Episode 20: Costwell
[Some of my rolls got lost, so the first few paragraphs are from memory of what I had rolled up.]
Jodi and Kristine made good time down the dirt road that paralleled the highway north. Patch, for her part, didn't seem bothered by the two women on her back. Both women were small, and Kristine a woman of Asian-American parentage was shorter and slighter than Jodi. Jodi sat forward, Kristine's small hands around her waist. But even so, it was crowded as both women, carried rifles and pistols.
The sun sparkled through the partially leafless trees, reflecting off of the small glass-like beads of moisture, remnants of the snow fall, that speckled on the fallen golden autumn leaves. These made a rich carpet for Patch's thudding hoofs. An autumnal smell of wet earth, latent warmth mixed with the sharp coolness of blue skies. The scene made Jodi breathe in the beauty of nature with deep satisfying breaths. She nearly forgot about the dead, the dying, the fallen crumbling world. In fact, she felt like she were ten-years old again, on a two hour pony ride her dad had taken her on.
The good weather, the beautiful scenery and being on horseback, made Kristine positively chatty. she regaled Jodi of multi-day camping trips on horseback into the wilderness areas nearly untouched by man.
Jodi had toyed with the idea of taking an ATV, but those were loud, and fuel was a precious resource as well. With a horse, their approach would be quieter. In addition, they would be coming at the neighborhood from a less-populated direction.
In a couple of hours, they had traversed the distance to the neighborhood without anything out of the ordinary, but as they neared the outskirts of the neighborhood, they slowed Patch to a walk to make less noise, and they started to see the bodies.
What is the state of the neighborhood?
Foolishly / Dry
That doesn't make sense with the recent moisture and overall wet and muddy but drying conditions.
Lightly / Macabre
The scent hit them before the sight did. A cloying smell of death clung to the very air, and it chased away any bright memories, yanking them back to reality. Half-eaten and half decomposed, mutilated corpses lay twisted in the wild yellow grasses that rose thigh high on the sides of the road, practically choking on the unsavory nutrients.
Jodi saw messages scrawled on sides of buildings, on walls, on the sides of decomposing paint-faded vehicles. Messages in spray paint or brush that were fading with weather and the passage of time. Messages to loved ones. Messages to others.
"Jasper, meet at Grandpa's. Don't take highway 10."
"Elsa, we love you. Will return every Saturday at noon."
Some were weak attempts at humor.
"Come in, Yankee... Go home, Zombie!"
"I gave it both barrels."
"One zed dead head is better than two zeds alive in a bed."
Do any zeds make an appearance?
(50/50 | 3[d10]) No
All is quiet save for the buzzing of bloated flies, feasting on the fallen.
Is the neighborhood looted?
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
The buildings appeared to be looted already. Hope sank in Jodi's heart. If the clinic were already looted, then they might not find anything, and the trip would be for naught.
The gate around the neighborhood was closed and squeaked slightly in a mid-morning breeze, the latch snapped and broken. The body of a man in a faded uniform lay against the inside of the gate, its weight slowing the ponderous open and close motion of the gate. The flesh on the corpse had decomposed greatly; he was largely skeletal, and his skull had been partially crushed in around some of the bars, as if a massive hand had swatted him him against it. A patch on the shoulder of a faded blue shirt was half torn. The inscription above the breast read SECURITY. His worn holster, empty.
Further down the street, house cats had turned feral and feasted on a corpse, hissing and scratching at each other. Jodi wondered why. It wasn't as if there weren't enough corpses to go around.
They hopped off Patch, and Jodi tethered her to the gate on the east of the gated neighborhood.
"Someone's already been through here," Kristine said, and she slowly swung her rifle off her shoulder.
"Looks like it," Jodi nodded.
"Maybe the biters are all dead."
Jodi gave Kristine a flat look, then gave Patch a friendly pat, scratching behind her ears and on the white patch on its forehead.
"Let's make this quick," she said, bringing her rifle out and into a ready position. "In and out."
"In and out," Kristine said. "Right. That should be simple."
Together, they walked cautiously down the street.
Empty windows and doorways stared at them like empty eye sockets as they walked down the street. Doors hung on hinges, squeaking fitfully in protest at their passing. Glass crunched underfoot in the cracked pavement. Furniture, clothing, and broken useless electronics littered the streets in tangled messes of wires and plastics. Trash tumbled by underfoot, and random pieces of plastic sheeting rolled about like a tumbleweed.
Near the other end of the neighborhood, the Costwell Medical Clinic rose above them, a large, rectangular, two-story building. Jodi guessed that it likely serviced patients from the surrounding rural neighborhoods and maybe even some from the highway that served as one of the main arteries to and from the city.
Does it look like the clinic has been looted too?
(Likely | 4[d10]) No
Amazingly, as they drew closer, the medical clinic appeared to have been spared the same fate as the rest of the neighborhood. As Jodi got closer, she could see why. Metal shutters were drawn down and locked. She rounded the building, weaving through cars, and debris in the parking lot. In addition, a large imposing metal gate lay across both doors.
She cautiously tried the gate.
Is it locked?
(Very Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
"This looks promising," Kristine groaned.
The sarcasm wasn't very amusing to Jodi, but she let it pass.
How to get in? Metal shutters weren't an option. The gate was less so.
Her eyes scanned the second story.
Did she see any unblocked windows?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
Is it broken in?
(50/50 | 8[d10]) Yes
At least someone had found a way in... or out through the window. Jodi examined other possible ways up. Short of a ladder, if she could get atop the wooden awning that protected the first level entry ways from rain and ice during the winter months, she could maybe climb to the top.
Can Jodi get up to the awning with Kristine's help? (+1 help, +1 athleticism)
(Likely | 5[d10]) No, but...
Jodi tried to pull herself up, but the awning was slick from the recent moisture and some of it still in perpetual shade even had ice. She let herself drop back down. Then she noticed a retractable fire escape that led up to a different window.
If she could pull it down somehow she might be able to get up and in.
"We need something to pull down that ladder," Jodi said.
Kristine nodded, and they searched in a nearby garage in the house next door, looking for for a rope or cable or something.
Do they find anything?
