The whole Idea is the infection which is the genetic tampering due to stem cell research, which in general turns you into a zombies such as 28 days later. But I have 9 characters who barely know each other and would like to know how to realistically have them all in one area and escape the initial attack together. They are mainly high school students. How would they be the only ones to get out without making it...well...to movieish. Like I don't want them to fight there way out just mainly get lucky. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
A story concept means nothing. I can tell you now, it has all been done before. What matters is how you write it, the characterization, the flow, the imagery, all of it. There's no benefit in asking what other people think of the concept! They'll either say,"Sounds great," or, "it sounds like a ripoff of..." If the idea stirs you, write it. Then ask people what they think of the final story. After they tell you what they don't like about it, revise it, usually several times, until you're happy with it or until you throw up your hands and say the hell with it. Please read this thread about What is Plot Creation and Development? Write the story, and forget about asking for opinions or ideas for the storyline.
I think, as someone who knows a bit about such things, that stem cell research is unlikely to produce such a result- I could go on at length, but it's your story. I'd say, to answer your question: obvious safe house. The school has a bomb shelter, or a hospital with a secure ward. Think the mall scenario.
And the whole stem thing is that they perfected the genetic code...or so they thought and gave it to medical patients causing a constant adrenaline rush and as a side effect they brains were warped to the point not even there normal instincts functioned they merely knew they had to eat and humans were slow compared to others.
You should read John Marsden's Tomorrow, When the World Began. It's a tale about an invasion and imprisonment of the citizens, all except for 7 teens who were out on a camping trip when the invasion began. It's the first in a series.
The nice thing about a zombie-like story is that we already know it can't happed but when we read/watch we are willing to suspend disbelief. If stem cell research is something you wanna go with, make sure you know what you're talking about, otherwise keep it vague. If you think about it you'll come up with several scenarios in which people may have survived the initial onslaught... maybe they even got lucky in their various ways and didn't even know it was happening. What might teenage boys and girls be doing that might find them in a secluded room/building/basement and be oblivious to what's going on in the world around them????
Well, OK, sure, that's one of the few ways it could work- In fact, if you said the stem cells were used to replace the noradrenalin-producing cells of the Locus coeruleus, which in turn innervate the Amygdala, you could talk about an enhanced fear-response and how its associate with stress and anxiety, which could be kinda cool and very hard-science. It's actually very close to what we're looking at in the lab I work at, and I did a presentation on learning and stress, which utilizes this system, two weeks ago. Of course, you'd have to come up with a legit reason for them to want to replace those cells- this same technique is often used in people suffering from Parkinson's, in the Substantia Nigra, but those are dopamine producing cells, not noradrenalin, and are more about motor action than fear.
Here's an idea, what if you have them get stranded somewhere--say, they're all on a graduation class trip, there's a plane crash, and only 9 people survive. Then you could have the buildup of the infection in the outside world, creating tension for the reader while the characters have no idea what awaits them. Stem cell thing isn't realistic, but if you use some fantasy/sci-fi on it and write a good story, no one will care. Make sure it's VERY original. Zombie stuff often gets overdone, so you'd better have a really good spin on it.
Hypnos thank you very much for the science their the explanation in the book is very..well ignored and now I can be more elaborate maybe even open the book with it. And I would like to use stem cell or well some type of cure because I hate the "super soldier" idea it's rather annoying.
I don't think it's possible to really unintentionally make a disease like that. Someone would probably do it maliciously or have the release of it be accidental. However that'd probably make it too similar to something like 28 Day's later. And although it's been said already, the zombie/infection genre is painfully overused at this point. Mostly cause of 2 things. One, almost all of the stories are exactly the same. The original Dawn of the Dead's basic plot has been used in almost every zombie/virus movie since *even 28 Day's Later*. Two, the virus should be a force of nature to be feared, but almost always it's the infected that they want you to fear. More people need to make the virus truly terrifying and not have the infected be gross looking or scary. Though there's nothing wrong with those, that shouldn't be your antagonist, it's just an obstacle. You're gunna need something really original to make it at all noteworthy. Maybe show the events leading up to the infection, and the attempt to stop it. Maybe turn the tables and have the infection be beneficial and the normal populous is too scared to accept it and they turn on the infected and hunt them down. There is so much that can be done with this, don't just rewrite a movie you like by swapping in your characters and setting with it's characters and settings.
Ultimately, traditional zombie stories have nothing to do with zombies at all- They're about man's inhumanity towards man.
The original zombies were dead people raised from the grave by African sorcerers to do their bidding, and had nothing to do with infection. The creatures depicted in so-called "zombie" movies are more akin to the original vampires: Creatures who rise from the grave on their own volition in order to eat human flesh.
That's really interesting I'd never heard that before. Now back on track... Cogito is right. Just about every concept has been used. It's how you write it that makes it different. Your voice as a writer is what makes it unique. So here's some questions to help get you started. How does this virus spread? It depends on how it spreads before you can decide how nine people can be so lucky as to escape. What is the point of this story? What are you trying to say with it? This will give you some direction as to where you want to take this. Why was this virus created in the first place? That will help shape the plot and how the characters choose to navigate this story.
