperately look for useful information. Finally: bingo! A note was pinned on the door. But it turned out to be next to useless, for it only told us that the chopper would be here at night. We had no time to curse and swear. The zombies found a way inside again...





Tuesday, February 19, 12pm. The looting team escapes from the library with heavily wounded Raymond. They head towards a house at 2 Jason Way and hope to escape the horde on their heels.





Tuesday, February 19, 2pm. The house at 2 Jason Way provided a brief relief from the zombies, but not from the others. The wounded Raymond was so dosed up on the meds that he barely says a single comprehensible word. But that's not the worst part. While trying to ease his pain, Raymond claimed having seen Claudia to steal some of the pills. Claudia claimed she needed them for chronic pain. Needed them to forget, more like. In any case, we had no idea how long this had been going on and if she will have withdrawal symptoms when denied of the pills. Raymond wasn't happy with the decision, but we can't have one of our best shooters to suddenly collapse.


While they were still arguing, the horde attacked again. The house proved easy enough to defend, but it was obvious that we couldn't stay here.





Tuesday, February 19, 3pm. The looting team takes all the useful supplies they can carry from the house and retreat back to the police station at 4 Shadow Creek Way where Marissa is waiting.





Tuesday, February 19, 5pm. It's obvious that Raymond can't keep up. While Marissa is mildly wounded too, it's smarter to take her along the next looting raid. Raymond is left to guard the station and enough medical supplies to take care of himself. Staying quiet and unseen, he shouldn't attract zombies there.


The looting team heads to a bar at 6 Miller Drive. It should contain some alcohol that we can use for medical purposes for Raymond if running out of everything else.

[Hottentot]

Tuesday, February 19, 10pm. It's getting dark again. The bar didn't have many zombies. Only a few of it's old patrons that didn't really seem any different from the usual in their current sad state. A bullet in the head was probably a relief they would have welcomed much earlier too. Fernando also got to give some concrete feedback to the place's cook who was about to show him his favorite meat cleaver.


The bar didn't contain any clues on rescue operation, but the looting team had a chance to enjoy a small supper before moving on. Raymond on the police station wasn't as lucky. He heard the zombies shambling outside and was clutching his shotgun like his life literally depended on it. Trying to stay quiet, he grunted and groaned along with the zombies whenever the painful wounds started bothering him again.



Having searched the bar, the looting team moves back to the warehouse at 6 Golf Place in order to stock up on supplies they remember leaving behind.





Wednesday, February 20, 5am. The looting team secures the warehouse at 6 Golf Place which has only been occupied by a few zpmbies. Willie and Claudia are left to gather supplies while Fernando and Marissa do some force recon at a small general store at 2 Miller Drive.





Wednesday, February 20, 6am. The orders were carried out. Willie and Claudia were disrubted by someone banging the warehouse's door loudly. Being sure it was another zombie, they were surprised to hear a high pitched voice screaming for help outside. They opened the door carefully and found a small girl all alone outside. She said she was seeking refuge and had seen them enter earlier.


Willie would have let her in, but Claudia was more observant: she saw that the girl's skin had already turned pale gray and her veins were unnaturally visible. Her stare went blank while she was speaking and there was a small trace of drool on her lips. As Claudia grabbed her shotgun, the girl screamed and attacked her like a wild animal. She bit her in the wrist before Claudia could hit her with the shotgun's butt, kick her further away and blast her in the chest.


The wound Claudia received was trivial, but as she and Willie both looked at the dead girl on the ground, they knew what it might mean. Neither of them said it out loud, but Willie started keeping distance with Claudia and looking over his shoulder on regular basis.


Meanwhile Fernando and Marissa arrived at the store and took out zombies around it. Returning to the warehouse, they sensed something was wrong, but couldn't figure out what it was.





Wednesday, February 20, 7am. The sound of Claudia's shotgun attracted more zombies to attack the warehouse. Fortunately the whole looting team was together and managed to repel the attack. Raymond had much more difficult time in the police station. The zombies had sniffed him and were trying to breach the barricades. With no means to contact his comrades, he started loading guns around him and put one bullet aside for himself.





Wednesday, February 20, 9am. The looting team breached the store at 2 Miller Drive and was met by a few zombies still left there after the initial recon mission. The store was quicly cleared and the searching commenced.


Raymond sat and listened the zombies banging at the barricades. His beating heart pumped as much blood as pain to the wounds.





