The team leaves the motor pool through a broad service door into a covered staging bay lined with abandoned emergency vehicles. Rain drums on the corrugated roof.
A battered ambulance sits nearest the entrance, its medical compartment apparently intact. A warning light rotates weakly above it, flashing red across the wet concrete.
Luna Dunn
That ambulance could carry both babies safely. But listen. The alarm is still active.
The alarm chirps once, then falls silent before sounding again somewhere in the darkness. Each burst echoes between the vehicles and the bay’s shuttered doors.
Cpl Bawer
They are breathing evenly. Keep them covered while I check their blankets and temperature.
Cpl Bawer settles beside the newborns and examines them beneath the shelter of the hatch. Rhea moves between vehicles, opening compartments and checking abandoned key racks.
Rhea Chelo
No keys yet. I am checking fuel and watching the entrances. If that noise brought anything in, I will see it first.
✓ Quest Accepted
Make the ambulance a safe means of transport for the babies
“Has the alarm drawn any dead into the staging bay?”
YES (Likely, rolled 20)
The alarm chirps again, closer this time. Shapes stir behind the nearest emergency vehicles, and three dead figures, three adult zombies with ashen, torn faces, sunken eyes, and ragged dark clothing emerge into the red pulses, drawn from the bay’s shadowed corners.
Rhea Chelo
Contact. Three dead by the ambulances. They are inside the staging bay.
The zombies turn toward the living voices and begin crossing the wet concrete, their shoes slipping softly while rain and the failing alarm mask their approach.
Cpl Bawer
The babies are covered and stable. I can move, but I need a clear path to the ambulance.
Luna Dunn
Keep them away from this side. I will stay with Bawer and the babies until the vehicle is ready.
Rhea backs toward the ambulance, weapon raised, while the dead spread between the vehicles. One emergency door bangs open farther down the bay, revealing more darkness beyond.
Rhea Chelo
More may be coming. We have seconds before this bay fills, so nobody loses sight of the newborns.
“I cover the path to the ambulance”
SUCCESS (Good Tactics, rolled +3)
Sgt Dunn plants himself between the approaching dead and the ambulance, weapon steady as he clears the wet lane around the vehicle.
His controlled fire drops the three zombies before they reach the covered route. The ambulance’s side door stands open, revealing intact benches and a usable medical compartment.
Rhea Chelo
Path is clear. That was clean, Dunn. I am checking the cab and fuel now.
Cpl Bawer
Move the babies first. Luna and I can follow once they are secured.
Rhea reaches the ambulance without crossing the bodies, while Cpl Bawer gathers the covered newborns close. The failing alarm chirps behind them, drawing no immediate response.
Luna Dunn
Dunn has given us room. Keep watching the doors while we load them.
The evacuation lane is fully open, and the ambulance contains a mounted first-aid kit and two secured infant restraints, an advantage the team did not expect.
“I silence the alarm and secure the bay doors after securing the babies inside the ambulance”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Sgt Dunn settles the covered newborns into the ambulance’s secured infant restraints, checking each fastening before closing the medical compartment against the rain.
Luna Dunn
They are secure. Bawer and I are coming in now.
He follows the alarm’s weak chirp to a wall panel beside the staging bay entrance. A torn access cover reveals the manual cutoff, and he silences it.
The bay falls quiet except for rain. Sgt Dunn crosses to the shuttered doors, drops their locking bars, and secures the side exits with heavy steel latches.
Rhea Chelo
Alarm is dead, doors are locked, and the ambulance has fuel. We have a defensible pause.
Cpl Bawer
Both babies are strapped in and covered. Luna and I are aboard. Tell us when you are ready to move.
The covered bay holds firm around them. Red warning light fades from the wet concrete as the team gathers inside the ambulance, protected from the immediate dead.
Quest Complete
Make the ambulance a safe means of transport for the babies
Skill Upgrade: Tactics Good→Great