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.
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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.