A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND IN DEED

Jamie called you saying he needed your help that he was at the top of Chipper Ridge high school where a group of his bandit friends were trying to end him and the is no way for escape due to the number of the Zombies in the school.

You leave your house, locking it securely, and start your journey towards Chipper Ridge High. Clouds blanket the sky in one perfect gray sheet, and the wind has calmed. A crack of gunfire splits the air in the distance. Woody balances his rifle over his shoulder and glances toward the end of the street.

Trash and debris cover the sidewalks, and a sudden siren screams from close by and fades in an instant. Riding to your destination will be faster and less of an effort, but it will also raise your visibility. You drive with your Military Jeep,You climb onto your motorcycle and start the engine. Your companions settle into their sedan, and you pull away from the curb and steer around disabled vehicles, a large stack of garbage, and a burnt-out mail truck. You turn out of your street and immediately hear a window breaking at a neighbor's house, followed by automatic gunfire. A police van passes the intersection, and mounted loudspeakers play a recorded message. "The City has instituted a mandatory quarantine. Return to your homes and stay locked inside until further details."

The noise disturbs a sleeping Max, who lies on the floor between the two front seats.

You drive on, sticking to side streets. Human and infected carcasses lie everywhere, filling the city like a vast open cemetery. As your military jeep rolls onto the main highway, you smell an overwhelming acrid charcoal odor and soon pass an enormous pile of burning corpses, flames still poking from the top. Several figures in Haz-Mat suits hold lit metal pipes over the bodies, and a garbage truck, like the one you saw coasting past your home, empties its cargo of infected dead. You speed past the bonfire, covering your face with your arm, and it soon disappears as you circle the next bend in the road.

The highway opens to multiple lanes, but now resembles an immense junkyard of abandoned and wrecked vehicles. You advance through the maze of metal, moving slowly enough to avoid collision while keeping enough speed to make progress toward the school. Every hundred feet or so, you spot a figure wandering around the cars. You maintain your course, knowing Jaime needs you.

Reaching the off-ramp of the exit closest to the school, you pick up speed on the clear road. Movement in the side street draws your attention, and you make a sharp left to avoid collision. Tires screech, and the heavy roar of a motor shocks your eardrums. A black jeep-like vehicle misses your front fender by an inch, and through the other car's dark glass, you spot an older man in a green helmet driving and a massive man in the back seat holding a shotgun. You glance at the sedan holding your companions—concern shows on all their faces.

With little room left on the ramp, you veer onto the city street. You pick up speed, and the Humvee pulls beside your military jeep. The side window rolls down, and the large man pokes the barrel of his twelve-gauge out. As he turns his head, you spot the tattoo of a demon's head on the side of his face from eye to chin.

"Pull over," he yells, and the Humvee swings in closer, almost touching the side of your vehicle.

Numerous cars lie across the narrow road, and hunks of debris from broken vehicles litter the path. Chipper Ridge High School stands only a few blocks away, and with the number of obstacles on the road, you might be able to outmaneuver the bandits and escape. You could fire at the bandits, hopefully scaring them off. You could also try to ram their vehicle and force them off the road, allowing you to drive away.

Tattoo Face in the back seat leans through the window, points the shotgun at your military jeep's rear tire, and fires. The Humvee twists around an open manhole cover, causing the shotgun to miss, and you quickly decide to…Ram the bandits' Humvee with my military jeep.You keep the military jeep straight and wait until the Humvee matches your speed. As it pulls forward, you veer away to gain distance.

"Pull over now!" Tattoo Face yells, then turns to the driver to say something you can't hear over the noise of the motors.

You cut the military jeep with a sharp turn of the steering wheel and hold tight to brace for contact. The front end of your vehicle smashes into the side of the Humvee, crunching the metal in a U shape. Sparks fly as the collision pushes the oversized vehicle onto the sidewalk. It wobbles as it rides along the curb, dodging a trashcan and slamming a bicycle chained to a telephone pole. Somehow, the driver regains control, and the Humvee jumps back into the traffic lane by your side.

