Episode 2

[Tori]

Bernie watched the HUMVEE stop. No gunner, no RTO, no fireteam. Just one guy. Something didn't add up. He could be the point unit, but why come alone?

Bernie watched the man get out. There could be additional men hiding in the vehicle, but why let their driver walk up if it was a trap?

He approached, hands spread wide to his sides and approached the soldier. He looked for a rank tab and saw a muted silver bar. His name tape read "Lilly."

"Lt. Lilly?" He said as he approached the man. "My name's Dr. Justin Bernstein, but my friends call me Bernie. I'm here with some others on a mission. You're welcome to join us, or we can take you to Cochise. If you have any men, they are also welcome."

He had a very friendly way about him, though seemed very professional and intelligent. His accent was mostly New York or Boston, but he had a little bit of a Hebrewness and some California thrown in just to confuse things more.

"By the way, what is your second general order?" Bernie asked in a conversational manner.

[sellsword]

Perception [dice=20]

Bryan tried to keep an eye on the direction the sprinters would come from,but what was going on at the road block was stealing his attention.He hoped that what ever was happening things would end smoothly,and they could just drive away from here.In honest he was still a bit shaken from their last encounter,and rightly so he thought to himself, anything that you can empty a shotgun into and dosnt go down,should shake you.Holding the black on black shotgun in his hands he squeezed it tightly enough to turn his knuckles white.If these quit working on those monsters what the hell are we gonna do?
The reality of the moment quickly pushed out his private thoughts and his attention was spent on things more important.Like Bernie standing infront of a Humvee holding nothing but the remote to his car radio.
[rand=9791222587227821956545547582209168159943167120225477510960772634]

[farside]

Bernie could see a brief moment of shock pass through the Lieutenant's face when he said Doctor, quickly followed by a visible relaxation in his stance.

Holding out his right hand, the officer spoke up with a slight bit of East Texas twang to his words. "First Lieutenant Joseph Lilly, 36th Engineering Battalion, at your service Dr. Bernstein. And if we're going to be friends, you can just call me J.R. sir. As for my Second General Order, "I will obey my special orders and perform all of my duties in a military manner." with an obvious look of sadness and memories.

"I'm a bit surprised they put their Doctor out on missions, but then again every thing else has changed. You're obviously as worried about an ambush as I was, but you still came out here anyway. Barring the fact that you look like the lead in a slasher film, you don't have any other weapons and either have some well trained snipers out there or non at all. This really doesn't seem like an ambush from your side. And I have to admit a little deception on my side, sir. I am 36th-Actual and the whole battalion rolled into one. I'm the last man." At that point sadness and loss practically radiated off the Army Officer. "I feel sorry for the deception, but I lost my last few men to an ambush, plus it was over open airwaves and I didn't want to announce any of our locations to anyone without them thinking we seriously outgunned them. If you want we can ride in my HUMVEE back to the rest of your group so I can meet them."

[Tori]

(Rolls held over)

Bernie shook the soldier's hand. "Good to meet you J.R. About the roadblock, we half feared you might have a column of troops and gone rogue. Glad you're still blue force. Sorry about your men, but you're still alive, to their credit. It tells me they were all good soldiers."

Bernie looked back to the cordon and shot them an "okay" gesture.

"We had contact over at those houses, dropped three, but two may get up shortly. We're planning to sweep and clear the houses and see if there is anything useful inside. After that..." Bernie noticed something on J.R.'s uniform.

"...Sapper tab, huh? After that, we were thinking about looting a power plant. A combat engineer would be very useful in that little project. I think you'll find we have a pretty good team, for the most part." He climbed into the HUMVEE and looked over to Lilly.

"Yeah, I am the doc, and pretty new to Cochise. They wanted me to sing for my supper and sent me on a milk run. My sister-in-law's at the roadblock. If you were any threat, well, let's just say, she puts the fear of God into me. Former SERE instructor. Good tactic on coms letting us and any evesdroppers think we had more to worry about."

He grabbed a walkie talkie and hit the transmission key, "Washington actual to all presidents and Patriot. Contact established with Sapper Actual, returning to roadblock and proceeding with snoop and poop at homes north of target, over?"

