Introduction
"We live in a time of relative prosperity. Our health care is excellent, our grocery-store shelves bulge with a huge assortment of fresh foods, and our telecommunication systems are lightening fast. We have cheap transportation, with our cities linked by an elaborate and fairly well-maintained system of roads, freeways, rails, canals, seaports, and airports. For the first time in human history, the majority of the world's population now live in cities.
But the downside to all this abundance is over complexity, overspecialization, and overly long supply chains. In the First World, less than 2 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture or fishing. Ponder that for a moment; just 2 percent of us are feeding the other 98 percent. The food on our tables ofen comes from hundreds if not thousands of miles away. Our heating and lighting are typically provided by power sources hundreds of miles away. For many people, even their tap water travels that far. Our factories produce sophisticated cars and electronics that have sub components that are sourced from three continents. The average American comes home from work each day to find that his refrigerator is well-stocked with food, this lights come on reliably, his telephone works, his tap gushes pure water, his toilet flushes, his paycheck has been automatically deposited into his bank, his garbage had been collected, his house is a comfortable seventy degrees, his televised entertainment is up and running 24/7, and his Internet connection is rock solid. We have built a very Big Machine that up until now has worked remarkably well, with just a few glitches. But that may not always be the case. As Napoleon found out the hard way, long chains of supply and communication are fragile and vulnerable. Someday the Big Machine may grind to a halt.
Imagine the greatest of all influenza pandemics, spread by casual contact-a virus so virulent that is kills more than half of the people infected. And imagine the advance of a disease so rapid that it makes it's way around the globe in less than a week. (Isn't modern jet air travel grand?) Consider that we have global news media that is so rabid for "hot" news that they can't resist showing pictures of men in respirators, rubber gloves, goggles, and Tyvek coveralls wheeling gurneys out of houses, laden with body bags. These scenes will be repeated so many times that the majority of citizens decides, "I'm not going to work tomorrow, or the day after, or in fact until after things get better." But by not going to work, some important cogs will be missing from this Big Machine.
What will happen when the Big Machine is missing pieces? Orders won't get processed at Walmart distribution center. The 18-wheelers won't make deliveries to groceries stores. Gas stations will run out of fuel. Some policemen and firemen won't show up for work, having decided that protecting their own families is their top priority. Power lines will get knocked down in windstorms and there will be nobody to repair them. Crops will rot in the fields and orchards because there will be nobody to pick them, or transport them, or magically bake them into Pop-tarts, or stock them on your supermarket shelf. The Big Machine will be broken.
Does that sound scary? Sure it does, and it should. The implications are huge. But it gets worse: The average suburban family has only about a weeks worth of food in their pantry. Let's say the pandemic continues for weeks or months on end-what will they do when that food if gone and there is no reasonable immediate prospect of resupply? Supermarket shelves will be stripped bare. Faced with the prospect of staying home and starving or going out to meet Mr. Influenza, millions of Joe Americans will be forced to go out and "forage" for food. The first likely targets will be restaurants, stores, and food-distribution warehouses. As the crisis deepens, not a few "foragers" will soon transition to full-scale looting, taking the little that their neighbors had left. Next, they'll move on to farms that are in close proximity to cities. A few looters will form gangs that will be highly mobile and will armed, ranging deeper and deeper into farmlands, running their vehicles on surreptitiously siphoned gasoline. Eventually their luck will run out and they will die from the flu, or of lead poisoning. But before the looters are all dead they will do a tremendous amount of damage. You must be ready for a coming crisis. Your life and the lives of your loved ones will depend on it. "
-James Westly, Rawles. Author of How To Survival The End Of The World As We Know It, and founder of SurvivalBlog.com
That is a glimpse of what will be happening in this roleplay and how it all started. By a flu. In this case, I picked something oh so simple, Rhabdovirus (Rabies Virus). Now, if you take something that has an average of 30-90 days before an infected starts showing symptoms, and mix it with something more aggressive like Influenza A (H1N1), which caused an average of 17,000 deaths in 2010. (Not a lot, really.) You get a fucking murderous cocktail of a virus that will spread in days. Something like H1N1 that has flu like symptoms of the common flew mixed with Rhadovirus, which is aggravation and hate. You get a pissed off American with the runs and sniffles. Which, in the beginning, you overlook as a sick asshole.
