We're Alive #100!!!!! AKA Chapter 34-2 It Only Takes One

[UndeadSweeper]

Yes, they both occur on December 16th.

1. Dec 4th: Blackhawk discovers Chinook.
2. 11 days later (Dec 15th) Boulder is over-run.
3. Dec 16th (Next morning) Boulder is nuked.
4. Dec 16th Durai killed and Mallony attacked by Saul and CJ.

Durai's death was more of a thud than a boom. ;-)

[LiamKerrington]

Damn it, Mr Wayland, you have gone too far. You killed off a Nobel Prize Winner:

David J. Wineland

Did he find out too much about Mr Whiskers a.k.a. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat?

By the way, congrats to you, Mr Wineland.

Weird ...

[UndeadSweeper]

Great episode! I love countdown scenarios! They always have my heart racing.
When Michael was talking about how Datu had worked on the Pelican, I was waiting for him to say, "Fucking resourceful bastard."

I'm curious to see how the survivors are going to start forming a crazy survivor mentality. Not even 30 miles out and Datu and Hope are already getting robbed for supplies. The people are worse than the zombies, I tell you!

It'll be interesting to see if Robbins might know Pegs. Since she is a pilot, she may have crossed paths with the guy at one point or another. Also, whats with Michael's shitty luck with lighters?

So in the end, when the nuke went off, I was totally trying to listen to every detail and nuance of the blast. At first I thought the final rumbling, crackling sound was the air being fried, but if they could hear that then they'd obviously be dead. But I figure is the wind rushing passed them, Hope and Datu. It sounds very much similar to the way it sounds when a reporter is reporting live from inside a hurricane.

Were Pegs and Kelly on the north side of town or on the south? I recall someone reporting that they were having trouble evacuating the north side of Boulder. I'm going to find it a little hard to swallow if Kelly, Pegs, Datu, and Hope ALL survive, but then again, they survived the attack on L.A. which seems like it went down much worse than this. Maybe they had the smarts to get out of there before everyone else did?

So I guess now we play the waiting game to see if they managed to have 100% containment of the spread of infection out of Boulder.

Come on, they have survived a tower collapsing, an attack by prisoners, arena filled with organized zombies, a run in with a Papa Pimple Dad Zombie and a helicopter fixed by Datu. A little nuke shouldn't phased them.

[Hoff4D]

It probably was an older car. A newer car, with more plastic and less metal, wouldn't have survived a crash. lol

While I agree it's most likely an older car, I retort to your crash hypothesis with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g

[Hoff4D]

I think that the survivors might want to make an intermediate stop somewhere in Colorado before they try the road to Fort Irwin. I remember the road going west through the Rockys being treacherous and uncomfortable in the best of times, and doubly so in the winter. The survivors are going to need to stock up on supplies if they're going to attempt that trip, and especially if they want to save their helicopters.

Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora might be a good short-term stop. It's the home base for the Colorado National Guard, and it's where the Boulder Blackhawk crew was based before Z-day, so it should be familiar to some of the survivors. It should have aviation fuel and helicopter parts, MREs and ammo. However, it might be a little too close to the fallout zone for comfort.

The big prize would be Colorado Springs, which is south of the rendezvous point and well outside the fallout zone. It has a commercial airport, a major Air Force base (Peterson AFB), a major Army base (Fort Carson), the Air Force Academy, which has its own airport, and the old NORAD (and Stargate) headquarters at Cheyenne Mountain. In many ways it's an even better enclave than Boulder, assuming it survived the initial zombie onslaught reasonably intact. Worst case, it might be a place to re-supply and rest before the evacuation, maybe aided by a new C-130 or two from Peterson and re-fueled helicopters. Best case, maybe a new safe haven.

Liam has a good point about the quality of fuel products the survivors might find along the way. Gasoline is subject to contamination and loses volitility over time. I've heard conflicting stories over how long it can be safely stored ranging from 1 year to as little as 30 days. Diesel fuel is more stable, with a recommended shelf life of 6-12 months, which I suspect can go longer. The survivors should be able to get through the winter on the fuel that's available, but eventually they're going to need a way to refine fuel for themselves.

After listening to Kc's interview on WND, I imagine he either reads your replies like "DAMMIT, cabbage patch got it again" or he just glosses them over for grammatical errors to calm his nerves over your spot on details. He most likely also reps you or replies to your post every so often to remain a merciful leader amongst his people (us).

