Chapter 34-1 It Only Takes One

[Witch_Doctor]

Note: Hope sound older to anyone? More mature a little bit? To me she did, good voice/acting.

I thought that it is the teenage actor who plays that Hope sounds older because of the time span between now and the recordings of the earlier episodes. But, yeah, overall she does sound older and more mature. She still has the sassiness that she had at the Colony but it comes across as less bratty.

The next three chapters are going to be great. We have what 1 more season left? I am curious as to if we will ever find out how this all started.

I listened to an interview with KC Wayland where a host asked him this question. His answer was along the line of, 'The listener will be given information to know what happened.' I just paraphrased what I remembered so take this with a grain of salt.

It seems that every time the heroes start to do research or make a dent, everything stops and is inevitably lost. Research attempt 1 - Colony is over run / corrupted ; Research attempt 2 - Tower falls ; Research attempt 3 - Dunbar tower over run ; Research attempt 4 - Boulder Beat Down.

Here we are ending season 3, 1 more to go and at this rate with the research / start over ratio as it is (1:1) we may never get the ultimate answer. Hope this bad boy doesn't end like the Sopranos in the middle of a sen.........

Ha! You are right on spot with this. This happens in alot of good sci-fi too. It would be nice to see an occasional Win with a good follow-through. The worst thing with serial stories is the cliffhanger after cliffhanger. Just as Cpl Puck says, "All build up and no release."

I'm curious about your research list though, what were Research attempt 1 and 3?
The ones I remeber are:
1) Lizzy's sweat experiments
2) Michael's Tag & Track
3) CJ's group going to Ground Zero - but this doesn't slow the story because we hear about it from CJ after the fact. She tells Saul and Victor that one guy had to be killed.
4) Tanya wanting to expand upon Lizzy's research
5) Saul and Victor goes to Ground Zero - This one seems to just go nowhere, like they just said, "Hey that's VERY interesting! Gotta know more." "You're right. Anyone wanna raise chickens and watch movies instead?", "Yeah, I'm in.", "Me too, lets go."

[Hoff4D]

In case the Mayor is turned and retains his memory from his former human self, THEN they have a sat phone ...

edit: I just realized a small detail that slipped my mind ... Robbins mentioned the mayor [of Boulder] being "most likely dead". Thus: No confirmation on his real situation - is he dead, or has he turned? Man ... A small information with quite some *bang* behind it ...

Well, Kimmet called the sat phone (3rd line) with no answer, Thats why I said around page 2 of this that if an inkling retains memory, Irwin's days are numbered as well.

I think Michael and puck weasel their way onto an outgoing aircraft to Boulder, as they're almost there, Irwin gets nuked, and they're forced to fight and regain control of boulder. AS this happens Saul gets ahold of the Sat phone parts, they hit redial, and there's no answer in Irwin.

This gets rid of one setting, leaves quite a plot open for Season 4, and hella-tons of shit hitting the fan until season finale. Much like each other season finale we end up with some stronghold up in flames (or mushroom clouds). This also leaves some 'hope at a civilization', which we would lose at a nuke of Boulder. We still will arguably lose a large majority, but there is still some humanity there. As to how the Saul meeting back up with Michael situation is resolved in this instance? I dont know...I dont have an answer in this theory.

[Hoff4D]

Do make things worse ... Do you remember Michael saying something along this line: "I gave Tanya stuff to research against my better judgement ..."

In the end I would feel very, very good if the mystery behind the zeeh-pocalypse remains a secret, because I enjoy this whole speculation thing ... I wonder if WA would be only half as much fun, if this thrill evolving around the "how did it all start?" was not there ... And the revelation of the real cause might be like ... *OMFG*facepalm*DUDE!*, you know what I mean? I could be very wrong and the revelation could be just the sugar on top ...

I'm ok with the answer never being revealed to how it started, but....I need Michaels story about Randy. It was bad enough to cause Michael nightmares, yet all the other people around him dying has (seemingly) left him unaffected, WHAT DID RANDY DO?!

/randomthoughtfromseasonsago

Sorry, had that one buried deep



Also, has anybody brought up the 'updated file' from Carl? Is this groundwork laid to give creedance to Michael's "These are super soldier zombies" when trying to convince Kimmet of things?

