Black Friday of the Dead - Episode 2

Check Out the Episode Here!

Skylar: Last time on Black Friday of the Dead, the group of you Awake to Fly by Steve Azar as as the end credits of Paul blart mall cop 2 scroll across the black screen.

Quinn: We gotta go. We gotta go. I gotta get myself that PS4 song. We gotta go now. It's 6:30. What were we doing? How can we sit?

Dave: 6:30?

Fatty Lumpkins: Holy Quinn, you're driving.

Skylar: So as you guys are kind of walking down this. This main corridor of the mall that leads kind of deeper into the rest of the mall, suddenly a noise rises up above your jests and chuckles. You all turn to look back towards the doors that you just came through. Behind you is an entire horde of zombies.

Fatty Lumpkins: Dave, over here, lying on the ground. Grab an arm and we'll pull.

Skylar: What's closest, there is a T shirt store called Teas and Jerseys.

Dave: What's going on? Why am I enlightening the queen?

Skylar: You snag it and run towards the gate. You jam the key into the gate and close it down just as the zombies make contact with it. Their fingers and maybe even some of the scrawnier armed zombies are able to reach through. But you slam that gate down, it clicks into the floor, and you step back just in time. There is a service hallway. So there is a back door. You nervously take that handle, you twist it, and very slowly it pushes inwards towards the service hallway. And as you peek inside, it's quite dark. You guys stay safe in there, okay?

Dave: Yeah, we'll do our best. All right. I love you, son. I love you too, dad.

Skylar: All Ah, right. Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of our All Flesh Must be Eaten holiday special, where three, plus maybe another survivor, are trapped inside of an entire shopping mall during Black Friday 2016. And a zombie infection breaks out. Technically, the zombie infection broke out before you guys got here, but you guys are trapped in them all now. whatever the case, joining me today are people playing themselves, essentially during the year of 2016, which is kind of a fun take on our TTRPG concept. we have Dave playing himself. We have Fatty Lumpkins playing himself, technically under a pseudonym.

Fatty Lumpkins: Yeah.

Skylar: Once again, that's not his name. And we have Quinn playing himself joining us in addition today. who you will recognize from our Criminals of Isla Numa series is Jackson. Jackson, welcome to the mall.

Cameron: thank you. It's good to be here. As long as there's a Chinese food stand in the food court, I'll be a happy man.

Skylar: All right, perfect. I can guarantee you there are two, depending on how you look at it. Actually, I guess one is technically Japanese because it's like sushi and stuff. The other one's more.

Cameron: Everyone knows the Chinese don't make sushi.

Skylar: That's right. That's right. So technically, two Asian cuisines. One of them kind of your typical Chinese serve. But we'll get into that, we'll get into that once you guys make your way to the food court. But for now, those of you, that were here last episode, Quinn, Dave and Fatty managed, to get into the mall, through the movie theater entrance. And they followed it down before getting chased by zombies into tees and jerseys. Inside there, they fought against a zombie and managed to get into sort of a back room area, sort of a service area for, mall staff. And that's where you guys are currently at. you guys have just pushed your way through there. Where are you headed next? you're in. It's a dark hallway, obviously. maybe there's a couple of flickering lights. It's, you know, not a very well kept. We're talking 2016. It's not that long ago. Malls are still kind of in the decline at that point. so it's not a well, kempt kept service area. there's probably some scattered debris, old boxes, decrept cardboard just kind of laying around. do you guys have a particular direction that you guys are headed?

Fatty Lumpkins: Dave, when we were talking to your dad, didn't he say help was coming or they were trying to send help to us? How long do you think it's going to take for us to hunker down until help arrives? Because if, if it's going to be a while, maybe we need to find somewhere to reinforce our position and rearm for who knows how long of a siege.

Dave: Yeah, I don't know. It could take a while. They're moving at the speed of government. I imagine.

Quinn: You guys think we should make it down to. Was it sporties?

Dave: You just want to get your hat, don't you?

Quinn: I really want that hat. But also,

Quinn: we mean, you know, they got some weapons in there. You know, we could get some bows.

Dave: And arrow and be like, oh, the sporties.

Skylar: Yeah.

Dave: Yeah, we should definitely go there.

Fatty Lumpkins: Sports store, hardware store. That should give us the back where.

Quinn: We can navigate the back rooms over to sporties. I think we'd have to go out in the hallway.

Skylar: I was gonna say you'd have to enter the main walkway and then get.

Quinn: Into the second walk.

Skylar: Right, exactly. The second sort of service entrance area. It's almost more of a Staff entrance because it leads down to the coffee shop that is inside of the COVID to cover bookstore.

Quinn: What do you guys think? Should we. Shall we, should we get down to Sporties? or. What do you. What do you guys think? We should get something to arm ourselves. We got a pair of scissors right now, but I don't think that's going to get the job done.

Fatty Lumpkins: Yeah, I think that's fair. If we can arm ourselves at Sporties. And then if we're going to be here for weeks, maybe we find one of those furniture stores and barricade the doors. And then we should barricade into bed to sleep on.

Quinn: Should we barricade in one of the food court stores? And we have food to eat for the time being.

Fatty Lumpkins: Tough decisions.

Quinn: I mean, hypothetically, how many zombies are in the wall? We think about what, a thousand maybe at most.

Dave: Black Friday.

Quinn: I mean, I. You think we kill a thousand of them?

Fatty Lumpkins: I don't feel very confident with this mannequin here. But maybe you feel more confident with your scissors.

Dave: I don't want to get any zombie fluids on me. That's what I'm saying. So we're killing thousands of zombies. We're gonna be like, covered in stuff.

Quinn: Well, there's a,

Fatty Lumpkins: And the smell. We'd have to find a lot of stanky candles to cover that up. Where is that Yankee stanky candle store? Is that on our way?

Dave: We're moving down the hallway as, we're talking.

Skylar: Yep.

Dave: Because the way we just wanted get.

Quinn: Away from, I think right down by King picture on the way to Sporties, I believe. I believe there's a, a rainy day store where you might be able to get some like, you know, like, like a plastic trench coat or something.

Dave: Oh, that's good.

Quinn: Or umbrella. We could like get some like raincoats and then like killing stuff. Just swap out the rain coats.

Skylar: Yeah.

Dave: That's a great idea.

Quinn: I believe it's called rainy day for you. Something like that.

Dave: Is it close to where we're at now? I don't think I've ever shopped at that store.

Quinn: You know, not many people have. Should be about seven stores down, I do believe. And then it'd only be about. We'd have to get through cover to cover to get to Sporties. But I think, I think we can do it.

Skylar: Okay. As you guys are making your way down the hallway, you're passing a variety of stores. There's obviously labels on sort of this back doors that you can access or potentially access. You might Need a key. But whatever the case, there's labels on these doors as you're passing by them. In the service entrance, you pass by the Sprout Scouts, you pass by Happy beginnings Massage. You pass by Peak Kicks, and you pass by Kauai, Palace. And eventually you make your way to, you can. You're behind. You're in the back end of the rainy. What was it? Rainy day.

Quinn: Rainy day for you.

Skylar: You're behind the rainy day for you store. And yeah, that's where you're at. Are you guys going inside?

Quinn: I think we got to peek it. I. Man, I think, fatty, I think you should go in with a mannequin. I think you got the best chance.

Fatty Lumpkins: The perfect breach technique, guys, Peek in.

Dave: With the door with the back of your hand. Ah.

Skylar: To make sure it's not dead.

Dave: Yeah.

Fatty Lumpkins: What if it's got a pulse? It's got to be safe.

Skylar: I don't know.

Dave: You never know. It's an emergency.

Quinn: Well, rock, paper, scissors on. Who's got to go first?

Skylar: Well, are you going to touch the door first? The doorknobs.

Quinn: Why are we touching the doorknobs?

Skylar: I don't know. That's what Dave said. Dave, are you touching the doorknobs? Since you suggested it.

Quinn: They're hot.

Dave: Zombie breath is heating it up. Guys.

Skylar: You put your hand on the doorknob and it is as cold as the dead.

Dave: Oh, no, guys, Intense cold is the dead.

Quinn: Oh, it's November.

Dave: Well, it's probably fine.

Cameron: Don't dead open inside.

Fatty Lumpkins: You know, try to jiggle the door handle.

Quinn: Did you guys hear that? Don't dead open inside.

Skylar: I don't.

Dave: I don't think we should be jiggling anything. Everybody silence.

Skylar: Your.

Dave: Your wallet pocket chains.

Skylar: You all goth or something? Because I'm kind of punk.

Quinn: No, that's just you. You're the goth one.

Skylar: No, fine, I'll go first.

Dave: I don't want to lose my wallet.

Quinn: The zombie thieves.

Skylar: All right, fine, fine.

Quinn: I'll go first. I'll take my scissors and peek the door. I just crack the door open a little bit. Do I see anything?

Skylar: Okay, the store itself is. The lights are on. you don't see anybody inside

Skylar: amidst the racks of coat hangers, the shelves with hanging, different styles of umbrellas, galoshes on some other shelves, and so on and so forth, you don't see anybody amidst this particular store. But past all the 50, 60, 75% off signs that hang on the windows and the nice little, like, stand ups, display that Also says huge Black Friday sale. You do See, there are a handful of zombies walking the hallway, the main hallway that passes by this store. And you know that if you were not to be stealthy enough, you might attract their attention, but you could, in theory, get into this store and out without causing a disturbance.

