Introduction to the Trilogy

I got the idea for Pip and the Zombieswhen I heard about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The opening chapter of Great Expectations has Pip in a graveyard where he is accosted by a frightening man who threatens to eat him. This was perfect for a zombie story. (As you can see here.)

The process of converting the original was a fun challenge. I had to weigh how each change I made would affect subsequent chapters. And occasionally, I found myself going back to adjust a previous chapter to work with a later change.

Readers who are familiar with the original will enjoy seeing the changes, while readers new to the story will enjoy this shorter version of the Dickens classic. My version retains his flavor, but takes the story in an alternate direction.

Book 2 is going to be even more interesting. I'm not 100% sure of the title, but the book will cover the 11 years that Pip is away from England.

He'll travel to Egypt first and make a startling discovery. Then he'll loop down through Africa, across to South America, up through North America, jump across to Ireland, and then back home.

Along the way, he'll meet a crazed zombie hunter named Coppola, a professor named Romero, and others. He'll fight at the Alamo while zombies from the south attack, meet a young boy named Huck Finn, and stumble across.... You'll have to wait.

All the while, trying to come to terms with his failed expectations and relationship with Estella.

Explanatory Note

*rough notes*

In 1860, I was approached by Mr. Charles Dickens who expressed his desire to tell the story of how I became a Zombie Slayer. At the time {why Pip did not want the story told - too painful, perhaps, or - I felt that the story of one slayer was not more important than that of other slayers...} but Mr. Dickens was persistent and after much discussion agreed that the story of my rise held a message regardless of whether I had become a Slayer or a Politician.

I agreed to allow myself to be interviewed and my story to be written with two provisos - I was to have complete control of the content and the eleven years I spent abroad were not to be covered. 

When Mr. Dickens agreed to tell my story, it was with the proviso that he not include my years abroad.  The events that took place during this period, and indeed my purpose for journeying to {the ends of the earth, the uncivilized world..}  {What's a name for a "quest" to find one's self?}  were personal and private in nature.

In fact, as he penned his original epistle, it was decided that all references to zombies be removed.  This was, at the time, primarily due to the {personal nature} of the events and the heartache of memory they had for me.

I stipulated in my will that the full story not be told until 150 years {what's a good Victorian way to say "a Century and a half?  Like "four score and seven years ago...}

*At the end of Book 2, Pip returns to England and has 20 years until 1860...  He and Estella leave for {     } and are never heard from again.  This will be in the Epilogue.

I do not know if my wishes have been followed, but if you are reading this, it is my fervent hope that the {cause of} Zombies has been eradicated, that the dead walk no more, and that my part in all of this is but a footnote in the annals of history.


dimitte mortuos requiescere
P.P, London, 1865

opening page

If my instructions have been followed
you are reading this 150 years after my death.
Hopefully,
I am still dead.
My name is Philip Pirrup
and I am a Zombie Slayer.

Idea Space

Here's where I'll keep my ideas. If I write them on scraps of paper or try to memorize them, they'll just get lost.

