IC-THRU-Blue Plate Special(Luke/Melinda/all RR but Amanda)

[ryansommer]

A cold chill jolted across Keiths skin and his stomach churned in disgust at the sight of the shambling corplse. Surpressingthe terror welling up inside him, Keith calmed himself fired off three more rounds at the approaching beasts. Keith trembled slightly as he fired off his first round and missed. The other three shots, however, struck home. The first round struck with devestating force and obliterated the head of it's target.
THe secodn round also dropped it's target, but the third one barely grazed its skull.
"Alright guys, time to move again. Hang on!" Keith said as he jumped back into the drivers seat of the truck. He waited for the soldiers to finish taking their shots before driving the truck to a clear spot a few hundred yards east on the highway.

(OOC: I said Keith is waiting for the soldiers to take their shots because the other guys have not posted and acted in this round. He will by no means let the infected reach the truck. If he needs to drive away before they take their shots, he will.)

[Mr. Handy]

(Walkers from the east: 71/86 dead, 4 with 9 damage to the head, 4 with 8 damage to the head)

At the garage-
The zombie that Luke had wounded was the same one that Keith winged, and the combined force of the two bullets striking its skull knocked it off of its feet, though it still continued crawling slowly. He and Clarence heard some voices on their radios.

"Phillips," said a man Clarence recognized as Airman Frank Hodges, "how are you doing out there...I mean how are you feeling?"

"I feel like hell," replied Phillips. "I can get these last two mines, but after that I need to lie down and rest."

"Wallace, one of the civilian truck drivers, has been bitten," said Lt. Blanco a little later. "His symptoms are progressing slowly, but he cannot be admitted upstairs."

Clarence began firing at the ghouls with his rifle, landing three hits out of five shots fired. Two were dropped, but kept crawling. One had its skull blown to splinters. Joe Soarez also opened up with his Mini-14, hitting three times as well. He killed two and wounded another badly. Lewie Newton fired three times and got two good hits, slaughtering both of his targets.

(Again, Luke may fire up to five times. Colin Lewis may fire twice.)

On the highway-
Malanowski was used to the sight of the creatures, but Ortega was utterly unnerved. Luckily, it didn't last long. Both men kept firing, each getting off four shots before Keith had to pull out. Malanowski got three hits, one of them excellent. All three zombies were slain. Ortega hit with every shot, killing two and reducing two more to crawlers.

Keith drove eastward, keeping an eye on the remaining zombies that turned to slowly pursue him. He stopped about 600 yards east of the diner, and was shocked to see another group of zombies approaching the truck through the grass to the east and a bit to the north. These were moving a lot faster, and they made a beeline for the truck. They were only 100 yards away now, but there were just four of them.

(Keith, roll Sanity. Again, any loss of more than 4 points only counts as four. Then you have five combat rounds to shoot, after which the zombies will reach the truck unless they are wounded or killed first. Malanowski and Ortega will also get five rounds. Odds are you will finish them off before they arrive, but if you keep missing you can hold your fifth shot in reserve in case you need to drive away. Any kills in excess of the first four will be applied to the walkers you passed earlier, who are a long way off and cannot reach you for a while.)

[ryansommer]

" Incomming!" Keith shouts as he spots the newest infected. His mind reels at the sight of them. They are soo close! Coming soo fast! Every muscle, every instinct in his body is screaming at him to flee, however, friends, family and even strangers are counting on Keith. He pulls it together, wipes the sweat from his brow and takes aim and the newly spotten hoard.
Keith lines up his shots. His hands are shaking. He lets lose with his AR15, however, the gun jammed on the first shot.
Keith was able to quickly fix the jam before needing to move the truck to safety once again.

[Mr. Handy]

(You can't go temporarily insane, since you can't lose 5 or more points. You failed your Sanity roll, so just roll 1d10 to see how much you lose, but any roll of more than 4 counts as 4. Then you may act.)

[Mr Zombie killer]

Lewis aimed at a zombie's head through his scope and fired then shifted aim and fired at another zombie's head. The first shot missed but the second shot hit the second zombie square in the middle of the forehead. The zombie's head was well nothing was left of it and the zombie fell to the earth dead again.

[SuAside]

Luke breathes a sigh of relief as his stroke of 'bad' luck is broken. How frustrating to see 3 perfectly good shots yield 2 dead and one wounded, twice in a row...