Quinn: All right, guys, there's some zombies walking the hallway, but nothing in the store. Even the dead don't want anything to do with this store.

Skylar: But we. We're here.

Quinn: Well, you know, tough times. Tough times. If we're stealthy enough, I think we can get through this. What do you guys think?

Dave: Okay. Sounds good.

Skylar: All right.

Fatty Lumpkins: I mean, if the alternative is being.

Skylar: Covered in whisper, then I'm game. All right, just make sure you get close to the mic if you guys are gonna whisper. Okay, as you guys slowly tiptoe into the story, each one of you, I'm going to have you guys all make, dexterity checks. So you're going to roll your D10, you're going to add your dexterity, and then if you have any amount of stealth or something similar as a skill, let me know and I can, And you can add that to your roll.

Dave: I got, a three.

Quinn: Oh, no.

Skylar: Ooh.

Quinn: Six.

Skylar: Okay, so, Dave, you kind of push past and lead the charge.

Dave: Somebody returned a used umbrel, and it made a puddle on the ground.

Skylar: as you're walking through, you have your. Wasn't it a pull from the display or something?

Dave: So it's like the. Yeah, the display rack. Just the shaft in the bottom part. Yeah, like the three or four pronged bottom piece.

Skylar: So I think, based on logic and based on the rolls. So Nick goes first easily and carefully maneuvers his mannequin through the doorway. I'm sure probably Quinn holding the door for him. Makes it a little bit easier, makes it inside without knocking anything over with his mannequin.

Cameron: I'm just imagining you pretending to make it one.

Skylar: It's a very manipulative.

Cameron: He's lifting each leg.

Fatty Lumpkins: I don't know if puppeteering is one of the skills I'm going to have.

Skylar: To make him roll for that.

Quinn: Make it look like a zombie. Yeah.

Skylar: whatever the case, you make it through. Quinn follows after and, bumps an umbrella off of the shelf, causing it to fall on the ground. Everybody freezes for a moment, and at first, it doesn't seem like the zombies have noticed that you guys are nearby. Quinn tiptoes the rest of the way in, followed by Dave. And as the door closes behind Dave, he forgets how long the pole is that he's carrying. And the door kind of hits against it, making a loud. As this happens, a, trio of zombies that are roaming past the door doorway at the moment. See you guys. And start moving into the store, groaning and moaning as they do.

Quinn: Zoinks.

Skylar: What is your plan? Are you going to fight or are you going to flight? Are you going to see if you can try to grab some raincoats? I think, which is why you guys were here in the first place.

Quinn: Yeah. there's three of them.

Skylar: Three? Oh, zombies. Yes.

Fatty Lumpkins: But we're in the back there at the very front of the store, and there seems to be a pretty reasonable rain.

Skylar: Yeah.

Quinn: What kind of zombie? Are we talking like, dayz zombies? Are we talking like Walking Dead slow zombies?

Skylar: Like Walking Dead slow zombies? At least these particular ones are.

Dave: I grab a pair of rain boots next.

Skylar: Okay.

Dave: And I chuck it past the zombies.

Skylar: okay. Trying to, like, create a distraction.

Dave: Yes. Trying to draw them towards the front of the store. They're in the store now, correct?

Skylar: Yep.

Dave: So throw it out, like the front.

Skylar: So that they turn around and they start moving towards the boots rather than continuing to come back to you guys in the back of the store. Yeah. Go for it. do a. I'm gonna call this a strength check, since you're trying to throw it across the store and also kind of make noise with the boots when they hit. So do a strength check. And if you feel like you have a skill that relates to this, such as throwing or something along those lines, you can feel free to add that as well.

Dave: Got a four.

Skylar: And that's with your strength.

Dave: Yep.

Skylar: Oh, boy.

Dave: That's two ones in a row. Roll.

Skylar: They've got to be gone. Right. as you toss these boots, they kind of hit against a display and then land maybe a few feet away from you. the zombies continue their trek towards you, more reassured

Skylar: than before. That there is definitely someone over there. what about the other two of you? What are you guys doing?

Fatty Lumpkins: I'm gonna whisper to these guys, and this is my whispering voice.

Skylar: Just. Cause.

Fatty Lumpkins: Whisper into the mic. But maybe we should just grab our raincoats and sneak out the back door. They can't possibly be intelligent enough to operate a door handle. We could hardly operate the handle.

Skylar: Yeah, that's true. It took you guys a minute. All right, sounds good. let me have you guys just do a m. Let's call it a dexterity check. If you have anything relating to speed or quickness. If one of you Wants to try to grab multiple. If one of you wants to. You know what?

Quinn: I'm just grabbing raincoats, right?

Skylar: Yeah, just grab some raincoats and go.

Quinn: I'm just trying to grab one for myself.

Fatty Lumpkins: Okay, so how do these checks work again? Because this. So like, something I would be good at, which in turn may make it a good opportunity for a bad luck check.

Skylar: Oh, okay. if. So, basically the way this works is if it's. And I should probably be doing this too. So there's different levels of difficulty, and there's also different levels of ease. So if it's something that's not hard to do, I can give you bonuses. Because, like, for instance, this is an average, I would say thing to do to grab. Especially because you're racing against zombies. This is average. So I could give you guys a plus one to your roles just for the fact that it's not hard to grab a thing off a shelf that's right next to you and then leave. if you have any skills that relate to being quick or something along those lines. Again, the skills are very broad, which is kind of helpful because we can kind of apply them to different situations. so if you feel like you have a skill, you can also add that to your dice roll. Just let me know beforehand. so I can judge whether or not it makes sense.

Dave: How sturdy do these zombies look on their feet?

Skylar: Not particularly. I mean, these are kind of your classic shufflers. Right. Like, they're slow moving, they don't go very fast, and they don't hold up super well. But they are resilient. Right. Like, if you knocked them over, they could pick themselves up again. they can take damage because they don't necessarily feel pain. Kind of those classic zombies, they're not gonna run at you, but they'll keep coming and coming and coming until they get you.

Dave: So there's like three of them bunched up.

Skylar: Yeah.

Dave: I want to take my shaft with. So I'm imagining it's one of those ones that sits on the floor and it has, like, the four prongs, four feet coming off. So it looks like a plus sign.

Skylar: Yeah. Yep.

Dave: So I'm going to try to charge them with it and knock.

Skylar: All right, sounds good. I'm gonna have you basically do a contested, strength check against them.

Dave: Since they kind of noticed where I was.

Skylar: Right.

Dave: I imagine I'm like, on the opposite side of the store of you guys.

Skylar: Yep. So they're basically just doing strength checks against you, and I'll have each one Roll so that, you know, if you knock, you don't not knock all of them down. but you might not knock all of them down. So you roll strength, and then I'll have them roll strength. And if you have something that you feel like adds to the strength, feel free to also do it.

Dave: I got seven.

Skylar: A seven. Okay. you run forward with this pole outstretch, and you give a harsh shove in the direction of these three zombies. two of them were kind of stacked, since it's a plus sign. Right. There's one that hit this. This, angle of it, and two that were kind of stacked on the other angle. because the two of them are kind of next to each other, and you pushed kind of made them trip over each other, and they both kind of get pushed back and knocked down to the ground. the other one that is on your. It'd be your left side. Does not get knocked down. And he is going to, make an attack against you. He's going to lunge forward and try to bite. That is a 10 plus 2. So that's a 12. So he's gonna succeed. Did you have any, arm? Did anybody get any armor?

Fatty Lumpkins: Last time I put on a Steph Curry dress, I don't know if that's gonna offer a lot of.

Dave: I think I said something about, like, wrapping arms in T shirts. I don't know if I ever actually.

Fatty Lumpkins: Did that or that was mainly for, like, inhalation PPE protection.

Dave: Oh, yeah, Yeah. I don't think I wrapped. I think I just thought. I don't think I actually did it.

Skylar: All right.

Dave: Yeah, we're just.

Skylar: No problem. Dave, you take eight damage as this zombie lunges forward and bites you in the shoulder, kind, of leaving a real nasty, bite, mark there.

Dave: Ah, crap.

Skylar: The other two of you, you guys are both grabbing the raincoats. Did you guys do the dexterity roll plus whatever? I mean, at this point, it's. I'm gonna say because of.

Fatty Lumpkins: Is that a thing? Like, am I able to abort that and recognize that, we might have to change tactics because the cut and run might not work since Dave is now.

Skylar: Well, I would say Dave actually made it easier for you guys since he blocked the zombie. So I would give you guys a plus three, because now this is a moderate,

Skylar: challenge. Honestly, it's easy. We'll say plus five because now the zombies are literally distracted by somebody else. But this is just to grab and be ready to run out. You don't have to actually run out but you're just getting the, the raincoats.

Fatty Lumpkins: So I think because Dave had been engaged, I was more or less thinking like, oh, I should run to his aid with my. Oh, okay, Mannequin, like battering.

Skylar: Okay. Okay.

Fatty Lumpkins: So that's kind of, the chain of thought that I have pivoted towards.

Quinn: Okay, yeah, I'm gonna have to run with my scissors.

Fatty Lumpkins: I'm trying to run with scissors.

