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Your goal is to survive this outbreak. You may discover new bits of information about this outbreak or you may not. Survival is your main objective and never forget that. You will be given 5 characters and 5 chances to survive. Each character has different abilities, traits, personalities, and are all located in different places. All characters can die at a moment’s notice. Characters cannot be revived.

If a character gets transformed into a zombie, you can still make choices for them. However, they cannot be changed back into a human. Becoming a zombie will lock that character out of any ending except for bad endings. Remember, zombie bites do not transform you into a zombie. This is not an infection. Trying to be silly and doing something to get bitten will not allow your character to become a zombie. It will likely just lead to the character getting eaten and dying from their injuries.

You are given the ability to switch characters at any time after you have at least made 3 choices with your current character. When switching, there is a predetermined order that will be done. You cannot choose who you switch to.

There are four types of endings: True Endings, Happy Endings, Okay Endings, and Bad Endings.
(Note that true endings are not necessarily the happiest.)

If 4 characters get an okay ending or better, a sixth character will unlock. If 2 characters get a happy ending, a sixth character will unlock. If 2 characters gets a true ending, the sixth character will unlock. Having a mix of happy and true endings works too if at least 2 characters get them. Finally, there is a hidden item/event in each story. If all 5 characters find the hidden item/see the secret event, the sixth character will unlock regardless of the ending they achieve. There is no way to know if an item or event will be the secret event until I tell you. The sixth character’s story will reveal the whole truth behind this zombie apocalypse. Try your best to unlock this character!

Now, I will explain each character.

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1. Jack – A middle-aged, truck driver. He is a no-nonsense man who tells it like it is. He hunts in his spare time and is a good shot. His wife, Jacky, had divorced him because he was not around as much as she wanted. He has partial custody of his child, Lindsey, but Jacky has her this week. He will begin his story while hunting in the wilderness.

Pros:
>can make accurate shots that do not require a dice roll
>the strongest character available
>patient, will be able to hide for long periods of time without getting restless

Cons:
>cannot run for long distances or very fast
>does not do well in groups
>knows little first aid

Jack’s Endings:
True Ending: Find a safe place to survive alone.
Happy Ending: Reunite with Jacky and Lindsey and survive together.
Okay Ending: Reunite with Jacky and Lindsey, but one or both dies. Jack still survives.

2. Sarah – A stay at home mother in her twenties. She is attractive but is a happily married woman. She is a much more traditional woman who lets her husband, John, make most decisions. She dotes on her son, Adam, and makes sure he is ready for the outside world. She will begin her story at home with John at work and Adam at school.

Pros:
>knows basic first aid techniques and always carries a first aid kit with her for her son
>almost always finds the positive side to things, very rarely gets upset or frazzled
>knows how to cook even with the worst ingredients

Cons:
>if choices lead to Adam or John dying, she will be much less effective and will not make the best choices (less good choices will be available), and if both Adam and John die, she will make mostly bad decisions
>relies on John for strength and guidance, so her choices tend to come from the husband if he is still alive (you will still make choices for her, but they will be less varied)
>if John dies, other men will try to make her theirs, even without her consent (since this is a blue board, I will skip to after the fact if this occurs)

Sarah’s Endings:
True Ending: Find a safe place to survive alone. Sarah must not know what happened to John and Adam.
Happy Ending: Reunite with John and Adam and survive together.
Okay Ending: Reunite with John and Adam, but one or both dies. Sarah still survives.

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3. Larry – A retired electrical engineer in his late 70s. He was initially a mechanical engineer for many years, but he switched career paths midway through. His wife passed away a few years ago. but he was able to move on with his life. He is starting to feel the effects of age, but he still has some hop in his step. He knows a lot about the inner workings of computers and other devices. Larry will start his story on a cruise ship.

Pros:
>can fix many broken machines
>wise, knows many neat tricks and will tend not to make hasty decisions
>elderly, people are less likely to accuse him of lying or force him to do hard tasks in a group

Cons:
>slow running speed and low stamina
>looters and other undesirables will view him as an easy target and will more frequently try to rob him
>cannot hide for long periods of time without cramping

Larry’s Endings:
True Ending: Find a way back to land and find a safe place to survive.
Happy Ending: Fully repair the cruise ship with the crew and live safely on it.
Okay Ending: Intend to stay on the cruise ship, but all the crew has died, so full repairs are impossible.

4. Stacy – A third year college student who is studying nursing. She is the type to party very often and has had many boyfriends. She does currently have a boyfriend, named Boyfriend, but is not very loyal. She has a few close friends but knows nearly everybody in her graduating class. She tends to exercise at the gym in her spare time. Stacy will begin her story at in a classroom.

Pros:
>has the most in-depth medical knowledge of any character and knows some complicated procedures
>a social butterfly and can get along with nearly anybody with ease and can even seduce someone for supplies or favors
>can run for long periods of time without getting tired and can run quite fast

Cons:
>she is prone to gossiping and this can cause some people to dislike her (if someone catches her gossiping about them, bad things can happen)
>she is not a very strong character, so many people can overpower her
>attractive, so looters and other baddies may try to take her away to do bad things (since this is a blue board, I will skip to after the fact if this occurs)

Stacy’s Endings:
True Ending: Find a safe place off-campus to survive either with a group or without.
Happy Ending: Find a group to survive with safely on-campus. No more than 3 of her friends can die.
Okay Ending: Find a group to survive with safely on-campus. More than 3 of her friends must have died. OR survive alone on-campus.

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5. Kyle – He’s a janitor on an anime image board. He dropped out of college and has no job that pays. He is morbidly obese but can still walk around and do normal things. He is single, but he does have a waifu. He has basic programming and computer skills, but nothing too complex. He lives with his parents, but they are on vacation. Kyle will begin his story in his parents’ basement.

Pros:
>he could resolve basic software issues on any computer
>already has a step-by-step zombie apocalypse plan, so he is prepared with a stockpile of food and water
>owns an impressive gun, sword, and knife collection and would not need to roll any dice to shoot accurately

Cons:
>impatience, he will not be able to handle waiting even a little bit without getting bored
>slowest and worst stamina out of any character
>if a woman tried to seduce him, you would need a perfect dice roll to keep him from falling victim to her charms
>bad social skills, he tends to misread the atmosphere and makes people cringe. Groups may try to abandon him
>obesity, he eats more than your average person. He needs to eat more often than other characters.

Kyle’s Endings:
True Ending: Find a place to survive alone. Must bring his waifu’s body pillow with him.
Happy Ending: Find a place to survive with parents. Must bring his waifu’s body pillow with him.
Okay Ending: Find a place to survive with parents. However, his waifu’s body pillow must either have been left behind or destroyed.

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Last thread, the character playing order was: Kyle, Jack, Sarah, Larry, Stacy. I would like for you guys to decide on a new order of play this thread. Please pick your top 3 favorite characters, and I will count it as a vote for all 3. The character with the most votes will go first, the character with the second most votes will go second, etc. The order you put them in your post doesn’t matter.

Choose 3 characters:
>Jack
>Sarah
>Larry
>Stacy
>Kyle

Please note that this character order will not come into play until after we are finished with last thread’s order. We ended on Sarah, and then we need to go to Larry and Stacy. After Stacy, we will implement this new character order you are voting on.

I will leave the voting window open until 10PM PST (about 7 hours and 20 minutes from now).

>>4572322
Jack, Sarah and Larry

>>4572322
>Jack
>Kyle
>Larry

>>4572346
Samefag here, can I change sarah for kyle?

>>4572311
>if John dies, other men will try to make her theirs, even without her consent (since this is a blue board, I will skip to after the fact if this occurs)
you can give us a pastebin link to the event if you're up to it
>>4572322
>Jack
>Sarah
>Kyle

>>4572399
Sure! No worries.

>>4572322

>Jack
>Kyle
>Stacy

>>4572322
>Jack
>Kyle
>Larry

Also congrats on the new thread!

>>4572400
>you can give us a pastebin link to the event if you're up to it
I'll think about it. But hopefully you guys can keep John alive!
>>4572426
>Also congrats on the new thread!
Thanks! I appreciate it!

>>4572402
Thanks

>>4572400
>you can give us a pastebin link to the event if you're up to it
please no

>>4572430
>But hopefully you guys can keep John alive!
kek

>>4572322
>Jack
>Stacy
>Sarah

>>4572308
>(Note that true endings are not necessarily the happiest.)
I come for the hard truths.

About 2 and a half hours left for voting! This will be the only chance you have to influence character order in this thread, so vote while you still can!

>>4572430
>I'll think about it. But hopefully you guys can keep John alive!
yup, don't wanna mess with her feelings

>>4572319
>>4572403
Changing my vote to:
>Kyle
>Stacy
>Sarah

No more votes!

>>4572346
>>4572367
>>4572400
>>4572426
>>4572602
5 votes for Jack

>>4572399
>>4572367
>>4572400
>>4572403
>>4572426
5 votes for Kyle

>>4572346
>>4572367
>>4572426
3 votes for Larry.

>>4572400
>>4572602
>>4572919
3 votes for Sarah

>>4572403
>>4572602
2 votes for Stacy.

Quite a few ties, so I think I will structure it like below since it would change the order the most since last time, while still being in the spirit of the votes.

The final order is: Jack, Kyle, Larry, Sarah, Stacy.

But please remember that we were still finishing an order from last thread. Sarah's story is where we left off and then Larry, and then Stacy. After Stacy, we will begin the new character order.

I have written the next part of Sarah's story and am posting it right after this!

Before I continue with Sarah’s story, I want all new players to be aware that each character has their own mechanics. Sarah has a stat mechanic. I wanted to include an explanation of what Sarah’s stat system entails. Please read this for an explanation: https://pastebin.com/SmZYLvxU

Sarah’s stats were in a bad position, but the players in the previous thread picked an option that nullified these negative stats for 5 choices. However, they have made 4 decisions so far and only 1 remains without the effects of negative stats. So be prepared for the stat system to come back for the choice after this one.

Sarah is in a pretty important section of her story. Her son, Adam, is in his school. The players in the previous thread got her here, but there is a time limit. Sarah gets 10 choices to work with to save Adam or else he will die, if he isn’t already dead. They have used 5 choices so far, so only 5 remain before Adam will be dead no matter what.

Finally, the school is filled with child zombies. They act differently than adult zombies, so please refer to the pastebin in the OP post for more information.

We are now picking up from where we left off last thread.

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Sarah is worried that she could be taking too long, so she decides to take a risk and chooses one of the classrooms instead of the hallways. But which classroom should she pick? One of them sounds to be still and quiet, but she knows there are zombies in there. Why is it so quiet? It gives her a very uneasy feeling. The other classroom isn’t much better. She can hear loud noises inside, and it sounds like some kind of struggle is occurring.

However, she must choose some route, so she chooses to go in the noisy classroom. It’s a bit too dark to see what is going on, but she can see a larger figure standing upright. It was much too tall to be a child zombie, so she figures it must be a zombified teacher.

The adult zombie appears to be attacking the kid zombies.

While these facts are also in the Pastebin, this is such an important thing to understand for new players that I am going to repeat it here. Adult zombies are extremely selfish creatures and would rather die than share their food. It is normal for adult zombies to fight over food and sustain major injuries. But remember, adult zombies can heal at a rapid pace whereas child zombies do not heal faster than the average human. Child zombies do not fight over food.

How should Sarah approach this situation?

>Try the other classroom
>Sneak her way to around the corners of the classroom
>Try to run directly through the chaos (this will skip a future choice, but is very risky.)
>Write-in
>Switch characters

For our newer players, I also want to explain that switching characters ALWAYS requires 3 choices to be made before it is available. However, they had already unlocked the “Switch Character” choice and didn’t use it, so it is still here.

As for write-ins, they need to be in-character and not silly. I will veto it if it is clearly a silly decision. And since zombies are not created by a virus, don’t think you can try to get her infected so you can play as a zombie. Zombies are created by a drug. Never forget that.

Finally, I want the newer players to know that Sarah has a purse, and in it is a flashlight, some tissues, a change bag, and a first-aid kit. She had a phone, but it was broken earlier.

I will leave the voting window open until 11AM PST (about 13 hours from now).

>>4572936

>Try to run directly through the chaos (this will skip a future choice, but is very risky.)

The reality is we need to take risks if we're going to succeed in this portion of the story. We still have WWJD if her stats are damaged by this.

>Sneak her way to around the corners of the classroom
If we try to rush through this I feel like we're going to end up with the same situation as before, but without the myriad dice rolls saving us.

>>4572982
What if Adam isn't in the gym, and we only have 3 choices left to find him? What then?

>>4572936
>Sneak her way to around the corners of the classroom
Living kid zombies are bad news. If they see a moving target, they'll switch to it, leaving the adult to eat whatever it is fighting for now. But, the classroom is dark, the zombies are distracted and we have little time.
>Prepare something to throw out into the hallway to distract the zombies at least for a few seconds if it seems like they're close to detecting us.

>>4572936
>>Sneak her way to around the corners of the classroom

No more votes!

>>4572964
1 vote for "Try to run directly through the chaos (this will skip a future choice, but is very risky.)"

>>4572982
>>4573047
>>4573285
3 votes for "Sneak her way to around the corners of the classroom." One vote had a bit of write-in, so I will include it if such an event occurs.

