Lloyd, Script version Zombie Setting Prologue.

Felix Nolan
24 min readApr 12, 2021

Alright, so first of all, this is written as a script, that I was going to pitch, but that was before the virus kinda- shut down the world and I figured it was a bit insensitive now- so I put it on the back burner.
In this version Lloyd is male, but I have since decided that the character works much better as a woman, or non binary. At no point do I describe what Lloyd looks like, what race they might be, or give them any description. It can be assumed that at this point in their timeline they would be quite sickly and unwell, and I instinctively picture them as being quite small, perhaps only a bit over five foot tall, and quite gaunt, but other than that I prefer not to determine.

I tend to write with the kind of dynamic of the scene in mind more than actually picturing the characters.
In this scene I picture the dynamic as Lloyd being handcuffed in an interrogation room, as a tiny, sickly figure, with two much larger police officers looming over her. She responds with a “yeah nah, to be fair, I do Kinda deserve this” kind of attitude.
The police officer, Annie, is based straight on my friend’s mum, who is a police officer, and who I would imagine to be very disappointed in me if I ever got arrested.
Mike is just there to ask the obvious questions as an audience surrogate.

I’m going to completely rewrite this scene in the form of a short story. Most will be the same though. I’ll be less specific about the science stuff, I have since realized that less is more when it comes to science explanations.

Mike ‘Now Mister Lloyd, why don’t you go ahead and tell us why you’re here-’

Annie ‘You don’t have to be nice to him Mike, he’s an old friend- WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE ARTHUR!’

Lloyd ‘Yeaaaahhh- that’s fair. So, here’s the thing about that-’

Annie ‘Have you been to see your Parents yet? hmm? Have you been to see them?’

Mike ‘An- Officer Smith, please-’

Annie ‘Don’t “officer Smith” me- This jerk went and faked his death- stole his own life insurance and disappeared to- WHERE EXACTLY!?’

Mike ‘Ar- Annie are you accusing this man-’

Lloyd ‘Oh no- I did that- yeah. Didn’t have to tackle me though.’

Annie ‘I didn’t tackle you. Nerd.’

Lloyd ‘Look, I need protection. And also, possibly from her.’

Annie, scowling ‘What, did, you, do?’

Lloyd ‘Sooooooo- aaaaaaaahhhhh- uuuuuhhhhhhmmmm- sssooooooo, the thing about that iiissssss- I may- have- accidentally- possibly- um- bioengin- (trails off “bioengineered a possibly world ending plague)’

Mike ‘I’m sorry could you repeat that?’

Lloyd ‘I may- have- possibly- completely accident- well- I mean- didn- so I, kinda- may have (trail off again)’

Annie ‘I swear to god Arthur.’

Lloyd ‘I may have- bioengineered a, possibly- um- quite, probably, world ending plague.’ (sinks into seat)

Mike ‘Ahhhhhhhhhhhh-’

Annie ‘what- WHAT!?’

Lloyd ‘Okay sooooo- you know, the whole thing- okay so- Officer- Andrews? So- um- I used to suffer from a certain Degenerative illness known as Portendorfer’s disease- it effects- like- five people, worldwide-’

Annie, scowling even harder ‘Apparently it’s terminal. Which begs the question-’

Lloyd ‘I cured it.’ the room sits in near silence for a while. ‘Short version. I cured it. In- which- lies- the ahh- the problem.’

Annie ‘You- you- I thought you just- we all thought you just pissed off out of Australia and spent all your insurance on- I guess hookers and partying till you died. But- wait- so- I- I thought- so you DID actually have- whatever’s disease?’

Lloyd ‘YES! Although- yeah, I mean- if you saw someone who you were sure would have been dead- fair enough. And yeah, insurance fraud and stuff- and all that shit I stole from the uni.’

Annie ‘That was yo- of course that was you.’

Mike ‘So- wait- are you- Mister Lloyd, am I right that you ARE confessing to- apparently a LOT of fraud and burglary?’