[Witch_Doctor]

RED MEAT

Kimmet#1, "Get a task force scrambled! I wanna know what's going own out there!"
Puck, "Want me to send someone to check it out?"
Kimmet#2, "Don't jump to conclusions. They might just have communication problems. Wake the engineers. Put the chopers on stand by."
KIMMET!!! Shit or get off the pot!

Uhura, "Hey, there's a secret Sat Phone!"
Michael, "Really? Where does it go?"
Kimmet, "Uh, I gotta go." I just knew he had Kelly on speed dial listed under Booty Call.

We finally get an account of strength of the military at Kimmet's disposal. Assuming the Irwin and deployed numbers are constant..

1. 8500 in Boulder
2. 2000 on Post in Irwin
3. 200 in the Box
4. 180+/- deployed.
5. 10 to 11 thousand.

We learn from Spc Robins:

1. Communincation and power are the first to go.
2. Command staff and mayor are probably dead.
3. They tried radioing Ft Irwin but Michael says they never received any communications.
4. Solidiers that are not killed are turned and turn on others.
5. Mentions that they seem like 'soldiered versions of them.' This gets Michaels attention.

#5 on the list is interesting. Is Michael surprised by the fact that they're like soldiers? As in, they're smart zombies retaining soldier traits? Could this be reason that Little Ones move funny because they were babies turned before/while learning to walk? Or was Michael responding to what Robins said about the zombies being difficult to take down, as in an Inkling?

#4 on the list adds a crazy new dynamic to combat. In reality your enemy can kill, capture or wound you. Here, the enemy either kills you or turns you into one of them. Putting up a brave and gallant fight to the death might hurt your side more. The enemy's method of killing, maiming and turning are all the same. When you take away the soldier's advantage of superior firepower (or just firepower, period, in this case) then you have a case simillar to the House Advantage in a casino; in favor of the zombies. During an engagement, the zombies numbers are likely to be sustained or INCREASED. Soldiers will have to kill the zombies and any wounded commrads (screaming for help and mercy) at the same time.

We meet up with Datu and Hope and get our first view of Boulder.
Datu and Hope live together and Pegs and Kelly live in another part of town but we don't know if they live together. Say what you will about Datu's punk-ass-bitchness but he's taken out zombies with things you'll find in a garage. TWICE! Yes, he may be the bane of coyotes and have trouble shooting zombies at point blank range but when push comes to shove he starts swinging. Everyone forget Datu bashing several zombies with a broken chair leg? A B.R.O.K.E.N. C.H.A.I.R. L.E.G! in the arena when they came to get Samantha.
Datu Pacquiao took down an Inking in one swing. Even while missing the head. I didn't hear very much gurgling or strugle after he hit the thing. Sounds like he took it down rather quickly. I would expect a normal person to present some strugling if s/he were wounded only in the throat. He could have severed nerves too, however.

Kimmet reveals the nukes and proves to be the anti-Michael. Anti-Micheal as in he rambles on and on until we all cheer when Michael cuts him off. Kimmet goes on and on about Boulder's medical training facilities like he's a college recruiter instead of focusing on telling Michael his friends will be shipped to Boulder. Here, he goes on... about Pantex during all-hell-breaking-loose. Of course this is for story purposes because not all fans are frum participants. It doesn't take away from the story but from Michael's perspective it's annoyingly irrelevant.

Now back to the nukes.

Listen at 17:00 minutes Kimmet say that there was a time when the whole thing started they were losing whole cities. BEFORE we lost contact with other bases IT WAS DECIDED we would have a (failsafe.)
Now back to my nagging feeling that it would be strange to nuke a city if the whole world were over-run. If Boulder is over-run, why nuke it. L.A. was over-run and it's still there. If the shit hit the fan all over the U.S. and they know it (Which Kimmet states that he doesn't know for sure in part two of Beyond our Borders) then now is too little to late to contain things. It sure wasn't to contain the possible 150,000 Inklings. They were not even imagined when the failsafe was in place.

Ah ha! Failsafe. Everytime I listened to that chapter I kept thing about the Cold War film. Now I know why. Not only because of the title and the nukes but because I kept wondering HOW Boulder was the failsafe.

This brings me back even further to my suspicion that there are other safe zones and maybe there is some sort of world-wide communication blackout. Kimmet wants access to the Pacific? For what? Could be any number of reasons.

Also, he wasn't the sole decision maker in the failsafe. Of course he could have just as easily meant his command staff as he could have meant other base commanders. This is what I like about this story. One nugget can point into so many directions.

