Catching an internet meme with the End of the World and Mythos apocalypse – UTOC Public Safety Notice

A Yellow Dawn kind of Morning

Interesting morning.  Checked my blog traffic stats and saw a 700+ spike from last night and another 700+ so far this morning.  Everything feeding off this article I posted back in March 2012.

davidjrodger.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/post-apocalyptic-wallpaper-utoc-public-safety-notice-from-early-days-of-yellow-dawn-infection-warning/

Then I had a text from Ben Chapman, the artist I commissioned to create the poster for my RPG, Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur, way back in 2008. I wanted a poster to help catch eyeballs at a gaming / writer convention I was attending.  Ben did an excellent job. You can see it behind the Stormtrooper. Made a good T-shirt, too.

Follow Ben Chapman on Twitter (The Sprezz)

David J Rodger and a new Imperial Fan

Yellow Dawn is basically the shared universe of my fiction novels twisted through an apocalyptic event; the result of machinations of the Cthulhu Mythos. You’ve got a new wilderness, like the badlands of Mad Max; infestations of non-human species and Great Old Ones taking a hold now that the majority of Earth has been left dead… or to the undead. Things that have been mistakenly described as zombies by survivors. And you’ve got survivors, living out in high-tech luxury within the Living Cities or slithering around in poverty and squalor (think D&D adventurers ripe for setting off on their first desperate adventure), forced to rely on crude weapons and old technology, scavenging in the ruins of a former glory or braving the mind-warping horror of the Dead Cities

Ben was super excited because he’d found the image trending on Imgur, with a lot of comments bubbling up on Reddit.  He sent me the links.

http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/1cxxgc/if_you_discover_a_dead_body/

and

http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/x385g/welcome_to_the_end/

It’s pleasing, flattering even, but more so it’s really interesting and rather exciting to see an idea take off on its own; other people, other minds taking it and doing their stuff with it. (Although a credit to Ben and myself is always appreciated).  A couple of very cool examples of this are below:

UTOC Safety Notice – Copyright David J Rodger – Image taken by Oli Mortimer

Image source: Oli Mortimer, visit his website here.

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Photo by Boothy – click for full size

Image Source: Boothy, view his photographic work here

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Available in paperback or Kindle

Paperback : from LULU & kindle: US ($), UK (£), DE (Euro)

DOG EAT DOG { novel } takes place in the near future, after the Earth has been devastated by a viral pathogen unleashed when a corporate cargo hauler crashed into the atmosphere; breaking up as a fireball across the sky, it showered Southern Europe and North Africa with a deadly rain of infected debris. Ten years later, over seventy percent of the human population is dead and only a handful of cities survive intact. So called ‘Living Cities’. The vast majority of human habitation is abandoned to the undying creatures left mutated through a brutal twist in the infection. Greed and corruption are left hovering over this bleak and brutalized domain and a cosmic horror is now free to infiltrate the remote abandoned corners of the Earth. Above this, the orbital colonies spin within artificial gravity wells, impartial observers, unaffected by the shocking events below. Within this mix the lives of two survivors collide: a renegade intelligence agent and a cold-blooded master of violence, shaping events with their virulent hunger for money and desire to carve their name onto this new world.

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Make your own sign

You can download a good res copy of the sign here.

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Post-Apocalyptic Music Video by How to Destroy Angels: How Long? from Welcome Oblivion

How to Destroy Angels

Mariqueen Maandig, Trent Reznor, Rob Sheridan, Atticus Ross

Former NIN frontman Trent Reznor has crafted a new album with the razor-edged talents of How To Destroy Angels; a collective that includes his wife and singer Mariqueen Maandig, art director Rob Sheridan and composer Atticus Ross. The album is called Welcome Oblivion, released this month, and includes the mournfully melodic track How Long.  Complete with Joy Division bass twangs and a slow-time beat and shuffle.  On its own the track is almost gentle, but combined with the video it packs a subtle punch with a simple message. How long do we have left?  Or How Long will the human race actually survive in the wake of the apocalyptic events that will eventually consume the current paradigm of the planet?

The video could initially be an observation of primitive man exploring the uncertain boundaries of a world that is dark and brimming with mystery.

But then it switches up a gear and you can see the aeon-old struggle about to be played out.  The strong survive and the weak are meat.

