On A Slow Night... v.Them Crazy Slow Turnin' Fools!

[Osiris]

Not related to the theory at all, but just a good song. So, I was laying here thinking about something that was brought up during the last episode of We're Not Dead... you know, the podcast that takes forever to release. It's the curious behaviour of the slow-turner zeds. I started wondering how I would infiltrate my enemy, given that force against force isn't always the best approach and it occurred to me that I would likely employ a similar device that the Mallers used: a mole.

What if this virus is sentient? If it can cognize it's mortality, much the same as we do, it's possible that it is:

• Adapting to the world around it and the threat of its, seemingly imminent, extinction
  
• Evolving, e.g. learning to swim, manipulating physical structure to create a better soldier
  

I'm starting to think this may be more than just a mindless want for destruction and chaos, and more a game of chess. It's possible that the slow turners are infected wholly, yet the virus is not allowing them to turn, in order to lull those around them into a false sense of security, biding its time for the right moment when it comes on suddenly, when it has the best opportunity to take down those in charge.

How crazy does that sound?

[7oddisdead]

not sure about the last part with the lulling and shtuff...BUT!

friggin bingo on the rest of it! This is along the lines ive been thinking for a while now. the real misnomer to the sentient virus idea IS the slow turner angle..the lines i would think along is not so much the virus has any control over the situation, but rather is lying dormant until some catalyst triggers the change. im still puzzling all this out myself..more to come hopefully

[Osiris]

What lulling?

[7oddisdead]

lulling?, what?, me?

im saying the idea of the virus knowing to step back, let the "host" put it in the right situation for the turning to happen just seems a bit out there. but, if we can come up with a way to make that work...story wise...

i can get on board with that

[Osiris]

lulling?, what?, me?

im saying the idea of the virus knowing to step back, let the "host" put it in the right situation for the turning to happen just seems a bit out there. but, if we can come up with a way to make that work...story wise...

i can get on board with that

Well that's the point of it being able to cognize it's mortality. It know that if it turns its host too fast in the wrong situation it will end badly for it. However, if it waits for that moment to take a bigger prize--so to speak--then it stands a better chance of its survival as a whole. I'm looking at the "virus" as being:

• awake and aware
  
• having a symbiotic relationship with its host e.g. access to memory and thoughts of the host, etc
  
• a telepathic link to "itself"
  

So the thought that a sentient being, that is completely aware of its surroundings, would use that awareness to wait for that opportune moment when it has the best chance for surviving and/or gaining the upper hand.

[Cabbage Patch]

This storyline is used in the novel "The Killing Floor" by Craig diLouie. The "infection" that causes the zombie apocalypse is able to react to human defenses and evolve to defeat them. In one case this takes the form of a man who doesn't realize he's infected, whose purpose is to get amongst a crowd of humans at which point he unconsciously infects them. He gets into a FEMA camp, where his presence results in the population turning and the camp getting overrun.

If the slow turners are meant to play this Trojan Horse role what do you think would be their trigger to turn? Proximity to a large group of humans? A heavy concentration of sweat in the air? Wouldn't it make sense for them to turn suddenly, rather than going through a gradual transformation?

I'd love to hear more about that "slow turner" that they saw at the Colony.

[Osiris]

This storyline is used in the novel "The Killing Floor" by Craig diLouie. The "infection" that causes the zombie apocalypse is able to react to human defenses and evolve to defeat them. In one case this takes the form of a man who doesn't realize he's infected, whose purpose is to get amongst a crowd of humans at which point he unconsciously infects them. He gets into a FEMA camp, where his presence results in the population turning and the camp getting overrun.

If the slow turners are meant to play this Trojan Horse role what do you think would be their trigger to turn? Proximity to a large group of humans? A heavy concentration of sweat in the air? Wouldn't it make sense for them to turn suddenly, rather than going through a gradual transformation?

I'd love to hear more about that "slow turner" that they saw at the Colony.

I'm going to need to pick up a copy of that book. Sounds right up my alley.