Wednesday, February 20, 11am. While the others from the looting team were searching the store, Fernando was keeping watch. From the distance he saw something that he first wrote off as his tired mind playing tricks on him. It was the silhouette of a man, but not like the others we had seen. He was walking up straight and his movement wasn't shambling. And weirdest of all, he was carrying a rifle.


Fernando called the others to take a look. Finally they decided to take aim. Willie shot once in the air to attract his attention. The man was ordered to throw down his weapon and approach slowly with his hands in the air. He complied. When coming closer, the team saw that he had some old wounds and a layer of dirt over him, but no signs of infection. The man explained that he had been exploring the city for a few days now and hunting some sort of unordinary zombie that was supposed to be like no others.


He asked for our help, but we declined. Willie suspected some sort of trick and believed we would have already met this super zombie if it existed. The man did not start arguing. He picked up his gun without saying a word and walked away.


Continuing the search in store, Willie and Claudia discovered another note. This one said the chopper would arrive exactly at 5am. It was not much, but it was definitely improvement. The discovery encouraged them to continue the struggle.





With the store searched, the team moves to an old elementary school at 9 Miller Drive. Fernando says he knows the place all too well. He used to go there when he was a kid. We are really not comfortable with the idea of finding the former students still there, one way or another.





Wednesday, February 20, 4pm. The school was quiet. Only few zombies were still around, one blankly staring at the placates featuring colorful alphabets for the first graders. No children were to be found. At all. Or so we thought. The weird things started only after the fight. Claudia swore she heard someone running in the corridors already when they entered and that someone was laughing in the distance like in the middle of playing. She says she found supplies lying on the floor she had already crossed. Willie, Fernando and Marissa gave each other worrying looks. Willie especially knew that this could have been the first symptom. The team decided to abandon the search at the school and move on.


Raymond was listening. The horde had moved closer. Barricades were attacked harder and harder every hour. Taking painkillers he closed his eyes and grabbed a silenced handgun. Here now. He was sure he could somehow improve it. Must just take this part here and replace it wirh this. Must stay focused. Focused.





Wednesday, February 20, 6pm. Trying to play along with Claudia's story of the school being haunted by its former student, the looting team slowly leads ger out. Willie decides the next target will be the warehouse at the 4 Hondo Lane, which they already briefly saw when escaping the zombies in the house at 3 Grumman Road last time. Hopefully this search will prove more fruitful than the ill fortune suffered in the house.





Wednesday, February 20, 9pm. The warehouse was lightly defended, but the zombies found the looting team while on the way there. An improvised defensive positions had to be taken and the ammo was running low. The last zombies had to be beaten back in melee, but fortunately the looting team turned out to already be quite experienced at it.


Marissa, remembering the last failure at the 3 Grumman Road, made backhanded remarks at Willie, calling him "the fearless leader" bravely "leading them to being surrounded for nothing". Fernando, who had started to respect Willie during their long trip and many fights, stepped in to defend him, but Marissa was hardly a woman to back off in front of two men. Just as Willie was about to shut her mouth any way necessary, Claudia ran to them with a dirty piece of paper in her hands. It said the rescue place would be at a warehouse.


Figuring out from all the information gathered it would be the warehouse at the 6 Golf Place, the team was speechless. Then it happened. Spontaneously. A group hug. They closed their eyes and didn't bother opening them to find out which one of them sobbed. Willie was the first to let go. He really had to choose his words carefully to make it clear that we still needed a frequency to contact the chopper and that there wasn't necessarily much time left. Now was not the time for being a pessimist.


High fives were exchanged. The frequency would be found!





With their spirits up and ammo count down, the looting team is heading back to the police station at 4 Shadow Creek Way.





Thursday, February 21, 5am. Holy mother of God, the night. It came for us like it never has before, as if to say "ha! Gotcha suckers!" The looting team reached the police station just in time to prevent a swarm of zombies from breaching the defences. They cut them down like a sickle, but only in order to get inside themselves, safe from the undead around them.


And then it started. Wave after wave they threw themselves at the barricades and traps, making us use all the ammunition we had to spare and fighting them off in fierce melee. The barricades held firmly, but were not indestructible. Willie and Marissa were repairing them as fast as they could, but were quickly running out of furniture to scrap. Claudia unwittingly showed them where the holes were. She walked quietly around the station with grim determination in her eyes and whenever she found even a small hole, she took aimed shots at any zombies she could see from there.


