Help the Resistance

Mission 1: High Voltage Clues

Day 1 began with a simple email:

“The mission will start at 10am around McCarty.”

After the “incident” last night, UF’s emergency systems locked the campus into 4 quarantine zones. The Resistance was trapped inside Quadrant 1.

Our mission: Find the High Voltage boxes that will unlock each of the quadrants and unlock the barriers within campus.

Matt, John, Devin, and I arrived at McCarty to find a small group of Resistance members. Some were veterans of the previous Zombie War, others were new recruits. We greeted familiar faces, but stayed wary and apart from anyone not our squad, at least for the meantime. The original zombie was still in disguise, it could have been anyone.

The first box was hidden somewhere in McCarty, the same place where so many of us had fallen during the last war. Devin, John, and I were sent inside to retrieve it. We found it quickly enough, hidden in a stairwell on the upper floor. It contained a single clue:

If you build it, they will come.

By finding the voltage box, we had unlocked the barrier between Quadrants 1 and 2. Perfect, because based on the clue, the next box was in the Architecture Lab.

We made our way to the lab without encountering any real problems. We saw Nick, leader of the Basterds, along the way, who had just barely escaped an encounter with the OZ, but was otherwise fine. Just like in McCarty, we quickly found the second voltage box:

The biggest small building.

Little Hall. Quadrant 3 was unlocked. Again, no problems actually getting to Little. However, once inside, we spotted the first confirmed zombies of the day and even had a scare with the OZ (see previous entry for details on that). The voltage box we found contained the clue:

Where Excalibur once lay, where gladiators fall.

Not a hard clue to figure out, but we knew they meant the stadium because that was where Excalibur was hidden during the Second Zombie War. Quadrant 4 was now unlocked.

Getting out of Little was a little trickier, but not by much. Around 3-4 zombies were outside waiting for us. We joined with the Basterds to exit the building, and afterwards split up to meet at the stadium.

We reached the stadium without seeing a single zombie or Resistance member (other than the Basterds), the latter of which I suspected had given up on the mission or gone to class. While we knew that Excalibur had been hidden inside the stadium, we didn’t know where exactly.

We finally checked the underground/basement area of the stadium and what do we find? Not a voltage box but …

Mod Number 3!

He gives (silently as per usual) one final clue: The answer to life, the universe, and everything in life.

Everyone knows the answer to life is 42. For about a minute, Devin and I theorize about that clue and conclude that we need to go back to Library West and look for their copy of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Then a much more obvious answer hits us.

The last box is hidden in section 42 of the stadium. Duh.

The Basterds then catch up with us and we split up to find the box. They end up finding it first. Mission complete.

Our reward? All sections of the quarantine zone are now unlocked an open.

Trust No One

I said it last night, and I’ll say it again. On the first day of an outbreak, Trust No One. Never let your guard down.

In the midst of Mission 1 (recap coming soon), we forgot that rule for mere seconds. It nearly cost us the life of our leader, Matt White.

Matt, John, and I were waiting on the bottom floor of Little Hall, while Devin searched the top floor. We knew the OZ was still masquerading as a human, but we were more concerned about the two confirmed zombies circling somewhere around the building.

A human began to approach us, warning us about the nearby zombies. I wasn’t too concerned about him as long as he kept his distance.

“It’s fine, we’re safe since we’re under technically inside Little.” I told him. He kept walking closer. Again, I wasn’t too concerned because I believed we were safe. At this point he was only a few feet from us.

Then Matt spoke, “Actually, this is an open area so I don’t think we’re safe.”

I saw the stranger move slightly, and then hesitate. “Wait this isn’t safe? Are you sure?”

Something in my head clicked.

“I think so.” replied Matt.

I pulled the trigger of my Tek 6 at the same time the OZ lunged for Matt, barely 3 feet from him. My shot hit him just in time. Matt was still alive.

Our encounter with the OZ was too close a call. It was a reminder to us, that even the most experienced veterans of the Zombie Wars can make a mistake that will cost them their life.

