Zombie Collaborative Fiction
If anyone can remember that far back, a Zombie topic in the off-topic forums spawned something of a collaborative fiction. Wedge, Linde, and myself all posted pieces of a grand story until the thread sputtered out and died.
Remembering that thread, I thought it might be interesting to create a collaborative fiction along the same vein. The idea is that I'd post a seed story in this thread and then people would PM their continuation of the story. Every few days, I'll pick the entry I like the most and edit into the story. Hopefully, the entire story will be done and wrapped up by the 31st, and I'll post the entire story so that people can read it in full
In short, this is what's going to happen:
1. I host a seed story
2. People PM me a continuation of that seed story. Try to keep them between 275 to 800 words long.
3. I wait several days for entries to come in, and then I pick the one I like the most.
4. I edit it (if it needs to be) and then I replace the original seed with the entry I picked out.
5. This process continues until October 31st, or until I think the story needs to end.
6. I post the story in full.
Without further ado, here's the first seed:
Dave paused and looked up from the steering wheel. Traffic hadn’t moved in an hour. He looked back as Tom turned on his Gateway notebook. The laptop’s screen quickly lit up the car.
“It’s ten o’clock Dave, we might want to turn back. We won’t be getting much further tonight.”
Dave sighed as he looked at his girlfriend sleeping in the seat next to him, “I don’t think Kate will be thrilled.”
“Neither am I,” Tom voiced sullenly, “It’s just that we’re not going to make it out of the city. I mean, we haven’t even made it to Haviland, and we’ve been on the road for hours. Look, just turn back. We’ve got a better chance of surviving if we’re back at the house.”
Dave sighed and began to turn the vehicle around, “Fine, you just better find some place to go on your laptop. My home’s not going to be safe enough.”
As the vehicle turned around from Kate stirred from her sleep, “Is traffic moving Dave?”
“No, it’s not. We’re going back home.”
Kate twitched and looked at Dave, wide awake, “We can’t go back, it’s not safe. Besides, you said we were going to meet with my parents in Quebec.”
Dave smirked and looked at his girlfriend, “They were smart, they left early, right after they heard about the ‘murders’ over in Wuerttemberg. You wanted to stay here with me, so now you’re stuck back in Pfalzburg.”
Kate frowned and looked at Tom, “Are we going back to Dave’s house?”
“Yes, unless I can find some place else,” Tom said with a hint of sorrow in his voice.
“Well, you better get cracking because I’ve almost got this car turned around,” Dave muttered under his breath. He suddenly swung the steering wheel to the left as a person honked at him, knocking Dave’s car off the road. “Shoot.” He pressed his foot down on the pedal trying to get his tiny Ford Focus out of the ditch. After several futile attempts he swung the car door open and jumped out of the car. “Come on Tom, I need your help getting this car out of the ditch.”
Tom, a tall, frail twenty-six year old scowled, “Dave, I could be as much use to you as a chicken would.”
Dave sighed and knocked on the car, “Then at least get out, Tom. Kate, can you get out too?” Kate nodded and stumbled out of the car. She walked around back and began pushing on the rear bumper of the Focus. Dave looked at her, surprise clearly showing on his face, “You know you don’t have to help.”
Kate sighed and stared at him, “It’s ten o’clock at night, Dave, and I’d like to get the hell out of this ditch. If coming back here and shattering your preconception of gender roles is going to make it happen any faster, then that’s what I’m going to do.” Kate shook her head and turned around, leaning her back up against the car. Dave continued to stare open-mouthed at her as she pushed the car, completely dumbstruck at what she was doing. “Are you going to sit there gaping or are you going to help?” Kate asked sharply. Dave quickly jumped towards the bumper of the car and started pushing. With a lurch, the car rolled out of the ditch and onto the deserted side of the highway.
Kate folded her arms and leaned on the car, “So, Tom, where exactly are we?” Tom jumped as she spoke and shut the laptop. “Oh, it’s you,” he said as he flipped the screen back up. “Nerves,” he muttered anxiously. He then moved the pointer to a place near the Hudson River, “Over there’s Haviland. And we’re right here. We’re just about ten miles south of Pfalzburg.”
Kate scowled and hit the trunk of her car, “What? We only got that far?” Kate exhaled angrily and muttered under her breath. Tom put his laptop over his head as if to shield himself from Kate, “Don’t hurt me. It’s not my fault traffic’s bad.”
Kate laughed slightly, and shook her head, “Yeah, whatever.” She grinned slightly as she stepped into the passenger seat of the car, Tom stepping into the back. “Where are we going to go? It’s not like we’ve got a lot of choice once we’re back in Pfalzburg.”
“We’re going to my house, first. After that, I don’t know,” Dave answered as he started the car up. He jammed his foot down on the gas pedal and started the car racing down the highway. Kate nodded slightly as the minutes ticked by, the song
Highway to Hell playing as they drove the ten miles to Pfalzburg on Route 9.
