Part 3 - Going nowhere - Spodilicious

RAGE VIRUS: BARBERTON CITY. PART 3 - GOING NOWHERE

Dusk found detective Becky Smith, Steve and Stu looking for a safe place to spend the night or a functioning car to escape in. As they moved through an industrial area they became aware that they were being followed. Below: the table layout with Smith top right and the others bottom left.

Meanwhile not far away other survivors were doing more or less the same thing. IT consultant Julian had been having an acrimonious meeting with his client Terry in a cafe when a rager burst in and attacked the nearest customer. Terry drew a gun and left the cafe and Julian, not being familiar with this part of town, decided to go with him, picking up a leg from a table demolished in the rager attack as he passed. As darkness approached they were creeping along a back alley discussing whether to look for a car or a place to stay the night. As luck would have it they passed the building in which two other survivors were sheltering. As Julian and Terry passed by one of these two stepped out, introduced himself as Mr Brown, and suggested they look for a car together. Below: Mr Brown confronts Terry and Julian.

Mr Brown introduced his colleague, Mr Gray, and seeing that these two were armed and looked dangerous Terry and Julian at once agreed.

As darkness fell the street lights did not come on and Becky, Steve and Stu found themselves at the end of an alleyway cordoned off by construction barriers. As they looked cautiously up and down the street a couple of ragers sighted them from across the road and charged. Below: Steve & Stu hold the ragers off as they stuggle with the barriers.

Becky was able to shoot one, using up the last of her ammunition doing so, and Stu and Steve were able to hold the other off as it got tangled in the barriers. The firing drew other ragers from the main street and soon a pack was closing in on the three. Stu panicked and fled up the alley, to find that another was closing in on them from behind. As the pack came at them from the front Becky too made a run for it but Steve was cornered and after making a brave fight of it was dragged down. Below: The pack pursues Becky up the alley.

Stu and Becky separately dodged around corners trying to avoid the pursuing ragers, and Stu bumped into the one coming up from behind; fear lent him strength and he killed it with his pool cue.

Meanwhile Terry and Julian, taking advantage of the distraction caused by the gunfire, had made their way out onto the street to look for a car. Mr Brown and Mr Gray beat them to it but the nearest car had one wheel folded in after hitting the kerb and was no use. In desperation Julian headed to the nearest building and began to batter at the door with his table leg. Terry stood in the street looking panic-stricken as a rager appeared further down the road, and Mr Brown and Mr Gray stood ready, pistol in hand. The door flew open and two survivors dragged Julian inside. One was a woman in full military kit who introduced hersef as Ripley. The other was a terrified-looking man in a tracksuit. Mr Brown and Mr Gray elbowed their way into the building past Terry, who began to fire his pistol wildly as the rager spotted him and raced down the street towards him. A second rager, previously unnoticed by anyone, jumped Terry from behind.

Terry was able to hold them off for a moment, clubbing and firing with his pistol. From inside the open doorway Julian looked away. Ripley stepped into the door and fired a wild burst into the melee, apparently hitting Terry who went down and was immediately torn to bits by the ragers. Julian then slammed the door closed and Mr Brown jammed a metal beam behind it to hold it shut. The building was an electrical workshop, and Mr Brown and Mr Gray set about searching for useful equipment.

Out in the alleyways behind the workshop Becky and Stu had met up again and cautiously crept towards the gunfire. Finding no door at the back of the building and noticing that ragers were in ones and twos making their way towards the firing they decided to find a place to spend the remainder of the night and in the morning make their way across the waste ground at the back of the industrial area.

As for the others? Ripley had something she wasn't telling them . .