Chapter 1 - Looking for Dad: Scenario 2 - Smile is Family

Old longings nomadic leap  
chafing at coustom’s chain  
again from its frumal sleep  
wakens the fernine strain.

Jack London – The Call of the Wild

Mama and the girls returned home listening to strange news in the car’s radio. All over the country, in a scaring crescendo, more and more people were getting madder and madder as time went by. 

As soon as they arrived, Mama called Dad. He was at the hospital and he couldn’t come home presently. There were people entering the hospital hurt, bitten, mauled, hysterical, he told her. Dozens by the hour. Dad is a doctor. 

“Do not get out”, he said to his wife, fear in his voice, “as soon as I can, I’ll go home. Be careful, my love.” 

She laughed. “You are in more danger than us. You be also careful .” 

There was a short laugh from the other side. And that was the last of him.

Mama is talking with Bia. “Honey”, she says softly, “what you’ve done is wrong.” 

Bia’s eyes get wet. 

“But he was attacking you, Mama…” 

Mama sighs. 

“I know honey, but what you’ve…”

 And then Mia shouts looking through the window. 

“It’s Smile! He’s barking scared.” 

And she runs to the kitchen, to the backyard, closely followed by Lia. 

“Girls! Wait!” 

But they’re already outside. 

Mama runs to the sideboard in the living room and opens it up looking for a key. 

“Wait here for me, Bia”, she shouts with the key in her hands and going upstairs. 

“Yes, Mama. Can I take my gun?”
Outside, Lia and Mia see three men attacking Smile. 

Smile isn’t their dog. It’s Mr. Oda’s dog. A neighbor they know since they were born. 

But the girls play with Smile for years, ever since he was a puppy, and Smile loves them. 




 He’s not the neighbor’s dog.

 He’s not a pet. 

He is family.

“What the hell?” 

And Mia runs to them. “Careful Mia!” shouts Lia close behind her.

One of the men looks at them with crazy eyes and starts moving towards the girls. 

The other two are trying to grab Smile, while he defends himself, jumping around and biting their hands. 

He is chained, so he can’t run. He barks furiously and scared.

As the man gets closer, Lia watches Smile defeat one of the harassers. The other one is still trying, in a awkward way, to grab Smile. 

“Go help Smile”, she says, “set him free while I take care of this guy”. 

And the girls split, one in each direction. The man that Smile put down tries to get up and the other grabs Smile by its fur, making him wrawl. 

“Hold on, Smile", Mia shouts as she gets close and kicks the guy in the chest.

Lia tries to fight off the first man. But he is impressively big and she’s having an hard time.

Meanwhile, Mama opened the drawer she had the key for. Her two old .38 are still there, resting, waiting. 

She runs down the stairs and she calls Bia to go with her.

“Let’s help your sisters”, she says.

 And Bia replies, “that means that I can take my gun?”



Mia fights off one of the men, while at the same time she tries to unchain Smile. 

But its a hard task and she notices something strange while she is doing it. 

One of the men has a big cut in his throat. He shouldn’t be alive, she thinks, he shouldn’t be alive. 

And she gets frantik, trying to release Smile with a sense of horror that makes her legs feel weak and trembling. 


Then she finally manages to free the big dog and push away one of the men.

At that same time, the big man fighting Lia pushes her away, hurting her in the leg and taking the air out of her. 

To her astonish, he moves in her direction, his mouth open, as if, as if… 

She screams, in horror and dismay, as she understands that this man… 

this creature… 

is trying to bite her, to eat… 

her flesh. 

She’s hurt, hopefully nothing broken.


I am going to die, she thinks, incapable of moving, or reacting to the hands that come close to her.



Then Smile jumps on the man. His fangs cutting deeply into the man’s arm. 

He shakes his head left and right stranding the man to the ground. Then he leaps, crushing the man’s skull with his powerful fangs.

Lia cries.


As Mia shouts for help, trying to fight off the other two, three shots pierce the air and one of the men near her falls to the ground. 

“Move away, Mia”, her mother shouts. 

And as she sidesteps the other man, the dead one, she thinks, three more shots pierce him in the chest and in the head. 

Her kid sister’s gun is still smoking when she looks back. 

“Come here”, her mother shouts. 

“Let’s go inside again.”
 

But then, they see two more coming. 

 Moving slowly, but decisively in their direction. 

Lia gets up, while Smile licks her face. 

“Oh thank you, boy”, she whispers. 

She has tears in her face. Mia helps her to get up.

 “C’mon, girls.” 

Mama says. “Don’t shout, Mama”, says Bia, “they are coming to the sound we are making.” 

Mama looks around, “What?” and she see them coming, from several points around them.

Moving silently in the direction of the noise.

In groups of two or three. 

Some of them aren’t even seeing the girls. 

“Let’s go, girls”, she whispers. “Lets get home.” 

And they start moving back to the house. Back so safety.


Smile shows his fangs, open wide, growling. 

“Shhh. Be quiet, boy, let’s go.” 

And Mia forces the dog to move away. Quickly they get inside and close all doors and windows, while they watch the backyard getting full of these roaming mad men and women. 

“They are dead.” And everyone looks at Mia. 

“What?” Mama says, half heartedly. 

“They’re dead, Mama. One of those that was fighting me had his throat open and he wasn’t breathing."

“Let’s see what they are saying on tv”, Bia cuts, before anyone can say anything else. 

Lia keeps her eyes on the window, screening the backyard. 

From every side, more and more walkers are coming. 

She shivers and she thinks about her dad.





Game Notes: I’ve played this Scenario with modified Warlord rules from Reaper Games. I had to create an “Almost-Walker” template.

Almost-Walker

Almost Walker
DT	0	1
MOV	5	5
DIS	5	5
DEF	7	7
MAV	2	2
#MA: 1
Ab: Mindless, Tough/2, Undead

Smile
 

Smile Rank: Animal, Follower
DT	0	1
MOV	8	6
DIS	5	4
DV	9	8
EXP	0	0
SA Tough/3, Dodge/2
MAV	5	4
# MA 2 SA Frenzy