Realistic or Modern Dying to Live, Living to Die REBOOT (Not cliche Zombie survival) *COMPLETED*

[Pryno]

I know this is risky, but it is worth a shot. If it is not a trap and that she is not infected, she could become a trustworthy ally, which is rare in the wasteland. If she is infected, we should at least give her a chance to talk (and maybe take her loot) before ending her suffering. If it is a trap, then we will act in consequence later. We should also consider that killing her down would cause damage in the trust of Jacob. This is why I choose 1.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Looks like a tie-breaker is needed here, so literally Pryno stated every point I would say in a decision I would pick. Option 3 is quite the paranoid choice and if it truly turned out it was not a trap then you'd have Jacob possibly traumatized for no reason and again a lack of trust, something that has more consequences then benefits. So as a result Option 1 has been chosen through tie breaker!)

You’re compassion gets the best of you and you stop the car near the young woman. She rushes to the window and slaps on it with the flat of her hands, crying out hysterically “Help me! Help me! Let me come with you!”

Tears run from her amazingly bright blue eyes, streaking down her face.

“Hurry, let her in Mr. Greg! Let her in!” Jacob pleads from the back seat.

You ignore Jacob and roll the window down on the young woman’s side of the car and ask her the one question that immediately needs to be answered – “Are you bit?”

The girl grimaces for a moment, struggling with how to answer, but then comes right out with it – “I got bit on the shoulder two hours ago, but I’m not going to change. My two friends were with me and they turned right away…”

She starts crying again at the thought of her two friends, but manages to squeak out “I… I think I’m immune…”

“Mr. Greg, aren’t you going to let her in?” Jacob asks with concern.

Oh god, what do you do now?

1. Let the young woman come with you

2. Agree to let her come with you, but only if she’s willing to be tied up for a day of quarantine first

3. Tell her that you can’t take the risk, but offer some water

 

[ViciousVip3R]

2. Although we have already decided to help this lady, it is logical that we take some steps in order to protect ourselves. I am getting a little annoyed with Jacob, he is a clear liability to our survival, let's just hope this lady has some redeeming qualities. (yes, maybe I am a psychopath)

 

[Agent]

2. Hopefully she doesn't get pissy about it.
(I wasn't getting any alerts, so it took me a while to realize this was still up and about.)

 

[Pryno]

2, for the logical arguments of ViciousVip3R .

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Sorry for the long delay again, anyway Option 2 was chosen with 3 votes!)

“Well,” you begin, “I really can’t take the risk that you’ll turn – but if you’re willing to let me tie you up in the back seat for a day of quarantine, then I suppose you can come along.”

“What?!?” the young woman says in disbelief, slowly backing away from the vehicle – “You want to tie me up? What are you? Some kind of a pervert?!?”

“No, that’s not what I meant!” you reply, but the young woman continues to back away.

“Just forget it!” She says, holding her hockey stick defensively and waving you off.

(Unfortunately you guys had really terrible luck on the dice roll I did for that, thought I would make it slightly humorous...)

1. Leave her

2. Let her come with you untied

 

[ViciousVip3R]

(Sorry for the long delay again, anyway Option 2 was chosen with 3 votes!)

“Well,” you begin, “I really can’t take the risk that you’ll turn – but if you’re willing to let me tie you up in the back seat for a day of quarantine, then I suppose you can come along.”

“What?!?” the young woman says in disbelief, slowly backing away from the vehicle – “You want to tie me up? What are you? Some kind of a pervert?!?”

“No, that’s not what I meant!” you reply, but the young woman continues to back away.

“Just forget it!” She says, holding her hockey stick defensively and waving you off.

(Unfortunately you guys had really terrible luck on the dice roll I did for that, thought I would make it slightly humorous...)

1. Leave her

2. Let her come with you untied

(Oh well, the dice is finicky sometimes. I did find it sort of humorous...)
I completely changed my mind from before, I think we should trust her and let her come with us. The wording of the previous posts suggests that she is telling the truth, and if not, then I guess we will just revive.

2.

