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Monday
(Flashback) Day 225 - Let's Talk About Hand Grenades
Oh, yes. Let's talk about hand grenades.
There are misconceptions about the use of hand grenades when dealing with zeds. Most of the advice you read says not to use them, and this, for the most part, is very good advice to follow. Though any zeds right on top of the grenade will probably be taken out, you'll launch little pieces of zed everywhere, and, in the end, you'll probably only take down a couple of zeds. The rest might lose limbs, but as we know, then you just have torsos dragging themselves after you, or diembodied heads snapping at you from their spot on the ground. Strictly speaking, hand grenades are usually a horrendous idea...
... unless you need a distraction option. The trick here is that, given the choice between a human or animal target and a hand grenade, the zed will always go for the living creature. So, if you're going to employ a hand grenade, make sure you are well away and hidden from the zeds. You might also try dressing the grenade up to look like a small animal, but this more for the amusement of the survivors than it is to get the zeds to chase after it.
In the case of our current push, I decided that we should head by back ways back to the base of operations, and chuck a grenade from there to pull any wandering zeds back to the center of the square. This is always contingent on shaking whatever zeds had caught our scent, so that they won't draw any attentino away from the distraction. I motioned Ian over and whsipered my thoughts. He nodded assent and told the rest of the group. Then we began to pull out and headed back to meet up with Crista.
We found Crista much as we had left her, scouting on the roof. I told the guys to take cover, dug out a grenade, and went to join her on the roof. As I stepped up to the ledge to watch what was happening, she started to draw back and get cover. When I was certain where the grenade should be placed, and that no zeds knew where we were, I dropped back to the far edge of the roof, pulled the pin, and chucked the grenade as acurrately as I could.
I'll admit I was about 5 feet off, missing the best cluster of zeds to hit, but I took out a second, slightly smaller cluster none the less. After about 5 minutes, when the distraction had had enough time to have some effect, I crept back to the edge to see how things were going.
There's little better than seeing a plan come off, but one of those is seeing a plan come off that involves blowing zeds to little pieces with grenades. The carnage may smell foul, but it's actually rather pretty in its own right.
Assured that the distraction was going pretty well, I slipped back to the edge of the roof to meet up with the rest of the crew. The general plan in these sorts of situations is to wait about 30 minutes for as many zeds to amass as possible, and then head out and clean up. Wait any longer and you begin to lose some to idle distractions, so this is kind of the optimal time frame. After quietly chatting about the rest of the plan and waiting for a good time to spring, we geared up, and moved out.
I think at this point everyone was charged from how things were going, because finishing cleaning up the square was short work. It seemed almost calculated at times. There were few surprises, and we adapted quickly to them. All in all it was just a very clean little operation that left us a bit tired, but also exhillerated. With the main part of the square clean, we could now focus on the last little bit of cleanup to the west of the square, and then be done with it.
Truth be told, the rest of the clean-up went pretty easily, and there's not much esle to say about it. We swept through the last bits of the square, pulling out to our escape vehicle, and, once satisfied with our work, we headed for home. All in all, I think we were expecting that this outing would take longer than it did. Thankfully, the whole excercise went pretty flawlessly, and it's always a good feeling to clean things up and get home in one peace.
So that wraps up my story. I hope it provides some insight you can use in your own operations.
Ian tells me he has some stories to tell here, but he was waiting for me to finish up my part. Expect to hear something from Ian soon.
Ciao,
- B
There are misconceptions about the use of hand grenades when dealing with zeds. Most of the advice you read says not to use them, and this, for the most part, is very good advice to follow. Though any zeds right on top of the grenade will probably be taken out, you'll launch little pieces of zed everywhere, and, in the end, you'll probably only take down a couple of zeds. The rest might lose limbs, but as we know, then you just have torsos dragging themselves after you, or diembodied heads snapping at you from their spot on the ground. Strictly speaking, hand grenades are usually a horrendous idea...
... unless you need a distraction option. The trick here is that, given the choice between a human or animal target and a hand grenade, the zed will always go for the living creature. So, if you're going to employ a hand grenade, make sure you are well away and hidden from the zeds. You might also try dressing the grenade up to look like a small animal, but this more for the amusement of the survivors than it is to get the zeds to chase after it.
In the case of our current push, I decided that we should head by back ways back to the base of operations, and chuck a grenade from there to pull any wandering zeds back to the center of the square. This is always contingent on shaking whatever zeds had caught our scent, so that they won't draw any attentino away from the distraction. I motioned Ian over and whsipered my thoughts. He nodded assent and told the rest of the group. Then we began to pull out and headed back to meet up with Crista.
We found Crista much as we had left her, scouting on the roof. I told the guys to take cover, dug out a grenade, and went to join her on the roof. As I stepped up to the ledge to watch what was happening, she started to draw back and get cover. When I was certain where the grenade should be placed, and that no zeds knew where we were, I dropped back to the far edge of the roof, pulled the pin, and chucked the grenade as acurrately as I could.
