Dead!

For a moment, imagine how different life might be if the dead returned to life.  Mr. Tep does a lot of traveling.  And he ends up bringing back the strangest newspaper clippings.  Such as this headline and blurb  from the Weekly World News dated March 6, 20--[page is torn]:

"It has been fodder for horror movies for decades, the living dead, zombies and the undead.  But now it appears as though it is actually happening.  Reports are in from the five boroughs that mass disturbances in cemeteries and inexplicable morgue disturbances are, in fact, the deceased raising from the grave.  "I was working the dinner-shift down in the cooler[the morgue of St.-data expunged] and this woman, she was a Jane Doe from somewhere on Roosevelt Island, sits up and starts panicking 'cos of the Y inscion."  Eyewitness Samuel Churez reports, "Dammedest thing, too, the stiff next to her just shouts 'shut it, you c*nt!' and rolled back over!"

Intriguing, no.  Now, take a gander here:

"Zombies Invade Manhattan.
Paul McKinney

The outlandish reports of the dead returning to life have begun to pour in from all of the five boroughs.  Mayor [expunged] has officially denounced the risings as dangerous and has begun to welcome select zombies with open arms.  Those among the zombies who are of historical importance are among the first being examined by the medical community."

Enter Tom.

Dead Tom.

Dead Tom is the story a struggling journalist when the Harlem mortality riots.  Which are what happened a few years after the risen (what the zombies call themselves) had grown sick of being treated as second class citizens.  It's very similar to the race riots of the fifties, but with the undead.

Tom works as a window washer while trying to find a job doing real journalism and ends up having a nasty fall...from the top of the building.  He is introduced into the risen community and gets the story out about them, helping to finally give living a view of the discrimination the risen have to put up with.  It's a fun little thing to work on.

Also in the works is Dead Theater.

 

"Ragamuffin."

This young lady comes from the entirely fictional (as far as you know) tale Dead Theater.  She's what the folks call a raiser.  One that can raise the dead.  She can feel and read their minds before she raises them, putting her into something like a 14% of the raiser population.  She is an avid actress, more or less amateur, and frequently finds people for specific roles by raising them.  The story that concerns us is in regards to a production of Jekyll and Hyde that begins to mirror aspects of the play...

Tomorrow I'll post a chunk of Dead Tom.  It's in progress, but enjoyable.