Twelve Part Outline and the Zombie Apocalypse


A quick post here to show how the Twelve Part Outline can be applied.  Here’s a Zombie Apocalypse story done with it.

Establishment: Teresa is a happy, well adjusted, athletic parkour enthusiast living a normal life.

Incitement: Why is that guy biting that other guy?  Why is my running partner trying to bite me?  Run!

Challenge: Run like crazy to get away from the sudden yet sizable infusion of zombies.

Altercation:  Meet up with a scrappy band of other survivors, fight off zombies, hole up in a church.

Payback:  We should be safe here for a bit.  We just need to figure out what’s going on, and get some medical help for Tom, who got bit.

Regrouping: Tom’s really sick, guys.  Guys?  OH MY…. TOM!!

Collapse: The gunshots from killing Tom seem to have attracted more of them to the church.  I don’t think that door is going to hold.

Retreat: Run!  There’s a emergency shelter in the basement of the church!

Recovery: Well, most of us made it to the shelter.  THAT door will hold, and there’s food and water to last a while.  And we’re SURE no one’s been bit.

Investment: Hey, Jimmy’s on the radio.  He survived by hiding in the steeple!  But he’s picked up an army transmission– they’re going to bomb the town in an attempt to quarantine the outbreak.

Confrontation: Jimmy’s spotted a hummer with keys it in, just a few blocks away.  Someone fast and clever MIGHT be able to run, get it, and pick up everyone else.

Resolution: Teresa runs like crazy from the shelter to the hummer, picks everybody up, and with some fancy driving gets out of town to the quarantine checkpoint.