Creating Character Emotions: Apathy

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 24: A man dressed as a zombie sits next to a woman on a park bench during the Sydney Zombie Walk on October 24, 2010 in Sydney, Australia. The Sydney Zombie Walk saw participants travel a route through the business district starting and culminating at Sydney's Hyde Park. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)For the first exercise in Apathy we had to write a short inspired by the story Orientation by Daniel Orozco. My first attempt at this did not go well. After writing the first and second exercises, I felt that I should reverse the order, because what I wrote for the second exercise worked better than the first one did.

The hunger was intense, so intense it blocked out everything else. I no longer cared about anything. Bills did not matter. Love and friendship are nothing to me. I ate my best friend. She temporarily stalled the hunger. I ate my dogs; they did nothing for the hunger. That was when I knew only the flesh of the living humans would cure my hunger pangs.

I still tried to eat animals from time to time as it became harder and harder to find humans who do not suffer the same condition as I. I tried to bite one once; it was horrible. The flesh of infected or dead just makes me feel ill. The only thing that matters is finding the living and eating them.

I spot two other infected, one of them is missing an arm. They are both heading in the same direction. Maybe they know where some people are. I shamble after them. Soon others join us, all of us are heading in the same direction. There must be people, why else would we all be heading this way.

We walk forward until we hit a wall. We continue to walk forward. I am being crushed in the crowd, but I don’t feel anything. All that matters is walking forward to get to the food. The armless one falls after the loud crack of a gun. I knew that there were people here. I walk forward. My skin scrapes the hard concrete wall. Two more fall to the gun.

There is a loud crashing sound as a vehicle crashes through a gate. I turn to follow it. I walk and walk. Even though I don’t know where it has gone or where I am going, I walk. The endless hunger forces me to hunt until the end.

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Zombie Tarot: The Emperor

The Emperor is the Father of the deck. He is warlike and has clear opinions on issues. Where the Empress is emotional and feminine, the Emperor is physical and masculine. In the zombie tarot, George Romero is the Emperor. As the father of modern zombie movies he seemed like a natural choice for the Emperor.

The Emperor sits in a director's chair. He is the master of all he surveys as he seeks to make his vision a reality. He is an old man who has seen much but he is still powerful.

Upright, The Emperor stands for power and fatherhood. He provides order and stability in chaotic situations.

Reversed, The Emperor is inflexible. He can not change and only seeks to recreate what made him powerful.

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Zombie Tarot: The Empress

Image via WikipediaThe Empress is the mother of the tarot. She is an example of all the potential a woman can have. While The Priestess is the thoughtful aspects of womanhood, the Empress is the emotional. In the Zombie Tarot, she is Lori Grimes from the comic book The Walking Dead.

The Empress sits in an abandoned campsite in the woods. In the woods are zombies but she is not concerned for she is powerful in her own right. She holds the keys to life and death and upon her head is a crown. Her kingdom may have fallen but she will survive.

Upright, The Empress stands for life and love. Even when surrounded by Zombies she shows that there is still something worth living for.

Reversed, The Empress suffers from anxiety. She is afraid for her loved ones and this can turn into unhealthy obsessions. Her emotions can lead her to betray them.

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Zombie Tarot: The Magician

Image by ξωαŋ ThΦt via FlickrThe Magician is the second card in the major arcana but his number is 1. Number 1 is how he thinks of himself. He is proud and self-sufficient. He is the jack of all trades. He is skilled at using all sorts of weapons. In the Zombie Tarot he is akin to Tallahassee in Zombieland.

The Magician stands alone. He is outdoors and he stands by a truck. In the bed of the truck are the tools of his trade, a sword (Swords), a bat (Wands), a zombie skull (Cups), and a riot shield (Pentacles). On his head is a helmet with the infinity symbol on it, to show that life and hope are eternal.

Upright, The Magician stands for creativity. He knows that you can turn just about anything into a zombie killing weapon. He has confidence in his own abilities, and even though he might seem reluctant, he will help those he considers his friends. He is willing to do anything to survive.

Reversed, The Magician is arrogant and does not suffer fools lightly. This makes him despised by others. Since he is not well liked he is the most likely to be abandoned when the worst happens. He is also the most likely to abandon the others in favor of his own survival, this can backfire and leave him without help when he most needs it.

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Zombie Tarot: The Fool

Image by Donna L. Faber via Flickr











I had an idea for a zombie tarot but to be honest I can't draw, so I thought I would write out the concepts for each card anyways.

The Fool

Some say that The Fool is the key card of the tarot deck, and that the tarot is really the story of his journey. This works really well for a Zombie Tarot. The Fool is someone who does not yet know that the zombie apocalypse has happened. He is like Shaun from Shaun of The Dead.

The Fool stands on a cliff, or perhaps the roof of a high rise, looking at the sun and is oblivious to the danger that surrounds him. Nipping at his feet is a zombie dog. Little does the Fool know that he has the key to his survival in the pack that he carries.