Quinn: I'm gonna break the scissors apart.

Skylar: Right.

Quinn: So I have two knives in both hands. Right.

Skylar: Okay.

Quinn: Okay, I'm gonna go attack.

Skylar: Okay, sounds good. So both of you guys are running over. Are you just trying to bash it?

Fatty Lumpkins: I am, like lowering the head of said mannequin and it just looks like a battering ram and it is head is aimed right at the sternum of said zombie.

Skylar: Okay, sounds good. I will have you do another one of those contested strength checks against the zombie.

Fatty Lumpkins: So an 8 and then what do you like?

Skylar: So you.

Fatty Lumpkins: What is your modifier again?

Skylar: just whatever your strength would be.

Fatty Lumpkins: So 10.

Skylar: Oh, 10. Total. Awesome. Okay, so you successfully managed to rush forward, slamming the mannequin head into the zombies sternum, as you say his, his center. knocking him to the ground, dropping the bags of merchandise that had already been purchased by this zombie. And as the zombie lays there kind of reaching out, Quinn, you're rushing up and just starting to just stab down to this zombie.

Quinn: Shooting it, going for that.

Skylar: Okay.

Quinn: Trying to break through that.

Skylar: Okay, sounds good. I'm gonna give you a roll to attack, but I'm gonna make it a moderate. So that's a plus three that you get to add to this roll. And if you have like anything with knives, which I don't think you do.

Quinn: Seven. you add.

Skylar: So seven plus dexterity.

Quinn: Nine.

Skylar: Nine. And then, and then the plus three to succeed. So you're at a 11. 12. 12. Okay. So yeah, you successfully, attack the zombies. You come down, you start stabbing with them, roll the damage for Those scissors.

Quinn: D4 times Strength times strength.

Skylar: So you do. Yep. Because they're small.

Quinn: Five.

Skylar: Five. Okay. So you hit the zombie. You start stabbing into the zombie, for a total of five damage. it moans and groans and struggles. Obviously it's got three guys basically on top of him. at the moment it is unable to do anything, trying to pick itself up. But that's kind of the extent of it. But whatever the case, you guys look over and you see that the other two zombies that David knocked down a moment ago are starting to pick themselves up off the ground. What are you guys. Are you guys gonna stick around and continue to fight, or are you guys gonna grab your raincoats and leave?

Fatty Lumpkins: I think at this point, we should maybe cut our losses. We should probably tend to Dave's wounds or see if it is something that we may need to put him out of his misery or if a little bit of bastard will do the trick.

Skylar: You guys better make a quick decision, because those zombies are picking themselves up.

Dave: I'm running out the door.

Skylar: All right. Are you grabbing a raincoat on the way out? I'm not gonna make you guys roll at this point. You might as well.

Fatty Lumpkins: I will grab a ring coat.

Quinn: Yeah.

Skylar: Okay. All right.

Fatty Lumpkins: So I get this Steph Curry jersey all covered in filth.

Skylar: That's true. You're thankful you did the battering ram. I think, Quinn, you might have a little bit of blood on whatever you were wearing just from the stab wounds, but not here.

Dave: I am not. I'm taking off my belt. What? So I just run. Run ahead of you guys. I, get outside.

Skylar: Oh.

Dave: I start taking my belt off and wrapping it around my arm, my shoulder. I pull it as tight as I can. I'm like, oh, crap, I gotta find something. so I start looking around in the back hallway for. I don't know, like. I don't know what would be back there, really.

Skylar: Maybe, like, a mop thing. Yeah, mop handle or.

Dave: Yeah, mop probably.

Skylar: Okay. Yeah. I mean, there's. Yeah, there's probably one around there. Or, like. Yeah.

Dave: I don't know if there's, like, a utility cart or something.

Skylar: Yeah, I'd say so. there is a utility cart, but there is a. What looks like some kind of janitorial just sitting there unmoving about two feet away from it in this hallway.

Fatty Lumpkins: and this hallway is dark.

Skylar: It's flickering lights, but some of them aren't flickering. So it's moderately well lighted.

Fatty Lumpkins: And this hallway leads back to, like, the main concourse. And.

Skylar: Yeah, so basically, you would follow it for a little bit, then you would take a left or. Where did I put that map?

Quinn: Yeah.

Skylar: you would take a left, and that would take you back up to the main walkway that ends up going past cover to cover the bookstore. It goes past Chester's Fun Time Zone, and it leads. Or it ends at Sporties Sports Goods. Chester's

Skylar: Fun Time Zone.

Dave: Well, I'm gonna walk up to the cart. I probably. I don't know, just try to find the, screwdriver on top of it or something.

Skylar: Okay. you reach to get the screwdriver. And then you hear a. And you look down and the janitor starts to turn his head and he goes, hey.

Speaker F: Are you a survivor?

Dave: I'm working on it.

Skylar: And, a frail little old man in a, in a gray sort of button down shirt starts to pick.

Speaker F: Himself up off the floor. And he says, well, I thought everyone was dead.

Fatty Lumpkins: We thought you were dead.

Speaker F: No, I'm okay. I'm okay. I ran in here after I started seeing just hell break loose out there.

Quinn: my buddy here had. My body's got some, some wounds. Do you know, do you got any medical supplies anywhere around around here?

Speaker F: Oh, no. You probably had to go to the whole other side of the mall if you wanted to get to, like, the pharmacy.

Dave: I grabbed some bleach off the cart and pour it on my tongue.

Skylar: All right. And it stings horribly. It stings horribly. burning. Burning your skin.

Speaker F: Oh, jeez, kid, what are you doing?

Quinn: Harry, you might need some more. I find the pine salt.

Skylar: You guys aren't going to be careful and you're going to create some kind of noxious feature.

Quinn: That's where I was going with it.

Dave: Give me the ammonia.

Skylar: Yeah, there it is.

Speaker F: You're doing. Are you okay? That's a pretty ugly wound you got there. Kind of looks like mine.

Skylar: And he turns around and sure enough, on the. On his side, he's got this huge gash mark as well.

Dave: When did you get that?

Speaker F: Oh, let's see. They opened the doors at 6, and about 10 minutes later, some old lady bit me. And at first I thought she was being flirty, but then I saw blood just in black ooze just dripping from every orifice and scared the jeebies out of me. And I looked around and I saw more people like that. So I ran into these tunnels and I took a nap because I felt a little bit safe, but mostly tired. And, then I woke up and you were there. Are they all still out there?

Dave: There's, definitely some out there. We just saw some in that store.

Speaker F: Oh, darn. I was hoping they'd just go away.

Skylar: Hey.

Dave: How are you? How are you feeling?

Fatty Lumpkins: Oh, no odd cravings?

Skylar: Oh, I don't know.

Speaker F: I could go for a slice of pizza. Did you bring any?

Fatty Lumpkins: No pizza here.

Speaker F: Oh, shoot.

Dave: and I'm also. So at this point, I like, stab the screwdriver through the belt. Like. Or put. I don't know. I don't know actually how it would work, but I imagine I like, put it through one of the holes and like stab it through the other side and twist it.

Skylar: Twist it real tight. And once again, it hurts. It hurts quite a bit. but yeah, you make a kind.

Dave: Of makeshift tourniquet where on the shoulder is.

Skylar: so I'd say kind of like the side of the shoulder.

Dave: Okay, well that's the best shoulder scenario.

Quinn: Yeah, like your Delta screwed brother.

Speaker F: It's wrong. It doesn't look like it's bleeding that much.

Dave: Well, I'm more worried about infection at this point.

Speaker F: Oh, shoot, I didn't even think about that. Man, who knows where that old lady's dentures were before she bit me. Where are you guys going?

Fatty Lumpkins: We were trying to, stock up just because we don't know how long this is gonna last and we kind of wanted to hole up in some store with a decent defense and try last this thing out.

Speaker F: Oh, that's a great idea. In fact, I was just about to.

Skylar: And then just before you can finish that sentence you heard on a little walkie talkie that's on his belt. And it's sort of like a pre setup message. And it says to any survivors that are in the mall, be advised the military has completely surrounded the facility. No one is allowed in or out for fear of possible contamination. If you are a survivor, you must last until midnight and make it to the rooftop where we will land a chopper and pick you up. I repeat, at midnight, we will land a chopper on the roof of the mall for any survivors to escape.

Fatty Lumpkins: Well, there's our time frame.

Speaker F: That was awfully convenient.

Quinn: Oh, that was crazy. Well, I guess we better not barricade. We better figure out how to get up to the roof.

Speaker F: Can I come, with you guys?

Quinn: I mean, human shield, I suppose.

Speaker F: Perfect.

Cameron: This is me, your subconscious human shield.

Quinn: Only we had a. Only we had a fifth. We can be like a full.

Speaker F: We also have to survive.

Dave: What time is it now? Oh, so it's.

Skylar: So It'd be almost 7 o'clock if not. Well, because the mall doors opened at 6. You guys awoke from your, your place at 6:30 and then you rushed over to the mall. So it's close to seven at this point. So you guys about. Oh shoot, that's like five hours.

Fatty Lumpkins: Five hours of stuff.

Skylar: This is right, seven to midnight.

Dave: Yeah, no, seven in the morning.

Skylar: No, no, no, no, no. It's 7pm Remember how black Friday became Thanksgiving afternoon and it just kept getting earlier and earlier? Yeah.