Writing now!

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Sarah was in a bad spot last time she ran, so she is hesitant to do that again. Instead, she decides to walk around all the chaos in front of her. The right side of the room appears to be silent, so she slowly makes her way there, trying to be as quiet as possible.

She then proceeds to inch her way forward. The carnage on her left gets increasingly more savage as the adult begins to try its hand at killing the young zombies by biting their necks. A couple of the children begin to bleed out on the ground, crying in agony. The child zombies, in turn, try to overtake this single adult by biting him all over. However, the adult quickly heals after each bite and can counterattack. In a strategy to break up the crowd, the adult zombie begins throwing child zombies across the room to get them away so it can focus on individual ones to attack.

Suddenly, a child zombie is thrown at Sarah’s general direction. It smashes against the wall and collapses at Sarah’s feet. Sarah holds her breath and doesn’t move a single muscle so it can’t hear her. However, since it is so close, it can smell the slight aroma from her body wash and deodorant and begins to get up. Sarah panics and throws her small change bag into the hallway. Some of the child zombies react to this and begin running to the sound, including the one that smelled her.

However, Sarah had unknowingly given the adult zombie the edge in this fight. With much of his competition out the door, the zombie closes the door behind them and locks it.

Remember, zombies may be dumb, but they are not braindead. They know how basic functions like doors work as shown in Larry’s story.

Now all that remains is Sarah, a couple child zombies, and the adult zombie. The child zombies initially try to break down the door and even try to reach under the crack at the bottom, but eventually decide to give up and hunt elsewhere. The adult zombie, finally getting a break from fighting, is able to go back to its hard-fought meal, a corpse in the middle of the room. However, the child zombies still in the room do not have much to do. They begin to hunt in the same room.

(1/2)

And please let me know if I am being too slow with updates in the future. Last thread, I was pretty busy for a lot of the time, so I only gave 2 or so updates a day spread very far apart. I can do quicker updates nowadays if you guys want, but I also don't want you guys to feel rushed or anything. Just let me know!

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By now, Sarah has made it to the door that leads to the gym. However, Sarah begins to feel intense worry and fear from the sights she just saw. The confidence she gained from earlier has eroded and she is back to what she was like in the beginning of this escapade.

Current stats:
Stress: 14(+10)
Worry: 13 (+13)
Happiness: -3(-10)

Sarah has 4 choices left. What should she do next?

The child zombies are beginning to get restless, if she opens the door now, they could charge at her. So she should wait until something happens first.

Open the door as slowly as she can. If it succeeds, they will not hear it. But if it fails, they will begin to run after her.

>Open the door to get in the gym

What would John do?

Write-in

>Switch characters

Remember that if you choose “What would John do?” please give me another choice from these options that you would want to do. If you pick this option, you can choose any colored choice. But if you don’t pick that option, you cannot pick the red one.

I am more free nowadays, so I would like to be a bit more timely with you guys. I will leave the voting window open until 2:30 PM PST (about 3 hours from now).

(2/2)

Do you think it's worthwhile to use a WWJD here, anons? I intended to, but if all it does is let us choose the red option... It doesn't seem that smart to wait. But it's been locked for a reason.
It would be also worthwhile if we had a good write-in, but I don't have one.

>>4573540
It also allows you to do the blue option without the dice roll, but yes, things are red and blue for a reason.

>>4573527
>What would John do?

>Open the door as slowly as she can. If it succeeds, they will not hear it. But if it fails, they will begin to run after her.

>>4573527
>What would John do?
then
>The child zombies are beginning to get restless, if she opens the door now, they could charge at her. So she should wait until something happens first.

>>4573527
>What would John do?
>Open the door as slowly as she can. If it succeeds, they will not hear it. But if it fails, they will begin to run after her.
Mostly because we don't have many choices, and waiting sounds like it could waste a choice.

No more votes!

All votes included What would John do? so I will factor that in. There are no downsides the very first time you use this. However, downsides will begin to appear if used again.

All of Sarah's stats are now reset to healthy levels.

Current stats:
Stress: 5(-9)
Worry: 5 (-8)
Happiness: 5(+8)

Please note that it is only in peaceful times that I will alert you to any choices that change stats. In life or death scenarios like this, I want an added challenge to be there, so I will not tell you how her stats will be affected by choices. Please make sure to value survival over her stats.

>>4573596
>>4573641
2 votes for "The child zombies are beginning to get restless, if she opens the door now, they could charge at her. So she should wait until something happens first."

>>4573635
1 vote for "The child zombies are beginning to get restless, if she opens the door now, they could charge at her. So she should wait until something happens first"

Writing now!

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It’s times like this, when Sarah is at her lowest, that thinking about John would do her good. She begins to think of how much he sacrificed to help her, how great he’s been to her, and how much she loves him. She then thinks about how crushed John would be if she or Adam were to die now. His entire life would be ruined, and she would have been the reason why.

“No, I can’t die here. I need to be there for John!” Sarah thought. And it was this exact thought that gave her the strength she needed to calm down and figure out what to do next.

It was clear that the child zombies in the room were looking for food, and she didn’t want to stay here to be their next meal. However, she shouldn’t panic and open the door too quickly, so she decides to open the door as slowly as possible.

Luckily, this door doesn’t make much noise, and the sound of the adult zombie gorging itself with the corpse nearby drowns out the sounds of the door opening. They gym is also pitch black, but that’s good for Sarah since the zombies won’t be able to tell if she opened the door or not.

She quickly enters the gym and closes the door behind her. Surprisingly, there are hardly any sounds in this room. Sarah doesn’t sense the presence of any zombies, nor any people. So, she turns on her flashlight and looks around.

She was right, there is nobody in here. Not a soul.

Adam had told her that he was in the storage room, so she heads to the back of the gym and knocks. No response.

“Adam, are you in there? It’s mommy. I’m here to pick you up! What’s wrong honey? Open the door!”

No response.

Sarah opens the door and peers inside. There was a lot of equipment like frisbees and footballs, but no people. She looks around, but she notices many puddles of blood scattering the room.

Adam is not here.

Sarah just wasted a ton of valuable time and energy trying to look for Adam in a place he must have moved from. Sarah is heartbroken that he isn’t here, and she worries that this blood may be a sign that he is injured or worse. (Worry +10, Stress +10, Happiness -10)

Current stats:
Stress: 15(+10)
Worry: 15 (+10)
Happiness: -5(-10)

(1/2)

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Sarah only has 3 choices left, so she better make these count! We are the final stretch of finding Adam, if he is actually alive. You will need to pick a place for Sarah to check for Adam. There will be no tricks or no setbacks. If you pick a place, she will definitely make it there. The challenge is that he may not be there. You only get 3 choices to pick the right location.

Check two locations with one choice. You can choose which two.

Ask me for a hint as to the kinds of things and places Adam likes. This can help narrow down the choices considerably, but this uses a choice.

>Check the pool
>Check the music room
>Check the art gallery
>Check the class pets room
>Check Adam’s classroom
>Check the teacher’s lounges

What would John do?

Write-in

>Switch characters

There are a lot of complexities to work with here. For one, you could use the “What would John do?” and check two locations, but each time she fails, her stats will go back to this awful state. If you mess up and need to use “What would John do?” 3 times to check all 6 locations, bad things can happen.

You could also use “What would John do?” and ask for a hint, but the hint only narrows it down a bit, not completely. Also, there will be some consequences by using “What would John do?” because you already used it your one free time.

You could take a chance, pick the hint, and rely on a dice roll to get it. However, if you fail, you get no hint and just wasted a choice.

You could also pick a place on your own, but there are 6 to choose from and with only 3 choices left, you only have a 50% chance of getting it right.

What will you do here? Will Adam survive?

I will leave the voting window open until 9PM PST (about 6 hours and 5 minutes from now).

>>4573689

>What Would John do?

>Ask me for a hint as to the kinds of things and places Adam likes. This can help narrow down the choices considerably, but this uses a choice.

>>4573689
>>Check the music room
Fuck it let's try.

>>4573689
>>4573737

Wait, I've got it!

Adam said something in the last thread about stuff that he likes:

>“That’s a good boy. Now stay hiding, okay? If anybody sounds weird, make sure to run away okay? All the schools in the state are playing hide and seek right now. But the kid who stays hidden the longest gets a big prize! Stay hidden, okay? You want the big prize, right?”

>“Yeah! What is it? Is it a new video game? Maybe a new toy? Oh, maybe it’s a big chocolate bar!”

We also know that in the beginning of Sarah's story, we could go the the electronics store to buy Adam his Christmas present. Now let's think, anons, what things here could be electronic and toys? Mechanical animals!

Changing my vote to:

>Check the class pets room

Hey guys, I need a bit more time. I'll extend the voting window until 12PM PST (about 3 hours and 30 minutes from now). In the meantime, if you haven't voted yet, please do so! I would hate to end this in a tie.

I have no idea why it is so dead in here compared to the last thread, but it would be a real shame to end a vote like this on a tie. So if there are any more votes, you still have another hour!

>Check the class pets room

>>4574200
>>4573976
Class pets room is on the 2nd floor, where Sarah recent;y has been. It's unlikely Adam could've made it there.

>>4573689
The music room, the art studio and the pool are all on the 3rd floor. I don't think Adam would run all the way there. So I vote for
>Check the teacher’s lounges
Since the administrative offices are on the first floor.

>>4574194
>I have no idea why it is so dead in here compared to the last thread
Decision paralysis. The stakes and the risk are too high, and people are afraid to vote.

>>4574205
>Decision paralysis. The stakes and the risk are too high, and people are afraid to vote.
This desu, I wasn't sure if I was going to vote since I fear failure.

>>4574205
>>4574211
>decision paralysis
I see. I didn't even consider that. Duly noted. I would like to alleviate any player worries, but I can't also jeopardize the stakes. I will say this: if a character dies or if they miss out on their true or happy endings, there are plenty of characters who can still succeed. Unlocking the 6th only requires 2 Happy/True endings, but can also be unlocked by 4 okay endings. So even if a character gets killed (though they can't be in this choice), there are still opportunities to succeed.

No more votes!

>>4573976
>>4574200
2 votes for "Check the class pets room"

>>4573867
1 vote for "Check the music room"

>>4574205
1 vote for "Check the teacher’s lounges"

Writing now!

>>4574216
Well, the players might want a character not to die just because they are attached to that character.

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Sarah remembers that Adam has a love for snakes. He even has a cellphone case that has a picture of a snake on it! She remembers that there was a small pet snake being taken care of on the second floor with various other class pets. The room is adjacent to the one she entered the school in. Maybe he would find his way there?

She makes her way to the second floor again.

Taking the same precautions she did last time, except making sure to not run this time, she opens the door with a very quiet click and slides in. There are some sounds being made, but she can’t tell if they are zombies or just the animals. However, there is a distinct sound coming from the back corner.

It sounded like a child crying. Sarah had never heard of a zombie crying so she decides to take a bit of a risk and turns her flashlight on. Sitting there was a small child with his back turned, crying in the corner. A dead child laid next to him.

The boy has dark brown hair and white skin but is wearing a different outfit than Adam went to school with. Sarah is disturbed by the corpse next to boy, but she has seen a lot worse today. As sad as it sounds, a dead child is not unusual for her to see anymore. However, on closer inspection, the dead child did not appear to be a zombie. It looks like her neck was slit.

Sarah whispers to the child. “Are you okay? I’m here to help you.”

No response. She gets a bit a closer and repeats herself while touching his shoulder. The boy turns around. His face was covered in blood, and he was holding a kitchen knife coated with blood. He begins to cry a bit before raising the knife and plunging it into his own chest.

Sarah couldn’t help but stare wide-eyed and her mouth agape. The boy collapses to the ground and begins to bleed out. Sarah quickly comes back to her senses and begins to take her first-aid kit out to help the boy, but his eyes had already glossed over. He was dead.

She feels remorse for the boy and the girl. They must have been brother and sister, and he did what he thought was best to save himself and his sister from becoming a zombie’s next meal.

What would Adam act like when she sees him? Would he have done something this drastic?

Sarah has not found Adam yet. 2 choices remain. (+10 Stress, +10 Worry, -10 Happiness)

Current Stats:
Stress: 25(+10)
Worry: 25 (+10)
Happiness: --15(-10)

Where should Sarah look next?

Check two locations with one choice. You can choose which two.

Ask me for a hint as to the kinds of things and places Adam likes. This can help narrow down the choices considerably, but this uses a choice.

>Check the pool
>Check the music room
>Check the art gallery
>Check Adam’s classroom
>Check the teacher’s lounges

What would John do?

Write-in

>Switch characters

I will leave the voting window open until 12PM PST (about 11 hours and 30 minutes from now).

>>4574232
>What would John do?
>Check two locations with one choice. You can choose which two.

>Check the music room
>Check the teacher’s lounges

You might want to spoiler the image, it's still a blue board and mods could warn/ban you for it.

>>4574234
Maybe next time. However, I posted a much gorier image in the first thread with no consequences, so I assume it's okay.

>>4574232
>What would John do?
>Check two locations with one choice. You can choose which two.
>Check Adam’s classroom
>Check the teacher’s lounges

>>4574235
The moderation is spotty here. Best not assume anything.

>>4574254
Okay. I suppose you guys are right. Next time, I will spoiler an image like this or pick something with a bit less gore.

