Zombie Cliché Lookout: Raising the Stakes
When you need to up the ante in a disaster movie, kill the President. When the aliens/ zombies/ catastrophic weather/ robot uprising is exciting, but just needs a bit of a push to make things really serious, then it’s time to take out the Commander in Chief. The President of the United States is one of the most protected individuals on the planet during peacetime, and during times of turmoil he’s immediately rushed away to some undisclosed, highly guarded secret location until everything blows over. He’s not untouchable, as we’ve sadly seen a few times in history, but he’s about as close as you can get.
The important thing about the President is the psychological impact his death can have. The nation is already fighting a seemingly unending and unstoppable army of the walking dead. The chips are down, and we’re giving it everything we’ve got just to live through another day. Should we find out someone with the President’s resources can lose the battle, what’s the point of even trying?
About this Episode:
I read through a number of Presidential addresses following catastrophic events to prep for this one (and the next couple of episodes). My main influence was Roosevelt’s speech following the Pearl Harbor attack.
And no, that’s not supposed to be Joe Biden.
Discussion Question:
You and your survivors just repelled a swarm attack on your compound. Most of you lived. As you’re dispatching the bitten wounded and carrying the bodies to the Decontamination Pyre your sleeved lifts and you notice a jagged wound on your forearm. The adrenaline was running so high during the attack you didn’t notice getting it. You can’t tell how you got it but its either from a bite or something simple all the exposed steel rebar on the fortifications.
Paranoia is a fact of life so if you tell the compounds security about the bite you’ll likely be executed for safety precautions.
“Waiting to see how you feel” is unreliable since Psychosis is part of the virus meaning you wouldn’t be able to tell anything is wrong with you.
If any friends hide you they will be executed as well.
How do you handle this?
I wonder how the President was attacked? If it’s because a zombie attacked and bit him, I’d say he’s going to do a political revival! 😀
Of course, these people may be unwilling to tell the general public what really happened, which will just add even more to the panic and confusion when a zombie president goes around biting anyone that gets too close to him! 😉
Attack of the Zombie President! Coming soon to a theater near you.
Joe Biden being so stressed that he forgot to shave was my first thoughts.
Hah; I figured a lot of people would have this thought.
i think it would be pretty cool if it was Joe Biden. it adds a level of realism to the comic, or at least, as much realism as a comic about lego zombies could have.
I can see that, but I like to think that the comic is in sort of it’s own sort of timeline. I try to make it so that you can’t say, “Yeah, Bricks of the Dead takes place in 2010” or anything like that.
You could always just honestly lie lolz “pun intended” like casually say I cut my arm on that broken peice of metal or something or probably just hide it really good and wish for the best!
I wonder: if these people just buy that story, are they really worth joining up with?
Lol true oblivious people really dont last too long in survival situations, but theres always that insanely random dumb luck too lolz
Never discount dumb luck.
Hmmm…dave killed the president to take over?
Anyway, with me, I’d keep everything as it was, and if anyone sees it…
Edited by Dave
I had to edit that last bit. Can’t really say things like that.
why can’t I say I’d kill them? It’s not like the scenario would ever happen. :/
Way to make me feel guilty, Dave.
I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty, I just don’t like the idea of implied violence.
in a webcomic about frikkin’ zombies? *laugh-y eyeroll*
Believe me, you should never take my word seriously. Half of my answers to these questions really only apply in…actually they could never apply.
I understand where you’re coming from, and I don’t believe that you’re talking about a real-world situation either. However, I would hate for someone to take your words out-of-context and think that I or this silly little webcomic of mine was promoting violence, you know?
Ah, playing that rather stupid “safe” card? (not calling you stupid, just the need to use it anywhere, like SEGA making new games Sonic-only). I guess I get your point. Somehow, that face you use for your avatar makes it so hard to argue. It’s sorta…powerful. As opposed to mine which is the editor of a short-lived Medieval newspaper.
Hah, pretty much just ass covering. Again, I am by no means implying that I think you are violent, just that I really don’t like discussion of things like that here.
What can I say, I have a powerful face. In LEGO, anyway.
Question? Just run over to the barricades with some wire cutters, stick some barbed wire in the wound, and run to the medical staff with it saying you just got it. They treat it, give you a excuse note, (depending on the development of the area) and you can wait and see if it was what you thought it was.
Not a bad idea, although I’d want to be up on my tetnus shots before then.
I don’t want to die, but I can’t take the chance of endangering others. I choose to go off on my own. Maybe I’ll live. Maybe not. Either way the group gets a fighting chance. I won’t risk being a potential “time bomb”. Guess I should leave a note so no one goes searching for me thinking I’m just lost.
