Zombie Cliche Lookout: And Then?
Making plans is all fine and good, but counting on that plan leaves a lot to be desired. If you become too dependent on a plan, changing circumstances, or the plan’s failure, will leave you in a lot of trouble. After all, the wise man says “No plan survives contact with the enemy”. Flexibility is the key here. That will allow you to have a plan, but also change it should the situation call for it.
So if the plan calls for you escaping the zombie-filled building via an underground tunnel, unless of course aforementioned tunnel is also full of zombies, you’d better be able to think on your feet to come up with Plan B. There’s also the question of just how you can figure out if the tunnel is safe without getting bitten in the process. All in all, there’s a lot of room here for both improvements in the plan and for thinking on the fly.
About this Episode:
While I’m disappointed in the flooring on this set, I am pretty excited by the fact that there’s a hole in the floor. I don’t know what it is, perhaps my inner-explorer, that makes me smile every time I see that ladder going down into the darkness. It’s the simple things in life that keep me going.
Discussion Question: Go or Stay?
Put yourself into Sam and Sarah’s shoes here, and ignore any theories/genre knowledge/assumptions about the fact that Sam is still alive you might have. Who would you rather be in this situation, the person staying put, or the one going down into the dark? What makes you choose this?
My inner coward says that I’d rather be the one who stays in the relative safety of the room. But if this was me and my wife, I’d be going down into the tunnel.
Panel four says it all, here. Obviously, they have to spend an episode or two assessing whether it’s safe to go down there or not. There’s also the problem of her dying to her infection, if she has been bitten. She could turn at any moment, but still has to die first.
Sarah does seem to be taking a long time to turn, especially compared to the criminal guy we saw in the comic a little before this. It just seem odd…
The criminal got killed, which allowed him to reanimate quickly. Sarah is still alive, at least for now.
Good point, did not think of that. My bad 😛
She certainly does, BrickVoid.
An interesting question for you: In your comic, does trying to bring a person back to life with CPR before they turn into a zombie stop the zombie infection, temporarily, or are such modern revival methods not possible in the comic? 😀
Folks that respond to CPR aren’t dead. They’re not even “mostly dead”. They will die, without intervention.
To add a little more here: CPR only restarts the heart in the movies. In real life if the heart stops it needs an electrical shock to start up again. No amount of manual pumping will kick-start it. CPR is to keep enough oxygen moving throughout a person’s body to keep them alive until the professionals show up. Thusly, anybody who “responds” to CPR didn’t need it in the first place and survived in spite of it, not due to it.
(I guess that’s not really related to what either of you said, but whatever.)
True. I misspoke. Same thing for cardioversion/defibrillation. It doesn’t restart the heart so much as it puts it back on track.
The rule of thumb in medicine is that he’s not dead until all brain function ceases, at which point, well, all you can do is go through his pockets for spare change.
That the question: Do you leave the crappy known for the unknown? We even have an expression for it, “the devil you know…”
So you scout ahead, but what happens to your wife/kids/whatever while you’re out playing Buffalo Bill? Ideally your party would be in a position of strength (cover/concealment, armed, etc.) while you’re out. I’m generally of the same mind as Dave. I am going out to get the car ready while the noncombatants hole up somewhere, preferably with a shotgun.
Always with a shotgun.
Or 6.
Unless it’s a rifle.
My wife still prefers the handgun. I got her a carbine and a semiauto shotgun (figure she can’t short stroke it in an emergency). Her instructions are to sit at the top of the stairs and blast anything that comes through the door that isn’t me while I load the car.
In the situation above, well, “concealed” means “not easily seen or detected”. If your company has a “no carry” policy, well, “concealed” is always an option, that and a shotgun in the trunk.