Why I Don’t like Zombies

I have an irrational fear of zombies. It’s obviously irrational because zombies aren’t real, right? RIGHT? Unfortunately, recent events seem to prove otherwise.

A few years ago, I thought of zombies the same way I thought about vampires or any other scary, fictional creature: something meant to entertain and stir the imagination. That was before I saw the horror movie 28 Days Later. The movie itself was scary but no more so than other horror movies I had seen. The awful zombie dreams I started having after watching the movie, however, were not routine and I hated and avoided anything with zombies for a long time after that.

Just last year, I decided to try reading a YA zombie book (zombie lite, if you will) and while it was a nail biter, I felt OK after reading it. While I still avoid anything with zombies on TV or in the theatre, so far I have been OK with zombies in YA books (I will not tackle adult zombie novels, that would be pushing it entirely too far!). As a matter of fact, I’m currently reading Dead Reckoning by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill and so far, so good.

This leads me to point of this post. As most of you may have seen on the news or online, there was an attack in Miami last week that has brought my ‘irrational’ fears to the forefront. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, search online for “Miami Zombie” and read about it for yourself. The law enforcement theory that the attack was fueled by drugs has done nothing to reassure me. Instead, this tells me that there are drugs that can turn people into flesh eating zombies!

Ok, let me get serious here. While I’m not building a bunker or gathering supplies in preparation for the zombie apocalypse, the attack and the entire circumstances around it have REALLY creeped me out. Since I live in South Florida, the story is everywhere and even though I am trying my hardest to avoid it.

Is anyone else freaked out by this attack? Am I the only one who thinks the attack sounds like the opening scene to a zombie novel because there is always one case and then the outbreak usually begins a few days later….