The End

So the newest fad is Zombies.
I'm not talking about a brief fad; I'm talking about a huge thing. It used to be werewolves, or vampires; then, there was the huge rash of horrific monsters which were created when a factory spilled toxic crap into the water; which transformed into the creatures which were altered by radiation- instead of losing their hair, having weak bones, or being sick in any way- or DYING- they got really fucking strong and *huge*- and wreaked havoc. Today, it's zombies.

The only reason I can see for zombies to have become SO BIG lately is that they are the modern horror. Today, we consider ourselves to be at the peak of civilization; zombies = destruction of society and civilization. A Zombie Apocalypse- a "World War Z", as coined by Max Brooks- exposes us. And not only to natural hazards; George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" remains one of the greatest zombie films- one of the greatest of any type of zombie fiction- for two reasons:
1) It was unlike any zombie movie before it; zombies were a *plague*, and they were self-sustaining- the peop they killed became zombies themselves.
2) It exposed the people to themselves.

Any sort of calamity, any disaster, brings out the best and worst in people. When you're against the wall with a .45 to your balls, you have nothing to hide; everything is about survival. You have no time, no energy, no patience, to spare for appearances. Human nature, in all its majestic beauty and its pitiless hideousness, comes into its own. While one man might throw himself into a horde of zombies to slow them and thereby save the life of a single child, another man- or woman, let's not be sexist- will run and leave the kid there. People don't lie about whom they are when they can't afford the lucury of appearances, and a zombie apocalypse is a particular situation where the danger never really decreases; it never goes away. A zombie won't stop because it's tired; it doesn't get thirsty; if its legs were both shattered, it will drag itself across a mile- or three hundred- of broken glass, rough concrete, and flaming oil, to reach its food. Every person zombies bite, scratch, spit on, bleed on, etc., all become zombies, so they are self-perpetuating; so long as there are people, they can keep attacking.

In the face of such an enemy, there is no safe zone; there is no real retreat, only respite; there is no victory until every last one is curb-stomped to extinction. When there is no break from the menace, people don't have time to fix their mental makeup; they are out for the world to see, zits and scars and all.

Humans are flawed. Deeply and truly flawed. Our bodies and subconscious minds fight tooth and nail for survival- we can shrug off huge, devastating calamity and strife; but our minds want to be "civil". Our heads tell us not to be rude; not to cheat; not to hurt someone's feelings. If it were up to our bodies, the business world would be *literally* cutthroat; lawyers would simply draw pistols for their opening arguments in court. We would carry out our daily lives not allowing anything to threaten us; but no, our minds want to play nice.
That's why zombies scare people. Yes, the idea of human teeth tearing into your soft flesh is unpleasant; the imagination cooks up tracks of the zombie's deathly moan; the idea is simply atrocious and terrible. But zombies are generally represented as slow, clumsy, and awkward- more like old-school mummies in horror movies, shambling stiff-legged with arms outstretched. Why is that frighteninge zombie isn't what scares us; it's what he represents.

As I said, a zombie apocalypse would mean the collapse of civilization. There would be no infrastructure; you wouldn't have neighbors anymore, you would only have fellow survivors; you wouldn't be concerned about the price of milk or gasoline, because your mind would be preoccupied with the price of your next meal (your life, or someone else's?) and as we return to our 'roots' and become savage animals fighting over a scrap of meat.

This natural world scares us. It scares the shit out of us. Aside from those few who were sheltered enough growing up that as adults, now that they've discovered the natural world, they want to spend ALL of their time outside, we like to be inside. I grew up playing day after day outside; I worked outside through High School; I've slept on bare dirt with no blankets, I've ridden out rainstorms in the tops of 40' pine trees, and I've spent a week on the water with no electricity; but I like air conditioning. I love having potable water at a flick of my wrist. I like having comfortable places to sit and lie down.
But those of us who know some about being outside... we know enough to be scared. When you know nothing about the outdoors, you might think, "Oh, a few nights without a blanket? Big deal; I could totally live in the wilderness!" But me, I know a few of the wilderness' dangers. I know how much it hurts to fall from a tree; I know what it's like to walk for miles with blistered feet; I know what happens if you try drinking from the first bit of clear-looking water you find; I know how hard it is to set up a safe position and not just drop to the ground to sleep after a twenty-hour day.
I know enough to be scared, and I have enough experience that I could pick up a lot if I were trained- how to farm, forage, trap, etc.- but I'm not trained in such survival skills. I know enough to know that I know nothing, you know?

So being without the creature comforts of our electric-wired, water-piped, air-conditioned homes is frightening.
But what beasts will we find out there? That is what truly terrifies us, whether we know it or not.

The protagonists in "Dawn of the Dead" didn't die because they weren't capable. They didn't fail because they didn't try, and the problem wasn't that they were outmatched. Time and again, we saw men and women running through *crowds* of zombies, dodging this way and that, laughing uproariously at the zombies' futile, awkward attempts to seize their meals. So why did they all die?
Human error.

To err is human.
Set up in a hidden fortress, with ammunition and all the food they could want, protected from the elements, they still fell prey to zombies. In movie after movie, the protagonists fall one after another. "Sean of the Dead" is one of a few zombie flicks I can think of wherein the outcome is happy- and it's a fucking comedy movie. And in that *comedy*movie*, the main character's best friend, and mother, and several other friends, die! Clearly, there is some belief that zombies are unstoppable and that we can't really "win". Why not?

As I said, we humans are flawed. Seriously flawed. Every one of us.
Whatever flaws we have- each person has their own unique set of flaws which counterbalance their strengths- will come out in an apocalypse. Add the stress and constant threat of a zombie trying to tear your organs out and feast on them, and you have the recipe for disaster.
We get tired. We make mistakes. The things we do do correctly sometimes end up being the wrong choice. Our personal interactions are fragile and volatile; small differences in personalities often make for dramatic confrontations.

I"LL CONTINUE LATER.
I'm tired as shit right now- the antibiotic I'm on is fucking with my energy, so at 2205 I'm fucking exhausted. So don't worry- I'll write more. Hopefully tomorrow.
Bye for now!
-ADJ