Zombies by Travis Trochesset

 

When you first think of zombies you might think fictional beings from a video game or movie, but it seems this epidemic is actually more imminent than you think, and people still joke about it in everyday media. Zombies have always been a very dark topic and have been noted to date back to early Haiti culture. Many people are convinced zombies are strictly fictional, but answer this, why would the government have a plan in case of an outbreak if this wasn’t a possibility? In a poll conducted by 1541 Americans, 8.5% feared the effects of zombies (Mohney). Although many people don’t fear it, the zombie virus is no joke. If an outbreak were to happen many people would be unprepared to protect against these absurd reanimated beings creating a worldwide panic.

History and Examples

The term ‘Zombie’ dates all the way back to the 8^th century where it was translated to ‘spirit of a dead person’ while in Haiti culture this represents a person who died and was then brought back to life without speech or free will (Ahmadmad 1). This term greatly describes the modern definition of how we perceive zombies. Haitian Creole ascendants told many stories about voodoo priests who dabbled in black magic, having the ability to resurrect the lifeless making them into basically mindless slaves (1). Graveyards show signs of which that could show proof of zombies, for example, some skulls were found to have teeth marks. Although there was cannibalism during this time, generally they would use tools to devour people rather than only teeth which make this an absurd occurrence (1). Although it's never been proven, some say zombies are the reason that gravestones were created they used stones to deter the living dead from rising again (1).

Zombies weren’t completely introduced into American culture until the infamous ‘Night of the Living Dead’ movie debut by George A. Romero. Although the movie referred to the zombie-like creatures in the movie to “ghouls” (Romero). These creatures within this movie created the baseline for present day zombies leading to the famous Thriller music video and many more memorable intriguing zombie stories. While in 2002, a movie by the name 28 Days Later was released, showing everyone that zombies are an interesting and highly sought after topic amongst the public. This lead to a major influx of zombie related movies, games, books and various other things pertaining to the living dead within the 21st century. All the zombie movies created in the recent years have been very appealing due to the suspense and unknown of the undead.

Although this topic has begun in the media, it spread to a more serious level when Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a preparation strategy in case of a zombie outbreak on their blog (“CDC Zombie Apocalypse”). After releasing this, the CDCs website crashed due to the immense amounts of traffic within their website (1). This was a huge factor that leads to a giant following of all things zombie related. One thing people find appealing about this is in almost every circumstance the cure isn't easy to synthesize or even nonexistent and creates a certain sense of thrill. “Zombie experts at Leicester University predict there would be just 273 human survivors left after three months - outnumbered a million to one by zombies” (Taylor). If this was the case this would be the deadliest epidemic in the world beating out any other virus or disease.

Now, you may ask how this zombie epidemic might be started, which might be the scariest part of the whole thing, and truth is no one knows until it happens. There are many predictions on how it begins ranging from radiation to experiments gone wrong or attempted vaccines resulting in terrible side effects. What makes this dangerous is the unknown side of things. We've watched movies pertaining to these things, but in real life we would be hopelessly ill prepared. To contribute to the seriousness of this topic, the world's population is just going to get bigger and bigger each day. Now if this infection became reality, the more people that get infected the more it becomes contagious by spreading within each person.

Effects

Although these are some of the more unlikely theories, one very real scenario that well could be the beginning is a parasite that infects the host controlling them in various ways, like eating flesh, for example. This isn't to far fetched considering it's already happened to other species. One single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii essentially takes over the brain of a rat forcing the rat to be drawn to the smell of cats and cat urine this, in turn, gets the rat eaten while the parasite enters the cat allowing the parasite to continuing its life (Hulick). Another example is the Reclinervellus nielseni which isn't a parasite but a wasp who lays its eggs on orb-weaving spiders while the larva hatches it slowly drinks the spiders blood while also making the spider create a special web designed to protect the wasp larva while hatching after the spider is done creating its “Nursery web” the larva eats the host spider (1). As crazy as this sounds, it really isn't a strange occurrence within the animal world. Many animals have various types of parasites that force the host to do their bidding, whether it be drawing them to their deaths or using them for protection then slowly eating them alive. So, is it really so far fetched that if something can take over these insects and animals that something couldn't take over our brains leading us to desire the taste of human flesh? Then, after that taste is satisfied and more of the parasite is developed, it's transferred from the host to the bitten person who also now is being controlled in the same effect. This is why this epidemic is so serious and can drastically affect society as we know it. This is only a few of the many possibilities of how this terrible catastrophe could happen.

Drugs are also another very serious possibility that could lead to the spreading of zombies. There have been several occurrences where people have become almost possessed or in no control of their actions while on various drugs, the main source of this is people who have taken bath salts Aka “the zombie drug”. This drug has many terrible side effects such as uncontrollable actions, nightmares, hallucinations and self-harm (BathSalts). Many instances have been reported of people on bath salts attempting to eat people, having one instance a man attempted to “eat another man's face off” (Tienabeso). This is what's so horrible about this epidemic, the variability that allows it to become a reality in many different ways meaning it's very hard to predict the outcome or source.

 

Deciding how this horrific epidemic starts is only half the problem. Which begs the question, how are you going to be able to defend yourself against the living dead? Many people have already begun stockpiling imperishable canned foods such as fruits, beans and much more in an effort to have suitable food in case of an apocalyptic event. These people call themselves “Doomsday Preppers” and have fully devoted their lives to surviving any possible epidemic. According to the CDC, the best possible way to survive this is to wait out the infection in a secluded area with a large stockpile of food and wait until the government can hopefully synthesize a cure (Waugh).

