Stem the Tide

[Circutron]

Basically, this is a CYOA thread. It's a little bit different than the other CYOA thread in Forum Games. Where as in that thread single posters made the descisions and wrote the story, in this thread, I'm going to be giving you the story (bear with me on this), and will give you some options to choose from and discuss that will move on and possibly change the direction of how the story is going, for better or for worse. You are also able to come up with a plan of your own, and if it's agreed on by the majority I'll use it as your choice.

We're going to answer a few questions before we get started.

First, what's your name?

[Dr. Adcon]

Kenneth. Let's go with that.

[NauticalCow]

McGyver, or however you spell that dude's name.

[HonorableThief]

Jesus

[Circutron]

Alright, I've chosen that we're going to be called Kenneth. Now, since this is taking place in the U.S., choose any one state that this is going to take place in. Note that your choice is going to have more effect than just naming the setting.

[Dr. Adcon]

Colorado.

[Raldios]

Upper peninsula, Michigan. Lots of snow, and chilly weather.

[HonorableThief]

Colorado.
I second this.

[Raldios]

I second this.
Damnit.

[Circutron]

Colorado it is then.

Now, last thing. Attribute time!

Good Things: Pick 3

Ingenuety: Kenneth can improvise his way out of problems with a few basic supplies. Think MacGuyver.

Charisma: People just seem to like Kenneth for some reason. He can give a good speech, rouse a man into doing whatever is needed, and can negotiate better.

Clever: Kenneth can put together a plan and hold it. Basically, if something unexpected happens, Kenneth can react to it better. It also gives a bonus to any plans you guys come up with.

Willpower: Basically, the ability to pull though a tough situation without breaking down. This, along with Tough, gives you a better chance of surviving wounds.

Tough: Kenneth is ripped. I don't know, maybe he played football in high school or something. The point is, this gives you a better chance of surviving wounds. You can also whoop ass with your fists. That must count for something.

Quick Reflexes: People are going to have a hard time hitting you.

Lucky: You're fortunate. Fate just seems to smile on you. It can be very helpful, but don't rely on it.

Neutral Things: Pick 2

Calm and Collected: You aren't really phased by much. However, people can see you sometimes as disconnected from what's going on.

Emotional: Kenneth is pretty nice to people, but he can't really handle bad things happening to him. I bet he cries a lot during movies. Fucking pussy. Can't have this and Calm and Collected.

Patient: Kenneth can wait, but he won't hurry you when he needs to.

Impatient: Kenneth will have those damn papers now, and if he doesn't get them the minute they're due, he's going to go insane. Needless to say, stuff gets done. You can't have both this and patience.

Unremarkable: Kenneth's just another face in the crowd. Not many people are going to notice you.

Remarkable: HEY! YOU'RE THAT NINJA! People are going to notice you no matter what you do to conceal yourself. Can't have this and unremarkable.

Bad Things: Pick 2

Weak: A light breeze will give Kenneth a concussion. Can't have this and toughness.

Uncharismatic: Kenneth isn't all that good with words. Also, people are less likely to follow you. Can't have this and charisma

Clumsy: Kenneth can't dodge worth crap. He'll probably trip over stuff too. Can't have this and Quick Reflexes.

Unlucky:Lady Luck takes dumps on your head. Constantly. Can't have this and luckiness.

Wanted: Kenneth has a bad history with the law. Many law enforcement officers are going to have dislike towards you.

Substance Abuse Problems: It's quite simple, really. Kenneth just can't get enough of those drugs. Alcohol holds a special place in his heart, too.

Okay. I'm going to bed now. I'll be checking this in the morning.

[Dr. Adcon]

Ingenuety, Willpower, Quick Reflexes.

Remarkable, Calm and Collected.

Unlucky, Wanted.

[yoshesque]

Charismatic, clever, tough

Patient, calm and collected

Unlucky, wanted.

[HonorableThief]

Lucky, Willpower, Clever

Emotional, Unremarkable

Weak, Clumsy

[Tiki]

Ingenuety, Willpower, Quick Reflexes.

Remarkable, Calm and Collected.

Unlucky, Wanted.
Agreed.

[Diablo]

I would pick...

Good Things: Pick 3

Ingenuity, Clever, and Tough
Bad Luck won't have much meaning if you know how to get yourself out of almost any situation, and this combo allows Kenneth to do just that.

Neutral Things: Pick 2

Calm and Collected, Patient, and Unremarkable
I just have good feelings about this one.

Bad Things: Pick 2

Unlucky and Wanted
That first combo pretty much allows you to easily deal with this.

