The team started to get organised for the short hop back to where Hawke was treating the wounded at the marketplace. Luckily, they hadn't sustained any casualties (OOC: Not for my lack of trying) but they had a wounded prisoner and several non-wounded or lightly wounded prisoners. The two that had come through the culvert last both were limping, each having a through-and-through bullet wound to the thigh. It seemed both Andy and Mac has indeed scored hits when they fired at them, just not enough to incapacitate.

There was a rumble of a big-block V-8, and Tyler's red '69 Dodge Charger emerged from the shadowed green of the driveway to pull up beside the house. The V-100 and AVGP Cougar were parked there as well. Tyler got out the driver side, slinging his CAR-15, while Koldan climbed out the passenger side, armed with his AKSU-74.

Getting the prisoners crammed into the V-100 was proving to be a chore, especially as it already contained a dismounted M2HB machinegun, AT-4 rocket and various stores. Suddenly, the skinny Southerner broke free and rolled under the V-100, taking advantage of the fact that it had a high ground clearance. Scrambling beneath the vehicle he dove for one of the basement windows of the house, amid shouting and confusion caused by the other 3 prisoners making their own breaks for freedom. One sprinted towards the driveway, the other took off north towards the gully where the stream was, and the last took off like a shot south, towards the next house.

The man trying to worm his way into the basement window suddenly began screaming. Then, he tried to worm his way backwards, but was yanked forwards down into the darkness! The escapee who'd ran for the road slammed into someone stumbling their way up the driveway towards the house. Both went down in a pile, as more figures stumbled out of the smoke blanketing 248 St. The new arrivals seemed confused, in a daze or a trance. They seemed to be dressed in uniforms or like the mercs they just fought, but dishevelled and bloody. Immediately, several of them bent down and grabbed hold of the struggling man at their feet. Cloth ripped open. Then the flesh of his belly was clawed apart, spilling his intestines and splashing his blood the gravel drive. They began to feed as he screamed in pain and horror, bringing his still warm flesh to their hungry mouths.

More people started stumbling out of the front of the house and around the side from the back, the inhabitants perhaps? A man and woman from the front door, three kinds from the back. But something was very strange about them, they took were silent save for the scraping as they jerkily dragged their feet. Their eyes were empty and glassy, skin pale.

---

Back at the market, Hawke, Droz and Wayne were surprised as several bloody and grievously wounded men started to stumble from around both sides of the building. Another person, this time a woman, started to push her way out the side door of the shattered market, near where Hawke was tending to Belanger and Droz.

OOC: Roll for Perception checks, as well as initiative. The one guy is disappeared into the house, but you can try and shoot the other 3 escapees. Although, the guy who headed for the driveway is in a lot of trouble, you can put him out of his misery! There are four newcomers (dazed, bloody) attacking the escaped prisoner in the driveway, plus the family of 5 coming out of the house. The blessing is that none of the newly-arrived folks seem to be moving quickly, although they are strangely aggressive.

In reply to helbent4 (msg # 1):

Standing beside the Challenger, Tyler aimed his CAR-15 at the man who ran past him. He then held his fire as the new people stumbled into view out of the smoke. If they were friendlies, he didn't want to fire. "Who are you... holy shit! What's going on!"
This message was last updated by the GM at 06:09, Wed 02 Apr 2014.

In reply to Tyler Gabriel Hope (msg # 2):

Also confused, Koldan aimed his AKSU but held his fire.

"They are... eating him! What madness is this? Some sort of biochemical weapon? Let's get out of here!"

In reply to helbent4 (msg # 1):

These looked a lot like the men they just fought. Wayne thought they were all dead, shredded by the 76mm canister, but perhaps some were still alive and coming to rescue their friends. Still, they were doing it pretty oddly...

"Halt where you are! Stay back or I'll shoot!"

They didn't stop, and so he aimed his MP5 and let go with a long burst into the chest of the nearest target. Most of the shots hit, but the man only stumbled back, then resumed his advance.


Wayne Lo - Initiative 12
MP5 30/30
Marketplace

Aimed burst-9 at closest target.

Andrew's had taken his seat back in the turret of the V-100. He did not see the commotion going outside the APC and it took a few seconds to register the merc's had tried to make a run for it. Once he popped his head out of the turret he saw the additional group moving up the drive.

He orientated the turret towards them and gave Tremblay a heads up:

"Company on our 3 o'clock. We may need to bale ASAP."