(Somewhat Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
In one of the garages, behind a broken and half smashed generator covered in dust and blood lay a plastic bin. Pulling off the lid, Jodi pulls out some old climbing gear, complete with harnesses, ropes, carabiners, helmets.
Are there any zeds in the house that hear them?
(50/50 | 7[d10]) Yes
how many?
4 = 4[d4]
As soon as they pull the gear out, the jangling sound from cable, pulleys, and carabiners is added upon by thumping sounds coming from a door leading from the garage into the house.
Can the zeds get out of the door?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
The door leading in the house had it's handle broken off and the door is only loosely tied shut with some simple electrical wires. A leering skull grinned at them in black and red paint. At least she hoped it was paint. And not ash and...The corpses start pressing on the door, the wire starts to slide free.
"Time to go," Kristine warned, pointing her rifle at the door.
Jodi grabbed some of climbing gear and slung it over her back. And then she and Kristine dashed out, just as the four zeds lumbered forward in hungry pursuit.
"Back to the horse!" Jodi called to Jodi, her voice soft but intent. "We'll pull them away, lose them on the lane, and then circle back around!"
Kristing nodded, her eyes wide. Jodi knew how easy it was to fall into panic.
They quickly untethered Patch. The mare's eyes were wild and she was skittish as she sensed the monsters approaching.
Can they get away before the zeds get too close?
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
The walkers get to the gate just as they mount and gallop away, south down the road. The corpses followed after them in shambling tireless steps. Out of sight of the corpses, around a slight curve in the road, Jodi wheeled Patch west, and they headed cross country, through trees and clinging undergrowth. Through the tree branches, Jodi caught glimpses of the brown stone wall where the wilderness met with the the south side of the Costwell gated community.
Jodi pulled up reins and they listened.
Do the zeds continue south past them down the road?
(Likely | 7[d10]) Yes
When they couldn't hear the grunting and moaning anymore, they circled back the way they had come, and once more passed through the east gate. This time, however, they rode Patch all the way up to the medical center. Then Jodi tied her reins to the inside of a chest-high fence that surrounded the center's now less-than-perfectly manicured lawn.
Jodi took out the climbing gear and tied a carabiner to one end. Her idea was to hurtle the weighted carabiner over one of the lower rungs of the ladder and get a length of rope around a bottom rung to jostle the ladder down.
Is she successful?
(Somewhat Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
On her first try, the carabiner soars up against the blue late October sky and through one of the lower rungs of the ladder. The carabiner pings off the brick wall behind the ladder, and then off a rain gutter before plopping in the mud.
With the rope now around the rung, Jodi yanked on it, and the ladder came clattering down.
Does anyone hear it?
(50/50 | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
Somewhere in the instance, a dog started to growl. It let out a couple of barks. Then some more. Then it started to bark frantically.
"Hurry!" Jodi urged, feeling a sense of dread. They let their rifles swing from their slings on their backs. Then they both jumped up and grabbed the bottom rung and started to climb up. Jodi climbed first with Kristine a few rungs below her. Kristine's legs dangled a few feet in the air, perhaps six feet above the ground just as a golden retriever Labrador, still with a scraped, worn, leather collar and owner-less leash ran down the street from the west to the east. The dog turned, and snarled at a zed who had lumbered out of some trees nearby after it. The dog backed away, it's head low, it's muzzle pulled back to reveal yellowed foaming teeth.
The corpse that lumbered after the dog was missing an ear, and a rusted knife was stuck to the hilt in its ribs. It didn't appear to care. Both arms came up automatically reaching for the dog. The dog turned again and ran, whines and yips echoing off the empty brick walls, and asphalt as it disappeared.
Does the zed follow the dog?
(50/50 | 3[d10]) No
The corpse however stopped under the ladder. It apparently heard the clambering foot falls on the rungs, and looked up. Then it reached up its arms to the sky, it's fingers barely touching the bottom rung, moaning and groaning.
"We need to get a move on before it brings friends," Kristine murmured. "In and out, you said."
"Right. Keep climbing!" Jodi answered. She made it to the top of the ladder and grasped the ledge. She clung onto the ledge with one hand and with the other she wiped away dirt and grime from the window and peered inside.
Does she see a threat inside?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
Does the threat see her?
(Somewhat Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
Suddenly a head slammed against the window and friction of skin on glass squeaked against the window. A bulbous yellow eye and a half torn face with fang-like yellow teeth eyed Jodi hungrily. Strong hands clawed at the window, scraping at it, scoring and scouring the glass in screeching furrows. Jodi had read Tolkien's "The Hobbit", and unbidden, the chapter heading where the goblins and worgs had trapped the hapless dwarves up trees flitted through her mind.
"Out of the frying pan and into the fire," she muttered.
"What?" Kristine said as Jodi pulled out her pistol and aimed it at the face above her.
Does she shoot it in the head? (Skill +1, -1 for single handed shot, +1 for close, -2 for head)
She shoots six shots. Hits?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 3[d10]) No
(Somewhat Unlikely | 9[d10]) Yes
(Somewhat Unlikely | 3[d10]) No
(Somewhat Unlikely | 2[d10]) No
(Somewhat Unlikely | 3[d10]) No
(Somewhat Unlikely | 5[d10]) No
Jodi fires a series of shots through the window at the thing's head. Bullets slammed into its neck, the cheek, two in the chest, one misses, and one took the corpse in the head, snapping it back.
Does it fall forward?
(50/50 | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
The corpse collapsed forward shattering more glass, and its upper torso became pierced on jagged edges of glass.
"Up the ladder!" Jodi commanded. She slammed her pistol into the glass, collapsing it so the corpse could fall onto the ledge. Then she climbed over the rotting corpse. Jodi helped Kristine up after her and they pushed the corpse out the window, it fell on top of the other one reaching for the ladder below. Then they pulled up the ladder.
"What was that?" Kristine asked.
"Finding a way in."
"You're going to wake up the whole neighborhood!"
Is she right?
(Somewhat Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
A few moments later, Jodi heard the approach of a moaning, snapping crowd of walkers. They came out of the trees from the west side of the neighborhood. She watches as the crowd of zeds slowly but inevitably started to come towards the clinic.
"Then let's be quick about this," Jodi said.
"Really? Ya think?" Kristine said.
How many zeds are there? More than fifty?