That last part seems pretty important.
But why just leave? Why not try some sort of quarantine?
Hmm.. Presidents dead? His life was going to end up being just bait anyways… Politicians are useless.
Psychosis.. I’ve heard of this before, and I’ve always thought that there is the possibility of that single person that’s different from the herd. But being a realist naturally I would first of all check for teeth marks if anything.. If it’s jagged though.. That will most likely mean it’s not a bite mark, but could also possibly mean it’s a claw mark. A claw mark isn’t as dangerous as a bite mark, but should still be treated just as dangerously.
I would go back to the battlefield in which we fought and I would look for any possibility that it could of happened, and if I find nothing of the sort? Well.. Realism dictates I instead.. Get the fuck out of the compound… I’m not going to die with out adventure, and I’ll be damned if anyone else gets to kill me.
Go down swinging.
Omg Dave that is an intense discussion question. I gotta think about that one… hard.
You can thank Evan for the discussion question. He’s good for the head scratchers.
I gotta go with Gumbyfingers on this one. Leave a note, take off for a while, don’t come back ’til the incubation period is over. Otherwise? Take one for the team. Fess up, ask them to keep an eye on you, but accept it if they’re gonna kill you. We’ve all got to die sometime, and better to be a heroic sacrifice than that one guy who breaches the defenses from within and gets everyone in the base killed.
Well said, Steven. Don’t be that guy.
Kobayashi Maru, eh? The only choices you have are to use that last round you saved for yourself, get out of Dodge right there, right then, or let your buddies put a round through your brain pan. The survivor in my says GTFO, so as not to risk family and friends. The pragmatist in me says use a caliber with big, slow, heavy bullets, to make sure I don’t end up living for a while with half my head gone.
Spoiler alert!
It’s like when Abraham tried to kill Maggie, because he was sure she’d be coming back as zombie right then. It’s a fine line: do you kill them on the spot, and save them the dignity of turning; or, do you wait and risk your party?
That Abraham thing was ridiculous. I get that things need to get done, but you could at least have some discretion and try to do it without the grieving widow standing right there.
I decided to search if the numbers 8:17 to find if there was something relevant to those numbers. I stumbled upon Proverbs 8:17 – I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. It kind of creeped me out…
That is seriously bizarre. For what it’s worth, I pulled that time out of my ass.
Jee, if I were bit (or whatever that mark was) I would probably make them put me in quarantine and just hope for the best.
Quarantine seems like the way to go to me as well.
Certainly better than execution…
Damn straight.
Let’s see, according to Max Brooks, I’d say this could be described as a Class 3 outbreak. Large, but humans are still the predominant race. As for the Question; I, personally, would leave the group to do a bit of research. In the event that I am infected, would the zombies still attack me? And, (I’ve always wondered this!) what would it like to be a zombie? Would you just be looking through the eyes of a machine for killing? Or would entire brain go back to a state of Neanderthal-ism, with you’re new purpose in life be to kill? So many questions!
you would most likely just die, and a parasite or fungus(or something completely different) would take over your brain/body(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110303-zombie-ants-fungus-new-species-fungi-bugs-science-brazil/ probably a bit like that) and you would have absolutely no control over anything, unless you believe in reincarnation. Then you come back as a penguin.
Yeah. I can always imagine that fungus deciding ants are no longer good enough for it and moving up.
I’m with the group here. You die, just like a normal person. The zombie isn’t you at all, just wearing your body like a costume.
I believe in reincarnation! and why a penguin? if you were unlucky you’d come back as a human, being a baby in the zombie apocalypse can’t be good, besides, zombies don’t attack animals.
They do in the walking dead.
Ah, presidents. Not really something I have much to comment on.
As for the question, I’m going with something at least one other person has already said, altering the wound with a bit of shrapnel so as to make it convincingly as environmental and just wait it out.
When you say altering the wound, that makes me think the wound looks suspicious. Like a bite mark.
The question isn’t that difficult . . . Given the “new order” of things, life is more primitive. That is, more physical labor and activitiy. We are going to get scratched and banged up ad nauseum. And I guess, more so because most of us city & town dwellers have become less (physically) calloused & have softer skin. Soft skin is a billion dollar industry!
My guess is that (In my group):
1. From the very time we start running and tripping out the door we will be getting banged up, sliced up, and scraped up. Just Saturday I was in a light hike, slipped and banged up my shin, and ugh! it looks ugly today.
2. Once we figure out that this is a zee infection, we will be really testy about every nick & scratch.
3. As roles naturally divy up, there will be someone who’ll play the “nurse” role. In our group, it would be my wife since she has experience in the area. From the begining, every time you get nicked ‘n scratch, no mattter how small, your responsibility is to report to her.
