The Infection

[Deathknight13]

Hello, as a side note the title of the thread is the title of my up coming (and first) story,
As probably obvious it is about zombies.

I wanted to ask about what people dont want to see and do, i plan on not
having it just be a cliche mess of slow zombies and bad writing.

Since this is my first story i would be very grateful for some pointers. If anyone
wants to answer I have a few questions about the opinons on zombies and such.

A. Would you rather see a story with slow but very tough zombies or a story
with fast and slightly frail "sprinting" zombies as the main center of the zombie story??
Or maybe somewhere inbetween?

B.If the "outbreak" occured in a heavily populated city, and it was
the result of a chemical or medicine gone wrong, how fast would the
response be do you think? I mean how long or how easily would people able
to barricade doors and/or defend their homes?

C.What do you think the mental state of the majority of the people would be?
Of course scared being one, but how do you think people would deal with the situation
for the most part?

Thanks in advance for any help and If you want i'll keep you updated on my progress.

[End Master]

We just had a thread about zombie stuff. Read here for more info and opinions on a couple of your questions.

http://forums.infinite-story.com/showthread.php?t=355

As far as your zombie speed and strength question...

Either zombies are fine. I sort of think zombies could be fast or "human speed" the fresher they are. So I say the newer dead are faster than the old rotten ones.

As far as strength is concerned I don't see them really being any stronger than humans. Again, the fresher they are, the stronger they would be.

Keep us posted.

[xnull]

Deathknight, I am also writing a zombie story; I am not sure that it is fair for me to give you pointers.

My story focuses more on the interpersonal relationships and the struggle for control over a small city of people. It is about self exploration I guess - your character finds some dark secrets about the major players in the city (church, state, and terrorist group), finds his place amongst one of them and deals with the zombie invasion as you/he sees fit.

Stupid decisions get you killed, smart decisions keep you alive. That is except for sometime when luck or fate have a taste in addition to the zombie onslaught.

A. It absolutely depends on if you want to make it survival against the zombies or not. I can tell you right now I find fast zombies much more threatening. The characters have to run as fast as they can against the shells of humans hellbent on their consumption. Each step the exhaustion sinking deeper, they start to wonder if they should pretend to trip and just end it - they have seen other eaten and it seems like a quicker death than the coal in their lungs.

However, slower zombies definitely have their place, especially if you are going for a classic zombie story. If you want to stay true to the grassroots, go for slow zombies. They can be exciting too, just not every encounter will be action packed. They are threatening because they pop up in places the characters don't expect and may come in amazing swarms.

B. If we are talking this day in age, everyone would blame it on terrorism and be done with it. Remember the fires in California? People started shouting "terrorist" and a month later revealed it was kids playing with matches. I also think it depends on the city. My final answer is this: the response would come too late for a lot of people (and a lot of people would refuse to acknowledge the truth). The problem with zombies is that for every person you are late to help, you've helped the zombie horde increase its numbers instead.

C. Referencing numerous disasters...
Saint Helen: There will be people who refuse to leave and who will waste time and energy of the response.
New Orleans: There will be people who loot and steal and take this as an opportunity for self benefit.
Pompeii: People will insist that they must stay and record what is happening. They need to be part of the history and they need to record it so other people know how it happened.
Herculaneum: People will blame the events on superstitions they had before the events.

We'll always have politicians. Suddenly abortions and being green will be put on the backburner.

Snakeoil solutions for bites and scratched will come into style. The FDA won't be there checking everyone's ointment to make sure we aren't getting ripped off.

[Deathknight13]

Thanks for your input, I agree with the idea that decayed zombies should become slower, but my story does not really have any "zombies" that are truly dead, sure they look dead but they are just infected. xnull thanks for the info, i'll make sure to put those types in my story, the looting and irrational behavior. I'll be sure to take a look at the thread End Master posted.

I like the idea that people would refuse and mock the reality of the situation, I was thinking that the city was more like New York, although my city is fabricated the feeling of the city is very similiar. I was planning on using a type of viral medicine (of course originally designed to help people) instead mutates because of various reason.

The idea for my zombies is for them to be fully capable of anything you or I are, they are pretty much enraged and totally irrational living humans.

As a side note I only have a handful of rooms completed, but i'm more focused on making each choice and room quality, not just spam poorly constructed one sentence rooms.

