Response to the Lower Lab - ATZ Game Pt2

When we left part 1, Shelldrake had just blasted the corridor with his shotgun as something had appeared around the corner ahead of him.

Pew remembered his training enough to look where the shot had gone instead of where it came from, so he saw the ... 'thing' charging him. Reflexively he raised his SMG and fired off a burst.

Unfortunately, the Zeds rolled better on the activation - Zeds 2 humans 1 - so they charged Pew. He made one pass on his 'Zed or no Zed' test - should they be taken vs Ragers? - and then passed 2 dice on his Being Charged test.

The 3 bullet burst hit home, knocking down the first two 'things' round the corner - but the third was on him!

Pew killed the first Rager, knocked down the second, but the third reached him. You can see the skull counter I used for the dead Rager in the pic below.

Pew meets a rager - he'd rather not have though ...

Pew managed to get his gun up and in the way as he stood back up just in time to meet the on-rushing 'thing'. As it clawed for Pew's eyes, Shelldrake could see it was a person - or had been once. Whatever humanity this thing had once held was long gone. The raking claws, snarling teeth and blood running from their eyes made that a thing of the past ... fascinated horror rooted him to the spot as he watched while Pew fought a desperate losing battle against the monster

Ragers roll 3 dice in melee - normal zeds roll 1 - so are much tougher to beat ... the successes went like this:
1st rnd: Pew 4 Zed 1; 2nd rnd: Pew 2 Zed 1; 3rd rnd: Pew 1 Zed 1; persistent bugger this zed; why won't he die?
4th rnd: Pew 1 Zed 1; oh dear ... 5th rnd: Pew 0 Zed 1; end of Pew ...
Whereas Zeds feast, a Rager 'rages' for d6 turns. I rolled a 5 and put out the marker - a skeleton with a scythe and space for a dice.

As the monster knelt over the fallen Pew, Shelldrake could barely contain his revulsion as he watched it start to rip him apart. But then his attention was ripped away from Pew as another monster leapt over the first and  started trying to pull Shellie's guts out - through his mouth ...

So the 2nd melee:  Shelldrake 2 Zed 1; Shelldrake 1 Zed 0

The raging hatred in the monster's blank mindless eyes terrified Shelldrake to his very core, but somehow he managed to get his boot up and intersect with its ribs as it leapt at him, turning it crashing into the wall. Before it could recover, the butt of Shelldrake's shotgun squished its skull against the wall and it slid to the floor unmoving.

Shelldrake kills the second monster

"Fall back to the labe!" yelled Shelldrake. He blasted the standing monster in the hall, blowing it off its feet before he moved back to the dissection lab. Pugh jerked reflexively at his trigger, scattering a burst along the corridor, before following his supervisor's example into the lab - not even registering that he had missed completely.

Pew needed to practice his shooting ...

McGrew was left alone outside the lab now. True to his training, he backed toward the lab covering as much as he could with his SMG. When he saw the monster tearing at his buddy, he put a burst straight at its head. That exploded and the burst went on to travel up and hit the monster behind it knocking it off its feet. He smiled to himself grimly as he entered the lab and Barley locked the door behind him; "Score one for Pugh!" he thought to himself.

All Zeds down; steel security door between them, the
team thought they were safe

Activation roll:  Zeds 2 Humans 4
Shelldrake led his team back through the lab to their original entry point. They could all hear the banging begin on the door they had come through. "Shit," thought Shelldrake, "only 2 hours to the end of the shift and this had to happen!"

Activation roll: Zeds 5 Humans 6
His thoughts were interrupted as Hugh shouted, "What about Pew man?! We gotta get him!"
"Fuck that man!" yelled Barley
"Keep it together guys!" yelled Shelldrake. "Shawn, Pew is down and these 'subjects' - what the fuck?! They're monsters man, not people!"
An unknown voice came over his headset, "Shift Supervisor Shelldrake, have you made contact with the staff yet?"
"We saw a corpse - a tech probably from his coat; no-one else yet," Shelldrake replied.

A respite - so they start arguing ...

Activation roll: double 4 re-roll; Zeds 2 Humans 5
As the Rager raging at Pew was killed before it could finish, I decided that a "Harry, Chill Man!" test needed to be made ... which was failed so, Pew stood up and joined the team. However, as he had not seen the others exit back through the door, he milled about on the spot and didn't join them beating on the door.

Plus one to the Ragers; Ragers 1, Security -1 ... oh dear

"Who is this?" Shelldrake asked.
"That's not important," came the reply, "Mr Siwoc has been relieved from this post and I outrank you. Your orders stand - secure the staff on that level. Re-inforcements are on their way."
"Fuck," said Shelldrake under his breath as he switched back to the team's frequency.
"Right guys," he continued, "Get your shit together, we gotta carry on." He looked each man in the face in turn and was rewarded with varying degrees of resolution. 
"We go back through this door and try the other way around to the offices they called from. Those dumb  things are still banging on that door - we keep quiet and they won't know where we've gone."
He hoped that sounded better to them then it did to him ...
He turned back and opened the door into the corridor ...

"suck it up - the man says carry on!"

End of part 2 ...