Chapter 43-3: The Darkness Ahead

[Gnex]

"A story of survival"

[Merlin1274]

Zombie is just a term for someone not in control of their actions. Hollywood change the true meaning of it. U don't have to be undead to be a zombie. I had a few zombie moments back in my heavy drinking days.

[Storm]

"A story of survival"

Was just gonna say that... Or... My Words would've been:
They're Alive - a Story of Survival.

[LiamKerrington]

You know guys, can we really call these creatures zombie anymore? If you think about it, we haven't seen one come back from the dead. Most of the ones we have seen turn have done it while they are injury/bitten and then they turn. Once a person dead whether they are turned or not they don't come back. And it got weird call them zombies when Datu spoken of being in the back seat while the body continue doing what it was doing.

This is the Zombiepodcast titled "We're Alive - A Story of Survival". Also keep in mind that zombies are undead in some themes or genres, while zombies are living creatures in other, which really depends on the source of the zombie-factor. Is it a zombie-agent working like bacteria or a virus or spores from wherever? Or is it just magic working?
So, yeah: I stick with it. The monsters of WA are zombies - different kind of, but still zombos ...

Best wishes!
Liam

[UndeadSweeper]

Zombie is just a term for someone not in control of their actions. Hollywood change the true meaning of it. U don't have to be undead to be a zombie. I had a few zombie moments back in my heavy drinking days.

That odd part, some are not in control of their actions but there a few who seem to be in the driver seat, eg the smart ones. What do we call those?

[Grognaurd]

One thing that voodoo, Romero's Shamblers or 28 days later Zoombies have in common is the loss of self. I think this qualifies

[Gnex]

I don't know what all the fuss is about........

Next episode our tunnel divers will stomp around in the sewers until they find 4 turtles being taught by a rat. Then Kelly will just Beam the guys Up to dunbar from the tunnel...... at which point they will put on their storm trooper armor and prepare to invade Ink...... Michael will ask Pegs to marry him and she will run around with her ring calling it precious and showing it to Mrs. Magoo........ Once they find Ink's compound they will need to get inside, at which point Victor will remember that he has a magical whistle around his neck, He will use it to summon a Dragon to smash down the door....... Then Burt will run inside and pull out his BFG(AKA Shirley 2.0)...... at this point Scratch will Show up in a Tardis........ errr excuse me...... with Tardust. There will be an epic shoot out in Slow motion where bullets bend around object and such..... miraculously no one will be injured and everyone will run out of bullets at the same time...... at which point they will all break out into song and dance, then Ink will give a long Monologue followed by a tap dance routine....... Then they will all hug it out and agree to live in harmony...... And They All Lived Happily Ever After........ THE END!!!

[Jannit]

I sure hope this isn't the case. Last I checked, Los Angeles has a population of about 3.8 MILLION people, and to have such an improbable occurrence as this would really stretch the tenuous cords of believability. We've already has the improbable situation of Scratch knowing who Angel was, and of Michael meeting back up with Randy at the water works, and to have another pre-outbreak relationship manifest this late in the story would get me crinkling my nose...

Don’t forget Saul and Tanya finding one another. Or Scratch rescuing Latch. We’ve seen a number of these sorts of cases already, as you mentioned.
Do we know where Lizzy worked prior to the outbreak? As a psychologist, it seems logical that she’d have reason to associate with people in mental health facilities and if “Nick” is either her father or, as Grog mentioned, a mentor of some sort it is plausible that they could’ve known one another. Unlikely? Sure. But weirder things have happened!

Sounds like Datu is experiencing dissociative feelings, or a detachment from his own self, when he talks about watching from the back of his mind.

Just for kicks: There is an interesting connection to Haitian Voodoo zombies and dissociative drugs. One ingredient found in the zombie powder by Dr. Wade Davis (The Serpent and the Rainbow) was tetrodotoxin, found in puffer fish. The other was the plant datura or jimsonweed (Zombie Cucumber). This plants can make a person prone to suggestion in addition to dissociative feelings. http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Zombies

Now, just waiting for someone to make a connection based on the fact that the first four letters of datura are d,a,t and u.

That sort of sounds like our missing fan symbol that seems to mean stop! It’s likely unrelated but that’s the first thing I thought of when you said this.

Hi.

Sorry, I have some trouble joining into the criticism about the symbols being words and/or commands to the zombies.

I remember us discussing a lot about an ant-analogy in respect to the zombos, when Randy dropped these bottles. Now I would like to make you remember these discussions again, because I have the feeling that many of have seemed to "accept" this kind of theory.
Ants "talk" or "communicate" by using hormons or shit telling everyone in the ant-family what to do - some simply for "follow this trail", others for "defend", again others "safe the ant-eggs", or "feed big Mom" etc. ... What if these symbols have the a similar effect on zombies? Their brains may get twisted by the z-agent, and by seeing symbols all across the place they simply follow these symbols, because there could be kind of a hard programming through the zombie-agent.

Or make it different: What, if those symbols are painted with colors which were enriched with certain hormons or fluids the zombies simply "scent". R2Da2 explicitely says that these symbols are not like explicit words, but about a certain meaning. He sees the symbols and "understands" something about them in a way that he cannot resist and thus follows "an order" as he understands it. Just like an ant smells a certain hormon in its surrounding and reacts accordingly.

So - yes. Could be. I am looking forward to get more clues and see where this is leading.

Best wishes!
Liam

While the pheromone idea seems reasonable-ish we’ve gotten confirmation that it doesn’t work already, haven’t we? I thought the list where Datu found the address was a photocopy of the original. Regardless, the markings from the prison weren’t originals so the idea of a scent of some sort doesn’t work.

[clem131]

I agree, that point does not quite fit. But, there are divorces, children born out of wedlock, a maternal grandfather.

I know, it's just that it was the third or fourth message about this and no one mentioned Lizzie's last name not being Rivers yet and it was driving me crazy :P

[TacticalJHP]

You know guys, can we really call these creatures zombie anymore? If you think about it, we haven't seen one come back from the dead. Most of the ones we have seen turn have done it while they are injury/bitten and then they turn. Once a person dead whether they are turned or not they don't come back. And it got weird call them zombies when Datu spoken of being in the back seat while the body continue doing what it was doing.

I mentioned this last night in the chat of the live show.

"What if they are not zombies, but this is all a form of mass mind control?"

To further expand on what I mean (since i can type more here) is that they are not the traditional zombies.

• They didn't get back up from the dead.
• They do not have rotting flesh.
• Their organs seem to work just fine, and are in fact required to function for them to live.
• It's not a "head shot kills them" deal, but bullets and explosions will do the same tasks.
• They are follow orders.
• They set traps.
• They dig tunnels.
• They speak, albeit are rather bashful about it.

But, there are things that makes them seem to be traditional zombies.

• They have a dietary selection that prefers human flesh.
• They reproduce by biting and scratching.
• They cannot control their own actions.

So what if they are not a traditional "zombie." That was implanted in episode 1 by Saul saying that they are Zombies, but what if that was just the best explanation at the time. It is entirely possible that something else is causing the outbreak of normal ones, and then of course we have Ink with his genetic experiments to make the effed up ones.

It could be mass mind control, genetic experiment gone wrong, or bio-terror.

Not ruling out "zombies" just keeping my mind open....