>>4574232
>What would John do?
>Check two locations with one choice. You can choose which two.

>Check the teacher’s lounges
>Check the art gallery
I think Adam's classroom is a red herring. He can't be there surely?

>>4574347

Supporting. They obviously evacuated from Adam's classroom when this whole thing started. In my view it's either these two or the music room. No way can it be the pool, since Adam would likely be dead already if he was there. Think about how much water there is there. Lots of potential for people to turn into zombies.

>>4574358
We were told several times it's not the water.

>>4574360

There's a drug in the water. Came from lakes. Must have spread somehow.

>>4574361
Source?

File: Screenshot_20201217-085437.png (401 KB, 1080x1920)

401 KB PNG

>>4574362

Not likely for there to be drugs in the water, but we've seen drugs, and it's not airborne. It probably is in local lakes.

>>4574362
Also consider how many floors up the pool is. Would Adam have survived the trip?

>>4574368
The pool is almost definitely filled with tap water.

>>4574370
I've been agreeing with this from the beginning. But the art gallery and music room are on the same floor as the pool.

>>4574370

"The roof has a pool for certain P.E. activities and air conditioning vents that run throughout the school."

Wait, fuck. He would have crawled through the vents and survived easily, even if everyone else in the storage room died. It has to be the pool!

Can't believe I overlooked this. Changing my vote.

>>4574232

>Check the pool

We can WWJD after this if it fails. I just don't want to blow another one yet while we still have hints working for us.

>>4574371

The pool is on the roof, which would have been even higher up than the art gallery and music room. But the vents explain how he could have safely made it to the pool from the gym storage room.

>>4574373
I don't think the vents have ladders inside. Even if he climbed into the vents, he woul've exited somewhere on the same floor.

>>4574255
>>4574375

Understandable. QM confirm, is it theoretically possible to enter the vents from the gym and exit at the pool, or would that be an impossible climb?

>>4574376
It is possible to get around through the vents as a child and even to different floors, but Sarah cannot. She would be a bit too big.

Damn the consequences, just overload on wwjd and check everything but the classroom

>>4574234
>>4574252
>>4574347
3 votes for "What would John do?" so we will be using it.

>>4574234
>>4574252
>>4574347
3 votes for "Check two locations with one choice. You can choose which two." so we will be looking in 2 locations.

>>4574234
1 vote for "Check the music room"

>>4574372
1 vote for "Check the pool"

>>4574347
1 vote for "Check the art gallery"

>>4574252
1 vote for "Check Adam’s classroom"

>>4574347
>>4574252
2 votes for "Check the teacher’s lounges"

So we will be going to the teacher's lounges no matter what, however, there is a 4 way tie between the other locations.

I will extend the voting window for 3 more hours. If you haven't voted yet or would like to change your vote, please vote on one of the locations that ended in a tie. So either pick the music room, art gallery, pool, or Adam's classroom. If there is still a tie, we will be going to the pool since it is the highest on the options list.

So please, if you haven't already voted or if would like to change your vote please choose one of these:
>pool
>music room
>art gallery
>Adam's classroom

This tie-breaker will end at 3PM PST (about 2 hours and 50 minutes from now).

>>4574347 #
>>4574358 (You) #
>>4574252 #

You should all explain reasoning for your choices. I already explained mine. I'll add that the pool is highest up and likely the safest location in the school, with the fewest zombies. I think Adam would have considered that as well.

>>4574700
Alright, but if Adam dies it's on you.
>>4574656
>pool

>>4574714
I mean, from my analysis, it's either the pool or the music room, because "electric guitar" or "music-based video game." Maybe I missed something though. I'd like to hear something from all of you, because admittedly we don't seem to have much to go off of.

No more votes!

The tie has been broken! We will be using "What would John do?", selecting 2 places, and Sarah will go to the teacher's lounges and the pool.

Writing now!

File: Teacher and Students Hiding.jpg (24 KB, 320x249)

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Sarah does everything she can to calm down, but with the kinds of things she has witnessed, it becomes a near impossibility. However, thinking about the man she loves has never failed her. John is her strength. She needs him more than he could ever imagine. So she sits on the floor, closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and just imagines how happy her and John will be when they get out of here. It’s a form of meditation, if you will.

Eventually, after thinking about her soulmate for long enough, she is able to calm down. (Stress -20, Worry -20, Happiness +20)

Current Stats:
Stress: 5 (-20)
Worry: 5 (-20)
Happiness: 5 (+20)

You will begin to notice slight shifts in Sarah’s behavior the more she uses “What would John do?” It will be very mild at first, and hardly noticeable right now, but it will soon become obvious how she is changing the more it’s used. Do keep this in mind.

Now that Sarah has calmed down considerably, she can think much more clearly.

“John, hang in there. Adam will be found before you know it,” she thinks.

Adam had said over the phone that he was hiding in the gym storage room with his class, which would include his teacher. It’s possible that something happened, and the teacher brought the class to one of the teacher’s lounges. But which one should she check? There is one on every floor...

She decides to check the second floor’s lounge first since she is already on the second floor. She looks through the translucent window leading to the lounge but sees many shambling silhouettes. It must be adult zombies, so she decides to look elsewhere.

She heads to the first floor again and looks inside the lounge. There are surprisingly no signs of life in here. Just a half-eaten donut and stale coffee.

She heads to the third floor to check the final lounge. It looked empty at first and she was about to give up when she hears a SHHH sound coming from the closet. There must be people hiding in here, so she quickly closes the door, turns on her flashlight, and quietly calls out.

“Hello? Is anybody here? I’m not a zombie.”

“Over here. We’re in the back closet. Can you help us please? We have an injured child in here!” An adult voice had whispered back.

While Sarah was more worried about John and Adam’s safety, she decided to help if she could. They might have information that could be useful. Maybe they know where Adam is.

click

Sarah opens the closet and shines the flashlight inside. It’s Adam’s teacher, Mrs. Gilbert! Sarah has been to the various parent-teacher conferences for her son in the past, and Mrs. Gilbert always had positive things to say. There were also a few other children inside as well with one clutching his leg.

“Mrs. Gilbert? Are you okay? Where is Adam? Why isn’t he here with you?”

(1/3)

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“Mrs. Robinson? How did you get in here? Nevermind that. I was unfortunately separated with Adam and a few of the other kids. I had to cut a few of them loose so that we could find a safe place. Don’t worry! Adam is a quick runner. He would have gotten away just fine-”

“Shut up. Shut the hell up. You left my son to die all by himself so you could get away? I don’t believe this.” Sarah is not normally one to get so upset, but Mrs. Gilbert has really crossed a line here. It takes all of Sarah’s willpower to not attack her. She is seeing red and is in no mood to talk with her.

Sarah ignores her and asks the boy clutching his ankle what was wrong. Apparently, a zombie scratched his leg pretty badly. While Sarah only has a first-aid kit on her, she is able to also utilize water from the sinks and a few other resources in the room to help as well. The kid should be okay for now.

Sarah speaks up. “Did you see where Adam went before you ran away?”

“No. I was too scared.” Mrs. Gilbert said.

This selfish old hag was really getting on Sarah’s nerves. Before doing something she would regret, she leaves the room to continue the search. Adam is still missing. (Worry +10, Stress +10, Happiness -10).

Sarah was a bit stumped. There are plenty of places she could still check, but nothing largely stands out to her. However, if Adam was alone or even with some other classmates, they could access places that adults couldn’t.

Maybe this means that he used the airducts to get around. This could have helped him get around easier, so she can’t rule out anywhere because of the floor.

Since she is already on the third floor, Sarah decides to check the pool one floor above. It is possible that some of the children would have felt safer since zombie movies tended to show zombies not being able to swim.

After making it to the roof, Sarah can finally see sunlight again. It has been so long since she has been in normal light that she didn’t realize how much she missed it. However, she can’t bask in the sun for too long as she hears screaming coming from the pool.

The hopes of seeing zombies struggling with swimming are dashed. In front of her, there was a group of children in the pool trying to swim away from zombies. The adult zombies seemed to have a bit of trouble but could do some basic paddling. However, the child zombies were fast swimmers. It wasn’t long before the bad swimmers were attacked. Some of the better swimmers were able to make it to the pool ladder but were dragged back into the pool by the child zombies.

The gym teacher was able to get out of the pool, but not all of the zombies went in the pool to begin with. They cornered him, and he was trapped on all sides. With no other options, he panics and jumps off the roof, hoping to land in the bushes. All that was heard was a loud thud afterwards. While Sarah couldn’t see his fate, even if he did land in the bushes, the outside zombies would have gotten him.

(2/3)

File: Teacher Jumping off roof.jpg (233 KB, 765x510)

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Luckily, it looks like Adam is not here, but there is still no sign of him. (Worry +10, Stress +10, Happiness -10).

Current Stats:
Stress: 25 (+20)
Worry: 25 (+20)
Happiness: -15 (-20)

This is your last chance. Make this last choice count! If she gets it wrong, Adam will be dead no matter what. You will be locked into the okay ending at best if he dies here. What should Sarah do now?

Check two locations with one choice. You can choose which two.

>Check the music room
>Check the art gallery
>Check Adam’s classroom

What would John do?

Write-in

>Switch characters

I will leave the voting window open until 10PM PST (about 5 hours and 40 minutes from now).

(3/3)

>>4575023

>What would John do?

>Check the music room
>Check the art gallery

>>4575027
Do you think you could reformat this choice to include the "Check two locations with one choice. You can choose which two." part? It's easier for me to keep track of if we get multiple votes.

>>4575023
>>4575027
>>4575045

Sure.

>What would John do?

>Check two locations with one choice. You can choose which two.

>Check the music room
>Check the art gallery

Adam's classroom has to be a red herring.

>>4575049
>turns out it was so goddamn obvious that he returned to the place he knows vs elsewhere, that he actually is in the classroom

M I N D G A M E S

The real question is if the answer can be found with the knowledge we have

>>4575051

Adam said on the phone that they were "playing hide and seek from the other classes." Meaning he left with his class to the gym storage room. Why would he have gone back there? Wouldn't it be deemed too dangerous?

>>4575054
The jig is up though.

>>4575056
You've lost me. Explain.

>>4575058
Adam was instructed at the start that this was a game of hide and go seek and class v class
>he was hiding in the gym storage room with his class, which would include his teacher

The class is no longer present there. Additionally, there are zombie children and dead bodies on the ground.

The smokescreen of "class v class hide and seek" has been dissolved through the evidence around them.

> I had to cut a few of them loose so that we could find a safe place. Don’t worry! Adam is a quick runner. He would have gotten away just fine-”

Also implies there was an attack. It wasn't that she hid him anywhere; It strongly implies he ran from something ie: "gotten away"

This further implies he'd revert to looking for safety. There is the chance that this 8 year old has the presence of mind to hide somewhere others will not find him, but realistically he'll more likely
1: find a close by hiding spot from the point of seperation
2: go to a place he knows well so he can best hide there

His goal isn't to hide from some one who knows him, but to hide from THEM.

As such, the classroom actually isn't a bad choice. Followed by whatever place he spent the most time.

>>4575072

>2: go to a place he knows well so he can best hide there

What if Adam loved music or art, and found comfort in those things? Sarah did say he wouldn't be able to take it very well if he found out the truth. I still stand by my theory that the things Adam likes as gifts and the fact that we would have gone to an electronics store to buy him a present can be used as clues to determine where he might hide. I suppose by that logic, an art gallery might be a bit of a stretch. What could be electronic in an art room?

>>4575023
>Check two locations with one choice. You can choose which two.

>Check the music room
>Check Adam’s classroom
fuck me sideways

>>4575072
IN OTHER NEWS a compendium of things we know about the zombies

Factor is not airborne
It has something to do with PILLZ
There are people who WANT others to take the PILLZ.
It is unclear if the SECRET PACKAGE PILLS = PILLZ, but they may be related

PILLZ MAY make zombies BUT are not necessarily the only way to zombify someone.
Children have to be alive to be zombified (no healing factor), heavily implying Adults do too. The recent dead seem to be staying dead also. The large number of zombies in the 24 hour time frame seem to also imply that transformation is otherwise relatively fast (within hours). Also implies some sort of transmission (not bites alone). Ingestion?

Adult healing factor IMPLIES sharp decapitation OR full suffocation OR continued burning may result in quick deaths. Multiple continuous injuries/major injuries can eventually bring down a zombie. If we are working off "realism", there needs to be ENERGY for the healing to work. Energy is implied to be that of the human body, and regrowth requires a lot of energy. Non aerobic respiration (without oxygen) works, but eats up the body and isn't nearly as effective as aerobic respiration + ETC. Possibility exists that it has been enhanced. Also implies if they do not eat for long enough, they will die faster than normal humans as hyperheal metabolism is likely higher.

Pillz seem to be related to a healing factor experiment, child physiology was likely not taken into account properly for the wonder drug. As school was not epicenter, unlikely it was a primary testing ground. Could be though.

Injury alone MAY not be a transformative factor (Sarah has yet to exhibit any transformation signs).

There has been no sighted zombie transformation yet. If there's an antagonistic force doing this, they may have been MUCH looser with OPSEC when poisoning the school. Adam/the children might have noticed something interesting today.

