fandomhigh | History in Living Colour - Friday, Period 3 (Week 5)

"The events of the past don't always match up with what's written in history books. Someone I once knew said 'history is written by the victors' but that's not always true. Sometimes it's written by the people who couldn't comprehend what really happened, so they made it up or tried to reconcile what really happened with what makes sense in their head. Sometimes it's written by people who weren't there, so they made a good guess. This ties back to good old Arthur, but I'm afraid today won't be as simple as playing with swords and answering a question.

Welcome to the Roanoke Colony, 1588. This was the first serious attempt by England to establish a permanent settlement in the Virginia Colony, but the colonists who came here disappeared. Guesses were made about their untimely demise or abandonment of the colony, but they were largely wrong.

The historians of the time didn't say it was zombies, although that word, really, could have come up with something better, because they couldn't comprehend what a 'zombie' was. The reanimated dead aren't new, they just weren't embraced until around the time of Mary Shelley. There's a perfectly logical, scientific explanation for the living dead, a couple in fact, but I won't get into details. Why pass up a chance to explain it? Because we're in the middle of the colony and the undead colonists, ravaged by their condition and trying to survive by feeding and making more of themselves, are closing in on our scent. In this trunk," he said, kicking the wooden box at his feet, "you'll find whatever tools you think you need to survive. Say it out loud and the Danger Shop will have it appear when you open the trunk. Within reason. No weapons of mass destruction, if you please. I'd go with a political joke, but if you've heard one, you've heard them all. Go on then. You're a survivor of the Roanoke Colony. Survive. Try to get to the boats down by the shore. You wanted history in living colour? You're about to get it. Oh, and practical exam next week. Just a little thing. Sink or swim type scenario, but if you can get through this, you won't have a problem. Brush up on Japan, late 19th century. Or your people skills. They'll probably help more."

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Y'know, before you're attacked by zombies.

"Zombies?" Peyton said under her breath. "he's got to be kidding."

Zombies. That would be a new one for Adam.

"Zombies?" Gwynn asked.

Zombies? Anemone flinched and contemplated skipping out of class and taking detention instead.

The Doctor waited until after his little speech, then headed for Anemone. "Problem?"

"I don't like zombies," Anemone said shortly. "The movies always give me nightmares."

Which was true. She was just leaving out that her former squadmates sometimes referred to her as the "living-dead girl" because of the trances her sickness caused. Anemone didn't like being called a zombie.

Re: Talk Amongst Yourselves

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Alice noticed Anemone's hesitation, and leaned over to lower her voice.

"How much destruction do you suppose we could do, were we to pair up?"

They were dead, not sick. As long as she remembered that, Anemone could do this.

"Not enough," she said confidently, tossing her hair over one shoulder. "I think I might need a big stick, to whack them out of the way."

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Dick had never dealt with zombies before. This was going to be interesting.

A wide slow grin crossed Dean's face. Now this? Was the kind of class he could totally get behind.

Zombies. He wondered if he could get a flamethrower.

After talking to the Doctor, Cimorene walked up to the grinning Dean. "How do you get rid of zombies?" She asked bluntly.

"Depends on the kind," Dean said. "But the two methods that work the most of the time is fire, and cutting them into little bits that can't chase you." He paused. "'Course if they're the non-vulnerable to fire kind, setting them on fire means you've got walking torches trying to eat your brains but nothing's perfect."

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"Zombies?" Cimorene sounded a bit confused.

"Zombies!" the Doctor declared. "The living dead. Or the undead. Or reanimated corpses who want to feed on the living."

"Oh." Cimorene kind of caught up. "How do you get rid of them?"

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Sam didn't even need to look at Dean to know that he was probably very happy, and Sam had to admit that he was kind of amused as well.

Joan was... vaguely disturbed by this.

"I don't know anything about fighting zombies," she said.

"Not something you're used to having to deal with, huh?" Sam said, smiling softly. "Don't worry, it's just like the Doctor said, you can't actually get hurt in here. And zombies aren't that hard to fight at all. If you can swing a bat, you can probably keep them away from you."

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Liz had never dealt with Zombies before but she couldn't help but wonder if the BPRD had ever come across them.

Oh, great, zombies. Gwen was almost nostalgic for the weevils.

Jen didn't really react to the zombies all that much, truth be told; she was even more quiet and reserved than she tended to be, this week.

Lola had her German-English dictionary out.

Yeah, okay, so she knew what "zombie" meant, they had the same word in German. But she was really, really, really hoping that there was some other definition in English. Maybe one that meant "nice people who give you candy".

Crap.

Rodney was starting to panic over the zombies until the Doctor mentioned the practical exam and the need for people skills. That overrode his worries for a few minutes, and then it was back to the zombie issue.

Zombies. Sounded fair enough. Alice hadn't had a fight in ages.