Zombie Cliche Lookout: Patience Tested
You can only push a person so far before their patience runs out. Some people, like myself, don’t have very far to go before that happens. Others seems to have an almost inexhaustible reserve, but don’t be fooled. Once you add stressors into a situation (lets say fear of zombies, lack of sleep and food, etc.) the amount of patience most of us can summon is pretty minimal.
This tends to come out in two ways in zombies stories. Characters will generally either have a complete breakdown, or they’ll start fighting with each other. Let’s look at Night of the Living Dead for a moment, shall we? Barbara is the first type of person here. She just completely loses it, and becomes catatonic for the majority of the film. Ben, on the other hand, takes out his frustration by constantly butting heads with Cooper. Neither approach works terribly well, but at least Ben’s is still productive.
About this Episode:
So Murphy isn’t dead from last episode’s gunshot, but he might just be badly injured.
Discussion Question: Dangerous Friends
We touched on this subject a bit last week, but I thought it would be interesting to flesh it out into a full discussion question. Ideally, we would be able to carefully choose the people around us in an emergency. For instance, folks like Bo have a well developed plan and tried and true people in his group. However, we won’t always be so lucky as to have things go to plan.
If there is an emergency when we’re outside our normal group, and end up falling in with a random assortment of strangers, how do you handle the people who could be dangerous to the safety of the group? And let’s not assume a leadership role here. People are all different, and many aren’t just going to blindly accept you as the leader, even if you have survival knowledge and experience.
Just shoot ‘im, Murph. Little bugger deserves it.
By my definition, a danger to the group would be someone who does anything ranging from violent tendencies toward allies to intense love of zombie-hunting to a drama-starter.
Someone who is a physical danger would get a second chance at being peaceful. Maybe he’s just stressed and needs an outlet. However, failing would then require me to simply use him as a distraction while we split, like Sam awhile back.
A mental threat, like a psychopath who adores zombie-killing, may just be in need of an outlet for stress, but if it’s obvious they enjoy killing for the fun of it…Well, they won’t stay around too long.
A verbal threat, or drama-starter, is that gossip girl in the back of the class. Best way to deal with it is ignore them and hope they get eaten by zombies if they don’t take the hint. When it comes to repairing the effects of such a person, just dispel any rumors publicly and say that anyone who doesn’t believe you is free to go.
And all of these don’t require me to take a leadership role. That’s the best part. 😀
Yes indeed. I think most people’s plans call for them being in charge, which is a hell of an assumption.
I agree that bomb-throwers, you know, the rabble-rousers and overly contentious souls, might need someone to show them the door. As for the zombie killing, though, how else do you expect to deal with them?
From where I am sitting, it’s simple math: kill all the zombies before they can make more. Think of a zombie outbreak like the chain letter that works. Every zombie makes two more zombies. In a week there are nothing left but zombies. The way around that, in my estimation, is to change our paradigm regarding the zombie outbreak. You don’t hide from zombies. You don’t even fight zombies. You hunt them. Set traps for them. Snipe them. Run them over with heavy equipment. Anything to keep their numbers down.
What do you think?
Nothing wrong with killing zombies, but if someone will purposely put themselves or the group in danger for the sake of killing they have issues…
That’s why I wrote “hunting”. Hunting requires patience and discipline.
Precisely.
Still, in a ZPAW, I am not hiding out. I am taking the fight to them.
Hmmm… Well, I think that my thoughts around trust start with competence. I won’t tolerate a Gilligan, no matter how “nice”. I believe in a voluntryist group; but I won’t stick around in a group of busybodies, know-it-alls, or the willfully ignorant.
There comes a point when it’s better to risk going it on your own than to face the dangers associated with the dangerously incompetent.
My circle of friends these days tends to be small and professional. While no one can go it alone, I would rather have two people I could count on than dozens I only know through Facebook.
I should have written this down and sealed it in an envelop, Bo. This is exactly what I thought your response would be.
Am I that predictable?