There is an implied zombie-zombie transformation. While the PILLZ exist, there's no need to mass infect the populace. Activation in the rural areas moving inwards could be an antagonistic force starting outside and working inward. More likely just those on the outsides being attracted by the higher population inside.

>>4575072
Also for places:

Classroom
+ He's very familiar with it. May have a sense of safety associated
+ If he wanted the safety of his teacher again, he may have figured she'd come back to this location once he lost her.
+/? He may have wanted to grab his backpack/stuff. Elementary classrooms tend to ask that kids leave their stuff in their cubbies/areas. As the jig is up, he may want his belongings. Possibility exists that if there's a class pet, he'd want to save it.
? school shooting procedures ask that teachers barricade the door and hold out in their rooms. As this did not happen, some rooms may have been overrun. Teachers instead evacced the kids out.
- Classrooms tend to be next to other classrooms. Those who barricaded first instead of evaccing/hiding may have been overrun, making the surrounding area more than a little scary

Music Room
+ Music rooms tend to be bigger than other rooms. Many schools only have one music teacher, and that teacher gets multiple classrooms worth in one class. May have thought to use an instrument case to hide for large instruments if the teacher had them
+ Music rooms tend to be further away from the rest of the classrooms, toward an edge of the building. Zombies move toward the bulk of bodies. There could be those who ran there though.
? A number of schools have soundproofed study rooms. This school has a goddamn pool. It is likely that sound proofed, individually locked rooms are available for private practice/lessons.
- As these tend to be toward the edges of buildings, he may have needed to be further away to get to it.

Art room:
+Who'd think of going toward the art room as an adult? Means that direction is more abandoned than others. May have taken a path of least resistance toward it if it was close to the split point.
? who knows if there's a comfort to the room. Possible he likes art. Unsure if he'd want art comfort.
? Art rooms provide fewer obvious hiding spots than others. However, he IS a little kid. Hiding in a cupboard would be easy if he pulled the crap out of it. Plenty of Large boxes of art supplies to hide among.
? few easy to think of places to hide. Especially in a child's eyes. Unless, because this place is nice enough to have a pool, it has a clay baking oven. That's a place every child is told not to go in to. As such, if you're gonna hide and it has to count, it's a possibility he could think of it. Because if the adults say nobody should close the door and go in it, who'd look?
- Just generally few places a little kid would think to hide normally.

>>4575168

Great assessment. Some additional considerations:

Classroom:
- Adam was told to leave there initially. Now that he knows the real reason why his class hid, he may have considered this place dangerous since he was told to leave from here.
? If his backpack is here, it could have a portable video game console for comfort.

Music room:
? Adam may have liked music and found comfort in being around musical instruments.
+ Several electronic objects here.
+ Plenty of ways to make a noise-based distraction in a pinch.

Art room:
-Little chance of there being a clay oven since it is an art gallery, not an art classroom.
-Few electronic items in this room that Adam could have sentimental attachment to.

I'm gonna reeeeeeeeeeeee so hard if we missed it

Oh dear
>Check the music room
>Check Adam’s classroom

>>4575023
>Check Adam’s classroom
>Check the music room

>Switch characters
:^)

Anybody voting for two locations needs to keep in mind that you can only choose 2 if you are using a "What would John do?" and by selecting 2, I will assume you are voting to use a "What would John do?"

>>4575213
Are you voting for the two locations or to switch characters?

>>4575023
>>4575049

Changing my vote to:

>What would John do?

>Check two locations with one choice. You can choose which two.

>Check the music room
>Check Adam’s classroom

As a side note, all of our votes seem to be going the same way now. I'm down to end voting early as long as QM has the free time to write.

>>4575255
I can write now, but I would really only like to cut the voting window short if a few people are calling for it.

No more votes!

Everybody votes for using "What would John do?" and everybody wanted to choose 2 locations. And the 2 locations chosen by everyone were the music room and Adam's classroom.

Writing now!

File: Man Sleeping On Piano.jpg (52 KB, 620x465)

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This has been a taxing experience for Sarah. Her mood has been fluctuating like crazy. Like each previous time she has been extremely stressed in this school, she has thought about John. He is the one thing that can consistently calm her down. She slowly breaths in and out, in and out while imagining being in a happy place with her favorite person.

Sarah relaxes a bit and is confident that she can do what she needs to do to make John happy. (Stress -20, Worry -20, Happiness +20)

Current stats:
Stress: 5 (-20)
Worry: 5 (-20)
Happiness: 5 (+20)

In Sarah’s first couple of years with John, she became obsessed with him. Not just in the way she normally is, but she took it to a different level entirely. She began to stalk him, tried to be with him every second of every day, and tried to cut him off from others. It took years of dedication and love from John for him to calm her down enough for her to think more normally.

These are the consequences I was referring to. The more you use this function, the more she will revert to these old habits. She will not be nice to others. She will dote on John more than is healthy, will keep him away from others, and will refuse to let him do anything even remotely dangerous. Eventually, she may even try to remove Adam from the equation since he takes some of John’s attention away from her. However, you would need to be using this option a lot to get to this point. Plus, Sarah becoming obsessed does have its benefits. It will make Sarah more in-control of everything and can even keep John out of bad situations. You need to balance this gently.

Sarah is starting to regress a bit, but it isn’t at a super bad point just yet. Once the choice changes names and instead is called Focus on John, that’s when she will act like her old self. When it’s at that point, she will be an obsessed stalker. However, it will still take a bit more than that for her to want to remove Adam.

“John, I’m doing this for you, babe. I hope you are still okay,” Sarah thought.

There are still a few places that Sarah has not checked for Adam. After descending from the roof, she decides to check in the music room on the third floor.

Like many of the places in the school, it was quiet and still. The only sign that anything is wrong is the assortment of instruments strewn across the floor. Students must have been practicing in this room before all of this occurred.

Sarah turns on her flashlight and decides to examine the area more closely. Suddenly, she notices that she is not alone. There is a man sitting at the grand piano in the back. He is slumped over the covered keys. Maybe he was the music teacher?

Sarah calls out to him. “Is somebody there? Are you okay?”

No response.

Sarah creeps up to him and puts her hand on his shoulder to shake him awake. The man wouldn’t budge. Sarah notices a flask in his right hand. He must be black-out drunk while all alone in the dark.

(1/2)

File: Zombies Trying to Get in (...).jpg (27 KB, 600x285)

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She was about to give up and continue her search when suddenly, the door burst open. It seems like one of the adult zombies followed Sarah in here.

Sarah couldn’t risk dying here, not with John’s and Adam’s lives in danger. Sarah hated to do this, but she had no choice. While the zombie was pursuing her, she grabbed hold of the drunken man and used him as a meat shield. The zombie greatly preferred to attack this unconscious man and began to feed on him. Sarah used this time to escape.

Would Sarah had done this before? I don’t think that is likely. Right now, she is focused on the ones she loves. Adam is still nowhere in sight. (Stress +10, Worry +10, Happiness -10)

Where should she go now? Well, she could try Adam’s classroom. She didn’t think of Adam to hide in a place so plain, but he just might have in a panic. Adam’s classroom is on the first floor near the front door.

As she descends the stairs, Sarah notices that there seem to be large numbers of zombies heading to one specific area in the right hallway. The piques Sarah’s curiosity, so she follows from a great distance. And what do you know? They all seem to be headed to Adam’s classroom, Room 112. A great deal of zombies are pounding on the door.

Sarah can hear some voices nearby, “I can’t... hold on much longer...”

“Is this the end? I don’t want to die!”

“Hold steady! Adam, I need help with these windows! They are almost through!”

That name... Could it be? Sarah’s Adam? Did she finally find him? The zombies at the door are about to break in and judging by their conversation, the zombies are also trying from the window too.

Current stats:
Stress: 15 (+10)
Worry: 15 (+10)
Happiness: -15 (-10)

Congratulations! You have found Adam before his demise. Sarah is happy to find him, but with his impending doom right in front of her, she doesn’t get a stat boost Because of your prior incorrect choice, Sarah begins this important choice with bad stats. Using a “What would John do?” is now required and will be applied automatically. You have now used 3 of these.

Current stats:
Stress: 5 (-10)
Worry: 5 (-10)
Happiness: 5 (+10)

Now that you’ve found him, are you creative enough to save him? He and Sarah can still die at this point, so please try to collaborate to find a solution. I will take the best parts of all posts for the write-in. The less you post, the less likely a good decision will be figured out. Finally, you cannot switch characters at this time. Give me a write-in, please.

I have given you much information about Sarah’s items, the school, the overall situation, and about zombie behavior for you to be able to feel like you have a fighting chance.

>Write-in

I will leave the write-in window open until 12PM PST (about 13 hours and 30 minutes from now).

>>4575368
I told you he'd be in the classroom.

QM, are the zombies in the hallway kids or adults?

>>4575412
Also, were the zombies we've seen outside before adults?

>>4575413
Outside seem to be adults. Few children as most are at school.
Inside is mostly children.

John is outside and can help on that front. Inside needs handling: adult zombies prioritize ez prey over new prey, but kids are different.

Bites individually do not appear to immediately be lethal.
Pepper spray is out.

We have a change bag, tissues, first aid, and a flashlight.

Flashlight all but guarantees they all go after us as the significantly easier target between children and adults. Doesn't solve the window immediately though.

We could pull a fire alarm to stun/ confuse zombies in the school, but that also means an outside hoard.

We have no easy decoys. Realistically we should've grabbed a bat or something in the gym supplies for children's skulls.

With the hall lights off, starting a decoy rush by turning on the flashlight, then using the fire alarm to mess with zombie senses could work to get to adam. Getting out after is the hard part. Let alone dooming any one else in the school. John also might do something stupid.

If we had a little more time, we could use jump rope or a bat or desks to fuck with the hoard. With moments to spare we only really have our body, the nearby rooms, the stairwells, and the known location of live bait/dead bodies. Also dark halls where they cant sense shit.

For others:
Assess the problem, assess inventory/ resources, assess execution. Contribute to these three parts and we'll get somewhere.

Wish we had little more time on this one. Busy af tomorrow.

Also too many anons are stuck in literary device thoughts. This is opposite. Often the likely choice is the good one. Humans usually are predictable. It isn't resident evil 4.

>>4575432
Problem: zombies inside and outside. He's with adults with some composure to react to problems.
Inside zombies are close to breaking the door. Removal or some or all may increase odds. Splitting door horde even by half could make their situation manageable.
Outside zombies are also a problem, but not AS major as the inside ones. Kid is being asked to help barricade

Goal is save adam. Others are of low value or expendable if need be.

Inventory:
Escape routes for adam are window, door, or ceiling tiles if boosted. Door and window have zombies.
Areas of immediate use are hallway (fire alarm), dark hallways (nobody can see shit), nearby classrooms (unoccupied due to focus on survivor room. Teaching supplies. Desks. Rolling projectors. Tables. Etc. Windows to outside exist and are not being focused on by zombies atm, meaning we can go out through them without immediate death. Would get outside horde going after us. And adults can sprint short distances. We ain't super fit)

Current initial possibilities:
New buildings be cheapish. Walls usually do not go past the ceiling in newer (like from the 60s/70s onward)/upgraded schools. Ancient schools are straight brick, but this is a newer one with a roof pool. With school with major HVAC (giant square fan things) the drop ceiling has great clearance ( 1ft to a little extra) for handymen to work with. Possibility of moving ceiling tiles and scaling to the room over exists. That's why those ceiling tiles exist. Con: only temporarily solves the indoor zombie problem. May need multiple scalings to handle indoor, let alone outdoor. Injury possibility exists from drops.

Utilizing a rolling projector as support/ram while decoding away the horde. Possibly use alarm to aid decoy escape while figuring way out. Con: OH SHIT OH FUCK RUN RUN RUN

Get adam to call dad, go outside upon triggering inside horde. Gonna be a helluva run.
con: OH SHIT OH FUCK RUN RUN RUN

Prep simple barricade, attempt splitting the internal horde to buy them more time to make an evac plan like crawling over
Con: OH SHITOHFUCK AAAAAAAAAA

>>4575368
My current idea is:
>Since the zombies inside are likely kids, and those outside are adults, let's grab a child corpse or two from the hallway, use a neighboring classroom's window to get outside, throw the corpses to the zombies and evacuate Adam while they're fighting over the food.
Not the best plan, but we need at least something.

Of course it's the classroom ahhhhhhhhhhh

I saw someone asking for more time to come up with something. Would that be something you guys want? There hasn't been all that much discussion, so I'm not sure if you guys all want that.

>>4575412
>>4575413
Sorry for the extremely late response, but yes it is mostly child zombies inside and adult zombies outside.

>>4575681
I'll certainly agree to more time. There may be people in different timezones that could come up.

>>4575687
Well, do you have a suggestion for how much longer the window should be? As it stands right now, you guys have about 1 hour and 10 minutes left.

>>4575697
Unfortunately, I have no idea.
I'm unlikely to come up with a better plan than I already have. My only hope is that some other anons arrive.

How about I extend the voting window until 4PM PST (about 5 hours from now)? If anybody has any write-in ideas, feel free to post them. Remember, I only take the best parts of an idea, so even if your idea as a whole is silly, I may take bits and pieces of it that would be good.

