Eric Staggs: Writer

Sharin’ a link!

If you like military sci-fi, Roger Zelazny, Space Opera and high-concept adventure, you should buy this eBook. Right now. No, really. Don’t wait. Click and buy it right now. Where else can you get this sort of entertainment for only $3.99?

If you don’t like any of those things, you should still click and give the eBook five stars. Come on. We all need stars. Really. Even me.

Here is it is!

Space Whales and other Nonsense – The classic science-fiction tale of drug-crazed extraterrestrial cetacean invaders leads this collection of science-fiction and fantasy shorts. Also includes Serpent-Rider and Space Whales II: Sister Shiv (winner of Aviator’s Editor’s Choice Award).

Available from Amazon.com for Kindle, iPad, iPod and iPhone!

Many would have us believe that contemporary society need only worry about zombies, shambling piles of rot that groan and reek of decay, warning us of their imminent approach. This is untrue. Since the dawn of mankind we’ve been plagued by a variety of undead, truly numerous in their subspecies.

For brevity and ease of categorization, undead shall be broken up into three primary categories determined by their primary unique attribute.

Thinking Undead

First and perhaps most dangerous are the thinking undead. These creatures range in scope from master vampires, creatures of such age and staggering malevolence that to simply witness them would scar a mind, to automaton guardians, enacting simple to complex instructions, but with no real will of their own. Then of course there’s the more enigmatic undead, like the sorcerous lich or the dreaded Eye of Fear and Flame. Revenants and Heucuva like somewhere in between the animated slave-corpses and the master plotters within the shadows.

When dealing with thinking undead, all bets are off, and knowledge is truly your only ally. Safely assume the undead creature, no matter its subspecies, has lived significantly longer than you. You will not be the first foolhardy soul to attempt to its destruction. It will anticipate your tricks, your tactics will be old hat, your skills, will be sub-par. The only chance one truly has of defeating a thinking undead is personal knowledge of the undead itself. Knowing where a lich stores his phylactery, for example will allow you to sever the fiend’s connection with the dark forces that keep it whole. Knowing the true name of a vampire will freeze it, for a short time. It is also said that The Eye of Fear and Flame may demand conversation and only the wisest should dare try to match wits with the thing. Each thinking undead will be a special case, the circumstances so varied that no hard and fast rules can really apply.

However, there are a few tactics that should always be employed against superior forces.

-       Attack from range: anything that keeps you out of arms length is more valuable than you can know.

-       Pole weapons are logical but generally have no effect on skeletal bodies or desiccated tissue.

-       Shotguns and automatic weapons are moderately effective, provided they are immediately followed up with the appropriate coup de gras (stake in the heart for vampires, destruction of the phylactery for liches).

-       Flame: fire tends to drive all thinking creatures back, even the undead. Some say it’s a instinct left over from their mortal life. (More on this later)

-       Wolf Pack: always attack in numbers. Always.

Spontaneous Undead

The next type of undead are loosely termed “spontaneous occurrence undead.” This includes skeletons, ghosts, wraiths and the like. These undead, also called after-shock manifestations, spontaneously occur when a burst of intense emotional energy is released. The skeleton army of Sheikara was one such event. Historians could easily identify the risen by their accoutrements, consisting evenly of about half 3^rd century BCE Persian and Egyptian craft. The Five Hauntings of Shaedellery Road is another such example; after a gruesome murder, the entire family of five manifested as wraiths. NOTE: poltergeists are not technically undead. They are more accurately described as capricious or malevolent energy patterns. They often anthropomorphize so that they might more easily interact with their victims.

Disposal, or dissipation of spontaneous undead is often the realm of clergy. Clerics and Priests of various faiths all have their own methods, ritually prescribed techniques for dis-corporating spontaneous undead.

Baring a cleric’s intervention, or the presence of a significant positive energy source, a bludgeon is most effective against skeletons. Bones become quite brittle without fresh blood nourishing the marrow. A mace, aluminum baseball bat, even a shovel are highly effective against physically present spontaneous undead. NOTE: incorporeal undead CANNOT be dealt with in this fashion. The touch of a wraith is deadly to most mortals and confrontation without prior experience and prepared clergy is discouraged.