That sick asshole will go to work. Spreading those H1N1+Rhabdovirus germs on his desk, door handles, bathroom toilet seat, and whatever else the douche bag touches. He'll go home, lay in bed and sleep it off. Or just go into a comatose state of mind. The H1N1 has overheated his body, just about boiling his brain while the rabies virus does it's thing and jerk his body upward from the bed. Moving in ways that aren't natural for the human body. His mouth in a snarl and his skin breaking out in hives. He'll "sleep walk" so to speak, right out of his house and into your yard.
You take no noticed, your back turned as you plant those stupid roses your mother has been bitching about for weeks. Mr. Now Zombie Like Asshole will suddenly beat against your back. Knocking your ass to the ground. You yell in a sudden surprise and beat against the bastard. He's yelling, kicking, punching, biting. Whatever he can do to you. And you, you're flipping shit. Did I fuck his girlfriend? I did pay him back that money right?! Oh fuck, I forgot to give him back his weed whacker! You are thinking about why the fuck Mr. Asshole is beating the shit out of you.
Well, lucky for your ass, your mother hears your screams. And comes running with a broom, frying pan, or kitchen knife, whatever she had close by at the moment. Her vacuum? Whatever, anyway. She comes running out. Beating on Mr. Asshole as well. Your other neighbor, a fat balding man that watched your younger sister a little too closely, calls 911 to report the scene. The police show up in moments, detaining the crazed asshole that bit the shit out of your hand and gave your mother a scratch along her face.
You both are now infected. The man will go to the hospital for treatment, where he will more than likely bite and fight against others. You will go in and wash your wound, patch up your mother, pop an advil, smoke a joint, and head to bed. You'll wake up with a splitting headache and a small fever. Unfortunately for you, you can't miss work. (You still live with your mother.) You need the money. The day will be mostly normal, but your headache gets worse as well does your fever. You go home with the runs and throwing up. And just like Mr. Asshole, you go to bed and wake up a mindless and determined fucktard who is going to beat the shit out of the next person that walks by.
Now, here are the groups.
The City Slickers. The men and women who are in the middle of the cities when the shits the fan. Usually suit and tie people, but some suit and ties grew up in boots and camo. It all depends on your character.
The Outskirts. The men and women who are so into town, small farms, and quiet homes.
Then The Hidden. These people, are just like the Outskirts but more...out. Up in the mountains, away from civilization. Stringing on our banjos, drinkin moonshine, and wear guns like Paris Hilton wears blonde hair and fake boobs.
Character sheet
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Nationality:
Sexuality:
Physical Description:
Personality:
What makes you a City Slicker, An Outskirt, or a Hidden:
Talents:
Weaknesses:
Biography:
Equipment: Your character, depending on the group you are in will only have so much stuff. City Slickers more than likely will not have a much of guns and stocked food apposed to those of The Hidden. Of course, they will have better access to stock up on such items.
And anything else you want to add.
We will start two days pro Influenza. Giving our characters time to slowly watch the destruction of The Big Machine and the beginning of anarchy. The moment, I see fit, I will place a message in the OCC part of this and you will be welcome to start posting! I hope this shit works out.
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View All » Add Character » 4 Characters to follow in this universe
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Drake Mathews
"I get out of one hell just to enter another."
Casssidy Lexington
"Well shit, I'm more scared than a turkey the day before Thanksgiving."
Emmerson Sanpellegrino
"The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind." -Albert Einstein
Trending
Casssidy Lexington
"Well shit, I'm more scared than a turkey the day before Thanksgiving."
Drake Mathews
"I get out of one hell just to enter another."
Emmerson Sanpellegrino
"The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind." -Albert Einstein
Most Followed
Emmerson Sanpellegrino
"The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind." -Albert Einstein
Drake Mathews
"I get out of one hell just to enter another."
Casssidy Lexington
"Well shit, I'm more scared than a turkey the day before Thanksgiving."
Fullscreen Chat » Create Topic » TEOTWAWKI Zombie Style: Out of Character
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TEOTWAWKI Zombie Style
by Parseltongue on Mon Dec 16, 2013 10:09 pm
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on Mon Dec 16, 2013 10:09 pm
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TEOTWAWKI Zombie Style
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TEOTWAWKI Zombie Style
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