Lloyd ‘I had a key and it was- I mean technically government stuff- I mean- oh also like a LOT of illegal experimentation’

Annie ‘ARTHUR!’

Lloyd ‘I was dying! And my brain was- basically melting!- look- none of this is- actually important- which- look- the cure- is deadly- to anyone but me’

Annie ‘Um- okay?

Mike ‘So- um- so- don’t- sorry- why exactly is that a problem?’

Lloyd ‘Because someone broke into my lab.’

Annie ‘Go oooooonnnn?’

Lloyd ‘Okay- um- right- ahhh- so- so you know how there was that breakout of Ebola in Congo?’

Mike ‘I don’t like where this is going- I don’t like where this is going at all.’

Lloyd ‘So first of all- not ebola- CLEARLY not ebola. It was someone testing my cure. Probably as a weapon.

Mike ‘I’m sorry- you- you said cure- why does it- so- wait it KILLS PEOPLE.’

Lloyd ‘Within about two weeks- yeeeeaaah.’

Mike ‘Holy crap!’

Annie ‘What did you do Arthur!?’

Lloyd ‘I cured myself! My brain- look- my brain was, basically melting- my entire emotion and logic centres were turning to mush- so I- short version, I developed a way of- A: altering my DNA to stop my deterioration- B: altering my brain to fix the damage that had already been done.’

Mike ‘Hold on one moment please mister Lloyd. Annie- who the fuck IS this guy?’

Annie, sighing ‘Ugh- think- like- Stephen Hawking- only in like- medical science and a WAY worse work ethic. He lives three houses down from me- skipped like- four grades- used to be a medical researcher for the uni. Then he was diagnosed with some terminal illness- and then disappeared off the face of the earth. And then his insurance money disappeared off the face of the earth.

Mike, ‘So then- he- he could have actually done- something like this?’

Annie ‘Honestly- yeah, not surprised- didn’t you win a like- Nobel prize or something?’

Lloyd ‘Nominated, they gave it to those guys in Spain that had their lab blown up by the Greens and still finished their work.

Mike ‘Wait- WHAT!’

Lloyd ‘They were doing genetic manipulation research- like me, some guys blew up their lab and spray painted a bunch of- like- Genetic manipulation is against the will of Gaia- or something.

Annie ‘Yeah, Eco terrorism is actually a WAY bigger problem than anyone wants to talk about.

Mike ‘why am I just hearing about this!

Annie ‘You’re a terrible cop.’ (Lloyd is just finding this amusing.)

Lloyd ‘So- look- my cure is transferrable through blood to blood contact- think- like- various nasty STDs, but- in later stages, though, just bodily contact, scratching, biting, probably spitting- look I don’t know, I never did human testing- but- if you were to come into someone in the later stages of the deterioration then- yeah, it’s going to spread. A lot.

Mike ‘You said CURE! How- WHAT!’

Lloyd ‘Ugh. Okay. Long version. I- created- invented, a- transmission system, a means of getting edited DNA, into a person- me, where it will effectively hijack a few cells, and reproduce. It will then constantly go around and replace my DNA with edited DNA- thus- curing my genetic disease- among other things.

Mike ‘Holy crap. Well that sounds great! what’s the issue?’

Lloyd ‘If anyone- basically if I were to- like- bleed into your eye- maybe- or, inject you with some of my blood, then you- it doesn’t EDIT your dna, it just takes the edited stuff and replaces yours with that and- well- well the DNA is specific to ME, it’s MY DNA- with some alterations, so, very gradually, you would turn into ME.’

Mike ‘Holy crap!’

Annie ‘How- gradually?’

Lloyd ‘Weeeelll, so- yeah- here’s the thing about THAT- the OTHER aspect of the cure, is- so I invented a second thing- a- um- so- it’s- the idea is an active maintenance system. It’s- basically a- really proactive stem cell. It goes around and- wherever it finds something that’s not meant to be- so like- okay- wait. Okay- damnit. LONG version.

