by Javan Bonds

Zombie. The word doesn’t necessarily mean the widely accepted definition anymore. Historically, the African words which “zombie” is derived from mean either “god” or “fetish.”

In my Still Alive series, zombies are called peevies. Along with Bobby Adair’s whites, and John O’Brien’s night runners they are just as much zombies as are Shawn Chesser’s rotters, Robert Kirkman’s walkers, and Mark Tufo’s deaders. To me living infected have always seemed more realistic. They should, in fact, be easier to accept than something that cannot possibly exist.

That’s not to say classical Romero zombies do not make for an entertaining story. We all enjoy reading or watching things that go bump in the night. Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later are a couple of my all-time favorite zompoc movies. Throughout the Still Alive series, I call my peevies the classical terms of zombie, undead, ghouls, reanimated corpses, shamblers, revenants, etc., even though they are obviously not. This is not done to poke fun at or belittle traditional zombies; I feel it pays homage to the classic zombie type in the genre.

Everyone should accept fast zombies as a horrific neighbor to slow zombies. Even if you want to be a purist and see zombies as only reanimated dead by a supernatural force, don’t forget that the zombies in Night of the Living Dead were thought to have been caused by radioactive contamination from a space probe. In our current highly polluted and over medicated world some type of superbug or bioengineered contagion seems the more likely basis for a mass infection of worldwide proportions. In our ever advancing tech-savvy world the supernatural magically reanimated corpse is going to be harder to sell.

Check out Still Alive 5: Zombie River Run or begin with book 1 now.

Jay Wilburn

Jay Wilburn has a Masters Degree in Education that goes mostly unused since he quit teaching to write about zombies. Jay writes horror because he tends to find the light by facing down the darkness. His is doing well following a life saving kidney transplant. Jay is the author of Maidens of Zombie Kingdom a young adult fantasy trilogy, Lake Scatter Wood Tales adventure books for elementary and middle school readers, Vampire Christ a trilogy of political and religious satire, and The Dead Song Legend. He cowrote The Enemy Held Near, Yard Full of Bones, and The Hidden Truth with Armand Rosamilia. You can also find Jay's work in Best Horror of the Year volume 5. He is a staff writer with Dark Moon Digest, LitReactor, and the Still Water Bay series with Crystal Lake Publishing.

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