Buddy read -- 100 Days in Deadland -- through part 3 (spoilers)

[Randy]

This is a buddy read discussion of 100 Days in Deadland, Part 3.

======================================================

This Buddy Read is sponsored by members of the Zombies! group. If you're interested in zombies, come join us there:

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/909

This buddy read has been broken up into four parts:

Part 1: Beginning, LIMBO, & LUST (113 pgs).
Part 2: HUNGER, GREED, & WRATH (116 pgs).
Part 3: ARROGANCE & VIOLENCE (86 pgs).
Part 4: MALICE & BETRAYAL, plus the afterword and end material (121 pgs)

The planned discussion schedule:

Part 1: Starting on November 16th.
Part 2: Starting on November 19th.
Part 3: Starting on November 22nd.
Part 4: Starting on November 25th.

Links to discussion topics:

Through part one
Through part two
Through part three
Through part four

[Teresa]

Where are we all here? I just finished Arrogance, and am retreating into the library for a quick 150 or so page book that I promised for a R4R. But I should be back on in a few hours or so (OR tomorrow A.M.- I have a tendency to fall asleep when I've got a giant Doberman snuggied up warmly against me, some hot cocoa, and a good book in my hands). I woulda breezed through this today, but I spent the day at the neurologist getting gunky glue crap all over my head for my monthly EEGs :-( Just curious how every one else is coming along! Be back soon!

[Teresa]

More comparisons:

6th Circle: Arrogance
Chapter 9
32. Cash and Clutch are allowed entrance to DIS. They enter through the tall fences (representing the high walls).
33. Cash refuses to look at one of raiders (representing Medusa) who watches her; he’s the same guy who ogled her at the greenhouse.
34. A large cross is painted on a silo, symbolizing markings on the land. A wall has names of lost loved ones, showing that there are those who suffered from all lands.
35. "Cries" and "smoke" come from a smaller silo, where they realize humans are trapped inside (i.e. heretics locked in burning stone coffins).
Chapter 10
36. The Dogs revere Doyle (i.e. worship who they want, not God)
37. Cash and Clutch dine with Doyle in his windowless office (i.e. a tomb).
38. Doyle reveals that he sees the future, brags of his numbers, and treats Clutch like his son, wanting him to join. Doyle shows disdain to Cash because she has different ancestors, although eventually concedes that he may have "misjudged" her. Cash feels dismay at Doyle's thinking.
39. On a walk, they see a giant hole of stench, with bodies piled high.
Chapter 11
40. Doyle tells them how things are, thus foretelling the next circles. He asserts that he has both sources of wealth needed for survival: resources and his leadership abilities.
41. Cash is becoming aware of her own sin: she has accepted that she would do anything to protect Clutch and Jase. Which is exactly what she does by killing the rapist.
42. When Tyler takes Cash, Doyle warns them that punishment will befall anyone not with him. And, in a break from the “Inferno”, Cash and Clutch split up for now.
How 100 Days in Deadland compares to Dante’s “Inferno” 4
7th Circle: Violence
Chapter 12: The Outermost Circle (Violence against neighbors)
43. As Cash enters Camp Fox, she sees a bull, representing the Minotaur. Camp Fox is well-guarded (by armed centaurs who shoot anything that gets too close) and has a creek along one side (representing the boiling river of blood). It is growing dark (to represent the Camp in a dark valley).
44. Cash is escorted into the camp by Nick, who leaves to return outside again. She "climbs down" from the Humvee to enter this circle.
45. Camp Fox is zed-bombed by Doyle as he fulfills his promise to commit violence (against his neighbors).
Chapter 13: The Middle Circle (Violence against one’s self)
46. Zombies (with human faces) rip apart and dismember people like taloned harpies.
47. Cash "hears cries everywhere but couldn't see the source" because it's too dark.
48. During the battle, soldiers squander ammo. Cash sees bodies that look like “gnarled stumps, with dark blood oozing.”
49. Nick commits suicide, thus committing violence against himself.
50. Appearing a chapter early, in the aftermath of the battle, Cash sees zombies lying on the ground, flat on their backs. Some are still, others are moving incessantly, one even has a knife/shaft through it). The bombed barrack is on fire, with embers and soot showering down. Cash hears a woman crying (i.e. a weeping soul) who's using her "wretched hands" to pull herself to her baby. Cash places the dead child in its dying mother's arms (to represent gathering up scattered boughs and giving them back to a soul).
51. Tyler takes Cash's hand and escorts her past the gallows and away from the scene.
Chapter 14: The Innermost Circle (Violence against nature)
52. Cash runs through "woods" and "stream" as she heads back to the farm.
53. Cash cuts herself on a culvert, representing the red blood flowing in the stream.
54. Cash comes across a zombie with a logo T-shirt (a gentle face, sits with ornaments upon his chest) still wearing his "gold" glasses and "silver" wristwatch.
55. Cash comes out from the woods into Zed City.
Chapter 15: The Innermost Circle (Violence against nature)
56. Cash jumps short fences to get from yard to yard to find a house to break into, representing defenses not built high and wide enough.
57. A herd of zombies find her (company of spirits stared from beneath the moon).
58. One zombie reminds her of Jase, with its outstretched arms and baked, brown features.
59. When she returns to the farm, she discovers everything is burned to the ground, representing the fiery sands beneath a rain of fire.
Chapter 16: The Innermost Circle (Violence against nature)
60. Cash hears the the zombies coming (like a murmur/beehive hum), then sees them (with wounds upon their skin, burned by flames).
61. When the three zombies surround her like a wheel, Cash takes out one by its neck, another by its feet, before finally taking out the last one.
62. Cash descends into the bunker for safety.
How 100 Days in Deadland compares to Dante’s “Inferno” 5
Chapter 17: The Innermost Circle (Violence against nature: The Usurers)
63. The Dog tells Cash and Cluth they are wrong and will be punished.
64. Cash kills a pregnant zombie that’s carrying a purse around its neck.
65. Clutch kills the Dog because he is from DIS, where all sinners must be punished because they chose that way of life.
66. At the Fox Park office, Cash and Clutch face Geryon, a zombie with filthy stench yet the look of a just man. The zombie falls down the stairs, where its head breaks open. Cash and Clutch drop the corpse down a slope where it disappears.
67. Cash and Clutch climb the stairs to overlook the park.

