Survival of the Wittiest: Humor and Horror in Zombie Fallout
What started as just another night during a flu season turned out to be the beginning of the end of the world, or so it seemed. The H1N1 virus was running rampant in the United States, prompting the government to push the CDC to develop a vaccine to get rid of the pandemic once and for all. Facing relentless pressures from the highest office, the CDC ended up releasing a largely untested vaccine to the public. It might not be such a life-changing issue if the vaccine was, in reality, a placebo of some sort, but the problem was that it actually contained live H1N1 virus. Mixed with just the right combination of chemicals, what was supposed to be a vaccine for H1N1 disease turned out to be a zombifying virus for all. And so the horror of Zombie Fallout begins.
The rushed vaccine transformed the streets of America into a massive open morgue. It would take a monumental cleaning and disinfecting task force to get rid of the public health hazard for good, but it wasn’t really necessary at all because the corpses never stayed dead long enough. They rose from the dead and became a horde of mindless cannibal zombies, hunting for survivors. Michael Talbot, a self-deprecating prepper, is forced to take on a dangerous path to survival while protecting his family and friends from the insatiable undead.
Except for being a former Marine, Talbot is no extraordinary man. He enjoys video games, beers, and in fact, zombie movies. Preparing for the apocalypse is nothing more than a hobby for him, which is why the arsenal in his stockpile is almost as ridiculous as having infinite ammo in a Resident Evil game. It’s fiction, but perhaps some people do have more or less the same weapons as Talbot does here, and that’s scary depending on who you ask.
In most good horror stories, the main character – even the character poised for taking the role as a hero – is supposed to be slightly taken aback by the presence of the villains (in this case, zombies) in the neighborhood. But Talbot is not your usual hero; instead of trembling in fear, he actually is so excited by the presence of hordes of the undead around his front yard. However, the enjoyment is short-lived upon realization that his son is still trapped at work. Talbot’s plight to rescue his boy turns out to be only the starting point of all the terrible, and sometimes downright weird, series of events the survivors have to endure throughout the novel.
This first of numerous volumes in the Zombie Fallout series tells its story in a journal style, which allows you to get a good grasp of Talbot’s rationale just as he’s trying to make sense of the outbreak and justify his every decision in the struggle for survival. Mostly in the beginning of the novel, you’ll encounter some moments where he digresses and rants about everything in life. The rant might appear like a deviation at a glance, but it really does humanize Talbot to a good extent. If you were in the same situation as him, no matter how prepared you thought you were, relentlessly complaining about some random stuff started to look normal. Most of his interactions here involve his small circle of family, friends, and antagonists, but none are particularly sources of excitement for him.
Zombie Fallout quickly becomes a wild ride with a barrage of dark humors coming out of everywhere. Some will find it funny, while others may see them as plain-and-simple disgusting, but all likely agree that the jokes are, more often than not, offensive to say the least. All along the cross-country journey from Colorado to Maine – with some stops at some other places – Talbot and the gang encounter their fair share of dangers, actions, rescues, and serious moments, but not without slapstick, fart jokes, and snarky sarcasms all over.
As a gentle warning, the novel doesn’t even hold back when it comes to being politically-incorrect about race and gender. Sometimes, the lines are delivered so casually as if they’re not meant to be jokes, making them feel even more authentically offensive.
We think Zombie Fallout, as the first in a long series of books, does an excellent job at laying the groundwork for unpredictable, elaborate, fascinating narrative for many volumes to come. This is not to say that the first book is a laborious read; quite the contrary, it’s pretty fast-paced and sprinkled with plenty of unexpected developments already. It has the elements of horror – as expected from a zombie story – but you also get a generous dose of family drama, action, and certainly humor. There’s no other way to say it: the narrative is made even more compelling thanks to the dark (often borderline offensive) jokes – otherwise, Zombie Fallout would be just another volume in a pile of zombie novels on the shelf.
Do you find the book offensive or simply humorous? Can you give one reason (or two) why zombie books with comedic undertones, instead of plain horror, are getting more popular these days? We’d love to hear from you.
Other Things You Might Want to Know
Is the series coming to TV?
Mark Tufo has worked with producer Steven Adams and Theo Dumont (a marketing directive from Buffalo 8) as well as executive producers Weston Scott and Brad Thomas to adapt Zombie Fallout to TV series. Discussion for the adaptation started in 2016, but there hasn’t been any news about its state of development or whether the plan remains alive at all.
Stand-alone books by Mark Tufo:
The Spirit Clearing: A Michael Talbot Adventure
Callis Rose
Mark’s Merry Mayhem
The Parent Plague: A Free Halloween Short
What is a Prepper?
The consensus says that a prepper is someone who gathers or stockpiles resources and materials in preparation for surviving a cataclysmic event, such as a natural disaster or zombie apocalypse. That said, to be a true prepper, you also have to hone your survival skills, which often involve getting used to handling firearms, hunting for food, crafting medicines, and treating injuries.
