Zombie Apocalypse: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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* The manga series, ''[[Highschool of the Dead]]'' features a bunch of typical high school anime characters put into a zombie apocalypse in which everybody who dies and was dead before almost immediately turns into a flesh-eating zombie. On a number of occasions, this manga pays homage to previous zombie movies and games.
** Notable in that the zombies are actually played as realistically as possible - the protagonists test and figure out that since the dead have no circulation, their eyes cannot possibly work, meaning that they find things from vibrations (throwing a wet cloth at a locker on the other side of a hallway will draw them to it); no circulation also means that with the local humidity, the zombies will decay to the point of uselessness in a little under a month (although nobody has a clue how the zombies are still moving).
** ''[[Highschool of the Dead]]'' also subverts the traditionally leftist/libertarian politics behind most zombie-themed works, and is one of the few that takes on an explicitly right-wing nationalist stance. An ''[[wikipedia:Uyoku dantai|uyoku dantai]]'' group provides safe and effective harbour for survivors (whereas the "normal people" undermine it), and the military is shown to be effective at containing zombies. There are also some scenes where the characters lament the stupidity or myopic priorities of groups of anti-government radicals and protestors. Speaking of characters, the main cast includes: the rich, blue-blooded daughter of the ''uyoku dantai'' leader, an [[Heir to the Dojo]] with traditionalist [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] views and styles, a gun nut trained by a Blackwater mercenary, and the daughter of a police officer (and, by extension, [[The Man]]), while the head of the group is praised by the ''uyoku dantai'' leader for his filial piety (family loyalty). The anime actually had some scenes involving Saya's family altered because it became increasingly apparent to the [[Media Watchdog
*** The licensed English translation also tries to downplay the right-wing politics of ''Highschool of the Dead''. For instance, in one scene a character likens the Ukyou Dantai group to a mafia - in the Japanese Saya rejects that and defends her father's group, noting how it's a force for good in the community; in the Yen Press version, however, she only growls "we're so right-wing even the mafia hate us", which quite badly distorts the original point.
* Spoofed in an episode of ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]''. Alien toothaches are contagious, and if the sufferer bites three or four people, the pain will go away. In short order the entire classroom is filled with crazed teenagers with swollen faces and a burning need to bite each other and any non-infected that they can. It's like a very silly Zombie Apocalypse.
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* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' has a couple of variations:
** Manga: {{spoiler|The Cyclops Army, "lesser homunculi" released by Father. They behave a lot like zombies, but headshots don't kill them.}} They also eat people, beg for "mama" and "daddy", and [[Uncanny Valley|look like]] [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|MP-EVAs]].
** Anime: In [[The Movie]], the Gate inexplicably turns a group of Thule Society soldiers into zombies. They also have thick suits of armor. {{spoiler|The [[Big Bad]] has some knowledge of alchemy, and so she's able to control the zombies when she passes through the Gate. This results in armored, machine-gun-wielding zombies with militaristic capabilities.}} [[Badass
* Brutally subverted in ''[[Kara no Kyoukai:|Kara no Kyoukai]]'', the zombies are around for about a minute before [[Badass]] [[Knife Nut]] Shiki shows what happens when zombie meets [[Evil Eye|very well aimed]] knife.
* ''[[Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt|Panty & Stocking]]'' did this on their eight episode fittingly titled ''[[Title of the Dead|...of the Dead]]'' which parodies most Zombie Apocalypse tropes. {{spoiler|In a surprising aversion. The title characters not only fail to stop the zombie outbreak. But end up becoming zombies themselves. 'Course, as this is a gag show, [[Negative Continuity|things are back to normal the following episode.]]}} It should also be noted that in this universe zombies can [[Shaped Like Itself|zombify]] angels, demons and Ghosts.
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*** ''Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis''
*** ''Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave''
* ''[[28 Days Later]]'' is a zombie film with [[Technically Living Zombie
* In the Italian film ''[[Nightmare City]]'' (a.k.a. ''City of the Living Dead'') the zombies are radioactive,[[Blood Lust|drink blood]] instead of eating flesh, and can run.