 

[Agent]

1. Let's sound extremely condescending and piss off so that obligatory female companion will maybe want to join us, except i'm not counting on this and i'm completely fine raising this boy whose parents are probably rotting in a ditch somewhere, alone. Even though having a moderately sized group is better, but i'm just being a jerk.

 

[Historical Storyteller]

(Sorry for the long delay again, anyway Option 2 was chosen with 3 votes!)

“Well,” you begin, “I really can’t take the risk that you’ll turn – but if you’re willing to let me tie you up in the back seat for a day of quarantine, then I suppose you can come along.”

“What?!?” the young woman says in disbelief, slowly backing away from the vehicle – “You want to tie me up? What are you? Some kind of a pervert?!?”

“No, that’s not what I meant!” you reply, but the young woman continues to back away.

“Just forget it!” She says, holding her hockey stick defensively and waving you off.

(Unfortunately you guys had really terrible luck on the dice roll I did for that, thought I would make it slightly humorous...)

1. Leave her

2. Let her come with you untied

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Good to see you again, but you didn't say anything. Just saying.)

 

[Historical Storyteller]

(Good to see you again, but you didn't say anything. Just saying.)

Oh yeah, my mistake, sorry. It's just that I wasn't able to write posts for a minute there, so when I clicked the quote button I didn't write any reply.

Anyways, I've been gone for a while but I'm back!

I pick option number 2. I just believe that you gotta be a little more trusting to people around you, they need your help to survive anyways.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Option 2 has been chosen with 2 votes!)

“No, it’s not like that at all,” you say trying to reason with her. “It’s just a precaution, that’s all – but forget I even suggested it. If you want to come along, then you can. No ropes, no funny business, and you’re free to leave at any time.”

“You mean it?” the woman asks, beginning to let her guard down again.

“Yeah,” you reply – “just don’t go all zombie on me or anything like that.”

“Hmm… you should talk,” she says, eyeing you up and down. “You look like you got hit by a train. Any of that bites? You asked me, so now I’m asking you.”

“As a matter of fact, I was hit by a train,” you answer – “or at least I was in a train wreck when all this started. But don’t worry about me, I’m fine. No bites to worry about.

You unlock the front door and the woman jumps in.

“I’m Greg Bradley by the way,” you say as you resume driving.

“Hi, I’m Jacob,” the boy adds cheerfully.

“Oh, I’m Abby,” the young tomboy replies, then winces as she puts her seatbelt on. In a way, you are a glad she chose to use the seat belt – as it will help restrain her if she suddenly zoms-out.

“You ok with that wound?” you ask, nodding toward her shoulder.

“Oh, that’s funny coming from you,” she laughs and winces again – “has anyone told you that you look like hell? If you weren’t driving a car down the road, I would have tried to club you with my stick – thinking you were a zombie. You’re the one that needs serious medical attention. Your head is a mess.”

“Gee thanks,” you say sardonically.

“But yeah; I got it taped and I’ll be fine,” she adds almost as an afterthought, then looks around and asks “Where are we going?”

“I’ve been trying for days to get out of the city and home to my wife and two girls,” you say.

“And find my Mommy!” Jacob inserts firmly.

“Yes, and that,” you add, then continue: “If you really are immune to the zombie virus, then you’re welcome to stay with us. I think we’re going to head further south and west into some places we like to go camping. Maybe we can wait this zombie thing out in the wilderness until it blows over. That’s the plan anyway.”

Abby doesn’t answer you again for a while. She seems emotionally overwhelmed all of a sudden and sobs “I don’t want to die…”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Jacob asks innocently. Abby just wipes her eyes and smiles weakly at the boy.

For yourself, you don’t know what to say, but you’re pretty sure this isn’t going to end well though, but you humanity demands you at least give the girl a chance. You’ll just have to be careful and watch her closely for a while, until you’re sure that she really is immune.

You drive on and after a short while, are turning down the road that heads into your own neighborhood. Your house is at the far end of a cul-de-sac off one of a dozen streets in an upscale community of well-tended lots. A large bed and breakfast on the right side of the road grabs your attention – it’s burned to the ground and there are dozens of charred skeletons amid the ashes. Having spent a few romantic nights there with your wife last winter, the scene really hits you hard, and you shudder to think of what could have happened there.

