For some ungodly reason we are obsessed with zombies! I don't know why that is. Maybe our fascination isn't with the zombies themselves, but more with the idea of being alone, or fewer because of some crazy mass extinction, which is somehow less sad and more exciting by the fact that the dead are undead! That doesn't seem so crazy a fantasy in a world of over 7 billion.... Or maybe we are fascinated by their lack of humanity. It's a David and Goliath story, man vs beast, humanity vs the exact opposite.
In my Zombie Book I've set the tone...The zombie apocalypses was brought about by government or corporate means, in which they used a new drug as a scapegoat for the unexplainable zombie violence on the streets...until it was too late and most of humanity has been killed...fun times. But what were these powers that be up to? How exactly did the ever sought after ZA happen?
Here's what's going on in my mind:
In my 4th Raina Kirkland novel DEADLY ENCOUNTERS, zompires come into play. In Raina's world zombies are totally a thing. But, they aren't particularly dangerous. They are animated corpses brought back to life my necromancers for whatever reason; as slaves, entertainment, religious business...whatever. Zompires (zombies vampires) is a whole other ball game. Vampires in Raina's world are humans who are playing host to a parasitic virus that alters their body. But during the first few days of infection the human is a ravenous crazy beast who would likely eat their own grandparents...blood rage. During this period, the body is changing. the bones are become denser, the fatty tissue and lower bowels are being recycled by the body, the skin is becoming tougher and there is increased blood flow to the brain. The body is become a vampire; faster, smarter, stronger...but with zompires only the brain is infected with the virus. It doesn't go beyond that point...so, while the brain is telling the body it's blood rage time. Let's kill some people because we got to change, the body is just rotting away, zompires.
The above is an example of a brain parasite or rage virus, like in 28 Days Later. Almost all zombie fiction explains away zombies as having some kind of brain thing; a neurotoxin that wipes out our humanity and makes us killing machines,
In real life their are some very real chemicals and brain diseases that can create zombies. There are all natural plants, fungus, parasites that find their way into brains and control the hosts and there are diseases, such as mad cow disease that make humans violent. There are also drugs, like bath salts, that have been linked to irrational violent behavior.
If I wanted to go ultra sci-fi on you guys I could say it's all nanobots who have taken their job description (repair human tissue) too far and with too little skill...so we get zombies. But, as much as I like to mix my loose understanding of science with fantasy, uh no.
So you can see that I'm quit perplexed by this issue. I've done zombies before...well, zompires. And I truly enjoyed writing them, but that was in an urban fantasy world. This is a post apocalyptic world of today. No witches and no vampire; just evil humans, zombies and the very few decent people left on this planet.
I'm thinking...there's something in the water or meat supply...or maybe it's the never suspected VEGGIES!
In my Zombie Book I've set the tone...The zombie apocalypses was brought about by government or corporate means, in which they used a new drug as a scapegoat for the unexplainable zombie violence on the streets...until it was too late and most of humanity has been killed...fun times. But what were these powers that be up to? How exactly did the ever sought after ZA happen?
Here's what's going on in my mind:
In my 4th Raina Kirkland novel DEADLY ENCOUNTERS, zompires come into play. In Raina's world zombies are totally a thing. But, they aren't particularly dangerous. They are animated corpses brought back to life my necromancers for whatever reason; as slaves, entertainment, religious business...whatever. Zompires (zombies vampires) is a whole other ball game. Vampires in Raina's world are humans who are playing host to a parasitic virus that alters their body. But during the first few days of infection the human is a ravenous crazy beast who would likely eat their own grandparents...blood rage. During this period, the body is changing. the bones are become denser, the fatty tissue and lower bowels are being recycled by the body, the skin is becoming tougher and there is increased blood flow to the brain. The body is become a vampire; faster, smarter, stronger...but with zompires only the brain is infected with the virus. It doesn't go beyond that point...so, while the brain is telling the body it's blood rage time. Let's kill some people because we got to change, the body is just rotting away, zompires.
The above is an example of a brain parasite or rage virus, like in 28 Days Later. Almost all zombie fiction explains away zombies as having some kind of brain thing; a neurotoxin that wipes out our humanity and makes us killing machines,
In real life their are some very real chemicals and brain diseases that can create zombies. There are all natural plants, fungus, parasites that find their way into brains and control the hosts and there are diseases, such as mad cow disease that make humans violent. There are also drugs, like bath salts, that have been linked to irrational violent behavior.
If I wanted to go ultra sci-fi on you guys I could say it's all nanobots who have taken their job description (repair human tissue) too far and with too little skill...so we get zombies. But, as much as I like to mix my loose understanding of science with fantasy, uh no.
So you can see that I'm quit perplexed by this issue. I've done zombies before...well, zompires. And I truly enjoyed writing them, but that was in an urban fantasy world. This is a post apocalyptic world of today. No witches and no vampire; just evil humans, zombies and the very few decent people left on this planet.
I'm thinking...there's something in the water or meat supply...or maybe it's the never suspected VEGGIES!
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