* ''[[REC (film)|REC]]'', and the American remake ''[[Quarantine (film)|Quarantine]]'' document the first stage of a zombie apocalypse with an [[In-Universe Camera]]. In these films, the zombies are afflicted by a disease described as similar to rabies. It's hinted that a mysterious tenant intentionally created the disease.
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** The same premise makes up Joe Dante's ''Homecoming'' (from the [[Masters of Horror]] anthology), where soldiers rise from the dead en masse to vote out the administration that sent them to war. It's only when said administration starts treating them like horror movie zombies that the violence begins...
* ''[[Zombieland]]'' uses the fast zombie variant. They aren't very clever at all except where required by the [[Rule of Funny]], and are pretty much limited to basic functions such as turning doorknobs and climbing fences and scaffolding, putting their minds at about "pissed off monkey" level. and they were created by [[The Virus]] and can spread it through bites. They're also seemingly immune to pain, leading to the first two of the lead's Rules of Zombieland: Cardio (zombies can run fast, making it important to be able to run faster) and the Double Tap (put another bullet into the head after taking one down to make sure).
* ''ZA: Zombies Anonymous'' aka ''Last Rites of the Dead'' (2006) gives a new spin on the Zombie Apocalypse: the outbreak has happened, the dead are walking the earth, but they are still
* ''Colin'' (2008) plays the Zombie Apocalypse pretty much straight, with the eponymous zombie as the protagonist.
* ''[[Tokyo Zombie]]'' is a 2005 Japanese live-action Zom-Com about a pair of bumbling Jujitsu practitioners where zombies of the shambling variety first appear by popping out of a mountainous pile of garbage, toxic waste and discarded bodies called Black Fuji. Within 5 years all of Japan is covered in zombies except for a pyramid-shaped building inside a wall where rich people have gathered for safety and to amuse themselves with zombie-on-zombie as well as zombie-on-human fights to the undeath.
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* ''[[Friday the 13th]]: The Jason Strain'' has Jason, while a "special guest" on a [[Deadly Game]], [[Halfway Plot Switch|being abducted by scientists, who want to replicate his regenerative abilities and immortality]]; Jason wakes up partway through the vivisection, rampages through the lab [[Gone Horribly Wrong|and is exposed to an experimental virus which reacts negatively with him, giving him the ability to reanimate his victims as zombies]]. Thousands of deaths later the virus is cured and Jason's rid of his new powers. Notably headshots don't stop the zombies - the head needs to be ''completely'' eradicated in order for them to be fully (re-)killed. Also, Jason fights a shark in reference to ''[[Zombi 2]]''.
* "[[The Concord Virus]]" is a rather traditional example of this trope. It's a short story, but it manages to get the job done.
* This was one theory about what some of the bad guys in ''[[The Abhorsen Trilogy]]'' had in mind, since hordes of zombies are their favorite [[
* Happened in ''Fire Sea'', third book of [[The Death Gate Cycle]]. In this case the effect was not pandemic but might as well have been (almost all the zombies were necromancers in life and simply animated every corpse they came across) and rather than being mindless they were sentient but [[Ax Crazy]] with hatred for the living (except for Kleitus, the leader of said undead, who was still [[Ax Crazy]] but also smart enough to have vision- he was gunning for ruling an entire ''zombified universe''.) Mercifully, they were contained on just one world of the series multiverse at the end of the novel, and in the climactic volume Kleitus was killed in battle and the rest of the undead were destroyed by what could best be described as "cosmic reshuffling".
* [[Christopher Moore]]'s ''[[The Stupidest Angel]]'' has quite a bit of zombieism. And Brain hunger.
