October’s bony knuckles are rapping on our front door. Hundreds of thousands of people will be lining up, eager to have the wits scared out of them at local haunted houses. TV stations are running horror movie marathons designed to make sure you lose sleep at night.
And the Zombie Survival Crew has a few events in store for its members to make sure that y’all are ready to face your fears.
Don’t miss the chance to meet your ZSC commanders face-to-face in Florida:
Halloween weekend we have not one, but two events for crew members to participate in. We fully encourage your to gear up and take place in the 2011 Halloween Zombie Event, a live-action scenario where you can chose between playing a zombie or a survivor. This is the perfect opportunity to test your skills in a safe manner before the Zombiepocalypse catches you unprepared. Go to their website to find a participating city near you.
For crew members unable to make it to the live-action 2011 Halloween Zombie Event, don’t worry. Commanders LK and RC have been wracking their brains (mmm… brains…) and developed an online version of the event. For more information, read here and keep an eye on this site for rules, regulations, and suggested role-play strategies for the online 2011 Halloween Zombie Apocalypse.
Want to know more about how to participate in the LIVE 2011 Halloween Zombie Event? Joseph Tremblay, the originator of the event has put together the below instructional video to help you plan your halloween zombiepocalypse.
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Don’t forget that if you are unable to participate in person, we’ll be tearing it up on Twitter. For more information, read about the virtual event here.
Your Green Brigade Commander IronE Singleton has done something wonderful for the premiere of The Walking Dead. That’s right, not only is there a countdown on his website to the premiere of season 2 that will air on October 16th, but he’s given the fans of TWD a song!
We in the Command Center encourage you to head on over to IronE’s website and have a listen, and then become our ZSC Street Crew that we love so much by telling everyone you know about it!
We thought it might be fun to post some excerpts from our very first anthology, Undead Is Not An Option. We had a lot of fun putting this together and want to share a teaser from time to time to whet your appetite. We are proud of the number of commanders who we were able to arm wrestle into willingly contributed to the cause. The foreword was co-written by our Fearless Leader and Red Brigade commander, Juliette Terzieff, and IronE Singleton, Green Brigade commander.
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Foreword by Juliette Terzieff and IronE Singleton
We are our own worst enemy. For no logical reason we—our collective human family—continue down a long and winding road toward annihilation. Better weapons. Less trust. More fear. Panic. Selfishness. Lack of preparation. Ignorance. All of these belong buried in a landfill, but sadly remain firmly secured in our collective arsenal.
And now as wars unfold in every corner of the world, each addition to the body count increases the fear, and advances notions of the end of the world. It convinces us—even if we are too afraid to admit it in public—that we will be the source of our ultimate earthly destruction.
The fear is hardly new. In fact, it has been taking solid form for decades. Creeping like a ghoul from the grave with every advance in defense technology, with every master of hate to climb the pulpit. And now the walking dead have exploded around us—eclipsing the resurgence of romantic monsters of the past couple decades. Lestat, Edward, and their vampire brethren prowl around the edges, but the shambling hordes control the streets. They are us, and we are them. We cannot escape the truths they reveal.
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In the aftermath of World War II and throughout the Cold War years, writers and filmmakers crafted some of the most disturbing post-apocalyptic scenarios ever put to paper or film. The social commentary stung, but rang true. Was there anything beyond the bounds of human cruelty? Given the evidence of places like Dachau and Hiroshima, really, what limits could possibly remain? Through art these visionaries asked people to see beyond the face-level horror to the real monsters in their stories.
Take British author John Wyndham’s book The Chrysalids (1955) set in an über-conservative post-nuclear society where any hint of physical or mental abnormality is considered blasphemy. Those unfortunate enough to display any genetic variance are forced to undergo sterilization, banishment or are killed outright. Family members turn each other in out of fear. Fathers battle sons. Mothers are forced to give up their children.
Out of the question? Hardly.
Or the stunning black-and-white Last Man on Earth (1964) based on Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend in which an increasingly disturbed Vincent Price battles loneliness and sorrow in a Quixotic quest to maintain sanity in a world overrun by vampiric former humans infected by a plague. Desperate to protect his humanity though there is apparently none left in the world. Searching for a reason, a cure, some way to regain a measure of his former life—with no real hope that any sort of happy ending can be possible. Just driven to keep going.
Again is this scenario so far-fetched? No. Not nearly far enough.
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To read more, including the compelling words of IronE Singleton, check out Undead Is Not An Option.
