Chapter 1, Section 2: Larz Lives

ShelliLicious33’s Blog, April 17th, 2021

Larz changed apps on his iLens, switching back to the ZombieAlert app he had been bringing up from time to time.  He was streaming his feed live to anyone who was interested in watching.  Last time he looked, after his announcement that Larz planned on going zombie hunting, he had somewhere around 33,000 people watching him at the moment.  The most viewers of any of his stunts yet!

According to the ZombieAlert app, there was some activity spotted recently in the woods just up ahead.  The report was for “low density” infestation – less than 20 infected in the woods.  Which was perfect – he only wanted access to a few.  His goal wasn’t all out war on the zombies, just another good stunt to show off.

He tapped the back of his hand, and switched to the bluetooth connected camera patch on the back of his hand.  He could now see himself on the lens display, and adjusted his hand to get a good shot of his face.  Now the viewers could see him, and could see the shotgun he had resting on his shoulder.  “This is Larz da’ Polemaster, and this is ‘Killing a Zombie’!”  He knew it wasn’t one of his better titles, but it got to the point quickly.  Google would index the voice and should give him some extra rank for it.

He continued to speak to the camera after he flashed a big grin.  “There’s rumors on the ‘net that you can’t kill zombies ’cause they ain’t like zombies in the movies.  I intend to put that rumor to rest using,” he motioned with the shotgun, “my little friend here, Mr. 16 Gauge.  Mr. 16 Gage is filled with some really nasty shells – phosphorus packed dove-shot sized pellets!”  He brought the the camera patch closer to his face, and lowered his voice for effect.  “But don’t tell anyone – those aren’t legal!”

He put his hand back out further again, framing the shot so people could see the shotgun in the picture again.  “Not only do these bad boys obliterate heads on contact, they flash fry whatever is left!  Check this out!”  He pulled up a video he found online earlier, and piped the output to his live stream.  Someone off camera shot a whole turkey in slow-motion.  The turkey exploded, and a split second later the air around the turkey turned white with flame from the phosphorus.

Larz switched back.  “Now, is that graggin’ awesome or what?  That’s exactly what I’m going to do to a couple of zombies, just to prove to ya’ they can die!  So let’s start hunting!”

The camera switched back to first person view, giving his audience the view of what he was seeing.  His was an older iLens 2T – they couldn’t see it in full 3D, but maybe after this stun he could pull off an upgrade.

He pulled the shotgun off his shoulder, and snapped a magnetic flashlight onto the barrel.  “Shhh… be wery wery qwiet, I’m hutting wabbit,” he said as approaching the woods.  He would probably have to ham it up a bit to keep the audiences attention.  Walking through the woods would be boring until he found a target.

He moved quickly at first, sweeping the flashlight back and forth in front of him.  When he finally started hearing noises he slowed, and began creeping.  He hunched down a little, attempting to minimize himself.

Part of the current “Cult of Jackasses” culture wasn’t just doing insane stunts – these days, with biometric readouts being so common, part of the stunt was to try and do it without increasing your heart rate and blood-pressure.  Simply put, you had to become literally fearless.  Some Jackasses used chemical bravery, but Larz avoided it.  He felt it was cheating – getting high wasn’t the same as being without fear.

Because of the fearlessness of Jackasses it was common to leave biometric data in the metadata of the video stream for live transmissions.  Right now, Larz was starting experience fear, and the video data was reflecting that fear.

A few more minutes in, the noises got louder, and then he got his first glimpse.  He let out a holler, and dashed in closer.  He placed the shotgun to his shoulder, and when the zombie was within 10 feet, he pulled the trigger.

It only took one shot to down the 40 something male zombie.  The shotgun roared, and for an instant viewers could see the zombie’s head explode – then anyone watching on newer screens was rendered blind for a moment as the phosphorus came in contact with the air and the darkened woods light up brighter than the sun. “Booyah!”  Larz let out a whoop of triumph, and turned towards the next sound that approached him.

A second male, this one shorter and younger than the first lunged towards him.  The biometric data spiked – Larz was spooked.  He leveled the shotgun and hit the zombie in the chest.  When the phosphorus ignited the zombie’s body became two parts – the torso section in the middle simply disappeared.

Larz turned at the next noise, and experienced a moment of emotional blindness caused by nudity – this time the attacker was a very striking woman who happened to be topless.  Zombies ended up loosing loose-fitting clothing quickly – snagging a dress, loose shirt, or blouse on a tree or other object removed them.  She apparently had become infected when she wasn’t wearing a bra.  Larz hesitated for too long – while viewers couldn’t see what happened, something hit Larz from the side and knocked him off his feet.

It took less than 30 seconds for Larz to loose his struggle – the last recorded image was of the female zombie standing above his body with an arm.  She munched on his arm for a moment, illuminated by the indirect light from the shotgun mounted flashlight.  Then, almost disinterested, she dropped the arm and slowly walked away.

The biometric data in the video stream slowly went to flatline as Larz bled out from his arms and legs.

-= Fin, Larz Lives – For Now! =-

Well, what do you think?  Conway had suggested the idea – going through and seeing some of the live streams from people in infected areas and finding stuff to turn into stories.

I like the idea – the streams are pretty boring most of the time, so turning them into time-compressed stories seems like a pretty good ‘pubic service’ for anyone who’s trying to keep up with what’s really going on in places like LA and Beijing.  Much better than some of the highlight reel stuff I’ve seen.

It’s also a good writing exercise for whenever I finally really do get around to writing my book I’ve been mentioning in my blogs for so long!

Plus, it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do – supposedly I’m only going to be stuck in the wheelchair another three months until the doctors clear to walk again.  The spinal cord regrowth takes a bit and is sensitive to physical shocks until it “sets.”  I’m going to shoot for daily updates on here (except for days I’ve got therapy.)

There’s a reason I think it’s probably better to read about the “zombies” rather than watch the videos.  It’s just too disturbing.  I know they really aren’t zombies, even though that’s become the popular term for them.  They are infected with what’s-his-name’s nanite healing bots.  They don’t look exactly like humans really – there’s something wrong with the muscle structure, they have a faint blue-green tinge in daylight and an extremely faint glow at night and the facial expressions are completely wrong – but they don’t look anything like what has been seen in the movies.  But it just looks too much like killing people, not “things.”

Now, if this was a ghost story, I’d say something to completely creep you out.  Well, it’s not, I’m going to creep you out anyway.  I forwarded through Larz’s stream up to the next day – the biometrics on his iLenses started up again.  Really faint, but they are slowly growing.  Larz isn’t dead – he’s infected.  I’m wondering if somehow he’s going to end up getting back up and walking around?  He’s missing at least an arm and a leg, but was sort of healing can the nanites do for him?  And will he become a just like them?

If so, and the iLenses manage to stay on, there’s going to be one hell of a story to tell when Larz lives again!