‘So- you know how people always say that DNA is like- the Blueprint of the human body? Yeah? So- that’s- I mean yeah, but so- there are some specific genes called the HOX genes, and THEY are the actual blueprint, they’re the- like- this goes here, this is how many arms you have, this is where your eyes go- this is how many faces you have- whatever. The rest of your DNA- in effect, is like- the ingredients list- like- HOW to make the concrete of the building- blueprint analogy- and like- how to make the glass of the windows and- programs on how the automatic doors should work or whatever- look- basically, I had to figure out how to manipulate my own HOX genes, in a way that the maintenance cells- so they’re basically stem cells- if- gooier, and if they find something that isn’t where it’s supposed to be, they consume it, and undergo mitosis, and then replace it with the right one, if appropriate. BUT see the issue is, that they required REALLY specific instructions to fix my- basically melting body- I was basically dead, I’ve only been out of a wheelchair for a few weeks, I honestly can’t believe I made it- BUT- there are TWO main issues, ONE, the way that I had to repair my brain isn’t compatible with- anyone else- there’s, a LOT of damage up there- it’s surprising how much gray matter that you can lose and keep going- but- my brain isn’t really- brain shaped anymore.’

Mike ‘Please don’t tell me that because you had to do that, that if someone gets- infected that their brain starts like- eating itself or whatever.

Lloyd ‘That’s exactly what happens actually yeah- but, actually I don’t think that’ll actually kill you, so much as send you insane-

Annie+Mike ‘Ahhhhhh. Right.’

Lloyd ‘What WILL kill them is the fact that- so here’s a fun fact about me- I suffer from what is called Situs Inversus- or, internal organ mirroring.

Annie ‘oh god right!’

Lloyd ‘So basically, all of my organs are on the wrong side, which means as soon as the cure gets in there it’s like- oh! These are all in the wrong place! And starts dismantling your organs.

Mike ‘JESUS CHRIST!’

Lloyd. Sooooooo- a couple of months ago I came back to my lab- I burned it down already don’t worry.

Mike- ‘that’s- that’s NOT a DON’T WORRY situation!’

Lloyd ‘Anyway, so I came back and I was like- huh- there’s- a few things out of place- has someone been in here? But I was in a wheelchair and really REALLY out of it at the time- my brain- knitting itself back together and all, and I figured it was my own fault- but THEN I saw that Ebola thing on the news and was like- that’s not ebola, don’t know who’s lying to people calling that ebola but it’s really not. SO then everyone online was talking about it like it was some kind of zombie apocalypse and that just sounded stupid, like sure it’s not ebola but come on. And there were reports of patients attacking doctors and stuff. At this point I wasn’t even considering wether it was something to do with me- I hadn’t done that kind of testing- but THEN there was apparently that guy that like, survived for almost a month before his handlers shot him because he like attacked a bunch of people. And I was like- huh, that’s interesting- and I looked up the autopsy records using definitely legal means I promise, and so it turns out that this guy happened to have, among other things, presumably- a right sides heart-’

Mike ‘Oooooooohhhh!’

Annie ‘That- does- seem, pretty- conclusive- yeah.’

Lloyd ‘yeah. So, running theory, someone’s trying to perfect the cure, and perfectly willing to kill- entire regions of people during the testing process which- first of all- AMETURES, second- that’s REALLY bad guys.

Annie ‘I- this is actually- YOU LITTERALLY INVENTED ZOMBIES!’

Mike ‘Holy- he literally invented zombies

Lloyd ‘Not on purpose!’

Annie ‘THAT’S NOT BETTER!

Mike ‘it’s really not. but- wait- why- so- what- they just want to- just- what, zombie apocalypse? Why would they want to do that? Just- this isn’t an eco terrorism thing is it? just- end humanity?

Lloyd ‘Weelllllll- so it’s probably the other reason- buuuuuttt-’

Annie ‘Arthur J. Lloyd what- exactly did you do?’

