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[Iituem]

Early Spring, 2081, Logandale, New England

The world just ended.  Worse, I have a headache that would split wood.  So last night Todd breaks up with me (my fault, getting with a guy called Todd, I mean what the hell sort of name is that anyway?) and I decide fuck it all, I'm going on a bender.  I'm already paralytic with the 'flu, out of cough syrup, so I sit down on the empty floor in my new house's study, crack open some gin and work my way through the bottle.  There's screaming and banging sounds, and I reckon some arsehole neighbour has the telly on too loud, makes me jump, and I end up dropping the bottle and cutting my hand open!  God, I need to get that cleaned at some point.  So at this point it's all too much for me.  I run myself a bath, get in for a good soak and when I get out there are people in the streets killing each other, one guy is literally trying to eat someone else and my house is on fire!

My house.  My house that I paid three hundred grand for and just moved into three weeks ago for my fancy new editor job is on fire.  What the fuck.  What the flying, fraternising fuck?

I am drunk, sick, I've just cut my arm open, my house is on fire and the dead walk the earth, reaving the living.

Really.  Bad.  Day.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Iituem]

Spoiler: Zed Day, My House (click to show/hide)

Zed-Day, My House

The main door out of my bedroom is on fire, so I try and get out through the kitchen door instead, although pretty soon all the entrances to that are on fire as well.  I spot a leather corset my friend gave me for a birthday, the only clothing in my room (everything else in the wash or unpacked).  With nothing else, I grab it.  I clamber out of the window, wearing nothing more than the towel I was in when I left the bathroom and corset in hand, only to find that the neighbouring houses have been reduced to rubble!  Did someone order a missile strike on Logandale?  What the fuck?



Shambling figures start advancing towards me in the distance, and my courage breaks.  I run for the woods, nothing to my name but my towel, and see a town in flames behind.

I make it to the woods, but I am cold, afraid and half-naked with only a leather corset to protect me (I abandon the towel, being dripping wet and only adding to the cold).  I spot distant cougars in the woods and panic.  I need something to wear, or I'm a dead woman by cold if nothing else.  I dare not return to my house, but the cold presses me back.  I circle around the town, looking to perhaps break into a house on the southern edge.



As I approach, I find myself beset by a bewilderingly corpulent man, grossly obese and covered in pustulent purple sores.  He clumsily advances towards me, trying to claw at my face with swollen hands.  I pick up a nearby rock and throw it at him, to no deterrence.  I grab it again and, fearing for my life, strike him in the face with it.  He continues to strike at me, so I hit him once, twice more - and then he explodes!  He literally explodes into a burst of pink goop, covering me with it and blinding me for the moments it takes for me to wipe it from my eyes.  God knows what this will do to my cut.



I smash open the window of the house I approach with the rock I killed that exploding man with, then spend a couple of minutes cleaning away the glass shards so as not to cut myself climbing in.

Jackpot!  The wardrobe in the homeowner's bedroom is perfect for me.  Not everything fits, but there is functional underwear, a very nice fedora and some cargo shorts that mean I can actually carry things!  Hooray for women's clothing occasionally containing pockets, maybe, if the designer was feeling particularly feminist that day.  Mrgh.



I add some sneakers to my ensemble.  There is a lovely waistcoat, but I leave it be - I found a long-sleeved shirt to go under the corset, and now I've actually got quite a nice bassinet look.  I start moving about the house when a twisted-looking zombie smashes through the window and again, explodes!  This time the creature releases a cloud of noxious gas, and I go into a coughing fit, reeling backwards as a second zombie, this time merely a deceased-looking woman in a halter top and jeans, comes clawing at me.  With nothing else to hand, I am forced to literally beat it to death with my own two fists.

Dragging myself away, I find a set of basement stairs leading down from the house.  After some fumbling I locate a torch, and once again luck seems to be with me - the whole basement is stocked full of useful supplies!  There is a first aid kit with disinfectant, so the first thing I do is sit down and clean my cut from before.



Now I just need to decide - do I try to scavenge more from the town, or now that I have the basics should I head back to the woods and try and get a basic camp started away from the hordes?

