Darkness Gathers (final part)

Hi all

This is the final part to my series of narrative batreps from my tournament in November. As fun as they are to write, it's now been too long since the games and with only pictures and my poor memory I can't actually remember the detail of the game, so this is more of a final chapter to wrap up the series rather than just leave it hanging.  These are the previous episodes here, here, here and here.

Akari, Temple Master of Ro-Kan glided swiftly down the dimly lit corridor that led toward the Master’s sanctuary.  His quick mind churning through the mass of thoughts, information and possibilities and forming stratagems. The Cult of Yurei’s rise in the mountains of the Tengu and their subsequent attacks on the ancient one’s allies - the Hill tribes was a part of an elaborate plot, no doubt hoping to upset the delicate balance that the Temple of Ro-Kan fought so hard to maintain.  The monks of the Temple had to respond to this threat and fast,  before the playthings of the evil Yurei caused irreversible harm. Akari knew though, that his spiritual brothers were less likely to want to involve themselves or the Temple in the fights of others unless he could convince them of the danger to the balance ahead.

Darting through the shadowy archway leading to the private meditation chamber of the Temple masters, the diminutive Tanuki formulated his arguments.  Bowing to the statues of the great Kamis in turn, he dipped his paws in the temizuyu - cleansing them of the dust of the road before dropping into a simple prayer pose. With practised ease he calmed the turbulent thoughts and entered into a state of meditation, allowing him to sublimate the chaos and find a clear path. As he sank deeper into the meditative state a familiar presence made itself known, slow and thoughtful, steeped in ancient wisdom – Ekusa. The venerable Master, the eldest of the order of Ro-Kanese monks and currently several leagues away chasing Jung shadows had astrally projected himself into the meditation chamber. 

“Master Akari, you are back from your mission to the mountains of the ancient ones, how fair the Tengu?” The sound of Ekusa’s voice soothed the troubled Tanuki, allowing him to show the elder monk the recent events as if he had witnessed them himself. The destruction of the Conduit and how the brave band of monks had pushed the darkness away at the last minute to secure the remaining Idols. The brief battle at the the Garden of Six with the Tengu and the skirmish in the passes of Ro-Kan with the Prefecture patrol, all this passed through Akari’s mind within seconds and Ekusa’s with it. “Aiko grows strong does she not?” Without waiting for the Yokai’s answer the Master continued, “I understand your concerns Akari, yes and indeed I share them. The Cult grows strong, while the forces that would oppose them are scattered and dispirit, squabbling amongst themselves like children. The Prefecture’s ruling clan – The Dragon are spread far and wide trying to contain the troubles and keep the Emperor’s peace, the Snakes oppose them at every turn and the long dead Eagles show signs of life yet and gather support for their rebellion, even the long forgotten Jung have returned much to our people's sorrow.”

“Master Ekusa, what would you have me do? The Balance is at risk and the fate of the Isles is on a razors edge.” Akari, tired from all the recent battles found his focus wavering and struggled to hear the faint reply from the venerable old man.

“The Emperor must know what is happening in this far flung Prefecture.  The path is clear, a message must be sent, more aid is required.  Send for the Imperial guards!”  With that last statement, the connection was broken and Akari felt his mundane senses returning. Times must be desperate indeed if Ekusa suggested sending for Imperial help! The Dragon clan would be extremely angry at the involvement of the Emperor’s personal army, the loss of honour would be extremely hard to bear and could incite the rebellion they so rightly feared. But the consequences of doing nothing would be much, much worse! The playthings of Yurei were getting more and more powerful and it wouldn't be long before a disaster happened. In fact…..

That thought was interrupted as Kenko came running through the archway at an unseemly pace. “Master Akari,” the newly arrived monk said, forgetting to bow in his haste, “come quick, the Cult has come to the Temple.” Looking at the horror in the younger monks face, Akari followed Kenko out of the chamber. “Monsters approach master, hideous beasts and Yokai.” The normally unflappable Kenko hurried to the window, pointing at the wall of unnatural looking fog as it rolled over the rocky ground surrounding the Temple walls.

Akari stared out at the approaching nightmarish beasts, familiar Nezumi and swarms of fat, black rats. A massive dark Kami at least ten feet in height with razor like fingers dominated the warband, towering over the form of a fat boy banging on a drum – Souta, the boy from the Conduits. A creeping Gaki, spewed the foul fog from its gaping maw, masking the approach of others further back. So be it, he thought to himself, the message must be sent, his small band of righteous brothers must hold off the hoard of evil in order for that message to get through. “Gather the younglings and their companions Kenko, we must prevail this day for the sake of the Jwar Isles and the Balance that we hold so dear!”

