the Simpson campaign day 1 part 1

Ok for this campaign and maybe going forward I will be adding these comments in blue to add some explanation to the narrative.  I still like writing the stories but felt that sometime explanation was required.  Note this is not rules clarification as I’m certainly not proficient enough to do that! This is Day 1 for the Simpson family, the white trash survivor group I painted up for zombtober.  Rules for using the family are documented earlier in this blog so won’t be repeated here.  Day 1 sees our heroine Mary-Lou (Ma) Simpson driving to school to drop off some sports equipment for her son….

*we interrupt the non-stop Dolly Parton marathon to bring you this special broadcast by the office for public safety – “citizens, is your neighbour acting strangely? Is a family member getting violent and bitey? Then they may have ‘grey pallor fever’ a rare systemic disorder that has recently come to this great country of ours.  Sufferers of this disease have been seen to attack and in some cases kill the very responders sent to aid them.  If you notice the following symptoms call this toll free number; confusion, grey pallor, acts of extreme violence…….”*

Mary-Lou, twisted the radio off with a snarl “goddam foreign illnesses, coming over here infecting our goddam citizens” she muttered to herself “interrupting my goddam Dolly time!”  Looking up from the radio she just managed to slam her brakes on in time before she ran over an overweight soccer mom who was running headlong down the middle of the road.  Behind her ran another lady who was clearly not dressed for a jog in her skirt and blouse combo.  Mary-Lou pulled the car to the kerb and got out “what the f…” was all she managed to say before the overweight lady smashed full into her knocking Mary-Lou on her butt with the soccer mom crashing down on top of her in a heap.  The other lady dashed by without even looking at her companion, a stark look of terror on her face.  By the time Mary Lou found her feet both of the ladies were in the mid distance and seemed to be accelerating!

Essentially Mary Lou got knocked on her a** i.e. a stunned result!

Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs and throwing a middle digit up at the retreating backs of the women.  Mary Lou reached into the back of her old beater to get the archery gear for Junior’s after school activity session and decided to walk the rest of the way.  She could see a crowd of people in front of the school gates and no parking spaces, “so be it!” she exclaimed to nobody in particular and set off toward the school.

Halfway up the street, the strident ringing of her cell phone went off, making her jump! Quickly she picked it out of her sling bag and glanced at the screen #Billy-Ray# flashed across the bright LCD. 

“What does that damn fool want” she muttered angrily to herself, her mood totally shot since being knocked on her keister.  With a stabbing, almost accusational jab of her finger she answered it. 

“What!” she practically screeched down the phone.

 “Yes I have been listening to the damn radio.”  She shouted

“Yes I am on the way to pick up the girls!” the volume began to rise

“What do you mean you’ve got the boy with you?!?” she bellowed, the tinny sound of the voice on the other end of the line got a little quieter and more apologetic.

“Why is he not at school? He’s got archery, he shouldn’t be goofing off with you, plinking cans at the train yard!” the little voice was almost inaudible at this point, Mary-Lou could almost picture her husband, all 6’2” of solid muscle hanging his head and pouting contritely, so much so she nearly laughed out loud…nearly.

“Well you goddamn better wait there while I fetch the girls and I’ll meet you!” with that she hung up and carried on toward the school.

Random event was rolled – argument! As Mary-Lou was on her own I made it a cell phone argument with Billy-Ray, her husband. It also introduced nicely the second part of day 1 – win!

When she was 50 feet from the gates she could see the group of parents talking hurriedly, glancing around nervously.  Gripping the bow tighter and slinging the quiver over her shoulder Mary-Lou raised a hand to greet Tony, a dad of one of the kids at the school, when a loud scream pierced the air “it’s one of them!”   With that scream the group of 3 men (including Tony) and a woman began to surge toward her.

“oh for the love of…” she gasped as she swung the bow shaft at what looked to be the school librarian in an effort to push him to one side, sadly the blow was stronger than she thought and sent him spilling over onto the floor.  On the back swing she caught Tony in the side of the head and he fell to the ground dazed and confounded.  A young woman tried to grapple with her and Mary-Lou was forced to ram her elbow into her midriff, knocking the wind out of her.  The fourth of the group a young man was gabbling insanely about the grey man into a cell phone and swinging a golf club in the air when Mary-Lou kneed him squarely in the private area, dropping him to the floor.

haven't got any civilians yet hence the use of two of my survivors and a couple of nazi figs from warlord!

