coyotegoth | Gone With the Wind- and the Zombies!

Today's entry in the zombie contest comes from Gone With the Wind; as always, cut in deference to the fact that it depicts zombies doing rather icky things. Unfortunately, as I haven't been able to find a copy of Felix Salten's novel, I may have to scrub my planned follow-up Bambi- Fawn of the Dead.

Wodehouse, however, looks promising...

you can always tell a lady by the way she eats in front of folks like a bird

“I wonder,” Ashley said, as the thing that had been Scarlett O' Hara strained against its restraining chain. “I wonder not only what will become of us at Tara but what will become of everybody in the South.

“In the end,” he continued as she reached for him, the cerements which she wore stiff with the red clay soil of her homeland, “what will happen will be whatever has happened whenever a civilization breaks up. The people who have brains” –she looked up briefly- “and courage come through and the people who haven’t are winnowed out. At least, it has been interesting, if not comfortable, to witness a Gotterdammerung.”

Scarlett made a noise he seemed to consider a question. “A dusk of the gods. Unfortunately, we Southerners did think we were gods.”

He paused, looking at her hands, as they clawed the air, clutching for him. “These are the most beautiful hands I know,” he said. “They are beautiful because they are strong and every callus is a medal, Scarlett, every blister an award for bravery and unselfishness. They’ve been roughened for all of us, your father, the girls, Melanie, the baby, and for me. My dear, I know what you are thinking,” he continued, as her snapping jaws just missed his neck. “You’re thinking, ‘Here stands an impractical fool talking tommyrot about dead gods when living people are in danger. Isn’t that true?”

“Gnnnaaaarrrggh!”

“And you come to me hoping I can help you. Well, I can’t.” His eyes were blurry as he looked toward the ax and the pile of logs. “My home is gone, Scarlett, and all the money that I so took for granted I never realized I had it. And I am fitted for nothing in this world, for the world I belonged in has gone. I can’t help you, Scarlett, except by learning with as good grace as possible to be a clumsy farmer. And that won’t keep Tara for you. Don’t you think I realize the bitterness of our situation, living here on your charity- Oh, yes, Scarlett, your charity. I can never repay you for what you’ve done for me and mine out of the kindness of your heart,” he went on, as she gnashed bared teeth at him. “I realize it more acutely every day. And every day I see more clearly how helpless I am to cope with what has come on us all- Every day my accursed shrinking from realities makes it harder for me to face the new realities. Do you know what I mean?”

“Raaaaah.”

“It’s a curse,” he went on, pacing as he spoke, “this not wanting to look on naked realities. Until the war, life was never more real to me than a shadow show on a curtain. And I preferred it so. I do not like the outlines of things to be too sharp. I like them gently blurred, a little-“

Lost in his reverie, he had taken one step too many- and Scarlett was upon him. As her teeth sank into his throat, he fell back with a moan, a gentleman of the gallant South to the last. Next, Melanie; it was a true joy to sink her teeth into that simpering do-gooder’s skull. Even her brains are cloyingly sweet, Scarlett thought. After that, it was high time she dealt with Rhett Butler; he’d learn to laugh at a true daughter of the South. And then... the Yankees. The Yankees.

...as God as her witness, she’d never be hungry again.