Zombie Cliche Lookout: Old News
Let’s say you find yourself in the zombie apocalypse, and you’re trying to get help from someone who happens to have shelter or some supplies that you need. Your one bargaining chip – at least as far as you can see – is intelligence from the outside world. Imagine your disappointment to learn that you’re not the first survivor showing up with news. There goes whatever leverage you thought you had.
Now think about it a little further, and think about what might have happened to those other survivors. Did they get what they were looking for, or did they get more than they bargained for?
About this Episode:
I’m having fun with Lou. I’m trying to make him seem very creepy, but at the same time, somewhat sympathetic. There’s a suggestion here that he did some sinister with the other survivors, or he might just be bluffing to put Murphy and Brent off their guard.
Other News:
As you no doubt noticed; I missed Monday’s episode. I apologize for this unannounced break. I had a minor family issue that demanded my time. Everything is fine now, and I appreciate your patience. By way of apology, today and Friday’s episodes will be slightly longer to make up the difference.
Discussion Question: Zombie Scientific Conspiracy
One of the more popular zombie origin stories is that of runaway science. So here’s your challenge: give me the back story. What research is being performed that somehow causes a zombie outbreak? How exactly does it turn bad? How does this mad science escape?
As an example, let’s look at 28 Days Later, wherein there was disease research facility performing experiments on chimpanzees (I’m not certain if this research was looking for a cure, developing biological weapons, etc.). Animal rights activists freed the apes, which released the disease (and infected and/or killed the activists in the process).
Okay, picture this: Government scientists are attempting to cure the common cold, but in the process create a supervirus that they really have no clue what it does. Meanwhile, OTHER government scientists are working on a serum to create Captain America-like supersoldiers. One night an unpaid intern is up to late sorting things, and accidentally drips the contents of one vial into another. Thinking nothing of it, he puts them away. He hasn’t had enough coffee to think that this could be bad. The next morning, the scientists testing the supersoldier serum inject a healthy test subject. Soon after, the subject dies, comes back, and transfers the super-duper-virus to others…and the fun begins!
too*
Hah, I love this. It combines all sorts of fun conspiracy and pseudo-science.
The first two panels don’t seem to make any sense – in the first panel, he’s asking a question, and in the second, he answering with what would seem to be the answer to the question in panel 1. This indicate to me that there’s a word balloon answer missing from one of the people he’s interrogating.
No, it’s a continuation of the conversation from the last episode.
“Things are bad out there. We need to cooperate to survive.”
“Bad out there, eh? Yea, I’ve heard that a time or two now.”
The first panel of this episode is Lou’s reply to Murphy’s statement from the last panel in the previous episode.
Yeah, this is what I was going for. Panel one is a rhetorical question asked to “the room”, so to speak. It’s just meant as a jumping-off-point for his little monologue.
I’ve always been partial to the “science reaching too far” origin, as in, science trying to solve a problem, but the solution has unintended consequences i.e., anti-aging products that work by reactivating dead cells accidentally works on dead bodies as a whole or viruses intended to rapidly heal wounds mutate to reanimate dead tissue.
I remember that being in the trailer for the Resident Evil movie, but it never factored into the plot, what was disappointing.
Scientists trying to verify the existence of the voodoo zombi isolate and separate the components of the powder used in the ceremony. They quickly discover one of the components is able to not only bring subjects to a death-like state; it “reanimates” them after a couple of hours. While experimenting with this chemical on lab rats, one escapes while a lab worker is cleaning a cage. Of course, it bites said person on the way out. He doesn’t think anything about it. After a couple of days it gets infected, gets sick, and dies. Meanwhile our rodent happens to spread the disease to other rodents, which invariably bite on people in contact with them (mostly homeless people). These people all get sick and die, either in the street or in the hospital. They reanimate, and you know how it goes from there.
Hah! I love that people working on these kinds of projects never “think anything of” potential infection. It’s a classic.
Exactly. I picture this guy as some poor Joe who makes a living cleanign out lab rat/lab animal cages. He’s probably overworked and tired. I can’t imagine that job pays much, so he’s probably workign a couple jobs. Making him that much more tired. I know when I’m tired, I tend to make mistakes. Though they don’t usually bring about the zombie apocolypse.
…Usually? O.o
You never can tell.
I don’t know if you hung something to make it look dark in the store, or if Lou got carried away and it is night now, but if you look out the door it is pitch black. I looked back at the other strips in the store and it was like this too so it is probably just the first one.
However I was thinking It’d be cool if it was night and Lou was too distracted with his prisoners to notice at first. Then a horde assaults his store and he needs Murphy and Brent’s help to survive. Perhaps then he would understand the value of the buddy system.
