Multiple Settings Dying to Live, Living to Die (Hopefully not cliche Zombie Survival)

[The Omen of Death]

You are drifting through darkness, floating weightless in an inky black void. Slowly you realize you are not quite awake, but coming out of unconsciousness; you must have passed out for some reason. You try to sit up, but some unseen force holds your body down. With a note of frustration, you realize again that you are still not fully awake. Focusing your will you try to start yourself awake, and for a moment it seems to work – you sit up and look around and can see that you are in a dark tunnel with very little light. You notice a man stooped over some object to your right and try to call out to him, but your voice does not work. Regardless, the man turns to look at you and it is then that you see it is not a man at all, but a smoky silhouette of shadow in vaguely a man-like shape. The thing sets upon you in a flash and you feel a smothering presence overpowering you in the darkness, wrapping you up, holding you down; trying to invade you. In panic you jolt awake – this time for real.

The first thing you notice is a sharp stabbing pain in your head. Reaching up, you feel your hair matted in blood and grimace as you run your fingers over the jagged edges of what must surely be a serious head wound. Part of your scalp has actually been torn free of your skull and hangs in a greasy mess over your ear. You’re not bleeding from the wound very much – it seems to have clotted – but you definitely should get it seen by a medical professional sooner than later…

In addition, your left arm, shoulder, and side are numb. Moving them slightly, you wince at small twinges of pain here and there, but are relieved to see that they are not broken – though it does seem that you have been thrown down on that side recently and with significant force.

Sitting yourself up against a wall of cool damp stone you take in your surroundings. The floor is of hard packed dirt with a thick layer of dust on top and (from what you can feel), quite a bit of shattered safety glass lays around you. In the air, you smell a mix of smoke and ozone, like when an electrical outlet shorts out. That and the heavy stink of blood (your own maybe, you do seem to have lost quite a bit) and something reminiscent of burning hair… All in all, it’s somewhat hard to breathe, as if you’re not quite getting enough oxygen with each breath.

It is very dark, but a dim greenish glow stemming from a huge mass of twisted metal before you gives enough illumination to at least make out your hand in front of your face, as well as what’s immediately around you. Looking at the mass in front of you, you can see that it is the wreckage of a subway train – or perhaps even two trains – as if one had run up into another on the same track. Now, however, the subway cars choke the dark tunnel you are in, cast zigzag across the tracks in a crumpled and jagged pile of wreckage. The greenish glow comes from inside the smashed train cars themselves and you surmise that it would be illumination from the emergency exits.

Looking to your right, you see a mangled body without a head. You shudder and wonder what it was you saw standing over that body in your half-conscious dream state.

Thinking back, you try to remember how you could have arrived in such a predicament, but you can’t get past the pain in your head. Your memory is all cloudy. How much of it have you lost? All of it apparently; you can’t even recall your own name. Looking yourself over for a clue to your own identity, you note that you are wearing reasonably savvy business attire with a gold watch. Unfortunately, the watch is broken, its face smashed and the hands stopped at 7:40 am.

Checking your back pocket you find your wallet and upon looking inside, you find your license.

“Greg Bradley”, you say to yourself, reading the name off the ID. The address shows a street in the suburbs. There’s also a photo of the wife and kids (you guess). The woman is pretty enough and there are two cute girls – a ten-year-old and a younger one, maybe seven.

A twinge of frustration creeps into your mind. Why can’t you remember anything? Isn’t seeing things like this supposed to jar a memory or something? You take the photo out of the wallet and tuck it into your breast pocket. Checking the rest of the contents, you find a number of low-end credit cards, $50 cash, and a half dozen of your own business cards; showing that you are an accountant for the Morgan Corporation, located on the 24th floor of the Summit Tower.

Also in your possession is a crushed cell phone (totally dead) and a ring of keys including the key and fob to a Toyota, a house key, a PO Box key, a padlock key, and what you think is an elevator key marked ‘ST 24’. Incidentally, your key chain also includes a small LED penlight – which upon testing in the darkness of the tunnel, seems to offer minuscule comfort against the engulfing blackness.

It occurs to you that you should probably find something to bandage your head with. You consider for a moment trying to use your shirt as a makeshift bandage. It seems to work in the movies.

It is then that you hear the rattle of movement from within the pile of train wreckage before you, followed by a long mournful sounding groan. Instinctively, you quickly turn off your penlight and remain still; waiting to see what is making the noise without yet revealing your presence. You don’t hear the sound again and wonder if some injured person is trapped there in the twisted subway cars, waiting for you to make the first move…

1. Wait quietly for help to arrive
2. Bind your head with cloth from your shirt
3. Call out to whoever is there
4. Try to sneak toward the source of the sound without revealing your presence
5. Ignore the sound and climb through the wreckage to the front of the subway train
6. Ignore the sound and climb through the wreckage to the rear of the subway train

 

[Tom-Pen]

4.

BTW (This is a great piece, really well written, and intriguing).

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Thank you, I appreciate it, obviously this seems to have a good start with someone, even though for a while I thought this was going to die in the annals of the Questing forum, I will have this move on with your choice now because so far it didn't appear anyone else will give out a choice, for now so we shall go with what you gave.)

(So Choice 4 has been chosen with 1 vote!)

Hauling yourself up, you cautiously move toward the sound of the person seemingly trapped in the wreckage. Climbing up the caved-in side of an overturned subway car you peer over to see a horrific sight. Train cars and bodies are smashed together in a grizzly mess that makes your stomach lurch. Severed limbs and broken corpses litter the debris, while one particularly gruesome body has literally had its entrails torn out and spread over a large bloody swath. Of particularly chilling detail, you notice shuffling footprints moving through the mess, leaving a trail on the other side of the pileup, and headed off toward the front of the train wreck.

You again hear the moaning and follow it to where two train cars have slammed together side-to-side. There, a man is trapped between the two cars just above the waist. You have no idea how he could still be alive, as the damage looks grave. You can’t see it from here, but you can imagine his pelvis and legs have probably been sheared off and right now, only the pressure of the train cars slammed together holds his insides from falling out beneath him. The man looks like he is in shock and moans, still trying to pull free now and again, but without much real effort. You notice a lot of blood around his mouth and throat – probably what he has spit up since getting pinned.

1. Go to see if you can help this poor soul (maybe it’s not as bad as it looks)
2. Ignore the person in the wreckage and climb through the mess to the front of the subway train (following the bloody footprints)
3. Ignore the person in the wreckage and climb through the mess to the rear of the subway train

 

[Tom-Pen]

1.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Choice 1 was chosen with 1 vote!)