Hope you enjoy

dGG 

A brave new step.....or a silly one!

hi all

Recently Damon and I decided to record a game of Bushido, it was a bit of an experiment and initially I wasn't too keen as to be polite "I have a face best suited to radio".  However due to the utter lack of Bushido battle reports I started to come around to the idea.  Now I'm a complete techno-phobe being much more analogue in my approach to life, the universe and everything so I left it up to Damon to sort out the recording gear, edit the video and send it to me to upload to a suitable platform. We wanted it to go out under a recognisable banner so I put it out under my "da Gobbo's Grotto" account, hence why he sent it to the techno-phobe. 

So for our inaugural game we have come up with the first in a series of battles that we have taken to calling "The Starter Set Wars".  This is because we will only be using the models from each of the starter sets of each faction that we own, which currently are Temple of Ro-Kan, Prefecture of Ryu, The Savage Wave and the Cult of Yurei.  To this lot we will be adding two more in the new year in the form of the Tengu Descension and the Silvermoon Trade Syndicate, Rich has also got the Ito Clan but they are a long way from completion knowing Rich's painting speed..... (sorry buddy, lol). The first battle is between the Savage Wave - Demons called Oni and Bakemono (Gremlin like imps) and the Cult of Yurei - the undead monsters!

finally before I paste the link, the resolution is very low as this was a trial so the quality isn't good, hopefully this will improve with time depending on the reception this video has.... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HdH_iqWS48

hope you enjoy

dGG

ATZ - an English Adventure (concluding part of Day One)

Hi all

***warning another long post, get the kettle on!***

The concluding part of Day One, if you missed the first part then you can find it Here

Shaun is set upon...

Shaun turned as he felt the brush of a cold hand touch the back of his bare arm, twisting his upper body and dragging the limb out of reach of the infected female that had tried to stop him. With the momentum he gained he dropped low and stuck out his trailing leg, tripping the zombie and causing another to crash into the stricken creature. With both of the zeds down it was relatively easy for him to drop the heavy cricket bat onto the heads of the zombies, putting them out of their misery. Beatrice had stopped and watched him finish the zombies off, nodding in approval before pointing with her massive iron frying pan at two more of the infected citizens of Margate that were following closely behind. Shaun squared his shoulders and hefted the polished willow bat before stepping back into the fray.

and deals with it!

Constable Smith was distraught, his first fracas with a wrong’un and he had killed them with his ASP. The weighted baton had connected solidly with the male’s head and dropped him to the ground with a thud. Smith had checked for a pulse and couldn't find one. On his knees by the body he wept as the feeling of remorse tore through him, he was meant to be a guardian, a protector of life not the taker of one. Standing shakily to his feet he turned to head back to the sarge who was staring at him in horror. He thinks I'm a monster, Smith thought to himself.  I AM a monster he added, thinking on the sarge’s wide eyed gaze that seemed to look passed him, maybe at the victim he concluded.

A low moaning sound, followed by the scrape of shoes dragging across tarmac spun Smith around just in time as the body of the victim of his assault crashed into him with open arms, nearly dragging him to the ground [random event – a previously killed zombie returns back to life].  In horror the PC lifted his baton again in self-defence, shoving it deep into the open mouth of the zombie, smashing teeth and cracking its jaw in the process. Drawing his arm back, he withdrew the ASP pulling more teeth with it and pulling the zombie’s face closer to Smith, who gagged at the smell of rotten meat on the infected breath.  Using the heavy butt of the baton he cracked the zed in between the eyes twice in quick succession forcing the zed to the floor. With tears still streaming down his cheeks, Smith stomped his heavy, steel tipped boots into its face, cracking the skull and stopping its attack in an instant. Smith ground to a halt suddenly drained of all energy as he tried to process what had happened over the last few minutes. Horrified at his actions he looked desperately over at the sarge for some guidance only to see another creature detaching itself from the shadows of a nearby tree and shuffle toward his superior officer with murderous intent.

 

PC Smith is attacked by a teenaged zombie

sgt. Ellis is also in trouble (top left)

St. Ellis caught movement from the corner of his eye, despite his lack of bravery Ellis had been a copper for over twenty years and instinctively his hand went to the canister of PAVA on his right hip. Something wasn’t right though, the scrote was moving all wrong, unnaturally, jerkily like a puppet with the strings all tangled together. Up came the right hand and with no official warning (the natural rules follower in Ellis winced but the coward prevailed!) he triggered the spray in a long plume of pelargonic acid vanillylamide or pepper spray, that splashed across the face of the assailant. Ellis’s cry of triumph was cut short as the milky white eyes of the creature remained locked on him as it reached out blood soaked hands. Stumbling backwards, trying to stay out of reach of that gore covered grip, Ellis fumbled for his ASP forgetting which side it was attached to in his haste and instead drawing out his standard issue handcuffs. Too late to rectify his mistake he swung the heavy steel bands, using them like a crude knuckle duster and punching the zombie in the face with a heavy right haymaker that rocked the zeds head back and knocked a few of those awful, bared teeth out of its mouth. The momentum of the swing caused the sarge to become unbalanced and he teetered on the edge of the curb nearly falling to the ground. Instinctively knowing that to fall would leave him wide open to attack, he pin-wheeled his arms in an effort to stay on his feet giving the zombie another opportunity to bite at him. Ellis cried out in fear as he felt the jaws closing on his left forearm and he battered at the head of the infected citizen with the steel cuffs, desperate to free himself from the grip of the zombie. Incoherent expletives poured from his mouth and tears ran freely down his cheeks as he drove the hardened metal into its face over and over and with ever increasing power, fuelled by terror and the insanity of the situation he did not, could not stop until the creature finally slid to the floor in a graceless heap, it's face and head a pulpy ruin [the fight between the sarge and the zombie went on for four rounds!].

