Chapter 43-3: The Darkness Ahead

[LiamKerrington]

Of course, it could also be demons

Demons are no magic ... They are ... well ... demons! And since WA takes the religious turn right now, demons fit into the picture ...

[Litmaster]

Chapter 44: Michael, Victor, and Datu are walking around in the land of the living dead, finding lotsa clues about Ink, and at one point Ink himself, WHO escapes. Meanwhile, CJ and Pegs are setting up stuff at that lake thing...
Chapter 45: More colony 2.0 stuff with Pegs and CJ. Cliffhanger will contain more Scratchness, maybe some Burtness too.
Chapter 46: Burt and Riley drive to the hospital, we go back to Michael and the pals in the tunnels, they finally find their way out, Vic dies and Michael escapes with Datu, heading to the colony.

I'm pretty much doubting that Datu is ever making it out of that tunnel. I think this is his one way ticket. I'm not even sure if Michael or Vic will make it out, either, and the story might finish with Mike, alone, in some underground Zed cavern, scrawling out his final words before Ink comes to the door to get him...

Tunnel: Micheal describes the opening as being pulled up and jetting outwards from the inside. Also, no mention of removed dirt. Maybe it wasn't dug! Something came from underground!

Even if it was a giant worm-zombie, the dirt can't just disappear. If there really are miles of Zed tunnels under LA.... I'd be real interested to know how they were constructed. The mental image of a chain-gang of Behemoth's, passing dirt buckets back and forth while singing "Whistle as you work" isn't really doing it for me.

[BTW, this draws attention to the need for an alternate Nik emoticon, who is vigorously shaking his head instead of nodding]

Lizzy undergoing surgery: Of all of the surgery that has taken place in this story, will she and/or the baby be the only one/s to to need a blood transfusion? Who's gonna donate?

I'm wondering if she is even going to survive the delivery. To me, this medical problem of hers came on a bit too suddenly (it seems); this would have been better justified if, in a previous scene, we heard her saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded" or something to this effect. Don't recall anything like this, but I may be wrong...

Magic Writing or Superstitious Writing on the wall?: 800 years ago the Black Death was believed to have supernatural origins. It took time for the truth to be revealed. For millions, it never reveled, but it was a natural thing, regardless of how it seemed or what they believed.

Yeah, I'm not really concerned about that kind of thing. The main thing I am concerned with is this: is the story giving me enough justifiable reason to believe what is happening at this given moment? That is more or less the litmus test for me. I suppose you could base your criticism of the 'realism' of the story on research such as the engineering aspects of, say, whether or not a fire, an RPG, and a few pipe bombs could legitimately undermine the supports of a building and make it collapse, but any kind of opinion based on such extra-dramatic research is not enough to get me to deny the veracity of the story I am hearing.

Zombie Existentialists: What makes one a zombie? Being undead? Being un the spell of a puppet master? Not having control of your own will? Mice with the Toxoplasma Gondii parasite are effectually controlled by it to lose their fear of cats in order to be eaten by them. The parasite reproduces in the cat's intestines, gets pooped out and then infects other mice. Over and over again. Ophiocodyceps unilateralis does something similar to ants. It affects the ants' behavior, compelling it to perch on high leaves, which makes it a good target for birds that will eat it and continue the cycle. Not saying that the zombie agent is a parasite, nanobots or Elder Ones jism. Just that what ever it is it compels human's behavior. The symbols that control Datu, natural or artificial seems to work this way when he says that they 'mean' or 'feel like'. The only part that doesn't fall inline with this is the address. But time will tell.

[top]

I only still call them 'Zombies' out of convenience. We all understand we are not dealing with Romero undead here, and despite some nods to traditional zombie tropes (e.g. Michael saying that "headshots seem to drop 'em like flies"), these are creatures quite different from anything that Romero ever came up with. I usually just use the term Zed as shorthand for 'whatever these former humans have become', and leave it at that...

