Z Nation, Season Two, Episode Ten: We Were Nowhere Near the Grand Canyon

This episode begins with Warren and Vasquez shooting up zombies in an enclosed place and once out of bullets, they continue the battle with swords.  They have a moment of sexual tension before the kissing starts. Please let this be a dream.  Warren suddenly becomes aware of the environment and Vasquez turns Z.

Yep, it was a dream. When Warren wakes up, she is drooling on Vasquez's shoulder.  Doc reports that they are getting near the Grand Canyon.  In the distance, Warren notes a dust cloud.  Addy and 10K get the radio going trying to get a hold of Citizen Z.  Murphy suggests that Citizen Z is no longer alive because they haven't spoken to him in a long time.

In the arctic, Citizen Z is fighting off a zombie when he hears Addy's message.  Citizen Z is shocked that Addy is still alive and gets on the radio.  Citizen Z asks about the package and Murphy pipes up that he hates being called that.  Citizen Z apologises for setting the whole world on Murphy.  Addy asks for the co-ordinates and he promises to send them when he finds them but warns them about a z horde which is miles wide heading in their direction.  Citizen Z says that they should be making visual contact with the horde at any time. Warren looks through a scope and declares that they are facing the end of the world.

The camper breaks down and so the team resorts to gassing up the ATVS.  Doc and 10K agree to high tail it on foot to higher ground while Vasquez and Warren travel together and Addy and Murphy travel together.  It's not long before they are stopped by a  group of Natives, because they are about to enter tribal land.  Warren gets off the ATV and hands the man the scope to look at the oncoming z horde, saying that he has a few hours or less.  The man tells Warren to come with him.

10K and Doc struggle to climb a rock face and when they make it to the top. they find that they are right next to the Grand Canyon.  The two men are quickly knocked out by an Indigenous man on a horse.

Warren is lead into a defunct casino to meet Chief Danny Firecloud. Murphy snarks about Danny not being a good Indian name and when the two start to bicker, Warren is quick to cut them off.  Warren says that the horde is miles deep but Danny is certain that their defenses will protect them.  Warren asks about the safety of 10K and Doc and is told that if they reach higher ground, they will be fine as long as they don't run into his son.

Being lead through the woods. 10K and Doc are told that they will be treated exactly like how they deserve to be treated. 10K and Doc are informed that they both carry Zendigo - the White man's disease.  They are informed by Red Hawk that Whites infected his tribe before and that Zendigo nearly destroyed his people and so they vowed never to allow that to happen again. 10K is beaten and asked what he is doing on tribal land and Doc protests that they didn't know that they were on sacred ground.  10K argues that they were trying to get away from a zombie mega horde which is headed this way. Unfortunately, Red Hawk believes that Doc and 10K's trespassing is the only thing that will lead zombies to them.  Red Hawk is certain that the zombies aren't interested in Indigenous people. Ayalla intervenes and tells Red Hawk to give the Zendigo thing a rest. Red Hawk is told that if their mother was still alive, she would smack him in the head.  Ayalla decides to take Doc and 10K to the infirmary.

Kuruk, treats Doc and he is quick to ask about something for the pain.  10K thanks Ayalla for her help and says that her brother is just trying to protect their people.  It seems that Red Hawk was a professor with the Native American department in a university pre-zombie.  Red Hawk believes that if they can avoid contact with the outside world that the zombies will die off or someone will synthesize a cure.  Ayalla reveals that Red Hawk and their father don't see eye to eye.  10K asks about Zendigo and she explains that it's when a person takes without regard to the needs of others.

Addy is working on the ham radio to try and get into contact with Citizen Z.  The first thing they pick up is morose code which says CZ repeatedly.  Addy asks to send a message and her helper taps one out which Citizen Z picks up in the arctic.  Citizen Z responds with a set numbers for the location of the secret lab.

Review All Timelines Lead to Rome by Dale Cozort

When the police are called in to investigate the murder of a woman, the journey doesn't just take them across middle America but into an alternate earth. This secondary earth is a world where no industrial revolution has happened, and Romans still rule Europe. To get the menial tasks done, the Romans have enslaved a group of pixies, which are humanoid creatures bred specifically to please there master in whatever fashion is needed. No colonization has occurred and this means that Indigenous people still control all of the land in North America.  This is a world out of time essentially. This is a world where none of the natural resources have been tapped and untold treasures are still to be discovered.  Ancient artifacts are easily available for the taking.

Someone has been accessing the alternate earth and this means the possibility of them wiping out the  Indigenous population with diseases that we have long ago built immunity to, or introducing advanced weaponry and starting the project of colonization again. It also puts our current earth at danger of small pox, should someone infected with the disease return. There is also the danger that interacting with the Romans or indigenous peoples will change their culture and path of development. Do we have the will to allow these people to develop naturally without our intervention?

I think this book walks the line between sci-fi and alternate history and manages to pull it off well.  When it does move to the alternate world, Cozort adds little details like being able to drink directly from streams and a lack of things like satellites and motorized vehicles to provide convenience. This alternate world quickly becomes real to the reader and one can almost smell the pollution free air.

Though the title of the book is All Timelines Lead to Rome, the book is really all about the exploitation of North American Native people. I can see that Cozort took some time investigating the various tribes and how they lived, the problem is that the book read very much like a White saviour complex.  Much of the motivations behind the characters was to save the Indigenous people from colonisation  and of course exploitation. Scott, the professor, was highly aware of how the introduction of Europeans to North America not only brought diseases which the Indigenous had no immunity to but advanced weaponry.  Obviously, what happened in our timeline was a genocide and it makes sense that the characters would want to avoid this, the problem is that those truly concerned where all White, making the book read like Rudyard Kipling's White Man's Burden.  Jeni sought to give the Indigenous a chance by introducing them to advanced weapons in an effort to speed up their development because she believed that it was only a matter of time until our timeline began  exploiting them.  This approach of course does not factor in potential harm from disease. This entire book seemed to reify the ridiculous binary that Native tribes are backward and need saving.  It makes absolutely no sense to me why Indigenous people from our timeline would not be concerned about their people on the other side.  All we got were the opinions of White people on the issue.