Yeah, I really don’t want it to look dark outside; it’s an unfortunate side-effect of the lighting setup.
You could always just say it’s a solar eclipse and go from there! 😀 Movies use that all the time! 😉
Hah, works for me.
Im a big fan of the tech angle. For me, zeds have always posed a problem from the standpoint of basic biology. In order for a body to move it needs working muscles. In order for muscles to work they need O2, glucose, and to have their waste products carried away. To get O2 and Glucose you need a working digestive, circulatory and respiratory system. And if those are working then you aint dead.
That probably explains the trend toward “brezerker” zombies that weve seen over the last few years, zombies that are alive but so batshit insane that they dont qualify as human anymore. Some try to get around it all with the idea of some super virus that re-animates the dead. Problem there is that viruses are parasites and still need food and O2 to survive. Viruses typically get these from the host organism and now ere back to the working digestive, circulatory and respiratory systems.
Thats why Im a fan of the nanotech gone awry theory of re-animation. The mufti-national corporate monolith of your choice is working to develop powerful nanite technology that can save lives by acting as kind of an internal EMT. Basically you are injected with these nanites and they lay dormant in your bloddstream until some severe trauma occours. Say your in a car accident and the trauma actually casues cardiac arrest. The nanites then go to work simultaneously repairing damaged tissue and also acting carriers to move O2 and glucose though your non-circulating blood to keep you “alive.” Once repairs are far enough along they re-start your heart and clean up the rest of the mess. Or if you really want to play to the old trope, you could make it some kind of dire military project whee the nanites would allow wounded soldiers to still function while they carry out repairs. Take the idea far enough and you could have a solder walking, talking and fighting while he technically had no heartbeat or respiration because the nanites were doing all the work. The big limitation would be that the nanites still need a source of fuel and raw materials to make repairs, so the patient would still need to eat. See where Im going with this.
Now the tech is hijacked, either by a rival company or by some kind of Eco-terrorist or corporate whistelblower, take your pick. But in the process the tech is damaged or accidentally reprogrammed so that instead of repairing it kills and reanimates. Of course the nanites get released into the initial victims (maybe the first group of ultra-rick who can pay the thief for this miracle of eternal life) and it immediately kills them and re-animates the bodies. Problem is that the nanites cant really function properly in a dead host. Instead of repairing the damages tissues they are forced to dedicate all their energy to just keeping the host functional and preserving themselves. Therefore they have to allow some of the more aesthetic and non-essential aspect of the host deteriorate in order to keep the core functions moving. The result is a rotting, ravenous, walking dead guy.
Because the nanites still maintain and use some aspects of the central nervous system to communicate commands throughout the body, the destruction of the brain shuts down the zombie.
I would like my cushy Hollywood writers job now please.
Pretty cool ideas here Damage, I like it the angle you have gone with.
In terms of cushy Hollywood job…. might be better to go and try get into some B grade horror stuff first, make a name for yourself etc 🙂 Like Sharknado!
Definitely some cool ideas here Damage; you should turn that into a short story.
Don’t forget that Inez is currently sneaking around the back somewhere when they heard Murphy get into trouble.
This tenuous situation is a bomb ready to blow… and I’m picking Inez might just be the ignition.
My favorite example of this trope is from Serenity: The government tries to make a drug that turns people into even more docile sheep. Instead it reverses and turns the folks into zombified rage monsters. Most excellent.
How about a mad scientist that believes he's isolated the root cause of cancer. In true comic book fashion he mutates that gene horribly, creating a rapidly replicating tumor cell that also causes the infected to become zombies.
The mad scientist trope and the zombies go so well together, I think, because on a visceral level we still distrust science and the scientific method. As Arthur C. Clarke posited, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I don't think science is as glamorous or mysterious as this kind of science fiction makes it; but I do point to examples like Frankenstein to support my point (and what is a flesh golem but a zombie you make in the garage?).
Another good example (borrowing from Frankenstein, again) is the quest for immortality. Scientists believe that they’ve isolated death. Maybe it’s not genetic, but something more primal, a force. It could be electromagnetic or chemical. It could be something very Tesla-esque, like a “humor” or a “vapor”. The scientist does isolate it, maybe even removes it; but without this “humor” people cannot die. Instead they become zombies. Maybe penetrating the skull allows the natural “humor” in the air into the zombie’s body, allowing him to finally die. Maybe the humor cannot cross the blood/brain barrier normally, and needs a little mechanical assistance.
Oops, open tag after “more”…
Got it fixed
Excellent, excellent example here, Bo!