Zombie Apocalypse

On the night of the August 2012 Chevron Refinery Explosion in Richmond, California, my wife, daughter and I found ourselves on the hide-a-bed of some good friends in a nearby town. When I finished what needed doing and joined Lisa and Rosie there, Lisa let me know in no uncertain terms that our friends' eldest boy was terrified, and no kidding allowed, about this being the beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse. I made a few jokes, under my breath and in a different room, in order to get the urge out of my system, and then began to think. What if this nine-year-old knows something I don't?

It is unlikely that actual re-animated corpses hungry for human grey matter would come a-knockin' at our door, but a simple internet image search illustrates that, even if you haven't been watching The Walking Dead or playing their Facebook game, the idea is alive and well in the collective imagination, generating huge sums of cash, and commmanding the attention of thousands around the world.

What is this all about?

If even the Center For Disease Control is in on the action, you may well ask.