Cameron: Now they started the Black Friday sales like a week prior to Black Friday.

Skylar: Black Friday didn't even exist, exist anymore.

Cameron: Good, good Riddance.

Skylar: It's true. It's pretty messed up. okay, so you guys, continue down the service hall, and you finally come to that end point where you take a left and it leads right past the bookstore. And then you would be entering into.

Fatty Lumpkins: Kind of the main corridor, looking both ways. Do you see, would be to.

Skylar: Your left, all the way there.

Fatty Lumpkins: Looking through that corridor, do we see any signs of zombie hordes crossing the main concourse?

Skylar: they don't seem to be interested in this particular area. But you do see, you know, the occasional one walk by on the main sort of pathway that this will eventually lead into. As you guys, I will say this, as you guys are kind of walking down this little corridor here, there are windows, into the COVID to cover bookstore. And you actually see that there seems to be some survivors inside. You, see a man who is kind of just lounged against some, bookshelves nearby. There's, like a coffee shop at the far end that you can see. And there seems to be a dude that's just kind of leaned against the counter over there. He's on his phone. so you see some people, and they don't seem to be zombified, obviously. Otherwise they wouldn't be on their phone. so you see some people that seem to be inside this bookstore.

Fatty Lumpkins: Well, what do you think? Should we join forces with those guys? Or is our small elite unit.

Quinn: I might as well go see what's going on. Could always join, you know, add another person to the group.

Fatty Lumpkins: Their strength in numbers.

Skylar: But then the question remains, how will you get into the bookstore?

Quinn: The front door is closed, right?

Skylar: Well, you can't see the front door. Well, I guess eventually you would walk to a point where you can see through the window in the hallway that you're at, and you can see the front doors. And it looks like, a couple of people are standing guard by where the front doors would be. And instead of just kind of a big opening like you'd normally see at a mall store, it seems like they have taken bookcases and they have pushed them in front of this opening to kind of create a makeshift barricade.

Fatty Lumpkins: Do any of these people notice us standing on the outside looking in?

Skylar: Do you try to get their attention?

Fatty Lumpkins: Yes.

Quinn: Yes.

Skylar: Okay. All right, so you guys, I mean, what are you doing?

Fatty Lumpkins: Because I'm going to kind of hoist the mannequin on my shoulders and kind of wave them back and forth like one of those used car.

Skylar: Oh, it's like, oh, dance a man yeah. All right, so you wave and sure enough, a couple of people, start coming over to you to try to communicate to you through the glass. And it's a little bit warped for sure, but, you can definitely hear the voices on the other side. The people that you see are a, ah, woman that's wearing a little name tag that suggests that she may be a staff member here at the bookstore. Cover to cover. the other person is a mustachioed young man in a green shirt with a pocket on it and a pen in said pocket. I think it's Jackson. And the woman says, are you guys and you guys okay? Can you hear me?

Quinn: Yeah, yeah, we're good.

Skylar: Are you injured at all?

Quinn: No.

Fatty Lumpkins: Do we tell them?

Quinn: No, he bleached it. We're fine.

Skylar: That kills everything.

Dave: yeah, I hurt my shoulder.

Skylar: Were you, were you, were any of you bitten?

Dave: No.

Skylar: If you want to get inside, the safest way is to go through the barista entrance, but you'll have to go through the main hallway.

Dave: What is this there a bookstore?

Skylar: Yeah. So this is the COVID to cover

Skylar: bookstore. And as you can see, if you go across the main hallway as if you were going towards Sporty's, there's another sort of like service entrance space that goes straight down to the Espresso Yourself coffee shop. that is on the other side of the bookstore and there's a back door there that let you into the coffee shop, which therefore gives you access to the bookstore.

Cameron: Wait, I'm sorry, timeout. What, what store am I in now?

Skylar: You're in cover to cover. Sorry, I adjusted.

Quinn: So.

Cameron: Gotcha. Cuz we weren't, they weren't coming over that way. Yeah, yeah, I understand.

Fatty Lumpkins: Did you guys hear the message from the military?

Skylar: Yeah, we got a guy over here that's from the news. He said he, he got a communication from his work. They have news people outside too.

Quinn: Is there a way up to the roof through the bookstore?

Fatty Lumpkins: Probably a question best directed at the handyman.

Quinn: what's the best way to get up to the roof?

Speaker F: Oh yeah, that's right. We gotta get to the roof. well, let's see. there's one in the security office.

Fatty Lumpkins: Which side of the mall is that on?

Speaker F: The other one.

Fatty Lumpkins: Of course, of course.

Speaker F: It's just, it's past the food court. Hey, it's past the pharmacy.

Quinn: Oh, he doesn't need the pharmacy.

Dave: Oh, yeah, I did look at him.

Quinn: No, I look at him very sternly. He doesn't need the pharmacy.

Speaker F: It's kind, of over by, the furniture store. You can access it from the furniture store.

Quinn: You guys can't get there. You guys can't get to the roof through the bookstore. You guys need to come with us. We might as well go and try and get a couple guns.

Dave: They're not letting us into cover to cover.

Skylar: Well, it's not that they're not letting you guys. So they're like, if you guys can get around here, we can't move the barricade because zombies would get.

Fatty Lumpkins: But once we get in the bookstore, what is your guys escape plan?

Skylar: Well, I mean, going out into the main hallway is just, completely unsafe. Have you seen how many zombies are out there?

Fatty Lumpkins: There is a lot. But it would be nice to get out of here for good because this bookstore just seems like a temporary fix. Who knows, maybe those hordes will knock down the barricades and then we're all just sitting ducks.

Skylar: Well, we have somebody in here that's sick. And we have somebody in here that's looking for their kid. And yeah, so we're a little bit of a predicament.

Fatty Lumpkins: Maybe if you guys hold tight here and we can get a small band to the roof and you can last for as long as need be, we can direct reinforcements to you if the military is willing to exercise.

Skylar: I mean. Yeah, that'd be nice. or if you guys could like get a vehicle and drive us through.

Fatty Lumpkins: The mall, maybe I could keep our eyes peeled. Maybe there's one of those sweepstakes that take place in the middle where you can put your name in a box and you win a jeep.

Skylar: Well, there's the be a dealership. I think they had a car. What is it a be a parent? Oh, and then, oh, the National Guard thing. They have like a jeep or something.

Fatty Lumpkins: But you probably have to do like a certain amount of pull ups to use the jeep or something. That's all. Those recruiting offices always work.

Skylar: Well, do you not like pull ups?

Fatty Lumpkins: I'm kind of scrawny. I'm not. Not very good at those.

Skylar: Well, so what are we doing here?

Quinn: I think you guys should.

Skylar: You can chime in too.

Quinn: Any of you that wants to come with us and get to the roof, you can. Otherwise you do you.

Cameron: I will go ahead and join you guys. My name's Jackson in case you guys needed formalities.

Quinn: Is that a pot and pan?

Cameron: I have a knife.

Quinn: Oh, great. He can lead the way.

Fatty Lumpkins: We could always use some muscle. What if we meet you over by the barista stand? Or how thick is this glass, it's pretty thick.

Quinn: It's pretty thick.

Fatty Lumpkins: Better not open up another entrance.

Skylar: They make a lot of noise too.

Cameron: I'm on the inside of COVID to cover.

Skylar: Yep.

Cameron: There's a horde.

Skylar: Yep.

Cameron: And I'm. I'm trying to get out or they're trying to get in.

Skylar: It's kind of up in the air. It kind of seems like they want to not necessarily get in, but be able to meet you at the same spot that you could safely get in or out, which is over by the baristas.

Cameron: What if.

Dave: Maybe if there'd be something at Keen Picture that we could use to distract the zombies, like a shutter flash or a robot dog. Oh, you know, one of those annoying ones that keeps barking. Oh, could be, you know, like Call of Duty. There's the. You throw the monkey with the symbols. Dynamite. Be like that. It's just. It wouldn't explode. Or maybe like a remote control car.

Quinn: That's a great idea.

Skylar: Yeah, that's a pretty good idea. The question is, who's gonna go run over?

Quinn: We said we would just have to go through the back hallway. Wouldn't.

Dave: Is that a photo

Dave: store? I'm thinking of like a sharper image.

Skylar: Right, right. Okay.

Quinn: Oh, wait, hang on. Isn't there like a hobby RC car store right next to it? How could we forget this?

Skylar: Fast fad hobbies. I like that badly.

Quinn: Fast.

Dave: It's fad.

Skylar: I'll try it out. All right, so yes, there is a. There is a right next to the rainy day for you store. There is a fast fad hobbies store that, you guys know, sometimes carries some various like, ah, RC related, or robotic dog. Maybe obscure electronic hobby toys.

Dave: Maybe they have drones.

Skylar: Oh, and very probably drones.

Fatty Lumpkins: Or maybe even some discs. Maybe uses like a projectile like disc golf disc. That's a hobby, but might be in the sporting goods store.

Skylar: Maybe in the sporting goods store. I can give you guys so much.

Cameron: I mean, what do you have in a hobby store? You get your model cars, you got your art rc, you've got puzzles. puzzles. So, what if we.

Quinn: What if we took like an RC car and had it make noise or something, you know, and we were able to draw the zombies into Chester's fun time. Fun time zone.

