2012: Apocalypse Z

[Otis McNutt 395]

The word "Zombie" entered the American Lexicon by Mistake. In 1968 an Virtually Unknown Director named George A Romero made a movie called "Night of the Living Dead" which portrayed a group of survivors hold up in a farmhouse trying to survive an onslaught of flesh eating Ghouls. No where in the film are they referred to as "Zombies". Till then a "Zombie" was a living human who was under the control of someone else (usually by means of magic or Voodoo). However the name stuck and soon the old Zombie (seen in such films as White Zombie and Zombies of Mora Tau) were replaced by the Flesh Eating Ghouls we see today.

At the beginning of the 21st Century people began to wonder if a Scenario seen in "Night of the Living Dead" could actually happen. And while people said "Of course not, pure fantasy" somewhere in the collective unconsciousness we knew better.

In the dark recesses of the Mind sat a hidden knowledge, dulled by the ages but still with enough of a edge to cut even today. A primal fear born out of first hand experience.

In the distant past the Living Dead were an all to real threat. Cultures separated by Space and Time have fought against these fiends:

In Medieval Europe they were called "Revenants"

The Norse faced undead Vikings called "Draugr"

In China a Person buried incorrectly returned as Jiang Shi

in Arabia a Sinful Women returned as Ghouls

Somehow these real creatures faded from our world and hid themselves in the myths and legends of old. But as anyone will tell you, if you don't learn from your history you'll be doomed to repeat it.

And so it was that in mid 2012 a series of odd occurrences involving Flesh Eaters made nationwide news. While most attributed it to Drug Abuse a few saw the writing on the walls, this world was headed for Catastrophe.

On Christmas Day 2012 a call was placed from the St. Francis Hospital ER to the CDC in Atlanta Georgia, the attending Physician Dr. Calium Patel had a patient presenting strange symptoms:

A high fever of 106ºF

Blue Blister like lesions on his neck and chest

Red Bloodshot eyes

Severe Abdominal pain

Bloody Vomiting

The Man, Gareth Meuler has arrived Earlier that day on an inbound flight from Holland to Visit Cousins in America and a few hours after landing started feeling sick. As Dr. Patel conferenced with attending CDC physician Dr. Robert Johns another call came in from a Doctor at Boston General, then Metropolitan U Medical Center. In the span of an hour one thousand calls came in from hospitals across New England.

Then all Hell Broke Lose...

They called it, "The Boxing Day Riots" a series of odd attacks around London on December the 26th. Among the stories being tossed around some were about attackers biting and scratching at people, BBC Reporter Gareth Lloyd even remarked about the Post Christmas Zombie attack.

I was watching all of this unfold from my College Dorm in Columbia. I usually went Home for Christmas but this year Mom was on a Cruise and Dad was on his Honeymoon with Mom # 2. My sister was away at College to although her school was much closer to home at UMASS.

Still half asleep from my Roommates "Christmas Cheer" Eggnog (Five Eggs, Half Gallon of whole Milk, half pint of Cream, Rum, Brandy, Bourbon and Vodka) I wasn't sure if the Emergency Broadcast Alert was real. Looking back my drunken haze probably saved my life.

I woke in late afternoon, just as the snow began to fall I happened to catch the tail end of a News Broadcast. The Reporter, Channel 8's own Barry Collins was looking very haggard, his blue shirt was damp with sweat, his tie was undone, hair all a mess and he was reciting the Lords prayer. I was never Religious (in fact I'm still not to this day) but he spoke the words with such conviction that they are burned into my mind to this day:

"Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this Day our Daily Bread. And Forgive us our Trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, forever and ever, Amen."

As the screen faded to black my heart began to pound.

Life would never be the same again.

[Stylin' Scarecrow 14]

It's not often that the reanimated flesh eaters in horror movies are referred to as "zombies". Sparse occasions like "Zombieland", which was a sort of pseudo-parody of the un-dead subculture. I haven't watched every Zombie flick but in the sincerely dramatic movies like "Dawn of The Dead" they were called everything from cannibals, things, "twitchers", they were even called assholes during frustrated sequences of struggle and the grim exercising of survival instincts. "The Walking Dead", my new favorite thing on television, the survivors call them "walkers" or "biters". 

 

I think that the non-usage or complete nonexistence of the term "zombie" in many movies and shows provides a sense of uneducation. What I mean by that is when you have a small lot of people that are ill-equipped, physically or intellectually, to handle a violently hazardous situation it heightens the fear and anxiety that character feels and so then begins the forging process of them learning how to know carry on in a world so torn, and you begin to notice how that person blends into the macabre that the world has been enveloped in. Those who would normally flee from a chasing bumblebee find themselves making split moment decisions that force them to unleash a barrage of violence that they'd never figure themselves being capable of and sometimes, during more complicated situations, they're faced with a decision to kill a loved one who's apt to turn or who has selfishly betrayed them. 

 

I enjoyed what you'd composed here as well, Tyrion Lannister. 

[Dark_One 207]

 I was never Religious (in fact I'm still not to this day) but he spoke the words with such conviction that they are Buttsed into my mind to this day

Buttsed should be a verb

[Otis McNutt 395]

Buttsed should be a verb

It should be Bur ned but autocorrect put it as buttsed for some reason.

Burned