Mami Athena used to be the one who gets hysterical whenever a person talks about the undead. She's an ardent believer, and even claims that a reanimated corpse scares her more than the appearance of ghosts.
Her nerd factor about the subject is unbelievable: she knows all the zombie movies directed by George Romero; she reads literature that centers around Zombie Apocalypse. (World War Z, Zombie Survivalist Guide, etc.) Whenever we take our office break and decides to stroll around the neighborhood, she knows if a house could hold out against a zombie onslaught or not.
For a long time, I was a quiet witness to the Patroness' fancy. When she and her cohorts talk about the subject, I fill my thoughts with images from Plants and Zombies. Deception plays a role behind the apathy. I may not be a believer but the nerd in me tries to explain the concept behind the living dead.
From the science point of view, which I saw in National Geographic, the idea of a reanimated corpse walking among the living came from Haiti. They say a sorcerer called "bokor" hypnotizes the victim. When the helpless soul offers no resistance, the bokor makes a small cut on the person's skin. Toxins in the form of powder is sprinkled around the wound. It induces death-like state on the victim.
With the family informed of the victim's passing, funeral preparations lead to a hasty burial. It only takes three days to create a Hatian Zombie. After the mourning had passed over, the bokor will secretly dig his victim. He will then reanimate the creature, who is now partially paralyzed due to toxin and then makes him believe that he is already dead.
In Romero's canon, a bite from a zombie infects the victim. The organs cease to function while the brain retains control of the muscles. The spread of such infection triggers a global epidemic. The struggle for humanity to exist with the undead driving them to extinction became the inspiration for many zombie movies.
Despite my exposure to the culture, my nerdy fixation never got hold of the idea "of the undead bringing down the living." I saw the Dawn of the Dead remake, but instead of getting terrified of being chased by living corpses, I pirated Richard Cheese's lounge version of Down with the Sickness. I was teary eyed after watching I Am Legend, but instead of embracing the idea of a viral outbreak turning the planet into a world of the undead, I began downloading Reggae songs from the Internet.
It was only when Baabaa accidentally (?) included some episodes of the Walking Dead did I finally take notice. The episodes were bundled together with Battlestar Galactica, which I asked originally. I watched the pilot episode at past midnight. Despite the gory details and excellent treatment of the story, sleep came without a hitch.
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| the bicycle girl |
In my dreams however came the staggering corpses. I wasn't scared, really, but then and there did I realize,
I am already hooked.
I am already hooked.