>>4575368

>Have Adam use the vents to get as close to the back door of the school as possible. Broadcast music from the music room over the school's speakers to distract the zombies inside. Have Adam call John to trigger the car alarms again to distract the zombies from outside. Sarah will tell the survivors to evacuate towards the back door after the zombies are distracted, using bodies for bait as necessary. Sarah will escape through the back door with Adam and the other survivors before regrouping with John.

>>4575705
>>4575716

I posted an idea just now, let me know what you think of it :)

>>4575712
I'm against an extension this long, by the way. 1 or 2 PM PST would be good enough.

>>4575718
We don't have any way to communicate with Adam. If we just shout, the zombies will attack us. Though the idea with the vents may be good.
Maybe we can use the broadcast system to instruct Adam to go for the vents.

>>4575728
Due to personal circumstances, it either needs to be at around 12PM or maybe 2:30PM at the earliest since I need to be somewhere at 1PM. We'll see. I could just end it as soon as I get back home, I suppose.

>>4575732
Sure, we can just do all the talking over the school's broadcast system.

>>4575734
I mean how much time does sarah estimate she has

>>4575766
Since Sarah took until her very last choice to get to Adam, the zombies are extremely close to getting in. So she couldn't have too long to wait to save him.

>>4575775
Not enough time to use the school broadcast system?

>>4575779
That kind of thing should be fine. What I was trying to imply was that Sarah can't wait to observe or wait it out or anything like that.

>>4575412
Are the vents large enough for us to fit in too and escape?

>>4575936
No.

>>4575936
Should be large enough for adam at least.

Would be amazing if the classroom was one of those with a collapsable room divider and people forgot of it as an escape route during the panic. Would let them flee through another door/window.

I just got back from where I was. I will begin writing in about 15 minutes. Any last minute write-ins are still welcome!

>>4575936
No, but Adam and other children can. The vents are a bit too small for an adult.

No more write-ins!

Writing now!

File: Ceiling Speakers for a PA(...).jpg (163 KB, 900x675)

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Please note that I only take the best parts of write-ins in situations like these and mash some of the parts together. I do not use everything. Sometimes I only use a little bit or potentially even only one bit. I prioritize things that will lead to survival. This may be a bit different than other quests, but it can be effective in creating good strategies.

Sarah is in quite the bad spot right now. She has no phone, no way to contact Adam, and John is outside somewhere. What could she possibly do save Adam and herself? Suddenly, the school bell rings from the speakers. It only rings every hour or so, so Sarah must have been searching for Adam for an hour. It certainly felt like a longer search, but that just goes to show how much can happen in an hour.

The child zombies inside look around for a minute, clearly a bit confused by the sound, but continue with their attack on the classroom door.

This gives Sarah an idea. She may not be able to contact Adam directly, but she could broadcast her message to the whole school. The offices of the school are located near the back, through the left hall. Sarah runs to where she believes it to be.

“But wait, how can the bell go off? There is no power, so how could it still ring?” Sarah thought.

Modern schools in the country tend to have emergency power reserves meant for only the most important functions. The PA system is one of them. If there was an emergency, they could use the system to tell everyone what’s going on. Most people are not aware of this functionality, including Sarah, but she is just thankful she can use it.

She gets to the administrative offices but is not sure which room has the system. It’s going to take a moment.

Crash Bang

However, just at that moment, the child zombies break down the door and the windows crack open. The zombies begin piling into the room. Adam and the others find a hiding place but can only hide for so much longer. There is some sunlight penetrating the room, but it is still plenty dark. There must be at least 40 zombies inside now.

Sarah finds a desk with a microphone and tries her best to fiddle with it enough to get it to work. There is some feedback, but she can hear it from the speakers around the school.

“This better work!” She thought.

She clicks a button and speaks, “Adam? Are you there? This is your mother. I’ve come to save you! I know the zombies are scary, but they are not very smart. Near the floors and ceilings, there are vents that blow air conditioning. You should be able to crawl through them. Mommy is too big to fit, but you should be able to. Honey, if you or anybody else can hear me, crawl through the vents. Try to find your way to the principal’s office, okay? Mommy is here. Be careful and don’t make too much noise!”

(1/2)

File: Zombie Trapped in a Vent.png (1009 KB, 1600x900)

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As Sarah’s message was being broadcast, it sounded like a human’s voice and zombies can clearly recognize that kind of speech. They begin to clamber around the speakers in the ceiling, foolishly thinking someone is up there. The kids in the room take this opportunity to enter the nearby vents. Some get unlucky and are attacked, but many are okay.

Adam is a bit more timid than the older kids, so he ends up being one of the last to get to one. However, unlike how Sarah instructed, many of the kids around the school were noisy when entering the ducts. As stupid as this is, keep in mind that these are just children. They are scared out of their mind and someone finally gave them hope. Can you really blame them?

Many of the child zombies followed suit to catch their pray. Now the vents have child zombies. Some of the adult zombies also tried to get in but get stuck. They are having a tough time getting out, but this also blocks many of the entrances and exits to the ducts.

Sarah just created an interesting scenario right now. Many children are now trapped in air ducts with child zombies and can’t leave since adult zombies block the entrances. But at the same time, many child zombies are stuck inside the vents too. Luckily, Adam did not enter the vents at that point.

This won’t last for long, however. The adult zombies will eventually force their way out and just heal from their injuries. But for the time being, much of the population of the school is trapped in vents. Quite the odd situation.

There are still zombies out and about, but they are more manageable now. Sarah is completely unaware of the situation she just caused and waits a bit.

However, with Adam still not here, she gets a bad feeling and decides to sneak back to where she was before. She sees that the zombies broke in, but there aren’t any in the room, except for the lower half of adult zombies sticking out of the vents. The window to the outside is now completely open and there doesn’t seem to be many zombies nearby, but Adam is still nowhere to be found.

Sarah begins to panic, but in the brief moment that she let her guard down, she is tackled from behind. She falls to the floor with her attacker who falls nearby. It can’t be an adult zombie since it is too small. Is it one of the child zombies? It’s about to get back up, but she can’t see it that well.

Sarah should be strong enough to attack it before it can attack her. What should Sarah do?

>Grab one of the nearby chairs and strike it over the head.
>Ready her purse and attack with that as it gets closer
>Write-in
>Switch characters

I will leave the voting window open until 8PM PST (about 2 hours and 30 minutes from now).

(2/2)

>>4576178

>Grab one of the nearby chairs and strike it over the head.

A purse is not going to be strong enough to kill a child zombie.

>Grab one of the nearby chairs and strike it over the head.
Just in case it's Adam, make sure to give some sort of warning before we attack.

>>4576217

Yeah, definitely give the attacker a look and give it a warning to see if it is a human before attacking. Could we also just grab a chair and wait to attack until it gets closer?

>>4576222
Sure thing! Write-ins are enabled, so edits like this are definitely allowed.

>>4576178
>>Grab one of the nearby chairs and strike it over the head.

>>4576178
We don't need to hit it. We just need to stop it from biting us.
Zombies prioritize biting. There is currently only one, apply purse as an obstacle to biting.

Could be adam. Scared child is gonna rush their mum.

That said, a mum should know their childs feel. Including their tackle hugs.

>utilize a purse to prevent biting. A zombie would attempt biting the purse. Probably break a tooth on the flashlight.

No more votes!

>>4576183
>>4576217
>>4576296
3 votes for "Grab one of the nearby chairs and strike it over the head"

>>4576349
1 vote for a write-in.

There was a bit of write-in for the first choice that I will include as well. You guys are very lucky that some people caught on to what was going on. Never become overconfident and make sure to always read how I word things. I never once stated that this was a zombie. I implied it, but never said it was one.

Writing now!

File: Sarah Huggin Adam in fron(...).jpg (1.42 MB, 1697x1131)

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Sarah sees her attacker getting up, but she is not ready to die here! She worked really hard to get here and wasn’t going to let one zombie stop her from saving her loved ones. Sarah grabs one of the nearby chairs and gets it ready. It should be heavy enough to cause severe damage to such a small creature.

Before swinging, she waits to see if it is indeed a zombie and how it may attack. But before she could do anything, it speaks.

“Mommy! Mommy! I was so scared. I want to go home. I missed you and daddy so much. Can we go now?”

Sarah can’t believe what she is hearing. It’s Adam’s voice clear as day. A moment of bliss overcomes her, and she is overjoyed that she finally found him. (Stress -5, Worry -5, Happiness +5)

Realizing that she still has a chair aimed at her son, she puts it down, squats down, and hugs her little guy. It may be a bit earlier than she would normally see him on a weekday, but she has missed him more than she ever has.

However, she can’t stay here for too much longer. The adult zombies are getting a bit restless and trying with all their might to escape the vents.

Congratulations! You have reunited with Adam! It’s not too often that a section will be this intense except for Larry’s story. His story is designed to be high energy the entire time. While Sarah, John, and Adam are not safe yet, you won’t be rushing against the clock to save anybody often.

A window to exit the school is right in front of the both of them, so they escape that hellhole and look for John. John is luckily hiding in the bushes across the street. John and Adam have a touching reunion together. Sarah stays as patient as she can to not interrupt, but when they finally stop hugging, Sarah nearly knocks John over to hold him close. She begins to cry uncontrollably.

“sob John... John... I missed you so much.... I thought I would never get to hold you again...”

(Happiness +10)

Current stats:
Stress: 0 (-5)
Worry: 0 (-5)
Happiness: 20 (+15)

“I missed you a lot too, honey.” John kisses her on the forehead and pats her head. “Everything’s going to be okay. We’re all together again.”

John is relieved that his one and only made it out okay. However, unlike Sarah, John puts one person a tiny bit above his soulmate. John looks at Adam who was a bit uncomfortable and unsure what to do. As a kid, it always feels a bit weird to see your parents do lovey-dovey things. John tries to calm Sarah down a bit quicker than he normally would to try ease Adam’s discomfort.

(1/2)

File: Sarah Rushing to Embrace John.jpg (25 KB, 400x225)

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Out of genuine concern, John begins to ask Sarah about any survivors in the school. He worries about all the kids in the building. Sarah is no condition to talk and is too absorbed in holding John close. Instead, Adam tells him about his friends who went in the vents and about the child zombies.

“Do you think any could have survived?” John asked.

“I don’t know. But we should try to save them! Andrew is in there!” Andrew is Adam’s best friend.

“Maybe some of them were able to escape and hide. Alright. You two have went through more than enough. Let me go check to see if there are any survivors,” John said.

Sarah, who wasn’t listening much until the topic of John going in the school came up, said, “Are you crazy? That place is extremely dangerous! We just barely made it out alive.”

“I know, sweetie. But there may be kids just like Adam who need our help.”

Because of the multiple uses of “What would John do?” Sarah will put up much more resistance to John doing something so dangerous than normal. And she beginning to not care as much about the welfare of others. However, she still cares about others somewhat and is not going to stoop to violence to stop John yet.

Choices that are now permanently impossible to choose because of these behavior changes will be in green. These are impossible to choose no matter what. The only green choice available to use in this story “What would John do?”, but since her stats are good, that choice won’t appear.

What should Sarah do?

Allow John to go in
>Convince John to not go. John will feel remorseful but will eventually agree with Sarah. (Stress +6 for arguing with John)
>Offer to go herself. This will be dangerous, but this may lead to something interesting. (Worry +6 for being away from her loved ones).
>Write-in
>Switch characters

Sarah cannot allow John to go in, even with herself also going in. That is a completely locked route.

I will leave the voting window open until 12PM PST (about 15 hours from now).

(2/2)

>>4576435
Is there any way to lower our progression of WWJD debuffs? I feel like this should be a mechanic, if difficult to achieve.

In any case, we should probably go ourselves. I get the feeling something important is in there.

>>Offer to go herself. This will be dangerous, but this may lead to something interesting. (Worry +6 for being away from her loved ones).

>>4576441
>Is there any way to lower our progression of WWJD debuffs? I feel like this should be a mechanic, if difficult to achieve.
Hmm... I've been thinking about this. I'm very hesitant to do something like that because the "What would John Do?" mechanic so easily overpowers that stats system. It having big consequences is a way to balance it. I don't think I want to make it even easier to use, you know? For the time being, I don't think I want to allow for a way to lessen these affects.

>>4576499 #

That's perfectly understandable. A suggestion would be to tie WWJD progression to the stats system. The more you used it, the more Sarah's sanity slips as she becomes more obsessed with John. The more time she spends with her loved ones and lowers her stats, the more she is able to calm down and move closer to sanity again. As an example of how this could work in practice, maybe for every 20 points of stress you decrease without using WWJD, 1 stack of WWJD progression is removed. This would ensure that WWJD is not abused, as players would have to weigh using WWJD for instant relief at the expense of long-term benefits against healing these stats normally, leading to short term struggles with long-term benefits. It would also give players a bit more of a sense of control over Sarah's story. Being permanently locked out of John doing cool things because we used one too many WWJDs isn't very fun, especially when we have no way to fix that.

>>4576435
>Switch characters
Adam has been saved.

The school situation is it's own shenanigans atm. Time to rotate. It's possible this situation may be affected.
John can also get advice and council from jack now. Trying to save a school is a different gambit than saving an individual. Realistically, saving the school is as "simple" as making a different building a huge decoy.

Simple isnt easy though.

