Zombie Cliche Lookout: Trusting Your Instinct
Even outside of zombie-related emergencies, experts advise that you should trust your instincts, because they’re usually correct. If something feels wrong, it probably is. If something sounds too good to be true, there’s usually a good reason for that. The only difference between trusting your instincts when it comes to, say, whether your lunch meat is still good and surviving in the zombie apocalypse is that the stakes are higher.
Of course, when the stakes are higher, that generally means a lot more people are going to feel a lot more passionate about what their instinct tells them is the best. Compromise can be harder, and pretty soon you have a situation in which no one wants to back down. This leads to trouble in just about every piece of zombie fiction I’ve experienced.
About this Episode:
Russell makes some good points here, but he’s certainly not coming across as much of a team player. The last panel is what seals the deal. I had originally wrote it as “we”, but then I didn’t think it was harsh enough, so I changed it to “you”. That seemed too far, so I split the difference. He still sounds accusatory, but at least he’s aware of the fact.
Other News:
Two pieces of other news for this episode. First, I’ve added a few new character bios. I realize there are more to do, but I’m making progress. Second, I’ve received part of the prize pack for our soon to be announced contest, and it’s pretty awesome. I’m still working on improving it though, so stay tuned and watch out for an announcement soon.
Discussion Question: Dealing with Additional Disasters
This question comes from BrickVoid, who asks “How will natural disasters, tornadoes, floods, fires, earthquakes, etc. affect surviving in a zombie apocalypse? Certainly, there’s no way to tell a tornado to stop outside of your secure complex. Will survivors in a group have to be aware of additional natural disaster contingency plans or will it just be dealt with when it happens?”
Typo alert: Zombie Cliche Lookout, third sentence: “sounds to good to be” Change bolded word to “too”. 😀
Same section, second paragraph, last sentence; able–>about
About this Episode, fourth sentence: to–>too Dave seems to be missing a few ‘o’s, maybe he should check to see if he’s got any spares lying around! 😉
Discussion Question, quoted section from my comment: Do you really need this part included in it?: “Which brings me to an excellent Discussion Question for Monday:” 😀
Fixed all. As far as your quotation goes, I guess I grabbed more than I realized.
After thinking about it some more, I think Russell should be saying that he’s acknowledging this group and it’s members as a whole, so the whole “you – we” kind of fits, but could be better stated. Perhaps like so: “As members of this group, we …” He’s addressing a member of the group, and also being a part of that group whilst doing so, therefore his sentence needs to be inclusive of everyone he’s talking to.
He could also go further, if needed, by saying “… we have an obligation to other members …” but I’m not sure how much space there is for words so just addressing the group properly should be sufficient.
He could do all that, certainly. I imagine that would really help his relationship with Cheryl and the others in the group. But I just don’t think Russell thinks about those things; he’s far too focused on the issue at hand.
Russell seemed pretty focused back in the group meeting which started at Episode 282! 😀 He’s a relatively quiet sort, didn’t speak, apart from his introduction, until Episode 296, and was in a prime position to observe the dialog between Stewart and Cheryl! 😀
Being a maintenance type, I think he’ll have got some securing done around the log cabin. 😀
Russell, after looking back at the archives, seems a strong silent type. Murphy, who was their self-evident leader at the time, is probably going to have to take a back seat and he’ll probably like that for a little while, at least until his leg recovers! 😀
Nice character breakdown, BrickVoid. You’re pretty close to what I was envisioning for Russell. However, I’m going for a variation on the “quite guy” character type. In this case, he’s quiet until something comes up he feels really strongly about, and then there’s no shutting him up.
I was actually expecting him to cut Cheryl’s question short last strip by cutting over her complaint and saying he’d talk at length to her in the last strip but since that didn’t eventuate, I figured Dave is trying to show Russell wants to at least come across as a caring type. Which is perfectly fine although it does make for awkward dialog construction sometimes. 😀
Perhaps he has enough common sense to let her finish before he jumps in?
I actually thought Cheryl was the smart, clever, rational one, apparently she forgets that she lives in the zombie apocalypse, where anyone can do anything, like killing her, stealing her supplies, kill her friends, etc…
By the way, did they just forget Murphy is shot? Murphy is bleeding from a gunshot wound, but they’re taking their time to discuss, to go outside to talk privately…looks like they want to leave Murphy as zombie chow.
Oh, I think Cheryl is smart, clever, and rational, but I also think she’s holding onto something of the old world where you could more easily take people at their word. Russell just happens to be more cynical, which might work out to be an advantage.
As far as Murphy goes, they do care. Stewart, Brent, and Inez are seeing to him right now. We’ll cut to that shortly.
By the way, I liked how you approached the rebuilding civilizations theme! It would be cool to see Cheryl and her group trying to build a community, because it’s a theme that is rarely approached in zombie stories.
On your discussion question, the harderst part is going to be predicting when/where they are going to happen. Right now, we have ways to predict/prepare for hurricanes and tornadoes and we can somewhat predict the path a wild fire is taking. But in the ZA, there’s no more radar, no more local weather station. We’ll have to become a lot better at reading the patterns in our local weather.
Excellent point ,Steve. Without stuff like NOAA, we’re left with only what we can observe locally, which puts us at a sever disadvantage.
Most of the time, I’m assuming it will be dealt with how most people deal with it.. Being prepared before the event happens. Only those who deny to adapt tend ot be the ones who are really effected by the weather in such a negative way.
People in Tornado ally will probably look for a place int he natural terrain to figure out what’s the safest place ot make their base. People that live near the ocean will probably either seek to come closer to the ocean or go further inland to a much safer area. (Those who are seeking the ocean are probably living a very odd dream in a situation with no society). Earth quakes, mudslides, and fires aren’t much I understand. I do know that one rule for when a fire is spreading is to put a large circle of water around your house or from where the fire is coming to best avoid it.
Good points, Calicade. People who live in regions prone to certain types of disasters would be inclined to respond accordingly, although the lack of forewarning would make things tough.
On the other hand, being that they’re already in a survival situation, would that help or hinder them when it comes to dealing with the natural disaster? I think you could make good arguments both ways.