All it takes is a second.

Outbreak!

We were right.

There have been reports of a major accident in the quarantine zone. An infected human is loose on the UF campus.

We are awaiting more news from the military. In the meantime, the Resistance is making it’s plans for the morning. Squads are assembling and organizing as we speak.

Right now, trust no one. We have no idea who the infected human is and how many he or she will reach before we can take action. Stay wary, stay vigilant, and as usual, stay classy.

Z-Day is here.

Something’s not right… .

It’s not over, I can feel it.

The zombie outbreak from the last war has been eliminated, thanks to the military, but I don’t trust them.

I know they’re working on something, something they don’t want to us to know about. Their scientists whisper among themselves, their voices hushed with fear, raising suspicion among us.

A New Resistance has gathered. We believe it’s a new virus, a stronger, mutated strain of the virus that caused the last outbreak.

A small military force is transporting something tonight at midnight. We believe it’s a sample of this rumored virus. If it is, the risk for another outbreak is too high.

The Resistance is smaller this time, but we are no less vigilant. We hope our suspicions are wrong, but we are prepared for the worst.

Fight of the Phoenix

The following is an account of Mission 4 from Phoenix leader, Jack Jones. Thanks for the contribution!

DAY 4, MISSION 4: ASSASINATE THE OZ

 Thursday was rough, humans were falling left and right, and our numbers were nowhere near what the website reflected. Two friends and I made it from Murphree down to the New Physics Building, and then from there we headed around to CSE for my next class. My very next period was a class at Little Hall, and we had to move during class change. A member of the Basterds who had been fighting with us throughout the game agreed to accompany us there.

 The coast looked relatively clear as we headed out, but on our way across Newell we spotted zombies closing in from every direction. We had no choice but to get into the Music Building. We waited for some of the zombies to back off before trying to leave, and bolted again. They were on us as soon as the door started to open, but luckily, all four of us made it to a medium sized staircase between the Music Building and the Band Hall. About 20 very hungry zombies had us surrounded… I was definitely not getting to class.

Read More

Things are pretty dead right now …

Hey Resistance members,

There’s been a lack of updating lately, for obvious reasons. More mission recaps on the way!

Things coming up:

Mission 4 recap by Phoenix leader, Jack Jones and hopefully another from Gentlemen leader Matt White.

Missions 6-8 recaps by yours truly.

I’m also working on a little side project, but I’ve got to keep that hush for now.

Stay classy!

Mission 5: A Hitman’s Story

The following is an account of Mission 5 submitted by Resistance member, Jared Howard. Thanks for the contribution!

I had joined the group of Basterds who made their way south from Murphree. We had gone unnoticed for only a brief time, since once we arrived at Stadium and Gale Lemerand, we encountered zombies. Their number would only increase from here on out. As we made our way from Graham, Hume, and finally to the Harris Rotunda, a group of about 10 or so zombies was following us, including Brendan. There we met up with Apathy and others, and as one group, headed north, on route to the Music Building. This is where we really screwed ourselves. At this point most of the horde had found us and began to stalk us the entire way to the Music Building…

And my perspective? I only went on the mission at the urging of a friend. I had no idea where we were going, nor why; I simply followed. To me, it seemed like a very bad route decision. Instead of hugging the borders of campus, we cut right through busy areas, and attracted zombies. Nor did we pay much heed to them. We simply kept going. When we met with Apathy and others, it seemed more like chance than a concerted effort. The entire mission, I felt out of the loop.

So when we were passing behind McCarty to get to the Music Building, I felt confused, but angry. Why would anyone take a route through the busiest parts of campus? Granted, it wasn’t class time, yet still we were not far from hunting grounds.

So we get to the Music Building, and those in there tell us we cannot go in, due to an event. So the mods move all of us to Marston, where we essentially sit around for one hour. I and four others were told to face the horde at the french fries and, when given a command, to start firing. We never got that order. The entire time, most of the humans were huddled in a mass in the center, while the five of us just sat at the back.