* The [[Newsflesh]] series by Mira Grant (pseudonym of Seanan McGuire), in which bloggers and geeks are the only reason that humanity survived the Rising. Subverts and [[
* Walter Greatshell's ''Xombies'' series deals with an odd combination of Romero and Russo rules; the titular 'xombies' are the result of a contaminant which can only infect dead people (due to the fact that it has to bond to anaerobic hemoglobin, or a blood protein that isn't bound to oxygen). The zombies in this series are especially dangerous because they literally can't be killed. Seperated body parts are sometimes more dangerous than actual zombies. In the second book, it is revealed that {{spoiler|the zombie apocalypse was an attempt by its creator to avoid a far worse apocalypse from a comet/spaceship from Saturn's moon Encaladus}}.
* In [[Aaron Allston]]'s ''[[Galatea in 2-D]]'', the last attack Roger unleashes on Kevin.
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== New Media ==
* Blogging example: on
* The ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' Public Service Announcement "Planning to Fail" detailed the Zombie Apocalypse survival plans of the main characters
{{quote|'''Grif''': There's two kinds of people in the world Doc. Those who have a plan prepared for when the zombies take over the Earth, and those who don't. We call those last people 'dinner'.}}
* ''[[The Spider Cliff Mysteries]]'': Spider Cliff has the occasional zombie attack, which are all quickly contained offscreen. Except for Annabelle, the intelligent, intact, friendly zombie.
* Last year Topps released a new card series titled ''Hollywood Zombies'' which features parodies of celebrities as flesh eating zombies.
* Zombies are an Iconic feature of ''[[Gaia Online]]''. Gaia has not one, but ''two'' Zombie Apocalypse events (one traditional, one involving [[Killer Rabbit
** The Zombies introduced for the Olympics played a part in the 2K8 Halloween event, where they were referred to as Glompies. They killed members of the other three teams by hugging them to death.
* The website ''[[Last Days Journal]]'' is a user-generated series of blogs about what happens after the zombie apocalypse.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The tabletop role playing game ''[[All Flesh Must Be Eaten]]'' is all about surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, with a variety of different Apocalypses in different settings (called "Deadworlds").
* The back story for ''[[Unhallowed Metropolis]]'' puts a subtle but significant spin on this trope by having the first Plague outbreak occur in ''1905''. This is also the kind where anyone who dies may come
** It's also hinted that zombies might be the ''least'' of the world's problems. Bizarre wastelands expanding throughout the world, reports of unnameable horrors and mind-rending blasphemies in the jungles of Africa and beneath the streets of London, hints that the people of the Crimean peninsula have undergone an unwholesome transformation that makes the degenerate ghouls and feral vampires look tame by comparison, Hong Kong somehow having become a true necropolis where zombies can survive long past when they should have desiccated into immobility... clues abound that the Zombie Apocalypse is just the most visible symptom of something having gone deeply ''wrong'' with the world on some fundamental level.
* In ''[[Warhammer Fantasy]]'' zombies make up the bulk of the armies of the undead Vampire Counts (alone with other classic horror creatures like wights, ghouls and giant bats). They also use undead dire wolves. These zombies are reanimated corpses animated by the will of the vampire or necromancer who raised them and are slow and weak, relying on numbers to make any impact. Since Vampire Counts magic-users can effectively grow them out of the ground, numbers are NOT something they have trouble with...
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' brought on plague zombies during the 13th Black Crusade, courtesy of the god of pestilence and decay, and other zombie infestations have been known to be caused by Tyranids and a fair number of different plants.
** Plague zombies have been part of 40k background for almost as long as the Chaos powers, and are a playable gang in the spinoff skirmish game Necromunda.
* Card Game ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has had zombies since the first set, but the plane of Grixis, one of the Shards of Alara, is in a successful Zombie Apocalypse, albeit with necromancers and demons at the forefront, caused by the crapping out of two types of magic good at fighting them off. In any case, humanity is boned on the plane. Note that in ''Magic'', zombies are ''not'' [[The Virus]]; they cannot create more of their own kind through infection, but are instead created from corpses by [[Evil Sorcerer
** [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] by the Archenemy deck [http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/464 Bring About the Undead Apocalypse], which allows you to create a Zombie Apocalypse of your own.