[Mr. Handy]

(Walkers from the east: 76/86 dead, 4 with 9 damage to the head, 4 with 8 damage to the head

Runners from the east: 0/4 dead

That's correct that Keith cannot go temporarily insane. However, he has now lost 1/5 of his Sanity within one game hour, which will cause indefinite insanity. It hasn't kicked in yet, but when it does I'll let you know. In the meantime he may act freely. The AR-15 does jam on a 98. I'll count that second roll as a Mechanical Repair roll, and it is a success, so you've started clearing the jam. Go ahead and roll 1d6 to see how many rounds it will take. You can spare three rounds doing so while still leaving enough time to drive away if necessary, and then you can resume clearing the jam at a later time. If you clear it in two or fewer rounds, I'll count that third roll as a missed shot. If you're lucky enough to clear it in one round, you may make a fourth roll and shoot again without risk to the truck. I'll also roll for Malanowski and Ortega when I update. There are only two uninjured walkers left now, plus eight crawlers that can be slain easily with any rifle hit to the head. There are also the four runners, but only those in the truck have seen them.)

[ryansommer]

(OOC: I edited Keiths post above.)

[Mr. Handy]

At the garage-
Luke and Clarence heard Frank Hodges speak on the radio: "Phillips, Hodges here. You aren't looking so good, man. I know everyone can hear this and what I am about to say ain't going to be pretty, but it needs to be said. You've been infected and we all know what happens then. I know you don't want any of us to get hurt. If you turn, you're going to come and attack us and could hurt, if not kill several of us. I don't know how to say this in a pretty way, so I'm just going to say it: If you feel faint, or like you're going to pass out, you may want to end it before the infection takes you, bro. I don't like the idea of it any more than you do, believe me, but it's better than turning."

"Believe me," replied Phillips, "I don't want to turn either. When the time comes I'll do it myself, but I'm not there yet. I can still help out until then."

Zorie Spooner spoke: "This is Zorie Spooner. Airman Thomas Cole is cleared to return to duty, and I've screened him and am confident he is free of infection."

Lt. Blanco spoke on the radio next: "Phillips was infected a little over an hour ago, and it takes about two hours to run its course. The symptoms will get progressively worse over time, but we'll have plenty of warning before he goes. Phillips, once you're done with the mines I'll need you to report to Room 6. You'll share it with Wallace. I'll also need a volunteer to keep an eye on you two, and to end it if you can't when the time comes."

One of the snipers took down the last two walking zombies, so Clarence started finishing off the crawlers and took out four of them. Joe Soarez fired several shots, but he only got one of them. Lewie Newton took two shots, both of which missed, before starting to reload.

(Colin Lewis, it will take you three combat rounds to fully reload your rifle. You may also take one shot if you wish, or you may reload the rifle partially and then take two shots. Luke, you may take up to five shots if you want them. There is only one crawler left, and any rifle hit to the head will kill it.)

On the highway-
Ortega barely kept his head together. Malanowski started shooting at the runners' heads first, getting two hits and two narrow misses. Both of the runners went down. Ortega shot the other two, dropping them. With the immediate threat gone, Malanowski took out a crawler and Ortega eliminated another one. Only one remained, and it was far enough away that it posed no threat for now.

(Keith, you may shoot at the last crawler if you wish, up to six times since you didn't need to use your fifth combat round last time.)

[Mr Zombie killer]

Lewis will use the time to fully reload his rifle.

[ryansommer]

Keith took aim and fired at the last crawler. The first shot missed, but the second one found its mark destroying its head in a puff of red.
"Allright, that looks like the last of them," Keith said. "I'll take us back to the motel so we can pick up some ammo for that guy on the roof back there and figure out what to do."





(OOC: I rolled 6 times for my attacks so I didn't have to keep rolling one at a time. The second one hit and killed it so I will not fire the remaining 4 times. Is that okay? If you'd ratehr I rolled all shots seperatly, let me know so I can do so in the future.)

[Mr. Handy]

(That's perfectly okay. I roll multiple shots at once for the NPCs too. Good thing that second roll was a hit, or the third roll of 98 would have jammed the rifle - for the third time!)

[SuAside]

"Keep an eye out, will you?" Luke asks as he sits back and relaxes while he checks his remaining ammo.

[Mr. Handy]

At the garage-
Luke counted his remaining ammo and found that he had a total of 85 rounds remaining for his rifle. There were 12 currently loaded, two full magazines, and four partial magazines.

[ryansommer]

Keith puts his truck in gear, and heads back towards the diner. As he drives, he opens the rear sliding window and says to the soldiers in back, "Hey guys, can you get in the blower and see if the guy at the diner wants to join up with the others at the motel or is he is okay where he is?"

