Continuing from the first of a two-session zombie horror game here

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The 2nd night began with only 4 players, the sgt, the policeman, the vet, and the gangster, but we forged ahead. What's the worst that could happen?

The sgt made it back to the group, with the bad news that not only did Desert Center have no vehicles they could use, but likely was swarming with zombies.
They then had to manage their food and supplies...as several npcs (particularly, the one that didn't trust the sgt because he believed the sgt was at fault for the bus wreck) started showing a lot of fear and tension over their needs, and asked the pcs to lay out all their gear and then determine how to make best share them. Of course, none of the pcs liked this idea, especially the gangster was in no way going show what he had on him to the policeman, and on multiple occasions pulled his pistol on the npcs. The sgt attempted to calm him down, but was of course also trying to take charge of the situation. If I remember correctly, the policeman managed to use inspire to calm everyone.

Being in the middle of nowhere with little other options, the four of them decided to head back towards Desert Center, guns loaded, and take out a bunch of zombies, steal a vehicle, and return to 'camp' (though, at this point, it was just a group of people sitting in the dirt a safe distance away from the town).
However, once they arrived in town, it was completely empty. There were no vehicles, no bodies, the burned out building was smoking, but otherwise it was dead quiet. They looked all around, found lots of food and some water in the convenience store, and with several successful search rolls, found nothing at all. It was quite puzzling, but seemed safe. One of the funniest moments was when the only female pc (the vet) decided she then needed to use the restroom, went off on her own to find it. Naturally, everyone around the table started talking about how she was definitely doomed, since that's the way it works in these kind of movies. So as the LM, I went with it... kinda. I told her that she found the restroom, but then when she tried to leave, found it suddenly locked. Dramatic pause so the players can realize what was about to happen, then continued, "but then you were able to open the door again." Nothing. It was a good laugh.

They decided to bring the other survivors to the convenience store, as there were a lot of supplies there, where they could hole up and wait for help to be brought back. It was mid-morning, and not about to set out under the desert sun, the travelers tried to rest. The gangster didn't have any problems, himself bringing up a 6-pack he found in the fridge section of the store, going up to the roof, telling them all he'd be 'the lookout' and doing a pretty good job until beer number 5, at which point he fell into a deep sleep.

The decision was then made for the 4 of them (policeman, sgt, gangster, and vet) to go and find help, while the Priest remained behind with the remaining survivors. It was funny as they tried to convince the Priest (who I played as an npc through both sessions here and there, since I liked creating him as a pc and it was unfortunate we didn't have enough players to fill the role) to remain behind... that it would be perfectly safe and a good idea for everyone that he stay. At some point, when the convincing wasn't working as they hoped, the gangster rolled an awe and pointed his pistol at the priest, but to no effect. In the end the Priest did decide to stay, but it was a funny scenario nonetheless.

They broke out into the roles for the journey, which they began every evening, and ended each morning (traveling in the "cool" of the night) - the policeman was the hunter, the gangster was the scout, the sgt was the lookout, and the vet was the guide. No one had a particularly good travel score, but they did the best they could.

The gangster rolled lore, to try to see if he knew a bit about their journey. They had determined to continue down the highway in the direction of Phoenix, to the nearest town (which happened to be Blythe, CA). Well, he was convinced he knew a faster way and his roundabout path added an extra day to their journey as a result (failed lore). The ultimate destination, at least at this point in time, was to make it back to the sgt's base - Yuma Proving Ground (where he was normally stationed, but was currently AWOL). It seemed like the safest place from a zombie attack, and was closer than going all the way to Phoenix (and at this point, the only connection the pcs had to the outside world was their two-way radio, which they had not used much).

The travelers then made their first fatigue roll... of the four, only one passed (I believe the vet), while the other three failed... and two of them (the gangster and policeman) with eyes! This was going to be interesting from the get-go. Instead of choosing the hazard randomly, I decided (since this was a short game anyway) to choose the two hazards. Actually, the plan was that, if the players chose the highway for travel, it was going to be far less days of travel than if they went through the wilderness, but the hazards would often be zombies, and the pcs would have to make a lot more Despair tests (the highway I considered like blighted lands and they had to make 1 Despair test every two days or so. The reason for this was - as the highway was completely empty, except for a some zombies the pcs later encountered, it would highlight to the survivors all the more how alone they were). However, if the players chose to go through the wilderness, the trip would take much longer, but there would be few zombies (or none except for the 1-2 planned encounters), and no Despair tests.

