(Recap) 225 - A Satisfying Crunch

We now resume our previously interrupted story.

We left just before dawn. Whenever we go on excursions like this, we go completely on foot. It's easier to move through and not draw a lot of attention running without a vehicle, but it does limit your escape options. With this in mind we've scouted the area for potentially useful vehicles should we need to make a run for it. We hold the same perspective on ow we fight on these missions. In the midst of a large group of zeds, firearms can mean the difference between walking out and getting swarmed. Most of the time though, especially when dealing with smaller groups, we stick to melee weapons. This way we can keep our profile low and run our scouts without the zeds interfering too much.

We swept down Washington Street, making our way methodically towards Washington Square. Ian was out in front, scouting for the first groups, and Alec had elected to take rear guard. That was a lesson we learned quickly. You never know what might pop out behind you. The rest of us were concetrating on moving as quietly as possible so as not to attract undue attention from any unseen swarms or stragglers. We cleared the last turn in the road before Washington Square, and Ian signaled for us to stop as he crept forward to get a better look at the situation.

He came back a short while later and let us know there were about 20 zeds milling around at the end of the street. They seemed to have congregated over either a fallen zed, or a yet to reanimate corpse. They were wandering aimlessly, seeiming disinterrested in the fallen zed/corpse, but with no other inclination or prey to draw them away from it, that's where they would stay.

This is a tricky situation. It's a big enough group that guns might be worth the risk, but it's also the very beginning of our mission. If we blow this and draw too much attention to ourselves, we might lose our grip on the situation. We do have silencers, which helps to make the choice easier, but it's still a risk. All things considered, we decided to risk having the best shots hang back and pick a few off. The rest of the group would then wind their way up to work on the remaining zeds hand to hand. Once the group was engaged in close combat, the shooters would run forward and help the rest of group pick off the last few.

Ian and I were elected to hang back and start taking shots. I was ok with this, as I tend to prefer to stay out of melee, but Ian seemed a little crestfallen. He's always been more of the charge in and have some fun type. When the rest of the group had started their move forward, we started picking off the closer targets, drawing the attention of the rest of the group and causing them to condense a bit. We were able to drop about 6 of them before the rest of the group got close enough to engage.

Once I saw Brian take a swing with his machete, I holstered my gun, and began my move forward. I heard Ian let off another shot before he did the same. I hefted the hammer (I've grown quite fond of it recently) in preparation for meeting the zeds head on. The rest of the crew had managed to dispatch about 8 more zeds before we got there, so I adjusted my course slightly to crush in the head of one of the few remained standing.

Oh man, it was a satisfying crunch.

With this patch of zeds cleared, we moved to set up a base of operations for clearing out the rest of the square. In the time before "Z-Day" this had been a great little pizza shop. Now it was gutted and abandoned, but the large windows and arrangement of exits made it perfect to keep a lookout and to embark from while we cleaned out this half of the Square.

It's a good gauge of your progress and your current situation to set up a central point to work from. This way, you can monitor the activity and how it's being drawn. We hoped that by the time we noticed a steady migration of activity to this point, we'd have cleaned out a good bit of the Square. Then, we could break down shop here, and start moving through and cleaning out the rest of the square, always moving towards our planned exit.

We put Crista up on the roof to act as our eyes, and let Alec and Brian take duty at the windows, picking off anything that got too close for comfort. Ian and I decided to take the first swing out of the back of the building, and down Beacon St. towards the city proper. We were mostly scouting for concentrations, but were going to take out any smaller groups we ran across.

Beacon St., inbound from Washington Square, splits so that the outbound lanes run up on a hill. From here you can look down on the inbound lanes and the T tracks. The added benefits of this viewpoint, and the fact that it has traditionally been clearer, meant this was our chosen path. It wasn't long until we were able to suss out how the concentrations on the inbound lanes and T tracks were moving. Thankfully, we only had to take out a few small groups in the process. It was nothing overly special. A few zeds caught wandering here or there, maybe chasing a squirrel or bird. Nothing to worry about. We got the the edge of the main zed concentration and hustled back to report our findings.

So far, so good, and soon it would be time to make out first push in to really reclaiming the square.