For me the video plunges deep into the heart of my vision of Yellow Dawn (The Age of Hastur). A post-apocalyptic universe for some of my novels and a setting for the role-playing game with the same title.  Out in the new Wilderness, survivors have reverted to primitive states of existence, their descent occasionally interrupted by the arrival of travellers who bring fragments of a former, high-tech world with them.

How Long, indeed?

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Available in paperback or Amazon Kindle

Paperback: LULU & Amazon Kindle US ($), UK (£), DE (Euro), FR (Euro)

THE BLACK LAKE: The Earth has been ravaged by an event known as Yellow Dawn. Ten years later, survivors are putting lives back together and probing the frontiers of a new Wilderness; whilst overhead the orbital colonies slide across the sky, removed and unaffected. Five men leave the fortress island of Malta on an expedition to the sub-Arctic waters above Scotland. They intend to undertake scientific observations of an alien meteorological phenomenon that has followed the apocalyptic event. What they find is a cosmic horror that seethes amongst the shadows of a shattered Earth. It is a story of escape and wonder, of madness and terror. David J Rodger’s trademark unforgiving rendering of harsh reality, and relentless narrative pace, are here in palm-sweating abundance, delivered in a novel that tears open a rent in the boundary of reality, providing a nerve-jarring glimpse of the Outer Chaos and the horrors that lurk just beyond the threshold of our fragile, human existence.

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Zombie Manor House Experience: get trained by tactical firearm specialists and then spend several hours clearing Infected from target location

Cheshire – Manchester, UK

Zombie Manor House Experience – desperate last stand

At a deserted location just south of Manchester, a remote UK government research facility has dropped off the radar. You’re to arrive at the agreed muster point, receive specialised training in dispatching Infected targets and then have three hours to clear the area and rescue any survivors whilst maintaining strict quarantine protocols. All ammunition and equipment is provided.

This is a last-ditch attempt to remove the Infection since the previous team was wiped out.

VIDEO

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EVIDENCE

Zombie Manor House Experience – armed response try to hold a choke point

Zombies have taken over a manor house in Greater Manchester

Zombie Manor House Experience – basic training involves learning how to kill Infected at close range

Clear the 65 acre site in a 3-hour search and rescue

Zombie Manor House Experience – armed response overwhelmed by horde of Infected

Includes all ammo and kit

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Zombie Manor House Experience – deserted facility

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See More Information and Buy Tickets

Click: http://wish.co.uk/zombie-manor-house/

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YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:

• Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur: an RPG that takes the fictional universe of British author David J Rodger and twists it through a “zombie” apocalypse
• Dog Eat Dog: first novel placed within the setting of Yellow Dawn
• 2.8 hours later: city wide zombie chase game – videos and pics

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Video: #zombie infection caught on smart phone (app)

Infected

Unknown scientific study of the Infection that swept the planet following the Callisto burn-up and explosion in the atmosphere; the event known as Yellow Dawn.

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Other Zombie Infection Videos

• part 3_first RV location_infected woman_find the resistance
• part 4 trying to get to church- sanctuary and ambush
• part 6 Infected vicar

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Photography: cyberpunk gang member and a Mythos apocalypse – Tattooed survivor with a samurai sword, by Danielle Tunstall

Life or death in the flash of a blade

Tattooed survivor with a samurai sword. Image copyright danielle tunstall – all rights reserved. Click full size

Part of a series of images from the liquid metal, carbo-plastic, hydrogel and permacrete core of visual creators on the Internet.  Images that stir my senses and evoke plots and concepts for what I’d like to see (or fear) in the future.

In the post-apocalyptic world of Yellow Dawn, survivors don’t just have to find food and resources to stay alive – they have to defend themselves from those who would take it from them.  The apocalypse strips away the pretensions of our current age.  Your platinum credit card won’t protect you from the swarms of feral gangs feasting on the remains of your city  – where more than seventy percent of the population died from an aggressive fever and coma within a handful of days.

Holing up in your apartment will only seem like a good idea until the food runs out and the water stops flowing.  Eventually you’ll have to go outside.  And face the random vicissitudes of a life now slotted into a survival track.  Getting out of the city is your only true option but then do you know how to grow or even harvest the things you need to live?