Dusting her hands off, she looked up to see a man approaching, he was shuffling fairly laboriously and groaning as if in pain.  Looking closer she could see his left leg was broken and he was dragging it behind him.  His eyes were blank, sunken in a pale grey face and did not seem to see but this did not stop him from heading straight for the pile of injured people that Mary-Lou had put down.  In front of Mary-Lou he dropped to his knees and took a huge bite out of the librarian’s neck causing a fountain of blood to cover the others liberally.  “Holy shit!” she exclaimed diving over a hedgerow in an effort to get away.  Tucking herself into a little ball, she cowered under the shelter of the shrubbery, listening to the screams of the people on the other side of the road being feasted on by the grey man.

After a few moments and with the continued sounds of terror over the bushes, Mary-Lou pulled herself together and stood up “Got to get my girls and git!” she exclaimed.  The sound of a groan behind her caused her to spin round, only for her to see another grey man (actually a woman) shambling toward her, arms outstretched reaching for her.  With a gulp Mary-Lou lifted Jr’s bow and drew an arrow from the quiver. Her hands were shaking and not really believing that she could actually think about shooting another person, no matter how sick, she took aim.  Tears streamed down her face and unbeknownst to her she was muttering over and over “no, don’t make me, no!”  A loud piercing scream, came from the mess across the way as the other ‘zombie’ (the word just felt right in her head) bit into the woman’s leg. With that Mary-Lou let go the string and the arrow sped toward the zombie lady in front of her.  With a sickening thud the shaft slammed into her eye-socket, knocking the zombie to the floor and without a twitch it lay still. 

With the screams of the humans still ringing in her ears Mary-Lou dashed into the school gates and up the front steps, calling the names of her girls.  The corridors were eerily empty and deserted, in a panic she strode toward the school office (she knew the way, having had to attend on numerous occasions with the twins!) Flinging open the doors she was greeted by her girls rushing forward, she swept them into her arms, weeping unashamedly.

 “Momma, Momma look what we got from Sissy Steinman, she gave it to us” Gracey-Lyn winked conspiratorially to her sister as she held up an iPad.

“Hush now girls, the world has gone crazy and we need to go get the boys” Mary-Lou said absently looking at the contraband the twins had brandished.

“Ok mom, but let me just get the other things the principal has confiscated from us this year.” Bonnie-May replied, heading toward the big cupboard in the corner with a glint in her eye.  With that she produced a key from her pocket with a knowing grin and looking at her sister, who gave her a minute nod she opened the door.  Reaching in she grabbed a bag filled with fire-crackers and slung it over her shoulder.

“What goddamn trouble have you been causing them this year girls?” Mary-Lou glared at the twins in turn, who assumed their most innocent expressions and shrugged.

“Not much momma” Bonny-May replied reaching further into the cupboard and drew out a huge submachine gun and handed over to Gracey-Lyn. “We was just playing war, is all” back into the cupboard she took out a gleaming .357 revolver and slipped it into her bag.

Mary-Lou’s eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw the guns “why you little devils, that’s daddy’s Uzi and my favourite handgun!”

“Ain’t no thing Ma” Gracey-Lyn drawled. “We was gonna return them, Momma” Bonnie-May finished for her twin. “But Mr Grossman had other ideas; I think he wanted to tell the police but Mrs Housen, the secretary done told him that that would cause a big scene….”

Mary-Lou stared at her little girls in their matching dresses and angelic smiles and shrugged, reaching past Bonnie-May she grabbed Billy-Ray’s old Kevlar helmet, a souvenir of his service in Iraq and jammed it on her youngest’s head. “Ok girls, let’s go get the boys and then we are gonna talk some!”

apologies for the lack of pics, i promise i will get better!

And so ends the first part of day one. The next part Ma and the girls need to get to the train yard to meet the boys.