[Ryan_DuBois]

A. I personally would rather see faster zombies (I'm indifferent to the strength of them), if only because I think humans (especially nowadays) would absolutely slaughter slow-moving zombies. I can see a few exceptions to this -- pherhaps if over 80% of the population was initially infected, it would be a challenge to survive -- but I think in the real world, a person with any kind of long-range weapon, or an extended blade would be able to kill at least four slow zombies before being bit or killed.

And fast zombies are probably (a little) less cliched.

B. I think this depends on how many people are directly infected, right from the "get-go". As soon as there's enough zombies to attract the attention of the media, the vast majority people are going to begin responding.

C. I think you'd you'd get a lot of mixed responses... If I were in a city with the fast zombies, I'd probably go into the tallest building and run to the top, barricading every door along the way. But there's definitely folks who would try to drive off in their vehicles, or even outrun the zombies. As far as the mental state of people goes, I think about 75% of people would be thrown into complete panic, if only because of the strange unreality of the situation. About 5% would think that it's some kind of hoax, and the rest would be the semi-calm "survivalists".

But of course, it still depends on a lot of stuff.

I really don't think that anybody's going to be too hard on you if some of the things in this story don't seem all that realistic; after all, who can say they've actually witnessed a zombie attack?

[Usoki]

Personally, I've never been fascinated by zombies- I find them a bit boring as far as the horror genre goes, and between my distaste for gore and for the undead, I'm just all around not a big fan. I'd have to say, though, there's one thing you said that confuses/interests me.

The idea for my zombies is for them to be fully capable of anything you or I are, they are pretty much enraged and totally irrational living humans.

Why make them zombies, then? Why not make them a breed of superhumans that started out being a beneficial transformation, but then the adverse side effects slowly start to show themselves? Drift away from the zombie bit and focus on the disease / genetic mutation bit. I don't see the point of attaching your story to an overused, overhyped genre if you're ignoring most of what defines a zombie.

[End Master]

Sounds like he's going more for 28 Days Later rather than Dawn of the Dead.

There are countless debates between zombie fanatics about whether the 28 series can be classified as "zombie movies", but I'm guessing DeathKnight does, hence his "zombie" designation.

EDIT: Actually it's sort of odd that we don't have an overabundance of zombie stories on here.

Zombie Stories
The Walking Dead
Zombie Inferno
City of the Dead
2023

And 2023 is the only one that's well written.

[Sven Smokevich]

Gangstas, mos def. Never done seen zombies and gangbangers on da same page up in hurr. Aw yeh, drug-dealin' checkholders sellin' zombie juice, zombie powder to strung-out teens and chain-slingin Harley cowboys funked out 2 da max, groovin away on dat bebop, throwin down and freerunning Montgomery style...

[Deathknight13]

sven smokevich: what? lol

End Master: Well I don't really want to compare it to 28 days later, because I find the Idea of that infection spreading in seconds ridiculous, but I find that calling my creatures 'zombies' pretty close to what they are. animalistic and totally crazed. The length of the infection on humans is about 24 hours.They are pretty much isane asylum lock ups hyped up on various drugs and PcP

Usoki: Well its kind of a mixed thing, i'm going with a more original approach in which the unlikey idea of people getting up from death is not part of the story. To your question about the genetic thing, its more or less present day, and a sort of medicine is released. People are probably not expecting anything like this to happen.

Ryan_DuBois: I perfer fast zombies as well, mostly because in my story, the beginning of the story is really just a large outbreak admist a major city, slow zombies wouldn't really be much of a problem, the military would simply come in with flamethrowers and torch all of them. I more or less agree that most people would be in shock or disbelief, especially people from other parts of the country or world.

Thanks for the input

Edit: I've seen 2023, its pretty cool, just short right now, the rest of those are not really a very good read, didn't get past the first couple pages

[End Master]

sven smokevich: what? lol

Basically Sven wants to see a zombie story from the gang banger or ghetto perspective.

They've actually done that to a limited degree in a few of the comics I've read. And I'm pretty sure there's a least one zombie movie set in Da Hood. (I'll try to find it later)

[donteatpoop]

Dragavan has a zombie story he started, but I think it's only like one or two rooms. In a few years he may have it at 20 se we can see it.

[End Master]

Here's your zombie 'hood film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467149/

Apparently it sucks though, and they aren't even proper zombies.