His eye to the sight and his finger on the firing switch Andrew's pauses for a second as he watched the scene unfolding before him. He then depresses the switch and the turret shakes as a long stream of 7.62mm heads towards the target.

V-100 Turret
Firing on group in the drive

M219 7.62mm machine gun x 2

Hell, no.

The fast twist of events made Taras angry. Somebody was not playing by the rules. Too bad, then. Taking aim at the closest prisoner runaway. He pull the trigger of the AKs-74U. He wasn't expecting an accurate shot but, as Lenin said: "Quantity has a quality of its own".

BRRRPPPP!!!

Staff Sargent Taras V. Shevchenko - Knight element
Shooting long burst of 10 rds. to runaway prisoner.
AKS-74U (30/30) +4 mags
S&W 5946 (15/15) +2 mags
Handgrenade RG-5 (x6)
http://static.fjcdn.com/pictur...k_6bc409_1530823.jpg

Note: this thread is apocryphal. Nothing posted here has really happened, or will happen. You decide if your actions succeed or not.

Tara's burst hits the runner going for the stream in the back. He rolled forward and then lay still.

The V-100's twin C5 MGs (as the M1919/M219 was standardised in Canadian service) chattered. Spent shell casings clanged down into the turret and onto the deck. The bullets struck the group clustered around the fallen man in the driveway. They flopped over, but didn't lay still. Instead, they started to try and get back up again.

In the driver's seat, Tremblay stood up and craned out of the hatch. "I can't go backwards, the Challenger's in the way!"

Indeed, Tyler had parked the car in the driveway, blocking it between the trees on either side. Tyler had watched in horror as the men he realised they just killed ripped apart the escaped prisoner. At a warning shout from Koldan, he whirled just in time to find the man from the house and the young girl were on him, grabbing him. Theadult had his rifle, the child his leg. They struggled for a few seconds,  then the woman reached him and bit him in the hand. "Ow! Shit!" Koldan raced around, trying to club at the woman with the butt of his carbine. He succeeded in knocking her away.

---

Back at the market, Hawke realised the half-dozen men stumbling towards him were all wounded so badly they should be dead! The woman pushing her way out the side door was definitely fucked up, she looked like she actually was dead (pale skin, black clotted blood smeared on her face and mouth). Droz hit her with her rifle butt to keep her away.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:25, Thu 03 Apr 2014.

Andrew's watched his fire have little to no effect and then he heard Tremblay:

Move out to the road, at speed if you are able."

In reply to Thomas Matthew Andrews (msg # 8):

"The fucking car's in the way! I can try and roll over it, hold on... SHIT! Get them off me!"

Glancing down, Andrews could see that the two children had somehow climbed up the side of the V-100, probably using the wheel and other hand holds. Tremblay was vulnerable, standing in the open hatch, and was fighting them off with one hand while trying to draw his M1911 with the other.

BLAM! BLAM BLAM!

The obviously deranged child nearest to Andrews suddenly went limp and fell to the ground.

Corporal Stan Abbot grabbed the ankle of the other one, his Sig pistol in hand. The awesome firepower of his C9 could not be wielded within in the tight confines of the melee and was slung around his back.

He tugged and pulled her off of the armored vehicle to land with a thud.  He held that ankle in a death grip, hoping to keep the terrible adversary off balance for a few more seconds until he could bring his wepon to bear.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:12, Thu 03 Apr 2014.

"Droz, they're already dead!  Headshots!"

Hawke grabbed his rifle and raised it to his shoulder, and tried to put one through the nearest shambler's head.

After the burst of fire Taras pulled out a handgrenade from his tactical vest and released the pin. Aiming to the closest runaway prisoner he yelled at him:

Catch!

Then he ran in opposite direction.


Staff Sargent Taras V. Shevchenko - Knight element
Throws handgrenade to runaway prisoner's.
AKS-74U (20/30) +4 mags
S&W 5946 (15/15) +2 mags
Handgrenade RG-5 (x6)
http://static.someecards.com/s...ZmE4MzE3NzgwY2Qx.png

Bugger this he though and hit the fire switch again as he swept left to right at the group moving towards the APC. He unholstered his pistol with his right hand and held it at the ready.

Inside the V-100, Tremblay shooting and bullets whizzed around the inside of the APC. Andrews began firing again, but felt a sharp pain in his left calf. At first, he thought he had been hit by a ricochetting round but he realised he was being bitten!