The group started down the highway in the evening, and were suddenly hit by a Heat Wave (1st hazard). They all had to make another Travel test. The vet passed once again, the other three failed, who each rolled the Fate die. The sgt rolled a 6 I think, and immediately lost 6 endurance from struggling with the heat they were all facing. The policeman and gangster both rolled eyes again! Both collapsed from heat stroke (taking 1 wound). The vet set quickly to helping them, spending a point of Humanity for each one to administer "Soothe from Shock" (her Virtue, Staunching Song) - rolling her Song ("Soothe" in this case) roll well, and helping them both recover (they were both able to check "Wound treated"). This eye also triggered a bout of madness in the gangster (which, would happen later).

Later that night they saw (successful Awareness roll by at least the sgt) a vehicle coming down the highway in the same direction they were going (from behind them). They waved their hands and tried to flag it down, standing on the road (though, not directly in the middle), to try to get its attention. As it got closer I had two of them, who were expressly describing their pcs as standing on the road trying to get the attention of the vehicle, roll Insight. I believe at least the sgt failed, who then had to roll the Fate die. I described that they could now tell it was a jeep, full of zombies, heading straight toward them! The sgt rolled a 3 or 4 on the Fate die, managing to dive out of the way, but not without taking some endurance loss. The jeep continued on, as the zombies seemed to be laughing. At this point, I should have really turned this into a real encounter, with the zombie jeep turning around for another pass or an attack, but I wanted to be sure they finished the game that night, so I moved on.

The next morning, the pcs saw another car, this time it was on the other side of the highway (coming the other direction), but seemed to be parked. They could also see two human shapes next to it, in the distance. They approached cautiously, but saw it was a red sportscar, with some smoke coming from under the hood, and two guys looking at it who seemed to be pretty frazzled. After yelling at them to find out what was happening, they decided to cautiously approach. The two men introduced themselves as Henry and Antoine, who were on their way to LA, but their car broke down. One of them said it had even "caught fire". They asked for some food/water, and the policeman begrugdingly shared. The gangster (with a high craft roll) attempted to fix the car, and rolled a success. Sitting there alone in the car trying to then start it, the gangster finally had a golden opportunity, which he had been basically looking for since the very beginning - a chance to ditch this group who was clearly slowing him down. In other words, I triggered his bout of madness as soon as the engine of the red sportscar started - he pulled a quick 'u-ey' and hit the gas heading toward Phoenix. But as he was starting to turn, the sgt rolled a successful Athletics check and managed to grab on and dive into the cab behind him. Quickly, things got interesting, as the gangster and sgt started fighting, punching each other, as the car sped up to 80mph. I had them do their knife attack (without knives since they were using fists) from a Forward stance. I believe they did both manage to hit each other, but after a couple of blows, the gangster tried to convince the sgt to come with him. When the sgt wouldn't budge, the gangster's player decided (to end his bout of madness) to do something his pc would regret, so he slammed the breaks and flipped the wheel, rolling the car and throwing both guys out. The car was totaled, and amazingly, both PCs took minor endurance damage (or possibly none... They had to do an Athletics TN 16 I think, but not sure anymore). By this time, the sgt was also Miserable. Amazingly, this player didn't roll an eye the rest of the night!

The bout of madness was a lot of fun - not only waiting for what was really the perfect moment, but also the input of the player as how to end it (as it is supposed to be ended) with doing something the pc regretted (since killing one of the other pcs wouldn't have been something the gangster would probably have regretted!).

The two of them managed to walk back (they hadn't gotten very far in the car) to the vet, policeman, and npcs who were still standing there a bit in shock at what happened. At this point, the group knew they needed to continue on, but felt (esp. the gangster) the two npsc would be a hindrance and baggage. They were still only about 1 day away from Desert Center and the group of survivors they had left behind with a good amount of food and water, and suggested the two npcs head that way. The npcs wouldn't budge, at least, not without some Persuading and food/water. In reality, Henry and Antoine didn't need more than a bottle of water each to be safe to make it, but of course these two city boys wanted as much as the pcs would give them. I told the players that the TN Persuade to get them to leave on their own, in the middle of nowhere, was 18, but would be lowered by 2 for every bottle of water they gave them. I believe the policeman gave away 2, maybe 3 bottles to them, to make the TN a manageable level, and with a success, they npcs hesitatingly agreed. The more talkative of the two (Henry) seemed especially disappointed, and even a bit angry that his friend Antoine had so readily taken the players' offer.
At this point in the night, one of the player's had to go and said his pc (Jenny the vet) felt bad and said that she was giving Henry a kiss good bye to help cheer him up. After the decision had been made, everyone at the table (especially perhaps the gangster, who is our usual LM) knew it wasn't a good idea. But, the player left and we continued play. The two npcs headed back toward Desert Center, and the travelers continued toward Blythe.