(50/50 | 2[d10]) No
More than 25?
(50/50 | 4[d10]) No
More than 15?
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
20 then...
Perhaps a score of corpses in various stages of decay, pushed through the town. They started to make their way towards the neighing horse tied up to the fence. Jodi hoped the fence would give the things some pause. They needed their ride out of here!
Jodi put in a new magazine in her pistol, putting the partially used mag into her vest. They began to check the rooms.
There are four rooms on the second story and four rooms below, including a reception and office area.
Does Kristine know where the medicines might be kept?
(50/50 | 4[d10]) No
"Any idea where the meds would be?" Jodi asked.
Kristine shook her head, "Time to start looking, I guess."
"We stay together," Jodi said. "You open the door, with one hand, I cover you over your shoulder with my pistol. Once any threats inside are dealt with, you search the room, I watch the hallway."
"Right. Easy. Just like those NYPD Blue episodes I used to watch." Kristine nodded. Jodi knew her own knuckles were just as white as Kristine's on her pistol grip.
They quickly investigated the room they climbed into, opening counters, looking behind the medical bed.
Is there medicine in this room?
(50/50 | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
And is it what they need?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 7[d10]) Yes, but...
But what?
Intolerance / Masses
A box was on its side.
"Here!" Kristine says. "I found some!" The labels showed the right antibiotic in an IV solution.
"First room? Good," Jodi says. "That's lucky."
"Grab some and--"
Kristine holds up one of the bags. It's mostly empty and fluid dripped from it. Apparently someone else had been in here and the box had been crushed somehow.
"That won't work," Kristine said. "It's discolored. It's been contaminated."
Jodi swore. "Fine, next room then. Let's go."
Kristine moved across the hallway. To their left were two more doors. To their right stairs descended down. She opened the door directly cross from theirs.
Anyone inside?
(50/50 | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
Two corspes hissed and sputtered, lumbering out, mouths open. They grabbed at Kristine. She fell back with a yelp.
Can Jodi shoot before they grab Kristine?
(Somewhat Likely | 2[d10]) No
Kristine is grabbed. She tries to yank free from their grips. One of them tries to bit her arm.
Jodi shoots. (+1 was prepared, +1 two hands, +1 close, -2 head shot)
She shoots three shots at each head.
First head.
(Somewhat Likely | 6[d10]) Yes
(Somewhat Likely | 7[d10]) Yes
(Somewhat Likely | 1[d10]) No, and...
Positively / Clean
The first head takes two bullets and the thing stumbles backwards, still gripping Kristine's hand in a death grip (or rather a second death grip since it was already dead).
Can Kristine break free?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
Kristine, screams and yanks her hands free then moves behind Jodi. Jodi shoves the gun in the second corpse's face and fires three shots.
(Likely | 4[d10]) No
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
(Likely | 5[d10]) No, but...
She kills this one too.
One of the bullets shatters a glass canister of sterile throat swaps, exploding the jar in a puff of white. [From positively clean event above].
How is Kristine doing?
Celebrate / Fears
Kristine, lets out a deep shuddering breath.
"Thanks! You know, I'm glad you're along. When we get out of here, let's have a drink together."
"In some nice crowded bar with biter customers? I'm looking forward to it," Jodi says. She changes clips again in her pistol, putting in the final full clip.
(She has 17, 11, 11 in her pistol clips and 30, 26, 17 in her rifle)
Does Kristine find medicine in here?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 5[d10]) No
"There's nothing here," Kristine said. She opened up drawers and moving aside debris on the counter and on the bed.
What about bandages, rubbing alchohol etc?
(Somewhat Likely | 1[d10]) No, and...
"The place looks like it's been looted already," Kristine swore.
"Probably came in from that window we saw broken before."
"Two more rooms on this floor," Jodi says. "Then we look below."
"I don't want to," Kristine says.
"I know. Let's go."
They opened up the final doors on this floor.
Any zeds inside either?
(50/50 | 7[d10]) Yes
A single female corpse was in the final room on the top floor. It lay in a hospital gown on the bed. A hospital mask was looped around its ears. It's eyes snapped open, and the thing stumbled off the bed eager for a new meal.
Kristine shoots first. (unskilled -1, +2 close)
She shoots four shots.
(Somewhat Likely | 7[d10]) Yes
(Somewhat Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
(Somewhat Likely | 4[d10]) No, but...
(Somewhat Likely | 4[d10]) No, but...
Kristine shot at the thing. Her first two shots took it in the head, and the second two bullets slam into it's chest. The corpse stumbled backward over the bed it was on before, and it's legs stick up unceremoniously through the shadowy daylight that streams through the rooms windows. Jodi peered out the window. She could see the corpses were drawing closer.
"Hurry!"
Medicine in here?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 2[d10]) No
Other types of supplies? Bandages, rubbing alchohol, sutures, scalpal?
(Somewhat Likely | 1[d10]) No, and...
"Nothing here either!" Kristine moaned. The cabinets were broken in and a few scattered bandaids in a pool of blood were all that were left, scattered on the carpeted floor.
"Downstairs we go then," Jodi said. She holstered her pistol and pulled out her rifle. She led the way down the hallway to the stairs that lead down.
Does she hear any moans coming up the stairs?
(50/50 | 1[d10]) No, and...
Ambiguous event
Persecute
Randomness
Opening MAG to see what that means.
(ring of fire, belts, ray gun, scalpel, wheel, heart, hourglass, ruler, crab claw)
They start to go down the stairs but partway, there is a large machine blocking the entry way. Someone must've pushed it down the stairs. Beyond it is a tray of operating utensils spilled on the stairs. The machine appears to two haves of of a large x-ray machine. It's half disassembled and is blocking the stairway.
Had someone been for parts? Jodi wondered.
"Can you get around it?" Kristine asked.
(Somewhat Likely | 2[d10]) No
Jodi shook her head and swung her rifle behind her back. "Help me lift it."
Kristine puts her pistol away and assists her.
Together, they try to shift it. Any luck?
(Somewhat Likely | 1[d10]) No, and...
Move towards goal
Dominate
News
The machine only budges slightly and a newspaper shifts on the other side of the blockage revealing a box underneath. "Wait!" Kristine called out. "That's it!"
