"Oye chica, I wouldn't risk going on the tracks if we don't know what we're getting into," Paco said. "At least with the other two we know what to expect. And I mean we're already here, might as well try and see what we can get from the supermarket, yeah? I don't feel like taking on no skinheads right now, when we're so close to starving."
"Uh yeah. How did I get talked into this?!" Was Damien's question, "One day I am walking along scavenging for parts. The next moment somehow I am in this odd survival group!"
Back after a long hiatus
"Hey, better in a group than on your own. As for what we should do, I agree with Paco. It might be risky, but not as bad as trying to shoot up some hooligans."
“Not a promise, not an oath, or a malediction or a curse. Inevitable." - Taylor Hebert
"Hell, I'd rather take on a bunch of zombies than try to fight a bunch of crazies with guns." Russ said perhaps a little too confidently. I mean at least the zombies can't strategize against us. I agree with Paco, and volunteer to be the distraction, if we want to do things that way."
"My mission is noble, my heart is pure. I have nothing to fear"
Hope you guys don't mind I started you right in the middle of some action. Also, if you were wondering whether or not a certain kind of building (a toy store, car repair shop, or whatever), just ask on the discussion thread if it isn't mentioned here.
Some of the guards began nodding at Francis', Russ', and Paco's words. Dyson nodded her head solemnly, without turning away from looking at the zombies. The undead's march throughout the town had scared off some of the local critters and a skinny looking crow had perched on a cactus next to the cop car.
"Right. Sounds like we're going to raid Hartford City then. Whoever is running distraction gets first pick of vehicles. Van's sturdier and can keep you alive for longer but the cop car's sirens will be better for distraction. Your choice." Dyson told her group brusquely.
"Whoever's not running distraction should come with me. Also, Reed, see what you can do about that bird." Dyson told a heavily scarred guard. The man named Reed looked at the wretched looking crow on the cactus and raised his rifle at it quickly and fired.
As the loud shot rang out, the group could hear even more zombie groans coming from the town. Gunshots were quite loud after all. Reed chuckled as he picked up the dead bird.
"Hoo boy! What a shot, huh fellas? Won't make much more than a morsel but it sure as hell's better than starving, right Lou?" Reed asked the stoic looking guard. Lou just stared at him blankly and shook his head. Reed was not to be deterred in his excitement however.
"Okay then...I'll come with whoever wants to run distraction but I suggest we get a good look at the town before we do." Reed said, passing his own set of binoculars to the group.
They would see that most of the town had burned down long ago - leaving only 1/10 of the original buildings still standing. From their vantage point, the group could see about the half of the town - mostly domestic houses, a supermarket, and a car dealership.
And, like the rest of the modern world, Hartford City was covered in sand. Lots and lots of sand.
edited 27th May '15 6:05:43 PM by FantasyLiver
Back after a long hiatus
Hartford City, Indiana
Francis hrrmed. "I say we check the supermarket first. Less confined than the houses, and the cardealership probably won't have much."
edited 27th May '15 6:30:17 PM by Tojin
“Not a promise, not an oath, or a malediction or a curse. Inevitable." - Taylor Hebert
"Good thinking, Rockstar, sounds like a plan to me," Paco said. "I'll come with y'all to the store, maybe they have my brand of hair gel in stock."
Damien sighs "I suppose if we could get some parts I could fix up the vehicles and make them... hardier."
"Those all sound like sweet ideas to me!" Russ grinned as his excitement over killing undead bastards threatened to overwhelm him. "I'm ready to go make a ton of noise, when you all are ready to gather some supplies! I'm really diggin' the idea of getting behind the wheel of that old school cop car."
edited 27th May '15 8:44:15 PM by David2716
"My mission is noble, my heart is pure. I have nothing to fear"
"Well yahoo then!" Reed said to Russ when the latter revealed he wanted to come with him on the distraction.
"Anyone else want to come?" Reed asked the group. A breeze began to pick up blowing sand towards the vehicles and the group members who were outside. Dyson and the guards put up rags and their hands up to their eyes to shield them.
"I'd say you guys have five/ten minutes to plan before you roll out." Dyson told the group.
