The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade

“Suddenly, I’m punched in the face by sadness. I’m thinking about how many amazing video games were being designed when the Monster Apocalypse happened. And now they’ll never be released! I’ll never get to play them!”

Jack’s comment is farcical given the relative unimportance of video games compared with the monumental loss of people. However, his realization highlights that the tragedy of the Monster Apocalypse is not just what has already been lost, but all the potential things that will now never be. These are not just material things, but memories, experiences, and relationships.

“I see all sorts of little kiosks that sell T-shirts and fancy cell phone cases and other crud that’s really dumb but I also totally really kind of want.”

This quote illustrates the satirical space that The Last Kids on Earth Series occupies. On the one hand, the narrative recognizes that commercialism and materialism have some very negative consequences. On the other, it doesn’t pretend that lots of essentially meaningless and empty material things are nonetheless fun and enjoyable.

“I mean, we’ve been at the mall over an hour now, and we haven’t seen one zombie. And if you’re a zombie expert like me, you know zombies are supposed to be, like, all over the mall. Ever see a zombie movie? Play a zombie video game? Zombies are ALWAYS at the mall. They just love shopping or something.”

The original zombie film to take place at a shopping mall is George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978), which used this setting to critique American mindless consumerism and materialism. The Last Kids on Earth series adopts a much different perspective on these things; the protagonists unabashedly love all the stuff they can get at the mall and enjoy the freedoms the Monster Apocalypse has granted them, such as existing on a diet of junk food and playing video games all day. The above quote features the conversational and informal tone of the text.

“That’s how I feel now.

Brave.

Stupidly brave.

This is my moment.

The moment of Jack Sullivan, Post-Apocalyptic Action Hero.”

A lot of Jack’s behavior is informed by the media he consumes. Whenever he describes himself or his thinking process, it is often through a pop cultural reference, like when he calls himself a “samurai ninja jedi” right after this passage (18). Jack is good at what he does because he isn’t slowed down by overthinking—he just acts as he thinks an action hero would.

“This terrifying, wicked-looking thing is our savior. Just goes to show—never judge a monster by its cover. Or its bone jewelry.”

The book and series emphasize that you should not judge things based on appearance. However, Jack and his crew are misjudged when they’re introduced to Thrull’s friends. Because they do not look like tough, traditional warriors, the other monsters do not believe they could possibly have killed Blarg.

“Soon, monsters are surrounding us, asking questions, telling stories, offering us food. A dozen monsters crowd around me as I recount the tale of how I battled Blarg. They keep pouring me flat Joe’s soda and I keep talking.”

Jack has always wanted to feel like an included member of the cool crowd at Joe’s Pizza. His acceptance by the monsters represents a surreal version of what Jack always wanted, and is another way that the Monster Apocalypse has changed his life for the better.

“I spent a lifetime—well, like thirteen years; actually less, ‘cause for a while I was a baby and then a toddler and y’know—but I’ve spent a LONG time wanting buddies. A family.

And now that I’ve got it—I’m scared to total extreme death of losing that family.”

Jack’s realization illustrates The Fear of Losing Loved Ones. Jack finally has the thing that he’s been searching for his entire life, which creates his biggest challenge. Prior to forming deep connections, he was an effective leader and survivor; he was able to act instinctually and felt he had nothing to lose. His fear of losing his friends upends this, making him a worse survivor. He also becomes a worse friend, becoming overly protective and controlling.

“I sigh. ‘I wish I could just, I don’t know, just, like, lock everyone up in this tree house so no one could ever, ever leave, no matter what.’”

Jack’s intentions are noble—he simply wants to protect his friends. However, part of Jack’s journey will be to learn how to overcome his instinct to overly shield them. Currently, he is unable to consider his friends’ feelings or desires, and believes they couldn’t survive without him.

“‘Quint, quick, out of the bathrobe!’ I say.

‘I’ll be naked!’ he exclaims.

‘You’ll have your boxers!’

‘But I’ll be chilly!’ he cries.”

The novel uses comedy to undercut tension and terror. Quint and Jack are in a life and death situation, but the scene is rendered with humor. This provides levity amidst the tension and implies things will always work out in the end.

“Dirk, we don’t wipe out zombies. Zombies used to be people. We only wipe out the bad monsters.”

Jack insists on treating zombies as the people they used to be. This is a crucial part of his positive worldview and illustrates his ability to be empathetic toward monsters. Even though it would be easier to just kill them all, he has established moral guidelines and sticks to them. It prevents him from becoming cynical about the world and helps him forge important relationships down the line, like with the Wormungulous.

“My insides are being twisted by fear. This is a great big problem. And I only know one way to deal with great big problems…

AVOID THEM!

So with two days (three days tops) until we can tackle The Shrieking, I decide to throw myself headlong into Action Jack Bestiary Questing Mode.”

Jack’s primary way of dealing with the trauma and uncertainty of the Monster Apocalypse is humor. Additionally, the above quote shows the other way that Jack deals with things: avoidance. The two strategies are related, as Jack uses humor to prevent himself from confronting a difficult reality. His chosen distraction—filling out the bestiary—turns out to be a literal key in the enemy’s plan. This suggests that avoidance is not always a healthy way to deal with problems.

“And then another sound. One we hadn’t heard before. This one not as loud, but almost as creepy. It’s a sound almost like a burp. Like if you burped so hard it caused your rib cage to shatter.”

The above quote suggests that the zombies are disappearing because something is eating them. Additionally, it adds tension by underscoring the unknowability of the enemy. The group is unfamiliar with the idea that there is something out there eating zombies, and they are unprepared to face this.