>>4576517
>Being permanently locked out of John doing cool things because we used one too many WWJDs isn't very fun, especially when we have no way to fix that.
I see what you mean. I'll think about it and notify everybody in the next update if there are any changes to this. I appreciate the suggestions!

>>4576521

We still haven't moved Sarah's story forward 24 hours yet. I think it's important to remind people that QM mentioned in the last thread that it is highly recommended that we move every character one day forward to keep pace with Kyle, who is currently stuck in a jail cell for 24 hours.

>>4576522

Of course, QM! Anytime. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

>>4576517
I think i get where qm is coming from.

She's severely codependant. Even before all this. He's so self sacrificing, he's always there, justifying codependance. She still hates herself, she just suppressed it with focusing on john. The core problems would need to be solved for it to not go down full yandere. She would need to learn she can be independent. That would normally require a psych, which she never went to.
In this scenario, she need a trusted party member to point out she can be independent before she's obsessed.
Ie: not happening for a while. And at best a minute improvement before the story's end... depending on time scale of infection scenario at least. It aint being solved significantly in a month.

>Offer to go herself. This will be dangerous, but this may lead to something interesting. (Worry +6 for being away from her loved ones).
This is secret item and info isn't it.

>>4576435
>Offer to go herself. This will be dangerous, but this may lead to something interesting.
>Ask Adam whether he had been to the vents. The exit he used should be clear.

>>4576567
Actually, if we triggered a fire alarm nearby we could allow those in the building to escape the opposite direction.

But a large number of suburban children cannot survive without reasonable adult direction. Short term, but especially long term.

Some kid in there has definitely seen something interesting though. They probably don't realize it though.

>>4576567
It was already solved prior to the start of the story. John spent plenty of time calming her down and allowing her to become mentally stable, and recent events have caused her sanity to slip once again.

See here: >>4575367

>>4576577
She thinks she's stable. He thinks she's stable. Being happy doesn't mean you did your issues. A lazy man living off his parents savings not working will be happy until his savings run out. The core of his problems, not thinking of his future, remained unsolved. Nobody noticed until the symptoms showed.

Plenty of people out there who think things are good when they're a functional alcoholic or OCD or whatever when things are going well enough. But the wall has to hit somewhere. Dui. The habits overtaking responsibilities. The problem was always there. It's just unmanageable now.

>>4576435
>>Convince John to not go. John will feel remorseful but will eventually agree with Sarah. (Stress +6 for arguing with John)

We should be cutting our losses here, Going inside again will only lead to more uses of wwjd and lock out more options in the future.

>>4576435
>Offer to go herself. This will be dangerous, but this may lead to something interesting. (Worry +6 for being away from her loved ones).

>>4576587
Plenty of people solve their problems without needing therapy or other forms of mental care. Even if she didn't actually solve her problems, it still isn't fun to be permanently locked out of things due to WWJD progression with no way of fixing that.

>>4576435
>Convince John to not go. John will feel remorseful but will eventually agree with Sarah. (Stress +6 for arguing with John)

>>4576435
>>Convince John to not go. John will feel remorseful but will eventually agree with Sarah. (Stress +6 for arguing with John)

We can't afford this now. We're already locked out of good choices. And hunting for secret unlock items won't do anything since we killed that path in Stacy's story.

>>4576764
>And hunting for secret unlock items won't do anything
Actually, the QM has said every secret item reveals more info on the causes of the apocalypse, so even if we don't get them all they'll be useful.

>>4576773
Do it with the other characters, Sarah is in no state to, going in again will accelerate her mental breakdown.

>>4576798

Stress is a pretty bad stat to increase, though. Worry is negligible. Additionally, while this will be dangerous, it shouldn't be as bad as before. We have 0 in all stats right now and we've saved John and Adam as well, it should be fine.

>>4576805
Maybe we can at least increase her thresholds.

5 5 5 is really hard to manage when actions easily take us well over

>>4576821
Or maybe QM can give us less rapid stat increases. I have to admit, our stats going down by 10 the minute we separated from John was a big shock. I know QM said that part of her story was supposed to be difficult, so hopefully in the future he'll be a bit more reasonable with stat damage and give us time to adapt.

>>4576435
>Convince John to not go. John will feel remorseful but will eventually agree with Sarah. (Stress +6 for arguing with John)

>>4576805
You don't think her stats will go haywire again once we're inside? It's just not worth it.

>>4576832
That's exactly what I think. Her stats went up in the first place because Adam was at risk of dying, and that is no longer the case. The choice also specifically says that only Worry will go up by 6, because she is away from her loved ones. We are risking our lives with this choice, but beyond the initial +6 worry, we are not taking much additional stat damage. Hopefully QM can confirm whether or not her stats will all take 10 damage like before. I'd be willing to bet that they don't.

>>4576832
As for the benefits, that's easy. We can get a secret item/event plus other friends, items, or bonuses. We get to damage Worry instead of Stress, which is a very dangerous stat to let get too high, in QM's own words. Worry by contrast is negligible, since it has to do with keeping loved ones safe when it gets too high. WWJD progression likely locks several Worry options out already.

Since someone wanted me to confirm this, I'll do so now: That last section of the story was designed to be difficult. That is why her stats did what they did. Her stats will not get that bad that quickly again unless one of them dies or if John or Adam are in a life-threatening situation like Adam was in before. If Sarah enters the school, there can be bad stat increases, but not nearly as bad as before. And there will also be bad stat decreases included, unlike before.

>>4576626
>>4576764
>>4576798
>>4576828
>>4576832
>>4576889

Thanks for the confirmation, QM! There you guys have it, going in isn't that bad after all. I'd like to encourage you to change your votes now so we can break the tie and avoid an extension.

>>4576889
Actually, perhaps instead of opportunities to decrease john obsession, why not opportunities to increase thresholds?

Means we can change her behavior (stronger thresholds in certain stats means she's more likely to do things increasing those stats)

Simultaneously it provides an edge against obsession as she's less likely to need it if she doesn't pass a threshold

However necessary decisions that poke an underdeveloped stat may trigger obsession. Meaning if her improvements are lopsidedly handled, she'll have a very hard time avoiding leaning on her crutch.

Narratively she would be more accepting of certain behaviors she's more used to and less so for those she isn't.

Perhaps also a time scaled derivative for obsession where using it more often in a small amount is more harmful than sporadically over days/ months

>>4576988

Maybe both could be interesting mechanics. Either way we still need to find a way to clear WWJD debuffs, since permanent story locks are no fun. It keeps coming back to the fundamentals of game design, let the players feel like they have control and let them have fun

We have a tie! I will allow 2 more hours of voting and then we will do the normal tie-breaking procedures. For newer players, ties work like this: after the time extension, if there is still a tie, the choice higher up on the initial list of choices is chosen.

>>4576441
>>4576572
>>4576680
>>4576567
4 votes for "Offer to go herself. This will be dangerous, but this may lead to something interesting."

>>4576626
>>4576755
>>4576764
>>4576828
4 votes for "Convince John to not go. John will feel remorseful but will eventually agree with Sarah. (Stress +6 for arguing with John)"

And with the amount of people wanting to see changes in the mechanics we have in play for Sarah, I will come up with some kind of way to improve them by the next update!

>>4576435

>>Offer to go herself. This will be dangerous, but this may lead to something interesting. (Worry +6 for being away from her loved ones).

No more votes!

The tie was broken at the last second!

Writing now!

Before continuing, I want to inform everyone about the new updates to Sarah’s mechanics. I have made 2 adjustments that hopefully make everyone feel better about the system.

Mechanic Change 1:

Since player control is something that was brought up on numerous occasions, I wanted to be a bit less secretive and give you guys detailed information about the What would John do? choice. So far, you have used the option 3 times. The first time had no consequences, but the other 2 did.

If you use this option 2 more times (so 5 times in total), Sarah will be obsessed with John and will become as controlling and uncaring of others as she used to be. She will still care about Adam. To make it easy to know when you are at this point, after Sarah is in this state, it will change to be called Focus on John. Please also keep in mind that while this can be considered a negative state to be in, it does have positives.

Afterwards, if you use it 2 more times on top of that (so 7 times in total), Sarah will think about nothing other than John. Everything she does will be for him and to be with him. She will not care about anything else. Adam will be a secondary concern. This may lead to her trying to kill or otherwise remove Adam from the equation. However, this is not something that has to happen. It depends on a few things like player choice and if Adam is taking John’s attention.

You can continue using the function more on top of this, but that won’t increase her obsession more. I will leave a count next to the option to show you how many times you have used it.

The big change that I am making now is the ability to counteract the negative effects. If Sarah can sleep with John (as in cuddling in the same room/bed as him) for 3 nights in a row, I will remove 1 single “What would John do?” from the count. We are still early in the timeline of this quest, so days are moving slowly. As the quest progresses, days will not take as long. Therefore, I think this is a fair way to let this happen.

Any time she can cuddle with John for 3 nights in a row, one of these can be removed. Don’t worry, I will never forcibly keep them away for a contrived reason. Things like this will be decided by player choice. You’ll see what I mean later.

(1/2)

Mechanic Change 2:

Before I explain this one, I need to further explain certain things about the stats system.

Worry will not be affecting Sarah when she is with both Adam and John, assuming neither of them are in a life or death situation. When they are all together, you can expect the worry stat to not come up much.

Happiness, on the other hand, will primarily be a concern in safe places and not come up much in other places. This all depends on how much attention John gives Sarah and with how much time they spend together. It won’t tend to creep up when in unsafe places (unless life threatening like before).

Stress will be a persistent stat coming into play no matter where Sarah is. In the outside world, the best ways to solve this are by letting her relax. In a safe place, the best way to solve this are by “relieving stress” with John. Don’t worry, this is an automatic thing that takes place when they are cuddling together at night and you will not have to select any options like this. I also will not write much about these experiences.

Now, here is where the change comes in:

Each night she cuddles with John, Sarah’s stat tolerance will increase. Each night she cuddles with him, healthy Stress and Worry maximums can increase by 1 and healthy Happiness minimums can decrease by 1. The maximum will be 10 for Stress and Worry and the minimum for Happiness will be 0.

For example, if Sarah cuddles with John tonight, Stress and Worry can be at 6 and Happiness can be at 4 and still be considered healthy.

However, each day that she does not cuddle with John, it will decrease by 1. For example, if she decides to do something else tonight or sleep alone tonight, Stress and Worry can only be at 4 and Happiness can only be at 6 to be considered healthy.

There will be some important things Sarah and/or John can do at night to make their situation better, so you will need to balance their survival needs with Sarah’s emotional needs.

I am going to post this fully now and begin to write a story update in a moment. Give me a bit more time to write Sarah’s story continuation. If further adjustments are needed, let’s tackle them a bit later since this is quite a lot to take in at this point. Please let me know if you have any concerns.

(2/2)

>>4577301

A question about stat tolerance.

If stat tolerance is raised/lowered, will we still be instantly locked at 10 for Stress/Worry or -5 for Happiness? Or would those thresholds rise as well? For example if stress tolerance was 6, for example, would we still be locked out of stress choices at 10 stress like usual, or would it now take 11 stress to instantly lock up our options, rather than needing to wait for 5 choices?

>>4577348
She will always be locked out of choices when a stat has been bad for 5 choices.

As for her being instantly locked out of choices, that's only when ALL stats are in incredibly bad states. For Stress and Worry, that will always be +5 to whatever the maximum tolerance is. For Happiness, that will always be -5 to whatever minimum tolerance is.

For example, let's say that Sarah has cuddled with John for 5 nights in a row and makes her stat tolerances as good as they can be. This means that Stress and Worry can be at 10 and Happiness can be a 0 and still be healthy. For her to instantly be locked out of choices, Stress and Worry need to be at 15 or higher and Happiness needs to be at -5 or lower.

And please remember that I will not be adjusting stats to such an extreme degree as I was before unless they are in a dire circumstance.

File: Sarah And John Having a T(...).jpg (81 KB, 1200x721)

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Sarah is still holding onto John with all her might and crying into his chest. Adam has never seen his mother act like this, but she doesn’t care.

“hic I worked so hard to save Adam and keep you safe... And now all you want to do is risk everything... You have no idea how dangerous it is inside....”

“Honey, I understand. But think about it. If it was Adam stuck in the school with another set of parents deciding if they should help him, wouldn’t you get upset if they refused to help? We should at least try to save whoever we can. Now please let go so I can help them.”

“No! I’m not letting you go. You-You’ll have to force me off you!”

Sarah is not budging an inch, and John doesn’t have the heart to get physical with her. At this rate, he is going to give-in to Sarah. But is this really okay?

Then Sarah feels a slight tug on her clothing that wasn’t from John. Sarah looks to her side, and Adam is doing everything he can to stop himself from crying.

“M-Mommy, all of my friends are in there... When Mrs. Gilbert ran away, I was so scared and alone. But Andrew pulled me away and helped me find a place to hide. Everybody was so helpful...”

Sarah remembers back to how angry she was at Mrs. Gilbert for how she treated her own students. In this moment, she was effectively acting exactly like her. She began to feel disgusted with herself. But she can’t let the ones she loves get in any more danger.

After thinking about it, she releases John and begins to speak, “I’m sorry about that, you guys. I’m just really worried about you. John, can you watch Adam and keep him safe? I know the school’s layout and have learned a thing or two about the zombies.”