[SuAside]

Luke sits back and starts sorting through the ammo. Turning the partially loaded ones into fully loaded ones.

[John Gaunt]

Malanowski looks at Ortega and asks "You wanna make that call, Senior Airman or should I?" Looking through the window at Keith, Malanowski says: "Having you biker boys and this truck here sure went a long way to boosting our odds of surviving this clusterfuck. Were you guys planning on staying here awhile or do you have places to go?" While waiting for his reply, Igor takes visual stock of the motel and diner parking lots for intact vehicles.

[ryansommer]

"Ya know, we were planning on trading for some supplies and moving on as keeping on the move has kept us alive. However, we may not be so lucky as to find another gas station and once we run out of gas and stop moving, we are good as dead." Keith said to the Airman in the back of the truck. "My names Keith, buy the way. Keith Deeds. My pa is up on the diner roof with the other guy, and I don't know where my brother is, but he's around here too. Lets go back to the diner and talk this over with my pa."

[Mr. Handy]

At the garage-
Luke and Clarence heard Sergeant Black's voice on the radio: "The last of the infected has been killed. Anybody cleared by the doctor and without another task we could use more ammo up here. There should be some more in the ammo crate and if anyone can bring it up it would be a great help. Also if possible remove the armor and anything useful from our recent casualties. We could use one of the rooms on the second floor as an armory if possible." After a pause, he continued speaking. "This is Sergeant Sam Black of the USAF to the diner group, are you listening?"

An unfamiliar voice spoke next: "Sergeant Black, sir. As soon as the good doctor patches me up, permission to make a defensive survey of the motel and surrounds please? I have a few ideas, but I need to have a visual sitrep of my own to see if they'll work before I take up your time telling you what they are."

Black answered: "Sure thing, just stay near the motel and be careful."

"Roger that, Sergeant. Will make sitrep ASAP. Anyone fancy giving me a hand? I could do better with a few more eyes and brains, and we don't seem to be in any immediate danger right now."

Then Frank Hodges spoke: "Coltrane and I are available to help, providing that Black or Sheen can keep an eye out for Phillips,"

The second voice then spoke again: "Senior Airman Coltrane, sir, would that be okay? If that's an affirmative, and the sergeant okays it, could you please check to see how many of the cars in the lot are mobile? I'm thinking we use them to limit points of approach to the motel, creating fire corridors. If it'll work - and I think it will, those things don't seem to have much in the way of smarts - we can defend key points with a minimum of personnel and seriously enhance our ability to hit the dead bastards. We'll work out the best points for this, then block up any leftover windows by breaking up the furniture. Could someone out there find some tools? A hammer, nails - hell, even a nailgun if there's one handy. The less points of access the infected have, the easier this place will be to defend. I'm in Room 4 right now, a bit banged up, but I think I get the Doc's once over next, so I shouldn't be too long."

"Heck, the cars don't even have to be able to run. There's a junk yard and a tow truck over there across the highway. We could tow some junkers over here and possibly build a wall around this place."

"Good idea, sir, but I think it might be wise to leave a few gaps. Those dead things tend to take the easiest possible route to their target, so if we make funnels, we can herd them into killing fields and blow the bastards away. Board up the windows that face in other directions and they will HAVE to come at us from exactly where we want them to. Hmmm... If we make some loose barriers as well we can close up any point that gets compromised with a minimum of effort. Maybe rip off some car hoods as well, for a bit of extra ablative." There was a pause. "Oh, and sir? If you head over to the junkyard, be careful - there could be anything out in those wrecks."

"Now that you mention barracades, I think I remember one of the truckers talking about having a load of lumber and tools in their cargo."

"Clarence Deeds here," replied Clarence on the radio as he exchanged magazines. "Reading you loud and clear, Sarge. What can we do for you?"

"Cole here," said someone else. "I've been cleared and I'm on my way up to get the ammo."

Luke loaded a full magazine into his rifle and then began to consolidate his partial magazines. He was able to fill up another one and started work on the next. It would take him about a minute more to finish.

Lewie Newton looked eastwards through his scope, but he saw nothing of note. He also reloaded his rifle. Soarez reloaded as well.

"I'll get on the horn," said Ortega, reloading. He spoke into his microphone. "Luke, this is Ortega. Are you all right where you are, or would you rather join the others at the motel?"

Keith drove west on the highway and soon reached the turnoff to the truck stop. He turned right and drove into the T-Bone's parking lot, pulling up outside the garage. He saw his father and Melinda were still on the roof with the others.

[kabukiman]

Melinda is relief that Keith is back and smiles to him.