And there in a nondescript box with block face lettering was the medicine. Similar to the other one. This was was undamaged however, and was still taped up. It was the exact type they needed!
But it on the other side of the machine.
Kristine, lay on her stomach, and tried to stretch her arm under part of the machine to reach the box.
Can she grab it closer?
(50/50 | 1[d10]) No, and...
NPC Action
Disrupt
Prison
Something shifts in the wreckage on the stairway and suddenly Kristine's arm was pinned.
"My arm! It's stuck!"
Just then Jodi heard the sound of a motor growing louder, coming from the west. It sounded suspiciously like an ATV.
"Hold on," Jodi said. "I'll be right back!"
"Hold on?" Kristine said. "I need you to--"
Jodi dashed up the stairs, two at a time and dashed into one of the rooms facing out on the street. She swore.
Is it Jen?
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
Jen was astride an ATV, her blond hair blowing freely in the wind. She stopped the ATV and swung down a rifle. She propped the barrel over the handle bar began to shoot at the zeds who were getting perilously close to the horse.
Does she distract them and turn them around?
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
All twenty corpses start to move towards Jen.
Meanwhile on the stairs, can Kristine pull her arm free?
(50/50 | 5[d10]) No, but...
Not quite, but she does push it further in and a finger brushes against the box. "Jodi! I need your help."
Is Jen thinning the herd with her shots?
(Somewhat Likely | 3[d10]) No
She's hitting some of them, but her aim isn't as good. Mainly she's getting chest shots that break some rips but for the most part, they keep coming closer.
"I'm a little busy!" Jodi yelled back. "Jen is here. She's in trouble!"
"What?" Kristine called back and then swore.
"Jen is here!"
Jodi knelt and rested the barrel on a window sill. She sighted in with the scope on the lead zed and shoots.
(+2 brace, +2 scope, -1 walking zed, -2 head, +1 skilled)
"Hey, what about me? I'm in trouble! I can almost get it. My arm!"
"Just hold on!"
Hits to head?
(Likely | 4[d10]) No
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
(Alright. A two-for-one deal as a bullet takes two walking side by side! Way to go sniper babe!)
In five shots, she downs four of them and the fifth she blew off its mouth, so it won't be doing any biting anyway.
Jen shoots again. Does she take out any?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
2 = 2[d4]
Between the two of them, they took out seven.
Kristine tried to pull the box closer. "Come on," she groaned.
(50/50 | 8[d10]) Yes
Finally, Kristine yanked her arm out from under the box. The skin was scraped, but not cut. The box was now much closer. She still couldn't fit it around the machine clogging the hallway. She wondered how the machine got there. Did someone shove it there to keep biters from coming up the stairs? It's a heavy machine. A whole team of men must've been looting the upper story.
Are there zeds below that are attracted to the shooting upstairs and her own struggles to get free?
(50/50 | 2[d10]) No
Kristine, pulls out her knife, and cuts a whole in the box and and starts to pull out the medicine, putting them into a small backpack.
Meanwhile, back at the window sill, Jodi continued to shoot.
Are the zeds, close to Jen now?
(Somewhat Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
"Jen!" Jodi screamed out the window. "Go! Get out! Get away!"
Does she?
(Very Likely | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
But what?
NPC negative
Persecute
Elements
Does it get stuck in mud?
(50/50 | 5[d10]) No, but...
The wheel caught a patch of mud, slipped skidded and hit a fallen corpse. It threw Jen on top of the dead.
(11 = 18[d20]+-7) Minor Injury: Largely superficial; painful and distracting, but not life threatening.
She landed on the body and then rolled through some mud, suffering some minor scrapes and abrasions and muddy hair and splotches of mud on her face.
Jodi covered her, sighting in on more walking corpses aiming for more heads.
She can get five more shots off before they're close to Jen. Hits to the head?
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
(Likely | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
All five drop to the ground. Two of them are demoted to crawlers now, they're spinal columns severed turning them into paraplegia victims.
(9 are dead dead, 2 are crawlers now with blown out legs or spines. 1 is missing a jaw -- that leaves 8 that are in good condition.)
Jen ran over and tried to right her sputtering ATV and use it to get away.
Can she do it before they get too close?
(50/50 | 8[d10]) Yes
She leaped atop it, and gunned the engine and moved away in a roar of combustion, the rear tires spitting mud at the oncoming corpses. She moved at a good pace toward the clinic, putting some distance between them.
"Good girl," Jodi breathed in relief and continued to shoots more zeds.
Five more shots to the head. Hits?
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 4[d10]) No
(Likely | 2[d10]) No
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
(13 dead, 2 are crawlers, 1 is missing a jaw -- that leaves 4 that are in good condition.)
Jen is still out of their range. Jodi can get one more group of five shots off. Hits to head?
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
(Likely | 5[d10]) No, but...
(Likely | 4[d10]) No
(Likely | 3[d10]) No
One of her shots takes off a knee cap.
(16 dead, 3 are crawlers, 1 is missing a jaw)
The one that's missing it's jaw rushes at Jen.
Jen, now in front of the walkway to the clinic, slammed on the breaks and pulled out her rifle.
Does Jen shoot it?
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
(21 = 18[d20]+3) Killed.
The bullet blew out its brain, and the thing fell down mere feet from Jen.
"Jodi?" she called up. "Are you okay?"
"We're okay! Stay there. We're coming down!"
The streets are silent.
Kristine finally finished cutting out the side of the box and pulled out the remaining several bags of medicine. Anibiotics. And just the right kind.
Jen takes her time and finished off the crawlers, her face grim but determined.
Jodi showed up.
"About time," Kristine muttered.
"Sorry. Teenager issues," Jodi said.
Kristine harrumphed.
Any other bandages or useful medical equipment in the box?
(50/50 | 3[d10]) No
Together, Jodi and Kristine, descend the ladder. Jodi gathered up the climbing equipment had shoved it into the saddle bags. Together, the two women mount Patch, Jodi again taking the reins. They return down the road the way they had come, back towards Tanner's lodge.
Jodi and Kristine lead the way, while Jen rides slowly behind them as the sun draws high over head, and vultures circle behind them as they churn up wet dirt and rotten yellow autumn leaves.
