My problem has been in the second phase of the story. I think I’ve successfully introduced all the characters and their situations. The trick now is to start maneuvering the four separate groups together. My plan is to bring these four groups into two groups, and then into one main group to follow for the second half of the book. The problem has been working with finding ‘realistic’ ways for my characters to do what I need them to do. This is a big problem for a lot of movies and books. Characters do stupid things to push the narrative along. I don’t want that. I want some interesting, yet believable scenarios to progress the story. This is pretty difficult.
In any case, I’m enjoying my return to writing. Below is the first half of my latest chapter entitled “Downtown Traffic”. Basically a team of police officers and a doctor who escaped a hospital are trying to find a way to Fisherman’s Wharf through San Francisco. Of course, they have a few million zombies to worry about. The chapter picks up after they leave the hospital.
(keep in mind, this is still a 1st draft) Hopefully you’ll enjoy what i have so far.
Lieutenant Clarence Tate lead his team of 4 out of Saint Francis Memorial Hospital and out onto the streets of San Francisco. The retrieval transport that was scheduled to rescue them from the hospital never arrived.
They found it two blocks away at the corner of Jones and Sutter street. The large gunmetal black van had been caught in the intersection blocked three ways by a mass of abandoned cars. He speculated that when the transport came to this position, they probably got trapped by a horde following them. There were no roaming corpses in the area. The soldiers from the transport must’ve abandoned the vehicle and fled for their lives, with their monsters in pursuit.
After a few minutes of recon, he ordered everyone forward. They continued to move east on Sutter Street, which seemed to be the only route with no enemy presence. Their journey was trouble-free until they reached Grant Street. Ahead of them, Kearny Street was crawling with corpses who seem to have found a meal. Tate was hoping it wasn’t the Retrieval Team. The only direction they had was to head south, down Grant Avenue. The journey was uneventful, until they reached the 3-way intersection of Grant, O’Farrell and Market Street.
Just as they arrived, Tate caught multiple movements just ahead. Using military hand instructions, he ordered his group to stop and hide. All five of them crouched behind a smoldering Mercedes S-Class 10 yards from the intersection.
Officer Hanna Johnson, an unusually tall Black woman positioned herself next to Tate.
“What do you see?” she whispered.
“Multiples at the intersection.” He unshouldered his P90 sub machine rifle. “I count four. Get the boys in position.”
Without another word, Hanna nodded and then signaled Officer Milwaukee an Officer Scott to find attack positions.
They both carefully and quietly moved out in opposite directions and found good line-of-sights for their targets. Once the three of them were in position, they looked back at Tate for the next call.
Ivana was amazed at the organized operation of signals and coordinated movements. It was quiet.. Insanely quiet. Back when the world was normal, you took for granted all the sounds of the city. Even at it’s quietest with no one around, there still was a good amount of background noise in the world. Now, there was nothing. You could hear the people next to you lightly breathing. You could hear the wind blowing trash as far as a block down the street.
Tate took another look out at their targets. The four corpses hadn’t moved. They stood scattered in-between the big traffic jam at the 3 way corner. 3 women and a small boy. He used finger gestures with each of his officers to designate their specific targets. One at a time, they nodded and opened their scopes on the head of their corpse.
While the officers set up their attack, Dr. Ivana couldn’t help but study the dead things in their unnatural habitat. All four stood slightly swaying with blank looks on their faces. It was the same look she saw from the drunks the Police use to deliver to the ER. She took mental notes on a few things. She wondered why they didn’t attack each other. She concluded their must be some type of recognition.. Maybe smell or body heat registration. They didn’t seem to have any higher brain functions. They didn’t use weapons. They didn’t know how to use door handles, or operate any type of complicated machinery. She knew she would need to study them more. That would require obtaining an active specimen to run tests on.
Dr. Creed came out of her thoughts just as Tate started a silent countdown with his fingers. When he reached 2, the four of them quickly rose up in unison and each fired a silenced shot at their targets. All four of the corpses jerked at the same time when the bullets cracked open their skulls. The bodies fell to the ground with what seemed like giant thuds in the silent wind. The four soldiers quickly crouched down once again, just in case the noise brought more walkers to the intersection.
After a minute, Tate gestured for his team to move forward toward the intersection. The each reformed a tight group and quickly moved through the maze of automobiles. Their diamond formation was primarily to protect Ivana Creed. Tate took the front position, while Hanna brought up the rear, making sure they weren’t being followed. Officers Milwaukee and Scott were positioned on either side, with the Doctor at the center of the group. Earlier on, Tate had given her a gun; a pristine subcompact Glock G29. She held it in her sweaty left hand, but kept the safety enabled.
