I do as well because of all the hard work he put into it.
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No problem, not your fault, sorry that you lost all of that hard work! What Happened if you all want to know. Thank you for the game! I had a good time! Please make sure to hide the game when Rich acknowledges.
Crap! Ok, please keep us posted.
"Let's just use my car and see what we find that is easy for the scavenging? We will keep the bus on the back burner for now. Are you ready?"
Marcus nods, "I agree, we should try to get the keys if it is safe. Or we can take my car and hopefully find an electronics kit along the way? Lastly, we can always drive the pickup with the horn sounding until we find a spot where it is safe from CMDs to fully disarm the system. Of course, no promises of safety from the remaining survivors." Marcus looks at Rich, "What do you think Rich?"
"How much you know about electronics Greg? I will need someone to watch over me to see I don't make a mistake and cause the alarm to sound drawing unwanted attention. If we had Jojo's keys, we could silently turn off the alarm?"
Marcus nods, "Yes, a bus is not fuel efficient. However, there is probably plenty of fuel for one operating bus in the region which can either be taken from the gas stations, diesel vehicles, fuel farms, or public safety departments. In addition, we can make the diesel last longer by making the bus a bio-fuel bus by making minor changes to the fuel system. I am sure there is a restaurant or two with grease captures with our names on it and who cares if we smell like french fries as we drive around. And there is the tactical advantage of sitting up high, having multiple exits and entrances into the vehicle which only one is easy to access, a sturdy frame to move road debris, and an engine that keeps on running. I have read that people changed out the diesel engine for a wood gasification engines. Personally, I don't like that idea since we need live trees to help us survive with plenty of good oxygen, we use wood to build with, and we currently do not have a gasfication engine which are rare to begin with due to popularity only within the survival community. We can wait until later for the bus but we should stock up on a diesel additive that neutralizes both water and algae that grows in diesel fuel tanks?" Marcus nods, "A 4x4 pick-up is the most decent of smaller vehicles, and diesel dually would be the most ideal in that category. The only problem is safety for people and items in the bed. Also, remember 4x4s are also not fuel efficient and regular gas breaks down while diesel does not but obviously has its own problems but it is not as bad as regular gas. If we want to go off road, perhaps we should look for ATVs, or motorcycles, or better yet, horses. If can find Arabians or Gypsy Vanner horses, the better. Gypsy Vanner horses are the beautiful horses that were given to Bilbo, the Dwarves, and Gandalf in the Hobbit by Beorn. Before CMD zero hour, the breed had began to gain popularity in the US. And Arabians are the winners of many endurance rides across the world in both desert and temperate climates" LATER ... Marcus looks at Greg, "Sorry for your vehicular loss Greg." Then looks at Rich, "Well, if we get a tow truck or like vehicle, we might as well get that bus but I understand your point and I can disable it with maybe a little help since I have a multipurpose tool and not an electronic kit?"
Yes sorry, I have a PCI (Credit Card Industry) Audit and an intensive device implementation at work all at the same time. In addition, a very sick dog that has almost died twice on her own and we almost put her down once. I think we have her on the mend now and thinking she has an autoimmune disease or Lupus. We are going to bring her in for an ultrasound to see if the damage done by Lupus is not too severe. I will be posting today some time.
"Do you guys want to go to the studio in my car, and maybe spot a school bus on the way? We will probably have to clear of CMDs and some could be children?"
"Yeah, I played video games during idle time, boring executive status meetings, and during times of insomnia. Otherwise, I was working, geeking out, working out, or learning about survival. Well, we could run to my car to head out to the studio and if we can ascertain a bus on the way, we would be sitting pretty, especially a newer school bus."
Thank you! And I'll post tonight, work is a little busy today.
Marcus still makes a life vest armor for Richard, "Richard, using the armor is up to you but this is for zombie ambushes not fighting zombies like Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher video game series. The extra padding just may save your life. In addition, it will still act as a life vest." Marcus laughs.
After finishing the vests, and the data mining operation just in case they have to quickly exit the building, Marcus uses the remaining time to make more javelins.
While looking at the map, "While we may find a lot of medicine and antibiotics at the hospital, we should try to keep away from there unless we have a really good plan. I am guessing that is where large number of CMDs or Zombies are at?"