Infectious Undead

As with all things in the 21^st century, our undead problem has become acute and extreme. Vampires and skeletal hordes have, fortunately, changed little since recorded time began. In fact, regional variants in undead show even less deviance than in living creatures. This of course would have to do with the lack of evolutional opportunity within the undead life cycle.

However, much to our detriment, we’ve been introduced to entire new strains of undead. These creatures are known as the Infectious Undead. These particular undead may not have “life,” but they are hosts to a variety of life forms, bacteria, viruses and parasites. These life forms are often what drive the life cycle of the infectious undead. Through bodily fluids, a variety of “zombifying” viruses are transmitted. Rage, Morning Star, Necrotitis Ambulatoria, the names for the “zombie plague” are as numerous as the undead that carry it. It is these infectious undead that we must be particularly concerned with.

Further, there is an in-between life and undeath state for many hosts of these viruses. Specifically, Rage drives the infected into a killing frenzy where all rational thought ceases. In this state, the body slowly dies, while the virus multiplies exponentially. Every aspect of the infected then becomes contagious, as the thing is rife with bacteria and disease.

Worth a brief mention are Brain Parasites and Yellow Musk Zombies.

Brain Parasites take root within the parietal lobe of any available host. They multiply within hours and in addition to driving the victim mad, cause him or her to seek out others of their kind, in which to implant new parasites. While technically this is an infectious zombie-like state, the brain parasite zombie is in fact not undead, thus conventional methods of eradication (with contagion precautions) can be employed with reasonable effectiveness.

The Yellow Musk Zombie, like the Brain Parasite, is in fact a zombie, but again is technically not undead. The Yellow Musk Zombie is created when an individual breathes in the poisonous pollen of a Yellow Musk Creeper Vine. This vine then feeds on the liquid nutrients within the victim’s body. Once drained, a root system takes hold within the victim’s corpse, taking advantage of the skeletal structure to facilitate mobility and thus reproduction. Fire is the best way to deal with this particular menace.

This brings us to some basic facts about dealing with Infectious Undead.

Combat

There are several recommended techniques for engaging infectious undead. Make no mistake, the only safe way of dealing with infectious undead is to not deal with them. Avoid them at all costs. Depending on the particular strain of infection, they may rot away, starve or simply cease to become animate. Some may not.

Some strains may be highly motivated, ambulatory and aggressive. Instances of reasoning have been recorded, though witnesses were highly agitated and potentially unreliable. Regardless, reason would push infectious undead into the category of thinking undead, like the Ghast. Other strains of zombies may simply wander about, feeding like scavengers and hunters of opportunity.

Much of this has been covered in the definitive work, The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. However, I feel after actual practice and encounters with infectious undead, a few brief addendums are necessary.

Ranged, high kinetic yield weapons like shotguns or rifles are effective at hindering the undead, but as we all know, destroying the brain is the only way to end them permanently. Shotguns allow little luxury for error and tend to spray infectious material in all directions with a successful hit. Rifles on the other hand, require precision and patience, both of which are hard to manifest in the face of an onrushing horde of zombies. Further, a rifle round can travel through one, two or a dozen undead before striking a brain, doing little but exposing your position.

-       A properly equipped fire team will have a mix of long and medium ranged weapons. Medium -range weapons function as close support for the long-range weapons.

-       A successful fire team will be highly mobile. When choosing a position for confrontation, expect to advance and withdraw many times throughout the engagement. This tidal-effect will give the fire team the ability add and decrease range with the increase or decrease of infectious undead present.

-       Explosives simply spread the plague.

-       Unless you are an excellent shot, all your pistol is good for is saving your self a painful death.