We’ve been talking about the three day zombie extravaganza called the 2011 Halloween Zombie Event and how you can participate in person. If you missed the video teaser about it, check it out here. The command of the Zombie Survival Crew is excited about the opportunity to test our brigades strengths in a mock zombiepocalypse and look forward to fielding all of the reports during the event to keep all our members up to date with how everyone is faring. But when Joseph Tremblay first approached us about partnering with him to support the event, the Oracle (Purple Brigade Commander, LK Gardner-Griffie) posed the question: “But what about those who don’t have enough people close by to play in person or those who are unable to do so? Do we deny them the opportunity to participate?” She then followed it with the suggestion of going back to the ZSC roots and hosting an online portion of the event. And we’re finally ready to reveal what Orange Brigade Commander, RC Murphy has cooked up. So, take it away RC!!!
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This is the moment we have been preparing for. The undead have vacated their graves and are on the hunt… for us. They will not stop. Very little can destroy them. You are the last line of defense for mankind. Now is not the time to realize you aren’t ready for the Zombie Apocalypse.
On October 29th through October 31st, the world as you know it will come to an end. Your city, Grizzly City, is under attack by hordes of hungry, newly-risen zombies. Survivors must band together to fight them off and escape to safety outside of the infested city.
If you think you are up for the challenge, join us on Twitter for a 3-day Role-play scenario that puts you in the first 72 hours of the Zombie Apocalypse. To join you must first decide if you want to be a Survivor or a Zombie. Once you’ve decided, apply the appropriate Twibbon image to your avatar (we will be revealing the twibbons soon). With your designation in place all you have to do is use the official Halloween Zombie Apocalypse hashtag in your tweets, #HZA11. Follow the hashtag via Twitter’s search function to immerse yourself in the action.
Each day of play will last a full 24 hours. The action will unfold thusly in conjunction with the live events hosted by the 2011 Halloween Zombie Apocalypse site.
Day 1 – Zombie Outbreak: The first zombie sightings are reported in the city. In response, the Survivors begin to execute their escape plans, utilizing information broadcasted on TV.
Day 2 – Survival: The Survivors band together and establish safe zones within the city while the Zombies dog them at every turn. These attacks breed more undead, increasing the size of the attacking hordes.
Day 3 – Fight to the End: The city is overrun. Survivors are attacked more and more frequently. The only way to survive is to abandon the city. They flee or succumb to the zombies.
We understand that most participants will be unable to take part during all 72 hours of the #HZA11 Twitter event. Should you need to leave the role-play for any amount of time, switch out your Survivor or Zombie Twibbon image with the Idle image. This conveys to other participants that you are unable to interact or fight, but will return to play at some point.
The city, Grizzly City, has been divided into sectors. Participants may utilize these sectors while setting up their Safe Havens, planning raids for supplies, or arranging a location to battle a Zombie opponent. The hashtag for each sector will look like this – #HZA11S4.
Below is the map we will be using throughout the event. Study it well. Preparation may be your best defense when the zombies are on the hunt. More information on how to play is posted here. (Click the map to make it larger.)
I told y’all the zombiepocalypse was coming soon! Now we have zombies living every day normal lives in music videos! *twitches*
My friend Jimmy Joyce and I have spent a few nights talking until sunrise because he’s cool like that, and it usually happens after a show I’ve gone to watch. We all know Jinxie is nocturnal, but hey, that’s when the zombies are active, people. Jimmy is in a few bands, and I mean like four or five…or I could just be thinking of Michael Mahoney’s multiple-band status, but whatever. The two of them are in Money Shot together, which is the cover band I tend to see.
Terrible People is one of Jimmy’s other bands, and I thought I’d share this awesome video with you. This is their song “Bill Murray” and it’s pretty damn good, if you ask me.
And for all you zombies out there? You even have your own Facebook-type site to mingle on, which you saw in the video. Zombiebook.org. Check it out. It’s run by Jay Zombie. Of course I’m a member. Someone has to keep an eye on the zombies over there!
As we mentioned earlier in the year, the Zombie Survival CrewTM has teamed up with the 2011 Halloween Zombie Event and Adrian’s Undead Diary to bring you the best Halloween of your life… or it could be of your death. You get to choose in this three day all out Zombie infested event whether your are a survivor or a zombie. Below is a video to to give you a glimpse of what you could be dealing with. In addition to that we, the Zombie Survival Crew command, have put our own twist on the event and we’ll be revealing it shortly, so stay tuned and be ready.