As they reached the intersection they they turned to head east on Market Street. With the others occupied, checking the targets they just shot up close, Ivana was the first to see it. She looked down the street in the direction they were traveling, and nearly felt her heart explode in her chest.
Officer Hanna Johnson was to first to hear the doctor’s gasp. She swung her P90 up from the corpse at her feet, in the direction the Doctor was facing and caught the frightening wall of silent corpses twenty yards away. The others followed suit just as the first corpse opened his mouth and let out a deafening wale.
Why Have You Forsaken Me?
I think the Biblical story of Job is funny. Not funny ‘ha ha’, but funny ‘interesting’. You have God and the Devil making a wager to test the faith of the most righteous man on the planet? First of all, I didn’t know those two were on speaking terms. It makes them sound less like two warring deities, and more like CEO’s of competitive corporations.
Secondly, I get this image in my head of Lucifer (everyone calls him Lou) showing up at God’s condo for brunch, and they start arguing over this cool guy Job, chillin’ on his farm below (cause they can see him through the clouds, right?).
God looks up smiling and says ‘Job’s cool as hell!”
Satan replies. “No he’s not! I could turn him out, if you gave me the opportunity.”
From there, ‘Mr. Pitchfork’ puts Job through waves of pure evil to make him rebuke God (which never happens, cause then the story would suck). Lou kills his family and his animals, and inflicts pain on his body, yet Job stays cool with God.
God wins the bet, so per their agreement, Satan has to give him back the Catholic church. (just kidding) [Due to divine intervention, Todd retracts that last sentence]
Back to the subject. So what’s my point?
The story of Job is one of the infinite number of classic stories dealing with possibly the greatest discussion piece in human existence: Good vs. Evil. The concept of two complete polar opposites (Black and white, yin and yang, God and Satan) endlessly waging a war for dominance.
It’s the foundation for ‘freewill’. There can be no freewill without equal capacities to do good and evil, because without equal portions from both sides, we’d be Angels or Demons.
It’s also built into the basic foundation for humanity. There’s the concept of Heaven as the ultimate good, Hell as the ultimate evil, and us as their tortured offspring. It’s almost as if it’s some type of celestial experiment that God and Satan are playing. One day they decide to finally answer the question: “Who is more powerful?”. To do so, they jointly create a planet in a controlled environment and a race of beings called humans, who possess 50% from each of them.
The truth is, we’ll never know the truth of God and The Devil. We’ll never really know what religion is the ‘true’ righteous path. So the only thing we can do is look inward and try to figure out what is good and what is evil within the hearts of man.
Interview With A Vampire
Possibly the greatest ‘internal dialogue’ ever penned by an artist would have to go to Ras Kass. Vastly under-rated as an hip hop artist, Ras is possibly one of the greatest ‘wordsmiths’ in the business today. On his last album, ‘Soul On Ice’ he had an incredible song called ‘The Nature Of The Threat’, which chronicles the origins of Racism in the world. Although the facts are given throughout the song, Ras’ bias comes out in the way he worded his stanzas.
The same can be said for another song on his CD ‘Rasassination’. In a song called ‘Interview With A Vampire’, Ras Kass chronicles his ’roundtable’ discussion with himself, God and Devil. The content and verbal imagery is incredible. He manages to take what we know from mainstream religion, and create an open discussion with both sides. You can almost visualize God and the Devil sitting on each of his shoulders.
What becomes clear in the dialogue is that it’s not God and Satan he’s talking to. It’s more of an internal dialogue with himself playing all three parts. But regardless, the conversation is so explicit and straightforward. Everything from science, to race, to nature, Ras covers the entire spectrum of what the Deity is suppose to be.
