They roll onto the road at 6:00 am, spread out in four vehicles, all of them sleepy-eyed and rumpled. The group slowly relaxes into a road-trip mentality, though most of them stay alert and aware. Such is life post Z-Day. Chatter, chatter, chatter. Nap, nap, nap. And just as the trip is winding into its second hour, something interesting happens, and the alert are rewarded for their efforts, after a fashion...

The tires puncture, sending the cars flapping and screeching down the decrepit highway. All of them. Half a mile away from the city of Lawton, Oklahoma, population 92,000.

There are zombies milling about, attracted by the chaos. They're few in number now. More are arriving.

Dan grabbed his battle rifle and cursed as he climbed out of his humvee. "Sonovabitch!" he walked around the vehicle, noting that all the tires were damaged beyond repair. he began moving towards the pverturned vehicles sensing that there were those in trouble. He picked up the radio and keyed it for short range broadcast "Forward pdrivers what the hell happened?"
Then he sees them. spike strips across the roads, alot of them, and they were permanent.

"Aww shit." He immediately switches into "battle mode" and calls again. "Everyone who can, get on yer feet and armed, this was planned." He starts pinpointing each of the nearby zombies even as he goes to one of the smaller vehicles to check on the passengers.

Captain Fox curses when he sees the vehicles go sliding around some of them flipping. From his height he wasn't sure what happened but he quickly unslung his monster of a sniper rifle and rapidly flew lower circling the area to see if there was an ambush in progress and determine the enemy's positions and numbers. If he doesn't see any living enemies he will start picking off the zombies nearest to the caravan. Over the radio, "What the hell happened, is everyone OK? Flyers, be wary of an ambush and see if you can pinpoint the badguys." After he gets some intel he will share it with the others.

(Premonition now active)

Priest wasn't inwardly cursing because he had just lost about half of what he had spent months building up. It wasn't the very real prospect of an upcoming zombie fight. What had got him all hot and bothered was that the look-out hadn't spotted the trap in the first place.

He couldn't bring his rage to bare. He had work to do.

A quick sound-off told him everyone was still whole and alive. At least everyone had remembered to buck-in. Time to get people moving.

"Colt, Rhonda, Andy - form a forward positioned firing line."
"Willy, Bethany - start getting the spares off the trailer and bring them to the semi. We have just enough to get it going again."
"Leo, you and I will get the air compressor up and running."
His people piped back to him that they had heard and were moving. Priest had a moment for a sideways glance up at Captain Morgan. This only made sense if it had to do with the raid on that other military base. Dying in another man's war wasn't Priest's idea of noble or good.

There would be time to think more about that later. Right now there were six tires to get out and a truck to jack up. And, of course, an ever increasing number of zombies to spice things up. Priest raced for the rear and the waiting air compressor that could jack up the truck. Time was of the essence. Time ... time ... time ...

Riding in the front vehicle without a seat belt James felt the jeep give way before he heard the tires go out. When it flipped he was thrown out onto the pavement where he bounced twice before sliding off the road into the waiting mud.

James came to his feet filthy with mud and missing both of his pants' knees and significant parts of his shirt as well. He brushed himself off and took inventory. After a very annoyed look at what was left of his pants and jacket he decided most of his gear was fine and started walking towards the turned over jeep to check on the driver.

Violet heard Priest barking commands at his people and felt slightly redundant as she saw how everybody responded immediately. She tried to see where Priest was and yelled back at him, "And what am I suppose to do?!"

Great... I should've stayed with James. No, make that, I should've stayed at the base!

Priest looks over at Violet. He keeps walking back to the rear of the semi as he talks to her.
"You run a night club right? Running this crew is just like that. Keep information coming in and make sure the rest of us know what Morgan sees. He's our forward warning right now. Move the front three - Colt, Rhonda, Andy - around like bouncers cutting off a fight. They know how to handle themselves once you unleash them."

"Everyone, go to setting three."
Priest then takes off his head set and hands it to Violet, hesitating only to say,
"Don't panic."
Once she has the headset,
"The big thing is that we don't panic."

