Chapter 29-2 Beyond Our Walls Part 2

[Pandora]

I see you like to read!! Cool! Have you read Kings of the Dead? That one is not bad. I cant wait for next J.L. Bourne book! Whats your fav?

[Pandora]

The roads are blocked too. I am curious about Co. I bet it isnt all they have made it out to be. I can totally see Pegs crying 'What was I thinking! And I was so mean to Michael...why did we stop following HIS orders?' We shall see!

[Matt Gossett]

Going off of charecter roles that people have mentioned in the past, Hope still hasn't fulfiled any purpose yet, besides being "hopeless". (sorry) I don't think this is the last we've heard of this group. My biggest question is, when is Michael going to tell the Col about Paul/Ink/Pimp-Ass Zombie, and the other types of zombies, and how is he going to react?

[Witch_Doctor]

Bravo!!
Bravo!!
Don't know about the rest of y'all but this episode moved me emotionally. I was walking my dog while listening to it and confused the poor girl when I started sobbing like Datu and calling her Lady.
About the story
The type of post-apocalytic story changes at Fort Irwin. We've seen and read stories of doomsday focused on a local and personal level with the characters struggling for survival and rescue. They are cut off from the rest of the world, not knowing if anyone else is out there, if there is a safe haven, should they wait for help or venture from their fragile sanctuary in hopes of finding somewhere safer or a more secure form of normalcy. Think of the 'Night of the Living Dead' or '28 Days Later'. Then we have the stories were the characters have a wider view of their situation. They have a better idea of how much the world itself in threatened. Their numbers are greater and they are better equipted for survival and fighting back. "Battlestar Galactica", "Independance Day"...

We have moved from one story to another. Traditionally, the 'small lonely group' story ends with a fairytale-ish they lived happily ever after scene of arriving at a safe haven or walking off into the sunset with the smoldering carcass of a monster behind them. We never learn what happens in happily ever after land unless the monster's carcass twitches (hinting to a sequel).
I was surprised at how much I (and Michael) was disturbed after finally learning the scope of the devistation. It's one thing to suspect that the world has just ended and quite another to learn that it really has. Michael fights to survive in a hostile city, finding safety in an area no larger than a city block. He reaches safety in a santuary the size of a city only to learn that the whole outside world is dangerous.

About Michael's reaction

Michael finally has his meltdown. There are a number of comments on the forums critical of Michael's surprise that he might be pressed back into service once reaching Fort Irwin. This is not a fair critique coming from an audience capable of witnessing this story with the luxury of reason detatched from any personal peril experienced by the charaters. KC has done a wonderful job of writing these characters with multidimensional personalities. Just like real people, when under stress, common sense doesn't always stay at top of one's focus. Since the outbreak Michael had to:

1. Protect himself and his soldiers
2. Find safety
3. Find survivors
4. Find supplies
5. Fight adversaries
6. Find safer place

The drive to achieve each of those tasks, such as finding a safer place, can be so great that very little thought is put into 'What do I do when I get there?'
I knew he wouldn't find it easy to let his friends go. My first thoughts were how could he be so self centered to ask the others to enlist just to stay with him. In any other war families are separated from the soldiers. This would be no different. Then, I thought, 'The nerve of these guys! That's some grattutide! He saves their butts and they're acting like Han Solo loading boxes of Rebel money onto the Millinium Falcon after dropping off the Princess.' But, can they be faulted? Since the beginning, they were looking for safety and rescue. Sure, they fought and even turned into decent guerillas to stay alive. But, they did it with the goal in mind of survival, not to save the world. Michael, understandably, sees them as capable soldiers and commrades.

The Source

I've said it once and I'll say it again. The hows and whys might be revealed later, but the outbreak has some sort of geological origin. Can't say that it is exclusively fault lines, hot spots, volcanos or Digg Dugs but each of the places mentioned by the Colonel just ain't the most stable places in the world. Even the places such as Houston, Chicago and NY have geological.... stuff going on (Thanks RedShirt). This doesn't mean that the ground must be shaking and breaking Cecil B DeMille-Moses-dropping-the-10-Commandment-style. Just that there is some yet to be revealed connection. Again, there is something about Hawaii's Volcanos that made them 'nastier, meaner' than the one's in L.A.

OK g'night

[Witch_Doctor]

I cant wait for next J.L. Bourne book! Whats your fav?

I just finished listening to the audio versions of "Day by Day" and "Beyond Exile". I have mixed impressions but the stories might have been better if I read them instead. The narrator is horrible. The end of B.E. has me excited for the next book. It seemed to have picked of in excitement near the end of that book.

[Litmaster]

Hey! Welcome! Shoot on over to the The Introductions Thread and tell us a bit about yourself! I totallyy agree with you though, let's get to Burt, Angel and Scratch!

My bet is that the next Maller scene will be with Scratch taking a pair of hot tongs to Angel's testicles....

[Osiris]

My bet is that the next Maller scene will be with Scratch taking a pair of hot tongs to Angel's testicles....

Ouch.

[nikvoodoo]

Going off of charecter roles that people have mentioned in the past, Hope still hasn't fulfiled any purpose yet, besides being "hopeless". (sorry) I don't think this is the last we've heard of this group. My biggest question is, when is Michael going to tell the Col about Paul/Ink/Pimp-Ass Zombie, and the other types of zombies, and how is he going to react?

Damnit....I knew there was something I forgot to mention. New thread comin'!

[Pandora]

Going off of charecter roles that people have mentioned in the past, Hope still hasn't fulfiled any purpose yet, besides being "hopeless". (sorry) I don't think this is the last we've heard of this group. My biggest question is, when is Michael going to tell the Col about Paul/Ink/Pimp-Ass Zombie, and the other types of zombies, and how is he going to react?

I know@ I was thinking the SAME thing! But reading your reply it hit me... they want to go back with some force maybe? Cant go scaring them off if that is what Michael has planned.

[VEE]

Going off of charecter roles that people have mentioned in the past, Hope still hasn't fulfiled any purpose yet, besides being "hopeless".

I think she is the cure, or at least what stops people turning. Perhaps Tanya discovered this.

She is, after all, called Hope.