Unseen by Police Sgt Ellis and Police Constable Smith, intelligent eyes had observed the struggles that they had had with the infected people of Margate, the brutality of their fight and the finality of the officers dealing with the incident had been noted in a little notebook that was always carried, always to hand when needed. More words were scribbled – no warning given! Excessive force! Police brutality! This was going to make a great story. Despite the horror that she had witnessed since the devastation caused by Storm Daenerys and the odd explosion off the east coast, April Nillson – journalist and roving reporter for an independent news channel couldn’t hide her glee as she thought of the hard hitting (haha) expose of Her Majesty’s finest beating citizens to death that she would broadcast, that was if she could find her camera man Bobby and get the blasted story out there.  Whatever was going on in Thanet, all the violent episodes from its local folks, all the damage from Daenerys, all the lives lost and many hundreds of injured all the battles being fought over life and death in the hospitals by the medical professionals – all of that was overshadowed by this moment, this story right here! This was going to get her onto a mainstream media outlet for sure.  All she had to do was get out of here alive, easier said than done but she was resourceful and smart.  So far she had got away with dressing up in the ragged blood covered garments of one of the infected locals who had been savaged by a huge Rottweiler over by the Millmead housing estate.  The smell was ghastly but seemed to confuse the senses of the “zombie” like people.  By adopting their characteristic “broken marionette” movements, that almost had her chuckling she was able to move about a bit more freely.  Taking a quick photo with her phone and with one last look at the policeman who was now busy throwing up next to the bloodied mess that was all that was left of the former infected human being, April pulled up the dirty hood of the fleece she was wearing with a grimace at the stench and melted back into the shadows [there was another random event where a zombie was revealed a survivor, however it was right on the edge of the board and in the next turn she was able to leave the board straight away! This won’t be the last we hear of April Nillson though no doubt….].

a roving reporter

Constable Smith saw the flash of light that seem to come from the deep shadows by the train station, “who the hell is taking pictures?” was his first thought followed very quickly by “what did they just see?” That however was a worry for another time as more movement, a lot closer to him bought him back to what was happening right here.  A teenaged girl, no older than his younger sister charged directly at him.  Covered in blood and with the manic look that had been plastered over his other assailant, the girl advanced on Harry with her mouth open wide fully intent on taking a chunk out of the officer.  At first Smith tried to just fend her off, slapping aside her hands and talking - no pleading with her to stop, to back down, leave him alone, to go back home! However, it was apparent to him that she wasn’t going to stop attacking him, in fact she had already nipped him and drawn blood from his left arm and it had only served to spur her on and the attacks had become more frenzied.  Screaming, part in desperation and part in fury he kicked out with his heavy boots, clearing some space and allowing him to whip his ASP in a deadly arc, connecting with the underside of the girl’s chin and snapping her head back with a loud crack.  Without another sound the infected fell to the ground and didn’t stir.

With the patient on board the ambulance the medics were in a flurry of activity, connecting monitoring leads onto the girl’s arms and legs, attaching an oxygen mask to her face and running up another bag of fluid in an effort to stabilise her before racing to the hospital [the medics don’t activate…].  The police officers that had stayed to help the patient and assist the medics jumped down from the back of the crowded ambo to not only give the medics more space to work in but they had spotted more of those infected/dangerous people approaching the vehicle in that jerky, spasmodic motion that somehow managed to cover ground in a relatively swift way.  Drawing their ASPs both officers stood near the rear doors of the truck as the zombies (yeah they both felt that word was adequate for these ‘people’) drew nearer.  PC Mike Spalling edged in front of WPC Anita Hives much to her annoyance at his overprotective stance, however looking at the blank faces and broken gait she was grateful none the less that he was in the way as the narrow approach between the ambulance and the hedges funnelled the zeds one at a time, if he wanted to be all macho that was fine by Anita she had a family that she wanted desperately to get back to, in fact as soon as this ambo was gone so was she! She’d go back to the nick, load up her gear and get back to her kids.  Ahead of her Spalling had already downed the first of the assailants and was just dropping the heavy end of his ASP onto the crown of the last zombie’s head with a loud crunch that made Anita wince.  Blood streaming from a little nip on Mike’s forearm, he turned to her with a worried look, “let’s get those fucking medics moving Hives, then we can get the fuck out of here, these bastards are giving me the shits!” emphasising each expletive with a savage kick to the creature on the floor. With a nod Anita slapped the side of the truck and screamed at the occupants to get moving, never once taking her eyes off of the bite mark on her partner’s arm.

