Separate Ways (part 3) - ATZ an English Adventure

April cautiously swung open the heavy front door of the farmhouse and stepped out into the hazy daylight. Scanning left and right and seeing nothing in the immediate area, she rushed over to the bridge and sprinted across the ancient flagstones, too keyed up to even stop and admire the beautiful medieval structure. 

April darts across the stone bridge

Safely across the far side of the bridge and away from the obvious vulnerability of the exposed structure, she slowed and nipped under the boughs of a tree, just as a dark shadow sped across the ground. High above, an enormous helicopter buzzed in a lazy circle before accelerating off north, the weirdly muted blade sounds indicating the military nature of the dangerous machine. April pressed herself against the bark of the tree, trying her best to meld with the ancient trunk in an effort to hide. Her eyes scanned for any of the government operatives or MiBs, as she had taken to calling them. 

and passing under the boughs of the tree, heads around the eccentric building

Just as an enormous helicopter buzzes overhead

Satisfied that there weren't any of the black clad spec-ops heading in her direction, she broke into a sort of crouched run toward the stilted building in front of her in the hopes of getting undercover as quickly as possible. Following the events in the farmhouse, she clasped the rubberised handle of the ASP in her right hand and gingerly opened the heavy door with a slight creak and dashed through the opening in an effort to rush anything/body lurking in the shadowy depths.

opening the door she finds...

2 MiBs!! gulp... Insight goes badly for April and she goes last in the encounter

April heard the gasp as she dove through the door and rolled across the living room floor. Ahead of her a dark clad soldier reached for a bulky yellow taser, just as his colleague reached for his own weapon. Their intention to capture and presumably 'question' the reporter was obvious as they favoured the non-lethal weapons over the more dangerous assault rifles strapped over their backs. April ducked as the twin darts of the first MiB's taser flew a hair's breadth over her right shoulder, lodging into the ancient timbers of the door. His fellow soldier cursed as he too missed his mark when she used the momentum of her duck to tuck into a forward roll, coming out of the move with a can of pepper spray in her hand. Depressing the spray she released a stream of police issued PAVA full in the face of the surprised MiB. Flailing with his hands at his burning eyes, he caught his partner off guard and managed to trip him to the floor. With a hefty swing, April drove the ASP in her other hand into the jaw of the pepper-sprayed combatant with a loud crack denoting a possibly fatal head injury. With a look of sorrow at the necessity of her actions and the tragedy of lost life, she turned to face the soldier who had been tripped by his partner, only to find that he had hit his head and neck against a heavy oak coffee table, and was currently bleeding out from a torn carotid artery. April scanned the room for anything moving and when she realised she was alone in the dusty living room, she burst into tears at the reality of the situation. 'Killing' the D-Subs was one thing but this had been a living, breathing man, with hopes and dreams and all that came with it. He might have a family waiting for him on the mainland somewhere, praying for his safe return, and knowing that one day they will receive the awful news that their loved one had been taken from them in defence of the realm (or what other lie they had been told). Instead, here they were on home soil and bleeding out while trying to capture a fellow citizen of the United kingdom of Great Britain, in order to take her to some black site and torture her. "Well, when you look at it like that..." she said to herself, her eyes drying and feeling a little better about her actions. Looking around she found some more food and added it to her pack before stripping the kevlar vest off of the smallest soldier and trying it on for size. With a few adjustments of the straps to better distribute the surprisingly heavy armour, she reached for his rifle and ammo pouches slinging them over her shoulder and then hefting his partners weapon in her hands, feeling the weight and looking at the actions of the weapon with the eye of someone who knew their way around a firearm. Better than all of that though, she spotted a map pouch on the guy bleeding out on the floor and found a (now blood spattered) map of the local area and a compass with a few areas marked with circles and crosses... interesting, the red haired reporter thought to herself.

Checking the load out she had now burdened herself with, she headed back out of the building confident that she was on the right track to her RVP with Bobby. 

April leaves, heading for the RVP

Event 1 - Ahead the 'dead' zed in front of the tavern twitches...

and comes back to life!

Moving around the back of the stilted building, she began to make her way across the courtyard, wary of the helicopter that had to be in the area or anymore of the MiBs in the vicinity. A few metres in front of her, the face down 'remains' of a D-sub twitched and unexpectedly rose up to it's feet. April lifted the heavy assault rifle to her shoulder and snatched at the trigger, firing a single shot at the approaching nightmare. The bullet flew way too high and over the head of the zed and April was forced to fend off the creature with the butt of the weapon. With a thrust she managed to knock it off it's feet to land in a heap on the floor before her. Raising the heavy gun to perform the coup de grace, she was about to slam the butt into the forehead of the prone zombie, when all hell broke loose.

April stands over the prone figure of the zed...

With a loud bark, a big brown mastiff ran toward her with it's tongue lolling from it's jaws in obvious exhaustion. Trailing behind it, in pursuit was a group of four zeds with various bite marks - from the dog it would seem. Just as she was adjusting to this new information, the strident ringing of a mobile phone began, it's piercing ring tone drawing more of the infected from the nearby locale. 

event 2 - a big dog appears followed by zeds

and they appear in front of the tavern

immediately after, event 3 - a cell phone rings!

and draws 9 zeds from behind the eccentric building...

"Ahhh shit!" the young woman had just enough time to gasp, sling the clumsy rifle and draw the more familiar ASP, before the zeds rushed up to her their blood streaked arms outstretched...

last part coming soon

hope you enjoy

dGG