zombie dreams and fantasies

Jessie and I were at the supermarket when the television started reporting news of a zombie outbreak at the edge of town. The reporter told everyone to stay where they were or get to someplace safe: DO NOT go outside! Jessie and I clung to the large bay windows looking out over the parking lot. We could see people running between the cars, screaming, being chased by fast-moving zombies. A moment later there was a crash at the other end of the store, and we turned to see zombies running right at us from between the aisles of cereal and milk bars. I grabbed Jessie’s hand and we raced out the door, into the parking lot. Zombies came from between the cars, throwing themselves after us as we ran to Jessie’s car. She got into the driver’s seat and I entered the passenger’s. She turned on the car and left the parking lot, hitting a zombie. I craned my neck to see that we were being chased. I turned my head around just in time to see a semi crossing the road. It slammed into the car. In the next scene, I awoke in the car, still strapped in, blood covering my face. It was pure daylight. I got out of the car and stumbled around. Jessie’s door was open, and she was gone. I walked down the street. All of the buildings along either side of the road were quiet and still. Car wrecks littered the street. I heard some commotion, people shouting, and I went down an alley into a backyard. In a house surrounded by trees were several people. They beckoned me over and let me join them. And guess what? Jessie was there! She explained that I had been unconscious after the car wreck, and she thought I was dead. She was very happy to see me: tears streamed down her cheeks. As to why there were no zombies, they explained that the zombies stayed indoors during the day, in the darkness, because the sunlight hurt them. So wouldn’t that make them vampires? I don’t know. I’m just telling you how the dream went. The rest of the day was spent boarding up the house and collecting food—oddly, the only food collected were gourds and pumpkins—and when I went to bed that night, I could hear the zombies outside. I was happy, though, because finally life was exciting, and I had found a purpose: to survive, and to help others survive.

So why is it that zombies fascinate me so much? I don’t think it’s the zombies necessarily, but the collapse of everything we hold so dear. For nearly five thousand years, mankind has been erecting a civilization filled with monuments to their glory and achievements that reach into the stars. And a simple plague destroys all of that when it turns mankind into mindless creatures who only hunger and thirst and know nothing more. Order disintegrates into chaos. Hope becomes hopelessness. Our greatest dreams and ambitions die in the twinkling of an eye. The hunters become the hunted. Families are torn apart, friends become our worst enemies, and society crumbles. This is what makes a zombie apocalypse so fascinating to me. I find myself contemplating what the future would look like if this were to happen. How would our theologies change? How would our perceptions of the world be transformed? How would we live our daily lives? Would we rebuild civilization? Would we even be able to rebuild our civilization? Our environment would take a 180 degree turn, would be flipped upside-down, and we would have the ultimatum of either changing and adapting, or dying—and joining the Legions of the Undead.