For clarity:  Forest, or more Urban Scavenging?  Scavenging at this stage is very, very dangerous, but there are useful items in Logandale.

[Fniff]

Do you have any proper weapons in the vicinity? Even 2x4s from smashed up furniture would count. Fisticuffs is all well and good, but it's a death sentence if you're an amateur surrounded by a ravening horde.

[Iituem]

If I can find a bladed object, I can cut a cudgel, which is an excellent starting weapon.  Can do that in town (find a knife) or in the woods (make a knife).

[Fniff]

I vote the woods, then. Safest bet. Anyone agree?

[~Neri]

Woods.

If you can find a car, even better.

[gimlet]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh man, I hope you took that string.  And I woulda taken the waistcoat, even just to cut up for rags later, those are tough to get in the woods.

OK, here's what I'd try:  Did you say you had a flashlight?  Smash the bed to get 2x4s and rags,  use a 2x4 to smash the shelves until you get lumps or chunks of steel (hammering 1).  Then turn the flashlight on and quickly make 2 spikes, use 1 spike and a rag to make a makeshift knife, and 1 or better 2 bindles to carry stuff.   The bindles will really hurt in combat, so you really don't want to fight, just run to the forest.  And if you have to drop them to stay alive, hey oh well.  Anyway the goal is to use the 2nd spike to make a knife spear, *awesome* early weapon that can hit enemies at distance 2 - really helps survival.

Without the string I don't think your light will last long enough to get thread from a rag, so you won't actually be able to make the knife spear here.

Run out of the house, try to grab a long string or 2 on the way out, smash a window if you have to.  Avoid combat and head to the forest.  Try to carry enough rags/clothing on the way out so you can make gloves and socks and scarves and hats, it's still damn cold in spring and your hands, face and head will be in danger of frostbite pretty quickly if you don't make some clothing.

If you don't have a light to craft with, at least smash the stuff and get the materials, pop upstairs to make the bindles somewhere you'll have a few turns undisturbed (only takes 48 seconds to make one).  Then grab your materials and as much other stuff as you can on the way out of town.

Although boy I'd actually be tempted to use this nice basement as a base, you can get warm down here especially if the beds have blankets, there's a bunch of food so you could wait out the worst part of the flu.  You can nip upstairs and take out the zombies one at a time, if you get hurt enough you can run back down to sleep some health back.  Even if you have to use a pipe (from broken shelves) or 2x4 as weapon for a bit, you can still probably clear them out enough to be able to craft upstairs at least enough to make a better weapon.

Heh rereading, looks like you just wanted "scavenge or woods".  Uhh scavenge a bit but be careful and ready to run for it

[SeriousConcentrate]

I'm just going to PTW this, even if I contribute little due to never lasting long in C:DDA.

[~Neri]

You need to get rid of that wound or you're dead in a day or two.

[Iituem]

Spoiler: Woodland Survival (click to show/hide)

Zed Day, Logandale & Logandale Woods

On reflection, perhaps I am not quite done scavenging from this house.  I get hold of the former curtain from the window I smashed, along with the rock I used to smash it.  A few seconds of careful tying and voila!  A simple sling I can wear across my shoulder to carry things.  It will do for now.

Using said rock I smash apart a couple of the metal cabinets in the basement and bring the metal up to the surface, where I can work in the light filtering through the spot where the curtains used to be.  I can still hear moaning outside, so I keep out of sight of the window itself.

It takes about five minutes and some fiddling, but I manage to tie my rock securely enough with string to a piece of the curtain rail (which I break down to a usable size) to serve as a functional hammer.  With the hammer, I am able to beat one of the chunks of steel from the cabinets into a thin, flattened metal spike.  A little duct tape on the end, and I have a working screwdriver.  A second piece I hammered long, but with a working edge to serve as a blade.  I wrap the string from the curtains around the end, tie it up and have a crude knife.