“Wait, don’t do that, I can...” John begins to speak, but is interrupted.

“I can handle this by myself. Someone needs to watch Adam, and it is too dangerous for him to go.”

John begins to protest once again, but Sarah interrupts again. Instead of speaking, she gives him a kiss. It’s a passionate, deep kiss. John has always been a bit weak to her loving advances, so he doesn’t resist. Then she rests her forehead against his.

“You’ve done more than enough to help everybody every day, let me do something for you,” Sarah says, “I love you, dear. Don’t you ever forget that. But I need to go now.”

I hope nobody minds that the image I used is from an animated source. This image fit this scene between John and Sarah better than any other I could find.

She then squats to meet Adam eye-to-eye.

“Hey there, champ. I’m sorry that mommy was so worked up, but she will go help your friends now. Can mommy have your phone? I promise I will give it back once I come back out.”

Adam hands Sarah his phone. She then stands up and faces John.

“If I’m not out in an hour, text me, okay? In the meantime, you two find a safe place to hide.”

John is a bit taken aback by the sudden maturity shown by Sarah, but his heart races a bit.

(1/2)

File: Once again entering the school.jpg (427 KB, 1920x900)

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While Sarah would prefer to just stay with her loved ones, sometimes it is more important to be a good example for her son. While she will be worried about John and Adam (Worry +6), she is not as desperately worried like before.

Current Stats:
Stress: 0
Worry: 6 (+6)
Happiness: 20

Worry is currently in a bad spot, but it will take 5 choices for it to lock her out of any choices currently.

Many children have perished in the various air vents in the school, but there are also plenty of child zombies inside as well. The adult zombies have mostly all become unstuck and are roaming the halls.

There are 10 children currently alive who have escaped the vents (except for one still in the vents). If Sarah can save all 10 children, I will give you a hint to help you in another character’s story. I will not divulge what this is about until this happens. If Sarah saves Andrew (Adam’s best friend) and at least one other child, something good will happen. If Sarah can only save Andrew or if she saves other children and Andrew dies, only the normal course of things can occur. If she saves none of the children, there will be a one-time intense hit to her stats.

Please note that if all 10 children are saved, the good thing AND the hint will occur. The hint is more of a stretch goal over anything else.

There is no time limit, but instead, your individual choices will be important. There is 1 student on the roof, 3 in the third floor, 3 in the second floor, 2 in the first floor, and 1 in the vents. I will not tell you where Andrew is until Sarah finds him on her own. The child in the pool area and the child in the vents are the most vulnerable. You may want to save them first. However, the child in the vents could be on any floor.

How should re-enter the school?
>Through the first floor window she came out from
>Through the second floor window like she initially started with
>Write-in
>Switch characters

If you can be really creative, there may be more ways to enter.

I will leave the voting window open until 9PM PST (about 4 hours and 5 minutes from now).

(2/2)

>>4577412
Okay, we need to get to the roof ASAP and sweep our way down. Any ideas for how we can enter the roof on this one option?

>>4577412

Okay, I've got it!

>Write-In: Have John give Sarah a boost from the top of the jungle gym so she can reach the roof or a tree close to it, then save the kid in the pool area.

>>4577412
John boosts Sarah up to the fire escape.

No more votes!

All votes were for write-ins. I will try to combine them.

Writing now!

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Sarah begins to think about her available options for entry. The window she left the school from could have zombies in it by now and the room she initially came from leads to a dangerous hall. But where else could she enter from? The front and back doors still have zombies in front, and there are still the occasional zombies walking around the area.

Like last time, Sarah and John, now with Adam in tow, head over to the bushes a street away from the parking lot and grab some rocks to throw at some of the parked cars. And once again, the sound of car alarms attracts many of the nearby zombies.

Now with most of the zombies distracted, Sarah can take a closer look around the school. On the west side of the school, where the jungle gym and the rest of the playground lies, Sarah can see something on the leftmost corner that she couldn’t see before. There seems to be a fire escape. While she ultimately will not use it now, it could be a useful exit later.

If you are a bit more curious where it is located, when you descend the first-floor stairs, the fire exit is on the left. It is right before the door to the left hallway. If you remember the layout of the school from Sarah’s very thorough visit previously, it will make her life easier.

However, entering in this way could be a bit dangerous, so she tries to think of something else. Sarah does see a tree nearby that could potentially lead her to the third floor, but there is no guarantee the windows will open. At the very least, she could try and see. But how could she get up to the top? Sarah isn’t very experience in climbing trees.

“John, can you help me? If I can stand on your shoulders, I could reach my way to the top of the jungle gym, and then I could climb a bit of the tree and find my way into the third floor.”

“What’s gotten into you, babe? You’ve been a lot more creative than you used to be. It’s a good idea, but how did you think of that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe your creativity is rubbing off on me? Or maybe being in dangerous situations brings it out in me? Who knows? But all I know is that I can get in this way. Can you help me?”

John doesn’t say anything and gets ready to hoist her onto the jungle gym. As Sarah gets on top of the structure, she climbs on the nearby tree and then shouts to John.

“I love you, John! And Adam, be a good boy! I’ll see you both soon!”

They wave goodbye to Sarah and find a place to hide. Sarah tries opening the nearby window that she can reach from the tree.

“Locked. Shit!” Sarah thought. There are a couple more she can reach nearby, but they are all locked. What’s worse is that she can see that each of these rooms have a zombie or two in them. Even if she does make it in, she Is going to have to find a way around them.

(1/2)

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Window 1 has a child zombie eating a corpse on the floor near the window. Window 2 has an adult and kid zombie trying to exit the room, but they are having difficulty opening the door. Window 3 has an adult zombie facing the other way, while sitting on the floor.

On top of this, some of the zombies that didn’t get distracted by the car alarms spot her struggling to open the windows from the tree. They soon crowd the surrounding ground. A couple begin climbing the tree.

What should Sarah do?
>Break open Window 1
>Break open Window 2
>Break open Window 3
>Go back to the jungle gym and find a place to hide, and then find a different entrance to the school.
>Write-in
>Switch characters

I will leave the voting window open until 12PM PST (about 14 hours and 15 minutes from now).

(2/2)

>>4577668

From our zombie handbook:
>Zombies also do need sleep. They tend to sleep when they have secured food and have no competition. They sleep a very deep sleep since they do it so infrequently. It is very hard to wake a sleeping zombie. And even if you do, it is likely that they will just fall back asleep if their food is still there.

>Officer Smith revealed a weird event with one zombie: It was awake and completely capable, but it just sat down and did nothing when humans walked by. Why is this? Well, maybe you will find out why during this quest!

Zombie sitting on the floor = free real estate.

>Break open Window 3

>>4577675
Dang, you are very good at reading me sometimes! I was trying to see if people remembered those facts about zombies since it has not come up before. But the fact that this was called out so quickly and so thoroughly, is quite impressive on your part! I'm thinking of ending the voting window now and just writing another update. You already saw through it completely.

I hope nobody minds, but the voting window is over! I will just write another update.

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Sarah, not sure of what to do, just picks a window and hopes for the best. She takes out her flashlight and uses its thick metal bottom to break open the glass and unlock the window. She quickly enters the window and collapses to the ground with a thud.

She quickly gets back up and faces the zombie she saw before. However, despite it hearing her and seeing her, it still stays seated. Its limbs are all there, so that isn’t the issue it seems. Sarah has never seen something quite like this. A zombie not trying to attack prey right in front of its eyes? But why?

Suddenly, Sarah hears a voice.

“You shouldn’t be here. They are still climbing the tree and will get in this room any moment. I believe the art gallery next door should be safe. Hide there for now!”

Where was this voice coming from? Was it from the vents? It can’t be. There is no echo or any sort of distortion. It sounds like it is coming from this very room.

“For goodness sake, you’re wasting precious time. But if it will get you moving quicker, turn on your flashlight and point it right in front of you.”

Sarah does as she is told.

“What am I looking at? All I see is the gross-looking zombie. It isn’t moving, but it keeps staring at me.”

The zombie’s mouth begins to move, “Miss, I may be a zombie, but I resent the accusation of being ‘gross-looking.’ Now enough gawking at me, get a move on! They are almost inside! I won’t hurt you, but I cannot protect you from them. I can try to get them to look somewhere else, but these types don’t tend to listen very well. Now get away!”

The zombie gets up, runs towards Sarah, and escorts her out of the room and closes the door.

“Wh-what the hell was that? Am I dreaming? What the hell was that thing?” Sarah thought.

Congratulations! You have discovered Sarah’s secret event! What was that thing? Why could it talk? Why was it so keen on helping a human? Those kinds of questions will only be answered in the unlockable sixth character’s route. Sarah will have no answers to this in her story. She will never meet this kind zombie(?) again.

Sarah sees some zombies in the hall heading to the stairs, but none heading her way. Sarah decides to take a bit of a risk and listen to the thing that just helped her out. She heads to the art gallery next door, opens the door, and peers inside.

“Who’s there? It better not be a zombie!” A child-like voice said.

“You idiot! Be quiet! A zombie won’t understand what you’re saying!” Another child-like voice said.

Sarah turns on her flashlight and sees 2 children sitting on the floor and another huddled up in the corner. Sarah enters the gallery and closes the door behind her.

“It’s okay you guys! I’m here to save you!” Sarah said.

“Aren’t you the lady from who told us to go in the vents before? I’m sorry miss, but we couldn’t fit, so we stayed here.”

These children were on the chubbier side, so they wouldn’t be able to fit even if they tried.

(1/2)

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“What are your names? I’m Sarah.”

“I’m Gary.”

“I’m Heather!”

The kid in the corner didn’t speak.

“Oh, that’s Jimmy. He has been like that for a while.” Heather said.

Sarah is a bit surprised by how lax these children seem to be. But they have probably been in here for a while, and children tend to get bored quickly these days. Maybe these two haven’t seen anybody get eaten and were just told to come here. But Jimmy? He definitely saw something traumatizing.

“Do you guys know of any other survivors? Anybody at all?”

“I’m sorry, miss. But we’ve been here the whole time. We did hear a lot of loud noises coming from the vents though,” Gary said.

“Have you heard anything from the vents recently?”

“Nope. It’s been quiet.”

Sarah, not getting anywhere with Gary and Heather, sets her sights over to Jimmy. As a mother, she has had a lot of experience consoling Adam when he was down. Plus, she went through a lot as a child, so she could have some luck getting through to him.

However, getting him to open up is going to take some time. That is valuable time she could be using now to look for other kids. She could always try later, but he would be more useful not being huddled in the corner.

The children that Sarah saves can be useful for various things. They may have items on them. They may know something Sarah doesn’t. They be able to do other things. You will learn how Garry and Heather can help Sarah once you make your next choice. Jimmy will be of no use until he opens up.

Should Sarah take the time to calm Jimmy down now?
>Yes
>No, it can be done later

You must also choose what Sarah does afterwards. Don’t worry, the above choice of what to do with Jimmy and the below choice will only count as one choice overall.
>Head to the pool
>Head to the second floor
>Try to find out what she can about the air vents on her own
>Write-in
>Switch characters

I will leave the voting window open until 12PM PST (about 12 hours and 40 minutes from now).

(2/2)

>>4577736

>No, it can be done later.

>Head to the pool

The kid in the vents is likely not on this floor since they didn't hear anything recently. The kid at the pool is at risk, so we should help him before talking to Jimmy.

>>4577411
Anime haters are a meme.

>>4577675
Based anon.

>>4577736
>No, it can be done later
>Head to the pool
But after that we need to check 3rd floor teacher's lounge where we've found Mrs. Gilbert previously. There was a bunch of kids with her, and even if they all went into the vents, Mrs. Gilbert herself wouldn't.

>>4577740
This.
If they can stay quiet and the room can be secured, they should be fine until later.

The other two need to get Jimmy responsive enough to leave when we begin the evac proper.

>>4577759
She proper dead. The cacophony of children going to the vents would have revealed her.

We're also in dire need of a simple weapon/ tool. Fighting zombies in general is bad, as we are easily overpowered and will draw crowds even if we incapacitate a few. However, things as simple as tripwires made with jumpropes and marbles can do wonders.
That and a child size aluminum bat nam probably take out a dozen children or a few adults at a light weight.

What is available in a school that's of use? What are uses of common school items?

The lost and found / confiscated items boxes in administration is probably full of useful goodies (electronics, toy cars, possibly even a toy slingshot)

>>4577770
Just checking on the lounge is fast.
Though now that I checked, there were only 3 children on the 3rd floor and we've already found them. Still, maybe Mrs. Gilbert is alive.

>>4577736
Ah, yes, and
>Look for a weapon. Maybe a part of an eassel? Or pack our purse with heavy supplies to use as a flail?

>>4577784
Heavy supplies in a purse means having to carry them.

Light weight, hard, and allowing to manage distance is best for her, ie metal bat. And maybe a few jump ropes as rope for future shenanigans.

>>4577791
Try to find a bat or jump ropes in an art room.

>>4577791
Also the art supplies only need to be as heavy as said metal bat.

>>4577796
True... and we're going up before going down

Table leg, twine, metal hanging wire, large framed picture (smack upon head, now zombie has trouble with doors and navigation), metal stands, paint thinner, paint cans, spray cans, etc.

Also we never grabbed the knife that kid stabbed themself with.

