“What the hell went wrong”, mused Cpl. Buck?”, as he stated blankly out through the gore splattered, tangled remains of the Huey helicopter’s windshield? The plan had been good; land in the nearby freight yard; the SWAT team to set-up a covering fire zone, while drawing away the ugly crowd of zombies gathered around the police station. Once the coast was clear, the police, including their stretcher case, would then slip out of the back door, down the back alley and over to the freight yard, into the waiting helicopter, all the time covered by the SWAT fire-team and the SWAT sniper, from his vantage point on top of a container in the freight yard.
However, things started to go wrong from the start, when one of the trapped police officers, possibly spooked by the appearance of zombies outside the toughened glass police station windows, fired. This weakened the glass and attracted more zombies. Before long, they were flopping in through the shattered window in pairs, while the five police officers, arrayed in an arc around the room, blazed away at the hideous forms. 
The pile of gory bodies mounted, while the ammo dwindled Then suddenly, one of the gory, stinking forms, managed to stagger through the murderous fusillade of lead and jumped straight onto the unconscious form of Officer Nordberg, as he lay strapped to the stretcher, at the feet of the sweating police officers. This zombie was quickly despatched, but not before it had torn the throat out of the helpless Nordberg. So much for the CASEVAC!?
Outside, things weren’t going much better. Sniper ‘TJ’ in place, Alex and Hondo dashed through the freight yard gates and across the street. However, before they had got beyond the middle of the street, a spine chilling howling erupted from their left. Rage zombies, four of them! These mindless killers tore down the street. Alex turned and squeezed off two long bursts from her MP5, but the only result was that one of the Rage zombies appeared to stagger slightly. The SWAT sniper did better, dispatching one of the monsters and knocking another down. 
However, before Alex could fire again, two of the Rage zombies were on her, tearing at her clothing and flesh. The fight was pretty one-sided, but finished even more abruptly when, a short three round MP5 burst from Hondo, narrowly missed its intended target and struck the hapless Alex instead.
Hondo did not have time to curse his luck, as a group on shambler zombies were now closing in on him, from the direction of the police station. Hondo sprinted around the block of flats, arriving back in the street opposite the freight yard, only to be met by the sight of another disaster unfolding! A handful of shambler zombies had now appeared within the freight yard. The SWAT sniper, ‘TJ’, was distracted by a clawing on nails on the rough metal sides of the container below him. He glanced over the edge, shocked to see a small child zombie figure. 
He snapped up his L96A and fired, destroying that pathetic soft toy clutched in the small hand, but missing its real target. As he took more careful aim, one of the other figures lurched over toward Deke, over at the freight yard gate. Deke turned, firing into the shambling form, but seemingly without effect? Deke prepared to fire again, but suddenly the howling form of a Rage zombie crashed into the heavy metal gate behind him. As he snapped round, he was winded by MP5 slugs pounding into his body armour. Hondo had seen the Rage zombie streak across the street, toward the back of Deke. Instinctively Hondo fired off a short 3 round burst, but instead of hitting the intended target, the bullets struck the unfortunate Deke instead. Deke was completely stunned, not knowing which way to turn. A growling to his front warned to the next danger; the shambler clutching at his front. Before, he could raise his weapon, the swaying form lunged forward, sinking it teeth into Deke’s neck with an amazingly accurate bite.
Hondo was now in a state of shock, his team dying around him. He stared blankly at the zombies staggering toward him down the street and failed to hear two more emerging from a dooway behind him. He struggled briefly, but then just let out a long howling, hopeless scream, as the cold fingers pulled at his flesh. The SWAT sniper, ‘TJ’ watched in horror through the scope of his rifle. Unable to bear it anymore, he fired, not into the shambling forms, but into Hondo, thankfully cutting off that terrible scream. 
Down at the police station, the pile of stinking, rotting flesh inside the smashed window was mounting, the floor strewn with empty shell cases. The trapped officers could hear the rescue mission collapsing, over the crackling radio. They decided to make a break for it. Buck pulled open the back door of the police station and dashed out, closely followed by Pat and Lacy. However, before Chuck and Chris could reach the door, more ghastly figures staggered into the open doorway, while two more crashed through the open window in front of them. Their overworked guns spoke again, but were too few now and the pair soon disappeared under a heap of rotting flesh. 
Back at the freight yard, things had got worse! The last remaining Rage zombie had ripped open the gate and was tearing straight for the helicopter, ignoring the bullet impacts of the SWAT sniper. The pilot hesitated a fraction of a second too long and as the machine lifted, the snarling monster smashed through the side windshield. The pilot struggled to maintain control, while thrusting the gnashing teeth and rotting flesh, back out of the window, but eventually succeeded. Wiping the gore from his gloves and peering through the gory streaks on the windshield, the pilot then crabbed the helicopter over to the waiting sniper, who leapt from the shipping container roof, onto the port skid of the helicopter. The pilot was just about the lift clear, when he spied the three surviving police officers, running from the back alley, into the street opposite the yard. Taking an insane risk, he dipped the helicopter, into the tiny space of the garage forecourt, ignoring the debris clanging from the rotor blades and fuselage. The three officers jumped into the open passenger compartment, barely able to grab onto something, before the chopper swept skywards. No-one looked back!
Cast:
Police Officers: Alastair (Late take-over)
SWAT Team: Pete (‘Hondo’ & ‘Alex’, Andy (‘Deke’ & ‘TJ’))
Zombies: Tony (“2s then jokers”!), Dave (“straight 8s”!!)
Rules: Savage Worlds.
