In the comm room-
"Ah, right, sir," said
Malanowski, going over to
Mikhalin. "I thought you meant mine." He picked up her Beretta, turned on the safety, and tucked the weapon into his belt. "Weapon secure, sir." He was intent on his task and
did not notice anything either.
Lt. Blanco reached the unconscious woman soon after, and
she too had eyes for nothing else.
"ETA is approximately five minutes," replied
Carmichael. "There was a slight delay because of complications with the evac, but I don't have any details on precisely what those were. You people couldn't have waited that long before turning on each other?"
Wallace was still stunned by the captain's death and
just stared at his body.
David did likewise.
Nobody in the room paid much attention to the
other corpse, that of
Lt. Elizabeth Malone. Nobody saw her twitch, nobody noticed her blood-red eyes opening, nobody even saw her sit up. The first indication anyone had was when she stood up and rushed
Wallace. She
flailed at him, but he managed to avoid her.
Wallace fell back in shock,
terror overwhelming his senses. However, he only saw the one zombie and
didn't realize that the dead on the balcony were also rising, cutting off any hope of escape. He desperately brought up his rifle to defend himself.
David remained calm and unflappable.
Lt. Blanco retained full control of her faculties and hastily drew her sidearm. "
Stephanie was right!" she exclaimed. "The dead are being reanimated!"
Malanowski turned to face this new threat.
(
Ramirez, roll Sanity. Failure costs 1d10 points, but any roll of more than 7 counts as 7 for you. You do not have a weapon in your hand, though you can draw one or pick up one of the captain's weapons (unless you go insane, of course). If you do go for a weapon, you will only be able to fire one shot this round, and that will take effect after the zombie attacks again and will hit a random body part. You may speak before that happens. The range is point blank.)
On the motel balcony-
Duran switched to single shot mode for fear of hitting
Mitchell with a stray round. He fired again,
barely hitting Thayer and
grazing his right arm.
Ortega took a shot too, and
it was excellent. The creature's
left leg was crippled, but it didn't really need to go anywhere.
Gary fired in a last, desperate attempt to save
Mitchell. He
shot the ghoul in
the left leg, severing it.
But it was too late.
Thayer was badly battered but still moving, and he
squeezed the life out of Mitchell, shattering his rib cage. Worse still, the other corpses on the balcony were stirring.
McCain's one-legged corpse began to drag itself closer to the three men standing on the southwest corner, clearing most of the distance.
Jimmy and
Lewis were already there.
Jimmy rose up and
reached for Gary, though
his attack was poorly coordinated.
Lewis crawled over to
Duran and
bit his leg,
plunging his teeth deep into the man's left calf.
Duran knew what this meant, but
didn't dwell on it and focused on killing these things so he could at least spare others the same fate.
In the medic's room-
Zorie shivered as the gunfire continued. "What's happening up there?" she asked.
"
I don't know, ma'am," said
Phillips, "but I will protect you."
"You can call me
Zorie. There's only one thing that makes sense: the dead really are rising up.
Everyone who died in that gunfight must be attacking the survivors!"
"Then as long as there's shooting, that means someone's still alive up there. It doesn't look good, though. We've got to think about getting you out of here if this place is going to fall."
In the motel parking lot-
Baldwin staggered over to his truck, which was parked not far away, still idling and facing the dirt road to the north. He knew he had to escape from this place, and that truck was the fastest way to do it.
On the motel's roof-
Sheen continued looking east, but
didn't look directly below and had no idea what was going on in the parking lot.
(
Sam Black, roll Spot Hidden with a -5% penalty due to your helmet to see if you notice
Baldwin running for his truck in the parking lot.)
On the roof of the garage-
Luke reloaded his M-14. The ghouls in the grass crawled a little closer, but there was still ample time for him to finish them off and this fresh magazine should be more than sufficient. He was about to start reloading his shotgun when he saw the southern wall of the diner cave inwards and collapse. The rest of the diner was very shaky and wouldn't hold up long, though at least the garage was stable.
In the helicopter-
Ogallala vanished behind the chopper, leaving only an orange glow visible on the western horizon.
In the warehouse-
"I'll get the battery," said
Sally. "Don't know why they need it, but it must be important." The men stacked the crates underneath it and she tried to climb them, but
couldn't find her footing yet.
Joe Barring was making good progress clearing his jammed shotgun.
Another few minutes and he'd have it.
Hockey turned to look back upstairs. "They're coming!" he shouted. Coming around the landing were four of the creatures. One of them
Willie recognized as
Azadeh, though her beauty was now gone. Bite marks covered her body, and her eyes were red and hungry. She and the two others who had been eating her moved slowly, but the fourth one moved faster and shoved past them. It had a gaping head wound, and
Hockey gave it another one, ending the creature's existence.
Willie fired at one of the others, the shot
passing over its head.
In the cell block-
Rosie and
Kimberly entered from one end as
Kerry entered from the other. "They're getting the battery," said
Rosie. "You've got to get
Kimberly below. I'll go back and help hold off those creatures for as long as I can."
"B-below?" said
Kerry. "But there was a horrible monster down there, and there's probably more where that came from! It's infectious somehow, too! We can't get trapped down there."
"We'll try to take them all out, but I don't know if it's possible. If it isn't, we can't stay up here."
In the project manager's office-
Jenny leaned back in her chair and watched with envy as
Alice snoozed. She was exhausted and wished she could sleep, but she knew she had a job to do. At least she could sit down and rest.
In the biology lab-
"Oh, yeah!" said
Duke. "This stuff is pure gold!"
"Find something, gentlemen?" asked
Mr. Foo as he entered from the hall.
"You bet. These are their research notes, and most of them have to do with
Judith Reagan's infection." He summarized what he had told
Jim. "I'll keep reading. Why don't you two look around the lab for anything useful?" He flipped through the notes some more. "After they quarantined her, they did an X-Ray and found a parasitic creature in her stomach, like a tapeworm. Continued study showed that it seemed to be consuming her body fat and whatever food she was digesting.
Dr. Muth recommended locking her into that sleeping capsule where we found her, and
Dr. Kirby authorized it. Her body functions, including her heart rate, were slowed down. The creature within her kept growing, but at a slower rate. She remained alive, but it kept growing." He gasped. "You know what this means? We've got these things inside us now!"
He
swallowed once, but did not panic. "Well, at least we can buy
Alice more time. That capsule was the right place to put her. I'll go back upstairs when I'm done here and use it to slow her metabolism. There's one final entry in these notes, for November 10, 1961. I'll read that one out loud."
Mr. Foo took it all in stride. He knew he was an old man and didn't have long to live anyway, especially considering the current state of the world.
If I die, at least I've led an interesting life, he thought,
and my wife will survive me. And perhaps we will yet find a cure. Stephanie and her doctor friend could do it, I'm sure, but I have confidence in Duke and Jenny too.
(
Jim Kerr, roll Sanity. Lose 1d10 points if you fail.)