[Grognaurd]

Wasn't this symbol on one of the doors that were broken in? If so, it would imply that all of the other behemoths could read it and knew not to break into the room. If behemoths tend to eat people, it would be a very good test of the strength of the symbol's meaning. Food versus symbols and all that.

Now I need to go back and check too.

This is a great point. Those behemoths were starving to death and still did not breach that door.

[UndeadSweeper]

This is a great point. Those behemoths were starving to death and still did not breach that door.

To me the bethemoths seem to be creature that need some such motivation to attack. They either need to hear or see something to attack or destroy. If you notice the one at Cain, it was acting very docile when alone.

[Grognaurd]

I think they are bright. They are war machines and have a purpose to combat something.

Water Pumping Station
Attacks Angel, Riley, Datu, Michael. When there was only Michael there was no attack. Prior, they seemed to attack people from Dunbar, but spared Randy

Arena
Attacks Angel, Kalani and Riley. Prior, seemed to attack or at least defend Dunbar Assault Team

Reserve Base / Water Tower
Attacks Angel and Kilani

Tower Collapse
Attacks Saul and Victor

Jail ( inside )
Attacks Matagun, three Denver Soldiers and Puck

Jail ( outside )
Attacks gun truck ( used to be at Dunbar with Victor and Saul ) ignores Puck and Matagun

Cain
Need more info, but did not go into attack mode. Maybe did not notice Burt, Riley and Saul or maybe did not care.

Pattern: Angel and Victor. Wild Card: Denver Soldiers and people from Dunbar

[Verse]

I think they are bright... Just Lazy? Not the best word. Maybe better word would be ignorant. There is no reason they should be walking around blind in the dark. They could just bum rush a wall and be free. Instead they wander around until they see something. My guess is that have "Muscle" memory for lack of a better word. They are not going "Hey. That man has a awesome steampunk gun. I should take care of that first. He is running? Ok. Let me take out that massive gun on that truck", but instinct. His subconscious pushed him to target certain things. Not like we have't seen normal/non-smart Zeds do things. That one jumped behind the desk at the begining of the series to avoid being shot.

Even though they are massive they seem to be almost unaware of their size until they go into "DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE" mode. Then they just tear shit up. Skittles said one couldn't climb to get a cat off a bus or something. It could have just ran and hit the bus to tip it. Instead it tried to climb like a normal person. When it sees people... it just throws shit around and tears through things. Betting they don't realize just how strong they are. Kinda like a large child.

My guess is that Zeds see/smell us as slightly different. Kinda why they started foaming at the mouth when the Sweat Test was done. They went nuts. Betting that lake of care is what allows them to go through walls and such.

[Jannit]

A number of animals don't attack unless provoked or threatened in some way or another. As Grog mentions, the Behemoths could just be reacting to what they perceive as a threat. In all of those situations where they attacked, someone did something to piss them off or force their attack. Who knows, maybe they're like bees and will just go about their business unless they are bothered.

[scbubba]

Finally got to listen to this episode (been crazy around here once again) and I managed to get through the 1st 20 pages of this thread. I have some comments on the episode but mostly on other posts since y'all have talked about so much already. Gonna try to be back later to get my main thoughts down.

I will go ahead and say that I was TOTALLY wrong on Datu reading the symbols. I had said it was some language that he already knew and that the symbols and Ink's tats weren't actually controlling /hurting/stopping the zombies. Well, I'll be having a big serving of crow for all that.....

Which reminds me - did anyone notice any crow sounds in the outdoor scenes with Michael, Victor, and Datu? I didn't but then I usually have to listen a couple of times to get those details.

[alabarrie]

Random question. Do we know is Ink is a "Zombie"? Was he bit or scratched when they attached the van? If he's not a zombie, what is he doing to survive?

[YetAnotherBloodyCheek]

I think they are bright. They are war machines and have a purpose to combat something.

Concerning the "brightness" level of behemoths, they might simply suffer from an unfavorable combination of low intelligence and poor vision, you know...



A door can be a powerful enemy.