I'll admit I was about 5 feet off, missing the best cluster of zeds to hit, but I took out a second, slightly smaller cluster none the less. After about 5 minutes, when the distraction had had enough time to have some effect, I crept back to the edge to see how things were going.
There's little better than seeing a plan come off, but one of those is seeing a plan come off that involves blowing zeds to little pieces with grenades. The carnage may smell foul, but it's actually rather pretty in its own right.
Assured that the distraction was going pretty well, I slipped back to the edge of the roof to meet up with the rest of the crew. The general plan in these sorts of situations is to wait about 30 minutes for as many zeds to amass as possible, and then head out and clean up. Wait any longer and you begin to lose some to idle distractions, so this is kind of the optimal time frame. After quietly chatting about the rest of the plan and waiting for a good time to spring, we geared up, and moved out.
I think at this point everyone was charged from how things were going, because finishing cleaning up the square was short work. It seemed almost calculated at times. There were few surprises, and we adapted quickly to them. All in all it was just a very clean little operation that left us a bit tired, but also exhillerated. With the main part of the square clean, we could now focus on the last little bit of cleanup to the west of the square, and then be done with it.
Truth be told, the rest of the clean-up went pretty easily, and there's not much esle to say about it. We swept through the last bits of the square, pulling out to our escape vehicle, and, once satisfied with our work, we headed for home. All in all, I think we were expecting that this outing would take longer than it did. Thankfully, the whole excercise went pretty flawlessly, and it's always a good feeling to clean things up and get home in one peace.
So that wraps up my story. I hope it provides some insight you can use in your own operations.
Ian tells me he has some stories to tell here, but he was waiting for me to finish up my part. Expect to hear something from Ian soon.
Ciao,
- B
Saturday
(Flashback) Day 225 - The First Push
It's late and I can't sleep, so I thought I would continue the story I was working on. It's good to be back online and to see things pretty much how we left them. I've even had some messages from Jaco, and he should be along soon with an update on what he's been up to. Anyway, back to our story.
We gathered everyone up and checked all of our supplies. We'd be leaving Crista on the roof during this run, working our way back to her. This is one of the only times we ever leave any one member of the group by themselves, but with no way for the zeds to get to her on the roof, it's still relatively safe. In these sorts of cleaning operations, we need all the strength we can get. This sweep was designed to start with the farthest inbound groups of zeds, and slowly clean our way back to Washington square. This first sweep is always the most dangerous, because you have no clean ground to work from.
In Boston, the closer you get to downtown, the larger the zed population centers become. This makes the decision of where to start when cleaning out an area pretty easy. By starting closest to downtown while we're still fresh and focused, we'll be more basically careful about the noise we make, and hopefully draw less attention. Also, once we finish cleaning this area up, we can then keep our eye on it during the remainder of the operation, and clean up any zeds that may wander in.
With Alec and Brian accompanying us this time, we set off on the outbound lanes of Beacon street again, and dropped down to the inbound lanes once we had passed the main concentration of zeds. The first group we ran into were 5 zeds wandering aimlessly across the tracks. We pulled our melee weapons and made quick work of the group, with Ian doubling up to grab the extra kill. We got them all before any of them could get off a moan, which we were quite thankful for.
The next group to take care of was much larger, and a bit closer in to the square itself. This group probably had between 25 and 30 zeds in it, and was pretty well spread out over the inbound lanes and T tracks. This kind of grouping requires much more care. There's no way you can take care of them all without at least some of them having enough time to realize you're there and start moaning. Add in the potential stumbling block of fighting zeds on top of train tracks, and you could have a pretty nasty mess on your hand fairly quickly.
You best weapon here is a clear head. You have to be methodical and deliberate. You have to be careful not to get put in a position you don't want to be in, and never engage more targets than you know you can handle. You also don't want to get separated from any of the other survivors your with. You have to engage groups of this size as a crew, sweeping from one side of it to the other, and never letting the zeds surround you.
We all checked out pistols, making sure they were fully loaded and the safeties were off. We try to go as long as possible without having to use firearms, so as not to draw too much attention, but sometimes you really need them. This time we only got through about 10 of the zeds before anyone had to draw.
We had made it through the first handful of zeds before any of the other ones caught on to us and started moaning. As they all turned their attention to us, we stepped up to take care of the next closest handful. It was then that Alec noticed one careening down the hill towards us, and pulled his gun to down it. He was able to pick it off with only two shots, while the rest of us were able to take care of the incoming zeds, but still, it was an unwelcome surprise so early in the game.
Having cleaned out that group, we recomposed ourselves and moved forward again toward the square itself. Some of the population at the center of the square had started moving our way, which was something we would have to change, but there were another dozen or so zeds still to take care of on this sweep, and we needed to get through those first.
This group was much more dense than the last, and we would have been risking too much to try and use melee weapons here. It just wasn't worth the risk of being grabbed. We all pulled out our pistols, and took up positions a good deal away form the group. I have to say, I consider myself lucky to be with the group of survivors I'm with at times like that. It's always encouraging to see each member of your team take one well-aimed shot and down a zed. Apparently we were all on our game today, and we took out this group with only a few misses between us.