Dave: Oh, and it just. All the noise in there would discombobulate.

Quinn: Oh, it'd be crazy.

Dave: Well, are they already like, surrounding that place or what?

Skylar: No, because I think the doors are closed, of, of that spot. But I mean, you could take them down that hallway towards that Direction. I mean, that would get you. Get them out of the way at the very least. I think, I think this is a solid plan, guys. If you're going for it, you guys start to. You guys go back down the service entrance and move over a couple of stores. before getting to Fast Fad Hobbies, you guys go, around the corner and you reach for the Fast Fad Hobbies store and it is locked. And the janitor man says, oh, don't.

Speaker F: Worry, I got that covered.

Skylar: And he grabs a big old thing of keys and he opens it up for you.

Fatty Lumpkins: Ooh, lucky break there.

Speaker F: Yeah, I've got a whole bunch of these keys on this key ring. I've been working here forever. That's one of the hardest things to train new guys on is which keys go to what? Because they're not labeled. You just got to know, oh, gosh.

Dave: That seems like a terrible idea.

Speaker F: You know, on one hand, I don't disagree. On the other hand, it makes sure that they don't fire me.

Skylar: You think they give you a 400? You think they give you a 401k here?

Speaker F: No siree. I've got nothing to retire on, so I'll be here until the day I die. Which might be sooner than I thought. Just a little humor to break up the scary stuff. Anyways, let's go get us a cool RC car. Back in my day, it was Matchbox and Hot Wheels.

Skylar: That was a little bit after my.

Speaker F: Day, but I digress.

Skylar: he opens up the door and you see kind of like a big track, like a almost dirt style track that they've got kind of in the middle of the store where people can race their cars. There's, there's cars that have just kind of are. They're actively like running, but their tires are just spinning because they've slammed into one of the walls. And they're either tipped over or they just can't go any further. And at the other end of this track, you can see a couple of zombies that are both just kind of standing there holding controllers. And they just have the button, like, pressed all the way to one end, and they're just, they're just completely just out of it.

Cameron: Store sounds rad. Dirt track to drive your little RC cars on.

Skylar: That's right.

Cameron: I'd be there every day.

Skylar: Yeah.

Fatty Lumpkins: Does this store support any other hobbies?

Skylar: yes. You see, I mean, it's a RC pretty much across the board. Planes, cars, you see.

Quinn: Drones, automobiles, trains.

Skylar: Yeah, they've got like, the train sets and stuff like that. There's definitely like just anything that's like semi hobby robotics. So I would say, oh, man, they got like battle bot sets because that's cool. Not anything huge. It's not like, not necessarily like active.

Fatty Lumpkins: Hobbies like you are out and about. More like controller, rc robots.

Skylar: Very geeky.

Cameron: They have a small wall in the very back of just Gundams.

Fatty Lumpkins: Yes, again, I thought I might not.

Skylar: Because there's another store that carries those. oh, okay. Because most mall or many malls have a Weeb store.

Cameron: That's true.

Skylar: That's where that kind of stuff usually you don't want to compete. That's a key thing with malls is like you, you want to be a niche. You want to have something that other stores don't have, but you don't want to step on the other store's toes, especially in the same mall, because then you're just, you're splitting your audience. So you gotta get real nitty gritty with it. And this place is real nitty gritty with rc.

Fatty Lumpkins: So the Scuba hobby store is elsewhere.

Skylar: Scuba probably is going to be in the sports store. The sports store is big and pays a lot of money to be there. So they get to be broad.

Quinn: Is there anything like stabby, stabby we could like, find out. There's got to be something sharp in there.

Skylar: Sure. there's definitely like some tool kits. So you could get maybe some screwdrivers.

Quinn: stuff like that.

Skylar: I mean, they're just gonna be your typical screwdrivers. And I'm just gonna tell you right now, they're gonna have the exact same stats as your scissors do.

Quinn: Yeah. I'm just saying for these guys, he's got a freaking mannequin.

Skylar: That's true. That's true.

Quinn: I go over and find a couple screwdrivers in one of these packs.

Skylar: Okay.

Quinn: I throw it over to Fatty and I go, here. Ain't much, but it's better than what you got.

Fatty Lumpkins: It is probably a little more agile, better for close quarters.

Dave: I go to one of the walls and find a. So I imagine they have model planes in here.

Skylar: Absolutely.

Dave: Larger model planes. They get pretty big. Find the propeller for that.

Skylar: Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, you absolutely find one of those. You pull it down and I'm gonna call that a basically, a short sword. Write that down. Just make sure to label it propeller. But you can take the same stats as a short sword. And yeah, you have that in your hands. the two zombies that are over there with the remote controls don't seem to really notice you guys, they're, a bit more heavyset dudes in striped shirts. One, of them is alternating red and white, and the other one is alternating blue and white. But, whatever the case, you. Okay, so you guys are in the store. What, your goal was to get something to create a distraction. What are you guys going for?

Fatty Lumpkins: So do we need to dispatch these two zombies so that we can come up with a more concrete distraction, or is our distraction going to distract these and then draw the entire horde away from the bookstore?

Dave: I think we need to take these ones out.

Fatty Lumpkins: That would just give us. Yeah, I think I agree. That would give us more working room to devise a well schemed distraction.

Quinn: All right, there's how many of them? Two of them.

Dave: So maybe, maybe we could create a localized distraction to keep their attention away from us. And you guys sneak up on, you know, stab those screwdrivers in their back of their skulls.

Fatty Lumpkins: That sounds like a plan.

Skylar: All right, so what is your localized distraction?

Quinn: I think the localized distraction should be Dave.

Cameron: You just throw him out there.

Skylar: Push.

Quinn: Come get me, zombie.

Skylar: I've already been bit.

Fatty Lumpkins: This might be a good opportunity for me to strategically place the mannequin. And then it just has to draw their attention, and then we can come up behind and surprise him.

Dave: How about you place the mannequin? I'll, be its voice. I'll stand behind it, and then they'll get confused, and if they attack, they'll attack it.

Fatty Lumpkins: That sounds like a plan.

Dave: I don't want to give any more than I already.

Skylar: All right, so you, you hand the mannequin over to Dave. Dave, what do you, give me, give me the scene here.

Dave: All right, so I set it up in the aisle, adjacent to them. And while these guys, they kind of loop around, I don't maybe go wide around the dirt track all the way around.

Skylar: Okay.

Dave: And come up behind them are from that side. Once they get into position, I stand right up behind the mannequin and I wave its arm and say, oh, boy.

Skylar: Hello.

Fatty Lumpkins: I don't know if we ever extinguished. Yeah. Was this mannequin a. Which gender was the mannequin? Obviously you can't see the genitals, but it usually does have something in its torso.

Skylar: Curvy elements for sure. On its upper half, it's, got a bosom. Sure. Yes, exactly. so, yes. Okay, you wave the zombies, turn around and holding their controller still in the go position, they start sort of sauntering towards you and, aggressively approaching the mannequin are you doing anything following up? Are you like, leading them somewhere?

Dave: Nope.

Skylar: All right, so they're just approaching.

Dave: When they get close, I'm going to take off one of the mannequins arms and throw it on the ground.

Skylar: Okay. you pick up the mannequin or you pull the mannequin, pop it out of its little holder, pipe

Skylar: piece, whatever, you toss it on the ground. One of the zombies kind of stops for a moment. He takes his hand off the controllers. You can also hear, one of the RC cars stops spinning its wheels as he reaches down and picks up the mannequin arm and he kind of holds it up to his face and he tries to take a bite out of it. He leaves him dancing and he tosses it off to the side. Is this the point where you two are attacking?

Fatty Lumpkins: Ideally. Yet.

Skylar: Okay, yes. All right, I'm going to have you guys roll. And since they are kind of unaware of you, I'm going to give you guys plus ones on this. This is you're going to be rolling with dexterity. And then if you have a stat or a skill that you feel is beneficial, I'm going to give you plus two.

Fatty Lumpkins: This, ten screwdriver doesn't happen to be a automatic screwdriver, in which case it would be powered because I am proficient with power tools, but non powered tools.

Quinn: Hey, janitor guy, what's your name? You never even told us your name.

Speaker F: Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. My name's Hank.

Quinn: Hank, do you got any power tools with you?

Speaker F: Not on me, no.

Quinn: Do you have some anywhere close?

Speaker F: Well, yeah, they were in my little cart in the service entry.

Fatty Lumpkins: We'll just make.

Speaker F: Can you like, there's probably something here.

Quinn: Can you like, go get yours? Like, it's not that far.

Speaker F: Oh, gosh.

Fatty Lumpkins: I think time is of the essence here.

Quinn: Oh, boy.

Skylar: Over here. Hank turns around and walks to go get some power tools from his cart back in the service hallway. But whatever the case, I don't think Hank's coming back. Whatever the case, where are you? you're doing your stabs. Yeah.

Fatty Lumpkins: And then. So that was with the screwdriver.

Skylar: Yeah.

Fatty Lumpkins: So I don't know if I had my stats for that.

Skylar: Oh, oh, that's right. so it's whatever the scissors were, which was one four times is D.

Quinn: Four times strength, minus one.

Skylar: Minus one. Okay. okay, so you rolled a ten, Quinn, so that is definitely a success. So you are going to be rolling damage, for that one. One.

