(Walkers from the east: 42/85 dead, 1 with 9 damage to head, 1 with 8 damage to head, 1 with 3 damage to head
Runners from the east: 3/10 dead, 1 with no right leg [18 damage], 1 with no right arm [15 damage], 1 with 10 damage to left arm
Crawlers from the east: 3 with 9 damage to head
NW barricade: 6/60 HP left
NE barricade: gone
SW barricade: gone
SE barricade: 1/60 HP left
Luke: 3 damage
Black: 3 damage
Sheen: 5 damage
Malanowski: 9 damage
Cole: 7 damage
Granger: 3 damage
Temporary insanity rounds remaining, not counting this one:
Javier Ramirez: 4
Lt. Angela Blanco: 5)
West of the motel-
The fast zombie that
Hodges shot went down in a heap at the top of the stairs. The other six slowly climbed up the stairs and over the still corpse of their fellow ghoul. They would be at the door to the comm room soon.
(Hodges, you may act again. You may shoot once, move, or do something else.)
In the comm room-
Lt. Doolittle saw that she had eight rounds remaining in her MP-5's magazine and one in the chamber. Her sidearm was still fully loaded with an extra bullet in the chamber.
"At least that's something," replied
Carmichael. "Thank God. Anything else to report?"
"Everyone else get out while you can!" ordered
Lt. Curtis. "Only one of us needs to be in here to keep communications open as long as possible, and as the CO that should be me. The rest of you save yourselves. I don't think we can hold this place."
"Sir, you still need me," said
Mikhalin. "I speak Russian, and you don't. I'll stay."
Curtis frowned, but he knew her logic was correct and he didn't have time to argue. "Okay, let's go! " He led the way out to the balcony, the medical researchers following him.
(Lt. Doolittle, you may follow the others out of the room. If you do, you'll see the zombies, but you will not need to roll Sanity since you've already lost 10 for seeing zombies in this chapter. They're blocking the way south, but you can run north and make it to the center of the west side of the balcony this round. If you try to attack them, they will get to attack you back, so that would not be advisable. You may reload your MP-5 while you run.)
On the motel balcony-
David slung the shotgun across his back, swung onto the ladder, and climbed up to the roof.
Dr. Owens was about to follow him when he heard the sound of crunching wood from both the northeast and southeast barricades.
Luke hit the southeast one again, and
Bill did too. There was only a thin piece of wood remaining. Then
one of the runners cracked open the northeast barricade and another emerged from the stairs and leapt for
Ramirez's prone form,
coming up just short. Two more runners came up the stairs right behind them.
Zorie Spooner saw her former comrades, now undead, as she emerged from the comm room.
She refrained from panicking, but ran north along the balcony.
Lt. Blanco's
eyes widened. She had gotten used to working with these people, and she couldn't believe that they had died.
It was too much to bear, and
she was certain she would end up just like them.
Terrified, she froze and remained standing where she was.
Curtis calm as ever, grabbed her arm and
dragged her after him. "I'm not leaving you behind!" he shouted.
East of the motel-
The one-legged zombie finally reached the northeast stairs, just as the last two runners arrived from the east,
also heading for them. The main horde was still 40 yards from the motel.
South of the motel-
Amanda stopped the motorcycle next to
Lisa, sobbing. "I'm so sorry,
Lisa," she said. "He...he didn't make it. I barely got out of there myself, and he nearly killed me after he rose up. If I hadn't jammed my carbine in his mouth...he practically broke it in half. It's not your fault,
Lisa. He gave his life so that you could escape, and there's no greater proof of his love. There's nothing for us back there. I lost
Clarence too, and a few other friends. But
Keith and
Melinda are still alive, and so is
Colin Lewis. We have to follow them. Hopefully they know to turn west eventually and head for Warren AFB, because I don't see how we can catch up to them unless they stop." She patted the seat behind her. "Hop on, they're getting farther ahead."
Almost a mile to the south,
Melinda saw
Colin just in front of her, but she couldn't see why he had done so. In the back of her truck,
Keith finally came to his senses.
Colin Lewis blinked twice and suddenly there was no sign of
Lisa or the worms, only his truck and
Keith's. In fact, all of the worms he had seen all around him were inexplicably gone. Had they ever even been there? Were any of them real? He didn't know. In the bed of his pickup,
Coltrane looked around. "You've got to take me back to the motel!" he said. "My guys are back there. How did I get here?" He tried to recall what had happened. "You saved my life back there, didn't you? Thanks, man." He spoke into his radio. "This is
Coltrane. I'm not sure where I am or how I got here, but I'm in the back of one of the civilians' trucks. Can anyone read me? What's going on at the motel? Over."
(Keith Deeds and Colin Lewis, you are now yourselves again. Indefinite insanity won't kick in until the end of the chapter, and I'll let you know at that point how it affects you. You may both act freely now. Hodges, Lt. Doolittle, and the other USAF characters at the motel all heard what Coltrane said on the radio. Amanda and Lisa are nearly a mile back, and the group with the trucks can neither see nor hear them.)