The man with the sword could be your nemesis or merely your own reflection in a grime spattered storefront – long since raided and emptied of anything useful.  There are worse things to fear out there. Depending on how close you live to southern Europe and North Africa, the 2nd pathogen – the Infection is spreading outwards from the original impact crates of the doom-laden deep space merchant cruiser the Callisto.  Shrieking in mindless rage, sprinting on limbs that will never grow weak or tired, or crawling around in shattered bodies that seem unable to die, the Infected come stalking into the urban places to create Dead Cities.  It is eventually here that the brave and the desperate come, to scavenge and explore, to find artefacts from a close yet distant era of human civilisation on a planet still quivering from the aftershock of what has happened.

High above, untouched but grieving, the orbital colonies spin silently and observe the expanding push for a new life into deep space.  Backs turned on mother Earth. Whilst down below, in the abandoned spaces, fresh horrors are being born as non-human things drift down from alien dimensions of space and time to reclaim  a landscape they once ruled as their own.   When it comes to it – it’s you and the sharp-edged blade of the sword. You’re a survivor or you’re a victim.

Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur is an RPG and the setting for a collection of novels.  British sci-fi dark fantasy author David J Rodger is currently working on The Social Club, the third novel placed in this post-apocalyptic survival horror world.  It follows  Dog Eat Dog and The Black Lake (which recently received critical review in the Guardian newspaper website UK).  All three novels are separate stories but share the one universe.  Another five novels exist, taking place in this shared universe before Yellow Dawn wrecked such global havoc and devastation. You can view all of these novels here.

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Danielle Tunstall has a vast repository of images she’s created and showcasing on her website, definitely worth a look if you’re into the darker side of Cyberpunk, verging on horror, smeared in blood and infection.

• Danielle Tunstall website.

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Adding apocalyptic survival to your business strategy seems like a viable option – CB Structures Inc

CB Structures Inc: hands-on survival advice

Whether it be zombies – or their less virulent but just as dangerous lower cousins,  the wild vagrant horde, CB Structures Inc have put together a rather wonderful little article about creating a barn suitable for survival. And they should know, they’ve been in the business of building barns for over 20 years. Sounds like a commercial doesn’t it.  But it’s true and a classic example of Sci-fi Fantasy bleeding into real-world fact.

Their article covers barn design tips, including:

•     A 15-point food and equipment stocking checklist
•     A 10-point weapon stocking checklist
•     Tips for assembling a survival team Post-apocalypse strategies

A classic example of Sci-fi Fantasy bleeding into real-world fact

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This wags my tail bone because it fits seamlessly into one of the key concepts of the zombie / Hastur-apocalypse RPG called Yellow Dawn – building settlements, repairing and improving structures using scavenged resources, and utilising skills rarely used in most other RPGs to actually create a survival environment.

LINKS USED IN THIS POST:

• The Comprehensive Plan For Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse From Your Pole Barn
• Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur (RPG)

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Available in paperback or Kindle

Paperback: LULU & Amazon Kindle US ($), UK (£), DE (Euro), FR (Euro)

THE BLACK LAKE: The Earth has been ravaged by an event known as Yellow Dawn. Ten years later, survivors are putting lives back together and probing the frontiers of a new Wilderness; whilst overhead the orbital colonies slide across the sky, removed and unaffected. Five men leave the fortress island of Malta on an expedition to the sub-Arctic waters above Scotland. They intend to undertake scientific observations of an alien meteorological phenomenon that has followed the apocalyptic event. What they find is a cosmic horror that seethes amongst the shadows of a shattered Earth. It is a story of escape and wonder, of madness and terror. David J Rodger’s trademark unforgiving rendering of harsh reality, and relentless narrative pace, are here in palm-sweating abundance, delivered in a novel that tears open a rent in the boundary of reality, providing a nerve-jarring glimpse of the Outer Chaos and the horrors that lurk just beyond the threshold of our fragile, human existence.

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See more posts like this – click

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David J Rodger – DATA

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Prion virus outbreak in Bristol UK today – survivors should attempt to reach city centre tonight for updates about zombie resistance

2.8 hours later

Bristol (UK) is in for a rare treat today.  The city centre streets are going to be overrun by zombies tonight and several hundred survivors of the initial catastrophic Infection are going to find themselves pitted in an epic struggle to reach safety without getting eaten.

2.8 Hours Later – An Infected woman – Click for more images and videos

Organised by the formidable 2.8 Hours later crew (Slingshot). There are some classic set-pieces, with actors placed at strategic locations, working ad-lib around the plot, responding to the various survivors who stumble in, confused and disoriented; such survivors find themselves enmeshed within an unfolding scene that seems to have already started and ends with clues to the next part of their journey.

