Zombies, Zombies Everywhere...

[Eggsnham]

So, I'm sure that you're all sick of zombies, after all, they're everywhere, and on this particular site, there are about 6,000 "WUTZ UR ZOMBIE SIRVIVUL PLANN????!/1?!?!1!?!?!?!1111!!" threads every week. The upside, is that we all know what to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse, assuming you even click on those threads anymore.

But I've been on a bit of a zombie kick lately, after watching 28 Weeks Later and remembering that we owned both Left 4 Dead games at my dad's house (still want a PS3 port, I don't care about complications, Valve) and now I want to write a good zombie story.

Key word being good. Only problem is that zombies have been done to death, and I refuse to do anything too cliche.

So I want to ask for your help, Escapists. Help me write a short story about Zambiez. Yes, I spelled it that way intentionally.

For starters, I was thinking of having it be based on virus, in a suburb which is just outside of a city (and by default, an airport , and it would probably be following a main character who is around the age of 12-14 going out of country with his family as the "infection" is just starting, so the majority of people would likely be non-infected, and the area would still be free of military/government presence and there would be minimal complications for international travel.

Like maybe a 20/80 ratio of infected people to the non-infected people's advantage.

I also wanted the virus to only be infectious to those who don't have Blue or Gray irises, mostly because I read somewhere that the gene for Blue and Gray irises is quite rare, and that the large majority of the world has Brown, Hazel, Green, Amber and even Red (Albinism) irises.

Also, that would seem at least semi realistic, that people with a semi-common trait are immune, while others with a major gene are not so lucky.

In the instance of Heterochromia (spelling? Also, it's basically multicolored eyes/one eye is X color, while the other is Y color) where the person has one Blue or Gray iris, and one, let's say Brown iris, maybe they'll have 50/50 odds, or they'll be able to catch the disease and exhibit some symptoms but will for the most part remain human?

Of course, that may be taking too much inspiration from the 28 series...

In any case, I was thinking of having the main characters' family consist of 8 people, himself, 3 siblings, both parents, and his recently widowed Grandfather.

Grandfather, Mother, 1 sibling and main character would all have Blue eyes, while everybody else would have brown, green etc.

Is that even possible? I read somewhere that both parents had to have blue eyes to pass that trait to their offspring... I dunno, I know barely anything about genetics outside of the bare basics.

Anyways, I did the whole "split the iris color in the family" thing in case I wanted to make things interesting or write another story where I wanted to make things interesting.

And finally, I have no idea where I want the story to take place, because I don't want to do the U.S., and I don't want to do any island countries because that pretty much makes it too easy to contain/the U.S. has been done to death as the apocalypse source.

Also, I am intent on this, because once I become obsessed with a topic, I don't stop being obsessed for a while, also, people who help me will be given credit. Just in case you were wondering.

 

[Pariah87]

Just to help with the iris thing, it is possible for a parent with brown eyes to carry the blue recessive gene, Bb, and the other parent is blue eyed, bb, roughly there is a 50-50 chance of creating blue eyed offspring.

Of course it's slightly more complicated but for the purposes of this story that should cover you.

Technically, it's even possible for two brown eyed parents to create a blue eyed child if they both carry the recessive gene, although the percentage drops to roughly 1 in 4.

Edit: Just had a thought if you want to go along with the genetics theme. They would not be "Undead" as such, or "Infected" a la 28 Days/Left for dead, but a simple mutation of human beings.

Over the last however many years, a latent gene has been passed on which has "evolved", initially it was a gene which controlled our aggression levels or lower brain functions, but as we became more civilised it was slowly phased out, or became dormant as the case may now seen. The rise in pollutive chemicals in the atmosphere has triggered this gene into overdrive, with those that have it turning into mindless killers, who due to a constant surge of adrenaline can shrug off most wounds.

This gives them a relatively short lifespan, meaning they need to constantly feed or they starve, the easiest supply of food high in whatever it is they need happens to be humans. They will kill each other if no other food can be located, meaning it's uncommon to see them in large hordes, most likely smallish hunting packs.

Humanity will definately survive this outbreak, at least those without the gene (blue eyes?) if they can secure themselves untill all those who have mutated have burn themselves out or killed each other, doing so however is no easy task. Blue eyes are definately safe, but there is no way of knowing if a brown eyed person carries the pure gene, or the recessive blue. Even then in some cases the recessive isn't enough to stop the change.

The change does not happen all at once, but in waves, over say a 2-3 week period. It's possible for the first wave to entirely burn themselves out and everyone thinking "Wtf just happened?" before the second and successive waves turn, each increasing in size and danger presented.


