Agent
Lance
If only I had a cinder block to toss on the gas pedal of that mower... but probably not, so let's stay stealthy.
1. Food is ours, so let's not do anything reckless.
1. Food is ours, so let's not do anything reckless.
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Realistic or Modern Dying to Live, Living to Die REBOOT (Not cliche Zombie survival) *COMPLETED*
- Thread starter The Omen of Death
- Start date
Pryno
Probably a Malkavian
I still think that we should take the cart, but leave it once we are near the school. At which distance are the two buildings?
official clown business
Okay so our name is Piss and we are the Mafioso
Yeah, the golf cart will be useful on the path we're taking - remember it's faster than zombies and still pretty quiet.
If things get bad in the school and we have an opportunity to backtrack, we will have a better option for getting away instead of going back on foot.
If things get bad in the school and we have an opportunity to backtrack, we will have a better option for getting away instead of going back on foot.
ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
The difference in sound between the cart and walking in minimal, so I think the mobility and extra carrying capacity is well worth the risk.
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(Option 2 has been chosen with 3 votes, also
Pryno
it was a pretty sizable distance.)
You find a fully charged golf cart in the shed and hop in with your wife to drive it out onto the greens. The cart is pretty quiet and the zombies out on links don’t initially hear it. You’re pretty sure that it’s not going to attract any attention based sound, but the zombies do eventually see you driving along and lurch after you as soon as they do.
“Oh god Greg,” you wife points out, “they’re after us!”
“Don’t worry honey,” you reply, “they won’t be able to catch us.”
You really do have enough speed and maneuverability to keep well ahead of the zombies, but it does concern you to have them behind you. You’re also not sure what you’re going to find on the other side of the tree line at the far end of the golf course, so it’s not like you can just drive the golf cart right on through without any consideration.
Right now though, you actually have enough distance between you and the zombies following, that you could actually drive right to the tree line, look through, and then decide what to do – well before the small mob would be able to catch up.
Even if there are hundreds and hundreds of zombies on the other side of the tree line as it certainly sounds like there are – attracting their attention might not be as bad an idea as it sounds. Looking over to the far right edge of the golf course, you see the road that separates the country club from the large private homes that line the perimeter.
With that area currently looking clear of undead, it occurs to you that you might be able to draw the zombies away from the school and into that area – driving or running, if the need arises to abandon the cart into the housing on that side of the links to lose the zombies within. Then you and your wife could carefully work your way back around and try coming in from the country club a second time, while the horde at least a couple hundred of them anyway are busy looking for the two of you elsewhere.
1. Drive the golf cart to the tree line, look through, and then decide what to do
2. Take a moment to shoot down these fifteen zombies first
Pryno
it was a pretty sizable distance.)You find a fully charged golf cart in the shed and hop in with your wife to drive it out onto the greens. The cart is pretty quiet and the zombies out on links don’t initially hear it. You’re pretty sure that it’s not going to attract any attention based sound, but the zombies do eventually see you driving along and lurch after you as soon as they do.
“Oh god Greg,” you wife points out, “they’re after us!”
“Don’t worry honey,” you reply, “they won’t be able to catch us.”
You really do have enough speed and maneuverability to keep well ahead of the zombies, but it does concern you to have them behind you. You’re also not sure what you’re going to find on the other side of the tree line at the far end of the golf course, so it’s not like you can just drive the golf cart right on through without any consideration.
Right now though, you actually have enough distance between you and the zombies following, that you could actually drive right to the tree line, look through, and then decide what to do – well before the small mob would be able to catch up.
Even if there are hundreds and hundreds of zombies on the other side of the tree line as it certainly sounds like there are – attracting their attention might not be as bad an idea as it sounds. Looking over to the far right edge of the golf course, you see the road that separates the country club from the large private homes that line the perimeter.
With that area currently looking clear of undead, it occurs to you that you might be able to draw the zombies away from the school and into that area – driving or running, if the need arises to abandon the cart into the housing on that side of the links to lose the zombies within. Then you and your wife could carefully work your way back around and try coming in from the country club a second time, while the horde at least a couple hundred of them anyway are busy looking for the two of you elsewhere.
1. Drive the golf cart to the tree line, look through, and then decide what to do
2. Take a moment to shoot down these fifteen zombies first
ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
Seems pointless to expend ammo on 15 zombies that don't pose an immediate threat to our well-being, it would be better to save our limited ammunition for a more pressing time. Plus, it would draw every zombie in the vicinity to our location as well as alert any survivors (potentially hostile) to our presence and possession of firearms. I think we should drive the golf cart to the tree lines and carefully scout the area first, you can never be too safe.
Agent
Lance
Have you ever heard someone say 'Waste of bullets, boy'? Maybe not, but it still fits.
So yunno... don't waste ammo by being louder than the golf cart is.
So yunno... don't waste ammo by being louder than the golf cart is.
official clown business
Okay so our name is Piss and we are the Mafioso
Better drive the golf cart over to the tree line and see how things will work out from there. If we can lure them all to another area things will be much easier for us.
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(Option 1 has been chosen with 3 votes!)
You drive the golf cart to the tree line that separates the golf course from the school complex. With plenty of distance between you and the zombies following, you park the cart, gather your gear, and cautiously creep in-between the trees and roughage with your wife to get a look at the area beyond.
You see the outdoor football stadium on your left and other athletic fields on your right. While the athletic fields are currently empty, hundreds and hundreds of zombies have clustered out on the football field itself for some reason and mill about mindlessly. You and your wife are both horrified though, to see both children and adults of all ages among the hordes. So many innocent lives lost! Is it even possible that your own two daughters were somehow insulated from this madness? You force yourself not to search through the countless faces of death for those of your own children.
Looking past the fields toward the complex’s main parking lot, you see a massive cluster of school buses and cars all crowded together there – and some evidence of fender-benders among them. The fifty or so buses in the district must have already arrived at or near the school when the outbreak started. With news coming across their CB radios of the emergency, they would have all gathered at the school rather than trying to take kids back home. The rest of the cars look like a mix of the faculty those already parked in spaces and parents rushing to the scene to try to gather their children before it was too late those crowded and even slammed into one another around all the buses.
A few zombies currently meander around the vehicles near the school buildings, but by far the majority of them are all at the outdoor football stadium. You can’t help but wonder why they would have all grouped together there, except that they seem to act a lot like schools of carnivorous fish – swimming in one massive swarm toward the feeding-frenzy and then waiting idle for the next meal to come along. Now that you think of it, the turf in the stadium does look like it has been stained with a massive wash of rusty brown color – dried blood of the unfortunate no doubt.
Considering how to approach the school itself, you see that there’s no way to get across the athletic fields without being seen by the zombies crowding the outdoor stadium. What you do see however, is a shallow drainage ditch that runs along the far edge of the athletic fields near the road on that side of the complex. The ditch is accessible, simply by following the line of trees over to that side of the golf course, and then ducking down to move through it. You can see from here that the ditch will lead all the way to a set of tennis course on the far side of the athletic fields. If you can get there, you can then move into and among the crowded vehicles choking the parking lots – right up to the Elementary building itself.