From the sedan, Woody sticks his rifle out of the driver-side window and fires. The windshield cracks with a bullet hole, and the driver steers his Humvee at Woody's car. The two vehicles crash together, with the side door of the sedan crunching from the force. It picks up speed and veers away to avoid a second hit.

You spot the trailer of an eighteen-wheeler blocking the road further down. Only one lane can pass it. Instead of ramming the Humvee again, you guide your military jeep next to it, joining metal to metal. The backseat bandit pokes his shotgun outside, so you vary your speed to keep him from aiming it at its target—your head. The Humvee's driver shakes his fist at you, keeping his eyes off the road, and you manage to duck under a blast of buckshot.

A car-sized pothole sits in your lane of the street, and you can't slow or swerve to avoid it. Your military jeep hits it and bounces, and your head bumps the roof.

"Whoa!" Johnny calls out, more excited than afraid. Jillian has one arm over her eyes as she mutters swear words under her breath. Your eyes fall to Max, who's curled into a ball under the front seat.

When you focus back on the narrow two-lane street, you spot the back end of the trailer jutting out from a row of parked cars, and the Humvee lined up to smash it head-on. Rubber squeals and smoke rises from the front tires of the Humvee, but it has no room to slow down. Tattoo Face screams and covers his head.

You turn the military jeep to avoid the edge of the trailer's bumper and cruise around it. Through your rearview mirror, you catch sight of the Humvee riding into the trailer, and the force of the speeding vehicle carries the monstrous metal container a few yards. Nothing could have survived that sudden impact.

Woody lets go of the dashboard and eases back in his seat. "Fancy driving," is all he says.

Eyes ahead, you turn off the street and onto the main road leading to Chipper Ridge High School.You pull your military jeep through the iron gates into the Chipper Ridge High School parking lot, then park a far distance from the main school building to avoid being spotted by any bandits or zombies near the entrance. Woody's sedan pulls in one spot over. Jillian steps out and stretches her back, arms over her head to elongate her spine.

"That was fast," Johnny says. He steps from the vehicle and tosses his sun visor back inside before shutting the door. Max hops out of the military jeep and shakes his body once on the ground.

A few figures stagger around random parts of the lot, their motion indicative of the living dead. On the far left side of the building, a crowd of undead wanders along the basketball court. The air carries their tragic moans, and the wind howls in gusts that blow trash and dead leaves across your path. A floodlight shines over the front entrance, illuminating the school's logo and an image of Chester the Chipper Ridge Beaver. With the lights turned on, the power must still be running in the old building. A jeep sits just outside the border of light, and a man stands in the back leaning on a mounted machine gun.

"That's Driver, one of those bandits who—" starts Jillian. Her voice breaks, but you're more concerned with her shouting out those words.

"Jillian, you have to be quiet or he'll hear us," you say. "Or worse—they will." You point toward the basketball court and the horde of zombies.

Jillian nods and stares at the bandit near the school.

A thick bandage covers his shoulder where you shot him.

"This is a mess out here. More dead than I expected," Woody says, his eyes locked upon the crowd in the basketball court. "Sure, I expected some, but things have gotten far worse. And if this number predicts what's inside, we're gonna have a heckuva time gettin' Jaime out."

You move closer to the front entrance, keeping low behind bushes and parked cars and using trees to block you from sight. From one hundred feet away, you can see several dead bodies lying near the jeep, their heads bashed apart, small pools of blood staining the concrete. Driver takes puffs from a cigar and watches the parking lot, free hand tapping the metal head of the massive gun.

To get to Jaime, you need to enter the building, but if you get close to the entrance, Driver will certainly spot you. You quickly consider your options. You could forget this entrance and find another way inside. Of course, the more you search, the greater the risk of crossing paths with a zombie. You could cause a distraction in the parking lot and draw Driver away, sneaking into the entrance once he's gone. Finally, there's always the option to deal with him yourself.Shoot him from cover.It's too dangerous to leave Driver outside. He could spot you running into the building, or he might wander inside at some point and be one more bandit to deal with. Taking him out now while you have the element of surprise seems the best option. While you stand and wonder about the best way to proceed, you reconsider all the options just to be thorough.