Abby suddenly starts and points up the road ahead - “look out!”

Looking, you see a crowd of zombies blocking the road just around a corner about two hundred feet ahead. You slam on the brakes and stop, seeing dozens and dozens of them, but it’s the thing towering over the crowd that really shakes you to the core – an eight or nine foot tall, exceedingly lanky, gray-skinned and naked giant of some kind that looks like it had once been a normal-sized human, but then stretched out like silly putty to its grotesquely elongated form. Its gaunt face is written with the look of unquenchable hunger, and it actually reaches out with a long gangling hand and snatches up a nearby zombie – yanking it off its feet to bite the top of its skull clean through in one chomp. The horrifying monster then slurps the zombie’s brains out of its head and tosses the twitching body to the curb.

Incredibly, none of the other zombies surrounding the thing even pay it any heed – the cannibal among them feasting with impunity at its own leisure!

With you having come around the curb and screeching the tires to a stop, the zombies and lanky giant among them, see you and start lumbering up the road toward the car. The road to your own home is not too far beyond them, so you could try to run through them, but that might draw them after you in that direction. You could also head back the way you came and take another road south four miles out of your way to drive around and come up from the other end of the road – which if you draw them off, will hopefully be free of them when you get back…

1. Drive through them

2. Go back and around the long way

 

[ViciousVip3R]

(Option 2 has been chosen with 2 votes!)

“No, it’s not like that at all,” you say trying to reason with her. “It’s just a precaution, that’s all – but forget I even suggested it. If you want to come along, then you can. No ropes, no funny business, and you’re free to leave at any time.”

“You mean it?” the woman asks, beginning to let her guard down again.

“Yeah,” you reply – “just don’t go all zombie on me or anything like that.”

“Hmm… you should talk,” she says, eyeing you up and down. “You look like you got hit by a train. Any of that bites? You asked me, so now I’m asking you.”

“As a matter of fact, I was hit by a train,” you answer – “or at least I was in a train wreck when all this started. But don’t worry about me, I’m fine. No bites to worry about.

You unlock the front door and the woman jumps in.

“I’m Greg Bradley by the way,” you say as you resume driving.

“Hi, I’m Jacob,” the boy adds cheerfully.

“Oh, I’m Abby,” the young tomboy replies, then winces as she puts her seatbelt on. In a way, you are a glad she chose to use the seat belt – as it will help restrain her if she suddenly zoms-out.

“You ok with that wound?” you ask, nodding toward her shoulder.

“Oh, that’s funny coming from you,” she laughs and winces again – “has anyone told you that you look like hell? If you weren’t driving a car down the road, I would have tried to club you with my stick – thinking you were a zombie. You’re the one that needs serious medical attention. Your head is a mess.”

“Gee thanks,” you say sardonically.

“But yeah; I got it taped and I’ll be fine,” she adds almost as an afterthought, then looks around and asks “Where are we going?”

“I’ve been trying for days to get out of the city and home to my wife and two girls,” you say.

“And find my Mommy!” Jacob inserts firmly.

“Yes, and that,” you add, then continue: “If you really are immune to the zombie virus, then you’re welcome to stay with us. I think we’re going to head further south and west into some places we like to go camping. Maybe we can wait this zombie thing out in the wilderness until it blows over. That’s the plan anyway.”

Abby doesn’t answer you again for a while. She seems emotionally overwhelmed all of a sudden and sobs “I don’t want to die…”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Jacob asks innocently. Abby just wipes her eyes and smiles weakly at the boy.

For yourself, you don’t know what to say, but you’re pretty sure this isn’t going to end well though, but you humanity demands you at least give the girl a chance. You’ll just have to be careful and watch her closely for a while, until you’re sure that she really is immune.

You drive on and after a short while, are turning down the road that heads into your own neighborhood. Your house is at the far end of a cul-de-sac off one of a dozen streets in an upscale community of well-tended lots. A large bed and breakfast on the right side of the road grabs your attention – it’s burned to the ground and there are dozens of charred skeletons amid the ashes. Having spent a few romantic nights there with your wife last winter, the scene really hits you hard, and you shudder to think of what could have happened there.