Our guest post by Heather McCorkle proved to be such a success, that the command has decided to make it a regular feature. We have a lot of talented folks within the ranks of the Zombie Survival CrewTM and we want YOU to have a chance to show off your talents/knowledge. Soooo, got any Zombie shorts or artwork or educational articles laying around and think you’d like to share? We’d love to take a gander.
All submissions will be carefully reviewed and responded to, and revisions may be requested.
And this is where I get to rattle off all of the small print stuff like: submitting your work to the Zombie Survival CrewTM provides tacit consent for the Zombie Survival CrewTM to publish and promote your work as a part of the Zombie Survival CrewTM site. No payment will be given to any person for their submission and no payment will be accepted by the Zombie Survival CrewTM to publish any individual’s work. The Zombie Survival CrewTM will not be held liable for any copyright infringements should the work submitted not be the express original work of the submitter, but the infringement will be born by the submitter. By submitting your work to the Zombie Survival CrewTM you agree that you are the owner of the copyright to the material. And if for any reason you have lied to us about the copyright ownership, the Zombie Survival CrewTM reserves the right to send a horde of zombies to your doorstep to give you your just desserts.
Happy Monday!!! We’re excited to present the Zombie Survival CrewTM anthology: Undead Is Not An Option!!! The anthology contributors are: IronE Singleton, Juliette Terzieff, Kelene Toups, Anthony Guajardo, Jim Bronyaur, RC Murphy, Maria Kelly, Sonya May, Chris Philbrook, Neil Brown, Jr., Austin Wulf, Tasmin Bowerman, Jessica Capelle, Natalie Cutrufello, Wendy Sparrow, Andrew Jack, Gary James, EC, and LK Gardner-Griffie. Enjoy!!!!!
This is a little something we cooked up today to enhance our site… we’re so happy with how it turned out, that we had to share. Now… where was I… Oh yes… the Zombie Survival CrewTM Anthology, Undead Is Not An Option. I need to finish telling everyone what you will find inside.
Love is in the air… Zombie-style and yes, Undead Is Not An Option has its share of love stories. Sadie is a normal girl living with her mother, well, as normal as a girl who collects zombies can be. She didn’t start out to collect zombies, it just sort of happened…. Zombie Girl by Tasmin Bowerman weaves a tender tale of a girl who doesn’t have the heart to turn the zombies away and the town-folk who don’t understand. Jessica Capelle gives us a different twist with her story, But I Do Love Your For Your Brain. Erik and Jaimy have a relationship that’s filled with love and commitment. There’s just one problem… she wants to eat him. Will Jaimy’s love save him or will she embrace her true nature and destroy him?
Wendy Sparrow follows with Love Me Dead Or Alive which is the touching… nay… poignant story of Mindy who is attempting to come to grips with her own mortality as her undead boyfriend pressures her to join him so they can be together forever. Titus has more to fear than just his girlfriend’s ticking mortal clock, though; an old school buddy is trying to force Titus’s hand in doing a little doctoring the dead. With Dead Man’s Shoes by Andrew Jack we take a turn into the macabre. Dead Man’s Shoes follows a young man named Carlo when he wakes on the autopsy slab at his local hospital to find that the world has ended and zombies have taken the place of almost every human on the planet….Almost.
Gary James pens a chilling tale with his Never Say Die. A gentleman’s club becomes a refuge for the well-to-do when the dead rise, through one member has a dark secret hanging over his head which threatens all who discover it. One by one the group’s number dwindles, until there is nothing left to do but the unthinkable. This alternate history zombie tale recounts the final days in the life of one of the survivors, as his time – and the 1930s – draws to a dark close. And the finale of the book is We Take Care Of Our Own by EC. We Take Care of Our Own is about a tight-knit family dealing with survival admidst the Zombie Apocalypse in a small Midwestern town and was inspired by the The Walking Dead. The treatment of both the graphic novel and the TV series inspired this tale because it’s brilliantly complex, poignant, and shockingly real. We Take Care Of Our Own examines the human reaction in the shadow of the Zombie Apocalypse.
And there you have it… a little snippet of the wonderful stories you will find between the covers of Undead Is Not An Option which is available for preorder at our special introductory price of $10 now on our Merchandise page
October’s bony knuckles are rapping on our front door. Hundreds of thousands of people will be lining up, eager to have the wits scared out of them at local haunted houses. TV stations are running horror movie marathons designed to make sure you lose sleep at night.
We in the 
