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are we being little harsh? Really would you tell strangers who would kill you?
hashtagsarestupid Hide / Show Replies
Well, depending on the circumstances, yes. If you had a strong reason to suspect you were in the pre-contagious stages of Ebola or some other horrible disease, wouldn't you at least tell the people with you to put you in a place you can't hurt them, and to be ready in case you become infectious / a ravening flesh eating monster?
If you aren't infected and won't turn, well, you've taken a risk by splitting up from the group and maybe hurt their chances a bit by reducing their manpower. But if you are? You just saved several lives.
hmm... maybe. many of examples has the Action Survivor outright murders any one who could be infected, yeah that really builds trust.
hashtagsarestupid
hmm... maybe. many of examples has the Action Survivor outright murders any one who could be infected, yeah that really builds trust.
hashtagsarestupid
Why on earth would we just start calling these kinds Jerkasses and Dirty Cowards anyway? Yeah, it is a tad selfish not to tell anyone, but given the options presented, what would you do:
- Bill *sniffling*: I-I've been infected by a zombie.Todd: Boom, Headshot!.
Or...
- Bill (thinking): I'm either gonna end up getting my brains blown out, or eating my gun, or wind up a mindless fleshbag eating their brains. This Is Gonna Suck no matter what I do, but God I don't wanna die!
Think maybe it's a bit much calling a Zombie Infectee in denial a jerkass coward now?*
Edited by Stoogebie
A tad selfish? No, it's incredibly irresponsible because it's playing with the lives of others. The analog to the situation isn't herpes because it isn't and doesn't make you aggressively contagious and put you and others at a mortality risk. The closer analog is a more infectious and deadlier form of H1N1 where the infectee decides that no, they don't want to tell anyone about being a potential carrier and decide to stay near other people for their own safety. Speaking of trustworthiness, this behaviour isn't likely to earn any even from sympathetic people.
Being with a group likely to headshot you is a problem, but most times? You're with friends or family who will hesitate before putting you down, a hesitation that means you just got someone you love killed. Telling others you're infected in that situation will give them at least a chance to psychologically prepare for it. In the worst cases where the group is likely to want to kill you, odds are you're going to be so nervous they'll ferret you out anyway, better to feign you're paranoid and go off on your own. Less chance of them killing you or vice versa.
Edited by Earnest
I'd absolutely tell them—I'm going to die anyway; I don't want to die knowing my zombie is going to eat their faces once I'm no longer in control.
A zombie infectee who doesn't tell anyone is still in denial to some degree, or else a complete sociopath who likes the idea of their undead body killing random innocents.
As soon as they've realized they're inevitably going to turn, most characters should take action to protect their companions. Some might commit suicide, others might leave the group. Some might take a trusted friend aside and arrange to be restrained somehow. Some might decide to grab a baseball bat, find the nearest horde, and go out fighting. Others might just dive into the liquor stash, get thoroughly drunk, and complain and reminisce and cry and say goodbye before they asked a friend to shoot them when they started to turn.
Most groups won't immediately shoot someone who's been infected, unless the transformation happens nearly instantly. They'll wait until the infected person actually starts to turn. No sense in killing someone who might not turn at all; or if they know they will turn, no sense in denying them their last few hours or days of life. And no sense in denying the audience the drama of a dead-man-walking subplot, either.
It's the denial and the irrational response to being bitten that makes the Zombie Infectee dangerous, but most people simply don't respond that way to a threat to their group. It makes for good drama, so zombie stories like to have it happen regardless; the good ones will include a character who is prone to denial or irrationality so it doesn't seem out of character.
Edited by chaoticidealism
What about the Zombie Infectee situation where somebody doesn't go into denial, and perhaps even doesn't keep it secret? That does happen in some stories, and it's an interesting tactical situation because now the group has a member who—though they may not be particularly badass—knows they're going to die and can do a suicide mission without shortening their life by very much. That opens up a lot of new strategies. If they'll take, say, six hours to turn, then they might grab a bunch of explosives, lure a bunch of zombies into a trap, and set off the explosives—and there's no need to worry about getting out, because they know they won't be getting out anyway.
Alternatively, if a suicide mission isn't going to be useful or their fate isn't known to be 100% sealed, there's the question of what to do with them—tie them up and wait to be sure, or kill them right then? What if they've got loved ones who are in denial, even though they themselves aren't? Maybe they would even be an interesting case for the resident egghead to monitor and try to gather information about how the virus or curse or whatever does its work. Or maybe it's simply the problem that they're slowing down the group—especially problematic if nobody is sure whether it's a zombie bite or not. Maybe the zombie bit them through their leather boots, and it could be no more than an injured ankle, but they're slowing the party down—the resident pragmatist or sociopath gets to fight with the resident idealist or optimist about it.
So my issue here is that this trope doesn't really cover the full range of things that could happen if somebody gets bitten—they don't always go into denial and put others in danger, they don't always keep it secret. There's just lots of possibilities.
Can a person be infected just by getting scratched by a zombie? It seems that a lot of examples involve bites, but I have a work in progress where a character who does get scratched, and lampshades the normalcy of bites as opposed to scratches, along with the fact that she'd be a likely Final Girl:
- I-I mean...you don't usually get it just from scratches, do you? Or is it like herpes or something? Dammit I don't wanna die! And I'd normally be the kind to survive this kind of shit! I'm not a blond, I'm not busty, and I'm a virgin for God's sakes!
It's up to you — zombies in every work are different. Infection through scratching isn't common, but it's plauisble and I expect other have done it. Good luck with your story!
That was the amazing part. Things just keep going.
Suggestion: Prune out the non-Zombie content which seems to be almost all related to Vampires. the Vampire content mostly involves the reactions of other people, suggest the page be called "The Ties That Bite".
Grin and tonic
Would this trope also cover people bitten by werewolves? These people would be harder to detect until they transformed.
My latest Trope page: Shapeshifting Failure Hide / Show Replies
Yep. Vampire's too. Mutants too. Basically, any time a guy or gal gets bit by someting that will turn them into a danger to their friends.
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Split ZombieInfectee
, started by AnonymousCowherd on Nov 7th 2010 at 1:05:24 PM
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman