Finding proof of a girl's death on a planet overrun by zombies.

[baxaronn]

Setting: Space. There are aliens and starships and a galaxy-wide war slash zombie invasion.
Search terms tried: I looked up evacuation procedures and death in absentia, but there seems to be a time frame of years of the latter, not days/weeks, and in any rate "well, she's not here, so she's probably dead" won't cut it for the characters involved.

If

Comments

[lustmordred]

Depending on what the planet is like-- like if it's covered in snow and ice or if it's a desert this might not help-- and how long the girl has been dead, a scan of the area for a heat signature of some kind would work if all that's left are zombies. Zombies being dead wouldn't give off heat and the body still would for a little while. Maybe they could locate the body that way?

Other than that, I don't know. It's just a thought.

[baxaronn]

There are giant, sentient, and very evil starships orbiting the planet, and the only ship in the galaxy with a stealth drive happens to be the one piloted by the guy who really shouldn't be scanning planets for his dead sister.

...also, I have a feeling there would be a lot of bodies to find. D:

[lustmordred]

Yeah, but not fresh ones if everyone else are zombies. But I see your point.

[wispykitty]

Perhaps B kept telling A that she had to take her to her brother, and kept repeating his name? I assume A doesn't actually know C or D? So she could be telling the nurse about this guy that A kept rambling on and on about, and C would obviously recognize D's name and the other similarities.

Or maybe B had a picture/letter/something that D gave her before leaving, and A has it now because she wanted to find the guy?

[baxaronn]

Oooh. I think I can work with that! A wouldn't want to find D, I don't think, but I can easily see her clinging to some small trinket B was carrying. Then I just need to get it from A to C, but I can probably puzzle that out all right.

Thank you very much!

[wispykitty]

Glad to help! :)

Maybe the hospitals could run some sort of anonymous "death tips" service? Whenever they hear of people who have died, they keep track of all the information provided and also hold on to any bits of proof (personal trinkets/pictures/etc) that the dead people had on them. That way those survivors who killed others can unburden themselves of the guilt without having to contact the families themselves.

Or C can just stalk her and creep into her room when she's sleeping. ;)

[janewilliams20]

A was injured herself, and grabbed some recognisable item of B's to use as a bandage?

[tephralynn]

C manages to get a photo or good description of B and asks a few other survivors if they saw her before posing the question to A? It gives A a way to say "I saw her, she didn't make it" without admitting to the killing, and gets confirmation for C.

[lilacsigil]

Do people on the planet have ID cards/chips/badges? Maybe A could have taken some from dead people (like soldiers with dog tags) to confirm their deaths to the authorities?

[xtricks]

You'd have to add something to the scenario to make it possible to identify the dead girl positively - anything from an item the living girl has to a bit of bloody bandage that DNA can be taken from. Dead girl can mention family/relatives, give living girl a message, etc.

[baxaronn]

Right now I'm thinking that the dead girl had a fairly unique piece of jewelry. Something that would catch the living woman's eye, that she might grab without thinking because it stands out and you don't want to stand out when there are zombies around.

The only problem with that is - is it too stereotypical to present D with a necklace that he instantly knows belonged to his sister, leading him to make the connection without a word being spoken?

...I'm kind of thinking out loud, sorry.

[baxaronn]

That's what I'm thinking. Specifically, right now I'm thinking that maybe he bought her a little silver Normandy necklace - a combination of "teenage girl, sparkly shit, okay, that's another birthday dealt with" and shameless boasting. Then it could be as easy as the asari dropping it accidentally and Shepard picking it up because hey, that's her ship, you don't leave her ship just lying on the ground.

And then she makes the connection between the asari's Hilary and Joker's Gunny, and Joker realizes that if the necklace made it off Tiptree without Gunny then Gunny probably didn't make it, and the author cries waterfalls all over everything. ;_;