** The latest Innistrad block takes this [[Up to Eleven|way over eleven]], by introducing a good old fashioned zombie apocalypse, [[Vampire Tropes|vampires]] and [[Big Badass Wolf|werewolves]], [[Mad Scientist|mad scientists]] and their [[Eldritch Abomination|abominations]], demons, and central to the block's story, [[Beyond the Impossible|all of these at once]].
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** Two things throw into doubt whether this is a true apocalypse - the military's still in reasonable shape, having the capacity to launch rescue missions and bombing runs, and it's not stated what's going on in the rest of the world.
*** The Military Base portrayed in the Comic seems to show the severity quite heavily. The base appears severely understaffed, with only a handful of soldiers where there should be hundreds. The base is also extremely insecure, with one soldier getting Infected and nearly killing some guards, and a Witch somehow wandering right on in. To make matters worse, it's dangerously low on supplies, and one of the Officer's is leading a mutiny against the base's Commander. The base also appears completely isolated from the rest of the Military (if it's still even around). The Military Base is ultimately destroyed by a massive zombie mob attack, and '''all''' known personnel are KIA. However, due to the Infection's inability to spread over water, the Navy in [[Left 4 Dead 2]] seems to be operating at full capacity.
*** Multiple maps show that almost all the evac centers in the US have been overrun or aren't evacuating anymore. In Crash Course, the New Orleans, Midwest, and Allegheny Forest outposts are still up and running. In Dead Center, only New Orleans and the Midwest are left. The entire United States has been overrun in
**** Of course, by the time you reach New Orleans in The Parish campaign, it seems to be largely overrun and abandoned, too. Bill says "As far as we know, zombies can't swim", so it's possible that islands are still safe, as long as air travel didn't bring The Infection to them.
* ''[[Space Pirates and Zombies]]'', of course. You are [[Space Pirates]]! There are Zombies! What more is there to say? Well, actually, there is quite a lot to say, as the Space Pirates have got to wonder why there are no sentient alien species to speak of... then they {{spoiler|[[Chekov's Gun|open the Titan Gates]], which they'd known about for quite a time, and all hell breaks loose because of ''them''. True, they are Space Pirates, the [[Recycled in Space|terrors of the Seven Sectors]], but that's no reason for them to doom all of Humanity to a zombie fate, like ''all the other sentient species before them.'' Yes, the Zombies were waiting in the center of the Galaxy for the next species, and it it weren't for the Space Pirates' efforts, they probably would have assimilated all of Humanity.}} [[A Fate Worse Than Death|What a way to go.]]
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* ''[[Space Quest]] V'' has the mutant Pukoids fulfilling this trope.
* In the Japanese PS2 game ''The Zombie vs. Kyuukyuusha'' ("Zombie vs. Ambulance", and yes that's the real title), you drive around a zombie-infested city in an ambulance, attempting to rescue people and take them back to the hospital that serves as your home base so you can inoculate them against the zombie plague. If you take too long getting people back to base, they turn into zombies and start damaging your ambulance from the inside. And you can upgrade your ambulance so it can take more damage and more easily plow through hordes of zombies.
** This game is part of the ''Simple 2000'' series of budget titles, which also features a game called ''The Oneechanbara'' ("Zombie Zone" in the West), in which you play a bikini-wearing samurai girl who goes around slicing up zombies. While the gameplay isn't particularly brilliant, the game is definitely fun. It's proven so popular that sequels have been released on the Wii and [[Xbox]] 360, and there's even a movie. As a side note, in ''Oneechanbara'', the Zombie Apocalypse is actually caused by the lead
* ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'''s Walking Corpses, and their level-up, the Soullesses. They follow the Russo rules, for the most part: any unit killed by a Walking Corpse or Soulless becomes a Walking Corpse or Soulless on the side of the Corpse that killed them, simulating The Virus.