So good luck to the guys and gurls heading out there tonight.  Don’t forget to pack a small torch (for reading your map).

• http://2.8hourslater.com

• Photos and Videos of my 2.8 hours experience - click here.

Stay safe and don’t let the infection-ridden things get their teeth into you.

Photo by Oli Mortimer – Click to grab a copy of poster for your own use

• UTOC Public Safety Notice (pictured above) – You should download this warning sign and place it where it can be viewed by the public

Available in paperback or Kindle

 

• Dog Eat Dog – a tense, action-packed novel that takes place in the near future after the Earth has been devastated by a “zombie” apocalypse

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Have you seen the Yellow Sign?

UTOC Warning Notices begin to appear in urban areas

Is there one near you?

UTOC Safety Notice – Copyright David J Rodger – Image taken by Oli Mortimer

I had an @davidjrodger on Twitter from some bloke in England. He’d found this sign in his area and then gone about trying to find out what it was about.  He found Yellow Dawn.

Image source: Oli Mortimer, visit his website here.

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A couple weeks earlier I had a 15,000 unique user spike in web traffic to my wordpress blog when somebody posted a similar image to an end of world thread on reddit and managed to get onto the reddit home page.

Photo by Boothy – click for full size

Image Source: Boothy, view his photographic work here

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It would be super cool to see these percolating into public areas. Some great surreptious publicity for Yellow Dawn but also a chance to form a question mark and maybe a bit of a chill down the spine of your everyday zombie-fodder.

Make your own sign

You can download a good res copy of the sign here.

 

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Dark Art: Subject yourself to the zombie master – Sam Shearon will corrupt your flesh… for a fee

Mister-Sam Makes Monsters

Promo flyer for Artist Sam Shearon – zombification by commision – click full size

Insane(ly) talented artist Sam Shearon is putting his creative skills to grisly effect.

Want to see yourself Zombified?

Become one of Sam Shearon’s Undead Portraits…

Men, Women, Children & Pets

ALL ARE WELCOME

Now Taking Pre-Orders! All portraits will also be compiled into a book!

For more information email:

INFO (at)MISTER-SAM (d0t) C0M

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Sam Shear0n – aka Mister-Sam is a dark artist par-excellence. His talent has already seen his work snapped up by the producers of serious creative projects. An unsurprisingly heavy influence from H.P.Lovecraft and such macabre classic literature such as The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde – he delves deep into the shadows of industry, magick, superstition and horror, to pluck at the raw chords of reality, producing effects that are chilling, unnerving and mesmerizing.

Here is a divine opportunity to have your visage mutilated and brutalised by his creative instinct, and placed within a collection of fellow Infected for the obscene pleasure of morbid mortals.

You should check out Sam Shearon’s website.

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Samples of Sam’s work

Zombie Art – Portrait by Sam Shearon – All Rights Reserved

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Zombie Art – Portrait by Sam Shearon – All Rights Reserved

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LINKS RELATED TO THIS POST:

• Sam Shearon official website
• Examples of Zombified Portraits on Facebook

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Map of the Dead: Zombie Survival Map – excellent resource for post-apocalyptic world of Yellow Dawn RPG

Post-apocalyptic resources

Click on the image of the map to go to Map of the Dead website. Developed by Jeff at Doejo (we fuel ideas that grow).

Find places near you that are likely to have resources to help you survive the zombie apocalypse. Or places to avoid.

What I personally like about this is the way it could conceivably tie-in very closely with Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur. The creator of Map of the Dead states that “Danger zones are areas specified as having ‘man-made structures’ so a large danger zone will likely result in more zombies” [ More Infected!!! ]

Click to go to Map of the Dead

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When the future imitates the past. Dog Eat Dog steps into context.

Arizona USA

Back in 2010 a school teacher in Arizona was giving a lesson on the Medieval European Crusades into the Middle East.  On the back of this he decided to see what it would be like to recreate the experience of yomping through a sun-blasted desert, carrying armour and kit of the period.   It led to the first Crusader Walk, across a secret location quite literally in the middle of nowhere.

I was lucky enough to catch sight of the photos from this event, just as I was finishing my fifth novel, Dog Eat Dog: a political crime thriller set in the post-apocalyptic world of Yellow Dawn.