Sorry if that's difficult to understand or closely resembles the 28 Days/Weeks franchise, it's been a long time since I've seen either so I can't remember exactly how they work.

 

[SilverUchiha]

Alright, I'm willing to help write a good story. Kinda what I do anyway. And please, ask me for more if you like what I offer.

Have the disease start in Russia (like Southeast or South West Russia). The logic behind this (strange as it is) is that it is believed in the game Half-Life that City 17 is somewhere like in St. Petersburg. As such, why not have some kind of government lab (NOT BLACK MESA) in Russia, working on some biological weapon. When they finally think they have something, the government tests it but it goes awry and they have to clean up their mess before it spreads throughout Eurasia and, perhaps, the world.

Another idea would be to have it take place in Africa. Some explorers are traveling, looking at wild life, when they come across a war-torn section, but it appears different than normal. Eventually, they realize that this isn't a typical war you'd see in Africa, but a war against infected Africans. Of course, this scenario seems similar to Resident Evil 5 (i think that's the one) so you might not want to jump on this unless you can do EVERYTHING better than RE5 did.

 

[SilverUchiha]

Just to help with the iris thing, it is possible for a parent with brown eyes to carry the blue recessive gene, Bb, and the other parent is blue eyed, bb, roughly there is a 50-50 chance of creating blue eyed offspring.

Of course it's slightly more complicated but for the purposes of this story that should cover you.

Curious, but do you think a recessive gene person (for the situation asked about above) would also be immune to the zombie-virus, resist it slightly but still be overcome, or have no difference than the average person? Just asking because this is kind of a cool topic.

(sorry if I happen to double post)

 

[PissOffRoth]

Russia has a lot of nuclear waste laying around. Tends to lead to genetic mutations, subtle or otherwise. Sometimes you get a growth on your ass, sometimes you start a zombie apocalypse. Who knows?

Also a good place for small town settings. Not everybody lives in Moscow. I'd go for this idea if I were you. Maybe a huge snowstorm can come and the zombies will all freeze to death while they gnaw on the door. Gives the story some depth when you make people ask questions like "Was it God, was it luck?" Of course you can't actually ask these questions in the writing. Let the reader do the double-take, don't force them to take it. If they can't appreciate it themselves, they're not the sort of readers you want anyway.

Have you written anything before? I'd be interested to see your writing style if you have any sample work you would be willing to share. I could give you some pointers if you'd like.

 

[spartan1077]

nnice topic, I started writing one myself but the recessive person should be able to resist in the littlest bit but still be overcomed. Also if you don't want to figure out somewhere- if it is in first person of the 10-14 year old you don't necessarily have to state where it is. The kid isn't going to be thinking about where is most of the time, just worried for his family and maybe a ?crush? that may have escaped. Make sure you include the complications of weaponry to the family, such as having it a "pacifist" family yet having to deal violence or one person who is strictly against firearms for some reason or other and only maybe two people are able to fight because the rest are weak or young...

 

[Thaius]

Good luck. I have one thing to recommend: please, for the love of awesomeness, make them real zombies. People have started changing zombies, making them fast, powerful, and dangerous to make up for the fact that they're not good enough to make slow, shuffling undead scary. But zombies are dead, and only controlled by a virus (Solanum, if you want to go by the book; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_Survival_Guide]) they have little strength, the collective intelligence of an insect, and no instinct beyond "eat living human flesh." A good writer/filmmaker/game developer can make a great story out of this, but those who are less talented have resorted to making zombies some sort of powerful monster, not unlike Stephanie Meyers changed vampires to serve her purposes. The fear of zombies comes from three things: the uncountable horde, the fact that their nerve endings are dead and thus they will not stop no matter what damage you inflict until the brain is destroyed, and the fact that a single bite could turn you or someone close to you (especially someone close to you). Play off these three things, and you have the makings for a great zombie story.

Also, make it about the people. Make this a character-centric drama. That's what these survival-horror movies are supposed to be about, the bonding and/or driving apart of a group in the context of a terrifying phenomenon. Focus on them, develop them, extract drama from their situations, their stresses, their feelings and relationships. That is where this genre should excel, and the replacement of these principles with "everything blows up" is what has made modern disaster movies suck so bad. Make it a character drama in the context of a zombie outbreak, and it will be compelling and awesome.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

So, I'm sure that you're all sick of zombies, after all, they're everywhere, and on this particular site, there are about 6,000 "WUTZ UR ZOMBIE SIRVIVUL PLANN????!/1?!?!1!?!?!?!1111!!" threads every week. The upside, is that we all know what to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse, assuming you even click on those threads anymore.