Abby suddenly starts and points up the road ahead - “look out!”

Looking, you see a crowd of zombies blocking the road just around a corner about two hundred feet ahead. You slam on the brakes and stop, seeing dozens and dozens of them, but it’s the thing towering over the crowd that really shakes you to the core – an eight or nine foot tall, exceedingly lanky, gray-skinned and naked giant of some kind that looks like it had once been a normal-sized human, but then stretched out like silly putty to its grotesquely elongated form. Its gaunt face is written with the look of unquenchable hunger, and it actually reaches out with a long gangling hand and snatches up a nearby zombie – yanking it off its feet to bite the top of its skull clean through in one chomp. The horrifying monster then slurps the zombie’s brains out of its head and tosses the twitching body to the curb.

Incredibly, none of the other zombies surrounding the thing even pay it any heed – the cannibal among them feasting with impunity at its own leisure!

With you having come around the curb and screeching the tires to a stop, the zombies and lanky giant among them, see you and start lumbering up the road toward the car. The road to your own home is not too far beyond them, so you could try to run through them, but that might draw them after you in that direction. You could also head back the way you came and take another road south four miles out of your way to drive around and come up from the other end of the road – which if you draw them off, will hopefully be free of them when you get back…

1. Drive through them

2. Go back and around the long way

2.

(Wow this Abbey sounds like a real bitch, she doesn't seem thankful at all, considering the amount of danger we are risking by taking her with us. I guess we don't have the best of luck with finding good survivors/teammates .)

 

[Agent]

2. Piss off. That thing can go eat zombies in peace.

 

[official clown business]

I'd like a number 2, please.
Not the kind of choice I feel needs to be justified. The car is life, after all.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Option 2 has been chosen with 3 votes! Also welcome back official clown business a shame you weren't here for the whole ride.)

You head away in the car, back up the road you had just turned down onto, leaving the zombies to follow after you – drawing them away from your own neighborhood.

Driving further west, you head south onto some rural roads that wind away from the suburbs through wooded hills before coming back north again on the far side. You then turn east and drive back onto the road you had encountered the zombies – only now you are coming up it from the other end. Arriving at the road that leads down to your own cul-de-sac, you note a few zombies wandering here and there, but nothing like the mob and giant abomination that was crowding the street three or four blocks farther up.

Still, you’ll have to be careful how you proceed, as the sound of the car continues to attract their attention. At this point, you’re only a few blocks from your house, but if you drive straight there, you’ll have every zombie in the neighborhood heading that way as well…

You do have a garage though, and it should still work on its own battery even with the city power off. You could drive there quickly, get in and shut the garage; and then with the car off and out of sight, the zombies should wander off again eventually. Or you could drive down a parallel block, park on the curb and cut back through the backyards to your house. That way, the zombies would all crowd together on the wrong street and you could always sneak back to the car after they disperse later…

1. Drive straight home and park the car in the garage

2. Park it on a parallel block and cut back through the yards

 

[ViciousVip3R]

As always there are pros and cons to both choices, but I think it is important to keep the car close in case the need to leave quickly arises.

1.

 

[Agent]

2. I dunno... what if they find us? Cars can't hop over fences.

Oh wait...

 

[official clown business]

I really don't like the idea of sending all the zombies towards the house, but doing so will leave our car secure in a garage and ready to take off at a moment's notice, rather than the other way around...
better just pick 1 - drive home and park car in garage

 

[Historical Storyteller]

1. The car has already attracted their attention, you have an injured young woman and a child by your side and they will not make it on foot. You will have to wrestle your way out of one dirty situation after another to save them if they get into trouble. Stealth is a valuable option, but the presence of even one shambling zombie heading towards you can jeopardize if you consider that you're with two people who might panic. You can't trust them, you have to take things in your own hands and get things done. Deal with the consequences when they come. It's all or nothing boys, put the pedal to the metal and let's get this show on the road!

