Designed to help you hone your survival, anti-Zombie skills and preparedness level, the Zombease Choose Your Own Adventure series challenges you to think outside the box and work with what you have at hand. It’s up to you to make it out alive… no matter what it takes.Location: Small room in a two-story hotel in an unfamiliar coastal city (population 300,000).
Time of Day: Mid-Fall, late afternoon.
Supplies: Two days clothing (2 pairs clean socks, 2 t-shirts, 1 pair jeans, 1 leather belt, dress shoes, rain-jacket, light sweater), hotel furniture (single bed, dressers, nightstand, wooden chair, table lamp, television), bible and phone book from night stand, 4 wire clothes hangers, pillow mint, 2 towels (one dirty one clean), room key, bath kit (safety razor, comb, nail clippers, toothbrush and toothpaste), small 3″ pocket knife, and small canvas suitcase. No weapons, tools, or other gear.
Additional Personnel: 3 acquaintances from the night before (each located else where in the hotel)
Situation: The company you work for (GR Limited) has flown a number of employees, including you, to the coast for a special team-building seminar and celebration. Forced to leave most of your basic kit and Every Day Carry gear at home due to flying restrictions, you were able to sneak just one small pocket knife along for the trip, and now you’re glad you did.
The seminar went well and you made a few “friends” during the team-building portion of training. With two more days in town, and no other official work to be done, the four of you decide to check out the local bars. Losing track of time and count of beers, you down a few too many and barely make it back to your room to bed down for the night.
Hours later you drift from sleep and slowly rise from your passed out position on the bed. You’re still dressed in the clothes from the night before, and the sun is shining through the blinds of your second story balcony that overlooks the sea. You can’t remember much of the night before, but you know exactly where the pounding headache you have came from.
You get up to wash your face and refresh from the night before. Surveying the exhaustion and hang-over on your face you reach for the water tap and turn it on… but nothing comes out. You try the hot water and it’s the same. The shower isn’t working either. Frustrated and still feeling foggy, you try the hotel phone to call for room service and complain about the water - there is a dial tone but no one picks up at the office. Hanging up the phone angrily, you find your jacket and head out the door and towards the main office. The lights are off, door locked, and no one answers your calls or pounding on the door.
Back at your room, you slam the door behind you and try your cell, calling your husband/wife back at home. As the phone rings you try the lights and TV, but neither power on. Your partner picks up and asks if you’re okay in a panicked tone. They have been trying to call you for hours, but couldn’t get through because the lines were clogged. After being asked why they are worried and what is going on they tell you that there was an explosion at a medical testing lab nearby and that a cloud of chemicals swept over the city in the night. Reports are coming in that thousands of individuals have died, and that thousands more seem to be crazed and attacking other survivors, even eating their flesh. Officials are asking everyone to stay inside and lock their doors. Just then you hear hurried footsteps clanging up the iron stairs outside and look at your hotel room door. Propped open just a few inches from the force of the slam, it is clearly unlocked and open.
What do you do?
The Rules:
- You only have the supplies and personnel listed above.
- Keep it real, keep it clean, and do your best to survive.
Well if they flew you out then let’s assume you’re quite a distance from home so let’s write that off for the here and now. You’ve got some supplies but not a lot. Since there was no presence noted in the hotel yet it might be good to do a recon for additional resources. Especially the kitchen and laundry for tools like a pot to boil water, some food, and cloth material. (if that’s off limits then this isn’t extremely real). Pack your spare clothes and hygene kit, everything else you brought with you, the coat hangers, and the bible. (the phone book is probably a little heavy to be worth it) It’s got many thin pages that will make great kindling if you need to get a fire going. Use your belt to bundle up the blanket from the bed and any towels you can get into a bed roll and head out carefully. If you hook up with any of the living more the better, if not, they’re on their own. Time to head back towards home, stay off of roads if you can, get to the woods.
I roll over the bed towards the slightly open door. I grab the wooden chair and wait. Closing the door would make a fairly loud click so I leave it for now, but keep and ear out.
Assuming its a guest, I wait until the footsteps pass then push the door closed. I gather up the supplies in the room, making a bedroll of the blankets on the bed. I rip up a pillow case to tie up the bedroll, leaving a large enough band to go across my chest. I break the chair apart to give myself a make shift club.
Listening at the door to make sure there is nobody there, I peek through the peephole and open the door. I know that alone is going to be risky without any gear, that I’ll be better off if I have at least a couple companions. I move to the rooms of the people I met last night and check for them. The first room is empty, the 2nd on all three of them have gathered. Luckily Steve have two double beds in his room. While he & Jack make up two more bed rolls, Shannon and I rip the chair apart for clubs for everyone.
The hotel we’re staying at has a small kitchen with only a continental breakfast being offered. We make our way there first to scrounge what food we can, Shannon carries it in a pillowcase slung over her back.
Fortified & armed, we decide to head to the ocean side. Figuring on using water craft to get us away from the contaminated area. We stick close to the hotel wall to limit our exposure. Once on the beach we head north towards some docks.We keep our eyes open for any vehicles.
If I slam the door the whatever is on the stairs will hear it and come investigate. The doors in most hotels are metal, I take a chance and close and lock it. I need to protect myself and that means weapons. I don’t want to fight up close and personal so I need something to keep potential attackers at a distance. First choice is the shower curtain rod which I fashion into a usable spear. Gather any of the freebies provided by the hotel, coffee, towels, soap, even the lotions, bible, phone book as well as your personal gear. Listen atvthe door to see if you hear anything. Exit slowly looking both ways done the corridors. If nothing is moving, both stairway exits with hallway furniture to limit access. You now have this floor to yourself unless other survivors are in their rooms. Knock softly on each door. If there is no response see if you can gain access to squire more/better weapons. Maybe someone packed a gun or has food, even leftovers would help. Med supplies would come in handy for a hangover. Water from the toilet tanks should be fine to drink. If you find a room occupied ask if they are infected. No response probably signifies a yes. Mark that door. With the other survivors that you find you secure this floor blocking exits with furniture from the empty rooms. Send someone to the roof to make a rescue sign out of spare sheets. Bust open the maintenance room door for more supplies. Check the cleaning supplies for burnable fluids that can be fashioned into Molotov cocktails. Send a group to secure the kitchen and obtain vital supplies. If gas is still working, secure the first floor and get everyone some hot food. Stay here. Help will eventually come since this is a localized disaster. Find weapons to protect yourselves and hunker down. You don’t know the area and you don’t have communications. Wait for help or until the food runs out. Remember to make good use of the vending machines and the liquor in the bar…why suffer?
I would consider my acquaintances lost until proven otherwise. I would empty my suitcase, (additional clothes would take up space. The light sweater would go on and I would put the pillowcase from the bed in along with the pocketknife, the phone book and bath kit. I would break the chair to use the leg as a weapon and make my way to the kitchen to grab whatever water and dry snacks I could and a bigger knife. I would check the phone books map for the general lay out of the local area, locating the epicentre and try make my way out of the building via the service entry in the kitchen. I would wet the pillowcase and tie it around my mouth to act as a poor mans air filter, and aim for the closest main road that lead away from the explosion. I have no idea how to Hotwire cars so I would be stuck on foot, but off I found an abandoned 4wf with keys in the outer lane I would grab that and go