THE EXPERIMENT by TheBoyWithTheThing
May 2, 2011 Short stories
“Alright,” you think. “That should be enough.”
You have been banging on the air conditioning unit on top of the rooftop of the store for some twenty minutes now. Although you look at your now-dented aluminum bat with some regret, you remind yourself that if this works it will be well worth it.
Cautiously you peer over the edge of the roof. Three stories down, you see what may be a hundred or so zombies clustered around the entrance of the store. Their continuous chorus of moans disturbs you only a little as you believe you have chosen your location well. The storefront’s steel rolling shutters still hold off the zombie’s relentless but uninspired pounding.
This is when you decide to light the propane tank.
It will be your fourth attempt at this since you took to the rooftops of this small city. The first time you did not light the tank, and nothing happened when you shot it. The other two times the tank’s flame went out when it hit the ground. This time you had earlier tossed down a mattress, hoping that it will soften the tank’s fall.
Of course you could have set up the tank on the street prior to getting to the roof, and you would have, if you were a fool; your feet have not graced the surface of the earth for nearly a year.
Now begins the hard part. You hoist the full five-gallon tank upon your shoulders and stand up very slowly. Although thirty pounds of weight is not a problem for you, you do not want any sudden movement to cause the zombies to look up; if they spot you and frenzy even a vandal-proof storefront will not keep them out for long.
You are finally on your feet. You spend about twenty seconds concentrating on your target below while waiting for an opening, then toss your lit cargo. It hits the mattress, rolls off, and eventually lies still. The zombies remain relatively docile, occasionally blundering into each other. The flame remains lit.
You suppress your excitement and slowly reach for your hunting rifle while moving into a kneeling position. This is a laughably easy shot but you are not willing to use up one of your prized .30 caliber rounds when you are not anything but icy calm. Finally, you fire.
With a dull roar the tank, mattress, and several dozen zombies are enveloped in a rapidly expanding fireball. You quickly duck down as the flames race up the side of your building towards you. A few seconds later all is quiet; at least as quiet as it ever gets with all the continual moaning. You pull yourself to the roof edge and take a look down.
Several zombies are down but are regaining their feet. One zombie has become a crawler, while several more are now on fire. The tank remains near the place where you shot it, the neat bullet-hole venting flame. You see no other visual damage to it. The pressure from the explosion was not enough to break the glass in the windows across the street. None of the zombies have stopped moving. Even the mattress is not burning.
You quietly pack up your gear and get ready to cross your padded ladder to the next building. It will be an hour before you are able to make it back to the safety of your fortifications. Your movements are methodical and you are already planning out your next experiment, but a part of your mind seethes with disappointment. Your bullet would have been better used shooting at the zombies directly.
“Fucking movies,” you think.
Haha nice story. Cant imagine how that must feel :/ A padded ladder to the next building? Sounds like a death trap to me.
Comment by The gouch on May 2, 2011 @ 2:50 pm
Nice short. I’m glad someone finally addressed the non-explosiveness of propane tanks. Thank you Mythbusters!
I was planning something similiar. Glad you beat me to it. I’m sure yours came out better than mine would.
B
Comment by Barrett on May 2, 2011 @ 7:08 pm
Great short story, wonder how many of us would try out the things we have seen on TV and how many would actually work.
Comment by GeorgeD on May 3, 2011 @ 3:04 am
“Fucking movies”…Awesome ending line! You could have done the same story about a Claymore Mine or grenade. I always love how Hollywood makes those things act like little fuel air bombs. There is a lot of shrapnel, some smoke, a little dust, but NO flameball.
Comment by RandyB on May 3, 2011 @ 5:35 am
Yeah I really liked that short. Great end line 🙂
Its funny, but after writing for TOWWZ you realise quite a lot of the Z movie ideas are bunkum. Baseball bats for example. They would be rubbish for zombies. Why? If only the lower brain functions are working they are at the back of the head, in addition the hardest part of your body is your forehead. Surely the most difficult bit to smash with a bat.
Comment by Pete Bevan on May 4, 2011 @ 1:39 pm
Great read. I especially liked the perspective. It put me in the middle of the story from word one!
Comment by James Spiller on May 4, 2011 @ 10:45 pm
Leave a comment I really liked this story. The realism with the propane tank was great. I’d love to see more of this character. Interesting that he’s not set foot on the ground in so long. How is he able to get food, etc?
Comment by Kris on May 5, 2011 @ 1:57 pm
great story
i loved how you made it as if it was the reader there in the storie, a great read, i definately recommend this
nothing like any other storie on this site, its nice to see a change to that 🙂
thanks
ZGFO
Comment by Zombies-get-fucking-owned on May 7, 2011 @ 10:15 am
Actually, that’s not a bad idea. We should all go the “Mythbusters” website and suggest that they do a “zombie” episode, maybe for Halloween. They’ve done lots of things from other movies: the air tank vs a shark form “Jaws”, the entire “Green Hornet” episode, several superhero/spy gadgets etc.
If we all suggested our favorite scenes from zombie films, they’d probably have enough for at least one episode, maybe more.
How much damage does a propane tank generate?
How hard is it to penetrate a skull?
How hard is it to make a head shot?
How many bodies does it take ot push over a chain link fence? a retail store shutter? a frame house wall?
That’s just off the top of my head (no pun intended). What else can we come up with?
P.S. I hope this doesn’t violate any policies or anything. I’m certainly not suggesting that we “flame” or “spam” or otherwise attack the Mythbusters site. This was meant to be constructive.
Comment by Zombob on May 10, 2011 @ 11:10 am
I love it. A note to movies makers, firing a pistol at a car does not make the fuel tank explode. Guns need reloading and you cannot EVER find a parking space outside the building you want to enter. : )
Comment by Eljay on June 19, 2011 @ 6:19 am
Loved it! I know it was written such that the reader is the protagonist but I couldn’t get a “Huck Finn” sort of character out of my imagination. I hope there’s more in the works.
Comment by Clement S. on August 19, 2011 @ 10:23 pm
nice one….. i love the idea….. i want an additional scene for that….. the zombies noticed he has that tank nd gun hahhahha what he gonna do about that attack ? hehhehheh
Comment by guzbaxe03 on November 25, 2011 @ 6:39 pm