Melee

Conventional undead battling technique would have us all believe that fire is an appropriate method with which to purge the undead. Fire cleanses everything, or at least, so they’ve always told us. The effectiveness of fire depends greatly on the sub-category of infectious undead. Those afflicted with Rage will simply run about setting other things on fire. The truly undead are incapable of rapid movement and thus fire becomes much more effective. As fire destroys tissue, the undead collapse in upon themselves and become harmless piles of ash. That said one must be extremely careful not to breathe the fumes of a burning zombie. Further, the long-term ecological effects cannot with any accuracy be assessed (and are beyond the scope of this essay). Finally, be aware that to completely destroy a human body, recently deceased, the flames much reach a temperature of at least 760 to 1150 °C (1400 to 2100 °F) for a considerable time. No mean feat for a highly mobile fire team potentially low on supplies.

Engaging infectious undead in melee is perhaps one of the most terrifying endeavors available for a person, even an adventurer or mercenary. The sheer numbers, voracity and single-mindedness of the infectious undead invariably startle even the most battle-hardened soldier. Hand-to-hand combat is even moreso.

Many essays have been written on the best weapon for dealing with zombies, company’s fortunes have waxed and waned due to the perceived effectiveness of their new anti-undead weapons. However, as any veteran of undead combat will tell you, an aluminum baseball bat is really all you need. Amateurs will insist their favorite D&D weapon is best. This is foolish. Edged weapons get caught in bones and don’t deliver killing blows often enough to the walking dead. The only vaguely acceptable medieval weapon would be a mace. Blunt force will shatter bones and with a trained or adequately strong arm, easily shatter a skull. That said, woe to any who just up leap into zombie melee with a hammer or mallet. Again, an aluminum baseball bat is the best choice – its smooth surface prevents contagion from clinging, makes the weapon easy to clean and most of us have been swinging baseball bats since we could walk. The weapon is light, easily carried and intuitive.

1. Brooks, Max. World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War. New York: Crown, 2006.
2. Brooks, Max, and Ibraim Roberson. The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. New York: Three Rivers, 2009. Print.
3. Recht, Z.A. Plague of the Dead The Morningstar Saga. Pocket, 2009. Print.
4. Brown, Eric S. Season of Rot. [S.l.]: Permuted, 2009. Print.
5. Bourne, J. L. Day by Day Armageddon. New York: Pocket, 2009. Print.
6. Kirkman, Robert, and Charles Adlard. The Walking Dead. Orange, CA: Image Comics, 2007. Print.
7. Mearls, Mike, Stephen Schubert, and James Wyatt. Monster Manual: Roleplaying Game Core Rules. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2008. Print.
8. Turnbull, Don. Fiend Folio: Tome of Creatures Malevolent and Benign : an Alphabetical Listing of Monsters for Use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Adventures … Lake Geneva, WI: TSR Hobbies, 1981. Print.
9. 28 Weeks Later. Dir. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. By Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Fox Atomic, 2007. DVD.
10. Night of the Living Dead. Dir. George A. Romero. By George A. Romero, George A. Romero, and George A. Romero. New Age Video, 1968. DVD.

“It’s finally here! The December 2008 Issue of Tales of the Talisman! The folks atTotT were kind enough to publish one of my short stories, the unexpectedly prolific Space Whales. So click here to visit their website and order a copy today.

Space Whales is the original story of a down-and-out punk rocker who joins forces with an irascible and mysterious nun to stop an invasion of… well, Space Whales. Between the slacker’s lack of motivation and the nun’s penchant for imported beer, who knows how this will end up?

While your ordering, be sure to check out some of the TotT back issues, each one packed to the brim with fantastic fiction, futuristic idea-scapes and of course, brilliant prose.”

 

In my secret lair, working diligently on my next overly intricate plot, I decided to take some time out of my daily routine to write a quick blog post.

As many of you may know, this month’s (Dec 2008) issue of Tales of the Talisman (http://www.talesofthetalisman.com) includes one of my more popular short stories, Space Whales.

To celebrate, I’ve moved my blog from my secret asteroid base to a more earthly location. I’ve reduced security droids and allowed the system’s AI to make my posts public. Check back often, as we’re expecting many changes in the upcoming months.