Chapter 27- The Thirty-First Part 3

[zombeh-kitteh]

zombeh-kitteh: about your first point, Bill being so paranoid about his tower I don't see him doing anything to jeopardize it.

I don't think this has been discussed, but one thing that comes out of this chapter is: Tanya did not read Kalani's journal, obviously. So, what was she trying to say to Michael before being (conveniently) knocked off (an popping up just fine later)? It could have been simply "Did you read all of the journals? Because I can't find Kalani's", but since she was talking about performing some zombie research before, it might be something else she figured out by reading all journals and putting all the pieces together. Let's hope she says what it is already, after days spent doing nothing in Irwin.

Yeah, I agree that it's kind of a stretch, but when you consider his final words of "I'm sorry," it could be plausible...although it may be more plausible to imagine that he was just sorry for stealing and hiding the supplies. But it's a thought, and anything is possible...

I also think that what Tanya discovered in the journals has to do with the zombies...that makes me wonder what the Ft. Irwin people know about the zombies, or if they have encountered more than the normal biter. Tanya says that down south they never encountered the special types of zombies (but this could just be since as a doctor, Tanya never left the colony until the mass exodus). However, if they had encountered special zombies, Marcus may have been kept under wraps to keep panic from spreading; but Victor also doesn't seem to have knowledge of the special types as he freaks out when he sees the Behemoth for the first time.

So my thought is that the reason the Colony had no knowledge of the special types was because they were too far away from Ground Zero (and or the Hospital where Pinstripes was conducting experiments, presumably that's where the "Little Ones" originated).

Again, though...just a thought.

[Adventureless_Hero]

I've been mulling over the rescue attempt at the Arena by the survivors from the Other Tower. Here are some questions that have occured to me:

1. We know that the survivors of the Other Tower had to run for their lives, unarmed and without supplies. Granted that they had pre-designated rally points with caches of arms and supplies. But how did a group of disorganized survivors get organized to launch the rescue attempt? Who organized the rescue attempt?

It likely wasn't orgainized in any other way than, "Oh shit, the bastards caught Samantha and took her in there. Charge!" They had a great deal of weapons from their weapons cache but without a plan they were wiped out the instant a Behemoth showed up to neutralize their advantage in superior firepower.

2. Who were they trying to rescue? We know from Kalani's account that he was being held with someone named Martin, whose origins we never discover, but who had apparently been at the Arena for some time. The next prisoner to show up was Samantha, who was grabbed from the rescue party. Did the group from the Other Tower attack the Arena to rescue Kalani, or were they hoping to find other survivors there? For instance CJ, or Shaun, or Hope?

They went in after Samantha but I am sure they were hoping to rescue anyone they came across. Samantha mentions a few times that her friends came for her; she tells this to Martin and later tells Datu.

3. Did a group from the Other Tower actually go to the Water Works, and if so were they part of the rescue attempt? If they were part of the rescue attempt did they go back to the Water Works again afterwards?

I can't say this with 100% certainty, but I don't think it is likely that the rescue attempt at the arena was performed by the group that was sent to the water works. Look at the timing of it all. Michael, Datu, Riley, and Angel saw that most the water works team had been killed. That and if the water works team were to be the ones at the arena, they could not have gone back to the water works since everyone involved in that rescue attempt was wiped out.

4. What happened to the people from the rescue party? Were they all killed outright, or were survivors sent straight in to the center of the Arena? If none of them ended up in the room with Samantha then how did she learn so much about how the zombies treat their prisoners? It seems like the only other case she would have seen is Martin's. And if the other survivors were put in with her and Kalani, and they're all gone now, where did she get the idea that prisoners were taken away in the order in which they were captured?

I'm very certain they were all wiped out, unless we later learn Skuncan was part of that rescue attempt. But I imagine Samantha could have learned a bit from Martin, who seemed to know quite a bit. Then whatever she was told by Martin could have been confirmed when the Zeds came to take him away but left her alone.

[HaveCrowBarWillTravel]

Nah, Duncan wasn't part of that crew. He was there with CJ 3 hours plus after the attack. He ran off solo.

Samantha does say that those guys were with her when she got jumped and taken. They weren't just going to let her die, so they followed in without a plan. Mr. Behemoth aka Arrow head shows up and decimates the entire crew.

I'm going to assume that Martin could have been with one of the convoys T1 lost and he saw the rest of his team get "Played" with. He sounded too young to be from the prison.. the again he could have been a normal survivor. Anyway, Sam saw him die and Datu saw her die. Kalani in his stupor was spared all of the gory stuff.

One observation from the timeline.. the Arena had to be set up early as hell! I'm talking within 2 or 3 days of the initial outbreak.