[Some of my rolls got lost, so the first few paragraphs are from memory of what I had rolled up.]
Jodi and Kristine made good time down the dirt road that paralleled the highway north. Patch, for her part, didn't seem bothered by the two women on her back. Both women were small, and Kristine a woman of Asian-American parentage was shorter and slighter than Jodi. Jodi sat forward, Kristine's small hands around her waist. But even so, it was crowded as both women, carried rifles and pistols.
The sun sparkled through the partially leafless trees, reflecting off of the small glass-like beads of moisture, remnants of the snow fall, that speckled on the fallen golden autumn leaves. These made a rich carpet for Patch's thudding hoofs. An autumnal smell of wet earth, latent warmth mixed with the sharp coolness of blue skies. The scene made Jodi breathe in the beauty of nature with deep satisfying breaths. She nearly forgot about the dead, the dying, the fallen crumbling world. In fact, she felt like she were ten-years old again, on a two hour pony ride her dad had taken her on.
The good weather, the beautiful scenery and being on horseback, made Kristine positively chatty. she regaled Jodi of multi-day camping trips on horseback into the wilderness areas nearly untouched by man.
Jodi had toyed with the idea of taking an ATV, but those were loud, and fuel was a precious resource as well. With a horse, their approach would be quieter. In addition, they would be coming at the neighborhood from a less-populated direction.
In a couple of hours, they had traversed the distance to the neighborhood without anything out of the ordinary, but as they neared the outskirts of the neighborhood, they slowed Patch to a walk to make less noise, and they started to see the bodies.
What is the state of the neighborhood?
Foolishly / Dry
That doesn't make sense with the recent moisture and overall wet and muddy but drying conditions.
Lightly / Macabre
The scent hit them before the sight did. A cloying smell of death clung to the very air, and it chased away any bright memories, yanking them back to reality. Half-eaten and half decomposed, mutilated corpses lay twisted in the wild yellow grasses that rose thigh high on the sides of the road, practically choking on the unsavory nutrients.
Jodi saw messages scrawled on sides of buildings, on walls, on the sides of decomposing paint-faded vehicles. Messages in spray paint or brush that were fading with weather and the passage of time. Messages to loved ones. Messages to others.
"Jasper, meet at Grandpa's. Don't take highway 10."
"Elsa, we love you. Will return every Saturday at noon."
Some were weak attempts at humor.
"Come in, Yankee... Go home, Zombie!"
"I gave it both barrels."
"One zed dead head is better than two zeds alive in a bed."
Do any zeds make an appearance?
(50/50 | 3[d10]) No
All is quiet save for the buzzing of bloated flies, feasting on the fallen.
Is the neighborhood looted?
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
The buildings appeared to be looted already. Hope sank in Jodi's heart. If the clinic were already looted, then they might not find anything, and the trip would be for naught.
The gate around the neighborhood was closed and squeaked slightly in a mid-morning breeze, the latch snapped and broken. The body of a man in a faded uniform lay against the inside of the gate, its weight slowing the ponderous open and close motion of the gate. The flesh on the corpse had decomposed greatly; he was largely skeletal, and his skull had been partially crushed in around some of the bars, as if a massive hand had swatted him him against it. A patch on the shoulder of a faded blue shirt was half torn. The inscription above the breast read SECURITY. His worn holster, empty.
Further down the street, house cats had turned feral and feasted on a corpse, hissing and scratching at each other. Jodi wondered why. It wasn't as if there weren't enough corpses to go around.
They hopped off Patch, and Jodi tethered her to the gate on the east of the gated neighborhood.
"Someone's already been through here," Kristine said, and she slowly swung her rifle off her shoulder.
"Looks like it," Jodi nodded.
"Maybe the biters are all dead."
Jodi gave Kristine a flat look, then gave Patch a friendly pat, scratching behind her ears and on the white patch on its forehead.
"Let's make this quick," she said, bringing her rifle out and into a ready position. "In and out."
"In and out," Kristine said. "Right. That should be simple."
Together, they walked cautiously down the street.
Empty windows and doorways stared at them like empty eye sockets as they walked down the street. Doors hung on hinges, squeaking fitfully in protest at their passing. Glass crunched underfoot in the cracked pavement. Furniture, clothing, and broken useless electronics littered the streets in tangled messes of wires and plastics. Trash tumbled by underfoot, and random pieces of plastic sheeting rolled about like a tumbleweed.
Near the other end of the neighborhood, the Costwell Medical Clinic rose above them, a large, rectangular, two-story building. Jodi guessed that it likely serviced patients from the surrounding rural neighborhoods and maybe even some from the highway that served as one of the main arteries to and from the city.
Does it look like the clinic has been looted too?
(Likely | 4[d10]) No
Amazingly, as they drew closer, the medical clinic appeared to have been spared the same fate as the rest of the neighborhood. As Jodi got closer, she could see why. Metal shutters were drawn down and locked. She rounded the building, weaving through cars, and debris in the parking lot. In addition, a large imposing metal gate lay across both doors.
She cautiously tried the gate.
Is it locked?
(Very Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
"This looks promising," Kristine groaned.
The sarcasm wasn't very amusing to Jodi, but she let it pass.
How to get in? Metal shutters weren't an option. The gate was less so.
Her eyes scanned the second story.
Did she see any unblocked windows?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
Is it broken in?
(50/50 | 8[d10]) Yes
At least someone had found a way in... or out through the window. Jodi examined other possible ways up. Short of a ladder, if she could get atop the wooden awning that protected the first level entry ways from rain and ice during the winter months, she could maybe climb to the top.
Can Jodi get up to the awning with Kristine's help? (+1 help, +1 athleticism)
(Likely | 5[d10]) No, but...
Jodi tried to pull herself up, but the awning was slick from the recent moisture and some of it still in perpetual shade even had ice. She let herself drop back down. Then she noticed a retractable fire escape that led up to a different window.
If she could pull it down somehow she might be able to get up and in.
"We need something to pull down that ladder," Jodi said.
Kristine nodded, and they searched in a nearby garage in the house next door, looking for for a rope or cable or something.
Do they find anything?