Shaun swung the willow cricket bat with all the technique he could muster crunching the blade of the bat into the temple of the first zombie and was already stepping through the blow as the creature was falling to the ground. With a flick of his wrists he turned the momentum of the heavy weapon back on itself and delivered another stunning blow to the zed that trailed behind crushing its skull with a mighty thud, that he felt right up his arms.  As the last zombie crashed to the floor, Shaun was looking passed them at the group of people running full tilt in his direction. Squinting his eyes, he could make out that they were uninfected and just a bunch of scared Margatonians. With a shrug he turned back to his new companion and gestured to the big Haitian woman, Beatrice “Shall we?”  he drawled with a grin that this time reached his eyes and lit up his face with dry humour.  Trying to scowl at the man, she folded her arms across her expansive chest, her enormous iron frying pan dangling from her right hand, before returning his grin with a brief one of her own. “You’re crazy sugar” she laughed as she threaded her left arm through his and the pair sauntered off down the road and away from the crowd of panicking people.

the crowd of civlilans head toward Shaun and Beatrice

Andy stuck his head out of the back of the truck, trying to look in all directions at once.  Seeing no zombies in the immediate vicinity, none that were standing that was, he stepped out onto the road hefting the bloodstained oxygen cylinder in his right hand.  As he made his way down the side of the truck he noticed the blood trickling down the PC’s arm, “do you want me to clean and dress that dude?” he asked with a nod at the wound.  Spalling shook his head and pointed up at the hospital that loomed in the near distance, “naw mate, I’ll be fine just get her there will you. I’ll get this cleaned up back at the nick.”  Nodding Andy made his way to the cab and scrambled into the driver’s seat firing up the big diesel engine as he went.  Glancing into the rear of the vehicle through the viewing hatch he saw that Anna had sat in the attendant’s seat and shouted through for her to buckle up. Reaching above him to the lights console he slapped the “999” switch that engaged the emergency beacons and pressed his foot on the footplate that operated the sirens before peeling away in a cloud of tyre smoke.

Fanning the smell of burning rubber out of her nostrils, WPC Hives looked at her colleague and gestured toward the squad car around the corner where they had left the sarge and the kid.  PC Spalling nodded and they both broke into a jog heading toward Station Road.  Sgt Ellis by this time had had the same idea, as he sat by his puddle of vomit (and the broken body of the man he had pummelled) he longed for the sanctity of the police station and its familiar corridors. Looking over at the tear stained face of PC Harry Smith, he gestured kindly to the stricken boy and pointed at the car.  Turning quickly, he got behind the wheel of the Skoda Octavia and twisted the key, savagely gunning the engine.  Smith dived into the passenger side and quickly slammed the door just as Spalling and Hives piled into the back of the “panda car”.  Slamming his foot to the floor, Ellis turned the steering wheel full lock causing the back end to whip around facing the car in the right direction, dropping the hand brake the sarge barely kept the car under control as it leapt forward like a horse bolting from a burning stables, throwing the passengers back into their seats.

 

the ambo peels away 

the police head back to the squad car as the sirens from the ambo attract all kinds of trouble

the sarge puts his foot to the floor barely keeping control of the car.

Andy “Gobbo” Wosa skilfully guided the ambulance around the surprisingly tight corners around the hospital, still moving the truck at high speed and with sparing touches to the brake he negotiated the narrow approach road that led to the ambulance entrance at the Accident and Emergency department of the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hospital [Gobbo passes a rather astonishing series of drive tests!].  So intent on his driving was he that he failed to hear the loud crunch of tortured metal nor see the rising smoke column that came from the direction that they had just come from….

Sgt Ellis, fear driving him like he drove the powerful squad car, pushed his foot flat to the floor as the images of the last few minutes played over in his head on a loop like crystal clear CCTV footage.  The “panda” responded eagerly and the big engine propelled the vehicle forward at high speed.  [sgt barely makes his drive skill test here] Ellis jerked the wheel to the right in an attempt to negotiate a gentle bend and over the level crossing, bumping the car over the tracks and causing the wheels to lose traction as the left the ground briefly.  With the sarge lead foot pushing the accelerator down hard, the tyres spun as they hit the tarmac skidding and failing to grip the road [Ellis failed his drive test and the car skidded forward d6 inches, I rolled a 6!, gulp].  PC Harry Smith looked up just in time to see the squad car heading toward a solid brick wall that separated the road from the old gas works, in the back PC Mike Spalling crossed himself and braced just as the Octavia hit the wall with a speed approaching 70 miles per hour.  WPC Anita Hives, prayed that her husband would keep her children safe as she felt herself lifted out of the backseat with the force of the impact… [Ellis never regained control of the car as he failed yet another drive skill test and couldn’t swerve out of the way, hitting the wall with disastrous results.]

the sarge loses control with fatal results

With the final flick of the brakes, Andy bought the ambulance to a safe halt just outside of the A&E doors.  Jumping down from the cab he headed to the back of the truck and opened the door before operating the tail lift.  Anna was already disconnecting the monitoring equipment from the mounting on the back of the vehicle and connecting the oxygen mask to the mobile canister that Gobbo had brained the zombie with.  Between the two of them they manoeuvred the trolley off of the ambulance and pushed the patient through the double doors of the A&E and into a scene of bedlam. 