[Adventureless_Hero]

One observation from the timeline.. the Arena had to be set up early as hell! I'm talking within 2 or 3 days of the initial outbreak.

What leads you to believe that?

[7oddisdead]

have wondered/ thought about the timeline of the arena as well


its difficult to judge..but just the amount of bodies it would take to create the tunnel/path/traps they set up within would require quite a number of bodies to make happen..just speculation here, but we could possibly tie the first time bodies disappear from outside the tower to when the arena was started. And if we take take arena as the equivelant of an ants nest...then the bodies within are all unturned dead...while the bodies outside are downed zoms..meaning its likely the interior of the nest was set up prior to that..or just before the undead were cleaned up...make sense?


*edit* and on a semi related note...i found this interesting. Parts of it are on topic
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases...Brady.bpf.html

[Adventureless_Hero]

have wondered/ thought about the timeline of the arena as well


its difficult to judge..but just the amount of bodies it would take to create the tunnel/path/traps they set up within would require quite a number of bodies to make happen..just speculation here, but we could possibly tie the first time bodies disappear from outside the tower to when the arena was started. And if we take take arena as the equivelant of an ants nest...then the bodies within are all unturned dead...while the bodies outside are downed zoms..meaning its likely the interior of the nest was set up prior to that..or just before the undead were cleaned up...make sense?


*edit* and on a semi related note...i found this interesting. Parts of it are on topic
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases...Brady.bpf.html

It is an interesting point you bring up. I think it would be safe to assume the bodies inside are made up of the unturned, otherwise Riley and Angel would have risked getting infected when all those body fluids were seeping into their pores and even got in Riley's eyes. I agree that within the first couple of days of the outbreak zombies must have started collecting there.

[HaveCrowBarWillTravel]

What leads you to believe that?

Look at the timeline Hero. Lets assume that the other convoys weren't just decimated, they were taken. What day was it when when Burt, Saul and Blondie found the last convoy? Remember, there were no bodies, just the vehicles.

Remember Angel asking about the bodies they buried (lncluding his girlfriend)? What day was this? The wanted to know where the bodies were taken. so what day was that.. around day 4??

By the time Datu was captured there had already been a good number of "fun" to be had in the center. The infected already had a system worked out with traps and everything. There was a huge amount of "food" Angel and Riley had to crawl through, while that doesn't really mean anything other than they could have killed a ton of people in a short time. I'd rather think that they'd been stocking up for a good while.

I'm rambling here, but I hope you get the gist of what I'm shooting at.

[Adventureless_Hero]

Look at the timeline Hero. Lets assume that the other convoys weren't just decimated, they were taken. What day was it when when Burt, Saul and Blondie found the last convoy? Remember, there were no bodies, just the vehicles.

Remember Angel asking about the bodies they buried (lncluding his girlfriend)? What day was this? The wanted to know where the bodies were taken. so what day was that.. around day 4??

By the time Datu was captured there had already been a good number of "fun" to be had in the center. The infected already had a system worked out with traps and everything. There was a huge amount of "food" Angel and Riley had to crawl through, while that doesn't really mean anything other than they could have killed a ton of people in a short time. I'd rather think that they'd been stocking up for a good while.

I'm rambling here, but I hope you get the gist of what I'm shooting at.

Yeah, I agree that the Arena was already being established as a zombie nest early in the story, like around the 3rd or 4th day, but I don't agree that you can use the corpse retrieval from the timeline as a basis for this. Cindy and the other bodies were not picked up until sometime late in June, almost two months after it started, on the day the Water Pumping Station and Locator Retrieval Mission were started.

But I do believe that within a few days of the outbreak the zeds started acting with a hive mentality. We already see evidence of this in the first episode. The first zeds Michael spots are walking in a small group. There are no lone wolves, but rather groups and hordes. The instant they separate one from the pack, in the tower lobby, it acts with intelligence and displays some notion of self preservation, i.e. it hides behind a desk. The zombie hiding occurs on May 10th, two days after the outbreak, so I think that is a good reason it is safe to imagine the Arena was established early on. Zeds were already working in groups and probably established a hive by that point.

[Adventureless_Hero]

I'm having trouble determining the convoys of CJ's that disappeared. When she discusses it with Sean she says they lost 3 people in one convoy, but then later Samantha discusses a convoy incident involving 15 of their best. Any idea which took place first? I'm thinking the large convoy of 15 got hit first, and then the one with 3 people got hit the same day Kalani arrived and that is how he ended up being "Mr. Thirty-One".

[Zombiphobe]

That makes sense to me. Didn't Sean comment that after the big convoy loss, CJ would't let large groups go out together?

I imagine they had other convoys hit earlier on as well, which did a part to whittle down their numbers.