by Joshua Guess
Are we still using chain-link fence for parts of our wall or boundaries?
Not so much. This question makes a lot of sense. Early in The Fall, an easy way to keep zombies out was to use this stuff. It's easy to install and plentiful. Old school zombies have a hard time taking down a good long stretch of chain-link, assuming you've put it up properly and made sure to strengthen it as much as possible. Not as much help against swarms, of course.
Unfortunately most of them come in swarms now. A few dozen bodies pushing on a small enough section will topple it. We used a lot of the stuff in our original wall to span small gaps here and there, but we made sure to back it with a lot of metal piping and anything else we could use. Now, with the coming of the New Breed, it's too risky to use it to protect our home. Not a bad solution for outside farming, though. I'll have to look into it. Our scouts probably know if there's a large supply out there.
We've found a large supply of tazers and don't want to risk finding out if they work on zombies first-hand. Do you know?
I do not, though my best guess is that they won't do much. We've seen raw electricity used against the undead before, but there's a big difference between a device intended to incapacitate but not harm a living person and the juice it takes to run a small factory. Tazers put out a lot of volts but at a relatively low wattage, and the power coming from them isn't nearly enough to cook the parasite controlling the undead. When the folks at North Jackson fried a bunch of zombies with their bottled lightning, they did it with nets of copper wire carrying massive voltages at the wattage needed to power large machinery. The difference is like the light from the moon versus the light from the sun.
And the last question is also the biggest and most important to me, because it matters.
Do you hear from the rest of the world? Do you know what's going on in Europe or Asia? Is there anyone over there still alive?
This one hurts, I won't lie. We don't have much direct communication outside of North America. The bits and pieces we do hear--such as the tsunami that hit Japan a while back--are usually from the handful of brave souls willing to travel and share news that eventually spreads. Becky saw a large portion of Europe and the middle east as she made her way back to America, but the news isn't great. They face many of the same problems we do and on even larger scales--there are a lot more people on that side of the world. those continents are all connected and suffer accordingly. Becky has stories about the chaos and destruction, though there are (or at least, were) good people over there trying to manage just as we are.
The reason this question bothers me is many-layered. I've been busy a lot lately, then not nearly as much once I had my surgery. I could have spent some of my free time thinking about those people so far away, maybe trying to ferret out information and build relationships with anyone over there who might be able to access what remains of the internet. They're human beings, after all, and worthy of consideration and friendship just like anyone else.
But I didn't do that. In fact, I've put very little thought into the world outside of what I can reach by land for the very simple reason that I can't do a goddamn thing for them. There are probably people who would be happy to hear a new voice, to commiserate and share news. I haven't done it because I spend enough time worrying about my own people that I'm probably going to have a heart attack by the time I'm thirty-five. If I don't get killed long before then.
The idea of growing close to someone so far away, learning their nuances, the trials they go through, making friends, has some appeal. Enough that the practical side of me wavers a little when I think about it. I make the conscious decision not to pursue that desire because none of us can afford to use time and energy worrying about people we can never do a thing to help. Which is awful.
Not just the people, either. Europe, Asia, Africa, the middle east, India...the continents and countries that make up the eastern hemisphere are packed with human history. We began there and spread, learning and growing on the move. Technology, philosophy, art, religion, and every other element that is part of the human mind and soul springs from there. Countless works of thought and beauty, written words and paintings and architecture, are probably gone. I'm sure some folks try to protect them for future generations, but that's where the truth hits home.
My job, everyone's job, is to make sure there are future generations. Which means doing what we can and ignoring distractions we have no control over. Hurts my heart to say it, but it needed to be said.
If you've got any questions, leave them as comments on this post and I'll do another one of these in a few weeks.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
The Noble Octopus
Posted by Josh Guess
I'm almost afraid to say it for fear of urging the universe to make a total dick move and ruin it, but things are...quiet. Good. Calm. Relatively safe and happy.
Nothing? No sounds of battle or sudden waves of zombies? Okay. Dodged a bullet that time.
The only thing of significance going on right now other than Jess being cleared to work some light duty and me being allowed the same is that George and a group of folks are readying the boats to head back upriver. This trip is more relaxed, and we've got scouts out searching all the nooks and crannies they can find in order to locate more supplies of diesel fuel. Eventually, I'm told, we will be able to produce biodiesel, which can apparently be used in regular diesel engines, or so I'm told. Our supplies are going to be low after this trip, the subsequent unloading and transport of supplies, etc. We'll need to stock back up.
But that's about it. Most things are relaxed at the moment, I'm somehow caught up on my work, and Will gave me the day off because he's making some runs out with Dodger to inspect some of our distant hiding spots. Basically, I have the day to write about anything I want, and nothing big is happening. So I'm going to do a post I've been putting off for a long time due to its speculative nature, because I've wanted to do it forever and I'm pretty sure my guesses aren't far from the truth.
