Because the sheer
numbers of zombies have started to dwindle down a bit and we are getting better
at navigating outside, we have been making more and more sorties out for
supplies. We came across a pretty interesting fact when one of our teams was
out scavenging. Our mentality has always been to run away to fight another day.
Fight back from a place of strength. The team made some miscalculations as far
as ammo goes. On their way back to the store, the team was outpacing a pair of
zombies. They made it through the roll up door and locked it down. The two
zombies were banging against the barricades, moaning and scratching away. But
they seemed to keep at a lot longer than normal. Eventually, we sniped the zoms
out and shot them from the other roll up door. But it did get us questioning…
Before, when people
running through the streets screaming, zoms would come and bang against the
doors but then when they realized they couldn’t get in, they would move on in
search of easier prey. Now, the easy targets seem to be less and less
available. We don’t have people running through the streets, screaming their
heads off anymore. So these two zoms came up and were banging against the door.
And they just didn’t seem to stop, despite the fact that we went into lockdown
and reduced our signature as much as possible (no sight, no sound, no smell).
But these two kept banging away. We couldn’t figure out why.
We discussed this at
length and we think we have come up with a solution. If it just would have been
a single zom, Zombie Jerry, we are betting he would have just shuffled off once
that sensory stimuli was forgotten about. But you had Zombie Jerry chasing
after our sortie team and loping along beside him is Zombie Beth. The sortie
team gets inside and shuts the door. Zombie Jerry and Beth hit up against the
door, knowing that there is meat on the other side of the door.
They are clawing and
scratching at the door. If it was just Zombie Jerry or just Zombie Beth,
chances are they would have just shuffled off. But Zombie Jerry is banging
against the door. Now, Zombie Beth sees Zombie Jerry scratching at the door, in
her half-functioning brain, she thinks, “Grrr. Brains. There must be meat
behind that door. He is on to something!” And so she starts scratching and
banging at the door. By now, Zombie Jerry might have shambled off on his own
but then he looks over and sees Zombie Beth banging at the door. And so in his
half-functioning brain, he thinks, “Grrr. Brains. There must be meat behind
that door. She is on to something!” And the two just keep perpetually
stimulating the other to keep tearing down that door. This shows that the
zombies are pretty dumb and go off instinctual thinking. But this also does not
bode well for us.
Granted, even with
the doors barricaded, I don’t want two zoms banging against the outside door.
If any other zoms are shuffling past, they could add to the number banging
against the door. So we have to go through and clear those doors from threats.
Even water, given enough time and pressure can penetrate rock.
And like Corp. Hicks
once warned, “We can’t afford to let one of those bastards in here…”