I approached the photographer and secured the rights to  use one image for the cover of the book, modified to give it the anachronistic contrast between people seemingly of a medieval period but walking towards a near-future city.

Available in paper or Amazon Kindle

 

Anyhow, skip forward from 2010 to 2012:

I was delighted to find another photograph in my inbox this week: sent by the folks behind the Crusader Walks, re-creating the photo but this time holding a copy of the novel it was used for.

Nice little human moment.

Photo by Julie Holmes - All Rights Reserved

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Photography: harbinger of the apocalypse, calcified caped dove by Nick Brandt.

Icon of a dead planet. Image: Nick Brandt - All Rights Reserved

Nick Brandt  is probably best known for his wonderfully developed photographs of the wild animals of Africa caught in a state of existence (rather than action shots of them splashing through water or diving dramatically through the sky).

However this image struck me as iconic of something beyond wildlife photography.  It could be an icon of a dead planet.  The final curtain call of environmental change or the consequences of something catastrophic like Yellow Dawn: the image would not be out-of-place in a Mad Max movie. Those who have survived would walk past things like this every day, but sometimes, they are going to encounter sights that will punch through their brain-shocked desensitivity. And make them stop. And stare. And remember.

I think Brandt has captured this raw, gut-wrenching emotion of the absolute end of things.

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If you like his work, check out Nick Brandt’s website.

He also has a stunning hardback book available:

On This Earth, A Shadow Falls
Photographs by Nick Brandt
Big Life Editions, 2010. 192 pp., 90 illustrations, 13¼x15½”.

Selected as one of the Best Books of 2010 by:

• Anne Kelly
• Elizabeth Avedon

View here: http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?Catalog=ze223

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I am promoting a novel - click me

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Video Animation ¦ Ruin – a post apocalyptic short

A little under 10 minutes this is a wonderfully atmospheric cyberpunk post-apocalyptic short that plugs straight into your adrenal gland.  Definitely make sure you’ve got big sound, full screen and a do-not-disturb holo hovering above your skull.

There’s a fantastic absence of dialogue, adding to the enigma of the story’s background: what is the character searching for and why did this happen?  Is the character even human, or something else?  Great sense of peril from the autonomous machine response.

It would fit seamlessly into the post-apocalyptic universe of  Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur, except for the fact it shows nature having reclaimed the abandoned cityscape. In Yellow Dawn, one aspect of the Infection that dominates the daily life of survivors who have chosen not to seek sanctuary in the Living Cities, and is part of the pervasive Influence of Hastur, is the fact that the flora and fauna of Nature does not grow anywhere there are significant populations of Infected victims (erroneously called zombies by survivors and media).  Even 10 years after the event known as Yellow Dawn happened, the Dead Cities remain free from the choking overgrowth of weeds, trees, wild grasses or anything else; adding to the intensely disturbing atmosphere to these places.

Here’s the video:

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Story by Wes Ball. Produced by Oddball Animation

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Invitation to appear on German-French “zombie” documentary with iconic euro culture TV show, Tracks

Image by David J Rodger

I just had a phone interview with a lovely lady from a TV production company who’s dialled into my world of zombies and  Yellow Dawn, through my blogging of the incredible adrenaline fuelled, heart-bursting, sanity-shredding experience of 2.8 hours later (run by the Über  talented crew at Slingshot ).

I am, perhaps insanely, turning down an invitation to join her and a film crew at the next Slingshot run “2.8 hours later” event in Leeds, the weekend of 24th September.  So I said I’d open up the invitation to people who are into my work and likely to be game, for a game:

Tracks, the German-French iconic culture TV show are doing a piece on 2.8hours Leeds and want to follow a player round on the Saturday night (24th), they won’t interfere, they even have nightvision low light cameras and that; if you’re interested in becoming a European celebrity contact: zombies@slingshoteffect.co.uk

Ideally, you’re more than just into zombies but into game culture as a whole.  If you’re a game geek like me and want to express your ideas and opinions, particularly about pervasive gaming, as well as getting filmed by a pro-crew as you’re chased around the city of Leeds, then definitely get in touch with them.

Good luck.

