Zombie Cliche Lookout: Breaking a Few Eggs
Life in the zombie apocalypse isn’t easy. Resources are scarce, making competition cutthroat, both figuratively and literally. Medical care is a total crap shoot. If you’re really lucky, you might have a doctor or veterinarian in your group, otherwise it’s a bunch of idiots doing their best based on what they remember from high school health class. Oh, and there are zombies all over the place, making daily life a constant danger. Sure, you may be able to hole up in a safe house for a while, but at some point you’ll need to go outside. Good luck with that.
Living in this sort of world is going to change how we perceive loss. It will just be a much more common and, eventually, normal part of life. Make no mistake, having friends and loved ones die will still be painful, but people will become much more used to the trauma.
With the above in mind, that zombie apocalypse doesn’t sound quite so fun as the video games make it seem.
About this Episode:
It’s kind of bugging me that Sam and Murphy have the same face right now. I wanted Sam to look more serious and confident, so this makes sense. Murphy is supposed to be hurt, but the other faces I tried out to show this just didn’t seem to work. Usually I’d go for the grey Darth Vader head, but I don’t want to imply that Murphy is dying/zombifying.
Discussion Question: Guilt Over Shannon?
Sam is clearly feeling a little less happy about the risk he took in acting as a diversion for the rest of the group now that he knows that it wasn’t 100% successful. There really wasn’t much he could have done that would have kept Shannon from her fate, but that logical part of your brain often makes no impact on your perception of things. In Sam’s shoes, would you feel guilty that not everyone made it to safety? Proud that most did? Or maybe somewhere in between?
I don’t really think Sam should feel any guilt over it, it is, after all, a zombie apocalypse. And he really shouldn’t dwell on something he had no control over, anyway. They did their level best to get the group to safety and now the ones that did survive have to get on with life in a zombie apocalypse. Sam is going to have to get used to the fact that things will happen, and often they’re not going to be things he’s going to want to have happened. 😀
That’s all very true and logical, but Sam seems a bit more emotional that logical to me. I wonder if that argument would impact him at all.
Well, he was emotionally unstable right when we knew about the “elephant in the room” incident. For all we know, learning of Shannon’s death would be all it takes to push him one way or the other. He might, after having recently been through the incident that killed everyone but Emma, decide that it’d be easier on him to go the logical route, rather than being an emotional dick about it.
Dave should start having them address the question of Sam’s captors. His group do know who kidnapped him, and I’m surprised it hasn’t already cropped up in the initial news exchange upon reuniting with the group. 😀 I reckon next week or the week after will be rather telling, along the lines of “what happened to those guys in hazmat suits?” types of questions. Sam: “Uh well, Abe goaded me into shooting him, and i did, so most of the group is now dead.” I mean, if Sam’s telling the truth, that is! He might very well not want to talk about it but he will have to face it sooner or later, and the sooner he gets himself properly sorted out, the better. 😀
How does the group know about the hazmat clan? I didn’t remember that they knew.
My memory is that they don’t, but I’m probably going to have to do a re-read. Unless anyone has a handy link, of course.
http://bricksofthedead.com/comic/episode-193-what/
Episode 193 – I’m surprised Dave didn’t remember that the ambulance EMT’s told at the very least Murphy. 😀 I’m also certain that some more digging will reveal that Murphy passed this information onto the rest of the group. 😀
Well there you have it: my memory is shit.
And for what it’s worth, that link came up within the first five tries just using the “Random” link generator that takes one to a random comic in Dave’s comic archives! 😀
Don’t worry, Dave, your memory is no worse than mine, it wouldn’t even pull out 193 in a fit, even if lit up in neon lighting! 😀
http://bricksofthedead.com/comic/episode-222-comparing-notes/
And there you have where Murphy told the rest of the survivors! 😀
For the question:
I shouldn’t feel guilt. But I might a little, at first. But then I’d be happy that it wasn’t my fault. It was theirs. And its an opportunity to push some guilt onto the others. They’ve been looking down on me this whole time. Not anymore. I was out there risking my life for you. And you failed and let Shannon get her throat ripped out. I’m not the one at fault here, I’m not the one that messed up…YOU ARE!!! SHAME! SHAME!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAAAA!!!
But of course, you can’t say that. You gotta take the high road. And comfort them, and say you’re sorry they had to see that. Say that it’s not their fault. (It is.) You are now the saint/comforter(even victim), in their eyes. And they are the piece of poo responsible for Shannon’s death. 😉
Haha! How does it feel? You’re the worthless waste of space, now! How does it feel?
Yeah. No one would want me in their group. I’m really messed up. Haha! 😀
This is a good comment, and I think it strikes closer to the truth than most people would want to admit,
I’d feel guilt and anger…probably mostly towards myself than anyone else. I would feel like I failed some how–amplified by the fact the crazed preppers stole me away like they did. It wouldn’t be rational, but that’s how I’d feel.
The problem is that emotions aren’t rational. They’re complex reactions to situations. It helps to make us human. All we can do it work through them and hope they give us strength to become something more than what we were.
Yes! This is dead on the way I think.