Fernando was trying to lift the spirit of the team and offered them a drink he still had from raiding the bar earlier. No one wanted it. Least of all Raymond who was just sitting in the main hall's bench and obsessively tinkering everything he could find, mumbling to himself. It was either the medication or then he is going mad. Willie tried to talk him out of it, but ended up just becoming frustrated and throwing a chair at him. Raymond didn't even notice it. Fernando managed to calm Willie down.





Thursday, February 21, 6am. The attacks continue. More zombies are coming. It's starting to look grim.





Thursday, February 21, 7am. Someone knocked forcefully on the back door. It was no zombie trying to tear through the barricades. Before anyone could stop him, Fernando went to see who it was, thinking it might be Marissa and Claudia returning from their patrol.


Behind the door there was a large group of dirty, rag wearing and gun toting men with a gleam of madness in their eyes that had somehow slipped past the undead. Their leader, a bald, burly man wearing a huge crucifix on his neck and holding a torn Bible in his left hand, angrily proclaimed that it was the wrath of God and the sin of the men that had brought this blight upon us. He claimed having been led by an angel to this location and knowing that we were harboring a spawn of the Devil.


Just then Marissa and Claudia returned from their patrol. As soon as the man laid his eyes on Marissa, he pointed her with his finger saying this is the "dark one" that is luring the undead to the town like ships to a lighthouse. His followers started howling and demanding we hand her over so the will of God might be done.





We refused.


The mob charged us, but were in turn flanked by the zombie horde that had been attracted there by their howling. The hunters suddenly became hunted. We retreated back behind the barricades and let our enemies take care of each other. The fighting went on for a long time, but finally they were too weak to continue. It was no effort for us to snipe the survivors from our vantage points by then.





Seeing the fight between the zombies and the mob had broken a hole into the undead horde, we use this chance to take every weapon we can carry and bug out before it's too late.





Thursday, February 21, 2pm. Our first destination is a diner at the 2 High Lane, from which we scavenge all the food we can get. But the zombies are already behind us and are not giving up now that they have a fresh trail to follow. We head South towards a store at the 4 Benicia Place. Raymond says he can't keep up. No one is paying attention to him.





Thursday, February 21, 5pm. The store at 4 Benicia Place had a few zombies that we took by surprise, but after that we were ourselves forced to fight off the horde's first waves. Forming a wall of shopping trolleys, we quickly organized an improvised defense.


It was only then that Claudia, in the evening's dim light, found a torn piece of paper pinned to the staff room's door. A weird number that at first made no sense until the realization struck her. The frequency! The radio frequency to contact the chopper was here all along! Claudia's shout of "Yes!" was drowned in the gunfire and grunts of the approaching zombies.





We now have everything we need! A radio, the frequency and the time and place of the rescue! No one wants to think of the possibility of us being too late. There is no room for such thought in this situation. There is only one thing to do now.

[Hottentot]

...Namely to haul ourselves and everything we can carry to the old warehouse at 6 Golf Place and wait for the rescuers to arrive. Or at least have a real epic last stand.



Thursday, February 21, 9pm. With the horde on our heels, we made a fighting retreat to the warehouse. We expected a few zombies to be there by now again, trying to find our trail again, but we underestimated their numbers. There were more of them than we thought and by the time we got inside, there was no way back. With the undead in front and behind us, we came up with a quick strategy. With four team members capable of moving quickly, we had Willie, Claudia, Fernando and Marissa spread out and sweep the warehouse. Raymond was left to guard the entrance behind a barricade we hastily erected from a desk and a few drawers. The shots from his guns are quickly joined by those of the assault team's echoing through the large halls of the warehouse.


Finally, the warehouse became silent. Usually it was a good thing. A familiar sign of victory. A time to take a deep breath and sigh, be thankful for surviving another encounter with the reaper. But this time there was something wrong with it. Fernando was the first to realize it. Without wasting a moment, he alerted his comrades and rushed back to the entrance.


But it was too late. The assault team found Raymond on the floor, being torn apart by six zombies that had bursted through the door and a window. Boosted either by fear, anger or grief, the assault team gunned and battered them down showing no mercy. Willie and Claudia covered Marissa and Fernando as they were trying to push the undead back from the door and close it.


As the door's latch finally clicked back to its place, there was time for everyone to take that one deep breath. But there was nothing that we could do to help Raymond. He had died quickly with his throat torn open and large spots of blood coughed around his lips. His savaged hands were still clutching his gun as if he was ready to jump up and start shooting. His eyes were still open and had a furious look in them. It was difficult to say if it was meant for the zombies or his comrades who had left him behind one last time.





