How to Bring Steampunk Zombies to Life
By Trenton Mabey
Creating believable characters is a challenge for any writer
in every genre. Whether you are writing books or screenplays, characterization
is a key component to the successful engagement of your readers. You want your
audience to relate to the characters, feel their emotions, to cheer their victories
and despair in their defeat. It is just as essential to develop your zombies,
as it is to develop the heroine or villain of your tale. Zombies are not
two-dimensional creatures set within the story purely to cause unrestrained
destruction. While absolute devastation might be the purpose and ultimate
outcome of the zombie infestation, with proper development, you can really bring
your zombies to life.
What about steampunk zombies? Steampunk is a sub-genre of
science fiction and ripe with undead possibilities. Generally set in the 19th
century, the Victorian era of exploration and innovation, when steam was queen
and gas lamps lit the streets of cities like London, Paris and New York,
steampunk explores the historic time period between the Industrial Revolution
and World War I. Imagine an alternate timeline where steam technology explodes
into endless possibilities, of airships traversing the globe and submarines
trolling the depths of the world’s oceans. Now add a sprinkling of zombies.
Three of the most recognizable elements of any steampunk
story are airships, gears, and goggles. Zombie airship pirates anyone? Maybe
the zombies won’t be wearing goggles and flying airships but adding zombies
into a steampunk world allows the heroes to use the basics of the steampunk
technology to deal with the evolving zombie problem. Before you begin the first
draft, begin the development of the zombie character by answering this simple question;
what is the origin of the zombies?
One of the critical components of the zombie tale is the
origin story. How did the zombies rise from the dead, was it a mystical or a
scientific process? Establishing the basis for the dead rising is the
foundation for the development of the zombie as a character in the story.
Mystical Origins
The mystical process of raising the dead as zombies has
origins in African folklore and the voodooist practices of the Caribbean isles.
Zombies raised through magical means provide the writer with limitless
opportunities of developing the personality of the zombie including the
intelligence and mobility levels. Mystical zombies may be supernatural and
their abilities extend beyond the range of normal humans. Here area a couple of
story ideas to get you started on your own mystical zombie steampunk story.
1. A lot of steampunk is set in Victorian London or other
European settings but what about the United States. The 19th century
in America was a time of rapid development and change. Expansion of the
territory led settlers and schemers, gold miners and gold diggers, to the west.
The western migration displaced Native American tribes and sent them either to
reservations or graves. Imagine a Native American medicine man with the power
to create an army of zombie warriors. A struggling town must contend with the
undead led by an innovative blacksmith with a talent for creating steam-powered
weapons.
2. The African continent, also called the Dark Continent,
still held the European powers enthralled during the 19th century.
Europeans navigated the continent searching for valuable resources, trade
routes and missionary opportunities. Mount Kilimanjaro was “discovered” by
Europeans in 1848. Africa has a diverse landscape and countless indigenous
tribes. What if zombies raised by a local shaman hunted a steamboat expedition
up the Congo River?
3. An airship pirate band land on an island in the Caribbean
to find fresh water and game. The crew drinks from a spring that has been
poisoned by deadly sulphuric gasses leaking from the island volcano. The
captain strikes a deal with a voodoo witch to transform his dead crew into a
crew of zombie pirates with the intelligence of a human but the morals of a
zombie.
Scientific Origins
The scientific possibilities of bringing the dead to life
extend to some of the first science fictions stories. The origin of the science fiction genre has
its beginnings with one such story, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Considered one of the first modern science fiction
stories, the tale centers on the trials of Dr. Frankenstein and the
consequences of his scientific method of animating an undead creature. Not
strictly a zombie story, Frankenstein
is like a distant uncle to the modern zombie. The mad scientist is a common
character in steampunk stories; crazy tinkerers who mess with scientific
processes and chemical elements. Picture the basement laboratory complete with
chemical filled beakers and steam-powered machines capable of infusing life
into a corpse. Steampunk science is rooted in 19th century
scientific discoveries. Though alchemy fell into obscurity with the rise of
modern chemistry during the 18th century, steampunk allows for the
continuation of alchemical practices with elements not on the standard table of
chemical elements like aether. Aether is considered a fifth element and one of
the components of the philosopher’s stone. It is a mysterious element that can
be integrated into any steampunk zombie story due to its unknown nature. Maybe
aether is the vital substance needed to reanimate the dead. Here are a couple
of story ideas.