Taras looked for a prisoner to throw the grenade at. The one he'd shot fleeing towards the stream was down. One had been pulled into the house, the third was being ripped apart and consumed in the driveway. The forth had bolted the other way, south past the farmhouse. Winding up to throw, he paused as he saw that more people had come stumbling out of the house, at least a dozen men, women and children. Some of the adults were dressed as soldiers but something was very wrong with all of them. Although it was the stuff of bourgeoise and peasant folklore, could these be flesh-eating ghouls, like the mythical crone Baba Yaga? Perhaps affected by some bioweapon or chemical toxin? His thoughts (and wind-up) were interrupted by someone grabbing his grenade arm. A teenaged girl, once youthful face slack and pale, was grabbing his hand, opening it. The grenade fell at his feet as the spoon sprang free.

In the Cougar, Darek cursed and slammed the hatches shut. Tyler was down but still struggling, Koldan was tackled from behind by a man while he tried to assist his friend. Stumbling in a full circle by the force of the assault he fired a wild burst from his AKSU, some rounds hitting his attacker, some others, zinging off into the surrounding woods.

Abbot managed to drag one of the deranged children from the V-100 and the boy thudded to the dirt of the driveway. As Koldan fired wildly, felt something punch into his side, realising that one of those wild rounds had hit and penetrated his body armour. Two of the soldiers who'd stumbled from the house were on him, knocking off balance. One had him around the waist, the other grabbed his pistol arm. Kel was methodically shooting at a trio of attackers (all recently-dead mercs) and hitting them over and over, but the bullets were barely slowing them down.

At the market, the prisoners were struggling to get away, but they were being set upon by their recently-deceased compatriots. Droz was bourne backwards and she fell, keeping her rifle between her and the woman but unable to bring it to bear. Wayne took off for the tank.

How fucking hilarious is that!

Taras took the "little girl" arm by the wrist, twisted and wrestled down the little body on top of the live grenade.

This gonna hurt a little. He said planting his boot over the back of the little princess...

As Thomas felt someone scrambling round his neither regions he climbed out of the turret are fast as he could. Pulling out his sidearm he fires on whoever was in the turret and then continues with single aimed head shots at the closest people, before moving his fire outward.

In reply to Thomas Matthew Andrews (msg # 16):

What was biting him was a little girl, and his bullet sprayed scalp and skull fragments across the deck of the V-100. In the driver's hatch, Tremblay stood up and trhew the boy that had been biting him outside. There was now a crowd around the armoured vehicle, and Andrews started dropping people with head shots. It wasn't hard, given that they weren't actively avoiding being shot!

After a few seconds, there was an explosion beside the vehicle, and the blast wave knocked him off the deck. Something cracked as he slammed into the ground, and body parts thudded around him. As he lay there, barely conscious, he recognised the dolphin tattoo that decorated Taras' arm on a severed limb a few feet away. This arm was no longer particularly attached to Taras, however.



It seemed that either he was completely stunned or else he'd broken something serious! Andrews couldn't move his body. He couldn't hear due to the ringing in his ears. All he could do was blink and stare. The arm was dragged out of sight, and so was he. A few feet away, Abbot struggled to his feet. Around him, the mob of people surged towards him, some limping, others crawling, and they dragged him down by sheer weight of numbers. He was dimly aware there was a crash as Darek tried to use the Cougar to ram his way past the Challenger, but that seemed to have little effectiveness.

At the market, the first wave of attackers was shot down. There was a roar as the tank engine started, and Wanye stuck his head out the driver's hatch. "Get in! I can drive this... Ahhh! What the fuck?" Someone dragged him back down into the tank, from behind. Just then, a new group of what for all the world looked like extras from Night of the Living Dead (or perhaps Day of the Dead) stumbled around the corner of the marketplace, and others stumbled out the side door from inside the building. With nowhere to go and fresh attackers closing in, the end for Hawke, Droz, the prisoners and the wounded was all but assured.

Not too far away, Andy and Mac hurried towards the parked Iltis. It sounded like new fighting had broken out and the rest of the team was in serious trouble. No one was answering the radio. They came out of the bush to see a crowd of about seven civilians in ragged clothing, mostly men, gathered around the parked jeep. As they were about to challenge them, more stumbled out of the nearby houses and the woods. Faced turned towards Mac and Andy, and it was apparent something very, very wrong was happening here. They turned to flee but more had silently closed in from behind and there was no escape.

THE END

I hope I gave them indigestion.