Alternia Comics

The following is a one-on-one gaming session. It is a free-form
role-play through the origin of an After the Collapse character: Ian
MacKlellan.

It has been edited for content, grammar, entertainment value, and to
protect the innocent.

DM: As you slowly come to, something warm and
wet slides out of your mouth and fingers.

Player: ...

DM: You stagger, holding a hand to your pounding head, shaking it as
your vision clears. Something ... hungry ... a voice in the back of
your head seems to fade. You're not sure why, but you know you
have to fight it. You call to mind images of your family - the happy
times you've magaed to have in this broken world.

Your daughter, your wife ...

Their beauty and love fill your mind and drown out the hunger. With a
final shake of your head, your vision clears ...

... and is filled with the horrific image of your daughter's body,
bloody and torn open, her innards spilled at
your feet.

In a panic, you fall to your knees, but even in your grief, you
realize that you are not alone; a body bumps into you from behind, and
you see your wife stumbling past you. What do you do?

Player: Where's she headed?

DM: Towards a broken down car that someone is frantically trying to
start. You realize that SHE is not alone either. Other figures- your
neighbors and friends, are all around you, stumbling strangely towards
this car.

Player: I reach out for her, saying, "Honey?"

DM: You catch her wrist, and she turns in her step - again, weirdly,
as if she is not wholly aware - and looks down at you with one eye and
an empty socket out of a horribly torn face. The fresh white bone
shows under her cheek and chin. You recoil and she keeps walking
towards the car.

Player: "Gah!"

DM: Now, you realize, that YOU are injured. A horrific gash in your
neck has spilled your blood all over your clothes ... but that blood
is dry, and the wound does not hurt. The blood on your hands, though,
is quite fresh - as is the blood on your face, and in your mouth.

Player: "My daughter's blood... What have I.... oh God"

DM: Just then, your daughter begins to stir. With hollow eyes, she
looks around, then down at her torn stomache with detached interest.
Impossibly, she gets up, sniffs the air, and, awkwardly, but now with
a purpose, she turns to follow her mother to the car.

Player: "Sweetheart? NO!" I look to the guy at the car

DM: You hear the man inside of it cursing loudly, now. There are more
of these walking corpses moving towards him on the other side. "FUCK
it!" he shouts as he gets out of the car on the opposite side,
wielding a sawed off shotgun and a hatchet.

"FINE! FINE! You WANT me!?!?"

BLAM!

He blows one of their heads off.

Player: I'll run out towards the car, getting between it and my
family, and then I'll try to herd my family back in to the house.

DM: You push them along, but they just go around you or pull against
you, snarling and gnashing inhumanly. You aren't strong enough to
hold them both back.

*BLAM!*

There are now three on his side and five, including your wife and daughter, but
not you, on this side.

Player: Can I carry my daughter back inside the house?

DM: Well, you're on a residential street - right in the middle of it.
If you take either family member all the way to the nearest house, the
other zombies WILL reach the man.

Player: Damn.

I'll shove my wife and daughter to knock them over, then try to stop
my neighbors by any means necessary

DM: Okay, they fall over. One of the extras has reached the car and is
climbing on top of it.

Player: I grab him and throw him back away from the car

DM: He falls to the ground, and the other two reach you.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the car ...

*BLAM! HACK! HACK!*

You hear the fighting going on behind you.

One of the two before you starts clambering over the hood while the
other is going around the trunk.

Player: I yell, "BEHIND YOU!" and grab for the nearest one and throw
him to the ground

DM: Very well, but he, like the other ones you pushed or threw down,
just start getting back up.

You hear the man behind you say, "What the ... AHH!"

*BLAM!*

He fired another shot, but you're not sure what's going on back there.

Player: I'll duck down behind the car, crouching over the guy I just
threw down, and punch him in the face

DM: You surprise yourself with the strength of the blow. It goes
RIGHT INTO the man's head.

Player: "Eww..."

DM: With a sickening suction, you pull your fist out of what was once
a neighbor's face. Looking down at your fist, you see that the skin
on your hand has been shredded down to the bone ...

... but you feel no pain.

... just like the wound on your neck ...

