zombie short stories

[zombieparanoia]

Heres the thing, I get that bad ass protagonists are overplayed but I think if done properly this idea could work. Based on a terminator timeline, SKYNET designs and sends back the cause of zombies, the resistance as usual is only able to send back a single terminator unit charged to protect John Connor and get him and other humans to safety(wherever that is) until the resistance of the future can design, make and send back a cure using the captured SKYNET technology. I think it could work because even though a terminator is a killer robot and therefore immune to pain, fatigue or zombification it still has to protect the humans it collects from zombies and each other. And a single unit could only kill so many zombies at a time while protecting the humans in transit.

[dracenstein]

Won't work. What if a crucial Skynet employee is killed by a zombie and Skynet itself ceases to exist? Like a software programmer or something.

[Bub666]

Heres the thing, I get that bad ass protagonists are overplayed but I think if done properly this idea could work. Based on a terminator timeline, SKYNET designs and sends back the cause of zombies, the resistance as usual is only able to send back a single terminator unit charged to protect John Connor and get him and other humans to safety(wherever that is) until the resistance of the future can design, make and send back a cure using the captured SKYNET technology. I think it could work because even though a terminator is a killer robot and therefore immune to pain, fatigue or zombification it still has to protect the humans it collects from zombies and each other. And a single unit could only kill so many zombies at a time while protecting the humans in transit. Sounds like it could be good.

[Mutineer]

I have one And ain't sharing it.

[zombieparanoia]

Won't work. What if a crucial Skynet employee is killed by a zombie and Skynet itself ceases to exist? Like a software programmer or something. Thats good too. So Skynet would send a terminator back to protect and therewould be some kind of response from the future resistance or what?

[brer]

Well if the skynet crucial employee is killed, then skynet doesnt exist, then it wont send the cause of a zombie outbreak back in time, then the employee will live, then skynet will exit, then skynet will send the cause of the zombie outbreak back in time,,, ad infitum

[zombieparanoia]

While we're ripping er, borrowing movie ideas I also like the idea of a 12 monkeys kind of hunt for the original zombie, possibly as a person while they are still alive. Or something where the same thing that causes the zombie outbeak causes some kind of random occurrence of "Heroes"superpower type mutations in people. I think this could work because IMHO actually discovering, getting some understanding of and then learning to control spontaneously manifesting superpowers in a perfect world(ie peter parker playing with his powers in spiderman) would be difficult enough but in a zombie outbreak world would be interesting storytelling and also that I think the sudden emergence of people with these powers whatever they are would be met with some fear and suspicion or even exploitation of these people.

[dracenstein]

How about a modified zombie virus sent into the future that reanimates dead machines which go around trashing other machines!

[Wyldwraith]

Hmm, I don't think wildly new plot devices are needed, just sharp attention to detail, attention to the characters involved as thinking/feeling beings, not just acting ones, and something besides the "We're trapped in X place by zombies". If you wanted to mix it up some then don't utilize the zombies directly to pin someone inside a location. As an indirect mechanism, desperately wanting to avoid them making someone terrified of leaving shelter, sure. New settings, or new decisions by protagonists might help shake things up, but the most important thing really is drawing the reader in. Making them care about what happens to the characters and their world. That's only accomplished if the readers can relate in some way to the characters, which is generally why Fearless Zombie-Slayer archetypes often fall flat. Nothing wrong with the protagonists being able to handle themselves (at least some of them), it just can't be what defines them. I've been kicking around an idea about a teenager running from the living dead falling down an old mine shaft and discovering a small but extremely well-supplied shelter that's critical flaw is having no sensory input from the outside once he's inside. Emphasizing his thinking that for all he knows if he opened the shelter door after the first time he went to sleep the mine outside could be completely thick with the zombies that were chasing him. First arc would be with him dealing with being torn between being safe and secure, and his world being reduced to the size of two medium-sized rooms. Second arc would be him finally emerging some months later and dealing with a situation he's now hopelessly out of touch with. ::shrugs:: It's an idea.