(Somewhat Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
In one of the garages, behind a broken and half smashed generator covered in dust and blood lay a plastic bin. Pulling off the lid, Jodi pulls out some old climbing gear, complete with harnesses, ropes, carabiners, helmets.
Are there any zeds in the house that hear them?
(50/50 | 7[d10]) Yes
how many?
4 = 4[d4]
As soon as they pull the gear out, the jangling sound from cable, pulleys, and carabiners is added upon by thumping sounds coming from a door leading from the garage into the house.
Can the zeds get out of the door?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
The door leading in the house had it's handle broken off and the door is only loosely tied shut with some simple electrical wires. A leering skull grinned at them in black and red paint. At least she hoped it was paint. And not ash and...The corpses start pressing on the door, the wire starts to slide free.
"Time to go," Kristine warned, pointing her rifle at the door.
Jodi grabbed some of climbing gear and slung it over her back. And then she and Kristine dashed out, just as the four zeds lumbered forward in hungry pursuit.
"Back to the horse!" Jodi called to Jodi, her voice soft but intent. "We'll pull them away, lose them on the lane, and then circle back around!"
Kristing nodded, her eyes wide. Jodi knew how easy it was to fall into panic.
They quickly untethered Patch. The mare's eyes were wild and she was skittish as she sensed the monsters approaching.
Can they get away before the zeds get too close?
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
The walkers get to the gate just as they mount and gallop away, south down the road. The corpses followed after them in shambling tireless steps. Out of sight of the corpses, around a slight curve in the road, Jodi wheeled Patch west, and they headed cross country, through trees and clinging undergrowth. Through the tree branches, Jodi caught glimpses of the brown stone wall where the wilderness met with the the south side of the Costwell gated community.
Jodi pulled up reins and they listened.
Do the zeds continue south past them down the road?
(Likely | 7[d10]) Yes
When they couldn't hear the grunting and moaning anymore, they circled back the way they had come, and once more passed through the east gate. This time, however, they rode Patch all the way up to the medical center. Then Jodi tied her reins to the inside of a chest-high fence that surrounded the center's now less-than-perfectly manicured lawn.
Jodi took out the climbing gear and tied a carabiner to one end. Her idea was to hurtle the weighted carabiner over one of the lower rungs of the ladder and get a length of rope around a bottom rung to jostle the ladder down.
Is she successful?
(Somewhat Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
On her first try, the carabiner soars up against the blue late October sky and through one of the lower rungs of the ladder. The carabiner pings off the brick wall behind the ladder, and then off a rain gutter before plopping in the mud.
With the rope now around the rung, Jodi yanked on it, and the ladder came clattering down.
Does anyone hear it?
(50/50 | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
Somewhere in the instance, a dog started to growl. It let out a couple of barks. Then some more. Then it started to bark frantically.
"Hurry!" Jodi urged, feeling a sense of dread. They let their rifles swing from their slings on their backs. Then they both jumped up and grabbed the bottom rung and started to climb up. Jodi climbed first with Kristine a few rungs below her. Kristine's legs dangled a few feet in the air, perhaps six feet above the ground just as a golden retriever Labrador, still with a scraped, worn, leather collar and owner-less leash ran down the street from the west to the east. The dog turned, and snarled at a zed who had lumbered out of some trees nearby after it. The dog backed away, it's head low, it's muzzle pulled back to reveal yellowed foaming teeth.
The corpse that lumbered after the dog was missing an ear, and a rusted knife was stuck to the hilt in its ribs. It didn't appear to care. Both arms came up automatically reaching for the dog. The dog turned again and ran, whines and yips echoing off the empty brick walls, and asphalt as it disappeared.
Does the zed follow the dog?
(50/50 | 3[d10]) No
The corpse however stopped under the ladder. It apparently heard the clambering foot falls on the rungs, and looked up. Then it reached up its arms to the sky, it's fingers barely touching the bottom rung, moaning and groaning.
"We need to get a move on before it brings friends," Kristine murmured. "In and out, you said."
"Right. Keep climbing!" Jodi answered. She made it to the top of the ladder and grasped the ledge. She clung onto the ledge with one hand and with the other she wiped away dirt and grime from the window and peered inside.
Does she see a threat inside?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
Does the threat see her?
(Somewhat Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
Suddenly a head slammed against the window and friction of skin on glass squeaked against the window. A bulbous yellow eye and a half torn face with fang-like yellow teeth eyed Jodi hungrily. Strong hands clawed at the window, scraping at it, scoring and scouring the glass in screeching furrows. Jodi had read Tolkien's "The Hobbit", and unbidden, the chapter heading where the goblins and worgs had trapped the hapless dwarves up trees flitted through her mind.
"Out of the frying pan and into the fire," she muttered.
"What?" Kristine said as Jodi pulled out her pistol and aimed it at the face above her.
Does she shoot it in the head? (Skill +1, -1 for single handed shot, +1 for close, -2 for head)
She shoots six shots. Hits?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 3[d10]) No
(Somewhat Unlikely | 9[d10]) Yes
(Somewhat Unlikely | 3[d10]) No
(Somewhat Unlikely | 2[d10]) No
(Somewhat Unlikely | 3[d10]) No
(Somewhat Unlikely | 5[d10]) No
Jodi fires a series of shots through the window at the thing's head. Bullets slammed into its neck, the cheek, two in the chest, one misses, and one took the corpse in the head, snapping it back.
Does it fall forward?
(50/50 | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
The corpse collapsed forward shattering more glass, and its upper torso became pierced on jagged edges of glass.
"Up the ladder!" Jodi commanded. She slammed her pistol into the glass, collapsing it so the corpse could fall onto the ledge. Then she climbed over the rotting corpse. Jodi helped Kristine up after her and they pushed the corpse out the window, it fell on top of the other one reaching for the ladder below. Then they pulled up the ladder.
"What was that?" Kristine asked.
"Finding a way in."
"You're going to wake up the whole neighborhood!"
Is she right?
(Somewhat Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
A few moments later, Jodi heard the approach of a moaning, snapping crowd of walkers. They came out of the trees from the west side of the neighborhood. She watches as the crowd of zeds slowly but inevitably started to come towards the clinic.
"Then let's be quick about this," Jodi said.
"Really? Ya think?" Kristine said.
How many zeds are there? More than fifty?
