Zombie Cliché Lookout:
When people see anyone who looks capable in the face of a disaster, they generally assume that the capable party represents some sort of official authority. From the military to FEMA, the FBI to the local fire department, when the shit hits the fan we’ve been conditioned to expect quick and efficient response from those in authority. In zombies stories (and unfortunately sometimes in reality) those in charge are generally too incompetent and greedy to mount any sort of reasonable response.
They sound like they’re from some sort of splinter group that formed it’s own “society” and therefore plays by their own rules! 😀
Hah, maybe so, maybe so.
Concerned citizens? With hazmat suits, riot shields, and automatic guns? I think there’s a lie.
I’m guessing that it’s public high school science teachers.
It could be worse, they could be biology teachers! 😀
Worse still: drama.
But nothing can be worse than PhysEd* teachers: “Here, have a medicine ball!” *ball lands on Dave’s foot* 😀
*I don’t know what anyone else calls them but that’s what they’re known as in Australia here. Insert appropriate names for your country. 😉
We call them Medicine Balls in the US as well, although you don’t see them get used very often anymore.
Chemistry teachers are the worst, but at least they’d be better prepared to explode the undead than your average civilian!
Yeah, it definitely seems like there’s more to this story.
I would think that in the real world where soldiers can shoot straight, don’t mindlessly walk into zombies like chumps, and get to use more than an M16, the rise of the dead wouldn’t happen very easily.
Lol
@Bob – Hell yes. As much as zombie/apocalyptic books like to tout the failure of the government, our men and women in uniform are still second to none.
Oh the government sucks completely.. But our military? The fucking best of the best.
^ This ^
Well, that wouldn’t make for a very good story…
“And then, the moaning, bloodthirsty corpse rose from the grave to infect the world with a zombie disease! But the competent soldiers got to him first, blew his brains out, scrubbed the stain out of the street, and the world was back to normal. THE END”
It wouldn’t be good, but it wouldn’t waste anyone’s time with a long, drawn out narrative.
That’s one problem I have with full blown “Apocalypse” zombie stories. Stylisticly, I prefer slow, dumb, shoot-em-in-the-head zombies, but they don’t pose any real threat to a well-equipped force. Any story set in a world where the zombies have devastated the whole country or world must by necessity gloss over just how the people whose job it is to protect society would fail at that job so badly.
Thus, I think that the best zombie stories are like this one, following a small group in the initial outbreak before the military has a chance to react, since once they do figure out what’s going on, it’s pretty much over save for mopping up the blood.
Also: thumbs up for the Shakespeare riff in the roll-over text. Well played, mon ami.
Dangit, now I gotta go see what Dave put in the rollover text for previous webcomics! 😀
Don’t worry you don’t have much catching up to do. I just started adding them a couple weeks ago. I need to go back and add them to old episodes. You know, one day when I have some spare time.
I thought about going for the “Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” line (my favorite Shakespeare quote FWIW), but I decided to save it for later.
Oooh I like where this is going. I also like your comment on the incompetent authority – to backup this theory I found this interesting essay on the basic laws of human stupidity, check it out it’s a fun read.
“The probability that a certain person will be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.” This line is gold. Gold I say!
That was awesome to read. Thanks for sharing that essay. I feel better now about the masses of morons I’ve encountered.
wow that was good
Yeah this text is brilliant – link to the author’s wiki.
I was wondering.. how would we consider zombies in view of his analysis? I’m thinking the sub category of Bandits…”those whose actions yield to them gains inferior to the losses inflicted to other people”. But I suppose that the evaluation of the actual gain a zed can get from eating a brain is a matter of perspective.
That’s a good question; I’m not sure that zombies really fit with the pillagers, but it’s kind of as close as it gets.
LOOKOUT! The zombie in the black shirt is going for the gun!!!
Now this made me laugh. I had to scroll up to check out the photo for reference, and I took the damn photo.
Ha lol
Shouldn’t they have knocked him out by now? lol
Can’t rush these things, Angelina.
I know! They’re local brick members of the Zombie Hunters society!
That sounds about right, actually.