Win a chance to get killed in the 2nd Story Arc of The Strain!
We're making preparations for the coming infestation, storing food, comics and weapons. The Strain #1 is on its way, infecting comic shops on Dec. 14th. And here's a little contest to get you excited for the comics from Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan, David Lapham and Mike Huddleston.
Last week we asked our visitors to share their survival plans with us for a chance to win an appearance in the next Strain story arc. Below is the third finalist for the Contest: Sheila Smith
Be sure to read each of the entries, voting will begin at the end of the week.
In order to prevent myself from falling victim to "the strain" of the vampire plague, I would poison myself with a substance similar to radionuclide polonium-210. This has advantages and disadvantages. Since the vampire process involves infecting a healthy organism and changing it on some fundamental biological level in order to become the new vampiric species, rendering the intended target biologically damaged in a irrevocable way would thus make the target an unfit prospect for the changeover process, as the vampire would no longer have a usable body to invade and utilize for their sinister cause.
While the vampires have physical advantages over humans, such as strength and speed, they are as presented in the book also vulnerable to some physical realities, such as being beheaded. So vampires are better at surviving some things which might kill a human, but this does not make them impervious or immortal. Therefore something like radiation which can have a devastating effect on all forms of life, would theoretically affect the vampires as well, if the doses were high enough. Of course, since humans in the book do not have full information on the biology of the vampires, this is only a guess, albeit an educated one. One would also have to experiment as to the dose needed in order to render one's self unpalatable to the creatures without shortening one's lifespan unnecessarily.
Of course, the human in question would likely die from the radiation, but they would have the advantage of choosing their own manner of death, the choice to die as a human, and hopefully enough remaining time to contribute to the anti-vampire cause in a meaningful way so as to aid the survival of the rest of humanity. Every cause needs martyrs. I would propose a network of sorts, of these radioactive martyrs, acting alone or in small cells, modeled on guerrilla warfare. These martyrs would have to possess the courage and commitment to sacrifice their own lives for the sake of humanity, as well as the intelligence and skill to contribute to this cause during the remainder of their lifetimes.
While extreme, this course of action would provide humans with a special class of warriors, who like the samurai or kamikaze, are psychologically invulnerable because they no longer fear death, but have accepted it as the honorable and necessary cost of winning.
While these martyrs are carrying out their missions and fighting to stem the tide of the advancing vampire hordes, I would propose gathering the remaining leading scientists in order to work on coming up with some kind of biological agent or germ warfare specific to vampire physiology. This would take time, which is why it would be crucial to have agents like the martyrs to run interference. It would probably also entail capturing and experimenting on one of the afflicted plague victims. I think the only way to defeat the vampires would be through some kind of germ or virus which they would ultimately spread amongst themselves, along with the vampiric strain--maybe some kind of parasitic cell which would piggyback or cause the strain to mutate, with an accelerated fatal outcome which would be encoded in the DNA. This would take advantage of the vampires' infectiousness and hive mind, and would be more effective than individual beheadings or fires.