Throughout the travel, the pcs had to make about 3-4 fatigue tests, which were generally failed. Considering the short nature of the game, and the fact that they were traveling through a harsh desert (late May/early June was the time of year), 2 fatigue were added for each failed test. However, because of the very unclear nature of the rules, the pcs kept track of how many points of fatigue they were supposed to add to their character sheet at the "end of the journey", but these points never got added. When is the "end of a journey"? What difference does fatigue make, if the points are added just when the pcs are arriving at a safe place where they can rest and begin removing all of these points? Unless the 'safe' they are at is attacked, or the "end of the journey" is an unsafe destination like a tomb or enemy fortress, and the travelers have to turn around and go back later, I don't see what the point of fatigue points are, if they are added after all the challenges of a journey have been traversed.

During the next morning, as the travelers were looking for a place to camp "for the night" they saw a building off the side of the highway. As they approached, they saw that it was an old church, seemingly abandoned, with a bell tower. While it would likely make a nice, cool place to sleep, they also approached very cautiously.
Opening the old, wooden, double doors of the church, they saw a cool, dark, completely empty sanctuary that had clearly not been entered for many years. Dust was everywhere, on the wooden floors, the organ, and some of the pews, which many were decaying, fallen over, etc. A successful awareness check detected no movement.
They decided to search everywhere, with the policeman and sgt searching inside, and the gangster searching the perimeter of the building. I could have done an extended skill check/action, but decided to just give each of them one roll, again to help keep things moving. (I didn't want to look up the specific rules for how to run an extended action either, but the pcs did say they were searching quite thoroughly.)

Thankfully the policeman--who had a good Search skill (3)--rolled very well (a Great Success w/ a Gandalf), since the Search TN was 18. As he was looking around the front of the sanctuary, the wooden floorboards beneath him seemed to creak more than usual and even have a bit of give/bounce to them. He immediately wiggled them further and found that they were actually somewhat loose.... as he pulled a few of them up, he found a set of stairs leading into darkness, and cold air rising from below. He had found an old mausoleum. Of course, he didn't need any further hints that it would be dangerous to go further; he closed the floorboards, set a few pews on top of the hidden door, and sat and waited. While the player who had the vet had already left, I played her as an npc, and she stayed near the policeman.

The policeman rolled another awareness, saying he was still listening and looking around to see if he saw anything further. With a success, he did hear something coming in the direction of the bell tower. He decided to investigate, and came to a set of old stairs winding their way upward, to the top of the tower. The stairs were very old and creaky and didn't seem very dependable. As he neared the top, he looked up to where he expected the bell to hang, and instead of a bell, he saw a black wriggling mass. As he tried to figure out what it was, he was immediately attacked by several zombie bats that dove down out of the mass at him. I can't remember if the first bat missed, or if he managed to roll an escape, but he quickly ran down the stairs and back to the sanctuary. The sgt was still there, as well as the vet, but the gangster was still outside. With the policeman shouting to warn the others, they quickly grouped in the sanctuary, slammed the doors of the church shut (I don't know why, it seemed like a bad idea to me at the time!), and prepared as several bats flew into the room and attacked. (I used the stats for Great Bats)

Because 3 of them had firearms, while they took a little endurance damage, they seemed to handle the zombie bats well. Unfortunately, it was at this time that Jenny the vet succumbed to the disease she had contracted when she kissed Henry. Henry was indeed well on his way to being a zombie (though, only partially infected with the disease at that point, he didn't even know it yet). Being tired from the journey over the last several days, Jenny had a much weaker system to resist the disease, and quickly fell. She had been standing next to the gangster. As they were busy fighting the bats, especially the gangster, who was being grabbed and clawed at by two of them, they were all greatly surprised as Jenny suddenly "joined the party" in grabbing the gangster and started biting him, as well!