Now I can get to the real business.  The twenty minutes or so it takes to disassemble one of the beds in the house with my shiny new hammer and screwdriver brings me to mid-day, but leaves me with ample materials to work with.  I cut one of the bed boards into a cudgel.  I smash an empty bookshelf for splinters and pick the largest of them to serve as a simple needle to go with the copious thread available.  Two hours or more pass as I stitch together bedsheets into a thicker quilt, something to serve as cover in the eventual night.  I stitch together a scarf, and wrap some rags around my hands in place of gloves.  I have been eating bread found in the house up until now, but I am getting thirstier and thirstier as time goes by.  Water is becoming a pressing need.



The rampaging hordes appear to have thinned some, enough at least for me to move.  I am getting tired, and perhaps I might be able to shelter here in this house overnight, but I need to get water before that can happen.  My throat is already parched.

The taps aren't working, naturally, but mercifully the toilet has been flushed.  I find a big jar, able to store some three litres, and fill it with toilet water.  Needless to say, I want to boil this before I drink it.

Right then.  Time to make it to the woods.



Ah, crap.  Zombie that looks like an American football player, zombie dog, God knows what else.  Let's see if this cudgel works out, then.  I drop my sling to the floor and ready myself.

The dog struggles climbing through the window, and that's all the gap I need.  I bring the cudgel down swiftly and repeatedly on its head until the creature's skull pops - only then does it stop moving.  The hench zombie comes next, scrambling through the window hole.  I again use the balanced nature of the cudgel to my advantage, striking several weak but stunning shots against the creature's joints.  I am able to keep up enough of a flurry of blows that he never has time enough to recover and actually land any of the blows that I am sure would kill me outright.  I am eventually able to snap his neck with a blow to the jaw, and he falls.

The hench zombie has full length cargo pants in my size, and since I'm already wearing stolen clothing I do not scruple to take them, disgusting as it may be.  He also has a steel hammer tucked into one of his pockets, which I happily take to replace my rock mallet.

I make a break for the forest.  A zombie, twisted and overly tall with a hole where its mouth once was, comes for me and throws back its head as it approaches, let out a blood-curdling scream.  Fantastic, tell the whole neighbourhood, why don't you?  I crack its head open with my cudgel and peg it towards the treeline.

I make it to the trees, finding only a single zombie following me - a six year old girl in a ruined pink dress.  As she claws her way towards me through the trees I feel sick from more than the 'flu.  A single stroke to the neck fells her, but I can't stop seeing the child, rather than the monster.

Free from pursuit, I continue into the woods.

[Some very useful advice there.  Have followed, for the most part.  Don't have the fabrication skill for the knife spear, also wasn't aware it had reach.]

Lorelle, a red-haired woman with pale skin and green eyes, is wearing a white fedora, a black leather corset over a white long-sleeved shirt (rolled up at the elbows), a patchwork white scarf around her neck, cargo pants, sneakers and wraps of cloth around her hands.  She wields a slender wooden rod as her preferred weapon.

Spoiler: OotS Style! (click to show/hide)

[Tawa]

You're going to need to run into town pretty soon and organize a strike on that pharmacy. That wound is going to kill you.

[Iituem]

Ah, I might not have made it clear enough; there were first aid kits in the house basement, so I disinfected and cleaned it already (and cured the existing infection).  But you're right, if there wasn't we'd be beelining it towards a doctor's/pharmacy.  o_o

For those less familiar with Cata, the basic medical setup is as follows (note, basic):

Bandages - Heal hitpoints depending on first aid skill.  Can be used to stop bleeding.
Rags - A less effective bandage.  Can use them as with bandages, but lower chance of working.
A Knife + Fire / A Hotplate - If you're bleeding out, you can use this to cauterise the wound.  Hurts like buggery, and doesn't always succeed, but if you have nothing else it'll do.  You can also use it to clean nasty wounds through the power of fire before they become infected.
Painkillers - This includes aspirin, poppy painkillers, tramadol, codeine, oxycodone, and heroin in order of increasing strength.  Doesn't help you recover health, but pain interferes with everything you do.  Can get addicted to painkillers, more easily than you think.
Disinfectant - If a wound is not yet infected, but the bite feels unusually painful, you can use this to clean it out.  Safer and more effective than cauterising yourself.
Antibiotics - If your wound is already infected, one of only two ways to cure the infection and survive.  Infection will kill you unless you can cure it.
First Aid Kit - A little of everything.  Heals you better than bandages, cleans and disinfects wounds, cures existing infection and stops bleeding.  An excellent tool.

