Chapter 42-3 Chasing Ghosts

[Witch_Doctor]

remember burt when the mallers were attacking the tower? He said "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". How ironic would it be if the tower survivors had to form a partnership with scratch to destroy ink and co.

Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

luke-skywalker-noooooo.jpg

[scbubba]

Personally, i don't think Ink feels threatened by any of the survivors. In chapter 11, Ink laughed at them before he jumped out of the (2nd or 3rd?) floor. To me, that doesn't sound like he's threatened, it feels like he thinks its a game, and he is confident he will win.

No, I'm with you. I didn't mean that Ink felt threatened I'm just saying that he was faced with 4 men armed onlywith a knife and empty rifles. Shouldn't have been a challenge for him but he took off. I agree that it is probably a "game" to him. One he feels very confident of winning....

He's mostly been toying with the Tower and the Colony through most of the show. At least that's what I think we are learning from this most recent Chapter.

[scbubba]

Having fun is the key to the puzzle. I just do not know how literal they are and it is a big jump from having difficulty with a four digit code on a key pad to deciphering obscure symbols and complex organics. Did Ink really have enough of his shit together to create Arrow Head from Austin McKibbon and all the complex locks of the jail and then run into difficulty with the four digit code at the Tower?

Another bit of frustration is that are we actually given first and last name of the prisoners held in solitaire with the exception of one -- Cohen. I have to relisten to this. Who the hell is trying to protect Cohen by omitting his proper name from the journal entry that we are now hearing...

Saw this mentioned about Ink a couple of times around here lately. I'm not really sure he had trouble with the keypad at the Tower. I think he was playing down the things he could do. Ink wanted intel on the Tower and the people there. He didn't want to just wipe them out at that point.

Some other posts I made on this subject are floating around the forums but I think Ink was playing dumb back in the encounter of Ch 11. He's been as smart as he is in Ch 42 all along.....

[scbubba]

I have been entertaining those thoughts. Dont Latch and Scratch discuss that Durai has plans for those tankers while he is spying on them? That is only 7 to 10 days into the outbreak. I know there is a prejudice to put that event closer to the party, but those things are designed for a week, not months. Since they pick up Lady, it is still close to the initial outbreak. Later, Lizzy even remarks that the sweat jars were three weeks worth of work when Kelly is looking for stolen items in Lizzy's room. So, it seems like a week into the outbreak Durai is looking to fire bomb someone...

That's a very good point about the timing. I hadn't thought about Durai having an interest in Ink directly just in wanting to pour gasoline down the fire ant mound.

There's still a lot of ambiguity around the statements made, though. Maybe Durai was just hoarding and came up with the plan to firebomb the arena later. Maybe Scratch's "he knows what's to come" remark was about the coming bombing of the arena. But then again, maybe it wasn't.....

It's one of the things I love about how Kc has put this together. We have a lot of data points but we haven't put them together into a lot of real information yet. In some cases, we don't have enough pieces. In other places, we probably have extra pieces that are of no real use and only confuse.

I love this show!!!!

[Footbutt]

a little Bible stuff that's creepily sounding close to the story...

Revelation 13
The Beast out of the Earth
14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[e] That number is 666.

i know it seems VERY unlikely for 'religious stuff' to enter the story, but the Chapter "Mark of the Beast" keeps coming to mind. The Bible is a great source for content, albeit out of context, but still great for parallels.

i think there are people in the story that knew what was going to happen.
Durai, i'm now thinking, was one of them.

[Gnex]

a little Bible stuff that's creepily sounding close to the story...



i know it seems VERY unlikely for 'religious stuff' to enter the story, but the Chapter "Mark of the Beast" keeps coming to mind. The Bible is a great source for content, albeit out of context, but still great for parallels.

i think there are people in the story that knew what was going to happen.
Durai, i'm now thinking, was one of them.

If Durai knew what was going on..... Would that mean that Scratch likely also knows???

[Footbutt]

If Durai knew what was going on..... Would that mean that Scratch likely also knows???

and you know... now i'm going back over every Scratch/Durai scene in my head.
When Durai was talking with Pegs over the radio right before the The War he mentions "You're trying to be reasonable? Well, now, perhaps we can..." but since Scratch told Kalani to fire at the ground when given a certain signal, we never saw Durai's plan carried out.
Was there something he was planning that was 'less sinister'?
or was his New Colony idea of control his plan all along? the Tower was just his first setback.

[Storm]

a little Bible stuff that's creepily sounding close to the story...


i know it seems VERY unlikely for 'religious stuff' to enter the story, but the Chapter "Mark of the Beast" keeps coming to mind. The Bible is a great source for content, albeit out of context, but still great for parallels.

i think there are people in the story that knew what was going to happen.
Durai, i'm now thinking, was one of them.