[Circutron]

Alright, your attributes are:

Good Things

Clever
Ingenuity
Tough

Neutral Things

Calm and Collected
Patient

Bad Things

Unlucky
Wanted

Expect the story to start sometime today.

[Circutron]

Kenneth sat near the shoes aisle, staring at the nearby clock. Closing time would be in a few minutes, and already, most of the employees were loosening up. The token perv, Todd, was following Karen around, pestering her. Jesus was passing out some donuts he had gotten from Krispy Kreme. Even Mack, the manager, was congratulating people on a job well done. It had been a hard day, what with the cave being reopened and availiable to the public for the first time in 20 years, and now they were reaping the benefits.

Kenneth smirked at the fact that, for once, he had been lucky enough to get a job after being in prison for three years. The pay was nice, and hardly any work had to be done except for during the afternoon. The only thing they had to worry about was the occasional gang shoot out spilling into the store, which had only happened once in the store's history. Things were looking up for once.

Ten minutes before closing, a man in rags walked up to the store and entered in a panic. As he entered, he shouted, "The dead are rising! They're coming to kill us all! We have been judged! Oh, God, it's all over!" Several employees began shouting at the man to shut the fuck up and get out. Mack began to walked towards the man and told him, "If you don't leave, I'm going to call some cops to escort you out of here." "They're dead! They can't do a thing to me!", he said. Kenneth watched the conversation with interest, thinking of what he should do.

A. The man is obviously insane. Help Mack calm him down.

B. It's one of those goddamn gangs again! Go grab the emergency pistol, and instruct the other employees to take cover.

C. What if the hobo's telling the truth? Grab all the blunt objects you can get, the emergency pistol, and begin to build a barricade to keep out the zombie hordes. You'll probably be the only one doing this if you choose this, but you'll still save people.

D. Something else?

[Dr. Adcon]

A. The man is obviously insane. Help Mack calm him down.

The dead don't rise, and this isn't a horror movie. Get that man out of the store now, before he hurts himself or others.

[Chowder]

D. Something Else

Go to the appropriate aisles to fetch a wheelbarrow, shovel, and bell, and take them outside. Start ringing the bell and calling "Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!" See what happens. If you get attacked, use the shovel as a cudgel.

[darkbadness]

A) Calm the man down and try to figure out what he's talking about. No harm in that really.

[Diablo]

Probably should calm him down, but perhaps someone should step outside and look around (just don't walk into alleys or anything)

[NauticalCow]

Yeahs, I pick A. The dude's clever and stuff ya know. Gotta play off his good stuff.

[Circutron]

Kenneth went over to help Mac. The hobo seemed to be on the verge of using force in order to stay in the building. "Sir, I need you to calm down. Now, explain to me what's going on."

"Zombies! Rising from their graves to take back the land from the new generation! Can't you see them?! They're outside! Right behind the store!"

The man had obviously been scared by some rational thing, like another hobo whose image was warped by his mind. All Kenneth had to do was go outside, find out what had caused the man to become panicked, and explain it to him. Still, just in case, he fetched the pistol before leaving.

Outside, Kenneth felt the bitter cold biting at him. He was used to it, of course. He had seen colder days before, but still, this was pretty cold. Well, at least it wasn't snowing. That would be a bitch to drive through.

Walking to the back of the store, Kenneth found nothing there. There were no recent signs of people. Not even a rat or pidgeon could be found nearby. Turning to leave, Kenneth felt a rush of air behind him, as if something was about to thrust at him. He ducked out of the way, but was scratched lightly on the side for being half-a-second late. An liquid, yet shaped, clawed hand had shot out from behind him and entered his viewpoint. As the wiry arm retracted, Kenneth spun around to face his assailant. He found a humanoid looking creature, made out of a gelatin-like liquid. Thin legs held up a medium-sized torso and head. Two yellow dots on the head were what Kenneth assumed to be the creature's eyes. In the abdomen of the torso, a small crystalline sphere rested.

The creature began to pull its arm back again. Kenneth quickly considered his options.

A. He could try to make a run for it to the store. Then again, that thing appeared out of nowhere. Who knew how fast it was?

B. He could try to fight the thing. Would he really be able to put it down with just a pistol, though?

C. He was a pretty smart guy. Something else would come to mind.

[Mr.McSpiff]

C. (As in... perhaps, duck, pick up a bag o' crap and chuck it at the thing as a distraction, and bolt into the store, or maybe shoot it in the legs to knock it over, and run.)

[Kaizer The Faust]

C. Wonder why Chaos from Sonic Adventure is in front of you and figure something out after that split second of wondering.

[Circutron]

C. Wonder why Chaos from Sonic Adventure is in front of you and figure something out after that split second of wondering.