As you approach the man, he looks up and moans loudly reaching with his arms towards you. Going around behind him you reach under his arms in an attempt to pull him free. Not only is he stuck fast, but he actually tries to bite your arm as you try to help him. You pull back just in time and the man goes berserk, snarling and biting at you and thrashing about wildly. You notice that he is slowly beginning to extricate himself with all the erratic movement – but not simply by slipping out from between the two train cars – the thing is actually tearing itself free from its lower half in a spill of steaming red entrails!

1. Find a large stone to smash its head in with
2. Flee through the wreckage to the front of the subway train
3. Flee through the wreckage to the rear of the subway train

 

[Tom-Pen]

2.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Option 2 was chosen with 1 vote!)

You move quickly avoiding the man, ignoring the mess behind you and with the throbbing pain of your injuries, make your way over and through the wreckage of the train cars that scatter the tunnel in the direction, the train was headed for before the wreck.

Along the way you see dead bodies everywhere, smashed into the twisted metal of the wrecked train cars – each more gruesome than the last. Disturbingly, you also notice an unusually large amount of entrails scattered about. You somehow doubt that that many people could all have been disemboweled simultaneously by a simple train wreck – even one as serious as this one appears to be. You’re not sure (and you certainly don’t want to get close enough to find out firsthand), but some of the bodies even look as if they have recently been savaged, as if by some wild animals’ rending jaws. As you get further along, you also notice a large number of bloody footprints headed in the same direction you are going. They seem to be joined by more and more footprints as you pass through one mangled subway car after another.

At length you get to the front of the train you must have been riding on. In walking, you surmise that you had been on the train and thrown out a window when it crashed. You must have struck your head when you landed, which knocked you out for who knows how long. On that thought, you risk approaching a random victim’s arm sticking out of the wreckage to take their watch. Unlike yours, this one still works and indicates the time to be 6:04 pm. If that is correct, and your watch indicates the time of the crash, that means you were out of it for roughly ten hours. Wow, you’d better not go back to sleep until you can get yourself to a hospital or you might not wake up again. You also find a working cell phone in the aisle as you go and see that it still works, but there’s no signal down here in the subway tunnel.

Looking at the first car of your train, you see that it is completely flattened under the rear cars of another train. It looks as if the first train was stopped on the tracks and your train somehow ran into the back of it at a rather high rate of speed.

Continuing on, you cautiously pass through the scattered cars of this train with much the same scene of carnage cast before your eyes, until you finally arrive at the head of the first train. Unlike your train, the first car of this train is relatively intact. You know that at the very front of the train is a control room, which hopefully will have at least a first aid kit and if you’re lucky, a working radio. As you approach, you see that all the bloody footprints leave the train at this point and continue down the tunnel in the direction the train was headed. They are quickly lost however in the hard-packed dirt and darkness of the tunnel itself – though following them won’t be a problem – you only got one direction to go – unless you want to turn around and go back the way you just came it appears it would be safe to do so as it does not appear anything is following you anymore.

1. Search the train’s control room before deciding what to do
2. Turn and go back

 

[Tom-Pen]

1.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Choice 1 was chosen with 1 vote!)

The door to the train’s control room is locked, but you are able to go outside and pull the smashed remains of the train car’s windshield out, allowing you to climb inside. When the train was hit from behind, it caused the cars of both trains to accordion together, sending them sliding almost sideways down the tunnel into each other until this particular car got wedged in a narrow spot and caused the massive and jagged pileup behind it. As you enter the control room, you see that the driver of the train has been crushed to death by the front of the train as it smashed into the side of the tunnel and got wedged in. You try not to look too closely at his flattened and gore drained shell; or the pool of mess under what’s left of his seat.

Checking the area, you see a map of the train lines on one wall and note that the train was headed into the city before it crashed. That makes sense to you, as you would have been traveling from your house in the suburbs to your office in the city during the morning rush. Looking around some more, you find a well-stocked first aid kit, a proper flashlight, a crowbar, some signal flares, a large fire extinguisher, and working CB radio. You also find the train operator’s book bag with his lunch in it and help yourself to the contents, seeing as he won’t miss it anytime soon. You’re actually surprised that it tastes so good, given that you’re eating it in a small room with a horribly mangled corpse just a few feet away.

After eating, you wrap your wounds in proper bandages and down a couple of pain pills and a no doze. You’re pretty sure you don’t want to fall asleep in here regardless of the head injury. You definitely don’t feel safe down here in this tunnel of death. Packing the first aid kit, flashlight, and signal flares in the book bag, you heft the crowbar in your hand and check out the CB Radio – unfortunately, it’s not the portable kind, but definitely worth trying to call for help on.

You consider trying to take the large fire extinguisher, but are not sure about the weight versus utility. It can wait till you’re ready to leave, so you decide to address it again after trying the radio.

After a while trying the current channel with no response, you try calling out on the other channels. Just when you are ready to give up, you dial channel 7 and hear a voice answer you on the other end.

“Help, I’ve been in a subway train wreck!” you say over the comm.

“This is Officer Main of the 3rd Precinct, who is this, over.”

“Uh, my name is Greg Bradley”, you identify yourself, “I’m on a wrecked subway car down in the tunnels, I don’t know where exactly. Everyone on board is either dead or gone.”

You hear an awkward pause on the other end of the com, and then Officer Main’s voice comes back on, slow and grim.

“Listen Greg, there is no easy way to tell you this, but the whole world has gone to shit, just like that train down there. Some sort of terrorist bio-weapon released on the city this morning. A poison gas, or virus, or the like. It causes those exposed to suffer death-like symptoms, including a semi rigor mortis like state, and then they go crazy with cannibalistic rage. Just like the zombies in them movies. And like the movies, you got to hit them in the head and destroy their brain in order to put them down for good. Also, if you get bit by one you got roughly ten minutes before you’re one of them yourself – though I did heard this one guy actually lasted three hours before he changed. You haven’t been bitten now have you” he asks, pausing for a reply.

“No”, you say quickly, not wanting to lose contact with what could possibly be the last living soul in the city.

“All right then,” Officer Main continues, “Here’s what you need to do. Follow the tracks to the first station and get to the streets above. The first thing you need to do is avoid contact with any zombies. Next, you need to get your bearings and know where you are in the city – get a street map if you can. Then find a pry bar or tire iron and drop yourself into the nearest ‘center of the street’ manhole cover. It has to be one in the center of a main street, not a side street or manhole cover near the curb. And unless you’re Lou Ferrigno, you’ll need the tire iron to lever up the hundred and seventy five pound manhole cover. Obviously a light is going to be handy down there too.”