[zombieparanoia]

Dracenstein: I think that'll probably be the next zack snyder zombie remake plot. it'll be called "night of the living dead with a greenscreen" I have another story idea. How about if a very small percentage of zombies retain some intelligence and are able to control their urges to eat living people(say 1 in 100,000), one of these zombies for whatever reason retains most or all of his predeceased intelligence levels and happens to meet another zombie like him but with far less retention. So the smart zombie wants to try to fnd the others like him and find some way for the intelligent zombies to develop some kind of community of their own away from the battle between the living and undead. sort of a zombie Moses kind of thing. Won't work. What if a crucial Skynet employee is killed by a zombie and Skynet itself ceases to exist? Like a software programmer or something. I was thinking about this, and it would be easily avoided by simply having the zombie initiator sent back to a point after skynet is constructed but before the nuclear war.

[Bub666]

How about if a very small percentage of zombies retain some intelligence and are able to control their urges to eat living people(say 1 in 100,000), one of these zombies for whatever reason retains most or all of his predeceased intelligence levels and happens to meet another zombie like him but with far less retention. So the smart zombie wants to try to fnd the others like him and find some way for the intelligent zombies to develop some kind of community of their own away from the battle between the living and undead. sort of a zombie Moses kind of thing. That sounds really cool.

[Wyldwraith]

How about if a very small percentage of zombies retain some intelligence and are able to control their urges to eat living people(say 1 in 100,000), one of these zombies for whatever reason retains most or all of his predeceased intelligence levels and happens to meet another zombie like him but with far less retention. So the smart zombie wants to try to fnd the others like him and find some way for the intelligent zombies to develop some kind of community of their own away from the battle between the living and undead. sort of a zombie Moses kind of thing. http://www.brokentype.com/monster/000263.html That's the link to a free e-book called Monster Island. If you read the series (there's a trilogy of books, all free to read, entertaining and right there on the site) you'll find a lot of the elements about various sorts of intelligent zombies of all types. It could be useful to get your creative ichor oozing so to speak (And NO, I am NOT plugging a site. I am in NO way affiliated with the author of those books/admin of that site, or in any other way involved with it as anything more than a web surfer who found the site/read all the books.) BTW, check out Plague Zone on the same site. No intelligent zombies, but it has a significantly different methodology than the GAR universe, while retaining everything cool about Romero's shamblers. (Except for some points of fuzzy motivation by a few characters.)

[brer]

Or an attack on a rural school during the initial outbreak? Medium to fast moving zombies would likely work best to get a good storyline out of this one. Availability of firearms and low population densities would keep slow zombies from being more than a very unnerving experience. Lotsa dying and zombifying kids to add to the fear factor. Community involvement to secure the school. Parental concern for their little rugrats. Authority of deputies and teachers versus common sense. Rural values vice urban values. Lotta different angles that havent been overly played before.

[jim102016]

Or an attack on a rural school during the initial outbreak? Medium to fast moving zombies would likely work best to get a good storyline out of this one. Availability of firearms and low population densities would keep slow zombies from being more than a very unnerving experience. Lotsa dying and zombifying kids to add to the fear factor. Community involvement to secure the school. Parental concern for their little rugrats. Authority of deputies and teachers versus common sense. Rural values vice urban values. Lotta different angles that havent been overly played before. Oh ****, not another plot involving teenagers or college kids. Unless we know from the get-go that it's not a serious type flick. I can't handle another GAR-style letdown. Hasn't one been done about the doc officers? Can't recall!? Does sound familiar, any idea when it was written? I searched earlier to no avail.

[brer]

Nah, I was thinking more along the lines of my local public school. K-12 and less than 200 students. Some teenagers thrown in, but also a lot of young'uns and a lot of teachers. Plus one out of date deputy that wouldnt survive working anywhere else. Plus for some reason, Ive had this really weird adolescent fantasy working for the last twenty something years about seeing one of my coaches eaten by zombies and rescuing a very hot science teacher in distress. Don't worry, I'm getting therapy for it.