Lloyd ‘I mean I already told you- Okay so- um- right- how do i- uuuuuuhhhh- okay. Okay. So. There’s- this, like- idea, in the majority of like- philosophies, and like- basically life. The idea that, you know, you gradually age, get older and die- but- um- no, that’s not really- see- the reason that we age past- about middle age, in particular, is because when our cells reproduce- undergo mitosis, they gradually accumulate faults, very slowly. Basically, from the point you’re born- your cells have a number of times they’re going to divide before they’re going to- basically forget how to work properly. That’s what aging actually is. A fault. A design flaw. And I’m not speaking like- philosophically- it’s just biology- it’s just how DNA works- but- it doesn’t HAVE to be. The way my cure works is it takes pristine DNA, altered DNA- but you could just take your own DNA from when you were younger, and constantly replaces it throughout the body.

Annie ‘Are you saying- that- what are you saying?’

Lloyd ‘one of the- side effects, basically, of the cure- and I guess I could stop using it, sure, but, one of the side effects is that my DNA is now- repaired. And will continue to repair itself. And given that I now control my own gene expression- I am- no longer aging.

Annie/Mike ‘Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh-

Lloyd ‘The term is biological immortality. My- running theory, is that- who ever they are- they’re attempting to develop the cure to the point that they can make themselves immortal as well. and they’re not against- basically killing massive swaths of people to see that happen.

Annie/mike Still- ‘Ahhhhhhhhhhhh-

Lloyd. ‘So- I mean- I guess there are two main options. One. They’re planning to end the world. Or- two, I guess a bunch of one percenters are about to become immortal. Either way I think I- basically just ended the world as we know it.

Annie and Mick ‘Ahhhhh-

A number of special effects can then be heard, the sound of muffled- possibly silenced firearms and people moving through the police station. Annie and mike both jump to attention, insist that Mister Lloyd doesn’t move and take a look at the situation, before both being gunned down without so much as a final dramatic word.

Mister Lloyd’s expression at this point is really important. Someone he’s known since he was a child- and the two people who might have been able to save him from whatever was happening have just been killed. He must simply acknowledge this, he mustn’t seem distressed or panicked. He is more inconvenienced than anything. Slightly disappointed.

The sounds of heeled shoes, like a teacher walking through the halls of a school being so distinct because she’s the only one wearing heels, begin to approach the door. Some gruff voices say “clear” and such, and, now only facing Lloyd, who might have a bit of blood on his face, though doesn’t seem to mind, we only see the shadows, if anything, of a couple of armed men shuffling into the room. The high heeled woman enters, though we don’t see her, the armed men make way for her, and she sits opposite Mister Lloyd. At no point do we see her.

Woman. ‘Mister Lloyd.’

She says in a “well well well mister bond” sort of a way

Lloyd ‘Uuuuggghhh.’ Glares for a moment. ‘Are you going to make me end the world?’ he scowls.

Woman ‘Yes. Yes I am.

Lloyd sits for a moment. This doesn’t seem to be a “oh god, what are they going to make me do” so much as a “well, this wasn’t really the plan” sort of moment for him.

‘Alright. Might as well get started then- you guys had better have good coffee! What’s the budget?’

Woman, as the group is leaving. ‘Money is no concern.’

Llyod. ‘Pfft. You say that.’ He steps over the body of Annie. ‘Shame. Liked her. ahh well, no real loss.’

The group is then heard walking down the hall and away, Lloyd jabbering incessantly. At no point did we see the woman, nor any of the soldiers.

End scene.

The scene establishes that there is a scientific reason that everything is happening, and that the one behind it is either being forced to work, or happily working for some shady group willing to kill with no remorse. This then implies that science might have part to play in solving the zombie problem, and that this Lloyd character might end up being the main antagonist, or pivotal in solving what’s going on.

There doesn’t even really need to be any kind of follow up on this character really, none of the stories really need to intersect, but now we’ve at the very least thought about how this all works, and any of the strange things we feel like doing such as some zombies being notably stronger or faster than the others can be at least partially explained away with “I guess a bonkers genius did it”.