“You still with me?” he asks.

“Uh, yeah, I understand,” you reply – more than a little apprehensive about some plan to go down into more dark tunnels with ravening cannibalistic zombies lurking about.

“Good” he continues. “Once inside, set the manhole cover back behind you – this should keep the zombies from following you in, unless you really piss them off for some reason. There shouldn’t be any zombies in the sewer tunnels – or if there are, there’ll be a hell of a lot less in there than on the streets. Once in the main sewer line, follow it just like you would the streets above to our Precinct House here on 3rd and Spring Street. You’ll see street names marked at each intersection of the tunnels and they run directly under the center of most streets. When you get to 3rd and Spring Street, you’ll need to be careful. The zombies are thick in this area, but we’re nice and safe here in our Precinct House. Like a fortress here, and well-armed, so you don’t got to worry once you’re inside – you just have to make a dash from the street to the door is all – you are good at running right? Over.”

“I’m injured; got a head wound”, you reply, “but I suppose I can run a short distance all right. What about the hospitals though? I think I really need medical attention rather quickly. Uh, over.”

“No, don’t go to any hospital! They are all overrun right now. We have medical supplies here and a triage unit with doctors and a surgeon. You get yourself here and we can help you. You hear?”

“Yeah, thanks for the information. I’ll try to get to you,” you say, not really certain about it just yet.

“Good Luck. Over” comes back the final reply.

After giving it some thought you conclude that you now have a number of things to consider. If the city really is overrun with zombies, then you’ll need more than a crowbar to survive. You need real medical attention pretty soon too.

The 3rd Precinct seems to offer both and is in the direction the train was going.

Then there is your home and family. You don’t remember anything of them yet, but perhaps seeing one of them in person will trigger the return of your memories. You know they must love you and wonder if they are safe.

Has the attack spread into the suburbs; or is it contained in the city? What if it spreads further? Is this the only city to be attacked; or are there more cities across the country facing the zombie threat?

You’re not entirely sure how far your home is from the city, but you think you had just over a 40 minute commute – yeah, that sounds right. You try to work out in your head how far that would be in miles if you estimate the average speed of the train, when it occurs to you just to look at the line map on the wall of the control room. There you see that your suburb is twenty-six miles away from Summit Station (you presume under Summit Tower where you work), taking the green line from Summit Station to Fairmont Station and from there, the yellow line to Suburbia Station. Now all you need to know is where on the green line you are currently, which you won’t find out until you walk in one direction or the other to a station.

Looking at your new watch, you see that it is now 6:35 pm.

With this weighing on your mind…

1. Take the heavy fire extinguisher & continue heading further into the city in the direction the train was going
2. Leave the heavy fire extinguisher & continue heading further into the city
3. Take the heavy fire extinguisher & head back the way you came in the direction the train was coming from
4. Leave the heavy fire extinguisher & head back the way you came

 

[Historical Storyteller]

(Choice 1 was chosen with 1 vote!)

The door to the train’s control room is locked, but you are able to go outside and pull the smashed remains of the train car’s windshield out, allowing you to climb inside. When the train was hit from behind, it caused the cars of both trains to accordion together, sending them sliding almost sideways down the tunnel into each other until this particular car got wedged in a narrow spot and caused the massive and jagged pileup behind it. As you enter the control room, you see that the driver of the train has been crushed to death by the front of the train as it smashed into the side of the tunnel and got wedged in. You try not to look too closely at his flattened and gore drained shell; or the pool of mess under what’s left of his seat.

Checking the area, you see a map of the train lines on one wall and note that the train was headed into the city before it crashed. That makes sense to you, as you would have been traveling from your house in the suburbs to your office in the city during the morning rush. Looking around some more, you find a well-stocked first aid kit, a proper flashlight, a crowbar, some signal flares, a large fire extinguisher, and working CB radio. You also find the train operator’s book bag with his lunch in it and help yourself to the contents, seeing as he won’t miss it anytime soon. You’re actually surprised that it tastes so good, given that you’re eating it in a small room with a horribly mangled corpse just a few feet away.

After eating, you wrap your wounds in proper bandages and down a couple of pain pills and a no doze. You’re pretty sure you don’t want to fall asleep in here regardless of the head injury. You definitely don’t feel safe down here in this tunnel of death. Packing the first aid kit, flashlight, and signal flares in the book bag, you heft the crowbar in your hand and check out the CB Radio – unfortunately, it’s not the portable kind, but definitely worth trying to call for help on.

You consider trying to take the large fire extinguisher, but are not sure about the weight versus utility. It can wait till you’re ready to leave, so you decide to address it again after trying the radio.

After a while trying the current channel with no response, you try calling out on the other channels. Just when you are ready to give up, you dial channel 7 and hear a voice answer you on the other end.

“Help, I’ve been in a subway train wreck!” you say over the comm.

“This is Officer Main of the 3rd Precinct, who is this, over.”

“Uh, my name is Greg Bradley”, you identify yourself, “I’m on a wrecked subway car down in the tunnels, I don’t know where exactly. Everyone on board is either dead or gone.”

You hear an awkward pause on the other end of the com, and then Officer Main’s voice comes back on, slow and grim.

“Listen Greg, there is no easy way to tell you this, but the whole world has gone to shit, just like that train down there. Some sort of terrorist bio-weapon released on the city this morning. A poison gas, or virus, or the like. It causes those exposed to suffer death-like symptoms, including a semi rigor mortis like state, and then they go crazy with cannibalistic rage. Just like the zombies in them movies. And like the movies, you got to hit them in the head and destroy their brain in order to put them down for good. Also, if you get bit by one you got roughly ten minutes before you’re one of them yourself – though I did heard this one guy actually lasted three hours before he changed. You haven’t been bitten now have you” he asks, pausing for a reply.

“No”, you say quickly, not wanting to lose contact with what could possibly be the last living soul in the city.

“All right then,” Officer Main continues, “Here’s what you need to do. Follow the tracks to the first station and get to the streets above. The first thing you need to do is avoid contact with any zombies. Next, you need to get your bearings and know where you are in the city – get a street map if you can. Then find a pry bar or tire iron and drop yourself into the nearest ‘center of the street’ manhole cover. It has to be one in the center of a main street, not a side street or manhole cover near the curb. And unless you’re Lou Ferrigno, you’ll need the tire iron to lever up the hundred and seventy five pound manhole cover. Obviously a light is going to be handy down there too.”

“You still with me?” he asks.

“Uh, yeah, I understand,” you reply – more than a little apprehensive about some plan to go down into more dark tunnels with ravening cannibalistic zombies lurking about.

