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Post by Gillsing on Jan 14, 2013 0:42:45 GMT -8
tab tab Ben- tab "I'm Ben." Ben hoped that divulging his name wouldn't give the woman some kind of supernatural power over him. Her talk about Amazon as a company that was going to survive the zompocalypse seemed a bit insane to him, but for all he knew she could be right. The world hadn't ended when medieval Europe lost 90% of its population to the bubonic plague. It was 90%, wasn't it? Ben wasn't really sure.
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Jan 14, 2013 21:57:19 GMT -8
Kristen- "Thank you, Ben." They went upstairs, chatting as their feet clacked in the black dark concrete stairs. An interior stairwell, it lacked windows, and was lit only by a few flashlights and road flares...
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Post by Gillsing on Jan 15, 2013 8:06:14 GMT -8
Ben- "Are there a lot of survivors in here?" Kristen- "Just the big man, Marco, and myself. There used to be more..."
Lashonda- "What, did you eat 'em?"
Kristen- "Don't be horrible! I'd never eat a human being."
"When we started to take down zombies on a larger scale we didn't really want to deal with all the ones in here, so we just blocked the doors to keep them from coming out. I hope that didn't cause a problem for you." Kristen- "Well, all of the buildings on the block are united underground by the parking garage, so we've had three building's worth of resources and less uncontrolled zombie influx than we would have had otherwise, so on the whole we may even thank you."
"We saw a zombie running around down in the cafeteria, and then it ran off as if it was afraid. We've seen some zombies move quicker than others, but never away from anyone. Do you have an explanation for that?" Kristen- "That is strange. I was in there and saw nothing out of the ordinary."
Ivan- "Maybe your sense of ordinary is blown out. I wanna know how you got through the lobby on the way to the cafeteria with all the zombies that were in here."
Kristen- "We usually go down a floor and up through the service hall on the loading dock, but you cleared it out, so it's more convenient this way now."
"We've also seen the helicopter on the roof, but I don't think we've ever heard it take off. I guess pilots might be hard to come by these days." Kristen- "The first to go. What a nightmare!"
"Had any problems with ghosts? We figured out that they're flammable, and started passing out fliers to the neighbourhood." Kristen- "Hahaha... Oh, you were serious? That explains the torches. Well, no."
Nora- "Maybe ghosts favor old buildings. These ones look very new."
"You wouldn't happen to have a working computer and backup power, would you? And maybe some kind of access to satellite communication? I'd really like to know what's going on in the rest of the world." Kristen- "There were just too many zombies to take full advantage of the resources we had at the outset, and now we're running on E. Wish we'd managed to keep a few engineers, right Marco?"
Marco- "No shit!"
Lashonda- "Charmin'."
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Jan 17, 2013 23:52:37 GMT -8
They got upstairs, a nice executive suite expensively made out of cheap materials, to demonstrate some principle or another. Maybe it was the giant banner that read "KAIZEN!" Ben half recalled some corporate training related to that word, from his Microsoft days.
The sun lit the floor quite nicely, and they came to a very nice casual conference room, featuring none other than... The Big Guy- "Visitors! Welcome to the future!"
Former Employees of Big Guy- "Oh My God..."
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Post by Gillsing on Jan 18, 2013 9:22:34 GMT -8
tab tab Ben- tab "Why, thank you," Ben said genially. "But are we really in the future? Isn't this more of a phase before the final collapse, or until we get back on our feet?" Can't keep a good sceptic from questioning the big guys.
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Jan 19, 2013 4:44:48 GMT -8
The Big Guy- "It's a metaphor, young man. The name on the building is about e-tailing, and how I felt it was really still Day One of a brave new world. So much was left to be done! Still, we live on and we're not about to give up on our dreams, right?"
Kristen- "Absolutely."
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Post by Gillsing on Jan 20, 2013 17:10:08 GMT -8
tab tab Ben- tab "Ah, I see. And no, I guess we're not going to give up on our dreams. So do you have any plans for this future?" Ben wasn't sure how much the three remaining Amazonians could accomplish on their own, and he didn't have high expectations. But maybe there was more to them than met the eye? The discrepancy between what Lashonda and what Kristen claimed to have seen certainly indicated that.
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Jan 20, 2013 19:26:43 GMT -8
The Big Guy- "Yes indeed. Eventually, mankind will overcome this tragic situation. We just have the will, so there's a way. But for now, the economy has certainly changed.
That is to say, people's immediate needs have changed, and of course means of production and supply. Of course, the three of us alone can't implement the plans we are drawing, so we'll need to do some recruitment.
What do you want out of this new paradigm, young man?"
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Post by Gillsing on Jan 21, 2013 1:15:08 GMT -8
Ben- "Well, I once had the idea of putting zombies on treadmills in order to generate electricity. I figured that could be one way to use all these zombies that we suddenly have on our hands. 'When life gives you lemons,' you know?" Big Guy- "So far I like what I'm hearing. Go on."