To that end: some theories about the zombie plague, and what it has to do with my favorite undersea creature.
The thing that really bugs me about the evolution of the undead over the last two years is how damn quick it happened. Natural evolution takes more years than we can count. Just look at the wonderful, noble octopus. It's a fantastic beast, able to change color and texture to match its surroundings easily. Octopuses (which is an acceptable pluralization, I assure you) have been observed in nature using logical tactics, utilizing tools, and displaying a tremendous array of applications of intellect.
In short, an octopus is a creature that has evolved over thousands of centuries to be an intelligent survivor. So why has the zombie plague adapted and changed so much in such a short time? I think many of you probably have the same idea I've been knocking around in my head for a long time. I think it was man-made.
Granted, I doubt that the extreme adaptability of the plague was intentional. I think someone, probably a government, wanted to make a super-bug to do...something. Maybe kill people, maybe affect their higher brain functions. I don't know. But whatever the case was, no one counted on the thing mutating and spreading the way it did.
Rapid mutations in pathogens aren't uncommon. The HIV microbe is probably the most famous for that. The damn thing changed so much and so often that teams of dedicated researchers around the globe were barely able to keep up with tracking the new strains, much less combating them. The zombie plague is far more complex than HIV, yet right up until The Fall, conspiracy theorists still believed HIV was man-made. The elegance of the disease--wiping out the immune system to let other diseases wreak havoc--even made me wonder from time to time if those folks weren't right.
If you want the bare-bones truth, I'm surprised zombies aren't all smarter than they are, New Breed and Smarties included. Think about it: the plague infiltrates the body, builds tendrils in the brain to copy its basic motor functions. You'd think a person who dies and comes back under the plague's co
ntrol would have access to the higher functions like reasoning and problem solving. After all, the disease copies what our brains can do, right?
Of course, that's an oversimplification. The human brain works on very small scales and is ridiculously complex. No man-made microbe could hope to capture the totality of the thing. But we've seen it try. The new breed have basic problem-solving skills and are learning to use tools.
The learn. If an octopus can do it, surely the reanimated corpse of the most intelligent animal on earth can manage the same. Maybe the virus (or whatever the plague is) was designed to be limited and dumb in the beginning, making it easier to control and only progressing after several generations of cell division. That's not out of the realm of scientific possibility, though it stretches the boundaries quite far.
A simpler answer is that if someone really did make a designer plague, then something went wrong. I think they meant the thing to adapt to a given host, tiny variables from one person to the next based on age, body chemistry, environment and lots of other things. The thing about creating life is that once you let that genie out of the lamp, you have a hell of a time putting it back in. Make a disease that lurks within, growing and copying the host's functions, give it a capacity to alter itself to fit circumstances. and you've got a recipe for variables and insane alterations in the genetic structure of the thing.
Am I right? I don't know. It makes sense to me that something as pervasive and dynamic as the zombie plague was designed and built by people with a very specific purpose. Does it matter? I don't think it does. Nothing we can do about it now and no one to hold accountable for it. Not that we'd have much urge to do so. We have more important things to do, such as struggling to survive and build again.
Just my two pennies.
If zombies start to develop camouflage capabilities, we should be really worried. Then they'd be even more dangerous and harder to kill, PLUS they'd be horning in on the octupus's territory. And we can't have that.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Bottle Rocket
Posted by Josh Guess
When I was a kid, I was utterly terrified of bottle rockets. I'm talking fear of God scared of the things. The reason was simple: while firing one off, my brother and I almost hit another kid. The sound of the explosion was immense to my small and inexperienced ears, and the little girl's dad reacted with fiercely angry words. That stuck with me for a long time. That might have been the first real experience I had with serious consequences.
So when some of you asked what we did to keep the Exiles from breaking the truce and hitting the barges, I thought of that story. So much of survival and daily living now has to do with weighing the repercussions of our actions. The Exiles know that with the river between us there isn't an easy way to wage war. Both sides have suffered heavy losses and need to rebuild and repair. We've lived under a truce for a while now and peaceful (if extremely tense) coexistence has a certain momentum. The zombies are threat enough for anyone, so not having to worry about getting your genitals shot off has tons of appeal.
The Exiles were watching for the barges. That was a given. There was never a point where any of us were sure they wouldn't break the terms of the truce and try to take them. Will was confident they wouldn't, though admitted the possibility that it might happen, because his assessment of Scar is that the guy is brutal and without mercy, but ultimately intelligent and practical. Right now the Exiles are busting ass to grow food and build some kind of future. A fight with us would be way too risky.