“Good” he continues. “Once inside, set the manhole cover back behind you – this should keep the zombies from following you in, unless you really piss them off for some reason. There shouldn’t be any zombies in the sewer tunnels – or if there are, there’ll be a hell of a lot less in there than on the streets. Once in the main sewer line, follow it just like you would the streets above to our Precinct House here on 3rd and Spring Street. You’ll see street names marked at each intersection of the tunnels and they run directly under the center of most streets. When you get to 3rd and Spring Street, you’ll need to be careful. The zombies are thick in this area, but we’re nice and safe here in our Precinct House. Like a fortress here, and well-armed, so you don’t got to worry once you’re inside – you just have to make a dash from the street to the door is all – you are good at running right? Over.”

“I’m injured; got a head wound”, you reply, “but I suppose I can run a short distance all right. What about the hospitals though? I think I really need medical attention rather quickly. Uh, over.”

“No, don’t go to any hospital! They are all overrun right now. We have medical supplies here and a triage unit with doctors and a surgeon. You get yourself here and we can help you. You hear?”

“Yeah, thanks for the information. I’ll try to get to you,” you say, not really certain about it just yet.

“Good Luck. Over” comes back the final reply.

After giving it some thought you conclude that you now have a number of things to consider. If the city really is overrun with zombies, then you’ll need more than a crowbar to survive. You need real medical attention pretty soon too.

The 3rd Precinct seems to offer both and is in the direction the train was going.

Then there is your home and family. You don’t remember anything of them yet, but perhaps seeing one of them in person will trigger the return of your memories. You know they must love you and wonder if they are safe.

Has the attack spread into the suburbs; or is it contained in the city? What if it spreads further? Is this the only city to be attacked; or are there more cities across the country facing the zombie threat?

You’re not entirely sure how far your home is from the city, but you think you had just over a 40 minute commute – yeah, that sounds right. You try to work out in your head how far that would be in miles if you estimate the average speed of the train, when it occurs to you just to look at the line map on the wall of the control room. There you see that your suburb is twenty-six miles away from Summit Station (you presume under Summit Tower where you work), taking the green line from Summit Station to Fairmont Station and from there, the yellow line to Suburbia Station. Now all you need to know is where on the green line you are currently, which you won’t find out until you walk in one direction or the other to a station.

Looking at your new watch, you see that it is now 6:35 pm.

With this weighing on your mind…

1. Take the heavy fire extinguisher & continue heading further into the city in the direction the train was going
2. Leave the heavy fire extinguisher & continue heading further into the city
3. Take the heavy fire extinguisher & head back the way you came in the direction the train was coming from
4. Leave the heavy fire extinguisher & head back the way you came

Hey, you still alive? I still haven't read the recent posts yet but I could vote on this if you want to continue with the story.

 

[Historical Storyteller]

I'll vote 1.

 

[The Omen of Death]

Hey, you still alive? I still haven't read the recent posts yet but I could vote on this if you want to continue with the story.

Yeah, I will work on putting the next part of this based on your choice to get this moving again, and then as usual afterwards I will wait 1 day for time before writing the responses.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Choice 1 was chosen with 1 vote!)

Leaving the wrecked subway train with the heavy fire extinguisher, you move carefully through the silent darkness of the tunnel, heading further into the city. After moving without incident for twenty minutes you suddenly hear a low moaning from ahead and feel your heart begin to race. You really want to turn out your light and hide, but you need to see!

You ready your crowbar and risk shining your light up the tunnel at the source of the sound. There, you see two mangled subway passengers shuffling toward you. Obviously undead, they react to the light instantly and growl loudly, beginning a clumsy trot toward you on their zombie stiff legs.

One of them looks like businessman in a once fine suit and the other is a teenage girl with long sandy-blond hair, wearing loose jeans and striped t-shit. The girl also carries a broken coffee mug in one hand, probably not even realizing that she is doing so. The man looks bit-up pretty bad, but the teen girl only has a large gash across her stomach, where you can see some of her insides. You don’t actually see any bites on her and the gash looks like something you’d get from a train wreck, rather than a zombie.

It makes you wonder how the hell she became a zombie in the first place, but you really don’t have time to give it much more thought than that…

1. Flee back the way you came
2. Attack them with your crowbar
3. Distract them with the fire extinguisher and then attack with your crowbar

 

[Historical Storyteller]

(Choice 1 was chosen with 1 vote!)

Leaving the wrecked subway train with the heavy fire extinguisher, you move carefully through the silent darkness of the tunnel, heading further into the city. After moving without incident for twenty minutes you suddenly hear a low moaning from ahead and feel your heart begin to race. You really want to turn out your light and hide, but you need to see!

You ready your crowbar and risk shining your light up the tunnel at the source of the sound. There, you see two mangled subway passengers shuffling toward you. Obviously undead, they react to the light instantly and growl loudly, beginning a clumsy trot toward you on their zombie stiff legs.

One of them looks like businessman in a once fine suit and the other is a teenage girl with long sandy-blond hair, wearing loose jeans and striped t-shit. The girl also carries a broken coffee mug in one hand, probably not even realizing that she is doing so. The man looks bit-up pretty bad, but the teen girl only has a large gash across her stomach, where you can see some of her insides. You don’t actually see any bites on her and the gash looks like something you’d get from a train wreck, rather than a zombie.

It makes you wonder how the hell she became a zombie in the first place, but you really don’t have time to give it much more thought than that…

1. Flee back the way you came
2. Attack them with your crowbar
3. Distract them with the fire extinguisher and then attack with your crowbar

1. Hell no! I'm not gonna get eaten.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Choice 1 has been chosen with 1 vote!)

You turn and run back the way you came for a few minutes until you have lost the pursuing zombies to the deepening darkness of the subway tunnel. Taking a moment to catch your breath, you realize that you’ll have to deal with the zombies somehow if you want to continue in that direction.

Looking around, you discover a small ledge six feet up one side of the tunnel, where some piping comes into through the wall. You could climb up there and hide. If you’re lucky, the zombies might go past without detecting you – or at the very least, you’d have the higher ground if they do spot you and attack.

1. Try to hide on the ledge
2. Forget hiding and lure them to you on the ledge where you can bash their heads in as they try to climb up
3. Forget going deeper into the city, time to head back towards the suburbs

 

[Historical Storyteller]

(Choice 1 has been chosen with 1 vote!)

You turn and run back the way you came for a few minutes until you have lost the pursuing zombies to the deepening darkness of the subway tunnel. Taking a moment to catch your breath, you realize that you’ll have to deal with the zombies somehow if you want to continue in that direction.

