Zombie Cliche Lookout: Veteran Survivor
One thing that I love about the zombie horror genre is the way the it twists our conception of everyday life. Where we once did things without even thinking about them, we now have to carefully plan and hope for good luck because of how dangerous they’ve become. Our lives are a fun house mirror image of what they once were, and those who can’t adapt quickly perish.
The classic example here is feeding yourself. Before the zombies show up, you simply buy your food at the store, prepare it, and eat. After the zombies show up, however, things change dramatically. Money is no longer good. Stores aren’t stocked, and the remaining merchandise is fought over by survivors. All the while, zombies continue to attack and swell their own ranks.
About this Episode:
Even though the zombie apocalypse in the timeline of the comic has been relatively short, people who survive are accumulating vastly different experiences. Sam, for instance, has been forced to survive in a more hostile environment longer than Tara, who has been lucky enough to barricade herself inside. That difference in experience is something people like Sam can potentially trade on at some point. This is what I’m trying to get across here, although it might be a little early in the story still.
Discussion Question: Common Dangers
Building off what I talked about in the zombie cliche lookout, what sort of common tasks that you do today will you still need to do when the shit hits the fan, but will become substantially more dangerous? Obviously, procuring food and potable water are the obvious ones, but we’ll need to do a lot more than that. Heating our homes in the winter, for instance, might be particularly difficult without natural gas or propane (those of you living in warmer climates luck out on this one).
One of the dangers would definitely be traveling at night because without the safety of lighting roads at night would become death traps, the bigger the road, the higher chances of you running right smack into a cluster of abandoned vehicles or worse, it’s bad enough knowing that the freeway you used to take to work is now jammed with cars that aren’t moving.
Excellent point. You would have to be going extremely slowly to be safe, which makes you that much more of a target.
I think Tara is going to be shocked to find out that if the pharmacy hasn’t been looted dry already, that the pharmacist, if they’re still around, is probably a zombie and wants to bite them!
A lot of people are going to have to face facts and normal medicinal needs are either going to have to be fought over or the people who need them are going to be lost to the zombie horde because of circumstances beyond the control of their friends. It will probably also give new meaning to the industry that used to be supported by cash, that’s going to mean a lot less and people are going to be a lot more cautious about who they trust.
Excellent points all around. I think with drugs, there’s going to be a difference in demand. I imagine things like narcotics, opioids, and painkillers are going to get looted first. After that, probably stuff that people need: maintenance meds, anti-biotics, etc. Of course, those first looters might just destroy a lot of the other stuff in the process. And let’s not forget about the perishable meds.
The question is… how does she know Sam does not have any Meds? Did she went through his stuff while he was sleeping? I don’t trust her…
Maybe she just means she knows Sam wouldn’t have the medication her father needs? Because it’s very specific and not something someone would normally carry unless they had the same illness. And based on the fact that Sam has been out surviving he’s in good health.
Hah, Mick hits what I was going for: what her father needs isn’t something people would keep on them normally.
I don’t know about dangerous but disposing of, or otherwise dealing with, waste would become much more difficult.
And poor sanitation would lead to dangers with disease.
This is a huge one. I’ve been thinking about how to address this in the comic, but it’d be hard to do without it seeming like I’m trying to be funny.
The answer might be to make the characters aware of the humor.
“Laugh all you want, but we really need to deal with this crap.”
I’ll go with having good sleeping time… Hard to find time and safe place to get some “good” sleeping.
What about lighting? Modern buildings do not have windows to allow light into all rooms. My site’s power went out a few years ago and my entire department was pitch black. Thankfully I had a small flashlight in my bag that I was able to fish out and use to guide us to the doors and out of the building. Cell phones were also employed. But when the dead walk the earth, SCE is not staying on.
And even if you had windows to let light in during the day, well then you have a major security issue to deal with. Maybe we should start switching to skylights now and closing off the windows with secure doors instead of curtains.