The living room finally goes quiet. Jenny lowers her gun and sets it on the coffee table with careful fingers that still shake a little. Louis fills three cups from the kitchen tap, the water sounding too loud in the hush.
Benjamin takes one of the cups. Outside, the yard is still, the fresh boards over the fence breach catching the last light from the windows.
Jenny
I thought once we got inside, it would feel safe again.
Louis
The city is not okay. The military is out there, but so is everything else.
Jenny
If one dead thing gets through, the whole house can turn into a trap.
Louis hands out the cups, then leans against the kitchen counter, watching both of them like he is trying to memorize the room before it changes again. The bruised quiet between them starts to feel less like shock and more like reality.
Jenny
We can still make this work, right? If we keep the house locked down, if we keep each other close?
For a moment, nobody answers. The three of them stand in the same dim light, water in hand, listening to the distant, muffled city and the steady, ordinary creak of Benjamin's house.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the house locked down
✓ Quest Accepted
Locate other survivors
✓ Quest Accepted
Contact the signaler at the Miller place
“Can we hear or see any distress signals coming from the houses down the street?”
YES (Unlikely, rolled 15)
Benjamin
The silence outside is too perfect, but there is a flicker of light near the Miller place.
Benjamin moves to the window, peering through the gap in the curtains. A rhythmic, pulsing glow emanates from a house three doors down, accompanied by the faint, desperate rhythm of a flashlight signaling SOS into the dark.
Louis
Do you see that, Ben? Someone is still over there.
“Can we safely reach the Miller house without being seen?”
NO (Unlikely, rolled 75)
The shadows between the houses are thick and shifting, revealing a cluster of undead figures patrolling the direct path to the Miller place. Any attempt to cross the open street would immediately draw their attention.
“"Jenny I need you to stay here. If something goes wrong, lock the doors and do not leave the house. Louis and I are going to go over to the Miller's house."”
SUCCESS (Great Leadership, rolled +0)
Benjamin
Jenny, stay here. If anything goes wrong, lock the doors and do not leave the house. Louis and I are going to the Miller's place.
Jenny
Got it. I stay, I lock it down, and I keep watch.
Louis
Then we move fast and quiet. No hero stuff.
Jenny lowers her gun a fraction, then turns toward the front hall, already checking the deadbolts and chain.
Louis crosses to Benjamin's side and nods once toward the window, listening to the street beyond the walls.
Jenny
If that light is a survivor, I want them alive when you get there.
Outside, the beam still pulses through the dark, broken now and then by shuffling shapes between the houses.
Quest Complete
Keep the house locked down
“Run outside with Louis and confront the undead”
SUCCESS (Great Athletics, rolled +1)
Benjamin and Louis slip out through the side door, keeping low as the chain clinks shut behind them. The SOS beam stutters across the dead street, bright enough to mark the Miller house through the moving dark.
They cross the yard fast, bat ready, feet silent on wet grass. The undead cluster in the street drifts away from their path, distracted by the flicker of light.
At the Miller porch, a woman presses herself to the window, face pale in the beam. She spots Benjamin and raps hard on the glass, eyes wide with shock and relief.
Mara Miller
You came. Please, get us out of here.
Behind her, another figure rises from the shadows inside the room, clutching a flashlight that keeps stuttering the SOS against the curtains.
Mara Miller
There are three of us, and one of them is hurt.
Quest Complete
Contact the signaler at the Miller place
Skill Upgrade: Leadership Great→Superb
Quest Complete
Locate other survivors
Skill Upgrade: Leadership Superb→Legendary