Now it was time to make sure the main grouping of zeds in the center of the square stayed where we wanted them.
- B
We gathered everyone up and checked all of our supplies. We'd be leaving Crista on the roof during this run, working our way back to her. This is one of the only times we ever leave any one member of the group by themselves, but with no way for the zeds to get to her on the roof, it's still relatively safe. In these sorts of cleaning operations, we need all the strength we can get. This sweep was designed to start with the farthest inbound groups of zeds, and slowly clean our way back to Washington square. This first sweep is always the most dangerous, because you have no clean ground to work from.
In Boston, the closer you get to downtown, the larger the zed population centers become. This makes the decision of where to start when cleaning out an area pretty easy. By starting closest to downtown while we're still fresh and focused, we'll be more basically careful about the noise we make, and hopefully draw less attention. Also, once we finish cleaning this area up, we can then keep our eye on it during the remainder of the operation, and clean up any zeds that may wander in.
With Alec and Brian accompanying us this time, we set off on the outbound lanes of Beacon street again, and dropped down to the inbound lanes once we had passed the main concentration of zeds. The first group we ran into were 5 zeds wandering aimlessly across the tracks. We pulled our melee weapons and made quick work of the group, with Ian doubling up to grab the extra kill. We got them all before any of them could get off a moan, which we were quite thankful for.
The next group to take care of was much larger, and a bit closer in to the square itself. This group probably had between 25 and 30 zeds in it, and was pretty well spread out over the inbound lanes and T tracks. This kind of grouping requires much more care. There's no way you can take care of them all without at least some of them having enough time to realize you're there and start moaning. Add in the potential stumbling block of fighting zeds on top of train tracks, and you could have a pretty nasty mess on your hand fairly quickly.
You best weapon here is a clear head. You have to be methodical and deliberate. You have to be careful not to get put in a position you don't want to be in, and never engage more targets than you know you can handle. You also don't want to get separated from any of the other survivors your with. You have to engage groups of this size as a crew, sweeping from one side of it to the other, and never letting the zeds surround you.
We all checked out pistols, making sure they were fully loaded and the safeties were off. We try to go as long as possible without having to use firearms, so as not to draw too much attention, but sometimes you really need them. This time we only got through about 10 of the zeds before anyone had to draw.
We had made it through the first handful of zeds before any of the other ones caught on to us and started moaning. As they all turned their attention to us, we stepped up to take care of the next closest handful. It was then that Alec noticed one careening down the hill towards us, and pulled his gun to down it. He was able to pick it off with only two shots, while the rest of us were able to take care of the incoming zeds, but still, it was an unwelcome surprise so early in the game.
Having cleaned out that group, we recomposed ourselves and moved forward again toward the square itself. Some of the population at the center of the square had started moving our way, which was something we would have to change, but there were another dozen or so zeds still to take care of on this sweep, and we needed to get through those first.
This group was much more dense than the last, and we would have been risking too much to try and use melee weapons here. It just wasn't worth the risk of being grabbed. We all pulled out our pistols, and took up positions a good deal away form the group. I have to say, I consider myself lucky to be with the group of survivors I'm with at times like that. It's always encouraging to see each member of your team take one well-aimed shot and down a zed. Apparently we were all on our game today, and we took out this group with only a few misses between us.
Now it was time to make sure the main grouping of zeds in the center of the square stayed where we wanted them.
- B
Wednesday
Don't worry, we aren't dead!
I know it's been almost 4 months since our last post, and those few survivors out there who read this probably thought we died, but fear not, we're still here. The cause of our disappearance was a loss of signal. Shortly after Brandon's last post our signal went dead for no discernible reason. We established that it was simply the Satellite Internet relay we had tapped into going down (due to heavy infrastructure damage it would seem), and after doing a little reconnaissance and research decided that if we built a stronger antenna, we'd be able to pick up the next relay down the line. It took us 2 months to scrap together the right parts and figure out how to amplify the signal and link us back into the web.
About 3 days after we got all of this working and where in the final stages of testing it for reliability and power usage, a storm rolled in and zapped the new antenna. Luckily we had scrounged up quite a bit of extra material, and it only took us another week to fix it and get it back up again. This post marks our official return to the web, as well as the official final test of the network. Sorry it took us so long, but as you know, Survival > Internet Access, so we had to put the project on a hold for a few days in there to scout for food and whatnot. You'll be happy to know we also found another survivor cell north of us in Watertown, and I'll relate that story in another post soon.
As it stands, it appears that our signal is steady and strong, and we'll be tweaking with the power flow a little bit, as it requires a little bit more juice, but all in all it seems that we were successful and looking forward to keeping the information flowing again. Good luck to all of you out there able to read this, and even more luck to those who can't. And remember: Aim for the head.
Oh yes! Brandon will also be continuing his previous story soon, he's written most of it down on paper in his free time and will be updating you on what happened by next week. So keep your eyes peeled.
Until then, I'm signing off.
~Ian
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