The Placebo Effect (1)

 

The plan came from the idea that was called The Lotayo's Hold and it was a very simple idea.

There were a few suggestions to how the idea got its name from but nobody could afford to guess anymore these days, not when the dead were eating this planet alive. Nobody call each other by names anymore, they now called each other by the places they came from or the ones they were going. That notion alone suggested the depravity of the situation. Nobody knew how it began or when, but the day when CNN broadcast their reporters being eaten live in a refugee camp in Magadan, Russia on April's Fool day, it became the day that God played the biggest joke on mankind.

Lotayo's Hold was really named after a Mr. Lotayo who was a former businessman in Qingdao, Taiwan. He was rebranding classic melodies before April's Fool day 2011 and two weeks after that day, Lotayo was left to fend for himself in a junkyard behind his record company and ate rodents for survival.

The Lotayo's Hold was discovered when three reanimated found a way to get out from the recording studio where there were no more people to eat and surrounded Lotayo when he was having the first bowel movement since April's Fool's day. In the midst of knocking around one another, throwing his feces at the zombies and stumbling over garbage, Lotayo found himself then staring at the undead who were staring at the ground together. The three reanimated just stood there the whole afternoon staring at the same spot in front of them. When the day broke, Lotayo returned and realized that they mesmerizing by a looping tune that was playing from the defected disc-man.

The song was Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven.

Two weeks later, Lotayo found his way to the local CDC and presented his findings on how to subdue the undead. The government then granted him twenty million dollars, a group of paramilitary and two weeks to perfect The Lotayo's Hold.

The idea was a simple one. Despite the lack of blood circulation and respiration, zombies' brains were still firing electrical impulses. Some music was found to be able to influence it or in science's terms, enabling a disturbance to their electrical impulses not unlike an epilepsy. Lotayo's report found that music with zingy repetitions like a triple loop of one chorus to three verses then a bridge or an instrumental solo worked best. Most zombies were found to be affected by rapid percussion as well.

Zombie's genre was rock after all.

Eleven weeks later, Brian Molko was summoned to the American CDC and why Brian had asked why, he was shown three clips.

The first one showed a sealed room with twenty zombies and Stairway of Heaven was played. Four undead went over to the radio and stood trembling there while the rest ignored them.

The second one showed a sealed room with twenty zombies and Radiohead's Paranoid Android was played. Seven undead surrounded the radio while the rest went on their ways.

The third one showed a sealed room with twenty zombies and Placebo's Special K was played . All twenty of them surrounded the radio, some were swaying along and one had even tapped its feet to the rhythm.

The plan that came from an idea named after a Qingdao businessman was a simple one. Summon all the undead to an island with Placebo's music and nuke the island.

That's ridiculous. Molko said.

He was then shown another three clips.

The first clip showed a harbor broadcasting Placebo's Meds and dozen and dozen of zombies swam towards the harbor. The tally showed that seventy one undead attended that broadcast.

The second clip showed a hologram on top of the Eiffel Tower broadcasting Placebo's 2009 Nurburg, Germany's concert. The tally showed eleven thousand undead had scaled the tower.

The third clip showed a live tribute band playing Placebo's Every You And Every Me in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The tally showed two billion undead attended the concert.

This is ridiculous. Molko said.

The plan was a simple one. Placebo is to hold a concert two days later the shore of an island in the north, with their songs broadcast live another seven islands southeast, west and mid-west of the globe, a total of fifty thousand nuclear bombs would be detonated on them.

The plan was called The Placebo Effect.