I'd have to run with the idea of total awareness of its surroundings. It may even be able to "see" through the host's eyes, hear with the host's ears, etc... would complicate sex... or maybe that's what they need... a seriously de-- getting off topic here.

It's possible that the gradual turning could be the result of the virus's learning curve as far as being able to control the process. Like riding a bike, you don't get it right away. I'm definitely interested in learning more about the slow turners from the colony, but it makes sense that they would appear in a space that is a greater prize than say... the tower, or the mall.

[Osiris]

All right... this working theory is evolving the more I listen to the episodes while working on the wiki recaps. You've all noticed, and we've all conversed about--usually at great length--how Kc likes to hide things within the whole of the episodes. This includes the commercials. It seems we've either forgotten this, or nobody has noticed the "Preventive Pest Control of Anaheim" commercials that appear at the beginnings of parts one through three of chapter 28: Last Dying Breath. Coincidence? I think there is something to this.

What do we know so far?

• No life at Ground Zero
• Mysterious haze that affects the lungs, causing nausea, vomiting, and likely other effects that we are, as yet, unaware
  

The biggest hole in this theory is the outbreaks that were reported from locations outside of the immediate area. Drawing the parallel between the lack of life at Ground Zero, the lack of "Zeds" at Ground Zero, and the commercials at the beginning of the episodes... maybe it's just the fact that it's 3:00 A.M. and I'm still awake. I don't know. Perhaps, there may be a way for them to weaponize the Haze to use against the meatbags.

[Winston]

What do we know so far?

• No life at Ground Zero[/COLOR]
• Mysterious haze that affects the lungs, causing nausea, vomiting, and likely other effects that we are, as yet, unaware

I'm pretty sure CJ told Saul and Victor that her group had to "put down" two of their own because they were turning while in Ground Zero. But as to why the biters would keep clear of the area as well? Not sure. Saul describes dead trees and plants at Ground Zero. Perhaps CJ should hook them up with some Geiger Counters and see what the radiation is like in there. Radiation may be a biter repellent.

As for the slow turners...perhaps it's like a Typhoid Mary situation. Saul and his mother are infected, but immune to the disease. They can infect others but will never actually succumb to the disease themselves. Whatever is "turning" people, it can't be viral, bacterial or parasitic, can it? When they took blood at Fort Riley, Puck (I think) said you couldn't tell if a person was infected by looking at the blood but the Colonel said you could after an autopsy. So it must be an infection that is present only in the organs, not the blood. It turned Tommy in minutes and Riley said, way back in season 1, that a group of people were turned almost instantly after coming in contact with the blood of infecteds (kind of like RAGE in 28 Days Later). But then there are "slow turners" which means the infection is probably being fought by the hosts immune system. Not everyone who was infected with Black Plague died from the disease. Those who lived through an infection also passed down a genetic trait that seems to make people immune to AIDS. Perhaps Saul and his mother are one of a handful of people who are immune and can rebuild the world?

[Cabbage Patch]

I'd like to pick at that "haze/turning into a zombie" connection in the light of your slow turner theory. What if the haze is the thing causing people to turn, but the speed at which it works depends on tour exposure level? If the sole global source of the haze is in Ground Zero, and if it's been venting at low levels for an extended period, say a week or so before the day of the Outbreak, then tens of thousands of people will have been exposed at low levels and gone about their business. Inglewood is not far from LAX and two major freeways. Exposed people would undoubtedly move on to the rest of the US, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, everywhere that was effected by the initial outbreak.

On the day of the outbreak the volume of the haze goes up to a critical level, causing people to turn rapidly. All that's missing is some signal mechanism to activate the infected.

The slow turner at the Colony would remain an outlier, since this "Trojan Horse" tactic depends on the infected transforming rapidly. I'd guess he's someone with a high level of natural immunity to the infection.

One big downside to my idea is that it makes Victor, Saul and Pegs ticking time bombs, since they've been exposed to the haze.