>>4577806
By the way, spraying paint in eyes might be a great anti-zombie weapon.

No more votes!

All the votes were for the same things. I will also try to incorporate as much of the write-ins as I can!

Writing now!

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Sarah decides to comfort Jimmy a bit later. It would be a better use of her time saving people first. But Sarah feels a bit empty handed. She used up her pepper spray a while ago, and she even needed to throw away her change purse as a distraction earlier. She has very little to work with.

To have some kind of fighting chance, she decides to look for a weapon and other useful things in the gallery. In one of the drawers, she finds a pair of thick gloves. Those could be useful. She grabs a can small can of paint, about a pint (half a liter) in size. Maybe she could temporarily blind a zombie? She also grabs some twine. Maybe this could keep a door closed a bit longer? She also grabs a sewing kit just in case she ever needs to fix up some clothes.

As for weapons, she finds a hammer and chisel used for marble sculptures. “A hammer and chisel in an elementary school? They let kids use this?” Sarah thought. She also takes apart a nearby easel for a bit of the wood. Maybe she could hit a zombie with it to stun it?

As Sarah was preparing, Gary asks her what she is doing. Sarah explains how she wants to save everybody she can.

“Then take this with you! I was planning on shooting some targets with it after school, but I can’t do much with it now.” Gary hands Sarah a slingshot and some steel shot ammo.

“You brought [i[that[/i] to school? If the principal was here, I would have told on you!” Heather said.

“At least I’m helping! I bet you’d just be dead weight!” Gary said.

“Nuh-uh! I’ll help her more than you. What I can give her is better than your stupid toy!” Heather gives Sarah one of those emergency whistles that some girls carry on their bags.

“How is that going to help her? Hey Einstein, she wants to get way from zombies, not bring them to her. That’s all a whistle is going to do!”

“Goodness, you two! Settle down a bit. I’m very happy that you both wanted to help. I’m sure I can find a use for both of these. In the meantime, I’m going to go look for more survivors and bring them here, okay? Keep it down and please make sure your phones are on vibrate, okay? Speaking of which, let’s exchange phone numbers.”

Sarah exchanges phone numbers with the kids, though it is actually Adam’s number.

Sarah has a few ideas of where to go next. When she goes to the second floor again, she could retrieve the knife from the boy earlier. But before she goes anywhere, she decides to check in the Teacher’s lounge to see if Mrs. Gilbert and the children are still okay.

Sarah opens the door slowly and calls out to them like before. No response. She shines her flashlight inside to get a better look. However, she can see an adult zombie consuming the innards of Mrs. Gilbert, and a couple of the children. The boy who hurt his ankle doesn’t seem to be here. Maybe he got away?

(1/2)

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Sarah decides to get out of there quickly so she doesn’t attract unwanted attention and heads to the pool area. She saw some gruesome sights there before, but it is possible that there could be a survivor or two.

Unlike before, it seems to be a mostly deserted area strewn with some corpses. The adult zombies are preoccupied with eating, but there are two child zombies swimming after a child in the pool. The boy seems to be struggling and can’t swim very well. The child zombies are gaining on him.

What should Sarah do?
>Give up on the boy. Saving him would put Sarah’s life at too much risk. (The boy is not Andrew)
>Use the whistle. This will get the child zombies’ attention. However, this will attract any zombies in the school to begin moving the roof.
>Set the purse down and dive in after the child. Sarah may not be as fast as Stacy, but she could outswim these child zombies. However, have you ever seen what panicked people do when being saved in water?
>Write-in
>Switch characters

I will leave the voting window open until 6PM PST (about 4 hours and 55 minutes from now).

(2/2)

>>4578240

>Write-In: Use the slingshot to down the child zombies, then jump in to save the child while they are busy recovering.

>>4578240
Supporting >>4578278, but shoot to kill. Aim for the heads.

>>4578240
Also, I don't know how elementary school pools are in the USA, but shouldn't it be shallow enough for an adult to stand on the pottom?

>>4578291
Well, there are shallow parts, but near the deepest end (where the boy and zombies are), Sarah is not tall enough to stand. Remember, Sarah is an average to small sized woman. A fully grown man could probably stand at the deepest parts, but not Sarah.

>>4578278
>>4578287
The slingshot isn't powerful enough.

We'd be better off using the wood to pull him to shore via the reach and roll method (lay down parallel to the water, reach out with hand + object, pencil roll to pull person to the edge.

At best, the fact sarah is harmful may drive them to her first, but they seem to prioritize ez prey first.

Putting our feet in the water or otherwise seeming easier prey could buy him time.

We could just drown the children zombies by pushing them with the wood each time they try to get out.

>>4578278
>>4578287
>>4578427
These write-ins are great, you guys! However, if you guys could collaborate a bit to make this a bit more uniform, I would appreciate it. I really like trying to utilize as much as I can from you guys, but I think it would be difficult in the current state.

>>4578427
It's powerful enough to take down a child, maybe not kill, but take down. The problem with reach and roll is that we're rescuing a panicking child who may not comply with instructions. I'm therefore in agreement with >>4578287 that we should use the slingshot, even though it probably will not kill, it's worth trying. If it does, even better. If it doesn't kill, we still have enough time to save the kid.

>>4578456

QM, just wanted to make sure, my write-in and the addition from >>4578287 are compatible, correct?

>>4578513
I mean... being given something to grab is instinctive. Just gotta hold on

>>4578515
Absolutely! I just wanted to be sure if you were still wanting to use that plan. Since it seems like you do, it is perfectly fine. I just wanted to also check if you wanted to modify anything in it to also include some of what >>4578427 wrote.

If not, worst case is that we can incorporate some of those plans if the slingshot fails. I just liked all of the ideas given so far, is all. But it is entirely possible that the slingshot will succeed, it just depends! 2 people supported the slingshot idea, so that is what we will go with if it still holds when the voting ends.

>>4578427
>>4578513
>>4578523

In that case, I'm willing to put my feet in the water to move them closer to us, give us an easier time aiming, and prepare the wood as a melee weapon on the off chance we miss.

No more votes!

All votes were for write-ins.

Writing now!

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The adult zombies seemed to not be a worry, but the child zombies were clearly a big problem. Sarah remembers back when she was trying to escape from that hallway with the screaming man. The child zombies were quick to give up on the easy prey in front of them to hunt her when she fell.

The best bet would be to distract them so she can help the boy get out of the pool. Maybe Gary’s slingshot could be useful? But even if she can distract them with the slingshot, how is she going to get the boy out of the pool and in a safe place without being attacked herself?

Well, there is only one way to find out.

Sarah gets to the opposite end of the pool, the shallow end. She takes her shoes and socks off, rolls up her dress, and takes a few steps in. She grabs some of the ammo, takes aim, and fires at the zombies. At first, they don’t take much notice, but one of the shots hits the leftmost zombie’s right ears, damaging it permanently. The zombie cries out in pain and turns around, and so does the accompanying zombie.

Sarah has a lot of shots left, and it is unlikely she will ever run out. Ammo management for this weapon is not a priority like it is in Jack’s story.

She continues to take aim and fires. In one lucky shot, she hits the rightmost zombie’s right eye. It penetrates its eye fully and causes major damage to it. Blood begins to spray out, and it starts to scream in one of the weirdest screams Sarah has ever heard. The zombie clutches its eye in pain, and it no longer pursues Sarah. If Sarah didn’t know any better, she could swear it was crying. The adult zombies look over to the injured child zombie.

Child zombies have next to no pain tolerance. As stated before, they do not heal rapidly like adult zombies. Therefore, except for the obvious eating people and other zombie-like qualities, they are much like your average human child. They are very weak when not in large groups.

But she can’t pay much attention to that as the leftmost zombie begins to speed up and is much closer. It also catches on to what Sarah is doing and keeps one of its hands in front of its face to block the shots. Instead of continuing to fire, Sarah steps out of the pool while the child is still far enough away. The zombie is moving slowly to make sure it can properly defend itself, so she quickly uses a nearby towel to dry her feet and legs, puts her socks and shoes back on, and unrolls her dress.

Once it is finally close enough, she sprints around the pool to the opposite side. The child zombie, somewhat foolishly, turns back around to pursue her from the water.

Why didn’t it just get out to chase her? Child zombies are not quite as smart as adult zombies and often act recklessly in ways they feel are more fun. Swimming is more fun than running.

(1/2)

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The boy is currently near the back wall of the pool, but he is struggling to swim the last few feet. Sarah is not able to reach him unless she gets in, so she reaches as far as she can with the plank of wood.

“Grab on quickly!”

He does as he is told and grabs on. Sarah begins pulling him to the back wall. The child zombie is nowhere near him but is swimming as fast as it can. However, that’s when the injured zombie crawls its way out of the pool and lies on the ground writhing in pain. Soon, it can’t take the pain anymore and begins to cry really loudly.

The adult zombies who were only idly watching while eating their food, after hearing this intense crying, abandon their food.

You have now discovered a unique behavior about adult zombies. Despite being willing to kill any other zombie, including child ones, that try to take their food, there is one single case where they will prioritize another over their food. In the event a child zombie is injured and is hurt to the degree that they begin crying this loudly, they will give up eating their food to save it. The only time they won’t do this is when they themselves caused the child to be injured. They can also not be distracted in this state.

Truly strange creatures, but this is how they act. It is recommended in the future to make sure to either kill child zombies or to silence them in some way before leaving them be.

The adult zombies are located on the left side and right side of the pool. There is also one about 10 feet (3.05 meters) behind Sarah.

What should Sarah do now? She has now incurred the wrath of 7 fully grown adult zombies and the boy is still not out of the pool.
>Quickly get the boy out of the pool, but there is no guarantee he will get out fast enough.
>Jump in the pool and hope Sarah can outmaneuver a fast child zombie and 7 adults as they jump in.
>Leave the boy and escape. Sarah can always try to come back, but the boy is most likely going to drown at this rate.
>Write-in
>Switch characters

I will leave the voting window open until 12PM PST (about 16 hours and 50 minutes from now).

(2/2)

>>4578688
Damn QM, I really did not see that one coming.

So question, where is Sarah in relation to all of these zombies? This seems like a pretty important thing to consider before making a choice.

>>4578715
Since this was very new information, I made sure to not kill anybody since it would be a bit unfair to spring new information up without giving you guys a fighting chance.

As for your question, I will give the layout. The stairs to exit the roof are on the south side. The most shallow end of the pool is close to the stairs. The pool is pretty large, about 25 meters in length. Sarah is on the complete opposite side, the deep end.

There is one zombie about 3 meters behind her. There are 3 zombies on the east side and 3 zombies on the west side of the pool. They are about 10-15 meters away on both sides. Finally, the pool's width is about 12 meters.

>>4578715
Honestly, this is REALLY important information. At this point the kid needs to make it out. We've saved them from zombies.

If we're able to pull him, he's basically fine. Why chase him. But that's time to save ourselves.

Also this behavior probably isn't ALL zombies. Probably most. Looks like some base knowledge and motivation stays in the head

>>4578715
Oh and, there is still one child zombie in the pool giving chase. The injured child zombie is completely out of commission.

>>4578736
Where is the injured child zombie, exactly?

>>4578746
It is currently out of the pool, on the east side. It is about 5 meters away from Sarah. It could still attack if Sarah moves within grabbing range, but it is not going to put up much of a fight.

If anybody is a bit nervous to make a choice, I won't kill anybody off without at the very least requiring a dice roll, so there won't be instant death of any character here. However, it is still dangerous.

>>4578688
Okay, so based on the layout, this situation is honestly not nearly as dangerous as it might seem, but there are some important points to consider. The first is that there's no way we can distract these zombies. The second is that they are surrounding us on all sides.

That's where the bad news ends, however. Adult zombies can't swim well at all. The pool is large, and the injured child zombie they are trying to save is outside the pool. Since they are trying to save the injured child zombie and not necessarily avenge it, they may not come after us it we go in the pool, meaning we may just need to outmaneuver one child zombie. Worst case scenario, adult zombies are bad swimmers, and this many of them will likely make things more difficult for the child zombie to catch up to us. We have enough space to save the child and quickly bring him to the surface, as we're already close to the edge.

Therefore, we should:

>Jump in the pool and hope Sarah can outmaneuver a fast child zombie and 7 adults as they jump in.

>>4578907
Possible, but wet clothes and inventory issues should be accounted for

>>4578688
>Grab the injured child zombie and throw it off the roof
This should silence it.

>>4578971 #
QM has never given us serious inventory problems aside from maybe limiting the number of items we can take with us. I'm sure QM can confirm whether or not going in the pool or another body of water can have inventory complications. Wet clothes are an issue but negligible at best. Zombies have wet clothes too, you know. It's not like they turned into zombies while naked.

>>4578989 #
This would be a great idea... If the child zombie didn't already scream. As it is, this is a sure-fire way to get us killed. Right now the zombies are trying to save the injured child. If we kill it while they're in this state they'll probably just kill us in retribution. There's a reason why QM suggested that we kill/silence child zombies in the future and not right now.

Sarah can put her purse down before she goes in. But getting her stuff in the water would harm some of her inventory. So I would suggest putting it down before getting in if you want to jump in the pool.

There haven't been many votes yet, so please get them in soon!

>>4579322
Then sure, we'll just put down everything that would be ruined before getting in.