UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)
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11 thoughts on “539 – A Knife In The Dark (END OF EPISODE 22)

  1. Why am I not surprised.

  2. Typical, it’s always someone else’s fault. Revenge is not just best served cold, but by stupid too. “This is all your fault!” Which is wrong, but in his head, it’s right.

    1. It’s also been heavily hinted he has already been brain washed by the zombie worshiping cult.

      1. Which, no doubt, made easier because of that under-lying feeling. People are always looking for a scape-goat…

    2. I don’t know if you got my callback by intent or not, but it’s great to see almost the same words echoed! https://www.zombieranchcomic.com/comic/203-breaking-worst/

  3. Honestly, probably the first time he’s ever taken control of and done ever in his life. There’s a reason why they kept him. Give a dog that’s been beat all its life a whiff of conference and control, you got a problem.

  4. Imagine his surprise when he stabs a pillow. 😜

  5. He isn’t in control, RC – he’s probably drugged to the very dilated eyeballs, probably with Datura. Back on p.443, Eustace is shown holding a Mojave Rattlesnake on a stick while the Brujefe milks it into a glass. Mojave venom A is a paralytic neurotoxin, like tetrodotoxin. Tetrodotoxin was thought to be part of the legendary Haitian “zombie powder”. The other part was Datura, which contains scopalamine, which messes with memory and concentration, and is supposed to render victims docile and suggestible.
    The question is, where did he get his current dose, and did a little drone whisper in his ear?

    1. Except Datura doesn’t do that. You’re thinking of the compound Scoplolmine (AKA the devil’s breath) which generally comes from a specific plant, Borrochero (Brugmansia arbora) that is native to Columbia that the gang in question probably would have had access to. It’s active compound obliterates free will, your conscious, you can function as normal but you are totally open to suggestion which is what happened to McCarty here. Datura just makes you trip mad balls and maybe die, but it does not make you a puppet.

  6. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Me lleva la chingada !

  7. I’m betting money there’s no one in that bed and it’s a ruse to get him caught.

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539 – A Knife In The Dark (END OF EPISODE 22)

Happy Holidays, all! That's a wrap (heh) for Episode 22 just in time for a Christmas cliffhanger! Hope we don't twist the knife too much...

See y'all in 2025 when Zombie Ranch continues!

Humanity, interrupted

There was a day a couple of weeks ago where, for a short time at least, Los Angeles had the cleanest air in the world. Yeah, L.A. The place where the term “smog” was coined. It was better these days (post Clean Air Act) than back in the ’80s where we got daily alerts and sometimes had days we couldn’t go outside for recess at school, but it was still a rare day that the near permanent haze hanging over the basins and valleys would clear. With the reduction in traffic after the county and state-wide stay-home orders, it’s been an almost mystical transformation to see crystal clear blue skies for weeks on end. We’ve gone from punchline to paradise. Of course the balance sheet here is that we can’t really go outside to enjoy it, at least not without proper caution. Jogging without a facemask is permitted but you have to watch out you don’t get within 10 feet of others. Me, I’ve never been much of an outdoorsy type so the lifestyle change barely registers except that telecommuting sure is a hell of a lot easier to deal with than my usual commute where it would usually take me about an hour to go about 20 miles. Meanwhile as all this has gone on photos around the world are showing other unforeseen effects of dialing back our “free-range” interactions with the Earth. Some, like dolphins in the canals of Venice, were faked, but the canals have undeniably become much clearer without churning oars and constant human detritus. And though the dolphins were debunked, other wildlife has tentatively (or confidently) made its way into the empty streets of cities around the world. If you’re a fan of apocalypse fiction then you’ve probably run across some “after man” theories or concept art speculating what the Earth would look like in a future scenario with humanity (for whatever reason) out of the picture. It’s often pretty cool stuff showing things like fish swimming down a flooded 5th Avenue or hollowed-out skyscrapers covered in greenery as the natural world reasserts its dominance. But all of it assumes something like years or even centuries have gone by. Here we’ve got a milder take on the concept happening in real-time and it’s only been a month or so since a lot of us started staying off the grid. Is it a good thing? A bad thing? Well, it’s definitely an interesting thing. Maybe Mother Nature has far more capacity for bouncing back than we ever suspected, if we’re just willing and able to take our foot off the gas once in awhile.