Looking back to check on the zombies behind you, you see them about fifty yards off and closing. There’s enough cover among the trees though, that you decide it best to sneak over to the ditch while they home in on the abandoned golf cart. Pointing the ditch out to your wife, the two of you head over, moving low through the tree line on foot. Arriving at the ditch, you see that a shallow trickle of water runs down the center and smells like a combination of mildew and rotten leaves. Given the rest of the horrifying odors you’ve somehow numbed yourself to over the last few days, it doesn’t even phase you to slip into the ditch and low-craw through the muck. Your wife however has a harder time of it, so you have to slow down and patiently help her along the way.
As the two of you go, the zombies on the golf course clamber around the abandoned cart looking for you a moment, and are then drawn inexorably toward the noisy mass of them crowding the football stadium. Continuing on and climbing out near the tennis courts, the two of you then stealth behind the chain-link fences surrounding them, and into the parking lots. Having already had plenty of practice moving unseen around zombies wandering between gridlocked vehicles – this part feels like a breeze. You see your wife’s shock and dismay playing clearly on her face however, so you take a moment to explain creeping low among the cars, listening and looking, and how to best avoid any nasty surprises.
Then taking a moment to survey the area, you see the sprawling single-story Elementary building directly ahead and the three-story High School building to the far left. The Middle School complex is a two-story building behind the High School and a single-story Administration building sits behind the Elementary School. Everything but the Administration building is connected at a central point, where the morning and afternoon buses drive in to load and unload students of various grade levels.
Looking at the buildings themselves, you are initially disheartened to see all the lower windows and glass doors broken out – meaning the zombies have already gotten inside. The torn asunder bodies and flesh-stripped skeletons of small children lie everywhere – they having been too little for the ravenous zombies to leave anything left of them to rise back up as undead. Even some of the windows on the school buses have been smashed out of the front and rear doors – and are streaked with blood – though none of the side windows on the buses are broken – even though you can see where bloody handprints have reached up to them. Perhaps those windows are too high, in relation to a zombie standing on the ground alongside the bus, to break open with a simple grasping of outreached hands…
Seeing it all makes your wife begin to vomit violently. You have to hug her close around the shoulders to calm her down.
“I… I can’t do this!” she panics, beginning to shake visibly.
“You can do it,” you reassure, but she continues to panic.
“I need to get out of here!” she says loudly, going into a full blown anxiety attack.
You look around in fear that her voice may have carried far enough to alert the surrounding zombies – but your luck holds. Clearly your wife is losing it though – and if you don’t do something drastic now, you fear she’ll bolt and at the very least get herself eaten by the hordes.
You open your hand and slap her hard across the face.
It works. Which, judging by the astonished glare she suddenly gives you, makes you wonder if that was really a good idea.
“I’m sorry honey,” you apologies quickly.
“No, I understand,” she replies, relaxing her stare. “I’m fine. That slapping thing actually works. I couldn’t shake the hysteria, but you really did slap the sense back into me.”
“I didn’t want you to run off in a blind panic and get yourself killed,” you add.
“I understand dear,” she replies, “Just try not to do it again, ok?”
“Deal.”
After recovering your wife, you happen to look up and notice a small sign of promise. A taller section of the Elementary school building near the playground rises up on one side with windows well above the normal level – set in long rows starting at least fifteen feet off the ground. Not only are they not smashed out, but they are currently opened outward on top hinges.
If you recall correctly, from the many open-houses and family fun nights you’ve attended at your daughters’ school, that would be the gymnasium/cafeteria area of the Elementary school. You’ve never seen those particular windows opened out before – and would imagine that the only reason to do so now, would be to get some air flowing through a stuffy building packed with survivors holding out in there against the undead hordes. God you hope so – you hope your daughters are still alive and in there.
“Look honey,” you say pointing the windows out to her, “If there are any survivors, that’s where they would be.”
“How on earth are we going to get in?” she asks.
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out,” you assure.
Also on that side of the school building, you see two school buses actually backed together side-by-side and all the way up against the building itself. In fact, they are so close together, that they’ve actually sheered each other along the sides – completely blocking entry to one bus’s door side. The rear exit doors to both buses are also blocked, being backed completely against the red brick walls of the school itself.
The bus on the outside of the two has its front door broken out like the rest of the buses in the area – except that this one also has a pile of dead zombies stacked up in front of it. It looks like the driver on that bus tried to stand his ground and bashed the zombie’s heads in with a crowbar as they tried to claw in through the broke-out windows in the front door. The fact that you can now see the bloody crowbar itself, lying on the gore-slicked sidewalk near the bus does not bode well for the driver.
Looking closer, your heart nearly seizes suddenly in your chest – when you notice the number on that bus and realize that it’s the one your daughters ride each morning! God no! Is it too late?
As you try to get a grip on yourself, you also see that the top roof hatches on both buses are popped open and that the roofline where the buses have backed up to, is only three to four feet above the level of the buses themselves. Could it be? Did the kids on the bus manage to climb up onto the roof of the Elementary school before the buses where overrun? Is there a chance that your girls and the other students somehow got to a place of refuge inside the gymnasium and really are still alive?
“Laura, look!” you say, “pointing out the two buses. “There’s the girls’ bus over there and it looks like some of them managed to climb out the top and up onto the roof of the school. Zombies can’t climb like we can, so it’s possible they escaped the hordes!”
“Oh I hope so Greg,” your wife says, beginning to take courage again and squeezing your hand.
“Are you ready?” you ask.
“Ready as I’ll every be,” she replies.
1. Sneak over to the buses and try to get inside the one your daughters rode; then follow their path up through the hatches and onto the roof
2. Use your rope to climb up onto the roof of the Elementary building and take a peek into the gymnasium/cafeteria area from above
3. Try to sneak into the school and make your way through the halls toward that area
You drive the golf cart to the tree line that separates the golf course from the school complex. With plenty of distance between you and the zombies following, you park the cart, gather your gear, and cautiously creep in-between the trees and roughage with your wife to get a look at the area beyond.
You see the outdoor football stadium on your left and other athletic fields on your right. While the athletic fields are currently empty, hundreds and hundreds of zombies have clustered out on the football field itself for some reason and mill about mindlessly. You and your wife are both horrified though, to see both children and adults of all ages among the hordes. So many innocent lives lost! Is it even possible that your own two daughters were somehow insulated from this madness? You force yourself not to search through the countless faces of death for those of your own children.
Looking past the fields toward the complex’s main parking lot, you see a massive cluster of school buses and cars all crowded together there – and some evidence of fender-benders among them. The fifty or so buses in the district must have already arrived at or near the school when the outbreak started. With news coming across their CB radios of the emergency, they would have all gathered at the school rather than trying to take kids back home. The rest of the cars look like a mix of the faculty those already parked in spaces and parents rushing to the scene to try to gather their children before it was too late those crowded and even slammed into one another around all the buses.
A few zombies currently meander around the vehicles near the school buildings, but by far the majority of them are all at the outdoor football stadium. You can’t help but wonder why they would have all grouped together there, except that they seem to act a lot like schools of carnivorous fish – swimming in one massive swarm toward the feeding-frenzy and then waiting idle for the next meal to come along. Now that you think of it, the turf in the stadium does look like it has been stained with a massive wash of rusty brown color – dried blood of the unfortunate no doubt.