With this scene we can imply that there’s a much larger plan at work, and there’s an at least somewhat satisfactory explanation behind anything that we feel like doing. Zombies with weapons? Tools? Guns? Capable of speech? All’s fair in love and this specific setting.

I, some time ago now, did some research into the backstory of both the Resident Evil and Bioshock franchises, under the assumption that most of the stuff they do in these settings is completely ridiculous. Spoilers, no, most of it checks out. Zombies that cacoon themselves and pop back out as something more appropriate to the task at hand? No problem. That one guy that turns into a T-rex?- now- I know you’re not going to believe me, but yeah, that checks out too, to would take a LOT longer to happen, like- months or years compared to seconds as in the game but- still it’d work.

In a lot of zombie games, in order to have more variety in enemies, they include things like giant, tank like zombies (checks out) ones that seem to control others through sound or pheromones, (no problem.) and even things like exploding zombies- now this one’s a bit harder, but I’ve had a talk with a chemist friend of mine, and he says they’d be no problem with an organism producing certain explosive chemicals in it’s own body- so yeah, exploding, or even fire breathing- more, fire spitting, or- zombies that grow gross cysts on their bodies that when thrown, combust, type zombies, are entirely possible. Even shock zombies are possible!

There’s a LOT that’s possible with the concept of zombies- or rather the concept of someone that is willing to weaponize biology to that level, that no movies really deal with.

As such, having a stand alone horror deal with a group of people being hounded by a fire breathing, seemingly unkillable monster suddenly becomes science fiction- and even then not really, rather than supernatural horror.

The number of stories that could be told in this setting is basically limitless.

Oh, I left out human sized flying bat zombies. That’d work too. Just barely.

This next scene is just to establish the nature of the organization that has taken Lloyd, and Lloyds response to this. They are still clearly manic, and seem to be rolling with it, as they have expected it. I establish them to be able to figure out what is going on as it’s happening, working out the scale upon which their kidnappers must be operating on, establishing her deductive skills.

I wanted to keep it rather vague as to whether or not the character was actually uninterested in the fates of the police or not, keeping people guessing as to her actual character. For a while, she will function as the protagonist of the Prologue, but I never want the audience to know if she’s actually the good guy, or even a good person or not.

Lloyd is thrown into the back of a Van, and hand cuffed further to something in the back of the van. There is light that we can see, but that clearly he cannot. Two large men in- probably sinister black suits circle around and enter the cab of the van, while one remains in the back to keep an eye on Lloyd.

‘And so, the sinister forces came, and threw the man in the back of a presumably very shady looking black van.’ Lloyd begins to monologue. ‘They begin to drive away- huh. Slowly. That’s- interesting. Come to think of it, we were still in the building.’ Lloyd straightens up in his chair, testing the limits of his handcuffs. ‘We didn’t leave the police- we’re just NOW leaving the station. Huh. So you guys were able to enter on your own were you? Someone on the inside maybe? Just broke through the security maybe- OH! Are we in a police van? OH! TELL ME WE’RE IN A POLICE VAN! I’ve never been arrested before. Ooooooh. I feel so naughty!’

At this point the man in the back of the van is rubbing his temples and the guys up the front are trying to stay focused on the road.

‘Wait- I guess- like- I guess I was arrested when I went in- aha- for PROTECTION, ugh, fat lot of good that did. Couldn’t even protect themselves could they. Honestly. Tasmanian police force. Bunch a chumps aren’t they’

The men kind of shrugs with a “I mean yeah we shot them all so I guess so.” little do they know that the officers will be getting back up later.