Eventually even the moderators got bored, and gave us a time limit: soon, the area will not be safe for a half hour. So the humans make way into the CSE, and all rushed to one exit: instead of going out that way, they’d double back and make a fake out. Made sense.

Except again I was out of the loop. So when the humans doubled back, I was still at the doors, keeping an eye out. In effect, I was left for dead.

Unsure what to do, I run out, take out a couple zombies, and try to run for my life. I start to make way, get more zombies, when I am tagged from behind, and my run as a human dies there.

Overall, the mission was completed and their fake out worked. But to me, it was incoherent and poorly planned. I was in a pack of disorganized civilians, with three leaders bickering amongst themselves, trying to come to one plan. I did not die because I was tagged, I died that night because I entered a group too large to be maintained, too large to avoid the attention of the horde. In the end, being out of the loop killed me.

Mission 5: The Gentlemen’s Side

Around 6:40 on Day 5 (Friday night), we received another email from Dr. Schmitt. He was elated that the cure from Mission 4 had worked and needed more supplies so that he could create enough cure for the mass population.

The items he required were:

A bleach pen
 a left-footed flip flop
 a red pen
 a light bulb
 a yo-yo
 a stuffed animal
 a hairband/rubber band
shoe polish
 nail polish
 contact cleanser
 an eyeglass screwdriver
 a shampoo bottle
 5 dead leaves collected from 5 different locations
 a pack of starburst or other such candy
 an empty manilla envelope
10 zombie flesh samples
Anything with the UF crest (not logo) on it

The Gentlemen and I were still off campus and we were able to gather several of the items at our meeting location. Two of our members were nearby and had obtained a few DNA samples. The items we were missing (to the best of my recollection) were: a yoyo, 7 more samples, shoe polish, candy, nail polish, and a bleach pen.

We knew that the challenge of the mission would not be gathering the items, but getting the items to Dr. Schmitt without attracting the horde. Our numbers were low; stealth would be the key to complete this mission. Whoever had all the items could not be followed by the horde.

On our way to campus, we got in contact with Apathy and the Basterds. Combined, the three squads had all the required items, we just needed to meet up and put them all together. We reasoned that the music building would be an ideal place to meet; it’s multiple entrances/exits would make it easy to enter and exit.

Before we could reach the music building, our plan hit its first of many snags of the night. There was some sort of event going on in front of and inside the music building, and many of its entrances were locked. Non-playing civilians have this way of giving away humans, so our hopes of remaining unnoticed were quickly dashed. We managed to make our way in, but not without several NPCs yelling one of several things:

“Humans! Watch out for zombies!”

“What the hell?”

“Nerds!”

Thanks, band geeks.

Once inside, we took cover on the third floor. The music building’s stairwells were ideal lookout points, and we could already see that the group of students playing 4 square out on Turlington were actually a group of zombies keeping watch of the Plaza. Matt got back in touch with Sean, the leader of Apathy, to inform him of the problem.

Sean had a much bigger problem. Apathy had joined up with the Basterds as well as several other humans, and they were at least 30-40 strong. Unfortunately, such as large group had attracted the horde and they were leading them right to us. Snag # 2.

We needed all the items to complete the mission and we needed to get them to Jesse safely. That would be impossible if the horde was gathered around us. Our original plan had been to meet up with Apathy, but it would be better for the mission if there was a smaller squad to finish the mission while the horde was distracted by a large group of humans. The zombies weren’t aware that the Gentlemen/Rough Riders were in the music building, we wanted to keep it that way.

We came up with a plan. Apathy and the larger group of humans would no longer join us at the music building and keep the horde distracted in the CSE/Turlington area, any area, it didn’t matter, as long as it was away from us. Meanwhile, we would send runners to Apathy to collect the rest of the items. The runners would bring the items back to us and we would meet with Jesse to complete the mission. We knew this plan would suck for the large group of humans, but we were under the impression that they were enough in number to handle the horde.