Back after a long hiatus
Francis shrugged. "Yeah, sure, why not. I'll come with you two."
“Not a promise, not an oath, or a malediction or a curse. Inevitable." - Taylor Hebert
"Plan?" Paco asked. "Shoot the stuff that isn't human and grab what we can, no?"
not a lot to go on right now but I promised I'd try and post every day
With not much planning, the two cars were off. It was up to them where they went. The zombies were gathered mainly in the housing section although there were a fair amount of them near the supermarket and hardware store. The areas with the fewest zombies seemed to be the bank and the car dealership - both of which looked deserted on the outside - with only a handful of cars on the lot and who knew if they were drivable?
Of course, wherever the cars went was up to the driver and there were more buildings to search further east, north, or west.
Dyson frowned from inside the van as she contemplated where to go. A loud booming noise could be heard coming from one of the houses.
"What is that I wonder...?" she asked out loud.
edited 29th May '15 8:53:33 PM by FantasyLiver
Town
"Hey, hombres, mira, there are cars over there," Paco said, driving towards the car dealership after having taken the wheel of the car. "Think you can start any of them up, muchacho?" That last sentence was targetted at Damien, since he seemed to be the 'car guy' of the group.
"Well... possibly," Damien responded, "Depends on whether or not the gas is good and how badly the cars are. Why? Thinking of making a V8 Interceptor?" The mechanic asked.
Russ flips on the sirens to the police car. "Hey Reed, I'm gonna swing past the supermarket, and try and get the zombies to follow us away from it! You shoot heads!"
"My mission is noble, my heart is pure. I have nothing to fear"
Town
"Hey, call it whatever you want," Paco said. "I just don't like being crammed up in these cars all day. You people smell. Plus we can carry more stuff if we have more cars. Maybe the supermarket's got all that food just waiting to be taken, no?"
Back after a long hiatus
Francis spoke up from the back. "He makes a fair point. Let's see if any cars work, then steal the working ones and fill them up with food and loot."
“Not a promise, not an oath, or a malediction or a curse. Inevitable." - Taylor Hebert
Distraction
The car is currently in between the supermarket and the alley.
"You got it buckaroo!" Reed said excitedly as Russ flipped on the police sirens. A WHHHHHERRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIII noise filled the area - a bit staticy and muffled due to apoclayptic wear and tear but it did its job nonetheless.
All zombies in sight predictably turned around to chase the police car. With the car's speed and the zombies' slow-moving shuffle - it was easy to avoid them. That is - until five zombies - unseen by the party until now - stumbled out from an alley and walked in front of the car. Reed and Russ now had zombies behind them and in front of them.
Russ' call was a good one and Reed fired five shots with his rifle - scoring four hits on the zombies. Two of the hits were headshots - downing his targets immediately while the other hits only hit their torso region which caused them to moan a bit louder but they were otherwise fine. The remaining three zombies marched towards the car. The antique police car was pretty old so it was anybody's guess as to whether it could survive ramming three bodies. On the other hand, stopping the car ran the risk of it getting run over by the undead.
Of course - perhaps there were other options...
Supply Run
"We could definitely use more cars. But food should be our priority." said Dyson as Paco drove to the car place.
At the dealership, eight cars were seen on the lot and all of them were some kind of Toyota brand. Out of all them, a check by Damien would reveal that only two of them were functioning and had some amount of usable gas inside them. They were both blue cars - one of them a Prius and the other a Camry. Although they started up fine, it would take further inspection to see which performed better than the other.
While they were looking over the cars, the supply group might notice that same booming noise that they heard earlier. Except this time it seemed to be followed by the sound of an engine revving.
Perhaps in this dangerous time their minds were playing tricks on them...
Back after a long hiatus
Francis glanced around nervously. "D-did anyone else here a, ah, explosion? Just want to make sure my mind's not playing games with me."
“Not a promise, not an oath, or a malediction or a curse. Inevitable." - Taylor Hebert
Van
"I don't know man, it sounds like an engine spinning up, but that's probably just the cop car they have over there. Piece of shit makes all sorts of noises," Paco said. "Yo Mechanico, think you can get that Prius running? That thing must get all sorts of miles per gallon."