* ''[[Postal]] 2: Apocalypse Weekend'' features Mad Cow Tourettes zombies (apparently Tourette's syndrome sufferers who ate mad cow-infected meat). They normally shamble slowly, but can sometimes be seen stumbling forwards quickly (catching the player off-guard); they throw chunks of their own flesh to attack; their heads must be completely destroyed to kill them (merely cutting them off will do no good); and (for no other reason than the fact that the world of Postal 2 is already messed up as it is) you can resurrect dead zombies by ''pissing on them''.
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*** There's another mod called Chronicles of Talera that features a faction called the Blighted Plague. It's basically a faction of egalitarian Necromancers that brought back the corpses of the dead to overthrow the aristocracy. At first they were good guys, but after discovering tools to capture the souls of their enemies they began a civil war that really doesn't play any role whatsoever in the actual game.
* ''[[Fallout 3]]'' features the [[Goddamned Bats|annoying Feral Ghouls]]. Ghouls are created through massive amounts of radiation, which caused their typical "walking corpse" appearance (and please, [[Fantastic Racism|don't call them zombies]]). Most of them are nice, polite people who just want to be left alone. However, some of them, due to the outstanding radiation poisoning or through brain degeneration, become little more than feral animals, infesting the subway system and the Capital Wasteland. During a mission, you can help a small community of ghouls (intelligent and feral ones alike) by letting them sneak in a tower-fortress, thus unleashing a Zombie Apocalypse on the local residents.
* ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'''s [[Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare|Undead Nightmare]] DLC has this as the main
* PCRPG ''[[Dead State]]'' is set in central Texas during a zombie apocalypse.
* ''[[King's Quest IV]]'' is one of the earliest examples of the trope, which is even more disturbing because it takes place in a fairy tale country of princesses, fairies and magical talking creatures. It is, frankly, terrifying. Fortunately for most young players at the time of it's release, they came late in the game. Due to the general unforgiving hardness of a Roberta Williams title, it was uncommon for any player to get that far without help.
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* ''Arma'' and ''Arma II'' both featured popular zombie mods that turned an ultra-realistic tactical FPS into a zombie survival game. The use of massive maps and realistic effects and equipment makes them extremely immersive.
* While the text/ASCII-based [[Hell MOO]] doesn't feature an actual zombie apocalypse (they go for the standard nuclear warfare), there is a zombie virus and some locations, especially the basement of the Bradbury hotel in Slagtown, are filled with them. Since all NPCs can be killed (with varying degrees of difficulty) and anyone who dies of zombie rot rises as a zombie if their corpse isn't butchered, one or two tough NPCs getting infected can easily result in a zombie plague hitting Slagtown; usually the Freedom City Police is skilled and tough enough to keep the spread outside their borders, but it can make wandering into Slagtown or Gangland suicide for a newbie.
* In [[Starcraft]] 2, this happens to a group of refugees due to a zerg bioweapon. Raynor's raiders burn out the infested and help the refugees settle in on another
* One of many possible creations in the Pandemic series, you can create shambling, insane, rotting([[Fate Worse Than Death|though technically still alive]]) infected who spread across the planet.
* [[Call of Duty]] first gave us [[Nazi Zombies]], which was the reason many played World At War. The game mode returned in ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops|Call of Duty Black Ops]]'' where it got so bad zombies attack the Pentagon, [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|four]] [[A Nightmare on Elm Street|cult]] [[Danny Trejo|monster]] [[The Walking Dead (TV series)|hunters]] had to be called in and at the end, the [[Big Bad]] reveals it's all an [[Evil Plan]] to cause an apocalypse.
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* ''[[Brawl in the Family]]'''s third Halloween episode started with [[Kirby]] walking towards Dedede, zombified. Soon, the entire cast was zombified. They all moaned 'braaains...' and began closing in on [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Mother Brain from the Metroid series]]. Now there are a bunch of zombies roaming the land, moaning, 'braaaaaiiiinss....' (except Mother Brain, who moaned, 'Meeeee....') {{spoiler|The zombies then found a schoolhouse and studied hard and graduated, achieving the 'brains' they wanted. Then, it turns out the characters where just telling scary stories, and Kirby was the last one to add his part to the story. He apparently tells a disgusting and creepy tale, [[The Un-Reveal|but the comic just skips to when he says, "The End!"]] with a very cute face while the rest of them look [[Nausea Fuel|nauseous.]]}}
* According to the Demononlogy page in ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures]]'', one becomes undead only if they die within 24 hours of receiving a scratch or bite from an undead creature. This implies that the wound itself is not automatically fatal, and that if one died more than 24 hours after receiving it they will stay dead.