Seeing the zombie as the biggest threat, the gangster opened fire, rolling a G... as Zombiejenny failed her protection roll. Smoked!
It wasn't too difficult for the travelers to finish off the remaining bats and take a breather. Because they knew about the hidden door to the mausoleum, and had essentially blocked it with a pew (and then one of them sleeping on said pew), they felt it safe to sleep here for the remainder of the day, and continue on the following evening.

This planned encounter went about as good as it possibly could have for them. Had they failed their difficult (TN 18) search at the beginning, they would have nervously slept/camped in the church, only to be ambushed by a large group of zombies coming up out of the floor. Furthermore, the bats would have joined in as well, and would have been far more difficult to handle at night (Great Bats have several bonuses at night).
As it was, fighting the bats in the day caused them to all lose a point of Hate. Jenny turning was obviously an unexpected problem, but one zombie against three men carrying firearms (who were all skilled at shooting) wasn't a problem. Jenny turning into a zombie wasn't in my original plan, but when a player gives you a gift like that (kissing the npc Henry goodbye), then I had to run with it!

The travelers continued that evening toward Blythe. As they approached the town, they did see a lot of activity, but as they feared, it was more joy-riding zombies. All three of them managed to roll Stealth well, and the gangster (being the scout) went on ahead to see if they could find a vehicle to drive down to Yuma Proving Ground. While all of the vehicles they saw seemed to be occupied and in motion, they did see several in a parking lot of a shopping center. Unfortunately though, it was still in the midst of a bustle of zombie activity. Yet, their scout managed to sneak up to a car, hotwire it (successful Craft if I remember correctly), and steal away from the lot without being noticed!
The gangster was again tempted to drive off on his own, but since he wasn't miserable, he did pick up his companions and they cautiously zoomed off, south out of town to the military base.

The trip south was uneventful (and far easier). The road they drove down finally showed signs of leading to a military base - very high barbed wire fencing, signs, and beyond, empty waste (this is, after all, where the military tests its latest explosives). The road split at some point, one leading directly to the base, the other leading far around and on south to Yuma.
When they came to the north gate, it was heavily blockaded, and there was no sign of life. No guards, nothing. At this point, they remembered their rigged two-way radio, and the sgt sent out a call in to try to alert someone of their presence. An officer answered, and the sgt described their situation. They found out, not surprisingly, that the main south gate had been flooded by refugees seeking shelter. Furthermore, a large percentage of the force on base had been sent to try to defend cities, and rescue fleeing citizens. The remainder of the force had been needed to help manage all of the refugees on base and guard the main (south) gate from a likely/eventual zombie assault. The north gate had been left empty, but heavily blockaded. The idea was that, if zombies approached the base from the north, they had plenty of warheads and the region was empty (well, now three guys and their vehicle occupied it). The officer told the sgt for he and his men to 'sit tight' while they sent someone to pick them up. Naturally, the players were nervous, with the pcs being forced to sit and wait outside a heavily blockaded gate, so the gangster (who was driving) turned the car around and left the engine on, ready to drive off at a moment's notice.

A successful Awareness roll alerted them to dust being kicked up on the horizon, and soon they saw coming down the road a big red square. They quickly accelerated up the road and turned off on the branch that led far around the base. As they turned aside, they could see a huge Firetruck, sirens a-blazing, and zombies all over it, headed at full speed toward the blockade. It was followed by another one right behind it.
The first one slammed into the gates and while it broke through most of the barriers, it came to a stop at the last chain-link fence. Seeing it unable to get through and a little car not far off full of dinner, the second one turned aside and chased after the group. The sgt hurriedly tried to get the officer to send help quickly, while the gangster had the gas floored. For fun I had him roll a Craft skill to keep control of the car, and he managed it well.

Since TOR is neither set up for car chases, and it was getting toward the end of the night, it was time for a nice wrap-up. The weary travelers managed to stay just ahead of the zombie-firetruck, and at that moment, a huge helicopter zoomed overhead. It sped up in front of the racing vehicles, and fired two missiles directly at the truck, which exploded in a glorious fireball. They brought their car to a stop and hitched a ride on the helicopter to the base HQ. They were greeted by another officer, who debriefed them, and said the zombies had not managed to break through the north gate, and they had already dispatched a small rocket for any that had survived the crash into the barricade.

Our 'heroes' had made it.