But I've been on a bit of a zombie kick lately, after watching 28 Weeks Later and remembering that we owned both Left 4 Dead games at my dad's house (still want a PS3 port, I don't care about complications, Valve) and now I want to write a good zombie story.

Key word being good. Only problem is that zombies have been done to death, and I refuse to do anything too cliche.

So I want to ask for your help, Escapists. Help me write a short story about Zambiez. Yes, I spelled it that way intentionally.

For starters, I was thinking of having it be based on virus, in a suburb which is just outside of a city (and by default, an airport , and it would probably be following a main character who is around the age of 12-14 going out of country with his family as the "infection" is just starting, so the majority of people would likely be non-infected, and the area would still be free of military/government presence and there would be minimal complications for international travel.

Like maybe a 20/80 ratio of infected people to the non-infected people's advantage.

I also wanted the virus to only be infectious to those who don't have Blue or Gray irises, mostly because I read somewhere that the gene for Blue and Gray irises is quite rare, and that the large majority of the world has Brown, Hazel, Green, Amber and even Red (Albinism) irises.

Also, that would seem at least semi realistic, that people with a semi-common trait are immune, while others with a major gene are not so lucky.

In the instance of Heterochromia (spelling? Also, it's basically multicolored eyes/one eye is X color, while the other is Y color) where the person has one Blue or Gray iris, and one, let's say Brown iris, maybe they'll have 50/50 odds, or they'll be able to catch the disease and exhibit some symptoms but will for the most part remain human?

Of course, that may be taking too much inspiration from the 28 series...

In any case, I was thinking of having the main characters' family consist of 8 people, himself, 3 siblings, both parents, and his recently widowed Grandfather.

Grandfather, Mother, 1 sibling and main character would all have Blue eyes, while everybody else would have brown, green etc.

Is that even possible? I read somewhere that both parents had to have blue eyes to pass that trait to their offspring... I dunno, I know barely anything about genetics outside of the bare basics.

Anyways, I did the whole "split the iris color in the family" thing in case I wanted to make things interesting or write another story where I wanted to make things interesting.

And finally, I have no idea where I want the story to take place, because I don't want to do the U.S., and I don't want to do any island countries because that pretty much makes it too easy to contain/the U.S. has been done to death as the apocalypse source.

Also, I am intent on this, because once I become obsessed with a topic, I don't stop being obsessed for a while, also, people who help me will be given credit. Just in case you were wondering.

Hey don't quote the song if you dont post it

 

[Pariah87]

Just to help with the iris thing, it is possible for a parent with brown eyes to carry the blue recessive gene, Bb, and the other parent is blue eyed, bb, roughly there is a 50-50 chance of creating blue eyed offspring.

Of course it's slightly more complicated but for the purposes of this story that should cover you.

Curious, but do you think a recessive gene person (for the situation asked about above) would also be immune to the zombie-virus, resist it slightly but still be overcome, or have no difference than the average person? Just asking because this is kind of a cool topic.

(sorry if I happen to double post)

I've tried to expand a little more in my first post when an idea came to me, I think the answer is in there somewhere :s

 

[DeepComet5581]

Wait, what? You've started with a topic about zombies and ended with a topic about genetics? As long as one parent has a dominant Blue eye gene, there will be a 50% chance of the child having Blue eyes. Even if both parents have a recessive gene there is still a 25% chance.

How about Russia as a setting? They're all zombies there anyway, so people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Jokes aside, as said before there is a fair bit of nuclear waste in Russia, so it could create a plausible story for the Apocalypse.

Also, Russia isn't likely to get aid from other countries due to "Political Relations", so it reinforces the Lone Wolf mentality without putting people on an Island. It also means that people won't wait for an airlift out. They are more likely to make their own way out of the country, which would at least keep the story varied (And longer, if that's what you want).

Also, Blue eyes are much more common in Scandinavia, which would mean that more people will survive.

I would also definitely suggest that you make them more traditional zombies i.e. Undead rather than Infected. It would just give it an extra degree of awesomeness.

 

[The Afrodactyl]

Also, what sort of zombies are these?

The "Shaun of the Dead Shamblers", or the "Left 4 Dead Lungers"?

Because this could have a huuuge impact on the way the characters act/react.

 

[Eggsnham]

Just to help with the iris thing, it is possible for a parent with brown eyes to carry the blue recessive gene, Bb, and the other parent is blue eyed, bb, roughly there is a 50-50 chance of creating blue eyed offspring.