Gobbo races down the narrow streets

the crew rush the patient into an A&E. (ignore the hideous curtains!)

a very hard-pressed jr doctor comes over to assess

hope you enjoyed Day One of my campaign, please feel free to comment.  If you would prefer a more traditional style AAR next time rather than the narrative then let me know.  Criticism is appreciated not rejected on this blog.

thank you 

dGG

ATZ - An English Adventure. (the first few turns)

Hi all, fair warning this is a really long post!

welcome to the first part of my ATZ campaign set in the South East of England, on the very real Isle of Thanet, which happens to have suffered a very unreal event that has cut it off from the mainland, for more detail check out my previous posts here, here and here.

This Day one is different to the usual “all things zombie” day one campaign game. This one has been specifically designed by me to reflect the emergency services reaction to the effects of the explosion and storm Daenerys. i'm writing this as  a narrative story rather than a traditional batrep, ive done this in the past and really liked the way it turns out, also note in order to maintain flow within the story some turns have been merged if you're thinking that this seems like a hell of a lot is happening in this one turn that's the reason so.....

Immediately following the (un)natural disaster, the people of Thanet are shell shocked and come blinking out into the morning light unaware that their lives have changed forever.  The insidious “Z virus” has been scattered across the newly formed Island somehow, was it the rain? Is it in the water? Who knows, all the local authorities do know is that their communication with the mainland was severely disrupted by the storm as have all the telephone networks including mobile signals. This includes public networks so calls to emergency services from the general populace of Thanet have been severed. Only the emergency network is up and running and so the tasking of ambulances, fire engines and police vehicles is being directed by central control. This joint tasking is part of the new protocols designed to respond to a major incident such as a terrorist attack on the scale of the 7/7 London bombings. The operation is being directed from County HQ in Maidstone (further north in the centre of Kent).  They are monitoring CCTV footage and sending out police patrols and backing them up with the appropriate response such as ambulance or fire. This lack of first hand reporting and local authority control is severely hampering the rescue attempts. Little do they know that this major incident isn't finished with the people of Thanet yet as reports of violent incidents start to increase.

Gobbo and Putters despite having been on a night shift prior to the disaster are still on duty and have been called to an assault in the early hours in Margate town, police are in attendance. The attacker is said to be in the vicinity. The crews job is to get the patient to hospital. The encounter will be considered a success if the patient is delivered to the trauma team waiting at the hospital. What the crew does not know is that the patient was bitten by a zombie. The patient will turn into a zombie on a 4+ on a d6 after 10 plus D6 turns, if the patient turns into a zombie in the back of the ambulance it will attack the attendant which in this case will be Putters.

While the sirens are engaged there will be an additional 2d6 (8d6 in total) used to discover if zombies are present. The sirens will be engaged until the crew have reached the patient they would then be reengaged when transporting the patient to hospital.

You can see the Ambulance enters onto the board at section 7 they have to travel across the top of the board and pick up the patient at the crossroads in section 9. They have to deliver the patient to the ambulance doors at the back of the hospital in section 3 (which for some reason has not come out on the photo).

there are old bill in section 7

poor photo aside you can see the patient by the blood splatters

Andy ‘Gobbo’ Wosa’s eyes darted to the screens briefly to check the sat nav again, frowning as it still showed a blank screen. “Still no signal Putters, lucky we know where Lower Rd is ain't it!” Eyes flickered forward back to the task at hand, he shifted down a gear of the 4.5 tonne vehicle and negotiated the level crossing that brought him into town. “Slow down Gobbo!” Anna ‘Putters’ Parker snapped as the ambulance bounced and rocked over the uneven ground [random event – argument]. Blue light bathed the road ahead, flashing and reflecting off the surrounding buildings in time to the yelp of the sirens. Ahead a pair of towns-folk dived out of the way and reached the safety of the pavement. “Why can't they just wait the extra 2 seconds it would take us to pass by instead of trying desperately to throw themselves under our wheels?” Andy growled. “Maybe if you didn't drive like a lunatic they wouldn't have to throw themselves onto the path!” Anna threw back to the older EMT.

the ambo goes blazing by the civvies!

infected citizens of Thanet gather, attracted by the noise of the sirens

more zombies lurk

Unseen by the crew, bloodshot eyes tracked the progress of the noisy ambulance, the sounds of the “twos” acting like their namesake the Sirens of Greek legend that drew sailors to their deaths with their call. [7 zombies are placed on the board after the ambulance comes onto the table].