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Introduction

     In the summer of 2001, I journeyed to the United Kingdom for a three-week holiday. Due to budget miscalculations, I did not have sufficient funds for lodging and consequently, spent the nights sleeping in a very small car. I didn’t want to attract attention by settling in for the evening while the streets were still busy, so I would spend that time wandering about, exploring each town and village, until night had fallen and then finding a safe place to park and sleep.
     It was on one such evening that I found myself, after standing in the rain in the middle of the Globe Theatre watching a production of MacBeth, walking along the River Thames waiting for sundown. I had travelled only a mile or so when I spied the London Tower on the north side and judging that I had sufficient time to visit, crossed the Tower Bridge and did so. I had however, misjudged the approach of night and soon found myself wandering the streets of London, unsure as to which way I had come and able to identify in the poorly lit streets any discernible landmarks. But, as my wanderings had led to other adventures on this trip, I was not worried... until I reached Whitechapel Road.
     The Whitechapel district looked just as it did in all the movies I had seen – fog literally rolled out of the alleys and down the streets like a slow moving river, and every step I took echoed off the cobblestones and came back to me from all sides. Baker’s Street was too far away for the Irregulars to be of any assistance. Had I a Bobbie’s whistle, I would have put it to use, but alas, this contingency was also neglected. I listened in vain for the sound of the Thames – a boat passing, water lapping at the walls that held it in – but heard nothing. I tried to get a sense of moisture blowing in from one direction or another, but the fog that clung to me left everything feeling damp, so I chose a direction and walked.
     And then I saw a light. A simple glow ahead that could have been a window, an open doorway, or a street light. I approached with caution waiting for the fog to clear and discovered the light came from a small doorway just inside a narrow alley. I did approach, and perhaps you think that was foolish. It was, but I was fortunate. For inside this doorway was… not so much a shop, but a room barely larger than a closet containing one set of shelves, a box marked “donations”, and the smell of camphor wood. I leaned in, for there was really not enough room to move about, and looked over the spines of the books. Most were quite large and unwieldy and I had no interest in pulling them off the shelves and disturbing the layers of dust that clung to them. But about knee-high, I saw a bundle of papers wrapped in oil cloth and secured with a leather thong.
     My nerves had had enough for one evening so, pulling some pound notes from my pocket and tossing them into the box, I stepped back into the street and right into the arms of a Bobby who pointed me in the direction home.
     What you now hold in your hands is the result of that night’s adventure. That bundle I found contained the journals of Philip Pirrup, a name I knew well from the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations, and despite having taught that novel for fifteen years, there was much more to his story than I knew, and like you, I thought the story Dickens told was a piece of fiction and, in some ways, it was. But as I was to learn from the journals, the “fiction” was the result of a compromise between Dickens and Pirrup.
     I was able to tell the true story of Philip Pirrup and his expectations in Pip and the Zombies and now you get to hear the rest of the story.

Chapter 1: The Pyramids

Cairo, Egypt, 1829

"Zombies! Are you certain?"
"I've researched it thoroughly," exclaimed Herbert. "Zombies built the pyramids!"

Chapter 2: The Beginning

Kent, England, 1804

Philip Pirrup, Junior, was born to Philip Pirrip, Senior, recently deceased, and Giorgianna Pirrup, soon to be recently deceased, during the Great Zombie War of 1800. His older brothers had already died from the plague that erupted from the polluted streets of London and spread to the outlying marshes carried by runagates attempting to escape the scourge and the zombies left in its wake.

The senior Pirrip, father of Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, and to the newborn "Pip" as he was later to call himself, was lying in the front yard of his home while his only other surviving child, 20 year old Georgianna, named after her beloved mother, stood over him, valiantly fighting off a second wave of attacking zombies.

"Georgie," her mother yelled from the front front room where she was being attended to by an increasingly frightened mid-wife.

Using her father's scythe, Georgie cut down the closest zombie and ran into the house, barricading the door.

"Take your brother and run!"

****

Joe Gargery, the blacksmith, knew the Pirrip family. In fact, Joe knew everyone who lived within 20 miles of his forge for he was the only blacksmith within 20 miles of anywhere and when the pollution in London and the other cities of commerce became so bad that even the animals were infected, and the miasma from the sewers and gutters began to spread and infect the sick and dying, and the zombie plague brought back the dead who then infected the living, Joe knew that eventually not even the marshes would be safe and had begun to forge weapons and train his neighbors in their use. Farmers brought in plowshares that Joe beat into swords, scythes that he sharpened to a razors edge, and other farm implements that he reconstructed into weapons. And it was with one of those weapons that he now approached the Pirrip homestead.

****

A handful of zombies were clawing at the closed door and barricaded window. Two crouched over the senior Pirrip pulling chunks of flesh free and gorging themselves upon it. Without breaking stride, Joe swung his falchion, decapitating both zombies, and continued toward the house.

Scattered about the yard were the headless bodies of other zombies, and Joe noted that someone had put up a rather good fight. His approach was noticed too late by the zombies fighting to get into the house and with surprising speed and dexterity, Joe quickly dispatched the remaining zombies then, using the blade of his sword, worked the front door open and stepped inside.

He was too late. The back door stood open and lying across the floor were the remains of Georgianna Pirrip and the mid-wife.

