Sometime in 1963, Stanley Milgram, a professor of psychology, preformed a famous experiment. A test subject was put in front a panel and was told that the panel discharged electric shocks. Another person (an actor) was placed in a different room, connected by a speaker, who was asked a series of questions. For each wrong answer, a man in a lab coat (unidentified to the test subject) told the test subject to administer a shock which increased with each wrong answer. After a succession of volt increases, the actor screamed or beat the wall in simulated pain. If the test subject grew hesitant in delivering the shock, the unidentified man in a lab coat, told them first to “please continue”. If that didn’t work, he said, “the experiment requires that you continue”. Followed by, “it is absolutely essential that you continue”. The final statement was, “you have no other choice, you must go on.”

The result – sixty five percent of the test subjects administered a “fatal” dosage of shock even though they were uncomfortable doing it.

The experiment highlights the power of authority. How does this relate to the A World on Fire series?

Writing about the collapse of Boston, the police and the army become a singular faction whereby they wield their authority with lethal results. Mind you, not against the walking dead. The problem … a mass of people are caught in a social revolution so they look to the authorities for safety. The problem is that the authorities do not have their interests in mind. They seek control. Safety is an afterthought.

As a crowd gathers outside of a walled green zone, a wave of dead follows suit. After all, the hunter is never far from the prey. The authorities open the green zone. Alive and dead flood the space after which the gates close and everything inside is fire bombed.

Does this stop the dead? Not in the least, but it is the initial teeterings of a society about to collapse.