But then you have one nasty surprise waiting for you even if you manage to shut yourself inside the garage and ride the storm out. You'll get stuck with an injured woman with possibly no medical supplies at hand, no food, no water, and boy you can't even take a shit in peace with everything that's happening. You can try to help her every way you can, doesn't matter if she's a bitch or not, she's someone who you chose to help and you have to go through with it to the end, she can still turn into one of those mindless cannibals and eat you all. You still have to deal with the little lost boy who doesn't have what it takes to survive. It's not his fault he's here but he's a danger to all of us because he presents a liability. He slows us down, he consumes our precious sustenance, if he does not prove useful then we better ditch the boy or use him as an extra supply of food.

Alternatively, the boy can indeed be useful in the long-term. Growing up in an apocalyptic world can harden one's heart, sharpen one's mind, and strengthen one's body. The boy has hope yet, he can grow strong and smart and determined to survive. While our main character protects him and cares for the boy, the boy in turn can protect and care for the main character. And as days turn into weeks, weeks into months, months into years, the boy will be a great return on investment provided he does not get himself killed in the process. Ultimately, I believe the boy must be kept alive, not on moral grounds but for economic reasons.

As for the woman, she lives as well, at least for now. Unless she turns into a zombie, in which case I believe the only treatment of this problem is to smash her head with a baseball bat until she is deader than dead.

 

[Historical Storyteller]

Discussion of our choices is open to all. Speculation on the motivations of the characters is open as well. I do not wish for voting and story writing to be our only activities for this roleplay, let's sit and talk, it'll be more fun that way. It'll help get things off our chests and add more emotion and passion to our writing.

 

[The Omen of Death]

( Historical Storyteller does have a valid point, I won't force anyone to do anything, but that is always an option for you guys and I think it would be fun to see you guys your choices and whatnot. It would make the experience more fun for you guys. Anyway it's up to you guys what you want to do. Anyway reply is coming up in a bit!)

 

[Historical Storyteller]

( Historical Storyteller does have a valid point, I won't force anyone to do anything, but that is always an option for you guys and I think it would be fun to see you guys your choices and whatnot. It would make the experience more fun for you guys. Anyway it's up to you guys what you want to do. Anyway reply is coming up in a bit!)

Hmm, the first discussion should be underway after the reply is written.

Hey, Omen, how've you been? Life good? New stuff going around? Reading books or watching educational videos? Learning stuff?

Wait, don't answer that now, write that story first.

EDIT: Damn it, never mind, I was gone for a while so answer my questions first.

 

[Historical Storyteller]

Hmm, the first discussion should be underway after the reply is written.

Hey, Omen, how've you been? Life good? New stuff going around? Reading books or watching educational videos? Learning stuff?

Wait, don't answer that now, write that story first.

EDIT: Damn it, never mind, I was gone for a while so answer my questions first.

Oh, never mind, I'm going now.

 

[The Omen of Death]

(Option 1 has been chosen with 3 votes!)

You decide to head directly to the house and drive down your lane to the end of the cul-de-sac. As you go, you note that all the front doors and first floor windows in the neighborhood appear to be smashed out and that there are an awful lot of bloody smears and dismembered body parts lying strewn across the road and sidewalks. Up ahead, you see your own home – and that it is no different. God, are you too late?!?

With a large number of zombies following the sound of the car into the area, you press your garage door opener and hope for the best. Thankfully, the batteries are fine and it begins to go up. You time it so that it will already be coming down when you drive under it and into the empty garage.

Pulling the car in and turning it off, you immediately leap out with weapon in hand and wait what seems like forever for the garage door to come down all the way. You definitely want it to finish closing, before any zombies get close enough to get under it and make it automatically go up again. You give a huge sigh of relief, as the last few inches of the gap disappear under the door and it seals itself tight.

Listening, you can hear the zombie hordes clamber into the streets outside, some scraping and bumping against the garage door in the press to discover where the car just went. Fortunately, they can’t see you directly and are not actively trying to tear their way into the garage at the moment. Creeping to the small window in the side of the garage, you peek out and see at least a hundred or more walking dead crowding the end of the cul-de-sac. Great… how long is it going to take for them to get bored and wander off again?

Jacob then gets out of the car and comes over to join you. You put your finger to your lips to indicate that he needs to be quiet, but he gives you a look as if the say “duh.”

