Jeff

* * *

@ Jeff - I like the Benny flashback, and see your point. We'll pop it into the manuscript and see how it reads when everything is put together. A brief respite is fine. But if it throws off the pace, it may have to be done as interior monologue. What do you other guys think?

@ Paul - Pitch black is cool. The draculas could have knocked out lights. Clay would have a Maglite, no doubt. He'd probably have those spot lights that mount on gun barrels. Laser sights too. Though Clay might think laser sights are cheating...

Joe

* * *

Okay, I'll have Clay go to the 4th floor, do some suspense in the dark, then realize peds is on the 3rd and go down.

Where's Obstetrics? Eventually Clay has to meet up with the minister so he can show him how to off himself and take a load of draculas with him.

Paul

* * *

Okay, this one's done, and links directly to Paul's chapter where Randall and Clay meet.

Jeff

* * *

Great chapter, Jeff. Love the political correctness Randall grapples with.

Here's what I'm thinking as historical context:

Oswald von Wolkenstein was a member of the Order of the Dragon in the early 1400s. The Order was supposedly formed to fight the Turks and the Ottoman Empire.

But what if it was formed to fight draculas? Members of the order were called Draconists.

The black death raged throughout the 1400s, Today, historians and scholars believe it was the bubonic and pneumonic plague that caused it, but there has been no absolute evidence to support this hypothesis, only educated guesses.

So what if the black death caused dracula-like symptoms in some of its hosts?

Black death ravages the world, but when people with certain genetic precursors are exposed to it (like certain royal bloodlines) it mutates its victims into draculas. The Draconists had family members affected in this way, including Oswald.

The Draconists, out of self-preservation, manage to kill all of the mutations and keep it under wraps, even though it became the source for vampire and werewolf legends. But Oswald, rather than kill his diseased son, kept him chained up in the cellar.

The son escapes, goes on a killing spree, ending up in Transylvania and causing a dracula epidemic.

Vlad III of Wallachia (Vlad the Imapaler), to save his country in the 1450s, realizes the easiest, fastest, and safest hands-off way to kill draculas is to impale them on large stakes, where they'll eventually starve to death, unable to climb off.

Oswald's son is caught by Vlad, who beheaded him. It was Oswald's son's head found in the field by the farmer in present day.

Mortimer is a direct line from Wolkenstein. He's got the bloodline, and the genetic precursor. At the beginning, we can put a draconis ouroborus on his robe as a lapel insignia.

This ties in Stoker's Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, the Draconist order, the black death, and the source of monster legends, and wraps it all up in a neat little historically possible package.

Joe

* * *

BTW- the Draconis ouroboros symbol is a dragon creature eating its own tail. Much like our draculas eat themselves.

Joe

* * *

Verrrrrrrrry cool.

Where does it work into the story? Are we going to weave in bits and pieces throughout?

Jeff

* * *

Blake is putting it in, when Shanna is explaining to Clay what possibly caused this.

Joe

* * *

To make the timeframe work, I think Clay needs to reunite with Randall =after= Randall has saved Jenny. Randall has had enough solo adventures, so I'm going to take him straight to pediatrics, and his final battle with Benny should be when Jenny (and the kids!) are there. She has a grudge against the clown, too, so they can fight him together. They kill Benny, but right before that, Randall gets bitten, so Clay reaches pediatrics just as they're dealing with that unfortunate fact.

Joe, are you working on any new Jenny stuff? I can pick up where you left off, but I don't want to step on your toes (since everybody knows you type with your toes--the pictures Blake sent me are frickin' disgusting!).

Jeff

* * *

Cool. If a point comes up where it makes sense to do this, I'll have somebody try to explain the backstory to Randall, who has trouble following the details and says "You know what, this late in the game I really don't give a shit where these things came from!"

Jeff

* * *

Right now, Jenny is killing Lanz. When she's done, Benny can show up and Randall can burst in and save her.

Joe

* * *

Okay, how about this:

Jenny is fighting Lanz. Kills him. Benny shows up and chainsaws through the door.

Randall rescues her. Tearful reunion. Then they're surrounded by draculas. Randall fights off a bunch with his saw, but he's outnumbered. Gets bitten.

Clay comes in with the boom boom, clears the path. Threatens to kill Randall. Jenny won't let him. They go, with the kids, to the roof because Clay thinks he can flag down the tv helicopter.

Along the way they meet up with Adam, Stacie, and the baby.

Army shows up. Begins to massacre draculas, causing all of them to flee--running up the stairs. Everyone on the roof.

Randall begins to change. He and Jenny express love. Randall becomes a dracula and starts kicking ass.

Clay gets the kids on the helicopter, the baby, and then Stacie is killed and Adam wounded.

Randall is wounded and dying. Jenny stays with him.

Clay gives Adam the grenades, leaps onto the skids as the helicopter takes off (Yippe ki-yaa, mother fucker), and loses his grip and falls off the building.

Adam blows up, making meat confetti. Jenny tell Randall she loves him. He dies. Just as she's surrounded, the army drops a bomb.

Shanna sees the explosion. Watches the helicopter come. Clay isn't on it. She weeps. Meets another survivor. Young guy. He's calm and a bit flirtatious.

Clay climbs out of a tree, his arm and several ribs broken. "Jumping onto a helicopter is a fuckall lot harder than it is in the movies." Reunites with Jenny.

Survivor gets baby. It's Mort.

What say you all?

Joe

* * *

Also, my Jenny/Lanz section topped 5000 words. Which means that we've written about 50k words so far. I'm figuring it'll go 15k more, maybe 20k when we go back and add a bit more setting and atmosphere. 70k is a respectable word count for a book like this.

Joe

* * *

Who is this guy on your blog saying that hospitals don't use cell phone jammers? He isn't right is he?

Blake

* * *

Upon further study, he may be right. But that's a quick fix. We used that device because we didn't want people calling for help, but now it doesn't matter because help is coming anyway.

I'll kill it in the sample and reupload the file.

Joe

* * *

Just changed the jammer in the sample and the main manuscript, and uploaded it to Kindle. At the beginning of the sample I had a disclaimer saying it was uncorrected proofs, so it won't matter. We owe that guy a beer.

Joe

* * *

Apparently I was misinformed, and hospitals don't use cell phone jammers. I changed it in the sample and the final manuscript.

This is actually a good development. Now Shanna can call Clay when he goes back into the hospital to help Randall, so they can have a tense goodbye scene on the phone. Randall can also call the TV station and tell them to bring the helicopter to the roof.

The point of not wanting cell phones is because we didn't want the cops to come early. But they came early anyway, so it doesn't matter.

Joe

* * *

I researched cell jammers for Cherry Bomb and could swear they were used on airplanes. But apparently I was wrong, because if they were used it would crash the plane. My bad.