[Witch_Doctor]

[QUOTE=Hoff4D;48444]Well, Kimmet called the sat phone (3rd line) with no answer, QUOTE]


I was under the impression that he only pretended to call in order to divert attention. This is because I got the impression that the phone is used as a trigger like Burt's walkie talkie Bomb.

[Hoff4D]

[QUOTE=Witch_Doctor;48447]

Well, Kimmet called the sat phone (3rd line) with no answer, QUOTE]


I was under the impression that he only pretended to call in order to divert attention. This is because I got the impression that the phone is used as a trigger like Burt's walkie talkie Bomb.

ah, yea, I think you're right, I may have gotten pulled into another posters idea when they stated something about the Mayor having a direct line to Kimmet and not answering, and somehow put that together with the 3rd line in my head.


That notwithstanding, I think my theory still has legs. We've been given relatively good intel that the mayor is most likely dead, and some commanding officers. So I'll withdraw the 3rd line goes to mayor part of that and stand by the rest.

[Cabbage Patch]

Kimmet say that there was a time when the whole thing started they were losing whole cities. BEFORE we lost contact with other bases IT WAS DECIDED we would have a (failsafe.)
Now back to my nagging feeling that it would be strange to nuke a city if the whole world were over-run. If Boulder is over-run, why nuke it. L.A. was over-run and it's still there. If the shit hit the fan all over the U.S. and they know it (Which Kimmet states that he doesn't know for sure in part two of Beyond our Borders) then now is too little to late to contain things. It sure wasn't to contain the possible 150,000 Inklings. They were not even imagined when the failsafe was in place.

Makes me wonder if there aren't a bunch of nuked cities and military installations in the Eastern US, where they could have had time to get the failsafe protocol in place before they were over-run.

The failsafe might make sense if there were safe zones where humans were attempting to regroup and hold out. If Kansas City is over-run it might make sense to nuke it in order to reduce the pressure on St. Louis from the zombie horde that would inevitably flow east toward it along I-70.

[Cabbage Patch]

I've set up a Google Map of Boulder, with some of the key locations noted. Please feel free to add to it.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=
200372006308941683650.0004cb2bc380033aab571

(this doesn't seem to work with the URL function button, so you're going to have to copy and paste to get there.)

[UndeadSweeper]

Datu is a character archetype that survives deep into stories like this. If he's going to die, its not soon. Be happy he's advanced as a character.

So I was right about boulder getting nuked. I was wrong to think they weren't already there.......wtf??!!

Also, some pure evidence that Inklings/aldo/little ones retain memory. The former military inkling takes out power and comm first. Irwin spins its tires for hours, inklings get a strong hold in the city.

By the way, I hope no turned humans retain the knowledge to disarm the nukes. If they do.....that could be one hell of a season finale.....mission to rearm the nukes and detonate.



I was punchy this morning.

Alright , so they do retain their memories then. So here another question, So why won't they expect an eval of the survivors and ambush the rescue aircraft? Or at least jump one of the aircraft and move on to the next target, Boulder? Micheal need to distract, if they can even be distract, with sweat bomb or the Johnny 5 things to make sure.

[LiamKerrington]

KIMMET!!! Shit or get off the pot!

Aye! So much! In dire need: take a purge!
Col. Kimmet seems to be kind of jumpy and anything else but confident in his oppinions and decisions ...

We learn from Spc Robins:

1. Communincation and power are the first to go.
2. Command staff and mayor are probably dead.
3. They tried radioing Ft Irwin but Michael says they never received any communications.
4. Solidiers that are not killed are turned and turn on others.
5. Mentions that they seem like 'soldiered versions of them.' This gets Michaels attention.

#5 on the list is interesting. Is Michael surprised by the fact that they're like soldiers? As in, they're smart zombies retaining soldier traits? Could this be reason that Little Ones move funny because they were babies turned before/while learning to walk? Or was Michael responding to what Robins said about the zombies being difficult to take down, as in an Inkling?

I think Michael - as dumb as he is (no offense intended, read on!) - simply does not grab the full scope of understanding what might be behind the Little Ones, or the Numbered Ones, as he calls them. He only has second hand intel on those creatures, and only very slim and unsolid information to say the least. At the time of the mentioning by Robbins that they behave like soldiers, Michael simply does not add 2 and 2. He treats any information absolutely isolated.
And this is what we have him do ever since. Scent, Sweat Bottles and stuff? It was Angel who made the call and later Lizzy supporting it. Zombies or whatnot? Everyone called them things differently, but Michael tried to stick with the idea that these things might still be humans, at least not zombies, although the obvious literally screamed into his face.
That is why I don't want to make too much noise about his question and wondering about Little Ones behaving like soldiers; I just think he does not understand properly and needs just some time. For him the missing part is only that he does not think of the possibility that soldiers turned into Little Ones might still access there skills and training and knowledge as soldiers ...

