Courtesy of Pixabay user Simon Wijers
I still like Zombies
Yes, I understand that they've been done to death. But I would argue that the Superhero genre is VASTLY more over-saturated and it still does gangbusters at the box office. Hell, Vampires got more shows than Zombies did, but you never hear anyone complaining about all the vampire romance!
So here's my take... N-bies!
The zombies of N-Bies… aren't zombies. They are de-evolved humans. Akin to the suspected intelligence of very early humans. Neanderthals, for example. In the book, they won’t call them zombies or N-bies. I’m not sure about the name yet. They do not talk or appear to have much in the way of true communication with each other, yet they seem to have a collective will somewhat akin to ants. They want food, shelter and to procreate. Nothing more. Much like the animals of the world, their only aspiration is survival.
Unskilled in making clothes, the N-bies tend to hibernate during winter. The best they can do to protect themselves from the negative temperatures is wrap old blankets and clothing around themselves. Most don’t even know how to put on a shirt. All but the most intelligent walk barefoot. It can get bitterly cold through the winter months which is a great time to scout for supplies and friendly settlements since the N-bies will stay huddled together in their shelters for warmth. Small groups of N-bies die off in the wintertime if they don’t have enough bodies to maintain warmth. In the spring they wander out of the large “nest areas” but return to them once the nights start to get too cold. This limits their range quite a bit.
The recent movie, Army of the Dead, has given me an idea for some N-bies to have more intelligence than other ones, the intelligent N-bies often claim the top hierarchy spots in the N-bie tribes. These N-bies can be easily identified because they take pride in their clothing and will often be wearing the cleanest and most weather-appropriate clothing in the tribes. These leader N-bies can also have alliances with other tribes with an intelligent leader, as well as have enemy tribes. They are also extremely dangerous for the humans to face, as the leader can organize his tribe to perform rudimentary battle tactics.
Getting touched, cut, or injured by an N-bie, while dangerous on its own, does not increase your risk of becoming one. It was a genetically engineered disease that changed people suddenly. Getting bit will give the person a severe fever that has a high mortality rate, somewhere around 85-90% chance of death without intervention. Onset of the fever is extremely rapid, with most victims becoming symptomatic within 2-4 hours. After 8-12 hours the victim is usually too weak to move on their own. Keeping the victim cool is the best way to beat the fever. What caused the N-bies was some old virus from the permafrost scientists were playing with that got out of control. 25% of babies born after the virus swept the world are now born as N-Bies and very very often killed on the spot by humans. Some weirdos leave them near N-Bie areas hoping the N-bies will raise them, not having the heart to kill their child. N-Bies always produce N-bies as offspring. They grow to independence a lot faster than human children, increasing their survivability in harsh conditions.
The area N-Bies takes place in
N-Bies will focus on a small group of survivors around the area of central Saskatchewan, Canada. The main characters are part of a larger group that is known as The Ravens. The main Ravens settlement is located at Iriquois Lake, lying between Shell Lake and Blaine Lake to the west of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. To the south, in the old city of Saskatoon, now known as "Shines" lies their main outpost that lies under the ruins of the old central mall. Then known as Midtown Mall, now known as Mid-Mall.
The theme I'm going for with naming conventions is to think of fun ways that signs would degrade and get the names to places from that. On all major highways leading out of Saskatoon are big signs that say "Saskatoon Shines" and I think it's amusing to have the name "Saskatoon" lost. But because there are these signs outside of the destroyed city that say "Shines" on them that has become the de facto name of the city. I'm not going to lie, this is also a bit of pettiness from me because I HATE this slogan for my hometown. Just look at the photo above. They put this slogan and logo on dull, rust-colored metal that DOES NOT SHINE! And I think a city after the zombie apocalypse definitely wouldn't shine, either.
In my next part about my Zombie world idea, I will go over the different factions of the immediate area of the story. I'm sure it will grow with time.
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