(50/50 | 2[d10]) No
More than 25?
(50/50 | 4[d10]) No
More than 15?
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
20 then...
Perhaps a score of corpses in various stages of decay, pushed through the town. They started to make their way towards the neighing horse tied up to the fence. Jodi hoped the fence would give the things some pause. They needed their ride out of here!
Jodi put in a new magazine in her pistol, putting the partially used mag into her vest. They began to check the rooms.
There are four rooms on the second story and four rooms below, including a reception and office area.
Does Kristine know where the medicines might be kept?
(50/50 | 4[d10]) No
"Any idea where the meds would be?" Jodi asked.
Kristine shook her head, "Time to start looking, I guess."
"We stay together," Jodi said. "You open the door, with one hand, I cover you over your shoulder with my pistol. Once any threats inside are dealt with, you search the room, I watch the hallway."
"Right. Easy. Just like those NYPD Blue episodes I used to watch." Kristine nodded. Jodi knew her own knuckles were just as white as Kristine's on her pistol grip.
They quickly investigated the room they climbed into, opening counters, looking behind the medical bed.
Is there medicine in this room?
(50/50 | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
And is it what they need?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 7[d10]) Yes, but...
But what?
Intolerance / Masses
A box was on its side.
"Here!" Kristine says. "I found some!" The labels showed the right antibiotic in an IV solution.
"First room? Good," Jodi says. "That's lucky."
"Grab some and--"
Kristine holds up one of the bags. It's mostly empty and fluid dripped from it. Apparently someone else had been in here and the box had been crushed somehow.
"That won't work," Kristine said. "It's discolored. It's been contaminated."
Jodi swore. "Fine, next room then. Let's go."
Kristine moved across the hallway. To their left were two more doors. To their right stairs descended down. She opened the door directly cross from theirs.
Anyone inside?
(50/50 | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
Two corspes hissed and sputtered, lumbering out, mouths open. They grabbed at Kristine. She fell back with a yelp.
Can Jodi shoot before they grab Kristine?
(Somewhat Likely | 2[d10]) No
Kristine is grabbed. She tries to yank free from their grips. One of them tries to bit her arm.
Jodi shoots. (+1 was prepared, +1 two hands, +1 close, -2 head shot)
She shoots three shots at each head.
First head.
(Somewhat Likely | 6[d10]) Yes
(Somewhat Likely | 7[d10]) Yes
(Somewhat Likely | 1[d10]) No, and...
Positively / Clean
The first head takes two bullets and the thing stumbles backwards, still gripping Kristine's hand in a death grip (or rather a second death grip since it was already dead).
Can Kristine break free?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
Kristine, screams and yanks her hands free then moves behind Jodi. Jodi shoves the gun in the second corpse's face and fires three shots.
(Likely | 4[d10]) No
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
(Likely | 5[d10]) No, but...
She kills this one too.
One of the bullets shatters a glass canister of sterile throat swaps, exploding the jar in a puff of white. [From positively clean event above].
How is Kristine doing?
Celebrate / Fears
Kristine, lets out a deep shuddering breath.
"Thanks! You know, I'm glad you're along. When we get out of here, let's have a drink together."
"In some nice crowded bar with biter customers? I'm looking forward to it," Jodi says. She changes clips again in her pistol, putting in the final full clip.
(She has 17, 11, 11 in her pistol clips and 30, 26, 17 in her rifle)
Does Kristine find medicine in here?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 5[d10]) No
"There's nothing here," Kristine said. She opened up drawers and moving aside debris on the counter and on the bed.
What about bandages, rubbing alchohol etc?
(Somewhat Likely | 1[d10]) No, and...
"The place looks like it's been looted already," Kristine swore.
"Probably came in from that window we saw broken before."
"Two more rooms on this floor," Jodi says. "Then we look below."
"I don't want to," Kristine says.
"I know. Let's go."
They opened up the final doors on this floor.
Any zeds inside either?
(50/50 | 7[d10]) Yes
A single female corpse was in the final room on the top floor. It lay in a hospital gown on the bed. A hospital mask was looped around its ears. It's eyes snapped open, and the thing stumbled off the bed eager for a new meal.
Kristine shoots first. (unskilled -1, +2 close)
She shoots four shots.
(Somewhat Likely | 7[d10]) Yes
(Somewhat Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
(Somewhat Likely | 4[d10]) No, but...
(Somewhat Likely | 4[d10]) No, but...
Kristine shot at the thing. Her first two shots took it in the head, and the second two bullets slam into it's chest. The corpse stumbled backward over the bed it was on before, and it's legs stick up unceremoniously through the shadowy daylight that streams through the rooms windows. Jodi peered out the window. She could see the corpses were drawing closer.
"Hurry!"
Medicine in here?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 2[d10]) No
Other types of supplies? Bandages, rubbing alchohol, sutures, scalpal?
(Somewhat Likely | 1[d10]) No, and...
"Nothing here either!" Kristine moaned. The cabinets were broken in and a few scattered bandaids in a pool of blood were all that were left, scattered on the carpeted floor.
"Downstairs we go then," Jodi said. She holstered her pistol and pulled out her rifle. She led the way down the hallway to the stairs that lead down.
Does she hear any moans coming up the stairs?
(50/50 | 1[d10]) No, and...
Ambiguous event
Persecute
Randomness
Opening MAG to see what that means.
(ring of fire, belts, ray gun, scalpel, wheel, heart, hourglass, ruler, crab claw)
They start to go down the stairs but partway, there is a large machine blocking the entry way. Someone must've pushed it down the stairs. Beyond it is a tray of operating utensils spilled on the stairs. The machine appears to two haves of of a large x-ray machine. It's half disassembled and is blocking the stairway.
Had someone been for parts? Jodi wondered.
"Can you get around it?" Kristine asked.
(Somewhat Likely | 2[d10]) No
Jodi shook her head and swung her rifle behind her back. "Help me lift it."
Kristine puts her pistol away and assists her.
Together, they try to shift it. Any luck?
(Somewhat Likely | 1[d10]) No, and...
Move towards goal
Dominate
News
The machine only budges slightly and a newspaper shifts on the other side of the blockage revealing a box underneath. "Wait!" Kristine called out. "That's it!"
