Drew, December 2012

I gots me the zombie-killin’ sweats agin, so it’s back to All Things Zombie: Better Dead Than Zed.

Reed & Co. having been wiped out on 19th January 2013, I pick one of the other groups rather than generate a new Star; Detective Sergeant Malcolm Drew.

• Drew (Star, Rep 5, Star Power 5, Born Leader, Brawler, BA Pistol)

We know what Drew was up to in January 2013 (getting his crew shot up by Captain Flack and the Camberwick Green SAS), so I decide to run Day One for him and then advance to February 2013 in the next post, so as to break myself back in gently after a few months off.

DAY ONE

Drew is sitting at home watching TV with a cold beer. There’s not much else in the fridge since his wife left him – “Good riddance,” he mutters to himself as he takes another swig – and the general bachelor disarray is enhanced by a selection of weightlifting equipment. Have to pass the time in the evenings somehow, and Drew senses beer is not the answer in the long term.

The ‘phone rings, and he answers. It’s the local cop shop, calling in off-duty officers to help with what they still think are riots.

“Hello…. Yes, I’m watching it on the news now… OK, I’ll be at the station in twenty.”

For the first session I’ll downgrade Drew to a Rep 4 Civilian, because he works out a lot.

Drew pauses to throw on something more suitable than a beer-stained track suit and grab his gun, a BA Pistol. He looks at the beer, then at the car keys, and shrugs. “What the Hell,” he mutters. He grabs the keys and heads out, locking the door behind him as if he will ever come back; as if it matters whether someone steals his last beer and his barbells.

I don’t think I’ll need a table laid out for this; let’s see how far we get just on dice. Destination police station, arriving by vehicle; I roll 2d6 vs Rep (4) on the table on p. 64 – 5, 4 is pass 1d6, but since this is the first location and Drew’s Rep is greater than the location number, this counts as pass 2d6. He arrives normally, in 20 minutes as promised. Arriving at the bottom edge of the imaginary 3’ x 3’ table, Drew must get to a 6” square area in the centre, which is the station. That puts him 15” from the objective – call it two moves at 8” per turn.

This early in the outbreak an urban area counts as suburban, but there are no zombies on the table initially.

Turn One

Activation: Drew 2, Terrified Civilians (there are 12 of ‘em) 1. All activate.

There’s a huge crowd outside the station as Drew pulls up. There’s obviously no chance of getting the car through them, so he parks, locks the vehicle, and moves in. As a detective, he’s in civilian clothes and not obviously a police officer. He starts pushing his way through the mob to get in.

Drew must fight all 12 civilians in melee to get past them. I won’t bore you with the numerous dice rolls, suffice to say that a Rep 4 Brawler has to be really unlucky to get KO’d by a Rep 3 Civilian, and Drew wasn’t unlucky enough for that to happen.

Turn Two

Activation: Drew 5, Civilians 2. Since the activation dice total 7 there is a chance of zombies. Two zombies appear, and roll 1 for activation; one towards the top of the table and one to the right, both 12” away; that means one of them is actually inside the station – oops. The other zombie uses its turn to move 6” towards the nearest human, namely Drew. It is now 6” from Drew, so as a police officer he now takes the Zed or No Zed test on p. 33. 2d6 vs Rep 4: 2, 5 = pass 1d6. The zombie charges and Drew takes the Being Charged test; this early in the outbreak I don’t think he will use his pistol, so he uses his Star status to select “cannot fire but will melee normally” – pass 1d6.

Drew is a Rep 4 Brawler so rolls 5d6 vs 3: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 = 2 successes. The zombie rolls 1d6 vs Rep 4: 6. Drew scores two more successes than the zombie; it is Obviously Dead.

Drew now sees what the panicked crowd is fleeing from; a bloodied travesty of a human being, muttering “Braaiiiiins…” Looks like someone on drugs, he thinks. It claws at him ineffectively; this is no time for half measures, and Drew is not in an entirely stable frame of mind, so he drops it with a few well-placed blows. Time enough to worry about the brutality charges later; there’s gunfire coming from inside the station.

I decided not to play out the scene inside the station in detail, but ruled that one of the armed officers panicked and opened fire.

Turn Three

Activation: Drew 5, Civilians 5, Zombies 2. The zombies activate; the one clawing its way around the police station continues the way it was going, starting to move away from Drew as it doesn’t yet have Line Of Sight to him.

Turn Four

Activation: Drew 2, Civilians 6, Zombies 4. The zombie inside the station activates first, then Drew.

Drew sprints inside, drawing his pistol, to find the zombie charging him. He opens fire, figuring that if other officers have started shooting, there is something seriously amiss.

Enough pussyfooting around. Drew chooses to pass 2d6 on the Being Charged test and opens up with the BA pistol. 1d6+4 = 5 = miss. Oops. However, he can melee normally, passes 4d6 and the zombie is Obviously Dead.

The desk sergeant emerges cautiously as Drew kicks the body.

“Talk to me, Harrison,” he says. “What’s going on?”

“I dunno. We took this guy in on suspicion of drugs, then he went wild and starting biting people. Never seen anything like it. The batons did nothing, so somebody fired – I don’t know who. Sylvia took Vince, Larry and Kate out to the Bridger place; she thought if anyone knew about this new drug Bridger would – he probably made it.”

“And?”

“She called for backup just before things went crazy here. Everybody else is out dealing with the riots, so you’re it.”

“Just me, huh?”

“Hey – one riot, one ranger.”