Skip to main content

Zombie Farmers and more (Zombie Ecology cnt'd)

Last weekend I had a discussion on my Zombie Ecology post with Aaron Dickey, longtime friend of my eldest son Karston and hardcore zombie film fan.  So we're going to indulge in some more zombie story idea-play.

From my previous post, it so happens that one of the ideas I thought was original was not.  Zombie animals have been done before, though they became so from eating infected humans and/or general splatter rather than the way I proposed it.  But my question, "What do zombies eat? (when not eating humans)" was one Aaron hadn't encountered before.  So let's continue with that for a bit.

What zombies eat depends on the type of zombie we are imagining:  1.  Supernatural black-magic zombies:  These don't need to eat anything, but they don't spread any zombie "disease" either, so their numbers don't automatically grow--so not even in often-inconsistent fiction will these guys be likely to take over the world.  2.  Infectious dumb zombies:  These zombies need to eat when not gnawing on the flesh of human survivors, but they don't have the brains to find food for themselves very well.  Their infectious nature means they have the potential to take over planet Earth, but their inability to feed themselves means they will probably die out some time afterward.  3.  Infectious smart zombies:  Aaron informed me scenarios exist where zombies are clever.  While this is not the most popular interpretation of this monster, it does exist.  So with this type of "zombieism," the creatures being infections, they could take over the world and would have the smarts to sustain themselves afterwards.  Under their attack planet Earth would become and remain, "Planet of the Zombies" (assuming no pesky interference by heroic survivor types...).

So these smart zombies, once they mop up what's left to be eaten of ordinary humans, naturally are going to turn to farming to provide for themselves.  Smart zombies are still mean and aggressive, so I don't see any of them becoming vegans or eating tofu.  They'd probably prefer raising animals like sheep or cattle...and then enjoy slaughtering the animals with their bare hands and mouths...(sorry if that's too gruesome--these are monsters, please bear in mind).

So imagine a story set in a planet of self-sustaining smart zombies.  Aaron Dickey and I talked this out and he suggested an original story idea:  What if on this all-monster world, zombies started reverting back to being human?  Certain ones started to change appearance to what we would recognize as normal, no longer wanted to eat their meat while still alive, and started loving and caring for one another?  There haven't ever been any zombie stories like that.  And that could even have a strong spiritual application, couldn't it?  How everyone thinks it's normal to be brutal, but some are starting to change into something kinder and more loving, rediscovering what "human" was always supposed to be...

I thought of an alternative, which I first suggested with a tongue-in-cheek attitude.  What if the planet is taken over by zombies (or is in the process of being taken over), but the planet has a military defense network capable of building war robots, as in the Terminator movies?  Then you could have a "Zombies vs. Terminator" scenario...

I meant that as a joke at the time, but using some sort of robotic system to fight zombies could seriously be done in a story.  Imagine, a world infested with zombies, a small band of humans desperately trying to stay alive...their only hope lies in intelligent military robots, who may or may not be on their side.  I don't see any direct spiritual application to such a story, but maybe there's something I simply haven't noticed.

Oooh, and what about an Amish setting in an all-zombie world?  Might be worth looking into, as might one of these other story ideas.  Think 'em over, anyway...

ttp


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Peter Jackson's Ring of Power

As Gandalf famously stated in the Fellowship of the Ring, the Ring of Power appealed to the good-hearted and heroic wizard, giving him a desire to use it for good. But in fact, as every LOTR fan knows, it   cannot   be done. The Ring of Power will eventually corrupt every person who attempts to use it into an evil being. Watching the Fellowship of the Ring movie last night reminded me of this principle. The fact that evil   cannot  be used for good is one of the things I love most about The Lord of the Rings. It’s a powerful statement about the attempt human beings make over and over again to gain power supposedly for good—which simply cannot be done by evil means. Not without   becoming   evil. By the way, back when it was first released, I strenuously objected to the plot changes Peter Jackson put into the Fellowship of the Ring. No, for me, the original story was quite good enough and didn’t need to be streamlined or “Hollywoodized” or anything of the sort. When Frodo s

7 Ways to Deal with the Problem Magic Poses Christian Fantasy Writers

First off, what is the problem with magic for Christians? Or sorcery? Or witchcraft? (Are all of those things even the same?) An entire book could be written on this topic (perhaps I'll do that someday) but to keep this as brief as possible, the short reason this is a problem is the Bible has nothing good to say about the practice of magic (neither does extra-Biblical Christian tradition). No translation of Scripture will record the 12 Disciples watching Jesus walk on the water and say, "Wow, that was magical!" Nor is the mana falling from heaven in Israel's wilderness wanderings described as some kind of powerful spell that Moses used, nor even is his rod described as "magic," even though Moses had the power granted to him by God to turn it into a serpent at whatever time he chose. No, the Bible describes events like these as "miracles," or "signs," or "wonders." On the other hand, when the Bible talks about "mag

Nanite Infested Aliens

Inspired by the history of Europeans coming to the New World carrying bacteria to which the native inhabitants had little to no immunity, I thought: "What if aliens visiting Earth carried their own sort of infection or infestation, to which we humans had no immunity?" Sort of a War of the Worlds scenario in reverse... But I'm sure that sort of thing has already been done by someone, aliens carrying virulent disease(s) humans don't carry. So what if the infestation were of nanites--what  if nanites become a standard part of healthcare for any advanced technological species? (Just as hand washing and sterilization of medical instruments become standard at a certain point of development--once bacteria are discovered and found to be potentially harmful.) So that nanites are literally crawling all over (and inside) the bodies of high-tech aliens (or perhaps time travelers from Earth's distant future). What if these nanites potentially posed a risk to the human race?