Below is a transcript of ‘Interview With A Vampire’ for reading your pleasure. I separated the dialogue for easier reading. Enjoy.
| Ras Kass: | Inside my mother’s womb, doomed to return to the tomb. Or was it from the dead I was raised? All too soon to pay, on Judgment Day. Is this the beginning or the ending? Died sinning, still winning, still grinning. Descending, verdict still pending, born pretending. Three-hundred billion men, women, and children.. |
| God: | ..cringing |
| Ras Kass: | Deja vu, could be I’m dreaming? But we all ask for divine reason, While still breathing, and until leaving. Who? What? When? Where? How? But most of all why? |
| God: | Why what? |
| Ras Kass: | Do we live just to die? |
| God: | The Book was written, way before the apple got bitten. There is no God but me. Mathematically, in division, my decision was all inventions. I need not mention infinite dimensions. But the human mind’s flaw was limited comprehension. So while you try to travel to Mars and the stars, The God manifests through the entire universe. From the Sun, Moon, the Earth, I created man in my image and the Black man was first. The scientific explanation? Yeah I made man out of dirt. |
| Ras Kass: | But how can a man be first, when it’s the woman that’s giving birth? |
| God: | [Sigh] Listen.. Single-celled organisms, The Homo Sapiens, The alchemy. |
| Ras Kass: | What’s that? |
| God: | White people. |
| Ras Kass: | They keep the world separate and unequal. |
| God: | They teach you, right is wrong, wrong is right, up is down. Kick the King off his throne. Is the planet flat or round? |
| Ras Kass: | Can we really time travel, and is there life in outer space? |
| God: | Wait, you knew all this in the first place. You’re trying to get to God! |
| Ras Kass: | But, I’ve fallen from your grace. A billion paths to take, but which one is truly straight? |
| Chorus | |
| God: | It’s a process, sh*t don’t just happen, I create it. Everything you see, and sh*t you don’t, son I made it, and waited. I’m the big bang theory and evolution. Been there, done that, from revolution to prostitution. The first and final solution. The Koran, Bible, and Veda’s, is only tools, Don’t be confused when the medulla oblongata do |
| Ras Kass: | Oh, so revelations is Genesis. |
| God: | Three-sixty degrees are limitless. |
| Satan: | Sh*t, my motherf*cking nemesis. |
| Ras Kass: | Who is you? |
| Satan: | Chump, I thought you knew. Who else? Lucifer, the Lie Bearer, stupid. The Devil himself! He the creator, we all the creations, guess i’m Eternal Damnation. Got you b*tches seeking your own salvation. Who taught you how to pray? You read it in the book? Look, your bear witness to Amen-Ra. Every day when you say Amen, And then turn around and preach worshiping false Gods, Is an unforgettable sin. Yeah the good book is like comic books. You take them too literal, I tricked you in to believing the power to reason, Makes you able to live infinitely, in the physical. Guess I’m the pawn, con miracle. Basically I tell true lies in general, the yin and the yang The player with a trillion years of game. |
| God: | He got you selling your spiritual, for power, money, and fame, I came out of triple stage darkness, gave mortals my attributes. But even you made me a mystery God, like the Loch Ness. Or used science to prove or disprove my existence. Trying to unlock this, artificial intelligence, cloning and space stations, Trying to build the Tower Of Babylon. But you’re sadly mistaken, When I start erasing Homo Sapiens. You’re looking for an angel with wings, I’m'a bring young n*ggas with a AK, f*ck an alien. |
| Ras Kass: | So what you saying then? You the one that created sin? |
| God: | What you call mother nature, was the nature of me. |
| Ras Kass: | Oh.. |
| God: | What you call evil, ultimately, was the force inside of me. Matter can’t be created or destroyed, it just changes shape. One God, many people, and many faiths. And this is how I wanted it done. |
| Ras Kass: | Wait, wait, hold up. Father tell me, who is God’s son? |
| Chorus | |
| God: | I be your Jesus to your Buddha, the Krishna and your Judah, The Big Kahuna, Jehovah Witnesses, suede pumas. Zeus, Pharaoh, Elohim, Saturn, Yahweh, Jahve, Rastafari, Ra, Allah, The Most High. But then, only Adam and I. I’m the oceans, the trees, a bumble bee, and a Glock. Earthquakes, how much money you ever take. The reason behind every mistake mankind continually makes. |
| Ras Kass: | Did God create man, or did man need to create God? |
| Satan: | The answer is both, cause how mortals look at God is odd. |
| God: | You try to customize me to be comfortable. For what you want to do, and how you choose to act. The Pope and Christians will tell you God ain’t Black. But to get something from nothing is physically impossible, that’ s a fact. |
| Satan: | Black is the combination of all colors |
| Ras Kass: | White is the lack thereof. |
