Disappear

[alleyalligator]

I never did enjoy horror movies.  I never saw the appeal of all those blood and guts and gore and for what?  So we can play guess who’s going to die next?  Put bets on how creative their demise is?  Give me a nice romcom any day and keep your torture porn, thank you very much.

Maybe if I had been a fan, I’d have been better prepared.  A virus, they

Comments

[jacq22]

This could be expanded, great story. We know about the lies told by the media.... Here in Australia they never told the public about bombs on Darwin. Huge chunks of the truth were obliterated.

[alleyalligator]

Oh there are so many lies fed to us through the media it's not funny. If I were to revisit this, that's definitely one of the themes I'd examine.

...

[ellakite]

BRAINS!!!!

BRAINS!!!!

BRAINS!!!!

absolutely loved this. thanks for sharing.

Re: ...

[alleyalligator]

:D Thanks.

[halfshellvenus]

I love the idea, though it has its own awfulness, of being trapped between the two opposing worlds. The narrator might be a danger to humans, and so avoids them, and can't be sure the zombies won't someday eat her/him. Perpetual vigilance and loneliness.

Some concrit: I found myself wondering where Gareth suddenly came from. The narrator says I was visiting a friend. I'd think Gareth came with the narrator (which would be "we" and not "I"(, but he abandons her too easily. Perhaps "visiting friends"? Then he isn't so unexpected, and his leaving seems less callous. I also found myself distracted by the phrase "full pelt" instead of "full tilt," but Googled it and saw that it was strictly British. 'Pelts' are only ever animal skins over here. so it looked like some conflation of pell-mell and full tilt! Ah, the divisions of language.

Personally I didn’t see it would do us any more good than it had the heavily armed soldiers
Heh. Though at least the narrator's group has some idea of exactly how big the danger is, since they've been

[alleyalligator]

No, Gareth is "the loner from the next staircase" - I should have made that clearer by just giving his name then.

And yes, I am firmly English and thus speak English as she is spoke by the Queen :D

To be honest, I didn't see this as having gone on for weeks so much as a few days or so. I don't know many people who keep enough food around to hole up for that long, which is why they decided to make a break for it. Even the emergency preparation stuff we get only advises to stockpile for three days.

For me, the real horror of this really is the being trapped between two worlds and never knowing whether you'll slip into the darkness of zombiedom or if they might find a cure. It's an idea I'd like to explore when I have more time than the few days Idol prompts allow.

[halfshellvenus]

I don't know many people who keep enough food around to hole up for that long

I'm probably thinking from a "family of four" perspective than a single person's perspective (like the narrator and her friend). Single people DO typically have smaller pantries than families, and not just because families have more people. It's more of a lifestyle/preparedness thing.

Even if it were more than several days, I don't think it matters to the story. Though longer might be better, because the narrator is convinced things are much more dire than the friend or neighbor are. The longer the zombies have been on the loose, undefeated, the more hopeless things look. :0

[alleyalligator]

There's a saying that civilisation is only three meals away from anarchy. I don't think it would take long for things to look extremely bleak indeed.

Thing is, different people respond to different situations differently. So I can see how there would be people that would want to sit tight and wait for the government to rescue them while there would be others who'd want to take action immediately. I've seen far too many horror movies to sit tight and wait for anyone and I know some hard core survivalists that would be just waiting for a situation like this to swing into action, whilst my elderly neighbours would sit tight. In many ways, they wouldn't have much of a choice.

But that's one of the reasons why I'd like to revisit this scenario at some point - to look at things like whether it's best to stay where you are or go, how long food would last, how much faith people would place in a government they know is lying to them. So many questions that need answering that need longer than an Idol piece can give them.

[m_malcontent]

Zombie tales are hard not to make kind of generic, this one is fun and a little cerebral, well done.

[alleyalligator]

Thanks. It's a genre which has had so much done with it, it's fun to try and think of something new while still keeping the zombies as the mindless, shambling beasts they are.