But still, we saw them watching. Patrolling the river. We couldn't know it was safe. The temptation, however small, was there. Easy targets with literally tons of useful gear. When baited with treasure, even the most powerful self-control can be tested to the limit. People do stupid things when personal profit is on the line.
We hedged our bets. By which I mean George had a large number of his people sitting on top of the shipping containers with rocket launchers.
Yeah, the Exiles weren't the only ones who raided a military depot. A lot of people aren't thrilled about it, but now that the danger is over I can say it: George didn't leave all those boxes empty. There's a lot of firepower in there, enough to make a huge difference for us. As New Haven has policies against most large-scale weapons (which we group rocket launchers and similar weapons with) they will only be used for defense. We aren't going to suddenly go to war with anyone just because we've got the ability to deal heavy blows. Warmongering isn't of interest to us.
George's current group will be bringing back fuel and more shipping containers this time. They transported all the important and dangerous stuff on the first trip. Granted, there will be folks on top of the crates doing the same thing this time, RPGs and heavy rifles aimed at the east side of the river. Just a precaution in case the other side gets upset that they didn't attack the first time. I think we've reached an unspoken understanding. But just in case it's not clear, I'll spell it out in simple terms.
You won't catch us off guard. We will never break the truce, but the second you do we'll retaliate with overwhelming and devastating force. You might even win that first skirmish, but you'll damn well know you were in a fight. We won't just bloody your nose if you attack. We'll bite that fucker off and spit it in your face.
Cheerful and positive, I know. Just needed to be said.
Now, I'm off to do some light gardening with my wife. I'm allowed to kneel and pull weeds at least and the annex farm never seems to run out of those. It's nice out right now. A few hours tending to growing things next to the woman I love sounds amazing, don't you think? That's what I'mprotecting. Why I'm all too happy to fight back with wild abandon. I think the Exiles know perfectly well that any action against us will bring unexpected but certain ruin own upon them. I don't have any more chemical weapons handy, but test me and I'll come up with something creative. And this time?
Everyone will be behind me. Have a great day, neighbors. We're watching you.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Weeds
Posted by Josh Guess
It's kind of rare that we come across anything that gives us a good laugh nowadays, but yesterday was definitely one for the books. A pair of our two-man scout teams were way out in the boonies looking for fuel when they saw this bright green patch of plants in an otherwise dying wooded area. Thinking it might be something edible, they went to check it out.
It was pot. A truly ludicrous amount of it.
It makes sense. Kentucky has always been one of the higher domestic producers of marijuana, and growing up here it always seemed strange to me that when I went back home to Illinois to visit, there weren't a lot of people smoking. It was just a thing a lot of folks here did, like eating hamburgers or playing golf. That being the case, a lot of people grew it until the zombie plague came and brought The Fall with it.
Thinking about it, I'm kind of surprised we haven't run into this before. Cannabis is a plant, after all. People grew it. Once the undead ran off or killed people, the crops were left untended. They're tough plants that can grow just about anywhere, with little need of outside help. They really are weeds.
We had the scouts mark the location. There aren't any pharmaceutical companies anymore, so we have to get medicines where we can find them. THC isn't anyone's first choice for a painkiller, but there are lots of other things the drug does pretty well. Will would rather not have a bunch of stoned guards on duty, so for the time being we're earmarking it solely for medical use. Evans and Phil apparently have extensive expertise in this area, and yes, they said that with a straight face.
I know there was some research being done just before The Fall about the effect of cannabinoids on the growth of tumors and the spread of cancer, and Phil's an Oncologist. So maybe that's legit. He claims to know a bunch of things THC is good for, which is great news if true. I don't know much about it myself. The last time I tried it was college, and the experience wasn't all that captivating for me.
But if it can help peo
ple, we'll use it.
I'm a little disappointed that we don't have any hemp seeds. The major difference between the two is that hemp has stronger and more versatile fibers, capable of making many items. The whole hemp plant is useful to no end, but we haven't been able to grow any. The marijuana plant just doesn't have the same utility, sadly. Ah, well. We can hold out hope that we'll come across some abandoned home eventually, stocked to the gills with smuggled hemp seeds. It would be nice to be able to make things from a renewable supply of material, but we aren't going to count on it.
Still, this is a nice surprise. Funny when you think about what this kind of discovery would be like in a world still functioning under the old laws and ways of thinking. I've never been one of those people who were gung-ho on legalizing pot, but I never quite understood why some drugs were outlawed while others weren't. Just kind of makes me scratch my head. It's not like the stuff is crystal meth or heroin, you know? People are strange.
Perspective matters, though. What was once a controversial if popular recreational drug (and sometime legally prescribed narcotic) is now a reasonably effective medicine that has a host of uses. Now, if we can just find a functional oil refinery sitting on top of its own oil well, we'll be set. None of us are really holding our breath for that.
