Written by Old Bluffer 18th May 2006

It's really rather bad luck for poor old Frank that he died.

He's already survived total social collapse, vicious rioting and a virulent and deadly infection that has swept the country. Not only that though, he also managed to keep his daughter alive, and even turn the tower block where he lives into a fortress, which he uses as a beacon to try and attract other survivors.

[The reason he is so resourceful by the way is that he is a "lovable London cabbie" archetype, so provided he is supplied with plenty of hot, sweet tea he'll be a useful and upbeat companion in a fight with zombies.]

His "beacon" is actually a string of christmas tree lights, powered by a car battery, but it is sufficient to catch the eye of Jim and Selena, and they are all soon sipping sickly liqueurs and congratulating each other on not being infected.

Such a cosy living arrangement can't last for long though. The tower block is being constantly assaulted by the infected, food and water supplies are dwindling and even worse, they don't have any more creme de menthe.

Frank therefore shares news of an exciting radio broadcast that he has picked up, claiming that sanctuary can be found north of Manchester, at a blockade fortified by well armed soldiers. Not having any better plan, the four survivors set off on the long expedition, bonding with each other and fighting off blood crazed infected all the way.

They finally reach the blockade but nobody is home, sending Frank into an uncontrolled spiral of despair. Above him, he notices a crow pecking the eyes out of a decaying (and infected!) corpse and this sends him over the edge. Shouting abuse at the crow requires that he looks up though and fate cruelly decrees that a drop of blood from the bird's beak falls into his eye.

There is bad blood between Frank and this bird.

At this point, Frank knows he is utterly screwed. He has about twenty seconds before he becomes infected, which is barely enough time to tell his daughter he loves her and then try and stagger away.
Sure enough, before he has gone even a few feet, he suddenly turns back with a feral snarl and it is up to Jim to stop him with his baseball bat.
Now battering a friend to death in front of his teenage daughter isn't a very pleasant thing to do, but Jim has spent the last few days in a living hell, and is somewhat desensitised to violence now. He therefore prepares to swing his baseball bat with sickening force. Whether or not he would have been able to kill him on his own though is unknown, because at that point a camouflaged soldier rises up from the ground and guns Frank down with an assault rifle.

One would imagine that if Frank were not infected, his last thought would have been "why didn't you show yourself a minute earlier you dopey sod?!"


Hannah and Selena look on as Frank's corpse is kitted out with military issue ventilation holes.

Having said all that, it is perhaps just as well that Frank died at this point, as the soldiers turn out to not be the saviours he would have hoped for. True, they have a well fortified base, and loads of weaponry, and true, they will protect survivors. But the commanding officer has promised his men that he would find them women, and Frank's daughter is just about old enough to qualify (if they dress her up and turn the lights down low).
Frank would undoubtedly have found this a rather unacceptable form of child care and would therefore have almost certainly been killed later on anyway.