Sunday 26 November 2017

Generation Zed - Day 3 to 5



MORNING OF DAY 3
Tim wakes early the next morning. He feels sore and sorry for himself. As he rubs his eyes he thinks “Struth I feel every bit of 50. Stupid friggin zombies.” Getting up he looks down at Amanda. Her ankle is has remained elevated on the pillow overnight but unfortunately it’s still swollen. Grinding his teeth together he thinks “Hmmm, I guess we’re not getting Pepi today. I love that car.”
Shuffling into the kitchen he closes the door behind him and turns on the light. “Small mercies. At least there is still electricity.” He staggers to the jug and turns it on.
Twenty minutes later and half way through his first cup of coffee Tim thinks “Hmmm I feel a bit more human now. Well I’m not going through that again. They say the last thing a boxer loses is his punch. We’ll it’s time to start to get mine back.”
Coffee in hand Tim starts to work through the hallway cupboard. “Aggghhh there you are.” Picking up the recurve bow he gives a quick it a look over and then he puts it aside and opens the arrow storage case. “Well a dozen arrows, I guess that’s better than none.”
Picking up the bow again he turns to it and mutters “Well little buddy I reckon it’s been 30 years since I’d last hunted with you.” Grabbing an empty beer carton Tim stuffs it full of newspaper and walks into the back yard. There he sets it down.
Thwack! Thwack! Thonk!
After 40 minutes of practice Tim massages his index and middle fingers on his right hand. “Hmmm who would have thought that? My frigging fingers are bruised raw from the bow string.”
Going inside and grabbing the scissors from the knife block in the kitchen Tim cuts into an old tea towel. In under a couple of minutes he looks at his handy work, “Well it’s not awesome but this little sissy pad will keep me going for a while.”
Thwack! Thonk! Tchweep! Thack!
Amanda stumbles into the back yard, “How long have you been out here?”
“Hi darl. Dunno. Couple of hours I guess.”
“What are you doing?”
“Getting ready.”
Shifting her weight to her right hip she says “Good. We’ve got to go and get Dave.”

- - - 0 0 0 - - -

SCENARIO SETTING
The next scenario will be a Search scenario. It’ll take place on Day 4. Over the past two days Amanda has convinced Tim to give up Pepi, his ute (named, by the way, after the Ford Bronco in Romancing the Stone) and Tim has convinced Amanda to wait until her ankle is healed before they go looking for Dave.
Tim is armed with a bow, a two handed axe and a bayonet in a scabbard on his belt. Amanda is armed with a two handed axe and she packs the claw hammer into her hand bag.
Amanda drives them to the site of Dave’s house in her Prius. “Not quite the Ford Ranger,” Tim thinks, “but still, it’s better than walking”.
Dave lives on acreage on the out skirts of town (treated as a rural setting with an ER of 1).
Dave’s house is in the top left corner (ie area 1). Tim and Amanda will need to get there and call out to Dave. They’ll start on foot having learnt last time about cars attracting zombies.
Checking for Lack of Sleep, Tim has only had 4 hours sleep and is fatigued with -1 to his Rep until he gets an adrenaline rush. Amanda has only had 6 hours sleep but she’s able to function normally.
They move onto the table and one zombie is generated. The picture below gives an overview of the initial set up. 
The one big advantage the Prius has now becomes apparent. When the battery only mode is activated the car is virtually silent. Using this for the last couple of hundred metres has obviously worked well for Tim and Amanda as there is only one zed on the table.
Amanda will lead as Tim is so tired.

- - - 0 0 0 - - -

MORNING OF DAY 5
Amanda lets the car coast to a stop. “It’s just up here.”
Tim is slow to get out of the car, “I’m so frigging tired darl.”
Amanda takes him by the hand and leads on “Come on sleepy head, not far to go. We’ll grab Dave, Codie and Frank and we’ll be home soon.”
Walking up the small road Amanda turns to Tim, “I feel really trapped in here. I don’t know if I could jump over these high fences.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Tim responds, “If it comes to that I’ll boost you over. It sure is creepy in here though.”
Briiing!!!.......Briiing!!!......Briiing!!!
Amanda turns, and her eyes focus on a corpse that they had walked directly past only moments ago without even realising it. A phone is ringing on the body.
She turns to Tim, “I thought the phone service was down.”
“Huh, so did I. Obviously they’re getting a signal out here.”
“Should we get it?”
“Dunno, but look over there,” Tim points, “it’s starting to draw in some zombies.”
 Amanda takes off after the phone, “Come on we’ve got to get it before it attracts more of those things.” Grabbing the phone she answers it “Hello….” There is no answer. Creepy.
Tim lines up the zombie in the middle of the road. Drawing the bow and on his training over the past few days, he fights his tiredness and lets the arrow lose. It strikes true, killing the zombie for good. He runs to Amanda’s side, “Did you see that?”
“Good work, let’s go.”
Amanda turns to Tim, “Can you go any faster?”
“I can’t bub, I’m just too tired.”
As she approaches Dave’s gate Amanda says to Tim “Not far now.” Turning to look at him…… he’s no where to be seen. “Tim……Tim?”
Amanda keeps moving towards Dave’s. Slowing her pace, she calls out again, “Tim? Where are you? Tim?”
From no where a zombie lunges at Amanda. She turns to meet the beast. Its foul breath falls upon her as she hefts her axe…..
And she knocks it to the ground.
TO BE CONTINUED………

10 comments:

  1. There aren't very many players or zombies, but I can feel the tension rising all the time. Very atmospheric!

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    1. You can feel the tension. Jeez you should feel it over here. It wasn't a good moment when I went missing and then my missus was assaulted by that zed. This games killing me. :^)

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  2. Even though things are relatively quiet (so far) there is an impending sense of menace here and we all know that in ATZ, anything can happen. Tim going AWOL is not a good sign. I hope he's gone scavenging and not sleeping.

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    1. The first thing Amanda said after she read the post was, "What happened to you? Did you find some beer or have a little nap?" The recriminations have already started.

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    2. Yeah - about the "Missing" random event. Guess who invented that one?

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    3. Hugh, you have a lot to answer for my friend. :^)

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  3. Plenty to look forward to here........ where's Tim gone? is Dave home?
    With the fenced roads and number of buildings, I think I'd have rated it 'suburban', but I suppose we all know our own areas best.
    Cracking photo's and I LOVE the new 'info panel' side bars you've added :-)

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    1. You are probably right Greg. Dave does live in a rural setting in real life and so I started with one building and then another and oohh yeah I better add that new fence that I'd just made and then ohh maybe I should add that new shed that I just made......well, you know how it ends.

      Thanks on the info panel. I've been reading a few books lately on how to write stories and novels and so I've been trying to change my writing style a bit from being report like to story like but I still wanted to be able to give readers an overview of the action hence the new Sit Rep info panels. I might this week write a little piece on some of the stuff that I've learned.

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  4. For such a simple scenario, I felt the tension rising from the word 'go'. Looking forward to the next instalment.

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    1. Thanks Joe. The Random Events Table is a thing of genius. In the last scenario the fires almost got us and in this one I've gone missing and the phone ringing brought a few more zeds to the party.

      Who knows how this will finish up.

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