4. A couple of ways to sell it to the group is:
a) Institute the rule from the very begining; make it normative
b) Don’t raise the issue of zee infection per se (and raise panic), but the “we’re more vulnerable to tetanus, and Other Types of infections
Heh! I remember in boot camp, every night, the DI would literally check our hands ‘n feet, while in skivies, for blisters, infections and injuries. We wouldn’t go that far, but the “nurse” would constantly check up on people and see how they are doing.
Again, they’ll be so many ouies from the very begining, that the sooner something is establish, the sooner the group would grow use to the Check Up.
5. If a wound is suspect, using a different model (Suicide Watch), the person would be put under observation; would be kept an eye on. Sooner or later, especially as you try to leave a populated area, we’re going to get a sense of how long the transformation period is from Wound to Turning; that time (plus some extra) would be the duration of the Z Watch period.
6. Yep; people will lie or hide or worried, so I know it’s not a fail-safe system.
7. As for me, I would tell June as soon as possible and may do the self-exile thing for a period of time.
“From the begining, every time you get nicked ‘n scratch, no mattter how small, your responsibility is to report to her.”
This is a solid idea right here.
Guess I’ll man up with all the explosives I can and wade into a horde of zombies so i can go out with a bang.
That’s going out like a champ, Fox.
WHO IS HE TALKING TO? EVERYONE’S DEAD! Hide it till I die.
The TV and radio audience, of course. Maybe people streaming on the internet too.
If there’s electric power, the message is still sent, since there really is no way of really know that all are dead would be my vote.
Treat the wound first, then have my teammates tie me down for however long it takes to turn.
If I turn, bullet to the brain, into the fire with the rest of the bodies.
If not, I live to die another day.
Another quarantine vote. I’m glad I’m in good company.
Have you all seen this site? Map of the Dead; ala Google Maps.
http://www.mapofthedead.com/
Dave, ever consider adding another Tab to your site; where fans can drop these type of gems and/or summit their own zee related questions/challenges?
Oh man, that’s all kinds of badass (although it seems to be missing some health care and outdoor stores near me).
I am looking for some good forum software to plug into the site, which would allow the sharing and discussion of awesome stuff like this.
Ha, ha, ha! I, on the other hand, found a Massage Spa & Wine Emporium near my house I’ve never heard off. If I’m going to go, I’m going here first!
damn it! the only things near me are doctors and grocery stores, seriously! there’s three doctors and two grocery stores down one road and nothing else for at least three miles!
The idea that a Message Spa & Wine Emporium exists anywhere is just baffling to me. Hat’s off to you and your good fortune, Luis.
I have the luck and the curse of living out in the middle of shit-fuck-no-where.
I grew up in the middle of nowhere and know that luck/curse well. I was just back home visiting my parents over the weekend. It’s incredible how isolated you can still manage to be in the world.
well I’d just cover it up and hope it’s not a zombie wound, If I start thinking that certain people in my group look tasty I’d just pop down to zombies anonymous!
Hah. A solid plan.
this makes me wonder if there was areal zombie apoc what would the people do if the pres died
I have to say I would take myself out of the equation. I could not allow myself to be responsible.
That would be the right thing to do. Of course, how many people would really do the right thing in these circumstances?
I hate the idea of quarantine, because it seems like the perfect time for the zeds to mass attack. My whole group gets run off, unfortunately having to leave me behind. Now, I’m trapped in a cell. Even if I could break out, it would be into Zombie Central. Sure, they can’t get in, but I have no supplies. Starving to death seems like the worst way to go. And, the worst part? This is the situation in which I DON’T turn into a zombie from the bite that put me here.
I would prefer to go off on my own with a two-way radio. After a couple of days, they could signal to me that I can come back.
im guessing that theres going to be a big damn speech next
Question:
I’ve previously mentioned that paranoidly executing the wounded is the best way to get people to hide their wounds. Getting bitten isn’t a crime, but hiding a bite is.
I would be honest with my men, and let them know what happened. It would hurt morale, but not so much as getting caught hiding an injury, or worse still, turning.
Whether the proper response to a possible bite is observation or quarantine would depend on how exactly turning happens. If you drop dead and take a couple of minutes to rise, a quarantine isn’t as important as it would be if the infected go suddenly from normal to monsters – although if you have a decent quarantine area, say the holding cells at a police station, it would probably be a good idea anyway.
Incidentally, would the president really wait so long before heading for a safehouse? Not to mention the idea of zombies being able to take out Marine One…