Are You Ready?

Imagine it. Darkness. Your beating heart. Silence except for water dripping from a leaky pipe. Huddled in a basement, shaking, waiting for that dreadful sound. Supplies piled up in a corner, well, whatever supplies you managed to collect as you pillaged every house in the block, barely escaping back to your safe haven deep in this remote basement you found. The eerie quiet is disrupted when you hear it. That moaning. That shuffling of feet, scraping the pavement. The thud of flesh hitting the front door. Banging, banging. You peak up, over the window sill and know they have come. You see them, ragged and torn. Half their face eaten off, intestines and liver dangling from their spliced stomach. Their eyes are dead, blank stares. Their skin a milky grey, bruised, raw. They move forward in a rhythmic dance, their only goal is simply to feed. No longer a he or a she, but an it and as it moves forward, it is not alone. An inexperienced survivor across the street made a noise, attracting a herd. The mindless creatures shuffle towards the sound, away from you. You lean back, retreat towards your corner, dreaming of shrimp and tilapia, clutching your crossbow, thankful you didn't have to use it. You are safe, for now.  But are you? Have you made the right preparations? Have you taken the necessary steps to survive? To live? Some say it's inevitable, some say it will never happen, but not preparing is a risky move. Will the Zombies come?
Gather supplies, non-perishable foods that will last a long time. Stock up on beef jerky, canned milk, and as much water as you can get. Don't forget dried fruit to ward off scurvy. Noise attracts them, so if you have a firearm, make sure you have a silencer. A sword, crossbow, or knife is preferable, due to the silent nature of those weapons, but the downfall is you can not engage the zombies from a distance. You have to get close.  The key is to stay together. When moving from camp to camp, don't allow for any stragglers. They are the ones to surely get picked off first. Move in a group and watch each other's back. Always be on the look out. If you see a herd, you must flee, for the sheer number of them are too overwhelming to take on. You also must be on the look out for humans. The dire straits of the impending doom, the world on the brink of extinction, causes people to lose themselves, lose their spirit, their hope. When this happens, they turn on their fellow man. Stopping at nothing to survive. You must not let this happen to you. You must not lose yourself amidst the chaos and darkness. Keep your soul, your spirit. Keep your humanity and maybe, just maybe will be able to save all of mankind.
This past summer, I had the chance to sit down with a neurologist at Sanford hospital and talk to him about Zombies and the nature of the Zombie brain. I asked him, "Sir, are Zombies real?" His response, "No." I countered, "Can a person turn into a zombie?" "Um, no."  Undeterred, I continued, "Sir, I was watching this show, called the Walking Dead, and they had a part in one of the episodes about the brain stem being alive, but nothing else. The brain stem would just flicker with life, but nothing else. How do you explain that?" (Clearly annoyed by my line of questioning, the neurologist explain): "You see here, young man, the brain stem is the highway between the brain and the body. It is the most essential part of the body. If the rest of the brain is dead, but the brain stem still flickers with life, then maybe, just maybe, the body would make involuntary movements."  Intrigued, I went on, "So could they walk?"  His response, "Well, maybe if you held them upright, they might shuffle forward."  Eyes wide, I continued, "So, zombies could happen?"  His response: "No and get out of my office." 

Well, my fellow humans, I guess that's it. No zombie apocalypse for us anytime soon.