‘So like- did you shoot ALL of them? Because- like we’re driving now- we aren’t on the highway even so- traffic hasn’t been interrupted. Huh. The Police station has a glass lobby. With active officers at all time- even if you were to- I don’t know, go all secret agent and take out everyone in the building, you couldn’t reliably keep them from finding out. and then you couldn’t stop the public- just walking by from noticing- which MEANS- you had to be ready- so what- you had everyone on the bottom level replaced? No- because Annie- Ahem- Officer Smith, would have noticed if there were just a bunch of different officers on duty. And she basically tackled me when I came in- but then you did shoot a bunch of people, so it’s not like you replaced or payed off everyone. Huh. This was all a BIG operation- like- doesn’t matter how many resources you have, you’ve gotta have prepared for that- to be fair, it’s not like I had a lot of options as to who to go to, so you being prepared is fair enough. But this? Tell you what- I’m impressed guys. I really am. I mean I’m not happy about it- I knew a lot of people- holy crap- was Amber there! Shit- ahh- what’s her surname- Davidson? Was officer Davidson there- because her daughter’s like- I guess she’d be like six now? Wow guys. WOW. WOOOOWWW.’

‘Hey-’ the man in the back with Lloyd looks like he’s about to defend himself.

‘DON’T!’ The man in the passenger seat yells.

‘So- you guys, what, infiltrate the station, make sure that no one’s going to notice getting out, so the traffic’s still moving- I don’t know, cut the phone lines or something- I mean- everything- you probably did everything. Are you guys like- getting rid of the bodies as well? OH! Did you have like a big garbage- you probably just chucked the bodies in vans- probably drive them off a cliff- naaaahh- you’re not that lax. You’ll have prepared means of disposing them properly. So what’s the story? Half the police in the city disappear? Are they found dead in the station? Nah- nah that’ll send everyone into a panic. Disappeared though? Sure, people will be wondering what happened they’ll assume something awful, maybe the government will try and cover it up. Either way it’ll buy you time to- whatever it is you need to do to tidy up. At which point I suppose I’ll be hidden away in some lab somewhere- hmm. Well, at the very least it looks like you guys will have enough of a budget for a decent set up. Hey- did you guys get my coder? Or do you have your own- because mine’s already calibrated properly. Did you make yours- wait- do I get like- assistants and shit? Because I mean- I assume you guys didn’t set up the lab- you would have- oh you’re not expecting me to set everything back up again are you?’

‘We have equipment ready for you Mister Lloyd.’ The man in the passenger seat sighs.

‘Okay just- tell me ONE thing.’

‘DON’T!’

‘What’s the coffee situation? We talking like- capsules? Fully like coffee show array?’

‘Seriously?’

‘Dude I’ve been living in a basement drinking instant coffee for two years- Living off the grid is not the most fun I’ve ever had. And then you jerks steal my research anyway. Should have just gone out for coffee once in a while. OH MY GOD DO YOU HAVE BEER!?’

‘No- no we don’t have beer!’

‘You’ve got enough people to covertly take out an entire police headquarters, presumably some kind of secret base on some frozen peak somewhere- all the best secret bases in in cold places- and you don’t have an- OR VOLCANOES! Or cold volcanoes? You’re not taking me to a volcano are you? Volcanoes are dangerous!’

‘It’s not in a volcano!’

‘Is it cold though?’

‘Don’t- just don’t talk to him!’

‘Like- like Skiing cold? It better not be hot man I CANNOT handle heat- like- literally, in all seriousness- MUCH easier to culture macrophages in places that don’t get too hot- cold you can manage, that’s what incubators are for. Hey you guys know I can make you immortal right?’

‘Ah-’ Everyone in the van straightens up awkwardly.

‘Like- you know that- whoever you work for- that’s what they’re going for right? Like- with what I can do, I can- one, end the world- two- make people immortal.’

The three men in the van seem to be making a great effort to NOT make any noise.