[Hoff4D]

on the fuel subject your dead on, id say they have realistically the first of the year before any pre-outbreak gas becomes less stable. gas found in random cars will go before that found in places like the fueling station. now this is not to say the gas will be totally useless...it will still run cars with a lil less effectiveness(id say thats where the year timeframe comes from) hell, ive started cars that have sat for ten years! granted, they run like absolute shit...and modern vehicles will be far, far more problematic...but im not entirely sure it will be an issue within the timeframe of this podcast

Actually, newer cars have sensors to determine the quality of the gas, and would compensate for the deteriorated potential energy and all-out-dirtiness of the breakdown by adjusting any combination of spark/fuel injector PWM/air flow...etc, to keep it running. Albeit still running like shit, I'd give a newer car a better chance at being able to handle 'stale' gas. (Software verification engineer for Engine Control Modules for one of the larger automakers chiming in here... Now to climb down off my soapbox)

[YetAnotherBloodyCheek]

I am just wondering how difficult it will be for Datu and Hope to transit through the Rocky Mountains.

The temperatures and snow heights in the low-lying valleys look ok to me: Colorado weather data.

However, the car is damaged, there are hostile survivors and we still do not know, if there has been an avalanche as Liam has mentioned.

[Penguine]

Funny thing about those weather charts, most are fairly useless since there are so many different ones out there and they all have conflicting information. For example, the one located here http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/boulder/bouldersnow.html shows the snowfall for Boulder in 2009 to be a total of 115.5 inches. October 30.1, November 8.9, and December 27.8 alone had much snow. On top of that no plows running round the clock to clear roads. They would get very icy/huge snowbanks/ect. Here where I live in South Dakota I get snowdrifts from the top of my garage door (7ft) that stretch out to the end of my driveway. That is a 7ft snowdrift that is about 15ft long. But if you look at a weather chart it sure wont tell you that! Oh... and the last huge snow drift was in March! It is not supposed to snow that much in March!

[Hoff4D]

Alright, Now that I've finally caught up and replied about 20 times in the last 5 minutes (sorry guys, want to attribute my replies to the correct people/citations). I can come forth and admit defeat

Michael/puck/tonya/riley did NOT go to Boulder and fight the inkling who pushed the button nuking Ft. Irwin, saving civilization as we know it. He has nuked civilization. Kc, you monster!

Well, I'm out of crackpot theories for now then, I guess....You kind of killed that one in IMMEDIATE reply with 34-2....couldn't even let me hold out another release with my craziness. Perhaps a "parallel universe We're Alive release" after this ones finished?


Anyways, I'm going to have to agree with Stat's point at the beginning of their comment. Scratch and Pegs have a score to settle. One of them must die in some grandiose fashion, and if it's not one, but both, they both must die in a remarkable way. In the vein of the way in which this story is told, we cannot get Pegs account of death without someone alive having witnessed it, or a journal entry left behind in the rubble. However, I amongst others, believe they would've stopped writing journals in 'safe' boulder. So I doubt her grandiose death is dealt there. This leads me to believe Pegs must be alive. I'm not sure how yet, due to the roads being blocked, but somehow she's alive. if not, someone else is that saw her throw herself in front of the nuke (like it matters) or some Inkling to attempt to save others (lady of course). The argument can be made that Scratch and Burt are about to have it out (hopefully). This would give Scratch an epic death scene, but I believe still leave us hanging for Pegs either triumphant resolve, or epic death.

Just my 2 cents, I mean, Kc nuked boulder, shot Angel in the face, and killed a teenage boy, yet King Datu the Resourceful presses on driving down the wrong side of the road, pick axe in hand, so WHO KNOWS?!

[Adventureless_Hero]

Is there any mention of when Hope can remove her bandages? I'm trying to conceive of what will be the first thing she sees. Before listening to 34-2, I actually thought (because I'm twisted) that she'd open her eyes, see the beautiful Rocky Mountains before her, then suddenly go blind again as the flash from the nuke went off.

I'm curious to see where the two separate story lines will go. I had been thinking that once they dates on both timelines came together that we could possibly see the groups reunited. So now that it is December 16th or 17th, I hope that we'll find out what happened at the Colony. Also, someone should update the timeline....looking at you Witch_Doctor!