It then suddenly occurs to you that Abby hasn’t gotten out of the car yet. You go look through the passenger window and see her slumped unconscious in the seat with a mess of spit-up blood staining the front of her shirt. Oh shit, you think to yourself – here it comes…

She seemed a little quiet as you were coming down the lane and must have finally succumbed to her bite as you were around the back of the car waiting for the garage door to come down. That means that she’s going to zom-out on you at any moment. You send Jacob around to the other side of the car and then open Abby’s door, shove the haft of your fire axe into her slack-open jaws and reach across to unbuckle her. And it’s a good thing you do too, because her eyes – glazed over with the look of the dead – snap open abruptly; and she leans forward to snap at you with a vicious growl, but doesn’t get anywhere with a mouth full of axe handle.

You then step back and violently yank her out of the car by the hair. As she falls to the ground and scrambles to get back up, you rip your weapon free of her teeth and finish her off with a number of solids cracks to the head. As blood starts to pool under her broken corpse, you sigh heavily and grab a painter’s cloth off a shelf to cover the body.

Jacob comes around and stares at you with tears filling his eyes and looking at you like you just murdered his mother or something.

“Jacob,” you say as gently as you can muster, “she got bit and held on as long as she could. Once you turn into a zombie, you’ve already died and gone to heaven. It will be all right. She’s in a better place now.”

Jacob runs over and throws himself into your arms weeping quietly. You hug the kid and offer a moment of silence, but then stand up and focus on matters at hand.

Putting the poor girl out of your mind and leading Jacob to the other side of the garage where he can’t see the shroud-covered body, you take a mental inventory of the stuff in your garage and see that you have plenty of supplies to take with you and your family to get out of the suburbs and into more rural areas. Moving cautiously to the door leading into the house from the garage, you slowly turn the knob and crack the door just enough to peer through. You don’t see anyone on the first floor, but the front door is broken open, the windows are busted out, and bloody tracks are everywhere. The place is a wreck and looks looted on top of it all – as you can see that all the cabinet doors in the kitchen are swung open and bare.

You think about your wife and wonder if she or anyone could possibly have survived all this. You want so badly to call out her name, but know that would be a very bad idea – especially given the last phone conversation you had with her! If your wife is here in the house, then so is the bastard that was with her. You’re going to have to be extra stealthy here, if you want to get the two of you out of this alive. Not that driving your car into the garage with a huge mob of zombies in tow was the best way to start a stealth mission – but that’s all water under the bridge now…

As you consider your options, it occurs to you that your neighbor on the garage-side of your house was an avid gun collector. Maybe he’s still alive and barricaded in his house. Maybe you could try to sneak over there first and get a weapon and ammo from him. Maybe he knows what happened to your wife and family. Maybe your wife even tried to go over there during the initial outbreak. Quietly shutting the interior door and moving back to the small window in the side of the garage, you peek back out again and look over toward your neighbor’s home. It doesn’t look promising at all.

Like the rest of the houses on the cul-de-sac, it too is broken open on the first floor, but you do see something different. As you look closer, you can see that his lawn is a sea of shot-up corpses and that there are signs of a breached barricading around his front door and windows. It looks like the old guy tried to make a stand but was eventually overrun. But where is he now? And if he was overrun and killed – then his weapons might still be in the house…

Taking Jacob by the shoulders, you quietly tell him that he needs to stay here safe in the garage and show him to a large space under a workbench for him to hide in. Your own daughters sometimes play house under there and a blanket and flashlight are still there from the last time. Jacob doesn’t want to be left alone especially with a dead zombie in here with him, but you explain that he’ll be safe and that you’ll come back for him when you find your wife; and then you’ll all be able to leave together and go someplace even safer.

Jacob bravely complies, crawls in, and covers himself with the blanket, but then asks for a drink of water. “I’m thirsty!”

You reach into your supplies and pull out a half a bottle of water that you had been drinking earlier and hand it to the boy. “Don’t worry, I won’t be too long,” you say and ready to head out.

Now what?

1. Better sneak over to the neighbor’s house in search of guns and ammo before looking for your wife – you might need them…

2. Cautiously look upstairs for your wife

3. Check the basement for your wife