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| The Rest of the World |
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| November 18 2011 |
The group notices that the P520 boat has been shot up pretty badly from the fire
fight. Taylor checks the engine and discovers that there is a fuel leak and
patches the hose with duct tape. The radio and the engine gages are broken
beyond repair. After two days of traveling the engine runs out of gas and a
large storm roles in, the storm lasts for about two weeks with the boat adrift.
During that time Dr. House despite his own fever continues to treat Drake who is
looking worse all the time. It must have been a medical breakthrough by the
highly talented Dr. House because Drake recovers (a roll of a 30 on a heal roll,
give me a break!) A week after the storm breaks the boat drifts into a small
marina in North Carolina.
The group checks out the marina and there are no signs of human life. The
vehicles have had the gas siphoned and the marina store has been looted clean. A
few gun shots are heard near by in the woods and the group follows the source to
a two story house with an old man in the window shooting zombies walking on his
front lawn. The group helps the man in the window, Henry, shoot zombies and then
his wife pops her head out of the window and invites the group in. Henry starts
up his generator and plays a video tape of the news he recorded, back when the
world had news reports.
The word PLAY is still displayed in the upper left-hand corner as the screen
suddenly shows President Obama standing before the podium. Behind him is the
United States flag, to his left is the Secretary of Defense, and to his right is
a U.S. Army General. “America, I come to you now at a time of great crisis
within our country. An unknown virus is sweeping through our borders, and we
estimate that over a quarter of the nation has become infected. Unlike SARS or
Swine Flu, this new virus does not appear to be airborne. Instead, it appears to
be transmitted through bodily fluids, the most common being in the host’s
saliva. We’re working around the clock to find a vaccination, and all efforts
are being coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security between the Center
for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. I
want to assure everyone that we will find the cause of this virus, we will
determine its nature, and we will eliminate its threat. “I will now turn things
over to the. General . . .”
President Obama steps aside as the General assumes the podium. Flash bulbs
illuminate the room. “Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s imperative you pay close
attention to what I’m about tell you. “The crisis we face is unlike anything in
American history. Once spread to a new host through the saliva or other bodily
fluids of the carrier, the virus is fast acting and 100% terminal. The initial
stage is a high fever—approximately 106 degrees—followed by a loss of motor
skills. The victim then enters a catatonic state for several minutes before
regaining consciousness. At that stage, the victim begins attacking any living
thing within reach. “It’s vital to not only national security, but your own
safety, that anyone infected with the virus be immediately turned over to law
enforcement. Law enforcement personnel will assure they receive proper medical
treatment. Once infected, your friends and loved ones are no longer the people
you knew. They will not recognize you. They will be driven with a sole purpose:
spreading the infection.”
Henry tells the you that is the point the electricity first cut out, and it
didn’t come back on for several hours. He and Eleanor had turned on the
battery-operated radio once the power went out, and the stations were repeating
what the President and his staff had said concerning the virus. They also
reported that the General had talked about Rescue Stations being set-up in all
the major cities, where civilians would be kept quarantined and safe.
He reaches forward and hits the PLAY button again. The tape continues with a
report from CNN, which Henry says was from the following day. A female reporter
fills the screen as a ticker at the bottom advises civilians to seek out their
local Rescue Station, even listing the primary Rescue Station for each city. For
North Carolina, the main Rescue Station is on the north end of Raleigh, with
other locations in all of North Carolina’s smaller cities. The reporter talks
about outbreaks identical to what is affecting the United States being reported
in England, India, China, Russia, Germany, Canada, and Mexico. She goes on to
repeat what the characters heard in the last press report, concerning the
symptoms of the so-called virus.
CNN then cuts to a reporter in the field, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, standing in Times
Square on a balcony high off the ground. The Dr. Gupta talks about the anarchy
and breakdown of civil virtues that have affected the Big Apple. Rioting,
looting, and mass suicides plague New York as the infected grow in numbers. In
the background, screams and gunshots are heard. The camera pans downward to show
the streets. Cars are abandoned in the middle of streets, many of them having
been involved in accidents. Broken windows pepper buildings, and trash is
everywhere. The camera shows a small squad of 6 soldiers in a fire-and-retreat
as they unleash their M-16’s into a crowd of approaching Living Dead. Although
the zombies fall from the hail of bullets, many of them rise back to their feet.
Dr. Gupta continues that the virus doesn’t just affect the living. Reports have
been coming in of the dead returning to life. Like the infected humans, the
corpses are slow moving and seem focused on just one thing: the consumption of
living flesh. He also mentions that if the dead are somehow returning to life,
it brings to question the President’s speech yesterday about the virus being
transmitted only through bodily fluids.
Once again, the recording suddenly stops. Henry explains that he’d shut the
thing off at that point. There was just no way he was buying into the dead
returning to life, and figured at that point that the reports were more fiction
than fact. He didn’t record anything after that and, by the next day, the only
thing the television was broadcasting was the Emergency Broadcast System and a
ticker on where to go for Rescue Stations. He did listen to the radio, though.
Reports indicated the President, Vice President, and members of Congress were
being flown—with their families—to a highly secure location. He grunts. Of
course, the politicians would be sent someplace safe while the rest of the
country was left on the menu for those things. His opinion is to feed them all
to the things. It isn’t like they’ve been doing the country any good, anyway.
Later that night a large group of motorcyclist roar past the house and head into
the marina. Henry and the group move through the woods to see what they are up
to. The motorcycle gang is looking for food. The marina's store was completely
looted before the motorcycle gang got there and they are hungry. They noticed a
house just down the road lit with candles and decide to go there. Henry panics
because that is his house and Eleanor is still inside. You race back to the
house and find the front lawn full of motorcycle guys. You sneak through the
backyard under the deck and into the basement through a window that Eleanor
opens for you.
The motorcycle gang is ransacking the upper floor. The basement door opens and a
gang member comes on down. As soon as his shins are in view Henry shoots the
gang member in the shins and the guy falls down the stairs. A second gang member
comes running down the stairs and Drake shoots the second guy also in the shins.
The door slams shut and a voice is heard from the other side of the door telling
everyone to come up unarmed or they will be killed. When the group refuses to
surrender a hail of bullets come shooting through the floor. Henry is shot and
the group makes a run for it through the basement window and out under the deck.
A fight with 8 gang members takes place outside and Henry's last action is to
toss Taylor the keys to the RV parked in back and tells Taylor that it has a
full tank of gas and is loaded with food.
The group hops into the RV and Taylor drives the RV over 2d8 motorcycles and
down the road.
Next week starts off with The Mad Max RV Chase Scene.....
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