MercuryBible

Back to the Mercury main page

World Rules

1. You must be bitten to be infected. Just dying isn’t sufficient. Exploration of the causes of the zombie apocalypse are welcomed. Biting is the primary method of transfer, but it is bloodborne and therefore bleeding on an open wound will also effect a transfer. This is no longer true. Biting is required to turn someone into a zombie.
2. Zombies are effectively hydrophobic - they will not enter the water and cannot function under it. If a zombie is immersed in water then it effectively enters torpor but will reanimate when removed from the water. Zombies that are in the water for an extended period of time will suffer physical effects and the body may disintegrate.
3. Most of the remaining standard tropes regarding zombies apply - they eat human flesh (but can consume animals if they are available) but will not "die" if they do not find food, they'll just shamble around until they find some. They can be killed by destroying the brain. Bullet wounds to the head, blunt force trauma, piercing the skull, or any other method of applying catastrophic damage to the brain is sufficient.
4. The station is secure. We cannot be besieged or overrun by zombies for the following reasons:
   1. Because the zombies are hydrophobic and our station is on the coast, we have an effectively unbreakable barrier at our backs.
   2. The small boat would allow us to escape if necessary. Zombies who came in large numbers would quickly lose interest once their prey was no longer present.
   3. The station and the broadcast antenna have the usual chain link fence and barbed wire. These barriers would be sufficient to hold zombies at bay until the survivors could either pick them off through the fence or make an escape in the boat.
5. The lighthouse is not a practical place to live. Its resources are not better than the station, having to come to shore every time you wanted to get supplies is a pain, the surf can be rough during storms, and being able to broadcast to other survivors in the area is important.
6. We are well into the apocalypse. The station has been offline for some weeks, if not months, and repairs have had to be done to get back on the air.
7. The station is only big enough for 5 people to live there permanently. There is enough room for people to stay the night if necessary, but scarcity of supplies, physical space for actual residence, and the risk of attracting too many zombies preclude more than 5 people living there.
8. We have a small boat available. It has a small outboard motor. A 12’-16’ boat that can’t hold more than a few people.
9. Zombies were part of regular pop culture before the outbreak.
10. The survivors have some supplies, but need to replenish through scouting runs or have supplies brought to them. They can go fishing off the coast if necessary.
11. Incubation period for a bite is 18-24 hours. Amputation of a limb that was bitten can prevent someone from turning, but they must do so within an hour or else it will not have the desired effect.
12. Zombies do not freeze in winter, although they should. The characters will explore why this is.
13. The group in the radio station does not have any guns. This is not meant to be an anti-gun message in the series, it's just not a tool they had on-hand at the time and they haven't been able to find one. Wade could potentially have one as he travels around, but if he's not on site at the time, then there are no firearms.

Timeline

1. There were isolated outbreaks in towns and then a ramp up to cities over the course of several weeks or months.
2. Government covered it up until they couldn’t anymore. They knew it was zombies, but didn't have a definitive cause.
3. To prevent panic (due to zombies being a part of pop culture), they covered up the symptoms and called it antibiotic resistant bacteria.
4. The cover-up was coordinated by a select group of people within the CDC and the Secretary of Health and Human Services. It was highly departmentalized and there is an excellent chance that even the President didn't know the exact nature of what was going on.
5. The local authorities would issue a series of lockdowns on the authority of the CDC, instructing people that a patient was at large and that people should stay indoors until the patient could be contained and isolated. There would be more and more of these until we get to our present situation.
6. The final lockdown, what we refer to as "Outbreak Day" was July 11.