[Usoki]

I'm just confused about how it's a zombie story, except that every recognizable feature that zombies have is being modified. But it's still a zombie story. They're alive, fast, and superhuman from genetic modification, but they're still zombies. Really.

My favorite weird twist in the genre that I've stumbled upon was a comic series where the last of the humans were being kept alive by vampires, because if they didn't protect their humans from the zombies, they'd starve. But, barring those few awesome twists...the whole genre is just overdone. Or so I think. I've never seen the allure, so assumedly I'd like the repetition a whole lot more if I actually cared about any of them.

[Ryan_DuBois]

The genre has been overdone -- no doubt about it -- but really, so has just about every other genre on the planet (at least to an extent). Especially in horror we see recurring things, such as ghosts, skeletons, witches, vampires, robots, zombies... the list goes on.

I really don't know whether it would matter if they were still called zombies or not; if they still want to eat brains, or if they need human meat to survive, I think it would be okay to call them zombies.

But Usoki is probably right... you should either add some more zombie-defining characteristics to these beings, or scrap the name altogether. Either way, I'm still stoked to read this!

[End Master]

About the only problem I have with using the term "zombie" in this case is the fact that they aren't dead. In my opinion zombies should be "dead". (Yep I'm one of those that doesn't classify 28 Days as a zombie movie)

They can be fast, they can be cybernetic, they can be genetically modified, they can be wearing funny little hats, but ultimately they have to be dead. (Unless you were doing a story about "voodoo zombies" but that's a whole other topic.)

Still it's your story, so call them whatever you like, as long as you're putting an effort into writing it, which it seems like you are.

[Deathknight13]

I can see all of your points, about the genre being overdone. But I don't think the technicalities are as important, most zombies are dead, and maybe my creatures aren't zombie in your minds. As for them being genetically mutated, I supposed you could say that, their aggression certainly is.

My progress so far is going rather slow, I'm working on refining the 7-9 rooms I have now, because I don't want the story to get rushed. I'm also considering reforming it in various ways. Other than that I am working on story elements and trying to get more of the story planned.

[Usoki]

But I'm also saying that your story wouldn't be cliche if you changed the name of the creatures from something else. You're ignoring most of their traits, so by calling them zombies you're actually confusing the reader. They'll assume a lot of things about the zombies that, in your story, are not actually true.

You're ignoring most of what a zombie is, and you're leaving the negative stereotypes by using the name. Why keep the bad if you're ignoring the good? That's just me, anyway.

[Sven Smokevich]

And throw in some gangstas, dog, know what I'm sayin'? Buncha chain-swingin hoods runnin roofs doin drugs killin shit can't miss. Maybe the zombies is psychoactive or some shit, y'know, so they hunt em down and sell what parts mess a brotha up. Or you safe from what bit your ass if you down an 8 ball, so the checkholders cash in mad stacks. Gang wars go down, aight, Montgomery on top. Yeh, boy. Holla!

[End Master]

Well for now I'd suggest on just making it a good story. You can always change the name later.

If you want some other examples of "infected" ideas you could watch Rabid and The Crazies. Both of those have masses of people that go insane and violent. (Mostly through some bio experiment or weapon) They came out way before 28 Days Later too. I think there's another one out called "The Rage" which was probably trying to jump on the success of 28 Days.

[Deathknight13]

Heh, usoki you seem pretty adamant about that, but I can see your point. I suppose they aren't actually zombies, and maybe I shouldn't call them that. Although I don't really know what to call them, suggestions are always welcome.

I think i'm persuaded to say they're not actually zombies. But its the closest .....er word for a creature I could think of. And it wasn't until I started writing it I decided what they were exactly. I was thinking of them being dead fast zombies, or dead slow zombies. But they eventually just became what they could be, 'The Infected'

I did NOT feel good yesterday :D Didn't get anything done really then, i'm gonna work more on the story today

[Usoki]

^_^ Yeah, I'm a stubborn bastard. Though, around here, I don't really register more than a blip on the ol' asshole-o-meter. I'm nice by comparison, really.

Well, if that's what they are- call them that. If you call them the Infected, with a capital letter, it ceases to be a common noun, and becomes a proper noun. That makes it a name, and you can call them that, if you want. It totally works. It's your story; do what you want. Of course, by that logic, you can call them zombies if you really want- it is your story- but I'll bitch about it to the very end. XD