Chapter 46-3 Under Pressure

[Elete23]

I think it's funny how previous fiction inspires how you interpret new fiction. I come from the background of being a huge Angel/Buffy fan so I see things through that lens (and yes I said Angel first for a reason, I prefer it over Buffy.)

On that show in order to justify killing countless vampires, it was explained that when a person gets turned they lose their soul, i.e. the ability to feel empathy or guilt. They also get a bit of demon added to them, which imbues them with supernatural power, animal instinct, and bloodlust that makes humans look like food. However, they maintain their basic human mind, just with the loss of a soul. What they were determines what they become, but its always evil because the soul is gone.

I kind of view the zombies in We're Alive the same way, especially the "smart ones" that retain more of their humanity. They may be quite aware of what they're doing and remember their past life, but I don't think they have their "souls" anymore. Randy is evil now, I don't think there's going back for him and I don't think at this point the idea that a zombie can be "redeemed" is viable because it would open up a moral can of worms at this point in the series. Unless Randy is undercover and really Angel, (Buffy's Angel) a vampire with a soul... not likely.

Keeping with the Buffy theme, does Hope remind any other Buffy fans of Dawn?

Finally, I won't touch the big endgame theory but I think that maybe I have something to offer for why Ink spared Skittles. We know Ink has a history of mental illness. So does Skittles, obviously. These things tend to be genetic. Could they be related? Brothers?

[Jannit]

Guys, I just thought of something.

What if Saul and Tanya's resistance to the Z-bug isn't genetic? This has probably already been discussed but just hear me out a second. We have Tanya - a vet - who has likely been exposed to all manner of drugs throughout her career. In addition, she probably needed a fair number of vaccinations in the regular course of her job. Saul was given high doses of some rather hard-core antibiotics.

If we expand this further, some other people we've seen who have been slow turners may also have been exposed to vaccinations and/or antibiotics in large quantities. Datu likely would've had additional vaccinations when he came to America as part of standard procedures. Kalani was a pilot and likely had to have vaccinations as part of his job requirements.

The point I'm getting at is we've seen unusual behavior from zombies in regards to these people. The zombies carried off Datu and attempted to carry off Tanya to the arena. Kalani was at the arena but passed over in favor of Samantha for the "play time" in the middle. Saul exhibits the markers for zombie-ism, as did Datu prior to turning.

Tanya had the markers and didn't even turn!

Is there the possibility that there is a relatively straight forward cure to all of this and it's just high levels of antibiotics or vaccinations of some sort? Perhaps this causes them to smell differently so that they’re distinctive to the zombies. I'd be interested to find out if the other slow turners had any special medication history as well.

[Kc]

Anyone ever seen Speed? Why didn't Michael just shoot Saul in the leg?
Then Vic could get a good chest shot with the .50 cal?! Thinking outside the box

Harry: All right, pop quiz. Airport, gunman with one hostage. He's using her for cover; he's almost to a plane. You're a hundred feet away... Jack?
Jack: Shoot the hostage.

Michael had an m-16... if he would have shot Saul in the leg... that would have been very ugly. Handgun 9mm wounds are not the same as 5.56 high velocity rounds... Just hypothetically, he could have bled out, or even lost his leg. It's not a decision made on a whim.

Just my 2 cents.

[Gooer]

Michael had an m-16... if he would have shot Saul in the leg... that would have been very ugly. Handgun 9mm wounds are not the same as 5.56 high velocity rounds... Just hypothetically, he could have bled out, or even lost his leg. It's not a decision made on a whim.

Just my 2 cents.

Yea..... that might not be wanted in the episodes to come.....

[Footbutt]

okay, one more thing:

is Saul the first Ground-Zero breather to be bitten? He's the test, in my book, to see if there is a true immunity. Randy bit him, but it may not necessarily mean Saul turns. Tanya's Keratin levels were normal at the time she could endure the gas in the last episode. So to me, that's a natural response and not her body adapting.

but what we do know, is that Saul is a tought SOB. he will go down swinging.

[Jannit]

okay, one more thing:

is Saul the first Ground-Zero breather to be bitten? He's the test, in my book, to see if there is a true immunity. Randy bit him, but it may not necessarily mean Saul turns. Tanya's Keratin levels were normal at the time she could endure the gas in the last episode. So to me, that's a natural response and not her body adapting.

but what we do know, is that Saul is a tought SOB. he will go down swinging.

Nope. Tanya was the first to be bitten and she was fine.

[TacticalJHP]

Michael had an m-16... if he would have shot Saul in the leg... that would have been very ugly. Handgun 9mm wounds are not the same as 5.56 high velocity rounds... Just hypothetically, he could have bled out, or even lost his leg. It's not a decision made on a whim.

Just my 2 cents.