1. Weaponized zombies. An expedition into the heart of the
African jungle uncovers a mysterious element rumored by the natives to restore
a person to life. A Confederate scientist experiments and uncovers the process
for infusing this element with a blood-based chemical into recently killed
soldiers bringing them back to life but with loyalty to the Confederacy. He
creates an army of zombies to fight in the American Civil War.
2. Vaccines were first introduced during the 19th
century. These included vaccines for cholera, anthrax, and the plague. What if
one of the experimental trials for humans went horribly wrong? How would 19th
century society deal with a zombie problem?
3. A mad scientist inserts mechanical gears and steam
engines into dead bodies, reanimating the corpses.
This last idea I used in a recent Sherlock Holmes anthology.
I used a mixture of the scientific and mystical process to bring zombies to
life.
Knowing the origin of your zombies allows a writer to
explore how the zombies interact with the environment of the story and why they
react to different elements. A zombie created by mechanical means might react
differently to the sound of a gunshot than a zombie raised by magical means. Thoughtfully
developing the origin story of your zombies will create more menacing and
convincing zombies for your human characters to escape or destroy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Trenton Mabey
is a freelance writer, poet, and photographer living in Arizona. He is working
on an MFA in writing from Lindenwood University. He was recently published in
the Star82 Review and has a story in
the forthcoming An Improbable Truth: The
Paranormal Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from Mocha Memoir Press, due out
in October 2015. He has written several steampunk short stories and is working
o his first steampunk novel. His writing is influenced by mythology, Asian
philosophy, and a small dose of insanity.
He can be
reached on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trenton.mabey and his website: http://trentonmabey.com .
Excerpt From “The Case of
the Rising Dead” by Trenton Mabey
“Don’t dally
doctor, we must be off,” said Holmes as he lifted himself out of the carriage
and dropped out of sight. I scrambled to my feet and hoisted myself out of the
carriage. A wave of heat greeted my face just as I cleared the door. I suddenly
realized that the carriage was on fire! I quickly jumped to the safety of the
road and moved away from the wreckage.
Holmes was kneeling down next to one of the horses, a pitiful whinny of
pain emanating from the creature. The other lay next to it, unmoving.
I looked around
for the driver but I could not locate the man. Movement caught my attention, a
shadow moving into the trees, hunched over and dragging something along the
ground.
“Holmes,
there,” I said, pointing towards the figure. As Holmes stood to give chase
another hellish scream rent the air stopping us cold. An apparition from hell
stepped from behind the burning carriage. It stood staring at us, clenching and
unclenching its hands. Its long hair hung limply, framing a nightmarish face;
bloodshot bulging eyes, gray lips, black tendril lines stretching up and across
its face. The carriage fire cast a reddish glow on its face. It raised its head
to the sky and let out another scream.
Holmes grabbed
a burning piece of the carriage, holding it in a fencer’s stance. I moved to
the left in a flanking maneuver, keeping my pistol trained on the creature. The
creature was clearly no longer human and stared at each of us for a few
seconds, hands still clenching and unclenching. I cocked my pistol, ready to
fire. Suddenly, the creature rushed Holmes. He jabbed with his flamed weapon
but the creature batted it away and tackled him to the ground. It appeared to
possess incredible strength. Holmes threw it off and scrambled to his feet. The
creature stood to make another charge at him, but I fired my revolver. Just a
warning shot above its head. The creature ducked to the ground, looking around
wildly. I cocked the pistol again and its eyes stared into mine for a half
second before it darted away, running faster than expected.
Holmes and I
gave chase across the field and into the woods beyond. The moonlight that
filtered through the trees barely provided enough light to follow the trail of
our attacker. The cracking of branches and crunching of autumn leaves sounded
ahead of us. We moved quickly but the creature moved with supernatural speed.
Continuing on our path, the sounds of our prey diminished in the distance. A
cart trail appeared in a clearing running perpendicular to our path. We stopped
to listen but could hear nothing, our purpose lost. We slowly returned to the
burned out carriage aware of the slightest sound in the darkness. Holmes walked
back to the injured horse.
“Doctor, your
services are needed,” he said.
The gunshot
rang out loud in the silence of the night.
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