Sorry. Maybe I need to contribute more; and sound like a broken record less…
🙁
I’d call it consistent. And consistency is a good thing.
Yes. 😀
Ah, today has been a zombie day for me. First, a zombie triple feature of Dawn of the Dead (1978), Shaun of the Dead, and part of the original Night of the Living Dead. Was unable to finish that, because my mom wanted to watch Coumbo. Meh. I come on here to see a new Bricks of the Dead. Not a bad day.
Awesome day. Columbo kicks ass too.
Typo alert: Zombie cliche lookout, second paragraph, second sentence, out–>other!
Same paragraph, fifth sentence, fifth word, is–>it. 😀
The very next word, after the comma: at–>and! 😉
Same paragraph, last sentence Ben should be Ben’s. 😀
Thank you sir; all corrected.
Regarding the comc: Aww c’mon Murphy, where’d your sense of humor go? 😀
Funny how the pucker factor caused by lead flying in your direction at over one thousand feet per second has a tendency to kill it, eh?
Yeah, that’ll do it.
I thought up a discussion question: Should spatter from zombies that have been shot infect people it lands on, or does the skin have to be broken where the spatter lands for it to take effect?
How do the zombies in your mythos work? I think answering that question will go to answering yours.
I am a bloodborne pathogens guy. It’s a big part of what I do professionally; and still a favorite avocation. I think that if your zombies are living things, and infected by a “natural” pathogen, even one mutated by man, whether viral, bacterial, or fungal, as discussed previously (why no protozoan infection? Entamoeba get no love in the zombie universe…).
If your zombies are caused by a bloodborne pathogen, then fluid-to-fluid contact, directly or indirectly, is required.
This is a pretty good handout on bloodborne infections. Make copies of it and put it in your zombie kit: http://www.redcross.org/images/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m3240081_PreventingSpreadBloodbornePathogensFactandSkill.pdf
I like the zombies where bites and zombie infection don’t turn your into a zombie, they just kill you. With that in mind, I’d treat it like anything else. If it gets into a wound, soft tissue, etc, you’ve got a good chance of getting infected with something that’ll kill you.
And once you die? Zombie time, baby.
Hey Dave, I’m looking to buy that Echo Sigma kit online. How is yours holding up? And is the special user code still active?
Was it this one:
http://echo-sigma.com/echo-sigma-get-home-bag/
I am not a fan of Condor bags. I used a Camelbak Motherlode all through my undergraduate, often loaded down with thirty pounds or more of hard-cornered textbooks and a laptop. It weathered those hour years nicely; and I still use it almost daily.
Other than that, and the FAK, I think it’s GTG (I think the FAK I posted the tutorial on is a bit more comprehensive, if three times as bulky as the one shown).
If you get one of those Sigma kits, will you mind posting a review? Every little bit helps.
It’s definitely a basic FAK. I wouldn’t trust it for an extended period of time. To get you home though? I would think it’s generally going to be fine. If you get really unlikely though? Well, all bets are off.
I’m not familiar with Condor as a brand. The bag seemed decent to me, but it’s definitely not a Maxpedition or something like that.
I think it would do well for what I’d like it for- wearing over my survival kit and carrying food in. The price is good, I don’t get any knives with it though. They’re illegal over here and the family don’t want one bit of the kit. ”It’ll just be another white elephant, like th
at helmet you bought!’ 🙁
It’s your money, right? What do they care, as long as you’re not hurting anyone?
Everyone has a hobby.
It’s held up pretty well. I haven’t used the backpack since the review – it sits in my trunk. However, I have used the items from the pack a couple of times now. It’s just a handy thing to have.
I’ll reach out to the company today to see if the code is still good.
I just checked with the folks at Echo Sigma; the coupon code is good through the end of the year.
Dave, could you update the character Bios? It has not been done fore quite some time. According to them now the prisoners are alive 🙂 thanks.
I’ve actually been picking away as that. I made about ten changes last week, and we keep trucking along at it. I let it get way, way out of date.