The Ravenous Horde: A Zombie Apocalypse Quest (Dead Reign/Beyond the Supernatural)

Part of you thinks you should just count your blessings that you've made it this far and get the hell out of here while you still can.

...but you can't bring yourself to do it.

Maybe it's because seeing what could only be the result of the gates of hell opening up to vomit out these unholy creatures your facing has made you start to worry more about how your actions may determine the fate of your immortal soul.

Maybe it's something more childish, the desire to be a hero that drove you to study medicine rearing it's ugly head.

You don't know.

What you do know is that your mind is made up. Your not turning back until your certain there's no hope left.

And so with your new ally in tow you once more leap into the fray. This time as you approach the hallway you instead choose the center of the three forks...


You turn a corner and you come across quite the scene. Several zombies packed together in the narrow hallway are wailing on doorway into the central hospital wing without success as something is apparently jamming the door shut. Judging by the creatures actions there's something in their that has their attention and you have a strong suspicion that it's prey.

The sound of muffled taunts and curses at the zombies seems to confirm your suspicion.

It also confirms one other fact as a certain voice reaches your ears.

"Come on dammit put your backs into it! You want those bastards to get in here cause I sure as hell don't!"

MATTIE!

You spot a discarded hospital gurney and before you even know what your doing you've grabbed it, turned it sideways, and are running full speed at the horde.


One of them turns to look at you but by then it's too late and smash into the creatures, pinning them up against the barricaded door.

Some of them reach out amongst the tangled limbs trying to swipe at you...


But before they can Darrow has arrived and taken aim.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

They drop like sacks of potatoes and you immediately shove the gurney out of the way.

"Mattie! Mattie open the door its me James!"
"James?"

In the small glass window of the door you see a tired but familiar face appear. At the sight of you her expression seems to soften to show relief...at least until another voice from within the room cries out.

"Don't open it! They could be infected!" Briefly you manage to catch the sight of a wild eyed heavy looking fellow with salt and pepper hair screaming out from behind Mattie.

"He's not infected and neither am I!" Darrow yells back.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?!"
"Officer Max Darrow of the 2-9 precinct. I give you my word as an officer of the law we are NOT infected, so move out of the way and let the lady open the damn door!"


"Kiss my ass pig! Last I checked end of the world means end of your authority! You ain't getting in here!"
"Jack!" you hear Mattie say to the heavy set man. Before she can say anything else though you see him lunge at her. You see them struggle and Mattie let's out a cry of pain as he grabs her arm roughly and starts dragging her away from the door...


Your honestly not sure what happened one minute your screaming at the door telling this Jack guy to let go of her all while shooting him a death glare...

Next thing you know you feel...something...build up behind your eyes...

And then Jack suddenly releases Mattie, clutching at his head and letting loose a groan of pain.

Mattie looks in confusion for a moment before realizing what this opportunity means and quickly moving the stuff blocking the door out of the way. The moment the door swings open you and Darrow are both in the room and you bring your fist to impact Jack's temple dropping him to the floor.

You a feel a pair of arms suddenly wrap around you. You tense for a moment, your nerves frayed by what you've been through, before Mattie's voice suddenly reaches your ear.

"You idiot! I thought you were dead..."
"Glad to see you too Mattie." you answer back.
"Hate to break up this little love fest but maybe we should save it for AFTER we're away from the critters hungering from our flesh?" Darrow says impatiently.

You...think he may have a point.

With the aid of the two other nurses in the room (Jamie and Lance you hear Mattie call them) you haul the unconscious Jack upwards and drop his ass into the gurney you used before. Together you all manage to work your way back down the hallway taking the gurney with you. For a moment there is confusion over where to go. Whether you should head toward the front door or take a chance and try and head toward the garage.


Two votes for the ambulance, two for heading for the front, one individual...unconscious and unable to participate. Looks like your the deciding vote. You know that weird gift you acquired would really...

As if on cue you feel...something rush to your eyes and once more you are seeing the strange lights again.

And wouldn't you know it, they show the path to the ambulance is clear!

"To the ambulance"
"You sure?"
"Positive"

The others look at each other before with a collective shrug they agree. You all arrive at the garage in short order and pile in the ambulance.

Now the question is, where do you go from here? Based on what you know about the local area a few ideas spring to mind:

There was a central distribution center for a chain of grocery stores, might be good for supplies if it hasn't been raided already []

There's the national guard base over at Fort Jackson, though they might be hesitant to let you in []

You could always head into the mountains away from all this mess, though finding supplies would be less certain []

There's an isolated summer retreat that was often used by the local parishes, though it's not guaranteed to be stocked with supplies []

There's the estate of the richest family in town who you heard were on an overseas vacation, though it's not guaranteed []

It takes quite a bit of work but after some difficulty you manage to get the ambulance down the narrow mountain road and away from the chaos still raging at Mother of Mercy. In your attempt to get away from the place you end up banging up your ride a bit, but in your defense there were a lot of abandoned cars you had to squeeze by on the narrow pass. Anyway as long as your ride is still functional, it doesn't have to look pretty. Turning off the narrow road you find refuge in a small bus station which thankfully seems abandoned.