We told Sean to stay put (wherever he was) and we would send our runners to them. Our runners for the night were the Parkour mercs, Drew and Mike, and they were awesome! When we sent them to go get the items, we told them to leave the building without being seen. They simply said “No problem”, ran off, and jumped onto the stairwell ledge. I realized what they were about to do a split second before they JUMPED FROM THE THIRD FLOOR ONTO THE ROOFTOP BELOW! Effing badass!

Unfortunately, their efforts were for naught. Sean had not listened, but had taken his group right to the music building, bringing the whole horde with them. Snag #3.

We were determined that the horde not find out there was another group of humans upstairs. We could still complete the mission as long as they didn’t know about us. We had Sean send up a few of his people with the rest of the items. We soon discovered that they had everything else, except the shoe polish, it had accidentally been dropped somewhere in CSE. Snag # 4.

Meanwhile, Sean and the rest of his group had moved elsewhere and the NPCs having their event in the building demanded we leave. Somehow, the way was clear for us to move, the zombies had followed Sean to wherever they went. We made the quick jump to Rinker Hall.

However, we were still short one can of shoe polish. Our runners were out of reach (their jump off the music building was the last I saw of them all night) and we weren’t sure if we could leave Rinker unseen. Our solution? Another team of runners. We sent Devin, John, Ali, and Mike to check all the campus convenience stores: Beaty Market, Graham Oasis, and the Reitz Union. That night was a great night to learn that shoe polish isn’t sold at any of those locations. Snag # 5.

To be honest, there was a lot of sitting around in this mission for me, the runners did most of the work that night . Most of us sat around in Rinker while Matt liasoned with Sean. They had found the shoe polish back in CSE. Figures.

I got the impression that there was alot of confusion going on at CSE, Matt was having a hard time getting his plan through to Sean. What we needed him to do was keep creating a distraction for the zombies while:

A) We would send another runner to CSE to get the shoe polish.

B) They would use a runner to send the shoe polish to us in Rinker.

C) They moved to another location, taking the horde with them and leave the shoe polish behind for us to retrieve.

We unexpectedly ended up going with Plan B. Evan Cooke of Squad A and E magically appeared outside the door, with the shoe polish! Soon after, Dr. Schmitt met up with us inside Rinker, sparing us the trouble of going to him. Whew. Mission accomplished.

We were free to leave, but we knew a large number of our comrades were stuck at CSE/Turlington, and their location stopped being a safezone at 9:30. It was already about 9:20, we had to move fast. Our plan was similar at to the one we used to help the Basterds after Mission 2: approach the horde from the side while their attention was on the main group of humans, then create a diversion to draw them away allowing the main group to exit. We would merge with the main group as they moved and then hold for a horde attack. Matt did his best to inform Apathy of the plan.

Was it a risky plan? Yes. We had heard that the horde gathered at the CSE was the largest of the game yet (I’m guessing 40-50).  At the most, we were a group of 12-15. If the horde got smart and decided to ambush us all at once, we were screwed, but we couldn’t leave the humans that had been waiting for 2 hours to fend for themselves.

The second team of runners (Devin, Mike, John, Ali) had already made it back. Our squad back together, we went back around the music building and took cover in a University Auditorium hallway. From there, we could see the crowd at CSE. Yikes. From where we were, the horde looked huge. 

We changed our plan to enter from the Turlington second floor stairwell, as opposed to the Potato side. We were able to get inside without any problems. From the second floor walkway, we could see the crowd. Turns out that huge horde was actually some sort of cultural fraternity event. Not a single zombie or human. We were too late. Afterwards, most of us went home for the night, to the TSF show, or out to search for the War Hammer.

We later learned that the humans couldn’t wait for us of or didn’t know about our diversionary plan in the first place. To the best of my knowledge, they had taken refuge inside CSE and come up with a plan of their own, but many were lost trying to escape that night.

I also heard that there were a few grumblings about the Gentlemen refusing to come down from the music building. All we were trying to do that night was complete the mission. I hope this recap sheds some light on the situation.