Of course it's slightly more complicated but for the purposes of this story that should cover you.

Technically, it's even possible for two brown eyed parents to create a blue eyed child if they both carry the recessive gene, although the percentage drops to roughly 1 in 4.

Edit: Just had a thought if you want to go along with the genetics theme. They would not be "Undead" as such, or "Infected" a la 28 Days/Left for dead, but a simple mutation of human beings.

Over the last however many years, a latent gene has been passed on which has "evolved", initially it was a gene which controlled our aggression levels or lower brain functions, but as we became more civilised it was slowly phased out, or became dormant as the case may now seen. The rise in pollutive chemicals in the atmosphere has triggered this gene into overdrive, with those that have it turning into mindless killers, who due to a constant surge of adrenaline can shrug off most wounds.

This gives them a relatively short lifespan, meaning they need to constantly feed or they starve, the easiest supply of food high in whatever it is they need happens to be humans. They will kill each other if no other food can be located, meaning it's uncommon to see them in large hordes, most likely smallish hunting packs.

Humanity will definately survive this outbreak, at least those without the gene (blue eyes?) if they can secure themselves untill all those who have mutated have burn themselves out or killed each other, doing so however is no easy task. Blue eyes are definately safe, but there is no way of knowing if a brown eyed person carries the pure gene, or the recessive blue. Even then in some cases the recessive isn't enough to stop the change.

The change does not happen all at once, but in waves, over say a 2-3 week period. It's possible for the first wave to entirely burn themselves out and everyone thinking "Wtf just happened?" before the second and successive waves turn, each increasing in size and danger presented.


Sorry if that's difficult to understand or closely resembles the 28 Days/Weeks franchise, it's been a long time since I've seen either so I can't remember exactly how they work.

I'm really liking your ideas!

I've heard somewhere that adrenaline aids in the process of metabolizing muscle, so maybe the mutated folks would need food high in protein and the most convenient source is other humans, and if the story's location is Russia as a few people have suggested, then there would be far less wildlife than your average place and the mutants would absolutely need to turn to humans.

There may also be competition among these "hunting packs". Like if one pack finds a family of non-infected individuals at the same time that another does, there may be some mutant/mutant/human conflict.

Sorry if I misunderstood and inadvertently butchered your ideas.

 

[Pariah87]

Snip.

No that's pretty much exactly what I had in mind. If in somewhere like Russia, the cold would use up energy stores quicker meaning any mutated would be even more inclined to go for the first thing they see instead of searching for alternate food sources.

The mutated will also feed on regular food aswell though, say they run across a supermarket or food storage warehouse, they'd probably find alot of mutated (possibly stronger due to being well fed and full of energy) gorging themselves on regular food.

As for the packs, could they be based on family or social groups to show that the mutants haven't lost all of their humanity, they are just simply a warped version of it? I'm picturing perhaps a team of loggers or miners, or squads of soldiers hunting together as they had a close bond before the turn, families aswell would probably stick together.

That could then create problems if members of the protagonists family were to turn, would they stay loyal to their loved ones? Would they remain loyal at first only to turn as the hunger increases or would it be a genetic trait in the mutated genes they identify with and turn immediately on their former family?

Of course, these aren't traditional zombies like others have stated they would prefer to see, so as a "zombie story" it probably wouldn't go down to well.

 

[Eggsnham]

Snip.

No that's pretty much exactly what I had in mind. If in somewhere like Russia, the cold would use up energy stores quicker meaning any mutated would be even more inclined to go for the first thing they see instead of searching for alternate food sources.

The mutated will also feed on regular food aswell though, say they run across a supermarket or food storage warehouse, they'd probably find alot of mutated (possibly stronger due to being well fed and full of energy) gorging themselves on regular food.

As for the packs, could they be based on family or social groups to show that the mutants haven't lost all of their humanity, they are just simply a warped version of it? I'm picturing perhaps a team of loggers or miners, or squads of soldiers hunting together as they had a close bond before the turn, families aswell would probably stick together.

That could then create problems if members of the protagonists family were to turn, would they stay loyal to their loved ones? Would they remain loyal at first only to turn as the hunger increases or would it be a genetic trait in the mutated genes they identify with and turn immediately on their former family?

Of course, these aren't traditional zombies like others have stated they would prefer to see, so as a "zombie story" it probably wouldn't go down to well.

All very good ideas, I thank you and the other folks who have helped, and I'm now off to boot up Microsoft word and write for a while.