More and more infected citizens of Thanet were drawn to the piercing cry of emergency sirens and began to shamble towards the source of the disturbance [5 more zombies are generated by the noise of the ambulance]. The two civilians that had dodged the Gobbo’s erratic driving stood stock still, feeling the oppressive atmosphere somehow become more ominous. With a shiver the large lady, Beatrice drew a large cast iron frying pan from the giant handbag that she had slung over her shoulder. She had fled the hurricane plagued Haiti ten years ago but still remembered her Nanna’s stories about the zombies of the Voodoo religion practiced on the island. Indicating the cricket bat that the man was carrying in his right hand “you any good with that honey?” She asked with an arched eyebrow.  “Cos there is some bad juju going down today.” 

Shaun looked down at the polished willow and hefted it with both hands in a practice swing and pointing at the ill looking people that shuffled and shambled toward them in an unnatural gait, “Kent schoolboys champion 1985 mate” he replied with a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. Those eyes were hard, piercing and didn’t stop moving, always assessing and noting the movement all around the odd couple, fifteen years in the British Army and some hairy deployments had left a shadow across Shaun effecting the way he had approached life since he’d demobbed. Instincts that had been suppressed, pushed down and away into the dark corners of his mind in an effort to reintegrate into civvy life came bubbling to the surface as he recognised that the aftermath of the storm had only just begun to show itself [the civilians stand still as they don't activate this turn].

The ambulance flashed by in an instant, heading passed a parked police car and two officers in hi-vis vests who looked as tired as the medics.  Gobbo looked at the speedo and it was touching 50mph, ahead was a series of twisting bends so he feathered the brake while the wheels were still facing forward before powering on the accelerator into the hard left and the harder right, using centrifugal force to push the heavy vehicle to the road and causing Parker to glare at her crew-mate as the Mercedes Sprinter bumped hard up in the air. “What the bloody hell was that.” She shouted at him, trying to be heard over the siren. “Did we hit something?” Looking around and out the window obscuring the near side mirror crucially for a brief second. Andy trying to see in the mirrors and glancing in all directions at once while recovering from the bouncing failed to notice the brief blood slick that trailed after the speeding ambulance. “Must have been some detritus from the storm, a log or something” he said with a shrug [it had actually been a zombie that threw itself at the ambulance and subsequently failed it's attack quite spectacularly, I ruled that as it had appeared from outside LoS of the paramedics there was a chance that they didn't know what they had hit and would carry on, rolling dice they continued in their way, after passing a drive skill of course].

a zombie launches itself at the ambo

and gets splattered

Up ahead were another group of people all running full tilt down the road away from the direction the crew were headed. “That doesn't look good” Parker whispered under her breath, the people looked terrified and were streaming away from the junction connecting Lower Road to the Ramsgate Road where their patient supposedly was.  Glancing down at the Patient Report Form that she was part filling out in preparation of their arrival when it was bound to get extremely frantic, as a consequence she missed the fifth “person” in the group of civvies that had sprung up behind them and was reaching for the closest with a blood soaked hand [a PEF was revealed by the movement of the ambulance and was 4 civilians, the noise of the sirens drew 5 more zeds with one popping up behind the mob].

PEF comes into view

and is revealed as 4 civvies

and a zombie pops up behind them

the ambo pulls up

Gobbo spotted a pair of coppers kneeling by a person lying on the tarmac, the female officer had her hands pressed against the patient’s stomach, desperately trying to stem the flow of blood, while the male was trying and failing to get gauze swabs and dressings out of a first aid kit and dropping them in the floor in his haste. Slewing to a halt just before them, the medics sprang out of the cab, Gobbo donning his gloves while Putters grabbed the first response bag from the back of the truck. All the bickering and banter stopped as the crew slipped into “job mode”. Gobbo moved over to the PC and tried to get a decent handover that would give the medics more idea of the developing situation, while Putters dropped down next to the patient and began to assess her injuries. Putters went through the mnemonic ingrained into her head till it became second nature DRAcBCDE.

D for Danger - was the assailant lurking nearby? Well Gobbo could find that out, put that out of your mind Anna and get on with it, the thoughts whizzed through her head.

R for Response – the girl’s eyes were open and flicking between the medic and the copper, silently pleading with them to help her, to stop the pain, to save her life.

A for Airway – bruising around her throat concerned Putters but she could see that it was patent and hadn't been compromised in the attack.

c for catastrophic haemorrhage – the girl was bleeding badly from the abdomen but there wasn’t a huge puddle of blood underneath, hopefully that meant she still had most of it inside her yet.

B for Breathing, she was gasping for breath, this poor girl. Shallow, ragged and full of fear but the air was going in and out and that, at least for now was a good thing!