You have enough of a threat from zombies than the threat of friendlies trying to "help" you.

[Grognaurd]

Guys, I just thought of something.

What if Saul and Tanya's resistance to the Z-bug isn't genetic? This has probably already been discussed but just hear me out a second. We have Tanya - a vet - who has likely been exposed to all manner of drugs throughout her career. In addition, she probably needed a fair number of vaccinations in the regular course of her job. Saul was given high doses of some rather hard-core antibiotics.

If we expand this further, some other people we've seen who have been slow turners may also have been exposed to vaccinations and/or antibiotics in large quantities. Datu likely would've had additional vaccinations when he came to America as part of standard procedures. Kalani was a pilot and likely had to have vaccinations as part of his job requirements.

The point I'm getting at is we've seen unusual behavior from zombies in regards to these people. The zombies carried off Datu and attempted to carry off Tanya to the arena. Kalani was at the arena but passed over in favor of Samantha for the "play time" in the middle. Saul exhibits the markers for zombie-ism, as did Datu prior to turning.

Tanya had the markers and didn't even turn!

Is there the possibility that there is a relatively straight forward cure to all of this and it's just high levels of antibiotics or vaccinations of some sort? Perhaps this causes them to smell differently so that they’re distinctive to the zombies. I'd be interested to find out if the other slow turners had any special medication history as well.

Great thinking Janet. I recently considered something similar. Tanya was a vet and Saul worked with her enough when he was Young. Maybe they caught something from the animals that gave them some resistance. I mentioned Toxoplasmosis, some real life scientists have speculated that when some women are infected exhibit a behavior known as the crazy cat lady. Seems like every town has some lady with a huge number of cats. Grog, what does that have to do with anything? Ah, my padawans, fold you like this...

How many cats does CJ have at Dunbar? For a couple of months she lived alone with a bunch of cats. Sean, said you ( meaning CJ ) might have another breakdown. Putting it all together, crazy cat lady. So, maybe she was already eexposed and Ink can sense this and says "leave her". Going further, when mice become infected, they tend to lose their fear of cats. Chapter25 has the return of a very fat Mr. Whiskers. I have not seen fat feral cats, so Mr Whiskers must have a pretty easy go of it even though he has to fend for himself. One way to explain this is mice ( and possibly other animals ) losing their fear of cats making them easy to catch.

[Jannit]

Great thinking Janet. I recently considered something similar. Tanya was a vet and Saul worked with her enough when he was Young. Maybe they caught something from the animals that gave them some resistance. I mentioned Toxoplasmosis, some real life scientists have speculated that when some women are infected exhibit a behavior known as the crazy cat lady. Seems like every town has some lady with a huge number of cats. Grog, what does that have to do with anything? Ah, my padawans, fold you like this...

How many cats does CJ have at Dunbar? For a couple of months she lived alone with a bunch of cats. Sean, said you ( meaning CJ ) might have another breakdown. Putting it all together, crazy cat lady. So, maybe she was already eexposed and Ink can sense this and says "leave her". Going further, when mice become infected, they tend to lose their fear of cats. Chapter25 has the return of a very fat Mr. Whiskers. I have not seen fat feral cats, so Mr Whiskers must have a pretty easy go of it even though he has to fend for himself. One way to explain this is mice ( and possibly other animals ) losing their fear of cats making them easy to catch.

This is an interesting thought too.

If there is some sort of cross-species contamination like this Toxoplamosis that drives the zombies off then how does that tie into the other instances where we've seen people ignored by zombies? Primarily Skittles, in our limited availability of examples. Also, why would they still bite Tanya and Saul at all and just leave CJ alone? That part isn't computing and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

So far we've seen the zombies ignore CJ, Skittles and Kalani. To be fair, I'm not sure if Ink's command to "leave her" counts as ignoring CJ but it's better than a kick in the pants. I could cross her off the list.

A little google-fu also mentions that the World Health Organization estimates that up to 1/3 of the population is infected with toxoplamosis at any time. I get that you may be using this one as an example but it seems like that big of a population with the parasite would rule it out in our storyline.

Bleh. It's the end of a long week and I'm not even making much sense to myself so I'll just stop there for the moment. Once I can form proper thoughts again, I'll try to do better.

[Grognaurd]

Well, let's say 1/3 have some immunity or resistance. They still have to run away from the other 2/3s. Whatever the turning is, it has low penetrance. There are no where near 5,000,000 million biters running around LA, unless they all ran somewhere to hide and started digging to get out of sight.

I toss out the toxoplasmosis as an example in real life that infects human and affects behavior. We still have a really small sample size. Three people choke, two do not. The two that do not have genetics, exposure to a recently turned and being a vet. I put Saul in the vet, because I got the feeling He spent a lot of time there.