Series Rules and Structure

Writing Guidelines

1. The overall theme of the show is hope and keeping up morale. If a writer wishes to use despair to help emphasize a point, they may do so, but the series cannot degenerate into a hopeless morass.
2. No zombies will enter the station and no characters will die “on camera”. In extremely limited instances it is permissable to hear zombies outside, but they will never gain access and this effect should only be to allow a character to talk about how they feel about it, not to create peril.
3. Each episode should be between 5 and 7 minutes long. Longer episodes are acceptable if necessary, but should be kept to a minimum because of the increased need for editing.
4. When writing episodes, there should not be flashbacks. Characters can reminisce, but we cannot see the scene play out with additional characters.
5. Humor is encouraged. The characters are in a serious situation, so this isn't a comedy show, but with an overall theme of hope, some humor is entirely appropriate.
6. All material must be originally written by the submitting author or must be in the public domain. If you are submitting anything that you didn't write yourself, you must include attribution in the text of the submission.
7. Terminology: The preferred term for this series is the generic "zombie" unless otherwise noted (see Agnes Drew's character description). Other terms may be used to help prevent the word from becoming endlessly repetitive and meaningless, but this isn't an exercise in how to use a thesaurus. Recurring or one-time characters may have their own preferred term if desired, but writers can and should fall back to "zombie" in most cases.
8. A backlog of episodes in the can and more written is essential to maintain the daily release schedule. That said, if a current event demands a commentary (within the context of the zombie apocalypse), then a special episode may be written, recorded, and inserted into the feed as needed. To preserve the numbering system (below) we may do supplemental episodes on specific days, rather than re-recording the intro for any episodes already in the can.
9. Each episode shall establish the episode number by stating “this is # days since we went back on the air” or some variation thereof. The actual number will be set during the recording process. Each episode shall conclude with the tagline "Take care of each other."
10. Take care not to make the opening sequence repetitive. If technical difficulties are part of your episode, it is acceptable to fall back to the Pilot episode's gimmick of having the characters ask if they are actually being heard on air, but for the most part that opening should not be the norm. Feel free to get right into the meat of the episode without a lot of preamble if you like, or you can ease your way into it, but variation will keep these short episodes from becoming repetitive.
11. Periodically there will be plot points and rule changes introduced into the world. For that reason, writers are encouraged to embrace the uncertainty and leave everything in the realm of speculation except where characters are concerned. Characters should obviously know themselves, but they are reacting to the uncertain world around them.
12. Whenever a new character trait is described by a writer, that trait will become canon in the series and should be entered into the Writer's Bible here so that future writers will not contradict it.
13. Writers should actively avoid making the zombies the central part of episodes unless it is unavoidable. Theme is far more important than plot and this series is about hope and survival. The zombies can be thought of as a metaphor for any conflict or burden that anyone might experience.
14. The writers should feel confident that the actors and producers will not make substantive changes to their episodes, although it may occasionally be necessary to add additional information in the intro or outro to keep the plot moving and/or introduce new concepts that may lead into the next episode. In some instances expediency may also dictate that changes be made prior to recording to correct word choices, character assignments, or the like. This will be kept to a minimum, but sometimes it's just faster to make non-theme changes instead of giving notes. Every effort will be made to let the original writer know that this is happening and provide them with a copy of the revisions for their approval before recording.

Recording Guidelines

1. Episodes should be recorded “as-live”. Our setting is essentially a recording booth, so there’s no need for additional SFX to be added after the fact. Actors should feel free to move about the booth, open the booth door, etc. If the script calls for typing or other sounds, those objects should be brought in for the recording.
2. There will be no “pickups” or “drop ins”. All characters must be present for the recording of the episode they appear in. If a mistake is made, either cover for it or, if covering isn’t possible, back up and retake the line immediately.

• Edit 2020-05-21

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, recording has been moved from the booth to the respective homes of the actors. Scenes are now recorded remotely, which degrades the audio quality, but presents other challenges and opportunities as well. Characters must still be present for recording, but are no longer required to come to the studio to do so. The various sounds of moving around the booth and opening/closing the door are more difficult now, so those sounds should now be kept to a minimum. If another live sound effect is needed then it must be discussed to determine who has the appropriate object so that that person's mic can be sure to be open at the time of recording.

Common Errors

As we have worked with other writers, a few common mistakes have come up. Here are a few things to watch out for.

1. Not using the standard opening/closing. Each episode should introduce the show, the characters speaking should introduce themselves, and should state that it has been X number of days since they came back on the air. X will be assigned during the recording process. Each episode should end with the sentence "Take care of each other".
2. Power outages. The conceit of the show is that it is a terrestrial broadcast speaking directly to the audience. If the power goes out, the show is over. They can come back, sometimes even in the same day, but the episode can't cut to a "behind the scenes" conversation. Remember, you are talking directly to the audience.
3. Terminology. Again, this is a terrestrial broadcast. Usage of terms and phrases like "podcast," "online," or other streaming-internet related terms do not apply. Yes, we are distributing via podcast, but that's a necessary evil of the world we live in.
4. Focusing on the zombies. The characters should be talking about their feelings and their experiences. While the occasional episode that focuses on some zombie attack is welcome, writers are encouraged to talk about other things, too. Or at least to use the zombie attack they are describing to make a larger point.