Quinn: No, I'm sorry.

Skylar: One times one, two. Minus one. Oh, yeah. So one damage. All right. Solid one damage on one of these zombies.

Fatty Lumpkins: my strength was nine.

Quinn: Oh, wow.

Skylar: Okay, awesome. So that's definitely a success as well.

Fatty Lumpkins: do I need the D4? Yep. That was 11 4.

Skylar: So you got a one as well?

Fatty Lumpkins: Yes.

Skylar: Okay. All right. So you both stab into these respective zombies, hitting them kind of in the. In the buttocks with your stab. I think there's probably a part of you that was a bit nervous, right? You've never stabbed a human being before, and these are basically human beings, just undead ones. And it's. You haven't. Your brain hasn't processed that need for survival yet, per se. so when you stab, you're a little bit nervous, and it just barely pokes. Kind of pricks these zombies, for lack of better words. And as they're moving towards this mannequin that's leading them kind of away and allowing you guys to sneak up behind them and stab, they both freeze as they're being penetrated by these screwdrivers and immediately turn around to look at you guys. Dave, would you like to take an action as they turn their backs to you to focus on your two friends?

Dave: yeah. I'll come from behind and swing the propeller at one.

Skylar: Are you dropping the mannequin at this point?

Dave: Yeah.

Skylar: Okay, sounds good. You drop the mannequin and you swing. Do you have a particular one that you're swinging at? I guess the only difference between them is red stripes or blue stripes.

Dave: One on my right.

Skylar: Okay, sounds good. We'll do red stripes. All right. do your attack. So It'll be your D10 plus dexterity, and I'll give you also a plus two since you're. You're behind them.

Dave: Eight.

Skylar: Eight. Oh, just shy. you go to swing at them. I think, again, same thing happens to you. You've never really, like, attacked a human being before, especially with a level of malice that's not necessary to kill somebody. And so, ah, you kind of hit.

Dave: Can I use good luck?

Skylar: You can use your good luck, absolutely. To bring it to a nine and make it a success.

Dave: Yeah.

Skylar: Okay, awesome. You do that. you. Your good luck pushes, past your desire to not hurt a human being and allows you to slash into them. Roll the damage for that propeller.

Dave: 15.

Skylar: A 15. Awesome. So holy. Holy crap. That's a lot of damage. 15, damage on top of the damage it already took hits this zombie. It lurches forward, almost tripping on itself. And, you Leave this huge slashed gash across its entire back. the shirt tears a bit and, it's, it's kind of slowly melting. Skin is kind of showing a little bit out the back. this zombie is horribly injured as it kind of lurches forward. But, whatever the case, the zombies are going to attempt to attack. One on Nick and one on Quinn. So you guys can do, D10 plus dexterity and then you take a minus one to it. Unless you have some kind of dodge

Skylar: related skill.

Fatty Lumpkins: I got an 8.

Quinn: 10 plus 2 minus 1.

Skylar: So 11 total. Okay. So I, would say, Quinn, you're able to dodge out of the way. Nick, on the other hand, the one that was lurching towards you kind of had a little bit of too, too much speed behind it and it lunges forward and bites onto you on your hand for damage.

Fatty Lumpkins: Out of curiosity, which hand was this was bitten? The one holding the screwdriver.

Skylar: Well, which hand was holding the screw? It's your left hand that got bit.

Fatty Lumpkins: So. Okay, non dominant hand. Okay, I can lose that one. But that also leaves my screwdriver hand free to.

Quinn: We need to cut your hand off, react.

Skylar: Whatever, the case. Okay, so that's where you guys are at. Dave, you're standing behind both of these two right now. One of them is severely injured. Nick, you've just been bitten on the hand. Quinn, you're still okay at the moment. Kind of goes into like each round, right? So this is a new round of, of combat per se. What are you guys doing?

Quinn: There's one left or two left?

Skylar: There's still two left. One's just really injured.

Quinn: I'm gonna go off to a stronger one. Okay, attack it.

Skylar: Okay, go for it.

Quinn: 3 plus 4. 5.

Skylar: 5 does not hit.

Quinn: Yeah, well, it's not good.

Skylar: You start stabbing towards it, you're just unable to hit it as you're trying. You see your friend get bit and you're like, I really don't want that to happen to me. So you're like, really trying not to get too close, fatty or Dave.

Fatty Lumpkins: So this bite, is that more of a, latch or more of like a. A bite and release.

Skylar: Bite and release.

Fatty Lumpkins: Okay, so I'm no longer. Yeah, you're not like grappling held on by a zombie?

Skylar: yeah, grappled by his teeth.

Fatty Lumpkins: I guess all I can do is go back into the fray with my screwdriver and poke.

Skylar: Okay, sounds good.

Fatty Lumpkins: And this is the dexterity one.

Skylar: Yep.

Fatty Lumpkins: Okay. Seven.

Skylar: Seven. Okay. same thing happens. You just Got bit in your hand. You're probably shaking. You're freaking out. I'm. Thoughts are going through your head thinking of movies and how people get bit and then they turn into zombies. And so in your panic, you're just not able to land a stab as the zombie continues to lurch towards you. Dave, you're standing behind them.

Dave: I see him bite fatty. I'm like, no. And I try to cut his head off.

Skylar: Oh, with the, with the thingama finger the propeller. There you go. 10. Hey, there's a 10. Well, that's going to be a success for sure.

Dave: oh, and a one for damage. Times three.

Skylar: Times three. Three damage. you don't slice his head off, but you do slash him once again across the back, shooting kind of a large, almost an X. and he falls down and he, he's now crawling, but just barely towards Nick. But he's on the ground. He seems to be, more or less kind of incapacitated. But obviously, you know, you want to watch your feet. whatever the case, the remaining zombie continues to lurch towards Quinn. Quinn, if you want to. Well, actually, no. He is unable to land a hit. As he, tries to bite towards you, trying to grab you, just, ah, kind of sliding out of the way. It's back to you guys.

Quinn: I'm gonna. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna take one of the RC cars.

Skylar: Okay.

Quinn: And just bash over the head. You're just.

Skylar: You're just like walking backwards. You look at the shells. You're like. These scissors obviously aren't doing the trick. You grab an RC car. Like a little display box, whatever.

Quinn: No, no, like you said, they're erased them, right?

Skylar: Well, yeah, but those are on the floor.

Quinn: Yeah, Right, right.

Skylar: When model. Yeah, yeah.

Dave: They're often displayed.

Skylar: Yeah, yeah. There's some outside the box.

Quinn: Yeah, I just grab one. I'm just. I mean, they're pretty big and they're heavy.

Skylar: Pretty big.

Quinn: I'm just gonna bash him on the head. All right.

Skylar: Roll that rope to. To hit him. M8. 8. Ooh. Just shy. Do you have luck that you'd want to spend?

Quinn: sure. I got two points. I'll use a point. A good one.

Skylar: All right, so you use a point to create it into a success. Let's call this a small mace. So small mace is going to be a D4. It's only going to be A1 use. So I don't know if you want to write it down, because this card's gonna.

Quinn: No, that's.

Skylar: But it is a D8 times your strength. So grab yourself a D8. That is the diamond dice. And then times your strength.

Quinn: Two.

Skylar: Is it really a two? Yeah, two total. All right, so you. You grab this car and swing, and the. The bumper of this RC car just barely nicks the head. Just kind of goes and. But the zombie seems uninterested in giving up and continues towards you. I'm not going to say that it breaks the car, because that's. That was just barely the end of.

Quinn: The two damage, baby.

Skylar: So you still. I mean, the bumper flies off of this RC car, but otherwise, the car's still intact. What are the rest of the other two of you doing?

Fatty Lumpkins: I have recognized the frailty of this screwdriver, and I do see that mannequin arm looking laying on the ground.

Skylar: That's true.

Fatty Lumpkins: I'm gonna go utilize that as a club.

Skylar: Yes. Okay, perfect. So this is to be a small Club, which is D6 times strength minus 1. Roll the D10 plus dexterity first. And since he's not

Skylar: facing you, I'm going to give you a plus one on this one. Four. A four. Okay. So you go to swing this mannequin head, and just as you swing, it's kind of cartoonish where the zombie lunges ever so slightly, just as you swing until you just kind of completely whiff it, past the back of its head. All you see is a little bit of its hair kind of move as the mannequin arm passes by. Dave, you actually have had quite a bit of luck, but your friends just really are not having good luck with this zombie as it's slowly making its way continuing towards Quinn. What are you doing?

Dave: I'm just going swinging again. Okay, that's going to be a four.

Skylar: Okay. You go running towards it to get a nice swing in. but just as you go to swing, this mannequin arm kind of swings out and whiffs. It nearly hits you, and it causes you to get thrown off. Both of you are kind of tripping over each other to try to kill this thing. back to the zombie, which is coming for Quinn. That is a 10 this time. So that's gonna hit. All right, so the zombie lurches forward, and it kind of, like, claws at you, and it deals. so just two damage on that one. Not a great hit for sure from the zombie side, huh?

Quinn: I'm still not bitten. Yeah.

Skylar: Hopefully it doesn't pass through any means.

Quinn: It doesn't just bites. I've watched the movies.

Skylar: All right, back to another. Back to you Guys. As this zombie continues making its way towards Quinn, having slashed him.