[Randy]

Tammy K. wrote: "...and shows herself as a survivor, like she was prior to meeting Clutch."

Like the *survivor* she was before, but NOT the *person* she was before.

She had the will and attitude to survive before. Now she has the tools and skills to back them up.

Tammy K. wrote: "However her goal to get back to Clutch over looking over Jason (Jase) was disappointing yet predictable."

She didn't overlook Jase -- she searched for him and found him alive at Camp Fox after Doyle's Zed bomb. As Tyler was letting her go, she asked him to look out for Jase, "He's a good kid."

[Randy]

Still loving the book so far. However:

1. I didn't expect any of Tyler's crew, Cash, or Clutch, to be allowed to leave Doyle's camp without a fight.

2. Strictly speaking, Doyle screwed up letting Tyler leave. He should have just killed them all, then told Lendt that they got waylaid by zombies. You don't tell the villain, "You're done. I'm gonna tell on you." when you're in his power. Geez.

3. The whole business with Doyle wanting or needing Clutch to join his group was just ridiculous. He could never trust Clutch to "do his bidding".

4. I didn't realize Doyle had the manpower to do the Zed bomb on Camp Fox. Seems like that would take a lot of effort.

[Randy]

41. Cash is becoming aware of her own sin: she has accepted that she would do anything to protect Clutch and Jase. Which is exactly what she does by killing the rapist.

I don't see how she is protecting Clutch and Jase by killing the rapist?

[Teresa]

From what I got from your last comment, Randy, was that she KNEW that Clutch would kill the rapist; she just pulled the trigger first, and she said in one passage that she 'sacrificed' herself for him or something like that. I'll find the page # and quote later. I found each 'canto'/chapter to have CRAZY cliff-hangers! Made me zip right on through! LOL

[Randy]

Teresa wrote: "...she KNEW that Clutch would kill the rapist; she just pulled the trigger first, and she said in one passage that she 'sacrificed' herself for ..."

I do remember that. But it would have gotten Clutch out of Doyle's camp, if Tyler had to arrest him.

[Teresa]

You're absolutely right on that one. I was questioning that in my mind the whole time. I couldn't understand why Clutch wasn't his typical bad-ass self and just sauntered right out of Doyle's camp...