Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: geeky
  • Music: Aqua, "Back From Mars."

Come on up for the Rising...

You have four years left to prepare, because it all begins on July 18th, 2014.

At 11:53 AM, CDT, in the city of Peoria, Illinois, a man named Jonathan Dowell will be hit by a car while crossing the street at a busy intersection. Despite flying more than three yards through the air and hitting the ground with a bone-shattering degree of force, Jonathan will get back to his feet in a matter of minutes, to the great relief of bystanders and drivers alike. This relief will turn to bewilderment and terror as he lunges at the crowd, biting four people before he is subdued. By nightfall, the first Peoria outbreak will be well underway.

At 10:15 AM, PDT, in the town of Lodi, California, a woman named Debbie Goldman will be jogging along her usual route, despite the record-breaking heat and the recent warnings of her physician. Her explosive cardiac event will go entirely unwitnessed, as will her subsequent revival. As she makes her way along the road, she will find a group of teenagers out for a walk; in the struggle that follows, three of the six will be bitten. The Lodi outbreak will begin to spread shortly after two o'clock that afternoon.

At 11:31 AM, MDT, in a research laboratory just outside Denver, Colorado, two of the test subjects currently being treated with Marburg Amberlee will go into spontaneous viral amplification as the live virus bodies being pumped into their systems encounter the resting viral bodies already there. The details of this outbreak are almost entirely unknown, as the lab will be successfully sealed and burned to the ground before the infection can spread. Denver will be spared the worst ravages of the Rising until the second wave begins on July 26th. Some will say that the tragedy which follows will come only because of that temporary reprieve; they weren't prepared.

The Rising begins four years from today.

Are you prepared?
Tags: feed, mira grant, zombies
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deire

July 18 2010, 17:42:46 UTC 6 years ago

Allow me to wave my copy of Return of the Black Death at you.

seanan_mcguire

July 19 2010, 02:46:31 UTC 6 years ago

Yay!

deire

July 18 2010, 17:43:23 UTC 6 years ago

Also, every adult in my new household has now read Feed, and one of them has taken to front facing it in stores with no prompting.

deire

July 18 2010, 17:47:23 UTC 6 years ago

If this is the start of a literary contagion, I think I deserve credit for being in the primary wave. ;)

seanan_mcguire

6 years ago

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deire

6 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

6 years ago

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asphaltangel

July 18 2010, 17:53:44 UTC 6 years ago

I love that your post title is a Bruce Springsteen lyric. Because, really, the Boss would be the soundtrack to my post-zombie apocalypse world.

mephron

July 18 2010, 18:46:05 UTC 6 years ago

Considering "The Rising" is entirely a response to September 11, 2001, using it as disaster soundtrack is quite apropos.

(Sorry, New Jersey born and bred; by law we know all of Springsteen's oeveur after the Springsteen Appreciation Act of 1981.)

asphaltangel

6 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

6 years ago

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pyre006

July 18 2010, 17:55:07 UTC 6 years ago

July 18th is the best day ever :) first my wedding anniversary and now the outbreak, woot!

seanan_mcguire

July 19 2010, 02:47:26 UTC 6 years ago

Yaaaay!

ann_totusek

July 18 2010, 18:06:24 UTC 6 years ago

I can haz chainsaw? I already haz mini-14 and .45 and .22, and...

seanan_mcguire

July 19 2010, 02:47:38 UTC 6 years ago

Oooooooooooooo.

shyrofox

July 18 2010, 18:08:46 UTC 6 years ago

Awww man... I live in Santa Cruz. I am so not ready.

dormouse_in_tea

July 18 2010, 19:48:55 UTC 6 years ago

I would suggest moving within the next four years!

shyrofox

6 years ago

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dormouse_in_tea

6 years ago

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shyrofox

6 years ago

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catnip13

6 years ago

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hsifyppah

6 years ago

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shyrofox

6 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

6 years ago

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apocalypticbob

July 18 2010, 18:14:51 UTC 6 years ago

*pumps shotgun*

Bring it.

seanan_mcguire

July 19 2010, 20:25:05 UTC 6 years ago

Yes'm.

stagemanager

July 18 2010, 18:19:55 UTC 6 years ago

I have placed the first outbreak in my Google Calendar. I am disappointed that they won't let me send myself a reminder any earlier than 5 weeks, but that might be fixed by then. Who knows?

In other news, I have not yet read the book, but I am looking forward to getting it soon.

seanan_mcguire

July 19 2010, 20:25:18 UTC 6 years ago

Awesome, on both counts.

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seanan_mcguire

July 19 2010, 20:32:12 UTC 6 years ago

Good!

beccastareyes

July 18 2010, 18:29:16 UTC 6 years ago

I predict four years from now, I'll be living in a college town of some stripe, or else a city with colleges in it.

I am so screwed. (Well, if I survive, at least I won't have to worry about catching the flu every year I teach spring semester. I didn't need Feed to tell me that college dorms are natural viral incubators.)

At least in July, most of the students could be elsewhere, so I'd have a month or so to secure my own residence and office. ^_^

seanan_mcguire

July 19 2010, 20:32:35 UTC 6 years ago

That may well be your only hope.

faithfulcynic

July 18 2010, 18:30:30 UTC 6 years ago

Eep! No, not prepared! And I live by a church. You never want to be in, by, or around a church when the apocalypse comes. Crap.