Upright, the Fool represents the kind of innocence that will save him from the initial outbreak. The Fool has a knack for gathering allies who will help him. He is the kind of person who will try anything and therefore is more likely to figure out how to kill the zombies.

Reversed, the Fool relies on a kind a of dumb luck that can only get him so far. The Fool makes poor decisions which can lead to his allies or himself being turned into zombies. He will try to find places, like a pub, to hide in which will only turn into a deathtrap.

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Zombie Story 4

The zombie cop had moved onto eating her brain, thankfully he was a messy eater, and I was able to get a few gooey delicious scraps of brains. The cop wandered off to find another victim. I crawled past the corpse of the woman in pursuit of more ankles to bite.

At this point a crowd had began to develop. Someone was yelling about kill the brains and kill the ghouls. I had the feeling I wouldn’t last much longer. It had been a while since I had any brains. I lost my mobility and watched hungrily as the people rushed by me. They were for now treating me like any other corpse.

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Zombie Story 3

I stopped and listened by now recognizing the drumbeats as heartbeats. I heard some in the distance. I bumped along the corridor and tried to follow the sound but the walls kept stopping me. I did this for a while until I hit a door. I was able to push it open with my body. I was outside and felt a distant sort of hope, but as the lethargy came over me, I moaned. The other zombie was still trapped in the building and it moan in unison with me. I moved along hoping to find another drummer.
The sun was high in the sky, which I didn’t like. My instinct said that nighttime was my friend. I heard the drums approaching me. I loved fast food.

“Stop where you are.” I turned toward the drummer and shambled towards him. He kept yelling at me. Had I been alive, I would have listened to the police officer, but I was dead. I kept moving, I felt bullets strike my body. The force of the bullets knocked me off balance; I fell and crawled towards the cop.

The cop stopped shooting for a moment until I reached him. I bit his leg and munched down. The bullets tore into my back but thankfully missed my head. He managed to rip his leg free, he hobbled away with me crawling after him.

I was not enjoying my afterlife. Although, I had no real emotions of any kind a part of me, possibly my legs, just wanted this to end. I crawled along and came upon the animated corpse of the cop. He was eating the hand of a young crying woman. I grabbed her leg and ate.

Zombie Story part 2

I munched on for a while but the good stuff was gone. I got up and banged around the room, trying to find a way out. The partially eaten body began to groan. I found an open door way and attempted to get through it. After a couple of tries I was successful I left the room and went in search of more meat. A very distant part of me recognized that there was another zombie, that I had created, but I didn’t care.
I heard the drumming again but it was louder. I knew that there must be more than one drummer. This made me happy, more drummers more food. I went to search for them. They were coming to me perhaps they were drawn by the screaming of my last victim. I started to feel the lethargy of being dead seeping back in and I let out a long depressed moan. I needed food or I would wind up trapped in my own useless corpse again.
“What the hell?”
“Are you o.k.?”
I heard the people say as I approached them. I ignored it; it wasn’t like I could answer them back. I grabbed a hold of one of them and took a big bite out of their arm. He screamed and his friend tried to get me off him. I munched away happily, as I ignored his attempts to get free. The friend put his hands on my head and pulled. I didn’t like that. Some instinctive part of me knew that it would be bad if my head were damaged.
There was not much I could do about the hands pulling my head but fortunately, one of the fingers was close to my mouth so I bite it off. That got him to let go. With him screaming, I was able to take a bite into his friend’s head. That took quite a bit of effort but it wasn’t long before I got a mouthful of sweet sweet brain meat.
The one whose finger I bit off run away screaming. I followed, hoping to eat more of him before the infection spread. As I shuffled onward, I was joined by the fellow whose brain I could still taste. If I had been thinking clearly, I might have pondered why my victims were more mobile than I was. As it was, I didn’t care. I was content for now to let him follow me.

Zombie Story

I've been writing a zombie story on Facebook and Twitter. I've been posting a bit each day. On Sundays I'll post everything I've written so far on here. We'll see how long it lasts.

I was doing my job as a crossing guard. The sound of the tire was like screaming and then there was screaming. I woke up on a cold surface. I needed someone to help me, but most of all I needed someone to eat.

I tried to get up but my body was stiff. When I managed to budge, I could hear things cracking. It felt like my whole body was one big limb that had fallen asleep. I fell off the cold metal table and as I lay there, I could hear the sounds of a distant drum.

The drumming became louder and then there were feet in front of my face. Being that close to human flesh brought life to my limbs and I was able to move. I grabbed a hold of the leg, there was screaming and the person tried to pull themselves free, but there were no match for my unnatural strength. I pulled the leg to my face and took a large bite.

The coppery taste of blood and meat filled my mouth. I felt almost alive again. For a moment, I didn’t care that I was eating another person. It felt like eating a really good hamburger, but as good as the leg tasted I knew the real nourishment was in the head. I kept a hold of the leg and stood up knocking the person down to the ground. I let go and grabbed for the head. The person screamed and screamed as I shoved my fingers into the skull. I ripped the head open and scooped out the brains. As I ate the tender juicy meat, the drumming stopped.