| God: | Darkness is beneath the ground, and in the skies up above. The clue, is that the true illumination is me, not illuminati. Cause I alone discriminate, and illuminate Any who be believing they can rationalize and out-reason me. Who created your creature? Student can never be greater than the teacher. Whether its Adam and Eve, or atomic chemistry. I’m the one true source of all energy. Who will eventually destroy every enemy when I see fit. |
| Ras Kass: | Oh sh*t… |
| God: | I can’t blaspheme my own name so when Godd*mnit, so be it. |
| Satan: | That’s called the wrath of God, but we gotta deal. I can chill. F*ck up the whole world, and in the end, He’ll still fulfill his plan, to restore man to his original position. N*gga gave me some hooks, and said I gets to go fishing. |
| God: | I gave man dominion over the Earth, to master the wealth. But most of my children don’t have dominion over they self. |
| Satan: | That’s where I come in. Call it original sin. Well, who really gives a flying f*ck? I taught you how to blood suck, and ultimately self destruct. |
| God: | Know the ledge, wise the dome, do the data. I’m the alpha. |
| Satan: | I’m the beta. |
| Ras Kass: | And I’m omega. To be or not to be was man’s question since conception. I think therefore I am, was man’s perception. But the birth is the resurrection. The son of God! |
| God: | Christ! |
| Ras Kass: | Or God’s son, that lights our entire spectrum. You got everlasting life, long as you got day and night. Illumination, not education, to bring the blind sight. And what you need to know is that you’ll never know it all. I’m a lowercase g, son of the ever-living God.. |
Rapping with the Supreme Being, by Todd Kelley
Are you there God? It’s me, the Big La!!! First off, thanx for the new job! YOU ARE THE MAN!!! Sorry for comin’ at you so soon again. My brain’s running overtime on things to talk to you about, and my window of opportunity might close. It’s almost Christmas time, and I KNOW it’s your busy time of the year. So let’s get right into it, shall we?
Our Topic Tonight: Master Of Her Domain?
A couple weeks ago, I was having a bad case of the ‘non-sleepies’. So, being the expert couch potato that I am, I grabbed the remote and started to do some serious channel surfing. Now, for most guys, we use the standard bio-optical filters for finding acceptable viewing visuals:
“Cute Women”
“Fire and/or Explosions”
“[Or the very popular] Cute Women causing Fire and/or Explosions.”
After my third trip cycling to the 50 channels I had available, I caught the sight of something interesting on (oddly enough) the Discovery Channel. It turned out to be a special report on the abortion issue. They were giving me an un-bias look at both sides of the argument: ‘Pro-Choice’ and ‘Pro-Life’, which was very refreshing. Or maybe it was because nothing else was on. I don’t know… Wait, I’m getting sidetracked…
Anyways, a couple days later, I was talking to a friend of mine who lives in New York, Stephanie (not her real name! You know the drill…). Somehow, our conversation drifted to abortion and I gave her a quick synopsis of the documentary I saw that night.
Now, first off, before I get into the details, I’m stating for the record that I wasn’t trying to cause trouble! I just thought an abortion conversation with Steph would be… interesting. You’ll hear why later…
“So, what side of the fence do you stay?” she asked me.
“I don’t know.” I replied. “Since I don’t get pregnant, I don’t see it as one of my primary concerns.”
“So you think it’s a woman’s choice, right?” she baited me (like she normally does).
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“O.K.” she commanded. “That makes you Pro-Choice. You think it’s a woman’s right to murder her unborn infant.”
This is where the conversation took a spooky turn of events. You see, knowing Steph, she’s not exactly the ‘girl next door’ type. More of a free spirit, she tends to take the liberal route on things. But this time it was different. I could tell from her voice, she was a little p***ed [DIVINE CENSORSHIP] off at my answer [read: the answer she had thrown to me.)
Back to the 'convo', after a few seconds for dramatic pause (I tend to do that from time to time), I gave her an uncertain:
"Yeah, I guess so. I'm guessing you don't?"
"No I don't!" she said boldly. "I believe MURDER IS MURDER. It doesn't matter if it's an adult, or an embryo. What you're saying is you condone murder."
And, as you can guess, this is the point of the conversation I became p***ed [DIVINE CENSORSHIP] off.
“No I don’t condone murder. That was you’re words. What I said is I don’t have a clear stance on the subject. But if I did have to take a side, I’d would say I’m Pro-Choice, because I believe in a woman’s right to her own body!”
Well, this went on for a while, and from there, conversation kinda took a detour toward religion. Now, keep in mind I didn’t say GOD! I said religion.
It was then, that she blurted out something that I’d never thought I hear from her:
“Bottom line: In the eyes of GOD, abortion is murder! And that’s good enough for me.”
Again, I invoked my famous dramatic pause, because the whole conversation just went up ten points on ‘the old interest-o-meter’.