‘Three- I don’t know turning people into T-rexes or something- but it’s the main two things that are really important- and see- here’s the thing though, if they just wanted me to end the world- look, they’ve got enough information for that, no problem, then can work with what they’ve got- it might take them a while, but who cares. But the immortality is hard. See- it takes quite a lot of effort- and just- time, just a lot of time- no matter how you go about it, it’s going to take a while for EVERY SINGLE person, every last one. It took me months just to do me, and I KNOW me better than anyone- obviously. So, let’s say we get that down to like- two weeks, two weeks a person. So obviously the big boss people and that lady with the sexy voice- what was her name? So they get the first class biological immortality- you know what- it’s probably going to take me longer- they’re going to have some nerd that thinks they know a nucleotide from their freaking ass crack watching my every move, making sure I don’t put some kind of self destruct protocol in there or something- which I probably should have done already. That’s on me guys. Turns out when you’re trying to fix your degenerative diseases the first thing on you list isn’t- hey, let’s add a self-destruct something or other! Yeah. Guess I done goofed eh boys! Well, if I could do it all over again- i- would- have- probably- still- I mean I would have done the same thing probably. I wasn’t really in a- capable of logical thought sort of place. My brain wasn’t real good. Still ain’t great. haven’t quite gotten a hold of the ol’ mood swings. Also, I think I’ve been manic for like- a month? Not sure if I’m going to crash or not, I think I just set my endorphin and dopamine levels to high. I mean I HOPE I don’t crash. Of course you never do.’

Llyod has been taken to sinister base, probably underground, possible just under one of those office buildings that you just walk past every day without really realizing they’re there. She has been given her own lab, it’s a cluttered mess, it looks as though someone just caved to her demands and gave her a little station for her to make coffee and such. I imagine there are empty ramen noodle cups all over the place. She is clearly working on her own, though the lab would be big enough for several people. She seems to have moved everything around to her liking, and- okay- just picture a bunch of lab stuff all plugged into the same powerpoint with too many power boards and i think you’ll get what Ihad in mind.

This scene is to establish the transition from just zombies that are insane and falling apart because of her “cure” to actually bringing people back to life, or at least designing a more durable version of a human being, which will ultimately become more resident evil style bioweaponish than zombie like.

Lab, looks like important stuff going on, Lloyd in lab coat, men in black suits wheel in- or drag in, a bodybag

‘The hell is this?’ Lloyd asks, one hand full of black coffee and the other with a cup of instant noodles.

‘Your new patient.’ Man in black suit sighs.

‘My- wait- this better not be what I think it is!’ Lloyd puts down his drink and food next to some rather toxic looking chemicals. Unzips the bag- ‘This is- the hells is this! In- in the sense of- why? Is this- what it is! Here!?’

‘You’re the zombie guy right?’ One of the men shrugs.

‘No! I’m the bioengineer- they aren’t ZOMBIES they’re just people that are falling apart- I can’t brings someone back to life! He’s dead!’

‘Look man, boss just told us to bring him down, though you might be able to do something with him.’

‘Do something- with a dead guy! That’s no how this- that’s not how ANYTHING works- EVER! What do you expect me to do, stab him with a needle and make him sing country songs!?’

‘Um- well, not that-’

‘You can’t just bring something back to life! All of his cells are already starting to rot- how- how long has he even been dead?’

‘Oh, like, an hour?’

‘Jesus- you didn’t kill him did you? Just to see what I can do- spoilers- nothing, he’s dead!’

‘Nah man- he- it’s Jeremy, okay? He’s one of our guys- feel down the stairs carrying some shit!’

‘Oh? Oh right, so this is more of a- like- take him to Lloyd, worth a try- fair call, might even stop yelling. Ahem. Alright. Look- sorry, if you knew the guy- but- nah mate, he’s gone. Your brain cells need constant oxygenation, few minutes after your heart stops beating all of the- YOU bits, of your brain- gone. Even if I could-’ Lloyd pauses. ‘Hang on.’ He frowns for a moment. ‘I mean-’ he considers to himself. ‘Okay- go down to- ahh- um- shit- beta lab- there’s, a machine- big, yae big, the ahh- top of it’s blue- has- I think- three things on the top that go whuurry whuurrry. Bring me that.’