C for Circulation, patient hasn't got a radial pulse, damn it! Right there is a carotid pulse so that puts blood pressure around 60-70 systolic.

D for Disability, she’s not talking but her eyes are definitely on me, she’s moving when I want her to – GCS 11 maybe then…

E for expose and examine…..Anna grabbed a pair of tuff-cutts and scissored away the girl’s T-shirt to look at the wound underneath, swearing softly when she saw the damage, “Gobbo, I need the drugs bag and critical care pouch mate, Israeli trauma dressing, when you can please!  Andy jumped to it, ‘when you can please’ meant 'right the hell now' and Israeli trauma dressings could only mean serious mess. Racing around to the side of the truck he flung open the equipment cupboard door, grabbed the small black bag and tore off the tags that meant it was fully loaded, unlocking the drugs cupboard he grabbed the cannulation packs and other emergency meds, added to that he took an extra bag of saline. Rushing back to his crewie's side he handed the drugs bag over to her before looking at the awful jagged wound across the poor patient’s stomach.

It was definitely bite marks he thought to himself seeing the indentations surrounding the edges of the wound where the teeth had torn away at the soft flesh, but it wasn't just one or two it looked like at least a half dozen or more lacerations that covered the girl from right lumbar across her umbilicus and ended by her left iliac fossa. The worst area was around the belly button and she was leaking blood at a pace and with every beat of her heart. Andy shook himself mentally and stepped outside of his feelings briefly while he worked out what was needed. The copper was still pressing down on the worst area, Putters was looking for IV access to bash some fluid and Tranexamic acid into her ready for transfer.  

Taking out the bag of saline he ripped open the top and sloshed some of the fluid across the wound to give it some kind of clean without dislodging any clots that had formed, biting open the green foil pack of the dressing he got the WPC to push the pad of the dressing hard against the wound.  The male officer he instructed to lift the girl’s hips gently allowing him to run the bandage around her middle and back onto the clips of the dressing, pulling hard to form a firm pressure and allowing the female officer to step back.  Looking back quickly at her and her partner Andy nodded toward the truck “know how to get the trolley out on those things?”  The WPC looking clearly shaken, visibly pulled herself together, determined to help the stricken girl “I think we can work it out!” she stated flatly, running around to the back of the vehicle with the PC trailing behind her.

Andy turned back to his patient, the cops were smart and had worked on enough incidents that they could figure it out, trusting them to do their job he could get on with his.  Anna had already inserted a big bore cannula into the patient’s right arm and moved around to the other side as Andy drew up the TXA, a binding agent that helped clotting and prevented major blood loss in trauma. By the time it was drawn up, the other arm was sporting another orange cannula and Andy handed the syringe to his mentor before turning to the bag of fluid and running up a line to deliver the sodium chloride to restore blood pressure to the patient. What she really needed was blood and both medics knew that meant hospital or the HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) doctors.  Andy left Anna to connect the bag of fluid and keyed his radio, sending a request to speak to Ambulance Control, after a 30 second wait the radio began to beep.

“Control to 147 are you receiving?”

“147 to control, thank you. HEMS requested at this job, looks like major trauma, over”

“Control to 147, apologies HEMS are unavailable at this time, over”

“shit” Gobbo whispered under his breath, thankfully not keying the mic before he swore over the airways.

“147 to Control, yeah rog that, CCPs? over” CCPs were Critical Care Paramedics who were specifically trained to deal with major trauma and had a whole bag of tricks they could offer crews that would be really helpful to the guys when the shit had the fan.  Sadly, they were also a very finite resource….

“Control to 147, negative CCPs, they’re tied up in Ramsgate I’m afraid. Over.”

“shit” he swore again, this time forgetting to not key the mic and hearing his profanity emanate from the radio on his crew-mate's hip. “err apologies Control”

“no bother 147, understood. Be advised that QEQM is your only option as the roads are impassable at this time.”

“rog, thanks Control, out”

Looking over at Parker, who shrugged her shoulders as she turned back to the patient. “Guess we’re on our own boss” Andy quipped as the coppers returned with the trolley, a scoop stretcher balanced on the top.  “Help us with the lift?” he asked them reaching for the scoop [sorry for the really long piece of text but the coppers and medics didn’t activate so I used this opportunity to witter on…].

Shaun’s instincts were screaming at him to do something as he watched three ‘people’ coming toward him deceptively quickly considering their shuffling gait.  Beatrice turned to him and mouthed the word zombie to him and the word just felt right to him, clicking into that part of his brain that separated people into two camps – those who were safe and those who were a danger.  These three fell firmly into the danger section and he hefted the cricket bat just as the large Haitian lady powered her frying pan in the face of the first zombie and dropping it to the floor! Taking his cue from his companion he smashed the bat into the back of a teenaged zombie’s knees, reversing the blow he chopped the heavy willow into the back of its skull. Pure instinct controlled his movement as he ducked underneath the grasping hands of an elderly male, who’s false teeth rattled as it tried to clamp onto Shaun’s arm. With a powerful kick he drove the zombie away from him and into the range of Beatrice’s frying pan as it whistled through the air to crash on top of the infected man’s head, crumpling his pork pie hat and flattening his skull.