You do get a bit of a scare when some screaming suddenly erupts...but you quickly calm yourself once you realize its nothing more than Jack finally waking from unconsciousness. One quick threat by Darrow to shoot him if he doesn't quiet down and Jack finally shuts up.

Your party feeds yourselves from a half empty vending machine you smash open with a fire extinguisher and quickly starts to debate over what to do next.

With no immediate clear choice it comes down to having to weigh the pros and cons and seeing which is the most palatable.

There's the base at Fort Jackson which should be well defended...but you quickly abandon that idea when you happen to turn your ambulance's radio to civilian channels and hear reports that the whole place is under siege by both desperate survivors and the hordes of undead chasing them.

Some people suggest heading away from civilization altogether and hiding in the mountains, but the uncertainty of finding supplies and lack of anyone with training in wilderness survival precludes that idea.

Another idea that goes out the window is the retreat used by the parish. Unfortunately the normal retreat season is already past which means its less likely to be stocked up on supplies.

That leaves two possible ideas left. The Wyncroft estate, the closest thing to a castle in these parts, or the distribution center for the local Mega-Market.

One is nearly a fortress and could be a valuable place as a base assuming the rumors you heard about the Wyncroft's being out of town is true.

The other is a place potentially filled to the brim with supplies, assuming no one else has already gotten to it first.

It's a tough call...

Ultimately though you chose the Mega-Market. Sure the other place might not be as defended but there's also little chance it will have enough supplies for your group.

Which brings up another question...

What to do about Jack?

He seems to have calmed down now that's he's had time to realize that NO your not actually infected. He's got the most medical experience of anyone in your group and from what you hear he hunts on occasion so presumably he knows how to handle a gun. At the same time he's also the oldest member of your group and according to Maddie he froze up pretty quick when the zombies showed up, only surviving cause he was already in the room when the others sealed the place off. And then there's that pragmatic little voice that says having him means one more mouth to feed out of whatever supplies you grab at the Mega-Market.

After much debate you:

Decide to take him with you, you could use all the help you can get it []

Give him some supplies from the vending machine and tell him to beat it []

QM note: sorry for the delay, but you know life and junk.

As much as what Jack did before pissed you off, you can't find it in yourself to hate him for how he acted. It is the freaking zombie apocalypse after all, a few non-ideal reactions are to be expected!

With that decided you grab some food from the vending machine and proceed on your path to the distribution center.

As luck would have it the distribution center is located at the extreme edge of town meaning there aren't as many abandoned cars blocking your way. As the ambulance crests the hill you are given a birds eye view of the whole scene. Beyond a chain linked fence a is a huge parking lot in which set a group of trucks.

On the one hand this might mean that their could be people still alive in their. On the other hand they could also be scared shitless and unwilling to share.

If only you knew how to get that weird vision trick of yours to work...


At that thought you feel a twinge of something and the light around you seems to tint slightly. However all you get is a faint glow in the direction of the building. So yes judging from your experience, there is something in the building giving off an aura. The problem is it's too indistinct to differentiate between whether it's living or undead.

Guess your just gonna have to take the risk then.

Jack insists on going with you to scout, a mixture of wanting to prove you made the call in trusting him and wanting to make up for how he acted. Officer Darrow...or rather Max as he insists you call him also agrees to come which you readily agree to what with him being the only one with a gun and all. Due to Jaime being the only other person with experience in handling an ambulance she is automatically picked to stay behind and act as the getaway driver. That leaves Lance and Mattie. Mattie, still somewhat shaken up by what happened before at the hospital and carrying a chip against Jack for what he pulled refuses to come along with him into the building. Instead she takes advantage of the fact that the ambulance has walkie talkies and decides to act as a lookout for any zombies, with Lance acting as her guardian. You don't have much in the way of weapons to arm him, so he makes do with some scalpels and a flag stand you guys took from the bus depot, intending to use it as a makeshift spear.

You slowly drive up to just a block away from the large building and hop out. You glance at the building, once more trying to summon forth your new gift...


Your not sure if its because you're too far away or if the thick walls are screwing with your gift but whatever it is you get the same disappointing result.

You shrug it off, there's more important things to do then complain about your hit or miss ability, like figuring out how your going to enter the building. There's the front door which might be monitored or barricaded what with it being the building's primary entrance, the loading dock door which while quick would be loud, or you could risk being seen by climbing a large tree near the building and try and use the door to the roof:

[] Use the main office door
[] Use the loading dock
[] Climb the tree to the roof