Hey guys, I will post either tonight or tomorrow. It's been a rough (3) days. We found out Friday, our dog may have an auto-immune genetic disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, both are nasty and dangerous. She vomited after giving her Cipro antibiotic and the vomiting up alone looked like it was taking the life out of her. She was also taking Panacur for Whipworm but we read the Sentinel Anti-Heartworm Medicine also killed whipworms so we cut her off leaving Minocycline which is an antibiotic for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF). She started to show signs of improvement and tonight was her first day/night of having any food for about two weeks without vomiting. We are hoping this is a turning point and she will not have any lasting affects from RMSF. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) is a nasty disease, it basically weakens the blood vessels in your body to a point where you start bleeding internally and out of your nose. And since your organs are no longer receiving all of the blood needed, organ and muscle damage begin to take place. Humans can get it too from ticks which dogs can to. But you can also contract from licking up infected tick tissues which a dog is more likely to do. Although the disease has Rocky Mountain in the name, which means it originates in the Rocky Mountains, it is more prevalent on the East Coast of the USA.
Marcus nods, "We should pick up dry protein shakes since we don't know where the water originated in the liquid protein shakes. However, we should focus on eating like the Native Americans ate and I will do some research to see if there has been any reported cases of infection from animal meat. That is why we are facing this problem, we are civilization that embraced it was a good idea to introduce chemicals as a source of food. If we would just eat like our ancient relatives and exercise like them, we would all be in better shape. Although, the protein drinks and food is better than nothing."
Marcus nods, "I can save the information to my flash disks and/or internal Solid State Drives and even compress the data. I went completely solid state with this computer, no moving parts that will break easy excluding the cooling fans but that is easier to fix than failed hard drives. We can do the searches you mentioned tomorrow or when it is safe to again. I copied down a list of local nuclear plants and power plants which I maybe can bring back online. Although, maybe not the nuclear plants but at least I can monitor their cooling ponds to know when we should flee an area because the cooling pond went dry and now exposed fuel rods are spewing radioactive dust into the atmosphere. As for what we call hardware stores in America, we call them Home Depot, Lows, or Mom and Pop Hardware Stores. And military stores are called Military Surplus stores. We can walk, drive, or ride by these stores but depending on how fast this disease spread, there may have been a run on these stores or people may have seek refuge in them which they can be guarding fiercely or as a zombie?"
Marcus keeps one of his newly made spears nearby.
Marcus carefully deletes the zombie genre findings and says to himself, "I KNOW! Such a shame but why read make believe stories about the ZPOC when you are currently living through one? However, I will keep the zombie survival stuff by Mel Brooks and other authors to test it out when we are bored and safe." "Hmm, what is this?" Marcus reads out loud in a non-carrying voice of Dr Horace Boderick findings and research to Rich and Greg.
Since there is not enough light coming through, Marcus will tie a life vest straps together to form a tether, place something that will jingle (keys, or whatever is in the shop that will jingle) if the solar panels are trying to blow or walk away. He the deploys just outside the escape hole to avoid too much detection from the undead or make it hard for the living undesirables to observe him. He then attaches an extension cord the shop has, plugs the cable into the the inverter, and a surge protector on the other end where the computer and phone will be plugged into just in case of malfunction or act of nature. While Marcus deploys the solar panel/charger he nods in agreement with Richard, and speaks quietly, "I agree with you Richard, we should keep moving until we find a more perfect shelter that will offer us safety, shelter, water, and food or all of the basic needs, if one exists? And if we assimilate more survivors, we can think of a more nomadic life style. Currently, it's kind of unsafe for a complete nomadic lifestyle.
After the data download, he waits for his computer to charge if necessary. Repacks his satellite phone and spends ...
... spends (2) hours researching afterwards ...
As soon as or if the computer web crawl process starts working, Marcus asks, "While the computer process is running, should I or we now make spears from oars or armor from life vests? Are you two interested in a life vest zombie armor? While not perfect, it will offer some protection."
Knowing the longer he waits, the Internet will continue to "fade away" server by server, OC-X by OC-X line, as more and more Nuclear Plants SCRAM and Data Centers run out of diesel fuel for generators. Marcus takes out his computer and satellite phone since that would probably be the best connectivity medium to use at this point. First, he prepares a web crawler to search for key words/phrases and download the associated content for later reviewing/research since the computer can search faster than he can browse. Keywords he will be searching for: 1. Real Life Zombies
"Greg and Richard, any key words you want me to add to look for locally? Tell me now, we may not get another chance if I can not hack into a nuke or power plant to restore power, and then ask ourselves do we really want to without catastrophic failure?"" 9.
After he finds what parts of the Internet are still working and pieces them together, he will let the computer do the research collection. He sets that data collection to 75% of his remaining hard drive before stopping. He will also connect his computer and phone into the Solar recharger to extend online time. He places the computer, phone, and solar charger in as safe as a location possible.
Marcus nods his head, "Nice work Richard! First evaporating the water then collecting the steam via a filter is a great process! How many gallons do you think we will get out of it max?"
Marcus nods to Greg, "Exactly and I don't think either of us is willing to see if the boiling method works?! By any chance did you guys see a fish tank while searching the building? We could user the filter charcoal if they have any spare charcoal?"