A little girl comes out of the cab still strapping on two pistol belts, looking like a pint-sized Bandita. She runs up to Priest.
"Sarah," he says to her, "stick with V. Shoot anything you don't like that comes close to her."
"Roger Daddie," the girl named Sarah responds.

Violet nodded at Priest listening carefully to his voice and trying to follow his instructions. She didn't even try to figure out who was who and waited until he said something that was directed at her.

I'm so lost... maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come along.

Stop complaining Violet! You've got superpowers, you can help these people. Why don't you go ahead and do something useful for a change?

Shut up, Jennifer! You're only upset because I blew your date with the Captn.



Violet nodded again trying to work up a smile. She took a deep breath which stretched her tanktop dangerously to its capacity and sighed a bit.

Don't panic... did you hear? Don't panic



Violet stared flabbergasted at the little girl and watched her strapping on those pistols as if she had been doing this since she was born.

"Hello Sarah...", was all that Violet could muster to say while she smiled nervously.

This is soo wrong. Sarah shouldn't be here in the first place... like me!

Dan was on autopilot. After seeing the drivers and passengers all wave he motioned that he was about to flip the vehicle. They all held their head and necks and he gently flipped the vehicle back onto it's right side. "If you can move about, get armed and get to business. I'll stay nearby, call out if you have a need."

With that the Marine started off, battle rifle to his shoulder. He stroked the trigger and a Zombie's head exploded. He was conserving amunition, clearly the Zombies nearby wouldn't be all of them, and there would be no telling how long getting back on track would take. He didn't wander far from the vehicle as he waited, but he found that the Zombies were coming to him. The scent of blood was drawing them and he new things could get rough very fast. After killing almost half a clip of zombies with well aimed headshots he called to the others. He sniffed the air and frowned. "We've got injured, the blood's going to draw more, anyone with medical training let's get on the bounce, the longer we stay here, the harder it is going to go."

There is a gunshot and a bullet whizzes past Dan's ear. From a shallow ditch near the road two men get up, both of them scarecrow-thin and dressed in torn clothing. Neither of them look very nice and both of them hold rifles. They take aim at Dan - but as they do a zombie stumbles into one, and they quickly drive it off with a few pistol-whips and a gunshot to the head.

Dan Immediately ducks down and seeks shelter beyond the nearest vehicle, now empty of it's occupants. "Hold you Goddamn fire! I'm hear to kill Zombies, not to kill other people." He hopes his words make it through to them and that they reply, but just in case he mentally envisions where the shot came from and prepares to lay an automatic barrage against that position. "Those two look like they've barely eaten at all."

Over the radio he calls out to the others. "We got lives amongst the corpses, just got shot at by a pair of em, what's the call?"

James glanced at the two new comers and frowned. He'd been assuming the "accident" was a natural screw up and not deliberate, but obviously he'd been wrong. Without drawing any weapons James sprang towards them to close the distance.

(If he gets there this round) James says, "That will be enough of that" and attempts to grab one of them.

The gunshots brought Violet instantly back to reality. Instinctively she pushed Sarah back to the semi and crouched down to protect her. She tried to take a peek in the general direction where she heard the gunshots from and saw how James jumped furhter away from the convoy.

She hoped he was going to be fine, she hoped this was just an accident. Looking back at the young girl Violet smiled at her trying to wipe her own fears away. "Everything's going to be alright, Sarah."

Sarah looks up at Violet,
"I know," she replies chipperly. "We've done this before and with a lot more Zombies too. It sucks we're going to loose the trailer, but ain't that frakken life?"



To which Violet gets a response over the headset in a man's voice,
"What's the sitch? Nothing but a few 'Z's up here. You want us to pull back?"

"That's Colt," Sarah whispers to Violet. "He's up front with Rhonda and Andy."

She is taking this pretty good. Better than me actually

"I think there are people among the attackers, not only Zeds... should we move forward and join the others?", Violet wasn't sure if she should leave this decision to that little girl.

Using the headset she answers, "Me and Sarah are covering our backs?", her voice sounded more like a question than a statement.