#4 on the list adds a crazy new dynamic to combat. In reality your enemy can kill, capture or wound you. Here, the enemy either kills you or turns you into one of them. Putting up a brave and gallant fight to the death might hurt your side more. The enemy's method of killing, maiming and turning are all the same. When you take away the soldier's advantage of superior firepower (or just firepower, period, in this case) then you have a case simillar to the House Advantage in a casino; in favor of the zombies. During an engagement, the zombies numbers are likely to be sustained or INCREASED. Soldiers will have to kill the zombies and any wounded commrads (screaming for help and mercy) at the same time.

It only takes one.

Datu...'s taken out zombies with things you'll find in a garage. TWICE! Yes, he may be the bane of coyotes and have trouble shooting zombies at point blank range but when push comes to shove he starts swinging. ... A B.R.O.K.E.N. C.H.A.I.R. L.E.G! ...
Datu Pacquiao took down an Inking in one swing. Even while missing the head. I didn't hear very much gurgling or strugle after he hit the thing. Sounds like he took it down rather quickly. I would expect a normal person to present some strugling if s/he were wounded only in the throat. He could have severed nerves too, however.

King Datu the Ressourcefull. And yet this still is a stretch. Even Datu realizes the odd character of the Little One's skin, still he slices through like through butter with a warm blade. A single blow with a pick axe is something, without any doubt ... Nevertheless: Considering the anatomy of the neck and throat you still need hell of a swing to even kill a human in an instant; but a Little One with bullet proof skin? Is Datu the incredible Hulk?
I (only) buy it, because it helps the story and it may be excused as being one of those lucky shots ...

COLOR="#FF0000"]Now back to the nukes. [/COLOR]
Listen at 17:00 minutes Kimmet say that there was a time when the whole thing started they were losing whole cities. BEFORE we lost contact with other bases IT WAS DECIDED we would have a (failsafe.)
Now back to my nagging feeling that it would be strange to nuke a city if the whole world were over-run. If Boulder is over-run, why nuke it. L.A. was over-run and it's still there. If the shit hit the fan all over the U.S. and they know it (Which Kimmet states that he doesn't know for sure in part two of Beyond our Borders) then now is too little to late to contain things. It sure wasn't to contain the possible 150,000 Inklings. They were not even imagined when the failsafe was in place.

Yes, but keep in mind: L.A. was downed in less then a day - hardly a time in which anyone could decide anything especially regarding failsaves. But the com-connections with the East Coast lasted for about a week - with a raging war against them Zeds, with enough time to deal with the situation and to create emergency-plans for whatever kind ... That was one of the first things that crossed my mind, because Kimmet's explanations caught my attention as well: A failsafe, in such a short period of time? Them military-dudes prove to be a lot more agile in the time of need then one might guess considering the average paperwork and bureaucracy-bs you normally have to deal with ... So I have no trouble getting along with this kind of plan.
Still: Only two nukes - one for Irwin, one for Boulder? Now, THAT is interesting. When they decided to create the failsaves, why only for two locations? Or do I simply miss or misunderstand something here?

This brings me back even further to my suspicion that there are other safe zones and maybe there is some sort of world-wide communication blackout. Kimmet wants access to the Pacific? For what? Could be any number of reasons.

Also, he wasn't the sole decision maker in the failsafe. Of course he could have just as easily meant his command staff as he could have meant other base commanders. This is what I like about this story. One nugget can point into so many directions.

So true, one nugget, huge impact ...
Why the Pacific? Maybe L.A. or the Pacific Coast prove to be a better area to re-establish colonization? Hard to tell. But the Pacific seems to be closer then the Atlantic; and considering the much higher population along the East Coast the trouble with Zeds would be smaller at the Pacific coast line; also the climate is less hazardous there, right?
And I wonder, too, who were / are the other decision makers? And why the hell has Col. Kimmet the Indecisive to be the one to survive up to now??? Maybe to give Michael another chance to stand up as a true leader ...

All the best!
Liam