[Tawa]

...Hm. Could've sworn you needed antibiotics if it got infected. o_o

Also that was a screwup on my part in which I accidentally skipped over a sentence or so of text. Whoops. :v

[Iituem]

Spoiler: Food & Shelter (click to show/hide)

Logandale Woods

Gathering firewood isn't a problem.  Nor is lighting it.  Finding something to boil my water in is.  Night has drawn in, but I have little choice.  I head back to the town, stalking through the pitch darkness and hoping my hearing is better than that of the walking dead.  The first house I enter has what I need and more.  In addition to a metal pot, I find a wrench (might be useful later, if nothing else it's heavy), a steak knife and an uncooked burrito that still seems to be in date.  Ransacking wardrobe reveals a thicker scarf, some lovely black leather gloves that match my corset and a cheap pulp novel that might be fun to read.  I also find an alarm clock and, uh... electronic relief.  Thank God, it's clean.

On my way back I encounter a zombie by sheer misfortune, and loaded down with loot I don't have time to drop, he manages to get a couple of nasty bites in before I down him.  Unwilling to waste my first aid supplies, but needing to clean the wound, I get out the steak knife and hold my lighter flame beneath it...

AAAURGH!

Hhhnh.  Oka-a-y, that's the f-first one...

GRAAAAH!

I stumble back to camp, incoherent from pain.  I set fire to a handful of sticks I gathered and start by putting the foil-wrapped burrito in the fire and leaving it to warm while I fetch the water jar.  The burrito tastes like manna from heaven.  I boil up as much water as I can bring myself to drink, and then stagger over to my blanket and drop like the dead.  I vaguely see the alarm clock say 12:35...



Six hours and nine minutes later, I am rudely awoken by rough hands trying to claw me to death.  Huzzah.


Day Two



I am fortunate enough to find some bird eggs in a nearby tree, so breakfast is scrambled and delicious.  My breakfast is interrupted by a sickly yellow zombie with a swollen, almost clear stomach.  It vomits up a spray of caustic acid as I approach, nearly burning my skin.  Several well-placed strokes, and the creature dissolves into a pool of its own vomit.  I wipe down my cudgel and return to breakfast.  I am proud to say I am developing some skill with this weapon.



It is half seven in the morning, and a bright new day ahead.  I'm a little tired, but I doubt I'll get back to sleep now.  The world as I knew it has ended, but things could certainly be worse.  I'm still alive, even if I'm a bit battered.  I have clothes, and generally good ones too, and my 'flu seems to have cleared up as well!  Auspicious, I feel.

This day quickly soured.  Whilst out searching for pine boughs for a shelter, I am attacked by more athletic zombies, and worse the bites result in my cauterising them and suffering terrible pain.  Whilst I am able to dispatch them, as well as what appears to have once been a fireman, I am left injured and in pain.



I cut a stick for digging, gather branches and sticks, and after a hearty meal prepare to construct a shelter for myself.  My alarm clock informs me that it is 2:05pm.  It takes me two hours, but by the time I am done I have a welcome bivouac to use.

I am knackered, but there is still daylight left.  I work on digging a shallow trench around my shelter, to give me a little advance movement against further zombies or other attackers.  It works well enough when what looked like the skeleton of a dog, animated by strands of muscle and little else, came to attack me.  It struggled with the ditch, giving me ample time to dispatch it.

I head into my shelter for a long, well-deserved rest.

[Iceblaster]

I skimmed through this to catch myself up and I couldn't help but notice in the latest post you were inhaling smoke form the fire. I'd suggest standing a tile away from the fire until you get a fireplace. It'll keep you from unnecessarily losing torso health.

Besides that, I don't really have much else to contribute besides telling you to go see if you can make a makeshift shelter. Needs about 15 pine boughs and some heavy sticks, but it is essentially a tile of indoor space that'll protect you from rain and the like. Requires 2 survival though.