In Sutherland, Nebraska, the house shudders beneath pounding fists and dragging feet. Outside, zombies crowd the porch while masked cultists move between the darkened yards.
Zayne’s mother, broad-shouldered with a square-jawed face and weathered hands,, a middle-aged woman with gray-streaked brown hair and a red flannel shirt, braces her shoulder against the front door. His father, an elderly man in a tan coat, jams a dining chair beneath the handle.
Zayne’s mother
Push harder. The frame is starting to split.
Zayne’s younger sister, a teenage girl in a blue hoodie with a bandaged left wrist, drags a bookcase across the entryway. Dust sifts from the ceiling.
Zayne’s father
Back windows are covered. We have one exit left, and it is not safe.
Zayne’s younger sister
They are calling for us again. The cultists know we are inside.
A heavy impact buckles the door inward. The hallway fills with splinters, stale breath, and the low, hungry moans of the dead. Everyone turns toward Zayne.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the house
✓ Quest Accepted
Get the family to safety
“run to the front door there are no zombies there”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +0)
Zayne surges across the crowded hallway toward the front door. The family scatters just enough to let his muscular frame pass as another impact rattles the walls.
He reaches the entryway. No zombies stand beyond the battered door, only the dim porch and moving shadows farther across the yard.
His shoulder clips the splintered frame hard enough to bruise, and the loose chair scrapes loudly across the floor beneath the handle.
Zayne's mother
Zayne, wait. The porch is clear, but the street is not.
Zayne's father
The door will not hold another hit. If you open it, make it count.
Zayne stands at the front door with one hand near the trembling handle. Through a narrow split in the wood, the porch remains empty.
“go into the ditch and run to the general store we will get food there”
FAILURE (Fair Agility, rolled -2)
Zayne wrenches the door open and slips onto the porch. He drops into the roadside ditch, keeping below the street’s moving shadows as the house groans behind him.
Zayne's mother
Go! Keep low, and do not stop in the open!
He runs through weeds and damp gravel toward the general store, boots striking the ditch bottom in a steady rhythm. The store’s faded sign appears beyond the next bend.
The ditch suddenly narrows beneath a collapsed section of roadway. Zayne steps onto loose boards, which give way and drop him into a concrete drainage culvert.
He lands hard on one knee, catching himself against the wall. The culvert is too narrow to sprint through, and the broken boards block the ditch behind him.
Zayne's father
Zayne! We cannot see you!
Ahead, the culvert slopes toward the store’s parking lot, but a rusted storm grate seals its outlet. Through the bars, the market’s dark windows sit within reach, not an open path.
Quest Complete
Escape the house
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Fair→Good