Introduction

“…ERGENCY RADIO NETWORK. NORMAL BROADCAST FACILITIES HAVE BEEN TEMPORARILY DISCONTINUED. STAY TUNED TO THIS NETWORK FOR EMERGENCY INFORMATION. YOUR LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES URGE YOU TO REMAIN IN YOUR HOMES. KEEP ALL DOORS AND WINDOWS LOCKED OR BOARDED SHUT. USE ALL FOOD, WATER, AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES SPARINGLY. CIVIL DEFENSE FORCES ARE ATTEMPTING TO GAIN CONTROL OF THE SITUATION. STAY NEAR YOUR RADIO, AND REMAIN TUNED TO THIS FREQUENCY. DO NOT USE YOUR AUTOMOBILE. REMAIN IN YOUR HOMES. KEEP ALL DOORS AND WINDOWS LOCKED…”

"During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them." Revelation, 9:6.

"And the city of nations fell...fot the plague was excedingly great." Revelation, 16:19.

Why Everyone Loves (or loathes) Zombies:

The undead have seemingly infiltrated everywhere. No, calm down, that part of the manual doesn’t come yet. In western, particularly American culture, zombies seem to have implanted themselves in every aspect of our society. For instance, The Flood in the “Halo” series of games are a lot like zeds. And, in various parts of the world, zombie walks, organized groups of people, marching throughout streets dressed as zombies, are an annual event. Let’s face it: everyone loves zombies.

“But why?” you may ask. “Why do we love zombies?” Simple: fear. Fear of what zombies do, and what we do when they rise. As Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the great American horror author said, “The oldest emotion of man is fear, and the oldest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Zombies are the epitome of the unknown.

The main reason, however, that we fear zombies is twofold: the zombie’s driving hunger, and what they once were. Cannibalism, the true purpose of the zombie, is not normally accepted in most civilizations. It is the one thing that is completely taboo. Man eating man is one of the most disturbing images our mind can conjure up. That is why Dr. Hannibal Lecter gives us genuine chills in the movies he’s in: because Dr. Lecter is a character that craves human flesh. That is why people freak when they see the dead walk. They freak because they fear not only dying, but dying merely to have their remains desecrated by cannibals.

The second reason we fear zombies is because of what they were. Every ghoul was once alive. That zombie there, yes, the one standing in the street, was someone’s father, mother, sister, brother, cousin, etc. Imagine having your body slowly taken over, slowly transformed into a bloodthirsty cannibalistic monstrosity. We fear not having control of our actions.

The third reason we fear zombies is of what we do when the dead walk. Modern life is an interconnected web of conveniences. Say, for instance, the power plant, for one reason or another, stopped working. That means no electricity. Without electricity, the pump at the gas station doesn’t work, and that means no gas for your car, so no trip to the supermarket. But forget that, because even if you did get groceries, the lack of power means no refrigeration, which means rotten food, which means disease, and eventual chaos and death. And that’s without the zombies. We fear that when the dead walk, society will collapse, and if that happens, we will have to put aside our better sensibilities to survive. Those are the reasons we fear zombies.