“None of us say much as we head back to the tree house. It’s like there’s suddenly more to this world than we ever imagined. More horror. More terror. More danger. More everything.”

Up until this point, Jack and his friends have been able to handle everything they’ve come across and have largely treated it all as a game. However, the emergence of real, unknowable horror has broken this illusion and for the first time, cast them in a somber mood.

“I’m an ants-in-the-pants kind of guy and after the first, like, forty-five minutes I decide maybe being on a stakeout isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

As previously mentioned, Jack’s perception of the world is based on action films. He likes the idea of a stakeout because of the way they are romanticized on screen. In reality, they are nothing like this. They are boring, dull, and require massive amounts of patience and attention while nothing happens—traits that Jack struggles with.

“Thrull and Bardle exchange glances. Concerned glances, I think—though it’s tough to tell with these monster faces. I’m still learning how to read all the different expressions.”

In the book, monsters have ways of emoting that are so different from humans that it’s difficult to interpret them. This implies a level personhood; they aren’t just evil monsters in the traditional sense. Moreover, Jack’s willingness and attempt to learn their expressions exemplifies how empathetic he is.

“I feel a pain in the back of my throat—Thrull is hurt because of us. I wish I could go back and change what happened—that day at the mall with the Wormungulous. I wish it could have been me that saved my friends.”

This illustrates Jack’s two sides. On the one hand, he is incredibly empathetic and always wants to help everyone. However, this leads him to feel like he has to be the hero, and suggests that everyone needs him and cannot do anything without him. In this way, his desire to help people has an underlying narcissism. This is something he learns to work through over the course of the novel.

“I don’t say anything, and neither do they—but we all know: this time, THEY saved ME. I would have been eaten without them. I’d be freakin’ insect chow!

Maybe my friends don’t need me as much as I thought. Maybe it’s really me who needs them.”

Jack has an important realization—that his fear about losing his friend is more about him than about them. He doesn’t just need them in a physical, material sense to survive. He needs them emotionally. They give him purpose and a sense of belonging that he has been seeking his entire life, and the prospect of losing that terrifies him.

“‘You get the helmet on Alfred,’ Quint says as he rushes out of the room. ‘We need to hurry before The Shrieking ends. I’ll wake Dirk and June.’

‘No, no,’ I quickly say. ‘Don’t get June and Dirk. I don’t—I don’t want to risk them.’”

Even after being saved by his friends, Jack still continues to behave in the same overprotective way. The phrasing “I don’t want to risk them” reveals how possessive he has become. He sees them as something he owns or controls, rather than as individual people with their own thoughts, desires, and agency.

“‘Lord of the Rings, Jack? That isn’t real,’ June says as she comes through the door. ‘That’s a fantasy novel!’

‘Um. Did you not just see the giant talking tree and the monster servant?!’ I exclaim. ‘It couldn’t have been any more Lord of the Rings-y if there were CGI orcs running around and white-bearded Magneto wizards!’”

Jack’s worldview being shaped by pop culture is a double-edged sword. During the stakeout, it causes problems because reality doesn’t match his expectations. But in the above instance, it is helpful because—as Jack points out—their world has essentially become something out of a movie, and understanding movie logic gives him insight into what is going on.

“I shoot him a hard look. ‘Do any of you have a better plan?’

And with that, everyone shuts up.

This isn’t about us.

It’s about everyone else who’s still alive: the humans we haven’t met but have to assume are out there, the monsters at Joe’s whom Thrull would feed to Rezzoch, the world itself.”

Despite his flaws, Jack’s remains an excellent leader because of his ability to remain hopeful and optimistic. He is surrounded by death, destruction, and overwhelming odds, but he always maintains hope that things will get better. He also considers the safety of everyone else around him—even people he hasn’t met or built strong bonds with yet, like the monsters at Joe’s Pizza or other potential survivors around the world.

“I imagine the moment, months earlier, when doors were flung open and monsters were propelled into our dimension. And this monster was just plucked from its home and happened to land here.

I know what it feels like to be yanked from your home—it’s confusing and scary.

No wonder it tried to eat us.”

This quote illustrates The Importance of Empathy. Jack is really good at putting himself in the shoes of the monsters he and his friends come across. He is able to understand their perspective and experience, and never forces them to fit into his worldview. This likely stems from his own experience of being excluded and feeling like he doesn’t belong.

“The Wormungulous appears again. The tree tilts to the side and lifts up, out of the ground. Worm tentacles grab hold of the tree roots like they’re interlocking fingers, connecting with them, joining, so that soon I can barely see where the worm ends and the tree begins.”

Jack took a risk and helped the Wormungulous. In doing so, he managed to forge a strong bond with it, which proved essential in defeating Thrull. The Wormungulous’s tentacles entangle with the tree roots of Jack’s tree house, his home and a symbol of the family and belonging he finally feels. This speaks to how deep and important that bond is. Brailler uses a simile, where something is compared to something else using “like” or “as.” In this case, he compares the entanglement to “interlocking fingers.”

“The energy inside the door swirls. An image appears. A figure. Its shape is shifting, altering. One instant, I see wings. The next, furious spikes. A moment later, I glimpse what appears to be a bony tail.”

Rezzoch does not physically appear in this novel and has no defined form. Instead, he appears as an amalgamation of evil things and ideas. By describing him this way, Brailler underscores that Rezzoch is the ultimate form of evil incarnate. At the same time, Rezzoch maintains an air of mystery and the unknown that makes him that much scarier.