As Marcus searches his pack for the water purifier, he contains himself into a stressed but quiet voice, "CRAP! The water purifier must have fallen out?! If that is the case, our water situation is dismal. Anyone find a water purifier during their search or perhaps materials we can use to make a filter? How about the factory floor, is it all concrete. We can perhaps burn a fire in the middle as long we make vents and clear flammables out of the way? Of course, if the z juice in the water is heat resistant, then the fire idea will be waste of time and resources." Marcus pauses, "Another thing we can do is make bite resistant armor out of the life vests. It will not be perfect nor save you from a group, but it may save us from ambushers or a couple of zeds. When we are finally settle, I can attempt to hack of what remains of the Internet to see what is all going on?"
Oh crap! On second thought, it appears Marcus does not have a portable water filter. I either thought about it and never took it or getting mixed up with another character I had that did have one. So yeah, we currently have a water problem. I will re-role play that.
First order of business, Marcus goes through the building kindly asking Richard and Greg to help him with the tasks he sets out to do. He talks quietly as they make survival improvements by securing the doors and windows, "We can not stay in here long because of the lack of food but we can make this a place to recollect our thoughts until we move out or find something better?" Next, Marcus uses his axe to make a hole in the roof for a quick get away, then covers it up to keep the elements out and places whatever object near the hole to easy climb out through the hole but the undead will have a hard time using it. Marcus then collects all of the empty bottles and containers he can find, cleans them out the best he can and with soap if possible. Then he runs tap water through his 13,000 gallon Katadyn Pocket (portable) water filter to clean out the toxins filling up all the clean empty bottles with clean water. While filling up the bottles, Marcus quietly states, "Although hunger is quite uncomfortable, a human can not live longer than 3 days average without water. Of course, the environment and the person's activity can change those 3 days to as little as 1 day or up to 10 days. While the average days a human can go without food is 30 days. Again, this is affected by the environment and the person's activity. Believe or not, you burn more calories while cold than hot as your body tries to keep you alive in the cold. After filling the bottles of water, Marcus collects all remaining paddles, "Maybe we can make longer stabbing spears and javelins out of these remaining paddles to conserve ammo but still give us distance while discussing our next steps especially gathering food?"
I am still here, I'll be posting some time today.
I am now a sleeper, lying in wait ... :-)
I am still here ... lurking ... watching the thread.
I believe RocksAhead has been really busy at work and I believe it was Jojo's turn.
Marcus moves closer to the Civic Center and looks around to make sure they are not being accidentally herded into another group of sickos.
Too distracted by the pursuing sickos, nothing catches his eye. He looks at the good doctor, "HEY DOC, BE CAUTIOUS!"
Marcus shoots the zombie to is diagonal left, then moves down the Civic Center's drive way to 5' from Jojo's right. As he moves back, he watches and waits for people to shoot or makes sure they are aware he is crossing their path so Marcus does not get shot while moving back. In addition, he is aware of his own firearm safety.
"There's too many of them, don't fight them in hand to hand combat! Hit them and then move away towards the Civic Center for now."
Sorry all, really busy at work and home. I am hoping to post Friday or some time this weekend. In fact, it is 12:35 am and I am installing one million dollar network system. My data center engineers are replacing a bad fiber cable so I am posting this while I have time.
Marcus makes a mental note of how far they can sniff out humans.
Marcus keeping his promise to Ranger Greg, and without making sounds, he keeps everyone moving and dry heaving towards the Civic Center trying to keep the gagging group from attracting the lodge zombies. Marcus does not want to engage any of the zombies until the group is on the lake side front of the civic center. To further throw his muffled gun shot off from their true location.
I am ok with that. All campaigns seem to have slown down for many different reasons.
Still surviving. And it's ok, real life first.
Marcus shrugs and in a hush tone, [::]"The civic center maybe just as infested with zombies as the resort but we should still try? And if the road is clear, that would be better route than the underbrush."[::]
Marcus whispers back, [::]"It will probably safer to get off the road or off this road as soon as everyone is done with their dry heaving. Until then, let's keep to the road heading in the opposite direction of the patrolling zombies."[::]
Sorry all for my absence or slow post times, I was first under the weather this week and then I have had to catch up on career work including setting up my new Windows 10 workstation at work. It was one machine out of a batch that were accidentally ordered and one was given to me. It is a little overkill (Xeon with 32 GBs of RAM) for a network security engineer but I am not complaining ... :-) I want to be caught up in all my games by this weekend.
Keeping his voice low only for the group to hear, "Let's keep moving, faster if possible, the roving zombies are catching up to us but they don't seem to notice us? We need to get far enough away from the larger group before we have a mob we can not handle, preferably both groups. If we have to, it maybe better to duck into the forest and off the road."
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