Considering how to approach the school itself, you see that there’s no way to get across the athletic fields without being seen by the zombies crowding the outdoor stadium. What you do see however, is a shallow drainage ditch that runs along the far edge of the athletic fields near the road on that side of the complex. The ditch is accessible, simply by following the line of trees over to that side of the golf course, and then ducking down to move through it. You can see from here that the ditch will lead all the way to a set of tennis course on the far side of the athletic fields. If you can get there, you can then move into and among the crowded vehicles choking the parking lots – right up to the Elementary building itself.
Looking back to check on the zombies behind you, you see them about fifty yards off and closing. There’s enough cover among the trees though, that you decide it best to sneak over to the ditch while they home in on the abandoned golf cart. Pointing the ditch out to your wife, the two of you head over, moving low through the tree line on foot. Arriving at the ditch, you see that a shallow trickle of water runs down the center and smells like a combination of mildew and rotten leaves. Given the rest of the horrifying odors you’ve somehow numbed yourself to over the last few days, it doesn’t even phase you to slip into the ditch and low-craw through the muck. Your wife however has a harder time of it, so you have to slow down and patiently help her along the way.
As the two of you go, the zombies on the golf course clamber around the abandoned cart looking for you a moment, and are then drawn inexorably toward the noisy mass of them crowding the football stadium. Continuing on and climbing out near the tennis courts, the two of you then stealth behind the chain-link fences surrounding them, and into the parking lots. Having already had plenty of practice moving unseen around zombies wandering between gridlocked vehicles – this part feels like a breeze. You see your wife’s shock and dismay playing clearly on her face however, so you take a moment to explain creeping low among the cars, listening and looking, and how to best avoid any nasty surprises.
Then taking a moment to survey the area, you see the sprawling single-story Elementary building directly ahead and the three-story High School building to the far left. The Middle School complex is a two-story building behind the High School and a single-story Administration building sits behind the Elementary School. Everything but the Administration building is connected at a central point, where the morning and afternoon buses drive in to load and unload students of various grade levels.
Looking at the buildings themselves, you are initially disheartened to see all the lower windows and glass doors broken out – meaning the zombies have already gotten inside. The torn asunder bodies and flesh-stripped skeletons of small children lie everywhere – they having been too little for the ravenous zombies to leave anything left of them to rise back up as undead. Even some of the windows on the school buses have been smashed out of the front and rear doors – and are streaked with blood – though none of the side windows on the buses are broken – even though you can see where bloody handprints have reached up to them. Perhaps those windows are too high, in relation to a zombie standing on the ground alongside the bus, to break open with a simple grasping of outreached hands…
Seeing it all makes your wife begin to vomit violently. You have to hug her close around the shoulders to calm her down.
“I… I can’t do this!” she panics, beginning to shake visibly.
“You can do it,” you reassure, but she continues to panic.
“I need to get out of here!” she says loudly, going into a full blown anxiety attack.
You look around in fear that her voice may have carried far enough to alert the surrounding zombies – but your luck holds. Clearly your wife is losing it though – and if you don’t do something drastic now, you fear she’ll bolt and at the very least get herself eaten by the hordes.
You open your hand and slap her hard across the face.
It works. Which, judging by the astonished glare she suddenly gives you, makes you wonder if that was really a good idea.
“I’m sorry honey,” you apologies quickly.
“No, I understand,” she replies, relaxing her stare. “I’m fine. That slapping thing actually works. I couldn’t shake the hysteria, but you really did slap the sense back into me.”
“I didn’t want you to run off in a blind panic and get yourself killed,” you add.
“I understand dear,” she replies, “Just try not to do it again, ok?”
“Deal.”
After recovering your wife, you happen to look up and notice a small sign of promise. A taller section of the Elementary school building near the playground rises up on one side with windows well above the normal level – set in long rows starting at least fifteen feet off the ground. Not only are they not smashed out, but they are currently opened outward on top hinges.
If you recall correctly, from the many open-houses and family fun nights you’ve attended at your daughters’ school, that would be the gymnasium/cafeteria area of the Elementary school. You’ve never seen those particular windows opened out before – and would imagine that the only reason to do so now, would be to get some air flowing through a stuffy building packed with survivors holding out in there against the undead hordes. God you hope so – you hope your daughters are still alive and in there.
“Look honey,” you say pointing the windows out to her, “If there are any survivors, that’s where they would be.”
“How on earth are we going to get in?” she asks.
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out,” you assure.
Also on that side of the school building, you see two school buses actually backed together side-by-side and all the way up against the building itself. In fact, they are so close together, that they’ve actually sheered each other along the sides – completely blocking entry to one bus’s door side. The rear exit doors to both buses are also blocked, being backed completely against the red brick walls of the school itself.
The bus on the outside of the two has its front door broken out like the rest of the buses in the area – except that this one also has a pile of dead zombies stacked up in front of it. It looks like the driver on that bus tried to stand his ground and bashed the zombie’s heads in with a crowbar as they tried to claw in through the broke-out windows in the front door. The fact that you can now see the bloody crowbar itself, lying on the gore-slicked sidewalk near the bus does not bode well for the driver.
Looking closer, your heart nearly seizes suddenly in your chest – when you notice the number on that bus and realize that it’s the one your daughters ride each morning! God no! Is it too late?
As you try to get a grip on yourself, you also see that the top roof hatches on both buses are popped open and that the roofline where the buses have backed up to, is only three to four feet above the level of the buses themselves. Could it be? Did the kids on the bus manage to climb up onto the roof of the Elementary school before the buses where overrun? Is there a chance that your girls and the other students somehow got to a place of refuge inside the gymnasium and really are still alive?
“Laura, look!” you say, “pointing out the two buses. “There’s the girls’ bus over there and it looks like some of them managed to climb out the top and up onto the roof of the school. Zombies can’t climb like we can, so it’s possible they escaped the hordes!”
“Oh I hope so Greg,” your wife says, beginning to take courage again and squeezing your hand.
“Are you ready?” you ask.
“Ready as I’ll every be,” she replies.
1. Sneak over to the buses and try to get inside the one your daughters rode; then follow their path up through the hatches and onto the roof
2. Use your rope to climb up onto the roof of the Elementary building and take a peek into the gymnasium/cafeteria area from above
3. Try to sneak into the school and make your way through the halls toward that area
Agent
Lance
2. Gotta get that high ground because the zombies can't climb!
By the way where's Jacob? Did I miss something?
By the way where's Jacob? Did I miss something?
ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
It certainly bodes well for us that the buses were seemingly strategically parked to block the entrances to the school, and the bus driver made a valiant attempt to hold off the zombies. The first two options both work for me, but I think it would be safer to climb up with the rope rather than risk climbing over/walking by the pile of dead zombies. 2.
(
Agent
We left Jacob in the car for his own safety, he is covered with a blanket and should be safe since zombies are driven by the sight and sound of humans.)
(
Agent
We left Jacob in the car for his own safety, he is covered with a blanket and should be safe since zombies are driven by the sight and sound of humans.)
official clown business
Okay so our name is Piss and we are the Mafioso
Yeah, should be a relatively safe option to send the rope upwards and climb to the roof that way. The rest'll be straightforward, hopefully.