((Dammit, I thought I was being original. ;_;))

[Gyran]

C. Grab yer hookshot and yoink his sphere!

[Dr. Adcon]

B. He could try to fight the thing. Would he really be able to put it down with just a pistol, though?

Make sure to aim for the sphere in the creature's stomach. Chances are, that's a weakspot.

[Chowder]

B. Cap that bitch right in the ass! Well, the sphere anyway.

Shit, what's his name, the amoeba dude from Zelda: OoT.

[Circutron]

Dodging the thing's attack, Kenneth pulled out the pistol and plugged a few bullets into the creature. The bullets went 5 or so inches into the gelatin before stopping.

Just shooting it wouldn't work. Kenneth noticed how deep the sphere was in the creature's body as he was gashed on the right leg after a unsucessful dodge. There had to be a reason for it to be so protected. Perhaps the sphere was holding the thing together.

Kenneth began to fire at the sphere. Most of the bullets were stopped, but they created a large enough hole for one bullet to go sailing through and shatter the sphere.

The creature stopped in its tracks for a few seconds, then shattered completely, just as the sphere had done. The pieces of the monster disappeared in a matter of seconds.

----

Limping into the store in a frenetic pace, Kenneth was rushed by his coworkers.

"We heard gunshots! What the hell happened out there?!" said Jesus.

A. "No time to explain! We have to get the hell out of here! Head towards [insert area you think is safest here]!"

B. "Get those doors barricaded with whatever you can carry! Some serious shit is going down, and I don't think we want to be out there right now!"

C. Something else?

[Diablo]

A. "No time to explain! We have to get the hell out of here! Head towards the strip club erimean police station!"


Surely there was an officer smart enough to tell the others to shoot the sphere's if theres anymore of those things.

But someone else should hold the gun if Kenneth has a criminal record

[Dr. Adcon]

A. No time to explain! We have to get the hell out of here! Head towards the air force base just outside of town!

If anything else came along, they would have more than enough firepower.

[Diablo]

Maybe they should just head towards the nearest place that would have any kind of weapons and competent people.

But I still think Kenneth should let someone else use the gun, seeing as how Wanted is one of his attributes

[Chowder]

C. Head for the nearest weaponry shop, collect everything and everyone you can, then do the same at a pub and a drugstore; make sure everyone is clear that the alcohol is not to be drunk, it's a backup antiseptic in case you run out of the peroxide you got from the drugstore. Head for the Air Force base outside of town. En route, explain what happened and what to do if any more are encountered.

[Circutron]

Look, I'm a little stressed out right now, so I'm going to have to postpone the update till tommorow.

[Circutron]

"No time to explain. We need to get out of here!"

A tall man with blonde hair stepped forward. "Calm down for a moment and tell us what's going on. We need to know what's happening before we react."

"We really don't have time, but alright. I was attacked by something outside.
Some sort of gelatinous monster thing. It charged at me and..."

The blonde-haired man became annoyed. "Look, we've all had a hard day, Ken, but you can't just fire a few rounds into the air, make up a bullshit story around it, and then expect to go home. Get back to work guys, it's nothing."

Kenneth began to leave, against the objections of several workers, when Mack began to speak up. "He's telling the truth."

The blonde-haired man sighed. "You have got to be kidding me. He's a criminal, how can you trust him?!"

"Ken has put in hard work since I've hired him. We can trust him. Even if we can't, how do you explain the gash on his leg?"

"He fuckin' cut himself, he's crazy..."

"C'mon Ken, we're leaving. Anyone who doesn't want to wait here to die can come with us."

----

As Kenneth and Mack walked towards Ken's car, they noticed Karen, Jesus, and the hobo trying to catch up with them.

"Glad you could make it," Kenneth said. "Alright, first we need to figure out where we need to go. Police station?"

"Nah, it's probably going to be swamped, plus you're a criminal," Karen said.

"The army," Jesus said.

"Haven't you seen any movies?" said the hobo. "The army's always the first to go down."

"The air force base a few miles out of town," Mack said. "It's one of the most out of the way places anyone could think of, so we'll probably be the first ones there."

The group found this to be the best option.

"That settled then, we need to get supplies. Where do you think we should go first?"

A. The pub for alcohol to use as antiseptic.

B. Gun store.

C. Drugstore

D. Grocery Store

E. Somewhere else?

[Repox]

B/D I'm saying a mix of B/D because they could get guns, then hold out in the Grocery Store.

[Dr. Adcon]

B. Gun store.

Having a large supply of ammunition is never a bad thing.

[The_Masses]

I'm going with B, for the sheer firepower, and C, so we can get any guards (or anyone) at the gate or in the base TRIPPIN'. I think it'll be funny.

-The Masses