Zombie Story

A while back, I wanted to make a zombie slasher story–something like Zombie Land–but set sometime in the 1600s.

The story would start out with a young deacon coming into his local church on a Sunday morning. As he walks about dusting the place down and washing stuff with a wet rag, he comes across what looks like a bit of mold growing on the alter. He scrubs it relatively hard but it won’t come off. He rubs it with his finger–still won’t come off. It’s just a minor blemish; he figures–meh–and continues on. Later that day, he comes to his superior, father McGevin, and shows him his finger, the same one that he used to try to scrub off the mold. He points out how he’s now got a rash and it burns. He then proceeds to show father McGevin the mold spot on the alter. The father shrugs his shoulders and suggests a certain ointment he can get in town.

The next day, the father comes in and notices the mold spot is growing roots–or something like crawling vines sticking to the alter surface as it spreads out; it spans about a foot from the original spot in radius. The vines look hideous and morbid, like sick blood veins–grey, blue, black–and looking closely, the father can make out a bit of pulsation. The father looks stupefied and a bit frightened. He steps away from it and somewhat anxiously leaves the church.

I’m not sure what happens at this point, but at some point later in the story, the church is overrun with these vines. I’m not sure how father McGevin will figure that out; I’m thinking he barricades the church, locks it up, and urges his local flock to have sermon and worship in the town square for the time being; he does send a convoy to Rome to get the Pope’s council, so it’s not like he’s completely ignoring the problem.

But one day, partly out of curiosity, partly out of courage, he goes back to the church at night, carrying a lantern, unbarricades the door and opens it; he shines his lantern inside the church to see the growth the vines have becomes–crawling all over the walls, pulsating, oozing with puss, and the stench is just awful. He sees that the vines aren’t exactly still, some of them are moving about. A few of them grab his ankles, whip them inwards into the church, causing him to fall flat on his back and hit his head, and then be dragged into the darkness, his lantern being dropped just outside the church before the door closes.

The next day, the young deacon who first discovered the mold spot is asking about the whereabouts of father McGevin. He’s told by the local bar keep that the last he heard of father McGevin, he was going up to the church to check out how bad the situation had gotten. So the young deacon goes up there. At this point, the vines are creeping out the windows and doors. He doesn’t need to step inside to see there is a problem. He’s not afraid. He walks around the church, getting a look at it from all sides, keeping his distance. Finally, around at the back, he kind of just stands there not knowing what to make of the situation. He turns around to think for a bit. With his back turned, father McGevin suddenly burst through the door look festering and dead. ← The first “zombie” of the story.

Essentially, the vines take human beings, put them into something like a cocoon or comatose state, and at the end of the metamorphic process, you get a zombie–a semblance of what was once a human being, but is now a festering vision of rotting flesh, colored blue and grey, boils and soars, blood veins black, and puss seeping from all orifices.

Father McGevin, or what was once father McGevin, comes crashing through the door as I said. He makes a B-line towards the deacon. The deacon quickly turns around, and in terrible fear tumbles over backwards trying to get away. He crawls on his back keeping his eye on father McGevin. He comes across a pitchfork stuck in the ground. He grabs it and sticks it right into father McGevin’s chest, not killing him, but allowing the deacon to at least push him to the side and cause him to fall down. He gets on his feet, pulls the pitchfork out and runs away. He looks back and sees father McGevin getting to his feet and, with a limp, running after him. He somehow realizes that he can’t get away from father McGevin. So he stops running and goes in for the attack. He stabs father McGevin through the neck with the pitchfork. Father McGevin falls to the ground. The deacon gets on top of him and twists the pitchfork, effectively severing father McGevin’s head from his body. And that’s the end of father McGevin. He lies there dead, his body twitching and black blood spilling from his open neck.

That’s kind of how the story starts.

I think the next scene I’d have would be in Rome, the Pope (haven’t decided the era yet so don’t know which Pope this will be) talking with a bishop about how there have been reports coming in from all over Europe, from random churches, some little ones belonging to small towns, others at the heart of Paris and Berlin, about incidents just like the one experienced by the deacon.

At the same time, the Royal Society in England are getting similar reports. So there ends up being two investigations into the situation, one from the religious authorities of Europe, the other from the scientific authorities. I’m not sure if there’s gonna be any conflicts between the two, but they end up teaming together two of Europe’s leading experts, one appointed by the Royal Society, a leading scientist of the time, the other appointed by the Vatican, a leading expert in exorcisms. Together they constitute our protagonists, the good guys who embark on a zombie slashing hunt across 17th century Europe.

At first, I want them to argue a lot, to be constantly debating. They can’t agree on a methodology. They finally agree to try the other’s methods out, starting with the exorcist’s, and if that doesn’t work, then next the scientist’s. So they try the exorcist’s method first. I’m not sure what it will be, maybe throw a bucket of holy water on one of the zombies. Of course, it has absolutely no effect. They both end up just running away. Then they try the scientist’s method. Again, not sure what it will be. But it too fails. (I want a scene of the exorcists laughing at the scientist afterwards). Bottom line: they realize they are up against a force neither one comprehends.

The rest is just slash and gore and rolling heads–you know, the fun stuff.