Romero-5
The law, in its majestic equality, permits rich and poor alike to have their relative's corpses reanimated to pay off debts.
Dr. Vilderberg's Amazing Patented Electric Nerve Stimulator
During the Great European War, there was always a need for more meat for the meatgrinder. After some demonstrations of his device on frogs and rats, the US War Department decided to grant self-proclaimed "Dr" Vilderberg some funds to develop his "Electric Nerve Stimulator", which promised to send the dead back to the front lines by "energizing and vitalizing the inherent conductive essence". In other words, he was a con man, and his plan was to promise results 'soon' while finding new and creative ways to ask for more funds, counting on sunk cost fallacy and the fear of his backers of being caught out as fools to rake in cash, then vanish.He hadn't counted on it working. He still isn't sure how it does. Perhaps it was the odd wiring designs and unusual alloys suggested by his assistant, someone with an actual doctorate in engineering from the prestigious Miskatonic University. Perhaps he truly was a genius. He prefers the latter explanation.
The device is quite simple in operation. Attach it to the spine of a fairly intact corpse, dead only a few days at most, and the corpse will animate, charged with energy supplied by the crystal battery (it draws power from cosmic radiation, or so it is claimed). They will then obey commands, having no real volition.
As soldiers, they were of little value, as they moved slowly, aimed poorly, and needed to be constantly directed. They took considerable effort to kill, though -- only brain or spinal injuries could truly hurt them. As the ENS was not perfected until after the war, these flaws were discovered in testing, not true battlefield conditions. The military, to justify its expenditures, did put some to use in repetitive jobs involving brute labor. Vilderburg had put clauses in his contracts retaining patent rights, as he never expected to file a patent on his phony invention, and figured he could end the scam with a convincing "demonstration", sell the "patents" for a large sum, and be somewhere far away under another assumed name before anyone tried to manufacture them.
But now he had a working mechanism. But who to sell to?
He faced considerable resistance from preachers, labor unions, and funeral homes. Through the early 1920s, he did find a steady income in small factory towns, where the local government did not want the expense of burying the indigent in Potter's Fields, and were willing to hand over unclaimed corpses, which he would then animate and sell, at a very high markup, to factory owners looking for laborers who would not demand fair pay, days off, or railings around the woodchippers. He even found a few radio preachers and travelling evangelists to spread the word that the soul fled the body on death, as the Good Book said, and what was left was simply a shell. How could a purely scientific device, he argued, manipulate or trap the ephemeral spirit breathed into Man by the Almighty?
Depression
His creation's impact on the world was fairly small, until the stock market crash. One major factor had always been a shortage of suitable corpses. Only a few people in any area were so forgotten and alone they had no one to bury them, and given the hostility to his creation from certain quarters, he was scrupulous -- for business, not moral, reasons -- about making sure each body was legitimately acquired. Indeed, he made quite a show about turning over a funeral home owner who had tried to offer him some raw materials on the sly.By now, he'd made a decent amount, and knew he could make far more, if he could sell dozens or hundreds at a go, not two here and three there. And he found the key when banks began foreclosing on homes and people found their possessions being repossessed. He offered large sums of cash to pay off debts, cutting deals with banks and debtors, in return for ownership of the recently deceased. He calculated costs and risks like an insurance agent in reverse... the older and sicker relatives were, the more he was willing to cover. And, of course, he could offer top dollar to anyone who could prove they were the rightful executor of the fate of someone who had met an unfortunate accident that, most fortunately, left the body generally intact. He didn't ask too many questions, that was up to the police... and he made sure they didn't ask them, either.
The Dawn of War
By the late 1930s, it was obvious war was coming, and labor was going to be needed. The government has begun making inquiries into having death sentences include, by default, reanimation. Several state prisons have decided to simply ship any prisoners who die... of any cause... to one of Vilderberg's reanimation centers. And despite many people's best efforts, no one has cracked the secret of the ENS. Only Vilderberg is able to construct them successfully.There is no shortage of condemnation, of course. Many religious leaders still decry the practice; bribes go only so far. Economic recovery has been much slower, as more and more workers can be replaced. Laws are more draconian, and prisons are even more dangerous than on Baseline, with a corresponding rise in criminal violence - why take any risks of being identified, why surrender to the cops? Attacks on the reanimated are increasing; their "employers" are generally good at avoiding the mob, and the undead are increasingly replaceable.
Vilderberg has, for his own reasons, not expanded his business overseas. US intelligence has found several agents of Germany and the USSR trying to infiltrate the "Reanimatorium". As far as is known, none have succeeded.
Comments