Djr

Relevant links:

• 2.8 hours later, Bristol May 2011 – city wide zombie chase game – videos and pics – click

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Invitation to appear on German-French "zombie" documentary with iconic euro culture TV show, Tracks wp.me/pTAKk-1EU—
David Rodger (@davidjrodger) August 31, 2011

Photography: post-apocalyptic & dark fantasy art – The Survivor, by Danielle Tunstall

The Survivor - image copyright danielle tunstall - all rights reserved

Part of a series of images from the liquid metal, carb0-plastic, hydrogel and permacrete core of visual creators on the Internet.  Images that stir my senses and evoke plots and concepts for what I’d like to see (or fear) in the future.

I like this image because of the absolute essence of the untold story.  For me, I called the image “The Survivor”, my imagination being biased towards my own post-apocalyptic creations:

 See the RPG Yellow Dawn and the novel Dog Eat Dog.

There’s vulnerability exuding from the exhausted, possibly sanity shocked  figure.  How much has she gone through and how much is yet to come her way?  And is it monsters or other survivors she’s had to fight and flee from?  What do you think?

Danielle Tunstall has a vast repository of images she’s created and showcasing on her website, definitely worth a look if you’re into the darker side of Cyberpunk, verging on horror, smeared in blood and infection.

• Danielle Tunstall website.

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click me

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US Health Officials post advice about preparing for zombie apocalypse

Photo: David J Rodger

There’s no need to blink furiously and rub your eyes. It’s true. An official US government website had told its citizens how to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. It’s a sign-of-the-times and another clear indication of how the swelling fascination with the Walking (or in my case sprinting and screaming) Dead have become so zeitgeist.

It’s certainly a canny and deft move by the assistant surgeon general, Ali Khan, to capture the public imagination in regards to the serious subject of planning for any “apocalyptic” event – such as major floods, earthquake, terrorist strike using WMD or… perhaps, the release of a bio-engineered retro-virus that destroys the personality centres of the brain and recodes genes to produce a violent pathological rage.

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Preparedness 101

KHAN: There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for.  Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this.

This isn’t about selecting the best weapon for taking down your mother-in-law who suddenly wants to chew your face off rather than just bitch at you.  It’s about serious and practical steps for dealing with any major emergency.

KHAN: You should sit down with your family and come up with an emergency plan. This includes where you would go and who you would call if zombies started appearing outside your doorstep.

Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (ie brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance!

Case Study: RASPiX

This is from an undisclosed source regarding a report into an incident that occured this year. It has nothing to do with the US Government.

• The medical community refer to the Pathogen as RASPIx: Rapid and Selective Prion Infection.  The X refers to the unknown component that leads to a perpetual state of animation.
• The initial identification of prions has been challenged; but the terminology still holds as a valid concept for study.  If they’re not actually prions, then they’re very similar.
• There are two formally recognised phases of the Infection.  PHASE I occurs after onset and is defined by the heart still beating, prion-release and destruction of the frontal-lobe and higher brain functions.  PHASE II is defined by total organ failure and jellification of blood into a mutated substance.
• RASPIx is not a virus, as many media commentators have erroneously stated. It is a bacterial infection containing viral components, and prion-like material.
• Vaccine trials have consistently failed.  The bacteria produces an exotoxin which destroys the antibody response.  Attempts to use a live attenuated vaccine have also failed as the bacteria is able to repair any alterations to its DNA (source code).
• Furthermore, the early – and rushed- vaccine trials were a disaster because as the live vaccine morphed back into shape, as  all DNA damage was repaired, it resulted in trial-subjects (people) being Infected by the vaccine itself.
• The prion-like proteins are delivered within the bacterial payload – these unpack upon successful invasion of the host and begin a highly accelerated Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) reaction.  They’re able to exploit existing protein channels to cross the blood-brain-barrier.  They specifically target the brain’s frontal lobe and other areas associated with higher-brain function: this is not normal prion behaviour.  Within hours, there are spongiform changes to these parts of the brain.
• There is slight widening of the sulci (gaps between the complex convoluted folds of grey and white matter) but otherwise the humanoid brain has what appears to be healthy neural tissue.  Except where the “prions” have been at work.
• Within twenty to sixty hours after spongiform changes have occurred in the targeted areas of the brain, increased adrenaline levels and surging heart-rate cause the neuronal vasculature (vessels that bring blood to the brain) to burst from prolonged pressure. This is consistent with the targeted areas of the brain displaying immune response, as if fighting off the infection; this immune response is yet another unusual characteristic of the “prions” involved here. The result is physical destruction of the parts of the brain associated with what is means to be human.
• Most parts of the brain remain preserved and functional (such as the thalamus, hypothalamus, cerebellum, brain stem and occipital lobes to mention only a few) even after entering Phase II, marked by total organ failure, baffling the whole medical and scientific community.
• RASPIx is certainly engineered.  Several contagions share the same infection vector and demonstrate a symbiotic partnership – co-operating to achieve what they’ve been programmed to do: including jellification of the blood and developing a membrane around cells to protect against other Earth-based infections and necrosis of damaged tissue.
• Neisseria meningitidis has been identified as a foundational component with blood coagulation toxins and secreted prion-like proteins as innate function of the infection; but this has been modified to deliver something else. Front-field researchers believe this could be the elusive x.