Like other diseases, this can spread in many different ways although since this disease has yet to be identified it's unclear on how to become infected. According to various zombie related media, the main way to become infected is through being bitten or direct blood to blood contact(Solanum). A common zombie virus within zombie survival guides is the solanum virus(1). The solanum virus is not fully understood yet, but allegedly the virus attaches to the cells of the frontal lobe and replicates itself while destroying the brain cells in the process (1). In turn, this eradicates all cognitive skills eliminating all emotions and personality (1). It is said that after taking over the brain the virus hunts for more hosts targeting all things that identify as living (1).

This disease will not develop within hosts that are already dead and will only reanimate humans, while it is said to kill any other animal within hours of infection (Solanum). After watching countless movies of people running from zombies taking trips across the country to meet up with a “military base full of survivors”, you'd imagine everyone would attempt to follow in their footsteps in the case of zombies, but many people would disagree with this tactic. According to movies, zombies tend to travel in huge groups, so traveling across large masses of land you're bound to run into a pack that completely will outnumber you(Forster). There is no point in rushing across the world when you can wait it out and hope for a cure. The answer is plain and simple--buy a boat zombies can't swim. This is what movies never do because if anyone was actually smart enough to do this then there would be no action cause you would live your life peacefully fishing for food and relaxing, of course, take a radio, and if you ever get the “all clear” just simply come back to land. Another good solution to surviving is going to an island; the only way zombies could get there is if the disease somehow adapts to be able to spread through birds or insects, if that happens, you're dead anyway, so it won't matter.

Many consumers are taking advantages of people's fear and developing very expensive zombie survival kits(Zero). One kit costing $24,000 has a lot of tools one would need to survive a zombie apocalypse besides a gun(1). This kit has over 50 items ranging from a pen to a med kit to night vision and thermal vision(1). While these things are good and might make you look cool with the accessories, now you're down $24,000 when you could've just bought a boat with a fishing pole(1). Many movies and shows have their own way of solving the zombie problem. For example, in Resident Evil, the main character fights her way in an effort to obtain the cure and release it. While in shows like The Walking Dead, characters attempt to make a base to hold out and survive. While in I Am Legend, the main actor attempts to survive while fabricating experiments to cure the disease. These all give us ideas on how zombies will behave but don't really offer good solutions on how to solve this epidemic. They revolve more around action and gore for the viewers and are not really based on best survival tactics. People have spent countless hours and massive amounts of money on protection against the undead. Honestly, there's not one specific solution to ending the apocalypse only various ways to prepare yourself for this epidemic. Staying alive until the cure is released is probably the best bet to stopping the living dead. To figure out how to solve this problem, we would first have to identify how this problem began and from there reverse engineer it and solve the problem.

If this epidemic was to take place, many people would see it as a frightening experience brought upon ourselves through trying to heal people with medicines and vaccines and see it as the world naturally lowering the population. While others might think of this in a more religious view, and this epidemic occurs due to the wrath of God cleansing the evil from the earth exactly like the flood. Albert Camus might be under the the impression that we need to embrace the fact that its reality(Kershaw). He believes there's no need to try to escape the fact that it's happening, so there's no need to dwell on why it's happened(1). For Camus, hope is pointless He feels that if you don't have hope you can live your life to the fullest without fear. He thinks that we should now try to explore and search for the point rather to accept what it is(1).

Although the zombie apocalypse is a definite world ending catastrophe, the odds have to be perfect for this event to occur It is highly unlikely it will take place. That being said, you can never be prepared enough in the event this becomes reality. Like other diseases, to make the cure the disease must be identified and studied by the CDC. This will take time that we might not have. So, if it comes down to it, find your local “Doomsday prepper”, do what you have to survive, and most of all pray the disease is not contractible through the air.

 

 

Works Cited

 Ahmadmad. "History of Zombies." Great Discoveries in Archaeology. Ahmadmad, 25 Apr. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2017. http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp264-ss13/2013/04/25/history-of-zombies/

 “Bath Salts: Short and Long-Term Effects.” Foundation for a Drug-Free World, www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/synthetic/bath-salts-effects.html. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

"CDC Zombie Apocalypse" Disaster Campaign Crashes Website." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 19 May 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.

Forster, Marc. World War Z. Dir.  Perf. Brad Pitt. Universal Pictures, 2013. DVD.

 

Hulick, Kathryn. “Zombies Are Real!” Science News for Students, 29 Oct. 2016, www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/zombies-are-real. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

Kershaw, Tom. "Albert Camus’ Religion and Political Views." The Hollowverse. N.p., 22 June 2013. Web. 01 May 2017.

 

Mohney, Gillian. "What Scares Americans: Going Broke, Terrorism and Sometimes Zombies." ABC News. ABC News Network, 15 Oct. 2015. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

 

Romero, George. Night of the Living Dead. The Walter Reade Organization, 1968. 

Rothkopf, Joshua. “From Romero to 'Walking Dead': A Brief History of Zombies.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 19 Aug. 2015, www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/from-romero-to-walking-dead-a-brief-history-of-pop-culture-zombies-20150819. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

 

Taylor, Joshua. “Zombie Apocalypse Would Take Just '100 Days to Wipe out the Human Race'.” Mirror, 6 Jan. 2017, www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/real-life-zombie-apocalypse-would-9571857. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

 

Tienabeso, Seni. “Face-Eating Attack Possibly Prompted by 'Bath Salts,' Authorities Suspect.” ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/US/face-eating-attack-possibly-linked-bath-salts-miami/story?id=16451452. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

"Solanum." Zombiepedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

 Waugh, Rob. Metro.co.uk, "5 Tips (from Scientists) on How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse." Metro. N.p., 25 Feb. 2015. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

 

"Z.E.R.O. Kit." Uncrate. UNCRATE, LLC, n.d. Web. 01 May 2017.