Shaun and Beatrice fight side by side

“Time to run champ” Beatrice called as she turned and started to jog away, which considering her bulk was actually quite quick.  Shaun looking around and saw a pair of coppers looking in his direction with shocked faces. He didn’t need to be told twice and he scampered after the lady who before today he hadn’t even known and now trusted with his life.

and leg it!

Sargent John Ellis looked across the road at the scene of the fight between a cricket bat wielding man with a woman armed with a frying pan against three unarmed civilians that looked like they had been trying to bite them! Ellis knew there was something wrong with the three civvies, their movement was unnatural and awkward and even when they had been clubbed to death by the other two they had not cried out in pain nor tried to retreat away from the threat.  The word zombie did not occur to Ellis who preferred not to watch horror films, but he did think drugs and lots of them.  Not a brave man and one who had wanted to stay in the nick doing paperwork instead of having to come out and deal with the aftermath of the disasters, he could not will his body to move and cross the road as fear poured cold water down his spine and froze him to the spot [failed brown pants (I may have got this wrong as I wasn’t sure whether cops had to take them or not?) so he couldn’t move].

Ellis’s partner was not so restricted, Constable Harry Smith was 3 months into his probationer period and loving every minute of his police career, that was up until now.  When Storm Daenerys hit, all of the enormity of the responsibility of the job had come into a very sharp focus.  Hundreds of dead with more injured and now citizens were running around attacking each other, the emergency services were cut off from the resources of the main land having to rely on what was stationed here on the newly found Island, which thanks to successive government cuts was a lot less than they would all want.  Now Harry was determined to live up to that responsibility and when he saw another one of those ‘weird looking’ people with their funny walks and the hungry looks on their faces, that determination was more than enough to overcome the sense of fear the weird guy instilled in the more experienced sarge. Drawing his ASP, Smith dashed across the road, calling out in his best, most authorative voice (which only slightly cracked at the end) to stay where he was and to stop moving.  When the creature and it certainly looked less human as he got closer, turned and headed straight toward him, he rocked back on his heels and swung the weighted baton in an instinctive arc that connected with the assailant’s head dropping it to the floor instantly.  Looking stricken at what he’d done, Smith dropped to his knees next to the guy and felt for a pulse, finding none he frantically looked over to Ellis pleading with him to do something.

Over by the ambulance Parker directed the coppers as they transferred the patient to the back of the vehicle.  Andy started to gather the scattered bits of kit that they would need to take with them when he saw a strange looking figure lurching over from across the junction. In an almost comic like double take, Andy realised that the civilian that was getting closer and closer wasn’t quite right, the movement, the outstretched arms and bared teeth, combined with the milky look to the creature’s eyes all added up to one thing and the years of watching, reading and playing fantasy and horror films, books and games came crashing through into the reality of the moment – ZOMBIE!!

in the gloom of the morning Gobbo spots the zombies

“what the fuck is this?” he shouted alerting the coppers and Parker to the situation.  The zombie came closer and was reaching out to the EMT when his brain snapped into gear, the infected’s hand closed around Andy’s forearm which was the catalyst for movement and caused him to almost lazily close his own hand over the zombie’s. Hours spent in the dojo repeating drill over and over left a muscle memory that was automatic and he found the levers he needed, turning the hand over and straightening the zombie’s elbow, snapping it as it was hyper-extended. The zombie stumbled passed Andy as he turned away from the creature’s momentum and used it to drive it to it’s knees.  Releasing the zombie he reached down to the ground for the spare oxygen cylinder that the crew had left in the middle of the road and swung it with all of his might into the zombie’s temple.

charged by a zed, Gobbo swung his O2 cylinder

and adds another bloodstain to the tarmac

Adrenaline coursing through his veins he looked down at the former human being, now turned creature that lay before him.  “What the fucking hell is going on here?” he whispered to himself.  Turning around he saw Parker looking at him in horror, the patient forgotten, suspended in the air on the tail lift of the ambulance. “Get the patient on the fucking truck right now!” he bellowed at his mentor. “We need to get the hell out of here!” Andy’s eyes grew wide as he saw more zombies closing in around the crew, appearing from behind hedges and alleyways and all heading toward them.  Parker seeing the folks gathering around and trusting her colleague slammed the trolley into the back of the truck as the coppers jumped down drawing their ASPs.

This believe it or not was only the first 5 turns or so, this is a really time intensive exercise for me so the next 5 turns might be some time so I'll have to leave you wondering what happens next for a little longer, not too long as I'm typing away but sorry...

hope you enjoy
dGG