"Yeah I can check," Damien answered, he drew his Glock out and climbed out of the van and began to inspect the vehicles "Only two of these have gas. And I don't have enough time to salvage them."
He sighed "Alright we need to pick one of the two and see if the keys are alright."
Police Car "Well this looks a bit sticky Reed, we don't want to go and wreck this ol' cruiser, I've taken a liking to it."
Russ looks around at the surrounding area to see if there is any alternate route to go besides forward or backward.
"My mission is noble, my heart is pure. I have nothing to fear"
Supply Run
"I don't know about that...that sounds like it came from somewhere else..." Dyson mused at the engine sounds. Her suspicions proved correct as the engine noise actually seemed to get closer to the group. Lou and Dyson shared a confused look and turned their eyes towards where the sound was coming from.
And they were in for a suprise.
◊
A dune buggy that was outfitted with a heavy machine gun came cresting over a hill. Inside sat three large white males of similar dress - a driver, passenger, and a gunner. All of them had shit-eating grins and were screaming at the supply group. Their intentions were made clear when the gunner sprayed his machine gun in Dyson's and Lou's direction. Dyson managed to duck behind one of the nonfunctioning vehicles but Lou was not so lucky as at least seven of the shots hit him.
He didn't even have time to scream as he hit the ground.
The dune buggy blared right past the group and was circling around for another run. The man in the passenger seat appeared to be readying a handgun of some kind.
Taking cover, running away, or fighting would be prudent. If they were still interested in finding the keys to one of the two functioning vehicles - there were several zombie corpses in the lot that might have the keys in their pockets.
Distraction
Slowing down to look for more options meant the zombies from both sides got even closer. Apart from the alley - which would be a narrow squeeze - there was no other directions to go but forwards or backwards.
"Hey kiddo - I recommend going somewhere. Not to be a jackass but I didn't bust outta prison to get killed by these undead scum!" Reed called loudly to Russ as he leaned out the window and killed one more of the zombies in the front - leaving only two. However, three zombies from the back managed to catch up to the car and started hitting the back of the car. It would only be a matter of time before they made their way to the front of the car.
Reed hurriedly rolled his window up when he saw this.
"Big dick it man! Do something!" he cried out.
It was winter in the small city of Hartford City, Indiana although you would hardly realize it now - given the current desert state of everything.
On the outskirts of town was parked two vehicles - a van and a beat up looking old police car. This had not gone unnoticed by the town's new residents as several zombies were slowly making their way towards the vehicles and their current occupants. At this rate - they might catch up with their targets in two hours.
"Damn!" swore one woman in the police car as she looked at the town through her binoculars. Everyone in her group would know who she was - Dyson the leader of this wandering band of scavengers.
"Alright group - listen up! You all know that we're running low on food and supplies. Well, I could lie to you and say that things aren't so bad but that isn't the kind of the world we live in." she bluntly told her assembled group members.
"We have maybe one day's supply of food left so we need to act fast. We have three choices. We could go down to the town and scavenge for materials. Only problem is that the place is completely overrun. We could send out distractions to lure the zombies away while the rest of us gather food but it's risky."
"Our second choice is to raid that Neo-Confederate bandit camp that Lou spotted two hours back." Dyson continued, gesturing to a stern looking guard with a machine pistol and a scowl.
"We definitely know they have supplies but we don't know how many of them there are and they stand to be a lot more dangerous than zombies - especially if they're heavily armed. High risk but high reward." she admitted. Then she pointed to a set of railway tracks that ran through the town.
"That right there are our last option. We could drive alongside those tracks until we find something. Basically - that's our neutral option. We have no idea what's out there. Could be a freshwater spring or a friendly town but it could just as likely be Eargobblers or wild coyotes." Dyson finished, looking around at each member of her assembled group. Most were covered in scars and all of them hadn't seen a shower in days. All of them were capable and dangerous individuals and had proven themselves in Dyson's eyes.
"I'm your leader but these are pretty desperate options and I don't want to make this decision that affects all of you without some discussion. Anyone have a preference?" she asked the group.