Quinn: Oh, it'd be my turn again.

Skylar: It's. It's totally up to you guys, but.

Quinn: Yeah, go for it. Yeah, I'm gonna try and hit it with a car again.

Skylar: Okay, you still got this car. You're swinging this car.

Quinn: It was nine plus two. So long.

Skylar: Okay, so that's going to hit. So you got a D. Eight times your strength.

Quinn: Egg money. 10.

Skylar: All right, 10 damage.

Cameron: That's good.

Skylar: You slam. This car breaks in half as it slams into this zombie, who falls down to his knees, and he seems a little discombobulated as he kind of spins ever so slightly on the floor, his head just kind of whirling around. he's not dead, but he's paused for a second, giving you two enough time to jump in and help. I'm gonna give you guys, now that he's down, I'm gonna give you guys a plus two, on your rolls to hit him with whatever it is.

Fatty Lumpkins: So we have two zombies that are now down?

Skylar: Technically, yes.

Fatty Lumpkins: Okay.

Skylar: One of them crawling. This one is just kind of, like, momentarily stunned.

Fatty Lumpkins: Okay.

Skylar: Yep.

Fatty Lumpkins: Yes. I will lunge forward with my mannequin club.

Skylar: All right. Are you holding the hand so that the arm comes out, or you.

Fatty Lumpkins: It's kind of like that, proto SAM grip, where it's. I'm gripping its wrist as it hand grips my wrist.

Skylar: What a way to wield a weapon.

Dave: I love it.

Fatty Lumpkins: It's not a very good grip, because that's another one.

Skylar: Okay. As you swing down towards this mannequin, your grip, not being as good, slips, and the mannequin arm kind of hits the ground and bounces a little ways away from you. Not something that you couldn't go pick up and get back into the swing of things, but you certainly missed this time.

Fatty Lumpkins: I'm getting a new dice.

Skylar: Yeah, I was gonna say you might want to. This is pretty painful.

Dave: Dave, I'm gonna run forward and, try to curb stomp this zombie skull.

Skylar: Oh, man. All right, Sounds good.

Dave: Got a eight. Eight.

Skylar: Okay. That is a mission. you go to curb, stop him, and your foot kind of comes past him and just barely misses his ear as you kind of hit the ground. standing in front of him, he kind of shakes off a little bit of the pain. He sees your leg right there, and he lunges for it to try to get a bite, but he's still a little discombobulated, and he misses. Kind of just bumping his head against a shelf ever so slightly. So got another round to go. With nobody taking any damage but also not much being dealt. What are you guys doing?

Dave: I retract my leg and instead decide I better keep my distance and swing the propeller at his head. All right, we're gonna go nine.

Skylar: Hey. All right.

Dave: And max damage.

Skylar: Max damage.

Dave: 18.

Skylar: Being frustrated. You finally accomplish your goal as you swing down with this propeller slicing through the zombie's neck and separating his head from his body. You have done it. You have successfully killed the zombie. And the other one again is still just kind of crawling along the floor at a very incredibly slow pace. Where. What are you guys up to now?

Fatty Lumpkins: I will go retrieve the mannequin club.

Skylar: Okay.

Fatty Lumpkins: At this point, I'm kind of. Do we just kind of leave this other zombie there to crawl around while we then move on to our main plan? But that's just because I've been very lackluster in this encounter. So I will let the other guys decide. So I'm kind of just going to. Ready in action.

Skylar: Okay. Yeah.

Fatty Lumpkins: In case it comes at me.

Skylar: All right. He's definitely coming towards you guys, but, I mean, it's incredibly slow. He's got to pull his entire body by

Skylar: his hands. So, what about the other two of you guys? Are you guys going to try to finish the zombie off or ignore it for, some increased speed on your current objective, which is making some form of distraction?

Quinn: We just have one more zombie left, right?

Skylar: Yeah. He's just crawling on the floor.

Quinn: I would like to punt. Kick it.

Skylar: Okay. Sounds good. Yeah.

Dave: Don't Charlie Brown it.

Quinn: 11.

Skylar: 11. All right, that's going to hit. So you're going to be doing a sounds like. So it's D4, and then it'll be times the strength plus one. So it's actually a nice little bonus there.

Quinn: Nine.

Skylar: All right, so you. You managed to get nine damage. You rush over, seeing this one zombie left on the floor, and you just punch straight into it. And sure enough, slamming your foot into its head. The sort of already decaying body that it has. The head separates from the shoulders and goes flying out and slams into a display shelf full of RC Bo Knocking a couple boxes off the side and lodging the head onto the shelf which lets out one final. Before closing its mouth permanently. Both zombies are dead. What are you guys grabbing so you can move this distraction?

Quinn: We got to get some, We got to get there any, like.

Fatty Lumpkins: Robots, like David said, that little.

Quinn: There's got to be some robots.

Skylar: Robots.

Quinn: There's got to be a Little, Got.

Cameron: Some little rc, like I said.

Skylar: I mean, they have some like, or the, the bot battle bot type stuff. They're smaller. They're not like the big ones that you see on the. The show, but like get a barking.

Dave: Battle bot and put it in the back of a, RC pickup.

Quinn: Nice.

Skylar: All right.

Dave: Also, well, I tell you guys that we need to get like a, a barking dog robot and put it in the back of a pickup, drive it out there. I'm gonna go check the charging station. So I go over there and look to see if there's any like pickups over there, like charging or. I'm imagining this store has. Since they have a racetrack in it, they have a space for people to charge their cars. And then there might be like a bank of batteries or something.

Skylar: Yeah, absolutely.

Quinn: There'd be a repair workshop, I'm assuming.

Skylar: Yes.

Quinn: In some parts.

Skylar: Yep.

Quinn: I'm going to go check that for some power tools or fatty.

Skylar: Okay.

Quinn: Sounds do I find.

Dave: I'm going to dump out, most of the water bottles from my bag.

Skylar: Okay.

Dave: To create some room.

Quinn: That's a lot of water bottles. Think you need that many?

Dave: Well, no, I don't, so that's why I'm dumping it.

Skylar: Oh, okay.

Dave: I gotta start filling it instead with some lithium ion batteries.

Skylar: Nice. All right, Sounds good. Yeah, you get. I mean, you can pretty much raid this whole store, so you can get quite a few.

Dave: I want the ones that are.

Skylar: That are charged. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, there's definitely a hand handful of back ones. Let's say five.

Quinn: What if we create a distraction, but we keep an RC car with us.

Skylar: To like, just for fun.

Quinn: Well, yeah, distraction for fun, but future distraction.

Skylar: There you go. I mean, as long as you feel like you're willing to carry it. Add it to your items. For sure. I'm going to do a quick jump while you guys are kind of looking through the stuff in the store or looting whatever it is that you're going for. I'm going to jump over to Cover to Cover Bookstore. Meanwhile. So, Jackson, you are inside the COVID to Cover bookstore. You've been here probably held up for. Well, since kind of the whole Black Friday thing happened.

Cameron: Yeah, we've been here for maybe about 30 minutes. I spent about a half hour in the. In the kitchen store looking for gifts for my mother.

Skylar: And you managed to come out of it with a nice big pot lid and a cleaver. Ah, Nice sharp cleaver. When you started noticing, I'm assuming for when you started noticing or Was that what you were getting for your mom?

Cameron: Listen, it's Black Friday. I'm not buying my mom a knife. She's got plenty. It's Black Friday. People are biting people. I say, I'm not gonna get bit, dude. I'm defending myself. I don't know what's going on, but they ain't biting me.

Skylar: That's right. So let me ask you something. When you came here for Black Friday, what was on your Christmas list? Whether it be something for you or something for your mom or whoever.

Cameron: Okay. I was definitely going to get my dad something kind of goofy because he likes. So my dad really likes goofy neckties, so I would definitely be looking for. At the time, would have been looking for a goofy neck type. and my mom always says the same thing every year. She's like, I just want all my babies in the same house. And so I was going to buy her something, for kitchenware she was wanting. and like a different kind of crock pot that was not powered, you know, like a ceramic crock pot in the oven.

Skylar: Yeah. All right. Oh, yeah, Okay. I know. I'm talking about. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Like those blue. They're always like a blue speckled or they're black and they always have that weird speckled thing on them.

Cameron: Right.

Skylar: I don't know what that is, but.

Cameron: You know what I'm talking about.

Skylar: Yep. Okay.

Skylar: All right. So an oven crock pot and a goofy necktie, and then was there anything for yourself that you were hoping to get potentially?

Cameron: for myself at the time, I was always looking for, those, like, battle ready mock lightsabers that people would make and buy. And they were always stupid expensive.

Skylar: They were, yes. Ah, absolutely. Even today.

Cameron: Even today, they're expensive.

Skylar: Okay, sounds good. All right, I've got those down. Just because that's something that obviously, no matter what happens, you are going to want to try to get those. Like you came here for a purpose.

Cameron: If I see it, I'm putting it in my.