With Driver unaware of your presence, you should be able to take him out before he can react. You shoot him with you AR-15 which is your secondary weapon.You draw out your backup weapon, the AR-15. You extend the AR-15 and brace your arms over the base of the statue, aiming the barrel at Driver's broad, hairy chest. He takes a puff of his cigar and rubs the end of the machine gun with the palm of his other hand.

Woody swings his rifle around and aims down the barrel. "If I can get a shot, I'll take it."

You grip the AR-15 and squeeze the trigger. With a loud pop, the gun fires, and a burst of blood flies from Driver's head. His body flops off the machine gun and slams into the front end of the Humvee.

"Let's go," you say and leave cover.

From the basketball court, the mass of zombies now come at you in full sprint, their excited growls filling the night air.

"Follow me and stay quiet," you say and step from cover. You race towards the building, sticking to the perimeter lined with shrubs and blooming flowers. You crouch and rush to a waist-high stone wall, using it to keep out of the direct line of sight of the zombies, who seem focused upon the fresh corpse of Driver. Jillian's sneakers scrape the ground, and she gives you a thumbs-up sign when you shoot her a glance. Johnny grabs your shirt from behind and whispers, "I'm here, Ares." Max lies beside you and pants as he watches the action.

You keep low as the advancing undead close upon the front of the jeep. You hit the long rows of steps outside the school's entrance and slow your approach to creep behind the jeep. Your group runs in a straight path around parked cars and through a short stretch of mowed grass until they reach the front of the school. Max stops beside you until Woody pulls the dog toward the school's entrance. Howls from the parking lot draw your attention, and you spot the zombies nearing the jeep. You walk up the steps to the front of the school, watching as the first of the undead climbs into the jeep. As the first zombie sinks its teeth into the dead man, you enter the school and close the door to keep anything from following you inside.The school lobby shows the true impact of the apocalypse, as the dead canvas the building's ground floor lobby like a field of war after battle. The bodies of teenagers, easily several dozen, lie scattered across the tile floor. Dried blood coats most of the floor in a muck. Ripped banners for a school-wide fundraiser cover several of the dead, and hundreds of bullet casings litter the entrance. On the far corner at the double doors of an office, the charred remains of burnt bodies sit in a pile, some still smoldering. You cover your nose at the awful stench of the rotting and the refuse.

Woody paces along the wall, hands on his hips, unable to look at the sight of the lobby.

"Holy crap," Jillian says as she surveys the devastation.

Johnny stands next to you, silent and shaking, and he turns into your body and buries his face against your arm. You place your arm around your nephew and hug him while he cries in soft, deep sobs.

Max sniffs the ground and lets out a short whimper.

As you stand at the front of the lobby, one pile of corpses shifts, and you quickly move to the far wall where a path through the dead lies toward a side hallway. Past the doors, the hall is silent and empty, and you stop for a moment to collect your thoughts.

On the wall hangs a map of the school. The building has three wings, with the north and east ones ascending eight to ten stories. Jaime said he's on the fourth floor roof, which means he's in the west wing. You locate three maintenance closets along the perimeter and figure Jaime could have climbed any of them. There's no direct path to the roof, but there are multiple routes through the school. You might even have opportunities to search for useful gear to help rescue Jaime and to survive in this damn apocalypse. Between the zombies and the bandits, you'll certainly face a confrontation at some point. The real question is—what's the best way to reach him?

The map shows one path leading up the southwestern stairwell past the cafeteria on the second floor. Since the outbreak occurred a day ago, there will be food left in the kitchen, and you could stop there and scavenge. You imagine a cafeteria to be well-populated, so there's a high chance of zombies in that area. Instead, you could travel through the library on the northwestern end of the school. Starting on the first floor, the library actually consists of two floors, meaning you could avoid the stairwell. From what you know of libraries, they have fewer people than cafeterias. However, they're typically packed with rows of bookcases and furniture, so making it through the area could be tricky. Plus, zombies could be hiding at any turn.

You decide to…

Hack the school's servers to find out information about the building.You pull out your laptop and search for the school's network. It's still running strong in the few days post-apocalypse. You bring up the school's website and quickly search through the pages to find an administrative login page. You're familiar with the software package used to run the user platform, and that means you're also familiar with common exploits.

"Whatcha doin'?" Woody asks, peering over your shoulder.