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(Option 2 has been chosen with 3 votes! and
Agent
Viper is correct.)
You and your wife make your way to the side of the building and toss up your rope. Hooking something securely above, you then hand the rope to your Laura.
“Oh god, Greg,” she says nervously, “I’m not in any shape to climb all the way up there! Are you kidding?”
“No honey,” you answer, “you have to try, it’s the safest way to get around the zombies – they can’t climb like we can. I’ll be right under you and you can rest on my shoulders if you have to.”
“I can’t believe you’re making me do this!” she protests, but starts climbing.
You wait until she gets high enough up and then get on the rope under her, wrapping the rope through your thigh, around your leg, and over your foot. With it set that way, you can go up, but also break on the rope and support your own weight plus your wife if needed. As she’s having such a hard time going up – and you abruptly notice some zombies alerting to your position, you get under her feet and inchworm your way up the rope – helping her ascend much quicker.
As she flops herself over the lip of the roof and you climb up to join her, she curses you out and says not to expect her to ever do something like that again. You don’t bother to tell her about the zombies heading this way and pull the rest of your rope up.
Moving across the roof, the two of you head over to where the school buses have backed up to the building. Looking into them through the open roof hatches, you see that both are empty, save some left behind book-bags. Interestingly though, the bus with the broken-out front door has bloody hand and footprints tracked inside everywhere, while the other one shows no evidence that any zombies ever got on board. It looks like parking the way they did, saved at least one of them from having to fend off the undead boarders.
Then heading over to the taller section of the Elementary school building with the open windows along the side of it, you see a closed roof-hatch nearby, and a place where you can get up along some of the windows to look down into them. Doing so, your wife and you see a gymnasium below, divided in half by a large floor-to-ceiling retractable divider. On one side is the athletic floor, with a number of tumbling mats set down and at least four dozen school children, of all grade levels, sitting or lying on them – and on the other side of the divider is a cafeteria area, with tables and chairs and a few more children, and what look like six adults seated therein.
Looking among the faces below your eyes are drawn to a familiar pair – your two daughters are down there and alive!
“Jessica! Kate! – Jessica and Kate Bradley!” you and Laura yell down from the windows.
The children below look up and your daughters see you – “Mommy! Daddy!” the call back excitedly.
The adults meanwhile, get up and come over to look up at you. You see three men: a local sheriff, an old janitor, and what looks like your daughters’ bus driver; and three women: two cafeteria workers and a teacher.
The sheriff calls up – “Is the rooftop clear?”
“Yeah" you call down in answer, "Why?”
“Meet me at the top hatch and I’ll let you down,” he calls back, pointing in the direction you saw the nearby hatch.
“Ok,” you reply and give a wave to your girls before moving over with your wife to meet the sheriff.
A minute or so later, and the roof hatch opens up from below and the sheriff pops up to look out across the roof and then regard the two of you. “Were you bit?” he asks, looking you both up and down.
“No, we’re good” you reply
“Good,” he replies, “Come on down.”
You and your wife follow the man down the hatch, climbing a ladder into a machine room below, where some of the school’s heating and cooling controls are located, as well as a telephone system, and a computer server of some kind.
The bus driver meets the three of you at the bottom of the ladder. “Wow, how the heck did you get past all the zombies?” he asks in amazement.
“Let’s start just with why you would come,” the sheriff interjects.
“We’re here to see if our two daughters, Jessica and Kate Bradley, have survived; and to take them out of here with us,” you state plainly.
“Where else would you go?” the bus driver asks.
“We have an old family camping spot in mind, just inside the state forest, to wait out this whole zombie apocalypse thing,” you reply, “I figure these things got to rot themselves out eventually, and if we’re somewhere they don’t have more victims to replenish their numbers with, then we’ll have a pretty good chance of living through this mess.”
“I’m impressed that you both managed to get this far,” the sheriff replies, “but do you really think you can get through the zombies again with two young kids in tow?”
“I managed to make my way here from the center of the city,” you explain, “and I’ve learned a thing or two about moving unseen through the zombie hordes. My family and I will be fine.”
“Wow, I heard the city is completely overrun,” the bus driver says in awe.
“It is,” you reply, “the streets are swarming with undead – and worse – there’s more than just zombies out there. There are far greater terrors lurking in the shadows too. That’s why we’re headed out to where it’s less populated. I’ve seen more than any man should have to in an entire lifetime. But I intend to survive it still.”
“Ok,” the sheriff says, “we’ll check the kids to see if your daughters are here. I don’t know that it’s a good idea for you to leave with them though, as we have a pretty secure area here to wait things out.”
“We’re not asking for your permission to take our daughters sheriff,” you state very clearly.
“And I’m not going to try to stop you,” the sheriff replies, a little annoyed at your tone. “Our main problem is running low on food and water, because there are so many of us, so you would be helping us by relieving the burden of more mouths to feed. Still, if you want to reconsider, I’m not going to refuse you the shelter.”
“Thank you sheriff,” you reply, “but we’ll take our chances on our own. As for food and water, I think we can help you there. The country club on the other side of the golf course has not been too looted – there’s a large store of food and drink still there for the taking. We came to the school across the athletic fields via the ditch between the tennis courts. You can use it to go back and forth between here and the golf course – where if you’re careful, you can move unseen between trees and sand traps all the way to the country club buildings to recover the food stores.”
“Hey that’s great!” the bus driver replies, “Thanks for the information!”
“Alright then, let’s go see if your daughters are here,” the sheriff says, then adds: “I don’t suppose you have an ID on you?”
“Yeah, sure,” you reply, showing him your license.
The sheriff gives a cursory look at your ID and then leads you and your wife out of the machine room and into a wide hallway. Directly across the hall are two large double doors both closed. Those, you know from visiting the school before, lead into the gymnasium and cafeteria area.
To your left, you see restrooms and a closed security gate blocking the hallway further on, where it runs into another corridor. It’s the kind of gate that rolls down from the ceiling and locks into the floor, but you can see through it, and worse – you can actually hear zombies moaning and stumbling around in classrooms just around the corners of the other corridor!
To your right, you see a teacher’s lounge and then a huge stack of tumbling mats, piled floor-to-ceiling at the end of the hallway – completely blocking what would be a set of glass exit doors just beyond.
“This way,” the sheriff says, opening the double doors leading into the cafeteria side of the gymnasium.
You and Laura head into the cafeteria side of the gymnasium. Ten year old Jessica and seven Kate immediately run to you both and throw their arms around you.
“Mommy! Daddy! We knew you’d come for us!” they say, tears of joy running down their cheeks.
You and your wife hug them back, and you kiss them, overjoyed to see them still alive.
“Are you ready to get out of here?” You ask the two of them.
“Yes! Yes!” they respond, hugging you and your wife even tighter and crying – “We were so scared! We want to go home!”
“Ok, calm down, it will be all right; but one thing at a time,” you say; “Getting out of here is not going to be fun. In fact it will be the scariest thing you may ever have to do. It will also be very dangerous and if you two don’t listen to me and your mother exactly, and do what we say, when we say it, we can all get killed. Do you understand how serious this is?”