Skylar: That's right. Exactly. Exactly. All right, so when things, started to go to crap and you rushed to cover, to cover, just because for whatever reason, maybe you saw survivors there. Maybe people were already pushing bookshelves in front of the door. And you said, that seems like a good idea. I'm going to get inside where it's safe. whatever the case, once you got in there, the bookshelves were pushed in front, you met a handful of characters that were inside the bookstore. You have Claire. She is the manager of COVID to Cover. she's a bit stressed out, as most people would be. but here's the problem. You can tell that she's a little extra stressed out because Black Friday is a big payout for her as the manager. M. She runs a lot on commission, and so Black Friday is kind of a big deal. and this is all kind of just a big mess. And so she's just not even sure what to think. She's confused, she's frustrated. You, got Jake. Jake is the unlucky barista that managed to get put on tonight's shift. And normally unlucky, in this situation, most people would be happy because not a lot of people are getting coffee at Black Friday while they're running from shop to shop trying to get deals. so normally some people would think, oh, this is great. It's going to be boring. But Jake's kind of one of those guys that realizes, man, the night goes so much faster when there's stuff to do, and I kind of would wish to have that. And so you have Jake. He's kind of over everything. He's. He's just kind of frustrated and bored. especially now that he's safe. Right, right. Martha is an elderly retired elementary teacher. she is probably one of those traditional mall walkers. she heard there was a sale at the bookstore, and she had a particular book in mind. And so she drove over here and she waited for a lot of the crowds to run in, and then she just beeline straight for the bookstore and managed to get in without any trouble with the zombies. she was pretty much in the bookstore. She had grabbed the book she was looking for, she started to read the description, turned around, and the barricades were up, and she was safe inside. So she got a lucky position there.

Cameron: I understand how you feel.

Skylar: There's Eli. He's the high school student. Just, kind of a kid trying to get maybe some DVDs or something from the. The section, the digital section over at the bookstore. and then you have two particular characters, that are a little bit, maybe more quote unquote, interesting than the rest. You have Shayna. Shayna is a cameraman for the local news network. And she has her camera out or maybe probably set off to the side. Right now she looks pretty frustrated, and with her is her news anchor, Connor. Connor, is kind of a chill dude. but after everybody kind of ran in here and pushed up some bookshelves and he. He, like, turned around and you didn't see him for a little bit. And when he came back, he looked kind of sick.

Skylar: And so when you are, after you've communicated, you've met these NPC. NPCs.

Quinn: Chance diabetes.

Skylar: You, you saw these people through the window. They said they were going to try to, like, partner up with you, and then said they had some kind of a plan. They disappeared. so you're left in the bookstore right now, and Connor motions for you to come over and talk to him. All right? Like, hey, bro. Hey.

Fatty Lumpkins: All right.

Cameron: What's up, guy? Hey, look, what can I do for you?

Skylar: cha. Dude. kind of messed up a little bit. so my blood sugar was running a little bit low with, the bookshelves and everything. And so I grabbed, one of those candy bars right there, and he points over to the shelf and he's like, turns, out it's like some kind of weird holiday Mega Sugar Crunch something or other. I thought it was just like a regular, like, kind of like Clif bar or something and. Nah, bro, nah. It's, super high sugar. And so now my sugar's off the charts. And I dropped my insulin when I was running from the zombies. Okay, Is there any chance you could be a total bro and get me some insulin while you're out?

Cameron: you know what? I'd be willing to do that if you admit that a Cliff bar is not a normal freaking candy bar.

Skylar: Okay?

Cameron: Kidding me? No, I said, you thought it was a normal candy bar, like a Cliff bar.

Skylar: Okay, Normal bar. Sorry. I'm sorry. Normal bar. Just like, just a bar. Just get a little bit of sugar in it, get my. My levels back. But nah, nah, brah, it was something else.

Cameron: Okay, where'd you drop your insulin?

Skylar: I have a note in my. My notes right here that

Skylar: says, where did he drop the bag, question mark?

Quinn: No.

Cameron: World may never know.

Skylar: Give me that map. No, I have it on here. Never mind.

Cameron: Am I supposed to run over to We Sell Drugs pharmacy?

Skylar: Look, bro, I mean, here's the thing. I'm sure there's probably some insulin over at the pharmacy. Absolutely. Totally. Totally. I'm pretty sure. I think it dropped it actually, not. Not too far from here. I think it was probably right over by Happy Beginnings Massage, because we were doing a story or we doing an interview with the guy that owns the massage place about the frustrations of lack, of customers on. On Black Friday. so, yeah, if you. If you could do that for me, that'd be totally sick, bro.

Cameron: So actual symptoms are like, Redness in the face, sweating, maybe a little bit of bloating. Am I right in thinking that?

Skylar: Okay, can I swell a little bit?

Cameron: Can I tell if he has any, like, symptoms that would indicate, like, a zombie bite? Can I tell, if he's really.

Skylar: I mean, you look him over and you don't see. I mean, at the very least, you don't see. See any blood marks or anything like that. I mean, if you wanted to do a perception check, nobody's done one of those yet. So it's just, Yeah, absolutely. So It's. It's the D10 plus your perception stat. And if you have, any kind of skills that you feel like, relate to that, you can let me know.

Cameron: that would be a 7.7total on the perception.

Skylar: Yeah, I mean, there's really just nothing, like I said. I mean, he doesn't have any blood splotches or anything like that. You just. Just from a general look at him, like, it's hard to tell whether it was zombies or a zombie situation or just, you know, like I said, your typical diabetic, overdose of sugar, basically.

Cameron: Gotcha.

Skylar: I don't know. That's fair terminology. So, yeah, I mean, that's. That's the basic gist of his situation, as far as you can tell.

Cameron: Okay, I'll narrow my eyes, but I'll be like, yo, yeah, yeah, when I get out of here, I'll go get your insulin. Sure.

Skylar: Thanks, brah. I appreciate it. Totally appreciate it. Hey, if we get out of this live, could I also get an interview with you about it for the news, I guess.

Cameron: Nice local news channel. Like anyone, but boomers watches that.

Skylar: Anyway, okay, so Claire approaches you and she says, hey, if you're gonna go out there, please keep an eye. An eye out for Mary. My daughter Mary. She. She was in the back room. I told her to stay there, stay away from the crowds, and I came out here to run things in the store. I gave her a book to read and everything, but when I went back, she was gone. I don't know where she's at. just, please, if you can, if you get out of here and you're not able to make it to us, just take her with you if you see her.

Cameron: What did she look like?

Skylar: She's wearing a yellow coat. Hopefully she brought her coat. I hope I didn't see it in the room. So I think she did. She wore a coat here. It was yellow. Just like, bright yellow.

Cameron: What kind of shoes does she wear?

Skylar: They're pink tennis Shoes, little pink. And they got the lights on them.

Cameron: Like this just got light up. Pink tennis shoes. That'll be easier. Cuz like it's much harder to lose shoes than it is to lose like a yellow code.

Skylar: Oh, sure, that's a good point.

Cameron: Because like, what if I just found her coat floating in the, in the fountain and I'm like, sorry, oh my God.

Quinn: What do you think?

Dave: Please don't say such a thing.

Cameron: Yeah, yeah, I'll keep an eye out.

Skylar: Thank you so much. That's all I ask. And she, she walks away. Probably, to go stand, guard over by the front where the things are. And then of course you could kind of see her watching out the, the windows to try to see if she can maybe spot her daughter or something.

Cameron: Is the, power still on? Right, Everything works. I would like to make myself, just a straight double shot of espresso.

Skylar: Oh, absolutely. In fact, Jake probably help you. He's like, yeah, it's not like I'm doing anything else, man.

Cameron: I need that right now.

Skylar: Here you go, dude. And yeah, he just, he pops the little spoon thingies into the machine full of, the espresso, ground espresso, and he pours you a couple of espresso shots and hands them off to you. Awesome. And with that, you are energized and ready to go with a couple of little side quests that you can bring to the group. The rest of the group is you guys have your distraction, you have your robot dog, you have your, RC vehicle ready to go to create this distraction. And with that, we will close out tonight's episode of Black Friday of the Dead. Thank you all for joining us for another episode of our All Flesh Must be Eaten. One Shot. Black Friday of the Dead, which represents our celebration of the holiday season. We hope you're enjoying a little zombie fighting action amidst, your Christmas fun. If you are, we encourage you to check out some of our other series, such as our Avatar Legends long Term campaign, Benders and Brews, which is set in the world of the Last Airbender, or our dungeons and long term series, Criminals of Isla New.

Skylar: If you're looking for more spooky actual play content from us, I encourage you to go check out our Hunter's Haven series, which now has two different stories. Music Mayhem, which was written and run by Cameron, who you heard in this series, and Trick or Treat, Fight or Flee, which was written by Nate Vagart, who you can hear play in our Escape from Dino Island. One shot. Whatever you listen to next, be sure to follow or subscribe to the Session zero Heroes Podcast on your preferred podcast streaming platform. You can find us everywhere from Apple Podcasts to Spotify to YouTube. Following the show ensures that you don't miss out on any of our upcoming series and one shots. And if you're on a platform that allows you to comment, like or rate our show, it would mean a lot if you would take the time to leave us that feedback as it helps us grow and produce even better content. Another way to keep up with us and what we're doing is to follow us on social media, whether that be Facebook x Instagram, Discord or all of the above. It's a great way to keep up with our upcoming episodes as well as other fun news and content from us. We appreciate you taking a listen. The series will air through the month of November 2024 and into December 2024, so be sure to swing back to get the rest of the exciting conclusion to this special holiday zombie series. We'll see you guys next time.