"Running a brute-force process to break into the school's system."

"In English now?"

"The school is using a system to manage all of the accounts for their students and staff. I'm using a program that tries a list of common administrative usernames and passwords in rapid succession. Normally it can take hours to do it, but I know a trick for getting into this specific system."

Woody stares at you with confused and bewildered eyes. "Oh, okay."

Just as you turn from Woody, your program finds a match and logs you into the staff shared directory. You perform a quick scan of files and locate floor plans and blueprints, courtesy of a folder detailing planned renovations to the grounds and facilities. You also find a maintenance system with a way to control everything from the school's surveillance cameras to the sprinklers.

***** WEST WING, FLOOR ONE *****

You view the stairwell leading up the southwestern end and see no zombies in the corridor. As you follow the path up to the second floor, you view the cameras in the cafeteria. A dozen or so teenage zombies pop up onscreen, roaming through the lunch room, all listless in their walk, bumping into one another, knocking over trays, and stepping over spilled food on the floor. You expected more students in the cafeteria, but these few make it look abandoned.

You turn away from the laptop and squeeze your eyes shut for a split second.

You stare back into the laptop and try to ignore the sight of the living dead. From the overhead view, you can see the entire room, with its rows and rows of picnic tables and benches. Trays of food lie ready to be served, and there's likely boxes and boxes more in storage.

You flip over to the cameras in the library. The two-story library takes up space on both the second and third floors, and the area is so large, your laptop displays a mosaic of the many cameras viewing numerous locations. Much like the cafeteria, zombies wander the huge room, though fewer in number. A tall, rotund, bald-headed zombie hovers around the entrance as if ready to check out books. Several student zombies lie on a staircase, legs tangled in the spokes of the railing. Another group of the living dead appears locked in a reading room, their diseased faces pressed against the glass dividers. You can see a variety of backpacks and personal items still on desks and tables, and you imagine students left them all as they fled the school.

With all of the cameras scanned through the two main paths leading to the second floor, you disconnect from the servers and Go up the southwestern stairwell past the cafeteria.You enter the west wing stairwell and find an empty, drafty corridor leading up to the second floor. The stone walls cause your footsteps to echo, and you cringe at every little sound you make. The lack of air makes the area stifling, and the floodlights cast an eerie glow upon the concrete walls, which are spotted with blood and graffiti. Loose papers, books, and other classroom materials litter the stairwell, and you spot a solitary sneaker and broken pieces of wood scattered about. The stairwell ends at a pair of double doors.

Exiting the doors to the second floor, you step into an open hallway leading into the cafeteria. The murmur of the risen dead plays like background music. A long smear of blood stretches over the tile floor like an arrow pointing the way. You press your back to the wall and peak around a corner into the main lunchroom. The image from the surveillance cameras becomes real as you stare into the first group of student zombies.

Jillian crouches against the wall and hugs her arms around her body. She stares at the floor and avoids eye contact.

Your nephew turns away from the noise of the zombie mob and covers his ears, and Woody puts an arm over the boy's back.

From what you remember of the surveillance system, you have no choice but to head through the cafeteria to the next stairwell. You look back to the room. Thirteen zombies stand in your way—far too many to fight at once. Mentally, you draw a path to sneak around them, using a variety of vending machines, carts, and other objects to block you from sight. It won't be easy, but if you take your time and keep your eyes open, it's possible. Will Max and Johnny be quiet enough to sneak along with you? You glance over at your nephew, who sits cross-legged on the floor picking apart a piece of scrap paper, mouth hung open, eyes fixed away from the scene in the cafeteria.

On your right, across from the entrance to the cafeteria, is another set of steel double doors, slightly ajar. You walk over and peer inside to a large storage area with several long folding tables stacked side by side. A fire alarm hangs high on the wall of the room. It might be possible to draw the zombies inside this storage room and lock them up.

As you turn to leave, you spot a high vent above the door. Could you climb through the ventilation system and bypass the entire cafeteria? It's likely safer, but if something unexpected happens or a zombie somehow found its way up there, you'd have few options for escape.

Create a noise in the back of the cafeteria to draw the zombies away from the kitchen.