Looking around, you discover a small ledge six feet up one side of the tunnel, where some piping comes into through the wall. You could climb up there and hide. If you’re lucky, the zombies might go past without detecting you – or at the very least, you’d have the higher ground if they do spot you and attack.

1. Try to hide on the ledge
2. Forget hiding and lure them to you on the ledge where you can bash their heads in as they try to climb up
3. Forget going deeper into the city, time to head back towards the suburbs

2. Sounds like a plan! And this time when you're confronting them you've got an advantage. Never try going toe-to-toe with these cannibals if they can finish you off in one bite. You're like a one-hit wonder in this story.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Woo a Zombies favorite a one-hit wonder! Or something similar... Nonetheless, Choice 2 has been chosen with 1 vote!)

You pull yourself up onto the small ledge and listen in the pitch black for the approach of the two zombies that had been following you. Almost immediately, you hear their moans echoing down the tunnel to you. Good thing you got up here when you did; they weren’t as far back as you had thought.

After a minute or so, you see them shuffle into the area. You ready your crowbar and flash them with your light – “Hey morons; over here!”

As expected, the former subway passengers lurch and wheel toward you, lumbering your way with hungry sounding growls. As they arrive at the ledge and try feebly to climb up, it’s a simple matter of bending over to strike at them – the crowbar in one hand and your other hand holding onto the piping to keep firmly planted on the ledge.

Given that you can only strike one handed, it takes a few messy whacks at the teen zombie to knock it down for good. Once that one is taken care of, you feel a little more confidant and risk letting go of the piping to use both hands in a mighty finishing blow to the remaining zombie’s head.

You give it the hardest double overhand swing from above you can muster without sacrificing your balance and watch as the force of the blow instantly crushes its head in from back to front, showering the area below in an explosion of the contents.

The zombie falls limply to the ground while you lean over the side of the ledge to empty your stomach. Once you stop heaving you do what you can to wipe off your face and retrieve your flashlight.

You wait a good five minutes to make sure the zombies are truly dead and then climb back down into the tunnel.

You cautiously move through the silence of the tunnel, listening carefully as you go. You’d rather be anywhere else in the world than here right now, and the temptation just to give up, lie down, and die is almost overwhelming. You’ve never been prone to anxiety attacks, but this shit certainly has you on the edge.

After traveling for what you thought was at least an hour, you look at your watch and see that it hasn’t even been a full thirty minutes. Time flies when you’re having fun, you think sarcastically.

After another five or so minutes of plodding along, you begin to think you can see a dull light in the tunnel way up ahead. Turning your own light out momentarily confirms this, as you can definitely see a dull white glow in the tunnel – maybe a station you hope.

Whatever it is, you’re still a ways off; perhaps a quarter mile or so…

Eventually you approach the opening at the end of the tunnel, where it empties into a large underground subway station. Your heart sinks as you draw near and hear the echoing din of a large mass of zombies from within. You hover in the darkness of the tunnel, carefully venturing forward just enough to get a look inside.

A hundred and some of the former subway passengers – all trapped in the rush hour mob and unable to escape the initial outbreak – pack the area, half on the landing platform itself and half down on the tracks.

Those on the tracks look a lot worse for wear; most torn up from the subway crash you just came from – or even other crashes farther up ahead. They moan and snarl at each other, jostling and crowding toward the edge of the loading platform, trying most ineffectually at climbing up the four foot ledge. Occasionally one does manage to get up, but is quickly pulled back down by the rest trying to climb up over its back.

You are reminded of a bucket of crabs. You remember once seeing one in Maine – there’s another memory – you don’t need to put a lid on a full bucket of crabs; they all try to climb up over each other. The moment one gets to the top, it is collectively grabbed by the rest and dragged back down to the bottom of the bucket.

You snap out of your reflection and focus on the area itself. The zombies don’t see you yet and you doubt they’d hear you over the clamor, unless you did something to intentionally attract their attention.

The station is large and tiled, with a high vaulted ceiling and a large placard reading: “Fox Park Station”. You see that the light is coming from a large number of battery powered emergency lights along the top of the walls. You also see, just beyond the crowded landing platform, two exits. The first is a turnstile gate at your end of the platform with an escalator and set of stairs going up on the other side. The second is an open set of stairs and an escalator at the far end of the platform beyond all the zombies.

On the track level itself are two sets of rails, both empty of any trains. Apparently, the platform side is for stopping, while the outer track is for passing through. As the trains all go the same way through the tunnels, you know there must also be another tunnel and station nearby for the trains going in the opposite direction. Typically, it would be close enough that you could buy a ticket in the terminal above the tunnels and then simply come down the right set of escalators to your platform.

You spot a dingy red metal door in the outer wall of the tunnel opposite the landing platform. While the light’s not great, there is enough that you can make out the words on its surface: "Railway Workers Only!"

As you stand in the shadows of the tunnel looking over the scene, you also spot a four foot long piece of heavy planking, lying on the ground where you would exit the tunnel. You’ll have to be sure not to trip over it when you are ready to go.

Man there are a lot of zombies in here!

Given that, you think over your options – The open stairs and escalator at the far end of the landing platform is a no go – way too many zombies to get past even to think about it. Then there is the turnstile exit gate with the escalator and stairs on the other side. The problem with that is: to get to the stairs you’ll have to hop onto the landing platform with hundreds of zombies and make it to the turnstile exit gate and jam it before they swarm you. There is also the matter of the turnstiles being one-way. If there are zombies on the other side of it, you won’t be able to come back the way you came.

The red door option on the other side of the tunnel would be much easier to get to, but if you’re detected, the zombies on the tracks will move after you and block your way back to the tunnels. You don’t even know if it’s locked or even goes anywhere – for all you know it may just be an access door to firefighting equipment – though you would think it would say so if that was the case…

You could also try to sneak past the horde altogether, while they are distracted, in order to continue further down the tunnels towards the center of the city. If the rest of the stations are like this one though, then you’ll have to deal with getting out of the tunnels sooner or later…

You could also just turn around and head back the way you came; trying instead to leave the city altogether rather than move any deeper into it.

After weighing your odds, you:

1. Make a run for the turnstile gate through the zombie horde
2. Use the heavy fire extinguisher to disorient and bull-rush your way through the zombie hoard to the turnstile gate
3. Try to sneak unnoticed to the red metal door
4. Try to sneak unnoticed through the station to the other side of the tunnel and keep on going
5. Turn around and head back the way you came

 

[Historical Storyteller]

5. Not a good idea to sneak past them. You are not even aware of what these zombies are capable of and how they can detect you. For starters, through some skewed scienced-up logic they should be able to smell better and better than they were living 'cause they're dead. Sneaking through them may be a viable option if there's only several of them at once, but sneaking past dozens of hundreds of them at a time is out of the question. Good god, try getting out of there as fast as you can without drawing attention!