[brianfenris]

GM POST

“Patriot, Washington, copy last. I'll inform Buckley-Actual that you had good contact with 36th-Actual. Recalling Cavalry back to the fort. Standby.” That radio clicks off just as someone in the background started talking animatedly.

“Patriot, Washington, Buckley-Actual would like to know how many places to set for dinner tonight. Over.”

Patriot then puts out another call to Sgt. Chapman and his team to return back to Cochise.

When Patty see the single soldier exit the Humvee and shows he not hostile, she walks over and pats Rob on the shoulder. “C'mon. Doesn't look like there's a problem here. We need to get back and put down those two zombies before the reanimate.” With that she starts to job back to the house with shotgun in hand.

[Tori]

Perception [dice=20]

Bernie did not want to say the new company was just one man in just one truck. He grimaced and looked over at J.R. "Some of the people at Cochise haven't gotten it sorted out. Their defenses are poor, and the townsfolk are lazy. I'm not much of a liar so why don't we do this?"

He grabbed his walkie and keyed the mic, "Washington to Patriot, poor copy. You are 10-1 at this time. We're on a 10-6 status at this point. Proceeding with sweep and clear. Over and out."

He looked back at J.R., "They seriously wanted me to say how many guys we picked up on an open freq? Now you see what I'm dealing with. Let's go ratfuck a couple of houses and a power plant."[rand=482723279818888595305509365879642570214477546949858921982877611]

[farside]

J.R. looks at the radio with incredulity when he hears the message from Patriot. Shaking his head, at the lack of comsec and the thought of a town full of survivors without decent defensive works. "Hopefully, I can get them started on a few good projects and teach them some of the basics." Kissing his index and forefinger, then touching them to a framed photo of himself, a woman, and two young children, then putting the HUMVEE into gear.

"I was always pretty good at fixing things, so I got my engineering degree and my commission at Texas A and M, so engineering really was pretty much a given for me. A doctor and a SERE trainer? Wow, no wonder you guys made it this far. As for anyone that wears the uniform and isn't blue team regardless ... that's what a noose is for." A slight snarl at the mere thought of it crossed his lips. Pointing and the monster rig ahead of them, "Nice to see Mel Gibson made it through, but you really should stop feeding him mushrooms and growth hormones, while he's dreaming of his early movies. Anyway, we can clear the houses, and see what we can load up from the 'plant. Maybe we can find a trailer for Mel's rig and stock it full. Should be some good salvage there, if it hasn't been picked clean yet."

[Mierin]

perception: [dice=20]

Anna nods at the newcomer in greeting with her usual stoicism wile she continues to keep watch for threats.[rand=22786941160446944018535111643930624866515826236454516381529120767901]

[sellsword]

Seeing the one humvee roll up,Bryan dosnt let down his guard.Seeing a guy in a uniform didnt immediately envoke his trust,least of all military they were already used to lying anyway.
Standing he continues to hold his shotgun as he walks toward the back of Mac's rig where bobby is.As he nears the man he cracks a smile "How you doing amigo?" Taking a drink from his canteen he again offers water to the mexican,fishing in his pocket he pulls out a protein bar and breaks it in two offering Bobby half.

[Tori]

"Howdy, Aggie. Me, I'm BC and Harvard, so I guess we both wear maroon." Bernie looked at JR's family and gave a nod understanding the situation. "Sorry about them. I guess we should get the painful part out of the way now."

He pulled out his wallet and showed the soldier a picture of an attractive and smiling woman. If JR watched Food Network at all, he would recognize her as Natalie Morgan-Bernstein, a celebrity chef. "Have you seen her? This is my wife, Nats, missing since The Wave."

When the HUMVEE parked, Bernie got out. "Everyone, this is Lt. J.R. Lilly, of the Army. He's been on his own, but now he's with us.And J.R.? This is our team, Anna Morgan, Bryan, Robbo, Big Mac, Patty Mayonaisse and Bobbie. We do buddies here, so I guess, for now, you're with me and Annie Oakley. Where we go, you go, and where you go, we go.