Thursday, February 21, 9pm. We are safe. For now. As safe as a hare is from wolf in a trap cage waiting for the hunter. Willie has received serious injuries and Claudia and Fernando are wounded as well. Only Marissa is still healthy, but even she is too tired to do anything. Fernando and Claudia are taking turns in guarding while the others sleep.


There is an empty spot in here. Managing routines feels different now. Someone should probably be removing the corpses, but for some reason no one wants to. Raymond is still there among them, like just yet another zombie in the middle of the 28 others. Even when no one is saying it, everyone knows things are different now. We were in this together. Despite of our differences, we all worked for a common goal and believed we would either be saved or killed together. Despite of the dangers we somehow thought it would all turn out OK if we just sticked together. Despite of the close situations, we somehow believed we'd never...


We were survivors. That's in the past now. Now it's just four souls reminded of their feeble mortality by the stench of rotting flesh around them.


Another attack is coming...





Friday, February 22, 1am. The attacks continue. They are relentless. They don't tire. They don't drink. The only food they need is us. But the worst is the knowledge. They are not afraid of death.





Friday, February 22, 6am. The dawn is breaking. We waited for the chopper to arrive at 0500, but as minutes slowly drifted past it, we abandoned hope. The knowledge of having to spend another day in the warehouse surrounded by the zombies is putting everyone down. We are trying to stay focused by playing chess, exercising, building barricades and writing this diary, but everyone knows it's only temporary. The signs are already showing. We are arguing. Blaming each other for Raymond's death. Angered over imagined slights. Getting anxious over small things. This egg might just break from the inside.





Friday, February 22, 10am. We are out of food. The few snacks we carried with us initially ran out long ago and it's starting to show. Marissa and Claudia are eating things that normal person wouldn't touch. Willie found Fernando crying in the toilet, trying to drink from the seat. Claudia's infection is getting worse and there are no medical supplies here to treat it. We can't go out to scavenge from the buildings nearby. If the help doesn't arrive soon, we might just be done for.





Friday, February 22, 3pm. A loud crash shooked us suddenly. A large zombie, faster and stronger than any we had ever seen before, breached a window followed by a group of its smaller kin and took us by surprise. It must have been the one that zombie hunter warned us about.





There was nowhere to run, so we had to face that thing or die trying. It grabbed Willie by the throat and snapped his neck before he could pull the trigger. Marissa was next, getting her face torn off by the monster's forceful lash. By that time Claudia had finally managed to ready her gun and emptied a clip at its feet. The zombie fell down like a huge log, but was already getting back up.


While Fernando was holding the regular ones at the bay, Claudia took a cricket bat from against the wall and impaled the large zombie's head with it. The thing screamed and started hurling the bat wielding Claudia around like a ragdoll, but also tore the wound in its head larger and larger at the same time. Finally it crashed down on the floor, lifeless and motionless, bleeding blood that resembled black goo all around the place.


Claudia and Fernando fought off the rest of the wave as fast as they could, but no speed was fast enough for Willie and Marissa, whose lifeless bodies were lying on the both sides of the dead behemoth. And Willie was so sure it didn't exist...





Friday, February 22, 12pm. Has it been 9 hours since the last entries already? The time has lost its meaning in here. The zombies keep attacking. Their bodies are already forming barricades to slow down the next waves. The night is falling. We have to be ready. Tired.





Saturday, February 23, 1am. More attacks. The stench of death is everywhere. Claudia and Fernando are hugging each other in the middle of the corpses. Tears are flowing down their cheeks, but no sound is heard anywhere. It's is eerily quiet. Until it starts again.





Saturday, February 23, 2am. More zombies are coming from all around the town. They are preparing. There is no energy and no will left. Fernando and Claudia are looking at each other. Neither of them ever thought those "what if we two were the last people in the world" scenarios would one day become reality.





Saturday, February 23, 4am. The guns. They dropped. Claudia stopped loading. Fernando put the clip away. The barrels came out of mouths. The eyes opened. They looked up. The sound. They both heard it. The clock. 0450.





Saturday, February 23, 5am. Chopper is lifting off. The zombies are swarming inside the building. Their groaning is slowly fading away. Their silhouettes getting smaller. The smiling faces of the emergency crew turning from a week long dream to reality. The wounds are treated. The pain is going away. And this diary...





...Is better left off for the zombies. Claudia's secret will die with it. We are going to find a way. We'll have to.