 

[Elephantom]

2. HELLA DAMN, THE ZOMBIES MUST BE KILLED. CHAAAAAAARRRGGGEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Due to the fact that we have a tie, and since for the sake of the RP we shouldn't wait hours upon hours for something to be a tie breaker, I will be the tie breaker here with these two choices. Please note I am taking this from the point of view of what I WOULD do with these two choices, so taking into consideration the fact that making it this far in the subway took a long time and going back would be a waste of time and energy I'd say we should continue our path forward from which we had been going on, it's an interesting way of moving forward, and wouldn't have been specifically my choice necessarily, but I feel is better... So therefore... OPTION 2 been chosen through tie breaker done by yours truly with 2 votes to 1.)

Good thing you brought this heavy fire extinguisher, you think, as you pull the pin and ready it for the onslaught. You’re thinking that you can use it as a battering ram to bowl your way through and then blast the zombies in the face with the contents to hopefully confuse them long enough to dive through the turnstile.

Taking a deep breath, you rush out from the shadows of the tunnel and over to the nearest edge of the landing platform. As all the zombies on the tracks are looking in the direction of the zombies already on the platform, you are able to get right up to the edge of the zombie crowd and brush past two or three of them before vaulting up onto the upper level – the fire extinguisher clanging loudly on the tiles as you do so.

There is an abrupt silence, as all attention is suddenly drawn to you, and then a roar of agitated groans and wails. As one, the entire zombie hoard starts toward you. Of course, you weren’t waiting to see what they’d do, so you’re already running full speed toward the turnstile gate at this point. Unfortunately, the zombie swarm had already partially blocked your path; and with them now actively moving toward you, you’ll need to bust past at least five or six of them before you can get to the gate.

You level the heavy fire extinguisher in front of you and ram at full speed into the first two zombies with a yell – sending them flying back into two more and toppling all four of them. Almost there you think, swinging the heavy fire extinguisher with both hands at the nearest of those left standing. The butt of the extinguisher slams into the creature’s head just below the ear – shattering the thing’s jaw and knocking its head so far to the side that its neck snaps loudly. It falls to the ground twitching violently.

You still have one standing between you and your goal when you feel grasping hands all over your back. It seems that your initial crash into the zombies has drastically slowed your forward momentum. With horror, you feel yourself suddenly being pulled backward into the crowd. The book bag you think! They have hold of your book bag! You drop one shoulder and spin out of the book bag freeing yourself of the horde on the landing platform, but exposing your back to the one standing between you and the turnstile gate. Knowing that it must be lunging at you even now, you do something radical and drop to the ground before rolling away to the side and emptying the contents of the fire extinguisher at your attackers.

A violent blast of white powder spews up into the faces of the zombies standing over you and fills the air with a cloud of the stuff. The zombies stop short for just a moment, apparently blinded, or at least confused by the sudden stimuli. Not wasting the advantage, you scramble the last few feet toward the turnstile gate – when something grabs your leg and threatens to drag you back into the hoard.

It’s one of the prone zombies you knocked down in your charge – you had almost forgotten about them in the mounting panic of your situation. Looking, you can see all four of them beginning to get back up, but the closest of them has grabbed a hold of your pant. Still having a hold of the fire extinguisher, you curse loudly and slam the butt of it down on the zombie’s head with all your might. A gruesome spray of wet gore splats across your legs as the thing’s head pops like a melon between the butt of the extinguisher and hard tile floor. You force yourself to ignore the revulsion of such a gory sight – skittering through the turnstile before the rest of the zombies can get to you.

Immediately, the zombie hoard tries to reach through the bars of the gate to get at you. Looking at the stairs and escalator, you see that there are no zombies on this side of the gate – Phew! Maybe you’ll get out of this yet. The problem is that you’re now bleeding from a scratch that one must have caused on the back of your leg as it may have been clawing its way to grabbing you and are currently stuck holding the gate yourself to keep the zombies from following you through it. You need something to jam it shut with.

Looking for the heavy fire extinguisher, you see that you dropped it in order to make it to the gate in time. Damn; you could have used it! That just leaves two options – sacrifice your crowbar to lock up the turnstile – or simply make a run for the stairs (hoping your injured leg will carry you through), knowing that the zombies will follow, but only just a few at a time through the confined space of the turnstile gate…

Also, you have lost your book bag and the med kit, signal flares, and proper flashlight within (though you still have the penlight on your keychain).

(Had this been chosen naturally without my intervention to break a tie, this choice would have caused that one zombie that scratched you to bite you instead, I didn't want to pick this choice just to make it seem like I picked the choice to kill you guys. But I didn't want to leave this without some little string attached to it!)

1. Let go and make a break for the stairs (keeping your crowbar)
2. Jam the turnstile with your crowbar (leaving it behind) and head up the stairs

 

[Historical Storyteller]

(Due to the fact that we have a tie, and since for the sake of the RP we shouldn't wait hours upon hours for something to be a tie breaker, I will be the tie breaker here with these two choices. Please note I am taking this from the point of view of what I WOULD do with these two choices, so taking into consideration the fact that making it this far in the subway took a long time and going back would be a waste of time and energy I'd say we should continue our path forward from which we had been going on, it's an interesting way of moving forward, and wouldn't have been specifically my choice necessarily, but I feel is better... So therefore... OPTION 2 been chosen through tie breaker done by yours truly with 2 votes to 1.)

Good thing you brought this heavy fire extinguisher, you think, as you pull the pin and ready it for the onslaught. You’re thinking that you can use it as a battering ram to bowl your way through and then blast the zombies in the face with the contents to hopefully confuse them long enough to dive through the turnstile.

Taking a deep breath, you rush out from the shadows of the tunnel and over to the nearest edge of the landing platform. As all the zombies on the tracks are looking in the direction of the zombies already on the platform, you are able to get right up to the edge of the zombie crowd and brush past two or three of them before vaulting up onto the upper level – the fire extinguisher clanging loudly on the tiles as you do so.

There is an abrupt silence, as all attention is suddenly drawn to you, and then a roar of agitated groans and wails. As one, the entire zombie hoard starts toward you. Of course, you weren’t waiting to see what they’d do, so you’re already running full speed toward the turnstile gate at this point. Unfortunately, the zombie swarm had already partially blocked your path; and with them now actively moving toward you, you’ll need to bust past at least five or six of them before you can get to the gate.

