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Real Zombies, and How They’re Theoretically

Every now and then the human race creates leaps and bounds in science

making former fiction into scary reality. Biological weaponry is a real threat in

today’s world, and leading scientists that delve too far into their research can

create dangerous marvels. In today’s society it’s not uncommon to see a flashlight

or a car, but such things were thought of as fictional in historic times. Light from

nowhere and horseless carriages were thought of as magic. Today zombies are

thought of as fiction, mindless ghouls hell-bent on feasting upon humanity. Soon

they may not be as fictional as originally thought.

First of all, what is a zombie? A zombie is anyone who is mindless,

meaning they can no longer think for themselves, is sick in a way that would

cause eventual death, and has a need or a want to spread the infection. These

three attributes are seen in many different viruses, just not in that combination.

One instance of this is rabies.

Rabies is a serious disease that “infects the central nervous system,

causing encephalopathy and ultimately death. Early symptoms of rabies in

humans are nonspecific, consisting of fever, headache, and general malaise. As

the disease progresses, neurological symptoms appear and may include

insomnia, anxiety, confusion, slight or partial paralysis, excitation,

hallucinations, agitation, hyper salivation, difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia

(fear of water). Death usually occurs within days of the onset of symptoms”

(“Rabies”). The latter symptoms usually last for about one to two weeks. Many of

these correlate with the attributes described above. Anxiety and excitation can

lead to violence as is seen in animals. When an animal becomes infected with

rabies it becomes violent and is often noted to attack anything and everyone in

site. Humans act in similar ways but at a lesser degree. To date, due to the long

incubation period that can take up to 6 months, no known large-scale outbreak of

rabies has ever happened.

Imagine this. The rabies virus mutates as viruses tend to. Its incubation

period becomes shorter, ranging from ten minutes to an hour; its anxiety period

increases in both magnitude and duration. It starts in a hospital. One person

infected feels agitated to the point that they grab the doctor next to him and tears

into his arm. The doctor runs for help as a nurse walks over. To hear what the

commotion is about. The doctor can’t stop his own bleeding and doesn’t think in

his panic to vaccinate himself. Suddenly the patient is attacking the nurse who

was attempting to calm him down. He bites her in the leg as she frantically tries

to run away. Soon all three are infected and a large-scale outbreak insues.

The scenario described above is what is known as the “Ultra-Rabies

Theory” (“Zombie Virus”). It is thought of by the main stream of zombie believers

as the main zombie virus. The movie “28 Days Later” is the most direct and

accurate representation of this. This virus would spread incredibly fast unless

there was swift interjection by both the military and medical community.

Another possibility is a pure act of god. In a pure sense, the respected

deity of any culture decides, “Hey time to end the world, Zombie Style.” Suddenly
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for no scientific reason, many of the recently departed get up and have a desire to

eat any and all humans. There is no telling what type of zombies would be

yielded from this. There is neither evidence nor disproof that this is possible, but

dwell on this: “When there is no more room left in hell, the dead shall walk the

earth” (Dawn).

Currently there has been no act of god, and biological weapons are

outlawed due to the “1972 Biological Weapons Convention, Signed by over 100

states, because a successful attack could conceivably result in thousands, possibly

even millions of deaths.”(Wikipedia). Despite these restrictions, research into

biological weapons is continued today. A prime example of this is the Anthrax

attacks, which hit America in 2001. This shows that biological weapons are still a

major threat and to some degree still under production.

It was a biological weapon that was the basis for the movie “28 Days Later”

referenced earlier in this paper. Many movies depict zombies. This is where

today’s definition of a zombie comes from. But the original inspiration is from a

man by the name of George A. Romero. He wrote and directed a 1969 movie

known as “The Night of the Living Dead”. Little did he know his movie would

spurn an idea that is quite possible and quite dangerous. It is also due to his

movie and many others like it that people mainly against the argument of this

paper would disagree. They would say that its fiction and that’s where it will stay,

and that it will never happen. Well this paper is not here to say it will happen but

instead to prove it’s a possibility. This paper seeks not to say that the dead will

walk the earth, but act of god or not it’s already happened.
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Dr. Patrick Kochanek, has developed a procedure to bring the dead back

to life. So far only animals have been tested on. The procedure involves replacing

the body’s blood with a frozen solution composing of salt, oxygen, gluclose, and

water. This allows for a body to be put into suspended animation after death. In

this suspended animation the brain suffers no ill effects for up to a maximum of 3

hours (Bails). With this technique, people who are clinically dead from loss of

blood can be brought back to life as long as they are reached before the brain dies.

This could be an evolutionary step in medical science. One that could save

millions, if not billions of lives.

What can one say to open the eyes of many? What can one do to show

people the possibilities? The dead may not walk among us (well only dogs for

now), nor are the infected beating at our front door. Maybe ultra rabies will never

be real, but know that it is possible. Know that it can happen. Someone once said,

“Nothing is impossible, just improbable.” Let those words linger, as this paper

concludes.
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Works Cited

United States Center for Disease Control. March 25, 2005, November 15. 2005,

<http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/default.htm>

Pain Train, “Zombie Virus, nature got only got it half way there” Online Posting.

Friday July 22. 2005, <http://209.59.129.163/zs/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?

t=5282>

Wikipedia, 14 November 2005. November 15, 2005

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_warfare#2001_anthrax_attack>

Bails, Jennifer. PittsBurghLive.com. June 29, 2005. November 15, 2005.

<http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/regional/s_348517.html>

Dawn of the Dead. George A. Romero. 1979 Videocassette.