Both girls look up at you – “Yes Daddy,” they reply solemnly.
“Good; I know I can count on you,” you say.
Telling the girls to go get their things if any and to tell their friends goodbye, you and your wife turn back to the bus driver and sheriff. You notice that you also have the attention now of all the rest of the adults.
“Hey, I wanted to give you my heartfelt gratitude for saving our girls and the rest of the kids like that,” you tell the bus driver, shaking his hand firmly. “I know we never really met, other than you picking up our girls in the morning, but I want you to know that I think you are one hell of a fine human being.”
“Yes,” your wife agrees, hugging him.
The bus driver tears up a little for some reason, and then explains, “No, that wasn’t me. That was my brother Bill. He parked his bus on the outside and… and, well, he stood there at the door and fended those things off long enough for the older kids to help get the rest of them out of the bus and onto the roof. My bus was on the inside, and because of him, we didn’t have to worry about the zombies getting in. He’s the true hero. He gave his life for these kids!”
“My god,” you remark in awe and then give the man a firm hug – “You’re both heroes in my book.”
After an appropriate moment of silence, one of the cafeteria lunch ladies interjects to ask: “What is it like out there?”
“It’s still pretty bad,” you answer, “there are probably a thousand or so zombies just around the school itself and untold more in each area of population.”
“You aren’t really going back out there in all that are you?” the other lunch lady asks.
“Yeah, you could just stay here and help us recover that food store, if you do,” the bus driver says hopefully.
“My wife and I are taking our daughters and going,” you reply simply.
“Can you take us with you?” A number of teenage high school students abruptly ask, butting themselves into the ‘adult’ conversation.
“No one’s going anywhere without their own parents or until this thing is over!” the sheriff states firmly.
“You’re not the boss of us!” the older boys in the group challenge.
“In this case I am,” the sheriff replies calmly, visibly resting his hand on his holstered sidearm. “And I’ll shoot dead anyone that endangers the rest of these kids by acting in a reckless or irresponsible manner.”
The boys just fold their arms and stand there defiantly, but don’t say anything else.
“What happened here?” you ask, trying to diffuse the sudden tension in the air; “How the heck did you manage to create this refuge and save so many children?”
“Well, when things started going nuts outside,” the old janitor begins, “I rolled down the security gate after Miss Blake ran through, being chased by the things. Then we got the lunch ladies here to help block the door at the other end of the hall with the tumbling mats. While we were doing that, Sheriff Burges drove his cruiser up against the other side of the exit to help block it and was able to climb in over the top of the mats. With his help, we were able to get them packed tight enough in there, that the zombies outside couldn’t do the same. Then the two bus drivers backed up against the building and managed to get the kids on the roof. The zombies weren’t able to follow, so sheriff Burges here, went up through the hatch to bring them all down.”
“We’ve been here for days and days now, as you know,” one of the lunch ladies adds, “We had a decent stock of food, water, and juices when we started, but were pretty low and down to rationing now. You say you had another supply of food available for us?”
“Yes, out at the country club buildings,” you reply, “they have a restaurant and bar in there and hasn't really been looted yet.”
“Oh my, how are we supposed to get way over there to get it and bring it back,” the other lunch lady gasps, “We’d never make it!”
As you and your wife stand there, it occurs to you that these people really could use your help. You know that the food stores in the country club would help, but probably not long enough. If you were to stay, you could help them not only recover the stores from the country club, but also use your experience with the zombies to form scouting teams to go out in search of other resources.
On the other hand, if you could somehow convince them to try to escape the school in one of the school buses and head out to your wilderness camping sites with you, then you’d have the stores you bring with you, plus a source of clean water – in the form of many natural springs in the area. Even if food stores ran low out there, the water source and some hunting, would keep you alive for at least a month, while here at the school, potable water is probably going to run out long before the actual food stores.
Or you could just leave with your wife and girls and focus on saving them, rather than trying to be too much of a hero.
1. Change your mind about leaving and offer to stay
2. Try to convince them to come with you into the wilderness
3. Just head out with your girls
Agent
Viper is correct.)You and your wife make your way to the side of the building and toss up your rope. Hooking something securely above, you then hand the rope to your Laura.
“Oh god, Greg,” she says nervously, “I’m not in any shape to climb all the way up there! Are you kidding?”
“No honey,” you answer, “you have to try, it’s the safest way to get around the zombies – they can’t climb like we can. I’ll be right under you and you can rest on my shoulders if you have to.”
“I can’t believe you’re making me do this!” she protests, but starts climbing.
You wait until she gets high enough up and then get on the rope under her, wrapping the rope through your thigh, around your leg, and over your foot. With it set that way, you can go up, but also break on the rope and support your own weight plus your wife if needed. As she’s having such a hard time going up – and you abruptly notice some zombies alerting to your position, you get under her feet and inchworm your way up the rope – helping her ascend much quicker.
As she flops herself over the lip of the roof and you climb up to join her, she curses you out and says not to expect her to ever do something like that again. You don’t bother to tell her about the zombies heading this way and pull the rest of your rope up.
Moving across the roof, the two of you head over to where the school buses have backed up to the building. Looking into them through the open roof hatches, you see that both are empty, save some left behind book-bags. Interestingly though, the bus with the broken-out front door has bloody hand and footprints tracked inside everywhere, while the other one shows no evidence that any zombies ever got on board. It looks like parking the way they did, saved at least one of them from having to fend off the undead boarders.
Then heading over to the taller section of the Elementary school building with the open windows along the side of it, you see a closed roof-hatch nearby, and a place where you can get up along some of the windows to look down into them. Doing so, your wife and you see a gymnasium below, divided in half by a large floor-to-ceiling retractable divider. On one side is the athletic floor, with a number of tumbling mats set down and at least four dozen school children, of all grade levels, sitting or lying on them – and on the other side of the divider is a cafeteria area, with tables and chairs and a few more children, and what look like six adults seated therein.
Looking among the faces below your eyes are drawn to a familiar pair – your two daughters are down there and alive!
“Jessica! Kate! – Jessica and Kate Bradley!” you and Laura yell down from the windows.
The children below look up and your daughters see you – “Mommy! Daddy!” the call back excitedly.
The adults meanwhile, get up and come over to look up at you. You see three men: a local sheriff, an old janitor, and what looks like your daughters’ bus driver; and three women: two cafeteria workers and a teacher.
The sheriff calls up – “Is the rooftop clear?”
“Yeah" you call down in answer, "Why?”
“Meet me at the top hatch and I’ll let you down,” he calls back, pointing in the direction you saw the nearby hatch.
“Ok,” you reply and give a wave to your girls before moving over with your wife to meet the sheriff.
A minute or so later, and the roof hatch opens up from below and the sheriff pops up to look out across the roof and then regard the two of you. “Were you bit?” he asks, looking you both up and down.
“No, we’re good” you reply
“Good,” he replies, “Come on down.”
You and your wife follow the man down the hatch, climbing a ladder into a machine room below, where some of the school’s heating and cooling controls are located, as well as a telephone system, and a computer server of some kind.
The bus driver meets the three of you at the bottom of the ladder. “Wow, how the heck did you get past all the zombies?” he asks in amazement.
“Let’s start just with why you would come,” the sheriff interjects.