:)

admnaismith

July 18 2010, 22:51:08 UTC 6 years ago

No? Could be the church acts as a lightning rod to deflect The Wrath away from your place...

faithfulcynic

6 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

6 years ago

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bkwrrm_tx

July 18 2010, 18:52:17 UTC 6 years ago

I will be, if the damn library ever gets your book to me! :-)

seanan_mcguire

July 19 2010, 20:33:04 UTC 6 years ago

Eeep.

Serious zombie fighters are serious

brightlotusmoon

July 18 2010, 18:56:26 UTC 6 years ago

So, my husband and I were discussing whether a Japanese sword would work better than a machete when it comes to zombie fighting. Adam grabbed his Shinwa sword and began dancing around the room with it, mimicking the swings and thrusts he would use to fend off zombies, before swinging the sword to decapitate his zombies. I admit, it was awesome to see. But I'm wondering if a machete wouldn't be just as good, at least for hacking and slashing.
I have a full tang sword, myself, but I've never used a machete.

Deleted comment

Re: Serious zombie fighters are serious

brightlotusmoon

6 years ago

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Re: Serious zombie fighters are serious

admnaismith

6 years ago

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Re: Serious zombie fighters are serious

brightlotusmoon

6 years ago

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Re: Serious zombie fighters are serious

paradisacorbasi

6 years ago

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Re: Serious zombie fighters are serious

seanan_mcguire

6 years ago

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Re: Serious zombie fighters are serious

brightlotusmoon

6 years ago

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liret

July 18 2010, 19:05:37 UTC 6 years ago

Happy End of the World as we know it day!

seanan_mcguire

July 19 2010, 20:36:09 UTC 6 years ago

Yay!

snowcoma

July 18 2010, 19:10:25 UTC 6 years ago

I'm saving up my shotgun money, like a good girl!

seanan_mcguire

July 19 2010, 20:36:17 UTC 6 years ago

I approve.

aliciaaudrey

July 18 2010, 19:45:20 UTC 6 years ago

I take this as further proof that this particular week in late July is always bad luck.

(My birthday's the 25th, and if anything bad is going to happen, it either happens on THAT DAY or within a few days before or after. It just figures the world as we know it would end.)

seanan_mcguire

July 26 2010, 21:22:28 UTC 6 years ago

Whoops.

bardling

July 18 2010, 19:46:02 UTC 6 years ago

Nope, not prepared (yet?), but I am finally reading my copy of Feed, and so far enjoying it hugely! :)

seanan_mcguire

July 26 2010, 21:22:37 UTC 6 years ago

Yay!

lysystratae

July 18 2010, 19:47:27 UTC 6 years ago

Happy pre-anniversary?

seanan_mcguire

July 26 2010, 21:22:47 UTC 6 years ago

Thanks!

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seanan_mcguire

July 26 2010, 21:22:56 UTC 6 years ago

Good.

evaleastaristev

July 18 2010, 21:15:06 UTC 6 years ago

Not yet, but I will be. Just need to keep up the work of laying in supplies, and get the ladder and the ax. Living on the third floor gives me options, especially with a Safeway nearby to forage in, two pharmacy's to steal my need to survive drugs from, and wooden stairs that shall be easy to get rid of. The Ladder, of course, is because I don't believe in letting someone else rescue me. If I can, I'm going to rescue myself!

But hey, we have four years. That's plenty of time, as long as I don't slack, and keep up the work at a steady pace.

seanan_mcguire

July 26 2010, 21:23:12 UTC 6 years ago

Behold the power of positive thinking.

chatworthy

July 18 2010, 23:42:14 UTC 6 years ago

Just finished re-reading FEED (the autographable copy). I'm as prepared as possible for the moment.

seanan_mcguire

July 26 2010, 21:23:22 UTC 6 years ago

Yay!

Deleted comment

seanan_mcguire

July 26 2010, 21:23:32 UTC 6 years ago

Sorry.

dornbeast

July 19 2010, 00:28:47 UTC 6 years ago

I'm practicing running for my life. Practicing screaming and panicking annoys bystanders, so I'll have to rely on natural talent for that.

Unfortunately, I only get one try at dying horribly, at great length, and in great pain. I'll have to do the best I can without rehearsing.

("I always have a fallback position, whenever I take a risk: If all else fails, I'll die horribly, at great length, and in great pain. Mind you, it's not a good fallback position..." - Walter Slovotsky)

bearhand

July 19 2010, 01:07:50 UTC 6 years ago

I've found that any long-term relationship should prepare you for just such an emergency.

seanan_mcguire

6 years ago

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georgiamagnolia

July 19 2010, 01:05:00 UTC 6 years ago

As I live in Denver I was planning to take a little vacation to my parent's place in Nowhereatall, Wyo, and then realized that their house is surrounded by horses and sheep and cattle and so I think that may be a bad idea. And have I mentioned that I read Feed at their house last Spring and the horses kept freaking me out. I have never been afraid of horses before... I grew up on a ranch. Gah!

seanan_mcguire

July 26 2010, 21:34:00 UTC 6 years ago

You're welcome!

bearhand

July 19 2010, 01:05:37 UTC 6 years ago

July 18, 2014 20:30 EST Melvin Breckinridge breaks into the house of one only known as Bearhand. Mr. Breckinridge is head shot immediately, thereby sparing the small town of the first outbreak. Years later, the authorities ask Bearhand how he knew Mr. Breckingridge was a carrier of the Zombie disease. Mr. Bearhand responded, "What zombie disease? What the hell are you blathering about!"

seanan_mcguire

July 26 2010, 21:34:10 UTC 6 years ago

That is AWESOME.
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