ATZ Batrep - The Boys are Back in Town

We know what happened to Mom, and we know what happened to our poor fallen heroes, Dad, Nick, Maggie and AJ.  But what happened to their long lost Brothers and Sister?  Let's tune in and find out.

After the outbreak, Dad2, Nick2, and AJ2 all banded together along with a friend named Brandon.  Maggie2 refused to have anything to do with them because she has always felt like they are a bunch of knuckleheads, so she headed off alone.  Three days after Thanksgiving the boys stumble across a truck stop out in the middle of nowhere.  In the vicinity there is also a little motel and mechanics garage.  They are getting quite hungry and decide to check it out.

It is a sleepy little place and there doesn't seem to be much going on.

As the lads walk into town on the main road, they see several Zeds staggering about.  They already know what Zeds are so they decide to keep their distance.

They decide to stay in a group and run off together leaving the Zeds far behind.  They are very pleased with themselves.

The gas station snack shack is the first place they head to, but to their dismay, there's nothing there.

Next stop is the truck stop building.  They loot the first two floors and find nothing.  On the third floor they run into three heavily armed civilians who are hiding out from the Zeds.  These are fairly tough looking rascals who won't even talk about joining forces so the lads forget about any thoughts of overpowering them and start to go back down the stairs.  Meanwhile the Zeds have begun to catch up with them and are closing on the area where our heroes were last seen.

With a mob of Zeds hanging around out front, Dad2 gets an idea all of a sudden.  He wants to try to lead the Zeds up to the third floor and see if the Civilians and the Zeds will duke it out and then maybe we can ambush the winner who is hopefully weakened?   The boys decide this is a great idea so they all start yelling and banging things from the second floor hoping to attract the Zeds.  It starts to work!

Finally our boys get the Zeds to follow them up to the third floor.  The Civilians and the Zeds go to war.  But the activation Gods frown upon our nefarious tactics and the Civies wipe out the Zeds and activate before our heroes leaving no chance for a sneak attack.  Rats!  Foiled again..

The good news is that the town is completely cleared of Zeds and our friends can now go around looting almost with impunity.  They find a couple of Zeds hiding in the garage, and Dad2 is surprised and goes OOF. 

Fortunately he recovers and gains consciousness.  Once again there is nothing to loot, but they do come away with some improvised melee weapons.  Hammers, tire irons etc..

Now with no Zeds to interfere, the little group of scavengers go on a looting spree and even check every car and truck for keys.  The looting is still going badly with only Dad2 finding some food.  They also come across two more groups of Civilians hiding out in the buildings and one group of three joins our heroes for mutual survival.  There's another Civilian in one of the trailers but they're not too friendly.  As an added bonus, Brandon finds keys to the red dump truck, and Dad2 finds keys in the Silver Porsch.

This was also about the time that it happened...  It is immediately apparent that Dad2, Nick2, and AJ2 are related to Dad, Nick, and AJ by what happens next.  Brandon must be a Cousin or something.

Everything was going smooth and under control when Nick2 flatly states that he is not leaving this encounter until he gets a Zombie kill because he wants a chance to raise his rep after the encounter.  He is really set on this course of action and after a lot of whining, wheedling, and coercion, Dad2 and the others finally agree.  Dad2 is figuring what the heck, with this rural area the Zeds don't seem to be attracting too easy, it's probably alright.  So Dad2 pulls his shiny convertible out into the street to try to attract a couple of Zeds.  The trouble is that Nick2, AJ2, and Brandon all do the same thing.  I guess they were a little disappointed in the poor Zed attraction rate and figured that if a little bit is good, then more should be better right?  Well....

Before you know it, there are quite a few Zeds on the prowl.   To add insult to injury a barking dog shows up and decides AJ2 is his friend.  This was like a cold splash of ice water in the face and all concerned immediately decided that they would make tracks right away.  No more messing around.  So Brandon (red truck) gets his rig moving.  AJ2 is in the blue truck and it won't start up.  Dad2 just got knocked down.  And to make matters worse, the activation is doubles and Nick2's truck (silver) is out of gas and rolls to a stop!  Doubles again and there is a Zed in the back seat of AJ2's truck.  ATZ is kinda funny like this.  It always knows when it is time to strike.

Then comes a lot of confusion, milling around, screaming, and chaos in general.

Zeds have AJ2 trapped in the blue truck and are tearing at the doors.  Nick2 is still sitting in his out of gas truck (silver) hoping like hell the doors hold a little longer, all the while screaming about wanting to get his chance to raise Rep and begging Brandon to come save him.  Oh, and that's Dad2 laying on the ground by the shiny silver convertible.  Don't bother him right now, he's busy providing a feast for the Zeds now.  Then, you ready for this?  Nick2 fails his See the Feast Test and is hunkered down in the truck.  And Brandon, the nice guy that he is decides to stop the truck and try to help Nick2.  What was he thinking!?!?  AJ2 manages to get out of his truck and winds up going OOF while trying to get into Nick2's truck.  There's another feast on the way.

Doubles again and now there is a Zed in the back seat of Nick2's truck.  There's a double header going on at the Zed feast night as both Dad2 and AJ2 are fully on the menu.  Now there is a Zed in the back seat of Brandon's truck!  Really guys, you should always check when you get in.  Brandon goes OOF and won't recover but luckily one of the Civilian henchmen is there to smoke the Zed and drive the truck if they can manage to get rolling again.  The other two Civilian Henchmen are trying to pull Nick2 out of the truck and carry him back to Brandon's truck.  They kill the Zed in the backseat and get Nick2 out.  But...

The Zeds finish feasting on Dad2 just at the wrong moment.  Several Zeds slam into the rear of Nick2 and the two Civilians who are carrying him.  Miraculously the low rep Civies survive the vicious attack!

But the dice are not kind and the Civies do not survive the second attack.  And neither does Nick2 who is now the third course on the menu tonight.  The Civilian driving Brandon's truck puts the pedal to the medal and runs over a Zed on the way out of town.  Looks like we got four Stars down again.

But there is some good news!  The dog got away :)