* [http://deadmetaphor.comicdish.com Dead Metaphor] is a comedy set in a world plagued by zombie outbreaks. Zombies are very Romero-like in their actions and their desire to consume
* ''[[Dead of Summer]]'' is one of these, as experienced by the city of Baltimore. [[The Protomen]] have a key role later on.
* Played with in ''[[Dead Winter]]''; the city is full of zombies, but they're normally ''not'' a threat until a large number is encountered without an escape route. Other humans are far more dangerous.
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* In ''[[The Whiteboard]]'', the two weeks to either side of Halloween 2010 featured a zombie uprising that Doc and Roger had to take down. This story arc updated daily, instead of the strip's normal M/W/F schedule.
* Lampshaded in [http://www.xkcd.com/734/ this] ''XKCD'' comic.
* ''[[The Zombie Hunters]]'' [[Reconstructed Trope|reconstructs]] this against the backdrop of a [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|near-future]] [[After the End|Post-Apocolypse]]. It's been a few years since [[The Virus]] nearly [[Depopulation Bomb|wiped out]] the human race and turned Earth into a [[Crapsack World]], where [[Our Zombies Are Different|multiple]] [[Superpowered Mooks|subspecies]] of [[The Undead]] roam freely. The known [[Endangered Species|remnants]] of humanity and [[Government in Exile|government]] have settled on an [[Island Base|Island]] [[Police State|Military Base]], to attempt to [[Find the Cure]] and [[Fighting For a Homeland|rebuild society]], which would be fine if it weren't for the tensions between the two [[Fantastic Caste System|castes]], uninfected and Infected. The Infected are a minority population of [[Zombie Infectee]] [[Action Survivor
* ''[[Bob and George]]'', in a Halloween special.
* ''[[The Pocalypse]]'' has a Zombie Apocalypse, along with a [[AI Is a Crapshoot|Robot Apocalypse]], a [[When Trees Attack|Plant Apocalypse]]...
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* ''[[Squid Row]]'' : [http://squidrowcomics.com/?p=429 here] in an [[Imagine Spot]]
* ''[[Underling]]'' [http://underlingcomic.com/page-one-hundred-fifty/ I knew this day would come].
* ''[[Zombie Ranch]]'' takes place over two decades since the dead began to walk. In this case humanity not only managed to survive the
* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3523 Tomie insists on ending a book like this.]
* In the [[Urban Rivals]] comic the Nightmare clan raises an army of zombies to attack Clint City, they were beaten when Blaaster goes [[Thriller (song)|Thriller]] on them and sends them off a cliff to the sea. No really.
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* [http://65.127.124.62/south_asia/4483241.stm.htm This fake BBC article] claimed that a Zombie Outbreak had occurred in Cambodia and was hushed up by the government. It was [http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/zombies.asp debunked on Snopes.com] but is still passed around from time to time.
* The BBC [http://www.islandcrisis.net/2009/05/h1z1-zombie-swine-flu-hoax-invade-world/ put out another article], this time playing on the Swine Flu scare ([[H 1 Z 1]], a mutation of the [[H 1 N 1]] virus that reanimated the victim after death, who then showed signs of the usual zombie behaviour). It is of course, fake, but the comments on the page are well worth reading.
* Some smart-ass hacker in Austin[[London England Syndrome|, Texas]] broke into the controls of two electronic road signs in January
* And then there's this [http://jalopnik.com/5587000/la-county-zombie-control-keeping-socal-safe-for-brains joker]
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