Yeah, lots of parallels... Even had to cities blown up... A fallen angel... Michael... Not to forget old Scratch
...I should dig up the topics that talks about these Things, I really enjoyed reading them, maybe a second read brings more into the light.

[alexcadtek]

Hey!

Those are very, very good questions. Here are my takes on them:

As for how Ink realizes his Alpha Status: We know that zombs do not attack each other in general. According to Skittles there are exceptions which include special zombs, but this does not change the general rule. Especially because we know it: most of the times zombs hunt in packs or appear in huge numbers attacking survivors; and except for #7 attacking a regular at ground zero we don't have a single eye report speaking of zombs attacking zombs. When Ink became one of them and got out of the van, the zombs did not attack him either. And they also seemed to acknowledge his alpha-status. So I would say that that might be the earliest moment at which he has realized his power ober other zeehs, if it has not been the moment when them regulars stopped damahing the van he was in.

As for other intelligent zombs: cunning we had right from the beginning even with regulars. Was it in the garage of the Tower, when one zomb played hide and seek with Angel and Saul in order to avoid being shot? Or was this on their first scavenge run? Then Burt has mentioned the Smart Ones and has told Saul and Angel what makes them more dangerous. This gets validatet or verified by Skittles, who has spoken about them being around book stores, who have been the nearly worst nightmares. Then we have Randy, whi seems to be a very smart one as well. Ink is outstanding. Already in life he was outstanding as a scientist; and his exceptional brainsszzZZ still makes the difference.

As for why the survivors have not met more smart zombs: This is actually the same number-issue as with normal zeehs: at the time of the zombocalypse
LA had roughly 3 to 3.5 million inhabitants and employees in town. But there were no more then a couple of thousands of zombs right from the beginning, because mostly them zeehs did kill their victims, and only few made it to become zeehs. Also it is safe to assume that police and military services might have killed at least some of them zeehs in the beginning. Just remember how deserted the streets were already when Michael, Angel, and Saul left the base in order to get to the Tower. That was like hours after zombocalypse struck; and in a place with hundreds of thousands up to millions of potential zeehs this should be striking. And the deserted streets and random encounters with zeehs was and is pretty much the rule in the WA Story; this would only change, when the survivors have come very close to certain spots - the Arena and the Hospital, that's it. Considering these rough estimates I tend to assume that the fraction of smart ones within the number of all zombs might be similar low as with the number of really smart people in the average human society.

So still: these are simplifying assessments mostly based in what we actually know from the show. That's why I still lean towards Ink and his zombs adapting towards a major change in the ecology rather than having started it all. I may be wrong, though.

And all this with the tiny iPhone display ...

Best wishes!
Liam

edit:
P.S.: I remember Kc having mentioned something along this line on the WA Fancast - it all started at Ground Zero, and because none survived at what happened there it will remain a mystery how exactly it all started. I think this leaves some room for speculations whether Ink has started the Ground Zero situation, or someone/-thing else. Against Ink is to be mentioned: at the time Ground Zero happened Ink was in custody already for some time - at least enough time for having received the tatoos in jail; so whatever happened there at Ground Zero, Ink must have had some people assisting him doing so. So - is he kind of a a leader terrorist, a cultist, or a solitary madman?

You have a great point, but I don't think becasue you are smart it makes you alpha, I think in the Jail it would have made it hard for him to dominate. ya he killed people before he went to jail but it does not make him Alpha to me. thats why I think that he has the answeres to how the Z's can obey him. He has even made new ones. And in a short spand of time, think about how the tower saw him right away and Datu saw him in the Arena. So how could he have dominated all the Z's by bieng alpha and creating new ones. Seems like a short spand of time to me for him to do all that, I might be totally wrong but its just what I think. between all that Riley also saw him in the hospital and he has been busy attacking the people from the tower. Also I question how quick he turned in the van. what do you think? I think that he turned a little to quick, when other people have turned slow. Again I agree whith part of the stuff you said and some of the stuff I didnt think about. But the two things I said earlier, I just dont know why he would control everybody by bieng alpha. To me being alpha is like lions, the stongest and the best fighters. It is human nature that the fittest survive I think they see him more as there creator! and thats why I think like that.

[Jannit]

Still catching up on some missed posts but wanted to hop in and offer another piece of trivia that might support the idea that Ink has been working towards this plan prior to the actual outbreak.

In Chapter 1, part 1 the zombies are described as being scarred and bruised. If it were only random people being attacked on the spot, it seems unlikely that they'd all be described as scarred given the time required for scars to form. Pardon the for a moment but hear me out. What if a faction were working towards the apocalypse and managed to turn a bunch of test subjects to carry the infection to the people in the major centers? If this were the case, it could explain how so many areas were hit at once plus it would account for the scars on the initial zombies. If this were a pre-planned event and Ink was a collaborator, the tattoos could have been part of the initial planning and have significance from that regard. Who knows, it could be a bunch of nihilists that got together and decided enough was enough.