H
HG 400
Guest
kiwifarms.net
The smoker runs me down as I get to the house, and a bloater catches me at the same time. Between the both of them I'm suffering some major poisoning and smoke inhalation, and won't be able to fight, and might not be able to run. I decide to get in through the window and dash through the house, using closed doors to block them if I can. At this point I'm regretting my overconfident journey and have given up on finding fire. Now I just want to get back to homebase and drink toilet water in relative safety.
I manage to get into the house and through to a bathroom, which I slam behind me. I grab some vitamins that were sitting there, and think about my next move.
As you can see, I have moderate injuries all over and my stats are gimped to helplessness from the pain, smoke and toxic gas.
I go out the bathroom window but there's a bloater to the north and a good-sized pack of regulars closing in to the south. I'm torn between trying to climb that chain-link fence or going back into the house through that drawn-curtain window. In the basketball court there's a couple of child zombies which I might be able to kill, but that won't buy me much time before the zoms tear down the chainlink. I decide on the house.
I go in and find it still choking thick with smoke. I try to run past the smoke and out the eastern picture-windows.
A zombie brute is running me down even as I climb past the window. Further to the north I see a boatload of zeds. I get my shotgun ready and head for a SUV parked not far to the northeast.
But a skeletal dog and second brute coming from the north convinces me to turn and run south instead. Skeletal dogs are faster and weaker than regular skellies, and keep the same resistance to ranged weapons. I doubt I'll be able to shotgun it, or outrun it, or defeat it in melee.
I fire my shotgun point-blank into the brute's face, doing an obscene amount of damage and killing it instantly. Now I just have to deal with this skeletal dog and I'll have a little space to breathe. With no confidence in my ability to outrun it, I swap to my nailbat and hope I can prevail.
It's not going so well. I've got it down to 'heavily injured' but zombies are closing in on all directions. I decide to run to the south before it's too late.
The dog is getting all kinds of free hits against me as I run, but thankfully my armour is pretty decent. There are far too many zoms shambling along behind me. I simply can't stop to fight the dog.
I do manage to get it between a vehicle and myself. Zombie pathfinding would rather tear their way through obstacles than go around, so this will slow a lot of them down for a while. If only I had a lighter, I could set the interior of the car on fire and thin them out quite a bit. But then, if I had a lighter I wouldn't be here in the first place. I'd love to check those front seats for the items that are there, as cigarette lighters are often found in cars, but I simply can't spare the time. I head for the garage to the southwest, which I spotted as I first entered the town.
I get inside with the door closed behind me. Unfortunately the only vehicle is a half-stripped chassis. I don't have long before the zombies batter the door down, but I decide to make a quick look around for useful tools before I keep running. Almost everything is too heavy or too advanced to be of use to me, but I spot a hacksaw, a pair of welding goggles and an oxy-torch. I run over and get them.
I smash out an eastern window and circle around the building, with that goddamn skeletal dog still in pursuit. I stop by a car that might be in working order or might not, but either way I think it's a good idea to climb in and slam the door behind me, putting an obstacle between me and the dog.
Unfortunately, skeallington-dog is up in there with me before I can close the door behind me. I try to scramble out the other side, knowing I'll take a bunch of hits. The item in the backseat is a telescoping umbrella, by the way. Not the most useful of finds.
I can't outrun it and this might be the best chance I'll ever get to defeat it in melee, now that I'm on solid ground and it's slowed-down by sitting on carseats. I turn to fight it.
A few missed swings and a few more dog-bites and I finally put it down. I'm almost dead now, only needing a couple more hits to the torso to kill me. I really hope this car was abandoned with keys in it. Also, with all the items I'm carrying ADF is struggling, although I like to think that message is referring to the weight of his fat ugly body.
Hallelujah. Abandoning my quest for fire, my only thought is to get the fuck home. I wind my way around the zombies and head back out of town the way I came.
My next problem. It's 7:30 by my car's dashboard clock, and the sun is going down and my car's short on battery charge and has a dicky alternator. If I use the headlights all night I might not be able to get her started again. Not like I have a choice, though.
I cut cross-country and get myself as far past those milspec/antimat turrets as I can before turning on the headlights. The last thing I want is to be hit by a .50cal bullet that comes from a mile of darkness away. One I make it past the first little town I park and abandon my car. Headlights and flashlights at night will draw hordes, and I don't want to lead them right to my homebase. I continue the journey home on foot in the pitch blackness.
And make it back to my shelter in one piece. Almost dead, in great pain, hungry, dehydrated, still without a firestarter, but alive. I use up my entire bottle of disinfectant cleaning my multitude of cuts and scrapes, drink a full bottle of unclean water, eat the banana I found in the gas station and crash into a well-deserved slumber. So ends day 5.