"Let's start with the three zombies. Clean them out, make sure they're good and dead, then go to their house, unless anyone has a better idea."

At that, Bernie took his shotgun back from Bobbie and began walking towards three corpses.

[sellsword]

Perception[dice=20]

Bryan nods a greeting as Bernie and the soldier approach.Falling in behind the two as they all backtrack to the house. "Pretty sure fatboys down for the count,but i dont know about his friends." Chambering a round into the shotgun he readys himself for whatever might be in the backyard this time.[rand=9987589724993621817452276012817883010733447807464303903051339997]

[foxx]

Joe kills the engine to 'Dead Wrecker' and gets out. His hope that a few Army boys had made it through the wave had diminished with the sight of only one. It sure would have been nice if just a squad had manage to make to it through intact. Seems the way of things right now. He had given up hope that anyone from his family had made it through the WAVE back in the south. It would have taken him a long and dangerous trip to go back down ther and traverse dangerous road ways to find out if anything remain.

He put those thoughts out of his head and offered the officer a friendly smile as he dismounted from his rig. He slings his shotgun and check shis pistol to make sure he was ready to go through the house once more. He look for his buddy he was baby sitting and waited fro him to find his courage again before heading with the others to the house.

"Nice to meet you J.R. Welcome to Cochise' welcome community."

[farside]

J.R. shook his head after looking at Bernie's picture. "Sorry, wish I could tell you something, but no I haven't seen her. There is something to be said for at least knowing." With a sardonic smile from thoughts of better days, J.R. parked the HUMVEE and shut it down. Running the locking cable through the wheel and engaging the padlock he exited out of the vehicle. Nodding and smiling to everyone he pauses for just a second at seeing Patty's pallor. Shrugging his shoulders slightly, he continues on to fall into step with Bernie. Walking past Joe he returns his greeting with a smile. "Nice to see you made it through Mr. Gibson. I must say you look quite a bit different in person compared to the big screen." Pausing with a big grin to show that he was just teasing him, he started to ease in front of Bernie.

Having a honest to God doctor around was a miracle from on high, he thought to himself. The last thing he was going to do was let anything happen to him. There was no way he would let Bernie play point man. Making certain his tomahawk was ready for a quick draw then readying and shouldering his M-4, J.R. put his game face on. He now had a mission: Protect the civilians.

Perception: [dice=20][rand=766398025935976763877153592637976593714783995172048227569625951]

[sellsword]

Bryan took a position on the outside left of the group trying to come around the side of the house in a wider arc his shotgun battle ready.He wasnt combat trained but he picked up a few things since the Wave hit.Plus he had good common sense and avoided the hero syndrome.He tried to keep the new guy infront of him staying somewhat close, in accordance with Bernies battle buddy system.He didnt completely trust the lone soldier not yet atleast but Bryan figured if this guy is the real deal hed pick up on what he was doing anyway.
Keeping in mind where the two sprinters were taken down he points the business end of his weapon in that direction.

[Tori]

(Rolls held over)

"There's nothing easy for any of us. Knowing or not, everyone here's thinking it. He noted JR's look at Patty. "She's alright, for now. Kind of our Sacajawea. My jock kinda has a crush on her. Keep an eye on her if she's brought down. We may have a problem..."

Bernie finished the private conversation with JR and kept walking, unsafing his weapon.

"Look, I'm going to borrow a page out of JR's moto playbook. If you're going to fight. If you're going to be noisy, give a battle cry. It pumps your adrenalin. It makes you aggressive. It increases your heartbeat and respiration rate. If you're needing to be stealthy, keep quiet. If you're going to be loud, so be it. If you're victorious, and your enemy is dead to stay, then shout it loud.

"When a loud fight starts, or when your enemy is dead, shout this. Reach past your lungs and into your heart! Ladies and gentlemen, let's say it now, and let's kick some ass!

"Hooah!"

He looked around at the entire team. "This time we all get some. Watch your positions, Patty and Robbo left, Mac and Bryan right, Anna and me, we're eyes front. JR, help our man Bobbie watch the six..."