And there in a nondescript box with block face lettering was the medicine. Similar to the other one. This was was undamaged however, and was still taped up. It was the exact type they needed!
But it on the other side of the machine.
Kristine, lay on her stomach, and tried to stretch her arm under part of the machine to reach the box.
Can she grab it closer?
(50/50 | 1[d10]) No, and...
NPC Action
Disrupt
Prison
Something shifts in the wreckage on the stairway and suddenly Kristine's arm was pinned.
"My arm! It's stuck!"
Just then Jodi heard the sound of a motor growing louder, coming from the west. It sounded suspiciously like an ATV.
"Hold on," Jodi said. "I'll be right back!"
"Hold on?" Kristine said. "I need you to--"
Jodi dashed up the stairs, two at a time and dashed into one of the rooms facing out on the street. She swore.
Is it Jen?
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
Jen was astride an ATV, her blond hair blowing freely in the wind. She stopped the ATV and swung down a rifle. She propped the barrel over the handle bar began to shoot at the zeds who were getting perilously close to the horse.
Does she distract them and turn them around?
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
All twenty corpses start to move towards Jen.
Meanwhile on the stairs, can Kristine pull her arm free?
(50/50 | 5[d10]) No, but...
Not quite, but she does push it further in and a finger brushes against the box. "Jodi! I need your help."
Is Jen thinning the herd with her shots?
(Somewhat Likely | 3[d10]) No
She's hitting some of them, but her aim isn't as good. Mainly she's getting chest shots that break some rips but for the most part, they keep coming closer.
"I'm a little busy!" Jodi yelled back. "Jen is here. She's in trouble!"
"What?" Kristine called back and then swore.
"Jen is here!"
Jodi knelt and rested the barrel on a window sill. She sighted in with the scope on the lead zed and shoots.
(+2 brace, +2 scope, -1 walking zed, -2 head, +1 skilled)
"Hey, what about me? I'm in trouble! I can almost get it. My arm!"
"Just hold on!"
Hits to head?
(Likely | 4[d10]) No
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
(Alright. A two-for-one deal as a bullet takes two walking side by side! Way to go sniper babe!)
In five shots, she downs four of them and the fifth she blew off its mouth, so it won't be doing any biting anyway.
Jen shoots again. Does she take out any?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
2 = 2[d4]
Between the two of them, they took out seven.
Kristine tried to pull the box closer. "Come on," she groaned.
(50/50 | 8[d10]) Yes
Finally, Kristine yanked her arm out from under the box. The skin was scraped, but not cut. The box was now much closer. She still couldn't fit it around the machine clogging the hallway. She wondered how the machine got there. Did someone shove it there to keep biters from coming up the stairs? It's a heavy machine. A whole team of men must've been looting the upper story.
Are there zeds below that are attracted to the shooting upstairs and her own struggles to get free?
(50/50 | 2[d10]) No
Kristine, pulls out her knife, and cuts a whole in the box and and starts to pull out the medicine, putting them into a small backpack.
Meanwhile, back at the window sill, Jodi continued to shoot.
Are the zeds, close to Jen now?
(Somewhat Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
"Jen!" Jodi screamed out the window. "Go! Get out! Get away!"
Does she?
(Very Likely | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
But what?
NPC negative
Persecute
Elements
Does it get stuck in mud?
(50/50 | 5[d10]) No, but...
The wheel caught a patch of mud, slipped skidded and hit a fallen corpse. It threw Jen on top of the dead.
(11 = 18[d20]+-7) Minor Injury: Largely superficial; painful and distracting, but not life threatening.
She landed on the body and then rolled through some mud, suffering some minor scrapes and abrasions and muddy hair and splotches of mud on her face.
Jodi covered her, sighting in on more walking corpses aiming for more heads.
She can get five more shots off before they're close to Jen. Hits to the head?
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
(Likely | 6[d10]) Yes, but...
All five drop to the ground. Two of them are demoted to crawlers now, they're spinal columns severed turning them into paraplegia victims.
(9 are dead dead, 2 are crawlers now with blown out legs or spines. 1 is missing a jaw -- that leaves 8 that are in good condition.)
Jen ran over and tried to right her sputtering ATV and use it to get away.
Can she do it before they get too close?
(50/50 | 8[d10]) Yes
She leaped atop it, and gunned the engine and moved away in a roar of combustion, the rear tires spitting mud at the oncoming corpses. She moved at a good pace toward the clinic, putting some distance between them.
"Good girl," Jodi breathed in relief and continued to shoots more zeds.
Five more shots to the head. Hits?
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 4[d10]) No
(Likely | 2[d10]) No
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
(13 dead, 2 are crawlers, 1 is missing a jaw -- that leaves 4 that are in good condition.)
Jen is still out of their range. Jodi can get one more group of five shots off. Hits to head?
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
(Likely | 5[d10]) No, but...
(Likely | 4[d10]) No
(Likely | 3[d10]) No
One of her shots takes off a knee cap.
(16 dead, 3 are crawlers, 1 is missing a jaw)
The one that's missing it's jaw rushes at Jen.
Jen, now in front of the walkway to the clinic, slammed on the breaks and pulled out her rifle.
Does Jen shoot it?
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
(21 = 18[d20]+3) Killed.
The bullet blew out its brain, and the thing fell down mere feet from Jen.
"Jodi?" she called up. "Are you okay?"
"We're okay! Stay there. We're coming down!"
The streets are silent.
Kristine finally finished cutting out the side of the box and pulled out the remaining several bags of medicine. Anibiotics. And just the right kind.
Jen takes her time and finished off the crawlers, her face grim but determined.
Jodi showed up.
"About time," Kristine muttered.
"Sorry. Teenager issues," Jodi said.
Kristine harrumphed.
Any other bandages or useful medical equipment in the box?
(50/50 | 3[d10]) No
Together, Jodi and Kristine, descend the ladder. Jodi gathered up the climbing equipment had shoved it into the saddle bags. Together, the two women mount Patch, Jodi again taking the reins. They return down the road the way they had come, back towards Tanner's lodge.
Jodi and Kristine lead the way, while Jen rides slowly behind them as the sun draws high over head, and vultures circle behind them as they churn up wet dirt and rotten yellow autumn leaves.
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