“We’re here to see if our two daughters, Jessica and Kate Bradley, have survived; and to take them out of here with us,” you state plainly.
“Where else would you go?” the bus driver asks.
“We have an old family camping spot in mind, just inside the state forest, to wait out this whole zombie apocalypse thing,” you reply, “I figure these things got to rot themselves out eventually, and if we’re somewhere they don’t have more victims to replenish their numbers with, then we’ll have a pretty good chance of living through this mess.”
“I’m impressed that you both managed to get this far,” the sheriff replies, “but do you really think you can get through the zombies again with two young kids in tow?”
“I managed to make my way here from the center of the city,” you explain, “and I’ve learned a thing or two about moving unseen through the zombie hordes. My family and I will be fine.”
“Wow, I heard the city is completely overrun,” the bus driver says in awe.
“It is,” you reply, “the streets are swarming with undead – and worse – there’s more than just zombies out there. There are far greater terrors lurking in the shadows too. That’s why we’re headed out to where it’s less populated. I’ve seen more than any man should have to in an entire lifetime. But I intend to survive it still.”
“Ok,” the sheriff says, “we’ll check the kids to see if your daughters are here. I don’t know that it’s a good idea for you to leave with them though, as we have a pretty secure area here to wait things out.”
“We’re not asking for your permission to take our daughters sheriff,” you state very clearly.
“And I’m not going to try to stop you,” the sheriff replies, a little annoyed at your tone. “Our main problem is running low on food and water, because there are so many of us, so you would be helping us by relieving the burden of more mouths to feed. Still, if you want to reconsider, I’m not going to refuse you the shelter.”
“Thank you sheriff,” you reply, “but we’ll take our chances on our own. As for food and water, I think we can help you there. The country club on the other side of the golf course has not been too looted – there’s a large store of food and drink still there for the taking. We came to the school across the athletic fields via the ditch between the tennis courts. You can use it to go back and forth between here and the golf course – where if you’re careful, you can move unseen between trees and sand traps all the way to the country club buildings to recover the food stores.”
“Hey that’s great!” the bus driver replies, “Thanks for the information!”
“Alright then, let’s go see if your daughters are here,” the sheriff says, then adds: “I don’t suppose you have an ID on you?”
“Yeah, sure,” you reply, showing him your license.
The sheriff gives a cursory look at your ID and then leads you and your wife out of the machine room and into a wide hallway. Directly across the hall are two large double doors both closed. Those, you know from visiting the school before, lead into the gymnasium and cafeteria area.
To your left, you see restrooms and a closed security gate blocking the hallway further on, where it runs into another corridor. It’s the kind of gate that rolls down from the ceiling and locks into the floor, but you can see through it, and worse – you can actually hear zombies moaning and stumbling around in classrooms just around the corners of the other corridor!
To your right, you see a teacher’s lounge and then a huge stack of tumbling mats, piled floor-to-ceiling at the end of the hallway – completely blocking what would be a set of glass exit doors just beyond.
“This way,” the sheriff says, opening the double doors leading into the cafeteria side of the gymnasium.
You and Laura head into the cafeteria side of the gymnasium. Ten year old Jessica and seven Kate immediately run to you both and throw their arms around you.
“Mommy! Daddy! We knew you’d come for us!” they say, tears of joy running down their cheeks.
You and your wife hug them back, and you kiss them, overjoyed to see them still alive.
“Are you ready to get out of here?” You ask the two of them.
“Yes! Yes!” they respond, hugging you and your wife even tighter and crying – “We were so scared! We want to go home!”
“Ok, calm down, it will be all right; but one thing at a time,” you say; “Getting out of here is not going to be fun. In fact it will be the scariest thing you may ever have to do. It will also be very dangerous and if you two don’t listen to me and your mother exactly, and do what we say, when we say it, we can all get killed. Do you understand how serious this is?”
Both girls look up at you – “Yes Daddy,” they reply solemnly.
“Good; I know I can count on you,” you say.
Telling the girls to go get their things if any and to tell their friends goodbye, you and your wife turn back to the bus driver and sheriff. You notice that you also have the attention now of all the rest of the adults.
“Hey, I wanted to give you my heartfelt gratitude for saving our girls and the rest of the kids like that,” you tell the bus driver, shaking his hand firmly. “I know we never really met, other than you picking up our girls in the morning, but I want you to know that I think you are one hell of a fine human being.”
“Yes,” your wife agrees, hugging him.
The bus driver tears up a little for some reason, and then explains, “No, that wasn’t me. That was my brother Bill. He parked his bus on the outside and… and, well, he stood there at the door and fended those things off long enough for the older kids to help get the rest of them out of the bus and onto the roof. My bus was on the inside, and because of him, we didn’t have to worry about the zombies getting in. He’s the true hero. He gave his life for these kids!”
“My god,” you remark in awe and then give the man a firm hug – “You’re both heroes in my book.”
After an appropriate moment of silence, one of the cafeteria lunch ladies interjects to ask: “What is it like out there?”
“It’s still pretty bad,” you answer, “there are probably a thousand or so zombies just around the school itself and untold more in each area of population.”
“You aren’t really going back out there in all that are you?” the other lunch lady asks.
“Yeah, you could just stay here and help us recover that food store, if you do,” the bus driver says hopefully.
“My wife and I are taking our daughters and going,” you reply simply.
“Can you take us with you?” A number of teenage high school students abruptly ask, butting themselves into the ‘adult’ conversation.
“No one’s going anywhere without their own parents or until this thing is over!” the sheriff states firmly.
“You’re not the boss of us!” the older boys in the group challenge.
“In this case I am,” the sheriff replies calmly, visibly resting his hand on his holstered sidearm. “And I’ll shoot dead anyone that endangers the rest of these kids by acting in a reckless or irresponsible manner.”
The boys just fold their arms and stand there defiantly, but don’t say anything else.
“What happened here?” you ask, trying to diffuse the sudden tension in the air; “How the heck did you manage to create this refuge and save so many children?”
“Well, when things started going nuts outside,” the old janitor begins, “I rolled down the security gate after Miss Blake ran through, being chased by the things. Then we got the lunch ladies here to help block the door at the other end of the hall with the tumbling mats. While we were doing that, Sheriff Burges drove his cruiser up against the other side of the exit to help block it and was able to climb in over the top of the mats. With his help, we were able to get them packed tight enough in there, that the zombies outside couldn’t do the same. Then the two bus drivers backed up against the building and managed to get the kids on the roof. The zombies weren’t able to follow, so sheriff Burges here, went up through the hatch to bring them all down.”
“We’ve been here for days and days now, as you know,” one of the lunch ladies adds, “We had a decent stock of food, water, and juices when we started, but were pretty low and down to rationing now. You say you had another supply of food available for us?”
“Yes, out at the country club buildings,” you reply, “they have a restaurant and bar in there and hasn't really been looted yet.”
“Oh my, how are we supposed to get way over there to get it and bring it back,” the other lunch lady gasps, “We’d never make it!”
As you and your wife stand there, it occurs to you that these people really could use your help. You know that the food stores in the country club would help, but probably not long enough. If you were to stay, you could help them not only recover the stores from the country club, but also use your experience with the zombies to form scouting teams to go out in search of other resources.