A few weeks later the body, Jeremy, seems to be alive, still braindead, but Lloyd has altered his body to be able to function without his brain. I’m furthering the idea that she’s trying to make alterations and improvements to the human body.

This is primarily to establish that she CAN, make such improvements, which in turn will indicate to the reader that the zombies can potentially be much more than you might usually expect from a zombie. Such as a headshot not actually being a very good idea. They weren’t really using that anyway.

There would be further scenes where Jeremy becomes more independent, and we establish that Lloyd has learned to effectively program Jeremy using Primitive Reflexes as an explanation as to how she was able to do it.

A few weeks later

The same two men enter the lab, expecting an update, Lloyds desk and trash can by the door has become more and more full of things like diet Pepsi and cup noodles. Lloyd also seems to have a drip in their arm for some reason. The patient that was brought in, Jeremy, is now laying on a bench, visibly breathing, his- well his makeup isn’t all blue to make him look like a corpse, he’s normal coloured now. He seems to be breathing slowly and s

‘Is- is that Jeremy?’ The same two men in suits enter the lab, Lloyd is removing and replacing petri dishes in an incubator

‘Wha? Hmm?’ Lloyd looks around, the two men are pointing to the “patient” that had been brought in. ‘Oh yeah- well- no?’ He takes a moment to think about how to respond. ‘He’s still dead. To be clear.’

‘He’s blinking!?’

‘You know how octopus tentacles have a little bit of grey matter in there so that they can better manage their prehensile-ness?’

‘Ahhhhh- I do now?’

‘Okay- aahhhh- you know how they say that some dinosaurs had like- second brains in their butts?’

‘Yeah!’ One of the men points, the other sighs.

‘So, I added a little bit of grey matter around his body, they keep all his organs going. His liver had already taken too much damage though, so I’m having to regrow that- okay so you know how I was using those machines to keep him in a persistent vegetative state?’

‘Like- like a braindead person?’

‘He is a braindead person. I just made it so his body keeps him in that vegetative state on it’s own. I mean, on its own, and with nutrient drips. His gut kinda started eating itself. I’m working on that.’

‘Sooooo- you- okay- look- I know this is probably a really dumb question, but- CAN you bring him back?’

‘AHhhhhhhhHHHHhhheeeerrrrrrraaaaaaahhhhhhh- well now see that IS still a pretty dumb question- buuuuuuutttt to be fair like- it’s a much less dumb question than before- and again buuuuuuut, like- well- I mean I’ve been thinking about it, since you guys brought him in the other day,’

‘Ahh, that was a month ago?’

‘Was it? Huh. Oh. Yeah- yeah that makes sense. But like- so you guys- and everyone else has been calling me the Zombie guy or Frankenstein or whatever- to which I have generally been responding with various levels of my usual sass. But- then I’ve been thinking about it. No, you can’t bring people back to life. All the important bits, your brain, basically, dies within minutes. But- if you can keep the blood going, keep oxygen getting to the rest of the body, even after a while those parts that are still alive will keep ticking away. And- yeah- I mean- I’ve done it before- in part at least. I had to rebuild parts of my own brain- not the important- like, thinky bits, but the emotional bits and a bunch of the glands- which I’m still working on. So what if I put- all of the bare essentially brainy bits- just- around? So yeah. I’ve designed a few- I mean- they’re basically the same as computer chips- just made out of grey matter, to keep all the organs going. So now he has a little- I’m calling them biochips, on his heart to tell it to beat, rather than having the brain do that. You could chop his head off right now and he’d be fine. Doesn’t need it.’

‘Damn man!’

‘I’m mean he’d bleed out.’ Lloyd shrugs. ‘But other- wise-’ Lloyd begins to stare blankly into the distance. ‘Huh.’

‘I don’t like it when he does that.’ One of the men takes a half step back.

‘So- you know

I’m going to rewrite and continue this storyline if I get some positive feedback on it, but that’ll be the end for now.

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Felix Nolan

Fantasy and Sci-fi Author from Australia, just putting my stuff out there to see how it goes.