Sarah shrugs slightly.
"That's were the guns are."
She makes ready to head out then stops. Sarah shifts from a two handed grip on her pistol to one handed. Reaching back, she takes Violet's hand.
"Wouldn't want you to get lost," she adds with an impish grin.

Over the head set,
"Roger that, now who is this?"

Violet lets herself be lead by Sarah before she realizes what the little girl is actually doing. A little confused she speaks into the headset, "Do you mean me? I'm Violet... ah... I've been with Priest in the semi. What am I supposed to do?"

There is a moment of silence across the net, punctuated by three gunshots. Past the lead car, Violet and Sarah see three people running toward them. Sarah sees them coming and leads Violet to the back bumper.

The three people couldn't be more different if they had been written that way. The first man is rangy, shorter than Violet with piercing green eyes. His most notable feature though is the fact that the left side of his face is horribly scarred from his ruined ear to the liscentious snear of his lips.

The second runner is ... well, the perfect cheerleader. Tall, built to make men cry, with doe eyes and a blonde hair. It seems so surreal to see her there with a bandolier and rifle. She gives Sarah a quick smile, but can barely meet Violet's eyes.

The man taking up the rear is dressed in back. He even has a back cowboy hat. He also has a pristinely kept rifle with a sight, twin revolvers on his hips, and a large boot knife. He is too guant to be considered good looking and his eyes are devoid of any joy or light. At least he has no problem keeping eye contact with Violet and not letting his eyes wander as most men do.
"Colt," the man says, indentifying himself. "We wait until we figure out who is shooting at us." Each word seems torn from his throat.

"I'm Andy," says the scrarred man. He has no problem taking in all of Violet's assets ... much like a ravenous wolf.

"And this is Rhonda", Sarah interrupts, indicating the blonde cheerleader. "Jeesh Andy, you oughtta try looking at her eyes! Dad put her in charge while he's getting the rig up and running."

Andy shrugs. Colt nods and takes up a position looking forward. Rhonda mumbles,
"Nice to meet you," then creeps up to a position on the other side of the disabled vehicle, rifle ready.

Reluctantly, Andy moves off a few feet in the opposite direction from Rhonda. He is crouched down and has his rifle ready.

Morgan flys around in a circle behind where the shots originated and continues to scout to make sure there aren't any others in the area before he takes direct action. Better if the people on the ground don't think to look up until it's too late. Meanwhile, knowing where at least some of the enemy is is a tactical advantage and one that would exploit if needed.

Into the radio he says quietly, "I've got a make on the ones that fired on you, I can take them out from the air if needed. I'm going to circle our position and see if there are others."

On top of one of the taller buildings in Lawton(and most likely visible from the air(and audible from close enough), there is pretty apparently a military grade attack helicopter currently with its engine powered down. Normally this would seem out of place, such a well-designed piece of machinery in this devastated town.

Part of the gunship itself has been replaced by stereo equipment of an amazing caliber. Normally this would seem out of place, a weapon of mass destruction turned into an instrument of mass distraction.

Standing next to the gunship, which is currently blasting Frank Sinatra's "South of the Border" is an individual armed to the teeth with a 4 iron golf club and a bucket knocking golf balls off the roof into the hordes of walking dead, jumping in celebration every time a ball takes one of their heads off.

Everybody, meet Preston

The world around Violet seemed to have jumped into fast forward. She wasn't used to this kind of 'military drill' and she barely acknowledged Rhondas, Colts and Andys presence. She just smiled a bit nervously. As everyone was crouching for cover she just mirrored their actions and looked around intimidated by the situation as such.

God, I wished James was here. What are these people expecting from me? I'm not a fighter...

She asked Sarah awkwardly, "Am I in charge or Rhonda?"

Sarah studies Violet for a moment, trying to see if that was a joke. Guessing that it wasn't, she puts a hand on Violet's shoulder.
"Its going to be alright," Sarah says in a calm, even tone. "Just do whatever it was Daddy told you to do. Now, what was that?"