On the other hand, if you could somehow convince them to try to escape the school in one of the school buses and head out to your wilderness camping sites with you, then you’d have the stores you bring with you, plus a source of clean water – in the form of many natural springs in the area. Even if food stores ran low out there, the water source and some hunting, would keep you alive for at least a month, while here at the school, potable water is probably going to run out long before the actual food stores.
Or you could just leave with your wife and girls and focus on saving them, rather than trying to be too much of a hero.
1. Change your mind about leaving and offer to stay
2. Try to convince them to come with you into the wilderness
3. Just head out with your girls
Agent
Lance
Ugggh tough decision! Okay, okay, umm... let's weigh the choices.
If we stay, we'll be safe a while until we run out of supplies, in which case we'll need to figure out how to get everyone out of here.
If we ask them to come with us... bad stuff is gonna happen, and I don't want to have to deal with any of that.
Heading out is okay, but then we'll need to figure out what to do with Jacob. Maybe Jacob can stay with these folks, so I don't have to take care of him anymore!
3. Eh, let's just go. Managing a big group of people isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, and also we're assholes to people that aren't part of our family.
If we stay, we'll be safe a while until we run out of supplies, in which case we'll need to figure out how to get everyone out of here.
If we ask them to come with us... bad stuff is gonna happen, and I don't want to have to deal with any of that.
Heading out is okay, but then we'll need to figure out what to do with Jacob. Maybe Jacob can stay with these folks, so I don't have to take care of him anymore!
3. Eh, let's just go. Managing a big group of people isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, and also we're assholes to people that aren't part of our family.
ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
I got excited when the teenagers wanted to come with us, they could be useful, certainly more than Jacob and our daughters, and probably our wife too. I'm a bit hesitant with taking everyone though, since the whole point of going somewhere isolated is that there is less people that could turn, and bringing a large group with us seems counterproductive to that. We will have to weigh that against our conscience, although it's worth noting that there are very few child zombies since they are too small to be reanimated, so it could be a worthwhile risk, as we gain the help of the other adults and teens. What do you think,
official clown business
official clown business
Pryno
Probably a Malkavian
I think we should try to bring them with us. Gently, to avoid the wrath of the sheriff. How much time will they be able to survive in the school? Not too long. It would also be nice for the girls to have friends with them. Solitude and survival can bring someone to madness.
2. Let's try to be a hero.
2. Let's try to be a hero.
official clown business
Okay so our name is Piss and we are the Mafioso
Too much looking and too little posting from me lately. Yeah, I'm thinking about whether it's best to have a big ol' group of survivors or to stick with just the family. Each one comes with a variety of advantages and disadvantages and it's enough to write an entire essay on. Too many factors. I think I'd rather pick which option sounds better to me at this moment.
We're talking a pretty huge group, including a bunch of children, if we take them all along, but what could possibly go wrong? I like the benefits it brings right now, even if I'm almost certain it'll lead to problem after problem in the long term, but I guess we'll have to figure those out as they come up. Let's convince them to come with us.
We're talking a pretty huge group, including a bunch of children, if we take them all along, but what could possibly go wrong? I like the benefits it brings right now, even if I'm almost certain it'll lead to problem after problem in the long term, but I guess we'll have to figure those out as they come up. Let's convince them to come with us.
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(So
ViciousVip3R
does this mean you are siding with
official clown business
and
Pryno
or are you going with
Agent
and gonna cause a tie?)
ViciousVip3R
does this mean you are siding with
official clown business
and
Pryno
or are you going with
Agent
and gonna cause a tie?)
ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
I'm siding with Jake and Pryno(So
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(And with that we can move forward, as Option 2 has been chosen with 3 votes!)
“There’s a ditch that crosses the edge of the athletic field, from the tennis courts to the trees at the edge of the golf course,” you tell everyone. “That’s how my wife and I got here and how you can sneak back over to recover the food stores.”
“But hey, why don’t you all come with us instead?” you abruptly throw out there; “While there’s some food supplies to be had at the country club, I’m guessing that you have a limited amount of water here – and don’t even think of the river across the way – it’s contaminated by the dead and polluted with raw sewage and other industrial sludge. At least at our wilderness campsites, there are clean natural springs and we wouldn’t be surrounded in the walking dead twenty-four-seven.”
“Wow, you think we could actually make it out of here?” the bus driver asks.
“Now hold on right there,” the sheriff interrupts, “There’s no reason to abandon our refuge. At least the zombies can’t get to us here. Which is more than you can guarantee if we all leave.”
“You can’t keep us here against our will,” the older teenage boys step forward once again – “We want to get the hell out of here. We’re old enough. Some of us are even eighteen. You can’t force us to stay.”
The sheriff eyeballs them for a moment, then sighs – “Alright then… anyone that’s eighteen or older can go if they want. You’re old enough to be adults. Everyone else stays. No exceptions.”
“But sheriff, what about my younger brother?” one of the older teens asks – “he has to come with me!”
“Fine,” the sheriff relents, “but his blood will be on your hands. You understand that son?”
“Yes sir,” the teen replies.
“We want to go too!” a sudden cry goes up from among the rest of the gathered children – and it quickly turns into a loud chant – “We want to go! We want to go! We want to go!”
“God damn it!” the sheriff yells above the noise – “Quiet!”
When no one stops, he draws his sidearm and fires a shot into the ceiling.
A sudden silence falls over the assembly of children. Then outside the hallway in front of the gymnasium doors, you hear the wailing and snarling of the walking dead attracted to the sound of the chanting and clawing at the gate to get in.
“It’s shit like that will get every one of us killed!” the sheriff yells angrily, “Now, I’m in charge until this nightmare is over! I’m responsible for everyone’s safety! You will do as I deem necessary or you will be dealt with!”
With the children sufficiently cowed and now silent, the sheriff motions for the janitor to look out the doors and check on the state of the security gate.
“It’s still holding sheriff,” the old man reports back.
"So then,” you break into the awkward silence that follows – “I got these five young men and the bus driver coming with me and my family? Anyone else?”
“I’m eighteen,” a young women says and comes over to stand among the older boys.
“Oh, I can’t leave these kids if we’re not all going,” the bus driver replies, “I guess I’ll just stay here and continue to help the sheriff out as best as I can.”
“What about you all?” you ask the other adults.
“I’m too old to go camping,” the janitor replies.
“I got to stay with the kids,” the female teacher answers.
“We really are low on the water supply sheriff,” one of the lunch ladies points out. “Yeah,” the other agrees, “it’s not going to last much longer.”
“We’ll figure something out,” the sheriff assures them. However you notice like you had the entire conversation, that he isn't the most sure, he's worried about the responsibility, he looks like he could be convinced possibly if you push a little more.
“Greg,” your wife asks quietly in your ear, “are you sure we shouldn’t just stay here with these people? They can probably use our help to survive.”
1. Take your family and the six older teenagers with you and leave
2. Refuse to babysit the teens and just head out with your own wife and kids
3. Make one last attempt to convince the sheriff that leaving with you is the best idea
4. Decide that staying here in the refuge might be best after all...
“There’s a ditch that crosses the edge of the athletic field, from the tennis courts to the trees at the edge of the golf course,” you tell everyone. “That’s how my wife and I got here and how you can sneak back over to recover the food stores.”