You level the heavy fire extinguisher in front of you and ram at full speed into the first two zombies with a yell – sending them flying back into two more and toppling all four of them. Almost there you think, swinging the heavy fire extinguisher with both hands at the nearest of those left standing. The butt of the extinguisher slams into the creature’s head just below the ear – shattering the thing’s jaw and knocking its head so far to the side that its neck snaps loudly. It falls to the ground twitching violently.

You still have one standing between you and your goal when you feel grasping hands all over your back. It seems that your initial crash into the zombies has drastically slowed your forward momentum. With horror, you feel yourself suddenly being pulled backward into the crowd. The book bag you think! They have hold of your book bag! You drop one shoulder and spin out of the book bag freeing yourself of the horde on the landing platform, but exposing your back to the one standing between you and the turnstile gate. Knowing that it must be lunging at you even now, you do something radical and drop to the ground before rolling away to the side and emptying the contents of the fire extinguisher at your attackers.

A violent blast of white powder spews up into the faces of the zombies standing over you and fills the air with a cloud of the stuff. The zombies stop short for just a moment, apparently blinded, or at least confused by the sudden stimuli. Not wasting the advantage, you scramble the last few feet toward the turnstile gate – when something grabs your leg and threatens to drag you back into the hoard.

It’s one of the prone zombies you knocked down in your charge – you had almost forgotten about them in the mounting panic of your situation. Looking, you can see all four of them beginning to get back up, but the closest of them has grabbed a hold of your pant. Still having a hold of the fire extinguisher, you curse loudly and slam the butt of it down on the zombie’s head with all your might. A gruesome spray of wet gore splats across your legs as the thing’s head pops like a melon between the butt of the extinguisher and hard tile floor. You force yourself to ignore the revulsion of such a gory sight – skittering through the turnstile before the rest of the zombies can get to you.

Immediately, the zombie hoard tries to reach through the bars of the gate to get at you. Looking at the stairs and escalator, you see that there are no zombies on this side of the gate – Phew! Maybe you’ll get out of this yet. The problem is that you’re now bleeding from a scratch that one must have caused on the back of your leg as it may have been clawing its way to grabbing you and are currently stuck holding the gate yourself to keep the zombies from following you through it. You need something to jam it shut with.

Looking for the heavy fire extinguisher, you see that you dropped it in order to make it to the gate in time. Damn; you could have used it! That just leaves two options – sacrifice your crowbar to lock up the turnstile – or simply make a run for the stairs (hoping your injured leg will carry you through), knowing that the zombies will follow, but only just a few at a time through the confined space of the turnstile gate…

Also, you have lost your book bag and the med kit, signal flares, and proper flashlight within (though you still have the penlight on your keychain).

(Had this been chosen naturally without my intervention to break a tie, this choice would have caused that one zombie that scratched you to bite you instead, I didn't want to pick this choice just to make it seem like I picked the choice to kill you guys. But I didn't want to leave this without some little string attached to it!)

1. Let go and make a break for the stairs (keeping your crowbar)
2. Jam the turnstile with your crowbar (leaving it behind) and head up the stairs

*Facepalm*

Damn it, Eleph, trying to get us all killed...

Getting bitten by a zombie = Certain death in 10 minutes to 3 hours.

Getting scratched by a zombie? I don't know. Maybe you're not so dead but its still bound to raise suspicion. Those cop guys won't be willing to accept you and you'd probably be left to be eaten alive out in the streets if they see your wound, so yes you STILL die even if you made it there to them.

Damn it, Eleph, really?

*Facepalms again and sighs*

Now, keeping or leaving the crowbar may seem simple but to me its a hard call to make. On one hand, you can leave the crowbar to get a few minutes' rest and prevent the few zombies following you from alerting the entire horde from the other side. On the other hand, you need to move as fast as possible and you have no friggin' idea where are the other zombies, so leaving the crowbar might not have an actual decisive impact on helping you.

Ultimately I decide...

1. Don't be a damn sissy, brave through the pain and take your crowbar with you. It will come in handy in the long-term even if it gives you a much needed short-term advantage. You'll need it to break through shit even if it does cause noise because right now you're stuck in a city infested with these suckers. Your leg is bleeding? Man up, its a much better alternative to getting eaten alive by rotten cannibals. If there are any zombies alerted along the way, whack them aside! Don't slow down, the farther you get from them as soon as possible the safer you'll be. Plus, these zombies so far have demonstrated limited mobility, they'll shamble slowly up the stairs and if you're lucky they might even pull each other down.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Choice 1 has been chosen with 1 vote!)

You decide that you need your crowbar too much to leave it behind and make a break for the stairs, letting go of the turnstile gate and running as fast as you can go with a limp.

Two zombies immediately force themselves through the turnstile gate, but the press of those behind them completely jams up the works. One zombie even gets stuck between the turnstile and gate and is slowly being crushed. As long as the zombies all continue pushing forward at once, no more will be able to get through. Good thing you decided to keep the crowbar!

Seeing this you:

1. Beat the crap out of the two zombies following you with your crowbar, before going up the stairs
2. Flee up the stairs as fast as you can go on your bum leg

 

[Historical Storyteller]

(Choice 1 has been chosen with 1 vote!)

You decide that you need your crowbar too much to leave it behind and make a break for the stairs, letting go of the turnstile gate and running as fast as you can go with a limp.

Two zombies immediately force themselves through the turnstile gate, but the press of those behind them completely jams up the works. One zombie even gets stuck between the turnstile and gate and is slowly being crushed. As long as the zombies all continue pushing forward at once, no more will be able to get through. Good thing you decided to keep the crowbar!

Seeing this you:

1. Beat the crap out of the two zombies following you with your crowbar, before going up the stairs
2. Flee up the stairs as fast as you can go on your bum leg

2. Two won't make much of a difference when there are hundreds of them following you! Get away now.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Choice 2 has been chosen with 1 vote! Although I do have to say, the other zombies are being held back by the jammed turnstiles... But eh, to each his own...)

You flee up stairs with the two zombies climbing sluggishly up after you. Normally, you could easily outrun the staggering zombies, but the injury in your leg and loss of blood has slowed you down noticeably; and right now, you’re only just keeping ahead of them. The throng of angry zombies meanwhile, still tries to push through the gate after you, but is unable to pass. They glare at you with frustrated moans and snarls, flattening the trapped zombie in the process.