"He told me to stick with you and listen into what they say over the headset.", Violet fumbled around with it and finally managed to put it on.

She smiled back at Sarah and pulled herself together. Violet closed in on the others and calmly said, "I suppose we should stick together and wait for orders. It looks like we've made contact with other survivors."

Violets eyes followed Andy and Rhonda and she decided to lean in closer to the cheerleader.

She is kinda cute...
Keep focused, Violet!

Dan nods as the two living shooters are handled, and resumes righting the flipped vehicles and shooting whatever zombies are nearby. "We can't just stay here, anyone got a plan, or do we wait for the whole town to come out to greet us?"

Morgan sends over the radio, "Dan, we should be able to pick up some spare tires in this town to replace what we lost. Let me finish making this circuit around the area to be sure we don't have any other bad guys lurking about, then we can organize a search party. As for why this happened, since we have more than one flyer, I think in future we should have two out, one advanced flyer up high, like I was, leading the way, and a second one closer to the ground to so that a little trick like this won't catch us again."

Violet absentmindedly rested her hand on Rhondas back just an inch over her butt and leaned closer in. She felt her fear and intimidation swept away by excitement as she imagined spending a few hours with Rhonda alone in her private quarters. Captain Fox's voice brought her out of her daydream and she quickly removed her hand from Rhonda's back.

"Looks like we're going to get some spare tires. I just hope they won't take too long."

Violets eyes wandered over Rhondas trim body and she smiled at her with obvious intention.

The man tries to tear himself away from James, eyes wide. "What the fuck!?" His partner is considerably cooler-headed, and lines up his rifle with James' head and smiles a smile that's really more of a grimace.

"Let him go and you'll live," he said levelly. "Or at least, I won't shoot you."

The man James held tried to free himself, but while in theory any number of simple martial arts moves would work, James grip on his arm was like a hydraulic press.

James said,

"If...", and attempted to hit the man's rifle with his black blade. {Activate Claws}.

Regardless of what happens he continues,

"...you keep this up you won't like where it goes."

It didn't take much to get Preston's attention. More the flying man than anything. Not exactly oblivious to the world around him, he couldn't be. Preston put away his golf clubs and put on his gunbelt. Two SMG's and as many magazines as he could carry on a belt. A quick flick of the mind and he was on the edge of town sitting just inside a building not far off and watching the show.

He was about to jump in when redneck number two leveled his rifle at unarmed guy number one when unarmed guy suddenly becamed 'guy armed with black blade of death and badness' so it was back to watching. Who to back? Who to defend? And who would take this bet?

The man's rifle goes flying, and he raises his hands, suddenly less intimidating. He's a doughy-faced man who's managed to retain a few extra pounds around the middle somehow. His partner is shorter and stick-thin, with wild eyes. The doughy man watches James cooly and motions for the other guy to stop struggling in James' grip.

A moment later a legless zombie rears up and bites the doughy man in the ankle.

James gives a half smile, this is the one they want, the leader. Maybe he'll know what's going on. It's a good break for them.

Or maybe not.

James curses and attempts to flip the guy he's got under his arm, then further tries to grab the other man and leap both of them back to the convoy.

Half of Priest's crew has the first truck already jacked up and are rolling two of the tires over to it. The air compressor comes into action and the air-gun comes into action.

Closer to the action, Rhonda leans back against the comforting hand at her back. She gets so little physical contact. The rest of the team keeps a watch out and Violet hears over the headset them sounding off every thirty seconds. Sarah keeps an eye out for Fox. Andy calls out to Hawkins,
"Can you sweep the backside and make sure no one is sneaking up on us? We've got the zombies covered up here."

Getting surrounded by zombies was a good way for most of the people here to get dead.

I can feel her longing for intimacy... poor girl...

Violet heard the action over the headset and looked around to assess the situation. She didn't want Rhonda to get hurt, she was too beautiful to be turned into a Zombie. Leaning closer in to the girl Violet placed her hand again on her back and whispered into her ear.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you. I Promise.", then she kissed Rhonda on her cheek lingering her lips on her skin just long enough to send shivers down Rhondas body.