Marco- "Food anyone? Get it while it's hot!"
Lashonda- "Why not? We've been gettin' a workout."
Tyrone- "Lay it on me, brotha."
"But seeing how much time it takes to make a generator, and how much slower a zombie would be to a human pedalling an exercise bike, I guess that idea was a bit premature. Because we sure have plenty of humans who need their exercise." Kristen- "See, that's thinking about demand, and market forces. Like we do. Mm, thanks, Marco." She started to eat."So I changed my goal to getting rid of all the zombies so we could gain access to more areas to scavenge, and sometime in the future re-establish contact with the rest of the world." Big Guy- "See, now there you lost me. We've been thinking outside the box here. Maybe we should explain our ideas..."
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Jan 21, 2013 2:55:49 GMT -8
Marco- "You want some?" Marco hands you a box lunch and fork.
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Post by Gillsing on Jan 21, 2013 3:59:30 GMT -8
Ben- "Sure. Thanks." Ben accepted the food, hoping that it wouldn't turn him into a something not-human. But hopefully the Big Guy's out-of-the-box thinking would not include pacts with devils and methods to gain thralls by giving them food. He nodded and listened expectantly.
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Jan 22, 2013 16:45:46 GMT -8
The big guy continued. He had a way of tilting his head back and widening his eyes when explaining stuff that made him look a little bit like
but not quite. Maybe a little weirder.
He continued. Big Guy- "So. Zombies. What can they do? They can move. They are dead, but they are capable of moving. That is an interesting thing."
Nora- "I don't follow. The situation we're in, this undead-based apocalypse, if you will, that's 'interesting'... One little thing like 'zombies can walk' ... What are you getting at?" He glared crazily for a moment, chilling the 403ers to the seat of their pants. Tyrone found himself thinking about how fast he could draw the gun, and about Marco's weapon as well.
Then he collected himself. Clearly billionaires aren't used to being talked back to, but he was rolling with the punch. Big Guy- "Haha, yes, fine. Think, for a moment. What did Amazon do, before all of this?"
Ivan- "Deliver stuff. So... Delivery zombies? How do you - Ah, sorry, go on man."
Big Guy- "Well, a zombie can deliver itself, and then whatever use the zombie has, you can take advantage of. We're working out the kinks at the moment."
Kristen- "As you were hinting, yes, we haven't quite figured out how to direct them, but there may be a business model that doesn't require personally focused delivery."
Big Guy- "Thank you, Kristen. Well... Did you have a question?"
Tyrone- "Om, no, uh..." Tyrone looked a bit uncomfortable. Ben, as you take a cut of the meat on your fork and move it near your mouth, you realize it smells so horrible you can taste it in the air. It's nasty as fuck. Probably why Tyrone looked hesitant.
But it would be rude to decline hospitality. Do you eat it and pretend it's good?
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Post by Gillsing on Jan 23, 2013 7:09:27 GMT -8
Ben hadn't really been hungry to begin with, what with the healthy breakfast he had indulged in that morning. So eating dubious meat was pretty much out of the question. Was it the lack of refrigeration that was to blame for the smell, or was it something more... sinister? He let the fork hover in the air for a while, and then slowly moved it back down to the box as he spoke. Ben- "If that is the extent of your explanation, then I'm still in the dark. Have you found a way to keep zombies from attacking you? Because if you let out a bunch of zombies to 'deliver' themselves to random people, it seems to me like those zombies would be hostile to anyone who's alive, and thereby likely to be killed in self defence. If you're lucky, that is. If you're unlucky the zombies might kill someone. And if that happened I have a feeling that people wouldn't settle for a lawsuit."
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Jan 23, 2013 13:39:25 GMT -8
Big Guy- " *siiigh* It's starting to look like you'll be too small-minded to consider this. I faced doubters before. People assumed our business model was flawed because we had to spend so many years in development and research - years that the profits were not yet visible. But we proved them wrong."
Kristen- "Don't disappoint us, Ben."
Big Guy- "By the way, is there something wrong with your food? What, would you say, could improve the presentation of it?"
Lashonda- "Gettin' it within a foot of my mouth makes me wanna barf up shit I ate in kindergarten."
Marco- "HaHA!"
Big Guy- "Aww, now that is problematic. We clearly need to do more product research. Which is why I was hoping you would help us rebuild our human resources."
Nora- "What does that have to do with ruddy zombies? What are you hitting at, man?"
Tyrone- "Watch out, Nora." Things were getting tense. Big Guy- "What's it going to be, Ben? Do you want to be human resources, or undead resources?"
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Post by Gillsing on Jan 23, 2013 14:42:47 GMT -8
Ben- "What?! Are you threatening us?" Ben didn't want to be any kind of "resource" at all for Amazon, and clearly it had been a huge mistake to see this man. If he was a man. Ben hoped that he was, because then they might have a chance... of some sort.
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