“But hey, why don’t you all come with us instead?” you abruptly throw out there; “While there’s some food supplies to be had at the country club, I’m guessing that you have a limited amount of water here – and don’t even think of the river across the way – it’s contaminated by the dead and polluted with raw sewage and other industrial sludge. At least at our wilderness campsites, there are clean natural springs and we wouldn’t be surrounded in the walking dead twenty-four-seven.”
“Wow, you think we could actually make it out of here?” the bus driver asks.
“Now hold on right there,” the sheriff interrupts, “There’s no reason to abandon our refuge. At least the zombies can’t get to us here. Which is more than you can guarantee if we all leave.”
“You can’t keep us here against our will,” the older teenage boys step forward once again – “We want to get the hell out of here. We’re old enough. Some of us are even eighteen. You can’t force us to stay.”
The sheriff eyeballs them for a moment, then sighs – “Alright then… anyone that’s eighteen or older can go if they want. You’re old enough to be adults. Everyone else stays. No exceptions.”
“But sheriff, what about my younger brother?” one of the older teens asks – “he has to come with me!”
“Fine,” the sheriff relents, “but his blood will be on your hands. You understand that son?”
“Yes sir,” the teen replies.
“We want to go too!” a sudden cry goes up from among the rest of the gathered children – and it quickly turns into a loud chant – “We want to go! We want to go! We want to go!”
“God damn it!” the sheriff yells above the noise – “Quiet!”
When no one stops, he draws his sidearm and fires a shot into the ceiling.
A sudden silence falls over the assembly of children. Then outside the hallway in front of the gymnasium doors, you hear the wailing and snarling of the walking dead attracted to the sound of the chanting and clawing at the gate to get in.
“It’s shit like that will get every one of us killed!” the sheriff yells angrily, “Now, I’m in charge until this nightmare is over! I’m responsible for everyone’s safety! You will do as I deem necessary or you will be dealt with!”
With the children sufficiently cowed and now silent, the sheriff motions for the janitor to look out the doors and check on the state of the security gate.
“It’s still holding sheriff,” the old man reports back.
"So then,” you break into the awkward silence that follows – “I got these five young men and the bus driver coming with me and my family? Anyone else?”
“I’m eighteen,” a young women says and comes over to stand among the older boys.
“Oh, I can’t leave these kids if we’re not all going,” the bus driver replies, “I guess I’ll just stay here and continue to help the sheriff out as best as I can.”
“What about you all?” you ask the other adults.
“I’m too old to go camping,” the janitor replies.
“I got to stay with the kids,” the female teacher answers.
“We really are low on the water supply sheriff,” one of the lunch ladies points out. “Yeah,” the other agrees, “it’s not going to last much longer.”
“We’ll figure something out,” the sheriff assures them. However you notice like you had the entire conversation, that he isn't the most sure, he's worried about the responsibility, he looks like he could be convinced possibly if you push a little more.
“Greg,” your wife asks quietly in your ear, “are you sure we shouldn’t just stay here with these people? They can probably use our help to survive.”
1. Take your family and the six older teenagers with you and leave
2. Refuse to babysit the teens and just head out with your own wife and kids
3. Make one last attempt to convince the sheriff that leaving with you is the best idea
4. Decide that staying here in the refuge might be best after all...
Pryno
Probably a Malkavian
I want to save as many people as possible. And if I learned one thing from the Walking Dead (the games and the serie), it's that one unstable member in the group can make everything more difficult, if not getting others killed. The sheriff is that guy. He's similar to Jack from the Lord of the flies. Governed by his feelings rather than by his reason, he wants to lead and to be the hero regardless of risks for others. 3.
Edit: Wait, 3 was for convincing the sheriff?
Pryno is now reading again the last post. Attention deficit: 1, Malkavian: 0.
I change my vote, 1.
Edit: Wait, 3 was for convincing the sheriff?
Pryno is now reading again the last post. Attention deficit: 1, Malkavian: 0.
I change my vote, 1.
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ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
I'm a bit confused by your reasoning: you state that the sheriff is a huge liability due to his tendency to rely on emotion over reason, but then say that you want to convince the sheriff to come with us. At this point everyone significantly under the age of 18 is a liability, so I would think that the only reason to try and convince the rest to come with us is for the expertise of the sheriff and lunch ladies. Could you clarify?
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(I think he meant, he's terrible for leading.)
ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
Hmm, on the contrary I think that the sheriff is being too logical. He is hesitant to take risks because he knows the blood will be on his hands, so he is insisting on staying in a location that he knows is secure. It doesn't seem like he is acting out of pride, either. He is insisting that anyone under the legal age stay with him, which he believes is the best option, but is not protesting the decisions made by others to leave, or prevent them from taking their family. I think that because of his law enforcement background, he is trying to enforce order through a way of life that is familiar to him and utilizing a informal chain of command. That is not necessarily wrong, and the other adults all seem entirely content with this situation so I don't think that the kids will necessarily be in bad hands here, they have survived for so long anyways.
Other than reasons of mortality(any concern of the sheriff being undependable is unfounded, so I see no problem leaving them here...At least their blood is not on our hands if they die), I see no reason for us to take the burden of protecting and feeding so many extra mouths. Any child care taker knows that children are not the most understanding or cooperative people, so they could really endanger us if we encounter zombies. On the other hand, the group of people we have gathered so far are just entering their prime, so they should all be able to contribute to some extent. In addition, I don't think our character even has the skills to ensure the survival of such a huge group of people(remember that we are just an office worker and our survival so far has depended on sneaking past zombies) so it would be irresponsible to claim otherwise and raise their hopes for nothing. They would be better off here, and we would be better off without them.
1.
Other than reasons of mortality(any concern of the sheriff being undependable is unfounded, so I see no problem leaving them here...At least their blood is not on our hands if they die), I see no reason for us to take the burden of protecting and feeding so many extra mouths. Any child care taker knows that children are not the most understanding or cooperative people, so they could really endanger us if we encounter zombies. On the other hand, the group of people we have gathered so far are just entering their prime, so they should all be able to contribute to some extent. In addition, I don't think our character even has the skills to ensure the survival of such a huge group of people(remember that we are just an office worker and our survival so far has depended on sneaking past zombies) so it would be irresponsible to claim otherwise and raise their hopes for nothing. They would be better off here, and we would be better off without them.
1.
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(Let me play devil's advocate for a second here, even if you are just an office worker, by no means does that mean you are stupid, I give ample choice to pick a more logical choice over foolish ones someone in a movie or something might pick to add drama, with that in mind, it's not really Greg who is managing things here, it's you all, the people who have put up with my shit for all this time. (I just hope I give you guys good shit to read and reply to almost every day lol) it's up to you whether you make the right choice as a group to lead Greg and the others that you might take on to survival... or death, so you wouldn't be raising false hope unless you were to make stupid decisions on purpose. Besides take a look at all the info I provide because I showed their plan for survival isn't infallible. I just wanted to drop my 2 cents in there and play devil's advocate for a moment especially since it felt like a good time for me to say something and, not to completely take a biased side here.)