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.