"HELP ME!!!" yells the man, shaking you from your thought. The first
one you threw down has made it
onto the roof of the car. "Whoever's there, for the love of God, HELP ME!"

Your wife and daughter are back up and coming towards you.

... well, not towards YOU, but you happen to be between them and what they want.

Player: I'll grab the guy's legs on the roof and swing him around,
trying to throw him a good distance away.

DM: You hurl him pretty good. He lands in the street with a crunch,
but he's still moving.

Player: I want to put a boot to the head to anyone near by that's not
my family or the guy.

DM: There's no one left on this side of the car, so you look over and
see that the guy is struggling with two of them. He's holding them
both by the neck, but they are pressing him against the car, and he
can't get away.

Player: I leap over the car and slide-kick a neighbor in the head

DM: It cracks sideways, freeing the man's hand. As that zombie
stumbles away, he gives the other a hearty shove, picks up his
hatchet, and chops it in the head.

The one you kicked is still standing.

Player: I break his knee cap

DM: Down it goes, crawling along ...

Player: I go back to the other side of the car.

DM: You leave the crawling one?

Player: He chopped the other zombie so there's only the crawling one, right?

DM: Yeah

Player: He can take care of that one, but there's more on the other side, right?

DM: Correct, along with your wife and daughter, who have reached the
car. The one you threw is right behind them.

Player: "Does your car run?" I ask, holding wife and daughter back.

DM: "It DID," he shouts irritably as he chops the one on the ground.
"Where the hell did YOU come from?"

Player: "I live here. Lived. Can you get it running again if I keep
my neighbors off your back?"

DM: "What? Just kill the fuckers!"

Suddenly, your little girl slips out of your grip - slippery as it is
with HER blood - and stumbles forward to end up under the car. She
starts crawling under it towards the man.

Player: You're going to make me kill my own family, you sicko.

DM: Oh, I'm not done yet.

The one you threw makes it past you to the car. What do you do?

Player: I guess... I'll punch my wife.

DM: Punch her to end her?

Player: Yeah... but not kill her too hard.

DM: She goes down in a splatter, but you're not fast enough to catch
your daughter.

"WHOAH!" The guy jumps back from the car, aims down ...

*BLAM!*

"Little bitch ... that was my last shell!"

Player: "My daughter!"

I take out my rage on the last zombie.

DM: It ends up in pieces.

The guy you just saved seems stunned. "She ... wha ... ? Whoah." he
says, piecing it together as his adrenaline goes down.

You, on the other hand, feel nothing - no rush, no charge from the
fight - you're not even tired ... and yet you are on your knees,
drained of all strength.

You hear him coming up behind you. "Man, I ... I didn't know ... she
... she was a zombie, right? No hope for her ... right?"

There's something in the man's voice ...

Player: "I don't know ... maybe..."

DM: ... something strange ... a kind of fear that's not quite right.

"Well, come on. Thanks. We'll get the car started and I'll take you
to where you can get your neck looked a-
WHOAH!"

You hear him jump back.

"You ... you're ..."

Player: "Broken..."

DM: You turn to look at him. It's the first real look at him you've
gotten. He looks like a trucker: heavy sideburns, worn flanel shirt,
big trucker's cap. He's holding his hatchet in a shaking grip, and
that look of fear is on his face ... so familiar ...

It triggers something.

You flash back to seeing that look again. That time, there was
nothing but hunger in your mind. The wearer of that look - this man
with the heavy sideburns and flanel shirt - shoves a screaming little
girl in your way.

"Daddy," she says, but you see only food ...

The flashback ends, and you're back in the present.

I told you I wasn't done yet.

Player: "You..."

DM: "wha ... what ..."

Player: "You motherf--" *PUNCH!*

DM: And now you are alone.

Player: "Jackass ... make me save his life after he murdered my
daughter. Twice." I kick him again for good measure.

DM: Noted. Now what?

Player: Do I think I can get the car working?

DM: Probably.

Player: I check it out.

DM: Inside you find a hoodie, some food and water, a road map, a full
gas can, and two books - "Karate for Beginners" and "Judo: Holds and
Throws."

Player: I'll get it working and start driving ... Nowhere in particular.

DM: Now I have the Unbroken Theme Song for your character to drive
away to - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9zxrIlFpCk