Amanda looks down at the zombie and swings
with the felling axe. She smashes one of the outstretched arms of the zed with
the axe’s blade. Horrified at the carnage, she runs towards the house and calls
out, “Dave, Dave get out here!” She taps from foot to foot as she waits.
“Groooaaan…..”
Amanda looks over her shoulder, “Oh my
god….”. The zombie stands despite its injuries.
“Dave,” she shouts again.
Nervously waiting for Dave as the monster
approaches she mutters, “Come on Dave, where are you?”
Amanda runs to the door and starts to bang
on it. She screams, “Dave get out here!!!”
The door smashes open. A man wearing an old
Akubra, brandishing a 10 gauge shotgun and accompanied by a white german
shepherd bursts outside, “Get away from her you filthy zed.”
BOOM! The blast, at such close range
practically decapitates the zombie. It slumps to the ground dead.
Dave looks at Amanda. She is dishevelled
and stressed but before he can speak his sister whimpers, “I can’t find Tim. I
came here with him, but he’s gone.”
“Where’d he go?”
“I don’t know.”
Dave offers, “Well let’s search for him.”
“I’ve been searching for him and shouting
out but it’s doing no good. I don’t know what’s happened. Let’s get in the car
and look for him from there.”
Running to Frank, Dave remote unlocks the
car and opens the door, “Come on Codie, into the back set.” The white shepherd
jumps into the car, excited to be going for a drive.
Jumping in, Dave looks at Amanda to make
sure she’s ok as he puts the key into the ignition, Dave checks the rear vision
mirror and sees, too late, that a zombie is rushing the car.
He panics as he tries to get the engine
started, “RrrrrRrrrrrRrrrr.” The engine turns but doesn’t fire.
Charging the car, the zombie reaches through
the window and grabs Amanda.
Desperately the zombie tries to pull Amanda
from the car. It can practically taste her warm salty blood.
Codie’s bark is deafening in the vehicle.
The dog lunges at the monster but in the tight confines of the car it cannot
help.
Restrained by the seat belt, frustratingly the zombie
cannot pull the woman from the car. Amanda retaliates. She pulls the
claw hammer from her belt and smashes the out stretched hand of the zed. The
zombie loses its grip as its smashed fingers fail to give it purchase. Amanda
repeats the blow, again, again, again then then she starts to aim for the head.
“Thwack, thwack, thock”. On the third blow the skull of the zombie
caves in and it falls from the car.
“Go, go, go,” she yells and Dave turns the
key again. The straight six roars.
They race off and start the search for
Tim……………
DEW
Phew! Things were a bit touch and go when Frank wouldn't start, but Amanda managed to survive! Now she, Dave & Codie (& Frank!) are OK, but where's Tim???
ReplyDeleteThings could be a LOT worse, what with Amanda's shouts, the shotgun blast, and Frank firing up - they're making enough noise to wake the dead.
Oh yeah, the dead are already awake ;-)
Yes the dead certainly are. Yup Frank not igniting first turn was a cracker and then when the car got charged it was random who got attacked.....and poor Amanda drew the short straw again.
DeleteCurse that Random Events table. I dunno where Tim is either!
The rural setting is a LOT more forgiving for making sound. It was a bit of a surprise to me the difference.
That was a close run encounter that could have gone a lot worse. Tim's disappearance remains a mystery. I'm intrigued to know just what has happened to him? People wandering off on their own in a horror setting is rarely a good thing.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly was pretty darn close. Twice during the encounter a zed charged Amanda and it passed more d6 than she did, meaning that she was counted as being unarmed during the combat. And, as you would know Bryan, it was a very very tense moment for me rolling 2d6 for my missus and 3d6 for the zed. Luckily both times Amanda got more successes than the zed.
DeleteBetter lucky than good.
I'm wondering, should they simply find Tim on the drive home or should I play out another encounter with just Tim in it?
You COULD just find Tim on the drive home, but I reckon playing out a "solo" encounter so we find out what's happened to him is an excellent idea, and would make a fantastic 'side narrative' to the campaign - far better than the the idea that sprang to my mind, which would be a "search" encounter to try and find him.
DeleteI wholeheartedly agree with Greg. Tim's disappearance is begging for a separate story.
DeleteOk solo it is.
DeleteWell, they're still alive, but wow - it sounds like a close-run thing! Excellent retelling of what is really quite a small encounter; very exciting.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to experience the differences between the urban, suburban and rural settings and they are very different. Very few zeds turned up. But, having said all that, and as you have pointed out, with a couple of nubes wandering around the tension is still there.
DeleteGlad you're enjoying it.
Great aar and Amanda finally found Dave, but what the hell happened to Tim? Tim's disappearance is crying out for a scenario !
ReplyDeleteThroughly enjoyed this change of pace and although a rural encounter, it can still go to pot
I'll put my crafty little brain to it and do up some type of encounter for Tim.
Delete