“Steph, aren’t you still a lesbian?” I asked her.
“Yeah. What’s your point? What’s does my interest in women have to do with murdering children?”
At this point, it was time to start pushing some buttons:
“Well, you backed your argument up with viewpoints from mainstream religions. The same religions, I might add, that say lesbianism is a sin. What’s the deal?”
“Well religion is not perfect, Todd! But there are some thing’s that transcend religion! Homosexuality doesn’t hurt people! Murder does! It’s as simple as that! If you don’t understand that, then you’re an idiot!” (translation: “I don’t know! I just blurted it out, and I need to save face, so there!!!)
Now from this point on, a lot of profane words were spouted on both sides, so I won’t finish the conversation. But you get the ‘gist’, right? Do you see what my problem is?
Although, Steph’s point wasn’t technically sound, she pretty much summed up the state of religion today. People tend to mix and match the Do’s and Don’t's to fit their lifestyles. It’s the main reason I can’t bring myself to fully embrace religion.
Take a look at Stephanie. She’s probably the coolest person to hang out with. She lives by the ‘treat people like you’d want to be treated’ school of thought, and does everything from charity work, to sponsoring programs, and mentoring children. On the flipside, she’s a lesbian, who spends most of her nights in raves, house-parties, or strip clubs with her ‘circle of friends’.
So here’s a good question, God. What side of the fence does she fall on? Do you grade on a point system, or percentages? Or does one sin condemn her? Does her sexual exploits cancel out the good she does for her fellow man? When she reaches ‘Club Heaven’ and she’s waiting in line to get in, does Peter run her social security number and say:
“Hmm… You’ve helped a lot of people in your lifetime, Steph. I don’t think there will be a problem with… Oh, wait. It says here that you sleep with women. Sorry, you gots ta go…”
You wanna know what I think? Well, of course you do!
I don’t think you’re like that. I don’t think you put us down here to be walking, smiling, automated, choir-singing robots. What would the point of ‘freewill’ be? What would the point of ‘individuality’ be? And to hear people passing judgment on others (in your name) because they are different doesn’t feel right.
Maybe abortion is wrong.
Maybe homosexuality is wrong.
Maybe racism, sexism, and the ‘ism’ dealing with the handicapped is wrong.
But I think that’s a job for GOD to decide, not his flock.
Tell me if I’m wrong, but you have a method for dealing with ‘wrongdoers’ in the scheme of things. You don’t need us to handle it for you. Our only obligation to the human race is to love, honor, and respect our fellow Man. Sure we have laws, and living willingly in a society, we need to respect those laws. But torching abortion clinics, and ‘gay’ and ‘race’ bashing in the name of God is evil in itself.
Here’s where I stand:
TAKING A LIFE: Bad, unless in self-defense.
ABORTION: It’s a woman’s choice, but I don’t think I could bring myself to do it, if it was me.
HOMOSEXUALITY: It’s not my thing, so it’s none of my business.
LESBIANISM: Requires further investigation of the available material to form an unbiased opinion.
If someone asks me, I’ll tell them my views on certain topics. If their views differ, I’ll accept that we have opposing thoughts and leave it at that. Now, what type of world would it be, if everyone did the same? I think it would be the world you envisioned for us, right?
Well, that’s it for me. I hope you made sense of my rambling.
P.S.
You need to do something about these floods, man. Wait… do I need to be building an Ark or something?
Are you there God? It's me, the Big La!!! If so, could you spare some time out of your busy schedule and speak with me for couple minutes? I 've got a few things on my mind and you're the only person who can satisfy my curiosity. I was gonna write to you earlier, but, as you know it's 'Transsexual Week' on Springer, and Stefano's up to his old tricks on "Days of Our Lives" (I think unemployment is getting to me. Please help me find another job). But seriously, I have a few things I need to get off my chest. Now, I know what you're thinking: I want to know 'the nature of life and the universe' and crap like that. But I'm sure you get asked that all the time. I don't need to know the answers to the cosmos. I'm one of the goods ones (see the halo over my head?). Anyway, I just wanted to clear the air. Since you see and know all, I'm sure you've been noticing me asking more than a few question concerning faith and religion. I know you've seen me p*** [DIVINE CENSORSHIP] a few people off by challenging their faith and their definition of your 'will'. Honestly, it isn't that I'm trying to swerve your followers, or spin some blasphemous scene. It's just some of your 'ELECTED OFFICIALS' tend to send conflicting signals, which doesn't sit well with the population, at large.
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