******

I don't know what it is that influences the person we become, but being born while my family was being killed by zombies had to have some impact on my person. My father lay dead in the yard with my five brothers, and my mother and her mid-wife were killed literally minutes after my birth by the zombies who broke down the door in pursuit of human flesh. Had my sister not escaped with me, I would not be here to tell this story.

Joe Gargery's timely arrival prevented further desecration of my family and spared them the fate of being devoured. It was, however, Joe's obligation to ensure that Philip, late of this parish; also Georgianna, wife of the above; and Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger did not join the ranks of the undead. The details of these necessary measures need not be described here. Let it suffice to say that the only reliable method for preventing the reanimation of the dead involves fire and decapitation.

My sister Georgianna, from here forward referred to as "my sister" so as not be confused with Georgianna my mother and because I hated her, must also have influenced the development of my character, largely due to the violent and abusive manner in which she raised me.

Chapter 3: The Expectations

After Joe married my sister and became my protector, I strived for nothing other than becoming a swordsmith myself. I knew it was an important job. Even though the zombie plague was, if not under control, at least better managed by means of a "better safe than sorry" approach, there were still bands of zombies that roamed the marshes and edges of towns looking for the stray traveler, and it was important to maintain a well-armed citizenry. I was small for my age and never thought of myself as a defender, but knew that the right armament could make up for many deficiencies.

But then I met Miss Havisham. And Estella.

Chapter 4: The First Leg

1829

Chapter 5: The Reunion

Cairo, Egypt, 1831

Chapter 6: The Horror

South Africa, 1833
I have seen horror. I have looked it in the eye. And you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror... Horror has a face... Horror and mortal terror are your friends. They keep you sharp. I remember when I was with the Zombie Annihilation Force... seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a village to inoculate the children. Someone had come up with this concoction to prevent reanimation. We set up camp that night outside the village and during the night... and I'm telling you we heard nothing... nothing! In the morning they were all dead. {The serum had attracted the zombies. Not a child was left alive and some were already turning. And do you know what we had to do?}* Can you imagine what it was like to chop the heads off little children who, the day before, we had bounced on our laps? That's why I do what I do. And I love it. We must kill them. We must incinerate them. Does that make me crazy - that I love the smell of zombies burning?
*needs fixin'

Chapter 7: The Air Ship

Chapter 8: The Republic of Texas

1836

Chapter 9: The Voodoo Priestess

New Orleans, Louisianna

During the Battle at San Jacinto, Pip is bitten.  He is taken to New Orleans by fellow slayers Parker and Tifa where a voodoo priestess agrees to help. She begins to chant:

Ascoltare ed obbedire, lettore.

Potrai acquistare più copie di questo libro

e vi invia i tuoi amici ad acquistare copie

et erit ingens victoria.

E l'autore diventerà incredibilmente ricco.

"What is she saying?" whispered Parker.

"I don't know," Tifa replied, "but I hope it works."

Chapter 10: The Buffalo

In this chapter, Pip is traveling by train from Louisiana to Missouri. I'll have to check to see if there was a train for this route, but if not, I can make one up. Along the way, people will be shooting buffalo. Again, I'll have to see if there were buffalo along that route.

Anyway, they shoot the buffalo to lure zombies to the area. The zombie then learn that it's a good feeding area near train tracks which makes it easier to hunt them and keeps them away from cities.

Hmmmmm

There really wasn't too much train travel in the mid-1800's.

So, in keeping with my desire for a steampunk element, I'll just have to add a steam powered stagecoach. It will follow the actual line of future railways.

Chapter 11: The Baggers

Hannibal, Missouri, 1837

Pip goes to Hannibal and meets young Huck Finn.  This will be a spin off of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim. Pip sees how Huck's father treats him and is reminded of how his older sister treated him.  (Thatsalotta pronouns!)

Chapter 12: The Colonies

1838

Chapter 13: The Submersible

Chapter 14: The Emerald Isle

1839

This will happen later in the book, after Pip returns to England.

*Spoiler - He and Estella reunite and go to Ireland to deal with "the Hunger"  an Gorta Mór

See hungry zombies here 

Chapter 15: The Return

Kent, England, 1840