Contemplating the zombie apocalypse

[sholio]

So I'm writing this thing (original fiction) in which there's what basically amounts to a zombie apocalypse (not precisely traditional zombies, but that's more or less what's happening) ... and I'm trying to figure out how to end it. My little intrepid group of characters are traveling through the zombie-infested wilderness in search of this one particular city where they hope they'll be safe, and I'm not sure just how much of a downer I want to be at the end. (Well, being kind of attached to them by now, I'd like to give them a happy ending, but I don't know how much of a happy ending I can really get away with in a story of this nature.) I used check boxes rather than radio buttons so you can vote for different endings if you like. :D

Poll #10272

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 29

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At the end of the journey, they make it to the city, and ...

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There is a final battle right outside the city walls ("Oh no! They got Bob!"), but the survivors make it inside, and they're safe!
11 (37.9%)

The safe city won't let them inside, fearing they're infected, so all they can do is wait for the hordes to finish them off.
4 (13.8%)

The supposedly safe city has been overrun with zombies. D'oh.
2 (6.9%)

The supposedly safe city is actually a terrifying dystopia and they'd be better off in the zombie-infested wilderness.
19 (65.5%)

The supposedly safe city doesn't seem to exist at all.
10 (34.5%)

Everyone dies before they make it anywhere near the city.
1 (3.4%)

They manage to cure the zombie plague!
4 (13.8%)

They manage to cure the zombie plague ... but die before they can do anything about it.
2 (6.9%)

Something different, but probably just as depressing (depress me in comments!)
0 (0.0%)

(No, the poll is not binding. I'm just curious. I also created an LJ version.)

Comments

[astridv]

I clicked a couple of endings that contradict themselves but that would all individually work for me. What I don't like at all are downer endings that make you wonder what the whole thing was for in the first place.

I liked endings like "I am Legend" even though I really wanted the hero to survive - still his legacy lived on. So it was sad but still satisfying.

(Damn, that was such a great movie.)

[sholio]

I really enjoyed "I Am Legend"! (Although my understanding is that they watered down the ending considerably from the book ... or possibly changed it completely; it's been too long since I've seen it to remember how much of it was retained.) The overall depressingness of the zombie genre is one of the reasons why it isn't really my thing (well, that and not being fond of grossout stuff in general).

[auburn]

I, of course, clicked a downer ending! Because I expect any city of any size would have a high enough quotient of idiots that the infection would get in.

What gets me wondering is, how dystopic does a society have to be before you prefer the zombie-infested wilderness?

[sholio]

Hee! I am shocked. SHOCKED I SAY. *g*

Someone on LJ asked this too. It's a fair question, although the setup of this particular apocalypse actually lends itself perfectly to precisely that kind of ending! In this case, both survivors and "zombies" are AIs, in a world long since abandoned by humans. So all I'd have to do is have the city turn out to be occupied by humans, who see the AIs as nothing more than subsentient slaves ... and bam, instant dystopia. *g* (I haven't decided if I'm going to do that, but if I did go for dystopic city, that's probably the direction I'd go ...)