Clambering up to the subway’s main corridor, you see the wide concrete and tile entryway into the subway itself; and you can actually see the exit to your left, beyond a bank of narrow token-operated turnstiles. Unfortunately, a huge mass of zombies crowd the area – both in front of the turnstiles and on the other side, where the tunnel itself simply opens without walls to the outside. You stifle a gag, as the smell of blood and death is overpowering here. Looking at the floor of the main corridor, you shudder to see hundreds of ripped open and dismembered bodies lying in sticky footprint-tracked pools of maggot and fly infested blood. You force yourself to ignore the nauseating massacre and take in the more pertinent details of the scene.

Directly across from the stairway you just came up is another stairway headed back down. The sign over the stairs reads: “North Platform.” You know that this is the stairway that leads back down to the other end of the platform you just escaped. It’s a good thing zombies are stupid – or they could just turn from the turnstile gate you blocked and come right up those stairs unimpeded.

To your right, the subway’s main corridor goes another hundred or so feet and ends at another set of opposing stairs, where a much smaller group of ten or twelve zombies mill about. The signs above these stairways read: “South Platform” and “Exit Only” respectively. You know they would take you down to the subway’s southbound platform – no doubt just as zombie infested as the north platform was.

Between you and that far end of the corridor – about fifty feet away – are three sets of doors. The first door is on the opposite side of the tunnel from you and is a security door broken off the top hinges. It hangs open at an odd angle and looks bent out slightly, as if it had been forced open recently. It has a pushpin key lock in it, but doesn’t look like it can be closed anymore, and has the words: “Transit Authority: Subway Personnel Only” is written on its face.

The second door is on your side of the tunnel, just a little further down from the first. It is also a security door, closed and locked with a pushpin key lock, and reads: “Security Office” on the front. Next to the door itself is a huge smashed out window – creating a six foot wide, four foot high, opening into the security area beyond. The bloody body of a security guard hangs out of the window frame, the back half of his head apparently blown out from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Below the window frame is a scattering of broken glass and a bloody pile of corpses – some you note with huge holes in their heads as well. You also think you can see the pistol the guard must have used to blow his brains out, lying in the gore.

The final set of doors, about thirty feet further down the tunnel from the security office, are the doors to the men and women’s restrooms.

And don’t forget the two zombies coming up the stairs right behind you…

Given the circumstances, you have to rule out the exit. There is no way you’re going to be able to get through all those zombies. They would tear you apart, like all the other unfortunates that now litter the floor.

There is also no point in going back down to either subway platform. That would be suicide.

You really don’t have to go to the bathroom all that bad; so there’s no point getting trapped in a restroom. Besides, you can think of a lot more pleasant places to be killed by zombies anyway.

That leaves the broken transit authority door or the security office door (with the pistol).

Given the distance between both groups of zombies and the doors, you estimate that you can easily get to either door before the zombies can get to you – even if they spot you – but the two zombies behind you are going to be right there behind you the whole way.

1. Run for the broken transit authority door
2. Run to the security door (and get the pistol)

 

[Historical Storyteller]

(Choice 2 has been chosen with 1 vote! Although I do have to say, the other zombies are being held back by the jammed turnstiles... But eh, to each his own...)

You flee up stairs with the two zombies climbing sluggishly up after you. Normally, you could easily outrun the staggering zombies, but the injury in your leg and loss of blood has slowed you down noticeably; and right now, you’re only just keeping ahead of them. The throng of angry zombies meanwhile, still tries to push through the gate after you, but is unable to pass. They glare at you with frustrated moans and snarls, flattening the trapped zombie in the process.

Clambering up to the subway’s main corridor, you see the wide concrete and tile entryway into the subway itself; and you can actually see the exit to your left, beyond a bank of narrow token-operated turnstiles. Unfortunately, a huge mass of zombies crowd the area – both in front of the turnstiles and on the other side, where the tunnel itself simply opens without walls to the outside. You stifle a gag, as the smell of blood and death is overpowering here. Looking at the floor of the main corridor, you shudder to see hundreds of ripped open and dismembered bodies lying in sticky footprint-tracked pools of maggot and fly infested blood. You force yourself to ignore the nauseating massacre and take in the more pertinent details of the scene.

Directly across from the stairway you just came up is another stairway headed back down. The sign over the stairs reads: “North Platform.” You know that this is the stairway that leads back down to the other end of the platform you just escaped. It’s a good thing zombies are stupid – or they could just turn from the turnstile gate you blocked and come right up those stairs unimpeded.

To your right, the subway’s main corridor goes another hundred or so feet and ends at another set of opposing stairs, where a much smaller group of ten or twelve zombies mill about. The signs above these stairways read: “South Platform” and “Exit Only” respectively. You know they would take you down to the subway’s southbound platform – no doubt just as zombie infested as the north platform was.

Between you and that far end of the corridor – about fifty feet away – are three sets of doors. The first door is on the opposite side of the tunnel from you and is a security door broken off the top hinges. It hangs open at an odd angle and looks bent out slightly, as if it had been forced open recently. It has a pushpin key lock in it, but doesn’t look like it can be closed anymore, and has the words: “Transit Authority: Subway Personnel Only” is written on its face.

The second door is on your side of the tunnel, just a little further down from the first. It is also a security door, closed and locked with a pushpin key lock, and reads: “Security Office” on the front. Next to the door itself is a huge smashed out window – creating a six foot wide, four foot high, opening into the security area beyond. The bloody body of a security guard hangs out of the window frame, the back half of his head apparently blown out from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Below the window frame is a scattering of broken glass and a bloody pile of corpses – some you note with huge holes in their heads as well. You also think you can see the pistol the guard must have used to blow his brains out, lying in the gore.

The final set of doors, about thirty feet further down the tunnel from the security office, are the doors to the men and women’s restrooms.

And don’t forget the two zombies coming up the stairs right behind you…

Given the circumstances, you have to rule out the exit. There is no way you’re going to be able to get through all those zombies. They would tear you apart, like all the other unfortunates that now litter the floor.

There is also no point in going back down to either subway platform. That would be suicide.

You really don’t have to go to the bathroom all that bad; so there’s no point getting trapped in a restroom. Besides, you can think of a lot more pleasant places to be killed by zombies anyway.

That leaves the broken transit authority door or the security office door (with the pistol).

Given the distance between both groups of zombies and the doors, you estimate that you can easily get to either door before the zombies can get to you – even if they spot you – but the two zombies behind you are going to be right there behind you the whole way.

1. Run for the broken transit authority door
2. Run to the security door (and get the pistol)

1. No fucking idea what to do from here. Gunshots are too damn loud...