A worrying glimpse into one of the potential threats facing Humankind? Maybe. Just maybe.

- Djr -

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Photography: snapshots of a Dead City, images that convey the post-apocalyptic atmosphere of Yellow Dawn

Copyright © Gundross

I found these images and thought they were perfect examples of what an abandoned urban location might look like after a decade of weathering and neglect. Of course what’s missing from these particular images are the ragged figures of the Infected.  There’s also no sign of Mother Nature.  Normally after ten years you’d expect Dead Cities to succumb to the unrelenting spread of flora and fauna, weeds taking root in cracked rendering and pushing up through sidewalks and bursting beyond the collapsing fences of gardens run wild.  But this is one of the surreal and disturbing aspects of the Yellow Dawn world – any location holding a large number of Infected appears to be impervious to the normal riot of nature… it’s as if the normal mechanisms and biology of Earth shun and avoid the cosmic influence that has taken hold through the Infected, through the influence of Hastur.

Copyright © Daniel Cheong

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Image Copyright © Marcin Stawiarz

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Image copyright © Phill D

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Related links:

• Gundross profile on Deviant Art – click
• Daniel Cheong profile on Flickr – click
• Marcin Stawiarz (Angel Reich) profile on Deviant Art – click
• Phil D profile on Flickr – click
• Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur – Official Web Page – click
• Dog Eat Dog – Action / Horror novel set in the post-apocalyptic world of Yellow Dawn – click

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David J Rodger – DATA

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Zombie fashion for 2010

Look sharp, even when you’re undead.

Sears Online Department Store shows it’s taken the policy of accessibility for all to new levels.Click the image above to see offers you’ll want to DIE for. Very cool.

 

 

More David J Rodger? God Seed ¦ Dante’s Fool ¦ Iron Man Project ¦ Edge ¦ Yellow Dawn RPG

New Mexico Counterculture, Off The Grid, and a video of naked dude trippin’ out with blam-blam-blam of a handgun. Post-Apocalyptic scenario

Image via Wikipedia

A couple of vids and a write up that provides an enlightening glimpse of the New Mexico mesa, and some of the people to be found there.

“This isn’t tourism, man. This is real life.”

It’s got my imagination fired-up. Not sure how accurately “Off The Grid” portrays the people involved, or New Mexico as a location; I’ve never been so can’t comment or pass judgement. Certainly somewhere I’d like to go.

From Dangerous Minds (.net), Marc Campbell.

This is an area that has drawn artists, outlaws, visionaries and lost souls for decades, from D.H. Lawrence to Dennis Hopper to the New Buffalo Commune and the Rainbow Tribe. The mountains are thought to have mystical powers, both good and bad. It is said they can mess with a man’s mind.

Read full article here (recommended)

Naked dude trippin’ out with blam-blam-blam of a handgun

“Off The Grid” -Life on the Mesa

Desert Autonomous Zone

Survivalism meets counterculture

This is an article from Reason.Com, by Jesse Walker, posted in 2007

Somewhere in the northern New Mexico desert, a grizzled gardener called Robbie is praising the prickliness of his home. “The cops don’t like to come out here,” he says proudly, “and this place is built on being left alone by the authorities. People say to the government, ‘Fuck you. Chinga tu madre. We don’t want your government, and you can get out of here.’”

Read full article here

List of pre-modern professions. RPG resource.

A useful resource for ideas of what people might do in post-apocalypic settlements (such as in Yellow Dawn).

View here:

http://www.paforge.com/files/resources/premodern_professions.pdf